There we were, facing each other, from opposite sides of the [Arena]: him, regarding me with a scrutinizing look, and me, already sweating profusely.

This was not how I expected the day to go, and that got me to wonder if [Luck] was somehow involved in this.

Through your prayers, you have awarded +1 [Acuity]

“Ok, she was definitely fucking with me.”

“Are you ready?” Shouted my butcherer from his spot.

“Would things go differently if I actually said no!?” I just had to ask.

But his only response was to laugh loudly, and start a count-down:

“3.”

“I was not ready.”

“2.”

“But maybe I could surprise him, my [Stats] should be higher than expected.”

“1!”

“I mean, there was no way I was winning this, but I could try and the effort to try and show off a little.”

“0-“

“Wait, where did he get that spear-“

*Squelch*

Where he pulled the spear from didn’t matter, since he had already relocated its head in my sternum.

I think that the only reason I wasn’t screaming in agony was that I was so stupefied, by the quickness of it, that my brain was left reeling trying to process it.

The fact that I just looked at the shaft of the spear that was impaling me, without giving it a more appropriate reaction, seemingly disappointed Grog, who tsked at me.

“I thought you would have sharper instincts…”, he probably wasn’t saying that for my sake, but it still felt like adding an insult to the injury, and so it brought me back to the present.

Well, that… and the fact that he kicked me in the gut to get me off his spear.

“AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHH, F-FUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuck”, the pain, after the shock of hitting the ground with my back, finally hit me in full.

“Who the fuck starts a spar that viciously!? How am I supposed to learn from this!? Ow…”

“You call that ‘vicious’? I did not even hit any major organ or artery”, was his sardonic response.

“YES!? Because that would have FUCKING KILLED ME!!!” I was baffled at the audacity of his reasoning.

“Do not act like a suckling, I already told you that you cannot be killed in this [Arena]”, he seemed very perplexed at the fact that he had to repeat himself.

I weighed his words for a moment, analyzed the stream of [Mana] that seemed to be focusing on my mid-section, and admitted that I was already feeling better.

That thought was soon followed by the realization that even though he pierced the middle of my chest, he was indeed able to avoid both lungs and heart.

“Ok… but still: How was I supposed to learn anything from that?”

“I was just experimenting just how far I could push you before you developed some sort of [Precognition], or [Intent-based Skill]. I figured it would be the most productive use of our time”, the fact that he seemed to be doing this for my sake worried me of how Eddd’s opinion may have guided his judgment.

“Now get up”, he says, suddenly advancing towards me, “let us test the best way to stimulate your prowess through combat”.

I checked my wound one more time before backing away from him, noticing that even the clothes were fine now, like nothing had ever happened.

I also had the realization that I never had the time to summon the [Lantern], shoot my gun, or even [Inspect] the damned thing.

The first two of those problems were easily resolvable, while I really didn’t have the time for the third.

I pointed my gun towards him and mentally summoned the [Lantern].

But I soon also realized that there were even more problems with my plan than I originally thought:

1. How am I supposed to aim at something that my eyes can’t follow?

2. Will I be able to use this gun without uselessly fumbling with it for a while?

3. Won’t Grog just dodge my [Lantern] or generally ignore its interferences?

4. Will my [Lantern] be fast enough to keep up with him, or will it have the same limitations as me?

5. Didn’t I have one more ace up my sleeve?

The butt of his spear suddenly hit me in the gut, making the wind flee my lungs and launching me backward, causing me to messily roll on the ground, stopping with my face pressed against it, still unable to catch a breath.

“Stop daydreaming and pay attention to our spar!” He almost sounded annoyed at how much I was overthinking this.

And I was indeed overthinking everything (as per usual): But this was the time to act, not to ponder.

The pain was already gone, so I hastily got up, earning an approving nod from my [Teacher].

“Good. Again!”

When I saw him slip in the familiar stance he used before dashing at me I prepped [Annul], ready to [Dispel] any [Skill] or [Spell] he may be using, while simultaneously ‘telepathically’ telling my [Lantern], which was idling around without any order to follow and that I wasn’t even sure it would hear me, to shoot in short bursts where he seemed to be heading, instead of where he was (I had no hope of my [familiar] being fast enough to catch him with his ray when following his movement directly).

Surprisingly, it seemed to get the message, and swirled around to face the Orc.

At the first hint of a [Matrix] generating inside Grog, I snapped [Annul] into activation, and I was pleased to see my [Teacher] stumble a step forward while frowning in my direction.

I was even more pleased when [Lanter] shot him squarely in the face, capitalizing on his surprise, earning a pained groan out of him.

But it wasn’t the time to grow complacent, it was time to shoot.

“I have no clue how this freaking thing works, but I guess here goes nothing!”

I channeled my [Divine Affinity] in the crystal of the magi-tech revolver, since it was the only [Affinity] I thought would be able to directly ‘harm’ a target, and was elated to see the see-through sphere actually starting to revolve.

It quickly started glowing with a golden hue, so I decided to level the gun towards my opponent, and that was when I saw him moving towards me like a freight train: Dust was billowing behind him, while he side-stepped and dodged [Lantern]’s shots, inexorably getting closer, and closer.

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“At least I can see him now.”

I was ready, or at least I thought so, and I pulled the trigger.

Charging the ‘chamber’ with my [attuned Mana] was relatively easy, but once it was launched out of the gun the drain resembled more the one from my [Spells].

But the result was astoundingly pretty: An enlarged structure of an atom, with the core made of [Divine Mana], and the charged rings orbiting around it made out of [Aether], was shot at blinding speeds.

The nut-sized projectile was really fast, but since I could see it mid-flight, I realized that it must have been sub-sonic at most.

Which Grog easily matched, effortlessly dodging the bullet and showing that he had been going easy on me.

“Yes, that is what I am talking about: then let us step it up a notch!” A feral grin stretched his already ugly mug, making me audibly gulp.

“I’m so fucked.”

So it would seem.

True to his word, Grog was already advancing.

And by that, I mean that I was already sent flying, with an ugly gash on my throat.

Panic surged at the thought of bleeding out, not being able to speak, being irremediably scarred, losing the ability to speak, or having my head hanging by a tread to my neck… but by the time I had the presence of mind to check what should have been a ghastly wound on my neck, I found it was already closing, and soon I was left without a blemish.

Looking at it more closely, the [Enchantment] of the [Arena] resembled my [Rejuvenation], but its aspect that reminded ‘time’ was even stronger, yet more subtle, probably born from a deeper understanding of the concept.

Truly, sparring in this place may lead to more advancements than my [Teacher] thought.

But I could have done without the pain.

* * *

It was maddening, one instant I would try to anticipate where he would approach from, and the next I would be sent sprawling, followed by the blinding pain that would hit me.

On more than one occasion, by ‘blinding’ I meant that he probably ruptured my eyes with some of his blows.

And with ‘probably’ I mean that I couldn’t be certain, for the simple reason that I couldn’t check myself while it was healing, and Grog wouldn’t say anything about the hits he was delivering, nor the wound he was leaving.

There was only action with him, and inaction was severely punished.

That’s how I found myself trying to pivot out of his way, even attempting to roll away at times.

But his ‘teaching’ eventually pulled me into a routine.

Shoot. Command [Lantern]. Look for opportunities. Try and avoid his hit. Clench my teeth at the inevitable.

Again, and again, I found my thought process sharpening, becoming more flexible, while also gaining some sort of structure to it. I couldn’t be quite sure of it, but [Buddy] reiterated the fact whenever I sensed a change, and it was quite happy about it: Apparently, it was possible to bestow order upon the chaos in my mind.

But from ‘organized chaos’ came imagination, and then creation.

And it soon became obvious: there was even more.

Something that was making its previous absence ever more present.

The ‘tingling’, or ‘itch’, that I’d learned to associate with some sort of ‘sixth sense’, was finally back.

Its presence was at first distracting, seemingly making me lose the small edge I was gaining; it then began even stronger, almost nagging at me about what Grog was about to do, while he was already doing it though.

My movements became more precise, more calculated, earning me the honor of avoiding fatal wounds on the first hit.

Soon, the ‘feeling’ was giving hints about his movements on par with his action, and then it started warning me before it even came.

At first, I was able to be left standing after one hit, then two, then three, and then I was finally able to land a hit on him: specifically on the calf, with one of my shots.

And thanks to it I was able to finally fully dodge the first attack without it leaving a scratch.

The event was so sudden that both I and my instructor stopped, jarred by the shift in the rhythm we had established, seemingly elaborating the same conclusion, and just stared into each other’s eyes.

He smoothly flowed out of the trusting motion he was in, and all of his aggressiveness seemed to dissipate into thin air.

But the surprises didn’t end there.

Through your actions you have developed a new Ability:

Emphatic Aura:

Intention is what writes reality, and you can’t understand one without comprehending the other.

Permits to read the intention of an entity towards a specific subject, by making your Auras interact.

An evolution occurred:

Through [Demiurgic sight], [Omniglot], and [Adaptability], the previous Ability has evolved into [Precognitive Aura]:

Precognitive Aura:

Intention is what writes reality, and you already know how to harness and manipulate both.

Permits to perceive the possible futures of anything that gets close enough to your Aura, while reading the intention of entities within range.

“It seems you finally succeeded in refining your innate [Insight] into something useful”, rumbled Grog, suddenly uncomfortably close.

“[Insight]? What’s tha-“

You have discovered a new [Mind] Statistic:

Insight: It refers to the capability of comprehending the world, and governs the alacrity of drawing the possible outcomes from the smallest of details.

You revealed a hidden bonus from your Class: +2 [Insight]

You have been retroactively awarded +14 [Insight]

Through your actions you have been awarded +2 [Energy], +3 [Acuity], +4 [Strength], +6 [Will] and +7 [Dexterity].

“That is… neat…”

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the rush of information the [System] could throw at me, even when filtered by [Buddy].

You are welcome, by the way.

I was snapped out of my mental cloud by a rough pat on the back, delivered by none other than the now back to friendly Orc.

“With this, we can conclude our spar for the day”, he said happily.

“Can I eat now? I’m starving”, came out of my mouth: Apparently, my body knew that it was hungry, even though my mind couldn’t yet process it, too numb from the constant fighting.

“Of course, after conflict comes revelry! It may be a bit late, but the tavern in the [Guild] is always open.”

With that, he pulled me along, with me being dead on my feet, and him lauding my ‘valiant efforts’ at thwarting him from spearing me.

I was really tired and wasn’t really paying attention, so I was pleasantly surprised that I became aware of my surroundings once more when I found myself munching on that weird green poultry.

I wasn’t about to question how it got into my hands, nor how I safely got to be eating somewhere that wasn’t the cafeteria, and since the Orc was sitting next to me, with his own pile of wings and legs in front of him, I just tossed it at him having handled everything for the both of us.

I focused on eating with renewed gusto, feeling the small amount of tension I had left in my body bleed out the more food I introduced into it.

“I am glad that I was responsible for helping you bore fruit so quickly, maybe it will help you in the following days”, the green beefy dude next to me said.

It took me a while to register his words as such, instead of letting them get lost in the confusing noises dominating the tavern, but they snapped me back into focus when they did register.

“Tomorrow!?” I mumbled through a half-finished bite.

“Well, yes. This was the first day: the path forward will only be more arduous.”

I suddenly had a distinct feeling that maybe being an [Adventurer] wouldn’t be all that ‘fantastic’.