Poisoned Rationality

-Nyx-

Once it was getting closer to nighttime, I ended up going back home. I was getting tired, despite lounging around all day.

Ria had already fallen asleep in our head, leaving me and Stella to talk about random things as I walked home.

At one point, Stella asked, <Do you actually want to kiss Ria?>

I thought about it for a moment. “I mean, she’s cute. I’m not against it. If you don’t want me to, I won’t, though.”

<No, it’s fine,> Stella said. <I was thinking about it. You, her, and me. You’re closer than sisters, so I don’t mind.>

“Neat,” I murmured. Quietly, I opened the front door of my house and stepped inside.

“Nyx!” Mom said, grinning. “You’re just in time for dinner.” I smiled and set my shoes off to the side before going into the kitchen.

Dad came in a minute later. The three of us sat down and we ate, chatting about things. After that, I washed the dishes before saying goodnight to my parents and heading to my room.

As I lay down on my bed, I thought, Goodnight, Stella.

<Goodnight, Nyx,> She said. <Tell Ria I said goodnight if you see her.> I smiled and nodded before I fell asleep.

…

I blinked awake in the center clearing of our soulscape. As I sat up, I saw Ria sitting on the other side.

“Hi!” She said, walking over and sitting next to me. “I woke up a couple of minutes ago. How are you?”

“I’m doing good,” I told her, smiling. “You?”

“I feel happy,” She hummed. “Everything feels nice.”

We lounged around for a little while before Ria scooted over to me and leaned on my shoulder. I smiled and leaned on her as well.

Our tails twined, and I put an arm around her.

“You’re pretty,” she murmured.

“So are you,” I said.

Both of us rested for a while like that, leaning against each other.

After some amount of time, a status window appeared, with most tabs greyed out, like it was the last time one appeared in our soulscape.

It was open on the abilities tab, with only two boxes readable. The first was the same [Morph] as last time, but the second one was new.

It was called [Body Split].

“Oooh!” Ria exclaimed. “Will this let us have two bodies?”

“It seems like it,” I said. “We can try it out tomorrow.” We continued reading about the ability.

[Body Split]

Upon use, split into two bodies, each with a singular tail, with one mind per body. Mental communication between the two minds still works.

Each body, while split, will start with only 75% of the main body’s power level. While the body is split, that level will slowly drop until each body has only 50% of the main body’s power level.

While not split, the power level of the split bodies will rise at the same rate as it drops while split, up to 75%.

“That sounds good,” Ria said. “Even if we’re only at 50 percent power, that’s still two of us who can fight.”

“Both of us using our skills, too,” I added. “And there’s no actual time limit, so we can spend as much or as little time as we want.”

“I like that,” Ria murmured, stretching. “I’m still a little tired, so I think I’m going to try and fall asleep for real.”

“Okay,” I said. Ria lay on the floor and soon enough, she was asleep. I soon followed.

…

-Tyler-

Today was a free day for me.

It was the first time I had a day where I really didn’t need to do anything. It had been a while since that happened.

I had been summoned to this world by a strange sorcerer-type person, who I quickly discovered had no intention of returning me to Earth.

He had, however, given me powerful gear and helped me level quickly from the start, until the local government came knocking at his door. He wanted me to attack the soldiers to “send a message”.

Instead, I whispered to them my predicament and let them in. He was brought away, and I later heard of his execution for his many crimes.

An awful man, for sure.

But because he was the one who summoned me, he was the only one who could send me back to Earth.

After that whole ordeal, I had set out to try becoming an adventurer. I got a ride in a caravan to a small-ish town, Cala.

After arriving, I began adventuring, getting small amounts of money by completing quests. I was able to pay for the cheapest 1-person room at the Guild’s Inn, which thankfully was really cheap.

Now, though, I had a party. Four other people who each had their own styles of fighting that I would be working with for the next while, hopefully.

I looked at my status to see where I was after the goblin quest.

Status (Lvl 1):

Name: Tyler Aekis

Race: Greater Human

Age: 20/3/8

Level: 14 (93% EXP)

Statistics:

Str: A Vit: A

Int: B Dex: C

Agi: C Def: A

HP: 100% A

MP: 100% C

Titles: Summoned, Evolved, Expert Tank

Skills: Sucker Punch [C], Expert Swordplay [A], Deflect [B], Invigorate [B], Sword Infusion [D]

Class: [Great Blade Knight]

I was really close to reaching level 15, which was nice. I’d been stuck at 14 for a while, because most of the monsters in the area gave so little experience that I needed to kill lots of them in a short amount of time to level at any meaningful speed.

And a new skill, which had a really cool name.

Sword Infusion

Rank: [D]

Active

Effect: Imbue the sword you’re using with magic energy for up to 30 minutes. Attacks with the sword will apply [Burned] to enemies and will hit with more force. The effect can be ended at will.

Cost: 75 MP

Cooldown: 1 hour

That sounded like a great skill for longer fights, especially with crowds. With that effect on my sword, I could swing through a large group of small enemies and burn them all, while knocking them back.

[Burned] was a nasty condition, making whatever had it take slow damage over time, as well as moving slower and decreasing strength.

I wondered if any of the others got new skills.