Given the planning that had gone into everything else, he was sure this was his solution to the need to have access to isolation rooms for an extended period.

He slipped through one of the open doors and glanced around curiously. The moment the door shut he felt the usual magic of the isolation room trigger, but, rather than the brief burst that normally happened, this one was extended and had more weight to it. Identification spells, a mixture of visible and invisible, flashed through the room. Some of the magic physically touched him and then stuck to him. In moments he was covered with multiple-coloured lines that crisscrossed with such density that every centimetre of him was highlighted.

With eyes wide-open, he examined the room, and everything was tagged the same. Furniture, books, toy boxes - they were all painted with the lines but that was not what Tom focused on. Instead, he made sure there were no unexpected shapes; the magic was clearly designed to reveal invisible entities. With his abilities to pierce illusions and his precognition affinity-fuelled Danger Sense, Tom understood that he personally didn’t need the visual display, but others would, and he wasn’t about to allow his arrogance to stop him from using the extra check.

There was a ding as the magical checks stopped. The screen to the left of the door lit up. Words immediately started to scroll across it.

Infra-Red Test – One biological entity identified

Red Light Test – One biological entity identified.

Around thirty similar messages were displayed, covering all the wavelengths up to X-rays. Then the nature of the words changed.

Presence of Shadow Magic – Zero

Presence of Spatial Distortions – Zero

Mana Storage Devices – One (Internal to Biological entity.)

After displaying fifty of those summary messages in quick succession, the tests designed to ensure there were no enemy spies stopped. The depths that the room went to were impressive, and Tom wondered if those assassins would have been able to protect themselves against the huge barrage of tests. They obviously hadn’t been caught by them, but had they been driven out of these rooms? Had this single location in the orphanage been safe?

Nope, Tom thought.

Those particular natives, given their experience and probable classes, were too good. All these checks wouldn’t have been enough against them. They would possess the skills and spells to circumvent these hundred or so tests. It didn’t matter how amazing the defences seemed; they were only mechanical checks, and a talented, dedicated opponent, given time, would be able to counter them all. However, he was still impressed by the depths of the precautions. They would definitely protect against a more limited infiltration.

The screen flashed a new message.

Would you like this session to continue with Private or Public settings?

Curiously, he selected private.

Private session selected.

---Switching to off-line power.

---Turning off monitoring.

---Safety precautions disabled.

---Additional scrying wards implemented.

*Note, if excessive healing energy is required on-line power may need to be re-enabled.

Tom’s eyebrows rose at the safety precautions being disabled. He hadn’t known that the isolation rooms had such a feature, but, in hindsight, it wasn’t that surprising.

How long would you like this session to last?

There were numerous options listed under the question that ranged from five minutes to a full eight hours.

Tom smiled in relief. This room would be perfect for him, and, to test the situation fully, he selected the shortest period possible.

The room locked, and, almost immediately, Tom regretted pressing the button. Five minutes when you wanted to be out killing stuff was a long time. On another night, he would be back to start training his resistances in earnest, but not now.

Today he had orcs to kill, and he nearly ran out the door when it finally unlocked, such had been the buildup of his boredom.

Fifteen minutes later, he stood armed and ready at the threshold to the orc lair.

This was not the first time he had come down here, and he understood the enemy in detail. They were a different type of threat than the bats. The orcs were powerful, at least to someone at his level, even if they were slow even by Earth standards. Most healthy adults on Earth without access to the attribute boost that Existentia brought would have been able to defeat these monsters in a one on one battle, providing they didn’t panic and they weren’t fighting one of the orcs with an actual skill.

Tom wasn’t an adult. He was in a child’s body, which made the clashes problematic. They needed a different strategy and layout than what he had chosen against the bats. Fighting these creatures without armour would be a mistake. The orcs with skills could occasionally move so fast that fully evading their attacks was a pipe dream. But nor could he wear a full set of armour, because attempting to do so would slow him too much. His compromise was a mixed leather and metal breastplate, which covered the vitals. It was to stop attacks that could do lethal damage to his torso, but nothing else.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

With Touch Heal fully operational, even outcomes like losing an arm did not trouble him. If he got the arm quick enough, he could reattach it. Against this particular type of opponent Spark, represented a get out of jail card not to mention the powerful protection Dimitri had gifted him. In the context of those advantages, the relatively light armour made sense.

Two steps would take him into the lair, and, before he began, he utilised his Dampen Senses ring. Instantly, smell and hearing vanished, and he also shut his eyes. He would go in blind in the truest sense of the words to train his skills further. With none of the normal five senses guiding him, he strode forward, confident that his abilities were going to protect him. His Advanced Danger Sense would not stop him from walking into a wall, but there were half-formed skills at play that would help him. Tom had tested the limits of that sense, and it was impressive. Logically, it worked, but he couldn’t bring himself to fully trust it fully. As he strode forward, he swung his spear ahead of him like a blind man would, but, despite him walking through twisted tunnels for over ten minutes, his spear never touched anything.

He had a sixth sense for where the walls were, even if nothing had crystallised into an ability.

Abruptly, Danger Sense spiked.

Without hesitation, he sprang to the side while using Psychic Tracking on the beast that was attacking him. Its shoulder brushed against his elbow as it rushed past him, almost spinning him off his feet.

He winced, then registered a second spike of warning and threw himself forward. He tagged the new monster, and then he was tracking two enemies simultaneously. There didn’t seem to be a third, which was good, because his skill was limited to two opponents at the current point in time. Psychic Tracking was only good to highlight an opponent’s centre of mass, but that gave him enough of an advantage against these monsters to allow him to fight them blind. With light feet, forcing his eyes to remain tightly shut, he started dancing between the enemies. Knowledge built-up from weeks of fighting this specific monster type allowed him to predict their movements. His spear swung to intercept blows, and then, when he guessed there would be an opening, he would stab forward with his version of Power Strike, making every blow far more deadly than they would otherwise be.

The small wounds Tom blindly delivered added up, and, after four minutes, one of them finally succumbed to their injuries. With only a single opponent to contend with, Tom ramped his aggression up, and the second died shortly after.

The entire fight had lasted a little over five minutes, and he was breathing heavily. It had been a successful bout, but not a perfect one. He had suffered two injuries. One had been a graze on his leg with the only notable damage being that inflicted upon his clothes. The second one, however, had been more serious. He had only partially blocked a skill-empowered strike, and the sword had gotten through. It had hurt his chest area, and he was breathing shallowly as a result. The blow had struck him in the middle of his chest and done significant damage to his breastplate. His probing fingers found dented metal and split leather in a gash that was over ten centimetres long. It stretched from his sternum to his shoulder. A combination of touch and the diagnosis ability that was coupled with his healing allowed him to find and draw out the leather that had been pushed under his skin line.

Pulling the leather slithers out without anaesthetic hurt enough that he had to clench his jaw to stop himself from crying out, but in a few moments it was over and then his healing magic removed the injury and the pain. The breast plate was not ruined but now had a significant area of weakness that he would have to monitor and protect during the coming fights.

For a battle against only two orcs, it was not an auspicious start to his training.

Frowning, he continued forward while reviewing the fight. Technically, his performance had been far better than the injury suffered had implied. There was no single moment, including when he got hurt, where he had better options available. Given his handicaps and limited skills, he had done as well as he could ever have expected to do so.

Maybe I was pushing myself too hard, he mused to himself. Then he shook his head at that thought. Nope, he decided. A few scratches in the name of training were perfectly acceptable. Even if the sword blow had nearly reached to the bone, it hadn’t quite made it, and he trusted Danger Sense to react earlier to protect him if his life was ever truly in danger.

As though his thoughts had summoned it, Danger Sense blared almost at full volume, indicating a stronger enemy – or, more likely, a group of enemies - were about to assault him.

Tom, acutely aware of the risk of hostile fate being weaponised against him, immediately opened his eyes to equalise the odds against whatever he was facing. The illuminous moss in these caves was dense, which, while not providing light as such, did enough to frame the four enemy silhouettes that were coming at him. There were two spear users, a sword and shield orc, and, finally, one wielding an axe. He was in one of the larger caves, as that was the only place the mobs of monsters congregated. The cavern was five metres high and circular, and almost twenty metres across, which gave it a similar area to a basketball court, even if it had a different shape. The monsters had started on the other side, and all four were rushing him.

Clinically, he focused on making the use of his spear forms. He danced around the creatures, using his superior speed compared to that of the hulking brutes to make sure he wasn’t cornered. This was training, so he deliberately used the quick step technique every chance he got. Without a skill backing it, the motion was a hindrance to the battle, as it interrupted the precise footwork that experts had developed over thousands, if not millions, of hours, but he did it anyway. A little inefficiency now was an acceptable cost for long-term gain.

The orcs were stupid, and, very quickly, he managed to position himself so only one could threaten him. Without hesitation, he flexed Spark. His magic zapped the orc immediately after it had lunged at him. The electricity struck the leading leg, and caused all of the muscles in the thigh area to spasm. It was a minor impediment, but it distracted it for a moment and prevented it from stepping back neatly to a spot where the others could cover it.

He used the quarter of a second his magic had bought him to lunge forward. His Power Strike-enhanced spear ripped out the creature’s throat. Then, as he danced backwards, the mortally wounded orc followed him for three steps before collapsing to its knees, its brain shutting down in seconds because no blood was reaching it.

The fight was reduced to three on one, and, without the self-imposed handicap to his vision, it was an easy fight. The orcs were slow, and had no resistances against lightning magic. A few more carefully placed bolts in the midst of the spinning, flashing, and striking weapons turned the remainder of the fight into a forgone conclusion. One tripped, and his spear went through its eye; another lost its sword as its hand spasmed at the same time as Tom parried a blow. The force of their weapons colliding along with its fumble sent the blade clattering away. Lacking a weapon, even with the defence of its shield, it was easy to conquer. The last one, the axe fighter, died shortly after, because a one-on-one between him and an orc was not a fair contest. While they outranked him, his technical skill level was so much higher that ending the fight was simple.

Tom smiled at the end of the battle, and then shut his eyes once more and continued on his way. There were more orcs to kill. More training to complete. As he hunted his next prey, he hoped that he would mostly find singles and duos, because he really wanted to advance his blind fighting abilities.