Chapter Seventy-Eight - Biker Chicks

I rode my bike to work the next day, which was extremely satisfying. No waiting for the bus, plus I could slip into a drive through whenever I wanted for breakfast, and I still arrived at work ten minutes earlier than if I’d taken the bus.

My work badge gave me access to a parking space in the nearest parking garage. The D and C-rankers had their own little corner.

Of course, when I pulled in, it was to see a familiar car in one of the spots nearby, its lights just turning off.

I turned my bike into my spot and removed my helmet, then glanced over to where Louise was climbing out of her ride. She drove this cute little sports car. A tiny little two-door convertible, painted a hot red.

I’d been in that car once. Sitting next to Louise. She’d reached over, hand gripping onto my thigh in a way that had made me squirm.

Shaking my head, I removed my helmet and hooked it onto the handlebars before climbing off. I looked over at Louise, who was picking some stuff out of the passenger side. We happened to start walking over to the HQ at the same time.

“Morning,” I said.

“Good morning,” she replied. “I ‘aven’t seen you here before.”

“Oh, yeah, the bike’s new,” I replied with a shrug, trying to pass it off as non-chalantly as possible. “I was tired of taking the bus, you know?”

“Understandable. The buses in this city are... disgusting.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Busy day today?”

“Non,” she replied. “Just training.”

“Oh, good, good,” I said. “Maybe we can do some sparring one of these days?”

“Hmm,” she said.

I made it to the HQ, then split off from Louise, even though we should have both ridden the same elevator up. I needed a minute in the bathroom to wash my face and hold in a scream. I was very tempted to Reload and just avoid that entire conversation, but I didn’t want to have to drive all the way back here just for that.

The rest of the day, fortunately, passed relatively easily.

I hit the gym in the morning along with most of Squad B. Terry spotted me while complaining about how dull bodyguard work had been. I discovered that I was able to bench a solid five pounds more than last week, which was very good improvement.

My body was getting a little stronger. There’d be a plateau, eventually, where the rate of growth would slow down, but for now I’d take what improvements I could.

We did a bit of sparring as well. Terry had a lot of experience across a broad range of martial arts, mostly because she couldn’t stick to one for more than a few months. I asked her for some help training CQB with rubberized knives, and she showed me a few tricks. There was a lot of judo in her moveset, I think because she’d stuck to it the longest and she liked throwing people around.

It was, admittedly, kind of funny for someone so thin and lanky to pick someone up and toss them onto the mat... as long as one wasn’t the person being picked up and thrown.

The afternoon, after a quick shower and a free lunch, was spent on spell training. Dharti looked over my results with Restore Stamina, and she seemed pretty impressed by my progress.

“At this rate, by next week you’ll be ready to add another spell to your repertoire," she said.

“Can’t I start with one now?” I asked.

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She considered it, then invited me and Terry to her office. Terry declined, saying she had to do something, but I followed after her. I wasn’t a huge tea fan but Dharti had some good stuff. “The issue in learning quickly is not having time to experiment and practice in a live environment,” Dharti said. “Some rankers know a whole range of spells, but they rarely come into play. Not to criticize a coworker, but Sol collects spells like few others, and many of them have never been used.”

“Right,” I said. “This is a ‘learn one punch’ kind of thing?”

“I believe so, yes. Now, your repertoire isn’t exactly impressive yet. Or it is, but only because you’re still so young in your career. I think mastering what you have now might be best.”

“Yeah, but what I have now isn’t that useful to master. Restore Stamina is the only buff I have, really. Soothe Minor Pain is nice, but it’s... eh.”

Dharti chuckled. “Wait until you’re on your period and tell me that again,” she said.

Okay, fair point. “Maybe, yeah, I guess. But I do want to learn something more... active?”

Dharti thought about it for a while, then nodded along. “Very well. I can hardly stop you and your drive to improve and learn is to be lauded. I will suggest that you learn two spells, then.”

Two was probably a bit much, but I nodded along anyway. “Okay?”

“The first is a cantrip called Nutrition. It seems weak, and overall it is. It is a sustained spell that turns magical energy into nutrition, allowing you to feed living things with magic alone.”

“That does seem a little lacklustre,” I said.

“You can apply it to yourself.”

“Ah,” I said. So a spell to basically resist starvation as long as I had magic? That was cool.

“It’s quite the ‘cheat’ for those training themselves physically as well. And it’s useful in the field. While expensive to cast for a cantrip, it isn’t so much that you’ll find it wasteful.”

I was done to pick that up. It seemed like good utility all around. “Okay, cool. I can do that. But it’s just a cantrip, right?”

“Yes,” she said. “As for something stronger, I’d suggest Grasping Growth. It’s extremely situational, but the spell allows you to make grasses, bushes and most small plants grow at an extremely accelerated rate while also reaching out for the nearest living things. In combat, as long as you’re not in an environment without greenery, it allows you to create a space where movement is restricted. And it can create visual cover as well.”

Grasping Growth was a second level spell. Still a D-rank spell, but a whole lot more complex than anything I’d learned so far. Still, it had some components to it that made it a good stepping-stool spell. Mostly some complicated little sections that used ambient magic instead of the caster’s, and some control elements as well.

The spell could be modified after casting, which required learning some other stuff that Dharti warned me was quite tricky, but that she’d help me through.

“And what about healing?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “In three months, there’s a course on magical healing. It’s a two-week seminar. You can take that and we’ll see afterwards. For now, buffs and pain negation should be your focus.”

“Why not healing?” I asked.

“Because healing is just a slight step away from harming,” Dharti said. “You don’t want to feed your grief with regrets.”

I thanked Dharti for her time. It was insanely valuable, especially since she coached me through the early carving of Nutrition.

Now I just had to find a way to perfect Exhaust Senses and maybe venture out to pick up a second first-level Dark/Void spell.

I was really hoping for something offensive, and I knew that there were a few options that existed. They were more ‘inner’ emotion spells, so my efficiency wouldn’t be good, but I could live with that if it meant having at least one spell that could harm enemies directly.

With the workday done, I headed back home, set up a Save, then ran through my long-evening routine. More French, more guitar practice, more spell work. I was determined to master Nutrition, though the spell did drain me pretty hard so I couldn’t cast it more than once or twice before I had to Reload.

Scouring the internet and some spell selling sites did let me find one I’d like to pick up for my Void magic. Shadow Bolt. It was... not insanely strong. The description suggested it was as hard-hitting as a weak punch, but it was low-cost, relatively simple, and the staple spell of a lot of Void mages. There were about twenty modified versions out there as well with different utility slapped on. It was another good stepping stone spell to help me move on to bigger and better things later.

With that, and my improving physique, I was feeling pretty good about myself.

I still hadn’t progressed that much on my main goal, though. The people responsible for the Breach were still unknowns. Hopefully, tomorrow was going to be a big step towards uncovering some of those enemies.

***

Art by Mingrix!