Joshens shook his head, the effect of the light nearing its end, but gold still enveloped his vision, it wasn’t the light, it's too solid. It's a golden sword swinging down onto his face, he jumps backward barely avoiding the strike. Normally he wouldn’t have been able to dodge once Clide got him in that trap, Clide’s swing definitely went slower than normal. That meant either Clide had gotten slower or Aton interfered.
Aton’s skill doesn’t only allow him to speed up the natural process of nonliving things, it also allows him to slow them down too. While he couldn’t slow down Clide’s actual swing he could slow down the momentum it gathered while he swung, slightly slowing the swing giving Joshens enough time to react. Clide glared at Aton with a displeasement. Aton didn’t let it phase him.
“Do we need to fight, I understand your anger Joshens I’m upset too, but Clide had no ill intent. Hasn’t there been enough death?” Aton said, trying to reason with Joshens. Joshens looked at his hands, trying to comprehend the emotions he felt. He could somewhat sympathize with Clide, he took a big burden doing what he did, but at the same time, Clide killed his friend.
“I… I can’t fight alongside him, with all the heart I have I could just maybe let him go, but there’s no way me and him fight in the same team. Aton kick out Clide, or we kill each other here and now. I won’t take no for an answer Aton.” Aton looked up in thought. Meanwhile, Jasper rubbed his arm in nervousness, he wanted to step in but knew he couldn’t do much, and even if he could he really didn’t know who to side with. Of course, he liked Lewis and he couldn’t help but feel anger toward Clide; he also sympathized with him. Aton looked back at Joshens which broke Jasper's train of thought.
“I wish to take both of you, both of you have great strength and—” Clide cut him off.
“Get it over with, I know who you're going to choose, it's obvious.”
“Right… Clide I’m sorry I truly am, but I have no choice. For the murder of Lewis, I am kicking you off the team…” Joshens looked slightly relieved and Jasper looked a bit happy, ignorant to the cruelties of the world he was happy they resolved the matter without bloodshed. Clide on the other hand didn’t look surprised, not one bit nor relieved or happy, he looked hurt.
“Typical that’s what I get for saving you all.” He turned around “See you around I guess.. oh and Jasper if you ever need to get away from these clowns I’ll take you in,” giving an invitation to Jasper and swam away, but kept his armor on in case they decided to attack him from behind. They watched him slowly disappear in the distance with a bittersweet feeling. Joshens turned towards Aton.
“Thank you for picking me, and for helping me dodge that swing too. I won't forget your kindness.” Joshens looked at him with a sorrowful look. “And I’m sorry for the ruckus and everything I know how much this strains our power.”
Aton heavily sighs, “Five to three in a blink of an eye, to think we would fall so low. Not to mention we have more enemies than before, and Clide might have joined that group. You made this very difficult Joshen. I didn’t do it for friendship, I did it for the team, so don’t thank me you better make up for it.” He faces Jasper, “Jasper things just got a lot harder, you need to get stronger too. I expect a lot from you.” Jasper nodded but thought, how could he get stronger in time for the expedition, even if Aton didn’t say anything about it, it’s clear that's what he needs to get stronger for.
They were going to Molloy Drop earlier than needed and had about six days before the official departure. Could he really do anything worthwhile in that amount of time? Aton saw the worry on his face.
“You can, you're near a breakthrough, I can tell. Real combat is the best way to train and you went through a lot of it. Reflect and build upon yourself.” Aton told him encouragingly, which gave Jasper some confidence that could get stronger in that length of time. Aton didn’t really actually have confidence in Jasper, he didn’t think Jasper could make any significant progress in that short amount of time, nothing against Jasper, only the time wasn’t enough.
For an Ash user, or anyone for that matter getting stronger took time and effort. Months could be spent to improve channeling and the basics to only improve a little, years could be spent only slightly improving a skill, and decades could be spent making only the barebones of a new skill. Jasper improved fast, but not that fast, but he wanted to give Jasper some hope and maybe he would be surprised. He didn’t lie when he said real combat is the best way to train, and Jasper did go through a precarious battle.
Aton still intended to go to Molloy Drop, it’s a good place to train and be safe. Abyssal law states Molloy Drop will have no bloodshed as it’s a neutral safe zone. While some didn’t follow those laws, many held it sacred including Welsh, so basically, even those who would be willing to break Abyssal law wouldn’t do it in such an open place, otherwise, they would earn the wrath of Welsh among many other powerful figures. Aton told Jasper and Joshens his intended plan and they headed out.
The rest of the trip provided no significant commotion, they traveled tube to tube eventually reaching the tube that would take them to the city's end. The districts got fancier as they went along, in Bathysphere the closer to the Abyss the richer the district usually. There were people all around them now rich people, Molloy Drop had a lot of rich visitors, the rich citizens of Bathysphere often toured it because they were allowed to go right outside of it, but no further. It gave the regular rich citizens a chance to glance at the Abyss from a safe distance.
The entire place had lights everywhere, also guards positioned in almost every corner, hired by the Abyss leaders, setting a strict but safe and warm atmosphere. In front of the group an overlook balcony, with the city's barrier in front of that climbing up and over them, climbing high into the sky and peering over enclosing the entire city. The cyan-green barrier crackled and popped, sometimes throwing out a small spark. The barrier consumed a lot of power to operate so it had to release the expended and excess occasionally. The barrier also could be used for defense as it burned anything that could touch it, but only the Ash cannons can keep some of the deep sea monstrosities at bay.
Aton swam to the large balcony big enough to hold a couple hundred people without feeling cramped, the balcony had been built from concrete, he swam to a nearby guard and whispered to him. The guard nodded and instructed him along with Jasper and Joshens to follow. The guard guided them over the balcony into the sea floor below dropping nearly 50 feet, Molloy Drop would only be about 100 or so feet further down. He then led them to a tunnel entrance going into the ocean floor underneath the barrier, the exit.
In Bathysphere, the only way to get in and out of the city was going underneath the barrier, and the city had been built with two exits, this one at Molloy Drop to get to the Abyss and another one on the other side of the city for the more traditional use of entering and leaving the city. The tunnel had two guards on either side, once the guard made his way up to the tunnel he confirmed his identity and they let everyone through. Once inside the tunnel, it revealed nothing special, merely a tool to get to the other side, and that's what they did.
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Two more guards pairing the previous ones sat in front of the tube’s exit coming from this way. The guard curtly and professionally said goodbye and went back through the tunnel to go to his post. And like that Aton, Jasper, and Joshens had made it outside of Bathysphere. In front of them a large crevasse could be seen perhaps a hundred feet wide and hundreds of feet long, the Abyss rested further down. It seeped an uncomfortable presence, and they had not even entered yet. Molloy Drop could be seen, a small but tall circular hole that marked the entrance into the Abyss, right inside Molloy Drop a ledge can be seen that has the entrance to a cave the safe zone.
Aton and his comrades made their way down onto the ledge, nothing difficult and swam into the entrance of the cave revealing a much larger inside, capable of easily fitting thousands of people inside, and fit people it did, hundreds of people of all varieties had already made it here going about their business. Most were hired mercenaries, employees, or allies of the Abyss leaders, only a couple were actual Abyss leaders. This wasn’t unusual of course; many people would make their way here as soon as they could after the announcement of an expedition, they were much safer here than in Bathysphere, plus other than the Abyss itself Molloy Drop might be the best place to train for Ash users.
Ash filled the air as the Abyss spewed it out in mass, making it easier for the Ash users to channel Ash and in effect train themselves in any Ash techniques or skills. This also meant any Ash user near or in the Abyss would see an increase in their power as channeling Ash became easier and faster, but that too came at a cost as it took a toll on the users as they would constantly be channeling more Ash and channeling it faster. Many monsters in the Abyss could utilize Ash too, and they didn’t lack the benefit either. Basically, anyone with Ash gets stronger, so it doesn’t give an advantage to anyone, but it causes the Ash users to wear out much faster, however, this is also why everyone gets so much stronger after going to the Abyss, every part of them gets strained to an extreme, causing them to get much stronger.
Most people in the cave were either training or resting from earlier training, Aton, Jasper, and Joshens planned to do the same to train, not only for the obvious reason of getting stronger but also for a much more important reason; acclimatization. Like if someone tried to climb a tall mountain and needed to wait at a lower point to get acclimated to the air, Abyss explores have to wait at certain depths to get accumulated to the water and Ash pressure, and the training pushed Ash through the body getting it used to the pressure much faster than anything else. A suggested minimum of three days of training at Molloy Drop even for Abyss explorers had been officially recommended even for experienced users. Brand new explorers were recommended for at least a week, but hopefully, nobody new was here, as they would definitely die going on an expedition as the first experience, might as well ask for death.
Abyss leaders had their own small sections within the cavern to train, depending on how much Abyss territory they had determined how big of a space they got in Molloy Drop, Atons could easily fit his small team, but he also had some hired mercenaries here that he hired a while ago for extra firepower. So he and his team moved down the cave to get to their personal section.
As they made their way down, Aton noted that Welsh, Kell, and a few other notable figures were already here… even Clide had made it, looks like he still plans to go into the Abyss even without a team, or perhaps he joined somebody else in that short of a time. Either way, bad news one more variable to juggle once they get down there. Clide gave him a cold stare, no more than that it was a sad desperate sad stare. Aton looked away in shame, Joshens had tensed up and Jasper could feel the tension and sadness once again cursing himself for his lack of strength.
Arriving at the small door-like entrance of Aton’s personal area, they could see all of the doors, about fifty of them, in front of their door were two mercenaries that Aton had hired, their faces lit up once they saw Aton.
“Ah Mr. Aton, I'm glad to see you safe and sound welcome. We have been keeping guard over your space.” The left Merman guard said with a friendly smile, Aton responded with a warm thank you. What was his name again Robin… Johnston? He felt a bit bad for not remembering his name, but at least he could narrow it down to those two, both of which had to go to one of the guards.
“Thank you, good job friend, we will be training in the room, you two can take shifts guarding while the other joins us.” The guard seemed happy at the idea of getting a break.
“Thank you, Mr. Aton, I will take you up on that offer.” He said happily, the other guard stayed silent, the first guard then joined Aton going into the room with his team. The room basically an empty cave with overgrown plants, and stalactites lining the ceiling, but at least private from the outside eyes with room enough for everyone and then some.
“Alright you two will be training for five days and then resting for one, we will need to be in tip-top shape for the expedition. Since we're down two I will try to recruit some more mercenaries or something. And Jasper, don’t leave this room, while it's most likely safe out there I don’t want to take any chances.” He said looking at Jasper with a concerned look, an act. While he did care about Jasper's safety, what worried him more right now involved Clide, he didn't want to lose Jasper to Clide, he didn’t miss Clide inviting Jasper over and now that they were weaker Jasper might get tempted to switch sides. And if he did, who could blame him? In a mere couple of hours, he went from thinking he had a strong team going into the Abyss to a crippled team facing death.
“Don’t worry boss, I don't plan on leaving, I wouldn’t betray you like that.” Jasper said after pondering what Aton had said for a while, shocking Aton, and he looked genuine not to mention he had no incentive to say it, now if he leaves he would be breaking a promise and before if he left it would have only made sense. Aton gave Jasper a thankful look and swam out of the room to go recruit some new members leaving Jasper, Joshens, and the guard Robin or Johnson. The guard went to a corner to rest and meditate, a basic form of training where an individual would slowly channel Ash through them over and over improving their Ash channeling abilities. Joshens turned to Jasper.
“So this is your first time this close to the Abyss, the pressure must be killing you huh no worries I will teach you how to train most effectively.” Joshens said with his old usual goofy attitude.
“Actually… I don’t feel much pressure, and actually, I wanted to improve my skill, I know how I wish to improve it.” He said enthusiastically, this surprised Joshens, normally people brand new to the Abyss would start to show symptoms from the sea and Ash pressure once they entered Molloy Drop. And improving his skill in only five days, he must be crazy.
“Oh okay, never mind then you do you… unless you want help training your skill?” Joshens asked, wanting to help, but Jasper once again turned him down saying.
“I think I'm okay, but thank you, I want to learn on my own, but if you see me doing something wrong I would appreciate you pointing it out.” So like that both of them went to their training, Joshens trained by channeling Ash in a defensive way over and over on different parts of his body while Jasper went to train on his skill.
Training a skill varies a lot between people, and partially why skills take so much time to develop, most of the time there would be no guide or reference since most of the time skills will be unique to the person. Copying somebody else’s skill will result in a much weaker version, so when Jasper denied help to develop his skill he meant it, Joshens wouldn’t be much help especially since Joshens had no skills.
Jasper in particular conjured things, so he could summon them and dispel them slowly over and over to improve their durability or summon them with slightly extra length each time to improve the length of them, he could also slightly change the shape each time he summoned them to try to shape them in different ways. Or maintain them for extended lengths of time to improve how long he can maintain the skill. Or moving them around to increase speed of movement could also be other training methods but those were what Jasper did in the past, however, he wasn’t planning on increasing the basics of his skill but rather to improve the ability itself after feeling so weak, he wanted to give it some combat aspect, and he had a plan to do so. So he began his training.