Luca DR
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15 – New exciting things (2/2)
🕑 Added 2023-05-12 10:20:21 +0000 UTCYesterday. Sunday, September 21.
Crossing the street in [Bullet Time] had been one hell of an experience. Something that carried with it not only the adrenaline of knowing Albert was doing something he was not supposed to do, but also the knowledge that he was indeed using magic in the real world and among real people as opposed to the sterile and self-contained instances of the daily challenges. It also posed challenges that needed to be overcome. For instance, one might think that cars would move slowly when subjected to a five times dilation effect, yet their speed was still quite dangerous. What’s more, it was strange to see them move at abnormal speed, and their sounds were all distorted too, which meant that relying on intuition to gauge their velocity could lead to false assumptions.
It was a fair bit of fun, and Albert did not disable the skill until he was some distance away, so that he could avoid suddenly appearing in the middle of the sidewalk as if emerging from an unnaturally fast sprint. His current mana reserves allowed him to keep the skill active for 15 subjective minutes, which meant three real-world minutes before he was out. It was not enough time to get all the way home, of course, but it was enough time to change location completely and reach a metro station.
He arrived home around lunch time. The first thought he had was to rewind time and make use of the ‘second’ morning to complete the daily challenge. However, there was a problem with that course of action: if he rewound time, then his visit to his grandpa wouldn’t have happened and he would have to go there again. Nope. Not a good idea.
“How’s grandpa?” Downstairs, Mother was making pasta, and the pot simmering over the fire filled the kitchen with a wonderful smell that made Albert salivate.
“He’s doing really well. He said that you’ll be visiting him in the afternoon?”
“Yeah!”
“He was quite happy about it, you know?”
***
There were three ways to spend the afternoon, and Albert needed to choose which one was going to be. Well, which two, considering his time traveling disposition. One was to finally start reading the book about magical items he had gotten as a reward a couple of days earlier. Another was getting to do the quest for [Analysis Mode], which was something of a priority for him. And the third was to do the daily challenge that the system had given him. Of all three, only the daily challenge was really on a time limit, and while Albert didn’t really feel like doing it, he also did not want to lose the free rewards that came with completing it.
The idea of having to study reminded him of the finitude of his existence, and thus he was forced to retract the statement that he could choose two activities, instead collapsing his choices to just one: the daily challenge.
It was some kind of training that was preparing him for the future, letting him get used to magic in a somewhat controlled environment. Not controlled in the way that it was not dangerous, more like that the consequences of what he did in the training sessions did not matter in the real world. He only grew powerful inside the challenges, with no other change to his environment. He didn’t know whether these challenges were simulations, other universes or something else entirely, but regardless of the nature of the thing its usefulness was undeniable.
[Transporting to Daily Challenge – Day 05: Precision Training.]
An endless plain stretched across horizon, far away clouds white and snowy as they waded through the air impossibly slow. There was a faint breeze that carried the smell of salt and rock, and the sand under Albert’s feet shifted with his every move. He was on top of a little dune, the only feature of the otherwise flat terrain bathed by the incessant, blinding light of the sun.
Before even beginning to move, Albert took stock of his magical arsenal. He knew that if he didn’t, he was bound to forget something right when he needed it the most.
A magical ring of protection. A gem with up to five hours of rewind in it. And then there were his skills: [Bullet Time], [Fireball] and [Strengthening] being the most important in case he needed to fight something. Did he need to fight something? Most probably yes, considering that so far three out of four past challenges required him to fight something.
He took a step and immediately, in response to his motion the ground shook. The earth rumbled and, in the distance, a small silhouette poked out of the sands. It was like a scorpion’s tail, just much larger and taller, but just as thin. He tried to use [Appraisal] on it.
Scalehorn tail. The only weak spot of the gargantuan creature hidden below.
Huh. There was no way to direct [Appraisal] so that Albert could be made aware of what a Scalehorn was. He only knew that it was a gargantuan creature. The information was enough though to convey a sense of danger and urgency. The tremors corresponded with the movements of the tail, swaying in the air as if moved by an unseen wind. Or as if dancing to a strange oriental tune, perhaps played by some enchanter of snakes in a bazaar far away.
He tried to get close to it to inspect it better, but he soon learned how bad of an idea it was. It appeared that as soon as he tried to leave the small sandy dune he was on – the only elevated point in the whole plain – the tremors increased up to the point that the whole ground seemed to upheave and come to life. Which brought to mind the gargantuan size of the creature, which in turn made Albert think about this giant crab buried under the sands. Was the dune the whole body of the creature, or was it even bigger than the dune itself? Even just the first possibility was quite terrifying, to be honest.
He quickly tiptoed back to the top of the sand dune, and waited for the earthquake to stop. A large amount of sand had moved during the tectonic shift, making the dune significantly shorter than it was before. He could still see all the way to the horizon, and there he spotted a couple more tails swaying in the air close to the first one.
The task was clear. Precision training meant that he needed to hit those tails from the top of the dune, and to make sure he didn’t cheat, the system was using a creature that reacted to pressure on the ground. The sand absorbed the pressure of his steps, making it safe to traverse, but the more he descended on the sandy slopes the less sand there was to cushion his steps and the more the creature reacted.
There was only to hope that hitting its tails did not rile the monster into action or it was game over.
Albert clutched the Hazegem. Between the ability to time-travel and [Bullet Time], he was sure he could deal with whatever the monster was going to throw at him. Especially after his accidental discovery of micro-jumps, which could be used to gain an unfair advantage in almost any fight.
He grinned. Adrenaline started flooding his system.
“Let’s do this.”
