Lor awoke in the pit, covered in a cold sweat. His exhaustion driven sleep had not saved him from dreams and those he had were not of the pleasant variety. Slowly stretching as he stood, he was surprised by how little his injuries from earlier hurt. Looking down, he saw that the cuts across his abdomen had mostly closed, a scab having formed on each one. Mid stretch his stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten at all earlier.

Looking at the dead rat, he knew he could eat it, but did not want to eat it raw. He decided to use it as a test of his Inventory skill. Concentrating, he focused on the decision to store the rat and watched as the rat winked out of existence. Concentrating again, he found that he had an innate understanding of what was in his Inventory and how much space it took up. Another moment of focus and the rat reappeared. Quickly storing it again, Lor looked around the pit.

The pit appeared to be about five feet wide and 15 feet deep, with shear sides and no real protrusions. Feeling the walls, he found them to be rough stone, sharp enough to cut him, but not jagged enough to allow him to climb. Thinking of something he had seen in movies, he took his new dagger and attempted to stab it into the wall. The wall chipped slightly, but the force of the rebound nearly knocked the dagger out of his hand. With the failure of using the dagger to climb, Lor attempted several other movie based climbing methods including running up the wall and jumping from one wall to the other. Sadly, neither worked as Lor lacked the physical ability to move that way.

Slumping back against the wall, Lor tried to think of a way out. He considered what he had available and realized that he hadn’t considered his new Skills at all. Focusing on his Skills, his head was filled with understanding of what they could do. He realized that even with his Blink skill, the range was only five feet. Adding that to his 5’8” height, he was still about five feet short of the lip of the hole. He noticed that Blink said it had “a short period of time between uses”. Thinking about it, was it possible to use Blink again before he hit the ground?

Standing up, Lor focused and activated Blink, feeling a slight drain of energy followed by a lurching sensation in his gut as he was suddenly five feet off the ground. The sensation of moving instantly through space was so jarring that he forgot to activate Blink again and fell awkwardly back to the rock and skeleton below. Legs flailing, he failed to land upright and sprawled into the skeleton with a crash.

“Sorry about that Bones,” Lor groaned, “Looks like I need to practice a bit.”

Slowly standing up, Lor readied himself and Blinked again, this time aiming simply for the other side of the pit. The lurching sensation was just as bad as before, but this time he was expecting it, only staggering slightly upon arrival. When he activated the ability, once again he felt a slight drain of energy. Concentrating, he noticed that he could feel how much energy he had. Not only that, he also noticed that it was not coming back.

“So how do I get more? Do I just wait? Do I need to eat something?” He asked the skeleton. Bones did not respond.

“Wait! I have that Looped Energy passive. So I just need to wait. Hopefully it isn’t too long.”

Waiting for his energy to return, Lor continued to Blink from one side of the pit to the other, slowly getting used to the sensation of instant travel. By his best guess, each Blink took about 1% of his maximum energy. It also took around one second before he could use another Blink, meaning that unless his distance changed or he could lower the cooldown, he was still stuck. When he ran out of energy, he started thinking of how he could combine abilities. The first idea he had was using Discharge to launch himself, but quickly dismissed it since if the ability returned that much force to him it would destroy whatever limb he used it with.

The second one he thought of, and this time was determined to try, was using Time Stop to recharge Blink. The problem was, he had no idea if using Time Stop in the air would cause him to fall, whether he would be able to stay put, or if time was even stopped for long enough to recharge Blink. Still thinking about what to do, he waited in the cold, absently moving the dagger into and out of his Inventory.

With nothing to do but wait, and only his hunger, thirst, and knife to stay occupied, time blended together into a lump of forgettable discomfort. With his fiddling with the knife, he worked out that his Inventory had about four cubic feet of space. He also discovered that the knife seemed to take up more space than its physical form, some kind of energy emitted by the knife interfered with the Inventory space. The feeling of a bell ringing in his mind startled him out of his stupor. He had heard it previously, but had been too busy falling from a failed Blink to think about it. Turning his focus inward, he discovered that he had received a notification of some kind.

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Blink has reached Tier 0 Rank 2

Blink has reached Tier 0 Rank 3

Absorb has reached Tier 0 Rank 2

Inventory has reached Tier 0 Rank 2

“So that’s what the bell did” Lor muttered without much enthusiasm. “Wait, does that mean that Blink can reach further?”

Quickly focusing on his Skills, he determined that Blink could indeed reach further, just not too much further. The new maximum distance ended up being around six feet, meaning around a six inch increase per Rank. Looking over Inventory, he found the space had increased to about five cubic feet, a decent amount for simply messing with a knife.

“Now why has Absorb Ranked up. Did it absorb the impact of my falling to the ground? When I have energy and rest I’ll need to test that.”

As he waited for his energy to return, he slipped into a dreamless sleep fueled by hunger, thirst, and a bone deep exhaustion unlike anything he had ever felt before. Unbeknownst to Lor, the use of Skills, especially by those who have never done so before, is an exhausting experience made even worse when all of their energy is used up.

~~~~~

"Are you kidding me! Our exam is in the Shambling Woods?!" Almer shouted in frustration, turning to Elise. "Can't you do something about it?"

"Just because my family is nobility doesn't mean I have any influence here." Elise sighed, putting down her book. "Besides, you need to overcome your fear of spiders at some point anyway. Might as well be now."

"I can overcome my fears with regular sized ones. I don't need to jump in the deep end with spiders the size of my torso."

"Oh, is the oh so strong Almer afraid of little spiders?" A new voice came from behind Elise, causing her to turn around. "Don't worry, I'm sure you won't make it past the first part." Selma continued, drawing a glare from both Almer and Elise. "You won't even see the spiders. I mean, seriously, what's your Power and Body at, two eight? To join you'll need at least three five. Good luck getting them to accept a warrior below that."

"How the hell do you know my Stats Selma!?" Almer yelled in frustration, "Those are supposed to be confidential with the school!"

"Oh, some people like being in the good graces of the Fordin family." Selma replied with a smug smile and a condescending glance at Elise. "Unlike some people, I know how to use my influence."

"Using family influence within the school is strictly forbidden," Elise retorted, "And unlike some people I value my integrity"

"Oh, I didn't do it. Someone else did and just happened to tell me. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck." With the smug smile still on her face, Selma turned and walked across the room towards her usual crowd.

"Did I ever tell you I hate her?" Almer asked quietly, slowly releasing the white knuckled grip he had on the back of his chair.

"Only every day. Don't worry too much, we'll get your Stats up enough in the next few months. My father found a Place of Power that spawns up to Tier 4's. We can train there as much as we want. We do have all summer off."

"Are you serious? That is great! With access to a place like that, Selma won't stand a chance!" Almer's mood changed from one of frustration to excitement at the news. "Even though her family boosted her Stats with adventurers, she's not too far ahead. And with my defense and your damage output, we can fight anything in that Spot!"

"Calm down, we still have to finish today before we can go there. Also, we will need to get my father's permission."

Almer's face fell a little at that, but he perked right up again as he thought about the possibilities. Elise sighed and as she went back to reading her book couldn't help but smile. She was looking forward to getting one up on Selma after all these years.

~~~~~

Lor snapped awake as he felt energy start to flow back into him in small bursts. Slowly climbing to his feet, his stomach protesting its lack of contents, he leaned against the wall. As his energy came back, he went over his plan to escape the pit. First, Blink up as high as he could and try to grab the wall. Second, use Time Stop to hopefully recharge Blink. Third, Blink again and grab the lip of the pit. Simple.

Looped Energy has reached Tier 0 Rank 2

Looped Energy has reached Tier 0 Rank 3

With his energy fully recharged, Lor crouched down and leapt as high as he could. Activating Blink at the apex of his jump, he instantly appeared half way up the side of the pit. He activated Time Stop as his hands scrabbled at the wall.

The energy drain from Time Stop surprised him. Fully 70% of his energy disappeared in that one instant, leaving him feeling slightly sick. He did however discover that in Time Stop he could decide if he wanted to move or not. Staying frozen in place, he waited the one second that Time Stop lasted, and instantly activated Blink again. Appearing at the edge, he scrabbled madly and managed to pull himself over the edge of the pit.

Lying on the ground, gasping for air, Lor smiled at the ceiling as he thought "Blink? Cooldown? What cooldown?"

~~~~~

Name: Almer Ytell

Tier: 2

Rank: 7

Power: Iron (T2 R8)

Body: Earth (T2 R8)

Mind (T2 R5)

Energy (T2 R3)

Name: Elise Sorenta

Tier: 3

Rank: 1

Power: Storm (T3 R3)

Body (T2 R8)

Mind (T3 R0)

Energy: Fire (T3 R2)

Name: Selma Fordin

Tier: 3

Rank: 4