Chapter 9: Home Stretch

The golem wasn’t the only thing to respawn. In fact, everything had respawned. They all came back almost exactly the same, with one behavioral difference. They were all utterly fixated on killing the Void bat he held. They almost completely ignored him, not understanding that the bat couldn't dodge them by itself if they killed Jax.

This would have made them trivial if it wasn’t for the fact that he was tired, missing his awesome weapon, and had to protect his fragile cargo from the fixated beasts. Although, this did reaffirm his decision to spare the little creature. If more challenges were being thrown his way, he had to be doing something right. After repeating the double patrol and night lurker ambush, there wasn’t much more that posed an issue until the carnivorous plants.

Because the golem came back in pristine condition, he worried that the plants wouldn’t have weak spots. Fortunately, his worries were unfounded, though it was stressful to leave behind the bat while fought them. If he didn’t, he would have to fight through the roots while one stray hit could kill his... he supposed it was a friend. Or at least a cute pet. Protecting it would be too much, especially for the regrowing root tunnel.

He kept expecting the trial to have added some additional enemy in a place it thought he wouldn’t check, but after days of searching he came up blank. Maybe it had actually succeeded. After an epic and taxing journey, he finally went back up to the bar.

It was exactly as he remembered it. The faceless people, the subtle barrier, and the raucous ambiance. Going up to the bartender, he held up the Void bat. “I cleaned out your infestation. Anything I should do with this?” The bartender raised an eyebrow. “Really! Mighty fine job. It’s been a lil’ while since I’ve seen one of those things, but I do know somethin’ you can do with ‘em. He brought out the swirling beer of Potential. “You can crack ‘em in here! Give a nice kick to it.”

It took Jax a second to realize what he meant. “you mean kill it? You don’t seem to hate him, so why are you so callous about that?” He checked. He was still a bit unsure about whether the bat was tied to the corruption. The bartender shrugged. “They’re just monsters. And the kick is good.” Jax didn’t think that was right. In the True realm monsters could often be quite smart, and the bartender was technically a trial monster, so he shouldn't talk.

Before he could respond, the bat wriggled and chirped at him. Suddenly, it melted forward and flew into the mug. The beer took on a subtle indescribable quality, as if it you could tell it was a little bit better than it looked. The bartender cocked his head. “Huh. Never seen that before.”

Jax realized that he recognized this feature. It wasn't supposed happen in Tutorials, but if a trial objective was almost completed, sometimes things like this would happen to help the Improver get on with things. It was also supposed to be one of the best indicators of an item undergoing its True Improvement.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” The bartender asked. “Chug!” Jax took the beer and, in a move he wouldn’t tell his Mother and Father about for a long time, chugged the beer like a champ.

The warmth filled his belly and he felt himself drifting off back to the True realm. As he was leaving, he felt himself Improve, followed by his right eye being Improved somehow more.

The first thing Jax noticed when he came back to his body was how slow and sluggish he felt. He was going to Improve his Agility the first chance he got.

“I know some of you are excited to Improve yourselves, so take a second to try it.” The man who had just Improved them spoke, looking none the worse for wear after going through twenty Improvements far harder than theirs. “Now, the rest of you can come up here and I’ll do you one by one.”

Jax marveled at the way things just went on, to half the class nothing had happened. Well, he said they should Improve themselves, so that’s an opportunity! Closing his eyes, he delved into the freshly awakened part of himself that governed his ability to Improve. He was immediately enveloped in a whole new perception of the world.

Everything he was touching lit up in bright colors to his mind. His clothes were lit up in monotone colors, with each article having a color and feeling associated with it. But that was nothing compared to what was inside of him. The colors and tones were a bit quieter, but the sheer number and complexity of his Aspects was astounding.

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

Looking closer, he singled out a color that felt similar to the buff he had received from killing the tree. It somehow felt like motion, but indescribably grounded and smooth. This, he thought, was Agility. He focused and delved deeper into the Aspect, letting everything else fade away.

He opened his eyes to find himself in a glade of ethereal, blue-tinted trees. Across from him was what could only be a Fae. Unnaturally beautiful, the seemingly young man across from him was holding an elegant sword. The Fae bowed. "Shall we begin?" He spoke.

Jax conjured his sword and readied himself before speaking. "Yes." The man immediately lunged forward to attack him. The Fae were often bound by turn of phrase, especially in Improving realms. They tried to be tricky, but at this level it would only catch out those unaware of what Fae were.

Anticlimactically parrying and skewering the enemy swordsman, Jax was relieved when the trial immediately ended and his Agility was Improved. It seemed like all his trials wouldn't be as bad as the tutorial. The Fae had been fast, but relatively unskilled. Most people in his class could beat that one with a little luck.

Returning to the True realm, he almost instantly went and started Improving his Agility again. His competitive nature had fired up, and he would bet that he could beat out anyone else in his class after what he had gone through.

The next trial was in the void of space. This was a distinction from empty voids, which were in turn very different from Void. The only real difference in this case was that there were points of light dotting the distant surroundings. An empty void wouldn't have those. The only thing besides the background was a long road or path made of something like concrete that he stood at the start of.

As he looked around, he saw the start of the path behind him start to crumble away into the emptiness. Trying to avoid over-associating things with the Void, Jax started running down the path. As he ran, he was attacked by mannequin monsters that tried to slow him down.

The monsters were made of a material that looked like bone but was much more fragile. Their offensive capabilities were even weaker, lacking weapons to attack him with. The main focus of the enemies was to slow him down. He had to shake off the desire to obsessively kill each one as they appeared. It was clear that the focus of this trial was speed, and stopping to kill the infinite waves of enemies was counterproductive. They couldn't catch him if he ran fast enough, so all he had to do was break through when they blocked his way.

At the end of the road, there was a swirling gateway of blue light. This was a common way to demarcate a trial objective. There was probably a whole scientific explanation for everything from why it swirled to the color of the light, but he didn't really care about that right now.

He almost expected a boss to attack as he was about to finish, but this was only the second Agility Improvement. Things weren't that hard or complex. He came out of the realm for a moment before delving right back into the Aspect.

He failed the first time on the fifth Improvement, where he decided that he would rather quit and upgrade something else than get slowly flayed by a sandstorm. After repairing a room of ridiculously unsafe steam pipes and protecting a herd of sheep from hungry wolves, he had Improved his Constitution twice. After killing a trio of goblins and beating up a buff man to the roar of a crowd, he was done with the pleasantly simple Strength trials. He had started to get a bit bored of Improving and wanted to continue on with things in the True realm. 'One sword mastery upgrade.' he promised himself. 'Then I'll stop.'

The realm he found himself in was a reflective plane that rippled like water where his feet touched it. Giant sword blades of various styles poked out of the flat plane. Facing him was a figure bound in ethereal chains. The chains were all anchored to the air a short distance away, all spread out in an artful display.

He glanced around curiously. “It’s quite beautiful.” He said, not expecting a response. Wandering over to the chained man, he examined the space that one of the chains was fixed to in the air. It didn’t seem all that interesting until he poked it with his sword.

With a snap, the chain released and faded away. He started to get annoyed, thinking he would have to poke every chain to release his foe, when more chains began to break away. Their disappearance revealed the man who had been trapped inside.

His clothes were ragged and loose, dark cloth swaddling him. What Jax could see of his arms were very thin and gaunt. All in all, his appearance was of a pathetic wretch. The mans posture, however, ruined the illusion. He stood as if he knew exactly what the world had in store, and was completely confident that he could face it. Three glowing eyes appeared within his hood.

Jax raised his sword and grinned. This didn’t seem like what a first Improvement should be. But unlike his Tutorial, that wasn’t a cause for alarm. It was pretty much cause for celebration. Sometimes, people would encounter extra-hard trials called Tribulations that would Improve the object or Aspect by more than the persons Improvement level would otherwise lead to. In trials of self, this was a good sign that the person would develop a Manifestation of that Aspect.

Manifestations were separate from Improvement level. While they relied on their base Aspect’s level for power, they could be unlocked at (supposedly) any level. Because Improvement trials got harder the stronger the Aspect you Improved was, the potential get stronger without making any of your Aspects more difficult was extremely important. Manifestations and your mastery of them was one of the things that separated Improvers from Master Improvers.

Manifestations also drew power from the Aspect of the Self, and it was generally agreed that forming one was a good way to progress towards unlocking that mythical Hidden Aspect.

The form a Manifestation manifested in was varied, but sword mastery generally was just that: a sword. A damn good sword. But he was getting ahead of himself. First he had to win this trial.