“We’ll need gloves and bin bags too. This lowlife will be useful for the first time in his life.” Mrs Eceer slapped her hands together, dusting off dirt that was far too stuck to go anywhere. Seeing that she wouldn’t get a response from Tanya yet, she started rifling through cupboards, taking charge. Tanya didn’t have it in her to be anything but thankful.
Mrs Eceer slowly gloved her intact hand with the mangled one, passing another pair to Tanya. She put them on.
This time, going into the shop didn’t feel as intensely like the world was ending. Tanya blinked a few times, taking in the shop and trying to reason with the churning of her stomach.
“Good heavens, did the entire street take turns in here?” Mrs Eceer straightened another of the pictures, glass crunching with each step of her boot heels. She wrinkled her nose as the smell wafted over. “I wish we could handle this first, but putting him outside might draw attention before we are ready. Do you have a broom?”
She gestured to the glass under her feet but indicated further and further as she spotted more destruction. By the end of the hand motions, she was gesticulating to the room as a whole.
Tanya nodded.
“Good,” Mrs Eceer said. She glanced at a couple of seating options, wrinkling her nose at the bloodied sofa, then clip-clopped to the back, picking up the stool Tanya had been on and placing it in the middle of the shop. “I must decide my next level up,” she stated.
Tanya cracked her knuckles and opened the cupboard door at the back before pulling out a broom and getting to work. She found clothes pegs in there too and stuck one on her nose, offering one to Mrs Eceer on the way past. With each sweep of the broom, everything felt a little bit more in control. Mrs Eceer was too busy hming and ahing into space at her options to see Tanya’s eyes well up as she tipped the remains of her lamp in the bin. She was grateful for that. By the time she’d found a cloth to wipe up the blood, she was deep in the rhythms of cleaning, focusing on the whoosh of the brush and the squeak of the cloth.
Tanya stood up a few minutes later, a crick in her back but no more blood on the floor, as long as she didn’t look at the body by the door, that is. Mrs Eceer’s hand was raised, drawing shapes in the air. If Tanya stood at just the right angle, she could see the peacock-blue lines forming in space. It was longer than the shield symbol—a small web of patterns that Tanya might have mistaken for algebra if she squinted hard enough. She was tempted to ask, but the concentration on Mrs Eceer’s face told her not to.
What now…
She was tempted to look at her level-ups, but the growls of monsters travelled through the metal shutters of the shop, and without preparation, her class had nothing. Nothing new she’d have would make any difference, so she’d wait until they were safer. Every few minutes, one of the monsters would throw or be shoved into the metal, and the cover would screech across the pavement, wobbling backward and forward from the pressure. If the monsters worked out they were in there and wanted to get in, Tanya knew they’d have no option but to run.
Tanya walked over to the bucket, squeezing the cloth in the red water. She’d scooped it out of the toilet to save on the bottled water. As she riffed the water from her cloth, she noticed the muscles in her arms bulging.
She stared for a second, then threw the cloth over the side of the bucket and stepped in front of the mirror, tensing her arms like a bodybuilder above her head. It wasn’t anything crazy; she didn’t have bodybuilder biceps or anything, but it was like a few months of hard work at the gym. She prodded one with her other hand, and the normally squishy flesh was solid under her fingertips.
That’s new.
Hopping from side to side, she tried a couple of practice swings.
I’m quicker too, not by much, but it’s noticeable.
That’s when she panicked and looked down at her leg, awaiting a throb of pain that never came. She bobbed on her toes, testing her legs. If she concentrated, she could feel the discomfort of bandages against wounds and the dull throb of bruising, but it was far better than it should be.
System, does healin’ increase with Attributes?
Attributes increasing can contribute to healing time, although Worthy also receive an increase separate from their Attributes.
It had been a while. A shiver ran down her back at the voice being so close, like a whisper right in her ear.
She shook off the strange feeling and jumped a bit more, focusing on going higher. Without much effort, she jumped nearly a meter, almost hitting her head on the ceiling.
Mrs Eceer shot her a look and held a finger to her lips. Both of her hands were up now, fingers poised in strange positions. It looked like each one was holding something in place.
Battlements. Right.
Tanya searched the room for something to make battlements with. This would be far easier if she could Google anything about how they worked, but not only was there no signal anymore, but all her technology was upstairs. Not that she thought it was worth using for this anyway—she had no clue when she’d get access to more electricity than they already had. She needed to save her generator for the tattoo gun.
What do I know about battlements?
The drawing clicked into her head. She’d done a castle tattoo once with battlements. They were an older gentleman with a passion for historical reenactment and she’d taken a higher fee to meet up with him a few times to guarantee it would be historically accurate before she tattooed him. She wondered where he was now and what a castle summon would even do. Surely they wouldn't be able to summon an actual castle with her level-one power…
Tanya dashed to the corner. Her sentimentality had paid off. Next to the sofas and coffee table by the entrance was a filing cabinet. It was sage green and metallic, blending into the wall behind it. These were her oldest designs, more cabinets wrapped around and behind the sofa, filling the small space between it and the window with cushions over the top to make her look less like a hoarder. She’d hoped that the cabinets to the side of the sofa matching with the wall would stop people noticing it and rifling through, but she’d still had to deal with that way more than she’d liked. Now that she was closer, she saw the large dent in one side, but it still opened smoothly. She rifled through the top drawer and then the next one down, searching for his name.
Richard somethin'? Maybe Robert? His surname was interestin'…Mayfair, maybe— Robert Mayfair.
It was quicker than usual because she knew this was a thick one and could skip over all the thinner files. The only people that could rival this guy's file were regulars. Most people who had only had one tattoo here shared a file with every drop-in from the month. It was so thick because she’d kept the versions he’d annotated and the inspiration collages. It had been one of her favourite tattooing projects, not to mention how well he’d tipped.
She handled the file like a holy relic, shutting the drawer again quickly from her instincts to keep it safe. Another file came out with it, their little hanging plastic bits twisted together. It was titled Sword September. She threw it on the top—no time for reminiscing.
“What’s that?” Mrs Eceer asked. She was wiping her forehead with a handkerchief, this one was still clean. Tanya wondered where she’d gotten it.
“It’s me transfer paper. They’re like stencils of tattoos. I usually print a few different sizes for the customer, and then whichever ones they don’t pick end up here.”
“And?” Mrs Eceer asked.
“And this one's a realistic castle,” Tanya said. “Aka a realistic design of battlements.”
Mrs Eceer’s eyebrows rose, and she came closer.
“What was the mathsy-looking magic stuff?” Tanya asked whilst she laid out the papers on the coffee table. It was an awkward height to crouch at, but no amount of scrubbing had freed the sofa from the blood stains yet.
“My new Ability,” Mrs Eceer said.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“And?” Tanya prompted, grinning.
Mrs Eceer rolled her eyes, but her mouth twitched. “It lets me set traps.”
Tanya’s head whipped around. “Wow, that's actually really cool.”
“It called itself a Major Ability Crossroads. I tried to ask The System more about what being Major meant but all I could deduce was that it has a larger impact toward a so-called 'Subclass' at Level 10.”
“A subclass?” Tanya wondered aloud. She vaguely remembered them being mentioned as part of the Ink Affinity she had decided not to take at Level 2. “System, tell me everything you can about subclasses.”
Subclasses are given at Level 10 to Worthy. They allow for a choice of class direction, often including access to other adjacent classes.
“D’ya get that too?” Tanya asked Mrs Eceer. She nodded.
Another crash jolted the side of the shop. They needed to think of something.
“So how’d we do this?” Tanya wondered aloud.
“Don't look at me,” Mrs Eceer replied.
Tanya surveyed the store. The sofa was an obvious choice—it was massive. She’d picked it up from a charity shop’s car park, a polka-dot pink monstrosity they were about to toss. After reupholstering it with fabric and a nail gun, it turned out surprisingly comfy for a tenner. But after the snake, the blood, and the acidic ink, she doubted it would ever be clean again. It could make a decent barrier, but there'd be a lot of space above it.
The counter was another option, though when she tugged at it, it seemed fixed to the floor—not ideal. The tattooing chair, however, was still in good shape. If she could keep it, she would—it had a future beyond this mess.
That left the neon signs, some decorations, and a few small tables.
Are them neon signs poisonous?
She had no idea. If they were bad, then breaking them would probably harm her more than the monsters. She eyed up the metal shutter down in front of the windows. That would be perfect if it wasn't currently keeping them safe. She didn’t have anything to cut holes in it for battlements anyway and it would need welding to something to be solid enough. An old lock and key wouldn't cut it. Sighing, she turned back to the room.
There's the ol’ coffee table too, and the cupboard doors actually…
She opened the cupboard again, it was full of pretty normal stuff: a vacuum cleaner but no electricity, mop, brushes, and boxes of various gear. It would all be useful, but now for this. A floorboard creaked underfoot.
That’s when she realised she’d missed the most obvious resource she had at her disposal- floorboards.
Grabbing a toolbox from the corner of the cupboard, she laid the tools out across the table. She plucked a hammer out of the array to rip the creaky floorboard off the floor. It had been a while since she needed to do this. Last time was a DIY job upstairs to save on funds when she needed a pipe replaced. Her muscles had ached for days. She popped the nails off and then wedged the back of the hammer under the board and pushed with her whole body weight. The ease of the nails coming out should have been the first sign this was overkill, but she didn’t think about it.
She’d severely underestimated her Strength. The board flew a few inches in the air and then clattered to the ground. It was loud. She froze, staring at the window and the metal she could see behind it. Mrs Eceer froze too—crouched and staring at the door. Moments passed. The noise outside didn’t change. They sounded further away now, like they were checking other nearby buildings. Tanya hoped that her neighbours would be safe.
Ain’t much I could do to help them now if they aren't, is there?
She tried not to dwell on it. Mrs Eceer glared at her, seeming less concerned with the monsters coming for them now that time had passed and far more concerned with Tanya being clear that she shouldn’t make noise again. Tanya grinned, miming zipping up her lips and throwing away the key. Mrs Eceer rolled her eyes, turning back to the floor. It looked like measuring maybe, or planning something. Technically it could be the first steps of some sort of trap, but Tanya guessed that would be flashier than Mrs Eceer crawling around staring at the ground.
This time, Tanya kneeled down, holding one arm out ready to catch it and using the other to lift it off. She didn’t even need both arms. Mrs Eceer eyed her suspiciously until a few more had been pulled out soundlessly, then with a huff, she left Tanya to it.
A tingle spread down her arm, and Assistant crawled its way out, finger by finger.
“Hand!” Tanya half whispered, half exclaimed. She lined her own hand up with her arm, and Assistant crawled onto it, stretching and clicking its fingers.
Tanya lifted the hand closer to her face, checking it for injuries. She hadn’t looked at it properly back when she’d been in the fight and she wondered what she was looking for—was it more like a real hand injury or like one had been illustrated? She didn’t see anything either way. She placed it on her shoulder where it had climbed to before.
“You’re alright?” She asked. The hand hovered in the air and swayed for ‘kinda. ’ Tanya nodded. “I’m kinda alright too,” she said.
A shadow loomed over them both. Tanya looked up to see Mrs Eceer inching towards them, a large wrench over her shoulder, ready to strike.
“Don’t…move…” Mrs Eceer said, staring at the hand with malice. It took Tanya a moment to process what she’d said. She barely moved her lips, more bad ventriloquist than stage whisper.
Mrs Eceer adjusted her stance. Her feet were spread, and her knees were bent. She lifted the wrench over her head in both hands, wielding it like a weapon. Tanya staggered backwards.
“It’s mine, it's my tattoo!” Tanya shout-whispered, holding one hand up to shield it.
Mrs Eceer blinked slowly, arm still poised to strike.
“That… thing… is yours?” She asked, lowering the wrench but still holding it in case she needed to strike at a moment's notice.
“Yes, it's me tattoo design,” Tanya insisted.
Mrs Eceer was still staring at it. “I thought it was a new type of monster, a tarantula-themed one. She shivered from the top of her spine to the bottom.
Blimey, she’s scared of spiders.
The hand crawled from one of Tanya’s shoulders to the other, shaking its fist and pointing its finger at Mrs Eceer, who backed away.
Mrs Eceer sniffed. “I don’t like this,” she said to Tanya, shaking her finger too, “I don’t like this one bit.”
“Ya well enough to help?” Tanya asked the hand.
The hand stamped once.
“If you get nails, I’ll pull the boards, yeah?” Tanya asked.
It stamped once again.
“Great,” she said, smiling.
She didn’t expect to be so glad to see it again, it had been a pain in the ass to train but she trusted it a lot more than Mrs Eceer and it seemed happy to help for now.
The novelty of a walking hand still wasn’t lost on Tanya and she stared at it between leveraging floorboards. She could see where Mrs Eceer was coming from. I was a bit creepy, especially when it reached for things. Tanya wasn’t sure if all Tattoo Summons didn't have the bones of their real counterparts or if this hand was just very strange. It had the shock factor of someone double jointed-turned up to eleven. At one point, Tanya saw it bend all the way over from the middle to keep itself standing whilst stopping the balancing hammer falling on it, and Tanya stared down at her own hand for far too long, trying to overwrite the horrible image it had stuck in her head.
She began with the edges of the room, thinking that one around the whole edge of the room wouldn’t be a problem. Then she could take the ones to the far right away from the doors to keep a pathway straight through. She’d try to keep the centre under the chair if she could too, although she was starting to think there wouldn't be enough planks otherwise. They were lucky it wasn't suspended above a basement. The concrete was only a few inches down, so they could walk along the beams without worrying about falling; it would be tricky to run on, though. Some of them were more precarious than others, the snake venom having eaten away not only the board but the wood underneath.
Tanya questioned at one point, midway through the dozenth board, how long it had been. She glanced at the clock on impulse, staring at 3:15 with confusion until she realised it was mains-powered. Mrs Eceer had been doing her strange routine the entire time. She held up a finger to wait every time Tanya asked what she was doing, and Tanya couldn’t understand Mrs Eceers' mumbles. They were too quiet, so she’d given up. She suspected it would be big, whatever it was. Even when Mrs Eceer was sitting on the stool, she had a glint in her eye like she was concentrating hard.
Stood by a whole pile of boards and with a plan for how she could use them alongside the table and sofa, Tanya felt accomplished. She grabbed one of the pages from the tattoo file, it was one of Robert’s mood boards rather than her own design. In the corner was a close-up of brickwork with the battlements closer up—not that it would be the same copying it with boards rather than bricks, but having something to look at felt worth it.
“Should I start putting 'em up?” She whispered to Mrs Eceer. She wasn’t sure if whispering made much difference, but this close to the glass, it felt crazy not to.
“Hm,” Mrs Eceer replied. Her eyes flickered all over something invisible.
“Mrs Eceer?” Tanya tried again.
She glanced away a second later, looking at the stack and the glass. “That was quick.”
“It wasn’t,” Tanya said.
“Hm,” Mrs Eceer replied.
Cheers Tanya, really appreciate ya gettin’ all the materials ready, Tanya.
Tanya turned to the board and the little pile of nails she’d collected. The hand was still to-ing and fro-ing with more nails, moving the piles to one place. That’s when she realised the problem.
“Mrs Eceer,” Tanya said, more seriously this time.
“Hm?” Mrs Eceer replied again, eyes dancing as fast as before.
“No, I mean it,” Tanya said. She scraped her fingers through her hair.
Mrs Eceer looked up. “What is it?”
She held up the hammer in her hand. “As soon as we start hammerin’ this, they’ll come for us. One of us is going to need to be the distraction.”
Would you want a "how to say Mrs Eceer's name" in the chapter she's introduced in?
