132 - Cat

Slowly the narrow dark tunnel of the catacombs morphed into a more natural-looking cave. Here and there, spent torches lined the walls, coming to life with bright orange flames before the duo passed thanks to a subtle flex of Albert’s Power. It took barely any effort to light the torches, he noticed, both because the action itself wasn’t all that hard to begin with, but also because he had gained a great deal of power in the span of a few days.

It was easy to lose sight of his gains in light of all he had lost. Going from having the system and all it entailed to being almost powerless had warped the way he perceived his growth. However, he had come a long way from fainting just because he wanted to use light telekinesis to casually kill a person in a random village in the mountains, and it showed. He had no doubts he would slow down soon, when he would eventually run out of new things to try out. By then, all he could do to grow would be to strain himself to the absolute limit and gain measly amounts of Power each time, with great effort.

However, he counted on the fact that by the time he got there he would be powerful enough that it wouldn’t matter anyway.

“Why is there ice on the walls?” Scrappy had been looking around as they walked, a pensive frown on her face.

Albert hummed. “I have no idea.”

He lied. He had a theory as to why, but he wasn’t sure yet.

Meanwhile his thoughts wandered. Thinking about his young companion again, he realized how to her all this must be new and frightening. She barely had any power to defend herself with, only counting on her physical body and whatever scraps of magic she happened to possess. She had never shown that she could use any of the magic, though, and from what Albert could see about the strange Doom and mana-based structures in her body, he doubted she could really do anything with them.

They had grown in complexity a little bit since the last time he examined them, but not nearly as much as the mana contained in most people’s bodies, able to cast spell and empower them to superhuman levels.

Albert decided he would do something to change this, and soon. He had ideas, of course, one of which was using his Power to trigger a quest for her. He hoped that by providing the Universe with a way to channel its raw power into something, magic would follow the path of least resistance and go with the flow. It was hard to tell whether it would work, and he would need a fair bit more Power than he currently had if he wanted to pull it off.

Of all the ways he could gift her with some actual, tangible power, it was the cheapest one. There were other ways, of course, going all the way up to brute forcing her into being a magical powerhouse by use of Reality Bending, but he and Jeff agreed they would take the incremental approach, testing various methods and always erring on the side of caution. It was Scrappy they were talking about, not a random person, and safety was paramount.

It was when the duo came upon the first monster that Albert finally confirmed the hunch he got earlier. It was an ice creature, tall and humanoid with a growl that felt like stones and ice grinding against each other. A quick fireball barely worth a headache quickly got rid of it, and a wave of Albert’s hand dispersed the cloud of mana that formed upon the monster’s death.

“I know where this tunnel leads.” He said after a while. The catacomb was barely recognizable now, having grown into a full-fledged cave system encased in blue ice. “Towards Spinetree mountains, just like the adventurers said. It might even lead to Tulebord village.”

Albert sighed. Scrappy perked up at the mention. “Isn’t that where the sap comes from?”

Albert nodded. “It’s also where I uh… accidentally killed the chief and probably disrupted the whole sap gathering operation, likely dooming Bastion in the process, yeah.”

Scrappy looked down. “Oh. I didn’t know that. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault, that I am.”

“I still feel like ass thinking about it.”

Silence followed, only the echo of footsteps on ice remaining for several minutes. To distract himself, Albert toyed with the mana in the air all around him, and even tried to push some of it in Scrappy’s direction to see what would happen to the structures inside of her body. When nothing did, he let the mana dissipate, observing the flow.

Then, all of a sudden, the sound of battle in the distance reached their ears as a distorted echo. Albert stopped in place, the young girl following suit without a word.

Jeff, scan.

On it.

A screen appeared, information populating it as Jeff checked the environment for more and more variables. The data was there for Albert to see even without the screen, him being the one actually doing the operation, but he trusted the AI to be the better analyst and stuck to what was displayed on the screen. It was with a heavy sigh and slow, controlled movements that he turned around to face Scrappy. He kneeled down to get to her height.

“I wanted to wait before we did this, until I had more Power…” He muttered, then looked at her. “But I don’t think we can afford to wait any longer. It’s getting too dangerous out here, and I’m not comfortable with you being defenseless. Do you have a magic system?”

The girl shifted from foot to foot for a moment, then swallowed.

“I… have a class. That I do. But it doesn’t do anything.”

Albert brightened. Good, at least there was something he could work from, instead of having to start from scratch.

“Can you tell me about it?” With some luck, he could use his relatively miser Power of 60 to kickstart her incomplete magic system. But he needed to know more, because the more he knew the more efficient he could be with Bending.

“The day you found me… was the day I changed. I wasn’t like this before.” Scrappy said, then paused.

Albert waited but she didn’t elaborate on her change, looking at her feet for a moment.

“My class is called Black Cat, that it is.” She paused again. Tears formed in her eyes. “I was a cat! That I was. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you…”

More tears. They flowed down Scrappy’s sunken cheeks, freezing on the ground as the little, defenseless girl wailed. Albert said nothing, pulling her close and just hugging her.

Afar, battle raged on. Shouts and screams of pain reached his ears, but he paid them no mind. He didn’t care about random people, and while he kept an eye out for danger, his mind was focused on what mattered.

“It’s okay.” He said in the end. “I understand.”

He didn’t, but how did it even matter? How could he show anything but support and love?

Scrappy sniffled, looking at him with wet eyes that threatened to spill into a deluge again. “You do?”

“I do. That I say.” Albert replied, smiling.

“Hey!” Scrappy mock-punched him, and he pretended to be offended by it before the two laughed together and giggled.

To be fair, Albert had no idea how to take the news, but he knew that she didn’t deserve to see his inner confusion and found – to his surprise – that he could hide it rather well. And, again to his surprise, he found that it didn’t matter. He wanted to know what was going on with her, but only academically. Her real nature didn’t change the fact that he cared about her.

“You didn’t strike me as too cat-like. Are you sure you weren’t, say… a lizard? Or a crow?”

Scrappy scrunched up her eyebrows in a cute frown.

“A dog, perhaps.”

She punched him.

“Hey!”

“Jerk!” She said.

“Joking, joking. You do have some cat in ya.” He smirked. “How old were you in cat years before you changed?”

“Five. I was an adult, that I was.”

Albert got up and exaggerated a look up and down the frail girl’s body. “That would make you what, older than me? 35 years in human years? Nah, you lie!”

Scrappy made little fists with her hands. “I don’t! That I do not!”

But her tone was playful, and the girl wasn’t tense nor was she about to cry anymore.

“Yeah.” Albert said. “Let’s blame the lack of food for it, shall we? You gotta eat plenty. Now, tell me of your class so I can give you magic.”

Her eyes lit up at the mention. Then they lost their luster again. “It… doesn’t do anything. It’s faulty. Broken. That it is.”

“Well.” Albert said with a tender smile. “Let’s change that, shall we? It might take a while, so let’s settle down first.”