The rest of the night was really relaxed. Ces and I continued to hang around one of the tables, but for some reason nobody but Oto wanted to come near us … we had befriended the turtle, he was unexpectedly a really cool guy, not as stiff as you would expect of a monk, he kind of resembled a younger Yoda.
After our night scouting in the lobby I came to the conclusion that Ces and I were much stronger than anyone there. The only one who came close was Oto, he would have been stronger than us if he had had as much luck as we with our starting conditions. But that didn’t mean that I would relax. I suspected that the really strong competitors didn’t come to the lobby often, though I was still sure that not many would be able to compete with me.
That didn’t mean I would cut back on my training, better safe than sorry.
The first thing I did on the next day, after morning meditation and breakfast of course, was going to master Vo’tann‘s quarters in order to make our first bonding attempt.
When I entered her room she was already awake and ready, so we didn’t waste much time.
I would really like to tell you that the following was some unbelievable spectacle, but that would be a lie. We just sat in front of each other and grabbed each others forearms before entering a meditative state and sending our consciousnesses in each others direction. We intertwined them and pulled them apart again forming a link between our minds.
That was it. No fancy ritual, just a little kneeling and a few memories you get from the other party and poof, we were able to tell each others location even if galaxies parted us and mentally talk with just as big a distance between us.
„Well that was unexpected. I didn’t think we would be able to do it on the first try.“
I smiled at my new master and returned: „I don’t think it’s that surprising, it wasn’t that much of an act anyway. The only reason I could see this go wrong would be a big reaction to one of the received memories and since we spent the whole of yesterday talking about memories that might have that effect that didn’t happen.“
„Yes that may be so, but even then, a certain amount of skill in the mental arts is necessary in order to create a bond between two individuals. In hindsight, you did tell me that you trained your mental skills on the people in the temple, so it probably isn’t that surprising.“
„Sure isn’t“
„Yes well, now that we have our bond it’s time to build your lightsaber. Come along.“
And so we left towards the lower levels of the temple.
After a while we arrived at a room that looked really chaotic. Like the lab of a mad professor.
Master Vo’Tann stepped forward and explained: „This lab was once onboard the starship Crucible, the ship that took younglings to Ilum for the Gathering, a ceremony in which the youngling searches his or her lightsaber crystal in the icy caves. The youngling would then construct the lightsaber on the journey back. After the founding of the new jedi order this ship returned to the temple.
The lightsaber architect Huyang had fled upon order 66 and returned in order to resume his duty of helping young jedi construct their lightsabers, even after the introduction of the new lightsaber ceremony he returned to his former position, though he now resides here in the heart of the temple.“
I was astonished. Really. Huyang was already hundreds if not thousands of years old when he appeared on the clone wars, it was a miracle that he was still functioning. It made me happy. He was after all my favorite droid in star wars. Yes, R2-D2, C-3PO and BB-8 all were cool guys, but nothing ever beats this guy, the teacher of practically every jedi, even Yoda learned from him.
So when I saw him emerge from the labyrinth of shelves in all his limping glory I got really exited.
„What do we have here? Aren’t you a little young to be a padawan, my dear?“
I wanted to answer, but master was faster: „She is a little young, but if what I sense from her is accurate, she already is far more skilled than the average padawan and posesses wisdom far beyond her years. Huyang, it is my pleasure to present to you my new padawan: Shira Drayen.“
I bowed and greated him: „It is an honor to meet you master Huyang.“
„Oh, no no, I am no master, just a simple droid in the service of the jedi order.“
„Yet you are still a teacher to almost all jedi in the history of this order, in my eyes you are a master.“
He had my absolute respect. Imagine living for thousands of years, always doing the same work, teaching unrespectful younglins and building lightsabers and he was still at it. If that wasn’t an indication of devotion then I wouldn’t know what was. He may have been a droid but if I remembered correctly some droids were able to achieve sentience if their memory hadn’t been regularly erased, so a droid with an intact memory of thousands of years should be sentient too.
„Weeelll, I think it is about time to begin making your lightsaber. Am I right if I assume you are in possession of your crystal?“
If he were made out of flesh I was sure he would have blushed.
„Yes“
„Then please lay it onto this table.“ He gestured to the only table that wasn’t filled with some kind of materials or other trinkets.
When he saw my crystal he exclamed in surprise: „Never in my life have I seen such a crystal! Where did you find it?“
„It seems to have found it’s way to me by the will of the force“
„Yes, yes like all crystals do.“
He picked my crystal up and examined it. He did take quite a while, seemingly mesmerized with the structure and colourful glow the crystal emanated. He would have continued standing there in a daze if not for master Vo’Tann who used this moment to say something after her long silence: „Huyang, I would like it if we could resume with the construction, we still have much to do today.“
„Oh, of course. So padawan Shira, you have your crystal, but do you know how to awaken the force inside it? …“
When we exited the room two hours later, I had my new lightsaber strapped to my hip. It was a beautiful one, an elegant grip made out of the wood of a black oak, the design similar to that of the saber of Gungi (the wookie youngling in „the clone wars“). It was a really beautiful hilt and with it’s pure black colour it made a sharp contrast of my snow white hair. Though I was still embarassed that the blade of my weapon constantly changed colours.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The morning still wasn’t over, so I decided to ask my master an important question: „Master, what’s next on our schedule?“
She chuckled a little and answered: „Well, we have our bond, you have your lightsaber and the day is still young, I would say we get ourselves our first mission, go pack your things and meet me at the entrance after lunch.“
„Isn’t it a bit early for a mission?“
„It would be for a normal padawan, but you are anything but normal. We got the bond and the lightsaber down in less than three hours, you were on top of nearly all your classes in both the training of the force and the body and in your theoretical studies, the best way for you to grow now is the hands on approach.“
I couldn’t argue with that and besides, it was getting boring to always be only in the temple.
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That was the day we left for our first mission. Our mission was the diplomatic resolution of a conflict on the planet Christophsis. So we boarded a ship of the space-line, something similar to a railway, only that the stations were planets and there were living quarters for those who travelled through the night.
Our trip would take a while, so we reserved a two-person room and spent our time in there, talking about the information we got about the mission, how I was to behave during it and other important (boring) things.
When the time came for us to go to sleep I closed my eyes and expected to see the usual options to flare up in front of my inner eye, but instead what appeared was a quest window.
Quests were ways to gain experience, there were no other rewards. A quest may have been a task I was given, homework for example, or it could be a goal I set for myself, for example reaching the skill level X of the skill Y within a set amount of time. It was the only way to level up I had discovered yet.
Though this was a new kind of quest.
Storyline Quest: Identity Codition for success Survive Condition for success option 1 Remain yourself Condition fo success option 2 Change Condition for success option 3 Insanity Condition for Failure Death Information
Travel to deity plane prohibited for the duration of this quest
Communication with deities prohibited for the duration of this quest
Immediately after I had read the contents of the quest window I felt a whisper of the force and reacted by pushing my body away from the perceived danger and activating my new lightsaber to parry the red blade and directing it into the ground before jumping away in order to take in the situation. After a quick look around I learned that we were under attack by two male humans, one in his fifties and one in his mid twenties, each wielding a single red lightsaber.
The older man was locked into a fierce duel with master Vo’Tann, their movements too fast to follow with a mortal eye, their blades forming streaks of red and blue seemingly everywhere in the room at the same time.
I only took half a second to take in the situation, before I concentrated on the younger man. He was of average height, had light brown hair and a very pale complexion. And he had glowing yellow eyes.
This was a sith. I could practically see the negative emotions rolling off him.
We didn’t talk. Only a fool talks in battle. We each concentrated on each others eyes, trying to anticipate each others first move.
Before we even began I knew that I would need every last bit of strength I had to even hope to beat him.
A fight between force users was almost always a duel with lightsabers. The reason for that was simple: The first thing a force user was taught after gaining control of the force was building up a so called force shield around their body. It wasn’t an actual physical shield, that would take a constant high amount of concentration. No, the shield was more of a force interference shield, it made using the force to fight a force user really difficult, since any direct effects the force could have on the opponent were nullified.
Of course it was possible to overcome this barrier, but for that the attackers power had to be much higher than that of the defender.
So the force users used the only other options of using the force if they battled each other: force telekinesis to fling objects at each other, crude force pushes, force enhancement and force sense, in the case of sith there was also their hate fuelled force lightning, though that could mostly be easily blocked or deflected, even though it commonly broke right through a force shield.
Due to the use of the force such battles were too fast to react or respond normally, which was why a force user trained his or her body with katas, so that it could react on it’s own without the need for the fighter to actively think. A competent force user would let the force guide their every movement and entrust their everything to it.
Of course their prowess depended on how well a jedi or sith could connect to the force and how well trained their body was.
The principles of a lightsaber duel: Connection with the force, physical prowess, discipline and experience.
In other words my opponent was in at least three of the four my better.
After a moment of glaring into each others eyes, we both charged and I left my body completely to the force. The fraction of a moment before our blades touched I activated my two tailed nekomata form, doubling my physical statistics.
I parried his opening strike and turned with it, using the momentum to make a spinning high kick which was easily dodged, but while my right foot was in the air above his head he struck with his blade at my left foot, which was still planted on the ground. Before his strike could hit me I used my left leg to kick off the ground and used the force to turn my right foot‘s trajectory downwards, effectively stomping his head towards the ground.
I didn’t waste any time and struck down with my lightsaber before he impacted with the ground, but he didn’t let the hit get to him. He used a strong diagonal force push to escape the foot on the back of his head and dodged my lightsaber, though he lost his left pinkey and ringfinger in the process.
We turned to each other again. Since the first charge barely two seconds had passed.
He didn’t wait long before charging again. This time I wasn’t able to suddenly increase my speed and he came at me with all of his own. His assault was merciless and I barely made it through the next five seconds.
In those five seconds he cut my belt on the back of my waist and broke my left arm with a kick. Literally my only chance of getting out of there alive was my master. That was if she won.
I stared at my opponent. His face seemed almost familiar to me, though I couldn’t figure out were I might have seen him before. I immediately banished those thoughts. I didn’t have time for that. I had to concentrate really hard just to survive.
Before the sith and I could clash again I felt great pain well up from the connection to my master. My head involuntarily snapped around and I saw that Vo’Tann had been bisected by the waist and just as our eyes met the last time her head was seperated from her body and I felt her presence in the force disappear.
I realized too late that I made the crucial mistake of turning my back to my foe, though I would have lost either way. I had just enough time to send my weapon into my inventory bevore I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head, before everything turned black.
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So, the good times are over, it's about to get serious.
IMPORTANT
Yes Quests and Inventory are a thing, until now I just didn't have a reason to mention them. The inventory allows the champion to transport their equipment everywher their soul goes, so they can use the same equipment in different lives. As mentioned in I think the prologue, the gamer system in this story is just a way for the champion to keep track of their strength and their skills, not some crutch for the champion to lean on. Escept for the limit removal, the champions have the same growth parameters as any other person in their world, but since they can begin their training earlier they can easily eclipse their peers.
The story will turn more serious from now on. As you may have deducted from this chapter it won't be as peaceful anymore so be warned.
Please give me some reviews! Ratings and comments are good and all, but I would really like it if someone could give me a full review.
NOT IMPORTANT
I have the feeling even my authors note is getting more serious...
I'm again really unsure about this chapter. I have the feeling that the pacing of this chapter is too fast and in the beginning I wanted the fight with the sith to be next chapter, but then I saw how short this chapter would be without the encounter, so I decided to just do it. I didn't know what else to insert.
Is this end what you call a cliffhanger? Even if it's terribly cliche to end a chapter with the words "and then everything turned black"?
Hope you liked the chapter
Bye