Chapter 28: Art Testing

I had to test out my new Skills. I only had two Presence, which was going to make this difficult—it meant I could only practice twice a day. But I vowed to always make sure to use all my Presence every day. The Skills wouldn’t do me any good if I didn’t know what they did or how to make them work.

But as soon as the others in my squad had heard about what I had just merged, they all came to find Shave and I immediately. I made them swear they wouldn’t spread the word, but I wasn’t sure if they could be trusted, and I only told them about one of my merged Skills. Likewise, I pretended that I’d merged [Archery] into it, because I didn’t want to give up the fact that I had a second resonance skill available in my arsenal.

I wasn’t worried about Elf or Romance, but if Ticks told Scar what I had…well, I just needed to play my cards close to my chest for now.

We finished up our daily tasks as quickly as we could, then raced out into the hills beyond. There were a few other groups of Dupes out training now, which I hadn’t seen before, so I asked, “What are they doing?”

“There are rumours swirling around the camp about your rather miraculous advances,” Elf said.

“Everyone’s wondering if the System has changed or something,” Ticks grumbled. “They don’t know about your Labyrinth trips, of course.”

“The System can’t change, can it?” I asked.

“We don’t know exactly how strong the Warlord is,” Shave replied. “But I think it’s unlikely that he would be able to reach into the Path and change it. And you would not be able to change the fundamentals of the System without changing the Path.”

“Right…”

“Kid, they’re seeing what you’re doing and seeing that it worked,” Romance said. “That’s all there is to it.”

I nodded. “Let’s just test out these new skills.” I stopped when we reached the top of a hill, not even realizing that I’d reached the front of our cluster, and drove my spear into the ground.

For a few seconds, I stared expectantly, then finally added, “How do I actually get a regular resonance skill to work?” It was better to practice with my regular Skills first to get a feel for activating a resonance Skill before I actually attempted my Art. I picked up my spear again, tapped the mud off the spearhead, then pointed it forward.

“Use the Nodespace,” Shave said. “Keep it in the back of your mind, and draw a mental line from your Presence node directly into the Nodespace. The Presence should travel along your internal ley and enter the Nodespace. Focus on the Skill you want to resonate, make sure you’re holding tight to the weapon it applies to, and strike.”

There was a boulder in front of us at the top of the hill. Considering what a spear’s resonance Skill was supposed to do—stab—I vowed I wouldn’t stop until I’d managed to poke a hole right in the middle of the boulder.

“It’s alright if you don’t get it right away,” Romance said. “Took me a few tries to activate my Resonance skill the first—”

I was already focusing on my Nodespace. With how much Focus I had, it was easy to split my attention between the inside of my body and the outside. I pulled back my arm, then thrust the spear forward.

A tremble of invisible power raced down my internal ley, racing from the top of my spine into the Nodespace, and I directed it into [Spearmanship].

The Skill activated, and my spear trembled. It was like it was pressing up against an invisible film, piercing the air, slicing through the atoms themselves. Of course, I had no way to tell, but that was how it felt. Like there was a deeper mesh beneath the surface of the world, and I was now cutting it as well.

Or…not cutting. Cutting was the wrong word. A spear wasn’t meant to cut—that was probably what a [Swordplay] skill would do. But it was piercing.

I thrust it forward toward the boulder, and the air rippled around the spearhead. It pierced a few inches in before coming to a halt, but I didn’t care.

I’d pierced rock.

I pulled the spear back and leaned forward. My spearhead had carved a four-inch-deep hole in solid stone, and it didn’t take any more effort than stabbing into dirt.

But at the same time, my muscles ached. I wanted to yawn, but when I tried, nothing happened. It was like half of my realness had been used up.

“You felt the Presence drain, didn’t you?” Shave asked.

“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my forehead.

“I spoke too soon…” Romance muttered. “He got it first try?”

Elf nudged his pauldron. “Yeah, that’s what happens when you invest in Focus. Trench got his first try too, and he’d been working on his Focus a lot more than you did. Which, you remember, you had a few debates about.”

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“We all tried to tell you that Trench was right,” Ticks said.

Romance was quiet. He’d been the closest with Trench. A numb coldness fell over everything, but after a few seconds, Romance turned to me and said, “Lap it all up now, while you can. We’ll be getting a newbie soon enough to fill out the last man in our squad, and you won’t be the golden boy for too long.”

He was probably trying to change the topic, so I just went with it. “I’m still…trying to figure out my Presence,” I said.

“It’s not gone forever,” Shave replied. “You’ll get used to it.”