“Definitely not. Our origins are a bit too humble for that. We all met on the job.”
“Right,” Jason said. “The zombies.”
“We worked together well, and I think Rufus’s grandfather quietly pushed things along. Rufus puts more pressure on himself than anyone else does, and I think his grandfather was hoping we would lighten him up.”
“How’s that going?” Jason asked.
“You should have seen Rufus when we first met,” she said. “He was like a string, constantly pulled taut. It was only so long until he was going to snap.”
She looked around, with a smile. “Coming out here has been good for him. Getting away from everything.”
“He blames himself for you getting captured, though.”
“Mistakes are inevitable,” Farrah said, “but it was good they happened so far from home. He doesn't have to feel like people are looking over his shoulder as he makes them.”
Farrah was wearing the loose, draped clothes in the local style, including a long, coat-robe that made her look a bit like a Jedi. She reached into it and pulled out an awakening stone that she tossed casually to Jason. It was like dark glass, shining with a faint radiance of moonlight. It was cool in his hand.
Item: [Awakening Stone of Omens] (unranked, epic)
An awakening stone containing the power of destiny (consumable, awakening stone).
Requirements: Unawakened essence ability.
Effect: Awakens an essence ability.
You have 9 unawakened essence abilities.
You are able to absorb [Awakening Stone of Omens]. Absorb Y/N?
“What’s this for?” Jason asked.
“We haven’t forgotten that you saved us back in that ritual chamber,” Farrah said. “We’ve each gotten you a gift, something to help you start your adventuring life.”
“You saved me too. Even if I’d gotten away, I probably would have died in that desert.”
“Maybe, but saving us took courage and heroics. Saving you just took a basic sense of direction. Use the stone; it wasn’t easy to find.”
“High rarity stones tend to be more specialised, right?”
“That’s right.”
“This one is epic. What are you expecting me to get?”
“With luck, an aura ability, although maybe not. That was the rarest stone I could get my hands on that is known for aura powers. Every good adventurer should have a perception power and an aura ability, and the perception power you already have. Once you have an aura ability you can learn to control your aura.”
“And that’s important?”
“Very. Anyone who hits bronze rank and can’t manage their aura is a second-rate adventurer, and you can’t do that without an aura ability.”
“Well, we can’t have that,” Jason said. The stone sank into his hand.
You have awakened the sin essence ability [Hegemony]. You have awakened 4 of 5 sin essence abilities.
40
Eyebeams and the Ethics of Adventuring
After finding out Jory had an unused courtyard behind his clinic, Rufus moved the daily training there. It was really just a walled-in dirt yard, but was sufficient for their needs. The day would begin with Gary, who would run with Jason to Jory’s clinic. After replenishing his stamina by draining the sickness from Jory’s patients, Jason was ready for more physical training.
The approach to physical training was startling in its familiarity. Farrah had left a set of barbells from her magical chest in Jory’s yard, covered with a tarp. Gary would alternate between strength training with weights and more agility-based training, leading Jason through all kinds of flexibility exercises.
While instructing Jason, the normally relaxed Gary became a harsh task master, brooking not even the slightest amount of slack. As he watched Jason’s form during push-ups, sit-ups or lunges, he would lecture on the importance of training.
“When your speed attribute reaches bronze,” Gary said, “you will be faster than you ever were before. If you don’t know how to use that speed, that agility, those reflexes, then you will die to someone that does.”
Sometimes Gary would take Jason out of the clinic’s yard and into streets and alleys of Old City. He taught what Jason was startled to recognise as parkour. Climbing, roof running, acrobatics; in spite of his huge body, Gary was astoundingly proficient.
Jason voiced concern about this strategy, given the generally busy state of Old City and his own lack of expertise. Gary insisted on a learn-by-doing approach, telling Jason what he did wrong as he did it. Jason voiced the same concerns again after he fell from a rooftop and had to pay for the crushed contents of a fruit cart.
“Sorry about that, Herbert,” Jason said as he handed over the coins.
“I look at it this way,” the balding, paunchy fruit seller said. “I just sold a full cartload of fruit and it’s barely daylight. And please, call me Bert.”
“I’m not sure this is working out,” Jason told Gary.
“You don’t just start off good at difficult things,” Gary said. “You have to begin at bad and work your way up.”
“That I get,” Jason said. “I’m just not sure about the methodology. Maybe I should try somewhere less crowded until I’m better?”
“The ability to move with speed and confidence, always aware of your surroundings is essential to an adventurer,” Gary said. “Sometimes you have to run, sometimes you have to chase. You rarely get to choose when or where. You must always be ready, always aware. Whatever you’re doing, wherever you’re doing it.”
Once Gary was done with him, Jason would replenish himself again with clinic patients. On the first day, Jason noticed Jory giving him a wary look.
“What?” Jason asked.
“I know you’re helping people and all,” Jory said, “but you’re literally feeding on the misery of others.”
“You want me to stop coming in?”
“Gods, no.”
“Alright then,” Jason said. “I don’t suppose you want to help me stich a body together from dismembered corpses and animate it with lightning?”
“That would be disturbing,” Jory said, “if you didn’t so obviously know nothing about actual necromancy.”
Word of Jason’s free healing started getting around, so there were always people waiting each time he arrived. By the time he cleared out the patients, Rufus would arrive for more training.
The training with Rufus was the most tedious part of Jason’s day. Footwork and balance, footwork and balance. Sometimes it was moving around with a forced gait, feeling awkward and inefficient. Other times it was balancing in strange stances on pegs Jory let Rufus hammer into the dirt yard. Whenever Jason’s form was wrong, Rufus would sweep his legs out from under him, or kick him from what he was balancing on.
“You’re breaking your body line. Anyone with even rudimentary skills would put you on the ground in a moment.”
“It feels awkward to move like that,” Jason said.
“That is because you don’t walk, run, stand, lean or sit properly. When it stops feeling awkward, you will be ready to use a skill book.”
“So, I could just lie and we move onto the skill book?”
Rufus’s leg swept Jason’s out from under him with such force that Jason went horizontal in the air, followed by a savage downward chop smashing him into the ground. Rufus stood over him as Jason curled up in the dirt, choking and coughing.
“There will be a test,” Rufus said.
In the afternoons, Farrah would take over. This was the part of his training regimen Jason enjoyed the most. Gary and Rufus’s instruction was classic montage material, while Farrah’s training was something altogether different.
The spirit attribute, Jason learned, governed not just magic strength, but also perception. Farrah subjected Jason to an array of unusual but often interesting and fun exercises. They would play memory games with cards, or she would make him taste-test things while blindfolded.