Chapter 122 – Adapting

The surroundings had shattered, and he had been summarily expelled from Kang’s system room into Existentia proper. It was weird as there was another moment of stilled time presumably to allow his mind to seamlessly integrate back into his true body. Some serious system aid was occurring because he had gone from standing to mid step and it didn’t feel at all unnatural.

It was a surprisingly pleasant experience.

Briana was still ahead, because, back then, all those weeks ago, at least for them, she had been fleeing from them. Those spatial relationships remained intact even if the invisible emotional bonds of shared experience had changed beyond recognition. Two months spent elsewhere which made what should have been familiar surroundings feel off.. The overly spacious but stern wooden decorations of the orphanage felt almost alien.

Then the grace period was over, and Briana stumbled slightly as she pulled to a halt. He completed his step and then decided to jog over.

Time froze once more.

An invitation from Eloise had appeared, and it was waiting for him to acknowledge it.

Somehow, he knew this was a perfect freezing of time versus the immense slowing that the trial administrator had caused by triggering his trait, and a small part of him wondered if this bonus thinking time could be used strategically. He couldn’t cast spells in this state, but it did buy extra seconds to strategize. The critical question was, if no one accepted the offer did the ability reset? Did they have an infinite time glitch on their hand that could be exploited? He doubted such strategic arbitrage would be allowed, but it was worth testing especially if Adam or DEUS had put their fingers on the scale to help them.

If they had taken those steps, then rather than this being an exploit, it could be an intended if undisclosed benefit of the ability.

Because he wanted to test as much as possible, he didn’t accept the offer and after five seconds of relative time he felt a mental prompt urging him to hurry up. The opportunity to join was passing and before it did so fully he accepted.

The real world vanished, and he was brought into a room of smooth marble walls and clean lines. It was wildly different from anything he had seen before and was not an architectural style he recognised. There were weird spherical bulges rippling up the walls, and he wondered whether this was from Eloise’s imagination or a memory. 

Then he shook the thoughts away. Not only didn’t it matter it was a conversation that he could have at a future point when there was no danger of discovery.

His focus switched to people and this time, all of them were present and they stood a comfortable distance from each other in a rough diamond shape.

“Eloise! Your leg is fixed!” Briana squealed before engulfing Eloise in a hug.

“And you look better. You were so sad and in so much pain.” Eloise exclaimed back. Her face transforming into one of joy. The two girls clung to each other. There were tears of both relief and happiness running down their cheeks. Kang wrapped his own arms around the two of them and because it felt right so did Tom.

After about ten seconds of tight hugs, they broke apart because they all knew they were on a timer.

“This is going to be so good. I can’t wait to get Joseph back.”

“Eloise!” kang snapped sounding affronted. “You can’t. We spoke lots about this.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. No showing off our powers. No one can know we came in here and survived. Blah, blah, blah.”

“I’m serious.”

“We know,” the small girl said tiredly. “I know. Because you’re a shitty reincarnator, we have to be secretive.”

Kang shook his head. “No, that’s not the reason. It’s to protect you, not me or Tom. You can’t expose us. All you showing off your powers will do is to make everyone think you’re the reincarnator and I don’t want you to be assassinated.”

The topic was a heavier one than Tom wanted to talk about, but he couldn’t dispute the need. This was something they had to make, the girls, well if he was being honest just Eloise, take seriously. Tom figured Kang was better at it than him, so he focused on Bri. “Briana, how are you feeling?” he asked.

Everything fell apart around him and Tom cursed internally when he realised that the session had timed out. Two of them had already used their once-a-day abilities, and he still hadn’t had a chance to assess Bri.  Without hesitation, he engaged his own.  

Time froze, and he immediately threw himself into interpreting the boundaries. There were twenty seconds available to him, and all three of them were close enough to be included. He just needed to flex his mind to extend an invitation to each of them. If he wanted to just invite Briana, that would have been easy, but she wouldn’t like that, so he didn’t.

It only took a single thought and then, he was standing in his own system room with the other three at points of a square instead of a diamond. The room was the same as the one he had used throughout the tutorial and his first life in Existentia. His subconscious had banished the couch and screens that he had included in this life to monitor his body when in the system room.

Kang looked around himself in disbelief and then doubled over laughing. “Tom, is this really your system room?”

 He ignored the other reincarnator, as all of his attention was on Briana. “Bri, are you okay?”

She touched her stomach area, and then after a moment poked it harder. A smile flickered across her face. “It feels normal.”

“I’m sorry you had to suffer.”

Her response was to hug him. “No, I’m sorry I dragged you there. It was my fault.”

“Shh,” He whispered. “No one has to apologise for anything. We all made mistakes and we can fix that now and we’ve got our whole lives to do it.”

“No seriously, Tom, is this your system room?”

He twisted his neck around to glare at the other reincarnator. “Yes, it is. I set it up to avoid unnecessary emotional entanglements.”

“You chose metal walls? Why?”

Before he could respond, the session ended. A minute he was rapidly discovering did not last very long.

Once more he transitioned back to Existentia and jogged toward Briana only to have an invitation from her arrive before he reached her. He accepted immediately and then smiled as he glanced around. It was a system room that definitely had April’s touch on it.

It wasn’t a standard room. It was closer to an outdoor garden. There was probably a ceiling, but an illusion that not even his special hidden ability could pierce made it look like a sunny sky with a few wisps of cloud. There was soft lush grass instead of carpet and the walls were hedges, with the closest being almost twenty metres away from where they stood. It was a massive space, and there was even a refreshing breeze that complimented the sun that was high above them.

“It’s beautiful.” Tom told her.

“Yes, it’s where I go for the weekly trial. Or at least the start of it.” While she responded warmly enough, it was clear she was distracted and wanted to talk to Eloise. Tom didn’t blame her the two girls had forged a strong friendship over the couple of months in the trial.

He and Kang stepped discretely back to give them their privacy and then watched them as they chatted together.  

“Not a single picture, Tom?”

He shrugged, only slightly embarrassed. “I didn’t want an incentive to stay permanently within it.”

 “Anyone told you that you’re weird.”

“Yep. More than one.”

Kang smiled at that. “For me, the room is a shrine. It’s too sad to stay in for long, but when I visit, I’m reminded of the stakes I’m fighting for.”

“That’s the choice most people took.” Tom agreed.

Kang shook his head. Then sighed. “Girls enough. We’re out of time. Remember the dark hole trial never happened. Don’t show your new abilities. Don’t talk about it unless we’re in one of these chats.”

Both girls nodded vigorously. The session ended, and then they were back in real life.

Tom stopped running. Briana turned to face them, and twenty seconds later Eloise scampered up to them from the corridor behind them. Almost shyly, they gathered together. Their covert glances, conveying the weight of the history that now existed between them.

“What now?” Eloise asked.

For a moment, Tom wasn’t sure how to respond. What time had it been when the dark hole trial had drawn them in? What were they supposed to be doing?

“Obstacle course,” Kang suggested after a moment’s thought.

Briana agreed and rushed off in front of them. He could tell by how she moved that she was excited at the opportunity to test out her gains, but despite that her hand was continually touching her side. The psychological scars from the o petrification energy, Tom was certain was going to be felt for a long time.

They were alone in the room and after a couple of normal runs; he saw when Briana used a burst to increase her attributes to allow her to effortlessly go through the three obstacles that have been causing her problems.

She got a personal best and then she stood proudly on the exit platform with a massive grin on her face. Eloise cheered her on and the two were giggling together. It felt amazing to see her so carefree and happy after the months of stress.

Content with how everything was progressing he retreated to the divine champions trial to maximise the use of his time. He was disappointed that Corrine was not available, but was not surprised. While his body got caught up in kid’s stuff, he used the time to slave away under Throm’s tutelage and was amazed by how much he covered. The progress was equivalent to ten hours of effort rather than three. It was incredible, and he figured the break had refreshed him.

“Fuck, they make survival courses hard,” Corrine announced as she slumped down beside him.

Tom smirked at her.

She did a double take and squinted at him suspiciously. “Why the fuck are you looking at me like that?”

He concentrated for a moment and sent her a challenge.

She stared at him in disbelief. “You want to fucking challenge me? You think I’m so fucking exhausted that it’ll give you a chance. You’re delusional if you think that’.”

Throm shifted his massive bulk. He seemed to be radiating a feeling of amusement. “I think a break would be useful for him.”

“He doesn’t stand a fucking chance. I’ll butcher him and despite what I did at the start I don’t fucking like doing that.”

“I’ve learnt a few tricks.”

“He’s learnt some tricks,” Throm said in an overly wise tone.

They both glared at him and the centipede raised a hundred arms in mock surrender. He was clearly amused by their interaction.

“It’s been one fucking day, Tom. Yesterday, you told me that you were weeks away from anything that might make a fucking difference.”

“Maybe I had an epiphany?”

“An amazing epiphany.”

“Shut up!” Corrine yelled at the centipede. “Your mindless comments aren’t welcome.”

Suddenly she seemed to freeze in time, and it took Tom a moment to realise what he was sensing. He stared up in disbelief at the big centipede.

“Should I keep teasing her?”

“You…” he responded dumbly. “You know.”

“Of course I know.” A group of his hands waved at the complicated ritual he was creating out of wires. “It’s a very interesting trait that you’ve gained. You didn’t suddenly become three times faster at constructing wire frameworks. That’s for damn certain.”

“You’ve been triggering it?”

“Selectively. If you’re distracted, you don’t notice. That’s an issue you need to fix.”

He scratched his head as he tried to remember the whole session. It had felt longer than normal, but he couldn’t recall any changes in time dilation. Somehow, the trait had been triggered without him noticing. “You’re right. It’s a problem.”

“The issue is that your original trait can be tricked reasonably easily. I can focus hostile intent on you and suppress it. Your new trait is at a different level and that doesn’t work and that’s what I abused. Previously, you’ve been tracking your traits activation by measuring the disconnect between your perception and body movement.”

“And if I can’t tell I’m losing the scouting potential. Something can be out there wanting to kill me and I won’t even notice.” 

“Yes, but most monsters and people you face won’t have the level of control I do. But some will, so you have to learn how to recognise when your first trait activates. The good news is that I found the experiments to be fun, so we’ll continue.” It waved its arms at the wire framework he had created. “We’ll continue our experiments. Of course, abusing these traits to increase your ritual construction speed is rightly frowned upon. Training my battle intent and your ability to notice shifts in attributes is a different matter.”

“I…” he started to say and then felt Throm’s focus shift away from him.

Corrine flinched, appeared startled, and then glared at him suspiciously. “I must be more tired than I thought you seemed to blur.”

Tom smiled blandly back at her and refused to glance at Throm even to flick his eyes in the centipedes direction. “If you want to concede my superiority, we can fight another day.”

“No fucking way.”

An instant later, he found himself on a flat, sandy surface. There was not a single other feature present that could be used in the battle.   

The eight second countdown passed, and they stood facing each other without either of them making a hostile move.

Corrine sighed. “I’m too tired for this. What’s this about?”

“I want to duel.”

Across from him, she manifested her fire whip. It coiled around her in a clear threat. “I’m not going to go fucking easy on you.”

“I don’t want you to.”

“Then you’ll be crushed.”

Tom shrugged. There were spell combinations she could launch that would trouble him. The flame whip, however, was not one of them. His extra speed would allow him to avoid it and when his additional trait kicked in, he would have a casting advantage as well. “Do your best. As Throm said, I’ve learnt some new tricks.”

“You said that. He just repeated it.”

Tom shrugged again. “Whenever you’re ready.”

The whip lashed toward him and rather than it being impossibly fast like the last time it had been used against him Tom found he could follow its progress. His body, of course reacted slower than he would have liked but the extra speed he got from Corrine was sufficient to sidestep it. The whip flashed down, and the fire sizzled into the sand, melting it but he had only needed to buy a fraction of a second. The spell formed at a speed that was seemingly impossible relative to his usual casting expertise. As she casually flicked her whip to reload it for another strike, he infused the javelin with Power Strike, and precognition mana, and then launched it at her.

It moved too fast for her to react, but she had cast defensive magic, and a magical shield intercepted his attack.

The tip of his weapon flared green, and the shield shattered, and the almost insubstantial projectile slammed into her now effectively undefended stomach. It went through the thin armour like it was not there and then electricity crackled through her. She convulsed and fell, and the whip failed due to a lapse in concentration caused by painful currents of electricity running through her body.  

Casually, he launched his physical spear at her prone body. If it was a real fight, he would have used Power Strike to ensure it got through, but for this bout there was no need. The weapon slammed into the sand next to her.

Close enough for her to feel the wind and the burst of grit that it caused to splash against her neck, but it did not make contact.

Then Tom waited.

It took almost ten seconds for the twitches going across her body to finish. Then, when she regained control of her muscles, she picked herself up from where she had landed. He smiled when she glanced at the weapon he had thrown. “You fucking missed.”

“Did I?”

“How bad’s your fucking throwing form. You missed from less than ten metres away.”  

“It’s good.” With a thought, he materialised one of the physical Javelins he had grabbed from the armoury and threw it in a single smooth motion. Power Strike infused the weapon a moment before impact, and the javelin split the shaft. It was not all the way through, but it penetrated a full foot into the base of the weapon.

The accuracy of the throw and what it would have done to an unprotected human body was pretty clear. 

Corrine stared at it and raised an eyebrow. “Impressive. So you didn’t miss but instead chose to let me live. Don’t tell me that a pretty face is one of your weaknesses?”

“I didn’t want to kill a fellow human.”

She smirked. “That was an interesting bout. You seem to have a few tricks.”

“As Throm said.”

“Shut up about him.”

This time, it was Tom’s turn to grin. “You haven’t seen them all yet.”

That got the reaction he expected. Surprise flared over her face. “More than a lightning spear and remote shield breaking?”

“Yes. Enough to crush you consistently.” He bragged even though he was pretty confident that wouldn’t be the case.

Her eyebrows rose. “Are you being fucking serious? You won one round. Do you really want to go again and lose bragging rights?”

“Who said anything about losing.”

“Fine. Fucking reset and we’ll go again.”

Because it was a friendly duel, Tom found that he could reset things and when he did so the spear, he had thrown appeared in his hand unharmed and the javelin back in his storage space. They were also separated to their usual starting locations.

The eight second count down started up again.

This time, Tom knew he would not get the benefit of her taking it easy. She had seen him dodge the whip so would counter the risk of him avoiding her attack by using a more potent strike, with either a larger impact area or a faster deliver speed. He was willing to bet on the first.

The instant the countdown ended. He felt Corrine lock onto him and the time dilation struck.  

He burnt a single burst.

Five ranks of attributes gain plus the extra rank from the difference between Corrine and him kicked in instantly. He sprang to the side, anticipating the attack.

Flames exploded from the spot he had been standing. They spread rapidly, but being able to move five times faster than usual got him out of the danger area. 

His Lightning Javelin formed while he was still in motion and his perception was sped up enough that he had time to carefully aim and adjust for his rapid sideways movement.

Then the second of boosted speed came to an end.

He had crossed almost ten metres during the time and behind him there was an inferno that covered around six metres. That was the size of a large living room.

Corrine had not held back, but it hadn’t helped her. He had escaped the attack, and she stood with electricity crackling through her. Somehow still standing even with her muscles locking up.

He charged her while keeping an eye out for any suspicious magical activity.

Her eyes he noticed were shut and so she didn’t see him coming. When he reached her, he gently prodded her on the shoulder with the butt of his spear.

She toppled over with a squeal of outrage but managed to gain sufficient control of her muscles to convert the fall into a more controlled landing.

She sprang to her feet a moment later and spat out the sand that had gotten into her mouth from her face plant. “How the fuck are you doing this? How did you move so fucking fast? And you’ve got both the skill and spell you were looking to gain? What the fuck Tom.”

Tom laughed at her look of amazement. “I have a lot to tell you.”

AG. My dad passed away on Saturday morning. 

He first got this cancer five years ago, was sick, got better for awhile and then it came back eighteen months ago. His death when it came was sudden and the result of a bacterial infection but it was not completely unexpected. He had mostly lost the battle as all the standard cancer treatments had been tried and failed.

I’m going to keep writing but my chapter posting schedule is going to haywire. I’ll basically be publishing the chapters when there finished rather than waiting for a set time.