“So how did I really do?” Erik asked.

  “You fight sloppily. You waste your movements. You have no aura control and you rely too much on your already familiar patterns of attack,” Leviathan said.

  “Alright, go ea-”

  “You barely pay attention to your surroundings, and lack any and all combat sense. Everything from your footwork to your reflexes are trash,” Leviathan continued.

  “Sheesh. Let me keep up, please.”

  “Your attention span is also abysmal,” the creature said with a deep chuckle.

  “Nothing good to say?”

  “You have a lot of potential, and your willingness to grow stronger is quite admirable. Do not pay much attention to what I’ve said earlier. No one would expect you to be better at those things without specific training, and years of it,”

  “Aw, you’re sweet,” Erik said with a grin.

  “Bear in mind, Master Titan, that adding to your powers just gives you another blade to fight with. It doesn’t matter what blade you wield when you keep striking with the blunt end.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. I’ve been thinking about getting some training with the military, but things have gotten complicated. Can I train here?”

  “I would have it no other way. We can all teach you our skills, but only until you evolve further. Additionally, practice here does not instantly translate to your physical body. Focus on gaining knowledge, experience and improve your focus. Out there, you must train your body to keep up,” Leviathan explained.

  “I can do that once I heal up. Why can’t you help me after I rank up?” Erik asked.

  Evolving occurred when all his major abilities and his Core ability went up a tier. This would normally add more effects to the abilities that may just as well alter the entire ability.

  “The powers you absorb can only be considered a base. Take my power as an example. You have absorbed that power in its most basic form. It is weaker than my own power, but can grow to be just as powerful, or even more so. When you evolve, however, it can evolve in any number of ways, in countless directions. I may be able to guide, but from even the first evolution of that power, it is no longer a base of my power, but a variant completely your own. The change can be an addition, an alteration, or even a complete redesign. It all depends on you.”

  “I see. Still, I’d really appreciate the help,” Erik said.

  “It will be my pleasure. Now, are you ready for more? This time, use only my power,” Leviathan asked with an excited growl.

  “They’re both taking a while,” Sophie commented, nervously sitting on the floor where she could see both her sister and Erik. They had both been meditating for well over an hour, closing in on two. Angela and Emma weren’t as nervous, but they hadn’t seen them do this before.

  Her sister’s Core was shining brightly, and the crimson light bathed the room now that the sun had gone down. Erik’s wasn’t shining as brightly, but he’d finished absorbing the crystal after the first thirty minutes, tops. For some reason, he didn’t end his meditation.

  That might be for several reasons, but Sophie couldn’t know for sure. Nothing else was happening in the room, as the three girls were simply making smalltalk once in a while. They had all visited Jessie’s and Sophie’s room to inspect the weird collection of items Jessie had brought back with her.

  What was she planning to do with a heart, four kilos of flour, and was that a real skull? Where did she even get a skull like that? And what was that in the jerrycan, smelling so awfully? It was a mix of savoury and sweet smells.

  “Erik’s been done for a while, hasn’t he? Is he stuck?” Emma asked in response to Sophie’s comment.

  “They have been saying they need to meditate to acclimatise to their powers. Maybe that’s what he’s doing? Jessie seems to be stuck doing that thing Erik told her to do, still,” Angela said.

  “Maybe,” Emma said, looking intensely at Erik. At least he appeared calm. Even during their meditation, their faces would change. They’d be visibly straining, grimacing, and their eyes would dart back and forth under their eyelids.

  Erik was completely calm, with the exception of his eyes sometimes, but he didn’t seem panicked in any way. Jessie, however, was visibly straining for minutes at a time, before settling down. She would eventually strain again, repeating this pattern every few minutes or so.

  “Jessie’s clearly stuck,” Emma said as she turned her stare towards the second girl on the floor. Jessie’s eyes opened just then, meeting Emma’s.

  “I am,” she said, sighing as she took a deep breath after her ordeal. “Erik isn’t back yet, or did he continue with the second one?” Jessie looked over to the table, seeing the pile unchanged from earlier.

  “Still under, though we don’t know why. He finished the absorption a while ago, and doesn't seem to be in trouble, as far as we can see,” Angela said.

  “I need his help,” Jessie said in a dour tone.

  “Anything we can do?” Angela asked, sitting down on her knees next to Jessie.

  “Maybe. I’m stuck trying to merge with my magic. It isn’t like Erik experienced it. He said it was a sphere, something like a planet. He made it seem so simple to just sweep over it with his will, then merge his manifestation of his physical self with the contents. It’s more abstract to me. There’s all these colours floating around, like long pieces of string caught in the wind. I feel like I should gather them together by colour, and I’ve done that.

  Once separated, there’s just four colours remaining, as the rest of the colours were just from the overlap between the different colours. Red, blue, green and orange. I think they represent the four elements; fire, water, wind and earth,” Jessie started explaining.

  Angela and Emma were both listening intently, and Sophie tried keeping up as well, though she struggled with visualising what her sister was explaining.

  “Now, the problem I’m having is placing these pieces together. It’s like a four-piece puzzle, but fire and water can’t be together, nor can wind and earth. I’ve tried stacking them upwards, but the pieces don't fit that way. When I’ve put four pieces together, an energy runs through them, almost like a pipe-puzzle.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  You know, where you have to turn the pipes in a certain rotation to get the water running through to the final pipe? Those pipes don’t match unless I place the pieces in a square, but that places both fire and water, and earth and wind adjacent to each other. The opposite pairs start cancelling each other out, even if they’re placed diagonally adjacent,”

  “The way you’re explaining it makes it seem kind of impossible,” Emma said, looking at Angela. Emma was the brute to Angela’s strategic mind. She wasn’t stupid in any sense of the word, but Angela was probably a genius.

  “It does. Are you sure you got all the rules right? Like, for instance, you’re stuck with those puzzle pieces, or can their shape be altered? Can you move the pipes? Are the pieces 2D, are they invertible?” Angela asked, listing more stuff as she thought of them.

  “Have you considered cheating?” Sophie asked, making the three other heads turn her way. “I mean, It’s a part of you, right? That place you are when meditating. You cheated your way through school, so it kind of fits your personality, doesn’t it?”

  “You think I’m subconsciously setting myself up for failure unless I cheat?” Jessie asked, considering this without a clear response from Sophie. “Of course I am. I think I get it, now. Thanks guys, thanks sis,” Jessie said a moment later, grinning widely. She immediately went back into meditation, her Core growing brighter as she did.

  “You think she’ll make it?” Emma asked no one in particular.

  “She’ll make it,” Sophie said with a smile directed at her unconscious sister.

  “I should get back soon. I just got a stern talking to about not considering my friends when I did stuff,” Erik said, having lost yet another fight.

  The two had been fighting on and off for the past several hours, and Erik had finally understood how he was wasting his potential by keeping to his old tactics during the first fights. Still, he had been more limited with only Cross’ Core ability and the fact that it required certain components.

  Luckily, that wasn’t a requirement with his new ability, though it had other requirements. It was also much more energy intensive, draining him of energy relatively quickly.

  He hated the fact that there was no such thing as mana, a separate pool of magical energy that wasn’t also what he used for every other activity. That said, it seemed he could practically run around all day without tiring anymore, only really feeling fatigue after using his magic, or absorbing crystals.

  He hadn’t tried doing that, but maybe he should. Knowing his new limits would be extremely important. Based on Leviathan’s explanation, Erik wouldn’t get that feeling inside this meditative world, which made sense. This place was purely magical and mental, with not even a shred of real physicality. He wasn’t actually using any magic, just mental effort.

  “Remember to rest. You do not have to rush. Take time letting your physical body catch up,” Leviathan said.

  “I will. It wasn’t the plan, but I know better now. You’re right,” Erik said, smiling at the creature.

  “Next time, ask Sovereign to teach you aura control. It is by far your most lacking skill, and it will benefit you greatly, no matter what the future brings.”

  “Thanks, Levvie,” Erik said, scratching the beast. It growled in delight.

  Erik woke from his meditation moments later. Angela wasn’t in the room, but Emma sat beside Jessie covered in a duvet not belonging to Erik’s room. She wasn’t sleeping, but hadn’t noticed Erik waking yet. Jessie was meditating, still trying to merge her self and her magic. Erik knew this by the crystal she had picked up earlier, but was still lying to her side. Her core glowed intensely, but she didn’t seem to be in any trouble.

  Erik looked around, noticing the clock. It had been over three hours since he went under. It felt like he’d been gone longer, just like it had last time. Was time somehow moving faster when meditating? If it did, that would be an amazing way of training himself.

  He then noticed Sophie, curled up beside him in his bed. She’d curled herself so tightly she barely used any space. She snored softly. Erik stretched his legs with as little movement as he could, so as not to wake the girl. Emma turned her head towards him as he got up on his feet, and instantly fell down on his knees in pain.

  He had completely forgotten he was badly hurt earlier in the day. His manifestation of his body during meditation didn’t have a massive wound on its back.

  “Welcome back. Everything okay?” she whispered softly, looking at her fallen comrade carefully pushing himself back up to his feet.

  “Great, actually. How’s Jessie? Where’s Angela?”

  “Jessie was struggling for some time, but woke up and got some help figuring things out. It’s been about an hour since then, and she seems much calmer now. Angela went for coffee a few minutes ago. She should be back soon.”

  “Awesome. I’m exhausted, but I’d like to stay up and wait for Jessie. You can go to bed if you want,” Erik offered.

  “It’s only ten at night. Sophie’s exhausted as well. It’s been quite a rough day for her, poor thing. She told us about your meeting with her ex,” Emma said.

  “Yeah, what a jerk.”

  “Anyway, she’s been eagerly waiting for either of you to finish up. That little book-project of hers really excites her. She’s been grasping the book tightly since you went under.”

  “She did seem to enjoy that oddly much, I suppose. Maybe she thinks it's how she can help us.”

  “I think so, too. Don’t you think she’s a bit too… precious? I mean…”

  “Innocent? Naive?” Erik asked, having thought the same thing.

  “Yes. She’s twenty-one, and doesn’t seem to have any purpose in life. Maybe I’m not the right person to compare her with, but isn’t it a bit odd?” Emma asked, looking at the sleeping beauty.

  “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. She’s a carer. Maybe she’s just the thing we need, a bit further down the road. Hell, even now,” Erik said, looking the same direction.

  “Yuck,” Jessie said as the red light in the room shrank and vanished almost entirely.

  “How did it go?” Erik asked, turning back to look at Jessie. She got up quickly, picking up the crystal beside her, placing it back in her pile.

  “Great. I did it. It was hard, but I managed. Just had to cheat a little.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, don’t you think you should’ve done it properly?” Erik said, his worry plain to see.

  “I did it properly. It’s a bit like a personality test in some ways, I think. Being sure of who you are and melding that with what you’re supposed to be. I’m great at cheating, or did you forget?” she asked with a grin.

  Erik hadn’t forgotten that at all. In Afterlife, whatever game they played, she cheated in some way or another, no matter what. She wasn’t even an especially sore loser. She just made finding loopholes, or breaking the rules without getting caught, her own game that she played on top of the other one.

  Even when Hosu had taught them some elven games, Jessie went all out figuring out how to cheat as inconspicuously as possible, before even learning to play the game as it was supposed to be played.

  As Erik understood it, it wasn’t simply for winning’s sake. She didn’t want to simply obey the rules cited to her. It was exceptionally annoying playing with her, but Erik considered it one of her strengths. No one was able to think outside of the box like Jessie was.

  “If you’re sure, I suppose I shouldn’t worry. Are you ready for an absorption, or do you need rest? You’ve been at it for longer than me,” Erik said.

  “Barely,” Emma commented. While that was true, Erik had felt more drained after the meld than any of his absorptions, but not much more so.

  “Nah. It’s time to use my first major power,” Jessie grinned at the two, then walked over to Sophie, stroking her cheek.

  “I’m awake,” she said sleepily. Had she heard Erik and Emma talking about her?

  “Want to join us on the roof? It’ll be awesome,” Jessie said in a soft whisper into her younger sister’s ear.

  “Mhmm,” the girl weakly nodded, then rubbed her eyes as she sat up.

  Angela walked in just then, but Jessie shoved her, and the coffee pot she was holding, right back out the door, signalling everyone to follow her. Emma followed closely behind, but Erik waited for Sophie to really wake up.

  “You okay?” he asked, and the girl walked to his side, placing her head on the side of his shoulder.

  “Yeah. You?” she asked, barely keeping her eyes open.

  “Good as new,” Erik lied, and the sleepy girl seemed to believe him.

  He led her out of the room and towards her own room, where he heard the others were packing up whatever Jessie had been away to gather up earlier in the day, all the while keeping a hand to the wall to support himself. Sophie was eventually awake enough to at least walk and talk normally, so Erik was ordered to carry something slightly troubling.

  “Is this..?” he asked, looking at the oddly shaped skull.

  “Yes,” Jessie responded, exiting the room with several boxes of flour in her arms. Angela and Emma were busy fighting over which of them would not carry a red jerrycan, for some reason. Erik looked back at the horned skull in his hands. What was happening?