“So as hungry as I am, I think there are a few things I should do while I’m here before I eat,” I said as Swansong joined me at the bottom of the portal wall’s staircase.

  We had split up from the rooftop and headed to our respective Safe Houses. Although we could have gone through the same Safe House, it felt just a bit premature to be revealing where our real homes were to each other. Jon had raised the concern that he was able to still see Swansong on his map even as we initially split up, but the moment we crossed into different neighborhoods, even though we were still in our Temporary Team-Up, she vanished from the map within the Command Room.

  Jon was curious if this was something that would change when we were officially a squad, though I was positive Swansong appreciated the privacy all the same. It was just one more detail we were going to have to explore once we did create the squad. Jon’s position was completely experimental, so even if we did get P.A.I. level information on the feature after the squad creation, there was no guarantee there would come with any explanation on how, if at all, the Command Room would get worked into the system.

  “Oh? Why’s that?” Swansong asked as we started to walk along the courtyard path. As I was quickly getting used to, the Square seemed to be busier in the middle of the day and there were plenty of other Augments scattered about the area.

  “Well assuming we are gonna go back out and see if we can hunt down some other things to fight since it’s only the middle of the day, I don’t really want to waste any of the Well Fed or Perfect Nutrition buffs because of my bad habit of being indecisive while shopping,” I explained.

  “Huh… Yeah I guess that would be a good way to think about it,” she said. “I’ve only gotten those buffs once before from a dinner my mom made. I guess I just never really thought about maintaining it. Most of my time so far has been in either hospitals or field clinics that got set up during the outbreak we had the last few days, so I’ve never really had to deal with my stamina running out at a critical moment. Although after this morning I could definitely see why you’d want to have the buffs active as long as possible…”

  She trailed off with a bit of a laugh and I looked toward her curiously.

  “Did you seriously not have any of the non-Sapients to fight in the first phase at all? What the hell even was your tutorial? I had to stop a damn bank robbery…”

  “It wasn’t anything nearly as interesting sounding as a bank robbery, I promise,” Swansong explained, following me as I turned a corner, past one of the pillars that could be utilized to view the leaderboards and headed toward the Guardian segment. “After I woke up and Logan got me to go outside, I got an alert that there was a bad leak coming from the wastewater treatment plant. The place was dumping a ton of extra waste into the Harlem River and that thing was already super polluted. That wouldn’t exactly be a problem since generally speaking nobody is actually stupid enough to try and go swimming in it, but I guess that’s what the non-Sapients are for…”

  “Huh… I mean, I guess if the goal is to prompt you to create abilities within your powerset and you’re supposed to be a healer/buffer, that is probably the best way to go about it,” Jon added, the sound of crunching chips reaching us as I cleared my throat.

  “Hey man, it’s not just you and me any more, maybe don’t eat and speak at the same time,” I said which elicited a small laugh from Swansong. “Okay so, you went off in the direction your P.A.I. led you and you found a bunch of sick non-Sapients?”

  “Yup! I immediately saw the Diseased debuff appear on them when I found them coming out of the water. A few of them got visibly ill almost scarily quickly and I sorta reacted by creating my Song of Cleansing,” she explained.

  “How long did it take until you figured out you could use it on your brother?” I asked, unable to suppress my curiosity. We climbed the staircase and passed by a pair of people in black and white costumes that weren’t quite matching but that were close enough that they had to be a team.

  “Not even an hour,” she laughed, somewhat awkwardly. “After the tutorial was over, I went back to my Safe House to open the loot boxes I received. Didn’t take me long to realize that he had a chemotherapy appointment going on and… well I didn’t even think about it… I pretty much just threw on the gear the boxes gave me and just went rushing over… I really had to see if it would work. The fact that it also healed everyone else in the room at the same time was a nice bonus…”

  “You know… I already said this once, but that really is pretty amazing. Those kids must have thought you were an angel or something,” I said and she blushed slightly as we stopped in front of the small fountain that sat at the center of the Guardian segment.

  “Yeah… or something. It doesn’t help that my power gives me those sort of glowy translucent wings whenever I use the healing songs,” She said, looking between the shops. She put her hands on her hips as her head moved back and forth. “Okay, so where are we going first? I’ve really only been in the resale shop but I know about the ViewFinder and isn’t there like… a bookstore or something?”

  “Yeah, the Beacon of Knowledge, that’s actually where I wanted to head to first,” I started, taking a moment and looking around. Although the segment wasn’t empty of people, they were spread out enough that I decided to press forward anyway, although I did lower my voice slightly. If I was going to go ahead with a squad, then I needed to at least give her some details about my powers. “It’s a bit weird and I haven’t quite explored it all the way yet, but my powerset relies on knowledge. The bare basics of it is that if I can figure out how something works, then I can make it happen.”

  “Like… without any limits?” She asked, her eyes widening and lighting up as she looked over toward me.

  “Well there are some limits. I have a local area around me, but as long as it’s in that area… then yeah, I can manipulate it if I have the right knowledge set.” I explained, nodding my head toward the bookstore and walking toward it. “It’s how my flight works. I absorbed a book on Gravity Wells that I bought from the store here and now I can manipulate the gravity in my area, which then essentially lets me fly.”

  “Huh… and I thought my Ethereal Projection secondary power was complex…” She said, and before I could even begin to ask, Jon jumped in.

  “Care to explain? I mean, we wouldn’t hold it against you if you do want to keep your powers a secret but I might be able to offer suggestions. Loophole here was running around, just punching people and making their shirts really heavy before I got him fixed up to the powerhouse he’s becoming.”

  “While I don’t think I was doing that bad, I do think Codex is right that he could be really helpful for you,” I said as we stopped just before entering the store.

  “I mean, I really don’t have anything to hide, but that’s also because I really have only sorta figured out how it all works myself,” she said with a shrug. I grabbed the handle of the overly ornate oak door and pushed it open for her, letting her enter before following. The shopkeeper, a diminutive older woman seated behind the front counter with a dirty magazine named Betty White raised a hand in greeting without ever even peeking her head out. If there were other Augments in the store, we couldn’t see or hear them and Swansong took that as a sign to continue. “The power basically gives me this aura that’s always emanating out from me and, at least according to Logan, is affected by my emotions. From what I understand, I think it combines with my songs from Vocal Harmonics, which is only supposed to create echoing effects whenever I sing, and creates the healing and buffing effects that I use to help people. I’m not exactly sure how the Ethereal Projection alone lets me fly, but I really always did want to fly so I didn’t really think to question that too much either…”

  “Hmmm, I wonder if there’s a way that you can share your power explanations with me…” Jon wondered aloud. I walked up to one of the binders at the end of the counter that I could use to sort through the shop’s products and opened it up as the two continued to discuss her powerset. While I probably could have continued to listen in and give my own opinions, I was only just starting to get a real handle on my own abilities, although I did feel like I was doing a pretty good job at it the more I worked at it.

  Swansong wandered past me and into the shelf lined main floor, opting to browse through the shelves instead of using the binders as I had, though that could have been because she didn’t know they were there. It only took me a minute to fiddle with the front page, a modifiable table that would let me filter the shop’s contents. Although there were plenty to adjust, the only filter I set was the Intelligence requirement option, setting it to 16.

  While that was four points higher than my stat currently was, but if I did find something good, I could grab it and hold onto the book for a few levels. Much like the retail shop, the books inside the Beacon of Knowledge were of limited quantity. While there were some duplicates, once one was bought there was no guarantee it would reappear in the shop.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  I flipped open the binder and started to browse. Unfortunately, the current rotation of “rare” level books, like the Quantum Shenanigans book I had purchased a few days earlier, were excluded due to my filter, but those typically were on the pricier side and I wasn’t necessarily interested in immediately reworking my skillset now that I had found a good rhythm. While I could have always adjusted the filter to see just how far away those rare, rotating options were, I didn’t want to find something that was going to require a huge sink into my Intelligence either.

  I did still have the Pendant of Paramount Ascension in my B.E.L.T., but I couldn’t justify wasting one of the two stat slots on it for Intelligence when I was really only using the stat to add to my internal knowledge bank. Even if I did, the 50% stat boost would only raise my Intelligence to 18, although it could grow exponentially if I continued to add points into the stat or opted to change my gear out for Intelligence focused items.

  It was almost annoying just how much trouble I was having making a decision where it came to the Pendant. The first slot pretty much had to go to Luck, simply because my secondary power scaled directly off of it and more than a few of my abilities did too, but there were too many good arguments to be made for the second slot that it would provide. I mentally shoved the thought to the side as I came across a book that stood out from the others on the list, if only because it was written in red instead of black like the other books.

  “There’s a book called Anybody Can Parkour in here that’s a different color…” I muttered. “Even past the weird color change, why would that even need to be a book?”

  “Oh I can answer that!” Angie chirped up while Jon was still occupied with Swansong. “So that is going to be a Skill Book as opposed to a Knowledge Book! Knowledge Books, like the ones you have used so far, are used to grant your mind the basic, advanced, or expert level knowledge needed for a variety of subjects. Skill Books on the other hand are about teaching your body the ingrained muscle movements needed for a variety of skills and physical aptitudes. While you weren’t awake when it happened, you did absorb a skill book on The Basics of Wing Chun which is why you have at least rudimentary hand-to-hand skills. These books, when not obtained through loot boxes, are typically restricted by Dexterity or Strength instead of Intelligence.”

  “You know… it would have been really good to know about those a few days ago…”

  “Why? We were here a few days ago and there weren’t any of them available, otherwise you would have seen them like you are now. To be fair, you could have probed a bit deeper about how you gained your fighting skills but then, where does the blame game really get us?” Angie mused and I just sighed, letting the subject go.

  Anybody Can Parkour required a Dexterity of 10, something I already had passed and only would cost me 500 credits. It felt like an extremely low price for a book given the general scarcity of the Skill Books on the list, but it did also only grant a Level 3 skill in Parkour, which seemed relatively mundane compared to gaining knowledge on the fundamental forces of the world like some of the books I had already purchased. While I didn’t exactly want for the ability to move better between my flight and short range teleportation skills, I could see the skill having some possibilities, even during fights.

  I made a note of where in the bookstore the book was as I continued to look through the list. As Angie had pointed out, knowing about the Skill Books really didn’t change much when there weren’t many of them available in the first place. Other than that seemingly out of place addition, I wasn’t finding quite anything on the short, two page list of options that fell into my filtered selection that was really speaking to me when Swansong reappeared, her hands falling on the counter with a few rapid taps as she looked at the binder I had open.

  “Okay, Codex thinks I need to find some stuff on neurobiology and psychology, how do these binders work?” She asked, looking over at me expectantly.

  “Sheesh, he’s already figured out how your power works?” I asked skeptically.

  “It’s more a hunch than a guarantee, but I am the Augment nerd here,” Jon said. “Besides, she’s sitting on a huge pile of credits from the missions she’s completed and the boxes she’s opened and has only visited the dang resale shop like, once. I swear, I thought you were the fluke here with your position on the leaderboard but Swansong here knows even less about all this than you do.”

  “Hey!” Swansong said with mock outrage and crossed her arms. “Logan said I’ve been doing fine. Why would I need to know more if I’m doing as much as I can already?”

  “See! I’m not the only one who withheld information just because it wasn’t asked for,” Angie said, her voice lighting up ever so slightly. “It’s not malicious, it’s our job!”

  I rolled my eyes again and ignored Angie as I pushed one of the binders over toward Swansong. Knowing just how the pair of them were, I changed the subject before Jon or Angie could go off on too far of a tangent. “Okay, there’s a filter page at the front, I haven’t tried to search for specific topics myself, but there’s a key word option that you should be able to use to look up the subjects that Codex is talking about.”

  The fact that Swansong hadn’t pushed more was something that I did understand since my memories of the Acceptance Matrix’s control over my emotions were still so clear. It wasn’t necessarily her fault that she hadn’t probed for more information when all Axio and her A.I. were asking her to do was heal people. But even then, it finally dawned on me why I had been so hesitant and resistant about creating a squad with her.

  As long as she had the Matrix, there was no way I was going to know for sure if decisions were her own. The Matrix simply made you go with the flow just a bit too much and I knew from personal experience how easy it was to ignore the simplest of things just because they didn’t seem important at the time. Angie had pointed out the suspicion I would cause by bringing it up when her P.A.I. Logan could possibly dissuade her from turning it off, but that just meant I had to bring it up when he couldn’t dissuade her. The briefest sparks of an idea started to form, though it was still a long shot.

  While the idea did have a chance to work, I was going to need to make sure we had a backup option assuming things did work. I turned the binder back to the front page and cleared the filter I had set before putting in a few keywords to search for. There ended up being a single book on the shop’s stock that had the potential to meet what I was thinking and I looked over to Swansong.

  “What’s your Intelligence at?” I asked.

  “32, why?” She said, looking up at me with a curious gaze. I hadn’t noticed when we were mostly flying around, but with us standing right next to each other, it was clear I was close to at least half a foot taller than she was.

  “I think you should get this book here, it’s a bit pricey but if Codex thinks you need stuff on neurobiology or psychology this might be the right place to start,” I suggested, tapping the entry on the page and drawing her attention down to it.

  “Oh dang, yeah that would be perfect… I bet there’s even some offensive options we could tinker with with that one. Good catch Loophole,” Jon said approvingly.

  “Am I missing something? How can we get anything offensive out of Waves of Serenity: A Guide to Calming the Mind?” Swansong asked with a brow raised.

  “You just gotta have some imagination. That book will give you a Level 5 knowledge in Tranquility Dynamics. I’d be willing to bet you could create some songs that make people almost too relaxed. Have you ever tried to fight someone when you just wanted to be lazy on the couch?” I explained before Jon could. While I was willing to bet that I could also find some use out of the book if I did get my Intelligence up to 24, she would be able to put the knowledge to use much, much faster than I would.

  “No… I haven’t… have you?” Swansong said cautiously.

  “I mean… no not technically but I think the comparison works…” I said and rubbed the back of my head.

  “Well Loophole’s inexact comparison aside, it’s definitely a viable technique,” Jon said, this time cutting me off. “Even if you are only able to create an ability that makes enemies feel slightly calmer, that can make them hesitate or throw off their game just enough that Loophole could get in and take them down.”

  “True… And I guess it can’t hurt to have a way to calm down civilians if we run into any of them too,” she admitted and I felt a bit of a smile spread over my face.

  “Okay, let’s get these books bought. I think I’m ready for some food over at The Common Ground,” I said, looking down and making a note of the book’s location so that we could run over and grab it. “I know you’re gonna get cut off when we go in there, but try and brainstorm some squad names for us, we will toss you our ideas when we get back outside and we can see if we got one we like.”

  “Sheesh, someone’s trying to get rid of me,” Jon said with mock hurt. “I’ll see what I can think of, but if you two are heading that way then I’m gonna step out to grab some food. If I’m not back when you get out of The Common Ground just text me.”

  “Sounds good Codex,” I said as I started to head into the shelves to find Anybody Can Parkour while Swansong headed for her book.

  “Codex has left the Command Room, communication has been lost.”

  We returned back to the counter only a minute later with our books in hand and she looked from the thick text in her hand back to me with a smile.

  “You know… if this book doesn’t end up doing the trick, I’m so making you pay me back at least half of the cost of this…”

  “Half?” I asked curiously and she laughed.

  “Well I’d feel bad making you pay me back the entirety of the 10,000 credits, especially if I am going to be mostly hiding behind you while you fight things.”

  Happy Monday! If you're enjoying the story make sure you Comment, Rate, or Review!

  The Tome of Many Things outright ran away with that vote and it will be introduced at a point a bit later in the story. Thank you all so much for your input and your desire to have an effect on the story!

  Come on over to my Discord to talk about the story, see advanced news, and just talk nonsense!