Chương 53: R&R Ch. 53 — R and R

The visualization of the book was strange to Nicholas's mind; it was so close to the one he had for his own power, but the book, instead of muted colors and floating mist, was instead a resplendent garden. The plants in gold and green, instead of having flowers or fruits, had cards. It was odd. And before him was a table with nine slots. The book could cast any word, and he could have it burn up a piece of his soul to temporarily augment his authority.

But the final aspect was that he could designate signature spells more or less and dial them up to eleven. His soul was finally in good enough shape that he could finally make his first signature. And the answer was obvious: he had made Playroom as one of his words on a whim, but it was becoming the one he defaulted to in nearly every situation. This was the fifth session of working on making the card, and he was pretty close to having it completed.

Once the card was complete, they could start working on Jasmine's hammer and armor. Once that was complete, they would finally try to advance. Slowly threads of silver and blue connected the table to the card that represented Playroom. The card and the spot had both been made to his standards; now was just the process of joining them. Nicholas knew it wouldn't finish today. Which was irritating, but he couldn't throw stones; he knew how long it took for Jasmine to make the soul items most of the time.

This was a part of her power he was going to have to deal with, getting the benefit of making one of his signature techniques substantially better in every metric. After another hour of meditation, Nicholas felt the equivalent of someone knocking on his soul. Nicholas slowly pulled himself out of the meditation state. He had learned previously that just jumping out was disorienting at the best of times.

"You're getting better at that," Jasmine said, lying on his bed as he shook himself fully out of the meditation state. Nicholas leaned back in his desk chair, propping his feet on his desk.

"I'm working on it slowly, yeah."

"You almost done?" Jasmine asked pointedly, pretending that she wasn't very excited for the answer. Nicholas's soul recovered slower than hers, so she was just waiting on him. She didn't care about it, but he did. Being the one that was slowing their team was irritating to him, even if Rend seemed to be content to let them just chill out for a little bit. Nicholas was still irritated. He should have won that fight, but no, they ended it early for no reason, and his mentor had done something strange.

Even though the cuts had been just flesh wounds, they had cut more than just his skin; it was as if his being was strained.

"I should finish up the playroom signature tomorrow, probably? Call it another day to adjust and another day for wiggle room?" Nicholas suggested.

"Wait, really?" Jasmine asked, sitting up.

"Like you'll actually be ready in a few days for us to try?" Nicholas nodded. It was certainly a tighter timetable than they had expected, but he was getting better at knowing his own limits, and he was pretty certain he was right.

"So come the weekend, we can go back to being Retort and Retribution at full force?" Jasmine asked. Nicholas pulled out his phone to check what day it was; he barely knew.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Nicholas nodded before standing up.

"You want to go get something to eat?"

"Yup, I was just waiting on you," Jasmine said, rolling off his bed and joining him as they walked to the kitchen.

"Rend still out on his mission?" Nicholas asked, looking around to see if their mentor was anywhere to be found. Rend had still been treating them oddly, and while he was letting them rest, it was clear he wanted them back in the field. Nicholas presumed it was so they could learn their lesson and admit the error of their ways, but he couldn't be entirely sure. As he sat down, Nicholas tapped his wrists together to bring up his status.

Nicholas Rank: 2 Belief: 14, 786 Karma: 11, 263 Power: Domain: Words Ascension Pending All other information restricted. It was about what he had expected, and with the notification to rank up pressing against him, it was a daily battle not to accidentally slip up and rank up. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Apparently other people had a much easier time resisting the rank up, but for some reason himself and Jasmine both were struggling to resist it. But they were going to wait till their soul damage was completely healed, which meant they were going to have to wait until after they fixed Jasmine's hammer and armor set. Since they would both be taking on more soul damage to do that. It would mean dealing with Lupine at F-Rank, but neither of them were fussed.

Might as well give him the level playing field when they inevitably do deal with him, even if they had yet to decide how they wanted to. Nicholas was still of the mind that they should just kill him, but he could acknowledge Jasmine's defense wasn't entirely wrong; he just disagreed.

"Anything interesting?" Jasmine asked, peering at her own stat window.

"Take a look for yourself." Nicholas said, fighting back a yawn as he passed the information over to her. An instant later, she did the same. Jasmine Rank 2 Belief: 14, 982 Karma: 12, 143 Power: Soul Forge Reforged Body: Soul Isolated (Suppressed) Ascension Pending All other information restricted. About what he had expected, her information was damn near identical to his, and it had been since they had seriously started making headway as heroes.

"Are you excited to have your Soul Isolated body next rank?" Nicholas asked. He couldn't remember if he had asked before.

"You should be too. Our souls are linked, so me not being able to get regular soul damage is a benefit for both of us," Jasmine teased.

"Good point." Nicholas said, standing up to start cooking. Eventually, he would have to make sure Jasmine learned how to cook, but since they hadn't ordered and neither wanted to wait till the delivery came if they ordered now, it fell upon him to make something.

"What are you going to make?"

"No clue, probably sandwiches, they're pretty fast." Nicholas admitted.

"Gasp! You're going to make food that's fast to cook and fast to eat so you can go back to meditating!" Jasmine said, laughing.

"Like you're any better! The only reason you came to chill in my room is because we planned to have lunch together between your gym sessions." Nicholas said, rolling his eyes.

"You could always come with me?" Jasmine asked, fluttering her eyelashes.

"You've already finished with your book meditation session for the day and you've said about one hard core word crafting session is your limit before it becomes pointless."

"You do realize me going to the gym with you will just be me falling behind as you lap me or whatever the equivalent is, right?" Nicholas pointed out.

"It's still more fun than doing it all alone, please? Come on, we're dating now! You should come with me!" Jasmine said. It had become both of their favorite excuse to get the other to do something for them, even if they hadn't actually done anything Nicholas would consider particularly romantic. Both had been too busy healing for either of them to actually be willing to go out on a date and begin actually trying it all. But working out was good for him, even if he didn't like it.

He couldn't always just fly around, and the physical abilities he had now would influence his rank three body's capabilities even if the main capabilities would already be set in stone. As part of their check ups they had been told where their projections were for their rank-up and if they could change the direction. Nicholas was under no uncertain terms told he was locked in. His habit of using massive abilities meant he had stuck himself to one path.

But it was the one he had wanted to walk in the first place, so in his estimation it wasn't that big of a deal.

"I'll go happy?"

"No, I don't have food yet that will make me happy."

"As you wish," Nicholas said, handing her the first plate, which Jasmine looked at for all of a second before bounding to the snack pantry and grabbing a bag of chips for them to split. Nicholas's desire not to go running warred with his habit of eating fast so that he could go and do literally anything else besides eat. And it was a battle his usual habits won; he had finished his food before Jasmine.

"So, what are we starting with?" Nicholas asked once he had changed into clothes more suited for exercise. Jasmine had already been wearing yoga pants and a tank top, so she got to escape the need to change.

"Today's mostly my stretching day so we're going to start with running." Jasmine said already jogging in place.

"How is stretching running?" Nicholas asked jogging towards the stupid track where they would do all of their stupid running while he hated every moment of it.

"I like to get my blood pumping first. Come on, we can make a game out of it." Jasmine said, stopping at the starting line.

"Would you rather have it be a competition game or a fair game?"

"I don't care."

"Sweet, so for every lap each of us do we'll each get to ask one question of the other, and you can use your laps to stop someone from questioning you. We'll go for an hour or until we both give up." That was a competition. And it was a certainty that Nicholas would lose. But he was going to try his best anyway.

"You're on." Nicholas said, not even bothering to stop at the starting line. He would just get going; he was going to need every advantage he could get for this.

"Hey wait!" Jasmine said, jogging after him and matching his pace once they were side by side.

"That's cheating."

"Yup, so you going to lap me an extra time to remind me how dare I attempt such vile acts of villainy?"

"Good point." Jasmine sprinted, going all out, leaving Nicholas to decide between keeping up his own measured pace or racing after her in an attempt to make this not a complete embarrassment. He knew the score. They had raced often enough in class back at the academy. She had been with the frontrunners with other legacies. He had been in the back, just barely past the people who weren't even bothering to try. Nicholas was not a quick person and had absolutely no athletic ability.

The race was over the moment he started. But he could get laps to at least block questions which he was sure was the sole point of their existence, to be his consolation prize. He didn't mind it wasn't like he was bothering to hide anything.

"So do you think I should ask my questions as I lap you or at the end during stretching?" Jasmine asked, slowing down beside him now that she had lapped him once.

"If you decide to ask them now, I'm pretty sure that's one of your questions," Nicholas pointed out.

"No thank you, I have tons of embarrassing questions I want to ask now that you can't lie to me." Jasmine giggled maniacally as she ramped up her pace again. Nicholas wouldn't have lied anyway, but he could agree that with their souls now bonded, it would be a lot harder, and the types of questions he would want to ask were very different. He knew Jasmine. He trusted her. But he didn't really know her outside of what they had experienced together; beyond that, he wasn't sure just who she was or what made her up.

Though he knew not a single one of his questions would intentionally touch on her family, he was socially inept, but even Nicholas wasn't that stupid. She had gone on at length that she wanted to prove she was going to be someone who could stand on her own. As Retribution, not as the descendant of — Nicholas technically wasn't sure. He had been trying hard not to think about it. Or would Jasmine use her laps to completely block him out so she could ask questions and he couldn't?

Nicholas started running faster to try and close the distance.