System Lost: My Own Best Friend

"I still can't believe you managed to climb this," I mutter, peering over the edge of the cliff where the tunnel connects back to the Twisting Cavern.

"Aaah! Don't look down, frick!" Allison curses. If you can even call that a curse.

"I guess I didn't inherit the fear of heights from you two scaredy-cats," I tease. "Though I'm still not sure how the hell I'm supposed to get down from here."

I've got my hands full with this bloody sack of meat—unfortunately reduced by my earlier blunder, but still kind of cumbersome. I take a moment to try tying up the corners, but the lizard hide isn't particularly stretchy, and it's too thick to easily tie.

"Maybe we should have taken the lizard's guts too," I grumble. "We could have used it for cord or something."

"Do you know how to make catgut?" Violet asks.

Uh....hm. I guess that's a good point.

"No," I admit. "It can't be that hard, though, can it?"

"All I remember is that it involves quicklime and potash, and I haven't the slightest idea how to produce either."

"Well shit," I say, frowning. "Is that why you didn't use the stomachs to make a waterskin before, too?"

There's a long pause, with only the sound of my struggles to tie off this stupid sack to fill it. Once I've finally got what I hope is a decent knot, Violet finally decides to answer.

"I hadn't thought of it, but I think that will still work, actually."

"Hah!" I jeer, tossing the sack over the edge and glancing back to make sure none of those worms have caught up. "How did you not think of that?"

"It's been stressful, alright?" she protests. "Did you just throw our supplies off a cliff?"

I peer back over the edge, eliciting cries of dismay from both of my headmates.

"Looks like it stayed shut," I say with a shrug. "Now how do I get down from here?"

Violet walks me through the process of getting down on my belly and then awkwardly shimmying my way over the edge. There aren't many good footholds, but I eventually manage to work my way down so that I'm hanging over the edge, at which point all that's left is to push off the wall slightly and...

"Ow!" I cry as I land.

My mostly-bare soles sting from the hard landing on uneven ground, but I manage to avoid twisting my ankle or hilariously sliding down the wall on my face like Vi did.

"We really need some shoes," Allie complains.

We really do, but short of reinventing tanning all by ourselves, that's probably not gonna happen. Maybe I can figure something out with magic later, but I shouldn't get ahead of myself.

"Let's get out of here before more of those weird worm things show up."

"I think those were silkworms," Violet provides unhelpfully.

"Don't those eat like...mulberries or something?" Allison asks.

How the hell does she know that?

"Just the leaves, actually, and that's the domestic silk moth," I correct her. "I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that those giant carnivorous worms aren't domestic silk moths."

"Wait, moths? Really?"

"You know that they eat mulberry, but not that silkworms are moth caterpillars?" I ask incredulously.

"Shut up!" she counters eloquently. "Why would there be moths underground?"

I roll my eyes, hefting the lizard-skin sack over my shoulder and marching off towards our base.

"Who knows? Maybe they don't metamorphose at all, and they're just worms," I say. "I don't think we can take anything for granted down here."

I hurry away from the tunnel, eager to put some distance between myself and the creatures in question. As cute as they are, I saw what they did to the meat I dropped, and I'd really rather not meet the same fate. I make a point of watching the ceiling as I make my way back. Just in case.

"So what now?" Allison asks, unwilling to let even a single moment pass in silence.

"We lost most of it, but that hunt should last us a few days at least," Violet says.

Are they just going to have a conversation between themselves in my head? What a pain.

"That gives us a bit of time to rest and work on our new classes," she continues. "And I'd like to see what we can do with the gecko skin and the stomach that Maggie picked up."

I reach into my pocket and produce the organ in question, only to find that it wasn't quite as well drained as I thought it had been.

"Oh gross, it's leaking!" Allison complains.

"Oops."

"Maggie! We only have one set of clothing! I don't want to walk around smelling like sour burps!"

I roll my eyes. "We're already covered head to toe in blood and shit. A bit of stomach juice isn't going to make a difference."

Still, it does make the thought of drinking out of this a lot less appetizing, even for me.

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"We'll have to clean it thoroughly," Violet explains. "But being able to carry water is going to massively expand our range of travel."

"What was that about me bringing you guys down?" I remark snidely.

"Let's not dig that up again, please?" Allie pleads, shutting down the argument before it can begin.

"Fine," I sigh. "Looks like we're back anyway."

It turns out that the new tunnel we found was closer to our 'home,' such as it is, than it was to the stream where Vi's hunt started. I'm not sure how I feel about that—I hope those worms don't come looking.

"Can we head to the map room?" Allison asks. "I want to update it while it's still fresh in my mind."

I shrug and do as she asks, dropping off the sack next to the entrance to the huge open room with a giant pillar. Home sweet home.

I sit down in front of the map and grab the soft pointy rock that Allison's been using to draw the rough map of our surroundings.

"Should be around here that we found the new path, right?" I ask, pointing.

"Uh...I'm not sure," she hedges. "The map's not exactly to scale or anything, and I haven't drawn every single path."

Lazy. Not that I would have done it any differently.

"Hm, lemme try something..."

I close my eyes—not that it's really necessary, but it helps me tune out everything that isn't the words perpetually floating in the back of my mind. It's not supposed to be like that, I don't think. That [Angel], an agent of the mechanism controlling this place, changed us somehow. Opening a piece of our mind permanently to a tiny slice of the great infinite expanse that lies just beyond the threshold of the physical world.

It's so tempting to push my way through that opening. To widen it enough that I can bask in the glory of Everything. I don't do that. Getting us all killed would prove Violet right, and I can't think of a worse fate.

Instead, I focus on [The Beaten Path], the skill we obtained from fusing our shared class with [Wanderer].

[The Beaten Path]

Gain the effect of one skill from a previously mastered class. Can be changed at will.

Currently: [Retraced Steps]

Available: [2]

With a thought, I can expand the list of available skills, which now include [Foraging] and [Candle Seeker]. In case I want to go counting candles some more. I don't actually need either of those, though, it's [Retraced Steps] I'm after.

[Retraced Steps]

Always recognize a path you've walked before.

Allie and Vi lack creativity. They both just take their skills at face value without trying to push the limits. Granted, Violet's idea of using her [Retaliation] skill to protect us, and by extension herself, isn't bad, and I guess Allison did mess around with the candles for a while. But exceptions prove the rule, and for the most part, they've been taking too much for granted.

The skill says that I can always recognize a path I've walked before. It doesn't say anything about needing to be on that path. Nor does it specify that it has to be the literal path. Does a representation work? Let's find out.

"I'm going to try using [Retraced Steps] to verify your map," I explain for Allie's benefit. I don't want her nattering in my ear to distract me.

"I already tried that," she natters in my ear, distracting me. "I didn't feel anything from the skill when I was drawing the map before."

"Then you didn't try anything," I protest. "You've got to use the skill."

"It's passive, Maggie," Violet deadpans. "Besides, I thought you said skills were a waste of time since magic can eclipse them."

"I'm reconsidering," I grumble. "I'm allowed to change my mind, aren't I? Skills are like...single serving pre-packaged magic. They might be a good starting point."

"Better than knocking yourself out by staring at candles?"

I grit my teeth. "Yes! Now shut up and let me concentrate."

They oblige me, and I stare at the map. The first problem I encounter is that it's really hard to focus on more than one thing at once. I need to concentrate on the map, but I also need to concentrate on the skill. The skill is always there, like the words seared into my mind, just one more paper-thin layer removed. If I focus hard enough, I can see it—not the words, but the skill itself, a tiny piece of myself parceled up and dedicated to changing reality in a very specific way.

It's too complicated to make sense of, but I can see it, and I know what I'm looking at. But that feeling fades the moment I try to turn my attention back to the map. I go back and forth a few times, frowning as I fail to make any progress.

Was I wrong? I was so sure that this would work.

I shake my head to clear it. No, I'm doing this wrong. Seeing it is just the first step. I know where it is now, and how to reach it. I have to grasp it. Commit more of myself to the spell. Then I can go back to looking at the map.

I try to remember how I felt when I pulled magic out of the candle. This should be easier, since I'm not messing with anything external. It's my own magic, my own power, as represented by the [World Engine] and its silly numbers. I don't care about the numbers—only the power.

I feel something give way, and my vision blurs with a familiar vertigo. It's not as bad as it was with the candle, though. I feel weak, but I'm not keeling over.

I open my eyes and instantly regret it as my mind is assaulted by a barrage of information I was not ready for.

I can see it all. Every nook and cranny, every stray outcropping and dead end. Every place we've ever set foot, neatly packaged into cute little symbols drawn by Allison's hand. Imperfect, not to scale, but unmistakable. It's all here. All but one little detail.

I hastily scribble in the new pathways in the exact spot that now represents them, adding the chamber where Violet earned her first unprovoked kill and the place where I lost over half the haul from that hunt.

The feeling quickly wears off and I gasp for air. A trickle on my lips and the familiar coppery tang in my mouth brings me back into the moment, and I wipe my nose and mouth, staring at the bright red streak it leaves on my hand.

"There," I proclaim as I catch my breath. "I did it."

I stare down proudly at...a few roughly scratched lines in the stone. Honestly no better than it would have been if I'd just eyeballed it.

"Congratulations," Violet quips sarcastically. "You gave yourself a nosebleed for a marginally more accurate pre-school drawing."

"Hey!" Allison protests on my behalf. "It doesn't need to be a good drawing. And she was right about the skill!"

Am I being supported or piled on right now?

"I can just fix the drawing next time I'm in front," she continues. "But it's good to know that there are other ways we can use our skills, and...it is more accurate, I guess."

I grimace. "Fuck you guys! My drawing is..."

I look down at it. Two straight-ish lines with a vague squiggle in the middle and an incomprehensible scribble at the end.

Alright, yeah, it sucks.

"I'm going to sleep!"

"What do you mean you're going to—?"

I don't have time to finish the question before I'm unceremoniously dumped into the metaphorical driver's seat. I stare down at my hands and blink before double-checking my status.

[Allison: Tier 1 Human]

"How the heck did she do that?!"