“I got an Essence for it as well,” Evie said happily. “Still not sure what to do with them.” John finished his sandwich with a contented sigh and went to make his coffee.
“I got the option to give one to Zeeg that I rejected to give it to you. We could invite her to the party?” he called from the kitchen.
“Or I could figure out how to level up... Oh, of course it''s that simple... Yes”
Team member Evie Borrows has chosen to spend one Essence and advance to Level 2.
Levelling in process...
“This is weird Dad, I''ve got three choices to pick from: Ability, Efficiency and Utility. What do you think.” she looked at him questioningly..
John came back with his coffee, slightly miffed to have to wait and see what Zeeg became with an Essence but glad Evie had once again figured something out. He was starting to feel being a little left behind was going to become a motif in his new life. Going from constant provider and protector to "How are you this dumb, Dad?" or something equally caustic in such a short time would take some getting used to.
“Any explanation or description?” he asked, sitting down and waiting for his drink to cool.
“Nothing else at all. I''m going to pick efficiency I think.” she looked at him questioningly.
“Fill your boots, test subject number one. Be the guinea pig. Live the guinea pig!” He said, taking a slurp of his coffee.
Evie Borrows has chosen to modify Efficiency.
New status for team member Evie Borrows:
Level 2
Name: Evie Borrows
Ability: Electrogenesis
Constitution: 100%
Reserves: 200
Guidelines:
Maximum Discharge: 240V
Line of sight required.
Modifications:
Level 2: Reserve capacity X2
“Woah. That felt very weird!” said Evie, glancing around the room. “Like a part of me I didn''t know existed and can''t normally feel, somehow got bigger”.
“What did you get?” he asked curiously.
“Reserves times two so I’ve got 200 now."
“You doubled your reserves with one level?" he asked, amazed, "that has the potential for exponential growth! No way the levelling system is that broken. Right?” He asked hesitantly and Evie shrugged, ”if you can get maximum efficiency, now when you use your power now you can use it 100 times instead of 50 without needing a break. I''m guessing it''s less than 10% of your voltage?”.
“Yeah? I think? I''ve just been using max strength.”
“If you double your voltage for a few levels you’ll end up doing a lot of damage, you probably zap someone like they stuck a fork in a plug socket already. How about you get dressed and we go into the garden to really test out these powers?” John asked, consumed by curiosity about their new abilities.
Five minutes later Evie was dressed and John was still rocking his post covid business attire: PJs, a dressing gown and crocs ensemble. Working from home was not good for his fashion sense. Evie sported black jeans and a Nirvana t-shirt that had John contemplating a lecture about putting things in the laundry basket more regularly.
After a brief argument Evie was ordered to wear her trainers because there was no way John was giving up his croc/dressing gown combo at this time of day. They let Zeeg out first, who immediately went to sniff around her domain and do what dogs do when you let them out on a morning.
“Hang fire a second, I need to gather the dog eggs,” John used his preferred euphemism for bagging up dog poop. Then an evil grin appeared on his lips, his voice dropped to a whisper.
“Do you remember the trouble we had with the lady over the fence at the end throwing stuff into our garden last year? And what I told her I''d do if she didn''t stop?”
“Dad, I''m pretty sure she stopped... don''t...” but she grinned anyway.
John began teleporting “dog eggs” into the gutter of the unpleasant lady’s conservatory while Evie giggled quietly into her hands.
“Whatever else, whatever the hell this apocalypse brings... that made it all worth it!” grinned John at his daughter, “now don''t tell grandma I did that under any circumstances! Or your mates at school. Or anyone at all in fact. So, what can you do, Little Miss Sparky? Give me a second to set up some targets for you.”
John fished some bamboo canes from the garage, carefully ignoring the mess in there he had been planning on clearing out for nearly a year now, and planted a dozen poles spread across the garden. Evie pointed at the first and a fat spark leapt from her finger to the middle cane on the first row. A baby lightning bolt.
Evie Borrows:
Reserves: 190
The bamboo cane exploded throwing burning splinters across the garden.
“I used Maximum voltage for ten reserves. I''m not sure how I knew how to control it but I just understood it. Like... it''s like how I know how to walk or breathe. Pretty sure that would have hurt if it hit a baddie!” she grinned
“I don''t think a Hello Kitty bandaid would be enough to make it feel better, for sure. My guidelines are weight and distance so the reduction is based on what I try to move and how far. I can control how far much like you said about how much voltage you use, I just know how. Unfortunately the weight is just whatever the thing weighs. Hopefully we end up being attacked by things weighing less than 10kg but I''m not wildly optimistic about that. Take another shot?”
The second bamboo cane on the front row exploded and sizzled. Evie went through eight more, doing quick draw finger guns to take out the last couple.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“I''ve got an idea. Can I try something on you?” she asked.
“Um, as long as it isn''t a Zap... ok?”
It felt like John''s entire body went weak and then everything went black. He came to, flat on his back, a bump growing on the back of his head from collapsing with a semi-hysterical Evie slapping his cheeks.
“Ok kid, I don''t keep my awake-ness in my cheeks! What the hell happened?” He said groggily, and silently cursed for jinxing himself by joking that she could play guinea pig.
“I thought I''d killed you! I''m so sorry Dad! Are you sure you''re OK? How many fingers am I holding up?” she said calming now John was awake again but still distraught.
“I''m alright Sausage, bit of a headache though. I can see… twenty seven fingers.” One of the twenty seven was deployed to poke him in the beer gut.
”Ouch! You can see my constitution in the team status thing. I only took... 2%.” John grabbed his phone and started a stopwatch. “Now we have a chance to figure out how fast that regenerates as well, if it does. Good job Sausage!”
“That was not a good job,” she said with guilt clear in her voice, “are you sure you''re OK?”
John slowly got up, rubbing the back of his head and checking for blood. “All ship shape and Bristol fashion here kiddo, despite the pigeon egg on the back of my noggin. What was it you, um, did?”
She hesitated a moment then said “I was thinking about how electricity is in our nerves right?”
“Well kind of but it’s not really electricity per se I think?
“Well, whatever, I figured living things, things with nerves anyway used electricity so I kind of, um, stole some of yours. I''m so sorry dad,” she hung her head.
“Did it work and did it take any reserves?” her dad asked with a hint of excitement in his voice, for the moment completely unconcerned about the potential danger he had just been in.
“Yeah I got a bit but it knocked you out like a light. Cost me one reserve. Can we just call it Mana Dad? This reserve thing is lame.”
“Well please don''t do that to me again and you can call it Unicorn Poop Units for all I care. I might feel a bit strange asking you how many UPU you used though. Thinking about it... I''m going to stick to the words this stupid system uses for now. Wait right there a sec kiddo, I''ve got an idea.”
John opened the garage door again, continued to ignore the mess and boxes he''d been putting off sorting out, he had a years worth of practice at ignoring it so he was fairly competent in that regard by now. He found what he was looking for and re-emerged into the light.
“The battery for the mower/strimmer thing we got from Grandad,” he said, presenting it with a flourish. He pressed the button to check the charge level, “Fully charged. Can you pull power from this?”
Evie frowned and raised a hand. “Woah there! Gimme a sec!” John put the battery down and backed away a metre or so. Then went back, picked it up and moved the battery to the end of the garden, about ten metres away, and then went to stand safely behind Evie.
“Righto. Do your thing.”
“Scared?” Evie laughed.
“Not going to lie. Whatever you did really sucked to be on the receiving end of. Let''s hope whatever the first wave is has nerves. Fire away kiddo” A blue light shot from the battery to Evie''s hand.
“Johnny Five is alive! I’ve got a 100% boost on the next zap now!”
John went and picked up the battery, hit the power level button and saw she had completely drained all of the power from it. “Empty. I''m going to stick it back on to charge, see how long it takes to show full again. How much reserves did that take?”
Evie checked and responded “10 reserves. Ouch”
ZAAAAPPPP
ZAP
More bamboo exploded. “This boost to damage when I drain stuff is great! Did you see that first shot? How long does it take to charge the battery dad?”
John Borrows is back to 100% constitution.
John grabbed his phone and saw it had been just under two minutes since he started the timer and he now felt absolutely fine again. The lump on the back of his head was gone. Fifteen seconds unconscious give or take...
“1% health per minute I think? So I can be almost dead and then be completely healthy in an hour and a half or so? This is ridiculous. Anything less than instagibbed and you are fine in a couple of hours” he mumbled.
“Uh, five or six hours on the battery, I think? You''ll need another option to stay topped off than draining me. It seriously messes me up, maybe treat the Zaps as your “special” attack and drain as your bread and butter move? If you pull less power you''ll use a lot fewer reserves.”
As Evie resumed creating every panda''s worst nightmare, a panorama of shattered, burning bamboo, John took stock. He was trying to understand how to weaponize his ability as the first system message made it clear a fight was coming. He had been giving it some thought and concluded gravity would be his best friend. He didn''t feel overly worried about this situation and with his daughter''s and his own lives apparently on the line this struck him as very odd. He also didn’t seem to be terribly worried about not being worried so he focused on what was at hand.
He began teleporting the ornamental rocks at the end of the garden around. A few centimetres either way at first before graduating to dropping them from three metres up. Then ten. Then twenty metres up. They were digging themselves in quite deeply and throwing mud all over from the impacts at that point. Two reserves each time. Less than 10% weight and less than 10% distance keeping the costs low. Dropping a few kilos of rock on something''s head was undoubtedly going to be effective but rocks could be surprisingly sneaky beggars. Two rocks that looked the same size could weigh significantly different amounts due to their density and composition.
An additional problem would no doubt be that things he wanted to be able to drop rocks on might not want rocks dropped on their heads. For some reason. They would be extremely unsporting and move out of the way or cheat in some other underhanded fashion. A pickle to be sure. He sent a rock ninety nine metres straight up and waited a moment, eyes fixed to it. He watched it fall, drifting over towards landing in the neighbours garden due to the wind, building speed and momentum then teleported it again to right above another rock. Both rocks shattered with a resounding crash, sending shards of stone flying, some of which were left embedded in the fence.
“Well that works” He grinned at Evie.
We have a status screen, levels and upgrades. All very video game-y... John considered everything he had learned from the video games he had played and silly stories he had read in his life and decided to chant random words to see what happened. As all sane people naturally would in this situation.
“Inventory” he muttered. Nothing. No infinite pocket dimension to make logistics a doddle for Johnny boy. Bugger. That would have been handy. Having worked in logistics for the last few years he knew moving things in bulk was not a simple process and being a pathological fan of survivalist blogs and videos he knew how difficult it was to keep people warm and fed without modern supply chains. Supply chains they were apparently now completely cut off from. The power being on was nice but they couldn’t pay electronically for anything now with the internet taking a break and he didn’t keep much cash in the house. Just in time delivery systems suddenly didn’t seem like such a great idea as John considered the ramifications. Thousands of people in town and most of them only have a few days food on hand... This will get ugly fast.
“Active effects?” Nothing. “Status Effects”. Zip. “Buffs”. Nada. “How does this thing start?” Nothing, no infinite ammo Dodge corvette for him. “God Mode, uh, Infinite Essence...” Double nothing. Long odds for sure but they had been worth a shot.
“Identify” he whispered as he was getting an increasingly funny look from Evie.
You have discovered the Identify function. +1 Essence.
Small rock
Approximate weight 2kg
“Booyah!” He looked at Evie and thought Identify.
Level 2
Name: Evie Borrows
Ability: Electrogenesis
Constitution: 100%
Reserves: 44
Weight: 57kg
“Kid, look at me and think IDENTIFY!” John said with a distinct tone of smug in his voice.
“Oh cool. A level one noob and you''re good for 25% of a power boost to my next zap but it would kill you. Let me try it on something less weak.” Hurtful!
Evie looked at the the house, began waving her arms over her head and said in what someone who watched too many Japanese cartoons might think sounded like a magical chant “IdEnTIFyyYY!!!!” John assumed she was being snarky about his overly optimistic “god mode”. In all fairness he probably deserved it.
“That is going to be really handy!” she continued in a less melodramatic voice, “The house is plugged into the grid so I can pull a lot of power from it. As in a really large lot. Nearly infinite in fact. That''s going to be useful. Did you get an Essence for it?”
“Yes, I got an Essence.”
“So are you going to magic up the dog then or what?”