10 Chapter 10: Initiate Training 5

First off, thanks to vmage2 for betaing this chapter.

Secondly, while I have the next arc planned out - though it's a short one - I'm getting stuck with creating major arcs from scratch to fill the intervening years between the current time and Episode 1, so ideas would be most welcome.

(Just PM me if you have any, and if used credit will be added when the arc begins)

Snapping out of my stance when my morning alarm sounded, I placed Haqu's lightsaber back in my inventory and jumped into a quick sonic shower.

I'd managed to get 10 hours of near continuous training in Makashi done during the night, stopping only for a few minutes each hour to speed up my FP regeneration. I'd done it this way as I felt that stopping every 3 or 4 minutes when my FP reached 0 to then meditate was less effective.

While this limited Precognition and Bullet Time to only a level of increase each, I'd added 12 levels to Makashi, leaving me only a few short of reaching the base objective in the Trainee Duellist quest, and a handful in Lightsaber [1-handed] which increased my critical chance and damage; though what this was never revealed to me as the help menus had said such values were hidden to avoid a number overload, though I would still get notifications when I scored a critical hit.

Still, I was feeling a lot better this morning compared to yesterday and left my quarters with a small smile on my face, though this quickly fell as I wondered about the boy from yesterday and decided to visit the infirmary before reaching the mess hall.

"Hello young one, how can I help you?" I turned as I entered the infirmary and found myself face to face – snout? – with a fur-covered alien.

"Um, yeah. I was wondering about an Initiate brought in here yesterday. His name is…"

"Saven Kirkhey." The alien finished for me with a smile that exposed some very impressive canines. "I am aware who you are Initiate Shan. You will find Initiate Kirkhey in room Besh-7."

"I, um, I'm not sure he'd want to see me. I was more just wondering if he was doing ok."

The Jedi healer tilted his head to the left for a few seconds before answering. "Yes, he is healing well. He spent the night in a Bacta tank, but scans show his bones are knitting together properly. You have nothing to worry about Initiate, he will recover and re-join his Clan by the beginning of next week at the latest."

"That's good to know." I turned to leave but paused and turned back to the healer. "Um, when he wakes can you tell him I stopped by and that I'm sorry for what happened. I was just told he was really powerful at using the Force telekinetically and figured I'd only win by going all out."

The healer nodded and gave me another toothy smile. "I will, but the point of the Trials is to prove yourself and, as you said, go all out. That you destroyed the obstacle course and won 3 fights in push-feather so comfortably is a clear indication that you are not holding back." He paused and leaned closer. "Indeed, many in the Temple are wondering if you are special." He leaned back and chuckled, though he sounded more like a wolf than a man. "Though don't get a big head. Any Padawan would easily beat you, never-mind a Knight or Master.

"Yes sir." I said and stepped out of the Infirmary. 'Great, just fraking great. The better I do in these Trials the more it seems the Jedi are coming to think I'm the Chosen One.' I chuckled for a moment at a stray thought. 'Ha, bet they'll all be confused when Anakin turns up and has a higher midi-chlorian count than even Yoda. Though if they name me the Chosen One, what the hell what they do with Anakin?' I laughed quietly to myself as I walked to the mess hall, wondering all the way if there was a way I could actually use this to lessen the pressure on Anakin – and stop him getting a big head – so that when Palpatine made his move, Anakin stayed with the Jedi. Or at least, stood against the Sith.

Quest Alert!Changing Fate [Anakin]Can you prevent the rise of Darth Vader?Rating: S***Objective:Find a way to prevent Anakin Skywalker from falling to the SithBonus: ?Bonus: ?Bonus: ?Rewards:15000XPPenalties:Anakin turns to the Dark Side earlier than canon.The death of ALL Jedi who do not submit to the Sith and their Empire.Accept?Yes/No...

That stopped me dead in my tracks. Stopping Anakin falling would have a massive effect on the fate of the Jedi, and I was obviously going to have to deal with him once he appeared, but getting it in a quest, and one with the highest XP reward yet, was not something I'd expected, though in a moment of hindsight, I supposed I should have.

I pondered the bonuses, wondering if they were linked to his mother and Padme, but I had no way to be sure.

The penalties were just as severe as the reward was tempting. If I understood it correctly, then failing this quest would mean even Yoda and Obi-Wan wouldn't make it out of the Clone Wars – unless they became Sith. So dead.

"Yes," I whispered, thinking that I if I didn't stop the 'Rise of Vader' I was probably dead in a few decades anyway, so why not get paid – in XP – for doing so.

"Cameron! Where have you been?" Jaeman asked as I rounded a corner near the mess hall. "We've been looking for you all morning." The other boy looked a little out of breath and his eyes were wider than normal.

"Um, why?" I asked as I tried to figure if I'd done something else to draw attention to myself.

"The Council, the one in-charge in the Trials, they've reinstated you into the push-feather," he said rapidly, his brown eyes blinking as he spoke.

"Ok." I replied slowly, not getting why he seemed so flustered.

"And your match is in 5 minutes." He added, and my own eyes shot open.

"Right," I said slowly as I turned and the pair of us ran to the sparring circles where the push-feather dual where being held. 'Bloody assholes. Couldn't they have sent me a message or something?' I wondered as we weaved around small groups of Jedi or Younglings until we reached the hall.

"You found him!" Serra shouted out as we slid to a stop as we passed through the large doorway.

"Yeah… Outside… Mess." Jaeman explained between breaths.

"Here, I grabbed you something to eat." Funt said as he handed me a bottle of water and some fruit.

"Thanks." I quickly devoured the offered food and drink and turned with Dragon Clan as Masters Drallig and Bondara approached.

"Initiate Shan, it is good of you to join us." Drallig said with a smirk. "We were wondering if you had slept in when no-one responded to the summons."

I mentally cursed as I realised they had messaged me, and a tap at my waist told me I'd forgotten – again – to take my comm-device with me.

"Sorry. I left my comms in my room, again, and went to the Infirmary to check on Saven." I explained, which seemed to please both Jedi Masters.

"Hmm, very well. We suggest you hurry. Your bout is due to begin any minute and Master Dooku is not one to keep waiting."

I gulped at realising Dooku was officiating my bout today and nodded. "Yes sir." A quick jog later, and a slightly terrifying glare from the future Sith Lord, I found myself in the dueling circle once more.

"Prepare yourselves." Dooku said slowly, calmly, yet still sounding utterly imposing.

At the sound of the gong, my combat log stated Player's Mind, Precognition and Bullet Time had all activated even as I sent four rapid-fire Force blasts at my opponent even as Precognition warned me of a push inbound to my left leg.

As I stepped over his attack, he ducked the 1st blast, stepped away from the 2nd but the 3rd caught his left shin and the 4th the right shoulder.

Not giving him time to adjust, I sent 2 more blasts at him, the 1st striking his left arm while the 2nd caught him in the gut and sent him tumbling backwards.

"Winner Shan." Dooku stated and I noted his brow had risen a touch as he looked at me.

I stepped across the circle and helped up my fellow Initiate.

"What the Kriff was that?" he asked once he was upright.

"Not telling now, but ask me again once the Trials are over." I replied with a smirk. He seemed a little taken back by my initial non-disclosure, but relaxed when I finished speaking. Not that I actually wanted to explain what I did, but it was better to appear friendly after curb-stomping someone; unless I wanted to make an enemy of them.

"I will do so. Well fought."

"Indeed," Dooku said from behind me, making me almost jump. "It has been some time since I've seen an Initiate so young master the basics of a Force Blast. Impressive, but you lack the finesse to guide your blasts and pushes in anything but a straight line."

I felt my eyes widen at that. "Yes sir. I've only been at this for a few months but give me a few more and I think I'll have gotten the hang of it."

He rubbed his beard slowly. "Maybe, but be careful of overconfidence young one. Others may believe you fulfill a special role in the Order, but do not let it make you sloppy."

I thought on his words for a moment before replying. "Yes sir. However, if they place belief in me, that is their flaw, not mine. I can only control my own actions, for now."

Dooku's eyes narrowed and he looked directly into mine. "Wise words, especially for one so young. I will be watching your performances in the rest of these Trials carefully."

He left no room for a reply as he walked over to where Drallig and Bondara were standing, leaving me to think on his words. Clearly what I had said, and how I had said it, had had an effect, now I just had to impress him more so that he wanted to take an interest in my future education, even if I wasn't assigned to him as a Padawan. It would allow me an in to try and prevent his fall to the Dark Side.

"What was that about?" Funt asked as I left the circle and approached Dragon Clan. "Dooku only ever seems to criticize Initiates, when he doesn't glare you into feeling no bigger than a dung beetle."

"Yeah, what did you two talk about?" Sia-Lan asked with a slight creasing of her brow.

"Nothing major, just not to become arrogant because of what others think of me." I paused as I considered asking them about the prophecy. "Actually, Dooku seemed to be hinting at something Master Giiett and a few others have also spoke obtrusively about. Some kind of prophecy or legend I think."

The way the various members of Dragon Clan looked away from me – save Sia-Lan, who's eyes narrowed as her brow creased more – told me they knew something about it.

"What?" I said slowly.

"Well, we when we were younglings, Master Yoda taught us a class on the Force and prophecies. In it he only mentions one prophecy and talks about it in a way that makes it seem that every Jedi can and, at the same time, can't be the target of that prophecy." Darihd slowly explained as the rest of the Clan glanced between the two of us.

"This prophecy talks of a Chosen One. Someone sent by the Force with the potential to be the greatest of all Jedi and bring Balance to the Force by defeating the Sith once-and-for-all and bring peace and prosperity to the galaxy."

'Well Fuck,' I thought as I considered his words, and how the ending reminded me of Anakin's words when he fought Obi-Wan. "So what does that have to do with me?"

"Seriously?" Sia-Lan blurted out and she threw her arms up. "You appear here, in a ship not manufactured in over 3000 years, a dead Sith in tow, and claim to be the great-grandchild of a man who was both Jedi and Sith, but neither. How could some of these morons not think that you're the Chosen One?"

I stared at her for a while, more surprised that she was the one to put into words what I'd already suspected than because of what she'd said, before turning back to Darihd.

"Is that, is that why you dared Serra to talk to me?"

"Um, kind of…" Darihd replied, looking away from me. "When you appeared here – with your seemingly impossible story that the High Council said was true – and seemed to pick up Force training so quickly, we were curious, so we dared Serra to talk to you."

"Not why I accepted though." Serra added with a small smile that I quickly mirrored as I remembered our initial talk about famous families and being cut off from them.

"I still don't like you." Sia-Lan tacked on with a very slight smirk. "Though I can tolerate you as long as you keep doing well in the Trials."

At least I now knew why her attitude towards me had lessened so much. "Thanks for the honesty." I replied, mock-saluting her and earning a growl and a roll of her eyes in response.

"So you're not angry about why we started hanging around you?" Aayla asked, her head-tails rippling and her fingers playing with each other as she spoke.

"Back then I might have been but now, no, not really." I answered, making the blue-skinned alien girl smile a touch. "But I'd like to see this prophecy for myself." I said to Darihd since he was the Minder of Dragon Clan, and nominally in-charge; even if I had asserted control on more than a few occasions over the last few months.

"That's going to be difficult. All prophecies are kept in the Archives, but the exact details of them are restricted to Knights or higher." He replied.

"Ah, never-mind then." Though I figured that if I could get my computing skills to a high enough level could hack my way into restricted files; and probably a lot more as well.

Quest Alert!Just Don't get Caught [User Defined]If you want to read secure files, you'll need to be better with computers.Rating: CObjectives:Get all 3 Computing skills [Slicing/Programming/Electronics] to Master 1 before your 16th cycle.Bonus: ?Bonus: ?Rewards:1000XPPenalties:Computing Skills are locked for 5 years at their levels at the end of the quest.Accept?Yes/No...

"Do want to head to the Archives?" Jaeman asked as I took my mind away from them at the new quest that appeared.

"Right now, not so much. But after I'm out of the push-feather, yes, I think I'll head down and see what I can find." Accepting the quest as I answered his question. "But for now, I need to think on this; privately."

"You sure?" Aayla asked, her head-tails seeming to drop a touch.

"Yeah. Finding out that people here think I'm some kind of saviour is a lot to take in." I replied and stepped away from the group, only to pause as a hand was placed on my arm.

"We're here if you want to talk." Serra said, earning her a nod of thanks before I left the hall and returned to my quarters. Though I was going to practice Makashi, not dwell on a prophecy that I knew did not apply to me.

…

I groaned as I opened my eyes and looked up at the roof of a room, blinking to clear the spots in my vision.

"Wha?"

"Easy there. You took a nasty hit," I heard a female voice say and the next moment there was a face looking down at me, which I recognized as that of the healer who'd treated Saven Kirkley the day before. "Can you tell me the last thing you remember?"

I frowned and thought back. "I was in a push-feather duel; the semi-final I think, but I was struggling. The girl across from me was good. Like really good. I felt something hit my leg, then lights and then nothing."

"Well your memory's fine." She said with a smile as she ran a small cylindrical tube over my forehead. "I'm sorry to say you lost. She took one of your pushes and guided it around behind you; taking your knees out before she hit you with a final push.

"That's why you're here actually. You hit the ground hard and we had to be sure there was no damage. Thankfully the scans say you are fine bar a light headache. How do you feel? Any blurred vision or inability to focus?" I shook my head and she smiled before slowly helping me sit up. "What about now? Does anything feel wrong?"

"Nope. I feel fine." I replied, wanting to get some privacy so I could call up my stats and see if it said anything about injuries. I might've said I was fine, but something felt a little off. "Can I return to my friends?"

Her smile grew a touch at my words. "You could, but like most of the Temple, they are sound asleep." She pointed at the wall to my right and I glance up there to see the clock said it was just past 23:00.

"How long was I out?" I asked, worried I'd missed the lightsaber duel and failed the 'Trainee Duelist' quest.

"Only a few hours, but I'd prefer you rest up her tonight."

"Can't I go back to my room? I promise I won't leave." I slouched down a bit. "I'm just don't like infirmaries." I said quietly, hoping to play on a common fear to get out of here and back to my quarters so I could practice and check my stats.

"Hmm, I suppose so. But I will have someone escort you to make sure you go straight to bed."

"Yes ma'am." I replied as I already began to plan how long I'd have to wait for my escort to leave before I could pull out one of the lightsabers in my inventory and practice enough to at least meet the base condition of the relevant quest.

"Good. Wait here a moment while I find a trainee to escort you."

"List Stats." Came from my mouth quietly the moment she left the room and the doors closed behind her.

I frowned when I saw that every numerical value was down a touch and scrolled down until I came the end of the list.

Injuries:Mild Concussion [16:34:51] HEAL?This results in 10% decrease in all stats and their derived values.[Can be healed for 500FP]…

I noted that the number beside the injury was decreasing, meaning that if I just left it, I would be weakened until midday tomorrow. Curious about the way the word Heal was emphasized beside the injury, I pressed at where it was floating and watched as a new pop-up appeared.

Mild ConcussionCan be healed with Force Heal.Cost: 500FPHeal?Yes/No…

"Yes." I said instantly and watched as the injury disappeared and my stats and derived values all returned to their proper levels. "Well that's exploitable. And not just for me." I muttered as I slid off the bed I was on and waved away my stats. 'I imagine that restoring lost limbs is not possible, but pretty much any other injury is curable with enough Force Points. Hmm, does that mean I can save Qui-Gon even after he's stabbed by Maul?'

Quest Alert!Changing Fate [Qui-Gon Jinn]Can you delay the death of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn?Rating: BObjective:Prevent Qui-Gon's death at the hands of Darth MaulBonus: ?Rewards:2000XPPenalties:Qui-Gon still dies.Massive loss of Reputation with Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi [-500]Accept?Yes/No…

"Well that's easy. Yes." I mumbled. Saving Qui-Gon would help with Anakin. Plus, I really liked Liam Neeson.

Though now I found myself wondering why the Temple scanners had only detected a mild headache when I actually had a concussion. Was something about my unique powers interfering with the scanner?

I didn't have time to ponder that as the doors opened and the healer returned with a green-skinned girl who looked to be in her mid-teens.

"This is Wisha Dari. She will escort you back to your room and make sure you rest." The Healer was speaking to both of us and I nodded in understanding, even if I planned to get this girl to leave ASAP.

As we left the Infirmary I looked up at the teen. "Forgive me, but I've never seen you before. What race are you?"

Wisha looked down at me with her orange eyes. "I am a Mirialan and you would not see many of my kind in the Order. While my race may produce many Force Sensitives, we have an understanding with the High Council that only a Mirialan may train another in the ways of the Jedi. My master is Luminara Unduli; the only Mirialan Jedi Master currently."

"OK. I'm still getting used to meeting new races." I replied honestly. "Before arriving here, I lived with my grandfather on a farm. All our neighbours were Human." I wasn't sure if that was true, but it was a solid cover story that I'd used a few times already and seemed to have been bought by the Jedi.

"Mirialans are what is classed as near-Human. We are biologically compatible with our major difference being we have far higher flexibility than your average Human." Wisha explained without me asking, or wanting, her to do so.

"OK." Really, I had no follow-up to that. Well, not any an 8-year-old Jedi Initiate would have.

We walked in silence from then on until we arrived at my assigned quarters.

"I will remain here until I am certain you are sleeping." Wisha stated in what I assumed she thought was a commanding voice, but failed to have any effect on me.

"Ok. Night." I slipped into my room, and after washing, slid under the covers.

Since I couldn't train Makashi until Wisha left, but I had no intention of sleeping, I activated Precognition and waited quietly until it had drained my FP.

Once that happened, I meditated until my FP was full and then sent a pulse with Force Detection which, while adding lots of Force-user pulses to my mini-map, showed that no-one was directly outside my door.

As I slid out of bed, I pulled Haqu's lightsaber from my inventory and got to work on training for the last part of the trials.

…

"Cameron! Where were you? We went to the Infirmary this morning, but the healer-on-duty said you weren't there." Jaeman asked as he saw me approach the table where Dragon Clan gathered. The rest of the Clan turned at his shouting out my name.

"My quarters. The healer last night said I free to go and rest in my room." I replied as I sat down between him and Aayla.

OK, so I'd not slept and trained Makashi up to Adept 1, meeting the basic objective of Trainee Duellist. The levels in Form 2 and 1-handed Lightsaber had lifted my total skill levels to over 6000, granting me another stat point, and after spending 1 each on STR, AGI and VIT, I had 1 left over as a spare.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Aayla asked as she placed her hand on my forearm.

I turned and gave her a smile, though I noted Serra's brow had dropped as she looked at Aayla and I. "Yeah, I'm fine. Though sleeping through today's events might not have been a bad thing." I chuckled at my own bad joke. While I was still not overly hopeful of making the free-for-all, I did hope I'd win at least my first duel. Though my plans involved not actively showing my improvement in Makashi unless I absolutely had to. The rules on the duels stated the ways to win and what was banned, but none of the Force Powers I had learned/developed since arriving in this universe were on that list, meaning I had more than few ideas about winning that weren't lightsaber-focused.

"Hey, at least it'll be over quick." Suggested Sia-Lan with a smirk.

"And we finished 3rd as a Clan in push-feather thanks to you and Sia-Lan." Darihd added as his head-tails bounced around. "Getting both of you to the semis was great."

"Well now its up to the rest of you," I said as I picked up a pear-looking fruit called Shuura. "I think I've more than earned my keep."

"Our best bets are the girls and Darihd." Jaeman commented and I had to agree. Darihd was excellent at Form I, and fast too. Sia-Lan, Aayla and Serra were all very comfortable with Ataru, though Serra's training in Jar'Kal was useless in these duels as it was 1 single-bladed lightsaber per duellist.

Jaeman was competent with Soresu, but he didn't have the stamina or discipline to last for long while Funt and was aiming more to be a healer than a swordsman and spent most of his time using Niman; which I'd come to regard as something of a fall-back for those who weren't comfortable with fighting or wished to pursue other avenues of being a Jedi.

"Hey, everyone's doing fine. From what I can tell, you guys are the youngest Clan to be taking part." I countered, hoping to raise his spirits as Jaeman. Truthfully, he'd been near the bottom of in both the obstacle course and push-feather and I was concerned this would somehow affect his chances of being taken as a Padawan.

I'd asked them about how Padawans were selected before the Trials had begun and I'd learnt that only about half of the Initiates were taken by a Jedi; the rest were assigned to one of 4 corps.

Nominally, this was to keep them with the Order but to me it hinted at both tossing them aside when they were found to be lacking, and also keep them under control of the Order. I could be wrong about their motives, but that was how my military mind saw things; and even without knowing a war was coming, it seemed stupid for the Jedi to limit their numbers so massively.

"We are. We had a few older members, but they were all taken as Padawans in the past cycle." Darihd added, slapping Jaeman on the shoulder. "Besides, not all of us are walking, talking, Force-sent gifts." He smirked at me and I had to bite off the need to retort. I really shouldn't haven't have asked about the prophecy.

"Stop it Dar," Serra said with a small frown.

I gave Serra a small smile of thanks, making her cheeks redden, which had Trudie, Jyl and a few of the even younger girls in the Clan giggle.

"What's the schedule?" I asked, moving the conversation away from Serra's embarrassment, though I'd probably be just as embarrassed as well if I was a normal 8-year-old instead of a near 30-year-old in a child's body. Honestly, it was little things like this that still made me uneasy around my fellow Initiates but I felt that making friends with them now would be useful later if I couldn't slow or prevent the Clone Wars and the rise of the Sith. Though plans to stop Sidious and others were on the back-burner until after the Trials.

"Oh, right." Darihd pulled out a datapad and slid it down the table to me. "Every duel in the 1st round is set, as are the following rounds. I'm up first in about an hour."

I looked down the list and saw my match was the 32nd match in the opening round and I was against a boy from Heliost Clan. That meant I had just over 3 hours before my duel; provided the duels all ran on time with 10 minutes assigned to each duel.

"You actually have a chance against him," Aayla stated as she leaned closer and looked at the pad. "He's only a month above the cut-off and frankly is far too reckless."

"Says the girl you jumps around like she's on fire." I said back, which was true as Aayla loved using the Force to jump and rush around the duelling ring.

She bumped against me with a full-face grin, exposing some very sharp looking teeth. "Not my fault you're too slow to keep up."

I laughed at her confidence, and ignored the new frown on Serra's face, as I dug in to breakfast.

…

"Duels are won 1 of 4 ways," Master Drallig explained slowly to my opponent and I as we stepped into the sparing circle.

"1st, and most common, is scoring 3 marked strikes against your opponent.

"2nd is driving them from the circle; even a single foot outside of the markers is an automatic loss.

"3rd is by having your opponent trapped in a what would be regarded as a fatal blow; these are blows to the head or heart.

"And finally, by rendering your opponent unconscious."

We moved to our assigned positions at opposite sides of the circle while Drallig stood at the centre of the circle, glancing from one of us to the other.

"Do you both understand these rules?" He asked sternly, locking eyes on my opponent 1st then me. We nodded, and he walked backwards from the circle. "Begin on the chime."

The moment the chime sounded my opponent ignited his saber and moved into a basic fighting stance. Having had my ass handed to me regularly by Aayla, Serra and Sia-Lan, I was easily able to identify it as 1 of the 3 basic starting points of Ataru.

I merely held my weapon at my side as both Precognition and Bullet Time engaged automatically and I waited for a notice from Precognition about his attack even as my free hand closed slowly.

Seeing I hadn't even ignited my lightsaber, my opponent smirked and stepped forward, but I stayed still.

MOVE LEFT!…

I raised an eyebrow at the rather blunt warning even as my opponent leapt across the ring using the Force.

I stepped to the left, ignited my lightsaber and shifted my body into the most basic starting stance for Makashi even as he began his descent.

He twisted in mid-air to bring his blade down upon me, and I raised my own to parry the attack away from my body as late as I felt safe doing so.

My parry worked and as our blades clashed I yanked my clenched fist backwards.

I couldn't help but smirk at the shock on his face as his feet were pulled out from under his just they struck the ground and he was pulled out of the circle by the Force.

"Winner, Shan." Drallig stated and I lazily extinguished my lightsaber and walked from the ring, handing the training saber to one of the Padawans who are helping the Jedi Masters with manage this event. Spotting a few familiar faces, I walked over to a corner of the room.

"You won."

"Don't sound so surprised." I replied to Aayla's comment as I approached where she was sitting with Serra and Jaeman was gathered. "Just because I've never beaten you doesn't mean I can't be others."

She smirked a fraction. "That's true. And Drak was reckless, as normal."

"Why Makashi?" Serra asked as I sat down between the two girls. "We've never seen you really use it before. Actually, very few Jedi spend much time training in that Form."

"Then they're all idiots." I said with a smirked as I accepted a bottle of water from Jaeman. "What is Makashi designed for?"

"Fighting against other… Oh." Jaeman had begun to answer before realising what I was saying. "Huh, I never thought about doing more training in that Form."

"None of us did, save Cam." Serra added, giving me a gentle shoulder-barge. "Good thinking."

"Yeah. But why didn't you use it when sparring with us?"

I turned and smiled at Aayla. "And give away what may be my only hope of even scoring a mark against you, Sia or Serra?" I chuckled and shook my head. "I'm new here, not stupid." All 3 of them chuckled. "So why are you three here?"

"I'm after the next match. Aayla's right after me and Serra's 2 after that." Jaeman answered. "The others are off practicing in the other halls or meditating."

"Serra here made sure we came early for your match." Aayla added, giving her clanmate a wink – which I could easily see as I was sitting between them. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was more excited for your match than her own."

I chuckled and glanced at the girl in question from the corner of my eye to see her face taking on a now familiar red tint. "Well I guess it's only fair I do the same." I said, earning smiles from all 3.

As we sat in silence, I opened up a small tab that appeared above my combat log.

Quest Completed!Trainee Duellist [User Defined]Time to put your money, or XP, where your mouth is.Rating: CObjective:Get Makashi to level Adept 1 by your first lightsaber duel.Bonus: Reach Adept 25 [N]Bonus: Reach Adept 50 [N]Reward:1000XP…

'Seriously? Adept 25 and 50? To get those I'd have had to throw the rest of the push-feather duels and spend 2 straight days in my quarters. I wonder if the other new quests have the same kind of "bonuses" to achieve.'

With a flick of my fingers, I waved away the pop-up info box and sat back, figuring I could relax for the next 30 min or so before getting an early lunch. I doubted I'd have much time to practice my lightsaber skills but could let my FP run out just sitting by having Precog or Bullet Time on.

Turing Precognition on, I sat back as Jaeman stood and walked towards the ring, the match between his and mine ending almost as quickly as mine.

…

Almost done with the Initiate arc.

Also, for those who've commented on why Cameron doesn't keep Player's Mind on all the time, it's not possible as it uses Player Points and the current drain Vs regeneration means there's a time limit.

Give him a few more levels, and he'll be able to run it constantly, provided he doesn't use other Player powers.

...

I have gone back and altered the XP needed for levels mentioned in Prologue 1. T

his was done as I felt his growth rate for Skills risked getting out of control too early.

As in he'd be able to get a Doctorate in certain subjects by the time he was 12 even while learning in the Jedi Temple.

While this is possible still, he should now only be able to do that if he leaves the Jedi Order and concentrates heavily on relevant skills.