The Tattoo Summoner [System Apocalypse]

Chapter 7: Levelled up and Left Behind


She stepped over the puddle as best she could to the kitchen, grabbing one of the cloths stacked near the wall. Her fingers tightened around it—she could feel the anticipation prickling in her chest.

Ability time.

She started with the simple ones, dismissing them as they came through.

• • •

Alert!

Through your efforts, you have increased the following Attributes:

Dexterity +2

Vitality +1

Will +2

• • •

She started with the Attributes. The strength ones weren't still here from cleaning, so she guessed these were from the Mini Boss.

They weren't as high as she expected. It must be getting harder now they were over 20 in some areas.

• • •

Level Up!

You have levelled up More than Meets the Eye to Level 4.

• • •

Level Up!

You have levelled up An Inkling of Control to Level 4

• • •

Level Up!

You have levelled up An Inkling of Control to Level 5

• • •

Level Up!

You have levelled up An Inkling of Control to Level 6

An Inkling of Control has received a Minor Ability Boon

An Inkling of Control

Level 6

Your magical connection allows you influence over your sentient Summons. You are now proficient in Commanding Summons. You may also barter with Summons. In special cases, your Summon will choose to follow your wishes without your influence.

• • •

Tanya stopped scrubbing and just stared.

Holy shit. Three level-ups in one action.

She kept reading and there it was.

• • •

Congratulations!

You have levelled an Ability thrice with one action.

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

• • •

This was an easy one: Inkling of Control. Reaching Level 6 of Tattoo Summoner was tempting—she'd get a Major Ability Crossroads after all. But anything was worth not having to feel the fear of using Phantom Brand again. That was the most hellish experience she'd ever been through, and with Adder's snake Summon and watching someone's arm get cut off—that was an achievement.

If she didn't focus on levelling it now, she'd need to avoid using Phantom Brand until she was confident in her level, and despite what it had put her through, she could already tell it was on a path to becoming a potent main weapon.

The System may be harsh sometimes, but it was fair in some ways. She knew that the hell she went through with Phantom Brand would be rewarded in both her development and Phantom Brand's, and getting an Inkling of Control to a high level would be really difficult on a weaker weapon that didn't push back.

Tanya focused on her choice and felt adrenaline coursing through her body. She looked down to see if something had changed, but it hadn't, physically at least.

• • •

Level Up!

You have leveled up An Inkling of Control to Level 7

• • •

Level Up!

You have leveled up An Inkling of Control to Level 8

• • •

Level Up!

You have leveled up An Inkling of Control to Level 9

An Inkling of Control has received a Minor Ability Boon

An Inkling of Control

Level 9

Your bond with your sentient Summons has grown. Most now obey without contest. Stronger commands may still require barter or an internal battle—but you often know what they'll ask before they do. Stronger bonds allow you to sense each other without words.

• • •

Tanya felt warmth flood her chest. She was grateful for the control with Phantom Brand. It would allow her to level it for a while before the power struggle began as viciously again. However, what really touched her about the Ability was the last line.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. There Assistant was. She couldn't see it, although with her imagination being so vivid she could definitely try and imagine. It was behind her, scrubbing the floor beside Fahad in the kitchen.

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Is it movin'?

Opening her eyes, Assistant was already there. It dropped the rag beside it and stopped there, facing Tanya. She looked back. It felt just like the last night. Neither of them needed to speak to know what the other was thinking.

I can feel you too.

They stayed there a moment, basking in the feeling. Then Assistant twitched a finger and Tanya smiled, and they turned back to their work.

Whenever Tanya branched her thinking backwards, Assistant was there, scrubbing the floor in the other room.

The puddle was disappearing slowly as the bucket of water beside her got darker and darker until it was nearly indistinguishable from the sludge on the floor itself.

Tanya carried it with the ease she used to have with a bag of milk, icecream and bread from the corner shop.

Ugh. Milk… Milkshakes…

She'd been obsessed with homemade milkshakes the weeks before the Apocalypse began, ever since she found a blender for five quid at a charity shop still in its original box. The box was pretty busted up, but it hadn't stopped her from taking it home with a huge grin and the first of many tubs of icecream from the corner shop.

Her stomach rumbled and she sighed.

She tipped the disgusting water into a flower bed of weeds. Enough leaves were floating around in the goop there already that she guessed this had become the designated spot. The other beds were pretty bare this time of year, but they did still have bulbs under the surface waiting to come up. This one was long dead tomato plants and every dandelion that could crush itself into the space.

With a new bucket of water and a stained but no longer sticky cloth, Tanya continued scrubbing and reading.

• • •

Level Up!

Phantom Brand is now Level 2

You have unlocked an Ability Crossroads.

Please select from the following two choices.

Synthetic Graft

Can create tolerances with non-organic materials to allow for Possessive Inscription

Haunted Edge The echoes stored within Tactile Memory can be "unleashed" in a burst — recreating a previous strike

• • •

That felt like an easy choice. Haunted Edge was a cool expansion, but right now what she was able to brand was trickier. She had no idea what "organic" really meant, but if her mum's habit of scrutinising every label growing up was anything to go by, almost nothing actually qualified. She selected it.

• • •

Achievement: Not Your Vessel

The magic rose, snarling and hungry. You clenched your jaw, dug in your heels, and held the line. You might not win next time, but today, it obeyed you.

Achievement Boon: Gain a passive +15% bonus to resisting effects from your own abilities, spells, or uncontrolled magical influences.

• • •

Huh, neat.

That would definitely come in handy.

How many new achievements have I got now?

The thought gave Tanya pause. She'd not considered that part of levelling yet. Of course, the sooner she got to Level 10 and got a subclass, the more of a lead she'd have on others as well as the monsters around her, but the more Achievements the more Major Ability Crossroad Options she was given.

She counted and sucked her teeth with a hiss.

Three.

But two of them were very recent. It wasn't too bad with the Miniboss Slayer and Not Your Vessel Achievements.

She hated the idea of having hit Level 6 without these extra ones. Otherwise she'd just have had Beyond the Brink giving her a default option. Probably one about tattooing under pressure. She didn't regret the level up at all, but was that what she wanted her build shoehorned into without other options? Absolutely not.

She needed to start thinking further ahead. She could only have three Subclass options at Level 10 based on these choices. So far, she had A Blink of An Eye. What sort of subclass would that create? Something more fighting-themed maybe. It depended on how far from Tattoo Summoner they took her. In theory, they could be anything from speeding her tattoos further to an entirely fighting based class that wasn't linked at all.

How long did she have to get options?

System, can I avoid using me Major Ability Crossroads to save more Achievement options?

For once, it wasn't an error response.

It pulled up the Progression Menu, scrolling to a section about Major Ability Crossroads.

…These Abilities are chosen based on new Achievements at the time of the Major Ability Crossroads unlock.

The next words appeared over the top, like an annotation.

No, these Achievements will not expand with the introduction of more Achievements before opening. Any Achievements unlocked after the unlock of the Major Ability Crossroads will be added to the next choice instead.

How close am I to Level 6 Tattoo Summoner?

That one was more of a 'no harm in trying' question. She was floored when instead of giving her the error message like she expected, it opened her Interface Reformating menu and she noticed a whole array of new options with a sparkling 'Phase 2' label beside it.

There were far more options than she could look through right now. Time was ticking before their scavenger mission and even though she was arms deep in monster guts, she could tell that all this time checking things in her interface definitely wasn't improving her cleaning pace.

She just chose the one it had highlighted for her—the completion bar.

It appeared in her Interface, underneath the Level in her initial Information.

• • •

Information

Name: Tanya Angelo

Number: 10056

Class: Tattoo Summoner

Level: 5

◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◻◻◻ 70%

• • •

"Woah," Tanya said aloud.

"Hm?" replied Mrs Eceer.

Tanya raised to stand slowly. "Have you guys seen this level completion bar thing?"

She was still staring at it, but behind the words she watched Mrs Eceer jump upright, tear off her disposable gloves, and stare into space. She had bent knees, like this was a real life treasure hunt rather than searching on a screen.

"Where?" Mrs Eceer demanded.

"It's on the Interface changey page. Says I got it for Phase 2."

"Oooh." Mrs Eceer replied. Her voice wavered from the noise with delight. "I'm 30% through Level 5," she added.

"I'm 70%," Tanya said. "Wait weren't you ahead of me before?"

Mrs Eceer scratched her chin. "You almost lost yourself to a Summon and used your new memory ability. I'm not sure if tattoo deals count, but committing to improving your shop may have affected it too."

"I suppose that makes sense," Tanya replied.

It was weird being higher level than Mrs Eceer for the first time since they'd met. She wasn't sure she deserved it really. It was more a series of events than led to it than her making some grand declaration of growth.

"What's going on?" Ishita asked. Tanya turned to face her and that's when she saw the facial expression wasn't just confused, she looked scared.

"You okay?" Tanya asked.

Mrs Eceer stopped her delve to check too.

"I thought it was just me," Fahad said. "It's like…" he blew a raspberry,

Ishita nodded, eyes wide. "Like some of your words are filtered out."

"What words?" Tanya asked.

"Yes, what did you hear?" Mrs Eceer added.

Tanya took off her gloves, casting them aside and perching on the stool beside the recliner. The others met in the middle too, with Mrs Eceer leaning against the top of the recliner and Fahad and Ishita sitting on the sofa.

"Tanya said something, then Mrs Eceer said where—" Ishita started.

Fahad giggled. "Then Mrs Eceer did this funny oooh noise."

Mrs Eceer sniffed, looking away.

Ishita gave Fahad a disapproving look. "Then more blanked out, then Tanya said it makes sense," Ishita finished.

"Can you hear it Assistant?" Tanya asked the hand as it spiralled up the recliner, appearing on the headrest.

One tap for yes.

"Huh, interestin'," Tanya said. "We were talking about our completion percentages for the new phase."

Ishita shook her head. "You've gone again."

Mrs Eceer began pacing. "How peculiar. What about its a post tutorial ability?"

Ishita shook her head. "Gone."

"New thing from after the tutorial?" Tanya offered.

She shook her head again.

"Something you don't have yet?" Mrs Eceer tried, agitation increasing in the tension on her face.

Ishita nodded. "Yes, I heard that."

A spark of inspiration hit Tanya and she opened Ishita's Interface.

She had access and the new options. Maybe she could see it.

System, I wanna add the completion bar to Ishita's Interface that I see.

Error: Capability not yet available on this Interface.

"I can't do it on Ishita's Interface yet either. Seems to be acting like there's some sort of extra download or somethin' that allows it. I dunno…" She clicked her fingers searching for the word. "Like a mod I guess, or an update."

Mrs Eceer turned to Ishita. "It's nothing to worry about. It gives you extra capabilities. All positive."

"It's nothing to worry about, then…" Ishita mirrored then drifted off.

Fahad blew another raspberry as if demonstrating.

Tanya remembered the conversation from before. "Wait but Fahad, it let us tell you about the Ability Merge at Level 5?"

Fahad blinked slowly. "Oh, I only heard level 5 but I'm used to not understanding the words you guys say." He flashed a big grin.

Well, that explains that then…

There was a knock on the door behind them. Tanya braced and watched the others do the same.

Fahad stood on tippy toes, already facing the right direction. "Olena's back!" he yelled, before the other's could get too braced for combat.

The door swung open, slamming against the wall, and Olena stood there, her arm still outstretched from opening it. "Oops. Am not knowing own strength. Will be repaired!"

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