Contact Magister for Help
It was high time you contact Magister. She'd probably badger you about the tower, but the tower was the least of your problems right now. You needed to learn stuff about telepathy and protecting your mind yesterday, much less as late as you were now. Getting any advice on handling hydras would be a great help too.Click to shrink...
It was not a snake.
It was a hydra.
The three heads looked at each other, and Taylor realized it was wondering if it wanted to do it again. A second later, though, the hydra's jaws distended, yawning, before it curled around itself, three heads resting peacefully.
Taylor, meanwhile, did not feel peaceful. Taylor wanted to scream.
"What the fuck..." she whispered to herself, looking at the monster in front of her. Thinking was a trial in of itself, as she had to contend with the knowledge that Hunter thought taking care of this thing for a week was in her ballpark. Didn't Hunter realize that she would be found out... immediately...
...
... Taylor pinched her brow. Shit. Shit. Taylor knew that Hunter had a different context for what 'normal' was, but he lived in a world with plenty of monsters. Even if he recognized that her world didn't have Warriors, he might not be able to recognize that they didn't have monsters either.
She was supposed to take care of a hydra. A hydra. Worse was that it was her fault for assuming cultural similarities between herself and Hunter's home dimensions.
None of that helped her, though, and she had to think of something, of a plan. A part of her, one resilient against everything that had happened to her over the past couple of years, thought about going to Hunter or even Dad for help.
A larger part of her pummeled that piece of her into submission. She had no idea how to even begin explaining this to Dad, much less getting his help. As for Hunter... this was her task, wasn't it? It was hard, but it wasn't going to be impossible like making a friend would be. She could do this without complaining to him. She wasn't pathetic, was she?
Of course, she still was stuck between a rock and a hard place, in the end. She needed to understand more about this hydra... well, anything about this hydra. Taylor took a look at the saw that the hydra had used to cut its head off, and she noted the blood splatter on the saw.
She had a new art now, 'Data Sponge', that allowed her to absorb and, in the process, erase data. Specifically, that data didn't have to explicitly carry the information she needed; she learned about the art called 'Data Overwrite' from the letter 'q'. Senior's thoughts had been present in the 'q', somehow.
She also had been nearly overwhelmed by it. Maybe it was just because Senior was incredibly more advanced than her, and that his thoughts were 'heavy' and hard to decipher, but she wasn't going to risk it yet. She'd find the time to practice it later (maybe at school, using an eraser to mask her usage of the art?).
If so... then...
... no, she wasn't going to contact Senior. Not after what had happened last night. She... she probably wouldn't be seeing him any time soon, if ever. That also meant that she'd be stuck at her current level of psychic abilities, and that she wouldn't be able to learn telepathy—
Taylor then remembered her idea from within the astral space; Magister knew about telepathy, so she could probably teach Taylor how to use it, as well as how to protect her mind from whatever the hell the hydra did to stun her.
Taylor quickly pulled up her messages and whipped one up for Magister.
Hey, Magister, I need your help quickly. I think I need to learn telepathy as soon as possible, and I need your help on knowing how to take care of a monster.
She sent the message, hoping that Magister was paying attention right now. Of course, then she began to get dizzy, and she was only barely able to seat herself before the world disappeared underneath of her.
~
"Well, my pupil, it has been quite a while since I've seen you," Magister said, floating above her desk in the astral space. Taylor nodded while seated on one of the lecture hall's desks. "Your message was... interesting to say the least."
"Sorry for bothering you like this—"
"Nonsense!" Magister cried out. "Bothering me? Taylor, I'm bored out of my skull! I decided that spending all of my time watching you dodder about was boring, so I've been catching up on some of my meditative practices. Still, if you wish to learn, then learn you shall!"
Then Taylor blinked, and Magister was floating up in Taylor's face. "But first, my dear pupil, what have you learned? Oh, you must tell me!"
"... how about some personal space?" Taylor asked. Magister, still smiling, floated backward, and Taylor brushed herself off. "Well, after I left you last time, I had a bit of fun for some hours. Then I decided to try to start training the Warrior path and meet my mentor."
"I see, I see..." Magister hummed. "Hunter, I presume."
Taylor clicked her tongue. "Stop reading my mind."
"But it's so efficient."
Taylor sighed, before continuing. She told Magister about the training she underwent with Hunter, along with the task that Hunter gave her.
"... so, I'd forgotten to ask what the animal was. Later today, though, I remembered, but it was too late. The animal appeared in front of me, but it was a hydra!" Taylor paused. "You know what a hydra is, right?"
"But of course! Such cute little things, and the one you were dealing with was a runt among runts!"
Taylor remembered how big Magister's true form was. "How, uh, big do they get?"
"Oh, twenty feet long on average." Taylor paled. "The children are roughly six to seven feet long, so yours is positively puny."
Taylor could understand that academically, since it was only four-to-five feet long, but the idea of the hydra growing past her height wasn't a wonderful thought. She knew that some snakes could eat people, after all.
"It's not the size you should worry about," Magister added. "It's the venom that's dangerous, especially if they are a Wright and alter its properties to something hard to counter. Not to mention, they are natural Shifters, considering their Regeneration."
"Anything else?" Taylor asked, feeling queasy.
Magister paused. "Like many serpentine creatures, they are naturally gifted in Hypnosis as well, though they're a fair hand at Telepathy and Mental Shielding as well. They're intelligent as you and I are, though they may not want to speak with you."
Hypnosis... that was probably what the hydra had used on her, if only for a brief moment. The thoughts of potential mind control sent chills down her spine.
"Hypnosis isn't as bad as you think it is," Magister added, making Taylor grimace as she realized that Magister was still reading her mind. "What you're thinking of is a completely different art, one that combines well with Hypnosis but is an Aura-derived art. Hypnosis is mostly focused on suppressing and dimming an active consciousness, Taylor. Think less of being a puppet and more about a high-power sedative."
"That's not much better," she muttered. "And stop reading my mind." Then she caught something else that Magister said. "Mental Shielding... what's that?"
"Oh, Mental Shielding? It's a protective measure against telepaths, hypnotists, etc." Magister waved her hand airily. "It doesn't scale too well at higher levels once you get people combining multiple offensive mental arts to breach your shields, but it does work as a fantastic base with which to add extra shields for your mind. It'll be more than enough against a hydra."
Magister then frowned. "Shouldn't your mentor have already taught you this? Really, must I teach you everything?"
"You've taught me nothing," Taylor pointed out. "Meanwhile, my psychic mentor has taught me Hypercognition, Clairvoyance, Thoughtography—"
"Thoughtography?!" Magister practically teleported into Taylor's face with how fast she sped up to see Taylor. "You learned Thoughtography?!"
"Is - is that good?"
"Is it good? Oh, Taylor, you do not understand how good it is!" Magister started rubbing her hands together eagerly, as if she were a fly. A strange image, honestly. "Thoughtography! I thought I'd have to wait at least a few months before I'd ask you to have your psychic mentor teach you it, but you know it already! Superb! Utterly fantastic!"
"He told me it was good for learning other paths, so I'd figured that investing in it early on was a smart idea."
"Oh, absolutely. Now, you won't have to waste time writing into your Grimoire by hand once we start you on Mage training! Oh, I can't wait!"
"... that's it? Just writing in a book?"
"Writing in a book?" Magister asked. "You don't know what a Grimoire is, do you?"
"What do you think?" Taylor said, narrowing her eyes.
Magister sighed. "Fair enough. So, only those three skills and Telekinesis, right?"
"... well... I do have another art. It's called Data Sponge," Taylor said, using Thoughtography to create the image of a flower, then absorbing it with Data Sponge.
Data Sponge: 1 → 3
It didn't hurt nearly as much the second time around, and it was nowhere near as heavy. Her own thoughts were far lighter compared to Senior, making her wonder how the 'weight' of information actually worked. Though, she felt a strange sense of deja vu as she took a few seconds to process her thoughts when using Thoughtography—
"SPECTACULAR!" Taylor suddenly found herself in a crushing bear-hug, Magister pressing Taylor's face into her human form's bosom. "Utterly SPECTACULAR!" Magister crowed.
Taylor, struggling, pushed her face out of Magister's chest. "I assume that's good?" Taylor asked.
"Good? Good? GOOD?!" Magister stared at Taylor as if she were insane. "I don't have Data Sponge. I wish I had Data Sponge. I was reading your mind, and I still couldn't figure out how you did it!"
"Well, I—"
"Shush!" Magister said, holding a finger to Taylor's lips. "I don't want to hear it. If I hear it, I won't be able to stop practicing for years, if not decades, to try and finally obtain the art!" Magister then giggled once more. Then, the giggling stopped. "Taylor... when you unlocked the art, did you get an achievement?"
"My psychic mentor redacted it," Taylor said, relaying what happened. "He reacted quickly and his astral space compressed time enough that the reward was delayed until after he redacted it, meaning I wasn't... well, kidnapped or anything."
"... I see." Magister looked at Taylor with a hard, contemplative look. "His name?"
"Senior. Though, that's just the title he asks me to call him by. I don't know his real name, like you. I also know he's not a human, either." Then Taylor remembered something else. "He also wants to talk to you about politics and stuff. He knows enough, based on context, what your identity is."
"... I see. Yes, I will have to meet him, if only to discuss your training. To interfere with the training program directly..." she muttered darkly. A mere second later, though, the pensive look on Magister's face was replaced with a bright smile. "But no matter! I'd love to come and visit your psychic mentor, if only not to be bored anymore. Just as long as he doesn't interfere in our game, I'll be happy."
"Right..." Taylor frowned. "Still, if I can learn arts like Telepathy and Mental Shielding from you..." Taylor said.
"Ah, I see. Well, which do you wish to learn first?"
PathlessPsychicWarriorCombat Flow: (14/30) (Novice)
Cartography: (2/10) (Acolyte)
Ciphering: (1/10) (Acolyte)
Drawing: (4/10) (Acolyte)
[]: Telepathy
[]: Mental Shielding Award Quote ReplyReport54RepenexusMonday at 11:54 PMReader modeAdd