Leonidas tumbled out of yet another portal with a growl of frustration, hitting the ground atop a hilly overlook. The smell of clean grass, and clean air, hit him like a truck after the comparatively heavy atmosphere of Miami, and he sighed in relief. He wasn’t sure where he’d been dumped, other than the names ‘Dawnhaven’ and ‘Unclaimed Sector 117,’ but it certainly seemed like a marked improvement to the hellscape he’d initially been returned to.
His fingers brushed through the grass underhand as he took a moment to calm himself down.
In Elatra, he’d developed a habit of speaking out loud to ease his anxiety, and saw no reason to divest himself of a tool that had worked.
Leonidas dusted off his jeans and stood up to take in the area.
“Small hilltop, maybe about one hundred feet in diameter. Clear sightlines in every direction. Forest stretching out across the… well everywhere, based on the rising sun, and that looks like a… town? Is that a castle? Huh. A town and a castle to the west. Judging from the fact it looks like the path to it has been cleared of trees, I guess that’ll be ‘Dawnhaven.’”
He glanced up, noted the vibrant starlight above, and what looked to be no major changes to the sky. Dawn would dispel the majority of the view in time, but the sheer multitude of stars—something he’d seen only rarely while going to University in Miami—reminded him that he was, for sure, back on Earth. Mainly because he was familiar with the constellations in Elatra, and didn’t see ones he’d gotten used to there.
“Definitely somewhere in America,” he muttered while looking around, “and definitely not anywhere easily recognizable.”
Nothing around him spoke to his admittedly unreliable knowledge of United States geography, and he grimaced at realizing it. A thought occurred to him then, and he very nearly slapped himself in the head at not thinking of it sooner.
“World Map,” he said as clearly as he could.
Obligingly, a new System screen titled [World Map] appeared in front of him, and showed… nothing. Well, not nothing: it showed the hill he was, the landscape around him he could see, and a small blinking dot for ‘Dawnhaven.’ The detail though, he realized immediately, was precisely as informed as he was. Even when he tried to pinch the screen and zoom in, he saw exactly as much detail on the map view as he’d seen with his own eyes.
Zooming out wasn’t much better. It just showed darkness all around him.
“Seriously?” he demanded irritably. “Fucking Fog of War? What is this, Fallout?”
Leonidas waved a hand irritably and closed the World Map screen.
His eyes swept the hilltop again, and he clicked his tongue at the fact he was still alone. The System had confirmed his invitations to his family, and the nominations had clearly shown them to be alive. The fact they weren’t present left some room for concern—but he chose to believe that it was likely more due to some sort of delay than anything else. They’d been able to accept the invites, after all. Perhaps they were preparing themselves.
That thought, of course, led him to think about what the reunion would even consist of. It’d been five years, and he’d vanished seemingly without a trace. A faint sense of anxiety filled him at the thought of trying to explain everything, and he took in a steadying breath while speaking out loud to calm himself.
It helped somewhat.
“Okay,” he said to himself bracingly. “You know what’s going to happen: mom’s going to smother you, dad’s going to demand information, pops and g-ma are going to yell at you for vanishing, and Kairi’s probably going to deck you, and then crybaby again.” He smiled wryly at the thought, and idly shook out his hands to divest himself of some nervous energy that came from thinking about reuniting with his family.
The last time his family had come back together after an extended time apart, it was when his grandparents moved back to Texas when he and Kairi were still young teenagers. Florida had become unbearable during the Summers, and after the latest wave of Hurricanes had hammered the State, his grandparents finally said enough is enough and returned to their State of origin.
The following months, and then years, had been rough.
He’d managed to see his grandparents over the following summer, but Kairi hadn’t been able to come due to her dance camp—or something like that, he couldn’t remember—and had been heartbroken. The whole situation had started affecting both he and his sister’s mental health, until their parents had finally thrown in the towel and moved the whole family to Texas as well following the next Hurricane.
The fact he’d ended up returning to Miami for College was an irony that stuck with him. So was the fact he’d been transmigrated during his second-to-last year.
“No idea when they’re going to get here, though, so stop being nostalgic and focus on the now.”
Leonidas settled himself back down onto the grass, crossed his legs, and let out a calming breath.
“System,” he said with a glance at the air around him. “I would like to claim my Unique Class now.”
The moment he finished speaking, a System screen appeared in front of him.
Leonidas stared at the System screen with a mix of pleasant surprise, consideration, and remnant trepidation. The idea of a unique class he built himself was excellent, especially given his experiences on Elatra and the knowledge he’d gleaned during his Cultivation of his Radiance Core.
He first decided he had no desire to have a Light Affinity again.
While his Radiance Core had been incredibly strong for what he’d been tasked to do, and using Light Mana had proven beneficial, especially when it came to things like impromptu flares and literal laser beams from his eyes and hands, there was a limit to its efficacy.
The human body, he’d learned, simply couldn’t make full use of the power.
He’d tried manipulating the particles to let him teleport, or to increase his speed to just below relativistic speeds, and had discovered that even attempting those things massively destabilized his molecules. There was some manner of impediment to using the magic that way, due to the carbon makeup of living beings and even many inanimate objects, that limited its otherwise terrifying range of applications.
If Elatra had been a ‘trial,’ then he had no reason to suspect the System would treat the Affinity any differently than Light Magic had been treated by the magical laws of Elatra.
Without further consideration, he thereby eliminated Light as a possibility.
The next to go was the Elemental Affinity, and that was simply because Leonidas had enough experience to know the power for the trap it was. Elemental manipulation, while exceptionally powerful on paper, suffered from the nature of the magic. Elemental forces were not inert; they were alive, not with actual intelligence, but an inherent ‘nature’ that could not be ignored.
Fire wanted to consume and grow, air wanted to be free and languid, water wanted to flow and maintain linear progress, and earth wanted to remain fixed and unmoving above all else. There were definite bonuses to each, of course, but the sheer weight of intent required to effectively use any of the four elements—let alone their subsidiary types—with anything approaching efficacy was, simply put, not worth the effort.
With both Light and Elemental Affinities gone, that left Shadow and Psi, and of the two, he knew he wouldn’t be picking Shadow. As much as the idea of prowling around as apocalypse Batman, throwing shadow-spikes or whatever the fuck else he could imagine at people, appealed to his inner fifteen year old—the adult war veteran in him understood that Shadow was only as powerful as his environment permitted. Too much light meant weak shadow magic.
Walk into an open field, or a lit room, or a chamber with Light magic imbued into the floor, or any other number of scenarios he could imagine and he was screwed. Shadow was a fun thought, but ultimately he knew it was in many ways the weakest Affinity on offer. Without hesitation or doubt, it also went firmly into the ‘No’ column.
Which left only one: Psi.
It was something he’d wished he’d have been able to experiment with on Elatra, and one that he’d read more than enough about in comic books—Professor X, Jean Grey, Legion, Franklin Richards, Emma Frost, Raven, Martian Manhunter, and others all came to mind immediately—and during his budding obsession with a certain grimdark future saturated with gigantic golden statues and cathedral-looking starships.
Psi, as the name implied, opened up a whole host of subsidiary abilities for him, and more than that,; it gave him something tangible to focus on. He’d become astute at training his body and spirit during his time on Elatra, but his mind had always been secondary in his Cultivation.
None of his skills had really required mental acuity, outside of the simple ability to process and act on information fast enough to keep up with his superhuman reflexes. Psi, for that reason, would be a very big step outside of his previous wheelhouse—and one that allowed him to maintain some level of stealth, as well, while prowling the ruins of Earth’s apocalyptic future.
More than anything else, it created a secure means through which to communicate with potential allies, and attack potential enemies or even just get rid of unwanted company through the use of subtle and invisible action. He was certain there’d be a whole host of rules that came with the powers, but he was ready for that.
With his decision made, Leonidas spoke clearly.
“I choose Psi as my first Affinity, and there’s no need for confirmation. I’m certain.”
The System window vanished and the follow-up confirmation screen barely appeared before vanishing as well. It seemed voice prompts, something he hadn’t really tried prior to that moment, worked just as well as physical interfacing. That would be very useful.
“So what’s next?” he asked the air.
As if in answer, and with suspicious timing, a new window appeared.
When it did, he raised his eyebrows.
Michoucast· Apr 28, 2024
