《Johnny Willful》 Johnny. Jon. Willson A pale man sat in a old chair with too many scratches on it to count. The man matched the wear and tear of the room with the skin sticking to his bones and the many scars that cover the entirety of his body. A small Experience bar was seen to be being filled in the Smudged glasses of the man with dark bags under his eyes. Clicking down on a worn down and dusty mouse, he turned on his auto-clicker. "... I''m too tired for this shit..." The man attempted to quickly get up using his arms. Pushing forward he- SHINK! "..." looking down the man saw that his left foot had been stabbed by a small nail sticking out of the floor, sharp-side up. "what ever..." without minding the blood trailing behind him, he walked out of his dark room, and flinched at the small amount of light that was able to get into the heavily covered window. Taking a couple steps forward, without even opening he eyes, he opened a door and stepped into the grimy bathroom that he had grown accustomed to, the man sat onto the toilet, while putting up the seat the man decided to finally do something about the open wound in his foot. "... How do you fix this stuff?" Grabbing a bit of toilet paper he wrapped his foot with the least care in the world. I mean something is better then nothi- SHRUCK! The man looked down to the long serrated sword that had entered through the back, and was now attempting to slowly mash his organs into paste with the sharp end of the sword. Blood pooled at the bottom of the toilet, as it mixed with the dirty and dusty grime of the unkempt bathroom. In the end all that his death was worth was finally washing down the grime of the many mistakes he had made. Slumping over, The man, also know as xxMASTERGRINDERxx, was already dead.
User has reached the requirements. Welcome to Helsingr Inc! We want to thank You for picking us as your afterlife, and We hope you do not regret your choices (Unless that was the chosen punishment). "What?" Nothing. Just the same screen, still showing the same message. Fear creeped down Johnny''s spine, as he failed to understand the predicament. Looking down, Johnny saw... Nothing. Just the same nothingness that covered him in all directions.
{Change to 1st character perspective} Infinity has passed. At first I just stared at the screen and thought about what could have happened. Why was I killed, and by what. Why was there a sword through my guts! ...But, soon all of it just melted into the void as I slowly lost my mind. I lost it maybe 100 times by now, but something was different this time. CRACK! "What?" Something shattered in the very end of the void. Millions of miles away. " Well I have an infinite amount of time left, Might as well start heading that way!" I don''t see a reason not to. " Good thing we can agree then!" Jon began to walk over to the crack in the void. Mabey this is finally the answer?
More Infinite amounts of time later... Light pierced my eyes. Which is surprising because I shouldn''t have eyes at all! I am temporally flashbanged by the light of wherever the Hell Inc. I was. giant blue people were posted up around me, which definitely didn''t startle me. "H???????????????????????e????????????????????????''???????????????????s??????????? ?????????????????????a????????????? ??????????????????????b????????????????e???????????????????????a??????????????????u?????????????????????t?????????????i?????f?????????u??????????????l?????????????????????? ????????????????????b????????????a????????????b?????????????????y????????????????? ???????????b??????????????????????????o??????????????????????????y?????!?????????????????????????????" The painfully garbled words hurt my head, but before I can get my hands on him, I am suddenly picked up by the blue giant, and brought to a giant metal... Uh, I don''t know what it is, but ill figure it out! Its a sink. So mister smarty-pants finally decided to show his head! You seemed to need the help. I would shrug my shoulders if I had any. What the fuck do you do while your not talking to me? I... just kinda exist? Just like the void. Oh... alri- Spray. Suddenly, I am covered in a substance that makes my skin feel not to good. That''s water. Well what if I''m allergic to water? Then your allergic to water.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Shut the fuck up. feeling strangely tired from the occasion, I fall asleep for the first time in eternity.
An older woman could be seen standing next to the bed of a mother holding their newborn son. "I''m so happy for you! What a beautiful child!" A soft voice responded to the voice of the older woman. " I just hope he can live happily, even without his father..." The Older woman took on an empathetic look, and held out her hand. "... You know, if you ever need help, I''m sure Robert would be fine with letting him stay over until you feel finically stable?" The young mother looked down apon her child, Johnny, and smiled. "... I will take all the help I can get."
Not even that long compared to infinity later... "This is so unfair granny! why do I get in trouble for giving that Meany what he deserves!" The older woman, my granny, held a stern expression of pure hatred looking at me! Like, what did I do wrong!? " Because WE do NOT SWEAR in OUR HOUSEHOLD!" Granny grabbed me by the ear, and dragged me into my farm-house house (Quite a mouthful, Don''t ya think!). "Wait till your Grand-Pops hears about this! You are going to have doubled chores until your a million'' years old!" Why is she getting mad that I called a bully a shit-slinging, mud-humping, worm-hunting Bitch!? That wasn''t even the worse thing I''ve said! "your 15, but you seem to act like your still 9 years old!" Technically older. Shut up! Ohh~ I''m telling~ Don''t you da- "Shut up!" I have been betrayed by my greatest ally... how will I ever recover from this!? ;] Fuck you! ... Yeah, that''s what I thou- "Fuck you!" Uh oh. Granny proceeded to scoop me into her massive burly arms, and put me into a chokehold. "Stop, I yield!" Ganny looked even madder at my response to her honestly impressive moves. "...You know what. Why do we have to wait till you awaken to start teaching you, How about we start now!" Ever cense that day, my Granny has been teaching me how to fight.
Granny wasn¡¯t just your ordinary strict farmer¡ªshe had a past that no one in town dared to speak of. Some whispered about her ¡°missions¡± in a far-off war, while others claimed she once worked for Helsingr Inc. herself. Either way, I found myself on the receiving end of combat training that made my entire body scream. ¡°Get up!¡± Granny barked, standing over me with a wooden staff that she swung like it weighed nothing. ¡°You wanna call people names? Then learn to back it up, worm-hunting baby!¡± ¡°Why worm-hunting?!¡± I groaned, dragging myself up from the dirt. ¡°I don¡¯t even hunt worms¡ªwait, hold on, what are you teaching me exactly? Karate? MMA? Or some ancient technique passed down through generations?¡± Granny snorted. ¡°It¡¯s called Shut-Up-and-Do-What-I-Say-So-You-Don¡¯t-End-Up-Like-Your-Father.¡± The mention of Dad made me flinch, but I didn¡¯t ask any questions. She¡¯d made it clear I wasn¡¯t ready for those answers yet. For weeks, we trained in the mornings before school and in the evenings after chores. She taught me everything: how to dodge, how to counter, how to outlast an opponent, and even how to use the environment as a weapon. ¡°You see that stick?¡± she asked one day, pointing at a piece of driftwood near the river. ¡°That¡¯s not a stick. That¡¯s your salvation when some Random try''s to start something with you. That is what you will use to to end that something that person has with you!" ¡°Wait, why would someone¡ª¡± I started, but Granny¡¯s glare shut me up.
Shift to Helsingr Inc. Many beings of varying shapes and objects stood in a white featureless void. A large blue screen apparated into the sky in front of them, as one of them with gray cracking skin Croaked out , peering down at a the system displaying the name [Johnny "Jon" Wilson] . ¡°Test #1 has re-entered the system,¡± Multiple entities looked at the decaying man, and stood with featureless faces. ¡°We¡¯ll need to accelerate his progress,¡± a profound looking ball of flame stated, seeming deep in meditation. ¡°The integration was unexpected, but this can no longer be delayed.¡± A figure that seemed to melt into the white void as if a part of it looked down from a nearly translucent thrown ¡°Agreed. Activate project Overseer.¡±
WELCOME USER! YOU ARE NOW A PART OF THE OVERSEER!- We at Helsingr Inc. were happy to grant you this! PLEASE STATE "STATS" USER! God, can this thing stop screaming at me! Bro! What the fuck is that! Wait can you see it too? ...Yea? Do you know what this means?! ... No, what does it mean? ... I don''t know, I was asking you! You wanna try it? Why the fuck not! "Status!" Name: Johnny "Jon" Wilson Titles: Soul dualism, Curse of the Hero Stats: Phis: 6 Ment: 4 Sprit: 20 Luck: -Inf Skills: [Basic acrobatic]lv.0 You are beginning to understand how to move an stretch your body. Fighting Styles: [Basic fighting]lv.0 You are beginning to understand the basic principles of fighting. [Improvised fighting]Lv.0 You are beginning to understand what can be used as a weapon, and what cannot. ... Hmm. ...So? you get anything? ...I did, but I''m not sure it can help us. Well spit it out already! The skill is called "Mental visualization", and is says "You are more capable of handling more complex mental structures." I also ha- Wait, before you tell me more, see if you can share your screen! ... Smart idea. Finally you understand how geniu- WHOSH! suddenly an almost entirely black screen, that contrasted with my own screen to let me see the words that were carved out of the black screen. Name: Johnny "Will" Wilson Titles: Soul dualism, Curse of the void Stats: Phis: 0 Ment: 10 Sprit: 20 (10*2) Luck: -Inf Skills: [Mental Visualization]lv.0 You are more capable of handling more complex mental structures. Magics forms: [Enduring mind]lv.0 Your mind is more capable of handling the mental drawbacks of magical formulas. [Mana Sight]Lv.0 You are more capable of observing and studying mana. While sharing my status back to will, wherever he existed in my being, I stare at how similar, yet different our stats are. Why is our luck negative infinity? why you are asking me!? Also you were the lucky one! I wanted magic! I continued staring at my status till I saw a shadow above me. "Why are you staring into the sky! boy get back up!" Granny was lurching over me as her reddish skin shined in the sun and partially blinded me, I was laying on the ground sweating, due to the fact I just had to move hay bails that seemed to be thousands of pound heavy! "Oh, nothing Granny, I was just looking at my status!" Granny looked at me in surprise. "your what?" "Status!" Granny stared at me, bug eyed for a second. Then immediately smiling. " Robert! Robert! Johnny''s awakened!" Rushing down the stairs, my Grand-Pops, with his slightly pointed ears, and more blueish complexion, was holding his cane while carrying a grimoire of his making. "Is this true young one?" Looking at him with my least excited smile, I replied despite still feeling the manic smile on my Face. "You know its true Pops!" Grand-Pops looked at me with a calm smile as he walked towards me and gave me a hug. "I always knew my little trouble maker was a genius!" See, Even Grand-Pops knows I''m the smartest of us 2! I don''t think they even know I exist knows I exist. Going over to Granny he gave her a hug, and brought her to their room to discus something, while I was busy Idle chatting with Will.
"Do you think its time to reveal the truth, and what we are? " Amilda, also known as Granny by her grand-child, looked to her husband, Maximus, or as called by his biggest fan, Grand-Pop, and seemed deep in thought. Finally looking up and speaking she relied. " do you really want to put that kind of pressure on him?" Sigh... Maximus sat down with a light sigh. letting his cane fall next to him. "if the system believes that he was not in danger, then it would not have given him the interface." Amilda looked down pushing tears away from her eyes. the fiery tears fell to the ground, instantly extinguishing. "I know!" Maximus looked to his desk inside of the room, and grabbed a letter from the drawer. " He needs to learn to defend himself, and we can only teach him so much." Amilda nodded her head, finally accepting the situation. She ruffed slightly and put on her stoic face. " Its time to send him to Blue Stone, We can''t protect him from his fate as the child of a Hero, but we can prepare him for the challenges that he will face." Maximus slowly got up and started walking towards the door to the living room with his cane. "Agreed"
End of chapter 1. Truth. Blue-Stone. Talent Grand-Pops and Granny entered the slightly messy living room, and sat on the coach. They stared at me, then to each other, then back at me. Granny spoke up first before Grand-pops could say anything. "Kid, there''s something we haven''t been telling you about." Raising an eyebrow, I showed a questioning face. "What?" Grand-pop used this chance to finally speak up. "You are in danger... Because of your father." ... What? Slightly flinching at the mention of my father that we barley speak about, I feel like something very important is happening. "What do you mean?" Granny spoke back up, inching closer to me. "are you familiar to the hero party that closed the portal to true Heaven?" Reacting to my favorite bed time story. I shouted out. "of coarse!" Granny kept the stoic face she had the entire time, and responded. "The Tank of the Hero party, Is your father." Thinking this is some kind of joke, I smiled and look at my Granny. "Yeah, sure Granny!" She kept stoic. ... This isn''t a very funny joke! From what I remember, the story ended with the tank staying in heaven to give the rest of the party time to close the gates! You forgot the part where the goddess of greed cursed the Tank and all of their descendants, And that would also explain your " Curse of the Hero" title, But I still have no idea about my {Curse of the Void}. Shut up will! You are not helping my case! Grand-Pop spoke up. "That isn''t the only thing, We aren''t random old people that live on this farm. We were friends of the hero party. More specifically we were mentors for them during their earlier adventures " So that''s how they knew so much about the hero party despite apparently never meeting them! ... Wait check you status! something has changed! Due to understanding the truth behind your title, it has changed! you may now see the effects of your title! Curse of the {Tank} Hero You, as a descendant of the hero strong of heart, and soul of steel, have been cursed by the world for denying the natural order of life. You may no longer have luck, and all things that may go wrong, must go wrong. Through pure tenacity the Tank Hero made it through the challenges Heaven. Who says you can''t? ... Bullshit! :} Don''t you fucking dare! "Bullshit!" Granny looked at me with surprise in her eyes. "Was my last lesson not enough!" Granny grabbed practically teleported behind he, and grabbed at my midsection, German duplexing me. "AHHHH!" CRASH! Granny recovered before I could, and looked down at my not so pale skinned body on the floor. " And this just proves that you are not ready for your future! Double training until you leave!" looking at my granny, still on the floor, I quizzically looked at her. "Leave? Leave where?!" Grand-Pop calmly relied, seeing us do this every day. "To Blue- Stone academy. You will need some kind of training to prepare you for the curse that affects you Just as it affected you father. " Looking towards him, I ask him the things that''s been looming on the back of my mind, "Grand-Pop, what does {Curse of the {Tank} Hero} do?" Grand-Pop looked at me sorrowfully. "Its a curse that affects more than you might think. Due to the... "Active" nature of your father there were many... "Descendants" of his. People will look down on you as a... Excuse my langue, "Bastard" child of the Tank hero." As I remember, most of the hero party did a lot of bad things while, or before their sacrifice to close Haven, and prevent the monsters from destroying the world.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. "So my dad really was a bastard..." Granny looked at me then sighed. "One that you mother was deeply in love with."
Barley an amount of time later... "Alright kid, you should be good to go!" looking at granny slightly heart broken I would have to leave, I spoke. "Why am I even going to the academy if you guys were such good teachers?" Granny, looking like she was about to smack my me answered my question with words this time. "Because we are good at fighting, but you need more than just fighting to survive your luck, and the people at the school will more than likely have similar situations to you, maybe just of different hero''s." But why! I don''t want to go to school! It sounds boring! You need this Jon. Nuh uh! Face it Jon, Do you think we will be able to find any clues about what the original wants us to find out if we don''t get stronger? Wasn''t that the entire purpose of walking through the crack in the void? ...Fine, but don''t expect me to do anything that requires mind! The only training I want so weapon training! Barbarian... What did you call me! Before Will could say anything else Granny pushed me towards the door saying something similar to "goodbye" in a language she has been trying to teach me since I was 5. Outside of the Farm House, stood Maximus putting full attention on a blue glowing and swirling portal that was 2 feet in the air. Dam. I gotta learn that. "Grand-Pop teach me that!" Stated Will using my mouth. Grand-Pop looked over to me and lightly chuckled. "If you were to attempt this magic, you would rupture your soul, young one." Looking at grand-Pop with a overbearing frown I relied. "Could have just told me you didn''t want to teach me..." Grand-Pop looked at me confused, then shook his head in resegnation. "I guess I could teach you the basic before you are teleported to your dorm inside Blue-Stone..."
Asking me to help him to the ground, Grand-Pop opened his mouth. " All thing are made of mana. Including you, the air you breath, and the stones that sit on the ground." Continuing to get comfortable, Grand-Pop gestured me to get on the ground in front of him, with my back facing towards him. Placing his hand on my back I felt a cooling sensation enter into my body. " This is pure mana, the only form of mana that can freely transform into anything. Your body naturally produces it, but its not very useful for blasting away your adversary''s. Right now I an scanning you for any natural mana affinity and-" Promptly cutting himself off, he looked at me with shocked eyes. "Boy, how did you manage to capture a mana creature within your soul!" I think he is talking about me. Well no shit sherlock! I replied back to Grand-Pop. "Oh, you mean Will? He has been here the whole time." Looking more perplexed, grand-Pop replied. "Who is Will! Why have you never told us of this!?" Looking back with my best puppy dog eyes, I responded. ''"I didn''t think it was important?" Grand-Pop rubbed his temples, and slowly looked back up. "Are you a reincarnate?" continuing to look back at him with my least shameful face. "What''s that?" Sighing he returns to closing his eyes "so not a reincarnate. Ok I am going to open your mind palace and introduce myself to Will, do you mind?" ... Do you mind Will? Nah. "Sure!"
Deep in Johnny''s mindscape... Maximus, or my grandfather, appeared within my void of mind. "Are you Will?" Yes My voice resonated within my mid space, maybe a little too loud. Ahem, excuse me. I am indeed Will. Grandpa, as I like to call him, spoke again. "What are you" Thinking about my answer, I decide to tell him the truth. I am the more intelligent piece of the Johnny''s soul. Looking confused grandpa responded again. "What do you mean piece? I am the part of Johnny''s soul that became Will. Grandpa looked serious. "And what''s is the other part of that soul" The other piece is Jon. I responded without a care in the world like it was the most well known information in the Void, even though he would have never known of I hadn''t told him. Looking to be in shock, he replied with a sharper tone. "What Happened to My Grand Son?" Feeling a little surprised he used his adult voice at me I responded. Nothing happened, his soul was in pieces, and through some luck we had survived through the slitting of our souls. Looking angry at thus point, yelled. "That Is Impossible! If a soul is split, then it may not rejoin without insane amounts of Sacrifices or losses!" of course there were consequences! Why do you think your Jon is so immature? He sacrificed his mind to keep us alive in the void. I was simply dealt the more intelligent part of the piece of the original''s mind. With a complex look Maximus slowly started going fish eyed, The void was starting to affect him. I will speak to you once you recover. Expelling him from the void, I went back to viewing Jon''s surroundings with Mana Sight, hopping to learn something
Back in the real world... Grand-Pop opened his eyes. "This is... Good! I have to apologize young one, for I can''t see any mana affinity for you, but maybe Will can!" No fair! Its entirely fair, your just an idiot. Before I can say something that I regret, Grand-pop waves his skinny fingers in front of my face " Do you see this Will?" Speaking through my mouth Will responded. "Yes" "Ok. So, everything is made out of a sequence of mana of certain types, but do you know how water, and Ice mana are different?" "... I am not sure." Smiling Grand-pop spoke again. "The difference is Intent, and the concentration of mana. So if you compress a bunch of Fire mana you would get some Plasma mana? No. it is more complicated than that, but to sum it up: What type of mana you get from concentrating mana differs by you affinity, and the intent of your mana." Looking up, Will ask one more question. "Can you teach me a spell?" Grand-pop, still excited from what ever happened inside of my "Mind Palace" or what ever he called it, calmed down. "Sure" taking his cane, Grand-Pop write a large circle on the ground. "This is the basic spell "Enhance", which slightly enhances your muscles with small amounts of mana. As this spell only requiring Pure mana, it should not matter what type of affinity you have." The circle had a smaller Triangle in the middle, and had three smaller circles on the inside of that triangle. looking at it Will was a little discombobulated. "How do I use mana?" "Just feel the deeper parts of your soul, and pull out of your mind, towards the circle. ... Can I do this too? Looking deep inside myself, I imagined some kind of energy inside of my self, and Pushed it out... But nothing was happening. Hold on Jon. Let me try this out. Looking back into myself, I see what I can only think to be Will, physically pulling on the mana inside of me, out of my body. Opening my eyes I see the magical "Formula" in front of me growing a darkish blue, unlike Grand-Pops light blue, almost white mana. Grand-Pop seeing my confusion, Grand-Pop said some reassuring look. "When you do not understand how to make pure mana, all mana that you produce will be slightly tinted with your affinity. which seems to be Dark mana." Most likely from the void. Most likely, you are correct. Grandpa handed me one of his grimoires from his the coat pockets of his turquoise Poncho. "These are some basic spell formulas that you can practice with, until you can freely control your mana. Just channel mana into the page you want to use, and it will bring forth the spell." Responding with a smile I grab the grimoire and start heading back to the portal to give granny a hug before I leave. She looks'' to me and opens her arms to hug me. Pop. The bones in my back pop as she gives me a hug that only chiropractors would envy. "I''m gonna miss you kid! Don''t you dare get lazy on your marital training just because you think your some kind of fancy mage." Looking back after grabbing my small bad of stuff to bring with me I smile. "Don''t worry about it!" Walking through I accept what has happened and what my future holds. I know I''m going to be ready.
End of chapter 2. Status. Growth. Memory I watched as blinding lights passed by me as something more than the void, but still the void in its infinite volume, unfolded around me. My brain struggled to understand all the input, I started seeing memory''s passing by me. Some were of my time with Granny, and all the story''s she would tell me as a kid, some were of the conversations that Will and I had inside of the void. But straggly, there was a memory that I did not remember. A man with Pale skin an scars covering the entirety of his skin was standing in front of a grave, with nobody but himself around. The grave held the form of a dog with the name A-
Suddenly I was transported to an well lit area with cold stone lining the walls, with what I could only say to be hundreds of 16-18 year old''s standing around all as confused as me, except for a group that had already gathered in a corner, who seemed utterly uninterested. All of them had some vibrant color of hair compared to those who had the most confusion on their face, and held crest of many different animals on the their chests. Nobles. Ding! Ding! Ding! You are correct captain obvious! Returning from that, can we talk about what we saw inside of the portal? I may have found a solution to our memory problem. Sure, and how so? Inside of the mind palace I have created a bookshelf of memories and have documented that image of the Pale man. You did that, that fast? What can I say, I''m just a genius! >:] making a frowning face, I stop talking to Will for now. Goongggg! A resounding gong resonates as a person on a 20 foot pedestal, (that definitely wasn''t there before) smacks'' the instrument with a very tiny... Spear? (Weirdo) The figure speaks out after the resonating sound occurs. His voice is strangely magnified despite the mask that covers his small body. "Dear Freshmen of the Blue-Stone academy, I would like for all of you to gather your bearings, and report to the front office for your official class designation and order. We don''t have all day. Chop Chop!" The man dissipated into nothing as many of the nobles started walking away to go speak to people. Without me noticing a Blonde haired man with dark bags under his eyes, and obvious signs of addiction (Whether legal or not) showed the selves on his small frame. "Hi freshy, Do you need help locating the front office?" Turing to him, I grabbed my bag that I dropped, I replied. "Sure! I would love that!" Seeming surprised at my happiness, he sighed a small sentence. ''God, the freshys sure are alive this year...'' looking to him I wonder if i really heard anything. "What did you say?" Surprised I could hear him, he laughed sheepishly and turned around, gesturing for me to follow him.
At the front office... These Hallways make no sense. Why is B 200 above A 100! Why not A 200 over A 100?! But Nooo! it just had to be confusing. The fact that the hallways are packed, does not help! Forgetting about that for now, I continued to follow the Blonde kid that I still did not know the name of. Their name is Quinten. And how do you know that? Because it on their name card. speeding up slightly I see the name card on his sleeve with the name "Quinten ''Quin'' Therbose" as well as having the title on his card, ''Office Assistant''. Makes sense. walking in complete silence up to this point I ask a question. "So, Quin, how does the academy give directions to their classes?" Looking to me in shock because he was clearly deep in concentration, he responded. "Oh. Once you get you official ID, there will be a device given to you, that will provide you with all the services you need be successful at this school."The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Smiling the most polite I can ( absolutely manic), I tell him thanks, and we continue to in silence, until we get in front of a door at least 5 times as large as both us combined. "Alright, this is the door of truth. there will be a teacher waiting on the inside. Pro tip, Don''t ask about the resistance class." Walking up to a button the door slowly opens, and Quin runs away, clearly scared. On the inside I see the reason why the door is so big. A giant. But more specifically frost giant that was wearing a deep red suit and sporting some slick 5 foot shoes. The comparably small sign in front of his desk read, '' Mr. Cothletide.'' Looking up from a clip board with his dark blue eyes and bald head, he gestures me to come inside. "You must be Johnny?" Smacked out of my amazement at the size of this dude, I respond. "Yep, but I prefer Jon!" responding easily with his clear experience at this he picks up the clip board he had put down to greet me, he takes a deep breath. " there are some question that I would like to ask you about, referring to what you see yourself doing in the future and what you have interests in." I expected this, because Quin had warned me. "Alright!"
"The first question I would like to ask you, is what you want to do in your future." Other than complete the mission given by the original, and training up my skills to become a badass, I''m not very sure what I want to do. What about you Will? I want to learn magic. And maybe even a bit of alchemy. Alright then! We will go with that! "I would like to learn some fighting, Alchemy, and Magic!" Looking up after writing those things down. He gives me a questing look, and responds. "That is not what I Ment. What would you like to do after you graduate?" Oh... That is a good question. You can tell me that again... Whatever. What do you want to do Will? Let us go... Adventuring! so we find more clues about what the original wants us to do. Good Idea! "I want to be an Adventurer!" making some grunting noises while still writing on the clip board, he asks a final question. " What do you think about taking a resistance class? I heard you and my assistant talking about it outside of my office." That''s not scary. "Uhh... What are Resistance classes?" not even looking up he writes something down, and stands up. "That will be all. please go to your door to the right to receive your device." Looking betrayed I retort. "But I never said whether or not I want to do a resistance class?!" looking at me directly and smiling he responds. "The fact you didn''t strait up deny it, means that you have interest. And you can always switch classes if you don''t end up liking it." This bitch... I''m giving you my blessing to punch this guy if you really wanted to Jon. Fuck no! Moving on, still fuming that he just strait up put me in a class I have no Idea about, I go to the previously mentioned door. Rather than being super big or something, this door was seemingly entirely metal. Knocking on It, the answer is immediate. "YES, HOW MAY I HELP YOU." a freaking robot opened the door to a large workshop, as a short, green skinned woman ran behind it pressing a large red button on its back. Looking slightly embarrassed, she spoke to me. "Sorry, just made this one. Still need to program it. What are you here for Lad!" with the best stoic face I could must as to not laugh, I responded. "I am here for my device." lifting up her mask to look at me, she responds. "Oh, you must be a freshy! give me a second." Running up to a table over to the side with impressive speed, she hands me a stone tablet with a band. made to go around my wrist. Putting it on and thanking her, I walk back through Mr. Cothletide Door I ogle at the device on m wrist. The second I look at it close enough, a system window shows up and gives me a display of the school, and a board of my classes, from Earliest to latest. The first four that I had were ones that I had when I was still living with my Grand parents. History, Science, Mathematics, and Language, all on the first and second floor. But for my later classes it went as follows. Alchemy on the basement floor, room 221, Combat Training 1, at the coliseum, Basic magic theory 1, on the spell deck, and finally my final class, Resistance Training 1, on the Final basement. I have no Idea what this ''Final basement'' is but it sounds like some maniacs torture chamber. Also the fact that there was a 1, meaning that there were more advance classes, scared me to the bone. Why the fuck did Granny sign me up for the freaky ass school!? Be as scared as you want, Scaredy pants. I''m going to be living the life reading that grimoire that Gramps gave us in the mean while~ Using my arms Will grabs the grimoire from my pocket, and starts reading it while I walked us back to our dorm to settle down for the night. I''m too tired to grab something from the dinning hall, I''m just going back to the dorm to find out where it is. The walk from the main office towards the dorm building isn''t to hard with my newly acquired map guiding me. I pass by the well maintained gardens of varying degrees of color, as Will kept my eyes sticked to the book, only occasionally looking up to check the map for directions across the massive campus.
At the dorm... Walking up to the plain marble slated walls of the dorm, I walk through the door, using my ID to pass through. suddenly the map on my device changes and only show''s me where only my dorm is. Walking all the way down the hallway. I turn to the left to my room. Opening the door with my ID again. I see a soulless room with zero amount of damage or property that could let me determine what kind of person used to live here. whatever. closing the door and locking it, I hop onto the small coach that lays in the middle of this small room and I am asleep within seconds.
Inside of Jon''s mindscape... I have been studying these mana formulas that gramps had given to Jon ever since I could lay my eyes on them. going to the small wall of books I pick up my imagined version of the book into my hands. Tracing my hands around the circle gramps had showed me, I take a bit of mana and try to make a clear image of it inside of the void. Shatter! The formula breaks for the 4th time. What am I missing? sitting in silence I think. ... Mabey I''m just not putting in enough mana? Trying it again, I load it up with more mana. POP! perhaps too much mana... alright, I just need to find the middle ground. grabbing more mana, rather than just shelving it into the formula, I carefully trace the out line of the formula. Lv. up! [Mana Sight]Lv.1 You are seeing further than just what is there, you are starting to understand the principles behind mana as a whole. Buzzz... A light resonation occurred as the mana formula did its thing. More specifically. mana that was not from the formula started going through the formula, and supplying into Jon''s body. Somehow not waking him up. I''m feeling a little tired. Imagining a bed, I hop in, and turn of the imaginary light inside of the mind palace.
End of chapter 3. Mana. Combat. Resistance. part 1 Darkness coalesced my skin as I begin to open my eyes. I can''t stop thinking about that skinny pale man. Whoosh... A small bookcase appears in front of me as I think about my memorys. Hey. Behind me I can see Will, his almost stick like appendages scare me slightly. You trying to remember the pale dude? Yea He creeps up without even moving, and picks a pristine looking book out of it. This is it. What is this, and where are we? This is the kind palace, aka my house, aka your mind. Looking around, the only thing other than the book case that I can see is darkness, that is only rivaled by the void it''s self. You take a look at that book before You have to wake up. Wake up? Oh for the... Oh shit! I have school!
back in the dorm... Immediatly jumping up, I make the realization that my back is absolutely murdering me for falling asleep on that small ass couch. I look around my still barren room(gotta do something about that) and look at the front door where I can see the silhouette of something outside of my door. Getting of the couch and opening it with a clink, I see a bluish-gray uniform with a crest of a deep blue metal. Picking it up, and walking into the bathroom, I turn on the shower and the water is hot immediately. Neat Taking off my clothes from home, I take a short shower, and put on the uniform. Finding some somewhat fitting shews in my bag, I tap them on with my foot, and walk out the door while fidgeting with the school device. Opening the small system screen I click on the hourglass on the top right corner. WARNING! Class begins in 5 minutes! Neat Pulling up the map with the device, and I exit the building with my device acting as my ID.
9:37... While walking towards the classroom I saw a bunch of different races. There were some tall standing Orcs. There were a couple of small stick like people, I think they were called Drymers? No matter what race they were they all had a uniform almost the same as me, but strangely my crest was different from most that I had seen. I saw certant with certant crest walk into certant rooms, so I assumed it lined up with what class you uniquely took, like people who entered the robotics lab had gears as their crest. Strange how the nobles already had a crest? Your telling me! I slowly walked through the marble studded hallways and passed by a dinning hall with multiple exquisite looking meals! I walked untill I reached my destination. ... Will? Yes? Can you take over, I don''t like math! ... Fine. Look over the mind palace while you are gone.
Inside Jon''s mind scape... Instantly I appear back in the somehow warming darkness. Thinking of the pale man the bookshelf shows up. Picking up a book, Just a little excited, I open it up
The image of the pale man appear to encapsulate me, as I open the book. The secne becomes 3 dimensional, as I seeming warp into the image. Looking over at the man, I can see the almost stoic face that he has in front of this grave stone. The most around his face almost makes me unable to identify him. It''s me? But not my body. At least not my current body. Each scar on his body told a story of what had happened to him. Each tear that dropped from his face, fell to a heartless and careless world. His face stayed stoic, not because he didn''t care. But because he wouldn''t allow this world crush him. Tears fell from my face as I turned to the grave stone. A dog. My dog. Andrew, my only friend in a cold, ungiving world. The world took him from me. This will not go unpaid.
I appeared back in the mind scape. Will stood in front of me, crying unseen tears. What. The. Fuck. I stood in silence for a while. If you aren''t controlling the body who is?! ... You right.
real world ... Snapping back to control of Jon''s body, I look around to see a bunch of people looking at me, including the teacher. "I asked you a question Mr. Wilson. Could you please answer the formula on the board?" Looking at the board I see a bunch of squiggly lines moving Erratically. "Uhhh..." Looking at the board I visualize these squigals into something I can comprehend; Numbers. Standing from my desk I walk up towards the white board, and take the market that the teacher was handing to me. Looking at the numbers in my mind space, I put them together to form the equation on the white board. 98*2 ? f(x)= 3x+4 to find f(14) Imputing numbers, people look at me funny. 98*2? f(13-4)= 3x(+4-4) 98*2? f(9\9)=3x\9 Dividing the equation to fit the teacher reaches to stop me, but puts his hand back, deep in thought. 98*2? f(1)=1\3x 9604?f(1)=1\3x F=3202~ The teacher and other students look in shock, but the nobles in the corner were snicking quietly. The teacher looks at me, and signals me to talk to him after class. Promptly after, he tells the next student to come up to the board and solve the problem.
after class... Just as all of the students leave, the teacher gestures me to follow him to his office at the front of the moderately sized classroom. "Mr. Wilson, I have never seen anything like that before. Although not what I was looking for, I believe that you seem to know to much about what you were doing, to just write squiggles on the board. So if I asked you to consider coming to my tutoring on weekends. Would you? Looking at the teacher I think about it. Yes I need the help because I don''t understand math, but I don''t know if Jon would be fine with me spending our free time without at least talking to him. "I will think about it Mr. Crane."
Walking down the hallway I was in deep thought. Next period should be science, but I think students shoul- "Hey! Where you headed!" A large burly man with a literal bear head, stopped me from walking forwards. Slightly surprised I looked at the ID that had the name ''Mr Bear heads''. I slightly laughted at the name while I responded. "Uh... I''m headed for science class? The device says that it''s this way?" The man looks at me quizzical, then exclames very loudly. "Do you take me for a fool kid!? I know for a fact that you are not going to that class!" Looking at him like a fucking idiot because he is one, I replied as calmly as I could. "Well according to the device, you are wrong." The man looked even more enraged. "Fine! As a teacher at this academy I will teach you respect young buck!" Jumping forward with his yellowish teeth showing clearly, he pounces me. This is not my specialties. Jon, can you handle this? I don''t see why not!
After Will asked me if I wanted to jump into a fight, I reacted automatically. Seeing the bear pouncing at me, I jump to the side, imagining Granny trying to press me to the floor. The bear headed guy looked at me in surprise after failing to grab me. "Oh, so you think you have some skills young buck! Let me show you some skills!" ROUR! Instantly a pulse of reddish mana... No, a pulse of pure intent forced it''s way into my body, restricting me. The bear man charged up again to grab me, I still could not move. Hold on! I''m going to try something! I feel the restraints lighten on my being, as I do a quick backflip to dodge the manic charge by this insane man! RO- Just as the man trys to activate the ability again he stops, turning to an old woman with milk chocolate colors skin. The scar on her eye was almost as intimidating as he presence. She spoke with a deep, almost Bass like voice. "Are we seriously bullying first years?" Looking up sheepishly, the man slowly turned his head to the side in shame. "No principle Coldwell!" She tapped the man in the shoulder and started floating back into the air. "Then don''t make the same mistake again." He looked back at me in rage like this was my fault. "Mark my words young Buck..." Ignoring him I walked pass and into my science classroom, seeing everybodys eyes on me, as I was already late. What a strange day, first I''m reliving memorys that I don''t remember having, then I get assaulted by a teacher (With absolutely ZERO explanation!), then a scary person shows up, then flys away like I couldn''t have just been in danger! Nah this school ain''t it. You got this Will? I''m a little tired from the fight. Wake me up when we reach the interesting classes. Sure.
Walking to my seat after taking the main controls of Jon''s body, I look towards the board to get some information about the class room. The floors were made of the same marble as the hallways, but mana sight told me there was more then it there seemed. Putting mana sight on full blast, I see a mana formula. One that I recognize a deterioration shield, due to studying gramps''s grimoir. Although I could recognize some shapes within it, I still could not recreate it with mental visualation. The only correlation that I saw between the enhancing formula, and this one, was the circle around them. Putting two and two together I assumed that a circle represented protection of some sort. Looking back up at the walls I see multiple figures, that I assume are somehow significant to science. The posters of these people seem to come to life Everytime someone tryed to take a closer look. Strangely enough, mana sight told me absolutely nothing. just blank space, almost like mana is being sucked into a black whole. Looking back up I see a Silver skinned teacher with the tag of ''Mr. E'' and next to him stood a bronze colored person, with clanky, misaligning parts. Taking on a big smile as his face contorts to fit his expression, he tells out, mabey a little to happy. "Welcome to science! Most people discount this class, but I''m glad y''all chose this one!" Chose? Who got to choose there classes!? Who ever did, I would like to share a nice knuckle sandwich with. Trying my best to contain my inner anguish, I look around to see that everybody is holding some kind of literature. Wait, were either Jon or I taught how to write? Whatever. Moving on from my spark of realization, I see the teacher telling students to find partners, because he was allowing us to choose our partners for the year. Looking around, I see that nobody has attempted to talk to me ever since they saw me walk into class late. Perhaps it has affected my reputation within this classroom. Further investigation needed to confirm. The teacher looks at me, and my lack of people talking to me. "Alright, Mr. Wilson- is that correct?" "Yes sir." Looking back to me after checking the schedule for my name, he finished his sentence. "Alright Mr.Wilson, could you please come up here to show an example?" Why always me? Whatever, it''s not like I was doing anything with my invisible friends. " Sure" I walk up to the front of the classroom to see the large amounts of students staring at me, before I could turn towards the white board, now I can''t. "Arm please!" Mr. E pulls out a very non sharp looking butter knife, and gestures me to come forwards. What is he going to do with that butter knife?Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Walking forwards because being silently ignored by me getting pouched by a teacher, didn''t give me trust issues somehow, I hold my hand. "This is gonna hurt. Like alot." SHINK! Without asking anyquestion, he stabs the knife into my palm. Well that certainly isn''t good... So why is there barley any pain? Looking at me and smiling again, he pulls the knife away from my skin, and it''s not covered in my blood, but rather is in pristine quality. "This here is a butter knife with the sharpness, and healing enchant." He gestures me to return to my seat, and continues to explain. Walking back to my seat I start listening to the lesson, rather than wonder why it''s normal for kids to get stabbed in this school. "Although the enhancement spell on living beings is called just that, and enhancement. When you apply that same enhancement to an object with a certain result in mind, you create an enchanted item. Thi-" Jon, your gonna want to hear this. 10 more minutes... Hearing Jon''s half asleep voice I decided to just record the memory within the mind space. " To put an enchantment on something requireds a certant amount of intent about what the enchanent should do, like if you were trying to put a rust resistant enchantment on a sword, you wouldn''t think about the creation of the rust it''s self, but rather the removal of it. There is also a law about this called Negit''s law, where if you place a sharp enhancement on something already sharp, it will be much more effective then trying to put a soft enchantment on the same thing!" I feel Jon stir to awareness after somehow hearing the word sharp. whay about sharp!? Good to see your finnally back to working order. The rest of the class goes in eventually. Walking again thought the hallways, I make it to my lunch period, where I see a bunch of spectacular dishes being prepared, but then I see a sign that reads ''Nobles only'' ... That has to be aggravated! Classiest much? Turning over to the side I see the normal meals, which to be fair, are still fancyer than what I had at the farm, but I digress. What?! Why are we going that way!? I want that scrum-sous looking thigh! And that''s why I''m in control for now. Ignorimg anymore of ramblings of the meat crazed Jon, Turn to grab a plate, and knock into a short kid with bulging veins, and jacked legs. This was clearly a dwarf. "Whatch where your going Fressy!" Looking at him, with the best face that could say ''you are an insolent piece of shit'' I look at him, and grab my plate to grab some of the dry ass turkey on the "normal" people side of the tables. "Don''t think you can get away with this Freshy!" The kids face was almost red, and the veins in his neck became amazingly large, like snakes trying to run away from his anger. This guy has to have varcose veins! Jon, we might have a fight on our hands!
Immediately appearijg back into the real world as I was notified of a fight by Will. The tiny kid ran up to me and landed a hit to the back of my knee. WHAM! Slump. I fell to the ground shaking, as he brought his fist to me again. WHAM! I get socked right in the chin, as I fell pain erupt from the area. This little fucker is strong! No, he''s just using enhancement on himself, give me a sec. listening to Will, I slide back as far as I could and jumped up on to a stool near the table. buzzz... Soft buzzing entered into my ears as I felt a cooling sensation in my cor, and other muscles. Feeling juiced up , I get down from the stool, preforming the granny special. FROM THE TOP ROPE!!! SLAM! The little fucker collapsed as soon as my elbow his face in a downwards motion, I just hope hes still alive... Just a couple seconds later, he gets back up, grabs an invisible weapon from his back, and swings at me. Use my mana sight! Don''t gotta tell me twice. Activateing it I see a gigantic axe, almost 2 times my size. How did he get into the school with this!? Jumping to the left, I feel my leg slightly burn, as I rubbed against the ground with my shin. Ignoring it I jump up and towards the little man acting like he''s worth something. He panicked. As granny would say, Rookie mistake. I turn over to the table and quickly grab a chair and swing towards his head. WHAM! he blocks at the last second with the big ass mana axe. The wooden chair shattered from the impact, sending shards of wood everywhere, including my fucking face! Rubbing the wooden dust from my eyes, the little guy looks completely unaffected by the wooden smokescreen. "You asked for this Freshy!" He threw the axe at me, and I fell flat to the ground to avoid it. He starts running towards me while holding a 5 different weapons. This guy has to be insane! Also he hit me first!Why is he mad!? Jumping from the ground I retreat on top of the table in a backflip. He seems to be too surprised by me jumping away, so I go in for a cou- SLASH! A warm feeling excapes my chest as the weapon seemingly had a mind of its own. "Fuck!" Without stippling my voice, I exclaim in pain as I feel the blood leaving my body at a fast pace. Only at this point do the other students look over at me. The blood spattered dwarf keeps going at his advance despite seeing my injury. "Just go to sleep! I need these extra tokens!" Tokens!? This was a fucking game?! Peace is no longer a viable solution. without even responding to Will, I grab a pitcher of ice water, and hurl it at his face. SHATTER! Glass shards go everywhere, including his eyes, and he stops advancing towards me to get the bits of glass out of his face. I grab another chair. WHAM! Even more particles go through the air. Im starting to feel tired... I grab one more chair, but before I can through it at him, I lose strength in my arms. Guess I kick then! I run up. BAM! I kick him in the side of his abdomen, but the recoil makes me loose balance. I land on the floor, and he is still getting the glass out of his face. I try to jump up and kick him again, but I have lost too much blood. He takes a mana bat, and aims his shot. WHAM! I go unconscious.
The fuck? What is wrong with this school! This is the first day and I''ve been attact 2 fucking times in 3 hours!!! I open up my eyes, trying to not do something that I might regret later. I am placed inside a vat of green cold liquid that is contained inside of a pod. Looking around with the limited amount of light I can see in the green slime, is a red button that says ''exit'' Don''t gotta tell me twice. Pressing it, a trap door at the top opens up, and I climbed through it with relative ease. A white furred indivisual with dark red eyes, wearing glasses and a famers overalls looks over to me. "Oh, heya Freshy! Got caught by the senior, didn''t you?" Caught? Is this thing a competition!? I looked up at her, while hiding my anger at maximum efficiency. " What do you mean by caught?" She looks at me with a blank face, then laughted with a Hardy chuckle that Santa would pray to have. " You mean the Freshy crop event?" ... This is seriously just something that happens at the school?! Hahh... Calm down. "Could you explain please?" She smiles again. " Why, sure! The Freshy Crop, is an event held every first day of the school year, to weed out those with talent, and to give the older classmates (and occasionally teachers) a chance to do something." ... If this was an event then why would that scary lady stop the bear guy from capturing me? Purhaps the use of skills is particularly frowned upon during the event? ... You might be in to something. But if you aren''t allowed to use skills, the how did that short guy make those weapons without being disqualified? Spells aren''t specifically skills. ... Whatever. " Where are all of my belongings?" Looking to the side I saw a young guy pushing himself out of the green soup to utter those words. " Oh, just come to me and I will get the. From your box!" Finally looking down, I see that I am entirely naked. The bunny lady turns and sees me covering my family jews. "...Is fine kid, I see a bunch of people naked every day." ... Alright then. Jumping out of my slime prison, I follow her into a room with a bunch of Cubby''s, and I see mine at 1679. The very last one. At the very very top. Curse my luck. I thick the goddess did that for you. Shut up! Getting ready to jump up, I ready my leg muscles and I feel the cold sensation of mana going into them, with the assistance of Will. THUMP. I sprint off of the floor and jump high enough to get half way to my cubby. Using another cubby as a foot hold, I jump up again. Snagging the stuff from my locker, I jump back down with as much grace as I could. CRASH! Still somehow landing on my face. Putting in my clothes, I see the bunny lady looking at me in shock. "...Are you sure you aren''t part bunny fold kid? I haven seen that level of athletic talent in years!" Looking at her and sheepishly smiling I responded. "Nope! I''m entirely human, elf, and fire giant!"
At the next class... Walking to my next class, I made sure to avoid any hallways with upper class men. Thankfully my strategy works, and I got unmolested for the duration of my walk. Walking into my next class, I decided to take a break and let Will enjoy his boring ass mana class. Your just mad you aren''t good at magic. Shut up!
Using Jon''s body I enter in to our class. Thankfully I wasn''t late this time. The teacher looks like a cross between a crow, and an ancient lizard. " Good morning new commerssss. I would like to introduce my sssself. I am doctor Eddice D. Sssharp. I hope we have a ssssuccessssful year!" ... This has to be a joke. Eddice D. Sharp? Before I could articulate how the fuck he got that name in my mind, he starts putting some the basic affinitys of magic on the board and asks us to place our hands on an orb he got out of a conveniently placed portal. "This is a mana sssphere. I ssshal have all of you put your hand on this, and In will place you into your affinity group." A bunch of students get up, and walk over and I start following suit as soon as the others got up. Most people in this class either had really high affinitys for basic elements, or had a low affinity for my complex elements, made out of lower elements. When It came to my turn, I placed my hand on the orb, and I felt the orb send some probing mana towards my soul. I allow it to see what it can find, and the string of observation mana shatters. The orb turns a dark black, the kind that you can''t find in nature. The kind that consumes all that comes into contact with it. The teacher looks at the ball quizzically and places his hand on it. Nothing, just pure darkness. "Huh. Mussst be broken. I will have a sssstaff member look at this later, we will continue tomorrow. Have a great day, the ressst of classes time will be yourssss" Looking around the class, I see the people who has already gotten with their affinity groups talking to each other. Not interested. Walking out of the class I step into a green Portal somewhat similar to the one that sent me to Blue-stone. Instantly, I land on the ground, and feel like barfing my brains out. Swallowing hard, I look towards the map, and see that my next class is at the coliseum.
switch to Jon... Takikg control of my body again, I walk towards the coliseum, but before I can even get 10 feet from where I landed at the portal, I see a burnings red man. Clearly a fire giant. He holds a Buck like humanoid that is seemingly unconscious. He looks towards me, and instantly to my ID. He slowly reads the words ''fresh meat'' to himself and sprints towards me. Fuck no! Jumping away, I avoid the fire blade that appeared before I could finish being surprised. Slashing vertical, I rush to the side, he trys to cut me off half way through his swing, by bring it to the side instead. I jump above the blade, and kick him to the side. CRUSH! I feel the broken toes inside my feet wiggle their way into my veins. "FUCK!!" I exclaim without thinking. Will! Something!Alright! Im on it! I jump back into my still good foot, and start making a sprint for the coliseum that is onlyn 400 feet away. Take this untill I can find something more useful! I feel the effects of enhancement affect my legs and feet specifically. I ignor the pain in my foot, and start running at full spring on both. In practically floating on the ground as I ignore the burning pain and the smell of burning polyurethane, that is quickly becoming an issue. He rushes up, keeping pace with me. He swings to the sword vertically at me, I know this is a trick. I stop all of my momentum, and screech against the floor as I land face flat. He continues to move for a couple of seconds. Plenty of time for me! I jump up, and before he could turn around, I enter the slightly rusted gateway to the coliseum, and take my enter. Inside of the class room, I already see students fighting each other, whether with fist, or just flinging around Shields like it was a short mace. Strange, but neat. A large burly human man rushed up to me, and tried to put me in a chokehold, but I dogeded under him briefly reminded of the shattered bones in my foot, and hit him with a kick to the back of the knee with my not so bloody foot. He loses balance for a second and I back off to give myself some room. He looks up at me, his dark skin reflected the light of the sun that shown down on him. "OH! You will do great in this class Freshy! I can practically feel the youth in movements!" I looked at him, then to the plate Id on his arm. ''Instructor Diosis'' Neat. I look around and see the other students staring at me in shock for taking down the instructor despite being a freshman. I feel a warm feeling enter my foot, as I feel the bones move back into place. Thanks Will! No problem. I stop limping to the side as I see the instructor perform a near instant recovery from losing balance, surly an experienced fighter. He starts explaining what the class is about and what we would be doing though out the year, as most of the other teachers did. After introducing me to the terminal that would allow me to get weapons for class, he told me that as this is a combat class, all manner of violence was allowed, so I would do well to not antagonize the people in the class. CLANG! SHING! CRACK! All manner of fighting styles and races were shown along the grounds of the coliseum. Occasionally people would just stick weapons in the ground when they were done with them, so they could act like barriers or hazards to work on footwork techniques. A man made of sandstone was throwing chucks of himself at weapons that were being thrown at him by his sparring partner. I have come to he conclusion that This looks fun as fuck! Running up to the terminal I decided on what I wanted to choose as a weapon. I could always just do it the Granny way? Also, I should train my fighting styles! Those zeros are really annoying me for some reason... Whatever. I go up to the closest student and start sizing them up. About 6 foot male, with reptile skin, and clear eyelids. Spear user, and seems to have somekind of enhancement ability that has something to do with sunlight. Good enough! "Hey! You wanna spar?!" I scream even without meaning it, but he responds anyway. "Sure." We move to an area with not to many people, and we get into stance. I bring my body down, as low as I can go without losing balance. He stands with his spear in both hands, directly forward in a reverse grip. Strange. I jump forward before he can make the advance, and land with my hands on the ground, to his side. He reacts instantly, taking his spear without even moving his head, he flicks the spear in my direction. I jump infornt of him, and prepair to hit him with a kick to the knee. Sling. His spear flicks back in my direction, as he lowers his stance to avoid being sweeped by the legs. I jump directly forwards and orientate me head to avoid the spear aimed at my temple. I keep forward, dodging a move to my chest by tipping forwards. I jump up. SLing. The spear moves faster then before, and light seems to eminate from his eyes. The spears tip is exactly where I planned to land. SLASH! The tip of the spear serrates into my shoulder, and I feel the warm feeling of healing, by the grace of Will. The spear is trapped in my shoulder, but he is also having trouble taking it out... I have an Idea! SHUNK! I keep going forward, the blood drips down from the spear. The sound of my body being cut by this dull blade brings me disgust, but I push through because I am having too much fun! SHUNK! The blade makes it farther into my flesh, My arm is burning and raw, Sizzling coming from my wound, and the smell is absolutely delicious! I keep going forward, the lizard guy is surprised I haven''t given up yet, I am a tough cookie indeed! sizzle... The burning becomes louder as the lizard guys eyes turn almost blindingly bright. I feel slightly empty despite not losing any blood due to the spear cauterizeing the wound. Weird. I use my now pretty much healed foot to kick the lizard in where I assume his balls are. CRACK! ... My toes shattered again. Why is everybody at this school made of pure titanium?! "ARGh!-" He slightly grunts then folds over, mouth foming. I guess not all people are built different like I am! Or your a freak with uncanny pain resistance, despite not having the skill. Oh come on Will! Be proud that I just beat this guy the fuck up, at the very least! The lizard guy slowly recovers, wiping his mouth of spittle. "I think this spar is Finnished. You use quite underhanded tactics for a Freshy." I look over to him, wrapping up my conversation with Will. "What do you mean underhanded!? You were the one that decided to start burning me with your spear!" He slightly paces back, clearly scared of of deadly kick, while holding his private areas. "Well you used your pain resistance skill! I only thought it was fair that I used my skill!" I have a deadpan face. "I don''t have any pain resistance skills." He looks at me shocked, raising his non existent eye brow. " Wait. Did you never get an active ability?" Looking at him, I have a questioning stare. I know that active abilitys were basically very powerful passive abilitys that would let you push your limits for a certain duration, and usually had a mana or stamina cost. They were extremely rare for most people, so why was he asking him that? Focusing back in, I see that he speaks again. "Because it''s a requirement fore getting into blue-stone?" What. The. Fuck! Why was I never told this!? Why did granny send me here despite knowing that I don''t have an active ability!? " Oh, well let me re- state that, It''s not required to get in, but you must have one by the end of the first simmester!" ...Oh. she wanted to push us to get an active ability. good thinking sidekick! don''t call me that. I look over to lizard guy, and look over sheepishly. "Uh... No?" He looks at me, then looks over at the teacher. " Follow me Freshy. I will help you out because you helped me find a gap in my techniques." Walking up to the teacher with him, lizard guy, who''s name is actually Jage according to the teacher, tells the teacher about my problem. " Oh! So you need some help developing an active ability? Don''t worry about it, the school has something in place for people just like you!" He continues to yap about some kind of class about developing an active skill and having to skip some classes, but I stopped listening after he said I would get to skip Language and history. He takes out a device out of a pocket that does not exist, and clicks on some things that would change the classes. He then stated that I was free to go since I had already sparred someone, and that my new class would be active tomorrow. Lizard due approached me, and tapped on his device to do something, and in the same instant a screen appeared to ask for a friend request. Accepting it, I start walking to my final class for today on the basement floor.
at the class... Not surprisingly at all, basically no body was going in the same direction as me, so I didn''t have to worry about any upper class men trying to catch these hands. After walking through the hallways for a little while, I see a set of stairs going father down then I can see.This going to be painful, even with my twice shattered toes being mostly healed by Will, he stopped dumping all of our mana because we were running low. I tapped on the flashlight on my school device, and started walking down the dark, and cracked concrete of the stairs. The emanating sound of stone rubbing against stone eminated as I had descended into the dark stairwell, I was starting to feel like the walls were collapsing on me! More stone against stone action eminated in my ears, and I saw the walls inching closer! Fuck! Sprinting down the stairs with maximum efficiency, I skipped 5 steps in a row. I was moving as fast as I could without falling, but the stairs just kept on going! Stone on stone echo even louder, walls literally closing in on both sides! Keeping my eyes forward I saw candle light. Finally! Running up to it I catch my breath for a second. Huffing loudly, I too a look around and... The walls are still collapsing! I started skipping 6, 7, 10 stairs per step, while keeping my balance to my best ability. Each stop of my foot ached, but the healing has done good enough for me to keep going. As I sprinted down, I finally saw a door. Without stopping, I jumped inside. WHAM! The door slammed open with a creek, and I sprinted inside. Looking around while catching my breath to make sure I didn''t make the same mistake, I saw many rusty... Torture equipment? A man with a hood completely covering him, spoke to me before I could notice his presence. "Ah, young one. You must be Jon?" After definitely not screaming like a girl, I replied. "EEP...Oh, yes you are right. Is this the resistance class?" He looked over at me with what I can only assume is a malicious smile, as his entire body is covered by the dark cloak. " Yes, young one, it is. For my first question, do you have a resistance skill?" Looking at him suspiciously for asking about my skills, I look over at his burly arm, to see a black ID with the name roughly engraved. '' Sir Mikabre'' I hope that''s legit! "Uh, no I don''t sir!" He smiles, clearly this time, his pale skin covered in scars almost exactly the same as the man I saw in the memory, Just larger. "Perfect!" He walks up to a rusty table and picks up a pristine knife. "Today, you shall develop the basic skill of this class, Regeneration!" What? But only maniacs that get hurt everyday for years straight even have a chance to get that skill?! "I can see the confusion on your face, and I mean the lesser variant, that I have developed at strategy of obtaining 100 percent of the time!" He started walking towards me, his blood red eyes reflected the orange color of the torches that lit up this room. What the fuck is he trying to do with that knife!? "This will only hurt for a bit kid!" He attempted to plunge the knife into my heart, but I side stepped the maniac, and give him a good old chop to the neck! WHACK! CRACK! He is completely unfased, and my fingers are fucking broken! "Calm down kid, this only works if you understand what to do. Once I stab you, start circulating mana around your wound, and none of those fancy spells!" He stands tall infront of me and aims the knife one more. I move again do- SHINK! The blade goes deep within my chest cavity, and I feel blood draining from me immediately. The blood splatters into the teacher l, but he seems entirely unphased. Thud! I fall to the ground, as my body feels like it''s slowly freezing. Why am I losing blood so fast!? Im fixing it! I feel the cool mana circulating around my wound, but not the warm feeling of healing just mana. Will! Do the healing thing! You heard the guy! Let''s see if we can get something out of this. the cooling does nothing to ease my anxiety. I feel adrenaline rushing through my muscles but it''s become harder and harder to stay awake. The man in my memory looks down appon me. Are you really just going to let that happen? What else an I suppose to do!? Are you really just going to waste your life like that? What are you talking about!? Or are you going to do something good for one in your life!? ...I''m going to do something. I feel the wound inside me attempting to empty me of my life, I won''t just stand idle! My intent focuses entirely on my body, ignoring the world around me. Just me, and Will. Wills small stick like form struggles to shape mana around the wound inside of my heart, I can see that. I take my hand and start grabbing my mana, no controlling it. I let it drain from my soul and into my wound, to heal me not just now, but for as long as possible. Warmth enters my wound, as Will and I put our intent into keeping us alive. Ding! You have gained the skill, {lesser Regeneration} lv.0 my wound started patching it''s self up, as my mana locked into place, creating a passive skill. ...That was fucking intense. You can say that again! That wa- Shut the fuck up. Im to tired for this shit. I exit the mind space, as I lay on the cold floor with the pale man standing above me. A long horrid smile paced along his lips. Too tired...
End of chapter 4