Alex was the last one to wake up in the morning, again. It wasn’t something truly important, but his tendency to sleep in more than the others was a bit annoying. He’d woken up by himself, so it wasn’t like they’d needed to wait for him, but still. Was he being lazy?
Fixing his sleep schedule so that he wasn’t reliant on an alarm to wake up early would have to be a goal after the trial. He didn’t see a way to change that in the short term, so he would have to push the concern aside.
Alex and Jess compared their progress over breakfast. Jess had undoubtedly accomplished more, with her Enhancement being a bit more than halfway done. Neither of his friends looked down on Alex’s progress though.
“That’s just ridiculous,” Anthony frowned, “Let’s talk about something else.”
The obvious jealousy at Alex’s ability to adapt to his attributes on the fly ended up killing the conversation, and the next few minutes were spent in a slightly awkward silence while they finished eating. Alex wasn’t quite certain how to handle the reaction, although he couldn’t really blame Anthony for feeling that way.
“I have an idea for where we should go next,” Anthony broke the silence as breakfast wrapped up.
“Oh?” Alex asked, prompting him to explain the statement.
“While I was the sentry, I spent some time considering our path so far,” Anthony began, “This grave was Northwest of the last one, and I want to see if that pattern will hold for another. I think I can get the angle just about right.”
The logic was easy to follow, but what impressed Alex was the idea that he could match the angle. They’d left the last grave heading West before turning North, and Alex wasn’t at all confident in figuring out the direction of the last grave.
“There might not be another in the same direction,” Alex pointed out the obvious flaw in this plan.
“No,” Anthony replied, “But it’s better than just wandering aimlessly.”
Every time they planned out their next move was a reminder that their group composition was truly awful for a trial that wanted them to discover things. For the promised survival trial, they’d been set up perfectly. Finding special landmarks was a bit out of their depth.
Not letting the negative thought spiral to its inevitable conclusion, Alex instead agreed with Anthony, “Fair enough. I don’t have any better ideas.”
“Are we happy just searching for graves?” Jess asked.
“I’m fine with that,” Alex stated, “If we can find one every day, we’d end up with nearly 300 points each.”
“Yeah,” Anthony agreed, “We’re just as likely to stumble into something special this way, anyway.”
“Alright, just wanted to make sure,” Jess didn’t bother adding her own opinion, but her agreement was implied, “In that case, we should be ready to head out.”
The group started moving, falling into the same routine as the last two days. With all of them at Tier 1, there was no need for funneling kills. The Aspirant snakes that bothered them were dispatched ruthlessly and without issue. No Neophytes attacked the group.
“Northeast,” Alex eventually called out. It seemed that the flat nature of the fields made Perception the only truly important factor for spotting a milestone first. It didn’t have much to do with Alex being more attentive, although he had been keeping an eye out, he just saw it before others.
Their new direction was far more East than North. The sun’s position in the sky reflected an early morning, allowing Alex to easily determine cardinal directions. The thought made him realize that the sun might rise in the North on this planet, but it ultimately didn’t matter as long as the group had an agreed-upon way to direct themselves.
“Looks like directly North from the last one,” Anthony stated when he spotted the site only a few minutes after Alex.
“Do you think the next one will be to the Northeast?” Jess asked, “That would keep the pattern.”
“Could be,” Anthony replied, “Trying that is our best bet, but let’s reach this site first.”
Several minutes and twenty points later, the group was standing outside of another grouping of nine huts. Alex, not for the first time, admired how well these buildings had resisted the erosion of time.
“Is it worth opening them?” Anthony asked, “We’re running out of space in our bags, like Jess pointed out yesterday.”
“Once I’m ready to start trying to Refine them, I doubt I’ll succeed every time right away,” Alex pointed out, “Might as well grab as many as we can for now.”
“Why do we need the extras?” Jess asked, “Wouldn’t variety make better practice once you’ve figured this out?”
Alex was initially surprised by the question since the value of having apertures that anyone could use seemed obvious. He wasn’t really sure whether or not moving on to Refining different things was a good idea. He was certain Refine wasn’t some general crafting mana type he could use on anything, and apertures seemed to be one of the best things he had to work with.
“They can be given to other Neophytes,” Anthony pointed out, “The extra attributes would be a big deal for most of our classmates once they tier up.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of selling them to noncombatants for credits,” Alex said, “But that works too.”
“Why sell them to noncombatants?” Anthony asked.
“Well, adventurers could also work,” Alex backtracked slightly, “It just seemed like a great way to make some money to upgrade our equipment after this trial. That way we can stop mooching off your parents.”
Alex had never really been left wanting growing up. The orphanages had always been well equipped and funded, and the Academy was possibly the largest gathering of wealth in New Chicago. Still, he’d never suffered under the delusion that he was rich. The others were the same way, which sometimes led to them all seeing things very differently from Anthony.
That wasn’t anything against Anthony, he was a great guy. Still, the incredible privilege of his upbringing was made obvious when the scowl of a man ready to argue his point turned into an agreeing nod. It hadn’t been the idea of making money or equipping themselves that convinced him, it was the thought of independence from his parents.
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“Good point,” Anthony said, “Still, would be a shame to not at least give other students a good deal.”
Most Aspirants or new Neophytes would have around as many credits as Alex’s group, so it would have to be a pretty great deal. Getting a job to make a living and contribute to society was often something focused on after reaching Tier 1, as Aspirants enjoyed plenty of support from New Chicago designed to make sure they reached Tier 1 and started producing more mana.
The people who were going straight into a trade or had some other job lined up right away would often be carried to Tier 1 by adventurers within a month of starting the path. Several of their less combat-focused classmates would likely be part of this group, but those weren’t the classmates that Anthony was thinking of.
“Either way, grabbing more of the apertures is a good thing,” Jess stated, “We’ll continue to do so today, and see how it turns out.”
Anthony nodded, “I don’t mind keeping watch for a bit to start the day, just swap out with me later.”
The mention of keeping watching sparked a realization, “Hey, you guys didn’t wake me up for a shift keeping watch last night.”
“I took your watch,” Jess replied, “If you’re well-rested, you’ll do better work on the apertures.”
Alex considered arguing, but she wasn’t wrong and he wasn’t sure why he would want to be woken up in the middle of the night. With that decided, he just nodded and joined her as they got to work.
Hours passed, with Alex taking watch after a while and then passing the responsibility to Jess. The loot was more of the same, but the same was good stuff. Alex grew more excited for the evening when he would be able to continue preparing as time passed.
Soon, that time came, and Anthony retook the position of sentry from Jess. Alex grabbed several strands of Mana Veins from his pack and decided to dive right in.
He started with only one of the strands, wanting to warm up and make sure he understood any differences between Refining a vein compared to an aperture.
It was simple enough, though the thinness of the vein required him to narrow his mana down to an incredibly fine point. Completely overwhelming it with a larger thread was something that he instinctively knew wouldn’t end well, but he considered trying it anyway just to see how it would backfire.
Maybe later, but for now, his goal wasn’t learning, it was improving.
One strand quickly became two, and two became three. Forcing three strands of mana into such a thin thread proved difficult, and he stuck with just those Veins for a bit, steadily working his way through the several feet of material.
The Mana Veins reminded him of illustrations he’d seen of human intestines in textbooks. Some of the threads were longer than he was tall, but that wasn’t necessarily indicative of the height of their creators.
The distracting thought was quickly discarded as he continued to work. He lost track of time as he progressed through the veins, but soon he reached the end of the first one. The other two weren’t far behind, allowing Alex to get a look at the results.
He liked what he was seeing. The Mana Veins had been formed into bizarrely neutral threads that he was sure would perform incredibly well in rituals and arrays. He couldn’t really see a use case where someone would try to make use of them in a Mana Body, mostly because pushing the threadlike substance under his skin was a truly repulsive thought. Mana Veins weren’t necessarily easy to make, but it wasn’t worth putting yourself through that.
He considered testing the physical strength and resistance but decided that it was pointless. It wasn’t like he would be using these strands as rope. There was a decent chance that Refine did make them slightly more resistant, but so what?
“Anthony,” Alex spoke up, “Want to look these over for me?”
“Sure,” Anthony replied. He walked over and took a knee next to Alex, gazing down at the Mana Veins. They’d all spent a good amount of time looking over the threads before Alex’s work, but Alex took out a few of the normal ones just for reference.
“You can see the difference, but it’s slight,” Anthony noticed, “These veins are already unattuned, so you’re not really changing much.”
“Yeah,” Alex agreed, “These will be slightly more compatible with arrays designed by other people, but it probably wouldn’t be much of a change in efficiency.”
Jess chimed in at this, “Most arrays that use real Mana Veins use veins that come from the array’s creator, so it’s still a bit behind the standard.”
Alex, not having any real expertise when it came to the subject, hadn’t thought of that, “Is this just useless, then?”
“I don’t know,” Jess shrugged, “There’s probably something it would be useful for.”
“Even if there isn’t,” Alex reasoned, “This is just the warmup.” His frown quickly vanished at the thought. This practice with his mana type was helping him to understand it better. He felt like he was on the verge of figuring some important stuff out from exploring the uses of Refine, and felt excited to dive back in.
Using his mana type was a bit odd, a bit too close to crafting for his tastes, but it was undeniably relaxing. It wasn’t necessarily what he’d wanted, but it was hard to deny just how right it felt.
Anthony and Jess also seemed interested in what a Refined aperture would look like, so they left him to his practice without further discussion.
While it was tempting to leap straight to Refining an aperture, Alex held off. He had only Refined three veins and wanted to attempt four. He’d already spent this much time practicing and preparing, what was another half hour or so?
Another four veins were removed from his pack, and he extended four tendrils of ultra-thin mana to Refine them. Progress was slower with four, but not particularly slow. Alex Refined at a measured pace, taking care to make sure his control never slipped. Soon, he was staring down at another success.
“I think I’m ready to try the apertures,” He said aloud, inviting any disagreement if either of his friends felt otherwise. Unsurprisingly, neither did.
“Good luck,” Jess said. Anthony chimed in with his agreement, and Alex put his pack in front of him to look through the apertures he could select from.
There were almost twenty in his pack alone, and he categorized each mentally as he looked over them. Two of the near-perfect creations sat at the top of the pack, but he wasn’t interested in risking those.
The vast majority were at an acceptable level of quality. There were clear flaws in this group, but they were still respectable work.
The last three were all lopsided to the point where Alex was surprised they’d ever functioned in the first place. This category had been what he drew from with his earlier experiments, but he was convinced by now that part of his failures had been thanks to that decision. Sure, they were the easiest to do without, but they would be the hardest to succeed with.
Still, Alex didn’t need to succeed on his first try. He grabbed one of the worst, taking a moment to examine it before he began.
Instead of laying the aperture on the grass, he held it in his hands. All four spheres were in contact with his body, minimizing the distance between him and the mana he’d be controlling. Now that he had moved on to the real thing, he was removing the training weights that the distance between him and the Mana Veins had provided.
A small amount of mana poured out of his hands into each sphere. He changed his tactic from previously when he’d started on one side and pushed through a sphere. Instead, he controlled his mana to effectively coat the outer layer of each component sphere. Sweat beaded down his face at the concentration required to manage this, but he didn’t falter at all. Once he was done with that, he began to push toward the center.
The tactic was a bold one, and Alex was fairly certain it wasn’t a good one. Still, there was enough he didn’t understand that it was possible this would work better due to some rule he didn’t understand.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t how it went. Effectively isolated from each other by the Refined layers, the spheres fell apart nearly immediately.
Despite the failure, a smile spread across Alex’s face. The rapid collapse might seem like a bad sign at first, but it had shown him something important. Sacrificing one of the apertures that he considered next to unusable for this wasn’t too great a loss, and he was quite happy with the result.
Another aperture found its way into his hands quickly. Maybe this was the one.