Chapter 107 – An Unexpected Gift

They got to work with Kang taking the lead. The group exercises had the singular focus of training the girls to listen and be aware of their environment. Teaching them to react in the right way to stay alive was what every session was directed toward. There were three rooms that could be used for that purpose.

The one they were currently in was a wide-open space with padded walls and a single combat automation that could be triggered to provide a challenge or used as target practice. For beginner exercises, it was perfect and once they improved, they would move into the combat simulation room with its dozens of automations. Once that room was mastered, there was a dynamic obstacle space that was programmable and would allow them to gain practice reacting when the footing was uneven and or to become more aware of how to use geographical features defensively.

The combination Tom had to admit was about perfect for what they wanted.

“Monster at ten,” Kang called out. They shuffled and Tom did a Quick Step, without the magical assistance, and pretended to stab the imaginary threat.

“More at six and three.”

This time Kang blurred across to meet the creature at the six while Tom engaged the one at three having to almost spin a full a hundred eighty degrees to do so.

The girls retreated to where he had previously been standing at the ten o’clock position to take them as far away from the threats as possible.

“Stop.” Kang snapped. “You’ve gone too far, again.” He kicked the ground a metre behind Tom’s right shoulder. They were a full three paces from that location. “You’re supposed to be here. No more than two paces distant. I’ve told you that a dozen times.”

Briana who despite having had over a week to acclimatise was still fragile and burst into tears. She was treating them like she would Dimitri.

Tom sighed. One glance was enough to confirm his suspicions she was no longer in the headspace that would let her listen and learn from them. “Let’s have a quick break.”

The two girls took advantage of the offer and sprinted out.

Kang massaged his brow. “You’re too soft. Tom. They’re not learning you’re giving them breaks rather than taking the time to reinforce the lessons. It’s going to kill them. They’re going to get slaughtered when we expand to live combat.”

“Then let’s bring that forward.”

He snorted. “It’s not that easy. They’re not ready. They’ll get hurt.”

“So?” Tom shrugged. “I honestly think Bri’s better off being taught that way. Having you yell at her is not effective given her state of mind.”

“It’s because she thinks I’m an adult.”

“You are an adult. And I know it’s frustrating but whining about why doesn’t change the reality of the situation.”

“I know that Tom. But you’re not pulling your weight either. Stop making me be the bad guy.”

Tom went to snap back, but his throat constricted like a vise. He smiled tightly instead. “You’re doing a good job. There’s no need to fight. We should just move to the combat rooms and let them teach her these lessons. Either you or I pointing them out isn’t getting through to her. Adam, can you help?”

In what way?

“If she doesn’t get to the right spot, then you deliver the smack down. Make sure a construct is activated to punish her. Have it hurt her, but nothing lethal or permanent.”

Blood? Broken Bones? Are they acceptable?

“Not at first, but if she’s not learning from smaller impacts then yes.”

Yes, I can do that.

“What?” Tom asked Kang in reaction to how the other boy was looking at him. “Don’t pretend to be surprised. I’m not soft. I can make hard decisions with the best of them.”

“No, that’s just colder than I expected.”

“If it keeps them alive, I don’t care if they hate me.”

“Very true,” he agreed. 

They left the room and Tom immediately collapsed on the couch and picked up the folder that contained the spells that he had been working on in Existentia. Familiar pages covered with wire frames greeted him. They had both been very excited when they had discovered that Adam could recreate the sheets from the isolation room.

It also wasn’t just a matter of convenience for them where he was grabbing stuff from their memories. It was more than that. The paper he held had detail that his mind hadn’t remembered. Instead, it worked off some sort of threshold test. If they met the requirement for percent memorised, then they got the full sheet one hundred percent filled in. If his recall was off by a percent, then they ended up with nothing.

As a result, he had everything he needed to work toward acquiring Lightning Javelin, which was his primary target. Kang had copies of the two spells he was focused on as well.

Briana’s choices were restricted, and she only had the spell forms for Desiccate and Water Missile, which while useful spells were not ones they would have picked for her to learn. Eloise was even worse off as she only had a Wizard’s Hand spell to work on.

Tom focused on the page in front of him and memorised every single detail. Then he spent ten fate and merged the three different mastered spell forms together.

Boom.

A jagged blaze of electricity extended up to hit the ceiling on the far side of the room. There was a ding that only he could hear.

Kang jumped up his hand reaching for his axe. “What was that?”

“My first ranged attack. Adam can you?”

A piece of paper appeared in front of him, fluttering down the last few centimetres to land flush on the table.

“Give me some warning next time,” Kang demanded even as he leant over to see what Tom had learned.

Spell: Extended Lightning Bolt – Tier 2 (level 3)

Deliver a burst of electricity with a range of 15 metres. 

Tom frowned as he read the spell and its evolutions. They, like every other intermediate spell he had created had the same sideway evolutions he had earned for Spark. So far, he had failed to gain any new ones outside of the tier zero mergers. He was starting to suspect that the more powerful the spell you were getting the harder the elusive sideways evolutions were to get. If he wasn’t getting any more, it made him extra grateful for the ones he had gotten when acquiring Touch Heal and Spark.

“I haven’t finished,” he warned Kang and then clicked his fingers again and tried to cast Lightning Bolt.

Nothing happened.

The spell had been one of the three being merged into Extended Lightning Bolt, so he hadn’t expected to keep it, but it was worth checking.

With a frown, he spent ten more fate, shaped the spell from memory, being careful to get it right and snapped his fingers a third time.

This time, the bolt went straight up to hit the ceiling. There was a puff of plaster, but nowhere near as much as had occurred on the first day. Adam had strengthened the ceiling since, or more likely weakened it for his initial demonstration to gain the girl’s attention. Either way, he was happy with the administrators’ decision making.

Kang glowered at him.

He smiled sweetly. “Sorry, just got one of my old spells back to maximise the power from my trait.” New lines had appeared on the piece of paper.

Spell: Lightning Bolt – Tier 1 (level 6)

A short-range offensive spell.

“That trait is broken.” Kang complained.

“It is. Luckily for us,“ Tom agreed. “I would feel a lot less confident going into something with a one in a trillion chance of survival without it.”

Kang didn’t respond beyond a frown. Any reminder of the predicament they were in, tended to do that. When they were in these rooms training, what they were improving themselves for could be forgotten, but when you remembered, nothing seemed quite as fun anymore.

In the morose silence, a thought occurred to him. While the trial couldn’t show stuff gained outside its bounds, it was not restricted from showing advancements made within it. “Adam. I’ve received levels in Danger Sense while I’ve been here. Can you show me them?”

The bottom third of the piece of paper was promptly filled with text. Kang read it at the same time that he did.

Skill: Advanced Danger Sense – Tier 2 – Level 18

Reveal imminent threats. 

Threshold Bonus 8: Includes threats to party members as well as to self.

Threshold Bonus 16: Direction and nature of the attacks will be apparent.

Tom nodded in satisfaction as he read those lines. He didn’t really need the confirmation because he had felt the improved functionality that the upgrade gifted him when he had been sparring with Kang but it was still nice to get.

“That last line,” Kang said impressed. “Eighteen levels in a few months… that’s…”

“That’s what a high affinity produces.”

“Ninety-five. I still can’t believe that it’s at that level.”

“Yeah, and I don’t know what skill or artefact gave it to me.”

“It must have been impressive.”

The memory holes gnawed at his conscious, but he forced himself to ignore it and continued to train.

Another week passed.

They were gathered in the combat automation room. It was a large space filled with over thirty automations of different sizes that could simulate attacks from multiple directions. Adam had them circling around them constantly to keep them on their toes, even if he only ever sent three or four at them at a time. They had started the routine straight after his spell breakthrough session and the difficulty had been steadily increasing since.

The girls looked rightfully terrified, as the training was rough. Adam tried to limit the consequences, but the fights by design were brutal and significant injuries occasionally occurred and there was no convenient healing crystal to immediately fix them. Instead, it fell on Tom to heal them and that often-meant delays why he waited for his pool to regenerate.

That left them in pain for longer than usual, which was not something they could cope with.

“Briana hurt her foot at the start.” Eloise complained. “Why didn’t we fix it straight away?”

“The scenario wasn’t finished,” Kang explained.

“We could have paused it.”

“It’s useful to practice fighting while in pain. If you get injured in a real battle, you can’t afford to freeze up because you’ve never experienced fighting through pain before.”

“Battles are different. This is training.”

“It’s okay, Eloise,” Briana tried to pacify her.  

“No, it’s not. This is stupid. Why are we listening to you, anyway? You’re not better than us.” She squared up to face Kang.

“Because they’re reincarnators.” Briana hissed at her, sounding scandalised.

“So, who cares?”

Briana looked speechless at that response.

“What does being a reincarnator even mean?” Eloise continued. “So what if they’ve got a couple of extra fancy spells?”

Both Tom and Kang glanced at each other helplessly, neither of them sure how to respond. They had been trying to play down what being a reincarnator truly meant to avoid startling Briana too much. In some ways, Eloise’s current recalcitrance was their fault.

With a sigh, Tom answered when it was clear Kang wasn’t going to. “It means we have memories from another life.”

“It means we are better.” Kang took over. “While you’ve been doing magic for two years, we’ve been doing it for twenty plus. While you’ve been drilled in how to spar, we’ve been in life and death battles for decades.”

“Dec, Decades?” Eloise asked. “What does decades mean?”

“Tens of years,” Kang told her tightly. “But that isn’t important. What matters is our competency. You’ve seen the number of spells Tom has and how often he can use them.”

“That’s just because Eden gave him the trait.”

“It’s not only because of that. But that’s one of our advantages. You know how we don’t talk about titles?”

They both nodded.

“Both Tom and I have titles from our previous life that help us.”

That caused Tom to look at Kang more closely. He guessed it made sense. Anyone chosen to be reincarnated was an elite and therefore was much more likely to have titles, but he hadn’t realised that Kang possessed one.

“But physically, you’re no better. You’re the same.”

“We are.”

“And I have my force step.”

“Which is an amazing skill,” Kang agreed.

“Then I don’t know why you’re in charge.”

Briana grabbed her elbow. “They’re like adults. They might look appear to be kids, but they’re older than Dimitri. You can’t talk to them like that. They’ll tell you off.”

“It’s not that simple,” Kang told her. “But in some ways, it is. Here, let me show you. Hit me.”

Eloise did so, or at least tried to. Kang easily evaded her.

“Keep going. I’m not using magic or skills, just knowledge.”

She threw punches and kicked him. Sometimes he blocked, but usually he just swayed out of the way. As a result of her practice, she launched a successful force missile that briefly made Kang scramble, but his experience let him get his rhythm back quickly. Then she incorporated force steps into her routine, which allowed her to change direction in an unnatural manner. It didn’t help at all. The addition of what was effectively a movement skill wasn’t a surprise to Kang like the successful magic attack had been.

Kang countered her each time.

“Stay still.” Eloise screamed in frustration.

Kang only smiled.

“Stop doing that. Let me hit you. How are you blocking me so easily?”

“Experience.”

“They’re reincarnators.” Briana said urgently.

Eloise stopped trying to hit Kang. She gave him a suspicious smile. “Good fight,” she said formally before bowing as a mark of respect like the teachers of the hand-to-hand combat classes promoted. Then the moment she thought the large boy was distracted she tried to sucker punch him.

She had been as subtle as a bull in a china shop. Kang was ready and blocked the attempt contemptuously.

“I’m a reincarnator.” He reminded her. “So is Tom. If we’re going to survive this. You have to accept that and listen to us.”

“I…” she threw another punch, which Kang effortlessly dodged. “This is impossible. How much difference is there between us?”

“Physically, not a lot, but practically a heap. If we use skills, I might be a hundred times better than you. Tom, with his Danger Sense is probably even further ahead.”

“But I was here to save you.” Eloise was almost crying.

“And it was a very brave thing to do.” Kang agreed.

“But you’re only teaching me to run away.”

“Brave not wise,” Kang corrected. “Your efforts should be directed at getting good enough that you can evade the monsters, so we don’t have to worry about protecting you.”

“But. I’m a genius.”

“You are Eloise. You are. You’re possibly the best prospect the orphanage has had in years, excluding Briana. But I’m not a prospect. You’re not competing against me. I’m a reincarnator. Not only do I have fifty years of experience I was the best of the best. Tom’s the same. You need to help us keep you alive.”

“By running? Should I not have come.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.”

“Tom!” Kang yelled at him. “That’s unnecessary. She did something very brave to save a friend, respect that.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about this. Eloise, Briana you’re both doing great. Let’s try again. Adam, can you rerun the scenario.”

The constructs moved, and they continued their training their training and hours later, after a frosty dinner and completely exhausted he collapsed into bed to sleep.

It was a fresh day, and Tom had woken up earlier than everyone. He was in the central room and was busily practicing the step that would lead to the remote use of Power Strike. He was not sure he could get the skill without April’s aid, but he was trying it, anyway.

The door to the bedroom opened, and Eloise not Kang snuck out. She approached him with a hand behind her back.

“Can I help you?”

She nodded. “Um, I was just thinking about yesterday and how you’re a reincarnator and that you have to protect me.”

“It’s okay. I’m happy too.”

“It’s not that. I just thought this might help.” She pulled her hand out, and it held a sheathed knife. Tom recognised it because it was the proof-of-concept weapon that he had put together with Kang. The other boy had strengthened the metal, and he had done the same to the handle.

The overall impact was a slight improvement, which probably hadn’t been worth the time they had invested. But having done it once they were more comfortable with the process and were hopeful that future versions might even reach tier one. Eloise only had it because it was trash that would soon be outdated.

He knew why she was here and why she was giving it to him, and it was something that he would need to get used to.

“Thank you,” he said and accepted the weapon with as much grace as he could manage.

It was clear Eloise didn’t know how to deal with the situation. She looked flustered. “Um… Um… I.” With bright red cheeks, she ran away to the kitchen.

Tom stared bemused at the dagger in his hand. That was exactly how his trait was supposed to work, but given they had been cut off from their belongings Eloise had nothing valuable to give him. Nothing but this trash knife that they had made a show of gifting her. They had pretended it was valuable, even though it was useless to them. She didn’t know that of course. To her, this knife had been a valuable treasure, and now it was his again. It was kind of funny.

The knife looked very practical, if not very pretty, but as he held it, he realised there was another option available. That trait he had received had spoken about extra ways to enhance the gift, and he could feel a link to the weapon.

A connection that reached into him. One that he recognised.

His heart rate sped up.

It was linked to him, implying it was more than a mundane dagger, or at least had the potential to be greater.

What happens if I, he thought and then tugged on that extra bit.

The weapon vanished.

To any outside observer he was staring at his hands in apparent amazement. Practically, his attention was focused internally. He had not expected the title to have gifted him that as well.

 “Adam, can you show me a description of my soul storage?” he whispered.

No. What ever it is, it’s invisible to me.

“Oh, one of those.”

Yes, exactly, and I really don’t need any more information.

That message broadcasted a feeling that reminded him very much of Throm’s reaction in a similar situation where he had revealed a link to DEUS. “My lips are sealed,” he muttered absently. His focus was on his hand. Mutely, he flexed his mind, and the dagger reappeared on his palm. It was that easy. He repeated it once twice and a third time. The storage space was super reactive to his desire to the point that its response felt instantaneous. Even better than what he had in his past life.

With Eloise having breakfast, and the others asleep he was alone in the room. Excitedly, he walked by each of the sets of armour and at a touch they all vanished. Then he repeated the process backwards, and they returned to their original locations. The level of control he had on re-materializing items was impressive.

He was buzzing inside, but he managed to keep a dignified frown on his face. Then the grin broke through, as he was unable to maintain the stoic look. It was amazing. A fully functioning soul storage space was not a game changer, but it increased his combat options. Materialising a spear to impale a charging creature was a valid tactic that, in many ways was better than any single spell he possessed. Especially if he filled the significant space he had available. He was already thinking about dozens of spears, swords, and daggers.

Finally, he stopped pacing and focused on the weapon inside him. He remembered what the title said. Providing no one ever found out that she had done it, the knife could become a permanent tier three object. It could keep the stats it currently had in his inventory.

Weapon: Arcane Dagger – Tier 3

Stores energy and, when triggered creates an arcane blade with twice the length and cutting power of the base weapon. 

He had a magic dagger that should be able to cut through enemies he faced like they were tissue paper. Even with its effective length doubled it was still a dagger. It wasn’t a great weapon for him, but plans spun around within him, and he wondered what he could do to get Eloise or Briana to gift him a spear.

AG. I'm in the last week of school holidays and I have lots of parenting activities planned for the next four days. They'll probably be a chapter that gets dropped at a random time but I'm not promising anything.