by Aaron Oster
“Most first year students would be lucky if they got to go even once in their first term! Now, no more wasting time; we have a lot of work to do and only so many hours in a day.”
“Where will we be training?” Morgan asked. “And how will we get back for breakfast with so little time between classes?”
While he had his second class at half past ten with Gold, Sarah had signed up for a class that began five minutes before his. That meant that she would only have twenty five minutes for breakfast.
“Not to worry,” Gold said as he took off in a brisk walk down the busy road. “There is a dining room right near the training grounds we’ll be working in. You can eat there and still make it in plenty of time.”
Thankfully, it only took another ten minutes for them to reach the designated area; a large space containing identical stone buildings, each painted with a different number.
The area with the buildings was fenced off and guards walked the perimeter. Gold walked right up to the front gate and one of the guards handed him something before waving them through. As the two of them caught up to him, he handed them each a small red badge.
“Pin this to your shirts. It will tell the guards that you’ve been cleared to pass and which building you’ll be training in.”
They both took the badges and Morgan saw a black number 6 embossed in the center. There was a small pin on the back and after a moment of fiddling, he managed to attach it to his shirt.
They continued heading into the block until the correct building came into view. It was made of solid stone and Morgan wasn’t sure how they were going to get in, as no door was visible.
His question was soon answered when Gold pressed his palm to the side and a section of the wall slid into the ground.
“After you,” he said, motioning them inside.
The inside of the room looked exactly as Morgan had been expecting. It was a large open space made completely of stone and seemed to be way larger on the inside than the outside.
There were a few training dummies, as well as a large stack of heavy looking iron balls. There was also a large steel chain hanging from one wall, with a small clock perched above it.
“Nice, isn’t it?” Gold asked, as they walked in.
“It’s bigger in here than it is out there,” Sarah said as she looked around as well.
“Right you are, my dear. This building, along with all the others in this block, have been treated with spatial magic.”
“What are all those for?” Morgan asked, pointing to the walls.
An evil looking smile touched Gold’s lips when he asked this and Morgan had the distinct feeling that he’d be finding that out soon. Gold’s next words confirmed his thoughts.
“You’ll find out soon enough. Now, start running!” he barked.
The shout was so unexpected that they both jumped.
“What?” Sarah asked.
The smile slipped from Gold’s face as she said this and was replaced by a scowl. “I said, start running!”
“How long should we run for?” Morgan asked.
“Until I tell you to stop! Now move!” he roared.
Sarah gave Morgan a look of terror, then took off. Morgan was close on her heels.
Who knew Gold could be so scary?
They ran around the room, with Gold occasionally yelling at them to run faster.
Judging from how long it took him to make a full circuit of the room, Morgan guessed it to be around a quarter mile. The outside of the building hadn’t looked to be more than fifteen square feet! Whoever had enchanted this building must be pretty powerful.
After they’d been running for about ten minutes, Sarah was visibly flagging and her breathing was coming in ragged gasps. Morgan was a lot better off and in fact, barely felt any strain at all.
Must be from his increased agility and constitution.
This didn’t escape Gold’s notice, however, and he was quick to rectify that.
“I can see that while Sarah is working hard, you don’t seem to mind running.”
Morgan shrugged. “It’s not like it’s difficult.”
“That is unacceptable!” he roared.
Why did he need to be so close to him when he yelled like that?
“From now on, I expect you to run twice as fast as Sarah, and while carrying this!” Gold wrapped a steel chain around his shoulders in an X, then locked the loose ends together.
Morgan could feel his legs shaking as the weight settled on him and he almost buckled under it.
“What’s this thing made of?” he managed to gasp out.
“Compressed steel. There’s a super out there who managed to find a way to condense steel to an unbelievable degree.”
“How much does this thing weigh?!”
Gold pretended to think for a moment. “Oh, I’d say somewhere around two hundred pounds.”
Two hundred pounds of dead weight?
He could barely move. How was he expected to do twice the amount of laps as Sarah?
“Well, off you go,” Gold said with a smile and a wave.
He’s the devil! Morgan thought as he began running once again. With the addition of the chain, his pace was now drastically slowed. Within minutes he was drenched in a heavy sweat as his muscles strained against the weight and he was breathing just as raggedly as Sarah.
There was no way it was only two hundred pounds. Sarah weighed just over half that and he hadn’t had any trouble sprinting with her on his back.
He wheezed in pain as he passed a much slower moving Sarah. His muscles were shrieking in protest and his lungs were on fire, but still he ran on. This went on for what felt like hours, and when finally he heard Gold’s voice break through the haze of pain and sweat, he thought he was dreaming.
“Alright, you can stop.”
Morgan took a few more stumbling steps before the words reached his brain. He looked over his shoulder to see Sarah collapsed on the ground, in a sweaty heap and panting for air.
He then felt his legs buckle as well and slid down the wall to slump tiredly on the ground. He looked up as a shadow fell across him and Gold leaned down, handing him a cup of water.
“Drink slowly,” he advised, before moving over to Sarah.
Morgan took his advice, slowly sipping from the clay cup as he felt his heart rate slowly decrease. He had almost managed to catch his breath when Gold’s voice barked out once again.
“On your feet!”
Morgan groaned, but this time did as he was told. He struggled briefly and almost fell back down as his muscles protested in pain; but he managed to catch himself in time.
He stumbled over to the center of the room, seeing Sarah doing the same. They both came to a stop in front of him and he looked them over for a few seconds.
“On your hands and the balls of your feet!” he barked.
Morgan had never done something like this before, but was quick to follow orders. He got down and Gold came by, adjusting his position. Once his position was correct, he could immediately feel the strain on his arms, shoulders and core.
This was hell. Gold was going to kill them.
“How long should we hold this position?” Morgan heard Sarah’s voice from his left.
“Until I tell you to stop!” Gold yelled.
They were forced to hold that position for five whole minutes. By the end of it, Morgan could swear that his arms had turned to jelly and that he’d never be able to use them again.
“On your feet!”
And so it went on for the next hour. Gold ran them through one hellish exercise after the next. All of which Morgan was forced to do with the heavy chain around his shoulders.
“Alright, I think that’s enough for the day,” Gold said at last.
Morgan and Sarah just stood there, heads bowed and panting for breath.
There was a loud click, and Morgan groaned in relief as the chain was lifted off his shoulders.
“Now I want you to spread your legs out like so.”
Gold demonstrated the technique.
“I thought we were done for the day,” Sarah groaned.
“Unless you want those muscles to cramp up horribly, I would recommend stretching them out.”
So they followed his movements, going from one pose to the next and stretching every muscle that had been worked out.
By the time they were finally finished, Morgan was ready for a nap.
He’d never been so tired in his life.
He was drenched from head to toe in sweat and judging by that way she looked, Sarah wasn’t doing much better. Her face was red, her eyes were drooping, and her braid had come partially undone, clinging to her face in sweaty strands.
“How are we supposed to eat, or do any classes when we’re this sweaty and gross?” Sarah asked.
Gold quickly glanced to the clock, then motioned towards the back wall. Two slabs of stone slid to the side, revealing two small bathing stalls, and what looked like a change of their clothes.
“I took the liberty of bringing you each a change of clothes. You will be expected to bring your own from now on. Simply place your palm on the wall to close the room for privacy. The water will be lukewarm at best, so I would recommend you bathe quickly. Morgan, I will meet you back here in forty minutes.”
He nodded once, then exited the building.
Morgan and Sarah looked at each other as the stone slab closed behind him; then tiredly shuffled over to the open doors.
Morgan closed his door and was quick to strip out of his sodden clothes, wincing in pain whenever he moved. Then walking over to the far wall, he turned the spout and shivered as the icy water washed over him.
“I’ve never felt this much pain in my entire life! I swear that bastard is trying to kill us!” Morgan heard Sarah say as the sound of running water came from her stall.
Morgan looked around for a moment before spotting a bar of soap and quickly lathered himself up.
“I’ve felt pain before,” Morgan answered, remembering well his hard years on the streets; as well as his recent fights. “But I’ve never felt pain like this.”
This pain was different. He’d never inflicted this kind of punishment on himself. It was somehow worse than when he’d broken his ribs, or taken a sword through the shoulder.
“That man is evil!” Sarah shouted, then groaned in pain. “You think he’s this quiet, unassuming person, then he turns into that!”
Morgan definitely agreed with her there.
Gold’s transformation had been shocking, to say the least.
He rinsed himself off and turned off the water, looking around for something to dry himself with. He found a rough towel near his clean clothes and quickly dried himself; wincing with every movement.
He got into his fresh clothes and turned to get his sodden ones, but was surprised to see that they’d vanished.
“Sarah, did your dirty clothes disappear?” Morgan asked, looking around for them.
There was a moment of silence, then Sarah emerged from her room, still pulling her shirt over her head. Morgan got a flash of her pale stomach as she managed to pull it down.
“Yeah,” she said, straightening her hair and tucking her shirt in. “I think this building has more magic in it than Gold was letting on.”
“Would have been nice for Gold to mention that beforehand,” Morgan grumbled.
Sarah looked up at him, as though just realizing he was there and let out a squeak, running back into the washroom.
Morgan stared at the closed door for a minute, not sure what had just happened.
“Sarah?” he called out. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, emerging from the room a minute later. Her shirt was tucked in and the straps at her waist were cinched shut. The fabric clung to her body in several places where there were damp patches on her skin; and her hair hung, still damp and unbranded, down her back.
Her face was all flushed again, and Morgan started to wonder if she was feeling well.
“Should we get something to eat?” he asked instead, feeling his stomach growling loudly.
“Definitely!” Sarah said, with a smile.
Morgan grinned back at her, and the two of them shuffled painfully out of the room in pursuit of food.
20
“What do you know about abilities?”
Morgan shrugged. “Not much, aside from what you and Sarah have told me.”
He was back in the training room, but it looked very different than when he’d been here before breakfast.
There was a large bookshelf against one wall, a desk behind which Gold was sitting, and a large plush chair; which Morgan had gratefully sunken into.
Sarah had already gone off to her next lesson and the two of them had decided to meet up at the house after Morgan’s lesson so they could eat lunch together.
Gold was back to his normal, unassuming self and was teaching him as though the last two hours hadn’t happened.
“I figured as much,” Gold said, with a smile.
“Before we can begin learning about abilities, skills, attributes, and how they work; we will first have to discuss why they exist in the first place. Have you ever wondered why our abilities function the way they do? Why we need to pull up a status to view our abilities, or why we need to increase in rank to become stronger?”
Morgan had begun to drift off, as the soreness in his body and exhaustion of the exercise set in. But his eyes opened wide and he sat up straighter when Gold began on this topic.
He’d been wondering about all those things ever since his abilities had awoken. Was there perhaps a higher being that oversaw the laws of this world?
“I can see that I have your full attention now,” Gold said with a grin. “Yes, Morgan, there is indeed a reason why the world is the way it is. This reason also ties in with why there are so few supermages alive today.”
He cleared his throat and continued.
“This story takes place over ten thousand years ago. Back then, there was no such thing as having a status. There was no separation between supers and mages, and no one had skills, abilities or attributes. When someone awoke their power, they got it all at once, without the need to rank up. On the other hand, there was no increasing in power either. Whatever they got when the power awoke, was what they had for the rest of their lives.”
“In those days, there were only four kingdoms, North, South, East and West. The Central Kingdom had yet to be founded and a different royal family ruled the North. The king wasn’t an especially kind man, but despite the way he kept peace, people were still happy with his rule.”
“That all changed when a man known only as the Tyrant King awoke his power. It was a power unlike anything the world had even seen and before long, he had declared war on the king; demanding he hand over his throne.”
Gold’s voice took on a much more serious tone here, as he continued his lesson.
“The war that ensued would be recorded as one of the most brutal in our history. The Tyrant King had soon gathered an army of thousands and marched on the capital. He could have taken the throne peacefully, if not for the king’s son; who absolutely refused to back down. In an act of defiance he murdered his own father and took command of the kingdom.
“The battle raged on for months, with tens of thousands in casualties; but in the end, the Tyrant King stood victorious. He butchered the entire royal family, then sat upon the throne, declaring himself king for all to hear. But as it is with all tyrants, just ruling the North wasn’t enough for him. Over the next few years, he built his strength up and attacked the neighboring West kingdom.
“And so another bloody war began. The West had powerful fighters of their own, but none who could match the Tyrant King, and soon it looked as though they, too, would fall. The other two kingdoms, fearing that they were next, soon joined the battle in hopes of stopping the Tyrant King. The war raged on for years, and even with the combined might of all three kingdoms, it looked as though the Tyrant King
would be victorious.”
“Then there came a day when the three allied kingdoms faced him for one last battle. The Tyrant King had raised a massive army and was confident of his victory. The rulers met him at the center of the battlefield before the fight began in hopes of sparing their men. The Tyrant King refused to parlay, demanding surrender and threatening to butcher all of them if they didn’t comply. The other kings were proud, but weary of the long war and one by one, began to comply with his demand.”
“The last monarch was preparing to surrender, when a figure walked onto the battlefield and approached the gathered rulers. The histories aren’t clear as to who this person was, but we do know one thing- they were the most powerful being this world has ever seen. Whether man, woman or god; this being demanded that the rulers place down their weapons and return to their respective kingdoms.”
“The Tyrant King laughed at his demands and stepped forward to kill this being.”
Gold paused here, and Morgan leaned forward in his seat.
“What happened next?”
He smiled and continued, glad that Morgan was paying attention.
“There was a flash of brilliant light and the Tyrant King fell to his knees. The being turned to the rest of the gathered monarchs and its voice boomed out over the field for all to hear. It said that they had all squandered their gifts on war and death. That they were unworthy of wielding the energy of the world bestowed upon them. Then a ripple of power flowed outward and everyone’s abilities were torn from them.”
“The being then forbade the kingdoms from waging outright war ever again. It then announced that power would never be given so freely and in such great quantity ever again. But the Tyrant King would not accept this. Even though he’d been stripped of his power, he lifted his sword and ran towards the figure, screaming his hate and rage. The figure raised a hand and with a single motion, wiped him from existence.”
“Soon after that, the Central Kingdom was founded and a new king placed in charge. The powerful being did not take the throne, instead naming someone else to keep the balance, then disappeared. Coincidentally, the descendants of that king are still ruling to this very day.”