Owen knew he was going to end up needing to change his training schedule slightly from what it had been originally. Instead of making an attempt against the training gauntlet in the morning, he was now going to need to work on being able to more easily control his use of resonance. While it did make him more powerful, it was inconsistent. The biggest problem for him was deactivating his resonance, while being able to reactivate it afterwards without fainting.
The first issue he had ran into when he had started blazing through the gauntlet was his inability to deactivate his resonance, which led to him having wasted more than thirty seconds of time where his resonance was active and burning. He was already certain that if he learned a little more control, his next attempt against the gauntlet would be the one where he could finally contact Peggy and Myra.
He was pretty sure he could already clear up through round ten, but to be safe and not lose anymore item than he already had, he sat with the same dagger Xerxes had handed him. He tried releasing his resonance in a pulse through the blade, but other than the faintest of shimmers, it still wasn't anything similar to what Xerxes had been able to demonstrate for him. He spent hours trying to imbue his weapon with little success in short bursts.
He could charge the weapon with his resonance and keep it roaring with energy, but it burned him out faster than what he was aiming for. He wanted to be able to only imbue his blade when he made the attack and then immediately deactivate it. It would work well as a surprise attack, but one of the things he hadn't expected taking up the majority of his time trying to master was his intent.
Even though he knew resonance was all about fusing his intent, it hadn't felt like it at all while trying to practice it. When using skills, he could follow the flow of mana throughout his body and in the world around him and simply viewing it often gave him a better understanding. Intent had none of the same advantages when practicing. He had to try and balance an unseen power into his weapon and then be able to turn it off quickly. The problem was that the amount of intent that he was imbuing into his weapon was too strong to be able to instantly cancel it.
He finally stood up, slightly frustrated he hadn't made much progress that day, but he looked towards the side of the mountain and where he had continued to level each day and smiled. "Nothing better to take your mind off of grueling work than to go kill some monsters and level up." He said to himself. He began moving toward the stairway leading down the mountain, when Xerxes appeared.
"You are only allowed to kill monsters with resonance today and I will follow from a distance to make sure you stick to that rule. A good way to know an approximate limit you have would be to cancel out your resonance between every kill." Owen was about to protest, but Xerxes just shook his head. "It is better you master this before you go back home, if you have to slow down your leveling, then than it what we must do." Owen again wanted to complain, but he understood. If he wanted to try mastering this on earth, he would be screwed, as all of the responsibilities would come crashing down on him again and he wouldn't be able to hold the same focus.
The look on Xerxes face made Owen feel like he was missing some part of the equation, but after Owen agreed, Xerxes disappeared just as quickly as he had appeared. The next several hours were a disaster as killing monsters was easier than ever, but his hunting speed was still several times slower. The worst part for him was that between each kill he had to let the resonance either fade or he had to work on canceling it himself. His normal pace was at least a couple dozens monsters at this point, but today was the first day since he had arrived where on his march back home he hadn't gained a single level. He knew he was on the cusp of gaining another level, but using his resonance as frequently as he had made him worried he might faint if he took on another monster.
When he got back, Xerxes gave him one look up and down and sighed. "I suppose it wasn't possible to limit your leveling and have you practice restraint for the training gauntlet for the end of the day." There was no disappointment in his voice and Owen knew that he did exactly what Xerxes had expected him to do, but he decided to give the gauntlet a try anyways. It didn't end well, he had barely managed to defeat the rock golem before he felt like he was going to faint. Xerxes excused him and Owen went back to rest.
Three full days passed as Owen slowly got better and better at controlling his combat resonance. On the second day he had made an attempt against the gauntlet and rushed all the way to the fifteenth round before he had felt like he was about to drop. Still he had met Xerxes requirements and because of that, he had finally gotten a way to contact both Peggy and Myra.
He had been given a small round device, approximately the size of a marble, with a single button on it. Xerxes had given him a quick demonstration of how it worked and Owen followed the steps to the best of his ability. After pressing the button a system window appeared and two separate options appeared with some text below each name.
It worked similar to a phone from earth, but Owen thought the system could use some work. He could choose which people he wanted to send a message to and a system notification would ping them to let them know and it would then send the voice recorded message. It was only after the second person had sent a message back that a "phone call" could take place. The other downside in his mind, since he had immediately wanted to call Myra and see how she was doing, was that you couldn't message anyone else during a call. So, if he checked in with Myra first, he would have to wait until afterwards to call Peggy to make sure everything was okay.
He sat in place for a while after sending a test message to both of them. He wasn't sure what Peggy's training would look like, but she hadn't had many things to talk about when it came to her sponsor. If he remembered correctly, she had only gotten a sponsor at the very end of the week after the tutorial. He spent less than five minutes waiting for a response, before pushing it from his mind. He had gotten way better at controlling his resonance in smaller bursts, but as he trained with it against monsters and the like, his mastery had begun to skyrocket.
He had continued to switch between weapons and using resonance with each of them while hunting down monsters had resulted in him gaining over five levels in his intermediate mastery and his spear mastery skills. Stretching he went down the mountain side, this time using his spear, he had wanted to push his mastery to level 20, but something had been bothering him. He both hadn't gained any class levels, but all discussion of his secondary class had also been set to the side while he focused on resonance.
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His thoughts raced as he tore through monster after monster. It was only after he had entered the area where most monsters ranged from late level 60s to early level 70s that he forced his mind to calm. He managed to kill four monsters in that area before feeling exhausted. Resonance could kill most monsters he faced against, but the amount required to kill something that many levels higher than him was extreme. The only thing that made it worth it was that despite being able to kill less monsters, the experience was the main thing he was happy about.
*You have slain Rushhorn Boar - Level 73 x4
147,236 experience gained, 110,427 experience consumed by your 1st grade soul.*
Owen never managed to make himself feel better at all of the missed experience. He knew it was being siphoned to make his stronger in a different way, but still 75% of his experience was still more than he had ever felt comfortable with. The other issue he had with it is that his core had slowed down upgrading considerably. The amount of experience he had just gained was close to what it had taken for him to upgrade his core from its base state to the increased amount of power it held now, but even after absorbing all of the experience, the yellow color of his core had hardly budged.
He could only be thankful that despite the decreased amount of experience, it was still worth a levels.
*You have gained a level, you have 3 unallocated stat point(s)*
In the past three days he had, with much effort, managed to jump from level 33 to level 37. Which the best part was all of the stats points. He had 12 full points to spend and while his immediate inclination had been to boost his resilience and vitality, one stern look at him from Xerxes was all it took for him to evenly split the stats points between his dexterity and perception again.
The hike back to the peak of the mountain took little time and he boosted himself with his skill for the first time in a while. The power made him feel more alive than ever, but it came to an end all to quickly and he reached the courtyard where Lucas was making another attempt against the gauntlet. Owen hadn't interacted with Lucas or Briar much since he had woken up, but each of them was getting considerably stronger since they had first arrived and Owen realized with a quick scan of keen eye that Lucas had finally surpassed him in level.
*Lucas - Level 39*
Owen cancelled the skill before it started giving him the stats info as well, he wanted to wait until they were all back home to do a quick scan of everyone. He thought the surprise would be better that way. He turn his attention away from Lucas and made his way towards where Xerxes was sitting down drinking tea. "I have more than a couple questions and I am hoping you won't tell me I am rushing things." Owen said, not wanting Xerxes to interrupt with some abstract nonsense that last several times he had tried to get answers for things during the last several days.
Xerxes gestured for him to continue and Owen nodded his thanks. "Why haven't I been gaining class levels? Also what happened to the training gauntlet helping me form my secondary class? While I have made a lot of progress, a single class level for me is still worth two normal levels and I am not even sure what the bonuses are from a secondary class." Xerxes waited patiently as Owen finished asking questions.
"You may not like this, but it is mostly because of your practice with resonance. Class levels are based on how closely you are living that specific class. When you have an inheritance class, it is different. Instead it is based on how similarly you act to the original creator of the class and how well you follow their path. With you focusing and killing monsters the same exact way every time, the amount of class experience you gain is negligible." Xerxes said giving Owen a soft smile. "Don't worry though, I still plan on having you reach level 10 in your class before you get pulled home."
Owen nodded, but waited for Xerxes to continue. Xerxes sighed when he noticed that Owen wasn't satisfied yet, but continued anyways. "Your secondary class is a class that you develop and is tailored to you. The training gauntlet is a way for you to familiarize yourself with your fighting habits, how you approach problems when fighting, and your determination. With your focus on resonance, that will strongly effect the options given, but you won't be able to develop you secondary class until you've reached level fifty." Xerxes almost winced as he finished. Owen thought Xerxes might've thought he would blow up in anger at the response, but he could only sigh in relief instead.
A part of the reason he had wanted to know so badly, was that he had been worried he had been doing it wrong. He had been able to use resonance and it had made the gauntlet considerably easier, but he had started to become worried that he was removing to much of the challenge, which was the reason why he hadn't gotten a secondary class, but simply knowing was enough to wipe the anxiety he was feeling away.
He was about to speak again, when he got several system notifications.
*You have gotten a message from...Myra...
You have gotten a message from ...Peggy...*
Owen gave Xerxes a startled look and he smiled a waved a hand at Owen dismissing him. Owen thanked him quickly and fought back his excitement as he made his way towards his room. Using the small marble like device, he opened both messages he had gotten.
*Hey, this thing works right? It should, I got your message and yeah I'm doing okay, but don't worry, you should call Myra first okay?*
Owen smiled at Peggy's message, he would definitely check in again later, but he first wanted to call Myra. He gave her message a quick glance, but it was a simple one, all it said was to call her. Several seconds passed as nothing happened, but eventually he heard a voice playing in his head. "Hey? Owen?" He could barely hold back a grin as he heard her voice for the first time in almost two weeks. "Yeah, I can hear you how have you been?" Owen wasn't sure how long they talked for, but he had completely forgotten to give the gauntlet another attempt that evening as the hours slipped by.
They had eventually figured out a way to add Peggy to the call as well and the three of them took their time catching up. Even though it hadn't been much time since they had last spoken, it had felt like a lot longer. Eventually though as they started talking about plans for back on earth, Peggy had gotten a lot more somber. "I don't know if your sponsors have told you, but apparently earth isn't going to be the same once we arrive." Before either he or Myra could ask anything Peggy continued. "My sponsor hasn't given me any more information other than that, but she seemed like it was something normal. She just said to make sure that if I had any plans, to make sure they would be ones I could adapt on the fly."
"I haven't heard anything like that from my sponsor," Owen added and Myra mentioned she also hadn't been told anything. "Well apparently a lot of things will change and some of the only things that won't will be established guilds." Peggy said and Owen heard fear in her voice. He understood. They had still had familiar on the far side of the city that had had the least destruction so far, but if even more changes were coming to earth, they had no guarantee that their family would be safe. They spent another hour or so trying to come up with some smaller plans, but without knowing what the change would look like for sure, they eventually said their goodbyes.
They had all agreed to call each other at least every other day, but Owen was slightly distracted when he agreed. He had already started walking back towards where he thought Xerxes might be. By the time he found him, the other had already ended the call and Owen could barely hide the fury in his voice. "What is going to happen to earth?"