11 Chapter 11: End of Training

Before any move was made, Dolon was actually courteous enough to allow Rydel to briefly test out his powers. One of her leaf blades manifested on one of her arms when she opens her hand and with a few swipe of her blades, the rocks next to her shattered into multiple pieces.

'Try to lift them and see how closely it resembles reality. The learning algorithm will take some time...' Dolon pointed her blades at one of the larger rocks and encouraged Rydel to give it a go.

'Um...how do I make sure I don't destroy the room?' Rydel was literally a few seconds away from grabbing th rock next to Dolon and throw it at another stone column a few meter to her left before he realized that he might pluck a few rooms right out of the compound and put it somewhere inappropriate. Just imagine Torelamri's reaction if that little endeavor delays one of his projects...

'Turbs. You are right.' Dolon facepalmed, 'I don't want you to destroy my ten thousand unit gaming room. Just hold on a second...'

Dolon's avatar froze for a few minutes as Rydel simply sat around and does nothing. He opened his backpack and played around with some of the beginner equipment like the standard issue laser and projectile guns he had some experience handling, smaller pistols, multifunction knife and the dual purpose shield generators. He is wearing the simplistic layer of armor in game, the kind that he wore during combat practice at the Explorer's Academy back in the days.

'I am back!' Dolon yelled with pure excitement and her high pitch voice broke Rydel out of his flashback, 'It is doable, as it's a mechanism to dampen the brain's actual response to the body. Just go into Setting, select 'Brain-Body Dampening Strength' and crack it up to eleven.'

'Eleven?'

Rydel awkwardly navigated to the page and found the relevant button, 'And what would this do?'

'Well aren't you an inquisitive one?' Dolon teased.

'I am an Engineer, after all.' Rydel spread his arms unapologetic-ally.

'Speaking in Engineering terms, the gaming counsel combines the best of your electronics with our biotechnology and allows the game to not only track your movements, but even your intentions. But as a protecting mechanism, a dampening fluid would be placed for each user to reduce the intensity of their actions, despite their intent. Those would be reflected within the game instead.' Dolon suddenly went wooden and spelled out those facts like a novice rapper, 'and no I am not a nerd. I just clicked the question mark.'

'So I would only control the glove spiritually, rather than activating it in real life?' Rydel asked, 'this sounds super helpful.'

'Partially.' Dolon has obviously thought this through, 'But always be ware. This set up is best for you to learn how to better combine your current abilities. What this game isn't able to simulate, is your ability to improvise, and you have plenty of that, if I am not mistaken.'

'Ah.'

'The game and it's physics will only be able to act on things you have done before, something brand new will just be treated as noise and filtered.' Dolon explained, 'now, now. Enough chit chat. Let's see you use that ability. Just do it exactly as you would in real life.'

Rydel nodded, and hoped his avatar did the same. He reached out, not towards the shattered rocks besides Dolon, but rather towards the ground underneath.

It was just as before when he was reaching for the chunk of material, but this time he is completely focused on the piece of material she is standing on. Dolon tilted her head slightly as Rydel's aim seemed slightly off.

Suddenly the ground underneath her feet vanished and a sudden falling sensation runs through her whole body before she hit the ground hard. The gaming set up she is using on Hyperion 4 aims to mimic falls and jumps as well as travelling in different fluids to create as realistic an experience as it gets. Dolon quickly collected herself and started scanning around for possible attacks when suddenly a shadow looms over her and blocks out the light. Chunks of the material Rydel removed reappeared above her head and was dropped immediately.

Dolon smiled with excitement and raised the Lightining Rod over her head.

'Boom.'

With a single command, a blindingly bright lightning shot out from the Lightning Rod and pierces right through the giant piece with enough energy to completely shatter it and leaving most of it heavy burned. Smoke and dusts surrounds her and slowly spins around with her as the center.

'Well, that went much better than I expected.' Rydel was really surprised at both how accurately and precisely timed the system takes his command and performed the actions. He wasn't too sure that attack got Dolon though.

'Well, that went much better than I expected.' Dolon jumped out of the pit, 'You turbby bastard, you almost got me!'

'Well, you did say it's a fight, right?' Rydel shrugged his shoulders, 'doesn't that count as a hit?'

'You have to actually land it.' Dolon swung her arms around and mimics human punching before gently tilting her arm with Lightning Rod towards Rydel, 'like this!'

A strand of lightning shot out of the end of the Lightning Rod and exploded towards Rydel like a snake snatching away its unknowing prey.

Rydel didn't have any time to react before impact and he was thrown backwards in an instant and he found himself lying on the ground before he had any time to react. He wasn't sure what is going on exactly, but it does feel like he is lying on the ground of the gaming room.

He sat up once he regained his bearings. It didn't hurt at all to his surprise. The lightning in reality would cause one to violently contract their muscles, throwing them backwards.

In this game, it was simply linked with a much slower jump back movement and a bit of zing without the terrible burn and pain along with it.

'C'mon Rydel. You know you have got the fight in you.' Dolon crosses all six of her arms and stood a few meters away from him, 'show me what you have.'

'Oh, Yes. I do.' Rydel is totally into it now.

One moment he is just lying on the ground, the next he has already pulled out his novice guns and blasted a good rounds right in Dolon's face. Fortunately, Dolon's shields came into effect and the fires did absolutely no damage. She was quite surprised by Rydel's actions and pulled out her blades as well.

'So this is how we do it?' Dolon laughed as she charges towards Rydel, 'I shall grant you the wish to lose!'

'Not so fast.' With a swipe of an arm, a solid rock wall appeared in front of Dolon and completely blocked her off. Then a few level one grenades were thrown over the all, even though only one made it to where Dolon is standing and dealt a grand total of 0 damage. This was initially planned to be used to access Rydel's artifact familiarity level, but it ended up being a full on fight.

However, leave it to Dolon to justify the reasonings of it all.

Dolon jumped up on top of the wall and tried to see where Rydel is, only for the wall to disappear and reappear elsewhere, leaving her falling to the ground yet again. She would not be caught by the same trick twice though, as she gracefully lands fully ready to make the next move.

There is no point in using her guns since it would barely be a tickle when Rydel is set to have infinite health. She had the blades by her side and is ready.

Suddenly, a projectile coming from the top caught her eye. It was a piece of rock that broke off from when she chopped a rock column right in half. This is nothing to be worried about since her shields should be able to deal with all this. The rock didn't slow down, nor did it shatter on impact. Instead it kept on moving closer and closer and hits Dolon right in the face. The impact completely threw her off on the ground. As the gaming suit completely tightens up to restrict her movement and the background slowly fades to grey, the one point in her health bar is dropped to zero. Dolon has lost.

'What the turb?' The first thing that came to mind before Dolon would ever accept defeat and was to jump up and scream, 'what the heck happened? How did I get hit by such a slow throw? What is my shield doing? Wait...'

As she reaches down to her waist for where the dual purpose shield generators is locataed, there was nothing.

It is only her belt and the empty loop that the shield generator would have been strapped into.

'Guess you didn't see that coming.' Rydel stood there with a smile he couldn't hide even if he tried. He bobbed forward one hop at a time with his hands behind his back and stopped until he is looking at Dolon right in the eye, 'looking for this?'It was her shield generator.

'No...you didn't.' Dolon has grasped what is going on finally, 'did you actually grab the shield generator off my belt and turned it off?'

'Well, don't feel too bad, number 1.' Rydel tries his best to play the nice guy role, 'I did miss quite a few times before finally getting it.'

'Still, that is very well done. If you could do this in real life, that would be more than what I could hoped for.' Dolon gently grabbed Rydel by the shoulder, 'If I am being honest, you really have potential.'

'For what? Playing the war game?'

'No. For something greater. You have the combat instinct of a great fighter in the making.' Dolon looked him seriously in the eye, or as seriously as an avatar could, 'but yeah, in this age it's probably best used in the War Game.

'Well...I wouldn't mind learning some tricks from you. But I am really not the fighting type...Games or not.' Rydel felt a tingle of excitement from the bottom of his heart, but his personality doesn't really spell a fighter.

'From my point of view, you just lack a reason to fight. But I will still be happy to teach you. After the tournament that is.' Dolon stepped back slightly and bowed slightly towards Rydel as an Aquarian battle ritual, 'It was a good match.'

Rydel stood in an army attention stance, and returned the bow, 'It was indeed, master.'

Over the next few days, Rydel simply continued following Dolon's training plan and continued working on his helmet. Taking some inspiration from the War Game counsel, he had gotten in touch with some Aquarian neuroscientists and bioengineers to look into perfecting his helmet. They have gotten the message across and with some of his academic funding, he was able to get them working on it.

After each day's training, he would simply do a small portion of his project work, go and watch Dolon's performances in War Games or just go in the game and play for a little while. Despite him not really a big gamer, it is kind of nice to pick all his military training back up and it's also a quite nice change of scenery from the training halls and the planet views.

The second and third week went by a lot quicker than the first felt. Maybe it was Torelamri at work, but Rydel is fairly certain he is just getting used to the rhythm of things and getting more productive, as well as enjoying things more. He is now fairly comfortable with his artifacts and his rapid progression has finally slowed down as the biggest limiting factors now are no longer his control, but rather his physical attributes.

During this time, he also had some rather spiritual and philosophical talks with Ol. He was shocked to find Ol to be a surprisingly realistic person, despite his outlook on the universe and reality, and the fact that he is a monk. Conversely, Ol never thought the human engineer to be such an inquisitive person and thoroughly enjoyed the exchange of ideas.

As the twenty one days approaches the end, Ol and Rydel met up once again for a final talk. This time, Ol took Rydel to a cafe in the mining town. It is the best restaurant on the planet, which isn't saying a lot. After a delicious three course meal straight out of the food printer, Ol and Rydel sat at the balcony overlooking the machinery and workers and started talking.

'So... according to my understanding, you will be leaving at the end of this?' Ol sounded slightly down.

'Yes. I still have an academic contract I would need to fulfill. So by that I need to be back there.' the words felt bitter to Rydel as they left his tongue, but he had to make it clear, 'I really appreciate your help here. All of you. But I can only go away for so long.'

'I understand.' Ol nodded respectfully.'With the training I have here, there should be no problem controlling the artifact.'

Rydel clenched his left fist and let his gaze travel all the way forward on the table, following a crease on the metallic surface.

'Yes. Dolon has mentioned how fast you have progressed. I am sorry I couldn't oversee your training more often. I am also an political adviser on the side so I have to be away quite often.'

'That's absolutely fine!' While being slightly surprised at Ol's actual position in the Aquarian society, Rydel actually really enjoyed the solitude and this one person journey he embarked on three weeks prior. It's a nice break from normality.

'Good. There is also this. You need to remember everything that I have talked about at the beginning of your stay is true. It always has been. As someone that knew something bad will happen, I feel obliged to try my best to prevent it, stop it or minimise the damage. I am sure you feel the same.' Ol put his drink down and turned quite serious.

Rydel nodded slightly, but didn't say a word and waited for Ol to continue.

'The threat is still out there. And according to Cellica, the distances between the dark edge and our galaxy has closed in once again. The scroll is also telling me another artifact has been activated somewhere near the Central galactic region. Cellica and I will be working on confirming where the exact location of the bearer is, but I know you would be stayind somewhere near the region. So I would just ask you to keep an eye out for anything abnormal, is that okay?'

Yet another one. Rydel felt a slight excitement as well as a sliver of anxiety. He wondered what kind of power this artifact has, and who the bearer would be. So far, this bunch of bearers ain't bad at all, maybe they will all be like this, or maybe they will be something completely different.

'Of course. I will be happy to help and keeping in touch.' Rydel looked at Ol right in the eye and promised, 'I will let you know if something is up.'

'I would appreciate that.' Ol shivered slightly as he is quite happy to hear Rydel's response, 'but you also need to keep things under wraps, especially with your power. I have been looking into this, and we might not be the only bearers around. The Scroll said there is twenty bearers, but it couldn't tell me how many are activated, nor where all twenty were. By the look of the darkness approaching all of our civilization, at least four or five artifacts have been activated prior, and we simply don't have any idea where they are.'

'But couldn't Cellica see their location?' Rydel asked, 'And isn't your Scroll literally the teller of truth? How is there something you don't know?'

'There are many that I don't know. But when I say the Scroll offers me truth, it wasn't entirely accurate. It is only able to tell me things that it's able to sense. For something at its own level, it can only extract the most basic of information. When your artifact was activated, a wave was sent out all around the galaxy, and that's how we picked you up.' Ol explained once again what his Scroll can do, 'but if anything happens before I obtained the scroll, or whatever happened is beyond the Scroll's level, then there is nothing I can do.'

'Have you found any ways to train yourself around that?' Rydel thought back of how much he has expanded his abilities when it comes to using the artifact and wondered if Ol can do the same.

'I had. But this is probably as far as it goes.' Ol untied his exoskeleton to reveal the scroll deeply embedded into his chest, 'I know the limit is no longer of my physicality, but rather that of the scroll. But you are different. You have a lot of room to truly grow and become really powerful.'

'Powerful...?' Rydel pondered about the meaning behind this word. In the post-modern age of technology, the innate power of one individual has become less and less important and even significant comparing to the machines or products that one has created. Individual power is more used to describe one's social, economic and sometimes intellectual status, rather than one of combat prowess.

Back in his exploration fleet days, what really mattered is one's skills at manipulating machines and piloting ships.

Is Dolon powerful? In a closed setting with weapons limitations maybe, but Rydel is far too out of touch with the weapons industry to really know what's going on. Weapons any of the three races use at this age have long exceeded the kind of damage output any ordinary being can create.

'Yes, POWERFUL. But I will leave you to find your own truth.' Ol tilted his head and looked at Rydel who's deep in his own little world trying to figure out what power truly is, 'going back to the other possible bearers, I don't want to lecture you on how to deal with people, but just be aware that despite the artifact's best intentions, not everyone would use this power for good. Some might use it fight or conquer and selfish purposes. Never force yourself into a situation where you have to fight a losing fight against other bearers. There is no guarantee that you can make it out alive with such fundamental forces at play. If in doubt, run, hide and let us know the situation. We will always be there for you.'Ol layered all his arms in a cross branching pattern as a form of formal Aquarian salute, 'Please take care and be ever so cautious, my friend.'

'Thanks, Ol' Rydel got up and returned the gesture with a standard military salute, 'I will keep this on my mind.'