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<01/16/1972 – 12:56 | Blue Port Town, Gulop Region, Sprawn Valley>

"What in Sprawn happened?" Jane took it slow getting back up. Her head felt like it had been submerged under the weight of water, while her visual senses were impaired for a few seconds - courtesy of passing out entirely. Jane didn't remember losing consciousness, but the deep wave of fatigue cued her in. It felt like all the environment around Jane tilted and wobbled, and Jane could feel the hoarseness in her voice, stressed from the extremities of combat chanting mixed with her current weakness. She could tell even without looking that Taylor was supporting her while she sat up, but Taylor was offering something to Jane at the same time.

In that moment, everything returned to Jane, except for all of her energy. She was in the middle of battling against Jack in the rematch, but now she was here, on the ground and in pain. What the hell happened? She couldn't have lost, could she? It can't be!

Jane noticed that the object in Taylor's open palm was a normal class medical orb. From the looks of things, the situation was becoming more certain. Jane looked around everywhere, turning her head as quick as she could. There was Danny – standing right behind Taylor. The crowd of onlookers had all dispersed. People were walking by, barely paying any attention to Jane. It also reminded her that Jane and Taylor were sitting right in the middle of Blue Port's field of flat grass, and Jack was absolutely nowhere to be found. Still, Jane could not bring herself to believe that she had lost the battle once again.

"Take this," Taylor offered. "It will speed up your recovery." Jane took the orb out of Taylor's hands. For a moment, Jane seemed fazed. Was she really that confused about what just happened? Or was her pain this severe? Taylor couldn't tell. She never lost a Leray battle before, and neither had Danny. Although, there was that one time... The incident regarding the theft from Dakota's training facility was brutal. Danny and Taylor were left with so much Leray damage that Jane had to tell them what happened. Neither one of them passed out, but it was a really close call in the same instance.

Jane clasped onto the healing orb even tighter, now focusing her remaining MP energy to activate the orb. This was a common thing for all Leray wielders to know how to do, but for Danny and Taylor, the amazement of the glowing orb captured their full attention. Jane's energy activated the healing orb, causing it to glow very brightly with the purest white color. After a few seconds, the orb's light and the object itself faded completely from existence, and in the same moment, Jane completely recovered. She had gone from feeling sick and tired to starting the day off right. Even though her energy scope was not up right now, Jane already knew that her HP stats were all the way up to 100%. Her MP stats probably need more time to recharge though.

"What happened?" Jane finally stood up on her new strength, having Taylor stand up and brush the dirt off of her too. Jane demanded the answer from both of them. Taylor seemed hesitant to say anything, but Danny filled her in anyway.

"I'm sorry Jane. But Jack won the match. It was a really close call. He just left after congratulating you... Well, us."

Jane didn't have a follow up question. Her head tilted downwards in shame, herself to her thoughts. So it would seem true after all. Jane really did lose the match once again. Impossible! But reality begs to differ...

"Jane?" Taylor called. "You okay?" It wasn't surprising to see how quickly Jane had recovered physically. The med kit and healing orbs work really quickly, even though they can only be used outside of a battle. But as for Jane's empty expression, it was as she feared would happen. Jane is just extremely competitive, though perhaps not for the best after losing a battle to anyone. Even if Jane turns to Taylor right now and tells her everything is fine, it will obviously be a lie.

Jane heard the echoes of the wind in the town. Though it was still sunny and peaceful outside, she was able to completely block out the sound of people around her. Thinking back to the entire battle, certain things about Jack's attacks against her were not adding up to normal. The first match may have been a fluke, but not the next one. "You know..." Jane brought herself to face Danny and Taylor, wondering how they were about to take this news. "It's totally not my fault that I lost the battle."

"That's more like it," Danny replied. It was relieving to see after Jane remained silent for a very long moment that her very determination had returned to her. Even if she is too arrogant for her own good, it's unsettling to see Jane otherwise for some reason. "Jack's level was just a bit higher than yours. It couldn't be helped in the moment." Leray matches are like that. Even if you don't know a larger variety of skills, you can still come out on top if you've been in more battle situations. The more damage you take, the higher your endurance becomes over a gradual period of time. That's what Ms. Eliza said anyway.

"That's not what I meant!" Raising her voice in sudden anger, Jane took a deep breath. Her reaction surprised Taylor much more than it had Danny, and all three were silent again. No way! Jane thought. She didn't lose the battle just because Jack knew different or better spells than her. Jane knew it in her heart. She was faster, stronger, and most importantly capable of taking several hits to keep going. Hard training is important, but that is exactly what Jane has been doing all this time.

Thinking back on her memories, Jane recalled every single moment of physical training she had received. Even though much of it involved her special close combat skill suited for two daggers, she also learned to dramatically increase her own endurance for magical damage as well. Though that fight with Jack, it just wasn't the same. "Something is wrong," Jane admitted. "My defense against all of those attacks was terrible. I took three times more damage from everything thrown at me than I could have resisted."

Taylor shrugged her shoulders and lifted her hands in a pity gesture. "Now don't be like that. You're not the kind to make up excuses for losing one battle."

Danny cleared his throat, "Two."

Taylor wanted to turn around and give him a piece of her mind using the palm of her hand. Danny sure didn't understand how hard Jane was going to take that loss. Then again, Jane was acting even more illogical than Taylor expected. Now Jane was talking to her again, raising her concern once more.

"It's not an excuse. It's a fact!" Jane exclaimed. "Back when I was in training, I could take attack after attack and keep brushing them off. But one Thunderbolt from that guy, and I'm half-way down the end. It isn't right. My defense is too low for some reason, and this stupid suit didn't even help one bit."

"Come on Jane." He grabbed her aggravated attention, but Danny knew he was right about the suit all along. "A leather outfit isn't going to determine the outcome of a battle. You have to win it with skills and spirit. You really expect any suit of armor to protect you from everything?"

Taylor sighed. At least he was good for something. I ought to knock some common sense into Jane, before she really gets hurt.

Jane examined herself, the suit that she was wearing. She had nearly forgotten how it looked on her. Jane was so used to wearing so many kinds of dress spheres, it was such a radical shift from her normal style. Stylish was something lacking here for sure. The outfit was a tight fit for Jane, stretching just enough to express the curves of her figure more than she felt comfortable with in public, but this was hardly the issue. The damn suit didn't help her at all against attacks. What a rip off! "I'm taking this suit back, and demanding a refund."

"Don't do that!" Danny protested. Suddenly, Taylor joined Jane's eerie stare down in question. If Jane weren't feeling so depressed, they both would have made his nerves shot. "Look, it's not the suit that is the problem. Besides, you actually looked cool battling in that today... But if you really hate it that badly..." Danny cringed at himself for what he was saying. He meant to argue with Jane once more that the suit had nothing to do with damage intake or her reason for losing the match.

Taylor waited for a usual response from Jane, but instead, her sarcastic silence echoed everywhere. "Uh-huh." Taylor thought he would at least have a good excuse, but at least that means he may finally be growing up already. Trade out one pain for another, Taylor thought.

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Jane instantly reacted by enabling her energy scope, which disappeared after passing out since that person must be conscious at all times to support the systematic read-out. After doing so, Jane used her personal training with energy scopes to expand the holographic box in front of her, suddenly displaying and scrolling textual data that represented a historical reflection of the last battle she had. In everything she read, most of Jack's attacks used against her drained more health points than what those specific spells should normally drain. Danny and Taylor were a bit surprised, as they had never seen Jane perform such an action before, nor did they understand what she was doing. After cutting the energy scope off with her secondary conclusion, she let herself and the two of them have it. "Yeah, there's no way," Jane denied. She could have better used the money she spent on this useless gear. If leather outfits really made the difference in battle, it would have at least normalized Jane's unusual weakness. "Like I mentioned before, something about that fight wasn't right."

"Let me get this straight," Taylor began. "You expect me to believe, that regardless of suits and protection, you think you have some sort of magical weakness thing going on right now?"

Danny wanted to give it a rest. It only makes sense that Taylor would try and give Jane to admit she lost fair and square. She's being so weird right now. How can Jane be so full of it to think losing is impossible in a battle?

Jane shook her head in humiliation. "I know it sounds lame or impossible." Taylor nodded her head, already agreeing with the logic in that lone sentence. "But I'm telling you it's true! I know it is." In her last breath, Jane didn't sound all that sure anymore. Was she really this far away from accomplishing her dream, that anybody could just walk by and beat her in battle?

"All right then."

"Hm?" Jane and Danny both met Taylor's eyes curiously. That's it? Taylor believes her now? Jane quickly calmed down. I'm sure there's a catch...

Taylor lifted her finger, appearing to know exactly how to set Jane's suspicions to rest. "If you're so sure, activate your energy scope again and enable a scan."

Jane repeated, "A scan?"

"Don't tell me you've already forgotten." Taylor just watched Jane use her energy scope, but she also caught few glimpses of earlier readouts. Jane was checking the history of her damage, but not the effects attached to her. "We use run scans in our own energy scopes to detect for any potential changes physically applied to our person that would have some sort of effect in a Leray battle. If someone used a weakening spell against you, then your energy scope should report that as well. It has to."

Jane gasped in light of Taylor's wisdom. It was true that an energy scope scan was basic stuff, but Jane had totally forgotten that she could do this. Taylor failed to remember the nomenclature, but she's referring to a mobile deep scan request. Eliza must have went over this in the course as well. Initiating an effects scan is as easy as pulling up the holographic display box too. "You're right!" Jane agreed. "I'll pull mine up now." It was no surprise that it faded away right after Jane's battle came to a close. After thirty seconds of incapacitation, it fades because the user can no longer control their own energy scope on the count of being unconscious. Jane concentrated hard, and pulled up her scope with so much ease.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/W4xC8nRy/S2-Jane-N-012-Scan-EN.png]

It was as simple as giving a command to her energy scope. It would report back at any second to let Jane know of any changes made from spells or items. In battle, the use of spell bombs or magical spells that temporarily or permanently change the status condition of resistances to specific elements, or the endurance of MP/HP levels is automatically reported into the energy scope. Jane didn't recall that happening during her match, but any permanent effect only shows up in there once. Pulling it back up again requires this type of scan.

There are other scans as well, pertaining to the actual person. The energy scope only does so little, but a person's ME points can only be measured by special machines installed to certain buildings. These Deep Scanners are designed to examine just how many MP points a person can store in capacity, called into the amount of ME. The energy scope only reports that MP back in a percentage of what is left. That is why in a battle, nobody can predict whose level is higher than the others. It is possible that before Jack and Jane even battled, he may have had twice the amount of MP capacity that Jane had...

Jane wasn't so sure about that last part. Jack ran out of MP points faster than Jane did. Of course, he did so by using more powerful attack spells too. Jane was holding back on her MP, conserving it to the last moment. Is that the reason she lost? It's smart to conserve it, but doing so lowers one's damage level over time in a generalization period. Then again, Jack's HP endurance was so much higher than Jane's anyway, and he was wearing an ordinary dress sphere too. Though it looked like clothes from the Wild West, no doubt he had no elemental resistances set up.

"Huh?" Jane looked up to her energy scope, which read back: no stat changes. That's it. No stat changes were ever made to Jane, recently or over a long period of time, so Taylor had thus proven Jane's paranoia too much.

"You see," she pointed. "You've got nothing to worry about. You're defense is not naturally lower than it should be. Jack was a powerful fighter, and you did ask for a real challenge."

Jane forced her energy scope to fade by calling it down, but she didn't want to agree with Taylor at all. It was a hard-to-face fact, yet it was true. Jane really lost both times. Danny and Taylor won their first battles. Even if they had easy challenges, the detail didn't make Jane feel any better. Perhaps this dream of becoming a Leray master just isn't attainable.

Taylor noticed it again. Jane's defeated expression amplified as her head sunk. Taylor was finding it harder to convince Jane that she was an okay battler after all, if only she gets in more practice.

It was way too soon in the day and in the week to suggest this, and it went against his better judgment of the situation, but Danny thought of something that may cheer her up. "Perhaps there will be people on a more normal level in the next city. It is soon, but if you want, we could head to Gross City later tonight." It only makes sense to travel to and between places before progressing over a long distance for the purpose of training. Danny was meaning to ask Jane, but she was ignoring him for the moment's notice.

"You can go on without me," Jane rambled. "Why move to the next city when I can't even make my mark in this one?"

This isn't possible! Taylor could feel her muscles tightening over time, just thinking about how silly Jane was being right now. Two losses to just one guy, and she's ready to call it quits?! "Hyiya!" Taylor smacked Jane on the back of the head with the palm of her hand. Before Jane even had time to lift herself back up and muster up her aggression, Taylor delivered her reasoning. "What's wrong with you?! The Jane I know doesn't ever give up or act like this. It's just a stupid loss! Get over it and get tougher!"

Danny kept his mouth shut, certain that if he tried that on Jane, he'd find an early grave. Taylor must be getting brave to piss her off so boldly.

Jane didn't expect Taylor to be so direct or cruel to the back of her head. As she kept trying to convince her, the familiar sensation of shame returned to her, but this wasn't the shame of losing a battle. This was Jane's fault and hers alone.

Taylor knew her speech was certainly not the longest or most elegant choice of words around, but this childish way Jane was acting is simply intolerable! Her face began burning red in emotion, but there was still plenty to of things to say to Jane. "You said you want to become a Leray master. But nobody can be expected to win every single battle in real life. I thought you of all people would know better than that. You're the one who keeps preaching all of this stuff and then ignoring it after. You want to know what a real loss is like? Then give up and go home! Maybe then you can complain about the days you lost one insignificant battle, until you take it with you to your grave."

"Taylor?" Danny wanted to interject before she loses it. What is Taylor trying to accomplish? Why get so emotional about it? That's the most degrading thing ever! Jane couldn't say anything else. Those words, Jane couldn't think for herself anymore.

"Or..." There was much emphasis in Taylor's voice now, and she had suddenly calmed down. "Do you want to travel with us to Gross City? There, you can get in more practice, more training, and more battle experience. Have more and more fights, and in no time flat, you'll be winning ninety-nine percent of all Leray battles. Which one do you want to do?" Gross City has a different style of magical training that Taylor only knew of, little information available. Still, the place should be more filled with a mixture of normal leveled wielders given its higher population.

Jane couldn't help but gasp. She finally understood where this was coming from. Taylor was simply telling her not to give up on her dream, with such a strange way with words too. This was a side of Taylor that Jane never saw before. They weren't from around Sprawn Valley anyway, so there would be plenty of more to learn from them both. Jane thought back to her battle once more. A loss is a loss, and she was taking it as poorly as one could ever try to. Travel back home in defeat and just sit there aging forever? Or go to Gross City, with her two best friends by her side, already determined to help her master her goal? This one's a no brainer! "T-Taylor? Danny?" Her realization of how stupid she was acting a few seconds ago made her pause again to rethink things. "I'm sorry for that. Of course I'm going to Gross City! And though I planned on going later, I want to travel there before nightfall as Danny suggested."

I suggested going there after nightfall. Jane sure doesn't pay very close attention to detail. Whatever, guess she's back to normal.

Finally, the highly contagious smile that Taylor and Danny were hiding was brought frontward. "Yes! I knew you haven't completely lost it!"

"That's the Jane we all know," Danny added. Taylor was right after all. Jane came to Blue Port Town with the most confidence anybody could possibly possess. Maybe she got too confident during the battles? Aw! Who cares? It's not like any real harm was done. "So then, to Gross City we go?" Danny knew he would regret speeding up the travel by going to Gross City several days ahead of schedule, but they were still in the Gulop region after all. It was the only suggestion that would help snap Jane out of her stupid trance.

"That's right!" Jane snapped. She was quick to respond now, clenching a fist just to uphold her determination. Jane was already getting excited again. How could that have been taken from her? "I'll figure out a strategy for my next battle, and I'll win it!"

"Awesome!" Taylor was now as loud as Jane. She sure was happy that that nonsense was finally over. To think Jane was going to take a loss that badly... Taylor suddenly noticed that the three of them, acting the way they are was turning heads passing by. Blushing from being watched and judged, Taylor decided to tone things down just a notch. "Um, So Jane? Do we have everything we need to get to Gross City?"

"Mmmmmm..." Jane held her chin, already imagining the whole scenario. The plan to get to Gross City would involve traveling a lot in the woods. That plan alone needs a little adjusting too... "Hold on. First I need to dispose of this crusty outfit anyway. I can get a better one at the city once we arrive. Plus, we're not fully prepared just yet to travel through the Arragon Forest."

"The Arragon Forest?" Taylor sunk, certain that her questions are going to turn Jane into a teacher for at least a good ten minutes. History lessons and geography were not her strong point, but Jane incorporates both when explaining them. Taylor regretted the last time she asked Jane about the location of entry port Vanon. Even though its common knowledge that Vanon is the only entry path for sea bound vessels to enter Sprawn Valley, Taylor asked for the location anyway. Instead, Jane gave her every single detail about the very grains of sand that populate the shore there.

"Don't you remember," Jane addressed to Taylor. "That's okay. I'll explain it all over again."