You have gained:

Dash + 2.1%

Helping Hand Tier 8 + 4%

Toughen Tier 1 +8%

Gabriel had perfectly recovered from the event of the same day. At least physical damage was easy to receive and to heal. Mental damage? Not so much.

He was categorically refusing to think about what to do.

If there even were a way to know exactly where his mother had been taken, it would certainly mean asking for favors to the Reevers. They were a family of monsters. And would have probably helped him, but at what price?

So, dreading yet, yearning the moment notice would come of his mother’s kidnappers contact, he chose to focus on training.

The previous day’s battle had been good, both for his well being and to actually show him where he stood in relation to his strength. He had yet to find out what the girl’s exact level was because taken by his newly-found battle instincts; he had not used Analyze on her, a thing which he did not enjoy doing very much anyway.

Exchanging names before everything else should be a custom of every lawful and civilized society.

Anyway, he guesses the girl to be around mid-Tier 3. The punch he received had definitely been augmented by Skills. However, it was clear she was a fighter. The very fact that dealing him that absurd straight punch, she hadn’t been flung back by the contrary force, meant that she had chosen Mass is not an issue has one of her Perks.

What baffled him was his spell bouncing back on him. Was it one of her Skills, or something else? He would find out today.

As he washed up and got dressed, not even doing it on purpose, someone knocked on his door. A domestic dressed in midnight blue, which at this point, Gabriel was sure, was a color distinct to the family banner, reminded him that breakfast was due from six to nine, and it was already seven-thirty. He was kinda hungry, so he and Liz ran downstairs to eat.

It took ten minutes only to find the right hall. When he did, he found only a disheveled Darte eating snacks with his milk, he looked kind of grumpy, but that was not what shocked Gabriel.

In fact, the old-boy was looking with enthusiasm at an episode of a famous cartoon about a sea sponge.

“So… you are human after all. I almost thought you had been genetically modified to be born with the mind of a soldier,” he said to him. Taking whatever he could get from the banquet of both sweet and sapid

“What? I enjoy it, and it’s probably one of the best cartoons ever made, and if you fail-”

“I agree,” Gabriel answered at his usual rebuke.

“You- you agree?”

“Of course, I used to watch it too. Just stopped because of work, couldn’t always cut the time to follow it, but it made my morning every time I managed to watch it.” Gabriel answered, this time giving him a delightful smile.

Darte did not answer. He reined in a smile that was about to spark up and let the conversation drop, returning to his show.

Gabriel couldn’t help but grin at the effect a simple comment had on the at least still partially kid.

Gaia joined, followed shortly by Olivia.

“I thought to come and wake you, didn’t expect to find you already up,” said Gaia to him.

“Well… yesterday I got trashed by someone training in your gym. It felt good to recover from it. Whoever she was managed to outright-”

“I killed you with one punch. One punch. What kind of Herald gets killed with one punch?” The girl speaking sat by Darte’s side; she further disheveled his hair. Darte didn’t even take notice of it. She just shook her hand away when she placed it in front of his eyes. He was watching tv after all.

“There she is. The murderer,” said Gabriel.

“Hey!” she said, pointing at him with a fork on which dangled a sausage.

“See!? First, she’s killed me with a punch; now she threatens to do the same with a sausage. This girl is nuts! Nuts, I say!”

Olivia chuckled.

“I see you’ve met Arya… she’s our cousin. Aunt Harper’s daughter,” said Gaia.

Then the two exchanged a look. After a second, Arya rolled her eyes back.

“I want none with this. Byyyye!” She said, getting up and leaving; then she came back, taking as much food as she could carry and a glass of orange, and gave Darte a winkle. He automatically answered by giving her the tongue.

“What did just happen?” Gabriel asked.

“Nothing, she’s a free spirit. So, I think I should tell you about what has come out of our meeting,” Gaia answered.

“Alright, shoot. Oh, and thanks for the food. May I meet the chef to give him my compliments? These pancakes are… oh… perfect!” He moaned.

“Ye-yeah… no problem, I’ll get you to him later. Now please, let’s foc-”

“Before that!” Gabriel interrupted her with might. “...do you eat that?” He asked her, serious as a wolf on the hunt. He was pointing at a particular creamy looking brioche.

“Wha-? No, no. You can have it… if you ple-”

Gabriel did not even let her finish before grabbing the brioche from a plate near her.

Gaia turned toward Olivia with a look of disbelief on her face, Darte was doing his all not to laugh, but his red face showed how he was failing; however, when Olivia looked at Gaia’s embarrassed and weirded out face, she couldn’t help but choke on her latte. She sprouted forth milk from her nose.

Gabriel promptly lifted a plate he was interested in before anything could get on his plate.

“So,” he added, looking at Gaia, “what were we saying?”

***

As it seemed, Jackson and William Reevers, who was previously stationed at the front against the Priest of Lore, situated south of The Den in this place called The Vast, would be moved to guard duty back to The Den.

While the Elder had been adamant about having Gaia return to guard the Rapids, lest her bond with them would be rescinded, he made sure Gabriel would always have a place in which to stay at house Reevers. Aside from that, they had been ordered to meet the Seer of Carnage in a week’s time because of her tight schedules, at which Darte commented with a scoff.

Darte would instead go back to join the Cradle’s black ops team, as it had been until before Gabriel’s coming, under the leadership of her aunt, Harper.

Finally, Gabriel and Olivia were to travel always in pairs, but only after a tracking seal would be placed on both of them, especially Olivia, for some reason.

They would continue their investigation on Gabriel’s family, but that was it. Gaia shared nothing else. Olivia, who had at some point had been excused, returned to her room and didn’t hear more than what she was meant to hear.

“In the meanwhile,” said Gaia, “I suggest you train your Skills, Gabriel. Your growth has been spectacular until now; however, your Skills are still just Basic Skills. You should max them for growth. I’ll help you with our two accessible Dungeon Challenges; they are doable by any capable level three, to obtain Skill Tokens, if you manage to climb a few more levels, you might even gather the Hidden Reward,” she grinned, “which of course if you don’t kno-”

“It lets me choose additional Perks? Yup, got it from Turtle Dungeon,” he preceded her.

“Right! You even told me about it. Sorry, Gabriel.

“Farther than that, I cannot say. Since we don’t have to run for the Deep with such haste anymore, we might as well focus on powering you up enough that surviving even at Tier 3 won’t be a problem for you,” she added.

“Why at Tier 3?” Gabriel asked.

“Because that’s when experience from monsters starts really taking a steep descent. People who want to power-level instead of training with a slow grind of regular monsters, do so by facing Guardians and Elite monsters in Dungeons,” she explained.

“But you don’t have to worry. When your Attributes are all doubled, your survival rate will be very high. Especially so when you’ll be grinding for levels, which I know you will, at this point,” added Olivia. “I’m just sad I won’t get to get back home as soon as I hoped.”

Olivia sighed. Gabriel gave her a condescending look. “You want that training so badly, eh?” He asked.

She grinned, “We might as well go hunt for Priests at the front too. It would speed up your growth,” she added.

But Gabriel didn’t know about that, killing thinking people? That was not him. He had to try at least and stay away from that road, at least when he had the chance to.

“Doesn’t fit well with me. But you are free to do whatever you like, dude,” he grinned back.

“Oh? It’s dude now, I remember other words, back at the cave…” she jabbed, “much sweeter words. You, men, Heralds or not, are all the same.”

“Hey! There were no strings attached!”

“I know! I’m just trying to piss you off,” she answered.

“Alright, it’s clear we are wasting time now. Everything’s grown cold, my belly is full, and it’s high time I started training my new Skills, bye!”

Gabriel got up and headed to join Liz. The lizard had long since departed for the forest.

***

When he got out of the house, he recalled his Anchor Page.

Gabriel Walker

Race

Human

Level

33 (41.21%)

Class

Dark Arts Jack of all trades.

Class Level

28 (55.38%)

Spirit

Spirit of The Shiny-Lizard

Spirit Level

31 (38.85%)

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

Spirit

10/10

46/60

27/75

50/50

Attributes

Body

Spirit

Final

Affinity

38 (19)

7

45

Alacrity

19.8 (18)

11

30.8

Power

17

25.5 (17)

42.5

Recovery

47.6 (17)

8

55.6

Resilience

22 (20)

55 (22)

77

Stamina

20.4 (12)

10

30.4

Mana does indeed recover slowly here. I should focus on training Toughen and Dash then.

Though Dash increases only when actively using it in battle by 1% each use and out of battle by 0.1%, Toughen increases a lot if used in battle and by 1% in out of battle use, like yesterday.

Let’s see how they are faring.

Skills

Skill

Effect

Element

Slot

Type

Tier

Built to Fly

Defy gravity.

Permanently increases Stamina by 70%.

None

Stamina

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

7 (77%)

Burst Attack

Increase your Power and Alacrity by 300%. Permanently increases Recovery by 100%

None

Power

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

10 (MAX)

Dash

Increase your Alacrity by 100%.

Permanently increase Alacrity by 10%.

None

Alacrity

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

Tier 1 (02.5%)

Whispers of the Old God

Taints your Mana with the ideals of Darkness.

Permanently doubles Affinity.

Dark

Affinity

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

Very Rare

Helping Hand

Increase a target’s Recovery by 450%.

Permanently increases Recovery by 80%

None

Recovery

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

8 (67.2%)

Toughen

Steel yourself, increasing your Resilience by 100%.

Permanently increases Resilience by 10%.

None

Resilience

Basic Skill - Spirit Skill

1 (56%)

Damn, they're low… Dash is going to be a bitch to train. However, Toughen... That can be sorted out. Let's see how many times I can squeeze out of it if Helping Hand stays on for an hour.

Gabriel headed for the gym's location. The ground around that was more dirt and less grass, so he sat on the ground and started scribbling.

Helping Hand would increase his Recovery to 260~, which gave him back 12~ Life points an hour. This meant that if he kept it constantly up, he could increase Toughen Tier by at least twice in one day if he remained awake for the whole night. Not that he would do it but reaching Tier 3 was manageable. So, as long as he had Mana, he could max the Skill in a week's time before he left. Judging that Mana recovered at almost one-tenth of its original speed while on Earth, he would have to depend on Mana potions.

But Olive's warned me about them… however, I would reach my Toughen power-leveling goal by only using one Tier 3 potion. It should not be a problem. The problem would probably subsist if I wanted to train Built to Fly too.

Wait, I hope they can feed me Energy potions too… I wonder how these potions are made. It would be good to know.

While he thought about such stupid things, the thought that someone had taken his mother sent shivers down his spine.

Gabriel gritted his teeth.

Fuck you, bastards!

Gabriel used his feelings as fuel to return to his raging self, then raised his spear and brandished it against his left arm. Like he had been doing until what felt just the previous day, during the Challenge.

His forearm got cut right off, and he cast Helping Hand, followed by a series of Toughen Skills until he had no more Life points to use.

It was the only way for him to ascertain a long duration of Helping Hand. Though the Skill's functioning had been erratic, it did not stop until the original wound had been entirely healed.

"What the hell are you doing!?" asked a voice he knew.

With a fierce expression he had mustered, to not scream during his acts of self-mutilation, he turned toward it.

It was Arya Reevers, she had seen him from the gym.

"Training," he answered stiffly. Then he picked up his severed arm. The blood flow had already stopped.

"Where can I dispose of this?"

"You are insane…" the girls, really taken aback, started laughing, "you are fucking insane!" she kneeled on the ground, holding her abdomen.

"Want to help me train?" He asked, without waiting for an answer.

But the girl was lost in her world. It took her a couple of minutes before she could answer.

"My god…" she dried her tears, "you are so fucked up! Come with me… hahaha! Crazy motherfucker…"

She gestured for him to follow.

Arya brought him inside of the gym. One of the adjacent rooms was a special room, which handled exactly that; severed body parts.

"So, I'm crazy, but this is not?" Gabriel asked, looking at the room.

It looked like a normal locker room. However, there was a trick. Knowing the location, one could raise a panel from the ground, where a small pool where gurgled a violet-colored acid.

"It does, indeed, happen during training. This acid is strong enough to melt your arm in seconds. It can thoroughly harm even a Tier 6 Resilience. Don't throw it; just gently place it down," she said.

"Yep, not interested in droplets melting my skin, no thank you."

Once they were done, she led him to the center of the gym, where she threw him a cloth.

"What should I do with this?" Gabriel said, snatching it from the air.

"Train, what else. But no spear, that thing is crazy tough. What is it?"

Gabriel raised his spear, smug. "Sk'rayr spear. Legacy of fairy kamikazes. It's the only thing that kept me alive until now," he said, swinging it about.

"I see. I guess you haven't met Clast yet," she said, putting the blindfold over her eyes and head.

"Who? Anyway, if you want me to tie this thing around my head, you must help me out."

"Geez, you can't even do that? What will you do when you lose an arm in battle? Ask your enemy to fight against himself?" She said, gesturing for him to come forward.

"I killed a level 122 Boss with only one working leg. So shut the fuck up," answered Gabriel.

She tightened the blindfold until it hurt a little. "Don't bullshit me!" she pushed him away.

"It's true! Though I did seal his powers from inside of him, so it was like fighting a monster some twenty levels above me, maybe a few more," Gabriel couldn't see anymore, but he could feel the silence.

"Mind-bending or Spirit-bending?" She asked after a while.

"Both."

At his answer, he felt the cry of a monkey getting really aggressive.

"Koko! Stand down! He's not our enemy!" He heard her say.

As he felt the cry, Gabriel thought about summoning the spear he had strung on the ground; however, to be fast enough, he would have to Recall it, and that would require him to spend Mana. So he refrained from doing it.

"What is going on?" He asked, instead, and raised his blindfold to look.

Arya was caressing what looked like her Bond Spirit. The chimpanzee pointing at Gabriel with fury in its expression.

He hadn't felt him at all, Spirit Fade?

"I'm sorry," she answered, for the first time, an expression different from that of a shit-eating grin was showing on her face. "We… have a history with Spirit-bending."

"I'm sorry. I can understand. It's terrifying… So, is that related to your ability to reflect spells?"

"...yes. So, you did notice."

"How couldn't I? Is it a Skill?" He asked.

"It's my Confluence Skill. You can call it Signature Skill as well. Lower the blindfold, and use your senses. I'm going to attack you," she ordered.

Gabriel lowered it and put himself in defense. He entered the mindset of Kata of the Foam. "Tell me about it?"

"Your Confluence Skill is the epitome of your Class. It defines it. It changes your style. It can be your strong move, your strongest defense. Whatever it turns out to be, you will end up shaping your style around it," she said.

Gabe could feel her move around him. He turned to the right!

"Too slow." She smacked him on the cheek.

"Was I about to catch you?"

"Not even close," she said, "What will your Confluence Skill be, Gabriel? Do you already have a feel for it? Or are your Basic Skills, still just Basic Skills."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You have all the knowledge of the world at your disposal when you select a Skill, don't you? But what if it was the Skill selecting you?"

"I don't speak cryptic, woman."

Not even time to answer, and she smacked him on the back of the head. However, he felt fabric brush by his fingers.

"Almost got you!"

"No, you didn't," then came another smack, on his hand, then a swipe from below.

Gabriel ended up on his ass. But he had felt it, he wanted to jump, but his body wasn't prepared for it. He needed to build muscle memory and do it fast.

"My Skills are my own. Until now, I've only selected Basic Skill because I could afford it. My Affinity Skill, she chose me… I think."

"Then it's good!" she said, giving him a kick on the stern, a kick he managed to evade by shifting to the side.

It was true that she had made a lot of noise while preparing her move, but he had indeed evaded. However, he did not evade the next attack. He caught it.

Arya attacked with her hand-cut directed to his throat. Gabriel got inside of her range, catching her by the arm.

"Then it's good," she said, removing her blindfold and then his, "you can start from... there!"

Next he knew, Gabriel was flying through the room because she had flung him behind her back.

"Stand up. Today, I want to train with you."

Gabriel rolled forward, and he got up grinning. It would be a long day of sweating. Just what he needed.