by Chris Vines
After a minute passed, I started to get really uneasy. I kept searching, even using Aether to enhance my eyes, but I didn’t see any creatures. Wait, did that rock move? I stared at a boulder that had seemed to move a couple of feet diagonally towards me. Let’s not chance it, I thought, and blasted the boulder. A roar sounded out, and what looked like a giant, stone-covered, armadillo pounced towards me. I dodged off the rock I was standing on, and the creature dropped into a roll. It started rolling towards me like a granite covered Sonic the Hedgehog. I blasted it, which did very little.
“Need blunt trauma,” I whispered to myself, flipping my trisula to reverse grip to use Lightning Stabs. It picked up speed, and I slipped sideways past it, slamming the trisula into its side as it passed. Rock cracked and it sprawled out, trying to recover quickly. I flipped my weapons again and was on it before it could stand. A couple of stabs later, and this level was complete. I kneeled down, taking a rest. “Whew, that was intense.” Even with my stamina, narrowly dodging enemies got my heart pumping. Something, something, adrenaline. Now what is next, I thought, standing straight.
Howls announced a pair of Wind Wolves, again. Again! I sent a series of blasts into them, taking down one almost immediately. Blocking an air blade, I charged the second one and finished it off quickly. “Wind Wolves are all offense and dodging. My Aether Blasts were faster though. Having fought them before also helped.” I pondered, getting ready to fight people this time.
From behind a large rock in front of me, two men stepped out. They were wearing ragged clothes, but had functional weapons. The taller of the two held a longsword in both hands while the shorter had a short spear. “Surrender and we’ll make it quick,” shouted the shorter one. I answered him with an Aether Blast that knocked him sprawling.
“Same to you!” I shouted back, charging toward the standing enemy. I had pulled my Aether into a shield and started circulating both Dancing Northern Wind and Iron Bones, Granite Skin techniques. This saved my bacon. I was jolted forward by an arrow that shattered on my skin. I tried to turn the jolt into a roll, but ended up sprawling. The longsword opponent rushed at me, sword raised to chop. He received a blast to the face for his troubles, and I jumped to my feet. The spear opponent was coming, and there was at least one guy behind me.
I dropped to my knee and threw another blast at spearman while slicing at sword guy as he was standing. He cried out as I got his arm, sending him to the ground again. Spearman had dodged, and I was barely able to parry his thrust. I slid the spear down to the cross guard of my trisula and struck it with my other one, knocking it out of his hands. A quick step forward left the unarmed bandit on the ground, defeated.
A subconscious alert had me diving forward, dodging another arrow. This one was Aether powered, and it pierced into a rock ahead of me. Crap that would have hurt! I was starting to feel the burden of using so many techniques and blasts, my Aether pool drying. I sent one last blast at sword guy, and took him out of the battle. Afterwards, I dodged behind some rocks, trying to focus on gathering a bit to partially refill my tank.
I listened intently, trying to hear the approach of the archer, but couldn’t hear anything. It reduced my gathering speed, but safety was more important. Is he just waiting for me to leave the rock? Or is he moving around farther away to get a better vantage point. I stopped gathering once I had absorbed enough for a couple more blasts or a minute of Dancing Northern Wind. I had maybe two minutes total fighting ability left when using techniques. Good thing fights take less time than that. I knew I had to get out and close in to win this, but wasn’t sure how to do so.
I guess this is the time to try it, I thought as I started doing both the running technique and Dancing Northern Wind, at the same time. I had to coordinate the runes and timing to make sure they didn’t interfere, and I knew I couldn’t maintain the focus necessary for long. I sprinted out from behind the rock, moving faster than I ever had before. I saw the archer, a ragged woman holding a longbow, fire an arrow at me. I was moving so fas it missed. I closed quickly, my limbs blurring as I approached and used the Four Twin Lightning Stabs to batter her down. As soon as she collapsed, she disappeared.
I quickly gathered, very nearly out of Aether. Well, I definitely did better than last time. I’m not dying right now, so that’s a plus. Hopefully I’ll be able to take the next one, but I have no idea what it could be. I gathered slowly due to keeping an eye on my surrounding, as I was unable to focus enough on gathering to be efficient. Several minutes passed, and I still hadn’t seen anything. Does level five give you more time to recover? I wondered.
After five minutes, a form started moving towards me. Okay, level five gives a five minute break, ha. I jumped onto another rock, and saw what looked like a rolling blob of lime green jello slurping towards me. “Uh, what?” I said out loud, surprised by what I saw. The thing continued to get closer, and I noticed behind it all the plants had shriveled in its path. “Ok, don’t let it touch you.” I commented, then proceeded to blast away at it. The first blast seemed to make a crater, but the second one knocked jello back into the area the first one hit. Only a tiny amount actually fell off. It angered the jelly though, and it sped up.
“Target practice,” I said, and launched two bolts that hit the same spot, right in the center. The crater this time went half-way through it, and I saw a shimmering rock inside it. Is it slime? Do I need to break the core? Argh, it healed already, I thought, seeing the hole fill in quickly. I ran perpendicular to it for a bit, but it always turned to face me. It must be sensing me somehow. I knew that it would catch me if I kept running.
I started blasting at it, trying to get to the core, but I couldn’t shoot blasts fast enough. Finally, I had an idea. I started forming a blast, but didn’t release it, and instead formed the Four Twin Lightning Stabs. As I punched out at it, smaller Aether blasts came much quicker than I could normally fire. I punched as fast as I could with the technique, and managed to blast through the creature and take it down.
I cheered and then saw my hands. I had not done it properly, apparently, as all the skin on my hands was covered in blisters and open sores. “Ahhhh!” I screamed out, before trying to fix it with Aether. I didn’t have enough to even start making a dent, and when a Zarorzel appeared, I was so out of Aether I didn’t have the energy to even think of dodging the giant fireball that ended my second ranking challenge.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
I awoke from the trance with a start, and got up to free the slot for Ming. The class was almost done, just waiting on the last ten people to finish. I looked over at the score pillar, and saw my score was updated to 6, and Jamila, Brett, Lucas, and Bridget all made it to 5 too; out of another twenty people I didn’t know. I walked over to where Jamila, Brett, and Bridget were sitting with Jon and congratulated them.
After another ten minutes, everyone was done. The score pillar reformed itself, rearranging the names into ranking order. I moved from seven to five, which I felt was great. Xiao was seventh now, and Vaya had fallen to sixth, while Anberlin was fourth, Bet was third, Nicolai was second, and Ming was still first. I was shocked by Nicky’s fast growth since he had been sixth last time. Also, Ming made it to level ten, which was slightly frightening. At least he’s my friend, or at least trying to be, I thought.
10
Hill Lucas
Level 5
9
Hunter Brett
Level 5
8
Falconer Bridget
Level 5
7
Lo Xiao
Level 5
6
Volkov Vaya
Level 5
5
Kupiec Aiden
Level 6
4
Haodha Anberlin
Level 7
3
Volkov Bet
Level 7
2
Haodha Nicolai
Level 8
1
Lo Ming
Level 1
0
Crystals were handed out to everyone who passed level five. I got ten points for beating level five along with another gathering pill and a vial of healing powder. Essentially the same rewards as last week. Counselor Might then made an announcement, “Now that a sufficient number of students have reached level five, a new mode for the Training Pavilion is open to them. Once you have reached level five, you may partner with one to four others to form a group and take on a group challenge. I recommend you work with a number of different people and try out different teams. Learning to work with a number of different people will be extremely beneficial for your career and life. Good job today, there is now no one who failed to pass level one. As a reward, Physical Training class is cancelled today. Go have fun.” There was a cheer from most of the class at that.
“So, who wants to team up?” I said to the group. “There are five of us here, so we could have a go at it together the first time.”
“Sure,” Brett said, “I wonder when we are allowed to enter again.” We all shrugged, then I jogged over to Counselor Might.
“Sir, when can we enter the Pavilion as a group again?”
“If you have a team already, you could enter tomorrow evening. All the Counselors who tend the Pavilion will know that the first tiers are allowed group training now. Also, group training does not count as your individual entries per week, though you still have to wait a day if you die in the illusion.”
“Thanks sir.” I said and jogged back, reporting that we can go in as early as tomorrow night. “Is tomorrow good for everyone? I usually go in for additional training in the Pavilion on Wood, Ice, and Lightning evening as well, so adding in an Earth day should be doable.” Everyone else just looked at me, then Jon and Brett looked at each other and shook their heads. “What?” I asked.
“Of course you would be training in the Pavilion as often as you physically could. Yes, I’m willing to train tomorrow, but I do not really want to train every possible day. Not everyone has your single-minded drive to get better faster.” Jon admonished me, though I mostly focused on the fact that he said yes to tomorrow. Everyone else agreed to the training tomorrow. This should be fun.
As we left the Pavilion, we talked about what creatures we had fought and how everyone had done. When I said how I defeated the slime creature, everyone looked at me strangely again. “Yes?” I asked.
“You combined two techniques to create a stronger one, in the middle of a fight, while low on Aether? And then you did it again, with two different techniques, while running away from a creature who should have been so much stronger than you that you couldn’t hurt it?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess,” I said, getting embarrassed.
“You do know that we’re not supposed to be able to get past level five until we reach high Haze at least? Jumping that many levels is supposed to be almost impossible. You defeated a creature that was the equivalent to a low Smoke level Gatherer as a high Mist!” Bridget finished her rant. Jon and Brett had a bemused look on their face looking at Bridget.
“Too bad you still won’t be able to face me,” came a snide voice from behind us. Good ol’ Nicky, how I didn’t miss you. “You are falling even farther behind, and when I crush you in the tournament everyone will see how little your vaunted talent means. If you even make it there,” Nicky and his group saunter off as we stare at him bemused.
“Well, he’s got problems,” I laughed off his statement. Though his words did spur my competitive streak. I wanted to win the tournament, though I doubted I would. Hard to beat Ming. I really wanted to beat Nicolai into the dirt though. “Okay, so I’m headed to the Training Field. I want to see if I can replicate the two techniques I created today. You should look at mixing techniques too, see if you can make something neat.”
“Okay, but only for an hour. Then I want to go rest and gather in the Grotto,” Jamila said, pulling her spear out of its bag. Everyone else just shrugged and followed us to the PT field. Offense is better right now, let's figure out how to make this better. So I used the Four Twin Lightning Stabs to accelerate my arms and push Aether into the weapons, while I had an Aether Blast constructed at the tip. This caused the Aether pushed in to form a blast and be shot out, though with much less compression and finesse. So I need to control the Aether as it enters the weapon, to make it thinner and stronger. Also, let's not blow the skin off my hands this time. That hurt.
For the next hour, I would send a series of Aether Blasts out using the Twin Lightning Aether Blast technique as I called it. I would then evaluate how well the Blasts formed and flew. I still wasn’t happy by the time everyone else called it quits, but I decided to go gather with everyone anyway. Having more Aether and strengthening my meridians would be helpful too. Before we broke up, I shared an Enhanced Flower Gathering powder with all four of them. “Use this as thanks for joining me tomorrow. If you want, I’ll make you a dose for a merit point. No more than two a day though. I don’t have time to make more than that.”
“Trying to make a profit off your friends,” Jon teased.
“It’s half what you can buy it from the store for! Win-win,” I said back.
“Win-win” Jamila repeated “that’s a nice saying, and then Jamila and Bridget both said they wanted to buy two. Bridget handed me her crystal, and I pressed it to mine while sending in Aether. I got a little message on mine that asked how many points. I couldn’t see how to input two, and when I thought that a number 2 showed up and it asked for confirmation. “Uh, yes,” I said, and it buzzed a bit and my account went up by two to 38/82. I noticed that trading with my friends increased my current amount, but not my total amount. Hmm, I’ll still have to make some to sell to the store since that does increase my total points. Total points translates to standing in our class.
As I exchanged Jamila’s points for powders, Jon and Brett asked for some too. Jon asked if he could let Lucas and Louis know, and I said sure. “I’m mostly offering this to friends in the class who don’t have access to resources anyway. I’m pretty sure Ming and Bet both receive pills or resources to get them from their families, while we don’t. Or at least, I don’t. Now, let's grow stronger and show everyone how good we can be.” I said, bowing to everyone, and went to my pavilion.
To boost my gathering, I took the pill I just earned. I didn’t have any powders left since I had literally just sold my last ones to Brett. I guess I’ll just make a bunch more today, and only sell back a few. I made eight points for less than three points worth of ingredients. If I can keep that up, I’ll be able to afford to take pills more often. Wow, that sounds like I’m becoming a drug addict, I thought with a laugh. I was happy to help out my friends too, and hoped they’d grow stronger faster because of this. I focused on gathering, using the enormous boost that the pill gave to move towards the boundary of high Mist as fast as I could.
Dinner was energetic with half the class boasting about how much they improved. I received some congratulations as I sat down with Ming and Xiao. “You did well, especially for your level. How’d you make it past level five?” Ming asked. I told my story and Xiao stopped eating, staring at me. “That… is extraordinarily impressive.” Ming finally said after I finished, Xiao nodding at that. I blushed at the praise.
“What level are you at?” I asked suddenly, wondering at how he had made it to level ten.
“That would be telling. Though I will say that I am not yet ready to start Compressing my Aether, though I should reach that point before the month is up.”
“Uh, wow. I don’t think anyone will be able to stand up to you at the tournament then.”
“I won’t be participating, especially if I can enter the Compression stage. So you should have a shot at winning it, if you can beat Nicolai or Bet,” Ming told me, which slightly disappointed me. I wanted to face him. Though I would get beat down, I wanted to see what was possible for someone my age. Oh well, I thought, maybe I can challenge him in the Pavilion some time. I just want to see how cool his techniques are.
After dinner, I went to the Alchemy lab, purchased ten points worth of supplies, and started to make powders. I would ask Counselor Sila for a new recipe tomorrow, though I would keep making the powders for my friends. I made thirty powders in two hours, then went to the Pagoda to see my friends.
Lucas and Louis cornered me and asked for powders. Louis asked if he could do it on credit since he hadn’t reached level five yet and thus didn’t have any points. “Sure, no interest either. Use these to get strong enough to pass, and you can pay me back when you do.” I told him, handing over two powders. Keai saw me pass them both powders and ended up buying two too. I feel like a drug dealer. ‘Yes kids, come get your magic powder.’ Heh. After selling twenty eight powders to various people, I told the next person I was out, but they could buy two tomorrow first.
I didn’t know half the people who purchased the powders. Even though the class had significantly fewer than my class at the Air Force Academy, I think I’ve only spoken to twenty people total. I know maybe a quarter of the class’s names, but that’s it. Selling these worked out though. I just got twenty points and eight promised points. Hopefully by next week the promised points will become real points. Though I think I’ll need to start making more doses to sell. I need to get stronger just to need less sleep, so I have time to do everything!
