[Level Up]
[Skill Level Up]:Survival
A warm mist spraying my face snatching me from recollection. The familiar taste of iron in my mouth. I pick to wrong time to smile as always. "uh.. Perry?" I say weakly "one sec, I need to process this" Perry says pulling reading glasses, a pen, and finally a notebok from her pocket. I try my best to take in the frankly, horrifying scene in front of me. A single spear-shaped formation of rock staring from the dirt directing into the heart lifting its now limb body its now eye level with me. Horrified look now frozen on its face, the trickle of blood mixing with salty sea water was somehow loud enough to ring in my ears….. the blood…it was so so much blo- " JOSEF!!!" Perry screams in my ear forcefully turning me to face her "I figured it out" Perry says smiling wide I can somehow tell she wants me to ask "Tell me tell me tell me!" I beg dramatically enough to satisfy her ego. "hehe since you're begging I guess I have too. I noticed something when I looked at you status one of your skills didn't come from me, can you guess which one?"
Perry says smugly waiting for my reply. Only one came to mind "survival?" I say slightly unsure "Correct little jester!" Perry says clapping back with pride "but I've survived thanks to power you gave me." I say "TSK TSK TSK WRONG! Clowns are the first to die! You think only want 2 disciples ?!? OF COURSE NOT WE'D ALL BE CLOWNS IF I HAD MY SAY! THOUSANDS NO! MILLIONS OF US, ALL-" "wait" I interrupt her tangent "disciples?" I ask "I'm sorry I keep forgetting you DIDN'T LEARN ANYTHING IN SCHOOL! *huff* we don't give you power for charity , you get all the power your fragile vessel can contain but we get… your soul" Perry says while wiggling her fingers for dramatic effect. "okay I'll grapple with that last bit some other time, what does this have to do with survival" I ask "not sure if that's healthy but I'm clown not a shrink." I make a show of tapping my feet and checking my watch "one day soon you're going to have take a long deep look in the mirror and really confront your trauma if you hope to mov-" Perry drones on for a while I don't remember when I stopped listening exactly somewhere between "fortifying a deep interpersonal connection" or after our second nap.
"So what were you saying about survival?" I say hoping to redirect the conversation away from my mental state, if only for now. "Well just think about it this way. The skills don't have descriptions do they? Why do think that is little jester?" Perry asks me, I never thought about it honestly. When I wanted escape Aasir and Lucky I was banking on play along… not survival. But I wanted to survive I mean that was the whole point of using play along "so survival activated on its own?" I ask Perry and watch her cherry red lips stretch into the widest grin her facial muscles allow "not so dumb after all" she say, her half praise felt like sip of cool spring water in the summer sun, but just a sip. "It's a passive skill that boosts attributes and skills needed for survival in times of danger. However…" Perry pauses unable to resist the urge for theatrics, I don't hate it. "This.." Perry says pointing at the still dripping corpse of the red cap "isn't passive". "Speaking of which, why didn't you run?" Perry says starring directly in my eyes "I wanted to kill it…" I say far to quiet for anyone to hear but me, because Perry knew before me. I don't know how long I watched the blood soaked soil before she spoke again "You were smiling big and bright, " Perry says while doing a surprising accurate impression of me, "No! Perry I'm done running" a true performer that one, even wore a wig. "you talk a lot in your sleep, and I wont ask until you're ready to tell." Perry says removing the wig and slinging it into the forest. "Its fairly easy even for a novice warrior to form a mental image of a fire ball, channel mana into their hands, and fire at a target. Even without the skill of fire magic. Sure it requires much more focus and it uses nearly thrice the mana but I'm sure it has it's uses" that's right, Aasir use to shoot tiny fireballs at me when he couldn't find a comeback in time. After around 5 he could barley stand on his own "But your imagery was not only solid but deeply personal when combined with survival greatly optimizing your mana circulation you created a skill." Perry finishes. I try my best to comprehend the new information and, but it's all to much to process at once so I'll ignore it for now.
"Is this a safe place?" Perry asks as well wait in front of gates to the Wanning. The large port town bustling with sailors, merchants, and families all living off the ocean and trade. "I've never been here before, but somehow i doubt anywhere is this world will be safe for us." after all both angels and demon are chasing a clown, "hehe" i laugh to myself taking in the absurdity of it all. Finally we arrive in front of the guard watching the gate, a big bearded man covered in plate armor. "Papers" he says while eyeing me suspiciously, i reach into my suit pocket and retrieved my identification, placing it in his waiting hand. He studies it closely, looking back up at me. After studying me for what felt like a while "can you remove the face paint so i can verify your identity" the large man says while looking down at me "oh well you see....i can't remove it heheh" i say sightly embarrassed "well you can't enter" he says blanky motioning back to forest with a stiff shove. "Next!" he says, i walk away defeated back into the forest the shining sun somehow felt like it was somehow mocking me.
"Well what now Perry?" i ask Perry sitting under a tree with my head in my hands. "Well you have to learn better control, you've it this far using your power sub consciously. But you've rallied on comedy while abandoning tragedy. You've only accepted one part of yourself" Perry replies. "You knew about this but didn't say anything until now?" i ask now slightly annoyed "no no no this isn't on me little jester! Over the last 2 days I've tried to unpack your childhood trauma but nooooooo" says Perry. She had a point, I'd never forgiven myself let alone mother. But now it was necessary to continue i couldn't stay in the forest forever and assuming Aasir wasn't far behind i don't have time to waste. "Ugh well lets get this over with.." I stand and brush my suit clean "finally! Now about your mother.." Perry starts putting her reading glasses on "AAAARRRGGGHHHH" a blood curdling so loud it seemed to shake the trees "heh of course..." Perry says with a sigh removing her glasses "of course we're interrupted, almost like fate. Well lets check it out" Perry says floating ahead of me as we head towards the location of the chilling sound.