Chapter 126—Community Help

The moment he was alone in his system room Tom stared at the wall. “Show the curated list.” He ordered. It was important because not only did it provide significant discounts it was also a guide to what DEUS thought he should be working toward. He was not at all surprised to discover the list had changed slightly.

Available Coins: 17

·        Trait: Dimensional Body – Cost 95 – Discount 90%

·        Divine Affinity Fruit – Cost 7000 – Discount 95%

·        Skills Pack: Lightning Starter – Cost 9

·        Skills Pack: Earth Starter – Cost 9

·        Skill: Shadow Spear – Cost 12 – Discount – 30%

·        Skill: Integrated Domain – Cost 2187 – Discount 50%

Given his title had granted him an awesome soul storage, one that was even useable in combat, he wasn’t surprised that the curated list had updated to remove it as an option. A secondary source, so he didn’t have to rely on the title would be useful, but he had to agree with DEUS that it was not a pressing need. The reason it had initially been included was to allow him to take prizes to April so she could help him learn the skills and in doing so have them contribute to the titles that awarded children who self taught themselves abilities. From a long-term build perspective, learning the skills naturally was far better than cheating by getting them from a stone or the experience shop.

The ability that had been swapped in for the previous spatial storage was far more interesting to him. This was DEUS directly telling him how to shape his build. With a thought, the description of the domain appeared on the wall.

Skill: Integrated Domain – Tier 8

This domain can incorporate all skills and spells you have learned. Passive abilities are absorbed automatically while active ones will need effort to embed.

The primary benefit is that active spells and skills can be cast from anywhere in the domain and it gives secondary benefits of improving spells by 20% and skills by 50%.

Starting domain size is a thirty-metre sphere.  

Tom took a moment to fully absorb the implications of the wording.

First, it being included in this meant that no matter what the details were this was the domain he was going to choose. Even if he had been unable to see the benefits of the domain, he was not arrogant enough to go against direct guidance from a GODDESS.

Nevertheless, he considered the domain in more detail. There was a lot of information to unpack. First off, the cost was significant. Two thousand coins were not a small sum. He was looking at a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty fights to generate that number. Even with his most rosy win projection, that was two to three years of continuous battles.

Against that price were the details of the domain. The twenty and fifty percent boost respectively definitely felt lacklustre when compared to the benefits even lower tier domains gave. DEUS was not planning a short-term play, but he could see very clearly the advantages of the domain over the long run.

He would be using it constantly so it would level faster than usual and, as it would incorporate his precognition skills, it would also benefit from the levelling speed bonuses granted by his high affinity. That continual use, because every active spell would go through it, would also help. That would allow him to gain levels far faster than he could with a more restrictive, specific domain. It was possible that even as few as three levels could boost the benefit the domain gave for spells from twenty to a hundred percent. Every level on such a high tier spell was significant.

Then there were the implications to the title that went with the fourth class. It benefited only the most used spell or skill and scaled based on how often you use it. If, like most people, the most used spell was thirty percent activity you kind of doubled the spell’s power. But if it was closer to a hundred percent use Tom didn’t know how it scaled. If it was a linear benefit, then everything through his domain would triple in power, but if the scaling was exponential…

That was scary, but even three times in the context of his other benefits was inspiring.

Tom imagined what Danger Sense could look like versus the base most people had. His could be as much as two hundred times stronger than normal. Twenty times from affinity, three or four times from levels and another three times because of this domain.

The idea of what his precognition spells would be able to do was terrifying.

Gaining this domain wasn’t a decision that would maximise his performance in the divine championship trial, or even the decade of growing his strength after that. It was a choice that would empower him in two decades’ time, which would give him five to ten productive years while the competition was still running.

It was a loss in power now for increased strength later. Basically, a gamble, but given humans precarious positioning it was one that he was willing to take.

There was no way he wouldn’t be buying this. He was a practical man, and he wasn’t about to commit to using coins because the divine fruit was not something purchasable through the experience shop while this was. He would check the numbers once he started producing disks for the other DEUS competitors because combat spoils were not going to be enough to purchase both big-ticket items. But hopefully Danger Sense disk production would close the gap.

For now, he had smaller purchases to make. With one last look at the potential future when he became rich, he purchased his earth starter kit with a focus on taking the skill stones back to April.

Available Coins: 8

Three stones appeared, and he took them into his inventory so he could identify them. There were two tier-one options, Earth Command, which acted like the spell Earth Manipulation and the second contained Earth Mana Generation, which didn’t require any further explanation. There was also a tier two skill Earth Transmute whose presence and purpose briefly stumped him, so he investigated further. The skill resembled Baptiste’s ability to change the fundamental nature of wood, but in this case it applied to rock. Tom was unsure about its utility, but given DEUS had actively included it in the package it fell into the same category as the domain. He would learn it even if he thought it was useless. His working theory was that once levelled, it would apply to metals and soils which would immediately boost its usefulness. Alternatively, it might be a prerequisite to a skill that would let him tier up the metal components of weapons. Almost certainly slowly, but inefficiency outside of battles was not a concern.

He would give them to April and within a year or two, given the other draws on his time he would gain access to all of them and see what happened afterwards.

Satisfied with his win and his purchase, he left the semi unreality of the divine championship trial. 

There was a familiar flood of memories to catch him up on what had happened and then he sucked in his breath and started swinging his hammer as directed by the trainer. He went through the forms and wondered how long it would be until he got a skill that he could show off to the wider community.

As he swung his weapon, he monitored his senses and frowned. He couldn’t feel any secondary feedback that might suggest that he was going to make a breakthrough.

Annoyed, he wiped the sweat away and concentrated on his form, and ignored his aching muscles.

“Time.” The instructor called out.

He placed his weapon on the rack and went to leave. The instructor, a big heavy man tried to give him a friendly smile as he deliberately blocked Tom’s path.

“Yes,” Tom said politely, wondering if this was his title at play and whether he was about to get an unexpected gift.

“I wanted to know if you’ve been practicing outside these sessions.”

“Um… I”

“Tom, there’s no need to lie. I know you’re not.”

“Well, I’ve got other draws on my time.”

“Stop,” the man interrupted firmly. “I don’t care about your excuses. Do you enjoy using the hammer.”

“It’s my favourite weapon.” He lied.

“Have you tried polearms, staves or spears?”

“Um… why would you ask that.”

“Why. Your instincts feel off? Almost like one of those other weapons would suit you more.”

“I like the hammer.”

The big man smiled. “Good, but if you want to progress you need to practice more regularly.”

“I come here four times a week.”

The man grimaced and scratched his shaggy hair. “I know. But if you’re serious, you should do the kata in the isolation room. Like you’re locked in there with nothing to do, so you might as well practice.”

“I guess,” Tom tried to sound doubtful.

“The hammer is a great weapon, but it takes effort to master.”

“Don’t you just hit things with it.”

The instructor laughed. “Yes. But it takes skill to hit hard.”

Tom stared doubtfully.

“It does. That’s the footwork I’m teaching. But there’s also a mentality you need. It’s an offensive weapon. You close and you obliterate. You swing to make sure anything you strike stays hit. Do you understand?”

“I have to hit even harder.” Tom said, channelling his age.

The big man laughed again. “Exactly. And to do that you have to practice more.”

With a nod, he left the room, went through the cleaning loop, and rushed to dinner. He didn’t like the instructor calling him out like that and if he was going to create his persona as a hammer wielding lightning master, he needed to take the skill more seriously. He wished he had an extra six hours in every day then he might be able to get everything done.

Briana and Eloise were already seated, and Kang hadn’t arrived yet. He lined up and saw that the theme was Japanese. He frowned after having to regularly eat raw fish for the first couple of years in the tutorial in order to survive. It wasn’t his favourite option.

With a shrug, he selected his food and skipped the raw fish and ended up with what was basically just rice and some uninspired scoops of some of the hot meat dishes.

It was the best he could manage and as he turned to go to the girl’s table an invitation from Kang came through. Curiously, he accepted it and a moment later he was standing in the lovingly decorated interior of the other boy’s system room.

“Sorry, I don’t have time for pleasantries,” Kang said quickly. “I just had a session with Dimitri. Corrine—” he nodded in Tom’s direction, “—had already chatted with him so it went easier than expected. He’s going to support the three of us to get access to the Divine Champions trial.”

“That’s great,” Tom said immediately. Kang getting aid had been a forgone conclusion, but he was glad the same consideration had been extended to the girl’s. The rewards from the trial were significant, and humanity had to lever every potential advantage they could find.

“Support will be in the form of spells and skills that are not on our core development paths and any trait stones he can source that can help get wins against higher ranked sapients. With the darkhole rewards, the perception catch up trait that Corrine and Tom required is only nice to have, but he’ll get us all one if it’s possible. He’s even willing to try to trade for it from other civilisations.”

Tom whistled at that admission. Trait stones for non-competitor species were premium resources. If Dimitri actively traded for it, that would cost him a significant amount in raw materials that were currently being funnelled to their crafters.   

“I want to do the divine champions trial,” Eloise stated firmly.

“Yes, I made that clear,” Kang agreed, not sounding at all annoyed by the interruption. “That’s what we’re here—”  

The session ended abruptly, cutting off the end of Kang’s sentence. Tom automatically reestablished their chat group in his own system room.

“Anything else?” he asked the other reincarnator immediately.

“Dimitri will cover his end, but we need to ramp up our training.” He said simply. “I’m thinking fewer obstacle runs and more fighting practice.”

“But not like we did in the darkhole trial,” Eloise said worriedly.

“Probably not at that intensity. We pushed that hard only because our lives were literally on the line.” Kang conceded. “But we have to discuss how we’re going to change our routine.”

The conversation devolved into more detailed planning. Briana thought the obstacle courses were important, and Kang was adamant they should be stopped. There just wasn’t enough time. Tom’s session ended and first Briana and then Eloise used their sessions to continue the discussion.

The decision in the end was probably what Kang had been hoping for. Obstacle runs were moved to a forty-minute session before bed and all kids’ activity was stopped. They were going to take this seriously and to protect Kang and Tom Briana said she would take the lead in organising it.

Two days later, Tom entered the trial and with a proud flourish produced the three modified skill stones for April to use. Unsurprisingly, she decided to make him learn to generate Earth Mana First. The training was a variation of what he had gone through with Living Wood and Precognition. He was in a cave network populated with what could be best described as cockroaches created with earth mana and rock. His job was to stay alive as the cockroaches attacked and navigate the narrow tunnels without being buried in a tunnel collapse.

It was challenging, but he threw himself into the task. While it was designed to train sensing mana, Tom allowed Danger Sense to guide his actions. He survived for almost ten minutes before dozens of cockroaches from both directions got him.

He found himself sitting in the café. There was no coffee in front of him.

April wagged her finger at him. “That was cheating.” Then, with a smile, she waved her hand.

Danger Sense he discovered immediately was broken. It complained about incoming certain death but providing no guidance how to survive it. He ran and a cave collapse crushed him. The training was ugly, but having seen its benefit he threw himself into it.

Three days later, Briana initiated a conference. She had been given a tier five water shield spell.

At Kang’s insistence, they immediately went to an isolation room and tested it out. Her low mana levels meant instead of full body protection she could only manage a shield the size of a dinner plate. However, that shield was more than capable of stopping three full Power Strikes while Tom’s strength was boosted four times thanks to the use of a burst. It was strong, and he was confident that most of the people he had fought in the divine champion trial lacked such a robust defence. And while its location and size were currently limiting, it would only improve with practice and as her magic pool grew. If he used his magical shield, breaking a single blow could destroy it, so it wasn’t impossibly powerful. But for most people, it would be an unbreachable shield.

It was not by itself sufficient to let her reach the general combat ranking of five or potentially six that she would need to get into the divine champion trial, but once she built up combat instincts to use it the single spell might be close to carrying her that far.

A week later, he had another session with April and it went no better than the first. He was still having issues even sensing earth mana, so how quickly he died was a question of dumb luck. The training was a grind, and he discovered it that being incapacitated by a rock fall was superior to being eaten by cockroaches.

Neither way to die was pleasant, but after he learnt to turn off his pain receptors once he got in trouble the deaths stopped being as traumatic.

The other half of his session went better.

April was pitting him against theoretical enemies he might face in the divine champions’ trial. The opponents he challenged were scarily accurate as they were calibrated both from the memories of the individual fights he had participated in and the pages and pages of notes he had skimmed over for just this purpose. The variety of enemies that she was throwing at him was impressive and his win percentage was what he thought was a very respectable forty-one percent. He also learned how to use his increased attributes and how to pace the fights.

Throwing two javelins at the start was rarely the right choice. It was best to stagger the attacks because there were too many defensive techniques, like the root guardians that either had to be circumvented or allowed to expire. Launching multiple spears at them only wasted his limited mana reserves. The best part of the practice is she gave him a necklace before every fight that was consumable and mimicked the effect of Bursts. It let him train the benefits without wasting the precious resource. 

Three days later, Tom was sitting across from Vturalta as he was putting together the final components of the ritual wire frame.

He pushed his seat away, stood, and then stretched his back. The intricate, elegant, twisted mass of wires lay on the table in front of him. Every twist, whirl and corner had been constructed by his hands. Months of time had been invested, and he knew the reason for each design choice and why it would work, but despite that he realised he had never taken a moment to appreciate its complexity. The entire thing filled the table. It had a diameter of two and half metres and was nearly a metre high. The amount of information captured by all those precise turns was immense. 

While the framework wires were as thick as what you would find on a coat hanger, most of the intricacy was in the next layer, down where the wires were as thin as a hair. He felt a lot of pride at having constructed the ritual master copy.

“Three dimensional rituals are beautiful aren’t they?” Vturalta whispered. “I love the sense of wild but controlled action.”

“It’s so complicated.” Tom agreed, not willing to explore the second part of her sentence.

“It has to be given your objective.” She told him patiently. “A tier two alarm spell ritual would fit in the space of your fist, but what you’re doing is a lot more than that.”

“What do you mean it’s only looking a few minutes into the future.”

“Exactly that.” She agreed.

He wasn’t sure she had caught his sarcasm.

“Now tell me about what you think of what you just built?”

Internally, he groaned. That was her code for you’ve made a mistake and have to rebuild it. It was two hours of work down the toilet. “I’m trying to incorporate an ability to pierce anti-divination wards.” He started.

“And how does the construction do that?”

Carefully, he began to explain. “These sections are stability for the new functionality.” He pointed. “This links to the future testing…” he trailed off as he saw that one of his angles was off. “Um… I’ll fix that.”

“Very good, please continue.”

Tom grimaced. That meant there were other mistakes. He didn’t know why she didn’t correct him when he first made them like a normal person would. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be careless. It’s just that I’m distracted.”

“As are we all,” she said kindly. “It’s a big day. We’re all worried about her?”

“Oh, that’s so sweet. Are we worried about little old me?” A cheerful voice from behind made him jump.

“Corrine!” Tom responded, spinning around.

“In the flesh. You didn’t think I would go in without stopping by did you.”

“I wasn’t sure.”

“You don’t have to worry. I’m not going to fucking die or do anything stupid like that.”

“You needn’t take the risk.”

“I do,” she interrupted firmly. “It’s done. As we speak, my year level is already getting their tour. Dim spent half a fucking hour reminding us to decline the offer, but said it was important that we understood how insidious the trial was when we were in a good mental state.” She chuckled. “Thugger, Mol, and Steve weren’t allowed to come. Thugger because he is a gung ho idiot and the other two.” She frowned. “I guess I’ll need to chat with them.”

“You think it’s depression.”

“Something like that. Listen, I have to go. I just came to say hi before I take the step.” She paused and her eyes went unfocused. “It’s time.” She grinned. “I’ll be back in a moment. Wish me luck.”

“Corrine, you don’t have to.” He continued to protest.

She vanished.

“Good luck,” he whispered while wishing he had said it earlier. 

He glanced at the tentacled octopus sitting in the bowl of water. She did not seem particularly concerned.

“It’ll be fine Tom.”

“She could die.”

“I’m back.” Corrine said cheerfully. “Did you miss me?”

“Did you do it?” Vturalta asked unexpectedly, while a dangerous feeling emanated from her. Then it  vanished, and she splashed water in excitement. “Congratulations.”

Suddenly Tom understood that Vturalta had tested Corrine just like Throm had tested him. And while it had only been seconds to him, it had probably been the full two months to Corrine. He had briefly forgotten how the darkhole trial worked.

“How was it?” Vturalta asked.

“Fucking boring.” Corrine stared at Tom with wide eyes like he was no more than a mouse. He had a bad feeling. She smiled. That just made it worse.

“Tom Let’s fight.”

“I don’t think that’s a good…” he stopped talking as the invitation arrived. “Idea,” he finished. The offer hung in front of him, and he understood the futility of trying to avoid it. With a sigh, he accepted it.

AG. I think I've covered all the fallout from darkhole trial now. Looking at my plan I have three chapters as six year old, like five as seven and 2 to 3 for each year after... However we all know shiny new thing can completely derail me for a few chapters.