Chapter 4: Power Leveling I

And so they found themselves in the mess hall at the center of the refugee camp. Unlike Base 15 the mess hall had three replicators, all of them significantly bigger than the one at the military base. Alexis wondered about that and Prudence explained that this was an industrial version, capable of producing massive amounts of food but, unlike the one they had at their base, it could only produce food, not weapons, ammunition or machine parts, making it useless for a military base but much more useful for a refugee camp.

When they each had a plate of (surprisingly good) food in front of them, Elaine said:

“Alexis, would you like to go first?”

“Um, yeah, sure”, the blonde said and made several sweeping gestures.

To any other onlooker the motions would have seemed bizarre but all of them knew that Alexis was futzing around with the AR displays her CARD showed her, the Communicative Augmented Reality Device each of them wore around their necks, which showed them menus and stats hovering in midair within their field of vision. And Alexis was currently using this UI to open her level-up screen.

 

“Wow,” Evelyn said as she stared at the screen Alexis had shared.

“Those abilities are no joke,” Cassie said.

“They're amazing,” Elaine agreed.

Alexis blushed under the comments but finally she cleared her throat and said: “It looks like I can buy most of the stuff on here but some of it will have to wait until after the last level up.”

“The EXP numbers are looking a little low,” Evelyn chimed in. “Shouldn't you have way more by now?”

Alexis frowned at her but then her eyes widened in understanding. “Oh right, you were out at the time. When you blew up that whole army it only gave us two hundred points.”

Evelyn blinked rapidly. “How? I must have blown up a couple thousand points' worth of enemies!”

“Remember that these EXP are an abstraction of the growth you all experience,” Elaine said. “Simply dropping a bomb on the enemies isn't as valuable as actually fighting them. I think the only reason you got any points at all was because the explosive was your own ability and not just some bomb the brass gave you.”

“Well that sucks,” Evelyn said. “I thought I was raking in the cash for all of us.”

“I think it's fine,” Alexis said. “It did teach us a valuable lesson, after all.”

“What lesson?” Evelyn asked.

“Not only did the ability cause you to lose consciousness for two days, it also barely gave us anything,” Alexis explained. “At least now we know it's a last resort, not the solution to all problems.”

Evelyn opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again. Finally, she said: “I guess you're right. Definitely not using it again unless we really really need it.”

“We did need it there, though,” Elaine said, causing both of them to look at her. “Everyone was exhausted when that second force showed up. If we'd had to fight them we would likely have taken heavy losses. This way we didn't take any casualties and demonstrated to our enemy that wave tactics aren't going to work. I get that the amount of EXP might be disappointing but Alexis is right. What we gained instead was knowledge. Real life experience instead of abstract EXP.”

“That sounds all nice and noble but I was looking forward to cleaning house when it comes to abilities,” Evelyn whined.

“Don't be a brat,” Elaine told her, causing Evelyn to bite her lip and look away as a blush crept up her cheeks. “I'm expecting all of you to be way stronger after this, anyway, despite the paltry sum for the second force.” She turned to face Alexis. “Have you decided on what abilities you want to pick?”

“Yeah,” Alexis said and picked out her abilities.

A soft light suffused Alexis for a moment and when it faded she was physically unchanged but radiated power. The moment Alexis stopped glowing, the same light flashed over Elaine as well, for just a moment.

“That's it?” Prudence asked, surprising Elaine. The angel had held herself back so much Elaine had almost managed to forget she was there. “I have to say I was expecting something flashier.”

“You do feel her, don't you?” Elaine asked.

“I do, actually,” Prudence admitted. “I've never felt a human like this. It's fascinating. It's just, I didn't expect it to be this... understated.”

“You were expecting something like an angel shifting into their Higher form, weren't you?”, Elaine asked.

“Truth be told, yeah. I guess it makes more sense this way. This isn't just a temporary boost, this is something she'll live with from now on, but still. The Professor's methods are bizarre.”

“From the way he looked when he watched Abigail and Cassie level up I'm starting to think this project has surpassed even his expectations,” Elaine said.

“I'm not gonna lie,” Prudence said. “That might well be the most concerning thing I've ever heard about the man.”

“What is?” Alexis asked.

“The idea that even he didn't foresee just how powerful you'd become,” Prudence clarified, then turned to Elaine. “And what about you? You just got stronger too, right?”

Elaine nodded and then shared her own stat screen to show the changes she'd received.

Prudence's eyebrows raised. “Wow, I wish I knew what these stats mean. Like, I understand what they mean, but without a frame of reference they're meaningless.”

“A normal human has all stats at five,” Elaine explained. “Although, now that you mention it, I'm a little curious.”

“About what?” Prudence asked.

“My Strength is at 182 and when I woke up after becoming a Lacrima my UI informed me that the limiters on my muscles have been shut off. So I'm like thirty-five times as strong as a normal human at least. I wonder if I'm stronger than an angel now.”

Prudence smirked. “Now you're speaking my language, Elaine.” Then she pulled up her sleeve to expose a surprisingly muscular bicep and propped her elbow up on the table.

Elaine did likewise and the two of them clasped hands. Most of Elaine's mind was focused on the upcoming arm wrestling contest but part of her couldn't help but notice how enticing Prudence was. Her skin was soft and warm, her hands just the tiniest bit clammy, and yet her grip was like iron. In her previous life Elaine had always been more into femme than butch, though truth be told she despised such labels, just like how she never got the obsession with dating 'gold stars', but Prudence presented an interesting conundrum.

On the one hand this woman was a warrior, no question about it. She had military training, she was strong and self-assured and she had more than just a bit of muscle. But at the same time she was so very feminine, more so than Elaine had ever managed. Her long, red hair was luxurious and silky, her features soft and her figure just slender enough that the defined abs and biceps weren't immediately noticeable.

But Elaine was pulled out of her thoughts when Cassie said: “Go!”

Immediately her head snapped back into the game and she pushed with all her might against the angel.

For a moment the two of them held a stalemate, neither of them budging. But then, after a moment, Prudence began to falter. Elaine had been stupid enough to try arm-wrestling Jeanne back when she'd just gotten her Awakener powers and she'd been crushed so handily that it couldn't even have been considered a contest but now she was winning. In total shock she looked up at Prudence, into her gorgeous green eyes that were narrowed in concentration. Prudence was faltering, yes, but she wasn't giving up.

The angel strained with all her might but slowly, inexorably, her arm began to bend back and back and back until, finally...

*SCREEEE*

With an awful sound of bending metal the table their arms had been on bent downward. Both of them had been straining so hard they'd accidentally broken the table.

“Great job, ladies,” Cassie said. “This is why supernatural folks shouldn't have dick-measuring contests.”

Evelyn snorted.

“Mine's bigger,” Elaine announced.

Abigail snorted, then immediately covered her mouth in embarrassment.

“Duh,” Evelyn said.

“I didn't lose!” Prudence said. “The table broke before I did!”