(Arc 2 Complete!) Path of the Last Champion [Sci-Fantasy LitRPG, Party Dynamics, Earned Power]

Part 1 - Growing Pains

"I cannot imagine what it must be like, for an auramancer, to reach the O-Nex and find that all of its fabled wonders are forever blocked from them… Or what it must feel like to live your whole life forced to watch them so close at hand, but forever beyond your reach. I honestly cannot say which one is worse." - Notes for an upcoming assignment by Student Kuon Feeir, KUO274021097334283LDX, Social Studies Tower, Year 3, The White Towers University (TWT-U7-GX75T9) - 28th of [ERROR], Year [ERROR]

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"Yesterday night we left Haven behind us. With it, was your last and only opportunity of leaving this ship before we began our two year delve. Now, you are all committed to this journey."

The Master of Tanks stood upon the same dais from which he had addressed the lines of tanks on that morning when Gad had entered the Tanks Hall for the very first time, and his voice echoed throughout the silent assembly before him. Just as it had been back then, the Tanks Hall was plunged in darkness, lights only flooding the center of the ground floor beneath the dark, ominous metal shape of the gym walkways above their heads.

"32% of our apprentices decided that the training, and the life of an elite delver was not for them, and that is fair enough," the master continued, turning slowly to face the entire gathering of apprentices arrayed around his dais. "But that means that 68% of them, of you, chose to stay for it. Even after knowing what that entailed…"

Around him, the gathered apprentices stared up at him with unflinching blank expressions. If there were any doubts, any regrets, Gad could not tell. She could only hope that her own expression was as undaunted as theirs, and that their choice in staying aboard the elite apprentice-ship had not been a mistake.

"Did you stay for the promise of power? For a chance to reach levels and gains few even dare dream off?" the tall, dark mountain of a morsvar asked them, his deep, all-black eyes and expression looking almost grotesque under the heavy light that beamed down upon him. "Did you stay out of desire to see the Labyrinth, and out of a desire for adventure unlike any you have seen so far?"

Well, that would be Tuk at least, Gad thought for herself.

"Or did you stay out of fear?" the man asked, his dark stare dragging past Gad's. Slowly. "Did you come out of those Gates hoping for a life of plenty and comfort, only to realize that such was not so easily within your reach?"

Gad relaxed her jaw before it could fully clench.

"Did you realize that out here, away from the darkness of the B-Nex, that the weak are prey of the strong and the rich, and if you want to control your fate and attain the life you dreamed of back in the cubeplant, then you would need to earn it? That you need to be strong in order to deserve it?"

Gad kept her breathing steady, her expression neutral. However, around her, her [Awareness] picked up on the wave of unease that spread throughout the ranks… A longer inhale there, a shorter exhale right behind her. A foot shifted by a quarter of an inch two rows back and to the left of her, and before her, more than a couple shoulders rising slightly at the accurate words of their master.

Jaws tensed, and eyes averted, as the Master of Tanks stared blankly down at them.

"Does the thought of it keep you awake at night? Of some noble… Some scum doing whatever they want with you and your party, just because they can? Just because you're weak!" he asked them, his voice rumbling like distant thunder. "Does it keep you training when others are long fast asleep? Does the thought come to you, randomly, during the day, and you cannot shake it away? Shake away the fear… The possibility that you might not have the happy ending you Climbed for? That you suffered for?"

Yes. Yes, it did.

In the Climb Gad had felt weak. Powerless, and filled with despair, but nothing could compare to the hopelessness that had seized her when that yellow lizard had simply commanded her to stand still and be quiet, and she had obeyed him. She hadn't been able to run, nor speak, nor do anything for her party… Pile! She hadn't even been able to come up with anything to try in the face of that absolute power.

That lizard's [Presence] had rendered moot all that she was, and all that she had suffered to strengthen and acquire, showing her how little she could protect her family from the predatory vastness of the Nexus they had stepped out into.

So yes, the thought of that happening again did keep her awake at night. It did keep her training long after the lights had been dimmed in the Tanks Hall, and it did come to her randomly during the day, chaining her with dark, paralyzing terror. But Gad would not show it, and she would not speak of it, for she was the pillar of the party. And the pillar was unshakable. Unbreakable.

Kur spoke to her of such a fear often, and she saw how it pushed him onwards. Sometimes to the point of nearly breaking. The worry, the responsibility of keeping the party safe, and of guiding them all towards a happy future, weighed heavily upon him. And if not for her stopping him once in a while, their leader would've burned out already.

The others worried about it, sure, but Tuk lived every day as though it was a new adventure. Cen was obsessed with her aura and the Master of Aura that taught her with seemingly cold indifference, even as she drove the lengos with a frenzy that was just as eyebrow raising as the Master of Blades's intensive regimen with Nar. Jul was entirely committed and driven by the short-term goal of becoming stronger for the party, and while Viy was focused on the same, it was perhaps the ever pursuit of not facing whatever guilt had chased her from the cube plant that took the most brain power out of the spearwoman. And as for Rel, the penance seeker felt indebted to them all, and her mind jumped only between repaying the party and figuring out her heavy path of penance. And that left Mul and Nar.

The brawler, she knew, had a much cooler head on his shoulders than he let on, and eyes that glared at everything around them with suspicion and distrust. Given his life, she couldn't fault him for it, and if anything, she was thankful for his watchfulness. But Mul's attention was currently forced to fully address his rage path and control it, and perhaps even a smidge dedicated to finally allowing himself some time to think about his own needs and wants at last, repressed as they had been his whole life.

And that left Nar for last. Strong, capable Nar, who always came through when they needed him to…

She had come to think of him much the same way as Kur and herself, one of the leaders of the party, and someone that bore the weight of their futures and lives with two of them. And unknowingly or not, Nar proved himself again and again in such a role, and one day he would understand it, hopefully even embrace it, and fulfill this other component that she believed was crucial to his path. But Nar's first and foremost goal had always been to save the man that had given everything for him, and to bring him up to the light and color of the outside… And now, that goal was seemingly gone, and Nar was yet to awake from the aura exhaustion of his [Presence]'s explosive awakening from the sheer shock and grief that the news had brought him.

She exhaled gently, a tad longer than needed. She knew Nar's mettle. Knew his mind and his heart far better than he would ever guess… And she knew exactly what he would do, and what he would turn to as he plunged into the darkness. She would have to keep an eye on it, ready to intervene, and Crystal, she already knew that she would have to.

A loud clap startled the entire room out of its reverie.

"Whatever it is that has made you stay," the Master of Tanks said, his tone unreadable. "You are here. And we have a lot of work to do if we are to give you any hope of surviving the next two years, let alone reach the ranks of the elite of Tsurmirel."

Gad noticed the slight slump of her spine and righted her posture, offering the Master of Tanks an impavid expression. Calm. Serene. Cold, if one must be, but a tank must always be in command of themselves and their surroundings.

"Training will now enter its second stage, and there are three pillars upon which it will be built," the morsvar said, clasping his clawed hands behind his back. "First, tanking. We have thus far given you a basic program designed to fix any flaws in your beginner's level of tanking, and the fact that you have all survived to reach this stage, especially given the corrupted dungeons, means that we have succeeded in that. And we can now move on to the more advanced topics of tanking."

He smoothly and effortlessly pivoted in place, scanning a different segment of the crowd of apprentices and instructors surrounding him.

"There is a lot more to tanking than just a shield and a mace, and while we've begun hammering that into you by means of the TSA lectures, we're going to dial that all the way up and introduce a lot more crucial concepts. Many of these will be leadership related, such as strategizing, formations, terrain dominance and so forth, as all tanks are, by definition, leaders. Even when taking orders from your party leader you must know when to obey and when to counter those orders with suggestions and even orders of your own," the man said. "The battlefield is a chaotic existence, and party leaders don't often have the same degree of senses, [Perception] or, above all, [Awareness], as we do. And speaking of, these are attributes you will be training to better understand and master, as while the System does much for you in terms of attributes, your low attribute utilization percentage means that we need to give it a good deal of help. And this is help that will only make you better at using said attributes."

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Gad nodded inwardly. Unlocking [Awareness] had been an incredible development for her, and it had quickly become one of her most crucial attributes, all the way up there with [Constitution] and [Toughness], and she would welcome learning to control it even better… Not to mention, her affinity unlocking was still throwing her off on the regular, and the sooner she regained control of her senses, the better.

"Second, for those of you who have unlocked your affinities, we will begin an intense training regimen in order for you to better understand them, and for your affinity path corrections to proceed as smoothly and efficiently as possible," the master continued. "If by now you are part of the 40% or so apprentices who haven't unlocked their affinities yet, we must proceed with the understanding and acceptance that your affinities might be a bit more difficult to unlock."

Like Nar and Cen, Gad thought. Especially Nar, given that they had been told that even with his [Presence] unlocking, there were still no proper clues as to what his affinity might be.

"This means that we are now forced to make decisions based on the data that we have available about you as we proceed with your training, be it in fighting styles or skills training and unlocking," the man continued. "And as you know, this does carry an inherent risk of your eventual affinity erasing a good chunk of your efforts when it does unlock, but our data is usually quite solid, and we do our absolute best to minimize that sort of damage. It is, however, impossible to prevent it, and that is just something you need to accept, for if we delay your training, all we'll manage to achieve is make you unfit to face the challenges ahead. Besides, advancing your training will also help you unlock your affinity."

Well, we'll deal with that when it comes, Gad thought. As for the rest of the party, fortunately, they all had their affinities already unlocked, and thus would be able to completely avoid any issues or delays to their training. Not to mention that their survival of the corrupted dungeon had netted them immense gains, which were sure to propel them even further…

All in all, perhaps we really were lucky with finding that corrupted dungeon, she half-conceded the point.

"Third and lastly, as I just mentioned, we will be introducing fighting styles into the Tanks Hall," the master said. "Across the Scimitar, apprentices will be receiving new weapons and new fighting styles to suit them, their paths and their affinities, and you all are no exception. While you may have spotted the occasional change here and there, it is now going to take full effect, as tanking means much more than a shield and mace. In fact, there are many ways of tanking that don't even involve a shield, and some don't even involve contact."

What? Gad thought, surprised. How's that even possible?

The Master of Tanks crossed his arms over his muscular chest.

"You will find out soon enough just how many ways there are of tanking. By our revised estimates, 95% of you will be dropping the mace, and 27% are even dropping the shield as well…"

A wave of nervous excitement swept the apprentices, and the Master of Tanks allowed himself one of his rare smiles.

"These are exciting times, and you are all about to undergo explosive growth," the man said. "Today, you will all be called to your instructors to learn about your new weapons and fighting style. And even in the case where your weapons remain the same per se, we will still swap them out for better ones, and these uncommon grade weapons will carry you throughout the next stage of your training."

Having said that, the Master of Tanks regarded them in silence for a few, slow heartbeats.

"This next part always pains me to say, but it must be said nonetheless," he said. "Not everyone standing here today will make it to the end of our 2 year delve. Look around you. The person standing next to you could very likely be dead in a few months' time."

Gad exchanged a glance with the buff altei standing at her side. He clenched his jaw and gave her a stiff nod, which she reciprocated before returning her eyes to the master.

"Or it could be you who are not standing here," the master continued. "Which is why I urge you to take your training with the utmost seriousness and earnestness. I would even say despair… Despair at the possibility of your failure. Despair at the end of your journey, as it is cut short so soon after you've just exited those Gates into your freedom."

Gad's fingers twitched, nearly balling into fists.

That's not our future, she told herself. That's not what we're going to build together.

No matter the cost. No matter the sacrifice. No matter the pain… They would succeed.

"Good, that is all. Let's get to work," the master said.

And the lights flooded the Tanks Hall once more, and instructors began barking out orders as Gad scanned the crowd for hers.

TING!

Hmmm?

Day to day notifications were a rare occurrence, and to receive one at such a moment most certainly meant something important.

Instructor reassignment? She read, frowning at the subject line of the new notification.

Gad scratched her scaly chin for a few seconds with a sharp claw, staring at the sparse message. Then, she turned around and headed towards the exit. No use in overthinking anything until she knew what was going on.

As she cleared the crowd, she noticed a man standing by the exit of the hall, and she almost frowned. Half of the man seemed to be comprised of a snake.

"Gad?" he asked as she approached, beaming with an open smile.

"Instructor Ves?" she replied.

"That's me. Come along," he said, beckoning her to follow him. "And you can dispense with the formalities."

Gad stole a surreptitious glance at the person that was seemingly her new instructor. Patches of shimmering and dark silver scales were visible on his forearms, neck, cheeks and forehead, peeking from under a mane of well-maintained black hair that was kept in a long ponytail. As for the half-snake part of him, his scales caught the light in a metallic sheen of shifting silvers as he slithered alongside her, his uniformed torso standing upright.

"First time seeing a nileop?" he asked her, beaming at her again with a sharp toothed smile.

Gad gave him a slow nod, regarding his very pale gray skin and long, alfin like ears poking from within his luscious hair.

"Figured. There aren't many of my kin that are auramancers, you know? It has to be by choice, seeing as we are all O-Nexians," he explained. "Of course, that means Ves is not my full name either, but eh, it's enough of a mouthful. Plus, most people around here have short names, you know? Gotta blend in!"

Gad nodded again and Instructor Ves chuckled.

"The strong, quiet tank, uh?" he said, grinning at her. "Fair enough. I personally prefer it to the loud boisterous ones anyway. This way…"

In her head, Gad raked her memory, but there was no way she would have ever forgotten seeing someone as striking as the dark silver scaled Instructor Ves aboard the Scimitar, much less amongst the ranks of the tanking instructors in the Hall.

"You must be confused at the suddenness of it all," Instructor Ves said, pausing before a lift. "But all will be explained. First, though, given how you were bedridden until a day and a half ago, we need to get your affinity assessed before we proceed."

The door of the lift sighed open and the instructor slid forward, his lower half coiling in glimmering silver as he made to fit into the tight compartment and leave enough space for Gad's own considerable bulk.

"Sorry about the tight squeeze," he said, frowning apologetically.

"No need to apologize, instructor," she said, with a short nod, totally at ease amidst the shifting coils.

The nileop chuckled again. "I think you and I are going to have a great time, Gad."

The ride down was short, and Gad stepped out first, to allow the instructor to have more room to maneuver, then, they made the rest of the way to their destination in silence, in Gad's case, and in apparent cheerful whistling, in Instructor Ves' case. So far, she had no idea what to make of him, nor of the reason for this sudden instructor change.

"Hello?" instructor Ves called into the assessment room.

"Ves? Come on in," a familiar voice replied.

The nileop slithered forward, beckoning for her to follow, and Gad stepped into the same room where the party had their affinities assessed, a little over two months prior.

"Hello, Gad," Lut said, looking up from the affinity assessor. "Looks like you and Tuk got lucky with your first dungeon."

"It seems so…" Gad rumbled, nodding at her.

"Alright, this will be just as straightforward as the first time," Lut said, motioning towards the assessor, which rose gently to accommodate Gad's height. "Just put your hands on the assessor and we will know what affinity you have unlocked. Ready when you are."

Gad took a gentle, deeper inhale, and placed her hands around the orb, just like the first time. However, unlike the first time, the orb exploded in a blinding light. It was a sort of steely, light blue color, and within moments, it faded to allow her to open her eyes again.

Within the orb, lines of light flowed gently in one direction, then another, and then many. The light gathered into straight lines, eddies and vortices that drew her in, gently coaxing her along paths that were nonetheless imperious in the direction of their flows.

The experience was nowhere close to when she had unlocked her affinity, but it still filled her with a quiet stillness. A certainty… Her shoulders eased and she perched lower to stare at the swirling flows in-between her fingers.

Slowly, the light faded, and the color returned to gray, as whatever material lay within the orb returned to its normal, shapeless, inert form. Gad let go of the orb without Lut needing to tell her too, and she considered the other two.

"Well, that's definitely a success!" Lut said, tapping furiously on her touch-screen. "For the both of you, I guess. An affinity to flow, manifesting through currents. Congratulations, Gad."

"Yes! I got an apprentice!" instructor Ves said, pumping his fists into the hair. "I was beginning to worry I was just going to be teaching theory for the next two years again!"

Lut chuckled and shook her head.

"Gad, meet you Professor of Strategic Operations," Lut said. "And apparently your new instructor as well. But just to confirm, can you check if your UI changed color?"

Gad pulled open her status, and indeed, her UI had changed from its light gray to the same steely light blue that had shone within the affinity assessor.

"It changed," Gad informed her.

"Do you feel any different?" Instructor Ves asked, a glint of excitement in his eyes.

Gad raised her hands and flexed her fingers.

"No… But yes?" she rumbled. "Not sure how to explain."

"That's about the right feeling," Lut said, tapping some more into her touch-screen. "The most dramatic changes will have happened when you first unlocked it, and this was just the confirmation to make it more solid and ensure that it does not slip away and change. I know you reported issues with your senses and [Awareness] to the healers, but I think you can relax about that. They are the expected result of your specific type of affinity, and this blabbermouth here will take care of you from now on."

The blabbermouth grinned from ear to ear, and nodded effusively.

"I will. And we'll get that fixed, don't worry, Gad! But come on, we've got a lot to talk about! Bye, love! See you for dinner!" Ves said, slithering excitedly to the door.

"Bye!" Lut said, grinning as she waved them goodbye.

Love? Gad thought, as she gave Lut a short wave of goodbye as she followed after her new instructor. She was unaware of there being couples amongst the crew… But then again, why shouldn't there be any?

"So! So!" instructor Ves said, his eyes wide with excitement. "By Xu'Yot's Ever Glittering Scales, there's so much to talk about that I don't even know where to start!"

A hint of a smile peaked on Gad's lips. Whatever this man had to tell, and teach her, his enthusiasm was clear and undeniable. And hopefully, that only meant good things for her and the party too.

"Ah! She smiles! Success!" he said, grinning. Then he suddenly stopped to look at her, his eyes beaming with unbridled enthusiasm, but touched by sudden seriousness. "You have unlocked a tremendous affinity, Gad. Tremendous! Come. Let me show you something, and then, I'll explain it all."