THEOS

Luke blinked the spots out of his eyes as he stumbled to his feet. Looking around the room as he did so, he was surprised to see only a handful of people still sitting around the podiums, none of which had been paying attention to him.

Glad I didn’t cause another scene. The guy who’s constantly making a fuss isn’t really the vibe I’m going for.

He craned his neck to look at the artificial sky above him, and was greeted with the nine moons of Theos shining like bulbs, and slowly came to the realization that he had been practicing the stances for a lot longer than he thought had been.

Time really flew… and not just today either. It’s been what? Two months now, maybe a little over since I’ve been here.

Coming to terms with his new life was both a lot easier and harder than he thought it would have been.

It was shocking how easy ignoring everything and living day to day was. The feeling of getting stronger had kept him satisfied if not happy, and working himself to exhaustion on top of that, kept his darker more intrusive thoughts from surfacing. Still there, but distant. Where they were easy to ignore.

I guess the thing about humans being resilient and adaptable isn’t bogus. You just need to have your life constantly in danger, and all the trivial stuff doesn’t matter anymore. Add a goal, no, a purpose onto that and boom, you wake up every morning brimming with energy. Not really happy, but happiness is fleeting anyway.

Purpose mixed with uncertain survival, the two keys to a content life. All the exercising I’ve been doing probably helped a lot too. Nothing like doing pushups until you think your arms are going to fall off to keep your intrusive thoughts the fuck away.

Not that that works anymore. I guess there are downsides to being in the best shape of my life.

Stretching his arms to his sides, he collected his stuff, and languidly started to make his way back to his room. Idly calling up his status as he did so.

Status | Skills | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Mortal

Mana: 11 / 3700

Rate: 15% per hour

Strength: 43 > 98

Agility: 46 > 92

Constitution: 45 > 100

Arcana: 35 > 74

Stat Points: 101

Bloodline: Locked. Conditions not met. (1/10 000)

Charges: 7/10

Look at that. My first triple digit stat. Fuck yeah.

The progress he had made in the last three weeks was nothing short of astounding. Easy access to a monster a day, combined with the accelerated gains in attributes that he had been experiencing since he got here, had made for a powerful combination. One that Luke was just now starting to appreciate. It was like this place was tailor made to enhance his cultivation, without risking his life and away from scrutiny.

Something that wasn’t far from the Hero’s intentions.

If I don’t count the bloodline and the skills, I’m basically a tenth of the way to the Warrior-tier. With a hundred and one Stat points, I’m also pretty adaptable. If only there wasn’t a limit on how many monsters we could fight a day, I could have been even further along. Can’t do anything about that though.

Maybe I can convince someone to let me kill their monster. Or maybe even team up on a late Mortal-tier monster. So long as I can stab it with my sword, I should get the points.

If I get out of here, I should look into that some more. If I can find a spot where there’s a bunch of weak monsters, that would be ideal. A nice and easy grind to the Warrior-tier, away from the stress of being found, sounds almost like a vacation.

Life will get a lot harder once I leave too. Living in the Society felt a lot like having a sword over my head, but it was safe. Food, shelter, other people to be around. It felt like I was back in college. Kinda. All in all, it was nice. It's not bad here either. Spiros is fun to hang around with when he’s not being annoying, and the atmosphere, while tense, isn’t hostile. The gains are also solid.

Out there though, I’ll likely be slumming for food. Living in the trees, or something equally ridiculous depending on where the portal sends me. Unless I can find a way to control the destination.

“What happened yesterday?” Spiros asked the next day, as soon as Luke made his way out of his room.

“Good morning to you too.”

“Good morning, now are you going to tell me or not?”

Should I? I guess I have nothing to lose either way, and he’s been good to me.

“I made some progress.” Luke said after a while, looking through the crowd, he grinned when he found Arya going through the stances in her usual spot. “I think I figured something out, that might be able to help you too. Let’s go. I might as well tell Arya.”

“Really?” Spiros followed after him, as he navigated through the crowd.

“Yeah. It’s like, we’ve been practicing the Techniques separately, but if you can hold a sword and a shield at the same time. So –”

“So both the techniques can be used together. You’re a genius.”

“Yes. I uh, I don’t know if it will help you as much as it did me, but both my Sword and Shield Techniques got a lot better. I’m pretty sure if I can combine the Spear Technique with the Shield one, then that will get a lot better too. I’ve been thinking of combining the Sword and Spear ones as well, but it doesn’t feel right the same way.”

“Yeah, I’ve never heard of someone wielding a sword in one hand and a spear in the other.” Spiros patted him on the back. “That thing with the shield though… it makes a lot of sense.”

“I know right. Everyone’s been focused on learning each of the techniques separately, no one tried to do them together.”

“Or they did, and it didn’t work for them. Not that I remember watching any of them try, but it’s not like everyones watching everyone every second of every day.”

“Well hopefully it’ll work for you two.” Luke said, coming to stop beside Arya. Patiently waiting for her to notice them.

“Is it just me, or is it weird that if we want to talk to someone we stand near them, and hope they notice us?” Spiros leaned in and whispered as the pair watched her go from form to form.

“Well, no one wants to be interrupted and everyone still wants to be nice.” Luke whispered back, shrugging his shoulders.

It is a bit ridiculous, but I would have been properly pissed if someone bothered me yesterday when I was in my mojo.

“It’s even more annoying when you stand next to someone for over a handful of minutes, and they don’t notice you.”

“Is this about yesterd–” Arya slapped him on his shoulder with the flat of her blade, and glared at him.

“Ow.” Luke rubbed his shoulder, entirely out of habit. The hit had been light enough, that it felt more like someone lightly poking him, than anything else, but he felt that that adding the sound effect was funny.

“What is it?” She asked.

“Sorry we didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“I did.” Spiros chipped in, and smiled innocently at both of them as they leveled glares at him. “What, I waited for Luke for half an hour yesterday, and he didn’t even notice. I didn’t want a repeat.”

“Sorry about that. You know how the techniques get. Anyway, I think I figured something out. Something big. Just watch me, okay.” He grabbed his sword’s handle, before his eyes landed on Spiros’s spear. “Actually, let me grab a spear, and I’ll be right back. If I can do the same thing again, it might help more than just watching me do what I figured out last night. Spiros, just tell her what I told you while I go and get on.” Luke said, making his way towards the weapon rack.

“Alright, just watch.”

Luke took a deep breath, as he adjusted his grip on his spear. Realizing that it may not be as easy as he thought it would be. The spear, unlike a sword, was both a two handed weapon, and a single handed weapon when used with a shield, and the way you used it differed widely with and without a shield.

With a shield what you lost in power and agility you gained in defense. Typically it was what your opponent used, that decided if you used a shield or not. For example, if you were fighting an unarmed opponent such as an animal, a shield was often unnecessary, and the extra power that came with both hands on the shaft was much more practical. From what he’d seen of Spiros, both ways had their advantages.

In their spars, however, he favored a two handed grip, and with neither of them using shields, it tended to give him an advantage. Seeing as how taking hits had the effect of improving his constitution, Luke figured he was on the winning side of that particular deal. Both learning to use his sword better, and at the same time getting sturdier. All for the price of some pain.

The few times Luke had won, was when he had used a shield himself, and managed to get in close to Spiros, turning the excessive length of his weapon into a hindrance.

The Hero, at least in the hologram, used the weapon without a shield, with both hands. Something that momentarily left him at a loss.

If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I wanted to start off with the Spear Technique, and then add the shield to it, but that won’t work. So the other way around it is.

Adjusting his grip on the spear, he ignored it for the moment. Just letting it travel where it felt natural while he concentrated on the Shield Technique.

Immediately noticing how easy it was to do now. The resistance was still there, he could tell that much, but it was further. He’d have to move a lot faster than he was comfortable with to even notice it. Which meant that for the first time, he was able to use the Technique properly. Maybe even in an actual fight.

He felt his mana eating away, slowly but steadily, as he shifted from position to position. It seemed that the cost of the skill had finally surpassed his passive regeneration. What that cost was for, still remained to be seen.

My mana is draining, but not particularly fast. I can probably keep this up for an hour or two. Not bad, but not great.

He blinked slowly as he fell out of the rhythm of the skill.

No thinking, I need to stay focused. There’s only the shield.

Luke took a deep breath and let the stray thoughts fade from his head. Thinking about the Technique and nothing else.

An imaginary opponent appeared before him. Like him, it wielded a spear. It would strike. Luke would deflect, and attack. Punishing his foe with his shield everytime. Only to reimagine him into being with every shift of his posture, always in time for his next attack.

Vaguely aware of Arya and Spiros watching him from the sides, he continued on, and on, and on. Repeating the Shield Stance over and over. Until time had no meaning.

When it did happen, it was an accident. One that felt right. Unthinkingly he struck with his spear, seamlessly shifting into its Stance. Lunging forward and discarding his shield at the same moment. For in that moment, the ultimate expression of the Truth underlying the Techniques, was better delivered with a deadly tip.

His shadowy opponent pierced through the heart, vanished in a burst of golden light.

Luke’s mana once again dwindled away, and he sank to his knees in exhaustion. Without even opening his Status, he knew that he had broken through to a new level of master, for he had felt the tell-tale resistance fade away into the background the moment he executed his strike.

“See.” Luke turned to Arya and Spiros. Stumbling to his feet, and smiling widely in elation.

They looked shocked, and said something, but all Luke heard was a garbled noise. Like they were yelling at him from across a busy street.

“What.” He asked, cupping his ear in his hand. Blinking through the dark spots in his vision.

Does having no mana fuck with how I hear too. I didn’t notice it last night, but then again, no one talked to me then either.

The ground beneath his feet shifted, and before he could react, rose up and engulfed him. Covering him in darkness.