Objective: Remain free
Satisfy this quest by not being captured by any means in 24 hours.
Time remaining: 24:00:00
“Hey,” Kelly pants, the last-minute sprint evidently still impacting her, “we’ve—she’s been through a lot. Give her a break, alright?”
“She’s—“ the man stops at a particularly loaded glare from the Gunner. “Okay, fine. Go get some rest. It can’t have been easy out there. I do need to speak with you, Kelly.”
“I expected as much,” she sighs. “Let’s get Evelyn here somewhere safe first.”
“The D6 bunks are open,” the man says. Kelly’s head whips up at that, and it triggers an instinct.
I fall back on Acting, combining it with my intuition and the brand-new objective I’ve just received. There’s something off about this situation once more… Kelly’s reaction holds the key.
As if the weight of everything that’s just happened is collapsing on me, I force myself to slump, make myself appear far more tired than I actually am. “We don’t have D6 bunks. Please… I just need to rest.”
I need to level up, actually, but even with the mediocre showing out there, I don’t think I can even take Kelly down alone. And this guy here… if he can recognize that I’m a blood mage, there’s a possibility he’ll see if I try to Appraise him. Instinct tells me not to try scanning him, and that’s been keeping me alive so far, so I don’t.
Yeah, I’m not going to try killing these two. If they were asleep, I’d have a shot, but right now? Definitely not, especially alone.
Also, Kelly did protect me. It still won’t stop me from annihilating her if she gets in my way, but helping keep me alive is definitely a strong argument for my not trying to devour her in her sleep.
“Jarreth! Say something!” Kelly hisses.
“Sorry about that,” the man says at last, rubbing the back of his head. “You know how it is with bloods—blood mages, I mean—and all.”
I glare at him, affecting rage I don’t feel. “Just let me rest. My entire squad is dead.”
Mostly a guess, but I’m pretty confident in it.
He looks even more sheepish now, but his eyes haven’t lost the suspicious glint to them. “Sorry. I’ll lead from here. We have some special quarters we can set you up in.”
Another moment of eye contact between Jarreth and Kelly flashes by, and I can’t parse the meaning of this one.
I’ll keep it in mind, though the thought of the objective that still hovers in one corner of my vision. I’d tell myself to keep my guard up, but it’s not been down once since the moment I saw other humans.
Wait. “Other”? I’m pretty sure I’m still decidedly ??? on the race part of my status sheet. Hmm.
My mind seems to think I’m human, though, and the Shape Self keeping me in the form of one certainly helps.
I’ll adjust to it. I need to be a human to get out of this, after all, so a human I will remain.
Jarreth leads me to a bare dormitory barely larger than the closet where I found my knives. It’s nearly empty but for a small bathroom and a cot to sleep on along with a single barred window, but it’s shelter.
“You must be tired,” he says. “We’ll talk again in the morning.”
I nod mutely.
“I’ll leave you be, then,” he says. For a moment, it looks like he’ll say something else, but he doesn’t.
He closes the door behind him as he leaves, and it clicks shut. A moment later, something else within it clicks, and it’s only then that I realize how thick the metal here is. That has to be six full inches of steel between me and him now.
Of course it can’t be easy. He’s apparently suspicious enough to try tricking me into unveiling that I’m something I’m not, which gives me the impression that I’m not quite home free yet.
As soon as the door shuts, I press my ears to it. I don’t know how I know, but I’m aware that my body is enhanced far beyond human.
The steel is probably enough to block a normal person from listening, but I’m no normal person.
It’s muffled, but I can make out the edges of two people speaking. One of them has a distinctly feminine lilt. I assume it’s Kelly.
“…not expected,” she says. Some of the words are too faint to make out, but I can trace out enough of them anyway. I don’t unlock a new skill for my efforts, but listening in is reward enough.
“…know blood magic is forbidden,” I catch the male guard—Jarreth—saying. “We need… hold for investigation…”
“We should move further away,” Kelly says. Her voice is more distinct now, somehow. Did she get closer to the door? “If your suspicion… correct, we’ll need more than us. They’ll be available in the morning. Still, I… unnecessary to do this, no? You know the situation with this site.”
“…keep her contained,” Jarreth finishes. They keep talking after, but their voices grow quieter and quieter until I can’t make a single word out.
Even that information is valuable. Every morsel I can get is.
I try to piece together what I can, but no matter how I interpret it, my conclusion is the same.
They’re keeping me trapped here.
I can’t abide that. I’ve done everything I can to get this far. I won’t let someone stop me from progressing further.
On some level, I can understand why they’re trapping me. From what I can gather, D-12—no, every security officer here—had nothing to do with blood magic when they were sent out, and here I am, claiming to be D-12, demonstrating some level of proficiency with it.
Just because I understand doesn’t mean I’ll let them have their way with me.
How can I leave? I don’t know how much time I have. Whatever shifty deals Kelly is partaking in, they’re apparently preventing her from immediately bringing in people to analyze me, which is convenient. I imagine that her illicit dealings will go less noticed if she doesn’t make light of the fact that she went out in the middle of the night.
It looks like Jarreth’s in on it to some extent as well. That gives me some time, but I really don’t know how long.
I do, however, have some new tools.
At long last, I allow the system to show me my level-up skills.
Due to Enhanced Blood Affinity and your actions, you may select 1 Bronze-tier skill to gain from the following list:
Lessened Bleed
Lesser Vampirism
Venomous Blood
Woundshape
Due to Enhanced Blood Affinity and your actions, you may select 2 Bronze-tier skills to gain from the following list:
Lessened Bleed
Venomous Blood
Woundshape
Bloodstep
Blood Surge
Vampirism
Interesting. Looks like the free spell slot I saved from the last level-up doesn’t grant me a free skill from the expanded list.
Alright then. Good to know. Of the skills that the lesser level-up can grant me for free, Woundshape seems like the most useful. I take it.
New skill unlocked: Woundshape
That’ll be handy in combat. As for my current situation, though, it’s looking like there’s another option I might like.
Bloodstep (Uncommon)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Uses blood as a method of transportation. Turn your form into blood and move 3 feet in any direction, ignoring 50% of size constraints.
Blood Surge (Uncommon)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Draw on your internal strength. For five minutes per hour, you may boost your speed and strength by 100%. Consumes your blood as well as your mana.
Those are both incredibly useful skills, so much so that I wonder why they’re only Uncommon. I suppose Blood Surge is lower because it eats up lifeblood, but that’s less of a concern for a blood mage like me. I hope.
Bloodstep is the more salient one to my current situation, though.
Just in case I’m getting worried over nothing, I try the door.
Locked. From the outside, no less, and I definitely don’t have the raw power to break through it. If I was truly Auxiliary Security D-12, I would probably be perfectly happy to quarantine a night in here, get sleep in a real bed instead of the dark tall grass teeming with lethal critters.
But D-12 is dead, and I’m here.
I take Bloodstep immediately. I don’t have many other options, after all, and that window, barred and tiny though it is, does seem like a potential route to escape.
Once I’ve acquired the skill, I start using it. On the first attempt, I realize why it’s only Uncommon.
The skill is exhausting to use. Not in the sense of requiring a lot of effort to activate—now that I have it acquired, using it is as natural as knife-wielding or breathing is—but after I turn it on, my vision tinting red, my soul immediately tires as mana floods out of me and into the skill.
I shift three feet forward in something that I can’t quite describe as walking—my body feels too floaty and indistinct for these to be steps—before the skill fades and my vision returns to normal.
It takes everything I have to remain standing afterward. By now, I’m intimately familiar with how physical activity exerts me, but this is the first time I’ve felt magically exhausted.
Not that it’s going to stop me. Exhaustion doesn’t indicate depletion, and I’ve definitely still got some power in the tank.
I look down. My body is clean and still in one piece, but there’s blood on the floor where I traversed. Am I turning into blood while the skill is active? That would explain the red tint and the way that moving ignores size constraints.
With a momentary usage of Shape Blood, I clean up the trail I left behind, levitating the residual fluid off the ground and Devouring it. Coppery blood dissipates on my tongue as it hits it, and I don’t gain any XP. It’s a little weird, drinking up my own lifeblood, but I haven’t been harmed and I’d like to avoid leaving a trail where possible. There is, after all, a possibility that Jarreth clears me of suspicion, and I don’t want to shoot that possibility in the knee by leaving a mountain of evidence lying around.
By the time I’ve absorbed all of my own blood back into me, I’m ready to use my new skill again.
This time, Bloodstep flows more smoothly. The exhaustion is as bad as it was before, if not worse, but I’m still on my feet.
Again.
Again.
Bloodstep advanced to level 2!
You can now move up to 6 feet and ignore 55% of size constraints.
It’s looking like the window is going to be my escape route. The rest of the room is pretty airtight, as far as I can tell, though there might also be a vent—if there is, I haven’t found it yet.
The only problem is, whoever designed this room clearly put enough thought into it to consider the window a potential escape route. There are metal bars over it, and the aperture itself is only about eight inches in diameter. On top of all of that, it’s a solid ten feet into the air, and there’s nothing close to it that I can climb on.
Not that I consider that an issue. There’s a number of ways to get up there, ranging from using Temporary Shape Self to turn my fingers into claws to just vaulting up there—I do have a rather enhanced physiology, even if my strength isn’t my strongest suit, and that high speed stat isn’t for nothing.
There’s one other thing I want to try, though.
I activate Bloodstep once more, still not used to the sudden wave of fatigue that envelops me, and this time, I will myself upwards.
And it works. For a brief, golden moment, I become something other than human, other than demon, and I shift upwards, the world tinting redder with every foot I move.
The skill disappears as soon as I rise six feet into the air, and I tumble back to the ground, barely managing to catch myself. My own blood drips down onto me as I hit the floor, the residue of the skill falling.
Alright. That’s progress.
I try to use the skill one more time, and the utter weariness that weaves its way into my bones this time is even more unforgiving. The skill doesn’t start.
Damn. I must’ve run out of magic power. I’m… fairly confident that that’ll refill if I simply wait. More than fairly confident. Thanks, whichever researcher thought to instill memories about the system into my newborn soul.
It feels like a waste of time to just sit around and not work on any of my skills, so I draw my knives. This, at least, I can practice without consuming magic power.
The thought of sleep doesn’t even cross my mind.
On top of running through the knife-exercises, I practice my face, mimicking the expressions I saw the two humans make as they spoke. I introduce myself as Evelyn, also known as security personnel D-12. I hold conversation with a pretend image of Jarreth.
Acting advanced to level 5!
You are now 150% more likely to remain undetected while impersonating another individual.
I’d like to escape as soon as I can, of course, but any morsel of information I can squeeze out of this place will help me. If I can get him to explain some things to me or even convince him to let me leave, my position will be worlds better than if I simply leave and search for the next city.
That’s if I can leave in the first place.
As soon as I feel I have enough magic energy in me to try Bloodstep again—by my count, it takes about an hour—I make an attempt on the window. I clamber up, the smooth walls no barrier to me when I have the bed to jump off of. Once I’m close enough to the window, I activate the skill.
The world tints red, and I focus on moving out. Getting through those thin bars.
And I hit a wall, my body refusing to move any further even though the skill hasn’t run out of room.
When I drop down to the ground, human-shaped once more, I already know what the problem is.
I need to be a higher level. Right now, I still don’t ignore enough of the “size constraints”, as it is, to fit through gaps between metal bars that must only be an inch or two wide, even if I’m in an altered state. From context clues, I assume my body is entirely blood by volume when I’m in Bloodstep.
So I practice. I practice and practice and practice until I fall, again and again and again. Every time I fail, I train Acting and Knifefighting. I don’t allow myself a moment to rest even with the limited facilities I have.
Bloodstep advanced to level 3!
Acting advanced to level 6!
Bloodstep advanced to level 4!
Bloodstep advanced to level 5!
Knifefighting advanced to level 8!
Bloodstep advanced to level 6!
Shortly after I advance Bloodstep to the sixth level, the room starts to brighten. At first, I think it’s the lights coming on, but I soon realize that the sun is slowly rising. I stop practicing immediately, choosing to conserve my power for Jarreth’s arrival. I haven’t tried the sixth-level Bloodstep yet, but I’m sure it’ll work. I’m almost there already, and that was at level 5.
It proves to be a good decision when, half an hour later, a sharp rap comes at the door.
“Yes?” I ask, drawing on Acting and hiding my knives. I should be confused here, not confrontational. “Come in.”
The door opens with a click and a hiss, revealing Jarreth and another pair of people, neither of which is Kelly. Both of them are armed, and both wear reflective faceplates that hide their eyes.
“Evelyn,” he says, walking in. Metal clicks at his side as he walks towards me, and I catch handcuffs glittering in the light of the early morning sun. “I’m sure you’re concerned.”
“I am rather concerned, yes,” I say, standing to meet him. “My memory… there’s holes in it. What happened?”
“You’re aware this is what used to be Underground Site-17, yes?” He makes it a question.
I make a “so-so” gesture with my hand, uncomfortably aware that neither of the armed guards have made a single move.
He sighs. “No wonder. You must have hit your head hard. This is a containment zone, one that was fully activated when we heard that the site was breached… two, three weeks ago? If you’re with D team, you arrived about a week ago. You were deployed with roughly half your team.”
I nod, the information new to me. Site breach… that would be the reason why the facility had been empty, then.
“You’ve seen some of the aberrations,” he says. “Weapons—monsters that men created, that don’t follow natural laws.”
Like not being scannable by Appraise, I fill in the blanks. The six-limbed humanoids. They must’ve started life in a test tube just like me.
Somehow, I can’t bring myself to feel any sympathy.
“We’re running standard procedure,” he says, indicating the cuffs at his side. “This’ll only take a few hours. Nothing invasive—just making sure you’re safe and uncontaminated from your time there.”
I glance at him suspiciously. He didn’t trust me at all last night. What’s changed?
I don’t think anything has. I highly doubt that a few hours is all it’s going to take, especially if they find out what I am.
He holds his hands up placatingly. “I understand that you might not want to trust it. Don’t worry, I’m bringing in some people to smooth the process along. Are you okay with waiting for them?”
I nod. I want to press for more information, but I don’t think the persona I’ve constructed for D-12 would do that. I don’t want to come off as too suspicious.
And all of that is ruined when, five minutes later, a heavyset man clomps his way up to my door, each of his steps rattling the floor.
“A pleasure to see you, D-27,” Jarreth says. “You’re late.”
The new man glares at Jarreth, then swivels his head over to look at me.
His eyes widen, and my stomach drops.
“That ain’t D-12,” the heavyset man says, shaking his head. Fear creeps into his words. “That ain’t Sophie.”
All that Acting for nothing.
This man knew the dead security guard in life.
As adrenaline kicks into my veins, I see Jarreth’s eyes narrow, his mind processing this new information. Both of the armed guards hesitate, apparently unwilling to shoot when Jarreth is so close, but I can’t. I get up, ready to activate my skill and try for the window one more time—
But Jarreth acts faster. I hear the click-click of metal, feel the cold against my left wrist, and Bloodstep fails before I even act.
What? I had plenty of magic power stored, I just…
My mind kicking into overdrive, I glance down at my new cuffs.
They’re glowing with power.
Jarreth has a look of satisfied determination on his face, like he’s already won.
He hasn’t, and I can use that to my advantage. One of my hands is still free. I know what I need to do. Do I have the strength to do it?
Of course I do.
While Jarreth surveys his handiwork, the armed guards still don’t shoot, evidently unsure enough in their aim to not risk a shot with their friend (?) so close to me, and that gives me a window to draw a hidden knife.
I don’t target Jarreth. That would be suicide, and he’s already raising his arms to block any attack I offer.
Instead, I use all my strength to drive the blade into my forearm, just short of the cuffs. The first attack plunges deep, but doesn’t finish the job. Pain explodes along with the blood, but pain is only a feeling, and it’s one that I can force myself to ignore.
With the second and third stabs, I manage to hack away sinew and bone, messily slicing my hand off. Not a clean cut, and blood gushes out of the wounds, drizzling onto the ground I stand on, but the handcuff is off, fallen to the floor with my crimson-stained hand. It looks odd now that it’s not attached to me, I think.
Time doesn’t speed up, my enhanced cognition allowing me to process the scene before I attempt to go.
I don’t know if this will work. I haven’t tried Bloodstep at this level yet, and there’s every possibility I end up stuck in here, very obviously guilty and down a hand.
I catch a glimpse of myself in one of the finally-acting armed guards’ faceplates. A woman, short black hair and horrendously unkempt clothing stares back at me. She’s soaked in her own lifeblood, using a skill to keep it close to her body.
Her—my—eyes blaze a bright, bloody red.
Objective: Remain free
Satisfy this quest by not being captured by any means in 24 hours.
Time remaining: 12:57:31
I grin maniacally at the lot of them, and I activate Bloodstep.
Objective: Remain free
Satisfy this quest by not being captured by any means in 24 hours.
Time remaining: 24:00:00
“Hey,” Kelly pants, the last-minute sprint evidently still impacting her, “we’ve—she’s been through a lot. Give her a break, alright?”
“She’s—“ the man stops at a particularly loaded glare from the Gunner. “Okay, fine. Go get some rest. It can’t have been easy out there. I do need to speak with you, Kelly.”
“I expected as much,” she sighs. “Let’s get Evelyn here somewhere safe first.”
“The D6 bunks are open,” the man says. Kelly’s head whips up at that, and it triggers an instinct.
I fall back on Acting, combining it with my intuition and the brand-new objective I’ve just received. There’s something off about this situation once more… Kelly’s reaction holds the key.
As if the weight of everything that’s just happened is collapsing on me, I force myself to slump, make myself appear far more tired than I actually am. “We don’t have D6 bunks. Please… I just need to rest.”
I need to level up, actually, but even with the mediocre showing out there, I don’t think I can even take Kelly down alone. And this guy here… if he can recognize that I’m a blood mage, there’s a possibility he’ll see if I try to Appraise him. Instinct tells me not to try scanning him, and that’s been keeping me alive so far, so I don’t.
Yeah, I’m not going to try killing these two. If they were asleep, I’d have a shot, but right now? Definitely not, especially alone.
Also, Kelly did protect me. It still won’t stop me from annihilating her if she gets in my way, but helping keep me alive is definitely a strong argument for my not trying to devour her in her sleep.
“Jarreth! Say something!” Kelly hisses.
“Sorry about that,” the man says at last, rubbing the back of his head. “You know how it is with bloods—blood mages, I mean—and all.”
I glare at him, affecting rage I don’t feel. “Just let me rest. My entire squad is dead.”
Mostly a guess, but I’m pretty confident in it.
He looks even more sheepish now, but his eyes haven’t lost the suspicious glint to them. “Sorry. I’ll lead from here. We have some special quarters we can set you up in.”
Another moment of eye contact between Jarreth and Kelly flashes by, and I can’t parse the meaning of this one.
I’ll keep it in mind, though the thought of the objective that still hovers in one corner of my vision. I’d tell myself to keep my guard up, but it’s not been down once since the moment I saw other humans.
Wait. “Other”? I’m pretty sure I’m still decidedly ??? on the race part of my status sheet. Hmm.
My mind seems to think I’m human, though, and the Shape Self keeping me in the form of one certainly helps.
I’ll adjust to it. I need to be a human to get out of this, after all, so a human I will remain.
Jarreth leads me to a bare dormitory barely larger than the closet where I found my knives. It’s nearly empty but for a small bathroom and a cot to sleep on along with a single barred window, but it’s shelter.
“You must be tired,” he says. “We’ll talk again in the morning.”
I nod mutely.
“I’ll leave you be, then,” he says. For a moment, it looks like he’ll say something else, but he doesn’t.
He closes the door behind him as he leaves, and it clicks shut. A moment later, something else within it clicks, and it’s only then that I realize how thick the metal here is. That has to be six full inches of steel between me and him now.
Of course it can’t be easy. He’s apparently suspicious enough to try tricking me into unveiling that I’m something I’m not, which gives me the impression that I’m not quite home free yet.
As soon as the door shuts, I press my ears to it. I don’t know how I know, but I’m aware that my body is enhanced far beyond human.
The steel is probably enough to block a normal person from listening, but I’m no normal person.
It’s muffled, but I can make out the edges of two people speaking. One of them has a distinctly feminine lilt. I assume it’s Kelly.
“…not expected,” she says. Some of the words are too faint to make out, but I can trace out enough of them anyway. I don’t unlock a new skill for my efforts, but listening in is reward enough.
“…know blood magic is forbidden,” I catch the male guard—Jarreth—saying. “We need… hold for investigation…”
“We should move further away,” Kelly says. Her voice is more distinct now, somehow. Did she get closer to the door? “If your suspicion… correct, we’ll need more than us. They’ll be available in the morning. Still, I… unnecessary to do this, no? You know the situation with this site.”
“…keep her contained,” Jarreth finishes. They keep talking after, but their voices grow quieter and quieter until I can’t make a single word out.
Even that information is valuable. Every morsel I can get is.
I try to piece together what I can, but no matter how I interpret it, my conclusion is the same.
They’re keeping me trapped here.
I can’t abide that. I’ve done everything I can to get this far. I won’t let someone stop me from progressing further.
On some level, I can understand why they’re trapping me. From what I can gather, D-12—no, every security officer here—had nothing to do with blood magic when they were sent out, and here I am, claiming to be D-12, demonstrating some level of proficiency with it.
Just because I understand doesn’t mean I’ll let them have their way with me.
How can I leave? I don’t know how much time I have. Whatever shifty deals Kelly is partaking in, they’re apparently preventing her from immediately bringing in people to analyze me, which is convenient. I imagine that her illicit dealings will go less noticed if she doesn’t make light of the fact that she went out in the middle of the night.
It looks like Jarreth’s in on it to some extent as well. That gives me some time, but I really don’t know how long.
I do, however, have some new tools.
At long last, I allow the system to show me my level-up skills.
Due to Enhanced Blood Affinity and your actions, you may select 1 Bronze-tier skill to gain from the following list:
Lessened Bleed
Lesser Vampirism
Venomous Blood
Woundshape
Due to Enhanced Blood Affinity and your actions, you may select 2 Bronze-tier skills to gain from the following list:
Lessened Bleed
Venomous Blood
Woundshape
Bloodstep
Blood Surge
Vampirism
Interesting. Looks like the free spell slot I saved from the last level-up doesn’t grant me a free skill from the expanded list.
Alright then. Good to know. Of the skills that the lesser level-up can grant me for free, Woundshape seems like the most useful. I take it.
New skill unlocked: Woundshape
That’ll be handy in combat. As for my current situation, though, it’s looking like there’s another option I might like.
Bloodstep (Uncommon)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Uses blood as a method of transportation. Turn your form into blood and move 3 feet in any direction, ignoring 50% of size constraints.
Blood Surge (Uncommon)
Tier: Bronze
Level: 1
Draw on your internal strength. For five minutes per hour, you may boost your speed and strength by 100%. Consumes your blood as well as your mana.
Those are both incredibly useful skills, so much so that I wonder why they’re only Uncommon. I suppose Blood Surge is lower because it eats up lifeblood, but that’s less of a concern for a blood mage like me. I hope.
Bloodstep is the more salient one to my current situation, though.
Just in case I’m getting worried over nothing, I try the door.
Locked. From the outside, no less, and I definitely don’t have the raw power to break through it. If I was truly Auxiliary Security D-12, I would probably be perfectly happy to quarantine a night in here, get sleep in a real bed instead of the dark tall grass teeming with lethal critters.
But D-12 is dead, and I’m here.
I take Bloodstep immediately. I don’t have many other options, after all, and that window, barred and tiny though it is, does seem like a potential route to escape.
Once I’ve acquired the skill, I start using it. On the first attempt, I realize why it’s only Uncommon.
The skill is exhausting to use. Not in the sense of requiring a lot of effort to activate—now that I have it acquired, using it is as natural as knife-wielding or breathing is—but after I turn it on, my vision tinting red, my soul immediately tires as mana floods out of me and into the skill.
I shift three feet forward in something that I can’t quite describe as walking—my body feels too floaty and indistinct for these to be steps—before the skill fades and my vision returns to normal.
It takes everything I have to remain standing afterward. By now, I’m intimately familiar with how physical activity exerts me, but this is the first time I’ve felt magically exhausted.
Not that it’s going to stop me. Exhaustion doesn’t indicate depletion, and I’ve definitely still got some power in the tank.
I look down. My body is clean and still in one piece, but there’s blood on the floor where I traversed. Am I turning into blood while the skill is active? That would explain the red tint and the way that moving ignores size constraints.
With a momentary usage of Shape Blood, I clean up the trail I left behind, levitating the residual fluid off the ground and Devouring it. Coppery blood dissipates on my tongue as it hits it, and I don’t gain any XP. It’s a little weird, drinking up my own lifeblood, but I haven’t been harmed and I’d like to avoid leaving a trail where possible. There is, after all, a possibility that Jarreth clears me of suspicion, and I don’t want to shoot that possibility in the knee by leaving a mountain of evidence lying around.
By the time I’ve absorbed all of my own blood back into me, I’m ready to use my new skill again.
This time, Bloodstep flows more smoothly. The exhaustion is as bad as it was before, if not worse, but I’m still on my feet.
Again.
Again.
Bloodstep advanced to level 2!
You can now move up to 6 feet and ignore 55% of size constraints.
It’s looking like the window is going to be my escape route. The rest of the room is pretty airtight, as far as I can tell, though there might also be a vent—if there is, I haven’t found it yet.
The only problem is, whoever designed this room clearly put enough thought into it to consider the window a potential escape route. There are metal bars over it, and the aperture itself is only about eight inches in diameter. On top of all of that, it’s a solid ten feet into the air, and there’s nothing close to it that I can climb on.
Not that I consider that an issue. There’s a number of ways to get up there, ranging from using Temporary Shape Self to turn my fingers into claws to just vaulting up there—I do have a rather enhanced physiology, even if my strength isn’t my strongest suit, and that high speed stat isn’t for nothing.
There’s one other thing I want to try, though.
I activate Bloodstep once more, still not used to the sudden wave of fatigue that envelops me, and this time, I will myself upwards.
And it works. For a brief, golden moment, I become something other than human, other than demon, and I shift upwards, the world tinting redder with every foot I move.
The skill disappears as soon as I rise six feet into the air, and I tumble back to the ground, barely managing to catch myself. My own blood drips down onto me as I hit the floor, the residue of the skill falling.
Alright. That’s progress.
I try to use the skill one more time, and the utter weariness that weaves its way into my bones this time is even more unforgiving. The skill doesn’t start.
Damn. I must’ve run out of magic power. I’m… fairly confident that that’ll refill if I simply wait. More than fairly confident. Thanks, whichever researcher thought to instill memories about the system into my newborn soul.
It feels like a waste of time to just sit around and not work on any of my skills, so I draw my knives. This, at least, I can practice without consuming magic power.
The thought of sleep doesn’t even cross my mind.
On top of running through the knife-exercises, I practice my face, mimicking the expressions I saw the two humans make as they spoke. I introduce myself as Evelyn, also known as security personnel D-12. I hold conversation with a pretend image of Jarreth.
Acting advanced to level 5!
You are now 150% more likely to remain undetected while impersonating another individual.
I’d like to escape as soon as I can, of course, but any morsel of information I can squeeze out of this place will help me. If I can get him to explain some things to me or even convince him to let me leave, my position will be worlds better than if I simply leave and search for the next city.
That’s if I can leave in the first place.
As soon as I feel I have enough magic energy in me to try Bloodstep again—by my count, it takes about an hour—I make an attempt on the window. I clamber up, the smooth walls no barrier to me when I have the bed to jump off of. Once I’m close enough to the window, I activate the skill.
The world tints red, and I focus on moving out. Getting through those thin bars.
And I hit a wall, my body refusing to move any further even though the skill hasn’t run out of room.
When I drop down to the ground, human-shaped once more, I already know what the problem is.
I need to be a higher level. Right now, I still don’t ignore enough of the “size constraints”, as it is, to fit through gaps between metal bars that must only be an inch or two wide, even if I’m in an altered state. From context clues, I assume my body is entirely blood by volume when I’m in Bloodstep.
So I practice. I practice and practice and practice until I fall, again and again and again. Every time I fail, I train Acting and Knifefighting. I don’t allow myself a moment to rest even with the limited facilities I have.
Bloodstep advanced to level 3!
Acting advanced to level 6!
Bloodstep advanced to level 4!
Bloodstep advanced to level 5!
Knifefighting advanced to level 8!
Bloodstep advanced to level 6!
Shortly after I advance Bloodstep to the sixth level, the room starts to brighten. At first, I think it’s the lights coming on, but I soon realize that the sun is slowly rising. I stop practicing immediately, choosing to conserve my power for Jarreth’s arrival. I haven’t tried the sixth-level Bloodstep yet, but I’m sure it’ll work. I’m almost there already, and that was at level 5.
It proves to be a good decision when, half an hour later, a sharp rap comes at the door.
“Yes?” I ask, drawing on Acting and hiding my knives. I should be confused here, not confrontational. “Come in.”
The door opens with a click and a hiss, revealing Jarreth and another pair of people, neither of which is Kelly. Both of them are armed, and both wear reflective faceplates that hide their eyes.
“Evelyn,” he says, walking in. Metal clicks at his side as he walks towards me, and I catch handcuffs glittering in the light of the early morning sun. “I’m sure you’re concerned.”
“I am rather concerned, yes,” I say, standing to meet him. “My memory… there’s holes in it. What happened?”
“You’re aware this is what used to be Underground Site-17, yes?” He makes it a question.
I make a “so-so” gesture with my hand, uncomfortably aware that neither of the armed guards have made a single move.
He sighs. “No wonder. You must have hit your head hard. This is a containment zone, one that was fully activated when we heard that the site was breached… two, three weeks ago? If you’re with D team, you arrived about a week ago. You were deployed with roughly half your team.”
I nod, the information new to me. Site breach… that would be the reason why the facility had been empty, then.
“You’ve seen some of the aberrations,” he says. “Weapons—monsters that men created, that don’t follow natural laws.”
Like not being scannable by Appraise, I fill in the blanks. The six-limbed humanoids. They must’ve started life in a test tube just like me.
Somehow, I can’t bring myself to feel any sympathy.
“We’re running standard procedure,” he says, indicating the cuffs at his side. “This’ll only take a few hours. Nothing invasive—just making sure you’re safe and uncontaminated from your time there.”
I glance at him suspiciously. He didn’t trust me at all last night. What’s changed?
I don’t think anything has. I highly doubt that a few hours is all it’s going to take, especially if they find out what I am.
He holds his hands up placatingly. “I understand that you might not want to trust it. Don’t worry, I’m bringing in some people to smooth the process along. Are you okay with waiting for them?”
I nod. I want to press for more information, but I don’t think the persona I’ve constructed for D-12 would do that. I don’t want to come off as too suspicious.
And all of that is ruined when, five minutes later, a heavyset man clomps his way up to my door, each of his steps rattling the floor.
“A pleasure to see you, D-27,” Jarreth says. “You’re late.”
The new man glares at Jarreth, then swivels his head over to look at me.
His eyes widen, and my stomach drops.
“That ain’t D-12,” the heavyset man says, shaking his head. Fear creeps into his words. “That ain’t Sophie.”
All that Acting for nothing.
This man knew the dead security guard in life.
As adrenaline kicks into my veins, I see Jarreth’s eyes narrow, his mind processing this new information. Both of the armed guards hesitate, apparently unwilling to shoot when Jarreth is so close, but I can’t. I get up, ready to activate my skill and try for the window one more time—
But Jarreth acts faster. I hear the click-click of metal, feel the cold against my left wrist, and Bloodstep fails before I even act.
What? I had plenty of magic power stored, I just…
My mind kicking into overdrive, I glance down at my new cuffs.
They’re glowing with power.
Jarreth has a look of satisfied determination on his face, like he’s already won.
He hasn’t, and I can use that to my advantage. One of my hands is still free. I know what I need to do. Do I have the strength to do it?
Of course I do.
While Jarreth surveys his handiwork, the armed guards still don’t shoot, evidently unsure enough in their aim to not risk a shot with their friend (?) so close to me, and that gives me a window to draw a hidden knife.
I don’t target Jarreth. That would be suicide, and he’s already raising his arms to block any attack I offer.
Instead, I use all my strength to drive the blade into my forearm, just short of the cuffs. The first attack plunges deep, but doesn’t finish the job. Pain explodes along with the blood, but pain is only a feeling, and it’s one that I can force myself to ignore.
With the second and third stabs, I manage to hack away sinew and bone, messily slicing my hand off. Not a clean cut, and blood gushes out of the wounds, drizzling onto the ground I stand on, but the handcuff is off, fallen to the floor with my crimson-stained hand. It looks odd now that it’s not attached to me, I think.
Time doesn’t speed up, my enhanced cognition allowing me to process the scene before I attempt to go.
I don’t know if this will work. I haven’t tried Bloodstep at this level yet, and there’s every possibility I end up stuck in here, very obviously guilty and down a hand.
I catch a glimpse of myself in one of the finally-acting armed guards’ faceplates. A woman, short black hair and horrendously unkempt clothing stares back at me. She’s soaked in her own lifeblood, using a skill to keep it close to her body.
Her—my—eyes blaze a bright, bloody red.
Objective: Remain free
Satisfy this quest by not being captured by any means in 24 hours.
Time remaining: 12:57:31
I grin maniacally at the lot of them, and I activate Bloodstep.
