Chapter 50 - Spells Through Combat (Patreon)

The reoccurrence of that anger, the curse or blessing or whatever it was troubled him. Two full days had passed, and tom found himself still obsessing over it. He knew it was stupid. Logic told him that there was nothing he could do to solve the issue, stressing achieved nothing.  Once he had access to his actual system room, specifics would become available, but for now all he could do was guess.

Tom thought he understood how it worked. What he perceived as an injustice created a rage that overwhelmed his self-control.

As far as mental effects went, that capability spoke to its potency and strength. From the years he had spent in the tutorial, he knew himself. A minor curse could not overwhelm his iron self control. But there was more to it than just that. He remembered how Boreas’ knee had buckled.

Because it felt weirdly relevant, he focused on the skill Santories had given him and the origins of its awarding. Tom’s thoughtless comment had provoked a chain of events of him betraying the chosen, then them breaking their trust with him and Tom in turn trying to save them. Ultimately, unseen cultural gulfs between the two species had caused most of the negative outcomes. It had been an unfortunate result and one he was not proud of, but when the GOD had gifted him what it had, it had been from a place of gratitude. It had been intended as a blessing but a classic double-edged sword one. Yes, the skill he had gained stopped him from making social blunders. A property that had been very useful during first contact with other species, but the silences it enforced were often embarrassing and also damaging when they occurred at the wrong time in front of others.

This fury felt similar.

He had broken Boreas’ knee. That Tom knew from years of hitting things was not something a small child like him should have been able to do. Not when Boreas’s vitality had been two or more times his own strength. Sure, the all-consuming rage had forced him to disregard worries like self harming and so he had struck with his head to extract absolutely every bit of potential possible out of his body. But even then, that should not have been enough to do the level of damage the attack had caused. Kang was fifty percent heavier than him, and he wouldn’t be capable of that. Both of them should have bounced off and left a bruise at most. Not shatter it like his head had.

“It doesn’t matter,” Tom told himself. It was an issue he needed to watch, but obsessing over it, would achieve nothing.

Weeks passed and all too soon he found himself in the trial once again. April sat across from him, frowning. She was not happy at his latest request.

“Tom, are you sure? This isn’t how normal people go about things.”

“I need to improve.”

“You’re asking me to murder you.”

“Not murder. It’s a challenge, and it’s under a GOD’s shield and I haven’t made any progress for weeks. Over a month, in fact.”

“But…” she looked puzzled. “That’s not true. You told me about the bone spells and the muscle mending.”

“It’s too slow. Please, help. I need this.”

“Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The café faded away, and he found himself standing in the same clearing he had originally appeared in. Plenty of room to fight with a circle of trees surrounding him. A terrain feature that could provide something to stand back-to-back with or use as obstacles against some monsters. For this fight, they weren’t going to be a factor. He glanced around, wondering absently about what kind of monster April would send against him.

Something flashed past, and there was a stinging pain on his cheek.

It was so fast.

Possibly too fast

April had delivered exactly what he had asked for.

Even as he followed the creature’s movement by spinning on the spot, he released his fate with an image of a sideways evolution that acted constantly as opposed to one that was linked to only applying when the spell was actively cast.

The monster was no bigger than his fist. The fingers that touched his cheek came away red with blood. April had delivered both parts of his request. A glint of silver highlighted it as it swooped for him once more.

He leapt out of the way, but… he was way too slow.

The injury this time was on his arm and the surrounding cloth went red instantly and he was forced to heal that cut immediately. This opponent felt overwhelming, but he couldn’t be mad at April. This was what he had asked for. But it was faster than he had imagined. Was this really only rank two?

He started spinning his spear like you would a quarter staff. An attempt to create a shield of moving wood in front of him.

It came at him again and again and the spear spinning too fast to be followed didn’t even deter it. The creature was quick enough to dodge through the pseudo barrier he was creating and score more cuts on him. Luckily, each slice was only slightly larger than a paper cut even if the creature’s magic meant it bled like a much more substantial wound.

His blood flowed as it struck with impunity. The flow of mana from his precognition skill was the only thing that was letting him survive.

For what must have been the hundredth time in this combat, he cast Heal Cut and then followed it up with his latest attempt at Replenish Blood.

There was a ding.

Tom kept fighting.

The creature that felt like it was a ball of razor blades came at him again. His spear that he had been forced to spin so fast he was on the verge of losing control at any moment did what it had done every other time and scared it away. It adjusted and did a circle to strike him from behind.

He couldn’t turn quickly enough, and he felt it fly past his side, leaving stinging cuts.

It was too quick. April had warned him, but he didn’t think it was going to be this bad.

As always, the monster caused an unnatural tug on his blood and the wounds leaked far more blood in the two seconds it took for him to heal than it should have.

It came again and again.

There had been a ding, which was good. He had merged the spells as planned but he was beginning to think that requesting a rank two monster focused on speed had been a mistake.

With a thought, he healed the latest cuts and used his new magic to replace the lost blood.

It went through his defences once more this time slicing into his eyebrow. Blood trickled into his eyes before he could close the cut.

Tom cursed. This was so frustrating. The monster he fought was not that dangerous. If he had lightning magic, the fight would already be over, but it felt like winning with his current body was impossible.

He persisted.

This was not a battle of equals.  Tom was the overwhelming force of nature in the fight. He only had to land one blow to finish it. While its win condition was to land ten thousand cuts, to dice him up until skill exhaustion cut off the flow of the precognition mana that was continuously patching him up. That failure when it came would signify a tipping point to where his healing no longer kept pace with his wounds.

It was a battle plan Tom was used to, but normally the situation was reversed. Generally, it was Tom who was the gnat wearing down the physically superior opponent.

One moment of luck was all that was needed, but there was no way he was wasting fate in a meaningless fight under a GOD’s shield to actively cause it.  

His spear spun, and he saw the glint of metal coming from the side. Desperately, he thrust the spinning weapon at it and tried to increase the rotation speed. The weapon connected.

Shock went through him.

He hadn’t thought he would ever touch it. But his glancing blow had made successful contact…  

His eyes traced the new trajectory of the creature. Its wings were no longer beating. If he was fast enough, he could intercept it and kill it before it recovered.

He didn’t allow surprise to slow him. He followed the unconscious monster and skewered it mid-air.

With it dying on his spear for the first time, he could see it clearly. It was far closer to being a bird than he had expected, with two wings and the same body shape he was used to. The only real difference was that the feathers were closer to knives than the fluffy stuff that went into pillows. Still, this creature, unlike most monsters, was one that could have evolved from earth stock.

The world dissolved, and he found himself sitting in the cafe across from an unhappy April.

He surreptitiously checked his hands, and the blood was gone.

The angel’s expression changed. “Despite being a stupid masochist I’m guessing congratulations are in order. That’s quite an evolution. Non standard too. I’m very impressed.”

April handed him what looked like a menu. But it wasn’t. It listed the details of his new spell Blood Replenish.

Spell: Blood Replenish – Tier 0. 

At current levels, ten mana can regenerate a tenth of total blood volume.

Sideways evolution 1. The amount you bleed from any cut is reduced by fifty percent.

Tom whistled in response to that evolution. That was exactly what he wanted and in many ways it was better than the active resistance spell that Purge Foreign Substance had granted him. Taking fifty percent longer to bleed out would save his life one day.

“That’s better than expected. Do you think the favourable evolution is related to the circumstances of its acquisition. Like if I had that evolution before the fight, it would’ve been a lot easier.”

“No. No.” She frowned. “Maybe. But I’m not facilitating that sort of craziness. Theoretically, life and death battles in here should be no different from training. I guess it’s possible if your brain believes hard enough, then you might get a slight combat bonus. It could be analogous to the phenomenon in how tough trainers who occasional kill their students obtain better results.”

Tom smiled.

“No. We’re not doing this every week.”

He just laughed.

“I’m serious.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve explained the path to get Touch Heal. Just to ensure I don’t accidentally kill myself I’ll be doing over half of them in here as it is. If being in a life or death situation gives me a bonus I’m not about to turn those down as well.”

“If it’s ones, you can’t do safely elsewhere, you can do it here. But no others!”

Tom studied April. She was still annoyed at him for insisting on fighting a monster that was almost impossible for him to kill. The fact he had succeeded he knew meant nothing, but he had wanted to fight something fast for a secondary reason. He had wanted April to gain a better understanding of his abilities, and this had been one way to give it to her. “How far off general combat four am I?”

It was her turn to laugh.

He scratched his ear. “Is it really that bad?”

“Worse than you think. As you currently are, over half of all rank four monsters will slaughter you. You’re a long way off getting near that ranking.”

“How about general combat two? Can I test out for that?” He figured that practising spear work against the weapon wielding gorilla lair below the orphanage would be helpful. They were rank three, but slow, and so Tom figured he would be able to take them even if lots of them attacked him at the same time.

She shook her head. “Not yet. But you’re close to that threshold. It’s very impressive. Most reincarnators don’t get there until they’re eight.” Tom stopped himself from getting excited by that admission. Any statistics April could tell him were out of date and he doubted reincarnators fifteen years ago had the same amazing setup that he had available. “That’s significant. Their biological growth, on average has increased their attributes by fifty percent by then. Normal kids, even the prodigies are further behind. They only reach that level after they’ve turned ten and by then they have doubled your current attributes.” She made an annoyed gesture. “I meant the ones that aren’t propped up by treasures. Those do better early but stagnate later”

“You know my build plans. When will those tools tip me over the edge?”

She looked thoughtful. “Spear mastery won’t be enough, spear skills in general won’t get you there as your issue is speed. For combat rank two, then Spark will probably push you to where you need to be. That’s the one that tips you over. You get Spark I can pretty much guarantee you’ll cross that threshold.”

“And general combat four?”

“Maybe by age ten. Magic by itself won’t take you far enough.”

 Tom grimaced at that blunt summary and then he told her about Corinne’s trait. “If I add something like that, will that change anything? I want to get there by six.”

“It’ll certainly close the largest gaps. It’s possible, but I can’t say for sure. Ultimately, it’s the GODs that will assess you.”

“You don’t sound very positive about my chances.”

“Because I’m not. Listen Tom, my role isn’t to validate your feelings it’s giving you proper advice. I’m not sure you understand how unrealistic what you’re trying to achieve is? Do you really think you’re a one in a trillion talent?”

“Probably not, but Corrine’s not either.”

“No, she’s definitely not. But there’s a sweet spot at age eleven for some humans. If they go through their growth spurt in time, that is. Corrine, with that trait hit that.”

“And you don’t believe I can compete down lower.”

She raised both her eyebrows to illustrate her derision at that thought. “You’re not properly comprehending the scale of Existentia. When I say one in trillion, it’s because there are only so many spots for that age group, probably sixteen. That’s it! And there’s over thirty trillion people competing for them. Do you understand how big a billion is, or a million or even a thousand? For example, were you the undisputed best in your starting group of eighty? Can you imagine being the best against the champion of a hundred similar groups. Then doing that again and again. Do you really think you’re that superior?”

“I get it,” Tom interrupted angrily. “But I have to believe that I can make it. And fate is powerful. It along with my years of experience gives me a chance, even against those odds.”

 “I’m not going to say it’s impossible.” She paused and her brows creased. “Your progress to date has been impressive. But, Tom, it’s not enough. You have to solve the speed problem. That’s going to require a tailored trait, because I doubt you have the time to develop a biological or magical solution.”

“Dimitri’s already said that he won’t give me a trait.”

“Then you have to find someone else to do it. And they have to put out feelers fast because a suitable trait might not come up for months.”

“I don’t have that option. I’m a proper orphan. I don’t have not-parents.”

“Some orphans have old friends of their parents who might help. Do you have anything like that?”

“I don’t, or at least I have no memories of anything like that.”

“The other option is people from your old life.”

“That’s not safe.”

“But if it’s important enough? Then you run the risk, don’t you?”

Tom was about to argue but stopped himself when he realised, she might be right. “If I run into one of them.” He said finally. “I’ll think about asking. It’s just I can’t judge how risky such contact will be.”

They dropped the difficult conversation and chatted instead about insignificant details of Tom’s time in the tutorial while he finished his coffee, and then she sent him back to the wood growth room.

He had been improving. As usual, branches grew from the wall from random spots and angles. Methodically, he shaped them into a cocoon around him. Killing all signs of life in the wood closest to him. Then when the three minutes mark ticked by the intensity of wood energy ramped up and buds began to sprout from everywhere, including from the previously dead cocoon around him. He killed them when he could, but he missed one and the branch rapidly grew to be as big as one of his arms. It took a significant amount of concentration to break it off and the buds from else grew uncontrollably while he was distracted. It became a chain reaction of failures that he couldn’t keep pace with. His carefully carved out space vanished under the surge of randomised expansion.

Everything reset, and he started again. Tom could feel the progress, but he figured he was still weeks away from mastering the skill. After his four sessions in the growth pod, he was moved to watch the shadow figure show him the spear kata. As had been happening more and more frequently, April showed him an abridged version containing only movements he hadn’t mastered. It took only a third of the time that it used to, and then he was sent into the next fight.

Given the kata snippets he had been shown, he wasn’t surprised his opponents were aerial monsters. He spun, leapt, pirouetted and tried to duplicate some of the more fanciful moves he had just observed.

He left the trial and three days later, after another boring reading session, Dimitri trooped in with a line of adult volunteers following him.

The large man stood at the head of the class. “Everyone, it’s been three months. It’s time for another assessment.”

Panic flared across the room. There were scared faces. One girl ducked under the table, but no one attempted to run. The gathered adults were enough to dissuade such action.

“Split into five groups and then we’ll escort you to the testing room.”

Tom ended up in one of the larger isolation rooms with seven other kids. Courtesy of carefully positioning both him and Kang managed to be at the back of the group, which would let them go last.

Corrine wasn’t taking this session. Instead, it was a tall black teenager who was probably already six foot.

Their tester had a sad look on his face. “I’m sorry we have to do this. I’ll try to be as gentle as I’m allowed.”

The first volunteer was pointed at and tested in the same format that Corrine had done. He let the girl attack him for two minutes and then went on offensive

“Show me something.” He ordered, lifting a single foot threateningly. She couldn’t.

He kicked out, and she fell down, screaming. Tom shut his eyes and focused on the realities of Existentia. This was necessary to help them grow to get skills to survive. This was not the orphanage acting unfairly. It was the opposite. They had to do it to teach children how to survive the harsh, unforgiving world that existed outside these walls.

It barely helped.

The girl healed herself using the crystal, and while escorting her out of the room, the teenager bowed to her. “Well fought. Work harder and show something special next time.”

The next boy went and Tom used a brief burst of Dampen Senses for when the kick and healing occurred.

The third chose a hammer and then, with a face that made him look constipated struck the trainer with it. There was a glimmer of blue, but the teenager blocked it effortlessly with the palm of his hand.

“A skill. Impressive. How did you acquire it?”

The boy hesitated and lowered the heavy practice hammer, so its head rested on the ground.

“Was it from a not parent?”

The kid refused to answer.

“Was it a skill crystal?”

“No. Mum showed.” He froze… “Um… No. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Not a crystal, then? A natural treasure?”

The boy clammed up. Obviously realising that he had already said too much. 

The trainer raised his leg up like he had when he had kicked the other two. “You haven’t impressed me yet.” He said in a warning tone.

The distressed child licked his lips. There was panic on his face. “It was a room and magic stone. Lots of hammer imprints, like someone hit it lots. No, I won’t tell you. They told me not to tell.”

“They were naïve,” the trainer said as he lowered his foot. “They shouldn’t have done that. Still, I’m impressed. You can go.”

The next girl failed as well.

Bir stood up and rather than grabbing a weapon she filled up a mug from the tap.

The trainer stepped back suddenly wary about where this was going.

“Getting me wet won’t achieve anything.”

She threw the cup of water at his face. Panic flashed across it and the teenager tried to jump backwards, but it was a good throw. He waved his hands to try to intercept all the water, but it was futile. A couple of drops splashed across his face. The boy winced and then raised his fingers to the damaged cheek.

A green glow radiated out to spread over the spots the water touched.

“Razor water,” he summarised quietly. “You’ve impressed me. You can go.”

Then it was just him and Kang left and, being closest Tom went forward and grabbed a hammer. “Please be merciful,” he said and reached out to grab the boy’s hand. The tall kid looked more than a little confused about Tom’s actions, but before he could pull back Tom successfully grabbed his hand. There was no spark between them.

He was not a reincarnator.

“Sorry,” Tom muttered sheepishly and picked up his chosen weapon that he had dropped. Then he channelled as much aggression while keeping his form into his attacks. He effortlessly dodged the blows.

“Show something.”

There was no way he was going to switch to casting his healing magic, so he kept swinging his hammer. “It glows sometimes. It does.” Tom lied, figuring that’s what a kid in his position would do.

“Show it.” It was clear the trainer did not believe him.

Tom obviously couldn’t. The kick when it came slammed into his thigh just like it had everyone else’s. It felt like he had been hit by a gwanta tail. His leg collapsed, and he crashed to the ground, releasing an involuntary whimper. Then despite how the juvenile him would have reacted Tom stood and limped to the healing crystal. He needed to bring his behaviour closer to how his adult mind reacted to things. The days of pretending to be overwhelmed by pain were behind him.

The healing crystal finished, and he left Kang to his fate. He wasn’t sure if the other boy planned to pass or not, but for Tom failing this test was worthwhile. For now, he wanted to remain firmly in the middle of the pack.