The reoccurrence of that anger, the curse or the blessing or whatever it was, troubled him. Two full days had passed, and Tom found himself obsessing over it still. He knew that was stupid. Logic told him that there was nothing he could do to solve the issue, so stressing about it achieved nothing. Once he had access to his actual system room, specifics would become available, but for now all he could do was guess.

Tom thought he understood how it worked. When something he perceived as an injustice took place, it caused a rage, overwhelming his self-control.

As far as mental effects went, that capability spoke to its potency and strength. He knew himself from the years he had spent in the tutorial,. A minor curse could not overwhelm his iron self-control. But there was more to it than just that. He remembered how Boreas’ knee had buckled.

Because it felt weirdly relevant, he focused on the skill Santories had given him, and on the reasons for it having been awarded. Once, Tom’s thoughtless comment had provoked a chain of events leading to him betraying the chosen, then them breaking their trust with him, and Tom, in turn, trying to save them. Ultimately, unseen cultural gulfs between the two species had been responsible for what had occurred.

He remembered how the smallest had been willing to sacrifice itself.

Tom swallowed and brushed away tears. That memory, of the smallest’s bravery, it was not something he wanted to remember. It was a tragedy, and one he was not proud of, but when the GOD had gifted him what it had, it had come from a place of gratitude. It had been intended as a blessing, but one that was a classic double-edged sword. Yes, the skill he had gained stopped him from making social blunders. This property had been very useful during the first contact with other species, but the silences it enforced were often embarrassing, and also damaging when they occurred at the wrong time in front of others.

This fury felt similar.

He had broken Boreas’ knee. That, as Tom knew from years of hitting things, was not something a small child like him should have been able to do. Not when Boreas’s vitality had been two or more times greater than his own strength. Sure, the all-consuming rage had forced him to disregard worries such as the chance of harming himself, and so he had struck with his head to extract absolutely every bit of potential possible out of his body. But even then, that should not have been enough to do that amount of damage. Kang was fifty percent heavier than him, and he wouldn’t be capable of that. Both of them should have bounced off and left a bruise at most, not shattered it like his head had.

“It doesn’t matter,” Tom told himself. It was an issue he needed to watch, but obsessing over it would achieve nothing.

Weeks passed, and all too soon he found himself in the trial once again. April was sitting across from him, frowning. She was not happy at his latest request.

“Tom, are you sure? This isn’t how normal people go about things.”

“I need to improve.”

“You’re asking me to murder you.”

“Not murder. It’s a challenge, and it’s under a GOD’s shield, and I hadn’t made any progress for weeks. For over a month, in fact.”

“But…” she looked puzzled. “That’s not true. You’ve told me about the bone spells and the muscle mending.”

“It’s too slow. Please, help me. I need this.”

“Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The café faded away, and he found himself standing in the same clearing he had appeared in originally. There was plenty of room to fight here, with a circle of trees surrounding him. That was a terrain feature that could provide something to stand back-to-back with or to use as obstacles against some monsters. For this fight, though, it weren’t going to be a factor.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He glanced around, wondering absently about what kind of monster April was going to send against him.

Something flashed past, and there was a stinging pain on his cheek.

It happened so fast.

Possibly too fast.

April had delivered exactly what he had asked for.

Even as he followed the creature’s movement by spinning on the spot, he released his fate with an image of a sideways evolution that acted constantly, as opposed to one that only applied when the spell was being actively cast.

The monster was no bigger than his fist. Tom’s fingers touched his own cheek, and came away red with blood. April had delivered both parts of his request. A glint of silver flared up as the creature swooped for him once more.

He leapt out of the way, but he was way too slow.

The injury was on his arm this time, and the surrounding cloth went red instantly, so that he was forced to heal that cut immediately. This opponent felt overwhelming, but he couldn’t be mad at April. This was what he had asked for. But it was faster than he had imagined. Was it really only rank two?

He started spinning his spear like one would a quarter staff. This was his attempt to create a shield of moving wood in front of himself.

The monster came at him again and again, and the spear spinning too fast to be followed didn’t even deter it. The creature was quick enough to dodge through the pseudo-barrier he was creating and score more cuts on him. Luckily, each slice was only slightly larger than a paper cut, even if the creature’s magic made it bleed like a much more substantial wound.

His blood flowed as it struck with impunity. The flow of mana from his precognition skill was the only thing that was allowing him to survive.

For what must have been the hundredth time in this fight, he cast Heal Cut, and then followed it up with his latest attempt at Replenish Blood.

There was a ding.

Tom kept fighting.

The creature that felt like a ball of razor blades came at him again. His spear, the spear he had been forced to spin so fast he was on the verge of losing control at any moment, did what it had done every other time, and scared it away. It adjusted and made a circle to strike him from behind.

He couldn’t turn quickly enough, and he felt it fly past his side, leaving stinging cuts.

It was too quick. April had warned him, but he didn’t think it was going to be this bad.

As always, the monster caused an unnatural tug on his blood, and the wounds leaked far more gore in the two seconds it took for him to heal than they should have.

It came again and again.

There had been a ding, which was good. He had merged the spells as planned, but he was beginning to think that requesting a rank two monster focused on speed had been a mistake.

With a thought, he healed the latest cuts and used his new magic to replace the lost blood.

It went through his defences once more, this time slicing into his eyebrow. Blood trickled into his eyes before he could close the cut.

Tom cursed. This was so frustrating. The monster he was fighting was not that dangerous. If he had lightning magic, the fight would already be over, but it felt like, with his current body, winning was impossible.

He persisted.

This was not a battle of equals. Tom was an overwhelming force of nature in the fight. He only had to land one blow to finish it. At the same time, the monster’s win condition was to land ten thousand cuts, to dice him up until skill exhaustion cut off the flow of the precognition mana that was continuously patching him up. That failure, when it came, would signify a tipping point, beyond which his healing could no longer keep pace with his wounds.

It was a battle plan Tom was used to, but normally the situation was reversed. Generally, it was Tom who was the gnat wearing down the physically superior opponent.

One moment of luck was all that was needed, but there was no way he was wasting fate in a meaningless fight under a GOD’s shield to actively cause it.

His spear spun, and he saw the glint of metal coming from the side. Desperately, he thrust the spinning weapon at it and tried to increase the rotation speed. The weapon connected.

Shock went through him.

He hadn’t thought he would ever touch it. But his glancing blow had made successful contact.

His eyes traced the new trajectory of the creature. Its wings were no longer beating. If he was fast enough, he could intercept and kill it before it recovered.

He didn’t allow surprise to slow him down. He followed the unconscious monster and skewered it mid-air.

With it dying on his spear for the first time, he could see it clearly. It was far closer to being a bird than he had expected, with two wings and the same body shape he was used to seeing. The only real difference was that the feathers resembled knives than they did the fluffy stuff that went into pillows. Still, this creature, unlike most monsters, was one that could have evolved from earth stock.

The world dissolved, and he found himself sitting in the cafe across from an unhappy April.