Tom looked down at the food spread out on his plate. The days of bland sausages and bread were over. Little Ta had become more adventurous, as had most of the children in their circle. He smiled at the bright colours and the tastiness they promised. He had a serving of butter chicken on rice, some vegetables in a creamy broth, a small amount of Vietnamese noodles, and a piece of steak with a blue tinge to it. Tom couldn’t help but pray that the colouring meant it was from the same species as the scrumptious steak he had two nights previously. It had been soft and tender, with a taste a little like peppered lamb. In fact, none of the food, strictly speaking, was the same stuff he had grown used to on Earth, but it was close enough to conjure memories of home. Besides, it was delicious in any case.
His mouth watered.
With all of them settled, he tasted the noodles first. The taste was exquisite.
Then he discovered the slight red tinge had been a warning rather than innocuous food colouring.
His mouth, especially the roof, was on fire, and his eyes watered. Hastily, he gulped down the milk he had prepared in case this happened, and then held the liquid in his mouth, swishing it around while trying not to make any noise. Half the table noticed his antics, and they were laughing at him, led by Kang.
The heat receded somewhat, and understanding that all receptors, or at least the pain receptors, in his mouth had been burned, he kept eating. He alternated between the noodles, butter chicken and the creamy vegies. The steak would come last.
“Children,” Dimitri’s voice boomed over all of them. “Can I have your attention, please.” He was standing on a makeshift stage and, thanks to that fact, was visible from everywhere, though the kids on the other side of the table had to twist awkwardly to see him. “I have two things I want to say to you. First, I would like to extend a big welcome to our next generation of students. Please note that none of the recent starters have arrived from the Early Children Care facility. Instead, they’ve come straight from family environment. They will be significantly unsettled. Please, do your best to look after them.”
Tom glanced at the four children who had joined them. They had hit the age deadline of four and a half, and as a result had been forced into the orphanage. Two had been here for a week, but a pair of twins were here for their first meal. The twins looked terrified and so, so young. Tom knew that was deceptive, because there was only six months’ difference between them but the contrast between the way they carried themselves versus how Bir did was stark. She was full of confidence, while they were anything but. It made a lot of sense, if you considered their respective history.
Bir had been an orphan for as long as little Tar could remember. The three of them, including Kang, had come from the Early Children Care facility. They hadn’t had parents, and so there had been no shock to the system when transitioning here. Those who came from a nuclear family arrangement always suffered more.
Kang caught where he was looking and subtly shook his head.
Internally, Tom sighed. While he would like to look after them and take them under his wing, so to speak, the other boy was right. It was not his job, and doing so would draw too much attention to him.
“And the second thing,” Dimitri said loudly. “Is much more exciting. As of yesterday, the environmental engineers successfully diverted the Mineral Spring River into the underground. I know none of you understand what that means. But this is one of humanity’s big environmental engineering projects. The mineral spring river runs into the crystal flood plains, which is dominated by crystal slime. They are up to rank eighty invasive species.”
Tom noticed the stress on the word invasive species and nodded grimly. That term meant it was a monster that was breeding in the area independently, rather than one that the GODs were continually creating. It meant that humanity could eliminate them and get ranking points by generating permanent change.
“The crystal slimes are almost impossible to destroy naturally and are considered to be beasts by the system, so they don’t generate loot portals. Their carcasses also contain no useful resources. They are valueless for farming. Our biologists determined that they rely on the minerals brought by the river to sustain their existence. By diverting the river, we can take advantage of their eight individual sex cycles.”
Tom tuned the other man out. All that mattered was the impact the investment had on the ladder. Dimitri was talking about the boon this would bring the nearby native species, but none of that was important. Humanity couldn’t afford to care if this effort would open up the area for farming by another species. The only thing that counted was the competition, because that governed where and in what state they would end up when the rest of humanity was transitioned here.
While Dimitri blabbered, Tom’s eyes scanned over the nearby tables absently. Ma had arrived late as usual, and was sitting next to a couple of seven-year-olds. Tom frowned when he saw that. He recognised them, and he didn’t like them. They were known bullies who made life difficult for those weaker than them, but their behaviour never rose to the point where volunteers had to be involved. They would probably end up as good adults, but for now they were little shits.
“Is it too hot?” Joseph, the boy sitting next to Ma asked. “Try it.”
He was Tom realised, referring to a plate heaped full of the Vietnamese noodles. The answer to Joseph’s question was a flat yes. It was way too spicy for them. He wanted to say something and, when he glanced at Kang, the other boy was watching Dimitri, but Tom knew the looks he would get if he interceded and played policeman amongst the younger kids. For a good reason, too. Given the need to hide his reincarnation status, that sort of action would draw unwanted attention.
Ma scowled:
“Don’t wanna.”
“Try it,” Joseph commanded.
Grumbling, Ma scooped up a large fork of the slightly red tinted noodles. Tom prepared himself to look away. He was not interested in watching a little girl get reduced to tears, and he was worried about the fury that sometimes overtook him. There was a flash of fate from her.
He was intrigued, and he wasn’t going to miss this. Her pool had just dropped by fifty percent and he had to know the why. She had never demonstrated any fate ability before, but if she was able to use it even half as well as Bir could, she was worth paying attention too.
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“Isn’t that great.” Dimitri shouted. There was applause around the room, but all of it from the older kids. No one under around nine seemed to care.
Tom had been watching the boys accosting Ma. When Dimitri had yelled, their eyes had briefly turned toward the noise, and Ma, during that momentary window deliberately tipped the mound of noodles off her fork with gravity, making it fall smoothly onto her lap. Her legs would be covered with it, but with so many clean loops available for her to fix the problem, that hardly mattered.
She finished the motion of bringing it to her lips and away. The prongs looked like it had been in someone’s mouth, and were suspiciously clean. She put the piece of cutlery down and pretended to chew. Joseph and his friend were definitely fooled by the act.
The two bullies were studying at her intently.
She smiled. “Not hot. Yummy.” She picked up the fork and went to grab another mouthful.
Joseph pulled the plate away hurriedly. “Get your own.”
She nodded pleasantly and got up to leave.
Tom was watching for the noodles that had fallen earlier to be revealed, but they were invisible as she stood. He wasn’t sure how fate had managed that outcome, but it had.
Initially, she angled for the buffet table and the noodle dish she had pretended to love. The moment she got people between her and the boys, she changed direction and made a beeline for the gymnasium door, pausing only to grab some bread and a sausage as she passed them. The two boys didn’t notice her actions and started hurriedly eating the noodles. They had turned it into a race to see who could eat them the fastest. One of the forkfuls that Joseph grabbed had a full red chilli in it. That was an experience that Tom hadn’t been brave enough to try for himself.
Tom winced anticipating what was coming next.
Their faces went red.
Joseph clutched at his throat like it was burning him. He spluttered and spat out a mouthful of noodles and desperately tried to eat something else to remove the pain.
It didn’t work.
His movements became more and more frantic. The entire table of seven-year-olds were laughing at the two boys. He saw Joseph look for Ma briefly before the agony of the situation drove any thoughts of the younger girl from their minds. A volunteer rushed some milk towards them.
Smiling to himself, Tom ignored them and finished his steak. It tasted even better than it looked. Once he swallowed the last delectable morsel, he allowed Bir and Kang to drag him to the dodge training room.
The three of them set about defeating the pits. They had moved up a couple of levels, and the battles were becoming more realistic. Rather than fighting in an ensorcelled place where everything felt like it was made of air cushions, the blows now smarted when they landed. Strikes that should have left week-long bruises still only caused a brief reddening of the skin, but at least there were some consequences for failure.
Tom continued through each day.
His precognition mana was selectively invested into his various spells. He had discovered that the sweet spot for using it was when he was getting close to creating a spell or merge. If he used it too early, then half the time it would distort the spell form into some bastardised type of healing. That kind often worked, but did nothing to progress his aim of being rewarded a defined set of spells to feed into Touch Heal. However, if he took advantage of it when he was near an upgrade, it definitely speed the progress up.
Another half a week passed, and he was once more in the trial, specifically in the scenario April had created to promote his wood-growing skills. Given the unexpected value of the precognition training, Tom wasn’t about to complain about the process. He suspected the skills he gained would be useful beyond what he expected.
The method she used was simple enough.
He was thrown into a small room, no bigger than a prisoner’s cell, and then from the floor wood would start to grow. The growth would be mostly chaotic, with a slight tendency to expand toward him. The task was to last as long as possible without being trapped. The issue was that he had no idea what he was doing.
He could feel the energy that made the wood grow chaotically. It pumped through the plants so visibly that anyone with a small amount of mana sensitivity would have been able to track the pulse. All the growing wood was packed with it, but the problem was, he couldn’t do anything with that knowledge. The only technique which was even moderately successful consisted of physically pushing on the sprouting branches to redirect them. If he applied pressure at the right time, he could force it to grow away with him, but it was not the method that April wanted him to learn.
While it made a difference, the difference was not large. Within two minutes, the out-of-control growth stripped his ability to stand and walk. A minute later, his legs became completely trapped, and, forty seconds after that, the room dissolved and he found himself in the café.
He sat there panting, exhausted by the amount of effort it took to hold the wood away from him.
“That’s both boring and terrifying,” Tom informed the attentive April. “Nothing much happens, and then you’re stuck with no way to get out, and then, when your arms are about to give out, the session ends.” He sighed dramatically. “It’s stressful.”
April gave a tentative smile:
“Well, drink your coffee. It’ll make you feel better.”
“Yes, I think I need to.” He stopped suddenly and studied her. She had a smug look on her face. “Okay, I recognise that expression. Spill the goss. What am I missing?”
She looked back at him innocently:
“You’re not missing anything.”
“But…” he ground the word out into the stretching silence.
“But, but have you thought about inhibiting growth? Like, you obviously can’t direct the flood of energy, but would it make sense to try the opposite.”
Tom went to respond with a cutting remark, then stopped himself from saying something stupid as he considered what exactly she was suggesting. If he inhibited the growth, the branch would grow unevenly. The rest would expand, but the spot he was inhibiting wouldn’t. It would bend as a result. If he did it carefully, it would definitely allow him to shape where the plants went.
“Are you sure? Will that really work?”
April rolled her eyes:
“No, I’m making a random suggestion. I have no idea whether it’s possible.”
“Is there a better way to do things?”
She stared him down.
“I guess not.” Tentatively, he took the first sip of the coffee, and it had cooled just enough to allow it. Then he looked up at her. He had to do something to distract her, as she looked a little pissed. “Have you heard that they’ve kicked off the first of their environmental shaping projects?”
“Oh, really? What are they trying?”
He tried to remember what Dimitri had told him. It was clear from the way April was looking at him that he had mangled the description, but she listened attentively.
“We won’t know for a couple of weeks whether it will work.” He finished with a shrug even as he had his last sip of coffee.
“Well, I hope that’s successful. It sounded very involved. Now, are you refreshed enough to start another session?” she teased.
He nodded.
“Crafting or fighting first?”
“Fighting.”
“What a surprise. Don’t worry, I’ll give you a fun challenge.”
The world blurred, and he found himself in the meadow with three octolegs arrayed against him.
Oh shit, he thought. This is not good at all.
“Three!” he yelled out. “April, what did I say? If it was anything bad, I take it back. I didn’t mean it.”
There was no response.
“April, you promised fun. Octolegs are never fun, and three is…” Tom broke off with a curse as they closed with him, and he desperately blocked a probing tentacle with the tip of his spear.
Grimly, he went on the defensive, his mind already preparing for an hour-long battle. He could imagine April laughing.
Then he realised he didn’t have to imagine, because she was present physically and laughing loud enough to be a crowd by herself. He glanced in her direction and then cursed as a tentacled leg almost connected. She had arranged a picnic set and was watching.
From experience, drawing the monsters over to her wouldn’t help. She would always be thirty metres away, and if he did something like that or got very unlucky, she would start critiquing his performance. Not constructively, either.