Chapter 29

After they were all done eating, Nate and Stacey left on their own personal matters while Jack and Cheryl remained, not in a hurry to be anywhere. Jack idly watched the tv mounted above the bar in the centre of the hall, nothing interesting was on.

He picked up a spoon and stared at it for a few seconds in boredom before casually channelling a trace of lightning energy through the metal, he watched a blue arc of electricity spiral upwards along the spoon before discharging into the air. He did this several times before he noticed Cheryl watching him.

“You’re getting good at that, you seem to have decent control,” she remarked.

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “But that didn’t stop me from wrecking my tv this morning with some sort of mini lightning bolt.” He sighed regretfully, the memory still raw and painful, his poor tv.

“Hm? You need some help developing your elemental abilities?” she asked. “The training hall is available for that sort of thing you know.”

Jack was confused for a moment. “Er, well yeah, but I’m a lightning element, I didn’t think anyone could help me.”

“Not necessarily,” she pointed out. “Plenty of elemental techniques can crossover and translate, we can guide you through certain processes to help you control your element better and develop new abilities. It's actually one of the services we provide guild members,” she explained.

“Well, ok then, how do I go about that? Do I just go on my pager and book some time with an instructor or what?” he asked.

“Nope, we still need to keep your abilities under wraps, we’ll reserve a room for a couple of hours and bring in an instructor who knows about you and see what we can come up with.”

“Alright, when and where?” he asked. He had nothing else to do today.

“Go down to training room seven B, I’ve just reserved it, I’ll meet you down there once I’ve rounded up a couple of other people,” she told him while busily tapping away on her pager.

“Uh right, see you in a bit then?” He got up and she nodded, still looking down at her pager. He picked up his stuff including his gear and his loot and walked to the guild hall and entrance and made his way to the training hall and room seven B.

It was a strong, heavy, grey steel door in the narrow dimly lit hallway, he went through it and saw the room was different from the other training rooms he’d been in. When before he’d trained in medium sized round rooms with mats in the centre for close combat practice, this room was narrower and elongated, with round targets at the far end of the room, it also had what appeared to be concrete barricades with viewing slits close to the door and lining one side of the wall.

Jack was alone in the room for several minutes and used that time to wander up and down the length of the room, it was about twenty five metres long and seemed to be bare concrete marred with the occasional black scorch mark here and there.

Eventually the door opened again as Jack was bent over examining an oddly shaped scorch mark. He looked over and saw Cheryl entering followed by his usual trainer Danny and an unfamiliar man in a lab coat carrying a touchpad.

“Hey Jack!” Danny cheerfully greeted him with a wave.

“Hey Danny,” he greeted him back, he walked over to the group.

“Jack, this is Sebastian.” Cheryl motioned to the man in the lab coat. “He’s one of the research assistants here in the guild who specialise in the study of elemental cultivation and abilities.”

Sebastian was a short pale man with a slim build and neat combed back black hair, he stared at Jack with intense interest, sort of as if he were examining a fascinating specimen in a lab, rather than meeting a fellow human being.

“You’re the lightning element that can cultivate yes?” he asked, leaning forward.

“Yeah,” Jack replied dubiously, leaning back. He gave a questioning look to Cheryl who simply shrugged at him before turning back to Sebastian who continued his intense staring without blinking. After an uncomfortable twenty Mississippi’s or so Jack suddenly clapped his hands in Sebastian’s face who flinched and stepped back in surprise.

“Ah ha! You blinked! I win!” Jack cried in triumph.

The man in a lab coat looked affronted for a moment before looking down at his touchpad and noting something down in it with a stylus. Jack anxiously tried to get a look at what he was writing.

“Hey, what are you writing?” But Sebastian just turned around, blocking his view. Before Jack could display anymore of his social skills when meeting new people, Danny decided to take charge and get everyone back on track.

“Ok Jack, so we’re here to help you train your element and develop an ability. Can you tell us what you’re able to do so far? And I have to say I was surprised when Cheryl and director Welts told me about you, I sort of thought….well, you know.” He gave a shrug and a slight grin.

Jack smiled and shrugged back. “Yeah I know, the whole cultivation thing was a surprise for me too. Um anyway, at the moment I can just about channel some lightning energy into metal weapons and tools. It's really useful actually, most of the time I don’t even need to deal a lethal blow to a monster, just tag it and the electricity does the rest.”

“Weapons and tools?” Sebastian asked, still writing furiously in his touchpad.

“Er yeah, you know, my axe and spear mainly, but a while ago I tried this experiment with a slime in a construction site. It had eaten or absorbed a load of hammers and nails and other metal stuff, it was nearly on me so I whipped it with an old chain and channelled a bit of lightning into it, not even that much, just a little, the slime literally just vaporised. Puff and it was gone, just like that.” Jack snapped his fingers, the researcher was avidly writing everything down. “So anyway I decided to keep the chain after that, I thought that if I could wrap it around a monster and then channel lighting into it, then being in contact with so much metal would make the attack much more effective,” he explained.

“Oh hey! The dog, the mutated Dalmatian, I remember it had a chain wrapped around it. So it worked then?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, it actually worked really well, it hindered its movements and then all I had to do was channel a decent amount of lightning into the chain and the dog was done. Then I finished it off with an axe. I’m definitely keeping the chain.”

“Can we see your gear Jack?” Cheryl asked. Jack shrugged but reached behind his back to unhook his axe, draw his spear and grab the chain from where it hung from the small of his back. He made sure to press the button on the spear to extend it so no one accidentally stabbed themselves. Danny looked impressed by the spear as did Cheryl.

“Did you get that at Gary’s?” Cheryl asked.

“Yup, pretty good huh?” He said proudly.

She took the spear, weighed it in her hands and then proceeded to rapidly and expertly twirl it around in an impressive series of manoeuvres and martial stances. All of a sudden Jack felt ever so slightly more inadequate than usual when he compared himself to other hunters.

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Meanwhile Danny was balancing Jack's heavy (in Jack’s opinion) axe on one finger whilst casually watching Cheryl test out the spear.

“Can I have a go next Cheryl?” he asked.

Sebastien on the other hand was crouched down, rooting around in a shiny silver case. When he stood up he was carrying fistfuls of wires and what appeared to be black pads attached to them. He walked up to Jack.

“Please remove your shirt,” he said to Jack.

“Err, I don’t think we know each other that well,” Jack nervously replied, taking a step back.

Cheryl ceased her twirling and approached the two.

“It's ok Jack, Sebastien here just wants to take certain measurements and readings when you use your abilities, it's all part of the process. I’m sure Sebastien was about to explain everything.” She gave a raised eyebrow and a significant look to Sebastien.

In response he rolled his eyes almost imperceptibly before begrudgingly explaining.

“These are electrodes, we’re going to use them to measure the flow of electricity running through your body before and during use of your abilities,” he finished with a little sigh and a glare at Cheryl.

“Really? And you do this sort of thing for every hunter who learns here?” Jack asked, frowning.

“Not for everyone, but a few,” Cheryl said. “This isn’t just a service for you, the guild gets government grants for performing research on cultivation practices and ability usage. We run little experiments like this all the time and send the results over to the relevant people. And before you say you didn’t agree to this,” she said quickly as Jack opened his mouth to protest. “You did, when you signed one of the forms when you registered as a hunter with the guild last month.” She held up her hand and Jack closed his mouth, he had wondered if there was anything somewhat nefarious he was agreeing to in those forms he signed.

“And will you be sending the results of this little experiment over to the relevant people?” he asked.

“That's up to the director, but probably not yet, we’re trying to keep the circle of trust small for now. And if we sent this to the government there would be more than a few uncomfortable repercussions,” she explained, actually looking uncomfortable herself.

“Repercussions? What do you mean? Why does the government care? So someone finally discovered how to cultivate and use lightning, big deal, it was bound to happen eventually right?” Jack said.

“Er, yeah, it's a little more complicated than that. You’re just gonna have to trust us when we say you don’t really want or need to know why this is such a complicated issue. Just focus on getting stronger and hunting monsters for now, yes?” Cheryl explained, actually seeming slightly nervous.

Jack thought for a moment, clearly there was something significant he was being kept in the dark about, but if Cheryl was so reluctant to talk then it was unlikely he was going to get anywhere just yet. For now he thought he would just agree to mind his business and be a good hunter, for now.

“Hmm, ‘K, shall we?” he simply said. Cheryl seemed relieved and nodded to Sebastien who approached Jack again. Jack took off his Armoured vest and tee shirt. Sebastien attached various electrodes and wires to his torso before stepping back and taking up his touchpad again. He looked at it for a few moments before looking up and speaking.

“Normal baseline readings, little to no electrical activity at resting state. Please begin channelling some electricity as if you were about to use an ability,” he said, only briefly looking up at Jack before looking back down to the touchpad.

Jack shrugged and did as asked, he drew on his core and channelled a small amount of lightning down his arms into his hands. Sebastien made some interested noises.

“Huh, hmm, three hundred volts, point zero five amps, not bad. Can you increase the power?” he asked.

Again Jack did as asked. He drew even more on his core.

“Ah, ah ha, yes, seven hundred volts, point one two amps, entering lethal range for a non-cultivating human. More?” he asked again.

Once more Jack increased the output, now beginning to feel the strain while Cheryl and Danny watched with interest, blue arcs of lightning were emanating from his arms and hands.

“One thousand three hundred volts, one amp, quite definitely lethal for most weaker monsters. Alright I have enough data, you can cease your efforts now,” Sebastien said, continuing to make notes on his touchpad.

Letting out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding he stopped drawing on his core and relaxed. The muscles in his arms felt a little sore and spasmed slightly every now and then, he shook them to loosen them up and get rid of the feeling. He’d never really needed to continuously channel the energy and keep it within his body before.

Once again Sebastien approached Jack and then began removing the electrodes and wires from his body without a word. Jack took this as permission to put his tee shirt back on. Sebastien began putting his things away in the silver case.

“All done Sebastien?” Cheryl asked.

“I have everything I need for now, yes, we’ll continue in another session at a later date. I’ll leave you to it.” With that he stood and abruptly left without another word.

“Nice guy,” Jack remarked after the heavy metal door slammed shut.

With that Danny stepped forward. “So, with that out of the way, what did you want to work on? Cheryl said you wrecked your tv with a lightning bolt?”

“Erm yeah, Russell said I needed to start developing a ranged attack if I want to progress as a hunter, so that's what I’m doing,” Jack explained.

“Well ok then, the targets down there.” Danny pointed to the far end of the narrow room. “Let's see what you’ve got.” He and Cheryl both walked behind the concrete barricades and looked through the viewing slots.

Jack frowned and ignored the feelings of being put on the spot, once more he focussed inwards and mentally drew a strand of lightning from his core and channelled it down his arm and into a finger tip. He could feel a ripple travel rapidly down his arm, he aimed his forefinger at the target and watched as an arc of blue lightning burst from his finger which then curved upwards after five or so feet and impacted on the ceiling.

He stood there for a moment, posing stupidly with his finger pointing at the target, not quite believing he’d missed so badly, or how he’d missed so badly. He looked up to see a small scorch mark on the ceiling.

“Nice aim Jack, just another twenty metres further and down another five metres and you would have nailed it,” Cheryl sarcastically heckled from the side.

“Try again Jack,” Danny called out encouragingly.

Jack tried once more, the bolt started out straight but this time it curved off left to hit the side after a few metres.

“This isn’t bowling Jack, we don’t have bumper rails here,” Cheryl continued her heckling.

“Again,” Danny called out.

Jack tried, again and again, but he just couldn’t aim the damn thing, after close to a dozen tries he rested his hands on his knees, panting for breath. The walls and ceiling of the shooting gallery were a patchwork of scorch marks and unmarred concrete. The area surrounding the targets and the targets themselves were completely unblemished and pristine. Danny and Cheryl came out from behind the barricades.

“Well, that was…..something,” Danny awkwardly put.

“It certainly was, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such bad aim in my life,” Cheryl mercilessly cut into Jack's self esteem.

“Great, thanks for the help,” Jack deadpanned.

“Ok, this is fine,” Danny stated. “We’re treading new ground here, so we’re all learning. I’m confident you’ll be able to get this Jack, you just have to keep trying. Aiming a fire ball or a high pressure jet of water is clearly not the same as aiming a lightning bolt. All I can suggest is to keep trying and to tweak your technique as you go, trial and error is what it's all about at this point I think,” Danny said encouragingly, patting Jack on the shoulder. Jack nodded in determination in response. “But whatever you do.” Danny suddenly turned serious. “For god’s sake don’t practise when you're surrounded by electrical equipment, or even outside actually.” He turned a rueful gaze to the ceiling where one of Jack's stray lightning bolts had veered off course and shorted out one of the lights, having managed to go through the ballistic glass shielding it.

Jack nodded again. “I’ll book some time here every now and then to practice.” He agreed.

“By the way, have you ever thought about using that weird magnetic ability you have in a fight?” Cheryl asked from the side, leaning against the concrete barricade.

He thought for a moment. “How would that work? I thought that was just a side effect of being a new cultivator.”

“What's this? Magnetic ability?” Danny asked in puzzlement.

“Yeah, you know when flame elements start hiccuping smoke or wind elements get a little gassy, apparently lightning elements become magnetic,” she explained with a knowing smirk at Jack.

“Whoa, now that's pretty cool. I bet you could have some fun with that,” Danny said with a grin.

“Jack already did, didn’t you Jack? Heh heh. He got Barry in the arse from the other side of the guild hall with a steak knife and fork. Ha ha!” Cheryl and Danny burst into laughter with Jack chuckling along ruefully.

Still laughing slightly Danny turned to regard Jack who felt the need to explain. “Complete accident, but it was the best outcome I could’ve hoped for.” He shrugged with an unrepentant smile.