Saving the best for last was a habit Dix had had for most of his life. His mother had ingrained it in him at a young age. Ice cream will do that to a youngster. In this case, Dix had been saving throwing weapons for last because he had the most experience with them, and expected he would continue to do so on Mantra.

Javelins were an interesting change from the things he had thrown before, being considerably larger. They were extremely useful as both a damaging weapon and a utility tool. At least he imagined they were good at both. Dix was positive that having a large spear shoved through him and into the ground would hurt a lot, and keep him from moving to attack. Using an atlatl with a throwing spear was another new experience for him. Rather shocking how far they went, but again, something he wasn’t expecting to actually use after this. Some other minor variations on throwing sharp pointy sticks at people followed, until he had another moment where things once again became clearer, and he realized he’d thrown enough different styles of weapons that he already had the general weapon skill for thrown weapons. Now all he needed were more subskills, and some actives.

Tomahawks and the other types of throwing axes were a nice refresher. It brought back memories of a time he and Elise had gone to a bar that had throwing axes for entertainment. As if that wasn’t a stupid enough idea, they had turned the entire thing into a drinking game. Thinking back to that evening brought a bit of joyous laughter out of him, as he threw axes in weird ways, just messing around with them as he had that night. Eventually the memory of her disappearance returned, along with the rage that had driven him. Suddenly every axe within reach was planted in the center of several targets, and he had yet another skill. As he calmed back down, he reflected on how easy skills were to obtain. Somehow, he thought it would have been much more difficult.

Darts. Weapons that are basically impossible to kill someone with unless you poison them. Good thing for Dix that they had been another favorite game for him. Helping a girl learn to throw a dart properly was always a fun experience, only overshadowed by doing the same thing with pool. Even the inherent danger of drunk people throwing sharp pointy objects didn’t compete with having a girl wiggle her ass against your crotch while you had one hand inside her shirt “for stability”. Dix actually spent a bit of time doing long distance darts at the range just for fun. Throwing a dart like a fast ball was surprisingly cathartic.

Throwing stars were another poison based weapon, and were mostly just fun as extreme frisbees. Also because they looked cool. The best thing that happened with the throwing stars for Dix was that they gave him an idea for a new skill, but that would be better practiced with a different thrown weapon. They did help him open up some sort of Split Throw, as well as Rapid Throw. Axes seemed to have gotten him Multi Throw.

Spikes were a cross between darts, javelins, and knives. Also shockingly effective. They could punch through some armors, kill with an eye or throat shot, and were great for leaving warnings like a guy nailed to a tree. Roanoak had some spikes with enchantments that would throw out different elements that gave Dix the idea to do the same with skills for the plain style spikes. After adding a variety of elements to his throwing skills, he moved on.

The first “chakram” Dix ever threw in his life was actually a slicer blade. When he was a teenager he had worked at a pizza place as a dishwasher. One of his responsibilities was to take the circular blade off the slicer every night after closing and clean it. It was a remarkably heavy, razor edged hunk of stainless steel. So when the cook dared him to throw it at the wall he couldn’t resist. It may have gotten him fired, but it was totally worth it. Real chakrams, on the other hand, aren’t an inch thick solid disk of steel. Instead they are generally an inch wide circle with a razor edge, and about three to five millimeters thick, the ones designed for throwing anyways. And they were perfect for the skills he thought up while playing with stars. He spent five or ten minutes getting the sub skill before he had to move on. Sadly, the stationary range wasn’t going to work for this at all, so he took his chakrams and knives, and headed to the alley with the scattered targets.

Just to make sure he didn’t forget, he threw enough knives to get the subskill for them first. Then, because he thought they might help with learning the skill he was looking to get next, he left all the knives in the targets. Then he focused, trying to visualize exactly how he wanted the chakram to move down the alley. He needed the blade ring to move in a precise pattern if it was going to hit exactly where he wanted it to go. There was a sense of what he assumed was both Homing and Precise, although neither actually activated. When the tingle and strain of his muscles started heating up, he flicked out his arm, and the chakram flew. For this first skill he went simple, so the chakram skipped off the wall to the right and sank into the central target at the back that was obscured by the target hanging in the middle of the alley. The second skill he wanted would be more difficult, and he knew Homing, Precise, and his new skill Bounce were all helping on this one. The click in his brain, and tingle in his arm when he threw the chakram signaled the gaining of his new skill, even as it went into effect. Bouncing off a knife blade high to the left, the chakram shot down to the right, slicing through a target and skipping, first off the floor, then the alley wall, before sinking into a target dead center in the alley. Three targets, one blade. If he got to name his own skills, this one would be Ricochet. A few more tests showed that it worked perfectly fine with knives as well.

With all of his skills gained, next came the hardest part of the training, making the decision on what to take with him. The best way to start reducing the number of weapons that he would actually take with him was to run the other pieces of the range, specifically the obstacle course. Getting through the obstacle course, even without trying to attack, looked incredibly difficult. It reminded him of an old Japanese television show that used to come on some weird channels late at night. There were unstable platforms, rotating and rolling logs, pendulums, narrow sections with no floors, rope swings, other sections, and plenty of filthy water to fall into. The only things missing were bad costumes and marginally better announcers. Maybe a few dry runs, without attacking were in order first.

The first run of the obstacle course saw Dix basically belly flopping into the water. With some reconsideration he decided he might try working on some movement skills first outside of the course. Bringing some knives with him at this point was almost a habit, besides he might need them if he thought up any new skills he might want. His first stop was actually the alley he learned Ricochet in. If he was going to try for a movement skill, his first attempt would be parkour. It was something that he had at least been interested in while still alive back on Earth, but he hadn’t actually spent much time trying it. If nothing else maybe he could learn some wall jumps with the narrow alley.

He started with stretching, it might not have been all that original, but it was still necessary. Besides, with the way passive skills were picked up, there was every likelihood that he would get some sort of flexibility skill. After a short time, that’s exactly what he got. Once he got that click that he was waiting for he started running up walls, then jumping. A few flips in, while he was trying to stop being dizzy, Dix realized that with the water in the bottom of the obstacle course he had actually gotten Swimming, and then Conditioning.

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He started trying to jump from wall to wall while he thought of other things he could do to learn some other useful movement skills. Tumbling was the main one he could think of, although gymnastics would be good too. Not that he really knew everything that was involved in gymnastics. While continuing to scramble around the alley like a madman, he started flipping knives at the targets. They weren’t really the knives, just the mana copies that he created by swiping his hand along a knife like he was going to throw it. Maybe some sort of longer jumping skill, or long distance running? Both could be useful, but the running wouldn’t be of immediate use. Mid twist, jumping off the right wall in a twisted backflip towards the central target, he had his right arm flinging forward, knife appearing in his hand just shy of release, before flying towards the rear target. The knife had been copied from the blade his left hand had danced across as he leapt from the wall. Some sort of climbing skill would also probably be necessary at some point. Perhaps not for the obstacle course, but a life of adventuring would definitely present a need for climbing at some point. Ricochet apparently worked mid air with a second knife throw as well, even redirecting both blades to the desired targets. Balance would be important for moving like he wanted.

When he finally stopped he was confused. He couldn’t really remember why exactly he stopped until he looked up. Every target in the alley was either destroyed, or had so many knives in them that the target itself couldn’t actually be seen. As he stopped concentrating so hard, the vast majority of the knives faded away, the mana connection dropping. With but a thought he could tell that he knew far more about how to move through this alley than he had before. Wall run, wall jump, wall climb, dismount, and tumble. All these and more he acquired while he was lost in thought, letting his body feel its own way through learning to traverse a small area in new ways. If he wasn’t ready for the obstacle course now, he never would be.

Knowing that he really didn’t want to even try the course with a bow, he just went straight over, taking only a collection of knives, spikes, and chakrams. There were some interesting options for movement with javelins or crossbows, but Dix didn’t feel the need for more complications to his recently learned movements. Nor did he want to roll with a crossbow strapped to his back, and javelins in hand. He figured he was more likely to accidentally shoot himself in the ass, or stab a javelin through his boys, than make it through unscathed just because he could make another hand hold he really didn’t need.

Dix started running. The first set of obstacles was the unstable platforms, which now felt as steady as the rest of the world, and he quickly ran across them. These were followed up with the logs. Rotating and rolling logs were laid out above the water in strange non patterns. There seemed to be no real rhyme or reason to how they were laid out. After a quick look over the whole section Dix found a possible path for a strange way to cross. Instead of taking a jump, wait, jump, wait pattern he went with a running start, and used the motion of the logs to assist his jump by going the same way they were moving. For the most part it worked. There were a few moments where he staggered, or stumbled from landing a bit off center on the moving logs, but he always managed to recover. The end of the log section was the rope swings, directly into narrow beams with the pendulums. With a last diving leap off of a rotating log, Dix managed to catch a rope and twist himself around it to give it a more circular swing that landed him onto a beam in a crouch.

On the end of the beam Dix took the time to study the pendulums. They weren’t designed to lop off limbs, just knock him from the precarious balance of the beam and into the water. The patterning seemed too simple for a little while, until he leaned as far to the side as he could and realised that several of the swinging instruments were stacked up in such a way that the second and even third couldn’t be seen. And these sets were on both sides, worked into combination grids in such a way that you would have to clear four to six pendulums in one sprint. To get by them would take perfect timing and speed, or an alternative route. The pendulums were obviously greased on the top and the arms, so you couldn’t use them to pause in a section, and hanging from the beams put you in the water. When Dix finally found his alternative route he couldn’t help but laugh.

Stretching for a moment he slowed his breathing to match the speed of swings, it would help him keep the timing he needed. He settled into a ready position as his eyes watched the pendulums. Suddenly he ran. He went through six, slid into a stop with a hand dragging behind him, then ran back the way he had come. He passed back through two pendulums, tapped down in another wind sprint reverse, and shot through another seven before doing it again. Over and over he would sprint, tap, and reverse. The number of pendulums he ran through in both directions kept changing, and all he could do was run and keep the count running. While heading towards the end again he suddenly let his legs almost give out from under him. They shot forward, pressed tightly together, as he started falling backwards. His arms went behind his head, hands vertical, but didn’t quite clamp onto the beam even as his upper back slammed down. Quickly bridging himself up a little on heels and his upper back, keeping his head, hips, back and legs just a hair above the beam. He looked like he was trying to run a high speed water slide without worrying about the wedgy. Somehow his forward momentum took him under the last set of six pendulums that all came together, and swung too fast to run through.

The gamble on the latest insanity of Dix’s was stopping. The beam was only about a foot above the water and not very wide, which wasn’t really conducive to getting back up. As soon as he cleared the pendulums, his head snapped up to see what was ahead of him. He knew there was another rope swing coming, but he hadn’t been able to see the end of the beam all that clearly. But his gamble had paid off. There was a block about four inches high at the end of the beam, which wasn’t very far from him. He quickly dropped back onto his ass, started bending his knees and threw his arms forward as though he was trying to use their weight to help him with a sit up. In fact, that was exactly what he was doing. His feet hit the block, and he let his legs bend a bit more as his feet started curling over the block. Pushing down as hard as he could with his legs, while doing the arm flinging sit up caused his weight to shift, throwing him forward from the pivot point of his feet. Straightening out, he bounced upwards on his toes, and landed perfectly upright standing on top of the block, breathing heavily.

Turns out, the rope swing he thought was there was instead a netting set that he needed to climb up and across. That, in turn, led to another narrow path that ended facing a vertical wall about fifteen feet away, the top of which was about even with the path. A running leap saw him hitting the wall feet first, bending his legs to absorb the shock, as his hand clapped onto the top of the wall. A quick look around showed this would be a wall based descent, there were two more walls that he would have to jump backwards and grab onto in a row. One straight behind him, and the other directly below himself. A couple quick jumps and grabs, then a drop and roll saw him standing in front of a chimney climb. It took a few minutes for the ascent, but the last part of the obstacle course was before him. A big slide back down towards the beginning.

He needed to run this course again because there were targets all over the place, and he hadn’t thrown a single weapon. This was just the dry run. Soon he’d be running it at full speed with blades flying everywhere. Plus there were still a couple other routes through the course that had things like wall run sections, and that part that looked like you needed to be a flying frog to complete. He was actually really excited about the possibilities.

With a big smile on his face, Dix dove in head first. Just like a big kid who had found his new favorite park.