บท 39: New Perks!
Dave breezed through his first few weeks back at work and relished shooting the shit with Pete between patients. He found it strange that he had desired a world of adventure so badly when his original world, at least in his small circle of friends, was so full of warmth. He knew himself well enough to know that this happy feeling of homecoming wasn't going to last forever. Maybe the greatest gift available was to see one's world with fresh eyes every day?? Dave had developed a deep appreciation for his friends who had been with him even when he was under the thrall of the silent pilot. As he looked back, even he didn't like who he was at that time. The burden of being out of his own control had worn down even his public persona. It was one thing to be miserable in private but another to let it intrude on his public life. Luckily, the most impact it had had in the eyes of others was a progressive darkening of his humor.
Although he hadn't slacked off in his cultivation and had gotten quite a few compliments on his body transformation, Dave's largest gains were in his newly discovered Soulcraft proficiency. He had been missing the presence of MS 1.1 and the rest of his sub-personalities. He had had to start from scratch again but progress was much smoother this time as he had walked the path before. This time he decided that his naming scheme was a little off in the other world so he decided to correct it. After some diligent practice of the Split Soul Immortal Manipulation Art, Dave's soul successfully birthed DM 1.0 who was followed relatively closely by his 'siblings' DM 1.2 - 1.9. He now had one more sub-personality than he had as Ma Sa on the Qian Continent which delighted him greatly.
The Soulcraft tree was also way too juicy to pass up. He had pondered deeply for a while when he had first got the notification from it. How come he didn't have this tree as Ma Sa? He was following the same cultivation art after all?? The only explanation that seemed to make sense to him was that his soul was from this Earth and therefore it was at home here. Since he could CoC to other planes, places, and even fictional realms it was possible, or even likely, that when he went somewhere other than Earth, his soul made a copy of itself and projected his consciousness into it while the original remained anchored in his homeworld. If his educated guess was correct then his death in another world wouldn't be his end since his consciousness would just snap back to its root here. He still had no desire to actually test his theory though. Also, death on his homeworld was an unknown. If his true soul was extinguished here then he was unlikely to be able to simply continue from his last save...
One of the perks on the Soulcraft tree was one that Dave decided he simply had to have. It was far to the top of the tree and way beyond the means of his current perk points for now. --Soul Seed-- would allow Dave to bind his soul to a beacon. If his soul were to dissipate, in the event of his death, his soul would recondense at the beacon. This was the advanced stage of the Split Soul Immortal Manipulation art that had reminded him of the Horcruxes in Harry Potter but without the need to murder innocents. If he was left to practice in the console space he would eventually reach it with his own effort but right now Dave had the console. It was one thing for him to avoid cheating in other areas but as far as he could tell, his true soul was the foundation for all the gifts the console would give him across all of the worlds he would visit. He would be a fool not to use its capabilities to max out his true soul while he had the opportunity.
*~* [player.AdvSkill Soulcraft 100000000] *return* ~
Dave was assaulted by level up notifications. This could all have been avoided if he just knew the PerkID of --Soul Seed--... Dave's level had skyrocketed and he now had more than enough points to reach --Soul Seed-- as well as fill out a chunk of the rest too. Thinking that he might as well completely max the Soulcraft tree, he set his proficiency and level back to 1 and repeated the process. Since there wasn't any downside to being level 1 after he was finished he reset his level again. There was no temptation to reset his tree and go Legendary as he already had it maxed out.
*~* [save "5152019"] *return* *~*
It was time to write out another notebook to remind him what this save was - "Base Earth Save + Complete Soulcraft (5152019)". Dave realized that he really had been too hasty running off to other worlds like that. Now he had managed to somewhat remedy his mistakes. One of the many good things about the console space was that it gave him infinite time to think and reflect. This trip back home, whilst certainly not rationally planned out, had given him the much-needed break to lay a proper foundation for his adventures. If Dave's conjecture is correct, his Soulcraft proficiency should follow him regardless of where, or when, he goes. In fact, even if he went back to his base save now, he should still have a maxed out Soulcraft tree due to the magic of the console. Unfortunately, this would only be the case with Soulcraft. No getting OP and traveling back in time with powers intact for him... Not through the console's save/load function anyway...
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"Hey man! I've been invited out to play a round of golf by one of my clients and I don't want to suck! Want to come to the driving range with me after work? I'll buy you beer!"
Pete had found Dave towards the end of their lunch break. It had been two days since Dave had maxed out his Soulcraft tree and he was still trying to get to grips with just how insanely overpowered it was. DM 1.0 - 1.9 had further subdivided into DM 1.0.0.0 - 1.9.9.9. His sub-personalities worked tirelessly to tackle different tasks in parallel. Whenever some of them disappeared from his perception from time to time, Dave knew that they were doing something in the console space. He was on the verge of declining Pete's invitation as he felt driven to cultivate but then DM 1.0, now his faithful personal assistant, suggested that it might be beneficial for him to take a break. Dave had never even held a golf club before but his sub-personalities were already busying themselves looking up swing mechanics and rehearsing optimal muscle activation sequences to create ideal launch conditions. Thankfully all this was happening 'under the hood' so Dave wasn't distracted. He decided to accept Pete's offer. Even if he sucked at golf at least he'd get free beer!
"Umm, sure. Okay, yeah I can do that. But... I don't have golf clubs or anything. Can I even do it in these shoes? I thought they had special spikes or something?"
"Yeah man, no worries! You only need golf shoes on the actual course and I just bought some clubs the other day after I was asked out. I have them in the car so we can go straight after you finish this afternoon. Valerie said your last one was at 4pm?"
"Yeah, last one is 4pm so I should be done by 5 at the latest. What time does the range close?"
"Man, don't worry! The range is open until midnight so we got plenty of time. Golf and Beer buddy! Find me at reception when you finish your last patient."
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Dave hurriedly completed his notes at the end of his workday before making his way out to meet Pete. He wasn't sure what to expect with golf. If it was just a case of swinging the club fast then he could do that with absolute confidence. In fact, he'd have to hold back his strength a lot to avoid exploding golf balls with his current cultivation. He could imbue the club with his Qi to prevent it from snapping at high speeds but the golf balls wouldn't be so lucky. Also, it would hardly be low-profile for a beginner to start smashing golf balls through the boundary fence. His sub-personalities had fed him a distillation of their accumulated golf studies and he now had a very clear understanding of the mechanics of golf. Hell, they even filled him in on the physics of golf ball flight. However, it was one thing to know the theory and another to put it into practice. He would have to make sure not to appear to pick it up too quickly in case Pete mistook him for a golf genius.
The drive across town to the docks was slow as it was rush-hour so Dave and Pete passed the time in the car with some carpool karaoke.
""IN WAVES!""
""EIGHT WIVES!""
""IN WAVES!""
Today's hit song for the ride was 'In Waves' by Trivium...
When they finally arrived at the range Dave offered to carry Pete's 'sticks' to the bays while Pete sorted out balls and beer. He picked out a couple of bays and grabbed Pete's 7 iron. He pulled up a video on his phone of Tiger Woods circa 2001 and carefully studied his speed and positions. He took a few slow-motion swings and tried his best to match it with what he saw on the screen. This way he'd have an excuse of just being good at copying in the event that he hit the ball too well. He made sure to keep the video up until Pete returned with the balls and a pitcher of cold Mill Street Organic.
"Oh? Looking good man! What's that you're watching?"
Dave still had a couple of perk points leftover from maxing his Soulcraft so he decided that they would be usefully employed in the Acting tree.
"I wanted to see how the pros do it so I YouTubed up Tiger Woods. I heard he's like a modern great of the game or something. His swing is like super flexible and it's really hard to copy. I think I got it for the most part though... What do you think?"
Dave proceeded to swing the club in a similar way to Tiger although slower and with an early hip extension to mess it up. He didn't want to be too good too fast!
"Wow! You're really good at shit like this... That's really pretty close! This is gonna be like snooker all over again isn't it?"
While Dave loathed the time he spent as a prisoner in his own skin, he had to admit that the silent pilot truly was pretty gifted when it came to picking up skills. Pete knew he was good at pool, snooker, table tennis, ten-pin bowling, ice skating, axe throwing, archery, and tennis. The freakish aptitude to golf didn't alarm him too much anymore. The stuffy feeling of envy he had was quickly washed away with a heavy sigh.
Dave noticed his friend's fluctuation between happiness for his success and envy and it further cemented his image of Pete in his mind as being one of the best friends a guy could ever ask for. It was a blessing to have a buddy who would accept you for the freak you are. A thought passed through his mind that it might be nice to find a way to bring Pete with him to other worlds. He dismissed it for the moment as he would have plenty of time in the future to work out the viability of his plan. Besides, Pete might not even want to go...
"Haha man it might look good but I don't even know if I can make contact with a ball yet! First things first though... Let's get that beer poured!"
After fifty balls Dave still hadn't found the middle of the clubface. He had outright missed the ball completely for a couple of swings, hit shanks straight right, and crazy hooks straight left. He'd topped it, bladed it, chunked it and done pretty much every bad shot he could think of. Pete wasn't doing much better than him. The thing was, Dave was doing it on purpose. He had been amazed at just how much control he had over the club from the very beginning. A control that had only grown stronger as his Two-Handed proficiency leveled up. A golf club was hardly a weapon but his system could barely be said to follow normal logic anyhow. He wondered if he would generate an actual golf proficiency and perk tree if he kept playing...
When he was down to his last handful of balls, Dave decided to actually try hitting it out of the middle of the clubface for a change. The sound of the first strike made Pete look over. The ball was already away so he couldn't find it in the air but it sounded so good that he couldn't help but look for it. It was immensely satisfying for Dave even though he had an idea of what to expect. It was just like he had imagined it... A little 5 yard draw carrying about 185 yards. Beautiful! With two balls left he hit a baby fade up the middle and a low straight ball flight. Dave might have just fallen in love with golf...
Pete had watched the last two shots and was amazed. He congratulated and encouraged his buddy. He also wished he could hit it like that!
"I'm done, man. My hands are sore so I don't want to hit anymore right now. You continue on and I'll just chill and enjoy the booze!"
Dave actually wanted to hit more but he'd have to do that some other time, alone. In the meantime, he could offer Pete a couple of pointers and hints at how to hit it better.
The evening of golf had turned out to be a lot of fun and Pete started hitting it pretty consistently under Dave's coaching. He had to work hard to suspend his disbelief that Dave was a beginner. He'd gotten worse lessons from pros in the past! Dave had had another pitcher on top of the first one so he was pretty tipsy by the end. Pete only drank one glass since he had to drive them. Dave wasn't complaining though...
**************************
After getting dropped off at his house and saying goodbye to Pete, Dave rotated his cultivation base to purge the alcohol from his system. He had a lot of fun and accomplished a lot on his break back to Earth but now he once again felt the impulse to leave. It would be too easy to get caught up in socializing and golf if he were to stay here. Besides, when he returns here it will be to his base cultivation save point. He could re-live all of this again if he so wished. No, it was time for him to return to being Ma Sa. He and his little fox had a Beastwave to train in and a grand goal to reach the apex of strength!
*~*
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