Clara stared up at the leaderboard in disbelief.
Endurance
#1 Hudson Appleseed 17’ 33’’
#2 Clara Baring 22’ 17’’
#3 N/A
“You are impossible,” Clara said in between deep breaths of her cultivation technique. “How did I lose? I never lose long distance races. Your cultivation technique is unfair.”
The run had been fun for Hudson. He had pushed himself hard, and was tired and felt slightly weak (and incredibly hungry), but there was such a great satisfaction from running fast and feeling the air whoosh past him.
The track was a tiny circle, with a single revolution 100m long. The challenge required 100 laps, or a 10km run. It felt good to push himself and his cultivation technique in a safe environment, and realize how he was becoming more and more superhuman. His time – 17 minutes, 33 seconds – was close to 10 minutes faster than the world record for a 10km run.
Cor had the other participants – the grasshoppers – still running in a line on the interior of the track. Vince had fallen in with them at the back of the line.
“A bet’s a bet,” Hudson said. “Now walk over to the dexterity test with me and tell me everything you know about sigils.”
“You only won because you can increase the speed of your breathing technique,” Clara said accusingly. “My physical conditioning for endurance is at the peak level.”
She wasn’t wrong. Over that long of a distance or time period, the demands of the body for oxygen began to limit the body’s use of qi to sustain the increased level of physical activity. While qi could improve the body’s performance, it couldn’t remove the body’s need to cycle carbon dioxide and oxygen completely. At least not at their current level.
Because Clara’s breathing technique had much less flexibility in its tempo, she had a maximum speed limit in a long distance race that was based on how much oxygen her body could absorb at that tempo. Her physical conditioning may have been better than Hudson’s, but he was able to blow past her by simply increasing both his absorption of oxygen and his absorption of qi at the same time.
“Ahem. Sigils,” Hudson repeated.
Clara let out a long sigh as she stopped her own breathing technique. Now that Hudson wasn’t generating copious amounts of ichor himself, he could smell a faint whiff of bitterness coming from Clara.
“Sigils are sigils. They are markings on your body,” Clara said.
“Like tattoos?” Hudson asked. “What do they do?”
“They can be similar to a tattoo in appearance, yes,” Clara allowed. “But only to mouth breathers. To cultivators, they are much more. They act as a symbol of your path, and are important for your status and growth within S.E.C.T.
“My family members typically bear the sigil of the Eternal Flame. I expect – and my parents expect – for me to gain the same. Other members of S.E.C.T. with the same sigil, who walk the same path, will often help each other.”
“Sooo… they are fancy tattoos that sign you up to a special club within S.E.C.T. Is this like another secret society within a secret society?” Hudson asked.
“Are you listening? They are not just tattoos. They are sigils,” Clara retorted. “Far more important. For one, they can be hidden. With a single thought, you can make the sigil appear or disappear on your skin.
“And secondly you can’t remove them. I have heard that even if you cut a limb off and regrow it, the sigil will remain where you place it.”
Hudson was growing irritated. Was this entire trial designed to provide young S.E.C.T. initiates with permanent, designer tattoos? It didn’t make any sense at all. The brief S.E.C.T. primer had made it sound like sigils were very important; most of the maseki being collected was to open up the opportunity to receive a sigil.
“I think I’m missing something here. What are they used for again?”
“You’re not a member of S.E.C.T. so I don’t expect you to understand. They are a symbol of your path to immortality. An important symbol for you to meditate on as you grow in power.”
“Ah yes, power. So do they make you more powerful?” Hudson was having difficulty keeping the snark out of his voice.
Clara frowned but didn’t answer.
The two stopped at a yellow line on the ground next to the dexterity challenge area. During their run, Hudson had gotten a peek at what it was about before George had extended his concealing mist technique around the entire area. A participant started the challenge by standing on the yellow line; a random section on one of the poles would glow, and the timer would start when the participant left the yellow line.
He had a theory, based on his brief glimpses, but he needed to confirm it.
“Hello? Do the sigils make you more powerful or not?” Hudson repeated.
“Yes, they can make you more powerful,” Clara replied.
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“How?”
“What I know is even a secret within S.E.C.T., and I am not at liberty to tell you,” Clara said stubbornly.
“Let me guess – the people with this tattoo of an ‘Eternal Flame’ have some secrets they share, but only with people who have the same tattoo. But you know because your parents told you.”
The guilty look on Clara’s face was all of the confirmation that he needed.
It was obvious that Clara did not know much and what she did know, was not fully transparent about. If a secret society also kept some things super secret… those things would likely be even more powerful.
Rather than try to continue milking blood from a stone, Hudson changed directions.
“Alright, you made a bet, and you lost,” he said. “And you’re not honoring your end of the deal.”
“I’ve told you about sigils,” Clara protested.
“Not much. And by your own admission, not as much as you know. But how about this: I’ll let you out of it, so long as you go first on the dexterity challenge.”
“...Fine.”
Clara stepped forward onto the yellow-colored starting block, shaking her arms and legs loose. When her breathing centered and her technique was steady, she sprinted off.
The first target was about six feet high, right above Clara’s head. She grabbed the pole in the lighted section and spun around, searching for her next target, which was all the way on the other side of the dexterity challenge area.
Clara continued at an excellent pace, and even hit on a cluster of lights all clumped together, taking them out quickly. When she touched the last one, Hudson looked up at the scoreboard to see her score.
Dexterity
#1 George Adams 0’ 29”
#2 Suzume Yasunori 0’ 30”
…
#6 Eustace Sachs 0’ 57”
#7 Clara Baring 0’ 58”
There was something odd about this trial; some secret element to it. Clara wasn’t slow and had made no mistakes; but her time wasn’t close to the top finishers in her former peer group. It was exactly double the lead time. Looking at the leaderboard again, there were two groupings: one clustered around thirty seconds, and the remainder starting around one minute and trailing out longer.
Was the order in which the lights came on the same every time, or was it random? He was fairly confident that every pole had lit up, and each pole had only lit up once. The theory that had been scratching at the back of his brain demanded to be tested directly.
The order in which the lights appeared must cause the variations in completion time. George had managed to get first place, but there was one of his followers that was also incredibly close behind him – only one second difference. So his greater speed was unlikely to have been caused by his much greater cultivation.
“Are you going to stand there and marvel at my speed? Or are you going to complete the challenge yourself?” Clara asked.
“I’m thinking,” Hudson replied.
“What is there to think about? Just touch the lights as quickly as you can. It’s not difficult.”
“The first pole that you touched – did you touch the front of the pole, or the back of the pole first?” Hudson asked.
“Why does it matter?” Clara scoffed. “There’s a time for meditating and a time for action. Get in there.”
“So you don’t remember?”
“...No.”
The smart play would be to wait for Vince or Cor or the grasshoppers to complete their 10k run so that he could have another data point to consider. Participants could make multiple attempts at the dexterity challenge, but only after all other participants had completed it at least once.
But Hudson wanted to test his theory himself. He stepped up onto the yellow line, and noted the locations of the main clusters of poles. As the first pole lit up – he smiled. It was the same starting pole as Clara, and almost certainly the same for everyone. It had to be, if it was “fair,” and followed the same type of rules they had seen for the trial previously.
The clock started as soon as his feet left the yellow starting block. He slid to a stop at the first pole and grasped the lighted part, being very careful about where on the pole his hand touched first. A section halfway up the pole, immediately to his right and only three feet away lit up. His hypothesis appeared to be correct.
He carefully touched the next pole in a specific location and confirmed his hunch a second time. He picked up his speed, attacking each new pole in turn with explosive swiftness, but still maintaining tight and precise control on exactly where he touched.
The trial was not random at all; how could randomness match the philosophy of the trial? Instead, it tested not only the speed of your body, but also precision and speed of thought. Each pole had to be touched at least once during the challenge, but the order that they appeared in was determined by the participant.
Hudson imagined a straight line extending directly perpendicular to where he touched the lighted pole. The next pole to light up would be the pole closest to that imaginary line. When Clara had gone, she had needed to jump back and forth across the entire area devoted to the dexterity element multiple times. While she was fast, and possibly faster than Hudson’s fastidious pace, she ultimately traveled a far greater distance than Hudson did.
“How were you so lucky?” Clara complained, after Hudson completed the course. “Every single one of the lights was right next to the previous one!”
“Not lucky,” Hudson said with a smile.
“You cheated,” Clara accused. “Somehow. Did you bribe the director?”
“Nope. Work smarter, not harder.”
“It’s still not fair. I’ll go again and beat you on my second try.”
Hudson looked up at the scoreboard and replied, “Life isn’t fair. Good luck… not that it will help.”
Dexterity
#1 George Adams 0’ 29”
#2 Suzume Yasunori 0’ 30”
#3 Hudson Appleseed 0’ 32”
He’d broken into the top three, but he had been too cautious. He could try again after Cor and Vince and the grasshoppers had all cycled through. Taking a glance at the Strength leaderboard, he realized he had some competition from the cheaters.