Breakfast the next morning was surprisingly casual. The post-trial breakdown had been anything but. The group had needed hours to conclude that there was little they could do but work hard and improve, which Alex had already decided to do before entering the tower. It had been a draining end to an exhausting day, and Alex had passed out the moment his head touched the pillow.

Part of that might’ve been Mr. Stirling, but still.

His friends were not taking things well, particularly Becca. The news that his ability to panic was being actively suppressed had significantly worsened their outlook on his situation, but there was nothing they could do about it. Even the Stirlings’ powers couldn’t fix the problem as Mr. Stirling was completely unwilling to risk soul surgery in such a delicate case.

Despite all of that, breakfast went well. Everyone was unnaturally well-rested thanks to Mr. Stirling’s aura, and their breakfast was quite tasty. Each member of the group had decided on a task to focus on for the day, and having direction helped. Becca and Anthony both planned on discarding their attribute Enhancements, as their soul attributes were already unlocked, and starting to work on powers that were more immediately helpful.

“I have to refresh my memory with the books Mrs. Stirling retrieved,” Becca said to Alex while they sat next to each other at the dining room table, “But I’m confident that I can draw the rune for an Agility Enhancement. I might even be able to combine it with something else, before our next trial.”

An Agility Enhancement would be a difference-maker for the entire group, although it wouldn’t do much for Becca’s offensive power. Becca wasn’t dumb, she was fully aware that she was the weakest link in their team when it came to melee combat. An Agility Enhancement would let her evade monsters significantly more effectively, which made her self-sufficient. The increased speed would let her weave attacks in, but Alex didn’t expect that to be a focus for her.

He astutely didn’t mention the other reason she might want an Agility Enhancement. Supernatural surefootedness would make sure she didn’t trip again. Becca also left that benefit unsaid, but Alex was sure that it factored into her plans for the day. Embarrassment had to be a big reason why she had been significantly quieter than normal last night.

“Are you sure that’s what you want to go with?” While it was a great idea short term, Alex was well aware that it didn’t align with her long-term plans. Changing your Mana Body at Tier 0 was quite easy, so it wasn’t a huge problem, but it was widely believed that flipping between builds too frequently would lower the potency of your skills.

“It’s just replacing the attribute Enhancements,” Becca pointed out, “Everyone does that.”

Alex shrugged. She was right, it was just an incredibly fast turnaround to be dismantling her first Heart Rune maybe 16 hours after she designed it.

“I’ll probably be going with a Toughness Enhancement that’s similar,” Anthony stated, “I could use Agility, but I think that’s less important for now.”

Alex didn’t quite agree with him on that, but let Jess argue for him, “Why not Agility?”

Anthony grimaced, “Toughness helps me survive when I do get hit. There are merits to both approaches, but this suits me better.”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t plan on getting hurt,” Jess sighed, “But I’m less confident in my ability to keep pressure off of you and Becca than I was last night. I underestimated how much we would struggle with the trial.”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Mrs. Stirling’s voice flowed in from the kitchen. She was washing dishes by hand for some unknowable reason, “You struggled, but most of your problems came from nerves. We’ll work on some meditation before your next trial, and experience will make things better every delve.”

Jess nodded at that. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but you had to take what you could get. Alex expected that as the days went on the group would grow more adjusted to their sprint through Tier 0, but that might not mean much for their second trial.

Muhammad had plans of using all of his Skill Guidances to improve his Mana Control with the goal of improving his own Mana Body soon. Jess would join him in the afternoon but would join Alex to work on mental resistance during the morning.

Mrs. Stirling had stated that she didn’t want more than two students in mental resistance at a time, and Anthony had been immediately slotted to go last. The entire group was very interested in growing their ability to resist compulsion but if Mrs. Stirling was to craft a compulsion that pushed them in the right ways she needed to narrow her focus.

They chatted for a bit, discussing the way their day would look. None of them had an easy one planned. It wasn’t uncommon for new Aspirants to immediately use any rewards they received quickly for immediate power, but they had more to work with than most.

“Now, before you all go off to your own training, I have a story for you.” Mrs. Stirling had finished the dishes while they spoke, and now reentered the dining room.

“I assume that none of you have heard the tale of Ivan Oborin?” She asked, “It’s not something we tend to talk about much.”

“You mean the mobster with mind magic?” Jess replied.

That didn’t bring Mrs. Stirling up short at all. She just smiled and nodded, “Yes. I forgot you were such an avid history student, Jess.”

Jess accepted the praise with grace, and Mrs. Stirling continued, “Like Jess said, Ivan was a mobster. A bit more than a decade after the Arrival, he was the third person in Chicago to become Attuned. Tier 2 is the first large spike in power on the path, and he became something of a tyrant because of his accomplishment. We never learned the exact name of his mana type, but he created an Ability with it that allowed him to control minds.”

Alex was a bit unsure where this story was going. Surely, Mrs. Stirling wasn’t comparing one of her closest friends to a criminal.

“He became fairly megalomaniacal, for a short period. He accrued a surprising number of Neophyte and Aspirant subjects, and commanded them to do his bidding while he worked to take over the streets of Chicago. His reign of terror lasted hardly a month.”

Jess had a look of understanding on her face, and Alex was pretty sure he also saw the point of the story. Resisting mental influence wasn’t only a matter of overpowering your opponent, you had home turf advantage. You just had to learn how to use it if you wanted to win.

“Ivan didn’t die because David got his hands on him, or the other Attuned in the city for that matter. He was rather weak for someone at Tier 2 by all accounts, but that’s still significantly stronger than a group of Neophytes. Ivan died because his suboordinates broke out of his control. He’d been forcing them to act on his behalf for weeks on end, and eventually they figured out how to resist.” Mrs. Stirling paused at this for a second, “The situation isn’t the same, by any stretch, but I think it’s important that you know that the mana’s control can and will be resisted. What Alex is up against is much more powerful than Common mana wielded by a weak Aspirant, but it’s also less specialized in direct control.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Inspire is a mana type that focuses on amplifying what’s already there. Talent grows into genius. Excitement grows into passion. Understanding can even blossom into insight. This makes it harder to resist when it’s in its element, but easier to resist otherwise. What I’m going to do with Alex these next few days is work on steadily improving his mental resistance by pitting him against illusions and compulsions at the limits of his ability to overcome. It’ll help him progress significantly faster.”

Alex felt reassured by that information. He’d been surprised by Mrs. Stirling’s immediate acceptance of his idea to put him through compulsions. He’d expected some resistance, but she agreed that it was a good idea without any pushback.

The group got up from the table at this point and Alex gave Muhammad a parting nod as he went outside. Becca and Anthony split off on the fourth floor, which was a large study room. Alex gave Becca what was meant as a quick hug, but extended slightly as she clung on to him.

“Good luck,” Becca told him as they separated. She had only let go after several seconds.

“You too,” Alex gave her a confident smile, “I can’t wait to hear that you’ve already inscribed something powerful by dinner.” Becca smiled a bit at the comment, and Alex felt a rush of victory as the worried frown she’d worn for hours was gone for a few seconds.

She nodded her agreement, and Alex went back to climbing stairs.

It wasn’t until the 11th floor that Jess, Alex, and Mrs. Stirling exited the stairwell.

The room was entirely carved from stone, with runes covering every surface. The script wasn’t anything that Alex could parse, and the compulsion to look away overwhelmed his focus significantly faster than the one outside ever had.

This was Mrs. Stirling’s ritual room.

“Now,” Mrs. Stirling looked at Alex as they sat down, “Do you understand the difference between the compulsions I’m about to put you through and the impulses that you experience from Inspire?”

“Your compulsions are more… concrete?” Alex asked, “Inspire is more of a push, you called it an amplifier.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Mrs. Stirling disagreed, “Clearly, Inspire is capable of more than just amplifying. It took direct control during the trial, after all.”

Alex frowned, momentarily stumped. His thoughts raced through possibilities for a few seconds, and Mrs. Stirling put Jess under a compulsion to do push-ups while he thought.

“If they’re both a form of mental control, is it what you said about crafting compulsions at my limits?” He asked, “Does that make the training more effective?”

“Exactly,” Mrs. Stirling nodded, “While you do make improvements when pitted against something you have no hope of beating, hard-fought wins or losses are always the best way to improve.”

Suddenly, Alex really wanted to do push-ups. He immediately knew it wasn’t his thought. The compulsion was not subtle. Of course, his standards for subtle were likely quite high with how hard it was to determine when Inspire was working on him.

He started doing the push-ups, reasoning that it was a good warmup. He could start resisting the compulsion after he got his blood flowing. Morning exercise was a big part of his preferred routine, after all. Why waste the opportunity?

After about fifteen push-ups, he came to a halt. His breathing was still steady, and he frowned in concentration as he tried to break through the compulsion.

Of course, he might as well continue doing push-ups while he tried to stop. It was harder to focus on resisting the compulsion when he wasn’t doing push-ups. He descended towards the floor again, reasoning that he could stop doing push-ups once he’d managed to beat the compulsion.

He stopped halfway through his next pushup. He eased his way down to the floor, before pushing himself up into a seated posture. That had been surprisingly difficult to manage.

“That’s faster than I expected,” Mrs. Stirling praised, “great work.”

And then Alex went back to doing push-ups. He had beaten the compulsion, but that was no reason to finish his morning workout. He couldn’t afford to slack, and being in peak physical condition would make his mind stronger.

It took him almost twenty push-ups to realize that the compulsion had returned. He paused, but then continued on. It was a compulsion, yes, but it wasn’t wrong. A morning workout helped clear his head. Focused him on the day he had coming up. No reason to stop just because it was a compulsion.

Except for the part where he wanted to fight the compulsion. That was a pretty important reason to resist. He focused his mind on not doing push-ups.

He executed a push-up with his right arm while his left stayed fully extended. The lopsided maneuver felt off, and broke his focus as he tried to figure out why things had gone that way.

It was another twenty push-ups before he came to a stop. With an effort of will, he pushed through the desire to do another rep and instead pushed himself back onto his knees.

That had been much harder than the first time.

Mrs. Stirling was just getting started.

At some point, Jess left the ritual chamber. She had a frown on her face as she went, having failed to even match a third of Alex’s successes in throwing off compulsions. The fact that the compulsions got harder each time made the disparity between their levels even more stark. Alex had a significant leg-up, of course, but he could sympathize with her annoyance at her performance.

“You did fine today,” Mrs. Stirling stated as Jess left, “Mental resistance can be hard to improve at first.”

Alex was feeling an immense burning sensation in his core while he sat against the wall as Jess left, so he didn’t give a particularly heartfelt goodbye.

His breathing deepened as he focused on holding the position. It had already been a while, but he couldn’t let himself fall. That would be embarrassing, and even overcoming a compulsion wasn’t worth some embarrassment.

Alex’s butt sank to the ground where he sat for a second. Mrs. Stirling had mainly been having him do different workouts for the morning, and after several hours he hurt. He could tell that her actions served an ulterior purpose, as he grew more exhausted he had to exert himself more and more. He was pushing his limits now, and starting to get a firm grasp on his physical abilities after the Achievement and level up he’d received yesterday.

There were a few things that just couldn’t be tested in a ritual chamber, but it was still very helpful. He smoothly moved into a resting yoga position, cat pose, and enjoyed the respite. The transition had been a bit too sudden, and he realized that it was a compulsion, but he didn’t bother to find a way out of it immediately. He could use the break.

Mrs. Stirling chuckled at him and Alex sighed, it seemed like that would not work particularly well.

Surprisingly, he didn’t feel the urge to move into a new exercise, “Lunch is ready.” Mrs. Stirling stated, “Good work this morning.”

They headed downstairs to eat, and Alex saw that everyone else was also gathered. They spent a half hour discussing plans for the afternoon, more training, as they ate.

The group had decided to use today as their first day off of delving. Last night’s trial had shown that they needed to be better, and the opportunity to use Guidance from the Trialbringer gave them a chance to see relatively substantial improvement after only one day. The other days they could take off would be saved in case of emergency, although Alex considered that allowance unnecessary as any emergency would just be fixed by the Stirlings.

Soon, lunch wrapped up and Alex made his way back to the ritual chamber with Mrs. Stirling.

“This afternoon, we’ll work on seeing through illusions.” Mrs. Stirling stated, “It’s an important part of developing mental resistance, even though it might not seem relevant to you right now.”

Alex didn’t argue, she was the expert after all. He could tell that he’d already made substantial progress this morning.

He was also quite certain that he still had a long way to go. There was plenty of work to be done before he would have the resilience needed to stand up to David’s mana.

He was feeling optimistic.