Alex entered the illusion chamber and was surprised to not see Instructor Mark, the man must already be in the control room. His hunch was confirmed when the instructor’s voice came out of the wall, “Good morning, Alex. I'm sure you’ve heard me say it before, but I’ll say it to you again. Repetition is the foundation of learning. You’ll take on the same kobold scenario as yesterday, and you’ll do it three times. You have five minutes.”
Alex grimaced at the time limitation. It wasn’t too harsh, but he’d have to push hard to avoid getting caught in a stalemate with the spearman. If he wasted too much time on one repetition, he’d either have to accept failure or take undue risks in the remaining fights.
It was rare for a scenario to be handled like this. It would cost additional mana to rapidly reset the chamber for each repetition. The chamber would also have to switch back to the scenario other students were tackling after Alex was done. At the end of the day, that wasn’t Alex’s problem.
Alex grabbed a sword and stood near the front of the room. The countdown began.
“Five…four… three…”
He took an attacking stance, prepared to spring forward as soon as the scenario started. He pictured the scene he was about to enter. A plain grassy field, with no environmental factors of note. Just a fight with three kobolds. Easy.
“Two… one…”
He pictured how the battle would open, yesterday had started well. He’d copy the opening steps.
“Scenario active.”
The weight of illusionary leather armor pressed down on him just as Alex opened his eyes. He was already moving as his mind adjusted to the changed sights and smells. He quickly confirmed the kobolds were in the same location as they had been previously, moving to assault the warrior furthest from the spearman.
His angle was slightly different, and he changed up his opener. Instead of coming in with a feint to the head, he faked a slash from the left. The kobold moved to block, and Alex pulled the feint before transitioning into a thrust. The kobold didn’t block in time, and Alex’s momentum let his sword pierce bone. The advantage of height was shown as Alex’s chest-high thrust went right into the kobold’s skull.
The kobold fell limp, and Alex almost staggered as his sword was caught in its skull. He recovered easily, pushing the monster onto its back and pulling his sword out without missing a beat. Dispatching a beast with attributes a few points above his had barely taken a handful of seconds.
He dodged out of the way of a vengeful warrior coming to its companion’s aid, sticking out a leg to trip it up and wincing at the collision even as he hooked it successfully and dispatched it with his sword. This one had died even faster, with no need to close the gap since it had done that itself while Alex killed the first warrior.
The thrill of victory started to sing its addicting song, a tune that Alex loved but forced himself to ignore as he dodged away from the spearman.
If the scenario was truly the same, this kobold loved to grapple. All he had to do was bait it and finish it off. They exchanged a few blows, and Alex’s superior focus let him maintain a better position than he had last time. He dodged when he could, using the minimum movement needed.
The kobold was relentlessly aggressive and kept up its attack as the seconds continued to drain. Alex dodged another thrust, and the kobold whacked his left arm with the blunt, wooden haft of the spear. He shrugged off the pain, taking advantage of the kobold’s overextension and a slight pause in its movement to grab its spear with his left hand and attack with his right.
The kobold pulled its spear out of his grasp, hard. It was barely fast enough to avoid a cut on its face, but the hard pull made it stumble as Alex happily let go instead of providing the expected resistance. Alex was on the spearman before it could recover, meting out death as punishment for the mistake.
Without any countdown, the scenario reset.
Alex was suddenly nearly directly on top of the warrior that was normally to the left of his first target. The disorientation of the kobold he’d just killed vanished as he realized what happened, but the advantage of initiative was lost and the warrior pressed him back. The other warrior came to assist as the spearman closed, and Alex positioned himself so that the warriors were between him and the spearman.
The kobolds had a significantly better start to the fight, but no concept of tactics as they recklessly charged him instead of waiting the short seconds it would take the spearman to reach them. Alex dodged away from a club, positioning the kobolds so that one separated him from the other again. They were now almost lined up facing him, although the spearman was still a few feet out of range, and he used the fact that he only faced the one who had just missed to drive his sword into the cartilage of its neck, pushing its soon-to-be corpse back into its fellow club wielder with his foot even as the latter tried to move around it to get at him.
He fell back and grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground underneath him. The remaining warrior had faltered in surprise and was now behind the spearman. Alex crumbled the dirt in his hand into finer pieces. It was fairly dry topsoil, the scenario apparently taking place in a field that hadn’t seen rain in a while. What was unfortunate for the illusionary plants was very fortunate for Alex, and he threw the handful at the eyes of the charging spearman.
The kobold’s charge came to a stumbling halt as its hand went up to its face. Alex didn’t allow a grin to show at the successful plan, instead charging forward to dispatch it while its clumsy fumbling impaired it even more than his dirt should’ve managed. The kobold noticed him and moved its spear one-handed to block him, but its guard was completely off because of the awkward position. His sword smashed into the hand that held the spear, not severing it but doing enough damage to disable it. The spear dropped to the ground, and Alex followed up nearly immediately with a death blow as the kobold was momentarily stunned by the pain.
The last warrior’s overenthusiastic charge was dealt with clinically, and Alex’s surroundings reset again.
He had more space to work with at the start of the fight and used it to charge the warrior closest to him. The kobolds had been oriented to face his new position, but their positions hadn’t been changed. He was so familiar with the scenario at this point that his actions felt almost predetermined.
He had learned and adapted, the monsters hadn’t. The outcome was determined before the last fight even began and Alex finished the last fight just as quickly as the first two.
“Seventy-three seconds, you took more time for the one fight yesterday.” Instructor Mark’s voice came out of the control room even as the illusion vanished, “I told you I had something special so you would focus on different things it could be instead of reviewing the fight in your head too much. I assume you did that anyway?”
“Yeah,” Alex replied, “I was so annoyed that I let the kobold get in a blow that should’ve been a serious problem to leave it be. I was focused on other things for most of the day, though.”
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“Well, I can tell you came in today prepared. I was surprised you struggled yesterday because it’s been almost a year since I last saw you fail to handle an advanced scenario without serious injury.” The instructor replied, “I wanted to make sure you kept your head in it and fought hard today. You succeeded, that’s quite an impressive time.”
“Thanks.” Alex replied, “It was a bit easy, to be honest. Attributes aren’t everything.”
“You’re too good for these advanced scenarios, Alex,” The instructor smiled, “But you keep on coming anyway. Even as the other top seniors stopped coming by because the scenarios stopped being useful training. Why is that?”
“Illusory battle experience is still the next best thing. I can’t afford to slack off if I want to reach Tier 2.”
Instructor Mark chuckled, “That’s the answer I wanted to hear. I say that repetition is the foundation of learning, but hard work is the material we use to grow. I doubt you’ll be satisfied with Tier 2, whenever you do reach it. I think you’ve gotten all that you can out of the scenarios here, though. Might as well leave it to your younger cohorts. I’ve been happy to teach you, these past few years. Make sure to stop by when your path starts to slow down.”
The dismissal was clear, so Alex said his farewells and left the illusion chamber. He would miss the practice aid, but the instructor was right. It wasn’t helping him at this point, he needed fights he would struggle with or hours of training if he wanted to improve. The three straight fights had been meant to demonstrate how easily he could handle the opponents as much as test him. What was the point of training his reaction to extreme scenarios if the scenarios weren’t actually extreme?
Without the need to stay focused to accomplish a task, Alex allowed his reminiscent melancholy from the previous morning to return. It had taken him years to progress to the point of handling basic scenarios, and more years to reach the point where he could easily beat whatever an advanced scenario could throw at him. Now, he was approaching graduation, and the Academy’s untiered programs just didn’t have more to offer him. He’d grown as far as he could before beginning the path.
After a quick shower, Alex made his way to the library. The receptionist was Jasmine again today, “Is Becca here already?” Alex asked her.
Jasmine nodded, “I think she said she’d be up on the third floor. Should be very peaceful up there at this time of day.”
“Thanks,” Alex said as he made for the stairs. He ascended to the third floor and looked around. He couldn’t see Becca from where he stood after exiting the stairwell, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t up here. There was plenty of seating blocked by bookcases, so he started to circle the room searching for her.
She was in a silenced alcove on the other side of the floor, a few thin booklets were stacked on the desk in front of her and several large books sat beside them. She wasn’t reading, instead chatting with Anthony who had already arrived despite the group not having made any plans.
Alex walked over to them, giving Becca a hug and Anthony a nod as he entered.
“Congratulations,” Anthony said to Alex as he sat down.
“Becca told you?” Alex replied.
“She’s very excited,” Becca blushed as Anthony smiled, “We’ve all been waiting for you two to get together for years. I’m happy for you guys.”
“You guys all knew about Becca and Amy’s plan?” Alex asked.
“Muhammad and I pushed for the “just kiss you” idea, but Jess thought that getting you to make the first move would be better because of how stubborn you are. Becca asking and getting rejected was our worst-case scenario.”
Alex put his head in his hands while Anthony happily explained how the rest of the group had conspired to get through to him.
“I’m going to have to listen to Muhammad brag relentlessly about this, won’t I?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Anthony grinned.
“Anyway,” Becca said, “I figure if we’re going through with these early rituals, we should try to understand the process a bit more. It will be altered slightly by us not yet being Tier 0, but the ritual will still work. The Stirlings would’ve shut down the idea if it wouldn’t.” She gestured down at the table in front of them, “Some of these books are from the second floor, but I brought them up. The more in-depth books were all up here, so it's good we have access.”
“We?” Alex asked, “Didn’t Mrs. Stirling say you don’t need to do it?” If Becca could gain a Legendary Tier 0 Achievement, she would receive the rewards for all of the lower achievements at the same time. The Trialbringer wasn’t interested in having someone capable of a Legendary feat sit around at their tier chasing Uncommon rewards, so it piled them all together so they could focus on reaching the next tier instead.
“Her statement was predicated on me managing to get a mana type in Tier 0. Even with the boost from a Rare achievement, that’s nearly impossible. Six Connection just isn’t enough to do it in any reasonable amount of time and the minor guidance from a Rare achievement only points you in the right direction.”
“And the Epic achievement will give you two chances to gain insight with the Trialbringer’s guidance, on top of that initial nudge in the right direction.” Alex continued her thought, “Makes sense. You might even be able to form a Mythic Mana Body at that point.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Becca demurred while grinning at his comment. Mythic was a silly suggestion, but compliments worked on anyone.
“I’m doing it too, for the same reason.” Anthony nodded, “I’m around the same nineteen-minute mark as you, so it’s pretty straightforward.”
“Your parents approve, then?” Alex asked.
“They aren’t thrilled about it, but they’re confident that we’ll be able to get the Achievement.” Anthony replied, “That’s what we were talking about when you came in.”
“Oh, did something change since last night?”
“Things moved pretty quickly.” Anthony nodded, “My dad sat me down and explained why the two of them were so upset by your idea while my mom left the city. I’m almost certain she left to speak with David, no idea why else she would leave. They still haven’t confirmed him being back to me, but they were hinting at it this morning. Mom isn’t very subtle.”
Alex smiled, “That’s good. It’s weird she went straight to David instead of the Dean though, right?”
“I think it’s because they doubt the Dean will budge on this without David’s support. With what my dad told me last night, it makes sense that he wouldn’t. I’m surprised my parents are going along with this plan, to be honest.”
“Because…?” Alex prompted as Anthony adopted a thoughtful expression.
“It turns out that it’s personal for them. The student who died all those years ago was my parent’s first child. The older sister they never really talk to me about, Monica.”
The tension of the last evening suddenly made sense to Alex, as he went through his memories of how bizarre the Stirling’s reactions had been. They had taken the suggestion seriously, but they had been visibly emotional. It was bizarre until that missing piece was added. They had lost a daughter to this very same idea, and now he was trying to bring it back.
“And they’re still okay with you trying?” Alex asked.
“They’ve both improved a lot, but I’m a bit surprised. I barely finished my Mana Body in twenty minutes, but they’re both confident I’ll have plenty of time. There’s no reason to believe I’d have a large margin of error, so I assume that David plans to operate the rituals personally. He’d be able to guarantee us the most time possible.” Anthony had a frown on his face, “I feel bad for them though, this whole process is going to be miserable. Everything will be a reminder of my older sister, they don’t like to talk about her much.”
“I’m sorry, I…” Alex began, feeling terrible about making Anthony’s parents go through that pain unexpectedly last evening.
“No, Alex. Don’t be sorry,” Anthony cut Alex off, “My parents talked to me about it this morning, and they fully support us going through with this. They’re confident you’re right about the achievement upgrading despite outside assistance.”
“Still, it must be hard for them.”
“I think they’re using it as fuel to work harder, for now, my dad especially. He still has room to grow. If this works, students will be able to get improved Achievements in the future.”
Alex gave a weak smile, still feeling bad for Anthony’s family, “So we’re just researching the process today?”
“At this point, none of us are going to improve our chances by studying our mana bodies more.” Becca replied, “So I figured we could research a related topic. Who knows what we might find that will be helpful?”
Alex smiled, that was so like her. He looked down at the booklet, which was titled “Connection and Capacity: A Primer. 3rd Edition.” What held Alex’s attention more than the title was the name of the author. This primer was written and updated by the man who ran the Academy, Dean Carvalho. A man who had reached Tier 3 off the back of his research.