JESSIE : LEVEL 9

DAY 84 : D-DAY, THIRDWEEK, CALYPSO, YEAR 1

INTERIOR 4 : MEADOW 1 : CHARGE

[ NEW S.T.A.T.S — STRENGTH: PHYSICAL=29 - MAGICAL=16 — TENACITY: DEFENSE=16 - SPEED=29 — APTITUDE: STAMINA=25 - MANA=20 — TILT: CONTROL=29 - LUCK=16 ]

[ NEW ACHIEVEMENT MILESTONE: 2 ]

[ NEW COMMON CORE PASSIVE: SOLID BREATHING — EFFECT 1: BREATHE COMFORTABLY IN ANY SOLID MATTER AS THOUGH IT WERE NORMAL AIR — EFFECT 2: BREATH CAN NOW BE HELD IN ALL SOLIDS WITH THE EASE OF NORMAL AIR — EFFECT 3: MINOR INCREASE TO PULMONARY FUNCTION BASED ON CONTROL S.T.A.T. — RESTRICTION: ALL OTHER SOLID-BASED OVER-TIME EFFECTS STILL APPLY ]

[ NEW UNCOMMON CORE PASSIVE: LIQUID BREATHING — EFFECT 1: BREATHE COMFORTABLY IN ANY LIQUID AS THOUGH IT WERE NORMAL AIR — EFFECT 2: BREATH CAN NOW BE HELD IN ALL LIQUID WITH THE EASE OF NORMAL AIR — EFFECT 3: INCREASES PULMONARY PERFORMANCE BASED ON CONTROL S.T.A.T. — RESTRICTION: ALL OTHER LIQUID-BASED OVER-TIME EFFECTS STILL APPLY — PREREQUISITE: SOLID BREATHING OR GAS BREATHING ]

[ NEW RARE CORE PASSIVE: DEBUFF BREATHING — EFFECT 1: BREATHE COMFORTABLY WHILE UNDER THE EFFECT OF ANY DEBUFF — EFFECT 2: BREATH CAN NOW BE HELD DURING ALL DEBUFFS REGARDLESS OF RESTRICTIONS — EFFECT 3: INCREASES PULMONARY PERFORMANCE BASED ON CONTROL S.T.A.T. — RESTRICTION: DAMAGE OVER TIME DUE TO SUFFOCATION BROUGHT ON BY A STATUS EFFECT, STILL APPLIES — PREREQUISITES: SOLID BREATHING AND GAS BREATHING AND LIQUID BREATHING ]

I debated with myself. And debated. And debated some more. After all, it’s been a while since Extend-o-Sword. I’m pretty familiar with its limitations, and those absolutely need addressing. But as much as I desperately want another Rare Anime Skill, I had something that needed addressing more. A weakness that I found just the perfect way to brute-force. Or in other words, a bandage just exactly the right size to fully cover the gaping wound I refuse to let The Admins fix. And try as I might, I just can’t find a better solution.

At the same or lower rarity, at any rate. If I had to take my first Epic Bandage to cover that wound instead, the combination of a Rare, an Uncommon, and two Commons, is still a far cheaper price. After all, if I’m doing the math right, I’ll never get more than eight Epic Skills. Somehow, taking one of sixteen Rare slots is a lot easier to stomach, no matter how many lower-rarity ones I have to sacrifice as well.

I was originally only planning to take Gas Breathing. That was supposed to normalize my air flow, no matter the environment. And it did. The plan worked right up until practice time. Then, a certain one-eyed skeletal dickhead with some kind of vacuum spell went and overrode it all in literally an instant. From then on, one thing was perfectly clear. That bullshit is, under no circumstances, something I can afford not to be immune to. Not for all the anime superpowers in the world.

Besides, I’m already well-past committed to going all in on this whole time-breathing thing. And therefore, fuck it. All-in is the only place to be. So it was with the heaviest of hearts that I took the plunge and used all my amassed Skill Points on not a second, not a third, but all that and a fourth Core Breathing Skill.

As little as I wanted yet another Common Passive readable as ‘water breathing’, it was unfortunately a prerequisite for Debuff Breathing. Although not having to ever worry about drowning is pretty nice. I guess that’s why it’s Uncommon. Unlike Solid Breathing. I still have no idea what that one even does. Like, can I just breathe normally even when I’m buried now? What if I get petrified? Do my lungs still work if I’m literally turned to stone? Wouldn’t that shatter me instantly?

Unfortunately, I don’t have access to anyone with a Petrification Skill to test it out. Which means the only way to know would be to just wander into a random dungeon and luck into some kind of gorgon-hedgehog or whatever mashup nightmare fuel this place throws at me next. And it’s not like I can go back to… Yeah, no. New Eyam is just too far away now. Oh phooey.

But with all these new Skills, my time shouldn’t be forced to stop for anything. At least nothing directly affecting my breathability. Actually, there’s probably still a few Skills or Status Effects I need to watch out for. But I’ll burn those bridges when I come to them. For now, the increased pulmonary function they each give based on my minmaxed Control STAT is nearly worth the Skill Points on their own.

Every one of those Skills logarithmically increases my ability to slow, speed, or stutter my own breath. And the way they build on each other, I’m now exponentially better at controlling my breath rate, and therefore, subjectively, time itself. I still can’t rewind it or anything. Although reverse-breathing doesn’t even really make sense as a concept. Besides, I think if I start rewinding time, they might nerf me on the spot no matter what technicality I hide behind.

The general lack of any time-related Skills, even at Mythic Rarity, says more about it than my admittedly overindulged tendency for conspiracy-theorizing ever could. In fact, the closest thing I can find seems to be the effects on Speed to speed of thought. Time never slows thanks to my favorite STAT, but it almost kinda sorta feels like it does by way of making me think faster. And that’s it. That loose connection of a barely-related concept is literally the closest thing I could find to time manipulation. I mean like… What?

Nonetheless, compared to before those Core Breathing Passives, the improved control over my own flow through time felt like upgrading from the Camera facebook on the cheapest of burner phones, to the latest Orange. It’s still not a dedicated professional camera. I’m still not supposed to be doing this. But the picture quality is lightyears ahead of where it was. Besides, my metaphorical new phone’s Camera facebook comes with all sorts of weird controls that my old one just didn’t have. And that’s what I’m doing now. Getting used to the controls.

To that end, I take another swing at the falling leaves. Moment-to-moment, I slow my breath as much as possible to micromanage the follow-through without sacrificing any force. The key, as it turns out, is making each objective second pass as subjectively slow as possible, without that rate ever reaching zero. If I do stop, I can start forcing a swing again with the same residual velocity from my old swing, giving the new one a head-start from that point. But that’s all it is. A new swing.

I’ve found that when my body’s weight and momentum are working for me, there’s a distinct feeling of flowing ease and crushing force to each swing. But I can only really take advantage of that when my muscles themselves are aware of what’s happening. Therein lies the problem. Whenever I stop time, it’s like my muscles suddenly, and entirely forget what they were just doing, even though literally no ‘real’ time has passed.

So I’ve been practicing just like I did two months ago. The breathing itself takes care of my whole jumping-the-gun problem. But slowly and steadily, I’ve gotten to the point where I only fully stop breathing in about one of every ten strikes. So not quite combat-ready. Anyone who’s played Pokemon knows the foibles of 90% accuracy. But I’m leagues better than when I started this routine a few nights back and I couldn’t even manage a second unpaused swing in a row.

Predictably, some movements work better than others. But it’s not just that they’re less awkward. They’re also stronger. A hell of a lot stronger. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly which motions will result in my ideal ‘flow’ state. At least I don’t need to look further than the very characters I’m imitating to know why. This combat sense I’m hacking my way into is normally a gradual thing. To be gained, nurtured, and polished over decades of exhaustive practice and actual fighting. I even know there’s no true substitute for such experience. Especially not a paltry few days of breathing funny while hitting leaves from a tree.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Of course, having all the time in the world to course-correct every last millimeter of each swing, does help bridge the gap. Even if that gets thrown out the window if you pause midway through. Hence the practice. Not with the swinging. Not really. But with the breathing. I practice how it feels to breathe as slowly as I can, while I swing as hard as I can from every angle. The hardest part is not holding my breath the instant I land a hit. Doing that is practically instinctual, I’m realizing. But thankfully, it gets easier and easier the slower you go. I still have to actively remember to consciously avoid holding my breath every time though. Which is kind of what I’m hoping to train myself out of.

First and foremost, I need to re-learn how best to swing a sword, no matter the positioning, without ever holding my breath. So I do them all in turn. All the different swings from all the different angles I can think of. Once I complete a full rotation, both literal and figurative, I repeat them all again. And again. All the while gradually learning to distinguish between good and bad breathing. As well as which swings from which angles make it easier. And which ones are annoying as fuck. Which swings can cut through the leaves, and which swings just scatter them. Which swings can cut a tree in half, and which swings merely dent the wood. And of course, the vast majority, which swings ricochet off the side to make it feel like I was hit by the tree and not the other way around.

My overall progress from latter to former means this whole guess-and-check process isn’t going too badly. Every check from each guess gives me another point of the swing to modify, ever so slightly. Making that modification not only reduces my margin of error, but also reveals a whole new weakness in my force, speed, weight, or about a dozen other aspects of every surprisingly unique challenge of each angle. When I finally land on one that feels good, I do it again on the next rotation. And again. Each time faster, easier, and with a little less redirection micromanagement along the way.

My eventual goal is to get them all down to muscle memory, especially in how I breathe, and with a particular focus on how much of my remaining breath is required to complete it. I still haven’t figured out a way to switch from exhale to inhale while preserving my current swing’s efficacy. All told, there’s really no way to do any of that but practice. And practice. And then more practice.

Because I might just have to give up entirely if I did all this work on my breathing, dumped this many Skill Points into breathing, practiced this much with my breathing, only to still die midway through yet another fucking dungeon. All after denying the offer of the Legendary Skill I’ve been dreaming of for half my life. Which, now having done the math, I know you can only ever have four of. Max. And I turned one down just to keep my breathing broken. I want this to pay off. But I need it to at least break even, for my own sanity and sense of self-worth if nothing else.

Determined despite the monotony, I take yet another, practically identical swing at the now leafless tree. Fuck me, but this swing is different. Instead of merely smashing into the tree, the sword SMASHES into the tree. Why? What could make that much of a difference? Is it because I got impatient..? No, how could that even do anything?

Centering myself, I try that same swing again, only to merely ‘smash’ into the tree this time. So I try again. And again. But I can never recreate that single perfect swing. No… It wasn’t perfect. Angle-wise, it was actually kinda shit. But the force I got out of it…

It takes me another hour before I manage to do it again.

And then again nearly another hour later.

But the next one comes less than a minute after that. I’m well past exhausted by now. I want to stop. But instead, I keep going. As I do, something amazing happens. Before long, every single one of my swings is super-powered. Each successive hit on this regenerating tree is somehow harder than I’ve ever hit anything that wasn’t this single tree. Why..?

Mich lets out a whistle from where he’s sitting up in his bed to watch today’s episode.

Hearing that, I break out of my hours-long trance to look over at him. “What?”

Mich shrugs. “Nothing. Just appreciating the show. You know, people with talent like yours used to gradually bubble up to be the richest, most famous fighters on Earth.” He shrugs. “Or exploited by non-fighters to steal that wealth and fame to themselves. It’s why at some point, humanity started seeing your archetypal lack of social faculty as more of a superpower and less of a Kryptonite.”

Dropping the sword from my arm that apparently went numb at some point, I take a seat on half a bench and raise an eyebrow. “‘A’ kryptonite?”

Mich just nods. “Yep.”

I fold my arms in limp triumph. “I’m pretty sure that's supposed to be the name of a specific type of rock.”

“So?”

“So, you wouldn’t talk about a slab of marble and call it ‘a’ marble. That’s even an entirely different thing on its own.”

Mich dangles his feet off the bed. “Ah. So you were confused about what I meant?”

“Of course not.”

Mich flaccidly folds his own arms in mock imitation of mine. “Then who gives a shit?”

I actually have to think about that for a subjective minute or two. “Me? I think? I definitely give a shit. I just can’t seem to find the words for ‘why’.”

Mich nods seriously. “Ok, well… Get back to me on that.”

“Alright. I will… So in the meantime, just stop saying things are kryptonites.”

Mich laughs. “Not until you convince me why.”

Starting to catch my breath, I growl under it. “But that’ll never even happen. You’ll just be stubborn about it forever even if I’m right.”

Mich looks momentarily contemplative before reaching a decision. “Guess I’ll just have to keep saying it forever, then.”

Giving up on a lost cause perhaps later than was practical, I get back to practicing. But my sword swings are back to normal. Goddammit, Mich…

Surprisingly, I get a super-swing right off the bat this time. Wait a sec. Goddammit, Mich…

Another superpowered swing. That’s it! For some reason, that’s it! Goddammit, Mich!

My strongest one yet. But why? In the same manner, I do another. And another. More. Each one is stronger than the last. And each only makes me more frustrated that I can’t understand why-oh…

And just like that, I have it. The more frustrated I get, the more impatient I get, the harder I push… Oh my god. It’s so obvious the whole time. And so simple! Why didn’t I realize it sooner? Ironically, lamenting over how long it took me to figure it out only makes it work better. I’ve been so busy adjusting the course of each swing, I never really thought about that part of it. No, I only ever did it subconsciously before. I just had to push. Not up, down, left or right. Not even any kind of rotation. But just push. Forward. Onward to wherever the sword was already headed, in the same direction the swing was already going.

All I have to do is slow time to nearly the point of freezing, and then devote all my energy to pushing the sword forward. Harder, better, faster, not to mention stronger than my body could ever manage. But that’s the thing. It can now, can’t it? Even with everything that’s happened, I’ve been subconsciously holding myself back. Holding my own body back. To the limit of what I thought a human could tolerate. But that’s not actually an issue for me anymore, is it?

So I stop holding back. Or at least I try. And the trying, it seems, is enough. Each successive swing, I spend more and more subjective time trying to slash harder and harder over fewer and fewer objective instants. Although I can’t actually move much during that time, pressure is exerted on the muscles controlling the thing I’m trying to move. And the difference… I know intellectually that it’s not an exponential thing. But it sure as fuck feels that way. And as I finally get a handle on it, I feel like I awaken something. The power to truly break my limits. No additional Skill required.

I guess it is all technically thanks to a Skill… But still though. I’m proud of myself.

Mich claps from over in his bed where he recently switched to laying on his stomach and staring at me with head in his palms like some kind of boy-obsessed teenager. But since he’s now clapping, his head is enthusiastically out of his palms and doing whooping noises at me.

I hold my arm up, signaling for him to stop with his bullshit just now. “Hold on, I’m just… Fuckin’ give me a sec, okay? What you’ve clearly already fully accepted, feels more like a fucking whiplash from over here. Like, oh my god… This changes everything. I’m starting to want to hyperventilate and it’s taking a lot of willpower to keep from doing that.” Okay… Deep breaths…

Breathing normally as I can manage just now, I’m starkly aware that to Mich, this must be like watching a video on fast-forward of someone gradually, arduously relaxing over a period of several minutes. But eventually, I lower my hand.

Mich immediately resumes clapping in exactly the way he did before.

Having regained the requisite mental energy to ignore him entirely, I go to bed. And I smile, remembering what I learned two days back when I bought those Skills. It’s a small thing, really. Something no one ever thinks about.

I can speak coherently while inhaling now. Well, it still sounds kinda breathy and robotic. But it’s enough to where I can activate Skills during the half of all reality when I’m breathing in. Which means I can calmly keep an intense fight going basically forever. Never restricted beyond the space between breaths. Which still is something to maybe think about. But I suspect that might just be a core weakness to combining my Time Breathing with Named Attacks.

Even still, between that and the gradual power thing, I feel a muscle in my stomach relax as another part of my plan for Oneshot slides into place.