On the day that we were all supposed to be finished with our ideas for our Wits, Professor Pure took each of us out one by one and talked us through our ideas.

Elina had told me her idea, which wasn’t what I had been expecting.

“I want to punch someone and fireworks to go off.”

“… Why?”

“Because that’s better than just hitting them really hard,” she said as if it was obvious.

“… How?”

“Because it’s cooler that way.”

“But the point of a punch is to inflict damage upon your opponent. If you divulge some of that power into making fireworks would it not cause less damage to your opponent?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it and scrunched her face up as she thought.

Currently Brax and the professor were out speaking. My impression of the bully was that he would go for something simple and physical, however Elina’s story on how he interacted with his posse made me think that he could be quite cunning.

“Ah,” Elina exclaimed. “Okay I got it. Think of it like a watch. Some watches have very incatrite designs and functions in comparison to a typical mechanical watch right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, those more incatricte functions require more incatrite parts in order to get their desired result right?”

“Yes.”

“While those parts are more complex and probably more prone to malfunction they are still a key piece in the overall desire of the timepieces purpose.”

“Yes. So you are saying that your goal is not only to injure your opponent but to also do it in a flamboyant way?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess. I don’t like the way you put it though.”

I shrugged. If her purpose was more than to just inflict damage then it made perfect sense that there should be fireworks coming off of her strikes.

“Miss Elina, you’re next,” Professor Pure said as he and Brax come back into the class.

“Cya Monty.”

—-

After Elina it was me and I followed the teacher into an empty room with only two chairs.

“Alright Mister Monty. Tell me your ideas,” Professor Pure said sitting down on one of the chairs.

I followed his example and sat down in the opposite one.

“I would like for my first ability to be able to break down organic life forms into their smaller working parts.”

Professor Pure nodded as though he had been expecting something like that.

“Okay, and have you thought of ways to accomplish that?”

“I have already begun to experiment, though for now I am sticking to non living things.”

“You already created a Room?”

“Yes.”

He frowned.

“That’s way to quick for only three days. How long have you been working on it?”

“Three days.”

“Don’t lie-“

“I just made it smaller. No taller than my knee.”

“Oh, and that worked?”

“Yes, however it was much weaker and slower than I had imagined.”

I told him more of the details of the room and its function. As well as my theories on shape language.

“I’d like to say it is a new concept, but it isn’t. Most Dreamers find it hard to do this due to most people having a lack of attention to detail. For them it is hard to visualize something smaller than it really is, and it will cause their creations to fail.”

“Is it actually difficult?” I asked.

“In theory no. But you are not making a doll house, you are making a true Room with real mechanical parts working in tandem with one another. The lever action rifle was fully functioning right? With all of its parts as realistic as possible?”

“Yes.”

“Most other kids your age would find that difficult to do. Their minds would constantly be trying to switch back to visualizing its normal size then downscaling it. Someone with as much experience as me in creating things in my Dreamscape would find it easier, but at this point I don’t need to experiment like you do.”

An advantage. Strength. Edge. Upper Hand. Superiority. Head-

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Monty?” Professor Pure said, snapping his fingers in front of my face.

I blinked.

“Oh. I was thinking of synonyms for advantage.”

“I… see. Well that’s a good word for it. Use this to your advantage to try and push ahead. Due to the dangerous nature of using Wit on living things, I would like to be there to aid you when you begin advancing to organic lifeforms.”

I nodded.

“Speaking of. I have made a deal with a morgue in the city. They have agreed to supply us with the occasional body.”

My heartbeat sped up and my mouth watered in an embarrassing way. Why was my mouth watering? I was not going to eat the bodies. I would do research onto why later.

“Do you write down all of your experiments?” The professor asked, changing the subject.

“Yes,” I said, refocusing on the conversation.

“Be careful with that. It can be a weapon used against you. Preferably you should not take any notes regarding your own personal Wit, but general experiences and notes are fine.”

Maybe it was because I was young, but I generally didn’t think of people as potential threats. Most of the time I didn’t think of their personal interests and beliefs at all. It was as though I was separate from things like war and fear. They were just puzzles made of flesh and blood.

Still I nodded because that was the expected reaction from a person of power to someone subordinate.

—

A week later the thief that had stolen my watch as well as many other students belongings more than a month ago started up a spree once again. This time I didn’t lose anything, but Elina lost the clubs she had killed the Nightmare with.

She had been… angry to say the least. So to help clear her head she decided to spend the weekend out in Zuva. Which she dragged me along to go with her. I was both happy as it would be the first time I would hang out with friends, and annoyed because it cut into my training and research time.

I was now on Experiment 4 on my Rooms, and had decided to knock out shape language first. I added designs to the walls, floor, lights, door, and even the displays of mechanical objects.

It had turned out exactly like I had hoped.

My sharp angled Room had increased the speed to a degree, but seemed to focus more on increasing the power of my Wit rather than efficiency. The boxy Room had made my cloud of Intent more stable, making it look almost like a bubble rather than a hazy mist which allowed more Intent to focus on the watch in my palm. Lastly the rounded Room had increased the smoothness and efficiency of the Breakdown.

Each of them made the ability better in some way, though my favorite was the circle followed by the square. While the triangular decorated Room increased power, it did so in a way that would cause more wear and tear over time than the others. Also something interesting was how the square room made my Wit a bubble, but that was due to how squares represented stability and resiliency instead of just the shape itself.

Elina, who had been “listening” to my analysis as we moved through the city only gave an affirmative grunt as we had to push our way through a crowd. We were not wearing our uniforms, which I preferred, so people did not move out of the way for us, which I did not prefer.

Because it was the weekend more people were in the shopping district. Elina though, relentless, wanted to go clothes shopping. When I pointed out that was the most cliche thing for a girl to do on the weekend she smacked my shoulder. Even with only two weeks of her body being suffused in Intent I could tell the difference in strength. Not that she had hit me hard, it was more playful, at least I hoped it was.

We entered a clothing store designed for women and I became distinctly aware of the lack of males around, not to mention the stares from the females. Had there been a sign that said no men allowed? No, I could see a few others.

Odd.

I sat down on a bench as Elina tried on outfits. Giving my opinion on them as she went through them.

“Too much red, you need contrast due to your hair.”

“I agree. I was thinking a black ribbon to hold up my hair along with a black belt and boots.”

“Add some small accents of white then, perhaps the buttons on the dress or frills for the ribbon, and don’t let the boots go above halfway up the shin.”

“Noice one Monty,” she said, giving me a thumbs up. “I think white gloves and stockings as well no?”

“Sure.”

I wasn’t too sure about the stockings though, I felt as though it might add too much white… Elina really was having an effect on me, though not a bad one. Not only was this interesting, it could also aid me in my Dreamscape’s creation to cultivate more power with.

After we had gotten a few outfits for Elina, of which the price was staggering to me, we left to go get some clothes for me.

“Monty, I know that you have gotten a better fashion sense thanks to muah, but you need to start applying it to yourself. You’ve gained quite a bit of muscle over the past three months, however you are still lean and stringy. Like a beanpole.”

That was an insult, I was sure of it.

“Ok.”

“Not only that you often wear clothing that gives you a soft impression. I think you do it unconsciously because of the sharp features of your face, as if to try to diminish them. I’ll be quite honest, it doesn’t work. Instead it makes them more pronounced, like a wolf among sheep. However you can wear clothing that accentuates the sharpness of your eyes and cheekbones that will give you a more cutting look. It will actually help smooth the sharp features as there will be more angles to help distract from the ones on your face.”

“So it will be more like a wolf among wolves?”

“Exactly, it would look more natural.”

As we crossed the street I felt something… off. It reminded me of when The Forest of Living Dreams had been interfered with. It wasn’t danger exactly, but pressure. As though someone was touching me. Elina didn’t seem to notice anything and was continuing to speak about my lack of ability to dress myself.

Was this what Arebor Aeronoute had been speaking about? Being able to sense Intent? I moved off to the closest building, Elina calling after me, then closed my eyes trying to feel for the pressure.

It was Intent, I could feel… more than one, I think. One gave off the impression of fresh vegetables, while the other one was like flying through the sky like a bird.

“There are multiple Dreamers nearby, using Intent,” I informed Elina, who had been asking me questions the entire time.

“Really? How can you tell?”

“After a while you begin to be able to sense other people use Intent.”

“Cool.”

“Indeed. Let’s go.”

I once again began to walk towards the clothing shop.

“Wait what? Monty where are you going?”

“I thought we were going shopping for me?” I said, turning back around.

“There are Dreamers here. Multiple of them! Wouldn’t it be cool to go and see whats going on.”

I shrugged.

“We were going shopping though. We might not be able to shop if something else gets in the way.”

I could tell that Elina wanted to go and look, but we had plans to go and shop. So we should go and shop. Perhaps once we had finished shopping we could come back and see whats going on, but we already started shopping it would be wrong to stop in the middle of it.

“Monty, you said they are using Intent. Wouldn’t it be a great experience to see how they utilize it?”

I grimaced, she made a good point. This could be an excellent learning experience, but we’d have to turn away from our plans. The whole point of a plan was to follow it.

“Fine,” I grumbled.

Whatever was happening better be interesting enough to make me get over the discomfort I was feeling now.