“Theo!” Val greeted me when she saw me at Fitness the next morning. “Healer Remore said you stayed at the Temple of Death last night?” Her tone made it a question.

Akemi and another member of Val's social circle, Nassor, were with her.

“I needed time to clear my head.”

“The Temple of Death is a bit weird, man,” Nassor said. “Most of us go to the Temple of Lust. Do you want me to let you know when the guys are planning the next trip?”

“Nassor, you perv. That is not clearing your head,” Val said. I saw Akemi blush, which I didn’t know was possible in a Celestine.

“My head is always clearer,” Nassor grumbled. Nassor was a large male human. He was taller and more well-built than me. I don’t know what his skills were, but he was in the Melee class with an unusual pole weapon with an axe on the end. I don’t know what it is called, but he is the only one who has one.

“I am good,” I said

“Are you though?” Val asked.

“For now. I am obviously a delicate soul and likely to overreact to things.”

“I heard that, man,” Nassor said. “Don’t take shit from anybody. That is my advice!”

“Thank you, Nassor,” Val said sarcastically. “It is you we all come to for your pearls of wisdom.”

He laughed, “And so you should.”

Mosi’s voice boomed out, “Move it, everybody. This is the last week with the simple moving obstacle course. Next week, I will turn on the active targeting. You might want to wear your armour!”

The groans only made Mosi’s smile widen.

The day went as normal. I saw Astrid and Rudo, but we didn’t interact. Group Tactics was up first tomorrow.

The next morning at group tactics, Perfiti started by saying, ”I have reviewed your Mirage recordings and am disappointed. I am not disappointed that no one was successful in killing the monster. I am disappointed that all but six of you died. I have prepared a chart.”

She produced a chart with our names. There were two columns next to them; one labelled deaths, and the other Objective Achieved.

“This was the first of twelve Mirage chamber assessments. In the end, if anybody has more than four deaths, you will fail this course and have to repeat it. All except these six only have three lives left. The assignments will get more difficult, not in terms of monsters, but in terms of objectives. Some will be simple monster kills. Some will rescue people from monsters, natural disasters, or both. Some will involve difficult choices of who to rescue, who to leave, and how much you risk your own life. This course is not just about working as a team, but about the choices you make, as an individual and as a team.”

“I should have seen this coming,” Val whispered. “She has been talking about this.”

I just nodded.

That afternoon, I had my Reconciliation Meeting with Rudo. It was mediated by a staff member I had not met.

“Rudo and Theo, you were both involved in an altercation that ended in violence. The purpose of this meeting is to address this and work toward reconciliation, settling any dispute so there is no escalation of violence. I have the authority to enforce any agreement reached. If no agreement is reached, this will escalate to the disciplinary board. We are not here to fight each other, gentlemen. We are here to fight monsters and protect those that can’t fight.”

We both nodded.

“Rudo, as the party that needed healing, please start with your account.”

The meeting took about half an hour. In the end, I agreed to pay half his healing cost, and he apologised for calling me a coward and trying to stop me from leaving. We ended by shaking hands. We would never be friends, but maybe we could work together. The meeting stopped the escalation of violence as I no longer thought he and his mates would corner me in a dark ally.

The mediator was right. We have bigger things to fight than each other.

The second Mirage Chamber exercise went well. Akemi was on my team. We had two objectives: one, to exterminate a group of iron-rank Ratlings and save as much of the farmer's crop as we could. This put a time limit on us, as the ratlings would eat the crop, plus we had to limit our environmental damage.

My Hunters Tether worked well, and we worked our way through the group. Ardisia also caught one. We only had to hunt down two that got away, and my Hunter's Senses were up to the job, even if Kai had not followed them. What surprised me was that my Reaping Magic collected a small amount of magic from the bodies. Very small, like one iron rank coin per two ratlings. We can level all our skills in the mirage chamber. It is just very slowly.

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I had been experimenting with my skills. I tried using some small sticky resin on my hands and feet to climb the obstacle walls rather than my claws. It was better on stone walls. I made Akemi two small disks with sticky resin to help her climb the walls. It was only partially successful to me but she was pleased. Her only movement skills were Dart, which was a running dodging skill, and Wave Rider, which was not much use on land.

We were sparring in our Melee Basics class and were encouraged to practice our non-lethal skills. Sticky Resin was very annoying for sparing partners and gave me openings. I had completed the two shield courses and a spear course. I was working on my axe skills. A resin-coated shield was harder than normal, and some sticky patches could catch the opponent's blade, upsetting their rhythm.

I am getting a reputation for being a very annoying person to spar against. I wasn’t the only one using skills, but they were mostly speed or force-related. Nassor was a problem for me to spar against, as I couldn’t get close to him. I learned his weapon was called a Halberd, which combines an axehead, a spear, and a hammer on a long pole. He was very quick with it and could flick between weapons to surprise you. I could mostly keep him at bay with a shield and spear combo, but he still had the reach of me. He confided he had the rare Polearm Essence and could conjure all different types of polearms, but Halberds were his favourite.

I had three open skill slots that I wanted to be filled before we went into the astral space, as that was when we started levelling in earnest. I had vacancies in the Sharpen, Plant and Reaper essences. I was still seriously considering the web stone. For the plant essence, there was a recommended trap plant, but did I need another trap? I can make sticky traps with the resin, Ardisia has the vines, and I have my tether. I think I need more attack options.

A stone like the axe would fit the Sharpen essence well, but I can carry the axe. Maybe I should go with the chop stone or another hand stone, and that could give me another skill like Pierce, but for cutting. My javelins are my ranged options. Could I get a skill to make them more effective?

The Reaper stone acts like a harvester. What can I reap that will hurt the one I am fighting? Some stones, like blood, can give drain skills, which Reaper might enable me to use. Drain health to add to my health is ideal. Reaping is also about cutting and culling so it could go that way as well, with bleeding effects.

There are too many options. At the end of the day, Traps and Melee are my focus. I probably have enough traps, especially if I get the web stone, so the remaining need to be melee-focused.

Types of awakening stones are weapons, animals, actions, and basic elements at the common level. I ruled out getting a poison or venom stone as I can grow poisonous plants myself, and I have started to. All common stones can give me a wide variety of skills so I probably just need to pick one and go for it. I rejected the elements before, but I have seen some elemental mages at work now. Akemi’s Cutting Water and those flame spears can all give wider options for attacking.

When I think about it, my most dangerous weapon is my claws, which are boosted by Kai. That is very up close and personal.

The other thing to think about is our weakness to fire, especially Ardisia. A water-type stone could help us defend against fire. Water is growing in my thinking. I won’t always have Akemi nearby. However, it could also boost plant growth rather than an attack or defence skill. There are many water-based awakening stones.

I have my herbs ready to sell, so two common awakening stones are doable despite the idiot and his healer. I guess browsing the stones got me some great skills at a great price. I should do that again.

Akemi wants her last stone as well. She was saving for the Avatar stone, as it could enable her to have a summons. Other options were also powerful, like turning her into an avatar of water. Unfortunately, it is never going to be within her reach, plus the only known one in the city was just sold. I picked up some good skills from Common Stones, so she is looking for options. As a Celestine, she was more likely to get spells than special attacks. We would go shopping together.

“You could pick up the Venom stone, and you will probably get some sort of useful poison water ability.”

She shuddered and shook her head. That was a definite no then.

“Why don’t you go for something simple and adjacent to your water,” I said, pointing to a common stone in the air. “It could give you a mist or breeze skill to widen your skills. Mist could make it really hard to find you. Is there one for Steam? That could make you very dangerous and hard to find.”

“I don’t know. It is a water Essence ability I am completing. Although my aura skill is called refreshing mist, which gives a small stamina boost, I suppose it is not out of the area I am already specialised in.” She wasn’t very decisive and went away to consult with her family. I wish I had a family to consult with. The Sharpen Essense and Hair Stone are the only mementos I have of my parents.

I browsed stones and stones, and nothing triggered my mind like the others. I didn’t need sticky web anymore. I could use resin and rope. The web stone wouldn’t necessarily give me a sticky web, but… now I was being indecisive.

In the end, I bought it. Professor Petrov recommended it to me right at the beginning, and all her other advice had been good. I was expecting a plant skill, but I got a Sharpen Skill.

* Cutting Web {Web stone} Level 1

* Iron Rank: Produce strands of thin, sharp web. This is hard to see, but it has iron-rank strength. Designed for cutting. Low Mana

That meant my Sharpen and Hunt Essences were now full. I immediately set down to make some traps with it. Throw nets was the most obvious start. I used resin dots to hold the joins and larger pieces of resin on the edges to give them some weight. I practised throwing the nets and getting them out of the storage amulet on my chest. I could see other applications like trip wires and snares that could be made on-site.

I asked my Melee professor about it, and he suggested trying to make a short multi-pronged whip. I would probably need to weigh the ends a bit as the web was so light, but he suggested braiding strands together to give them weight. He suggested that if I did, I should also tie knots or small sharp pieces of metal in it so there would be sections that snagged or ripped soft material like flesh. I could make a longer stock whip by weaving in more materials like leather.

Then, there was a weapon called a Bola that traditionally had a rope connected to a ball at each end and was used to trip and entangle animals. If I made the rope from my braided webs, it would also cut. They needed practice to throw, though.

That was more versatile than I thought. I immediately started braiding webs together. This was going to level my fur as well.