PreCursive
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Chapter 33 - Uncertainty
🕑 Added 2023-07-30 21:16:17 +0000 UTCAfter the incident in the Prince's office, nobody seemed to be in the mood to talk anymore. Elysael told Azarus and me that we would finish the conversation later, before calling a servant to lead us to the rooms that had been prepared for us. Shortly thereafter, I found myself in a small, relatively opulent room that I suppose I was going to be spending most of my time in while I was in Rhoscara. Azarus had been led to the room to my right and bid me goodnight, but not before shooting me one last puzzled look. Before they left, the servant had apologized to me and said that dinner would shortly be brought to my room, instead of taking it with the Prince.
Meanwhile, before my food arrived, I sat on the edge of my bed and stared blankly into space, lost in thought. Once again, I felt like I’d just barely dodged death. What had that pressure been, anyway? If it had lasted any longer, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to survive it. Thinking about it, it wasn’t hard to realize that it had happened because I had accepted the final Profession I needed. Something else must have happened because of that.
Did it have anything to do with Grey’s theoretical ninth Profession?
Guess it was time to find out.
I used my skill and pulled up my status.
Hidden Amidst the Spheres.
You have learned the General Skill Acting!
Acting has reached level 3!
You have learned Artistry!
You have created Aetherial Melding!
Would you like to review your Professions?
Y/N
Uh, okay.
I’ll take it from the top, then.
I wasn’t surprised to see that I had gotten Acting as a skill. After my performance earlier in the throne room, I would have been shocked if I didn’t get something out of it. I’d gotten quite a few levels in it too, I noted. Next was Artistry, and something was bothering me about that. After a moment of thinking about it, I realized that I had apparently only learned Artistry and not some kind of derived Profession. Every time I’d learned a Profession, I’d also immediately learned something else, like Medicinal Alchemy, or Material Enchantment. It was a weird difference, and I guess I was going to have to ask Elysael or Azarus about it later.
And then there was the truly weird thing, the third notification that I had gotten. 'Aetherial Melding', huh. I had apparently ‘created’ it, rather than ‘learned’ it. It was an interesting choice of words that the System had chosen, there. It implied that whatever I had ‘created’ was something that was entirely new, rather than something I had merely ‘learned’. Was this the mysterious eighth Profession that Grey had nearly peed himself over?
Guess there was only one way to find out.
I mentally selected the Yes button on my notifications, mentally opening my Professions pane.
Which had changed.
Massively.
With a mounting sense of anxiety, I reviewed it. Where before my Profession pane had had eight circles surrounding an indistinct picture of a fist, seven of them with symbols in them and glowing blue, now it had changed. The empty circle had been filled with a picture of a paintbrush, but it hadn’t started to glow blue. No, instead none of the circles were glowing blue anymore. Each of the eight symbols representing my Professions had lost their light and were now a dull gray. Similarly, both the circles they were in, and the connecting lines of the heptagram between them had lost their glow. Instead, it looked like all of the light had transferred to the middle of the Profession star, leaving only a glowing blue heptagon in the center. The light inside of the heptagon was pulsing rhythmically, like it was a heart.
I couldn’t see the fist symbol anymore, through all the light.
Slowly, I breathed in and out.
In.
And.
Out.
Trying to control my anxiety over whatever this could mean, I changed my status back to the main page away from the Profession pane. I had a suspicion.
Name Nathaniel Eugene Hart
Titles N/A
Level 4
Age 24 Sol
Race Human (Precursor)
Affinity: Terrestrial
Classes N/A
Profession
Health 240/240
Stamina 100/100
Vitality 14
Strength 11
Spirit 10
Dexterity 16
Perception 16
Intelligence 22
Wisdom 22
Free Points: 0
Options Talent Page, Skill Page, Profession Page
There it was, clear as day.
I didn’t have any Professions anymore. Not even whatever this 'Aetherial Melding' was. Where before I’d had six different ones listed on my status sheet, now the Professions section listed as just blank. It didn’t even have an ‘N/A’ like my class section because I hadn’t gotten one yet. It was just blank.
I started hyperventilating, no longer able to control my breathing.
Oh fuck, what did that mean? Did I screw myself trying to get all of the Professions, just because I could? What if Grey had been wrong? He’d told me early on that Awakenings could go wrong for people that underwent it later in life, resulting in corrupted Statuses. What if that was what had happened to me?! What if we had been wrong about what ‘Dream of the Infinite’ did?! We’d guessed that it was what was allowing me to learn all of the Professions, but what if we had been wrong?! That could have just been an indication of a corrupted status or something!
Grey had been telling me all about how Professions were important for advancing with the System, because of Impact. If I had accidentally erased all of my Professions, was I screwed now?! If I didn’t have Professions, I couldn’t generate Impact. If I couldn’t generate Impact, I couldn’t get good classes! And if I couldn’t get good classes I couldn’t escape from being a slave! I was going to die a fucking slave because I’d fucked up my Professions!
I was going to die.
In a mad panic, I jumped to my feet and began moving towards the door. I didn’t know if Azarus was still awake or not, but I was going to wake his ass up if he was asleep. I needed to know If I hadn’t just fucked all of our plans.
Suddenly, before I could reach the door, a knock rang out on it.
I froze, before trying to clear my throat. “Ah…who is it?” I called out weakly, unable to stop my voice from cracking.
“Excuse me, Sir Hart.” I heard a soft, female voice say on the other side of the door. “I have your dinner, compliments of the Prince.”
Oh, yeah. That butler guy earlier had said something about dinner.
Snapping back to reality, I realized I’d just been in the middle of a panic attack. I was soaked in sweat, to the degree that I could smell myself. I was trembling too, shakes still running all up and down my body. Additionally, I ran a hand through my hair, finding it dripping as well. Realizing that the maid on the other side of the door was still waiting on an answer, I tried to get ahold of myself. It was surprisingly easy, actually. As soon as I focused on it, I could feel my shaking stop, and my stance firm up.
“Ah, excellent!” I called to the other side of the door. Striding up to it and concentrating on my breathing, I opened it with false confidence. On the other side of it was a dwarven woman in an almost stereotypical French maid outfit. She had her hands on a push cart, upon which was resting what must be my dinner.
When she saw me, her eyes widened in surprise. “Oh! Excuse me, my lord!” She said, curtseying behind her cart. “If…if you’re indisposed, I can return later!”
I crossed my arms and beamed at her, as a proper overly-theatrical knight would. “Not at all, not at all!” I said boastfully. “I, ah. I was merely engaging in some late-night calisthenics! Yes! I need to keep up with my training, even now!”
The maid cut her eyes away from me for a moment, before looking back and fixing a polite smile on her face. “Of course, Sir Hart.” She said gently, as if speaking to a small child. “As you say.”
My own smile grew wooden. “I’ll. I’ll just be taking that, then.”
The maid curtseyed to me again. “If you can, my lord.” She murmured. “Once you’re finished, leave the cart outside and the staff shall collect it.”
“Very well,” I said, my smile becoming more awkward by the second. I hurriedly grabbed the cart and wheeled it into my room, jostling it somewhat and closing the door behind me. Through the door, I heard the maid sigh slightly before moving on.
Once the door was closed behind me, I let my act fall. Slumping, I hunched over the cart containing my dinner.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
After a moment, I managed to catch my breath. All right, now that I wasn’t drowning in anxiety, I was thinking more clearly. Furrowing my brow, I considered my Profession situation. I kind of doubted that I was as fucked as I thought I was earlier. Clearly, something was going on with my Professions that I doubted anyone, even Grey, knew. I might have lost all of my other Professions, but something was telling me that I was going to get something else. The pulsing blue hexagon on my Profession pane was too suspicious in of itself to just dismiss it as losing everything. Call it gut instinct.
Speaking of guts, the smell of food now wafting through my room was making me aware of just how hungry I was. Wheeling the food trolley to a small desk in the corner of the room, I transferred my dinner tray to it. The cart had also come with a bottle of red wine and a glass as well, so I uncorked the wine and filled the glass before setting it next to the tray. Sitting down, I opened the tray to see what I had gotten for dinner. Looked like a pork chop with some kind of raspberry sauce, as well as assorted greens. But, you know. Fancy.
I settled down for dinner.
……………………………………...
When I was finished with dinner, I put the cart out into the hallway like I was asked, and then took a quick bath in the attached en suite. Immediately after, I flopped down in the sinfully comfy bed and conked out. It had been such a long and…interesting day that I had been exhausted.
A polite knocking on my door awoke me the next morning. Groggily lifting my head, I squinted at the door with bleary eyes. When the knocking came again, I groaned and dragged myself out of bed. Shuffling my way toward the door, I opened the door and squinted at who I found. “Yes?” I said slowly.
The dwarven maid, different from the one last night, curtseyed and bowed her head to me. “Your pardon, Sir Hart.” She said, politely. “The Prince requests your presence in the Coral Room, in order to break fasts.”
I took a deep breath. “Yeah, uh, okay,” I said, starting to wake up. “Give me a minute.” I started to close the door, in order to get ready, before pausing. “And…where is the Coral Room?”
“Do not worry, my lord.” She answered, head still bowed. “I was sent to guide you, as well.”
“Ah. All right. Just, give me a minute.” I said, still somewhat sleepy.
I shut the door in front of her and turned around. Stepping away, I considered what to do next. I ended up taking a few minutes getting myself presentable in the en suite, before getting dressed in some nice clothes I found in a drawer. I made sure not to forget my cloak as well, in order to conceal my collar. I might have revealed it to the whole court yesterday, but that didn’t mean I was comfortable parading it about.
When I was ready, I left my room and let the maid lead me through the palace. It seemed much quieter than it had been yesterday. I guess now that the nobles had gotten their show, they weren’t inclined to stick around in the palace proper.
After a while, we reached a set of double doors that were being guarded by a pair of the Corvid Knights. They didn’t pay me any mind. The maid turned around and curtseyed at me again. “The Prince awaits you within, Sir Hart.”
“Ah, thank you,” I said to her. She merely bowed her head at me before hurrying off down the hall. I took a deep breath before opening the door and stepping through and closing it behind me.
Pink, was my first impression. The room was very…pink. This room was much more casually decorated than the rest of the palace that I had seen. Very frilly. Very…girly. Rather than stately portraits and solemn busts, it had paintings of cute animals and delicate little statuettes decorating the walls and shelves.
Coral Room, huh. I get it. Not the sea creature, then.
Inside, I found the Prince sitting at a (relatively) small table with a number of plates and dishes upon it.
Just her, though.
“Ah…” I said, hesitantly. I wasn’t sure if she was pissed about her office from yesterday. “Good morning.”
Elysael looked up at my greeting, taking her eyes off the papers she was considering. She nodded at me. “Nathan. Good morning to you, as well. Please, take a seat.” She said, gesturing to a chair across from her.
I made my way across the room to do so. “Is it just us?” I asked questioningly, as I took my cloak off and sat it on the back of the chair. “Azarus not up yet?”
She shook her head. “Azarus has already left the palace. He still has business that he must begin within the city. It’s just us, this morning. Please, feel free to help yourself.”
Just us, huh.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded at her. “Okay, thank you.”
Don’t be nervous, man. You’re only alone with a startlingly beautiful and powerful woman. Er, dwarf.
No reason to be nervous at all.
I sat down and then carefully began to load my plate from what was on offer.
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