Chapter Twenty-Three: Accroches-toi a Ton Rêve
The key according to Kira was that his body did not yet know how to filter the ambient Mana into a usable form. He lacked a reference so that he could process the Mana in his own body to replicate the magic used in this world. To put it simply, he needed a patch to his software.
The parallels to the conversation he had with Mary were not lost on Marc. Deep down, something felt off to him. But he didn’t know what was going on and his understanding of his situation was so poor that he had no choice but to put off thinking about it until later.
Kira explained that he needed to “Experience” the use of Mana. To a level sufficient to let her process the basics and unlock the use of Mana. It would mean unlocking each type one at a time, and even after unlocking a Mana type his abilities would start out very weak as the filtering that Mana Cores do naturally would have to be done manually by Kira. 《In Emulation Mode》 She had said.
Marc couldn’t think of how to explain this all, so he just simplified it by saying that he needed a user of each Mana type to help him experience the usage of their Mana somehow.
While they ate a simple breakfast of bread, cheese, and tea Rynan suggested that she try to help him after they eat.
“No, Let me try,” Grenn said.
Rynan looked surprised. “You… Are you sure?”
Grenn looked determined. “Yeah. I can do it. I think I can. And he will need what I can teach him.”
She looked at him with a concerned expression. Then her brow relaxed.
“Yes, I see your point. Let’s do that.” Her usual carefree smile was back in place.
“I would like to use the training room if that’s alright?”
This again surprised Rynan, but she recovered almost in an instant.
“Sure. Sure. Go ahead. I’ll arrange everything after we eat.”
Marc wasn’t sure what was going on, but he needed their help so as long as they were on board he was happy to do things their way.
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The “Training Room” turned out to be Rynan’s Personal Space. At first, Marc was resistant. His first exposure wasn’t very pleasant, the strange feeling of the pocket dimension was very disorienting, like a very strong case of motion sickness.
“This is better. You see, in here, we can’t get hurt. Grenn explained.
After they had entered the Personal Space, Marc was surprised that the forest and cabin had disappeared. Instead, they appeared to be in a canyon, surrounded by tall mountains. Rynan had conjured a new environment. In front of them was a large round stone stage, roughly. Twenty-five feet… ten meters across, surrounded by six large stone columns. The air above the ring was open to the sky. It looked like some arena from a martial arts movie. Marc was starting to guess what was coming.
“Give me a couple of Botek staves,” Grenn asked. Instantly a rack appeared next to them holding several long wooden sticks with what appeared to be blocks at each end. One side had a fist-sized ball while the other side had what looked like an oddly fat axe head. It didn’t look sharp, but the blunt end was as thick as a phone book and the wedge side, while not sharpened would certainly hurt if it struck someone. Grenn grabbed one and tossed it to Marc then grabbed another one.
Marc fumbled the catch. He was still disoriented in the personal space and arguably was not very inclined to this kind of thing, to begin with. He had to bend down and retrieve the staff from the ground. It was heavy in his hands, yet the feeling of holding it was strange somehow. It was as if he had weights pulling his hands down rather than something heavy in his grasp.
Grenn moved the center of the circle and motioned for Marc to join him.
“Let’s start slow.” He held the staff like a spear, the axe head side sticking out towards Marc’s head. He motioned for Marc to mimic his pose.
Unease filling his mind, Marc copied Grenn’s pose. Then Grenn proceeded to explain a few basic motions. A strike, A block, A low block, a parry, a stab. They repeated the motions several dozens of times. Then Grenn had them mimic a spar. He swung while directing Marc to block. He had Marc do a stab while he parried. It was all slow motion and Marc actually enjoyed the practice. He didn’t think he would be able to fight anyone skilled, but as a first lesson, it felt like he had learned a few things.
【TUTORIAL: COMBAT: DEFEAT TRAINING GOLEM 0/1 】
Wait. Not this again.
《I’ve reactivated this just for you.》
“Alright. That should be enough. Rynan, give us a sparring partner. A weak one obviously.” Grenn started walking off to the side of the stage. When Marc turned to follow him he was stopped by the giant man’s hand against his chest.
“Nope. Not you. Back to position.” Grenn pointed to the center of the circle where there was now a large humanoid form, holding another one of the spears.
It looked like a store mannequin, but dark and made up of some kind of stone. It stood there motionless while Marc took the ready position that they had practiced. He guessed that he would now be hitting this fighting dummy. Marc thought that it was more effective when he sparred with Grenn, but this had been fun so far. He wondered how long had he been practicing like this. In the movies, they would spend months or years practicing before they mastered a martial art. This was done so suddenly and ad-hoc that he questioned how effective it would be.
“Start!” Grenn yelled.
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Immediately the golem swung out with the spear smashing it into the side of Marc’s head.
Marc fell to the ground. Indeed it was not as it would have been if a real spear had hit him like that. Speed and the force could have done serious damage. When he checked his stat window he saw his health was still at 100%. But that didn’t mean it did not hurt. In fact, it hurt. A lot. Not like a normal injury, however. It was real and false at the same time. The same way the ground felt real and fake at the same time. He knew he was hurt, but at the same time, he wasn’t injured.
“That could have been better. Try again. Back to ready.” Grenn called out.
“This is not fun anymore,” Marc called out.
“I never said it would be fun.” Grenn retorted. “Start!”
Marc shook his head as he sat up from where he had been knocked to the ground.
“Come on. Get up. This toy is even slower than those rabbits the other day. If you can’t block a single hit, you will never be able to set foot outside the safety of the city walls,”
Grenn pulled Marc off the ground and stepped back, ordering him back into position.
Marc was ready this time. The dummy always made this first strike from the left side towards his head. He would be ready to block.
“Start!”
Marc rolled over onto his back. Wasn’t he supposed to be unlocking his magic? When did this become some cliche scene from a kung fu movie?
《When you can take this stone from my hand, it will be time for you to leave, Grasshopper.》
“Shut up” he seethed silently to his critic.
“OK,” He told Grenn. “I got this. One more time.”
They kept this up for an hour. Marc’s head was swimming. His body had no problem continuing but his mind had been pummeled over and over again. He had finally gotten to the point where he could at least attempt to parry the opening blow, but the golem was so much stronger than him that it would just push him back and slam him down with a second hit.
Finally, Grenn came up and stood behind him. Marc hoped the torture was finally coming to an end. Instead, the man put his hand on his shoulder and spoke.
“Back to Ready.”
Seriously? He just wanted a closer look? Marc wanted to cry, but instead, he brought the spear back up to point at the head of the golem.
He felt the same warmth he had felt that morning spread from his shoulder through his whole body.
“Start!” The golem swung immediately, but this time, Grenn’s head was in the way. It smacked the giant man in the temple but bounced back as though it had hit a wall.
“Reset. Start!” Again the golem lunged, hitting the larger man’s head once more. Marc was utterly confused. Why was Grenn taking the hits?
“Hey! This hurts you know. Aren’t you going to fight? Get Ready. Start!”
Marc managed to move his spear this time, but again it was knocked to the side while the golem swung around again, this time hitting Marc in the opposite shoulder.
“Come on. Fight! Ready! Start!”
They kept going, both of them taking hit after hit. More than a dozen times. Marc scowled with frustration. He wasn’t strong enough. What was he supposed to do?
He tried to hit harder, but he was at the limit of his strength. His STR was a fixed number. What could he do? He couldn’t win unless he got stronger.
Throughout all of this, Grenn never removed his hand from Marc’s shoulder. The warmth in his body now felt like it was burning him. It was too much. He just wanted to stop.
“Again. Ready! Start!” Grenn kept going, taking another blow to the head while Marc seethed in frustration. It wasn’t just that he kept losing, but the fact that he was sharing his failure intimately with another person. That someone else was taking the blow for his lack of strength filled him with manic desperation.
Finally, the humiliation and anger boiled over. He was sick of this. He just wanted it to stop. Enough of this.
“Ready! Start!”
Marc screamed as he overflowed with anger and grief. His muscles flexed with indignation. His eyes burned with rage. He was on fire.
He was on fire. Really on fire. A strong red aura surrounded his entire body. His vision turned red as though blood had covered his eyes.
The spear slammed into the golem’s weapon, knocking it back as Marc smashed into the faceless head, knocking the automaton to the ground.
Marc fell back on his ass, exhausted. He wanted to cry, the emotional strain beyond the breaking point. He was angry, scared, tired, maybe a little hungry. Was it lunchtime yet?
Then Grenn’s enormous face was in front of his. A huge grin stretched from ear to ear.
“That was an incredible hit! You did it! That was amazing!” He laughed in triumph while Marc continued to stare at him incredulously. He wanted to smash the man with the pole again for putting him through that. Then he saw Rynan staring at him questioningly.
“So, did it work?” Grenn asked oblivious to Marc’s murderous thoughts.
Marc blinked, then checked the pop-ups that had appeared in front of him.
ACHIEVEMENT: UNLOCK BASIC FIRE MAGIC
SKILL ACQUIRED: RAGE [1] STR +5
SKILL ACQUIRED: INNER FLAME [1] CON +1, HR+ 0.05/MIN, SR +0.1/MIN
TUTORIAL: COMBAT: DEFEAT TRAINING GOLEM 0/1
SKILLS UNLOCKED
WEAPON PROFICIENCY/CLUB [1]
PUNCHING BAG [1]
SKILL ACQUIRED: WEAPON PROFICIENCY/POLEARM [1]
《There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?》
END OF PART TWO
CURRENT STATUS
NAME: MARC CHURCHILL
AGE 19 (EARTH RELATIVE TIME)
INTERFACE LEVEL: 5
3% TO NEXT LEVEL
RACE: DIMENSIONAL TRAVELER
AFFILIATIONS: THE PATH
BASE LEVEL: 1
STRENGTH (STR) [4] +1
CONSTITUTION (CON) [4] +2
INTELLIGENCE (INT) [7] +1
AGILITY (AGI) [5] +1
DEXTERITY (DEX) [6] +1
LUCK (LUK) [0]
HEALTH RECOVERY (HR) [0.023%] +1 (HR)/MIN
STAMINA RECOVERY (SR) [0.523%] +0.5 (SR)/MIN
PASSIVE SKILLS:
APPRAISAL
INVENTORY
CARTOGRAPHY
MANA MANIPULATION
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY [2]* - TASHTALIK
nbsp; ENHANCED HEALING [1]
LEVEL HEADED [1] INT +1
THICK SKIN [1] CON +1
SUREFOOT [1] AGI +1, DEX +1
MARATHONER [1] STR +1, CON +1, SR +0.5/MIN
CONTRACTS [1]
FARMING - HARVESTING [2]
COOKING [2]
GENERAL CLEANING [2]
WOOD CHOPPING [1]
PERSONAL SPACE [1]?
ACTIVE SKILLS:
NEGOTIATION [1] INT +1
WEAPON PROFICIENCY/CLUB [1]
WEAPON PROFICIENCY/POLEARM [1]
PUNCHING BAG [1] CON +3
nbsp; RAGE [1] STR +5
INNER FLAME [1] CON +1, HR+ 0.05/MIN, SR +0.1/MIN
MAGIC:
BASIC FIRE MAGIC [1]
BASIC WATER MAGIC
BASIC EARTH MAGIC
BASIC AIR MAGIC
BASIC SPACE MAGIC
BASIC PRIMAL MAGIC
* INTERFACE LINKED SKILL.
EQUIPMENT:
CHILD’S STIRRUP PANTS (DUR 9/10)
T-SHIRT* (DUR 3/10) (STR +1)
BASIC SHIRT (DUR 10/10)
UNDERPANTS (DUR 9/10)
SOCKS W/GARTERS (DUR 9/10)
LEATHER BOOTS (DUR 7/10)