Chương 179: The Next Merge

Although the rest of the day after the Labyrinth run was supposed to be our break, I visited the library instead. I needed to plan out my next big Skill merge. The library was busier now. When I stepped inside, there were at least twenty other Dupes milling about, looking through the books and hunting for information about their own Skills, or planning their own merges. A pair of Habit's men were here. Most of them ignored me, which was probably for the best.

I didn't need anyone actually treating me like nobility, even if I was a thegn. Either they hadn't heard what I was, or they didn't care. Plus, even though I was maybe an inch taller than the average Dupe, and my face was growing slightly more slender than theirs, I was still a Dupe. At a glance, no one could pick me out of a crowd. I circled the library, walking along the outside shelves and making sure no one had done any damage to the library in the aftermath of the fighting.

In the chaos since the last day of the trial-joust, something could have gone wrong. But as far as I could tell, nothing had been lost. With relief, I went searching for books about spear Skills. I scoured the section of the library that contained books about weapon-based resonance Skills, running my gaze along the spines. In the past centuries that Dupes had existed, most of the study of our Skills and arcane advancement focused on the low tiers. The Coppers and Irons and Steels, where it was likely we'd stay.

As an Iron or a Steel, we were still effectively a supersoldier, and having armies of us helped the war effort, no matter how weak we were compared to our potential. Finite resources and all that. I was aware of how rare of a case I was. At least, with the System, it gave me and people like me the potential to grow quickly. Instead of having to spend decades learning highly specific Arts, we could make them using the System and through merging Skills. Was it specifically designed to keep us weaker?

Maybe, but I doubted it. If what we knew was true, and the Warlord created it, then it was designed to make an army. Why would you purposely stunt the growth of the soldiers who you depended on to win a war? Maybe, however, there was something within the System to make us more pliable. Something to stop us from opposing the Warlord. I just had no idea what it was. Besides, whatever it was, it wasn't working for me and the other Dupes I worked with.

We were getting strong, and we were more than capable of thinking about opposing the Warlord. It was just a reality that not every Dupe could ascend past Steel. Not every Dupe had the will or the resources. Just like regular Path-walkers didn't usually ascend past Titanium. But all that came together, still, and caused a problem for me: not enough research had been done on our Skills at a high level. Most of what I knew about Arts came from generalized knowledge and from examining what Path-walkers did.

Once a Skill reached the Advanced tier, though, information was sparse. I'd get one more upgrade to my spearmanship Skill where I had guardrails and guidance, and then the rest, I'd have to figure out. Maybe there would be clues here and there, though. Besides, I had hardly memorized all of the spear-focused books yet. For today, I picked a stack, then carried them over to the desk and sat down. In the past, I had used my gravity Art to make it more difficult to concentrate.

I would put myself inside a gravity well and use the extra weight to add more strain to everything. When it was more difficult to Focus, forcing myself to Focus anyway helped the stat increase. I couldn't do it when the library was so cramped, though. Instead, I went for speed. Without limits, how quickly could I read, and how effectively could I memorize the books? I flipped through the pages of the guides, learning about different Skills that were effective for merging into a spearmanship Skill.

It always worked the best if the merge included a few well-trained martial arts that related to the weapon. Fighting styles, like I'd done before, would manifest as a Skill if you concentrated your effort on using just the Style. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. In my early days, I'd used Sun Splinter as a style, but I hadn't really been trying to learn it. I'd been trying to learn to use a spear.

I'd mixed and matched from various styles, and Shave, though he'd been a good teacher, hadn't been perfect at the style. It had gotten watered down. When I went in and focused directly on it, I'd gotten the Skill. As for the benefits? Well, the Skill upgrade would, of course, be a mark of accumulated knowledge and just raw ability. The resonance Skill would improve—meaning I could pierce through more objects, and tougher objects.

According to the book, additional effects would appear at the Advanced tier, but that all depended on what you merged into the Skill. Lastly, there was the business of class upgrades. Right now, I was just a [Soldier]. But between Silver and Gold, during the final advancement, I would get the ability to change or upgrade my class. Apparently, the options available to me depended on what Skills I'd earned, but they had to be Advanced-tier.

So, if I wanted to get a class upgrade that actually made me stronger and was usable with my preferred weapons, I'd want all the important skills—spear, crossbow, and Mass Hammer—at Advanced or higher. I flipped through the books, looking through the diagrams, then decided I'd need books solely about spear fighting styles. If I wanted to pick up new styles and specific skills for them, like I'd done for [Sun Splinter] and [Cooper's Column], the best way was to observe the manuals.

After a few hours of reading, returning the manuscripts and books to the shelf, and then searching for more, I found a compendium of known spear fighting styles. An explorer had put the guide together, because he himself wanted to become the best mortal spearman in the world. This guide was centuries old. In the middle of the Age of Kings, the world was relatively peaceful. The Bane-lands were contained, and wars were small and short, and only between nations of men.

He travelled warm inland seas and met with ancient warriors from those cultures, and he travelled a trading road to the far east. When he returned, he entered secluded dwarven halls and learned their ways. Finally, his crowning achievement was learning from the elves. They only taught him one style—the Falling Leaf—but they were known for their skill with a spear, and one was enough to make this book a treasure trove.

For each, the explorer had made diagrams of the different footwork positions and different attacks, along with wordy descriptions and strict outlines of what the style entailed. If I put my mind to it, I could learn a few of these, at least. I spent the rest of the day memorizing the what I could, then shut the book.

"I promise I'll be back," I whispered. I had some new fighting styles to learn. ~ ~ ~ In the evenings, our schedule continued the same as it had been before we left. I'd had a long enough break, and I was ready to keep growing. More than ready, in fact. I itched to practice. I couldn't just sit around, doing nothing, while I left my lands out to dry. The people in the lands I'd inherited trusted me, and I had to make good on my promises.

My squad and I gathered in the sparring pits—sandy bowls around the outer ring of the castle—and practiced sparring while under the effect of my gravity Art. Today, I only let myself have ten uses of it at its full capacity. Two columns at once, converging on a single well, for the price of six Presence. Sure, I had a little leftover, but I wanted to keep it just in case. I didn't know when the next attempt on my life would be. If someone wanted to catch me off-guard, now would be the time.

I sparred against Brawl, first. Keeping my wells angled as steeply as I could, I created a five-foot wide circle of effect, where we were over ten times as heavy as we regularly were. We had the attributes to handle it, even if it felt like a mountain was pressing down atop us. And that was without any riftrocks in our bags. We swung our wooden training weapons, doing our best to keep our proper form, but the Mass Hammer was stronger than my regular wells. My lungs barely inflated properly.

My spine wanted to compact. Lifting my spear into a position to lunge was a chore, as was holding up my spear. As I leaned to the side to dodge a heavy slam of Brawl's flail, I nearly toppled over. Spit rattled in my through, rasping with each breath. I lunged, aiming for the gaps in his shield, and it felt like I was trying to stab through mud while holding up a freight train on the tip of my spear. I suppose this is what I deserved after three weeks of no practice with any weapons, though.

Next time I visited Hyrdford, I wasn't going to let myself get complacent like that, no matter how busy things got and how difficult the mental load was to carry. After a few swings, Brawl tapped out, and I cancelled the Art. I fell to the side, drenched in sweat, and flopped onto my back.

"Alright, who's next?" ~ ~ ~ I didn't realize how much I missed the bathhouses at the castle until I spent three weeks without one. Keeping myself clean daily was a luxury, but it also helped loosen the muscles after a hard day of training. After our sparring, we snuck into the baths right before they closed and cleaned ourselves up. The water may have been lukewarm, but it was still summer, and in the heat, it was refreshing.

As we cleaned off, I turned to Brawl and Anchor and said, "Looking forward to regular training tomorrow?"

"No, brother…" Brawl breathed.

"Not at all."

"I hear Lieutenant Owl has some new tasks for us," Anchor said.

"Our group in particular." Oh. Now, I wasn't sure if I was ready for training tomorrow. But I'd make do. I always did.