Chapter 47: Advancement
As he waited for the others to get here, Isaac checked his Status.
Name: Isaac Thoma
Class: Undying Wraith
Species: Human
Level: 16
XP: 5761/3400
Health Status: Healthy
Mana: 27/300
Stats
Fortitude
45
Perception
45
Strength
30
Agility
50
Magic Power
30
Magic Regeneration
50
Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill
Central Skills
Form of Horror XI
The Chosen Weapon X
Skills
Hundred Faces VIII
Stealth XII
Power Strike XVII
Piercing Strike XIX
Sundering Strike XVII
Blades XVIII
Sneak XIII
Sweeping Strike VIII
Far Strike XII
Manifold Strike X
Hunter’s Gaze IX
Phantom Step VIII
Unknown Fear VI
Bestial Regeneration II
Undying Focus I
Tools of Terror III
General Skills
Gralloch VII
Alchemy V
Aspects
Aspect Skills
Specter
Spectral Shift
Hydra (2 stack)
Hydra’s Regeneration
Redundant Organs
Dunkleosteus
Gills
He’d used some of his banked XP to level up to 16, the Level they’d assumed The Crusher would be, and then invested twenty points into both Agility and Magic Regeneration, bringing them up to fifty, then split the two remaining ones between Magic Power and Perception.
“I didn’t hear anything?” the man gave him a look, but Isaac just threw him a smirk and tapped his ears.
“I suppose there are benefits to having underlings with a high Perception, namely, not having to yell to get them to come over. Mrs. Shaw can tell you everything you want to know.”
And just like that, Isaac swiftly headed off, leaving Amy alone with the brusque officer.
“You asked for me?” Isaac asked, stepping up to Bailey.
“No, I ... actually, I could use you over at the body. The titanium is shredding the rotary saws.” Bailey turned around for a moment to talk to him, then returned to his conversation.
What followed were a few of hours of dismantling a gigantic mass of inert metal, digging the shards of his blade out of said chunk of metal, debriefs and arguing over the distribution of the loot. There’d been rough agreements hammered out ahead of time about who’d get what, but now that there was an actual golem to fight over and its durability had been handily demonstrated by the ruined power tools and sheer amount of power drawn used the plasma cutters that had also been employed had awoken people’s avarice.
But once that time had passed, the team left levitating along an entire limb of the Golem, as well as few of the titanium bones that formed the core of the monster that Isaac had dug out. He’d be getting one of those to turn into a new sword later. While he’d gathered up all the shards of his old Zweihänder, he doubted it would be repairable. He’d needed to drop by Stagmer’s blacksmith’s shop anyway. He’d do that after work tonight.
Isaac sighed and rested his head against the car window as the landscape blurred past outside, deep in thought. His own personal circumstances might have been a hell of a lot better than they’d been at this point in time the other timeline, and Bailey’s progress had been massively sped up by his presence, but the world still looked much the same.
Sure, the situation was massively chaotic, and changes took time to propagate, but the lack of progress was still quite disheartening. Already being aware of the automatic summoning issue was a huge win and shouldprevent, or at the very least, mitigate, a few future issues. But whether or not that proved true remained to be seen.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Amy asked, looking at him from the driver’s seat.
“Eyes on the road.” Isaac mumbled.
“I’m keeping a [Scry] on the road, I can look at both things at once.”
“Trust me, ‘my superpower makes this perfectly safe’ isn’t an excuse that cops accept, I learned that the hard way.” Isaac grumbled.
“Still, you ok?”
“So-so.” he sighed again “That was a damn tough monster. Maybe not as destructive as the Stormheart Gestalt, but how the hell would you stop it? Artillery? By the time that thing goes down, the shells will have levelled everything within a couple of city blocks, even if they all hit.”
“In that case, you can help me get a long range teleport and then I can drop you on top of the next big summon’s head and then you can take care of it.” Amy winked at him.
“I’m chasing a few leads towards that end, but I’m waiting to outlevel the spatial monsters by quite a bit before I fight them. If they’re able to turn the world into an M. C. Escher painting, I’m going to be in trouble.” Isaac replied “But the instant I feel ready, I’m going to tell you.”
“Can you take the wheel for a sec, I wanna check if hell has frozen over?” Amy asked.
“Meaning?” Isaac asked sardonically.
“Isaac Thoma, not jumping straight into a fight with a monster. Something terrible has clearly happened.” she winked at him.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” Isaac replied, unable to stop himself from chuckling “So, like I said, I’ll see if I can find something with a portal power or something and call you when I got one.”
“Thanks.” Amy said, returning her gaze to the road “By the way, how’s your house coming?”
“Slowly. I’ve managed to properly cover the ground in fallen rock monsters during my off time and Karl fused them into a proper foundation. Now I’ve got a couple of shipping containers there to give me a little shelter and storage space, but I’ve got a looooooooong way to go.” Isaac told her, pulling his head off the window as he sat up straight.
“Still, your own house at your age? That’s awesome.” Amy said.
Isaac shrugged “Those Aspect trading platforms are up properly now, you could easily afford to buy one too if you sell a dozen or so.”
“By the way, how’re things going on your end with collecting those?” Amy asked.
“So-so. The monsters I fought for the cops dropped a few, but those mostly went to the police department, as per our contract. The ones I got went to Bailey, but I think they just got used traded to other departments and universities for favors.” Isaac said.
“Huh, that’s nice of you.” Amy said “But let’s talk about something more cheery. Any big parties happening this weekend?”
They ended up talking about pleasantly mundane topics for the rest of the drive back to the university.
Half an hour after arriving there, they’d dropped off samples with everyone who needed them and were walking back down into their own department.
“Someone’s here.” Isaac said nonchalantly as they stepped onto the stairs to their rooms “Waiting in the conference room.”
This was almost certainly a benign visitor, but even if they were, a warning couldn’t hurt. And if they were hostile, it would be invaluable.
“Ah, he’s early.” Bailey commented, intriguing Isaac. This could be ... interesting.
Straining his ears, Isaac tried to figure out who was in there. He was pretty sure it was a man in there, but he wasn’t speaking, so identifying him via his voice was out of the question. In theory, it was possible to figure out who someone was without looking at them via their breathing, but that was an incredibly difficult [Skill] to master and required a massive amount of Perception.
Bailey having called the man here narrowed it down some, but he still had no idea who it could be. Then again, they were about to see who it was.
“Good afternoon, Peter.” Bailey greeted the Dean as he walked in through the door.
Isaac stepped to the side after entering the room so he could let the others in and took in the scene. Dean Kass sat in the chair next to the one Bailey usually occupied, a tablet laid down and pushed to the side from where he’d likely been working while waiting, with five piles of paperwork resting on the table.
“Good afternoon, Dean Kass.” Isaac greeted.
“Afternoon. Is there something I can do for you?” Patrick asked.
“Actually, this is about what the university can do for you.” Kass said, gesturing to the paperwork before him “Please, sit down, and I’ll explain everything.”
They obeyed and Amy levitated one of the piles over to her.
“This is the paperwork for registering in a course for ... System Sciences?” she frowned.
“Yes”. Kass told her “We’re currently working towards creating a new faculty to teach that, we’re about to register it as an actual course students can sign up for come Wintersemester and it will be largely based on your work. As such, you could practically teach most of the [Classes] and once you sign up, we can give you a Bachelor’s degree the moment the course if approved and legally recognized. As far as the thesis goes, you’ve all been working on various papers with Adam, so that’ll count for that.
“You’re also going to get a Master’s once we’ve got enough to actually set up a program. At that point, you’re likely going to be in a position to be writing a Doctor’s Thesis and gaining that title as well.”
“That seems a little fast.” Patrick observed, tone neutral.
“From the inside, you’ve likely not had the perspective I have. You’re doing groundbreaking work and judging by the sheer number of angry letters and calls my office has received from people who saw their dreams of fame disappear as you guys wrote their paper before they could, you’re very much ahead of everyone else. You deserve this. And if you check the second page, you’ll learn about the raise which you also deserve.”Kass added.
“I’m guessing that’s code for ‘bribe so you won’t take one of the countless offers you’ve no doubt received’?” Isaac suggested.
A lot of people had been trying to hire away Bailey after the impact he’d had on a global scale, but the Professor was closely aligned with their university and loyal to it, unwilling to leave. They’d also tried to hire away his team and kept doing so, in the hope that they weren’t quite as attached to their current position.
“Well, I wouldn’t put it quite like that ...” Bailey said, trailing off.
“... but that’s still what it is, isn’t it?” Amy finished his sentence for him.
“Look, there’s something I want to say.” Isaac said “I’ll take the raise because it is, well, a raise, but I’d stay even without one. This team has already discovered so many incredible things and even turned some into practical applications. Beyond that, we helped save a goddamn city. I ain’t leaving.”
“What he said.” Patrick said “The pay doesn’t matter as long as I can live off it. We discovered the biggest trap in the history of the world before anyone set it off when that thing with the slime happened. Other people might pay better, but here, I know I’m working towards something that has the potential to save everyone.”
“I agree with the drama queens.” Amy shrugged, leaning back in her chair.
The rest of the evening was spent filling out paperwork and making in-person funding requests now that they had the Dean here as a captive audience.
When Isaac realized how many concessions they’d wrangled out of him by the end of the day, he actually felt a little bad.
