“There’s gotta be another way,” Tanya said for the umpteenth time.

  “They could come in here any moment,” Mrs Eceer reasoned. “I don’t have anything that can block sound. Your generator for a tattoo to do it would make too much noise, and you won't sacrifice that…thing.” She pointed accusatory at the hand.

  The hand swore at Mrs Eceer.

  The first time, Mrs Eceer had been outraged at the rudeness of it, gasped and lectured both Tanya and the hand for far longer than was necessary. Tanya wasn’t convinced that Mrs Eceer believed she didn’t control the hand. This was the third time the hand had sworn at her now, and this time, it had shaken things up a bit by using the two-finger swear instead. Mrs Eceer simply scowled.

  Mrs Eceer gulped. “If I go first I can just use some barriers to keep them away and take Mr Useful over there to distract them until I run out of magic, then we swap.”

  Tanya had been horrified at the idea of throwing the body to them at first—it was the worst form of desecrating the dead—but after going round in circles, she’d decided she would rather it was him than them.

  Tanya thought the plan through again. It was some sort of complex trap barrier to repel them, but she didn’t quite get how it worked with Mrs Eceer's Vitality pool. It sounded far more intellectual than Tanya’s summoning. “You need the magic for your barrier thing too, right?” At first, Tanya assumed that it would be more like a video game, just bam, there's some magic and it works, but it sounded like there was quite a bit of maths involved. She was starting to think Mrs Eceer's barriers weren’t as easy as she made them look either.

  Mrs Eceer nodded thoughtfully, “I’ll go down to half, maybe a bit lower. Hopefully, that will be enough for this. The more I understand the technology, the less magic it'll need, and I think I understand it somewhat.”

  “An’ what if it goes wrong?” Tanya’s whispers were getting more frantic. Mrs Eceer held up a hand and pursed her lips to quieten her.

  Mrs Eceer shushing her was really starting to piss her off.

  “System, can I set up some sort of notification you give me when somethin’ specific happens?” Tanya whispered.

  No, that request breaks rule 34.67

  Rule 34.67: No Worthy may explicitly request information that would require a spell like clairvoyance. The System may not give access to any Abilities of this kind until due cause is earned—

  “That’s enough,” she interjected.

  She should look into the rulings more later—it may be a way of deducing information, but now’s not the time.

  The hand poked Tanya’s foot. Mrs Eceer shuffled away from it. They’d had an unspoken agreement until now, where Mrs Eceer didn’t hold anything threateningly if the hand stayed a few feet away.

  “Hand,” Tanya started, her mind whirring with ideas, “D’ya reckon you could signal to me telepathically or somethin'?”

  The hand stamped once, far too quick for it not to already have it in mind.

  Tanya’s smile grew.

  “What ya got?”

  Her system appeared before her eyes. She hadn’t summoned it.

  “Somethin’ ‘bout my Interface?” She asked.

  The hand stamped twice.

  The Interface disappeared, then reappeared a few times, like a kid spamming escape.

  “Okay, now that's genius.”

  The hand bowed.

  Mrs Eceer was looking between them like they were both insane.

  Tanya turned to her. “The hand can access my interface, meaning that it can communicate with me like when I gotta leg it. Might be a distance max, but we’d need to test that out.”

  Mrs Eceer looked down at the hand, then back at Tanya, then down at the hand, then back at Tanya.

  “No. No,no, no—that thing is not coming with me.”

  Tanya shrugged. “I can’t think of any other way around it. Going out there with no way to signal when we are swapping is suicide.”

  “We could make a noise,” Mrs Eceer said, defensively.

  “That I can definitely hear over hammerin’?” Tanya rebutted.

  The hand was rocking backwards and forwards on its fingers, clearly enjoying this. Tanya bonked it with her shoe and raised an eyebrow at it. Deep down some part of Tanya was revelling in this too, even though it was small. This Mrs Eceer wasn’t the same lady that had yelled at her out of the window for weeks about bins being exactly on the curb, but it also kind of was.

  Tanya picked up the hand and plonked it on Mrs Eceer's hand. She’d held her hand out to take it after seeing that otherwise, Tanya was lined up to place it on her shoulder. She looked down at the hand with so much disgust that her face was half prune.

  She held her hand out at full extension and winced every time the hand moved.

  “Play nice,” Tanya quipped, winking at Mrs Eceer.

  Tanya wasn’t sure if the soul-crushing glare Mrs Eceer bestowed upon her was a hex or a death threat.

  She can be as angry as she wants, as long as she's alive to hate me.

  “Let's try out this new synergy bonus, hm?” Tanya said, her voice wavering slightly. This was getting more real by the second.

  “Hm,” Mrs Eceer replied, still staring at the hand.

  They shared one last look before Mrs Eceer opened the front door. She was still holding the hand out to one side, but it wasn’t as disgusted as before. The body banged behind her on the doorframe. Mrs Eceer dragged him by one sleeve with the ease of a weightlifter. The faraway howling became a cacophony until she forced the door back shut again. Tanya stood there ready, holding the large wrench and praying nothing would come through.

  Mrs Eceer’s right, they didn’t.

  If they were stupid enough to only focus on what was under their nose, then this hairbrained plan had non-zero odds of working. She shoved the wrench under the door, slicing the wood with its sharp edge. It would slow the monsters down if they tried to break in, but she didn’t know how much.

  Tanya lined up her first nail, pressed it into the wood to one side of the door, and swung. The hammer struck true with a dull, final-sounding thunk. She shifted her grip, pulled another nail from her lips, and did it again. It had taken a while to plan how to overlay them so they were all on a steady enough wall. Each one would be off at an angle so that, overlaid, the thickest points would be around the gap for attacking them through.

  She pulled up her interface at the same time. Neither of them had any clue how long Mrs Eceer would last out there but if she had time to level up something big, maybe by some crazed luck, it would help.

  The notifications scrolled past her vision, a strange alternative to the phone she no longer got notifications from.

  There were all of the level ups from earlier, Attribute increases—

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Aha!

  * * *

  Level Up!

  Assistant is now Level 2

  You have unlocked an Ability Crossroads. As this is a Sentient Summon, the choice will be decided between you and the Summon.

  * * *

  She tried to open it the way she had for her own. Two circles appeared in her vision. Staring at it, she watched the left one fill for a couple of swings of her hammer. A loud bzzzzzt filled her head.

  Error: Both parties required.

  It was worth a try. She kept looking.

  * * *

  Congratulations!

  You have leveled an Ability twice with one action.

  You may choose to give this extra experience to your Tattoo Summoner Level, An Inkling of Control Level or Assistant Level.

  * * *

  Can you tell me which of those are closest to a level-up?

  Insufficient Ability to perform analysis.

  The idea that someone could have an Ability for that was fascinating, but she’d leave that for later.

  She exhaled, held the nail in place, and swung again.

  She’d have to figure out which was her best bet, and fast. Assistant level was the least likely. She knew that the hand had increased levelling from its original boon, but unless this was a huge reward, it wouldn’t be enough to get the hand to level 3 all the way from level 2. She bet An Inkling of Control needed the least experience to level up. Did she have any proof as to why she felt that way? Not at all, but Abilities in games always had higher levels than the overall level, unless they made up the overall level through addition, which Tanya knew wasn’t happening here.

  Although…

  She reasoned that it could technically be some weird mathematical formula adding them up and dividing them somehow. At least she knew Abilities could level higher than her Class level, An Inkling of Control proved that when it leveled to 3.

  Tanya bit her lip, tasting the coppery blood in her mouth. Her mum would have swatted her if she was there, but she wasn’t. Tanya pushed the thought from her mind. She adjusted the next board, lining it up over a jagged gap.

  Am I really gonna pick this on a whim?

  The clunking of the wood ended as she held it in place, the hammer hovering over the nail. It was quiet enough through the glass that if she moved things around inside, she couldn’t hear. Now, all she could hear was her breathing and the rumble of Mrs Eceer’s voice outside. She didn’t know what she was saying—either a prayer or a spell, probably. A pause. A wet, unnatural shriek. Then, more footsteps.

  Fuck it.

  Tanya picked Tattoo Summoner Level and a strange sensation rushed through her body like a cool hit of energy drink.

  * * *

  Level Up!

  You have leveled Tattoo Summoner to Level 3

  Congratulations!

  You have unlocked a Major Ability Crossroads. These are Abilities you choose rather than just unlock. This may impact future choices you are given.

  Would you like to see your choices?

  * * *

  Relief washed over her. She’d picked right, but was there even time?

  She stumbled sideways, tripping over her pile of boards to peer out of the window. Her heart was in her throat, trying to force its way out of her stomach. Beads of sweat stayed on the window as she padded her palms across it to lean over the rubble. Mrs Eceer danced in and out of her vision. One arm was clutched to her chest, floating in an imaginary sling; the other was held in front of her, hands splayed. With each pulse of blue light, white spots filled Tanya’s vision. The hand was nowhere in sight. She’d have no way of knowing that she was needed until the hand messed with her interface.

  I can go and not lose my choices like last time, right?

  Yes.

  She grabbed another plank and shoved it across the gap, pulling up the options at the same time as the first nail slammed in.

  * * *

  Options Generating…

  Please select from the following four choices.

  The Blink of an Eye

  Level 1

  Unlocked from Achievement: Unique Circumstances

  While performing a tattoo under stress, time slows down. You are capable of completing tattoos at a faster speed. The more lethal the situation, the stronger the boon that tattoo will receive.

  Boons granted by The Blink of an Eye depend on the environment’s stimulus as well as the Ability’s level. Boons will be revealed as their causes are utilised.

  Adaptive Ink

  Level 1

  Unlocked from Achievement: Bite of the Street

  Your tattoos are no longer limited to traditional inks—they can be forged from any material you have access to, allowing you to create Tattoo Summons with unique properties and without scarcity.

  Warning: Nontraditional inks can cause a range of side effects, including death, to those with low enough Vitality.

  The Last Word

  Level 1

  Unlocked from Achievement: Holler at the Gods

  When you are unconscious, restrained, or otherwise unable to fight this engraving will trigger its effect - giving one of your Summons a Temporary Boon of The System’s choice. This effect can be used a maximum of once per day.

  Pactbrand

  Level 1

  Unlocked from Achievement: The Enemy of my Enemy

  You may form pacts that bind non-Tattoo Summoners' control of your magic. While active, any Summon you create instinctively reacts to their actions, regardless of distance. Only one individual can be pacted in this way at a time.

  * * *

  Tanya read through them, dismissing the interface after each Ability to peer through the murky window to outside. At some point between The Blink of an Eye and Adaptive Ink, something died against the window next to her. The vibrations of its body hitting the glass jolted through the plank in her hand, and after that, she was squinting through splatters of black. Waves of relief washed through her every time she saw Mrs Eceer or one of her shields.

  Four options?

  She assumed she’d miscounted. Last time, there’d only been three options. That’s when she noticed the achievement lines under each.

  My achievements decide me Major Ability Crossroads, which then decide my subclass options.

  That changed how she viewed achievements entirely—but there wasn’t any time to think that through now.

  She glanced through them again, eyes never settling on one for too long. If she wanted to level up before she got out there, she needed to do it now, but if this would determine options for her Subclass, she couldn’t pick randomly. The words swam before her eyes. The more she questioned each choice, the less the words made sense.

  The first one was powerful but hellish. Knowing that near-death experiences helped her tattoos would pull her towards combat. The more she did that, the more likely she’d get an achievement. Even if she didn’t get any achievements from doing tattoos mid-fighting, this would determine her subclass somehow. Tanya never wanted to see another monster again.

  Adaptive ink would help her a lot when she ran out of supplies. She eyed the cupboard, boxes stacked from floor to ceiling. The cupboard door was being hammered in her hands, being co-opted into the defence effort. There was a lot of ink in there from the recent shipment, but if she ran out, she’d lose access to her entire skill set. Her poison Achievement Boon from Bite of the Streets would help her body deal with strange ink alternatives, but with the tattoos unable to be destroyed, she’d be stuck with any mistakes forever. Her shoe skidded along the planks below her, and she looked down. They were still coated in the monster’s blood.

  Well, that’s one option for Adaptive Ink...

  A shiver wracked her body from neck to tailbone. She had no idea what injecting monster blood into her skin would do, but she bet it would be powerful.

  She peered through the window again, shifting this way and that for any view of Mrs Eceer. The fighting had moved further down the street. All Tanya could do was wait.

  The Last Word made Tanya feel sick, but she couldn’t deny its use in a situation like this. She didn’t plan on going down, but if she had to, this would give her some chance of survival—if The System decided it wanted to help. She reread the wording: “Systems Choosing.” It had seemed generous so far, but it also arrived as the world ended—from the world that was invading—so it wasn’t like she could trust it. Boon’s could be anything. She knew from the news and Maria that not all Classes had been good for people.

  But even then…

  The System had given her the perfect skillset, if she was in trouble, maybe it would give her the perfect way out.

  The barricade was coming together. Not well, not cleanly, but it didn’t need to be either of those things. It just needed to last. She kept swinging, one nail at a time. The hammer felt heavier with each swing, the wooden grip damp in her palm. Sometimes her heart would skip a beat and she was certain that her Interface was about to flicker, that she’d be sent out there.

  Pactbrand could be very powerful. Would it trigger The Enemy of my Enemy achievement? Or even add something to it? If she gave Mrs Eceer access to her Assistant, then they could fight far more efficiently, and with another tattoo, it would get stronger and stronger. Did she want to give Mrs Eceer that much power over her Abilities? She could word the pact very carefully, but only if she had the time. Her eyes locked again on the slither of window. She still couldn’t see her. She braced once again for the Hand to call her in and it didn’t come.

  She decided on Pactbrand, then changed to Adaptive Ink, rotating round and round until they blurred together and she couldn’t remember where one ended and the other began.

  Her flurry of thoughts was interrupted by the clicking of her Interface turning on and off. For a moment she thought she imagined it. It came again. It was real. She dropped the hammer and strode to the door, eyes locking on one flickering Ability and confirming. Time would tell if it was the right decision.

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