by Mills, H. C.
‘We should hurry up and go,’ Alec signs. ‘We’re probably still in time for the quick finish bonus. It might be 10 Trial Points like before, but it may also have been doubled to 20 like the clear reward!’
‘To be honest, I’m a bit conflicted,’ I sign. ‘We still have a lot of time on the clock, and I think I’d prefer to stay here and train.’
Swimming with my tail in Hydrum this thick is great practice and a great full-body workout! In fact, I have a feeling I’m pretty close to raising my Strength already.
‘Awesome,’ I sign by sticking out my thumb and little finger and wiggling my hand. Man, it’d be nice to learn how to connect multiple telepathic tethers simultaneously like Dave, though.
‘Actually, when does the preparation time go in?’ Kaitlynn signs. ‘I’d ask Kai, but by the time he’d finished explaining, I would’ve lost out on that bonus.’ She smirks cheekily.
Dave nods.
Right. So either when everyone has finished or is finished.
‘Perfect,’ I sign. ‘Then I suggest you crazy kids go ahead, while I stay here and pretend I’m the Little Mermaid a little longer, to give us all some extra time to train.’
Dave purses his lips.
In typical Dave style, it’s more of a statement of fact than anything. A challenge to my reasoning that serves only to start a debate.
‘We’ll improve our chances of emerging into Hub Three at all,’ I counter, ‘and we’ll emerge stronger. No, actually, it’s a moot point, because we can always choose to enter the Trial earlier if we feel ready.’
Another statement, no judgement attached, just to provoke thought.
I glance over at the giant by-now-quatropus we’ve slain and shrug. ‘I have a feeling I’m about to have plenty. And like I said, I prefer the extra training time under these circumstances, which I otherwise wouldn’t have. The fact that you will all get to benefit from the extra time as well is a very nice bonus.’
Alec waves with a big grin and hurries for a door as well. Kaitlynn comes in for a hug a little shyly. ‘Be careful!’ she bids me seriously. ‘Don’t do anything crazy, okay?’
I nod. The idea of trying to swim back up to go hunting briefly crosses my mind, but like I’ve said before, I’m not actually suicidal.
She hugs me again, and heads towards a door, throwing back a lingering glance before she leaves.
The door slams shut, leaving me by myself. The sound of its echoes are warped strangely by the thick Hydrum around me.
‘Suri, time?’ I subvocalise.
[You have 22 hours, 16 minutes, and 33 seconds left to complete the Trial.]
Awesome, that’s more than enough. One reason I’m so keen on this is that there’s a familiar niggling sensation in the back of my mind. It’s a kind of tension, a tautness, like something—some kind of energy, almost—has built up, and is about to burst free.
It feels like I’m about to break through on a stat. And I have a powerful suspicion that it’s Strength.
Still, I hesitate. I am giving up on a bunch of Trial Points, probably. ‘Hey Suri, do you think I’m making the right decision?’
[I’d say you generally have good instincts,] Suri chimes promptly. [I don’t see why you should begin doubting them now.]
That’s probably as close to a yes as I can reasonably expect.
All right then, time to start training. With my wounds healed and my stomach still full of Trigot meat, my net Lavi is now in the plus again and should remain barely so even when I use Boost Physical.
[Except when it comes to danger,] Suri amends. [You should really develop a better instinct for danger.]
I ignore the twitch in my eyelid and activate Boost Physical’s Second Mode.
Two hours. I’ve spent two hours swimming in circles—minus breaks, as my body simply can’t handle swimming continuously—and it feels like I’m not an inch closer to breaking through!
In fact, it’s almost as if the tension has ebbed away a little.
‘Suri, why isn’t this working?!’ I finally burst out in frustration.
[Probably because you’re not pushing yourself hard enough, now that you lack the motivation provided by the giant octopus chasing you,] Suri answers. [To raise your stats you need to go beyond your limits, remember? Not pussyfoot around.]
Not pushing myself hard enough?!
I unconsciously open my mouth to scream at her but end up swallowing a mouthful of thick Hydrum. For a second, I irrationally panic about choking or drowning, before simply closing my mouth again.
Damnit, she’s probably right anyway, isn’t she?
Frustrated, I give an extra hard kick with my tail, but of course it can’t handle the extra power and rips before falling apart.
I blink. Wait a minute.
‘No, you’re wrong,’ I subvocalise eventually. ‘It’s not my lack of motivation.’
[Oh?] Suri chimes, surprised. [Do tell.]
‘It’s my tail,’ I explain. ‘I’ve been subconsciously limiting my power output this whole time because the limiting factor on my speed isn’t my Strength, but the integrity of my tail.’
[Interesting,] Suri chimes. [But why were you then progressing so much faster when you were up against the octopus?]
I sink down to land in a lotus position on the white sand at the bottom of the cave, and take a moment to think about it.
‘Probably because I was way more focused,’ I admit finally. ‘I was trying to push my speed to the limit and to do that, I had to really pay attention to squeezing the maximum out of my tail.’
[So now what?]
I purse my lips. ‘I’m not sure... I think I need to Meditate for a bit, regain my focus.’
[Well well. Sounds like someone’s learning,] Suri chimes, sounding just a tad proud.
Though on second thought, that may just have been wishful thinking.
When I open my eyes again, about an hour later, I’m full of energy and it feels like I can finally think straight again. The tension in the back of my mind that seemed to signify the verge of a breakthrough has dropped further, but I resist the urge to jump up and start swimming frantic circles again.
I know what I need to do now: I need to first improve my Breath Control. Preferably, finally bring it to level 2.
‘Time?’
[18 hours, 53 minutes and 56 seconds left to complete the Trial.]
Sweet. I take a deep breath of Hydrum, absorb some of the bountiful Lavi inside, and take control of the rest of it. I exhale and push the Hydrum away from me, whilst trying to maintain control over the Lavi inside for as long as possible.
Unfortunately, my control still rapidly fades with distance, but I do feel like it’s improved since the start of this Trial.
Then I have a crazy thought.
The next time I exhale, I make the Hydrum I sent out form a ball that hovers about three feet in front of me. I can do this much quite easily now, but I can feel my control rapidly slipping. Before I lose it entirely, however, I cast out a tether towards it.
Disappointingly, it passes through with little resistance. However, unless I’m mistaken, the decline in my control did slow down a little while it passed through.
[Oh? Interesting,] Suri comments.
What I really need is something for the tether to latch onto.
On my next try, I attempt to concentrate the Lavi inside of the ball of Hydrum to form a kind of nucleus in the centre to connect to. It en
ds up being more of a slightly denser patch of Lavi spread out around the centre, but when my tether passes through, it does feel like I’m getting a little more resistance and control.
Emboldened, I continue experimenting.
About another two and a half hours later, I finally manage to form the kind of dense nucleus of Lavi I had envisioned, out of about half the Lavi in my exhale.
Half seems to be about the optimum, because if I remove more of the spread-out Lavi, I lose control of the Hydrum it connected to.
I’ve mostly given up on the tether idea, as it doesn’t seem to want to latch on, no matter what. It no longer matters anyway, because I found that with every increase in the density of the nucleus, my control reaches farther and lasts longer.
It was actually my experience with compressing Lavi from the Lavi Font Skill that helped me get this far this quickly. Perhaps taking that Skilldream for the second level bore a little fruit after all.
I form another nucleus inside my mouth and push it out with my exhale. It functions as a kind of control centre, receiving my commands and redistributing them among the rest of the Lavi in the exhaled Hydrum.
The nucleus joins its brothers and sisters in swirling around me. Now that my control lasts so much longer, I can add new exhales before my control over the previous ones has extinguished. Of course, I’ve been building this up slowly, starting with two simultaneous exhales, before progressing to three, four, and now five.
The five combined exhales, controlled by five dense nuclei, form a small protective bubble around me now like Suri had told me to try and make out of Aether in order to reach the second level of Breath Control.
I’m still very pleasantly surprised when the long-awaited notification pops up.
For real? Sweet!
I take a moment to celebrate with an impromptu under-Hydrum dance.
[Well done, Emma,] Suri chimes in a tone of voice that’s almost warm. [You took a bit of a roundabout way to get there, but by no means a bad one.]
‘Thanks, Suri!’ I send back. I always get a kind of thrill receiving her praise, and this time no less so.
Now for the next part: to form a new and improved version of my tail.
The tension in the back of my mind is nearly entirely gone now, to the point where I’m not sure if I’m actually feeling anything at all, but that’s okay. I expect to get it back soon enough.
It takes another twenty minutes of fine-tuning and practice, but my new tail is a thing of beauty.
It’s quite a bit larger, and its green glow quite a bit brighter. On average it contains four nuclei, which slowly travel down between my legs to end up dangling below my feet. There’s always at least one nucleus there, as the fins require the most support of all.
Most importantly, my new tail can easily take my full Strength even with Boost Physical’s second mode on. And I can use it to support my movement, which increases both my speed and manoeuvrability!
Unfortunately, since I’ve been here for more than eight hours, the supplementary effect of the Trigot meat has worn off. Thanks to all the breath training I did just now, my Lavi absorption from Hydrum did increase by 0.5 Onkh per minute, but when I activate Boost Physical’s second mode, my net Lavi intake still drops to -1.5 Onkh per minute.
Therefore, before beginning my Strength training in earnest, I work some jicca nuts inside. It’s very weird, eating under-Hydrum, but not impossible. I just pretend I’m eating Alec’s jicca porridge again.
A glance at my Status Bar afterwards confirms that my net Lavi intake is now 0. Perfect.
Time to work my muscles to the limit.
No, beyond the limit.
My swim speed has probably increased by at least 10%. That may not sound like much, but it’s a big difference considering the drag and viscosity of this incredibly thick Hydrum. That’s what I stayed here for, after all: the ultimate resistance training.
And it works like a charm. Since I had to start nearly from scratch, it takes a while, but I can slowly feel the tension rebuild, and another three hours later or so, the following notification pops up.
Booyah!
Exhausted, I let myself drift down into the soft sand with a big grin.
CHAPTER 25
I wanna be, the very best
AFTER A SHORT REST, I sit up.
‘Time?’ I subvocalise.
[You have 12 hours, 48 minutes, and 36 seconds left.]
Cool.
I’m a little tempted to continue my swimming training, but the languished state of my limbs convinces me otherwise. To be honest, it wouldn’t be the wisest plan anyway, considering that I’ve only just raised my Strength, and my body needs some time to adjust.
The extra point in Strength isn’t the greatest gain of my training down here anyway; the second level of Breath Control is far more valuable.
Right now, however, I’m thinking of working on another Skill: Meditation. For a while now, I’ve been somewhat half-heartedly trying to figure out the third level, but now that I know that it’s the prerequisite for Regeneration, there’s definitely a little more impetus to continue.
Also, I’m pretty tired and a rest sounds nice.
I shift to a lotus position and swiftly enter a lucid trance. Suri warned me not to cut off the flow of Lavi to my sensory organs entirely, so there must be something else to the art of dimming the senses. She also said something about getting a feeling for it, that I couldn’t do it ‘intellectually,’ if I recall correctly.
Hmm, but how do I get a feeling for something I’ve never experienced?
Though being under-Hydrum like now does kind of dull my hearing, that’s not caused by a change in my flows of Lavi.
Maybe this is hopeless after all.
I break my trance in order to think more clearly.
I could always take half a Skilldream for 20 Trial Points and try to go from there, but then, what do I do with the rest of my time here? I can’t leave now. I’ve definitely already lost my chance to obtain the fast-clear bonus, and the moment I leave the time limit for the preparation rooms will enter into effect, so that would cost all of us the twelve hours I have left here.
I could try working on the second level of Lavi Font, but I don’t think I’m ready to pull that off yet. I need more experience wielding Lavi first. It has to be Meditation, but how do I take a step further with that Skill?
What I’ve learnt so far is that Meditation slows down the flow of Lavi through my body. That’s probably how the Skill decreases my natural resting consumption of Lavi as well. However, I’ve been trying to slow down the flow to specific sensory organs to various degrees—never to the point of cutting it off entirely, as Suri warned me that’s dangerous—and it doesn’t seem very effective.
She did admit level 3 had something to do with directly manipulating the flow of Lavi to my senses, though.
I feel like I’m missing something... and maybe I am. I’ve spent all this time experimenting, but there might be another change occurring in the flow of Lavi when I Meditate, that I just haven’t noticed yet!
Time to do some more observing, then.
I turn my senses inward, to the flows of Lavi through my ear, and start cycling in and out of my trance, trying to figure out the process by which it dulls my hearing.
I was right. It takes some patience, some trial and error, but I eventually discover there’s a kind of high-frequency signal overlaid on the flows of Lavi travelling to and from my ear, and dulling my senses has something to do with modulating that frequency down.
I feel like it’s probably more complicated than that, but the signals are too fast for me to really study them, so I can only infer what’s going on. However, like Suri said, this ultimately isn’t something I can figure out intellectually. I need to get a feeling for it. And now that I know what feeling to focus on, I finally start to make real progress. At least, with some of my senses.
Hearing and sight are surprisingly easy to dim individually. I haven’t really
managed to practise much with taste and smell, as I’m under-Hydrum, but I feel they shouldn’t give me too much trouble either. The real bottleneck is touch. After all, unlike the other senses which are nice and local, touch is spread out over my entire body.
I really want to figure it out immediately, but after hours of slipping in and out of the lucid trance, my mind starts to dull. Soon, I inadvertently slip into a deeper trance, and ultimately fall asleep.
As usual, Suri wakes me ten minutes before my time runs out. I startle awake groggily, a little shocked that I fell asleep inside a Trial with hostiles. Under-Hydrum, no less.
Though I don’t doubt Suri would have woken me if something had shown up. She seems quite invested in my survival, these days.
Anyway, I grab my stuff, do a final check for anything left behind, and enter the last open door. A short hallway brings me to a single room, which I promptly have Suri fill with Aether.
Shakily, I get to my feet, coughing and sputtering as I take my first deep breath of Aether in a long time.
A window pops up in front of me.
Hot diggity damn, I hit the motherlode.
Judging from the number I killed, it seems those giant axolotl-like-beings are actually called ‘urudo,’ and the overgrown shrimp ‘krah.’
I’m a little disappointed that they were both worth only 5 Trial Points apiece. The rewards for the froggos are also reduced compared to the previous Trial, but at least ‘Bubbles’ was definitely worth killing.
Seriously though, what is up with those names? First Hoppy, now Lollihops and Bubbles? What were they, pets? Damnit, they were, weren’t they? Those are names you’d give to pets. Jeeze, that’s disturbing.
I frown. “Wait, MVP?”
[Most Valuable Participant.]
Of course.
Anyway, from what I can tell, there are at least 45 Trial Points among the ones I received that everyone in the party should’ve gotten: 20 for clearing the Trial, 20 for the Major Bonus objective and 5 for the Minor one. And then there are the bonuses for quickly clearing it the rest may have received.