The knocking started up again, but this time it was accompanied by Shadara’s voice. “Hey, Rina, are you up?”

I wiped my face and realized how awake I felt. “Yeah. Um, give me a second and I’ll be right there.” I put my boots on and opened the door for the panther beast woman. “Something wrong?”

She stood, smiling, her tail swaying behind her. “Nope. I’m just surprised you’d sleep this long. Does your regeneration not leave you requiring less sleep?”

I shook my head. “Honestly, I didn’t sleep.”

Shadara frowned and leaned in close to my eyes. “You don’t look like you’ve not slept, but then again, your eyes don’t look like any eyes I’ve seen.”

I turned and walked back into my room. “Because they aren’t.” I scooped up my jacket and grabbed the platter that was left last night. My energy bar, again, was low. “What’s the cheapest food I can get, and in copious amounts?”

Shadara crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway. “You could always kill a pack of bav’varsts and eat them.”

“I don’t have the energy for that.”

She waved her hand. “Well, slimes are fair, although you can’t talk them down in price. If we find some meal potions, we might be able to talk them down in price.”

“What about regular food?” I asked as I walked past her.

She did a double take. “It looks like someone figured out how to walk. Did you spend the entire night walking in your room?” I did, but it was all in my head. Since I didn’t answer, I figured she assumed I wouldn’t answer. “Hey, slow down.”

I paused and turned around. She was forty feet behind me. How? I’m not walking that fast, am I?

Your standard speed will increase as your mind processes information faster. This will cause the effect that everyone will see you moving faster while your perception stays the same.

I slumped my shoulders. You’ve got to be joking.

This is not a joke.

Orange, that was rhetorical.

“You didn’t just learn how to walk. You somehow now walk super fast.” Shadara pointed at my legs. “Whatever you did to yourself has really made you faster. Can you do that for others?”

“No!” I shoved her back or tried to. When that failed, I raised my arm blade. “Stay away from me. That will kill you.”

Shadara raised her arms and took a few steps back. “Woah. Okay, calm down. I didn’t mean to say something insensitive.” She waved her hands, motioning for me to calm down. “Relax. If you can’t do that for others, that’s fine. Besides, all that pain you were in looked awful. And I’m not that big of a fan of transmutation magic. It’s too unnatural for my tastes.”

I lowered my arm. “Sorry.” I grabbed my arm and held it close as I stared at the ground. “It’s just a sore subject for me. Just forget this ever happened, please.” I looked up to see the beast woman eying me cautiously. “I did try to make myself faster, but my mind can’t keep up with my body anymore. That’s why I said I needed to practice walking.”

Shadara relaxed, but her eyes stayed locked on my arm blade. “Right. Trust issues.” She walked up next to me and waved down the hall. “Let’s get some potions. You’ll be able to down those pretty quickly. That way, we can get you practicing. I have a feeling walking isn’t going to be the only thing you’re going to need to learn.”

I tried to keep my walking pace slow enough that Shadara could keep up. But it felt like I was pulling myself back too much. I was getting impatient, and the more I watched her, she also looked like she was moving slower. This is becoming a real problem. Is there a way I can slow down for everyday things and speed up when I need to?

We advise against that. Until your mind can function at the speeds your body does, slowing down will only hamper your progress.

I ran my fingers through my hair and groaned.

Shadara turned and took a step back. “Are you okay? You seem agitated again.”

I took several deep breaths. “Things are just so frustrating right now. Everything is happening too slowly for me, yet I need to go faster so that I can run without tripping on my own two feet. If I slow down, it’ll take me longer to do that.” I started pacing. “There’s no switch I can flip to turn it off and on.”

Shadara sucked on her lip. “What’s your quickness?”

“Three hundred and eighty-five.”

Her eyes bulged. “Wow. Mine’s only at one hundred and ninety. What level are you? I’m twenty-eight.”

“Twenty-one,” I answered.

She smiled. “A speed specialist and a power specialist. We’d make a great team.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re a power specialist? You use a bow. Shouldn’t that be agility or something?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Shadara chuckled as she stepped ahead of me. “How do you think I can draw back the bowstring so much? Where do you think the penetrating power of arrows comes from? Power is just as important to bowmen as agility is. Agility only helps with balance and keeping the bow steady.”

Huh. You learn something new every day. Although, I don’t have much experience in any of this fighting stuff, so that’s not that difficult for me.

“Which reminds me, we need to reach the fourth level.” I saw the look of confusion on the panther woman’s face. “There’s something I need to do that'll hopefully help.”

“Okay.” She drew out the word before stopping. “Why don’t you head outside and I’ll pick up the potions? I’ll be as quick as possible. While you wait, you can practice dodging and hopping around.”

“Here, I’ll give you the shards.” I created a ten thousand-shard gem and handed it to Shadara. “Get me as many as you can afford. But why are you telling me to practice dodging?”

She grabbed the gem and absorbed it into her chest. Her eyes went wide, probably because of the amount I gave her. It should be at least ten potions. I’ll drink half of them, give one to her, and have some left over for when we go to the next floor. I’ve still got the two mana potions she gave me.

“You eat way too much.” She shook her head and pointed down a different hall than where we were headed. “That’ll take you towards the exit. But I’ve noticed your walk is different. It’s like there’s more spring in it. If your movement has changed, then you’ll need to be ready for all the situations that they’ve changed. And it’s better to learn now than in the middle of a fight.”

“That makes sense,” I said absentmindedly. I turned to head down the other hall. “You can keep a couple of the potions. That’ll make us even. After all, you did give me those mana potions.”

She shook her head. “I’ll keep one since one will feed me for a couple of days. And there are no debts between friends.”

I paused and then kept walking. She’s so much like Killa. Is that why I saved her? Am I trying to fill the hole in my heart left by her death?

I made my way out of the town and saw that it was noon. Or what I could only guess was noon since the sun was directly above me. Is there a clock system here in the Soul Nexus?

Yes. It is a ten-hour-based clock. Each hour is one hundred minutes, and a minute is one hundred seconds. Seconds are equivalent to your understanding of them.

Does that make the day longer or shorter than compared to Earth?

There are a hundred thousand seconds in a day in the Soul Nexus. For Earth, there are eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds in a day.

So yes, longer, but not by much. Maybe a couple of hours or so. Are there weeks, months, or years?

No.

I scratched my head. I guess things like that really don’t matter. “Well, no point in putting it off any longer. Let’s see what else has changed.”

I focused on the sensation within my legs, remembering that small movements weren’t just that anymore. Tentatively, I took a hop forward. That simple action sent me lunging much farther than intended. My legs flailed underneath me as they hit the ground. I stumbled over a patch of a craggy collection of rocks.

My body lurched forward, and my arms joined the flailing fun. As I attempted to regain balance, my synthetic muscles reacted faster than expected, causing me to overcorrect. Resulting in an ungraceful stumbling across the rocky ground before my legs overtook me and I landed on my back.

I could feel the wind almost get knocked out of me. I curled up and groaned. “If I didn’t have nanites healing me, that would’ve left a mark.”

The buzzing sensation of the nanites repairing the would-be bruise on my back was a slight comfort. “Okay, I see what Shadara was talking about,” I said as I stood up. “Small movements. Remember, Rina, small.”

Calming down and focusing my thoughts on just controlling my legs, I spread my legs shoulder-width apart. I tried to hop from one foot to the other, using very minimal effort. That still resulted in me jumping several feet and stumbling again. Each attempt to take a step ended up being a mix of running and flailing, more akin to a misbehaving marionette than a coordinated person.

On one attempt, I found myself careening towards one of the saw-blade-shaped rock spires. I twisted to avoid it but overcorrected again. Instead of just moving out of the way, I performed a half-jump, half-dodge, landing with an awkward thud on the ground.

I spat out the mouthful of dry dirt in my mouth. “Yuck. Welcome to eating dirt, part two.”

I stood up and tried again. This time, I used only my foot to push off. Thankfully, that had the desired effect I was looking for. I stared at my foot. How strong are my tendons that my foot is strong enough to propel me like that?

I spent several minutes ingraining the concept of using only my foot to push myself for quick hops and dodges. As an added benefit, I also focused on slamming my foot into the ground to stop myself instead of trying to go with the momentum every time I pushed too hard.

I really have to reconsider everything I know from this point on.

“It looks like you’re making good progress,” Shadara called from the entrance to the spire. She walked up, holding a bag. “You’re lucky I got us a deal. Thirteen potions for you.”

I walked over, dusting off my clothes. “Thanks. You were right. This is way harder than it looks though. Have you ever tried to relearn how to do everything you’ve ever known?”

“No, but I’ve never died before either.” Shadara pulled out one of the green potion bottles and handed it to me. “Breakfast?”

“Thanks,” I said as I took it and drank it instantly.

The panther woman shuddered. “I still can’t get used to the fact you can drink them all without diluting them. How do they taste?”

“I’ve kind of been ignoring their taste, mostly. These taste different from the others I’ve had.” I held up the empty bottle. “This one tasted similarly to onion rings.”

Shadara tilted her head. “Onion rings?”

I scratched my chin. “Do you know what an onion is?" She nodded. “Take one of those, cover it with bread, and fry it in oil.”

“Sounds like something you could put on a nice slab of meat.” The panther woman licked her lips. “Now you’re making me hungry again.” She held the bag for me to take.

I took out two bottles and handed them to her. “Here, take these.”

She pushed them towards me. “You have a bag of holding to hang onto them. So, keep them for me.” I opened my mouth to ask her how she knew, but she kept talking. “I saw how you pulled those potions out of your bag. Having one of those is quite nice. They’re pretty rare. And I remember that it’s pretty important to you.”

“Are you sure?” I held the two potions up for her again.

“I’m sure.”

I put one potion back and drank a second one. “Anytime you want one, just ask.” Afterwards, I put the bag of potions in Killa’s bag of holding.

“Now that you’ve eaten, let’s get to training.” Shadara grinned and held up her fists. “Try to just dodge. Don’t worry about hitting me for now.”

I held up my arms and tripped backwards. “Wait, what?”

Shadara extended a hand to me. “Moving around normally is one thing. Doing it in the heat of battle is a whole other level. We have to get you some practice before we head to the next floor.” She pulled me to my feet. “I have a feeling we’ll be able to get past the trial, but we have no idea what’s on the other side of the portal. We best be prepared.”

I swallowed hard. She’s right. But why does she have to be so right?