16 - Plateau Skills

A slow, increasingly gleeful smile spread over the great blue genie’s lips. She looked down at the bracers on her arms with expectation. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of years of suppressed hopes and dreams, of humiliation and pain, all of it was about to come to an end. “This is it… After all this time…” She let out a wild cackle, and her eyes became manic. “I’m going to tear this world asunder. I’m going to obliterate every last one of you stupid sacks of flesh until you’re not even dust! This will be the sweetest, bloodiest, most satisfying vengeance anyone on this miserable planet could even begin to contemplate!!”

She floated in the air.

She stared at the bracers.

She blinked and began to frown. “It’s not working.”

I had a sinking feeling.

Gleeful excitement melted into manic desperation. “It’s not working. It’s not working! I can’t feel anything different. It won’t let me—” She shrunk so that she was only the size of a three-story building. “Say it again!”

“What?”

“Wish for it again!”

“You mean—”

“Wish for me to be free! Do it!”

“Uh, Genie, I wish for you to be free.”

She both eagerly and anxiously glanced back and forth between the items binding her. “They’re supposed to unlock when someone makes a wish. They’re supposed to give my power back to me.” The corner of her left eye twitched.

That…probably wasn’t a good sign.

“Give it back!” She shook her arms. “Give it back!!” She vibrated her arms until they became a blur. “Giveitback! Giveitback!” White and gold sparks flecked from her body. Her eyes and tattoos glowed with fierce brightness.

I wisely backed up a few steps. Then backpedalled several more.

With claw-like fingers, she tried to peel the bracers off, but it was no use. “Get. Off!” She shrank further until she was only twice my size. The expression in her eyes was as wild as her hair. She smacked her arm on the nearest rock and only managed to pulverize it into small shards and a cloud of rock dust. She incoherently screamed with frustration.

The mimic was hit by shrapnel, squealed, and feebly tried to edge away but was too weak to go far.

I might have been in fear of my life, and that comment about destroying the world in revenge for what had been done to her probably should have made me give up helping entirely, so I didn’t inadvertently cause global genocide. But something about the way she raged didn’t feel just angry. She felt…stretched thin. Fragile. Like someone on the edge and about to go over it. I mumbled almost without realizing it, “Genie, I wish you free. I wish your bonds destroyed. I wish you free from captivity.”

If she heard me, she gave no sign, continuing to furiously dig at the bracers with her fingertips and wailing into the night. Then, slowly, she quieted. Anger turned into disbelief. “This can’t be happening. I’ve waited so long… I don’t understand! For the first time — the words were said — why isn’t it working?! Why???”

It was as if her eyes overflowed with divine light, and then glowing, liquid sunlight spilled down her blue cheeks as smoothly as fresh paint. A genie’s tears. She slowly shrank and drifted toward the lamp.

Instinctively, I figured that was probably the wrong thing for her to do and darted forward. Maybe when some people are hurting, they need time to be alone and process. But she had been locked in that lamp for who knew how long. I had no idea what kind of life she’d led, but she’d probably spent a fair amount of time lonely and friendless, treated like a tool. My first thought was that she needed to be around people, not by herself in her cage. I snagged the lamp out of the sand. “Look, maybe it’s best to stay out here for a while, huh?”

As if she weren’t really seeing me, and maybe in a daze of pain, she wasn’t, she turned her head to face me.

I’m not one of those guys who just shrugs off the sight of people crying. Ok, maybe when I see people dying in some warzone on the news, I’m not moved to anything but anger that people are fighting. Maybe when people show me photos of children starving in Africa, I’m not out there, throwing all my money into sponsoring a child through charity. But when a loved one gets like this, I feel their pain. Friends too.

I didn’t know this…being. I didn’t know if what I was seeing was real or an act. I’d already tried freeing her, so it seemed unlikely she was going all crocodile tears to manipulate me. At the sight of her crying, this magnificent creature who appeared to be a living work of art and magic, I felt an upswelling of compassion. “Why don’t you stay outside the lamp for a while? You’ve probably been in there for a long time. You don’t have to go back. I mean, you can if you want to. If that’s your safe space. Go for it. If you want to just hang out here and enjoy the stars, that’s fine too. Your choice.”

She seemed to struggle to focus on me. Then she looked away. A moment later, she drifted off into the desert.

If my wife were still alive, I’m sure she’d attest to the fact that I suck as a listener. I am not great with being supportive. I guess I just feel awkward when someone gets really emotional and I don’t know what to do. This probably wasn’t the time to slap the genie on the shoulder, tell her she’ll be fine and not to overthink, then give her a beer. I didn’t even have any beer, which would have made the offer even worse.

I did that to Cerise once. I meant well. Apparently, not what she wanted to hear hours after losing her job.

You know, given how important relationships are in our lives, you’d think someone in the damn school system would have had, I don’t know, a course on how to have healthy relationships? Pretty sure that would have been a hell of a lot more useful than learning trigonometry or compound interest. Maybe then we wouldn’t be constantly making a mess of things as we figure real-life stuff out.

I figured I’d give the genie some time. I found a place to sit where I could make sure the mimic wasn’t sneaking up on me, and I could watch for scorpions crawling out of the cave. Might as well check what all these levels were about in my ring. I pulled up the holo screen.

The number 42 was written in that blood red type. The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. My stats appeared. With a 27-level jump, I’d gained three points per level for a total of 81 points.

For the first time, the system was allowing me to assign my stat points. At first, I was like, hey, wow, awesome. And then I got to thinking about where I should put those points. That quickly led to indecision hell.

It was very tempting to dump a massive amount of points into one stat. I could put 80 points in strength and one-punch everything to death. Maybe. Or into speed and become the Flash. If I put them all into mana, maybe I’d be able to use unlimited skills, chaining them together like crazy. If you follow the specialist way of thinking, focusing a lot on one area could bring a lot of benefits.

But what if I could kill something with one punch, but was also too slow to hit anything? Or if I hit super fast, but was too weak to deal damage? The fear of that got me reconsidering, or at least doubting. So maybe it would be better to spread the points out somewhat.

I should put some into strength because being stronger would matter. But I felt more drawn to speed. Maybe it was from watching old videos of Bruce Lee doing martial arts back in the day, how he focused more on speed because he was so small. Not that I was that small, but he looked badass punching three times before anyone could hit him. Mana I wanted to increase for sure. I wanted to use more than one skill at a time.

Health and endurance were more practical. I was getting hurt a lot. And I really, really didn’t want to die. Not anymore. Stamina made sense, but I hadn’t been feeling like mine was too low yet, so maybe that didn’t need a lot of points for now. For now. I had no idea if I was ever going to level up again after this and gain more points. Was level 42 high?

I entered some stats, agonized over them, changed them six times, and stared some more. Thing is, I wasn’t a hardcore gamer. I liked playing games but I’d never given a damn about the stats. I just wanted to have fun. The same thing in life. Maybe I would have been happier pushing myself hard into one area, then becoming really good at something. I didn’t. I had been a blah person with a blah life, ok at lots of things but good at nothing. I’d never tried to maximize my life.

Maybe we don’t all have to maximize our lives, but at the very least, I could have tried harder.

I was now faced with my options very laid out before me. Obvious. How did I want to grow? To understand that, I needed to know what my goals were. If I wanted to punch through rock walls, I should be stronger. If I wanted to win races, I should be faster. But what were my goals? Just…grow for the sake of growing? To kill more and bigger ‘monsters’? Survival? I didn’t know.

I didn’t know what I wanted out of this new life. I didn’t know what I wanted to be. Made me feel like I was back in my first life all over again. Frozen with indecision. I’d had that feeling so many times. When I was getting close to graduating high school, everyone was telling me to choose what I wanted to do with my life, and I had no fucking idea. You’re seventeen and have spent your entire life in school, playing games, or watching TV. How are you supposed to have the info needed to map out the next sixty years?

Every few years, as I got older, I would have yet another crisis about where my life was going. I always felt like I was wasting my life, like I was capable of more, but somehow never got around to becoming more. Maybe it was the lack of clear direction or need. The more time passed, the more I felt like a failure for not having a more prestigious job and a title, for not having money, for not having fancy things. It made me feel more and more like a failure because the older I got, the less time I had to finally do something with myself. But rather than push me to finally act, it only held me back even more, especially when I started to feel like I didn’t deserve more and that I wasn’t capable of it.

Now here I was, with choices yet again. But they were clearer than ever before. I could choose how to forge myself into something. But to do that, I needed a goal. I didn’t have one. Did other people struggle this much at life?

I looked away from the ring’s screen and stared out at the oasis and dark desert beyond. The mimic was still sitting in one place, probably digesting. They didn’t seem like very active creatures. The genie was facing away, aimlessly hovering, silent. Stars reflected off the oasis pool. A few scorpions scavenged the desert sands, but I didn’t notice any big ones.

I wished I knew more about the world. Would seeing possible futures make it easy to aim for one? Or would you just get locked up from having too many choices? Were the stats themselves a hint? Strength, speed, health, mana, endurance. Well, strength could easily apply to doing manual labour. Speed too. Or you could craft something very fast, make more of them. Health…maybe higher health had benefits I didn’t know. Living longer? Less likely to have health problems? There were skills for that too. Mana? If that was for skills, and you could have skills in anything, that could be useful for throwing lightning bolts or bread-baking skills.

I kicked a heel into the sand. “Dammit!” Making these kinds of decisions was so stressful.

I gave up. I felt guilty about it and figured it was probably a mistake, but I couldn’t come up with a life plan. Maybe I was too dumb. Maybe I was a natural failure. I didn’t know how to pick a dream or something. So I decided to just start putting points in.

I wanted to be a little stronger. But being faster drew me, so it got more points. I added health so I’d be harder to kill. I added a bunch of mana so I could use my skills. That stat had been pretty low. In the end, I had a very broad stat split. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? I didn’t know.

I entered the numbers and confirmed. There was a moment of sharp pain, and my whole body burned. The feeling dripped away, and I shuddered. I felt different.

My current skills were listed next.

[Resistance: Disease]

[Passive: Second Wind]

[Unbreakable Spear]

[Fists of Fury]

[Chef’s Kiss: Fried Arachnid]

**Path of the Scorpion** [Vengeance shall be mine! Lightning Scorpion!]

Skill choices followed.

The first was between upgrading to [Greater Resistance: Disease] and [Curse of the Blue Panda]. For once, I decided not to plunge into the unknown. I didn’t really want to go around cursing people. Or be cursed. Plus, I liked the idea of reaching a high level of resistance in something. I really hoped it included resistance to cancer because, after all the time I’d spent in the desert, I probably had skin cancer by now for sure. I’d be less worried about that if an uncle hadn’t died from cancer. Lung and prostate. Years of smoking and hated exercise.

The next choice was [Lesser Heal Wounds] and [Drain Life]. This was interesting. Healing wounds was something I really wanted. And needed because I kept getting myself hurt. It seemed like I’d be able to use it anytime too, as long as I had mana. Drain life could be a life-steal healing skill or an offensive one; no way to know. But if it was a healing skill, it would rely on having an enemy to drain, so that was less useful unless I planned to be fighting constantly. I opted for [Lesser Heal Wounds].

When the next choice to come up was [Heal Wounds] and [Drain Life] again, that made me pause. Seeing the same choice twice in a row made me think maybe the system was trying to encourage a certain path. But I chose to upgrade instead.

Next was a choice between [Passive: Lesser Mana Regeneration] and [Passive: Lesser Strength]. While that strength boost might be a great multiplier for my stats, being able to use skills more often seemed wiser. I opted for that one.

I got the option of upgrading to [Passive: Third wind] or choosing [Charm Person]. This was an easy choice for one reason: I hated the idea of controlling people. [Passive: Third wind] it was.

After that, I suddenly lost control of the screen, or it seemed that way. Instead of choices, it just came up with UPGRADE SKILL (RANDOM). [Fists of Fury x3] upgraded three straight times: [Fists of Fury x5] > [Fists of Fury x7] > [Fists of Fury x10]. I didn’t know how to feel about that. I hadn’t even used the skill aside from a couple of practices. In fact, I was getting more use from the spear than punching anything. I worried the system had wasted three upgrades. If only it had upgraded my healing instead. That would have been way more valuable. I cursed. But then the screen changed.

CHOOSE PLATEAU SKILL

Three impressive icons came up, and I knew this was going to be another important decision:

[Passive: Blades of Air] [Hadryuuken] [Create: Throwing Stars x5]

Again, the lack of description was really frustrating. It was super annoying to have to make choices without having more information. Though, even as I thought that, I realized that this was realistic. Often in life, we have to make choices while ignorant and hope for the best. Just like a high school kid trying to choose their future career.

I reasoned that [Passive: Blades of Air] would automatically add some kind of invisible cutting effect to punches or kicks. Maybe not all, maybe I had to punch or kick really hard, or think about activating the skill when I used it. Could be a force multiplier or could be stupid. Also, I hated air skills.

[Hadryuuken] sounded really close to a skill I was familiar with. Was it too much to hope that it would be the same? I tingled with excitement and almost chose it before forcing myself to consider the final option. This seemed like the ability to create as many shuriken, or throwing stars, as I wanted, assuming I had the mana. Maybe they were permanent, and maybe they vanished after a time. Could be handy having the ability to gain a weapon almost anytime.

I was growing more certain that the options the system offered would be relatively equal. Maybe not in every situation, but in a vague, overall sense. So whatever each did, if I invested in it and used it, it should be equally helpful. Unless the need for it never came up. Did I really need to be able to create throwing stars whenever? Would choosing that only be giving into boyish urges to do cool shit and throw them at everything?

I chose [Hadryuuken].

UPGRADE PLATEAU SKILL (RANDOM)

As I only had the one, it upgraded to [Fire Hadryuuken]. I really needed to try that out as soon as possible.

CHOOSE PLATEAU SKILL

Another one? Were these coming up after ten levels or something? Maybe the first from 30 and the second from 40? Three more choices appeared:

[Lightfoot step] [Do the Unlikely] [Aura: Mortal Fear]

Well, crap. Three more hard choices? This was not helping my stress level.

[Lightfoot step]. Maybe a kung-fu kinda thing where you can run on tree tops and stuff? [Do the Unlikely], I hoped was the ability to instantly accomplish something…unlikely. But could I apply it to something specific, and were outcomes random? [Aura: Mortal Fear] was likely a way to make nearby people afraid of me, an intimidation skill. It might end up making opponents fight worse or preventing fights altogether. Could scare merchants and make shopping easier if I ever came across a town or city. That aura also seemed really fitting with the scorpion transformation I had and the scary theme the system had going on. I would not be surprised if it wanted me to go that route.

Did I want people to be afraid of me? …no. No, I didn’t. As useful as that aura probably could be, I knew enough about myself to realize it wasn’t who I wanted to be. [Lightfoot step] seemed practical, but maybe not as much as [Do the Unlikely]. The latter might be a real gambling skill, but it might also become more powerful in certain situations. Not entirely certain, I chose [Do the Unlikely].

Giddy with anticipation, and now with lots of mana, I activated [Do the Unlikely].