In the next trial session, Tom failed to complete the backlog of crafting. If he were being honest, though, he didn’t mind. Making the bracelets was kind of meditative, especially when interspaced with intense battles with the war hammer. One thing Tom was acutely aware of was the fact that the world prevented attribute growth through exertion. Every single time he picked the hammer up, it was as heavy as the first time, and it never got lighter.

If he was back on Earth, or in an adult body, the result of his exertions would have been far different. The micro-tears the feats of strength left, when healing, would have reinforced the muscle and made him stronger. That feedback loop was missing here. Nevertheless, he enjoyed the process, even if the ache of muscle fatigue without the reward of growth frustrated him. Then, two hours into his second session, he completed the final bracelet.

“Well done.” April said warmly. “You can afford Power Strike, but are you sure you want to? Spear Mastery will give it as a threshold bonus soon enough.”

He knew the answer already. Despite its utility and impact in melee contests, Power Strike was not considered to be a peak tier-zero ability. It was of similar utility as Heal Cut; it was not rated as trash, but nor was it peak tier-zero. “Is there something better that I can get?”

April sighed and shook her head. “It’s a fundamental essential of spear fighting in Existentia. It is only cheap because it’s a part of the base ability, if admittedly one that is only unlocked after a couple years of meaningful combat experience. In my opinion, it’s worthwhile both in the short and long term, especially given what little else you can afford. The direct ability is stronger than that in Spear Mastery, even if only slightly. But, given your aims, given that you’re shooting for the Divine Champions’ trial, even a fraction of a percent of improvement is worthwhile.”

“Then yes, you’ve convinced me. I want it.”

A moment later, a sheaf of paper appeared in front of her. She flipped through it, which was purely for the theatrics. In practice, as Tom knew, she would have instantly absorbed the information. “Buying this is a good idea,” she stated finally. “It’s a lot harder to train than what you’ve done before, but, since you’ve used the ability before, you should regain it quickly. Even if the ability itself is not that great an upgrade, it will provide excellent fundamentals for later efforts.”

“How’s it harder?” Tom couldn’t help but ask. This extra layer of complexity he was discovering in spells and skills, things that he had previously taken for granted, absolutely fascinated him.

“Well, for what you’ve learned so far, you’ve connected to the concept by sensing incoming energy. You’re trying to duplicate it with the lightning work in the isolation rooms. Once you can sense energy, you then progress to absorbing and manipulating it, and from there it’s only a short step to creating. That’s not how you get this.” She waved the papers around. “Power Strike, when you think about it, does three things. It greatly increases the durability of your spear, creates a point of almost infinite sharpness and a focused magical shield-breaking effect.”

“I’m aware,” Tom said dryly. The durability component was new, if not at all surprising. “It was kind of the basis of my fighting for over forty years. How do we train it?”

“You break it down into its components. Each function is gained independently; then, when you combine the three, the official skill should snap together.”

Tom considered her explanation. “Actually, I’m not sure that I understand completely. Doesn’t Spear Mastery already grant durability?”

“Yes, it does, and that will help you. Part one of this process is to expand that base functionality to an extraordinary level. The amount of stress a Power Strike puts on the weapon in immense.”

“But that’s not true. That doesn’t make sense to me. When I use it, the skill punches through armour easily, and there is less stress on the spear than with a normal blow. How is durability relevant?”

“You’re not considering the physical fundamentals. Ask yourself this: does it always punch through perfectly? No, it doesn’t.” An illusion appeared in front of her, a man with a spear stabbing into a monster. “This is how the forces play out with a normal thrust.” The partially translucent spear was magnified, and Tom saw a pressure wave go through the weapon. It spread relatively evenly, with a few more intense areas of colour flashing out as the energy ran along what must have been fault lines in the shaft. “This is what happens with a Power Strike encounters partial resistance. Which is when you feel any level of impact. Something I’m sure that happens almost always.”

Her analysis wasn’t wrong. There was always some level of opposition. Not as much with a normal thrust where the weapon would often bounce away, perhaps, but it was usually used against armoured enemies, and he still felt it even if the blow was successful.

In the main illusion, the spear glowed blue and punched through the enemy, but Tom only had eyes for the key point of the demonstration, which was the magnified weapon. In that vision, planes of force went through the weapon. There was significantly less colour, but, rather than being spread out, they went through the spear like a laser beam.

“Is that real?”

April said nothing, but showed an image of where the weapon failed to punch through. It was the same effect, only larger. Instead of force being spread over the entire shaft, it was concentrated through only a small section. “Yes, it is. Power Strike adds sharpness, momentum, and slippiness to the point. When that combination fails, it inevitably concentrates all the force of stopping the thrust onto one point.”

“So, I’m to work on durability first?”

April nodded.

“How do I go about that?”

She chuckled. “By breaking hundreds of spears.”

Tom froze at that comment.

“And by hundreds, I mean tens of thousands. You keep training until you can hit dummies without allowing even a fragile spear to shatter.”

He whistled. Training the ability outside of a trial that specialised in this sort of thing would be prohibitively expensive.

“What your bracelets just purchased is designs for escalating levels of fragility to optimise the training. Unfortunately, they were made of wood, which won’t work for you. Your subconscious mind will apply your Living Wood skill to reinforce the weapons physically. Luckily, I’m a genius, so I’ll create them out of ceramics. Once you’ve got durability, the next two skills will be even harder for you to train. But I’ll give you more details when you’re ready. Have fun.”

He blinked and found himself standing in what he would have described as a traditional training arena. It was a large, open space of hard-packed dirt covered in a thin layer of sand, with numerous static combat dummies around the outside, and an open area the size of a soccer pitch in the middle. All that was missing was the sight of hundreds of people training. Tom was completely alone, and a single metal dummy was directly in front of him. Beside him were crates filled with wonky-looking spears.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

There was no question of what he was supposed to do. He grabbed one of the weapons and frowned at the feel of it. April had not been kidding. It was a hollow weapon made of clay, and it felt like, if he moved it too fast, it would crack and fall apart.

“Are you serious? I need to hit something and have this not break?”

“Get to it. Stab the fearsome enemy,” April called out. He glanced her way. She was sitting on a wooden bench, looking perfectly comfortable. Impatiently, she waved for him to start.

Tom shifted the weapon into position. Instinctively, he shuffled his feet into the correct spots and then lunged forward, driving the spear right into the chest of the dummy.

It shattered.

The clay disintegrated under his hands, with the small shards of the explosion along the shaft stinging against the softer parts of his palm. He scowled slightly at the sensation; it was not pleasant.

He seized another one. The idea was to hit the dummy without the spear breaking. He thrust again, but this time moderated his strength, to strike it heavily enough to cause a ding, but not so strong that it would suffer the previous level of catastrophic failure.

The weapon didn’t break.

A wave of pain went through him, radiating from his hands. He squeezed the ceramic spear so hard in response that it shattered, doing far more damage than the one before. Instinctively, he healed the cuts.

“Not like that,” April said, sounding regretful. “You have to strike with full strength to avoid the backlash.”

Tom glared at her. “Don’t pretend to be sad. I know you could have warned me!”

“We’ve discussed this over and over again. Do you want fast progression, or to be treated as a rich kid and stagnate as a result?”

“You know what I want.” He grumbled. “But you still could have warned me.” He knew how he sounded, especially when he was in this body. April, to her credit, did not take the easy opportunity to tease him.

He lowered his head and grabbed a new spear. He thrust with all of his speed. It exploded into a shower of clay. The shaft under his hands splintered.

It was not pleasant.

Tom immediately grabbed another and struck again.

Exactly the same thing happened. His hands, particularly his palms, were stinging, but that was nothing compared to the pain that he had suffered when he had held his strength back. Even the memory of that left him no choice but to give his all.

“How much time did not warning me really save?” he asked.

“Hours.” She answered simply. “And, before you object, just consider how many skills are you going to acquire in the trial and how long each subsection takes. Less than four sessions here, based on your current progress. If we reduce each one by a few hours, that means you end up with ten percent more skills. What’s that over the next nine years? Four, five, six extra skills. That’s why I’m pushing.”

Tom considered what she was saying. “Logically, I understand. More skills are better than fewer. But a part of me resents the brutality.”

“Unfortunately, you can’t have both. Even you, with your exceptional willpower, will slacken off.”

“Isn’t that the truth.” Another spear broke. He had subconsciously reduced the force of the blow, and felt the warning tinge of pain. “Is there a technique I should be using?”

“For now, lean on Spear Mastery. I know each of those weapons feels more like an art project than an instrument of war, but each of them is technically a functional spear. Treat them as such. Use your Spear Mastery skill to reinforce it.”

It sounded easy, but the problem was he had no idea what she was talking about. However, he kept thrusting. The spears kept breaking, and he continued to try using that extra bit of him, that extra ethereal muscle that Spear Mastery represented to reinforce the shaft.

As he continued to break them, his mind mulled over what she had said in passing – something about him gaining forty skills over the remaining nine years. He had been aware of it subconsciously, but he had never consciously considered what that would actually mean. Specifically, in the context of her only having access to tier-one skills.

The issue was, he doubted there were even a dozen unique spear abilities within that tier range, which meant he was going to have to develop skills in other directions. He was well-versed in Spear abilities from his previous life, and he considered the various options available. There were the Power Strike, Rapid Strike, Sinuous Stab, Elemental Infusing, Lunge, Enlarge and the various illusionary effects such as Mesmerizing Spear or Illusionary Thrust. They were all useful, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted all of them. While the abilities didn’t share the same cooldown, they did overlap. If he was fresh, he could do four consecutive Lunges, but if he had already exhausted himself using Power Strike, then that capacity would be halved. Stacking lots of tier-one abilities was not necessarily wise. It was probably better to instead focus on the higher-tier ones.

Tom suspected it would take him less than two years in total to get all the spear abilities he wanted.

What should I do with the remaining seven years of development? he wondered. There was no question on whether he would use it to get skills. The question was, which ones? Definitely not utility skills, such as Clean Teeth or Haircut. He would be buying them from the experience shop once he got access, as the facilities of the orphanage meant he had no need for those yet.

Supplementing his isolation room development of lightning and earth spells made sense, and, if he was also being honest with himself, probably hammer abilities.

What else is there? He thought to himself. There were general movement skills like Acrobatics, Evasion, and Quick Step, but they were all only maybes. Gaining them too early might prevent him from getting the stronger earned abilities, such as what he had gotten in his last life.

He remembered the message that had shocked him when he had gotten it.

Congratulations, you have met the prerequisites to be rewarded the Skill.

Skill: Safer Falling (Tier 1)

Safer falling is not a physical skill, but utilises fate to help the user when falling or being thrown.

Effectiveness scales with level, and the amount of fate available adjusted by class level. Cannot be purchased from the competitor store.

This skill is an Earned Skill.

Given this designation, you will be restricted from discussing or communicating the steps undertaken to acquire the Earned Skill. Now that you are aware of the mechanism, it is acceptable to attempt similar feats to Earn alternative skills but you will be permanently blocked from any Earned Skill or Spell which you have gained a prior knowledge of the steps required to be awarded it. Given the rules, researching this topic is not recommended.

The prerequisites you met to earn Safer Falling are:

* Used technical falling skills to stave off certain death when falling.

* Sustained crippling injuries when breaking falls on two or more occasions.

* Demonstrated technical proficiency of at least twenty in acrobatics.

* Did not possess the acrobatics or similar skill to aid body control.

Tom knew from when he got the choice of being reincarnated that prior knowledge excluded anything he learnt in his previous life. This was a skill that he could absolutely earn again, and he was confident he could recreate the conditions once he had Touch Heal. Using technical skills to stave off certain death was easy. That was only a matter of tucking the head in and rolling. Nothing was permanently crippling in Existentia if high-levelled healers were around. To trigger that criterion, he only needed to take massive risks, and the community fate would effectively guarantee he couldn't die. Any injuries he suffered could be fixed. In his dodge and obstacle course practice, he was sure he had already showed a technical proficiency in acrobatics of at least twenty, and that last bullet point was the most important. That was why he did not want to develop any body skills.

Another spear shattered against a dummy, and he broadened his consideration. Duplicating Safer Falling skill was easy, but what else could he do? Were there earned skills for dodging, parrying, acrobatics, athletics? Of course there were. The real question was, were there versions that also used fate? Because that's what he wanted to get. The Safer Falling skill had been evolved into a dodge ability that became the lynchpin of his dominance before he died.

How much more powerful would he be, if, instead of one earned skill folding into that high-tiered ability, there were three or four instead?

The answer was obvious. This was something to pursue. And getting more Earned Abilities should just be a matter of danger, unrecognised expertise, and injury. They were three things that he could get behind, especially since his forty years of combat experience gifted him with a massive amount of unrecognised expertise. But what other lessons could he draw from this?

Another spear shattered in his hands.