A human shaped figure entered the large cave and knelt down. “My lord.” it said in a feminine voice, “I have just received word that one of our secondary agents has been compromised.” While her outline looked mostly human, once she exited the shadows one could tell that she wasn’t completely human any more. Her skin had scales like a reptile even on her bald head, her eyes had vertical pupils, her hands and bare feet had claws, and she had a forked tongue which she instinctively shot out occasionally to taste the air. Not all of the differences were reptilian however, as she also had the tail of a scorpion and large arms like a gorilla or other ape, as well as gills on her neck.
A four meter tall gorilla stepped out of the shadows, exuding a powerful aura which the woman couldn’t resist. She instinctively knelt even lower as she was suppressed by the spirit beast in front of her. “What about our primary agent?” asked the ape. “Is his cover intact?”
“Yes, my king.” she said. “He made his scheduled check in as well, and was the one that notified us of the other agent’s capture. The secondary agent knows who he is, however, as the primary was his handler for the latest mission, so there is a chance he might talk under torture. Their king also knows the Soul Search technique, so if he decided to personally get involved there is a chance that they will learn the truth without torture.”
The gorilla scowled. “Then we have no choice but to advance the plans, or risk losing our advantage in the coming battle.” The woman nodded in agreement but said nothing as her king thought. “Prepare the troops for battle. We attack in two days.”
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Marcos appeared in front of a floating holographic sign which read “Advanced Gravity Trial”. Underneath it was a smaller sign which listed the rules. This was much like the first gravity trial, however the field was now one hundred and ten meters long. The first ten meters would increase the gravity by one times Earth gravity for each meter, after which the gravity would increase by one tenth of a G per meter, the same way the other trial had improved. For every meter one could go after the first ten they would receive ten points, and, as he had gotten a grand completion reward before, Marcos was notified that a grand completion of this trial was worth ten thousand points and would unlock level three trials. Level three trials had huge rewards associated with them, as well as a bonus prize for completion.
After checking his medical supplies Marcos took a satiation pill as well as a muscle, organ, and tendon pill, as he knew those systems would be quickly pushed to their limit, and stepped over the starting line. He went to the ten meter line, barely feeling the gravity, and started doing his normal set of exercises, being sure to face both ways on the line so that neither side got more of a workout than the other. After ten jumping jacks while facing the finish line and ten while facing the starting line, he walked another ten meters and repeated the process. He was now under twelve times Earth normal gravity, what would cause a mortal to pass out within seconds, but to him it felt like a good workout.
After thirty meters he had to pause to let the medicine work, as his body was starting to have trouble functioning. He took another set of pills when the healing started to slow down, and continued walking forward. Two others from the group of gym-bros that had mocked them at the last trial appeared here, and watched him with jealousy. While they no longer made fun of Carol and Franky, their pride wouldn’t let them congratulate the others on doing something which they struggled to accomplish.
Marcos barely noticed the newcomers, however, only hearing Carol and Franky’s cheers as he slowly made his way forward. He had decided to not use his qi to complete the trial if he didn’t need to. At these gravity levels, the qi would likely only buy him a few minutes anyway, as amplifying one’s stats used exponentially more qi the more you pushed them. That made it an emergency resource he had to preserve. This decision was slowing him down considerably, but he thought it would prove to be the right decision in the long run.
Eventually he was unable to advance ten meters at a time and had to slow to five meters at a time, waiting for the pills to work after each advancement. That quickly dropped to three meters at a time, then two, then one. When it reached half a meter at a time, the spectators knew that something was wrong. Somehow Marcos had managed to push himself to eighty six meters, but with twenty four more to go, they doubted he could earn a grand completion on his first attempt. If he gave up, bought more pills, possibly level two pills, and then tried again, Franky was certain that he could do so, but was also certain that if he tried to get a grand completion this time he would need stronger pills than those he had on him, maybe even one of the level three regeneration pills.
He tried to call out to Marcos to warn him, but Marcos didn’t seem to not hear him. Unknown to both of them, the System had blocked the sound of Franky’s voice in that moment. Marcos believed that he could make it eventually, and took another step forward. Under nineteen point seven times Earth’s gravity he was barely able to stand, but he struggled to lift his hand and fed another set of pills into his mouth. He wouldn’t give up. He could feel something inside himself, limiting him, and knew that if he gave up at this moment he might never have that opportunity again.
He took one more step forward and felt his blood change. As the feeling washed over his organs he felt them start to burn, then shift. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and was surprised to see that it was a golden color. Had his blood chemistry shifted because of this? He paused for a minute on the eighty seven meter line, and the burning sensation spread throughout his entire body. He could feel it changing him, like some sort of rapid refinement, and he sat down to let it happen.
Three minutes later the feeling started to subside and he stood up. Strangely, the gravity here didn’t feel that bad. He could tell that it wasn’t too little, as every time he jumped, he slammed back into the ground at a rapid rate, but it felt no worse than the ten meter line had felt when he had started the trial. He did his set of exercises and found that he had to do at least twenty push-ups to even feel that he was starting to use his arms. A similar sensation accompanied his abs when he did sit-ups and his legs when he did squats, requiring over two dozen reps to even feel it. He had no idea what had happened to his body, but whatever it was it felt amazing.
He continued to the ninety nine meter line and did one hundred of every exercise, but even there it didn’t really push him to his limit. He would have to buy a few of those body tempering pills he had seen when he got back to Earth, as the shop here didn’t seem to carry them. After all, if he had to do dozens of push-ups at twenty one times Earth normal gravity just to feel it, how many would it take for him to feel it at Earth normal gravity? He might have to spend eight hours a day doing a single exercise just to feel the effect.
He stepped over the line and got a grand completion notice along with eleven thousand points. He was teleported back to the starting line and his friends ran over. “What happened in there, man?” asked Franky. “I tried to warn you that it was too dangerous, but you just ignored me. Then you started vomiting, though I’m not sure what you ate that turned your stomach acid gold. Did you take Mormon pills to try to strengthen your body tissue or something?”
Marcos shook his head. “I must not have heard you.” he said. “Though that wasn’t vomit, it was blood.” He drew his skinning knife and tried to cut his finger to show them, but the knife did nothing to him.
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“Are you saying your blood is gold now?” Jim asked. He had arrived while Marcos was taking the trial, and joined the other two in cheering. Marcos nodded. “Interesting.” he said, and nodded his head. “I heard that one of the people the military fought on Ilarya also had golden blood. I wonder if you’ve unlocked some sort of unique physique?”
Marcos nodded. Recently several people had started claiming to be mutants, and many science commentators had started explaining that there were sets of genes known as ‘physiques’ that some people naturally had, but which were usually dormant until a certain event caused them to activate, though not much was known about what caused them to exist or what unlocked them. Marcos’s physique appeared to have been caused by pushing his body to the limit, however. “That’s the only thing that makes sense at the moment. I don’t know what special traits it has, yet. So far, I just know that it greatly improves my physical performance. Even at the finish line it didn’t feel like I was seriously straining myself. In fact, there’s something I want to try.” He made sure not to place any qi in his legs to enhance himself and jumped as high as he could. He flew over twenty meters into the air, and when he landed he decided to land on one knee to give it some style.
“Congrats on sticking the super hero landing.” said Franky.
Marcos nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m immune to fall damage on Earth at this point, though I don’t really want to test it.”
After a bit of joking about him needing a new name and a set of tights now, the others decided that they also wanted to try to push themselves. Marcos gave Carol, who wanted to go first, his medical kit, in case she needed the pills, and went to the shop to redeem the massive windfall he had just received.
When he arrived he saw a small shop in front of him with a sign on the front which read ‘Reward Center’. The building had large glass windows with posters that advertised various products under one hundred points, and large glass double doors on the front of it. He knew why Franky had said it looked like a convenience store now.
He went inside and saw hundreds of items on the shelves. When he lifted one, however, he could feel that it had no weight to it. It felt like the wyvern had when he fought it. It had presence, and could push on things, but no actual mass. These were definitely illusions or simulations, so that one could look the products over before they purchased them, but couldn’t steal them.
He walked to the front counter and a menu appeared, like a shop in a video game. He quickly typed in ‘martial arts techniques’ and several hundred such techniques appeared on the list. Needing to narrow it down he first filtered for prices over one thousand, reasoning that the better ones would cost more, then those that didn’t require a weapon. While there were still dozens of techniques listed, that at least narrowed them down enough to be manageable. He had one more filter he wanted to try, however. He filtered for only those that could be cultivated to level five or above, and only a dozen or so remained. While they weren’t cultivation techniques, and therefore could only advance him to that level through effortless breakthroughs brought on by pushing the techniques to their extreme, they had new ways of using them even for people at level five, so he shouldn’t run out of training material for decades, if not hundreds of years.
After several minutes of reading descriptions and weighing his options he picked one called the Nine Buddha’s Fist Technique. While it was technically a Buddhist technique, and he wasn’t Buddhist, the System assured him that he could still practice it. The Nine Buddhas it referred to represented nine different ideals, and thus nine different styles. While they were actual beings, one only needed to share their point of view to use their methods, not believe in them or worship them. This technique was one of the most expensive, at nine thousand points, but was the most versatile of the unarmed techniques the System offered.
After paying for it and a level two kit, an upgraded form of the level one kit at four hundred points, and an encyclopedia of physiques, he returned to the rank two gravity trial. He would look into his physique later, but for the moment he wanted to start learning the new martial arts technique.
As he watched Carol, who was struggling at the thirty seven meter line, he looked over the first level of the first technique. This technique was called Mercy, and it focused on disarming and rendering the opponent unable to continue fighting. Many of the attacks went for various pressure points or otherwise caused autonomic reactions that could be exploited. After reading the chapter he stored the book and started performing the forms.
Beside him Carol slowly advanced through the trial. She managed to reach forty eight meters before collapsing and left the field, receiving three hundred and eighty points for her efforts. Franky went next, and after taking a few more pills Carol handed him what was left of my kit. Marcos didn’t mind, as he had a better kit now, but it would have been nice for her to ask.
By the time Franky had collapsed on the thirty nine meter line Marcos had finished learning all of the moves from the first level of Mercy and started on the second set of moves, called Perseverance. These techniques were designed for efficiency, using the least amount of effort for the greatest effect, and were therefore the best option when fighting prolonged battles. He suspected that his new physique had given him a natural talent for physical activities, which would cover all martial arts. He now had more accurate control over his movements, and always knew exactly where his body parts were in relation to each other as well as where they would go each time he initiated a movement. He could also tell exactly how much force he would apply with each movement, which allowed him to accurately move without having to adapt to his newfound strength. This made the initial steps of the martial arts techniques, which were primarily about accuracy over power, much easier to learn.
He congratulated Franky and they watched as Jim barely made it over the seventeen meter line before collapsing. His age was starting to catch up to him, and when he was teleported back to the starting line he started complaining about his arthritis acting up, even though he hadn’t felt it for over twenty years, since he had started using a gathering bracelet.
Marcos offered him a bone and a tendon pill, as joint inflammation sounded like an issue from one of those causes, and started leading him through some simpler martial arts techniques. They were essentially a variation of Tai Chi that was designed for elderly people to relieve health issues. The pills quickly repaired the damage and he spent the next thirty minutes going through the slow movements. Eventually he started experiencing joint and muscle pain from the exercises, but only paused long enough to take level one pills before continuing.
Franky and Carol decided to join them and, after they took a short break to eat satiation pills and drink bottled spirit water from the store, essentially qi enhanced water one could buy on Earth, but with no added ingredients, they spent the next hour doing the slow movements. After that he taught them a few moves from either Mercy or Perseverance, so that they could defend themselves if they had to fight in later trials.
Once Marcos was satisfied that they had learn the moves well enough to use them in combat, they tried the trial again. This time Jim’s arthritis didn’t flare up until the thirty two meter line, and he earned an additional one hundred and ninety eight points. The other two went again and, after earning a few more points, they decided that they wanted to try a different trial. While the reward for this one was good, it was was too difficult for them. With sustained practice Carol and Franky might be able to beat it, but Jim’s arthritis would prevent him from doing so, so they couldn’t continue taking the trial together.
Franky said that he was going to try and defeat the Stealth and Archery trials. While he had only learned the basics of archery at a summer camp when he was a kid, he wanted to see if he could learn to use it properly so that he could become a stealth archer. Carol wanted to try alchemy. While she had only seen a few videos on the basics of it on Earth, she was going to use her points to buy a manual and try to learn it while here. If she was successful, it would let her get a much better job than being a waitress. Jim was retired, but always had an interest in electronics. The trial ground didn’t have a test for those skills, but it did have formations, which seemed to be similar to modern devices on Earth, even if they functioned more like a hydraulic system than an electronic one. Still, he would be doing like Carol and studying before taking a nap, then trying the Formation trials.
They promised to meet up at the exit portal at the end of the trial, and the three of them teleported away. Marcos offered to train some of the other people that had shown up, but as most of them were intimidated by his grand completion, they turned him down. He supposed it was like a professional athlete offering to teach you their sport, or a world famous scientist offering to teach you about their field. So, with no one accepting his offer, he said goodbye and left for the level three gravity trial.
