Chapter 135—Making Strides

Tom crept through the dark corridors. He traced a familiar path, mirroring trips he had completed dozens of times before. He knew he should have been further progressed than he was. His aim had been to visit twice every week. Historically, he had failed. For most of the first year, he had barely gotten out to them even once per week let alone twice. DEUS placing a sleep skill into his recommended list had transformed those dynamics.

He smiled as he remembered his reaction when it had popped up and how fast he had grabbed it; he had been happy with the ability and the seventy percent discount that had gone along with it.   

Skill: Refreshing Sleep – Tier 4 – Cost: 17 Coins. – Level 2.

When used, you will sleep for 25% of your normal hours but receive benefits like you had managed perfectly uninterrupted sleep for your usual number of hours.

If the rest is undisturbed, you will also benefit from being in a well-rested state, which is the equivalent of having full unbroken sleep for the previous four days, which will fully cancel out any sleep debt that might have been accrued.

Threshold Benefit 2: Your body will heal like you had been sleeping for 8 times your normal sleep length.

Cooldown: 46 hours.

It was probably the best purchase he had made in any of his lives. Every second night, like clockwork, he used it and then abused the well-rested benefit by skimping sleep on the other night. Given his new skill cancelled, sleep debt pushing hard for a day was an easy decision. The extra five hours of free time he received every night went into training or creating disks for others, and he had long since earned the seventeen-coin cost back.

It had and would continue to be a massive benefit. 

The only issue, if it could be called that, was that the improvement that came with each level of the skill was lack lustre. The single level the ability had gained since he had gotten it had made available an awesome threshold benefit, but the rest of the changes were lacklustre. The cooldown had been reduced by three hours and the percentage of his normal sleep required had lowered from twenty-six to twenty-five. He had been hoping for over twice that so that it would become a daily skill by level four, something he had a chance of getting while below age fifteen. Upgrading it to level eight in that time frame felt impossible. Higher tier skills were significantly harder to gain levels in than their lower tier counterparts. 

Not that it was sensible to complain. The heal that it granted was powerful. There were some inflictions that required time to fix and two and a half hours of rest counting as eighty could very well be lifesaving. Even if he was never subjected to one of those, the ability would definitely help with magical colds and hangovers. 

Better still, it had been an ability that he had been easily able to afford. He had only really started generating coins in any quantity four months ago, but with his two streams of income the funds were certainly flooding in.   

Mentally, he pulled up his latest tally as he briefly ducked into the system room.

Available Coins: 380

It was a lot.

Most participants from diminished species recognised their weaknesses and played it safely. They, for their entire stint in the bracket could earn as few as fifty coins and that was often sufficient to change the trajectory of their species. 

But the human fate trick, which only existed as a misguided attempt of the GODs to trick them, was a powerful multiplier and a delicious cream pie in their face result as Tom had sprung both parts of the trap and emerged stronger for the experience. Over two hundred and fifty of his almost four hundred coins came from winning fights, with the remainder being generated from his disk production.

His first couple of months had been slow and even now his best result had been twelve in a day and he had only managed that much by putting in lots of hours. His supervisors were still convinced he could improve his efficiency by fifty percent, but if he could earn almost three coins a day from crafting or over twenty per week, he was happy with that 

To be honest, he didn’t care too much about specifics. If he could generate thirty coins a week between the fighting and disk making, then not only would he be able to afford the full divine fruit, he would also be able to pick up the majority of the other stuff being offered. Not to mention the fact that his disks could have a transformative impact on the future of multiple species, which would result in him swimming in ranking points and be a significant contribution to saving humanity. To be honest, that second part was enough to justify his efforts. Not that he was ever going to say no to extra power.

Ahead of him, shadows moved unnaturally.

He had only been paying half attention to his physical body, but the flicker of movement did more than just catch his eye.

Tom froze and shrunk back into the corner, thanking his instincts that had him positioned in shadows even when he wasn’t concentrating or actively trying to sneak.

He crouched lower with agonising slowness so his actions wouldn’t be registered by any creatures that used movement to trigger their predator instincts.

Silently, he waited to see who or what he had glimpsed.

His heart thumped.

He shuddered at how loud it had seemed. In the dead quiet of the corridors, it had sounded as noisy as a snapping twig. He breathed slowly and deliberately. Taking care not to expel air too quickly to avoid making any sound. If he could have held his breath he would have, but if he did that he would eventually need to breathe and by then, once the pressure had built up the desperation to regain his oxygen would make it a gasp and definitely catch the attention of anything out there.

To prevent that, he continued to breathe carefully through his mouth, and he wished he had a noise cancelling ability, but until he had an excess of experience that wasn’t something he was going to get. A sideways evolution in that space did nothing for his build, so he couldn’t concentrate on it now. 

The shadows had not moved again.

That, of course, didn’t mean he was safe. His enemies were smart. He remained frozen in place for almost two minutes while he debated what to do.

In the end, the answer was obvious.  

If those shadows had been a rank fifty plus assassin that knew he was a reincarnator, his life was already forfeited. The level of perception such a person would possess meant that if Tom had noticed it then it would have seen him a long time before that.

If this was an enemy, then it was testing him.

Retreating now was just as suspicious as continuing.

The logic was ironclad.

The movement, while terrifying for him would be far less for a seven-year-old. It had been too quick to have had a long-lasting impact.

That knowledge didn’t help his heart rate. It still thundered as fast as ever, but he he decided to proceed at least partially with his original plan. He would continue but moderate his behaviour once he reached the isolation room. There would be no title chasing tonight.

Finally, he reached his destination, ducked inside, and then hurriedly slapped the button to seal the doors. Often he saw the warning messages as routine and ignored them. This time, as they scrolled through the battery of tests, he watched them with an eagle eye.

Nothing suspicious was flagged, but that didn’t stop him from staring around the room. He leant on his mysterious skill or title, the one that allowed him to pierce illusions to confirm that the spaces were empty. That and Danger Sense, but there was no tickling of sensation from that skill either.

Everything told him that he was safe, but his mind kept returning to that brief moment of shifting shadows. It was probably nothing, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of dread.

Tom frowned.

He had already decided how he was playing this before he reached the room, and he wasn’t going to convince himself otherwise. When he had got up from his bed, he had been so excited, but that glimpse changed everything? Even if he was confident, it had been only his imagination, it changed nothing.

Getting the title would have to wait until next time.

Glumly he picked up a hammer and went through his exercises, but he performed like he was a kid his biological age not the disciplined, knowledgeable adult that he was. Most of the time, he was in the system room to guarantee the performance, and his lack of care showed. His form was fractured and terrible and if any of his hammer instructors were here, they would have been screaming at him.

As he swung the weapon, he ducked in and out of his system room. He considered the rest of his progress.

A smile quirked on his lips. It was good. He had relearned Lunge, an ability that allowed him to close with his enemies in a similar manner to the more traditionally named charge skills. But better because his spear would lead the way to do devastating damage and with some mental gymnastics, he could also use it to retreat.

Then there were the skills he was working on from his Earth Skill starter pack. Currently, he was training to gain the Generate Earth Mana and Store Earth Mana skills and while progress had been slower than he would like both of them were close to switching to become fully functioning abilities.

Finally, there were his spell forms, the development pathway he had advanced the most. After working through the useless spells, he had combined them into the Earth Manipulation skill with not two or three but five sideways evolutions. It was the peak tier zero earth spell and just like Touch Heal and Spark he would never lose it no matter how many times he evolved it to other forms.

Overall, he was very happy with the progress. 

Tom stepped into his system room and watched on the monitors as his seven-year-old self dramatically dropped the hammer and proceeded to act like he had run a marathon by bending over, placing his hands on his knees and heaving for breath. The reaction which was driven by his title was surreal. While the exercise had been slightly trying, that was it. There was no world where it had been overwhelming.

With a sigh, he ignored his body’s antics and happily brought up the spell which his months of hard work had earned him. 

Spell: Earth Manipulation – Tier 0 – Level 21

Allows you to manipulate Earth or Stone you are in physical contact with.

Sideways Evolution 1: When touching Earth or Stone gain passive control over the nearest 1.6 cubic metres of material.

The levels had expanded the reach of the ability and while the other sideway improvements at first glance were stronger Tom considered this to be the best of the ones he had received. Cast time at higher levels was often the primary limitator of performance. Having all of his future manipulation abilities gaining something to reduce it was great. 

Usually, using Earth Manipulation was a three-step process. First, establish presence in the target material and then infuse it with mana, and then finally shape and trigger the outcome you wanted. This sideways evolution removed the first step, or at least made it significantly faster to initialise because he would already have a presence before he did anything active. 

It was the type of ability which looked lacklustre at first blush. When Tom started to apply it to higher tier spells, that was when its value would really shine through.  He suspected that by the time he had tier four spells this innocuous passive would be effectively upgrading them to act at a pseudo domain level.

Tom shook his head and quickly read the more tangible boosts to remind himself of what they had gained.

Sideways Evolution 2: Earth Manipulation is 20% more powerful.

Sideways Evolution 3: Attempts to harden earth are 50% more effective.

Sideways Evolution 4: Cohesion of earth constructs is strengthened by 20%.

Sideways Evolution 5: Receive a 100% boost when contesting for control of earth or stone with another being.

They were all simple bonuses and every one of them was a compounding benefit. If he created something like a short-term earth construct, it would be improved by these boosts in multiple ways. It would be 20% stronger, have 50% harder stone and also be 20% tougher. Then finally, if someone contested his control over the spell form, his defence would be twice as strong.

While the sideway boosts didn’t add much to the utility of Earth Manipulation, they would definitely be beneficial once he developed higher tier spells. The Earth Shield spell he was currently working toward would have its starting strength doubled thanks to these add ons. 

After half an hour of exercise, he returned to his room.

He suspected he was being paranoid, but just in case he hoped any observers would have seen an insomniac struggling to entertain themselves in the middle of the night. 

For the next week, he refused to take risks in the evenings. The call of the isolation room and the lairs,  the opportunity to train himself further was seductive, but he resisted. Instead, he used the extra time to create coins to sell in the Divine Championship trial.  

The forced delay rankled, but he persisted.

Every day when he was active he studied the ceiling and corners, but there was no sign of any outside of observation.

When the next duel came due, he was excited. He needed to blow off some steam and release some tension. 

Corrine and Baptiste were next to him.

The former nudged him. “What’s up with you?”

“A few nights ago, I was sneaking out to an isolation room, and I got spooked.”

She stilled. “Explain!”

“I saw some shadows move.” He admitted.

“The flags haven’t changed.” She looked at him suspiciously. “Did you tell Dimitri? Or leave a note at a drop off point?”

He shook his head.

Her eyes flared, and she threw her hands in the air. “Why the fuck not!”

“It was probably just a kid playing with a new skill or a volunteer.”

“Not your fucking call and there’s no volunteers at night.”

“Dimitri then.”

“Fuck no. If he was there, you wouldn’t have noticed him.” Her anger hadn’t reduced in the slightest. If looks could burn, he was a sizzling puddle on the ground. “Why didn’t you report it?” Her finger stabbed into his chest. “If there was an assassin, you’re putting our lives at risk.”

“It was almost certainly a kid.” He argued, trying to justify his position. It was a pointless attempt. No matter how he might frame it she was right. He should have reported it and even if it was a false flag, it might not have been. His failure had put other reincarnators at risk. 

“If you believe that, then why the fuck are you on edge?”

He didn’t have a response. He knew she was right.

“It’s fucking irresponsible is what it fucking is.”

Social Silence clamped down on his throat before he could snipe back and ask her why she had gotten her knickers in a twist. He was very glad for the intervention. He doubted a comment like that could be taken the right way. “I’ll tell him when I get out of here.” He offered effectively raising the white flag.

“No, don’t. I’ll do it. I have more opportunities for one-on-one contact considering I’m planning my post fifteen itinerary. But fuck Tom you can’t ignore that sort of thing.”

“It was a kid.”

She glared at him.

Tom took the hint and stood silently, listening to the babble of conversation around them. After less than a minute, a hush descended on all of them as the time for the duels approached.

“Good Luck.” Baptiste said.

“You too.”

He muttered, and then he was yanked to new surroundings, and he found himself in a familiar room with three doors.