[CYA] Chapter 107: Wakeful Experimentation

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fe_FEnCqOZH192Q6GMJrEQ5qGZvRj_n_NGFNbNOuzcE/edit?usp=sharing

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<Alex, Real - Endure, High School Gym Store Room>

Alex sat up with a smooth rapidity, born of his level-enhanced body. His eyes snapped open, and he looked around, seeking whatever had woken him up.

There were a couple of other sleeping forms, but not too many.

The high school was packed, but not so much so that they had to be all crowded atop one another.

Still, with several rooms being taken over by the Initiates for meditation or other means of self-improvement, there was still a need for sharing space for most of their number. Honestly, Alex didn’t mind.

Nothing was in evidence, so Alex almost reflexively pulsed his Detect Life and Unlife, the two streams of information combining to strain his mind over the next second, despite his increased Mental stats.

Still, it was manageable, and it told him that no one and nothing—at least nearby—had woken him. In fact, based on what he was sensing, it was still rather early. His tutorial phone confirmed that it was roughly four in the morning when he briefly lit it up.

When he checked his status, he grunted. His stamina was filled. Was it that simple?

He’d gone to bed around midnight, expecting to need as much as six hours because of how much fighting he’d been doing, but this went to show that he still didn’t understand stamina very well. As to why he was awake? He’d most likely woken up simply because he didn’t need anymore sleep.

That made him smile. Of all the things to have changed with the arrival of the System, his fighting of undead, and the acquisition of levels, the ability to sleep whenever he wanted and wake naturally when he was done might be one of the most low-key amazing benefits.

He was of the age that, without magic, even shifting his wake time by half an hour had made him grumpy and less productive for days. He’d gotten to have a very strict schedule, and it had improved his life immensely…

Well, I have time. With a bit of a sad smile, he fell into that pattern, starting after wake-up, obviously.

Mindful of the others in the room, he pulled his blanket and pillow into his Inventory.

At home, he had a pair of smaller pillows filled with buckwheat husks that he usually used by having one under his head, and one over his eyes, but he could stack them if he ever wanted to sleep on his side.

He usually tried that, even though he knew he slept better on his back.

Here, he was forced to work with… lesser comforts. Still, he’d gone on trips before, and occasionally forgotten his favored accoutrement. Even if he wasn’t supernaturally enhanced, he’d have been able to make due.

The blanket he had now was, he had to admit, superior to his at home. That was partially because at home he had sheets and comforters. Here, he needed a blanket that was warm and comfortable in one. As such, he’d been able to secure one that seemed to be of a wool of some kind, both warmer than sheep’s wool and less itchy. This particular one was woven thick, making it useful as padding or cover.

He no longer wrapped himself in it, though. It lay across him, so if he was woken suddenly, he wouldn’t be restricted by the material. A sleeping bag would be a nightmare.

He might be able to pull it into his Inventory from around himself rapidly enough for it to be a non-issue, but for the time being, it wasn’t worth the risk.

He closed the door behind himself, moving out into the main gym.

Glancing down at the hard floor, he instinctively pulled the blanket back out, folding it to create a place to kneel. Once he was positioned, he chuckled. His knees didn’t need the padding now, but it was still more comfortable with the blanket.

Kneeling, he held his left hand in his right, fingering his wedding ring. “I miss you, my love. This new world… this place… I don’t wish this upon you, but I wish I had you with me.”

As customary, he allowed himself a bit more than a minute to sit in silent remembrance. Then, he nodded and began his stretching.

None of the movements were fancy.

In fact, most of them would barely look like a stretch if anyone were to see him, but they were a carefully chosen, well researched set that helped him. A turn of a limb here, a slightly different bend there made the otherwise fruitless movements into deep stretches for the muscles that over-tightened on him the most.

Even with his stat boosts, these trigger points were still there for him, even if he could power through them. His experience practically throwing his back out the other day had been proof enough of that, even if he hadn’t already known it to be the case.

He was enhanced, not perfected.

Because he wasn’t the most patient man, the stretching set only took him about fifteen minutes. When he rose the final time, pulling his blanket back into Inventory, he hopped in place a few times, shaking out his arms.

Each hop took him near to three feet off the ground, which was still somewhat startling, but he liked being powerful. He liked feeling like he could help and protect those around him…

Alex frowned, looking around. None of the spear wielders was nearby. That was… odd.

He’d become accustomed to either Jacob or Ben sleeping in the same room as him, but neither had been present upon his waking.

He’d unconsciously thought that they’d switched out for one of the women, who had likely been sleeping and waiting nearby, but he should have seen her if that was the case.

Alex felt a bit annoyed. He wanted to go play with his newly upgraded spell, and he knew he’d get an earful if he went alone… His eyes widened a bit, and a smile pulled at his face as he finally paid attention to the signals his body was sending him, or more like he finally noticed the signals it wasn’t sending.

The headache was gone. The spell felt settled. He was ready.

His annoyance at the absence grew just a bit.

Sure, it was still night out, but he could still practice…

He nodded once. They’d find him when they were ready. He wouldn’t do anything so foolish as to go fight on his own, but he could go out into the field within the fence and give the changes a try.

It was time to give Shaped Force Burst a thorough investigation.

He stood, hesitating before pulling out his great coat of the traveler. He’d tucked the garment away while training to keep it from harm… it still wasn’t quite time to put it back on. The stakes were just too low to risk ablative defenses. It would keep him safer, but he didn’t need to stay in any of the fights he had been in of late. If he got hurt, he could simply withdraw until he was ready again.

With a sigh, he put it back into his Inventory and turned his steps toward the yard.

<Alex, Real - Endure, High School Field>

Alex stared in mute horror at the single, small compound symbol that came to his mind when he began to activate Shaped Force Burst.

It wasn’t quite as small as each individual set had been among the likely thousands that had surrounded him when he used Force Burst, but it was close.

He did feel like he could shrink it down if he so desired, matching the previous size.

He didn’t want that.

“What have I done…” Alex was sitting on an outdoor cushion in the grass to get above the gathering dew, the sky only maybe starting to change color.

He took a deep breath, forcibly not panicking.

“Calm down, Alex. This is only your first activation. Play around with it.”

He nodded and tried to manipulate the single compound symbol.

He was able to spin it to face in any direction, and a few quick activations showed that it took almost no mana at all. Honestly, he suspected it took less than a full point as his mana barely blipped down before returning to the usual one below max.

Kaylee and the base, taking their due.

The force it put out was… well it was paltry.

He shook his head. “No, that’s not fair. It’s like a punch from a pre-System human. Not weak but not that useful.”

He played around with it for a while, finding that he couldn’t move it more than about a foot from his body. If he extended his arm forward, that increased the max range only by the length of his arm.

He could orient it in any direction and alter its distance parameters.

These, actually, were the first rabbit trail he went down. As it turned out, with the spell came a bit of knowledge that he was only beginning to scratch the very surface level of in his first clumsy attempts. More would come in time as he explored further.

Regardless, he quickly learned that he could set both the start and the end of the area affected. In theory, that could be used to break a central sheet of glass in a stack of three without affecting the ones on either side.

By the fabled lost penguin, it could be used to target a single sheet of paper in a book, if he was precise enough. The spell was capable, the limit would only be himself.

There would likely be some transference of energy, damage, and force, and the ranges obviously weren’t infinite, but he could target anything from directly against his own skin all the way out to the already stated limits.

This was shortened when the spell was cast from most of his body and increased when the mana was coming from his right hand, but he was mainly trying to work on general understanding at the moment.

But that proportional distortion will change how the symbol needs to be from various casting points to get the same effect. That also implied that it would look different for different casters in order to get the exact same effect, but that was another issue entirely, and not one that actually concerned him at that particular moment.

What’s more—and what did concern him in that moment—the directionality of the force applied didn’t seem to be limited either.

The area of effect was based on the size of the symbol created.

The sheer number of uses that opened for the spell was staggering, but he still found himself irritated.

He’d traded out a clumsy bludgeon for a fine scalpel… That might sound great, but if he needed a hammer, this wouldn’t work.

Even just generally considering weaponry, a hammer was more dangerous and more useful than a scalpel under most combat circumstances he could think of.

He hesitated considering how the spell now worked. “Actually, this spell would be a perfect hammer replacement.” He huffed and shook his head. “I just removed my best ‘get out of jail free’ technique.”

He growled, continuing to sort through what had been so unceremoniously dumped into his mind as part of the spell—the most likely, true source of the headache he’d endured, now that he considered things.

Much like the martial skills had come with vaguely implanted memories of how to move and think, this spell conveyed a general sense of how to use it without killing himself.

How to change the symbol size? Figured that out.

Change directionality? Done

Distance of effect? Found

Area of effect? …Oh! He could change that without changing the symbol size. He could even do it without changing the symbol’s position. Though, oddly enough, it was far more complicated than changing other aspects of the symbol set, and seemed to be recommended against…

“What’s this? It isn’t advisable to change the area of effect because doing so makes it harder to tell what symbols are affecting what areas when utilizing many in tandem.”

When used in tandem? Like… many together?

Alex dove deeper into the knowledge given by the expanded spell, following that thread, that lifeline. Even so, it took him more than a minute before, finally, there it was.

Symbol replication.

With a thought, he began activating the spell once more and with a push of mental effort, the symbol set within his mind popped and there were suddenly two, side by side.

A maniacal laugh echoed across the grass. Had anyone been awake to hear it, that sound alone might have undercut the non-Initiate’s faith in their saviors.

Alex didn’t care. He had so many things to experiment with.

Yes. Oh, yes! What a glorious decision I have made!

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