Chapter 139—Maximising Advantages

AG. Next chapter probably won't be for four to five days. I have a three day horse event thing I have to support. This is the last big thing I have for the summer holidays and my "distractedness" appears to be improving, so I'm hopeful of being able to get into a more normal routine soon.  

Anger had to be channelled into something productive, so as Tom exited out to the massive hallway and saw Kang and Briana doing the same, that’s what he focused on. He suppressed the rage and vowed to do better, to make every moment count. 

With renewed energy, he threw himself into the grind and less than a month later, the impact of Mr. Cricket’s not so gentle ministrations became more manageable when his sleep ability ranked up. The changes were qualitative because the quantitative values displayed in the skill description hadn’t changed, but the benefit granted by sleep had definitely improved. It was now rare that he would wake up after a session feeling unable to function and it was not Mr Cricket going easy, because that thing didn’t know the meaning of that word.

Still conscious of humanity’s dismal position Tom was throwing everything into his training.

Tom was only a third of the way through the obstacle course. His chest was heaving, but it was worth it because so far, he had kept up with Kang. This was not a course he should have been attempting. The gaps and difficult scaling of the obstacles were too much and there were massive warnings that it was exclusively for those aged thirteen and up. With all of them under eight, they shouldn’t have been attempting such a difficult course, but the drive to get better infused all of them. For security they always had one of them, currently Eloise, watching at the door to prevent discovery and then with judicial use of Bursts the otherwise physically impossible sections of the course became passable.

Kang, as usual, was abusing his Quick Step, that had been transformed into some sort of three-dimensional ability and that combined with an extra couple of inches of height meant that the obstacles that challenged Tom were ones he could complete trivially.

There was nothing Tom could do against those explicit disadvantages on the climbing and jumping obstacles. Instead, he tried to make up time on the way down through the setups that required dodging.

But first, he had to make it to the top. He tensed and leapt straight upwards.

Internal mana manipulation, with what had to be his fiftieth iteration of the magical setup triggered as he did so. This version served a single purpose, and that was to help with his vertical jumping, which was critical on this specific run. Because that was all it did, it was also more efficient that most of his other attempts and gave a twenty-five percent improvement, which for this section of the course was absolutely required. Without that magical boost, he would have to trigger a burst to make the jump, which is something he absolutely refused to do in training.

His fingertips reached the platform and two knuckles worth on his index finger got over the edge. Before they slipped, his Living Wood skill distorted the wooden board, so the tenacious hold was able to find purchase in the perfectly shaped Tom finger sized indents.

With a massive heave, he pulled himself up and exhausted he momentarily collapsed on the platform, gasping for breath.

When he checked a second later, Kang had extended his lead.

Tom stood and tried to control his breathing as he prepared for the next jump. His skills were not very useful in this situation, Lunge, his only true movement ability required a physical path so couldn’t help him at all and Fateful Repositioning at best only let him stretch out for an extra half a hand. With its long cooldown, he was hesitant to do any jumps where he was reliant on its use. It was better as an emergency measure and it had saved him before when his jumps were slightly short.

The only advantage he had on the course was his healing, and the burn in his arms was already fading. Its ability to mend micro tears and flush away lactic acid greatly improved his endurance.

He leapt again. This time he got both hands to the platform lip and was able to pull himself up without relying on his wood manipulation skill.

In short order, he completed the four vertical jumps and reached the top of the obstacle course.

One look told him there was no way he was catching Kang.

The challenge humanity faced as always was at the centre of everything he did. There was no point holding back, and he had a duty to force himself to attempt the impossible. If he couldn’t win, then he should at least try to get the most out of the run.

It would be funny to sabotage what was looking like a personal best run by Kang. He glanced to his left at the course the other boy was running and grimaced. Switching from one obstacle run to another was by design difficult. It was especially so if you wanted to get on top of the equipment so you can do things like disrupt the boom swings and create chaotic patterns so that they became unpassable.

At the highest point in the room, where he was close enough to touch the roof Tom committed himself to the plan. Before fear could rob the strength from his legs, he ran to his left and then leapt off the platform, aiming for an identical piece of wood three metres away.

His calf muscle exploded in pain as Internal Mana Manipulation, misfired.

The simple jump left him stranded almost half a metre short of the destination.

He had no chance of reaching the platform. His mind switched to survival, and he looked down. His current trajectory was going to have him land on the hard unpadded poles used for balancing upon. At the speed he was travelling, they would quite likely be able to punch right through him. Instinct took over and Fateful Repositioning let him twist his body and change the trajectory of his fall. Something that was physically impossible, but that’s what the skill delivered and instead of falling in the direction he had leapt he was diverted to plunge down at a thirty-degree angle and was now positioned to land on padded obstacles instead of the immediately dangerous thin poles.

The single point of fate generated was directed not to save him, for that he would rely on his technical skills and community fate, but instead he wanted to make sure the fall would contribute to getting his earned skill. It felt like he had already done more than enough to satisfy the requirements, but it hadn’t dinged with success yet, and he wanted to give it a little push. 

Screaming, he plummeted more than four stories straight down. With his unenhanced earth body, even with the slightly padded landing zone this was not an easily survivable fall. He allowed an entire second of free fall before just metres from striking he burnt a full powered burst.

It instantly improved his vitality attribute by four times and took him to a level where the fall was no longer lethal.

He slammed into the heavy pads and used his hands and elbows as best he could to protect his vulnerable head. He twisted and rotated frantically, straining his muscles and using all the acrobatic skills he possessed to protect himself. There were the sounds of bones breaking as he discovered these particular pads were only a couple of centimetres thick and had little in the way of collision absorption. He crashed onto the floor and half skipped and rolled almost ten metres across the ground to bleed out the kinetic energy the fall had given him.

Touch Heal activated and guided by the damage report just before he came to a halt he threw himself violently backwards while his magic plucked out the shattered piece of rib that was cutting into the heart muscle and forced it back into the correct spot. That last moment, jerk backwards supplied most of the energy to get the rib back into position, removing the need to rely on his mana pools to address the problem.

Without any more life-threatening injuries to treat, he abandoned his body and stepped into the system room to let his avatar scream, sob, groan or do whatever other appropriate action was called for by someone his body’s apparent age.

Unfortunately, there was no ding to announce a new Earned skill, but he wasn’t about to allow that to deter him as he had to be getting close. He would just keep plugging away and use fate to help direct the outcome he needed.

Less than two seconds passed before all motion on the screens vanished. Tom recognised the time freezing before the invitation appeared and when it did he accepted.

“Are you critical?” Kang demanded immediately, and Tom realised he was being direct because he hadn’t brought the other two in.

“Nope. Just some cuts and broken bones.”

The other boy covered his head with his hands briefly in mock exaggerated despair. “Thank the lord. What the hell happened?”

“I was losing, so I wanted to get across to your boom swings to prank you.”

“Why would you do that? The attempt almost killed you.”

“Not even close to killing me.” Internally, Tom smiled, enjoying the reaction he knew was coming. “The rib only barely cut into the heart. Didn’t even penetrate enough to pierce into a single heart chamber”

“What the hell. Did you just say it was cutting into your heart?” Kang snapped, jumping on the admission.

“Fixed already,” Tom said airily, with a dismissive wave of his hand. “You don’t have to respond physically. It’s all under control. Keep going and get your personal best. I’m sure Bri’s running over and she can help me to the healing crystal.”

Kang snorted. “As if I can do that. She’d kill me if I tried.”

“But you’ll get a PB.”

“I can get it next week. A PB is nowhere near enough compensation for her temper being directed at me.” Kang scratched his head with a rueful grin. “Nope. Not even close to being worth it. Now Tom why do you do it? Why when ever you get to anywhere above two stories do you lose all sense of coordination.”

Tom, of course said nothing. This was not something he was willing to answer even if the chance of Kang ever getting the skill was a one in a billion.

His friend sighed and shook his head. “Somehow it’s training isn’t it.”

He arched a single eyebrow in response, knowing it was enough to drive the point home. “Fuck Tom. When you started doing this, I expected it to last months, not years. Maybe you should give up.”

“Not going to happen.” Tom checked the countdown on the clock. “Time’s almost up,” he warned.

“Yeah, a minute’s not enough. We have to evolve it.”

Tom looked sharply at the other reincarnator, but before he could say anything the session ended. What had Kang meant?

Damn it, he thought to himself. I can’t let it go like that.

He set up a new meeting, and this time included the two girls.

“I’m okay.” He said immediately before Briana could act hysterically.

“He’s fine, but as always we have to act like he’s not.” Kang quickly clarified. “We need to make sure no one else can tell that these sessions exist.”

“I know. You say this every time. I’m not a dumb, dumb.”

“No one thinks you are Bri,” Kang said, sounding tired.

Tom knew the tiredness wasn’t because of her. Making seven-year-olds play these adult games of concealment and hidden truth was exhausting and they should not be called on to do so, but their situation meant the need was unavoidable.

“Then why do you treat me like I am.”

“We don’t,” Tom interceded. “I mean we definitely don’t think it and we’ll try to act better. But there’s not time for that now. Kang said something that intrigued me.” He looked at the older boy expectantly.

“All I said is that we have to improve the ability that lets us meet like this.”

“Is that even possible?” Tom said sceptically.

“It is.”

“How. It’s not like we can beat the darkhole trial for the first time again, or even anything similar. It was kind of a onetime thing.”

Kang laughed. “True. We can’t evolve the title, but we can improve what comes with it.”

“Really?” Tom raised his eyebrows. “Is that actually documented?”

“It is. We just need to decide on the direction we take it and then force the issue.”

“What do you mean?” Briana asked.

“Do we want it to extend to more people or maybe extra.”

The session ended abruptly before Kang was able to finish his sentence. Withall parts of his body aching, Tom lay on the ground for an agonising couple of seconds before another invitation came through from Briana.

“Maybe extra sessions per day or longer ones.” Kang finished like there hadn’t been an awkward handful of seconds in between the start and finish.

“And it’s definitely possible?” Tom pressed.

Kang smiled. “Yes, it is. I’ve done extensive research. The abilities linked to titles can be advanced, like traits.”

“What does that mean?” Eloise demanded.

“Use them, stretch them,” Tom answered.

“Apply any resource you have to make them better.” Kang agreed.

Eloise perked up. “You mean like the natural treasure that I used to develop my arcane step.”

“Whatever works.” Kang said neutrally.

“Oh... I see. We do it by applying fate.” Eloise concluded after a moment. She was not punished because everyone else in the room had already thought of it.

“Exactly. The question is in what direction? What do we focus on? Extending time? Number of uses? Or people?”

“Best short-term benefit is time, best medium use is number of sessions,” Tom muttered thinking of their needs now and in the future. The capability to strategize multiple times during battles was a huge advantage and trumped having longer sessions.

“And long term, the best outcome is including more people,” Kang concluded. “Because we won’t always be able to fight as a team.”

“We will too,” Eloise stated.

“No, you’ll go off and have babies.”

“I WILL NOT,” Eloise shouted, and the session fell apart, with Kang laughing while the two girls berated him.

There was no last conference or if there was it was to yell at Kang and he was not invited. All too soon Briana was next to him, then Kang and together they dragged him to the healing crystal.

It was a painful process and him helping out would improve things, but he refrained from doing so. He was confident there were no watchers, but he could never be a hundred percent certain, and it was best not to take risks. “We should go for more uses.” He muttered.

Kang looked at him straight in the eye. “Agreed.”

Briana said nothing. If it was just up to her Tom knew she would have chosen to extend the one minute deadline as that had the most immediate benefit. But she was loyal and would support what they chose.

Collectively, they were going to work at extending the number of times they could use their chat each day.

Tom was happy with that decision, and the way to do so was simple. They would just have to try lots when they knew the ability was on cooldown.

Potentially even doing coordinated stuff like Tom trying to force the connection when he was locked out, but he knew Briana had a session available. If Kang’s research was accurate, then eventually the ability would upgrade.