E.G.F.W.I? Chapter 37 - Trials -

- Tenka's p.o.v -

Dam it Sam, you don't go easy on me. My headgear got singed. Still, in just ten minutes I gain 5% proficiency with my mind accel skill. My AGI seem to climb up too. Sigh lets go!

Right now my body temp is very high. I ran for ten min at high speed and the three last blink used all I had left. My heart beat is very fast and I did not breath much in the ten min. The air was too dry and hot to be useful

Now I am in a dark chamber with a blue pond. I guess next part is under water. I almost dive in the water, but luckily I woke up before going into shock.

Instead, I realize I have to meditate first or I would not make it. I spend around an hour of recovery and regulate my temp, refill on oxygen. Once I am back to top shape, I dive in.

During my meditation, I revisited some of Sam's memories, since I have access to his "cloud"... I can match this cave to the one last time he spent in the ocean.

I can't believe Katriel managed to connect with him like I did. Worse, she connected to a deeper degree, but Sam said it's an' unexplored science, and he could not do something like this with me back then. Sigh.

Does he like blond girls?

Back to the underwater cave, I am still diving into the depth. The pressure is building up. Lucky, there is enough light to all the glowing algae. I wonder what does he want me to train?

I start to feel very compressed. The water is heavy. My eyeballs feel like they are shrinking. I have to adjust my eardrums. My lungs are caving inside my rib cage.

I hit the bottom. At this depth, I don't have to swim to stay at the bottom. The water pressure is enough to keep me at the bottom.

The cave stretches in front of me, in a straight line. Underwater hike it is!

I walk at the bottom for a while. My power converging to my lungs. I spot an' air pocket. I don't know if I will be able to breath in with all this compression.

In the end, I find a way to breath using my mouth as a valve. I swallow the air instead of inhaling, or I just lose my air. It's enough to get me going.

I come across a big cave. In the center there is a big creature. It looks in between a lizard and a fish. Its long tail ending with a fin. Long limbs with claws at the end of the webbed digits. Its face almost flat with very sharp piranha teeth.

It bolts at me, I barely have time to pull a dagger to defend myself from its claws, when its jaw almost clamp on my neck and face before my other dagger reaches its chest. In this high pressure, I barely manage to grease it before it bolts back in the distance.

This creature seems very quick witted. It's also very strong, living in this environment.

After a dangerous battle, manage to scare it away. I get on my way because I'm running on fumes. Sure enough, he did not make this thing impossible. I find an' air pocket big enough to put my head in.

I can finally breath a few times normally before going on my way.

This goes on for an hour of fighting at high pressure. At the end I find a metal lift with instructions. I have to sit in a chair, buckle up, put a breathing mask on and press a button.

The lift starts to ascend slowly, while I breath in and relax. Sometimes the lift stalls for a few minutes, before going again. In his memories, this is called decompression. If I was to climb up fast, my cells would collapse, because the gases expand and are more concentrated currently.

I realize I must look like a skeleton in here giggle. I'm already so thin, been compressed like this... Does he have a thing for thin woman? Giggles.

Out of the water, I finally am! In front of me, there is a golden ball with instruction. It's actually food called ambrosia. Sam and Ammit told me about this food that could fill them up and is super tasty. I gulp the whole thing in two bites, my eyes crying like a baby. I even lost track of time too.

Breath. This feels good. I'm almost back to top shape, but I will still need to rest later.

The next room is a mountain path made of dark stones, climbing in the distance, but the gravity increases as I set foot on the path.

My muscles spasm after what I just went through, this work out the small strange muscles all over my body, and fortify my internals too. He really pushes my body to its limits. The weakness I feel right now is the first of its kind.

A red flashy ball appears in the corner of my sight. I have to dodge it.

"You're joking right!?"

Sam-"No, babe. Just dodge them. you don't want to lose your flexibility don't you?"-

OK, fine he is right. I start jogging and dodging, making sure I stretch all my muscles and tendons. I also have to keep my abdomen tighten a bit to keep my internal organs from tumbling around. Lucky that food just melted in my system...

I almost become dazed and keep my pace on automatic mode. My mind is thinking of my 7 chakras in harmony right now. My body burns from head to toes, but very much in control. I feel all the micro muscles and nerves working overtime. Things that I never felt before.

When I wake up, shivering cause of the breeze from the top of the mountain I just climbed. A flag fluttering beside me. My body is wet and a bit cold. I take a good breath and grab the flag.

Sam-"Hey sexy. get into a bath and rest up ok!"-

I barely kiss him before appearing in the bathroom. I guess I must stink giggle.

- Salaba's p.o.v. -

In the next room, where I find myself, there is a bunch of strange black rocks, dancing in what seems like wind, but there is no wind. At least not enough to make rocks dance and fly around.

I can feel a tingling in my spine. It follows the magnetic wind pattern. After the previous trial, I can tell what Sam wants me to learn. If I can wield gravity, I can also wield magnetic force. Maybe?

I find a spot to sit and meditate. After a while, I can perceive the polarity around me from my spine, in the back of my neck and upper back. I can also hear it somehow.

I try to transform my power by passing some of it through that area and trying to move a rock nearby. My spine seems to burn, but the rock shoots like a meteor out of sight. I shiver... I could have died!

It's ten times easier to wield this than gravity, and use less power! I just never knew anything about magnets, before Sam crammed this in my brain.

I look around and find a slab of black rock to sit on, then I try to make it levitate slowly. Once I get the hang of it, which only take a few minutes, I make it float in the vortex of flying rocks, to elevate the difficulty level.

I never realized that my slab would accumulate weight and go down with me on top. But no harm done. I could fly, but I have to make sur not to attract magnetic stuff... still if I get up I might get a rock in the face. I went to fast...

Wait I have an idea. I create a neutral bubble around me. The rocks that cross path with it fall to the floor. I pull the slab from under me and use it as an' umbrella. Sure this is a domain! I go to the center of the cave and expand it to the entire cave. All the rocks fall down. I avoid a few.

I close my eyes and focus on the feeling coming from the ground. I resist the natural vortex and train my new ability a bit more. I can leave the room, but this is a feeling I want to remember.

I stay there until my spine becomes a bit sore, then I leave the area for the next.

Sam-(Does she learn by instinct, cause this was too fast! she has a hard time with theory, but practice is like a fart for her...)-

In the next room, I find a golden ball with instructions. I eat the delicious ball one bite and almost climax. I'm still tired, but full of energy nonetheless.

The last room is a strange one. There small tables and chairs in rows. One bigger table facing the others at one side of the room, with a blackboard behind. Sam showed us the black board uses in the past, so I guess this should be a place of learning.

Since I'm not the one who will teach, obviously, I pick a seat near the window. These windows look so clear and clean, nothing like the stuff I have seen. Outside, these are a giant city made of glass and concrete. This should be a view of Sam's old world....

My thoughts are cut are cut with a bunch of wooden puppets coming in. They all wore similar clothing and have a simple name in common written on the face stump.

One of the dummy come to me and say.

Bob-"This is my spot."-

Time stops and a blue panel pop in front of me. The is a question written on it.

A student call out your mistake on the fist day of school will you:

A: Smack him on the head and resume your sightseeing.

B: Bargain for the seat you like, and to not go down too easy.

C: Give him the seat, trying to make friends.

D: Ignore.

What? this is strange? In real life... I admit I was tempted by the first choice, but this is Sam here... I guess I should leave all the doors open. I call out my answer. Time resume its flow.

"I'm sorry since its my first day, there is no names on the seats and I claimed this seat as my own, but if you can give me something, I can give you my seat."

The dummy flinch and think, before making its way to another seat without a word.

(Well, seems like a strange reaction, I should be careful.)

The class quiet down as a taller dummy makes its way in front. He stops beside the black board and stay still, but his voice sounds in all direction and the black board light up with images.

Teacher-"Welcome to the interactive classroom, were you have to keep your WITT quick and BOOST you INTelligence. Let's proceed with the attendance. Answer here, when I call your names."

The Teacher call a bunch of names, while I simply wait for mine. Once its done, he call out to me and ask a question, while all the heads turn to look my way.

Teacher-"Salaba, One name was missing from the roster, witch one was it?"-

(What!? I didn't remembered all the names! Wait! This should not be impossible...)

Piecing the clues together, I call Bob's name. Clearly, this was done to give me a chance and a glimpse of what kind of challenge this is. My head almost want to melt and my heart to cry. The difficulty level is insane. I need to remember every details of the room, the people and as much as everything I can in fact.

"Correct!"

Ding-ding-ding

A dagger appear on my desk and bob's face is already looming close to me. I have no time to move, but my instinct from the last trial kick in. The dagger flies from the desk at insane speed. The pommel crashes in the middle of his face, and split it in half from the shock. Bob's body vanished and reappear at his seat like nothing happened. I levitate the dagger back in my hand. This is going to be tough.

Teacher-"Now dear..(I cringe). Name five of your fellow students names."-

I almost want to give up, but my brain gives me a glimpse. Enough hope for me to start naming five people successfully and be attacked again after receiving a weapon. a sword.

This time, things get messy. Both weapons levitate and leaves slashes all around me. I use my fists to punch them to smithereens. Once done. the class reset. Texts starts to flow around the room and images succeed themselves. I push energy to my brain slowly. A ticklish and annoying sensation burn around my brain and nerves, but I push past and keep my eyes opened.

- Amy's p.o.v. -

In Sam's Mindscape, seven character screens float in front of me. Right now 90% of my processing power is dedicated to Sal. When she used her power toward her brain, Her pupils dilated, and from the way they scroll around, they are burning information in her brain. Not losing a microsecond, I spam a bunch of Arithmancy, vector application, nuclear and atomic knowledge. All that could fit her power affinity. Also "basic knowledge" that include many things from Sam's world.

Until Salaba collapse on the floor. She is sleeping. From the readings, her mental energy is completely drained, with good reason after this trial giggle. I went overboard and her too. Skipping boring courses can be addicting.

I will have to wait until she wake up to see if this worked. Normally peoples accelerates after injecting power in the brain. But in her case, the opposite happened. I suspect instead of boosting her WIT she burns all the information straight in her cloud or INT, since her mindscape is not yet formed.

"WAIT!"

Too late, she is evolving. This is bad. I'm so scared and uncomfortable right now. For the second time since my birth I feel fear for my integrity. If she does something like Sam when we evolved. shudder.

-Slap!-

My hand just shot at my face. I breath. Lucky my breath take only a microsec from the dumb slow clock of this world. I'm sure it was just a fluke because we come from another world and the sword of destiny touched us... I'm sure.... I transport Salaba to a sphere just like X men's old man's. But, instead the wall are black and the magnetic field very high an fluctuate, so is the gravity and a high static charge build. Her hair stand straight in a 4 feet ball. She unconsciously get up in her sleep and let the elements wash over her.

(All conditions are met.)

Salaba's eyes snaps open, but they look a bit dull. Her subconscious took the forefront in her time of need. She was always so intuitive. Something I have not much experience with since Sam put that into Bes.

This enabled her to become slightly dumb... But now...

The catwalk leading to the door disintegrate. She is left floating with the platform under her. The room start to twist a wiggle toward her forehead. The Rooms from this castle are made from energy, so she just absorb the whole room in her third eye.

Now she just float asleep in the darkness. The fastest evolution yet, thanks to the castle. I teleport her to us in a bed besides Izuka.

Mily is pretty exited about what I did, since its the same. But in her case, I put a lot less information. Only basic knowledge until she get used to it. She used 4 hours to gain a tenth of Sal's haul and in one hour at that.

Well then, time to focus on the last contestant.

- Katriel p.o.v. -

This is a nightmare. I'm now surrounded by 16 soldiers, 16 archers, and 8 spell casters. The only thing saving my skin is that they always use the same pattern. Well, each wave has a predetermined set of actions. Once they are done, they restart the motion. So to win, I evade the first wave and plan my attack in the second, sometimes delivering the blow on the second wave sometimes messing around for a while before finding an' opening.

Once I break a link, the whole thing crumbles. The thing is, Right now against 40 people, I can only defend. This is my limit. I can't put any more power in any part of my body. I'm capped. Tsk.

My whole body is burning from the constant strain I put on it. My breath is even, but deep.

Suddenly, a blue window appears at the bottom of my sight. Sam must have noticed my predicament and helped me.

- 3rd person p.o.v. -

But no Sam did not help her. Amy did. She thought;

Amy-(She is topped and I don't see a evolution path in the short term.)-

- Amy's p.o.v. -

This is bad since she is on of the warriors Sam thought to have one of the biggest potentials. Turns out they made her reach the cap she had before. Still, Amy has more than one trick in her bag. She uses the best tool related to Katriel, her soul connection to Sam. We know how to make her break the cap, but she will have to work hard. After all the others would be jealous if she would evolve in a few weeks after her awakening.

I cut a small piece of myself off from any task and dedicate it to her. She does not have a Mindscape, so I can only do small things. After synchronization, I realize her mind is close to my own thought speed. She seems to follow Sam's path of evolution already. Maybe I should do like Sal am Mily?

That's it! We will fill her head with Sam's, Beno's and Barabas memories! It would be the best test to know What happened back then. It will take her a while to evolve, but once she does, we might have to flee from the beast that came last time. Hopefully the test should be positive I'm 80% sure. She will be like Sam. A bit of jack of all trades, but as a subordinate, she has more direction for herself. The desire to defend and protect. Even as a weak woman, she would have tried to defend Sam himself. As if he needed that. Well, not physically...

Back to her training, with the system windows, she can double her performance. Well, there is a second brain, helping, but her body is starting to overheat. I slow the momentum for a while. I bring her temperature down slowly.

I teleport her to a stretching room with a dummy trainer. After a bath and eating the golden ball of high power ambrosia and a cup of milk, I teleport her to us.

- Sam p.o.v -

"Hey Kat congrats, you held on the longest, but this is not over for you, and then not for the others either later. Rest up people!"

I let myself be teleported with Katriel in a white room.

"Kat, you know how I gave you as much power as I could....?"

Kat-"Yes is something wrong?"

"No, not really, it's just, since you are close to me and my power, you evolve the same way I did. You don't have too, but if you want to help me do one last big experiment for your evolution, you could help me a lot. Something big happened during my evolution. So recreating the elements as they where back then minus a Big detail, I could prevent future accidents and gather data of all kinds."

Kat-"Just tell me what to do. I don't understand you much. I know you care and won't harm me, so what do I do?"-

(Tsk why do.... Wait, better, once I do it you will understand me..)

"Nothing! Really sit here and let me send you my memories. they will be" folded/compressed" to fit your brain. You need to go through stuff and they will surface and unpack naturally, like they were part of you all along. Don't force things, otherwise you will suffer. Memories are linked to the soul, and I'm stuffing mine, that contain around 300 years or life, inside a 4..cough something year old person's brain. You will need (BEL) to bring your soul at the same level as the mind, needless to mention your body, since you take good care of yourself already."

Kat-"My liege, there is no need to ask. My body, mind and soul belong to you. as long as you don't discard me, I will always be by your side."-

"So corny! Thank you love. No I don't discard humans... Sapiens... Hell I don't discard life... Much less my family."

We sit on comfortable mats face to face. I put my hand on her head and close my eyes.

- Amy's p.o.v. -

We say memories are linked to the soul, but the whole picture is a marvel to look at. Of course, only I can see this...

The memories are a mix of body, soul and mind. Body remember to breath, or be scared or death and harm. The mind would be scared of losing things and be interested on knowledge or curious. The soul part is the memories of the outside or the "Am Not" what is not part of you but still related, like karma, but also things like love, hate, the lingering presence we leave after a lot of time spent in the same place, making the same actions like rocking in a chair.

Sine she as no mindscape I have to map her brain, soul and well not her mind. The mind I just inscribe a lock rune to let the memories flow slowly in. I use a mix of the abilities from Salaba, Khonsu and Ammit to burn the intel in her body and soul.

On the outside, the white wall are now displaying the 300 years of life at a 1000x pace. My processing power is at 100% on her. These images will stay in her mind until the time of need.

I focus and make the second round an' illusion. She literally live the lives at 1000x pace. I control the flow of power in her brain, so she don't become a vegetable. Her flow augmented by twice already, after two rounds of life. There is a lot of details missing, but this should be enough fore now.

I can reproduce the illusion at home no need to be in Ari's castle for it. This Visit brought me so much data a will need a couple of hours to sort the out. (Meaning a few years to her perspective.)

I will wait until we go to sleep.

- Sam p.o.v. -

I look at Katriel and wonder if she is ok. A long string of drool leak from her mouth and her eyes are barely opened.

("What the hell Amy!")

Amy-("She is fine just slowly wake her up, big dofus giggle")-

I gently pat her shoulder.

"Kat are you ok?"

She snaps back to reality. Then realize her compromising predicament. She dig a handkerchief from her cleavage and make herself presentable.

Kat-"I'm fine thank you, but I need sleep."-

"We all do, after this. I'm mentally dead right now."

And so, We all get teleported to a giant bed. I realize the comfort and just let myself fall into darkness.