"What kind of lunatics train at the crack of dawn?" Roman asked as they wandered down the hallways of the massive physical fitness complex on the other side of Anchora University's campus. Eli felt fine with Lumencloud Invigoration and Restoration working together. He'd even given Roman a shot or two of Restoration, but he claimed he was still tired.
"Us, apparently." Eli counted down room numbers with half tinted windows full of private or semi-private exercise rooms with a full set of workout equipment in each room along with weights and matts. There was even a few monst—sys-spawn— dummies in the corner of each room. "I think we're a floor down still."
"In the fucking basement... Isn't Delving a super popular sport? Like more than football or basketball back home?" Roman grumbled as they rounded the hallway to enter another creepy stairwell. "Why is this gym so far removed from everything else then?"
"Who knows? Privacy, funding, does it really matter?"
"Uh, yeah, it kind of does. I need my beauty sleep, Elias."
"Herbert now, Romulus."
"Fine, Herbert. Not all of us have powers that render us unstoppable machines," Roman spat out while he rubbed at his eyes. Their footsteps boomed in the echoing shaft of the stairwell until they reached the bottom floor.
"Ironic, though, isn't it? Since that's all you want to use your powers for?"
"Hardly. I want to build a real mech or a cool power suit. Or a sci-fi spaceship, wouldn't that be neat?" Roman said with a whimsical smile as he pushed the door open that clunked with an electronic click once he pushed his hand against the latch bar.
A grand open space spread out in front of them with rows of workout machines, both familiar and foreign. Treadmills, ellipticals, various weight machines to target different muscle groups were on the right side. Boxing machines stood to the left alongside the same sys-spawn dummy machines he'd seen earlier, but in far better condition. Off to the left was a massive pair of double doors framed with sturdy bars bolted along the sides.
Speakers that had been playing music cut out for a calm robotic voiceover, "Students entering: Romulus Anders. Herbert Newton."
"Good! You're here," said Dorian Smith, who looked exactly like his social media pictures. He wailed against one of the sys-spawn dummy machines with a crashing wallop every time a target lit up. "Nice to not have to drag you out of the lab for some real exercise, Les!"
"Uh, yeah. Eli... Herbert, I mean, dragged me out of bed. Literally." He glared at Eli again as they drifted closer to the barrel-chested frat boy, who still pummeled his fists into the machine. Padding split along with the sound of creaking metal and plastic.
"Eli?" Dorian stopped to peer at them inquisitively. "Going by your middle name now?"
"Yeah, that's right." Eli nodded while he straddled one of several treadmills that seemed fairly standard to what he was used to, except for a PowerTrain button, along with the other preset exercise regimens. "It's shorter. Easier to call out and listen for it."
"Makes sense, I suppose, but I hope you don't expect us to not call you that when we're delving." He chuckled. "Nora would kill us if we broke protocol."
Eli nodded sagely, as if he had any idea who these people were outside of his sleuthing on their social media and in the text chains. Herbert seemed to be someone who regularly deleted his conversations since he found nothing before two weeks ago. He pressed the start button and eased into a jog.
Roman started running on the machine next to him after he put on headphones he'd found on his desk under all his papers. Music wasn't the same here at all. None of his favorite bands existed quite the way he remembered them. Eli hated it, but Roman loved how he could listen to all his favorite songs in a new way. He enjoyed whenever something was similar and especially when it was the same.
They even had a new genre here called ‘System-Synth’ which was full of interesting electronic sounds and beats. Roman had shown him a playlist of it last night and it made his System screens flicker and flash. He had felt each one of his powers throb and pulse in time with the music. It was neat, but also way too distracting.
So Eli ran in silence while the PowerTrain button tugged on his attention like a siren song. What would happen if he pressed it? Studying for Power Crafting I and his general research since they’d arrived had made it obvious that power enchantments could do way more than he had initially realized.
He pushed it.
Power scraped across his thumb and up his skin before it found whatever it was searching for. Eli gasped as it tugged against the usually indistinct place where his powers resided in his body, mind, and somewhere in-between. Screens flickered in front of his vision.
Choose equipped power to train or equip eligible power: Spatial Dominion Ev. 0/Lv. 1 Restoration Ev. 2/Lv. 2 Unequipped Powers: Voidspace Mastery Ev. 1/Lv. 8 Ineligible Powers: Imbue Ev. 0/Lv.5 (Maxed) Augmentative Elemental Absorption Ev. 0/Lv. 5 (Maxed) Lumencloud Invigoration Ev. 0/Lv. 5 (Maxed)> Eli blinked as he read over each of the options until he selected Spatial Dominion. Resistance clipped against his mind as he felt something suppress all his other powers entirely. Only Spatial Dominion remained untouched. Until he felt the power inside of the machine knead against the boundaries of space as it poked and prodded into it. He felt the machine's enchantment sink hooks into the zone of Spatial Dominion and reshape it while the treadmill whirred to a faster speed than it had before. He stumbled, then winced as the machine crushed his spatial zone into his skin. STOP CONTINUE ESCALATE DIFFICULTY - Warning: Injury could occur DEESCALATE DIFFICULTY (Recommended)> "Continue." Eli pumped his legs as he gripped the handles of the treadmill with a creak of tendon and bone. With Restoration and Lumencloud Invigoration suppressed, he only had Body of Light to enhance him. It was still plenty, but not quite enough to make up for the mounting pressure that plagued him with PowerTrain mode assault. Waves of enchanted power battered and clawed against him. Spatial Dominion firmed under his will as he ground his teeth together. All so he could stave off resistance that pounded into him. His legs blurred as light spilled from his internal stores to boost and heal his strained body. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Eli didn't slow down. He sped up. Air wheezed out of his lungs and sweat dripped from his brow as his lungs burned from the effort. He almost stopped when a notification pinged across his vision. How could he slow down now? Eli bared his teeth in a snarling grin as slammed his will outward into Spatial Dominion's boundary to expand it outward. To not only hold the PowerTrain's enchantment away, but to push. It. Back. Space seemed to congeal inside of the zone as it stretched and twisted. He felt it tingle as if something were pushing against him from the outside. A tickling sensation that grew as he continued to run. Force chewed up his fingers into his body from where he squeezed the treadmill's handles. It scratched against his boundaries with an endless scourge of thousands of microscopic blades. Each one cleaved against Spatial Dominion from what felt like every angle. Blood dripped from Eli's nose. He kept running. Space surged inside of his dominion like a familiar friend in a different form. Like the difference between a lion and tiger. Both were cats and he would claim space as his domain. Voidspace, regular space, what did it matter? It was his. His will became a bastion. Unyielding in the face of the PowerTrain's enchantments assault. He'd hold strong no matter how it tried to crack through his dominion. Space buzzed around him in the inch thick aura where his Spatial Dominion extended. Crackling droned in his ears as shoved back with every clenched muscle, and each breath he took. And then the machine's enchantment’s grip slackened. Eli could feel it. It was still there, but it wasn't as strong as it had been. He gritted his teeth and pushed harder. Light fragmented from his stores as it blazed through his zone into the boundaries of the dominion. Plastic creaked and snapped under his grip as he pushed the enchantment back all the way. His legs were a stomping blur that boomed with how fast and heavy his gait was. STOP CONTINUE ESCALATE DIFFICULTY - Warning: Lev$in could oc%ur DEESCALATE DIFFICULTY> That was odd. Why was the text glitching? Eli blinked slowly as he tried to read over the clamor that rasped down his ear canals into his eardrums. It was so loud. The world around him seemed to wobble as he squinted to focus on selecting the escalating difficulty option. He stumbled as someone grabbed him from behind and yanked him back. The treadmill came to a halt. Blood trickled from his nose, down his chin, and onto his shirt. The muscles in his legs screamed with the strain he'd put them through. Aches sawed down his spine from the crown of his head down to the pads of his toes. "What?" Eli mumbled as noises warbled around him. He was laid out flat on his back, where he stared up at the ceiling. Numbness speared through his tongue to fill his mouth with a dry prickling. Nausea rumbled in his stomach as water and coffee decided it was time for a prison break. Instinct guided his howling mind and body to draw on any source it could for relief. Nerves blazed with sudden heat before they cooled. Swollen, torn muscles flexed, then healed. He scrunched his eyes shut as wooziness swept through him. Then he opened them as Restoration filled him with energy, healed what wasn't broken, and restored what needed to be fixed. He opened his eyes to stare up at three faces crowded around him through a veil of tears. "You good? Eli?" Roman asked as he bent closer. He nodded as he slowly pushed himself up so he was sitting. "I appreciate the hustle, but you know it's dangerous to overdo it on the PowerTraining," said the far too serious Nora Peters, captain of the Anchora University Delve team. "You don't want to accidentally corrupt your power, do you?" "Corrupt it?" Eli yelped as he pulled up his status with alarm to check for anything amiss. Thankfully, it was normal... unless it was a hidden thing? [Stats: Body: Light (Photon Shot) Mind: None Will: None ] [Equipped Power List: Slot One -- Spatial Dominion Ev. 0/Lv. 4 Slot Two -- Lumencloud Invigoration Ev. 0/Lv. 5 (Maxed) Slot Three -- Restoration Ev. 2/Lv. 3 ] [Unequipped Powers: Voidspace Mastery Ev. 1/Lv. 8 Imbue Ev. 0/Lv.5 (Maxed) Augmentative Elemental Absorption Ev. 0/Lv. 5 (Maxed) ] "Did you really corrupt one of your powers before we did a delve, Herbert?" Nora asked scathingly while she narrowed her eyes at him. "Your stats might have fixed you, but whatever power you pushed too hard could be strained for Savior knows how long." Savior?, Eli wondered internally even while he read over his status again. He opened his mouth to say he saw nothing different when Dorian interrupted. "He goes by Eli now." "Whatever, Dorian. So, did you? Do you see anything wrong with your status?" "Nope. It's all the same." "Thank the fucking Savior," Nora sighed with as much relief as a smoker after three day relapse from another attempt at quitting. "Alright. Well. I guess you should take a break before we take a shot at the Crucible." "Alright." Eli stood up unsteadily with the support of Dorian and Roman while Nora studied the treadmill that was slowly mending the wear and tear in the belt and the shattered plastic of the grips. "Here, sit down. I'll get you some water. Okay? You probably drained all your water from healing yourself." Dorian guided him over to a bench where he gently pushed Eli to sit before he rushed off. "What the fuck was that?" Roman hissed once they were alone. "The treadmill has this cool enchantment that suppresses your other equipped powers and pushes back against whatever power you want to train." Eli turned to grin at Roman. "I got three levels out of an evo-0 power." "And then you started bleeding everywhere and collapsed! Not to mention, all that blood vanished somehow. I don't know if they'll mention it, but it disappeared. Did you teleport it and blow our cover?" "What? No. I just used Restoration." "Goddamn you and that cheat power." Roman muttered while he massaged his face with his hands. "That was fucking horrifying. Theo told me that Lana said you were always acting crazy and throwing yourself into things like that, but I didn't realize it was that bad." They both winced at the mention of their family. Eli frowned while he stared down at the unfamiliar blue and silver sport shoes he wore. So much was similar enough here he could believe he was close to home. Just in another state or country. But he wasn't. He glanced up at the pitter-patter of footsteps as Dorian walked with a giant water cooler jug held in his hands. "This should work, right?" Dorian gently, then frowned slightly while he studied their expressions. Eli's emotions stabilized instantly, so he was just sad and not hopelessly upset with a flicker of Restoration. "Yeah, that's great. Thank you." Eli nodded even though he had no clue what the boulder of a frat boy meant as he set the jug down and ripped the thick sheeted cylinder cap off with a twist of his massive hand. Dorian nudged it forward with his foot when Eli hesitated. Did Herbert have some sort of water power then? Dorian had mentioned that he must've dehydrated himself after healing himself. Did that mean he had some sort of water healing power, or was that a side effect? He tugged on the water with Lumencloud Invigoration even while he throttled the light part of the power with both it and Body of Light. It streamed and flowed out of the jug in a wisping ribbon of water that quickly gathered into his mouth, where he pretended to gulp it down. When really, he was vanishing all of it into a spatial bubble in his voidspace. Still, he hadn't realized how thirsty he actually had been. Power flooded into him at a measured pace as Lumencloud Invigoration absorbed whatever water it could once it touched him. Within a minute, the jug was empty and Eli felt like he brimmed with vitality. "Elemental stat powers can be so inconvenient sometimes, but when they work, they work." Dorian nodded before he crushed the jug under a sharp stomp of his boot. Plastic sundered before it vanished by the time his foot slowed to tap the floor. Ah, so Herbert had a Body of Water stat. Maybe he could fake it with Lumencloud Invigoration and Voidspace Mastery somehow. "Speaking of stats, did you reinforce whatever power you were training with one of yours, Herbert?" She corrected herself a moment later when Dorian glared at her. "Ahem, Eli." "Yeah, just a bit. I felt like I was really close to pushing it back and winning." "That'll do it." Dorian and Nora sighed at the same time. "You aren't supposed to beat PowerTraining enchantments. I know you usually prefer swimming or the dummies, but you can't infuse whatever power you're training with your stat when using a training enchantment. You're lucky you didn't break the treadmill and corrupt your power." Eli nodded nonchalantly even while his mind spun at all this random information being thrown at him. What was the point if he wasn't supposed to force the enchantments back? And Herbert didn't use this ingenious machinery and enchantments to powerlevel his powers? He also made a note to look up power corruption later. Nora nodded at each of them while she gestured for them to follow her over to the double doors. Locks clunked while the doors opened on their own until they stood at the threshold of an elevator. Space warbled oddly inside of there and in the shaft. He felt it with a shiver as they stepped inside. "Alright, guys, let's head down there while we still have our team slot. I don't want any other students or faculty hopping in through another entrance. Let's beat some team and personal records today, okay?" Nora said as she looked each of them in the eye before she smirked and said, "Ready to fight some spawn?" Dorian cheered a moment before he and Roman joined in. Machinery whirred as the elevator descended.