NOVEL NEXT Chapter 62: Study
<Alex, Real - Endure, High School Sports Field>
Alex flopped to the ground—dadao vanishing into his Inventory—somehow utterly exhausted by the glacially slow movements that Master Adams—Matt—had enforced.
Even so, the work that Alex had been doing had been focused far more on the skill within him than on the martial artist. Alex had followed the man's advice to bring the most out of his skill, rather than trying to deepen or expand the skill with external input.
When they'd worked before, Alex had leaned mostly on the human beside him, trying to learn from the man with the help of the skills. That had resulted in the skill, itself, improving due to the external influence. This time? This time he'd leaned on the skills, using the man to help him learn from the System provided resources.
As a result, he'd finally found reprieve when his understanding and utility of two skills elevated as one, spawning a series of System notices.
Great-Blades Initiate - Dadao (Common)
→
Great-Blades Initiate - Dadao (Uncommon)
Great-Blades Initiate - Dadao (Uncommon)
You wield the machete-like great-blade of yore. While it lacks the reach of many other great-blades, it makes up for that in versatility and close-range utility. You have a growing, instinctive understanding of how to hold this weapon and use it in combat. Moreover, your ability to reliably feel and follow those instincts is improved.
Physical Power and Agility have a small boost when wielding a dadao.
Stamina drains at a slightly slower rate when wielding a dadao.
Advanced Kinesthetics (Common)
→
Advanced Kinesthetics (Uncommon)
Advanced Kinesthetics (Uncommon)
Your body is your own, and it moves at your will. Weapons are great, and armor is useful, but being where you need to be, and moving how you need to move is more important than any mere weapon or armor. You have a growing, instinctive understanding how you should stand and move, as well as an innate sense when things are right or not.
Physical Agility and Power have marginally greater effect when you are acting to reposition yourself or move as you desire.
That was a fantastic improvement for both.
For the great-blades skill, aside from a change in wording from 'burgeoning' to 'growing', the alteration to the description came down to 'Moreover, your ability to reliably feel and follow those instincts is improved.' Alex felt like that highlighted, quite nicely, the change he'd been attempting to bring about. He wanted to trust the skill more and utilize it more fully.
The change in the kinesthetic skill was smaller, but that made sense, as it was a more powerful skill, at least if he went by its modifier of 'advanced' when compared to 'basic.'
That skill description had changed from 'some instinctive understanding' to 'a growing, instinctive understanding' and from a 'better sense' to an 'instinctive sense when things are right or not.'
It seemed trivial, but across the board, Alex felt more connected to and able to utilize the benefits of these two skills.
But that wasn't all.
Another pair of notices awaited him.
System Notice:
Not associated with your Great-Blade-based class.
Would you like to make this a class skill?
Y/N
System Notice:
Martial-Movement-based skill past the level of basic comprehension detected.
Not associated with your Martial-based class.
Would you like to make this a class skill?
Y/N
Alex felt a grin pulling at his lips. Yes, and yes.
He somehow felt the shift within himself, noticing a simple, additional change in each. On the weapon's skill, this single sentence was added:
Your weapon is becoming like your body, yours to control.
On the kinesthetic skill, the sentence added was:
Your body is becoming a weapon, lethality in every movement.
The parallels were obvious, and Alex suspected that it was likely because he was working so hard with them in tandem. Master Adams had stated that, in his experience, everyone's skills were slightly different, based on how they were used and grown, even when they had the same name and rarity between people.
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Alex sighed happily then just lay there, reveling in his success, even as he stared up at the first stars beginning to appear. Lack of light pollution is amazing.
Master Adams had stated that he could push Alex toward mastery, improving the quality of his skills, but doing so might hurt him as his competency in each would drop. If he wasn't used to the process of increasing proficiency in the skills before that happened, he might be stuck with a worse result overall.
Alex didn't really understand, but apparently something like Basic Swordsmanship (Common) would be superior to Swordsmanship (Simple), even if the latter had far greater potential in the long run.
If he wanted to have an improvement in the short term as well as the long term, he needed to have a solid understanding in the Basic skill before advancing it. That meant having at least an Uncommon utilization of that skill.
He'd now achieved that.
Moreover, he'd gotten the skills drawn into his class. That was a relief, as it meant that he wouldn't have his second class options filled with ones that were too close to be feasible.
I have to avoid that soft-cap at level 100. Apparently, that's where the dividing line between E and D occured. The System's Basics book didn't consider that information to be basic, apparently… and so he'd only picked up more than the vague hints and statements when Master Adams mentioned keeping that transition in mind if he 'really wanted to pursue advancement.'
I feel like it should be basic… But when he'd tried to raise the formal complaint, the System had told him it didn't qualify to get a formal response.
When he'd complained about that, he'd not gotten a response at all.
Don't abuse the system, right…
Regardless, he'd done it. He'd improved his mastery over two skills, and he was proud. Proud and exhausted.
Master Adams came and checked on him, but when Alex told him about the skill advancement, the man had agreed that they could and should be done for the night.
Most of the others had long since gone in for the 'base movie' of the night, leaving Alex all but alone, staring upward.
Well, I'll go get a shower soon, but I don't want to get up, not yet.
In order to keep in the habit, Alex had been pulsing Detect Life and Detect Unlife whenever he was about to reach his mana cap, trying to take in the feedback even while he'd been working on his martial skills.
That had likely made the process more difficult, but he'd forgotten those two spells far too often to not work hard to correct that issue.
Now, he wasn't distracted. Okay, I've done Detect Life, then Detect Unlife. I've also done them in the other order, and each time I feel that odd resonance. So it isn't about the order, or a building from a common to uncommon spell…
He frowned. He couldn't do them at the same time. He didn't have the ability to use his magic to create two magical effects at the same time, but he felt like that should be the answer.
Yup, and the cure for cancer is just to make the cells stop growing as they shouldn't. The cure for starvation is just eating enough of the right food. He sighed. Even knowing the answer wasn't enough if he couldn't do it… assuming he was actually right…
So, as he lay there, he focused on what it felt like to use the System granted spells. Pilar and John had both talked with him about magic in this new world, and apparently, 'Spells' weren't distinct, single things, but were more like 'Skills' in that they were essentially a System designation for a category of thing that the person could now do… even if that was a bit simplistic.
Just like his great-blade skill wasn't just a single strike that he could now use his weapon for—and even force burst and multi-strike were multi-facetted in their use—his 'Detect' spells should be malleable.
I can change the length of time Detect LIfe lasts after all… He blinked up at the now nighttime sky. Oh… I'm an idiot… again.
He triggered Detect Life for ten seconds and then, even as he was trying to sort the flood of information—while the previous spell was still in process—he activated and 'cast' Detect Unlife.
This wasn't the first time the two had been active at the same time, but it was the first time while he was actively trying to focus on them and their odd resonance.
There!
As the two overlapped, he felt how the magics worked in tandem, giving him the information on both life and unlife at once.
…and he didn't have the magical faculty to create the complicated, overlapping spell effect that he sensed. His Basic Mana Manipulation (Common) simply didn't give him the facility to accomplish the more complex spell without System guidance.
He also realized in that moment that he wouldn't be able to create them individually without System guidance either and assistance each and every time. The very idea of combining them on his own?
Yeah, that wasn't happening.
Well, that's the next step, then. I need to increase my mana manipulation skill to allow for improvement in other areas.
With a smile at having figured out where to invest his efforts next, he smoothly stood to his feet and went in search of a shower.
It had been a long day, and the Tutorial was likely to get harder and more demanding as the days progressed.
<Dave, Real - Survive, Earth?>
Dave tried to comfort the silently crying children around him even as he tried to steal some rest while sitting watch at the mouth of the shallow cave that they'd found.
Physically, they were all a bit battered and bruised. Emotionally, no one was in a great place. But they were all still alive.
Forty kids got on my bus this morning, and by all that is holy, forty kids will make it to the tutorial… whatever that is.
He sighed. He was a bus-driver for crying out loud. He wasn't built for this, yet he'd already brained a man-eating plant with a tire-iron—losing the thing in the process—driven off oddly aggressive birds with a fire extinguisher—draining the tank while covering the children's retreat—and—possibly most impressively—gotten the kids to listen to him when he told them to stay or run, quiet down or help one another.
He was inordinately proud of how they'd risen to the occasion. Even those he'd seen pick on one another in the past—rarely coming to blows, but often filled with angry tension—had seemed to be able to lean on one another in this time of insanity.
In the initial moments of this odd happening, their section of road had been moved to the middle of a jungle, and they'd not seen a single other person since.
Some odd bipedal creatures had tried to get close before Dave and his group had found the cave, but Dave had managed to scare them off by running at them, yelling and waving his arms.
If he had to guess, they'd been more confused than scared, but they'd left the kids alone, so he counted it as a win.
Only a day. We only have to stick it out for one day, then… something. Something will happen.
It had to be better than this, whatever it was.
He prayed that that was the case.