by H. C. Mills
They all look at me in surprise. “Really?” Alec asks.
I nod. “I raised it myself. Twice. The bad news is, you train it by choosing to suffer when you don’t have to. The other bit of bad news, Alec,” I say, slowly walking over to him, “is that for the next few days while I’m recovering, I’m going to be your personal trainer. And ‘giving up,’ is not in my dictionary.”
Alec gulps, looking up at me like a mouse looks at a lion. Or maybe something sexier, like a lynx or something. I dunno.
“Say Nonya,” he starts timidly. “What is your Willpower, exactly?”
This time, I don’t bother suppressing the wicked smile I can feel creeping over my face. “It’s 14.”
“I... Hate... You!”
“Eighteen. That’s the spirit, Alec, just four more.”
Alec scoffs as he pulls himself up on the thin branch once more. We had to climb the tree a bit to find one safe to hang from. During the Twinstar’s active phase, it can get quite hot up here, but thankfully it’s night right now. At least we don’t have to worry about these branches breaking; this tree has a Toughness of 38. I bet you could run an Earth chainsaw ragged on its surface and hardly leave a scratch.
“Come on, you did twenty-one last time, and if you can do twenty-one, you can do twenty-two,” I encourage him.
“What’s... unfh... with that broken logic!”
He sounds quite pathetic, but I know better than to mistake his panting for a lack of breath. We tested this before, after all. Since there is no oxygen in this Realm, only Lavi, you can’t ‘run out of breath.’ His panting is probably half due to him not being able to breathe properly while working out, and half acting.
He pulls up two more times, arms trembling, but before he attempts the twenty-second, he drops down.
“I can’t do it, Emma,” he whines. “I think twenty-one pull-ups is just my physical limit. Besides, isn’t it enough? It’s way more than I’ve ever done before!”
Well duh. Gravity up this high in the tree is far lower than it was back on Earth, otherwise, I bet he couldn’t even do five. I know better than to start reasoning with him though.
I smirk at him. “You’re talking an awful lot for someone who was just pretending to be out of breath, Iron Boy. Also, you said the same thing about twenty pull-ups,” I remind him. “And nineteen, and eighteen, and seventeen. In three minutes you’re doing another set, and this time, you’re doing twenty-two, no buts.”
Groaning, he flops down on his back on the thick branch I’m sitting on and just lies there for a while.
I’m getting pretty exhausted too. He keeps trying to weasel his way out. If I hadn’t been here to keep him going, he would have already quit a hundred times. But as long as I hold him accountable, he actually does pretty well.
“How much longer are we doing this for, Emma?”
“What, is it becoming hard? That’s good. The harder it is, the better it’ll work. And we’re going to keep doing this until your Willpower hits 8. I don’t care if it takes another hour... or three.”
“What? But... what about dinner?!”
“Okay, time’s up. On your feet, cowboy. If you want to be done sooner, then why not go for twenty-three?”
Alec groans but gets up.
[My my. I may have been mistaken about you, Emma. Perhaps you are a sadist after all.]
“Yeah, well, I learned from the best, Suri,” I whisper back and start counting out loud with Alec’s pull-ups.
About twenty minutes later, Alec is doing his third attempt at a twenty-fourth pull-up. I can tell from his face that he’s about to give up again at the last moment, so I yell, “Just do it, Alec, come on! Stop quitting!”
Something flashes over his face, I’m not sure if it’s anger or determination, but it’s enough, for he pulls himself up once more with a mighty, pained groan. After his head pops up over the branch, however, his eyes widen in shock.
Then he drops down, and exclaims, “Emma, I did it!”
“That’s great! Show me.”
For the record, I don’t think he’s lying—because by now I can tell when he is—but just in case.
“Ehm, sure,” Alec replies with a slight frown. “Sarge, could you show Emma this window, please?”
As soon as he’s finished his request, a transparent window floating in front of Alec becomes visible to me. I walk a little closer and check it out.
“Well done, soldier,” I say, clapping Alec on the shoulder. “A very good start.”
I take a moment to savour Alec’s crestfallen expression at the word ‘start’ before I lead him back to the hut for dinner.
Damn. Maybe I really am a sadist.
CHAPTER 30
We need a montage
THE NEXT MORNING—well, after we all sleep—I have Alec do a variety of other physical exercises to make up for the singular program yesterday, in the hopes of raising his Strength.
After a long and harsh workout, spiced with a lot of complaining from Alec and various means of ‘encouragement’ from me, he exclaims in joy.
I make him show me the pop-up window to prove to me that he raised his Strength to 10, then take him back up the tree to his favourite branch. Despite the sweltering heat, I have him do pull-ups to his limit once again. I yell at him for almost the entire time, and to his surprise and my satisfaction, he gets up to twenty-seven.
I was thinking about the Third Law of Being, ‘All are quantified,’ as I lay in bed last night, and this is some pretty strong evidence for the hypothesis I came up with. The stats aren’t just milestones on a sliding scale, they’re quantified! When Alec’s Strength went from 9 to 10, there was an immediate increase in the force his muscles were able to supply.
Later that day, I have Dave confirm it as well after he raises his Strength from 10 to 11.
Then I have them arm-wrestle, and Dave wins. That wasn’t really an experiment, that was just for fun.
But still, the Laws of Being in this Realm really are crazy.
The next few days, we train.
First, I continue Alec’s Willpower conditioning by having him do the Toughness training Kaitlynn went through. As he trains, I practise my Meditation. Suri told me I need to learn how to selectively numb my senses, so I cycle through them and try to dim them one by one.
It’s difficult to progress, however, when you’re not really noticing any effect. Or worse, when you think you might feel something but worry that it could be your imagination.
Basically, I’m stumped. But then I have a thought.
I’d previously come to the conclusion that Meditation—as a ‘Lavi-based Skill’—must somehow rely on the manipulation of my Lavi Flows to function. This helped me gain level 2 of the Skill by focusing on imposing my will on my Lavi, but the truth is, I still don’t really understand how it works.
And so, hoping to learn more, I turn my gaze inward, just like I learned how to do while practising Boost Physical, and study the changes in the flows of Lavi in my body while I Meditate.
Well, this is certainly intriguing. It looks like Meditation slows down all of my Lavi flows. Is that how it decreases my resting Lavi consumption? It makes a kind of sense.
Now that the Lavi is moving slower, I can also study its behaviour more clearly. It’s not just a steady flow, there’s a kind of pulse travelling through it.
Wait a minute, is that my heartbeat?! Does that mean my heart is somehow directing the flow of Lavi, or does it just modulate it somehow? Actually, my heartbeat is slower too—is that how Meditation influences my Lavi, or is it more direct?
Damn, this is raising just as many questions as it answers. I’ll have to try and remember them for my next five minutes. Actually, we should probably discuss and plan our questions together, so we don’t get overlapping information.
But that’s still far in the future. Let’s see what I can figure out myself first.
I continue experimenting, willing the Lavi flowing to specific sensory organs to slow dow
n further. The effect isn’t immediate, but I do notice some differences. It’s hard to study while also attempting to maintain such fine control, however. I’m also not entirely sure that this is the best way to do it, and I’m wary of damaging parts of my body by depriving them of Lavi.
Ultimately, I’m forced to come to the conclusion that I really need a room with a Recovery Crystal to safely test this.
Another highlight is when I get to scare the shit out of Alec as he tries to sneak away to take a break while I’m in a trance. This inevitably leads to more whining, complaints, accusations of sadism, and declarations of hate. Despite all that, I get him to keep going, and eventually, he raises both his Toughness and Willpower from 8 to 9.
As for Kaitlynn, considering the bruised and battered state of her body following the Toughness training I made her go through, I instruct her to first attempt to learn Respiration.
After properly gaining that Skill, she throws herself into Strength training and ultimately raises the stat from 8 to 9. Exercise was never her thing, apparently, so she actually enjoys this even less than tumbling down the tree-trunk over and over, but it does lead to her raising her Willpower to 12.
This time I do have her take a break every so often to shoot minimally charged Astreum Blasts at an improvised target. It’s hard to get any real training in when you can only fire a couple of shots with a full Qi Pool which it takes an hour to fully recharge, but I figure that’s all the more reason to be diligent about it.
Meanwhile, Dave switches to training his Toughness. Partially because it’s convenient to be near me, for my treatment. The ten-minute breaks he takes to Purify me don’t seem to negatively affect his results, as he also manages to raise his Toughness to 9.
His Willpower doesn’t rise, however. I guess he doesn’t hate the exercises enough. That’s also fine—at least I don’t have to drag him through kicking and screaming like Alec.
As the Toxic Energy in my body drops down to near my Tolerance Limit, I finally get the okay from Kaitlynn to start training my Toughness. I’m still holding off on Strength building exercises until I can use Boost Physical to its fullest extent, so I throw myself into the Toughness training vigorously, continuing even while they recuperate, and work on Respiration and Meditation.
Soon, I get the notification I’m waiting for.
This much punishment obviously isn’t enough to raise my Willpower, but that’s fine. I shudder to imagine the kind of torture I’d need to push myself through to reach a Willpower of 15.
All in all, these are happy days. Torturous, but happy. I’m among friends and we’re surviving—no, living together. The food may be drab and unchanging, but we’re hanging in there and getting stronger.
Well, most of us. Alec is still having a hard time with the training.
“I’ve already raised my Willpower twice, Nonya! Isn’t that enough?” Alec whines on the third day after I tell him to get off his lazy butt for a ‘special’ Strength-training program.
“It’s still below average though, isn’t it?” I retort, standing over him expectantly.
“Well, yeah, but it’s much better than it was. Do I really need more?”
“Don’t your complaints prove that you do?” Kaitlynn teases from the other side of the hut, where she’s organising her collection of plants. She even found a Blue Angel the other day, but we’re saving it for when my Toxic Energy drops below my Tolerance Limit. After all, Purify only works on energies that surpass the Tolerance Limit, so it’ll stop working soon.
Alec’s jaw drops. “That’s... that’s not fair! If I say I want to do it you’ll tell me to go ahead, but if I say I don’t want to, you’ll tell me I need it!”
“Hmm yes, it’s a catch-22,” Dave says thoughtfully as he collects the leaves we used as breakfast dishes. “Guess you have no choice then, huh?”
I chuckle. “It’s for your own good, Alec.”
“What are you, my mom?” he grumbles, rolling his eyes. “No actually, my mom wouldn’t put me through this crap, she cares—”
“That’s enough,” I say, cutting him off. “You want to know why I’m harping on this so much?”
I crouch down next to him and wait for him to sullenly meet my gaze.
“When I recounted my experiences in the Trials,” I start in a soft voice, “I left some things out. I told you guys I stared death in the face several times, but I didn’t tell you about the worst time. The time I broke my shinbone.”
A hush falls over the hut.
“You see, I broke it at the rope swing. And it wasn’t a nice clean break, either—I had a jagged piece sticking out of my leg.”
Kaitlynn gasps, Dave sucks in a breath.
“At the rope swing?” Alec asks, confused. “But how did you get back to the—”
“I had to climb two walls, hopping from hold to hold with my one good leg.” I grit my teeth just thinking about it. “It was the most excruciating experience of my life up to that point, and it would still be, if not for what I needed to do afterwards. I had to push my bone back into my leg, barehanded, without any form of anaesthesia.”
Well, technically I eventually had Meditation level 2 to dim the pain, but he doesn’t need to know that.
Kaitlynn lifts a hand to her mouth with a shuddering breath and I spot a tear glistening in the corner of her eye.
My own breathing is also becoming a little ragged, which is a rare event since I gained Respiration.
“Right during the climbing of the first wall is where I raised my Willpower to 14. And that’s the only reason I pulled through, Alec—sheer Willpower. That’s why I’m doing this. That’s why I need you to go through with this. You may have had a relatively smooth ride so far, but anything can happen in these Trials, and I very much doubt anyone ever reaches the finish line with below-average Willpower.”
Alec gets up with red-rimmed eyes. “Frig. All right. Let’s get to it, then.”
Attaboy.
The time we go to bed ‘today’ coincides with the start of the Twinstar’s inactive phase, which is nice.
Despite this, I have trouble falling asleep, as I usually do. I stare up at the ceiling in the dark and listen to Dave snore on the other side of the hut.
Kaitlynn’s curled up close to me on her own pile of leaves. The leaves have a Toughness of 15, so even with our own increased Toughness, they barely feel softer than the floor. Still, at least we can shape them to our body a little and spread the load.
Normally she’s out like a light, but tonight Kaitlynn turns to me.
“Hey, Emma?” she whispers.
“Yeah?”
“I just... wanted to thank you.”
I turn to face her.
“What for?”
She reaches out and grabs hold of my hand to give it a squeeze. “Just for, you know, being here. For giving us direction. Hope.”
Well, shucks.
I smile in the dark. “I’m glad you’re here too. It’s good to be among friends.”
Kaitlynn nods. “I just fear we’re going to get separated again. After Trial Four. I somehow made it through the first three, but I really can’t do this alone.”
Though she doesn’t say it, I know her bigger fear. That some of us won’t make it.
“We have the Social System now,” I whisper back. “With any luck, it’ll allow us to stay in touch during the Trials. And I’m sure there’ll be another Hub for us to meet up again if we get separated. All of us.”
Kaitlynn nods silently, then tugs me into a hug. Her hair tickles my nose, but it smells nice.
I recognise the scent as that of the rudimentary shampoo Kaitlynn managed to make from her collection of plants. For some reason, it smells really good right now.
I guess she mixed up a new formula or something. I’ll have to ask her about it. Tomorrow.
We lay there for a bit, before separating.
It takes me a while to get to sleep.
If only these peaceful days could last forever.
CHAPTER 31
I’d catch a grenade (for ya)
THINGS HAVE BEEN going well. Really well, actually. Dave cleared the last of my excess Toxic Energy a few days ago, and I have fully thrown myself into training my Strength in an effort to catch up with the rest.
I’m almost annoyed when Kaitlynn asks me to take a break and go harvest jicca nuts with her.
Almost. I find myself hard-pressed to be annoyed at anything when it comes to Kaitlynn, which is a little odd, ’cause with most girls, I get along about as well as two cats in a bag.
It’s a nice change from the usual fake smiles and what I assume is petty jealousy.
Anyway, she drags me along since harvesting jicca nuts is a two-man job.
Or, well, two-woman job, in this case.
Soon, Kaitlynn and I are up in a jicca tree; she’s carrying a long stick, which she uses to knock the baby-head-sized cones off the thin side-branches above us, which I then catch in a canvas bag where they ‘go off.’
It’s this cool mechanism the tree has developed to distribute its nuts; when a cone is ripe enough, it loosens until it drops, and when it hits the ground it bursts open, blasting jicca nuts all over the place. There’s actually quite a bit of force behind it, but the nuts are rather soft, so a good bag—lined on the inside with scraps of bark—is able to contain it.
My bag’s actually getting pretty full. I toss out another emptied cone and casually snack on a jicca nut. They really are quite tasty, but man am I getting tired of them.
At least the training has been going well. We’ve all made some decent progress, though it soon became clear that with each stat up the next increase in the same stat becomes that much harder to obtain. That means our training is becoming less and less fruitful and at some point we’ll have to call it quits so we can focus our energies elsewhere. I feel we haven’t quite reached that point yet, however.
