Chapter 35: Qi time

Adam made it to the front of the incalculable line and asked whether they’re were any sword factions. This of course almost got him ended then and there. So he just tact slightly. He just looked for guys with lots of shiny pretty swords, much easier. There were two factions only, fate had indeed smiled down on him that day. So presumably if she wasn’t in one she was in the other, he hoped.

An eagle eyed man with a bearded and a gold embroidered waist coat, looked up at him. Then as though he wasn’t there started talking to his colleague.

“Well he probably has a good reach, being tall and all. But probably mighty slow due to his bulk.” The man said deliberating.

“I’m actually quite fast” said Adam absent minded, forgetting that he actually wasn’t supposed to know every language in the multi-verse. But he had been in the queue quite a while and Libby had decoded, 14 different languages and 5 regional dialects. Mostly though it was all just going straight into Adam’s head without him having to do any of the donkey work.

The man started, his eyes bulged and Adam had to think on his feet for fear of causing immediate offense and being gutted on the spot. “I have a friend who joined your faction a few weeks back I believe.” Adam hedged.

“You and the rest of this herd.” Said the man pausing. “Isn’t everybody everyone’s friend on this rock of a planet?” He said turning to laugh to his friend. Turning back he said “Not sure I can help you unless you sign up to faction and that would mean winning a fight. So put up or shut up.” He finished.

Adam, was fine with that. In fact after standing in the queue he felt like a Ikeya shopper on sales day, ready to tear all others to shreds. Adam just smiled and stepped forwards, to join another queue to his right. The man eyed him strangely but said no more. Finally reaching the front of line number 2, yet another salty face, shoved him into a temporary fight rings. Well it was just a very muddy bit of the park now.

His opponent obviously had drawn the short sword, to get this job, and looked mightily bored. His previous opponents were either thrown out, or laying to one side, being patched up. Were those the acceptances?

Adam stretched his arms out, cracking his knuckles and rolling his neck, boy was he stiff. The cocky guy beckoned him over, presumably not wanting to end up covered in mud. Adam waded through the mud to him, trying not to land on his arse. He boots made great gal umping sounds, like the squelching of giant wellington boots. Could he even move in this stuff? Surrounding his opponent was a patch of almost pristine grass, not by design but definitely not fair. So he used Shadow phase, to seemingly glide through the mud like a champion ice skater.

The mud had given Adam a chance to think about tactics. He had a few options he felt, but most felt like cheating, and would possibly get him disqualified. So instead he decided to play it by ear.

As soon as he got in range the guy, didn’t bother to play it clever. No great standoff for him. He readied for a slash from the right, tensing slightly. Swung, and Adam blocked easily with his left bracer. It had been like watching him push a spoon through maple syrup. “Did you do something? It’s tell me afterwards.” he quizzed Libby.

He was of course tempted to just sucker punch the guy, but knew it would be hard not to knock him like a home run out of the park. So instead he slid his sword, which looked a bit crappy, up close to his neck, by thrusting forward.

The man jolted back almost chopping his own head off in the process.

“Do I need to kill you to pass? Sorry I didn’t realise.” Adam said, a bit confused about how this was going.

But the guy after looking at his fellow team mates for clearance, pointed to me, to go sit with a couple of other chaps who had made it through I assumed. I sat down, thankful that this part of the park was not a mud scape. “What the fuck are you?” was the query of one of my new faction mates.

“Well, please to meet you to kind, Sir” I said most politely. “Alive is what I am” Adam added in a more hushed tone. At that the man stopped his merry banter and just nodded, his head a bit adding “True, enough”.

It was early morning by now, and Adam had spent quite a bit of his time watching the kids and their antics. He was relieved to see they were bearing up. And after listening to their many conversations about which was the best weapon to have, had pondered this himself quite a bit. Then remembered he had a gift, from Libby. A bright shiny new leather bag.

He played with that a bit, looking for things he could pilfer and then return the objects to their rightful homes. It was amusing for a while. But while he was in the queue. There were no weapon to speak of. And when in the faction camp he thought it highly unwise to nick stuff. If he had time to train he would like a sword. One like Sam had that way they could train or even fight each other, that would be cool.

No others joined him on the grass. Though he could see his opponent was actually quite a nice guy, just giving each person a tap with his sword before sending them on their way. He felt bad, for a short moment before remembering the ones who had been injured. Eventually he someone gestured for him to come over, so he could be processed some more no doubt.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Name?” said the man, I’d seen before. “Can I find out if someone I know is in your faction?” I replied.

“Oh, very well, what’s her name? I presume it’s a lady, if you’re so concerned, he said raising his eyebrows and tiredly shaking his head.

“Sam Travis” I stated simply. He nodded at a colleague of his, who went off somewhere.

“And your name?” the man continued. I paused thinking what to do, not wanting to sign up to the wrong faction. It’s be just my luck if I got in an opposing faction to Sam’s, arch enemies and all that.

I wasted some time asking him about his sword, which I was actually curious about, now I was looking for a weapon of my own. His sword was some type of long sword but it had interesting engravings on it, that I was sure weren’t just for show.

I prompted him by saying just that “The engravings are incredibly finely drawn”. At this his demeanour slowly started to change and after not long I was even more fascinated by his word. It was no less enchanted, with not just different elemental abilities but also for toughness and such like, amazing. By this time his friend had returned, unfortunately he confirmed that she had not been selected by their faction. At this I thought it best to shadow jump the fuck away from there, and good riddance.

I could hear a little commotion as I cut in line at the other queue but it soon died down. If I’d got a closer look at this guild I might have suspected it was more lightly Sam’s choice. They were lean and keen fighting machines, more her style. In short, they wore lots of black, who was I to talk?

As I waited Libby filled me in, on what happened in the brief fight.

“Your MAGI is very high but your AGI is practically none existent.” Libby qualified.

Name: Adam Jacobs

Level: 13

Tier-R

Human 52%

HP

83/83

MP

36400/36400

SP

11622/11622

STR

47

INT

93

SPR

74

DEF

39

MEN

122470

PRISM

122470

AGI

264

MAGI

592

SAGE

768

DEX

11

HEX

5

ESS

57

“So I just created a sword ability for you. It actually gives your sword greater toughness, reinforces it with Qi” Libby said proudly.

“As your using an ability, it uses your MAGI skill to determine the speed, instead of your AGI. This results in a massive boost as you saw. Only problem was your mind and body couldn’t keep up with it. So I had to make some modifications to your other stats. Don’t be too surprised. Remember one hour in your world is actually 20 days in ours. So I’ve had more than enough time. ” Libby stated helpfully, if not a little bit abridged.

I knew Libby and the others had possibly been more bored than me spending hours in the queue but I forgot actually how long it was in their world. Libby had been updating me on what she was accomplishing with her newly acquired, space magic. First she’d made the kids a bathroom, space plumbing needed some serious scripting, as apparently that shit wouldn’t shovel itself. Also she’d made a kitchen area for them and expanded the space a bit in order to do this. I was surprised she was complaining about wasting SP but they had a fair amount from when the system tried to terminate me.

I approached the guy at the front of line, no need to banter this time. But was stopped short.

“Didn’t you just qualify, for House Perel? You did didn’t you. It’s like I’m going to mistake you for someone else. Get out of here!” He seethed. Shit, this was not in my calculations but realised I did stick out like a saw thumb.

“But I am the finest swordsman on Earth! I Adam-antski can beat anyone you have.” I tried. The man went to shoo me away but an older man who had overheard my stupidity, arrested his hand on the first man’s shoulder. Then whispered into his ear. The old geezer stretched his shoulders, he was as big as me. He looked me in the eyes saying, “I could do with a warm up, come on”.

I followed him past all the other people in the queue, some of them slapping me on the back, saying “idiot”, great.

This ground was not muddy, apart from a tiny swath near the queue line. “Ok, these guys played it different”, I thought.

The man, now I looked at him, was maybe in his fifties, earth age, with tanned weathered skin. He looked sharp as a fox, his eyes taking me in properly now we stood facing each other. He did not make a move. But then I found out why the grass was not muddy his end. Luckily Libby had put a symbol on my display to show when I go into slow-mo? mode. I’m not sure what to call it. I just know its magic or at least MAGI!

The old guy probably would have spent some time sawing me head of without it but with it. Again I could see him move like in molasses. I could tell it was slow-motion by the way everything else was. Onlookers, appeared frozen, like cardboard cut outs, mud drifted lazily, into the air, from his footsteps. I on the other hand, moved in and tapped him on the chest with my palm. No way was I going near him with a blade at the speed he was going. I did not want to decapitate the poor guy. He had been nice enough to let me in. When I could see his motion had been arrested, I caught up with him as he sailed through the air. I stepped round and behind him, holding my blade under his chin. I figured this was a much safer way of doing it.

When time went back to normal. Time magic? I waited while the old guy breathed heavily then threw me off, turning round to look angrily at me.

“You brat, how did you do that? Is this a prank? Who is supporting you?” he roared then composing himself said. Noticing the onlooker’s reactions, he calmed.

“Well you’re the best fighter we’ve had in the past few days, so I can’t not accept you. But we will talk later.” He said cooling. And I was in, if Sam is actually with this faction, better check on that.