Lunch the next day was a bit more subdued, as none of them had made any major improvements over the course of only a few hours’ work. Alex had discovered in the morning that his first Mana Veins needed just a bit more work, but the help of Body Guidance had made it a simple enough task to add a few more strands to reinforce the parts closest to his shoulder.
He’d also completed the second array for the Enhancement, which was several inches above the base of his spine. Originally, he’d wanted it to be right at the base, but he’d changed the location because of another vent that was positioned on his right hip.
The change meant that this set of Mana Veins would be far easier to draw, and he hoped to finish the work in the afternoon.
A few minutes into lunch, Mrs. Stirling returned. Her absence during the morning had slowed things down, especially for Jess, but Alex felt that it was for a worthy cause.
“I finished that training field for you all,” The mage smiled, “It took me the morning because temperature control is difficult if you don’t want to burn mana.”
The reasons for that were well beyond Alex’s expertise, so he just focused on the good part. Over breakfast, Mrs. Stirling had declared that she would be creating an enchanted training field for them to use for adjusting to their new Mana Bodies.
Alex had been initially skeptical, unsure what a dedicated training field would change when compared to sparring with each other or just beating on dummies. The explanation of what Mrs. Stirling could do with a few hours of work, if she didn’t have to worry about building the field to last, had quickly convinced him that a field was a great idea.
The tower’s owner had specified the enchantments to maintain a pleasant climate for training, but that wasn’t what interested Alex. He was much more excited to see what the enchanted combat dummies could do.
*****
Enchanting dummies to fight back was something that Alex had known was possible but never experienced personally before today. The Academy didn’t bother, telling curious students that it was a poor use of mana because the dummies remained quite dumb. Facing preprogrammed movements wouldn’t help you improve past a certain point.
Alex quickly discovered that his Instructors had been right, his reinforced wooden opponent lived down to its name. The dummy went through a pattern of rather predictable attacks that Alex figured out within minutes of the “fight.”
It was a bit of a letdown after he’d excitedly exited breakfast following the announcement that the field was finished. It wasn’t like he’d been expecting a great fight, but the reality was that this was just practice. Good practice, though. He was acclimating not just to his attributes, but also to his new reaction Enhancement.
Even uncompleted, the boost was already seventeen percent, and Alex was enjoying the feeling. The Enhancement made it feel like he had a sliver of extra time to react to any attacks, which was initially a bit confusing. This was where the dummy came in handy, as it proved significantly better at pushing his reaction time than his friends would’ve been.
The Stirlings wouldn’t have decided to create a training field if there wasn’t real merit, and the dummy was doing its best to impress upon Alex the value of superior attributes. It only had a few sequences of attacks, but those attacks grew quite scary when they were delivered by an opponent with attributes at least five points higher than Alex’s. He wasn’t learning anything about swordsmanship, but relaxing just because his opponent lacked intelligence would’ve seen him knocked over.
It was reminiscent of the fastest ghoul he’d faced in Hard Mode trials but with real Strength behind the attacks. This dummy wasn’t actually moving that fast, but Alex didn’t have Inspire boosting him either. The result was a defensive fight where Alex had to figure out what sequence was coming and react properly in less than a second as each engagement started. It was near-perfect practice for his new Enhancement.
After nearly a half hour at high intensity, Alex took a break to go over the experience mentally. This still wasn’t the highest attribute level the dummy could reach, and part of him wanted to try out something a bit stronger. The risk was that if he went too hard and got himself injured, there would be no more unsupervised practice.
It wasn’t like the Stirlings’ presence was annoying, they had been helpful more than anything else, but he didn’t want to lose their trust in him. They believed he knew what he was doing, and he would show them that he did.
“Crazy to think that it’s hardly been a week since we were untiered,” Anthony put down his own spear from where he’d been facing down a weaker dummy. There were only two of the manufactured training partners, but the others had all been more focused on continuing to work on their Mana Bodies. They hadn’t shared Alex’s excitement for dummies that fought back.
Weirdos.
“I guess,” Alex replied, shrugging. He hadn’t considered it, too focused on the future.
“We were so excited by your plan and the Epic Achievements we could get,” Anthony mused. The young man was apparently in a thoughtful mood today, “Now you and I are two of the strongest Aspirants Earth has ever seen.”
Even David Alvarez hadn’t possessed a mana type at Tier 0, instead following advice from Plato to focus on setting a foundation and learning about the Realm with his Tier 0 Guidance.
The thought should’ve been a happy one, but Alex struggled to hold back a grimace.
It wasn’t really his power, after all. The contrast with Anthony made it even more obvious. While his friend had pulled off the near impossible and gained a mana type before becoming a Neophyte, Alex had been handed power well beyond what he could achieve on his own.
“Yeah,” Alex shrugged again. Delving into his own insecurities about what he would have achieved without David’s dubious assistance didn’t appeal, and he didn’t have much else to say about the topic.
Anthony noticed that something was off at this point, “You doing alright, man?”
Alex forced back the bizarre wave of melancholy. It was unlike Inspire to force something like that on him, and he didn’t want to consider the alternative too much, “It’s just a lot, you know? I’m focusing on preparing for the Hell Mode trial, so I haven’t really bothered to think about how fast things are moving.”
Anthony had a pained expression on his face, “I’m sorry man. I guess I’ve been so excited about the Achievements and the trial rewards that I forgot how hard this Inspire stuff must be for you.”
“No big deal, I would’ve done the same,” Alex smiled a bit, “Getting your mana type is huge. I’ll have to catch up once I get rid of this one.”
Anthony’s frown didn’t go away, but he nodded at Alex’s statement. There was a slightly uncomfortable pause as Alex tried to think of a good change of topic, but Anthony spoke before he could.
“How are you doing, with all the compulsions? I know you haven’t had anything weird the past few days, but it’s still gotta be stressful to constantly be on guard.”
“If things go well, it’ll all go away in a few days.” Alex shrugged, “That’s enough for me.”
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
“No, seriously,” Anthony pushed, “I know you mentioned it feels like a constant weight on your chest, is that still there?”
“I’m used to it, by now. It’s never been particularly painful, just a constant reminder, you know?”
“No, Alex, I don’t know.” Anthony frowned. They’d known each other for long enough that Alex could recognize the guilt on his friend’s face, “I really am sorry for focusing so much on my Mana Body the past few days.”
“I’d be more upset if you didn’t do that and failed to get a Legendary Achievement because you were trying to coddle me,” Alex had to fight to keep his annoyance off of his face. He could see where Anthony was coming from, but he’d been happy with their status quo of focusing on their builds.
“Well, good thing I already have it, then,” Anthony smiled at him, “Now, how’ve you been, seriously?”
“I think the compulsions are focused on preventing me from experiencing an Ethereal Drift,” Alex replied.
“You mentioned that,” Anthony nodded, “But how are you handling it?”
In truth, Alex was ready to give up and let Inspire take that win, “It’s annoying, and a bit confusing. I think Inspire isn’t pushing for behaviors, just keeping me out of sync so I can’t pull it off. It’s been… weird.”
“Sounds awful, yeah. Anything I can do to help?”
*****
Inspired Reaction
Reaction time enhanced by 42%. Additional effects may vary.
Time to see if his idea for a Strength Enhancement was feasible or if that vent was going to screw things up again.
*****
“How are you doing, Alex?” Muhammad asked in between drinks of water.
“Is this going to be a thing now that we have the training field?” Alex’s tone was exasperated as he stared out into the winter storm that didn’t enter their football field-sized safe zone. Getting back to the tower in an hour or so was going to be rough.
“Huh?”
Alex sighed and backed down from his unnecessarily aggressive tone, “Sorry, Anthony and I already had this talk yesterday.”
Muhammad smiled, “Taking turns getting you alone for one-on-one chats wasn’t planned. Becca would’ve demanded to go first, otherwise.”
Muhammad made a convincing argument. When it was put like that, Alex was a bit surprised that Becca wasn’t out here in the training field with them. Then again, she was probably only a day away from completing the Spark Ability.
He could tell that Muhammad wanted a real answer, so Alex just shrugged, “I told you guys this morning over breakfast, I’ve been the same. My answer doesn’t change just because we’re out here.”
Muhammad shrugged, “Yeah, you’ve been talking to us more than you were at first.” He paused for a long moment. Alex didn’t interrupt before he continued, “But it’s hard when the Stirlings are around, right?”
The training field provided an isolated area outside the range of the Stirlings’ senses.
“They’ve been very helpful,” Alex replied.
“Yeah, but they’re also some of David’s closest friends,” Muhammad stated, “It’s stifling, right? I’m angry about what happened, but I can’t say anything because I’m worried they’ll lecture me about him being a hero or something.”
Alex hadn’t worried too much about that, at least not since his Grand Mana Guidance. He didn’t really blame David, after that experience.
“It’s not really David’s fault,” He told Muhammad, “Inspire is… weird. Hard to manage.”
“But it is his fault,” Muhammad disagreed, “He created the mana type. They don’t just naturally become rebellious, that has to be because he did something. Even if he didn’t mean to attack you, it’s still his fault that he did.”
Alex wasn’t entirely sure where Muhammad was going with this. The rant felt out of nowhere. Then again, if Muhammad felt uncomfortable talking about this in front of the Stirlings it made sense that he would avoid the topic while they were around.
“Sure,” Alex agreed, “But we can’t do anything about it. Worrying about whether or not it’s entirely his fault doesn’t help us clear Hell Mode.”
“You’re really not that mad?” Muhammad asked. He sounded baffled by Alex’s level-headed response.
“I’ve spent some time thinking about it,” Alex replied, “There’s no point in focusing on what he did when there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Muhammad grunted, and Alex continued, “What was it like, for you guys?”
His friend sighed, “That’s not what I wanted to talk about.”
“I’m curious,” Alex told him, “It was mentioned briefly, but you guys haven’t really talked about it since then. At least, not while I’m around.”
“We figured you had enough to worry about,” Muhammad told him.
Alex didn’t really like that answer, but he didn’t want to turn this into an argument, “So you’ve talked about it with the others?”
“Jess and Becca,” Muhammad answered, “Anthony’s been focused on his mana type.”
Alex sighed, “I guess I spent a few days purposefully avoiding conversations, so I can’t really blame you.”
Muhammad raised an eyebrow at him, “Just the first few days? Answering a few questions at breakfast to make sure you aren’t under a compulsion doesn’t really count.”
“We’ve been busy,” Alex argued, “You want to clear Hell Mode just as much as I do.”
“Sure, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t worried about you.”
“What do you want me to say?” Staring out at the snow was almost like looking out a window. Alex intently watched the weather instead of making eye contact with his friend, “Inspire has given all of us an incredible opportunity, I’m not going to waste it.”
Muhammad nodded, “Are you really doing alright, or are you just pushing through it to help the rest of us get Achievements?”
“Muhammad, what are you saying?”
“Huh?” Muhammad was obviously confused by Alex’s suddenly pissed-off tone.
“Legendary Achievements, man.” Alex continued, building up a head of steam, “We’re talking about special treatment, extra attributes, a Minor Mana Baptism, and even some Competition Points.”
“I get th-“
“No, you’re feeling guilty,” Alex talked over him, “If our situations were reversed, what would you put up with to get me a chance at a Legendary Achievement?”
Muhammad didn’t answer immediately, but he had a thoughtful expression on his face. Clearly, he took the question seriously.
“I get that you’re upset about what happened. I get that you want to help. But I’ll be fine. All I need you to do for now is make sure you’re strong enough to get that Achievement.”
Muhammad seemed off balance from his rant, and Alex immediately realized that it had been over the top. If anything, he’d probably confirmed that he wasn’t doing as well as he wanted the others to think by reacting so harshly to his friend just wanting to talk.
“Listen, man, I’m sorry,” Alex started.
“No, you’re right,” Muhammad said, “I shouldn’t have said that. You’re doing the same thing I would in your position.”
“Still, you’re not wrong to be worried about me,” Alex replied, “I shouldn’t have snapped like that, it’s just stressful.”
Muhammad shrugged, “Well, I’m not gonna push you if you don’t want to talk about it. Becca probably will, though.”
Alex smiled briefly, “Probably.”
“Seriously though, man. If you ever want to talk, I’m here.”
*****
“I can’t get mana to any Enhancement in my left arm,” Alex frowned, “It makes my plan to empower my blows impossible.”
“You could focus it on your right arm,” Becca replied, “The power doesn’t have to be balanced perfectly.”
“It would throw me off when I’m wielding the weapon two-handed,” Alex disagreed, “And it would hardly be worth the mana to empower my blows if I switched to a one-handed grip.”
“Then don’t do it,” Becca frowned, “Two Enhancements are too much for the mana that flows through your Heart Rune, anyway.”
Alex sighed and put down the notebook he was staring at. Frustration wouldn’t fix the problem, he simply wasn't capable of inscribing veins in his left arm. It was time to move on. Mrs. Stirling had already told him that she considered his Mana Body more than enough to pull his weight in Hell Mode.
He’d been surprised that Becca hadn’t gotten her own time alone with him in the training field but hadn’t tried to push her. After reminding Muhammad that the important thing was the trial, he wasn’t going to change his tune just because he didn’t understand Becca’s actions.
“You’re right,” he admitted, “My reaction Enhancement will have to be enough.”
Becca nodded in agreement. She had already finished her own Mana Body, needing only a few days of work to rehaul the entire thing into a completely different Rare Body.
“We’re ready, I think.” Becca had a determined look in her eye as she spoke.
“We’ll have to bring it up over dinner,” Alex agreed. Jess had finished her own Rare Body yesterday, and Anthony was now capable of healing through touch. There were still three days left on Alex’s timer, but there was no point wasting time.