by J. J. Thorn
I hadn’t noticed anything, but I was never the first to wake up. Zane could have been right. I also wouldn’t put it past them to leave us so that they could hunt a higher-ranked monster.
“I’m in.” Britta jumped up and started to smile. For the majority of the trip, she had seemed down. The idea of her uncle causing us so much distress had been weighing her down, but it was nice to see her finally cheer up a bit.
“Won’t they know we’re kids and not serve us?” I responded.
“Have you never been drinking, Ren?” Zane shook his head, grinning. “When we get back, we need to spend a night having fun. At least once a month—at least! Your parents deprived you of all the fun stuff.”
Jen touched my shoulder. “Most bars don’t care as long as you pay them. Some might, but in a town like this, they’ll just be happy to have more business.”
Zane’s smile continued to shine a light around the room as the tiredness that existed only moments ago started to dissipate.
“Okay, screw it. I’m in too.” Cassie jumped up, wincing slightly when her feet hit the floor. “I’ll get one of the healers back in Krader to deal with my sore feet. Let’s go dance downstairs.”
Jen and I were the only ones left sitting as they all looked at us waiting for us to catch on.
Jen was the first to cave.
“Fine! But only because you mentioned dancing! And next week you have to take part in at least two training sessions with us, Cassie, and Zane…” She stood up and hugged the rest.
And then there was just me.
“I don’t know guys, I—” I started before Zane cut me off.
“Terrence, you never take time off. While you’ve been training and practicing, you’ve neglected the other part of living in a school full of kids your own age!”
“What’s that?”
“The fun part, now get up!”
Zane and Jen grabbed my hands and dragged me up from the ground.
We started to walk downstairs and noticed the bar at the inn was more lively than ever. The town was small, but it seemed like most of the town had come out as music played and drinks were being passed around liberally.
Sitting down at one of the tables was even Gavin and his team. They looked different, having all changed into more comfortable clothes as well. The atmosphere was different around the table as they joked and laughed.
Even Gavin surprised me as I saw him joke around with his team.
We reached their table and Tara was the first to notice us.
“There you all are, we were worried you would miss the celebration. This is sometimes the best part!” She said as they started to make some room around the table for us.
“Celebration for what?” Jen asked for the group.
“For a successful hunt, of course! What’s the point in going through all that trouble if you can’t have a little fun when it’s all over!” Quinn laughed as he slogged down more of his drink.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but it was Gavin’s next words that made me relax even further.
“Oh, don’t worry too much about it. Tomorrow we’ll head back, and things will go back to normal. Tonight, though, take the opportunity to relax and enjoy yourselves. Your start was rocky, but you pulled it together in the end. You did your part, and no one got hurt!”
Pride swelled inside me. I had put so much pressure on myself and my ability to keep progressing that I hadn’t taken the time to actually enjoy my time at Prep. I couldn’t guarantee I would change it, because I wanted to get stronger, but I would at least try.
We ordered drinks, which proved to be incredibly easy, and joined the rest of the team.
That night we laughed and drank, and smiled. I even got to dance with Jen for a bit, which was probably the best part of it all.
I still kept my distance from John, as I had for most of the trip, and he seemed more than willing to give me my space as well.
That night was one of the best I’d ever had, and it was all because of some Skinks.
* * * * *
We woke up on time but were all dead on our feet from the hangovers. It wasn’t as bad as my worst Burnouts, but it was close enough to make me unwilling to be vocal.
We got into the wagon and all silently found a seat. I had tried to remain conservative in my drinking, but the bumps along the way made it even harder to do anything worthwhile.
A few hours into the trip, after I had taken my turn throwing up behind the wagon, I finally snapped out of it and decided to make something of my time.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to test out my Skill by itself, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t have countless other things to do.
First, I looked at my Progress again.
Current Progress.
Affinity: Weight
Rank 1 – View Weight – 100%
Rank 2 – Increase Weight – 1%
Energy 36/36
As expected, my percentage had stayed the same as I hadn’t really used it at all during the trip. Looking at my Skill, I considered what I knew.
First, the Skill increased my own weight. I didn’t know by how much, or how quickly that happened, but those things would have to wait. Secondly, while I wouldn’t discard the idea altogether, I intuitively knew that I wouldn’t be able to use it on other things, people, or objects. The Skill was to be used on me and me alone.
Which led me to the greatest part of my Skill! The Skill worked on me. As in, I could potentially use the Skill on every part of my body. I still had no idea how it worked or if it affected certain parts of my body more than others. Since I passed out when I used it, I barely even knew how it felt to use.
But even then, I at least knew that it was something I could use on my body. And that meant that I now had a Skill that could help me progress towards using my Energy on things other than my eyes.
In General Energy Manipulation, Professor Wilks had been emphatic about the fact that anyone could augment a part of their body, but the presence of a Skill made it much easier.
So, in my wagon seat, I sat still and started to meditate. Instead of trying to find silence and tranquility in my meditation, I looked within myself.
I had tried to do this in the past but noticed each time that I wasn’t able to do it. With time, it might have become possible as a Rank 1, but I had jumped the queue and was now Rank 2.
As I felt around my body, spiritual, and physical, I started to recognize new things about myself. It wasn’t tangible, but I could feel my Energy spreading throughout my body in ways it hadn’t before.
If I could compare it to anything, it was similar to how I felt when I used my ‘View Weight’ Skill or tried to augment my eyesight. But where those things had been a direct influx of Energy to a specific part of my body, this was more passive. The Energy moved slowly throughout my body, cycling through my limbs and organs, before returning to somewhere I couldn’t discern.
I could probably spend months trying to figure this out further, but my goal had always been to learn how to augment my body.
I started to think about what that might mean for me.
I had always wanted to be faster or stronger, but what did that really mean? I made a note to spend some time in the library researching these concepts. For now, I thought of those concepts alone as I focused on my legs.
I tried desperately to will my Energy to move towards my legs faster. I imagined myself pushing, pulling, and directing my Mana towards the area I wanted it to gather.
It all meant nothing, as I felt no change and my legs felt no different.
When I had tried with my eyes, it had come so naturally, but now I struggled to do anything.
My one solace was that my Energy would drain at a rapid pace whenever I pushed or pulled too hard. I couldn’t feel anything happening, but I at least knew something was happening with my Energy.
The rest of the trip was uneventful as I spent the entire time working on these abilities. Whenever I had the chance, when my
Energy was completely gone, the group and I would discuss some of the progress we had made on the trip.
While I was practicing, they did the same. Jen still couldn’t create anything beyond a sword but had gotten to the point where she could change the sword type with a little bit more Energy. Her latest attempt was to have it work while she still holding her steel sword.
Cassie was now able to better pinpoint where the pain on a person was coming from and didn’t explicitly need the person to be injured.
Zane had made progress when he identified the different monsters and had been working on a way to identify different parts of a person. So far, he hadn’t made much progress, but he assured us that he would make it happen.
Britta spent most of her time reducing the amount of Energy her augmentation would take. I got her to explain it to me again, now that I could theoretically try, but still, she got annoyed.
The trip back to Krader was much smoother and Gavin didn’t even force us to take a test. The night before had been a surprise, but we weren’t willing to let our guards down.
As we entered the gates, I was happy to see Krader. I came back a Rank higher and with a higher will to succeed.
* * * * *
We disembarked from the wagon and said goodbye to the driver. His horses were happy, so he was happy, or so that’s what he said.
My friends started to walk into town with Gavin and his team, but I realized, leaving the wagon, that I had one last thing I needed to do.
“I’ll catch up with you back at the dorms,” I told them all as I walked towards my Cousin John.
Zane looked back at me briefly but pushed the girls into a walk as he saw where I was heading.
John was talking with Gavin, alone. Quinn, Tara, and Barda had already walked through the gates. It made sense, Gavin had the Inventory and would probably see them some other time. He didn’t need them to give Britta’s dad the Skink corpses.
My hands started to sweat, and I started to get a slight headache as I walked closer to John. When I had confronted Franklin and Booth, it had been after months of torment and torture. Even after John had left Huag, it continued. And so, as I walked closer to John, I couldn’t forget how he hadn’t treated me poorly at all.
It didn’t make me forget anything he did as kids, but if he could forget about those things, so could I.
So, as I walked closer, I thought about what I might say to him. I couldn’t apologize, but I wanted to part respectfully. I wanted to part as two people that could see each other as equals, or at least as cousins. Not as two people who hated each other’s guts.
Before I could get my thoughts together, I was standing in front of Gavin and John.
“Can I help you, Terrence?” Gavin raised an eyebrow at me. “I already told you all in the wagon, you’re dismissed. I’ll be speaking with Favian tonight and you should go see him sometime next weekend. For now, go home and rest.”
“Ugh, no sir. Sorry, I just need to speak with John.”
Gavin looked between the two of us. Noticing something, he decided to give us some space.
“Okay, that’s fair. John, meet me at the gates tomorrow morning. You’re dismissed for the evening as well, but we return to your training tomorrow.” He looked at me warily before walking off.
John and I both stood there silently as we watched him leave.
Despite being the one to initiate, John spoke first.
“He’s a hard-ass, but my dad pays him a lot of money to make sure I get trained properly. It’s funny. Dad spent so much of my time growing up away, and now he’s paying someone else to train me. Really makes you think.” John paused, wistful. “Did you know he never took me on a hunt like he did with you to the Armadon? Not even once growing up. I had to learn everything by watching him or practicing by myself.”
“No, I didn’t know that… And I think he was just trying to be nice. It might have been the look in my mom’s eyes or something that made him take me.”
“Oh, who knows. Dad never really expressed his feelings much. Good-guy Tom, Respectful Tom, always revered around town for his good heart and so on. Don’t get me wrong, he always treated me well—when he was there that is. We always just had this distance between us. He would send back money so we could afford Huag. So that I could get to hang around kids who had more money than when he grew up with.”
“Uncle Tom is a good man,” I said. “I bet he did all those things to make sure you grew up well.”
Things were going differently than what I had expected, but I didn’t know what I had expected walking over. So far on the trip, no interaction with John had been what I thought it would be.
“Haha, look at you, looking down on me. Don’t worry, Terrence, I don’t need your pity. I know you hate me for what I did to you as kids. You were an easy target if I’m being honest. I would try to torment others, but you always got in the way. So eventually, I decided to just focus most of it on you.
“You always wanted to take everyone’s burden for yourself. When I heard you got the WEIGHT Affinity, I realized it was probably because you wanted to take everyone else’s weight on your shoulders. You always made sure the people around you weren’t inconvenienced and never did anything to make your parents worry. And even now, I see you with your friends. They look up to you. You seem to give them hope.”
“Wow, John. I really didn’t expect any of that. You did torment me as a kid, but I have nothing on you. You won the tournament. And I saw you fight, you’re incredible.”
Time stopped as John looked me dead in the eye.
I said nothing as we stood there, two cousins finally seeing each other.
And then time returned, and I couldn’t believe my eyes as John started to laugh. And not just laugh, he gasped for breath as he laughed harder than anyone I had ever heard laugh.
I couldn’t understand what was happening. And still, he laughed.
“HAHAHAHHAHAAHA!”
“What’s so funny?” I finally asked.
“You, Terrence. Or should I call you Ren?! You!”
“But weren’t you just telling me how we could make amends? How you felt bad for what you had done to me as a kid.”
The laughing stopped as he now scoffed at my words.
“Terrence, I don’t feel bad for what I did to you as a kid because I never think about you. I didn’t bring up my father because I want your pity. I bring it up because you got what I never needed! I won that tournament because I was the best fighter in my year, and I continue to surpass those at my Rank because I am the best among them as well.
“You think I care about my little cousin who took on everyone else’s burdens? You’re an absolute idiot who I was happy to leave when I came to Krader. You and all of those other imbeciles that tried to make their way in that backwater town. All because I said a couple of nice things?
“You’ve always been gullible, Terrence, but I thought you’d grown out of that. Especially after Gavin’s test. If you haven’t learned it already, you’ll grow out of that soon enough. And soon, your friends will realize how much dead weight they’re holding by keeping you around.
“You couldn’t protect them during the test, and you’ll fall to the wayside like all of those other weaklings once school starts. You’ll always be the weak, fat kid who let us hit him with sticks. No, Terrence, I don’t want to make amends. I want to think about, or even see you, ever again.
“If anything, I’m happy you got to see the difference between you and me. I have too much to lose to waste my time tormenting some weakling and his friends.”
John finished his tirade before simply walking away.
He gave me no chance to respond and even then, I didn’t know what to say.
I stood there for a minute but couldn’t stop thinking about what had just happened.
His words themselves had been hurtful, but I couldn’t get one thought out of my head.
“I knew it!” I said aloud as I finally started to move towards the gates
.
So much of the trip had me wondering why he was being so nice. I was happy to see that even that was a trick. John had always been a dick, and a couple years hadn’t changed it. His words barely phased me, as I had learned to ignore his taunting years ago. I would probably think about some of it in the coming days, but I knew I could handle it.
Overall, I was just happy I hadn’t gauged our childhood interactions the wrong way. So much of my time had been spent trying to avoid or think about how he was acting. Now I could get back to focusing on my own growth.
This was just another person to surpass in my progression. And I knew I could do it because of my Rank 2 Skill.
I practically hummed and skipped through Krader.
Plus, I got to go and tell Zane that he was wrong! What a good day!
“Haha, I knew it! Take that Zane!”
Chapter 19 – Interlude – Ranger
“Shackle!” Lin yelled as darkness gathered around the legs of the Alpha now attacking Griff. Unlike when they had first started fighting the Alpha Snow-Talons, the shackles coalesced across each of its limbs instantly.
The difference in speed and maneuverability on the beast was limited greatly as it frantically tried to bite at some of the darkness that surrounded its limbs.
“That’s gotten much more useful!” Griff yelled as he received a slight breather because of the Alpha’s distraction.
An arrow pierced the side of the Alpha as it fell down from the force behind the blow. Lin had not been the only one to grow stronger in their time in the Dungeon.
Arrows fell down onto the body of the Alpha. Each one slightly glowing from Rana’s Rank 3 Skill ‘Empower’.
When they first fought the Alpha before entering the Dungeon, Tom had needed to carry the team to victory.
In the three months they had spent traversing the mountain landscape, they had each grown. Lin’s Rank 3 Skill now allowed her to manipulate how many shackles were required. For bipedal monsters, the two shackles had been sufficient to slow them down, but as Lin had learned, quadrupeds were barely inhibited by two alone. Instead, she had worked on a way to create four shackles at a time, greatly limiting their movement.