Chương 16

Okay? I… Sure. He walked back to the walkway as the station reset behind him, reflecting on what'd felt like a weird fight. Seems like the 'Mana Shield CLANG' trick also works against more competent people. My Mana Spears keep shattering on impact, but all those shards instantly evaporate, it's like the mana loses all structure. If they can just be retained, and the shards can burst into the enemy… there's something there. Also, I wonder if the shatter resistance ideas I used with shields will work with spears?

Since they're both hardened Pure mana… His spears had performed, which surprised him. Sure, they'd flown side-on and spiraling, rather than the clean spear-straight lines he wanted, but they'd served a clear fight purpose. He paused. Why was she so surprised…? b0b12's reactions in that last fight still felt a bit strange. Was she just not used to fighting Pure mages? He didn't feel like he'd done anything particularly unusual. Maybe it's just because you don't usually see this skill level at that elo? Who—what?

—did she think I was? His first fight also went a bit strangely, actually… He reflected a little more, still uncertain. His first fight felt very fast, as was his second, which was nice. In his second fight he'd used a few mana spears, a Mana Shield, and a few temporary balls of mana. But his Skill use, and the time he'd spent actually manipulating mana, was still relatively little.

And he felt like his spears were making genuine progress, even still—they felt like they flew slightly faster, since his Force use was getting better, and his aim, even if still iffy, felt slightly straighter. Something about the live combat felt like it turbo-charged his Skill progress. Although without a Skill evolution notification, it wasn't as easy to tell the extent. Wait a second. He visualized his soulspace, visualized his Mana Manipulation Skill in particular.

He'd studied the Skill structure plenty in the past day, when he'd read the System updated Skill descriptions based on alterations in the Skill structures. It is progressing faster if I use it in fights. He felt, by intuition, the new changes—etched a little brighter than the rest of the Skill; a little additional complexity in the upper-right quadrant of the Skill, which represented Pure mana manipulation. I was only supposed to fight twice today.

It was a limit he'd imposed on himself out of caution, but— Maybe there's time for one last duel? He hesitated. I feel like I have a third in me. And I feel like I'm close to getting my fake mana spear to fly like an actual spear. Another thing to consider—I'm 600-ish elo in 1v1. Will I end up paired against a Level 3? Maybe even higher? While he liked the idea of a challenge, he was thinking he wanted something closer to a cooldown fight—a similar level to the b0b fight, maybe. Or maybe not.

Might be smarter just to quit while I'm ahead, save a little willpower. There is also the 5v5. It did sound intriguing. He still didn't feel he'd truly interacted with Awakened yet in a magical context. He'd dueled two people and talked to a few potentially magical people, but he was kind of in his own little world, tinkering and self-teaching. While fun, it also felt like he was a little out of the loop, world-wise. He hesitated a little longer, and then decided.

For half an hour, he just recovered, and ideated on what he might do with his Skills. The next half an hour was light tinkering—trying to increase the shatter resistance on his Mana Shield, which yielded a few tiny gains, percentage points of difference. He also played with a few aspects of his spear, trying a few ideas. It was work he could do while still mentally recovering. Ultimately, a few reasons decided it for him— I'll be with a party in the rift, so it makes sense to get some experience in it.

I mean—I'll be with just a single other person for the rift, but still. Also, I'm still provisionally 400-rated in teams, which should put a cap on the strenuous-ness of the fight? He was also simply curious what it'd be like; it felt like an exciting new option. It's randomly assigned teams, isn't it? While he liked keeping to himself most times, he did also really enjoy spending a day being surrounded by a diversity of other Awakened, all using fascinating magics he could shamelessly eavesdrop on.

There were times he had to push himself to be social, but he rarely regretted it. Would you like to Duel? Yes. And this time, with a little anticipation, Solo queue. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Searching… Thirty seconds passed, before— Teams assembled! Match found! And the station shifted. This time, the arena seemed to be a frozen lake, with icicle-boulders protruding from the surface in places.

The lake's surface was mostly glassy, reflecting a bright sun, but there were lighter, clearly non-reflective patches on the ice also. He was teleported to one end of the station, and beside to him appeared 4 other people, spaced a few feet apart in a line. A rectangle of blue light surrounded where they stood, like a temporary barrier. Preliminary period has begun. 120 seconds until battle commences. He supposed this was time for strategizing and introductions?

His teammates were in their early 20's, like pretty much every F-ranker he'd noticed, and visually it was pretty clear they were a warrior, a mage, an archer, and a healer— which makes me secondary DPS, I suppose, if video game battle roles still holds. And they've held pretty well so far. The second thing he noticed was they were all wearing at least a little gear, and shiny new gear at that. Banners popped up in the center of the station.

One banner listed his team, and the other, the opposing side, which had been teleported to the other side of the lake. Also— I'm one of two provisionally rated people on my team, he realized. And then, with slightly more surprise— The entire opposing team's provisionally rated? They're all new. He recalled the fight with lugia_64. Maybe this'll be pretty easy as well, then. At the same time, the warrior beside him sucked in a sharp breath.

"Wait, what's up?" said their mage quickly—a girl with a cloak with a cloud symbol on it, wielding a staff topped with a light-blue crystal. She was the other provisionally rated person on his team, and he realized she was also totally new to teams—her rating was 400?" Check their gear emblems," the warrior said, nodding across the lake. The mage squinted for a second. And then—" Sword in shield crest?" she said.

"Isn't that—""Templar Guild," said the warrior, jaw clenched. As in— The realization hit Alex at the same time as it did the mage. The Guild that purchased that Ivy girl's contract from the ArchKnights?

"No freaking way," muttered their archer, who also squinted—" Really?"

"That's—""What are they doing fighting us?" said the mage-girl, wide-eyed. Which was also what Alex was thinking.

"They're probably a few of Templar's new F-rank fast-tracks," said the healer.

"We're screwed," said the archer, who laughed." What!"

"Don't say that," said the healer. He was also the highest rated out of all of them, at 515 elo.

"We don't need to beat ourselves before they beat us."

"Let's be so serious right now," said the archer." Just look at them!" Alex did. Every single one was decked in full gear; their warrior a chest plate and steel leggings, their archer a beautiful steel bow, with a clearly magical set of boots, leggings, vest. While his teammates had gear, it was clearly basic, and they were all missing several pieces.

"We have two total newbies," said the archer, nodding at the girl.

"One of which literally has zero gear—" He gestured at Alex.

"Is it literally your first day dueling, dude?" Before Alex could reply—"Exactly, there we go," said the archer. Alex pursed his lips.

"We still have them outleveled on average," the healer pointed out.

"We have four level 3's and one level 2, and—" That level 2 being Alex, specifically.

"They have an even split between levels 2 and 3," the healer finished.

"We do have a few advantages," he said, almost pleading. This fact didn't seem very reassuring to mage-girl or very convincing to archer-guy.

"So I understand," Alex said.

"They're new, like us. Some of us actually have more fighting experience, so what's with the doomerism, exactly?" They all turned to look at him. The healer seemed surprised, then a little grateful; the archer seemed amused.

"You're a newbie," said the archer, after a second.

"I'll cut you some slack. I should shoot you for asking a question that stupid, but you'll get just the one."

"We have ninety seconds left," said Alex, unimpressed.

"Do you plan on you spending all of it jerking yourself off, or will we actually use a little time to discuss fight strategy?" A pause, during which the warrior audibly snorted.

"And we're all newbies," the warrior said to the archer.

"You're Level 3, not Level 50. Chill?" The archer surprised Alex by looking surprised, then even more amused. He shrugged, and turned to Alex and actually answered his question.

"Of the five new recruits there," said the archer.

"Maybe one or two are from New York City, where Templar HQ is. That newbie will have taken part in Templar's NYC Selections a week ago, where they were the only candidate selected out of five thousand new Awakened. The rest might be from D. C., or L. A., or an international branch—but if their Selections were any less selective, it really isn't by much.

"Sure, maybe they haven't started proper Templar training, but even take away that, take away that expensive new armor—and I realize this might be hard to internalize, since you feel like you've already won the lottery by Awakening. But there's winners, and there's winners." 60 seconds until battle commences.

"You're about to experience what world class talent feels like," said the archer. He glanced wistfully across the lake.

"At least this'll be fast. You haven't died in v-Dueling yet, have you? It sucks. Well—the dying part's fine, it's the wounds leading up to it that's a real bitch. Supposedly you get used to it after a few hundred duels. Fuck, does it suck right now…"

"Weren't we supposed to talk about strategy?" said mage-girl; she seemed to want to get off the subject.

"Yes," said the healer, relieved.

"Standard formation?" The healer made eye contact with the warrior.

"Sure thing," said the warrior.

"That's you and kal at the vanguard," the healer said to Alex, referencing the warrior's username.

"With me and raingirl"—referencing the mage's username—"right behind you. Lux plays support from behind." The healer hesitated, glanced at the archer.

"That is, if you want to participate."

"I swear," said the warrior.

"If you screw us here—""When did I say I wouldn't participate?" The archer flashed a grin.

"Sure, I'll take the chance to stick it to a few city brats. I'm just realistic." 30 seconds until battle commences. The team was a little more dysfunctional than he'd hoped, especially given what they were facing, but at least this was an actual team now. Alex was glancing over across the lake already; he wanted to see what these so-called World Class talents would actually look like.

"If it's settled, we should probably talk a little about our specific capacities," said Alex.

"I'm a spellsword archetype, with Mana Shield and a little Mana Manipulation."

"Wait," said the mage.

"You're not a warrior class?"

"Yes," he said. At the look on her face—"And?"

"You can't be serious," said the archer, turning away, hands behind his head.

"Holy shit."

"Spellswords take a while to get off the ground," the warrior told him, finally sparing him the confusion.

"Since you practice two disciplines, it'll take a little while before you're combat-ready."

"Ah." I can see why that doesn't seem ideal for your Level 2 teammate.

"How exactly are you defining combat ready?" said Alex. He felt like he could contribute right now given his last two fights, but he'd never tried a fight like this, and his sample size was admittedly pretty tiny.

"I can fight."

"Level 2, gearless newbie spellsword against a team of Templar fast tracks talents!" The archer said.

"Will someone answer my question?" said Alex, cheek twitching. This team dueling exercise was significantly more irritating than he'd expected. No wonder I never got into solo queue games.

"It's subjective," said the warrior, glaring at the archer.

"A three second Mana Shield cast, and the ability to apply any mana to your sword," the healer told him reassuringly.

"If you can do that, it'll be more than enough to be able to help."

"Like this?" Alex pointed. A Mana Shield appeared right in front of him; it took noticeably less mana and will than it had before he'd gotten his first proficiency level. The archer pursed his lips.

"… Huh." Alex almost didn't understand the requirement— is it supposed to take a multiple second to cast a Mana Shield? There was a silence as the rest of his team inspected his Shield. The mage glanced at the shield, then his hands—"You're not using a wand?" she said. She seemed surprised. The warrior looked like he had a lot more questions, as did the mage, and the healer, but the timer at the station's center suddenly brightened. 3… 2… 1… FIGHT!

And the translucent walls restricting their starting position collapsed. The duel was on.