The town served as a central hub for all exploration within half a year’s travel. If you discovered something important, you reported it to the hub, and those who needed to know about it would be informed.

Tom tapped that paragraph thoughtfully. That meant that, theoretically, every trial within six months of the town should have been uncovered and recorded, including the details such as the type, the level range, and any quirks that it might possess. When he became an adult, he would set up a trip that would take him through all the trials and monster areas that can level him as fast as possible. This way, he would not have to search for trials, and that was another boost those early reincarnators wouldn’t have had, despite their massive success. This was even more evidence that he could surpass their achievements and make a positive difference.

Having that kind of data available made the failure of so many people to breach rank fifty even more troubling. There had to be an explanation there.

When his two hours came to a finish, the healing crystal banished the aches and pains, and the clean spell removed all the sweat and the grime. He decided not to leave with cuts to heal, since he figured out that people entering and leaving the isolation rooms would be under the most scrutiny, and he wanted to look as normal as possible.

Bir and Pa were waiting for him when he exited, and they went to get dinner together.

As they were about to enter the gymnasium, a force picked Tom up and pushed him hard into the wall. Bir next to him squealed in shock as she likewise was shoved forcefully against the wood panelling. Pa, a little ahead of them, was spared.

It took Tom a moment to understand what was happening, mainly due to the difficulties of rotating his head to give himself a better field of sight. However, when he did so, snotty Ma, sniffling as always, came into view with the magic ring on her finger glowing.

She paused to grin at them:

“You look squished.” She said before marching sedately toward the dinner queue.

“You dropped your special potion.” Bir yelled after her.

Internally, Tom flinched as snotty Ma spun to face them:

“Was that you? Was that your fate?”

“Nope, nope. You dropped it. I wasn’t there. Your fault not mine.” She stuck out her tongue defiantly.

The barrier holding them was weakening. Tom tried to push out from the wall with his arms to hasten its demise.

“That was mean. You made dad angry.”

“I didn’t do it. You dropped. You’re clumsy.”

Snotty glanced down at the ring on her hand and noticed the glow was lessening. Then, with an annoyed final glance, she hurried into the dining room to get into the line ahead of them.

When she was about twenty metres away, the power of the shield holding them in place shattered around them and they could move as normal. It had not hurt them as it lacked the strength to do so, but getting trapped like that was definitely annoying.

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“I’ll get her not-parents again.” Bir promised fiercely. “I’ll show her. Fancy pants, artefact, meany.”

Tom managed not to massage the bridge of his nose in response. An escalation between them was not something he wanted to see. The loss of that powerful elixir annoyed him on a fundamental level. He glanced sideways at the glaring Bir.

“Rather than pranks,” he said carefully. “Have you considered using fate to win competitions?”

The girl tore her scowl away from Snotty and stared at him instead, her eyes suspicious:

“Is that why you beat me?” She asked. “Is that why Ta is suddenly better at bubbles?”

Tom felt a pit of worry in his stomach. He hadn’t ever used his fate in any of their play, but he was suddenly worried that he was displaying too much competence. Was his adult mind boosting the performance of this body too much? He wondered how it would be best to play this. Social Silence was not giving him any guidance, but he guessed that wasn’t unexpected. In his last life, it had never stopped him from putting his foot in his mouth when amongst his friends. With them, it let him do anything, and he speculated it was the same here. Its lack of activation informed him that there was probably nothing he could do to harm their relationship right now.

“I want to win.” He told her honestly, even though it was misleading. He would never use fate so trivially.

“I’ll do it too.” Bir declared.

Tom’s senses picked up her fate immediately flooding out of her. The abruptness of the response shocked him, and he expected it to blast into Snotty and be negated by her protections, but instead it kept going and spread out through the food tables. It was his turn to look at the other girl suspiciously. He couldn’t see the angle and what the fate was being directed to do.

“Hurry,” Bir insisted before she hooked his arm, grabbed Pa’s hand and dragged both of them to stand in the opposite line to Snotty. A line which was significantly longer than the other.

Pa’s stomach rumbled. “Wouldn’t the other one be better?” The one Bir had chosen had a lot more people in it because a large group of nine-year-olds had all decided to join this one to stay with their friends.

“Not going in Snotty’s line. This ones better.”

Tom looked at Pa helplessly and then saw the determined expression on his other friend’s face. There was no way they would convince her to do otherwise, so he resigned himself to getting a later dinner.

There was an abrupt crash as one of the automatons broke down in front of the other line. The brief release of magical energy was spectacular, but not particularly noteworthy, as one or two of them failed most days. They were all used to seeing it.

Dimitri immediately came over to take charge, along with a number of automatons designed for that exact purpose. More magical flares occurred as the broken construct was turned off, with each of the various pools of magic drained away. Only once it was completely inert was it finally broken apart and removed from where it was blocking access.

Their line moved forward and Snotty’s one didn’t. Mentally, Tom’s eyes narrowed, and he couldn’t help but glance at Bir. She looked smug.

An idea of what that fate was doing occurred to him and he searched for where it would act next. Snotty’s queue was still shorter, so he was certain there would be more general mischievousness in the play.

Then a girl in their line had her plate slip out of her hand. She tried to re-catch it and somehow knocked it right over the food-laden table so the piled-up, sauce-filled, pasta, followed shortly after by the plate, landed on the other side. There was a splat, then a bang, and red droplets spread out everywhere on the ground with the remains of her meal in the centre.

Snotty’s line was prevented from moving again.

More automatons came and milled around as they cleaned it up and, because of the way the plate had fallen, they were stopping Snotty’s line from progressing.

Furthermore, his queue was moving very quickly as the group of nine-year-olds had decided to collectively raid the pie stand. Six of them were scooping everything onto their plates while the other ten stood beside them, taking nothing. In a quarter of the time it should have taken them, they were off to their own tables.

Surprised, Tom found himself free to serve himself, while Ma, because of the multiple delays, had four people in the queue in front of her. Bemused, he collected his food, and when they reached the kids’ table, all but three places were occupied. They took them.

Snotty Ma had to sit on the empty table by herself.

Bir was happily grinning like a Cheshire cat.