Plum Parrot
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AA 1.46 - Testing Zone
🕑 Added 2025-06-29 20:47:58 +0000 UTCEnjoy the chapter. Andy's been putting off a lot of settlement business, so, yeah, we're going through a few chapters with no real action. Hope it's still enjoyable :)
-Plum
46 – Testing Zone
Andy let Bella lead the way, though he had a good idea where they were headed. A few vacant trailer plots sat across the lane from where he’d placed the spring, and he was sure that was where she was taking him. As they walked, he looked around, noting that there were many more people outside than before the System came. Back then, folks stayed indoors, soaking up the AC and scrolling their screens. Now, kids played in the streets—how resilient were they?—and neighbors grilled over propane flames, sharing what they had.
“So, you had to kill some more people, I heard?” Bella said, but when Andy frowned, she hastily added, “I’m sorry about that. My mouth…”
Andy sighed, shrugging. “Yeah, well, there are a lot of creeps out there.”
“Don’t I know it.”
Andy smiled. “Anyway, at least the jerks collected all the food in that neighborhood for us.”
Bella nodded. “That haul you brought in was awesome.” They rounded a bend, and she pointed. “There’s Eduardo’s testing zone.”
Andy looked, and he saw the man in question sitting at a folding table and scribbling in a notebook. He’d set the table up on the cement pad, and behind it, he had a weight bench and some other fitness equipment laid out in sections delineated by chalk lines. Andy only looked at his setup for a minute, though, before his eyes drifted to the vacant plot next to it. Someone had built two shower stalls there, complete with colorful shower curtains and faucets connected to garden hoses.
He traced the hoses up the slope toward the spring where they were attached to a plywood box from which some PVC pipes fed into the spring. “How the hell are they pumping water into the showers? It’s not just gravity, is it?”
“No! That Tinker guy made the box, but there’s a Water Witch around here—that older lady… I think her name’s Bea. You haven’t met her?”
Andy groaned. Of course, he’d met Bea, but he had no idea she was a Water Witch! He said as much, then asked, “She just makes the water flow when someone wants a shower?”
Bella giggled, shaking her head. “She enchanted some stones. There’s one in each shower, and if you rub them, it draws the water toward them, and the easiest way for it is through the pipe. Don’t feel bad, Andy. I wouldn’t know this if I hadn’t been standing around when she tried it out this afternoon.”
“She enchanted stones? Damn.”
“Yeah, I know, right? She says she got the class because she was ‘doing her crafts.’ Anyway, she said it only works ’cause the spring is close by and she needs to refresh the enchantment frequently.”
Andy nodded, mentally trying to guesstimate how long it had been since he’d spoken to Lucy. Less than an hour, still, right? He gestured to Eduardo. “Gonna talk to him a bit.”
“That’s cool. I’ll catch up with you. Maybe we can spar?”
“For sure.” Andy nodded to her, then walked over the little berm to the vacant plot. When he was a few feet from Eduardo’s makeshift, outdoor desk, he said, “Hey, Ed. Sorry to interrupt you.”
“Andy!” He looked up from his notebook. “I’ve been wanting to speak to you. We’ve figured a lot of stuff out.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah.” As he turned to stand, Andy looked over the table he’d been sitting at and noticed all kinds of interesting little things—hourglass timers from board games, jump ropes, marbles, and dozens of other little things, from tools to toys. “Been getting a good idea about how much the System improves a person with each point in some of the attributes.
“That’s why I came here, man. I was about to put a point into speed, and I also figured something out about will.”
“Oh?” Eduardo hurriedly picked up one of his tiny plastic sand timers. “What did you figure out about will? I’ve been having a devil of a time trying to think of a test for that.”
“Well, I’m sure it has other effects, but one thing I learned is that it determines mana regeneration rate.”
“What?” Eduardo grabbed his curly black hair, picking up his notebook. “Oh, idiot! Why didn’t you think of that? Do you know how much?” At first, Andy thought he was calling him an idiot, but from Eduardo’s preoccupied focus on his notebook and the way he tugged his hair, it became clear that he was talking to himself.
“Well, I was counting with ‘one Mississippi,’ and so on, so it isn’t the most scientific. Anyway, with seven will, I regained 25 mana in 193 seconds, and with eight will, I did it in 119 seconds.”
Eduardo scribbled a little, nodding. “So roughly a 38 percent increase in regeneration speed!” He laughed. “That’s so great, and now that I know to test regeneration, I can run a bunch of tests to see if you were counting accurately. More than that, it will be a different amount for different ranks, and also, I’ve seen attribute effect differentiations based on classes, too. I’ll start on that tomorrow.”
“Cool.”
“So, let’s test your speed.”
Andy shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”
“We haven’t been able to find a universal value for this one. I’ve tried doing sprints, and you can see a marked improvement for the person as they rank up the skill, but it seems different for every person—no percentage has been the same, though they’ve been close. We also tried doing dexterity and reflex tests—you know, like catching a marble as someone drops it, or multiple ones. Again, you can see that people with higher speed values tend to perform better, but it’s hard to quantify. The best I’ve come up with is timing the 100-meter sprint.”
“Oh? How are you timing people?”
“These.” He pointed to his row of sand timers. “Can you believe we couldn’t find a single wind-up watch in the park. Every watch we found needed a battery. The problem with these things”—he held up one of the little sand timers—"is that they’re not accurate enough for people who have high speed stats.
“A sprint like that takes a college athlete around ten or eleven seconds. This one is measured out in seconds”—he pointed to tiny lines on the glass—"but we need fractions of seconds for fast people. Now, for a normal person? It could take fifteen to twenty seconds, so I can get a better idea if there’s an improvement. Brian went from seventeen to just under fifteen when he took his speed from five to six.”
Andy shook his head. “This will be a waste of time with me. My speed’s already eight.”
“Sheesh! Really? Well, what was it when this whole thing started?”
Andy shrugged. “Six.”
“So, could you run a 100-meter dash in around fifteen seconds before?”
Andy shook his head. “No idea. I haven’t run any track since high school, and I didn’t do sprints.”
“Humor me and do one sprint.” He pointed to the lane beside the plot. “I taped the start and finish.”
Andy sighed, leaning his spear against the table. “All right.”
He walked over to the tape and looked down the lane; his run would take him right back toward the central road where he’d run into Bella. “Start at the other end,” Eduardo said. “When you see me wave my arm, begin!”
“Right.” Andy jogged down the lane, mostly because he wanted to get it over with, but also because he wanted to loosen up a little. Kids watched him go, and when they saw him line up on the tape, they crowded close to the lane. Andy squatted down, bending his knees, and watched Eduardo. When the man lifted his arm and then dropped it, Andy ran. He didn’t need Eduardo to tell him he was faster than before the apocalypse had come to Earth—much faster.
It was exhilarating, the way the wind whistled past his ears and how the sides of the lane grew blurry as it tunneled. When he passed Eduardo, the man whooped, and Andy slowed down, his feet slapping the pavement as he fought the momentum. It felt like he’d hardly begun before it was over.
“Andy! You finished at the ten-second line!”
Andy jogged over to him. “Yeah? Is that fast?”
“That’s like Olympics-fast! Well, as fast as some college champions, at least.”
Andy smiled. “Cool. I’m faster with my hands and spear, too. I can tell you that, but I’m not sure how we could measure it. Anyway, I’m gonna put another point in.”
Eduardo scribbled in his notebook. “All right. We’ll test it again.”
Andy nodded absently as he opened his status sheet, focused on his improvement points, and applied one to his speed attribute. Unfortunately, the System had other ideas:
**You have reached the current natural limit of your Speed. Though your movements remain swift, your capacity for further mana-driven acceleration is restricted. To surpass this boundary, you must refine your agility and timing. Seek spiritual techniques, uncover natural treasures that awaken instinctive motion, or endure trials that test your rhythm, reflexes, and control over momentum.**
“Ah dammit.”
Eduardo looked up, eyebrows lowered. “What?”
“I hit my soft cap.”
“Soft cap?”
Andy walked over to get his spear. “Wait, you’ve been testing the people in the park, and no one’s hit a soft cap yet? What are the highest stats you’ve seen?”
“Several people have gotten an attribute to seven. Brian has eight in strength, but he’s the only one that I know of.”
Andy nodded. “He might be able to get it to nine, but I bet that’ll be his cap. The System won’t take you past a certain point. It tells you to do things like”—Andy read the message still in his vision—“‘seek spiritual techniques, uncover natural treasure that awaken instinctive motion, or endure trials that test your rhythm, reflexes, and control over momentum.’ I’ve gotten a similar message for all of my attributes now.”
Eduardo was hurriedly scribbling Andy’s words. When he finished, he looked up. “All of them?”
Andy nodded, sighing as he leaned on his spear. “Yep. Most of my stats are capped at eight, but strength and vitality are nine.”
“How many improvement points have you earned?” Eduardo flipped through his notebook. “Your attributes at the start…”
“I know, man. Yes, I’ve earned a lot. I get one for every Umbral Warden level and also for every Pyroglyph Invoker level. I’ve earned some for doing things, too—quests, special kills.”
“I received a class yesterday. Scholar. I’ve earned two improvement points.” He seemed upset, and Andy could understand why. He didn’t like rubbing the guy’s nose in his success.
He straightened up and walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Listen, I think we need to have a community meeting soon. I need to talk to everyone about what I’ve learned when it comes to how the System works and how to, I don’t know, make the most of it. I think intentionality is a big deal with the System.”
“Intentionality?”
Andy nodded. “Yeah. Like, take Lucy as an example. She got the Hunter class, but when we went out, we killed quite a few gigantic monsters. The System offered her a Monster Hunter class. For me? When I got my first class, it was dark, and I was trying to see better by improving my perception and stuff. I was thinking about clearing the monsters from the trailer park, and the System offered me Umbral Warden.”
Eduardo tapped his notebook. “But you just told me ‘Warden.’ Why?”
Andy frowned, folding his arms over his chest. “I don’t know, man. It was the first day; shit was crazy. I didn’t know what was going on. I felt…stupid saying I was an Umbral Warden. Take any of those excuses, and they might fit. I also know they aren’t enough. I should have told you everything.” He shrugged. “I’m trying to make up for it now.”
“Is there more?”
“Yeah, there’s more—just a few examples of how I got skills and stuff. I want to talk to everyone, though, okay? I promised Lucy I’d meet her for dinner, so, like, can we do this in the morning? I’ll do a… a seminar in the park or something.” He grinned.
“Sure, Andy. I’ll spread the word. I also want to test your strength.” Eduardo nodded to the weight bench. “I’ve been able to get pretty good data for average bench presses based on strength attribute values.”
“Alright. It’s a deal. I’ll come over here after I talk to everyone.” He walked over the gravel to the lane. “I’m starved, though, man. Haven’t eaten much all day, and it’s been a long one.”
“Go on, then. See you in the morning.”
Andy waved, and Eduardo returned the gesture. He seemed like he was trying to be upbeat, but Andy could tell he’d been bothered by his—what? Betrayal? Dishonesty? Lack of forthrightness? Andy sighed. He’d been doing his best…most of the time, but he had made a conscious decision not to come clean about his class title and also how many improvement points he’d gone through. It wasn’t because he was trying to be tricky or underhanded, though—he just felt guilty. He had so many more than other people!
“Not like I can give them away, though…” Sighing, he hurried to the park, intent on meeting Lucy. He’d try things out with her while they ate. He’d tell her about how he’d gotten so many improvement points, and he’d tell her about his weird-ass “notable distinctions.” First, he’d eat, though. He was really feeling the effects of his calorie deficit.
