Ekurzakir had commandeered a large hall for the experimentation, or training as he called it. Ambros was positive the hall was secretly part of the seventh circle of hell as he lay on the floor, black goop coming out of every orifice, and in some places, he was certain there shouldn't be any.
Everything had started fine. Eku wanted Ambros to get used to his new strength and body. With his relatively high Mind attribute, Ambros shouldn't have any problem and Eku thought it should be an easy enough task for Ambros to begin with. Revitalize even gave him a second wind, so to speak, to Eku's delight.
That was until Ambros tested how high he could jump, smashed into the sealing, and while he managed to land on his legs, they did fracture.
While he was laying there bleeding out of his broken nose and trying to not move his legs, Eku walked over, making tsking sounds, and said, “I should have seen that coming. This won't do.” Reaching down, he reset Ambrose's nose. Ambros swore that hurt more than breaking it had. Eku then gave him a large white pill and told him to swallow. Ambros thinking it was some sort of healing pill, greedily choked it down.
He was wrong. The next thing he knew, his stomach was in rebellion, the world started spinning, and everything went from bad to worse for Ambros. He started vomiting up a black tar-like substance that smelled like a dead man's flatulence. The black sludge started coming out his other end and then from his ears.
When he finally stopped exuding the filth Eku, who had stayed about ten strides away with a tiny golden box he kept in front of his nose the entire time, said, “Good, good. Congratulations on reaching the first step. You now have enchanted and refined bonemarrow. Great job, Ambros.”
Ambros managed to hack up an “I hate you” before he almost fell asleep in his own filth again. Eku's smile was draconic as he said, “Yes, that's the spirit.”
He then rang a bell from his dimensional bag, and ten minutes later, fifteen people fully covered in white cloths from top to toe started washing Ambros and the floor around him.
Eku again summoned another group, this time of four, and told them to take Ambros, scrub him down again, and put him into some proper clothes. He was then allowed to sleep for one hour on a bed or any time Eku decided to come and get him before that.
Ambros was so tired from the ordeal that he could barely comprehend what was happening around him at this point, but he did manage to say, “Whisper?” Eku answered, “I will have someone inform your little friend that you are unable to leave the premises for a while. She may visit you when you look less disgraceful.” Not exactly what he had hoped for, but far to gone to really care, Ambros simply gave a thumbs up before being dragged away by four unknown people in white clothes.
Ambros woke up to the clear notes of a bell ringing. The same bell Eku had used, he remembered. He almost wanted to be lazy and ignore it, but he couldn't afford to.
He was done hiding behind his carefree attitude. Sure, it was a part of his personality, what he presented to the world, but he also came to the realization that it was a hollow front. He did not wish to be hollow. Here there was no Gramps to protect him.
The clothes consisted of a long gray shirt and loose gray pants. His bots were still there but had been set behind some brown moccasins he was apparently supposed to wear. When he bent down to help slide his feet into the new shoes, he was surprised to notice he felt amazing. Standing up again, he did some stretches, and everything was fine. He wasn't even tired anymore.
On the other side of the door, he was met with the sight of an adventurer leaning against the opposite wall.
“Morning, I'm Calvin. Nice to meet you, Ambros. The commander told me to fetch you, so you up for being fetched? It will net me twenty merit points.” He said with an easy smile.
Ambros gave a smile back and said, “Sure, wouldn't want to deprive a man of his merit points, now would I.”
Calvin laughed and slapped Ambros on the shoulder, pointing him in the right direction. “That's what I like to hear.” He said.
They reached the training hall in no time. Eku was already waiting inside. When they entered, he said, “Good. You arrived in a timely fashion, so Im guessing young Mr. Rockfort didn't have to carry you kicking and screaming back.”
“Nah, Sir. He was a good fella. If there is nothing else, I'll see you all later.” Eku waved him away, and Calvin was out the door so fast it was like magic.
Eku said, “Remember him. Now how do you feel? Is there anything lingering from yesterday's advancement?”
Ambros considered and let himself feel his body, tensing muscles and relaxing them again. he did a few short jumps. His fractures had healed so fast he had forgotten about them until now, but nothing felt off. “I'm fine. Everything seems to be in working order.”
Eku smiled. “Good. While training is punishing, punishment is not its goal. Growth is. Never forget that if you ever decide to take on a disciple. Now, today we will start out a bit differently. Since we still must be careful, you don't accidentally kill yourself.”
Diferent it was. Eku told Ambros to step into a fist fighting stans. Ambros trying to imitate what he had seen on TV, raised his arms up in what he thought had something to do with boxing and angled his body slightly to the right.
After a minute, with nothing happening, he finally looked over at Eku, who was just staring at him. With a shake of his head, he finally said, “You have never fought before, have you?”
It was not really a question, but Ambros felt he should defend himself a bit and said, “I killed a few zombies.”
With a shake of his head, Eku said, “So has falling rocks. That doesn't make them fighters. No, this won't do.”
Taking a step closer, he told Ambros to widen his stans, lower his center of gravity, and feel for when he felt steady. Then he gave a gentle push on Ambros's shoulder that made him lose his stance.
He then had Ambros try to take a step forward or back and kept pushing him until he stopped losing his balance. Then another step. They did this little dance over and over for hours.
When he could take ten steps. Elu finally said, “Good, good. See how important the Mind attribute is? It helps you understand your own body to a much higher degree. It may not make you more intelligent, but it does help you subconsciously find connections and solutions. The Mind attribute should never be under half of your Body or Spirit, or you will not be able to fully take advantage of your attributes. Not that I think this will be an issue with your point acquisition rate.”
Summoning and looking at the copper sheet Ambros had imprinted again, he shook his head and said, “Ridiculous.” Waving the sheet at Ambros, he continued, “For now, this is all that makes you valuable. You need to change that, or many people will want your head and quite possibly eat your heart-”
Putting away the sheet, he started lecturing Ambros about the proper way to hold his hands, asking him why he was protecting his chest and not his head, and so it continued until Ambros was standing with his hands much further up than he had seen any boxers do.
Eku kept hammering the point that protecting his body was pointless in a fight without weapons. When he had gone through the rest of the strengthening reinforcements and refinements, his body would be hard as a rock and heal faster than most beings at a similar strength could destroy.
He then proceeded to have Ambros do short downward and upward slashes with his hands, fists unclenched. This continued until Ambros was a sweating mess, and he was allowed to eat.
Next, he was to do the same motions with sweeps of his hands from the side and imagine he was hitting at someone's head. When Eku was satisfied with that, he had Ambros start over, but this time he had to keep his balance while stepping back and forth as Eku threw soft fist-sized balls at him.
Then there was stepping back and forth, alternating up, down, right, and left swipes while being pelted by the balls.
Ambros was allowed four hours of sleep. He was asleep the moment his head hit the bed.
The next day followed the same routine, up before dawn. Workout until he was ready to drop. A second wind from Revitalize. Followed by hours of learning unarmed fighting stans. Ambros was starting to realize his learning retention was much higher than it previously had been, absurdly so too. When he took this up with Eku, he had simply tapped a finger against the side of his head and said, “Mind.”
After dinner, Ambros was taken to a bathroom. There were already five attendants in white clothes around, so he had some idea about what was about to happen. He looked at Eku's smiling face and almost took a step back when he noticed a bottle Eku was holding towards him he almost took a step back, but Eku noticed his hesitation and said, “This will strengthen your bones. This particular potion cant be bought inside the rift and cost me more than twenty platinum at an auction. Drink or stay weak.”
Ambros had started to gain some respect for Eku, despite his reservations about his motives for training him. At first, it had been the fear of death by dragon man that had motivated him. Still, after his bonemarrow enhancement and refinement and how the things Eku had him do actually did improve him, his respect grew slowly but with great reservation.
Ambros took the bottle and looked straight at Eku, and said, “No.” Before he downed the bottle in one go. Quickly got out of his clothes and lay his naked body down over the floor drain. No need to make this more difficult for the attendants was the last coherent thought he had.
Ambros screamed he cried, he cursed, but nothing helped as his bones were broken and knit together over and over, even his skull. He had long since lost any sense of how much time had passed, but he had stopped screaming at some point at least. That was an improvement in his mind.
Looking around as much as his eyes allowed, his cervical vertebra were currently being pounded into dust and reforged over and over.
Sitting beside him was someone dabbing his forehead with a cold, wet piece of cloth. It was heavenly.
He could see the worry on her face through the protective shield. Her eyes were red-rimmed and moist. She had been crying.
Ambros managed to force out, “I didn't hurt anyone, did I?” He heard Eku grunt before he said, “No, my boy. You did not hurt anyone. You did just fine.”
Ambros looked the woman in the eyes and said. “See? Everyone is fine. You don't need to cry.” Then his world turned dark again.
When he woke up again, he was in the bed he now considered his. Revitalize had made its presence known, so he felt great.
Leaning his head forward, he saw Calvin lunging in the room's only chair. Eating what looked like a mix between an apple and a pear. It did sound juicy.
His stomach complaining about being empty made Calvin look at him. Ambros gave the two-finger salute before laying his head back down with a grunt.
“Well, if it isn't Mr. Sunshine. Come on then, get some clothes on. I'm taking you to break your fast before you start today's fun and adventures in what is now known as the Caverns of Doom. There is a rolling pool going on why the commander hates you so much that he is personally torturing you. I have money on you sleeping with his daughter, you scoundrel you.”
Ambros couldn't help but chuckle and say. “Fine, if it's in the greater cause of food, ill subjugate myself to your half-witted self.”
Throwing the covers aside, he went over and got dressed. Calvin claimed to be blinded by the experience and demanded to see a healer, preferably one with a great bust.
Sadly for Calvin, he didn't get to see a busty healer, but they did get breakfast.
It was the first time Ambros took part in a communal meal since being thrown who knows how far across the universe. It was a surprisingly uplifting experience. The adventurers joked, threw lighthearted insults, and in general, were a much more congenial bunch than he had imagined.
He must have been clapped on the shoulder a few hundred times and shaken as many hands and various other appendages. Ambros filed as many names as he could. Never know when remembering a name can come in handy.
After Calvin declared Ambros couldn't possibly eat more if he planned on walking anywhere today that he took the final roll on the platter, with a great deal of sadness and conceded. He had only had four platters.
After saying his goodbyes, they went to the training hall. Ambros asked why everyone was so friendly. Calvin explained with the high turnover of adventurers in the settlement, you learned to appreciate the ones there more.
There was little competition for loot and treasure. New things spawned all the time. Unlike in the overworld, he said they were more likely to cooperate if two adventurer groups met rather than fight over whatever there was to fight over.
They said their goodbyes at the training hall door, and Ambros entered for another training day.
Today Ambros would learn to kick, and kick he did. He was told to pace himself, his bones may take it, but his muscles would still ripp, and his tendons snap. Ambros had to learn a completely new way to balance that day, but unlike the previous training sessions, he was given a practice doll to hit.
Eku also said he had gotten word about Whisper. She had apparently been drafted to scout for one of the ranging companies. There were signs of a horde gathering to the northeast, and they wanted eyes on it. The company would screen it, if it was there, until they knew what direction it would take. Other rift settlements around the hoard would be doing the same. Those were also Free cities, so no battles were expected, but the mission could go on for a long time.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Ambros was genuinely surprised Eku had remembered Whisper, even more, spending time gathering that much information just to appease some nobody like him. It was the first time Ambros started to see Eku as something more than someone in power using him and maybe in a more friendly light. Genuinely grateful, Ambros thanked Eku.
The same routine followed for the next seven days. Ambros would train, and every second day, he would be given something to refine, strengthen and empower some new part of his body.
The next was to reinforce and enchant his tendons, it wasn't as bad as the bones had been, and he didn't release nearly as much sludge.
Then it was muscle strengthening and reinforcement. It was a nightmare. It hurt less than bones and bonemarrow, but the amount of sludge was immense. However, Eku was prepared for that and had attendants in place to hose Ambros down while it went on.
Ambros ate eight platters for breakfast that day and had to order two more platters he ate while under the effect of increased gravity. That was Eku's latest way to amuse himself. He had set up arrays around the training area and kept increasing and decreasing the gravity while Ambros had to doge wooden balls thrown by attendants and Eku. It had apparently become a popular thing among the attendants because the next time, there were twenty of them. All volunteers. Eku welcomed them all with a smile.
Ambros also noticed he was catching up in size with Eku. Every day started feeling like a race against hunger.
Next was skin toughening and enchantment. Ambros was placed in a tub, and Eku started unceremoniously dumping a milk-white liquid over him. It burned, but at this point, Ambros had gone through so much worse that he just grimaced and kept discussing possible solutions to his circulation problem between keeping his head submerged. After a few hours, the liquid stopped turning clear, which was a good thing since Eku had run out of it.
The downside of the treatment was it removed hair, so when Ambros got out of the bath, the attendants started trying to suppress chuckles. Eku outright laughed in his face and said humans should have eyebrows. After seeing his face, Ambros had to agree. It was not a good look.
He did have a good laugh at his own face. That set off the attendants again. It was the nicest of the transformations. One left.
The next day found Ambros in the training hall playing the new sport called Ambros dodges balls. He was almost positive there were around fifty attendants trying to hit him.
He was learning to understand his body fast. At the end of the session, he could dodge most of the balls, except for the balls Eku threw. Eku seemed to know where Ambros would be before Ambros decided to be there. It was unnerving.
On the sixth day, Ambros had been instructed to not eat breakfast the next morning and go directly to the training hall when waking up. He was to do so after sunrise.
When he entered the training hall on the seventh day, he was met by Eku. None of the attendants were there. Eku told him to follow, and they entered what Ambros now called the baths of pain and sorrow. Even if there was a bit of dark humor in the name, it wasn't wrong.
This time, however, there was a metal contraption in the middle of the room, a big one. It had straps, thick straps. It would fit Ambros. He gave Eku a questioning look as he was contemplating his chances at running away. The worst part was that Eku looked somber.
Ambros finally said, “So, I'm not gonna lie. This has me a bit worried.” Eku's expression didn't change at all. He still looked somber and slightly worried, so this was probably not a joke.
He finally spoke. “As you should, young Ambros. As you should. I had initially not planned to give you this choice, but things have changed. I have learned something about myself and of you. Lastly, as always, there is karma.”
Holding up a red pill, Eku said, “If you take this, you will start down the path of the unknown. It will unlock another species variant in you. To be exact, it will open the variant of the first invaders. Now, do not get me wrong, I initially intended for you to go through the transformation because I believed it would grant you access to the upper echelons of the empire. From my studies, it was called the Titan variation in honor of those ancient beings. No, I don't believe it actually had anything to do with Titans, but that is what they called it and how they recognized their greater nobility. You would have been recognized as a prodigy.”
“What it actually does is finish the process of the other enchantments you have done and finalize it by strengthening your organs. Yes, they have been a carefully acquired set over a very long time.”
“It will also give you an extra set of the vital organs placed in your torso in case one or more suffers damage so massive it can quickly be healed. The extra organs will be taking over to support your life until the original ones are healed. That is a great advantage of the variant until you go through the first transformation. Together with Revitalize, it will make you almost impossible to kill. I do not know much about what the variant does after your first transformation, sadly.”
“Lastly, and for this, you have my sincere apology. I have forced you to undergo a process that normally would take years in a very short time. It speaks well of your fortitude and resilience but ill of my character. You did not deserve to be an unwitting part of my potential scheming.”
He then held up a blue pill. “However, if you take this, you will go through regular organ strengthening. You will keep the advantages of the previous enchantments, and they are much larger than you are aware of yet, but it will end there. You will still be able to grow. I will continue to train you as I have already been doing. Your potential is enormous with or without another variant, and in the grand scheme of things, the difference between having one or two variants matters little when you start walking the paths of true power. That may be thousands if not tens of thousands of years down the line and you will surely find things greater than this variant to increase your power in that time.”
Ambros had already chosen the path he was going to walk the day he started training. Taking the red pill, he swallowed it before asking, “This is going to be painful, isn't it?”
Eku just looked at him for a moment before what Ambros had learned was his amused expression showed on his face. “It will be excruciating.”
With a nod, Ambros went over to the steel construction and lay down on it. Eku followed and strapped him in. Finally, he took out a strip of green leather and told Ambros to bite down on it, something Ambros happily did as attendants started filing into the room.
Finally, a woman of unnatural beauty entered, to Ambros strapped down and naked embarrassment. Eku introduced her. “This is Talia. She is from the Healers Guild and will be here to assist if something unforeseen happens.” Ambros tried saying “Hello.” but with the strap in his mouth, it sounded more like hmmmhmmm. He did manage to wave the fingers on his left hand slightly.
Talia said, “Have no worries. The goddess watches over all of her children.”
That worried Ambros a lot more than anything else she could have said. Considering the process he was about to go through, whatever goddess she meant may not exactly have a very favorable impression of him. He was about to spit out the leather strap to ask Eku for a less biased-healer when the pain started.
To claim it was anything but horrible would be a lie, and Ambros was awake for all of it. The pill would not let him pass out. Ambros wasn't fully sure he was sane when it finally ended, but he did remember to spit out the leather strap and say, “Thank you, everyone.” Manners matter, especially to people that had been forced to watch you defecate yourself.
There was still blood on the walls, black sludge that needed cleaning, and other unintentional liquids.
A few of the attendants had been switched out as they passed out, and some because they simply couldn't continue. Even Eku looked horrified.
He remembered someone getting Talia a chair. They had thrown up at the same time at one point. Did that lower or increase his chances of with her? She was currently sitting with her face buried in her hands.
Ambros cleared his throat and said. “I have no idea what they pay you guys, but it isn't nearly enough.” He turned to one of the attendants and asked who many had ended up having to help. After a bit of thinking and conferring with a colleague, they concluded it took a total of twenty-three attendants.
Having his left arm unstrapped, he summoned twenty-three gold coins and told her to please make sure everyone got one when they were done here today, especially the ones that had passed out.
Every one of the attendants kept thanking him. It was almost a bit awkward, but they seemed very happy, so he was happy. As far as he was concerned, it was the least he could do. Just thinking about the stuff they had to go through. It almost made him shiver. Then he remembered what he had just gone through and didn't feel so bad about it anymore.
With his final strap off, he got up on his own. He actually felt good. Then again, being tortured with burning iron would have felt good compared to what he had just gone through. He should probably see a psychiatrist soon, and not for the usual suspects.
It was difficult being bashful around people that had seen you go through what he just had. He concluded he was in working order with a few jumps, followed by a little limb shaking.
The healer, Talia, finally looked at him from between her hands and asked in a weak voice, “Do you need assistance, adventurer.” She probably meant in the healing department, didn't she? He answered her with a grin, “No, Guild healer. I don't require assistance.”
“I will take my leave then.” Bowing her head to Eku before fleeing out the door. She was fast too.
Ambros looked at Eku and asked. “So, what do you reckon my chances with her are?”
Eku just looked at him for a moment and laughed. He laughed so hard that he had to sit down on the chair Talia had vacated moments before. That set Ambros off because he discovered something amazing. Eku's laughing sounded just like a sea lion honking.
Much later, when Ambros was cleaned and clothed and sitting at a table in what he learned was Eku's private quarters. The table held enough food for ten to twelve people, at the least, but Ambros was doing his best to make sure nothing would remain. His appetite became something of a legend in the short while he had been there.
They ate in silence for a while. Well, Ambros ate. Eku mostly had small portions of different items. As he had told Ambros. Food was no longer needed after you reached the fifth Circle. Many still did, for the pleasure of it, or special Energy rich dishes that could impart some sort of benign effect. Most were temporary, but there were dishes that imparted permanent effects.
When Ambros was starting to slow down, Eku said, “You know, you just bought a lot of people their freedom. While I personally applaud you for it, be careful. This time it will be explained away as some strange custom you picked up during your rift travels. If you keep doing it, the powers that run things will have you removed.”
Ambros took a moment to consider this before eloquently saying, “What?”
Eku gave him a strange look and said, “The attendants. A skilled slave of average looks is worth anything from twenty silver to a gold coin. Many of the attendants are slaves. These are owned by the Adventurers Guild, so they have certain rights at the guild leadership's insistence. You will notice that they are treated more as employees of the guild, and in a way, they are since they also receive a minuscule salary. It is more of a symbolic gesture, but still there. It makes them valuable, and causing them harm is to cause harm to the guild. Not to say it doesn't happen, but it is rear. The punishment is also severe.”
Ambros gave it some thought, but he understood what Eku was saying. Slave-based economies weren't anything new to him. You were more likely to encounter it than not when traveling to a populated world. Most of the worlds were places where the strong ruled, and the weak would bow or be destroyed. Earth was quite unique in that regard. The weak had the illusion of ruling, and the powerful grew more powerful anyway.
Shaking the thought, he looked at Eku and said, “No, I understand. I wasn't aware that they were slaves, but I should have seen it. If the powerful grow in power from something, they do not like it when people shake up part of the system that is making them powerful.” With a grin, he continued, “I will just have to become more powerful than them.”
Ambros didn't really have a particular view about slavery other than that he thought people shouldn't own people. It had, however, been a big part of humanity's growth from the start. Still was in some places on Earth. It wasn't something he had really had to deal with before, and he was unlikely to do so in the future.
He did dislike being told what to do by some unseen power sitting and getting fat in the shadows. Time would show what would come of it, but he decided to poke some holes in their fat bellies if he could.
Eku nodded and said, “Good, now that that's out of the way. Are you sure you are feeling fine?”
Ambros nodded and brought up his stats
Name: Ambros Mardux
Race: Human, variant. Grafted Primus modus, Sanguis Kronos,
Titles: Eques
Class: Arcanist
Level: 16
Experience: 387/2113
System rank: Questor
System points: 23,854
Circle: Neophyte
Step: 6/6
Body: 25 ( E )
Mind: 17 ( E )
Spirit: 5 ( E )
Unspent attribute points: 0
Active Skill: Analyze ( E ), Arcane Sight ( D ), Meditation ( F ), Sanctum ( F ),
Passive Skill: Giant Slayer I ( F ), Mana Core ( F ), Omnilingual ( A ), Revitalize ( F ), Toughness I ( F ),
Spells: Arcane Bolt ( F ), Arcane Shield ( F ), Control Earth ( F ), Control Heat ( F ), Control Water ( F ), Control Wind ( F ),
He had gotten a new skill too.
Toughness I ( F ): The skill cancels 10% of the physical damage a contender receives. Each new level increases the percentage negated by one percent. New ranks will increase the skills spectrum of damage negation.
He read the skill description for Eku, who made something that resembled a whistle. “This is a very rare skill Ambros, potentially a very powerful one. I know you can buy more levels for it in the system Item shop, or you can get lucky and find some treasure that does the same.” Ambros nodded at this. This was a very overpowered skill to have.
Eku brought up the copper sheet and said, “If I'm not mistaken, you should be able to have at least thirty-five points into each attribute before reaching the first Circle. That would be fifty-eight more points, so twenty-nine levels for you.” He grunted, “How the system allows you to exist is beyond my understanding, but we won't say no blessings, no matter how little sense they make.”
He looked at Ambros and said, “You probably do not know this yet, but most people do not max out their attributes before going to the next Circle. Let me rephrase that. Most people don't reach past the neophyte stage Circle, but of those that do, most do not max out their attributes. Only those with a lot more backing than anyone in the rift will ever see has a chance at it, and it's not a given. Here is something more you probably do not know, making your attribute acquisition even more aggravating. When entering the next Circle, your level reset. Each attribute you had from previous Circle is added as a percentage to your total stats. That means that when you reach the next circle with thirty-five in Body, any point you have or will put in Body is worth one point thirty-five points. When you have one hundred points in Body during the next Circle, you will, in reality, have one hundred and thirty-five attribute points in Body.””
Ambros didn't know the last part, but then again. He still didn't see the issue. He knew he had more stats, but never really having tested them against someone close to his power, he didn't really understand how the numbers really translate into action. He chose to remain silent, though. Eku was working up to something, and he wondered what.
Eku continued. “Word has come that the horde is heading in our direction. We still have some months before it reaches us unless it changes its path. The next month you will spend starting to learn not to kill yourself with weapons.”
Ambros grinned at that. He was starting to enjoy the learning process. He had come to understand something about himself. The acquisition of knowledge was not only found in books. The time spent on improving his body was hardly wasted. He would one day document this, and then it would be in a book, but until then, he would learn every morsel the dragon man threw at him. He also had to admit. He was pleased with his body. Vanity had its place too.
“Do you remember the place you met Whisper? There is a tunnel going down into the ground there. Yes, I had someone backtrack your steps to verify your story and remove evidence of your passing. You will never make a good scout unless a miracle happens, I am told.”
“After a month, you are to enter that tunnel and keep going until you clear it or something is far too powerful for you to destroy. This should give you a good chunk of the experience you need,”
Ambros nodded. It sounded like a good plan. Finishing the last of the food, he said, “Thank you, Eku.”