Troy looked up when the door opened, and quickly put the sudoku book back in his bag. “I hope that there weren’t any problems in the office,” he joked, trying to pack everything together.
Yvalyn let out a small snort at that, but soon held up a small pouch in one hand. “No, there weren’t any troubles. The processing of your application went quickly, so your pendant’s all ready,” she told him, “However, I’m afraid that it’ll take a few more minutes to make your weapons early.”
Troy barely got to slump in disappointment before she added, “That means I’ll be able to show you how to use your guild pendant and all the benefits that come with it.” Troy perked up at the offer, and immediately moved his bag as she sat down. He eagerly sat up, back straight, and watched Yvalyn open the pouch. “Since you likely have never actively used a Skill before, I’ll be showing you how to access your Mana Pool,” she continued, and held her hand out.
With a faint jiggle, she pulled out an elongated hexagonal tag, then put it down in the table’s center. Troy leaned closer to look at it, but a sharp cough made him snap back up. “Sorry, I was a bit overeager there,” he apologized, and looked at her expectantly. “So, what are the first steps to using Mana?”
“When it comes to accessing your mana, that is simple to do with help, but next to impossible without,” Yvalyn clarified, already pocketing the pouch, “To access your Mana Pool, you have to work on separating the rhythm of your mana flow with the rhythm of your body. The two are naturally tied together, but that makes it all the harder to gather it without a conscious effort. Think of it trying to consciously blink or control your breathing manually.”
After she wiped her hands off on a pale blue handkerchief, she held her hands face-up over the table. “To help separate the rhythm, I’ll be guiding you through the process by directly inserting my mana into you.”
Troy snorted at the phrasing, but a sharp glare forced him to hide his amusement. “So, what position should I take for this?” Troy jokingly asked, fighting down laughter, “Hands on the wall, or all fours?”
The following glare could’ve curdled milk, but Yvalyn settled for simply slapping his closest hand. “It’s nothing that depraved,” she said, and held her hands up again, “I’ll feed my mana through you by holding hands, thus creating a steady flow between the two of us. The constant flow should help your own mana become more distinct, and from there, you can control it yourself.”
Troy frowned at the instructions, trying to figure out if there was any issue. However, despite the rather unfortunate phrasing, Troy was hard-pressed to find a real problem. “Alright, I guess that makes sense,” he accepted, and grasped her hands with his own. As he held polished hands in his calloused fingers, he looked at Yvalyn directly. “So, what’s the next step?”
Yvalyn glanced away at his look, but soon composed herself. “Just take deep breaths to calm yourself, and I’ll start feeding mana through you.”
Troy hummed in thought but closed his eyes to focus. Breathe in… breathe out… breathe in… breathe out… Troy’s body stilled as he continued the process, the in-out motions drawing any squirming out of him. He jolted minutely out of falling asleep however, when a small tingle ran through him.
“Calm yourself,” Yvalyn chided, her voice still steady, “I’m just feeding my mana through you. Just focus on the sensation and feel for your own mana.” While the tingle of her mana was seeping in like his whole body was going numb, Troy clenched his eyes tighter and focused internally.
The tingle ran over his body roughshod at first, only standing out each time he breathed. As he began to slow his breaths though, Troy noticed a slight dissonance between his own pulse and the bodily current, like a spare gear was spinning aimlessly off another gear and needed to be hooked up to something. On a whim, Troy focused solely on that sensation after he exhaled, then mentally pushed down on that ‘gear’ as he inhaled.
As Troy took in a deep breath, his eyes snapped open when he felt a new rush of energy run through him. It wasn’t something overwhelming like he had expected. If it was a battery, it was definitely a 9-volt instead of a taser or car battery. But as he took in another breath, Troy grinned at how the ‘gear’ of energy minutely sped up.
“There you go!” Yvalyn chirped, and Troy opened his eyes to find that she had already let go of his hands. Troy looked down at himself and clenched his hands experimentally as he tried to keep his mana active. After a few experimental pulls, he nodded in satisfaction at how the gear kept spinning inside steadily.
“I take it that you’re managing to control the flow of mana by yourself?” Yvalyn asked, tapping on his pendant with one finger.
“It’s a bit tougher without the singular focus, but I think I’ll manage,” Troy replied after a few seconds. He clenched one hand and made the mana flow speed up momentarily before he looked back at his elven mentor. “So, what’s the next step I need to take?”
Yvalyn raised an eyebrow but pushed the metal tag over to him. “Now, you’ll put that mana to use,” she instructed, and tapped on the tag, “However, rather than activating a skill, you’ll want to push your mana into the pendant to activate its features.”
Eager to begin, Troy snatched the pendant up and looked at it closely. It was relatively simple in shape, a flat hexagon that was stretched on the long axis. In fact, the only feature was a small bead of a gem in the dead-center. Troy looked it over a bit more, then finally held up the pendant by its leather cord. “So, how do I activate this?” he asked Yvalyn, looking between her and the metal piece.
“That’s simple - Just feed your mana into it,” Yvalyn instructed. Troy leaned closer as she finished talking, wanting to hear what was next. After several seconds though, she simply smiled and put her hands in her pockets. “I won’t say anything else there,” she told him, waving a hand in the air, “Consider this your test on how to utilize your mana.”
Troy hissed at the answer then looked at his pendant more critically. “Alright, time to get experimenting,” he mused, and grasped the metal item tightly. A deep breath reignited the gear, and he mentally pushed with the rotation. When the flow of mana was flowing steadily, Troy made the energy shoot in the direction of the lanyard… only for it to fizzle. The brunette frowned at that and began to accelerate his mana again.
After several attempts, Troy fed a slow path of mana from the gear, down his arm, and into the pendant. It took a few seconds, the energy gathering in his hand, but the inset gem finally began to glow. He sped up the process more at the sight of progress, then grinned when the gem glowed green. One final push finally made the green aura rise up, and formed into a floating screen in the air:
Troy Ericsen
Glass Rank - LVL 3
HP: 135/135 | MP: 145/145
[STABLE TRAITS]
[SKILLS]
[STORAGE]
[PARTY]
“There you go! I was wondering when you’d make it work,” Yvalyn congratulated him, her clapping muted by the cloth bag in her hands. However, she frowned at how Troy seemed confused at the screen. “Is there something that’s the matter?”
“I dunno…” he hissed, pointing a finger at each category, “I want to say I know what each feature does. But with how I misjudged Jobs, I can’t really say for certain what they are. Can you confirm them for me?”
Yvalyn hummed in thought at his question, then finally stood up. “While each adventurer’s menu differs from one to the next, I suppose I can take a look,” she relented. The elven guide circled behind Troy, then leaned forward to look at it. Troy stiffened when she muttered, “[Scribe’s Translator],” but lowered his hand while she looked at the screen.
She hummed in thought, then eventually nodded to herself. “It looks alright to me,” she hummed, then wagged a finger at each item, “Stable Traits menu, Skills list, Pendant storage and party interface!”
“And Rank?” Troy asked, pointing to the item directly under his name.
“That’s just your guild rank,” she told him, only to look disappointed at the listed rank, “I must admit I wanted to give you a higher rank, but since you turned down the EX Processing, you were assigned to be a Glass Rank.” With the explanation given, she glanced at Troy and asked, “Is there anything else you want explained?”
Troy shook his head, then broke the mana flow. As the floating screen faded away, Troy glanced up at Yvalyn and asked, “So, is there anything else to learn for this?”
“No, that’ll be the last of it,” she told him, then dropped the second bag in front of him, “Your weapons should take a bit longer, but here’s your Guild-provided Skill package. Just tap them to the pendant, and the Skills should be transferred in seconds.” At that, she stood back up, and walked over to the door. “I’ll wait for you out here, then we’ll go to the armory.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Troy opened the bag as the door swung on its hinges and blinked in surprise at the items inside. After he dug into it, he pulled out a thumb-sized clear crystal. The pointed, hexagonal shape was highly similar to quartz. But unlike the common crystal, a ball of white light was stuck in the middle. He held it up to the sunlight with curiosity, then finally tapped the crystal to his pendant. Both the crystal and the metal glowed for a few seconds, then a small screen appeared in front of Troy:
Skill Transferred - Intercept!
Troy blinked in surprise, then grinned at the action. “Well, that’s definitely a lot easier to learn than college classes,” he commented, and glanced down at the now-dull crystal. With his curiosity ignited, he reached back into the bag to feed the other skills into his pendant.
Skill Transferred - Stony Hail!
Skill Transferred – Skill Harvest!
Skill Transferred - Pinning Blow!
Skill Transferred - Ranged Control (Rope)!
As Troy pulled out the last Skill crystal, he frowned at how the stone was visibly chipped inside. Though he was slightly surprised, Troy shrugged at the visual oddity and tapped the crystal on his pendant.
The faint sizzle is the only warning he gets before a burst of light flooded the room. While there was little force, Troy ended up flailing backwards at the blinding blast. When he landed on his back, Troy only blinked up at the ceiling in blank bleariness, trying to wash the spots away. He heard several rapid steps run up outside the room, but his returning vision was finally greeted with a new window:
{Mutated}Skill Transferred - Obfuscate!
Troy squinted his eyes up at the screen, but any questions were cut short when the door slammed open. “What the hell did you do in here?!” Yvalyn demanded as she stormed in, the heads of her co-workers poking through the door behind her.
Troy glanced over at her in stunned confusion, then looked back at the screen floating mid-air. “I really don’t know what actually happened,” he told her, slowly sitting back up, “All I know was that I was trying to implement my last skill, and then… there was only light.” He stood up on shaky feet, then looked back at the fading screen before he cautiously asked, “Also, what’s a Mutated Skill?”
Yvalyn paused at his question, only to groan when she processed his question. While Troy was confused by her actions, she glanced around and picked up a splintered Skill crystal from the tabletop. “Damnit, I thought we had removed all of these from the general stock,” she griped, and looked back at Troy apologetically. “I apologize for the accident, but it seems that the last gem had fractured. With the structure damaged, it had altered the stored Skill to the point it transferred a different, or Mutated, Skill.”
Troy let out a noise of contemplation at that and looked at the clenched gem with concern. “Does that mean the skill is defective then?” he asked worriedly.
“No, it won’t be that drastic,” she answered with a shake of the head, “The pendants were upgraded previously to stop that kind of problem. Instead, the skill is corrected to a proper form that fits best after the information is absorbed, such as a Mutated Fireball skill being corrected into being a Fire Dart.”
Troy tilted his head at the comment, but only let out a “Huh” before Yvalyn walked towards the door. “Anyways, your equipment should be ready now,” Yvalyn called back to him, “Follow me to the training field, and we can see how your skills are working out.” While Troy still had several questions, he shrugged and followed her down the hallway.
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Troy squirmed as he tried to balance holding his spear in one hand and the wooden shield in the other. Neither were big enough to bring up questions of overcompensating: The circular shield barely had a two-foot diameter, while the polished polearm stood level with his own length. But Troy struggled with finding that proper balance.
“Are you sure that you want to use that weapon?” a familiar feminine voice asked from behind him, “It seems that you’re having trouble handling it properly.”
Troy looked up at the comment and turned around to find people watching him from around the dirt-trodden courtyard. While most were unfamiliar to him, he smiled faintly at Alcydes and Yvalyn being the closest ones. “Yeah, it will just take getting used to. It doesn’t help that they’re a bit bulky,” he told them, then looked around the courtyard. “So, where are the targets I’ll be practicing on?”
“Well, we’re not the capital academy, so your target is right over there,” Yvalyn said as she raised an arm. Troy’s gaze turned in the direction she was pointing, only to droop at the sight of a plain wooden post anchored in the ground.
Troy stared at it in disbelief and looked back to find Yvalyn already walking away. “When you’re done testing yourself, come up to the desk for your quests,” she called back. Once Yvalyn had left the courtyard, Troy turned to the post with a frown of contemplation.
“Alright Troy, you can do this,” he told himself, and hefted the spear up. After a few steps forward, Troy breathed in and pushed his mana into an active state. With his shield in front of him, Troy drew his spear back, then thrusted it at the post with a cry of, “Tack Anchor!”
The spear easily struck the post, the bone spearhead grinding against the wood. But while the mana slammed into the post, he frowned when the mana dissipated into nothing. Troy looked down at his spear with confusion, then tried the attack while crying even louder, “Tack Anchor!” When that failed, Troy frowned and took a few steps back. Maybe a different stance would help make it work…
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“Tack Anchor!” Troy shouted as he thrusted the spear forward with both hands, only getting a faint breeze from the action.
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“Tack Anchor!” He commanded, pointing at the post with his spear. However, rather than a flashy effect, a leaf blew in front of him aimlessly.
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“Tack Anchor!” Troy exclaimed as he dove down at the post, the spear held in a reverse grip to skewer the wooden post. However, the spear slid past the post when his grip shifted, causing his body to slam into the pole.
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Troy huffed as he stumbled back from the wooden pillar, the imprinted feature still unscarred and mostly unaffected by his attempts. “Dammit, what does it take to make this work?” He asked aloud, glaring at the post for his own futility. If it required a specific material or weapon beside a spear, Troy was going to scream.
“Are you sure you’re meeting the conditions?” Alcydes asked from the sidelines. Troy looked away from his current rival to the elven kid, and Alcydes pointed at his spear. “Most combat-focused Skills use precise actions. Did you check their details?”
Troy froze at the suggestion, and bit back a scream of frustration. After he violently exhaled through his nose, Troy dropped his spear in favor of grabbing his pendant. The floating screen soon reappeared in front of him, and with some clumsy touching with his shield-carrying arm, Troy clicked on the skills section.
The menu flickered, only to generate a whole new list of options. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered to himself, glancing around the menu. Trained Skills? Arrays? Which one was the right one for viewing his skills? He glanced up and down, and eventually tapped on [Skill List] at the top. When it finally showed his Skills, he gave a small cry of triumph, then tapped on the [Tack Anchor] listed near the bottom.
As the screen flickered, Troy growled when the details appeared:
Tack Anchor
Rank: ✩✩✩ | Proficiency: Novice
Type: Active | Cost: 20 MP/Use
Once the Skill is applied to a pointed tip,
the next piercing blow you inflict pins the
living target to the closest surface
for up to [10] seconds.
“Seriously? It only works on living targets?!” Troy griped, “Why the hell was I trying it on a post then?!” He angrily waved the screen away to access the general list and looked through them for any options that could work.
“Needs a partner to block for, only works on unnatural senses, is just an upgrade to Storage,” he listed off, jumping in and out of his options. As he opened second to last skill though, he perked up at the simple description it gave:
Stony Hail
Rank: ✩ | Proficiency: Novice
Type: Active | Cost: 10 MP/Use
When you hit a stony surface, you
break off a barrage of shrapnel
that flies up to [15] feet away.
“Alright, I think this can work,” he mused, and closed the mass of menus. Now with a plan in mind, Troy faced the post and took a step back. As the flow of mana grew stronger again, Troy drew the polearm like a golf club, then swung the blunt end at the ground with a cry of, “[Stony Hail]!”
Unlike the earlier attempts, Troy felt his mana resonate strongly with the exclamation, growing tenfold at the rush. The gear went into overdrive, and the faint trickle turned into an active stream.
The energy reached its peak at the same time he hit the ground, and he shot it into action. The flow momentarily surged down his arm, into the polearm, and flooded the immediate ground. Now complete, the land puffed up in a small burst while a spray of stones shot towards the post.
While none of them got close enough to hit, Troy couldn’t help but grin at the successful use. “There we go!” he whooped, only to stumble at his mana returning dormant. Troy quickly righted himself and looked over at the watching Alcydes. “Alright, I think I got the gist of it for now,” he told the elven kid as he walked away from the training ground, “Let’s go see what quests are available.”
Alcydes seemed skeptical at his statement but followed along towards the guild hall. As he stepped out of the field, Troy became curious and re-opened the Skill Menu. “How does that Rope skill work?” he asked aloud and tapped on it. As it appeared in front of him, he grew excited at the description’s wording. “How interesting,” he mused… only to let out a cry when he hit his head on a low-hanging pot.