Chapter 40

Ryker

Slowly but surely, I limped over to the gym area, doing my best to assure the girls I wasn't going to keel over dead before we made it there. Upon arrival, I found Luke and Jeremiah hard at work. Jeremiah was running in place on a moving portion of the ground, similar to a treadmill, but his legs were a blur of motion, moving faster than I thought possible for a human body. Still reeling from seeing Jeremiah's cheetah-like speed, I nearly fell over in shock when I witnessed Luke's feat of strength. He was doing deadlifts, and above the bar was a screen showing the weight he was using and the reps he had done. It read, "20 reps using 1400 lbs."

As we drew closer, Amy finally noticed the look of disbelief on my face and chimed in, "Pretty amazing, right?" I slowly nodded my head, keeping my eyes glued to the screen above Jeremiah that read, "50 miles per hour for 15 minutes." I couldn't ever imagine something like that was even possible. Jeremiah was running almost twice as fast as the fastest recorded runner of all time, and Luke was lifting an absolutely impossible weight like it was nothing.

"Did the awakening really do that much to us? Can I do that?" I said.

Amy snorted and then answered, "I don’t know. Red told me that the awakening gives everyone a boost across the board, but in most people, it further enhances one aspect they had a natural affinity for. Jeremiah apparently was quick on his feet beforehand, so the awakening gave him an extra boost in his speed and agility, while Luke was naturally a stout fellow, so his awakening gave him more strength. I am guessing you're a meathead like Luke and probably will be able to lift the gym like him, but we won't know until you get better and see how you measure up."

I stood there in silence and watched in awe as the two men endlessly pushed their bodies harder than I could have ever dreamed. I let my thoughts turn inward and glanced over at Ruby standing opposite Amy. "So is that how it works? Boost everything a little and one stat a lot?"

Silvar stepped out from behind Ruby and answered for her, "Indeed, that is an oversimplification of what happens but close enough. Red's assessment was correct; one got extra stats in agility, and the other got extra stats in strength."

I hummed to myself as I reflected on my stats. 5 strength, 4 agility, 5 constitution, 2 endurance, 5 perception, 2 intelligence, 1 mana, and a whopping 11 vitality. I looked back at the two men effortlessly pushing themselves and with a disappointed frown I mentally said, "So obviously, I have an affinity for vitality. I'm not sure how that works, but that doesn't seem nearly as strong as having a better agility or strength stat. Sounds like a bum deal to me."

Silvar, Red, and Ruby all froze, turned, and gave me their versions of a "you're a dumbass" look. Then Silvar raised his hand to eye level like he was holding an imaginary ball and slowly made a squeezing motion. I felt a sharp pain shoot through my chest, and I couldn't catch my breath. He released his grip, lowered his hand, and I dropped to my knees, gasping for breath. Silvar let out one irritated scoff then said, "Boy, in all my days, I have never heard someone spout something so idiotic that it actually lowered the I.Q. of everyone present. You feel like having vitality as your affinity isn't as strong as some of the other stats? Feels like a bum deal? WAKE UP IDIOT! Vitality helps you heal and recover faster, stupid. Pair that with your pet A.I.’s nanobots healing you, and now you have an ability that uses mana to heal you. That's called synergy, fool. If you try using that brain of yours for more than putting food into your face and pushing shit out your ass, maybe you will be able to figure out a way to use this gift to speed up your training.” Silvar’s avatar spit on the ground next to me and faded away.

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After Silvar made his pissy exit, I looked up and found Amy, Jeremiah, and Luke huddled around me, all wearing worried expressions. I donned a reassuring smile and said, "Easy guys, I am fine. I just got dizzy for a second and needed to take a break."

I was helped back to my feet by Luke and Amy. Jeremiah gave me a perplexed look then said, "How are you even standing right now? I saw what you did to your arms, and I can barely see any damage left at all."

I smirked at the quiet man and answered, "Apparently, I'm lucky in a way and unlocked some kind of healing ability. Which is great, but I still feel like crap."

Luke piped up with his usual cheerful voice. "Lucky you say? You were probably born under a horseshoe-shaped rainbow on a bed of four-leaf clovers, you lucky bastard. What do I have to do to get me one of those healing abilities?"

Red interjected harshly. "Enough chit-chat! He is fine, and you three need to get back to work! We still have four hours of gym time left, and I will not allow any more distractions!"

The two men nodded and went back to their stations, but Amy gave Red a pleading look and said, "But Red, I need to stay with Ryker; he needs me."

Red thrust her chin up high in the air with a haughty look and said, "No buts! He will be right as rain shortly. Now get to work or I will be happy to give you some motivation."

Amy’s eyes grew large and panicked, and she took off in a sprint towards a set of large dumbbells. Once Amy had left us, I heard a familiar crackling noise behind me and found Ruby floating two feet off the ground with her hair whipping behind her and electricity pouring off her orange glowing form. Both of her arms were split down the middle, and both barrels were pushed together to form one giant techno railgun looking monstrosity. At the tip of the barrel was a huge ball of energy, building in size and intensity quickly. Twenty feet away stood Silvar now staring daggers at Ruby and holding up his walking stick while pointing it directly at Ruby. At the end of his stick was a compressed blue orb of energy that hummed violently and gave off an ominous glow.

Ruby widened her legs to brace herself mid-air and shouted, "I told you if you ever hurt my Ryker again, I would end you! Apologize to my man now or your next words will be your last. MONK WORM!!!!!"

A contemptuous look of disgust appeared on Silvars face, and while gesturing in my direction, he roared, "Apologize to that idiot? You have got to be kidding me? I would sooner eat my own tail than apologize to that monkey! If war is what you want, then war is what you'll get! TOASTER!!!"

Then all at once, both of them loosed the attacks they had been charging up. Two massive beams of crackling energy collided between them, and with a blinding flash of light, an explosion fantastical enough to make a Dragon Ball Z fan proud detonated, and both avatars were burned up in the conflagration turning them to dust, then floating away on the artificial breeze. I looked around and saw my fellow humans completely unaware of the display, pounding away at the weights. I made eye contact with Red, and we both rolled our eyes and said, "Drama queens…."