Chapter 182: Playing with Myself

"That's the way, good! Remember to step in with your shoulder only when you are using that skill Tom. The skill will do most of the work for you but remember you have leeway when using it," Drake shouted from the sidelines.

Keeping his eyes on the party as they practiced in their pairs, Drake lamented at not being able to join them due to maybe having another mental episode from his sudden change.

It had been a few days since it had happened and he had almost killed himself and Bjorn. He had been relegated to sitting a fair distance away on a chair. Claire checking up on him every now and then in between her own practice.

Surprisingly he also had some visits from a very embarrassed Megan and a not-so-embarrassed Julia.

"What are you doing there?" Julia asked, taking a sip of water.

"I'm trying to quicken the speed I'm able to temper my mana," Drake hummed, summoning and extinguishing spell after spell.

"Tempering?"

"Yeah," Drake said, keeping his focus on the pairs practicing as he felt the mana from his manipulation skill, "You know how some of my spells the color changes on the elements?"

Julia nodded fixing her glasses as she looked on.

"I'm trying to make it happen instantaneously, but I'm getting hung up in a few places so it's taking a while. I guess I just don't have talent with it…" Drake sighed.

Drake was attempting to make his spells more condensed and powerful now that he had the excess mana to do so. His Magic Exposure skill -now Submission of Magic- innate increased the amount of mana he used for his spells while increasing their penetration ability. But the process did have a delay and his goal was to as he said, lessen that. He could always use larger spells and give himself time to charge up through his Heretical Chanting, but he was sure there would come a point where fights would be so decisive that a single spell or action could decide the outcome.

And he wanted to prepare for that.

Because of the quickly approaching timer reaching zero and the tutorial ending, in the back of his head he began feeling more and more anxious about the future. The number of tutorials alone told him just how wide the system was for this induction of worlds.

His thoughts continued to fall on just how many powerful people were there possibly coming out of these tutorials. Their tutorial may have only had him as a Dual Class, but who was to say the other tutorials didn't have at least one or more? And then there were the other planet's Tutorial members.

The system promoted and seemed to enjoy forcing conflict. He knew just from his own experience and the fact that Natto had mentioned that there was to be a summit to decide a leader of their planet. It always seemed to be a competition in the most primal sense.

"Survival of the fittest at its best, huh…" Drake mumbled.

"What now?" Claire asked, bending down over his shoulder, "Hearing voices again?"

Drake scoffed, "Only one annoying one," he smiled.

Claire placed the hot bowl of food on Drake's head.

"Ow! What the hell woman!?"

"Serves you right," she laughed sitting down next to him, as Julia took her cue and began walking back towards the pairs to practice.

"I was just thinking about the coming events that might happen. Natto still can't give me many specifics but I know there's more to it. And I'm not looking forward to it," Drake sighed, taking the bowl from his head and gripping it in both hands.

"Oh?"

"I'm sure it will be a bloodbath even if I'm prepared for it. I don't particularly like it."

Claire's expression softened as she took Drake's hand in hers, "Don't worry, you have friends around to share the burden. And me, we'll get through it together."

Drake laughed, "Are you sure you haven't watched anime before? That's a pretty heroine thing to say…" 

"I've watched cartoons on Sunday… My brother used to have them playing after church when we came home," Claire smiled with a bit of sadness, "Our mother would always scold him for it."

Drake gave an endearing smile gripping her hand tighter.

"You wish to correct her on cartoons versus anime do you not?" Natto snickered.

Oh you know I do. It's taking all of my willpower not to scream but I'm glad she's opening up about him after everything.

"Yes, it seems your…. Nights together have allowed her to become more relaxed."

It has been fun. But that's also why I'm so hard on her to get this stuff down, I want her to make it on the outside until I can come find her or she comes back to me. Thankfully she's been a good sport about it. Drake smiled.

"Bjorn was right," Claire said, narrowing her eyes.

"Bjorn huh…? And about what?"

"You do that thing when you're talking to Natto, the distant look thing," she said pointing at him, "What were you talking about?"

"About how much I'll miss you when the tutorial is over," Drake smirked.

Claire's mouth opened to say something but quickly closed, her hand squeezing Drake's slightly harder as her ears turned rosy.

"You better go off and train. Mage classes have it the toughest," Drake said letting go of her hand as he went back to casting magic.

Claire nodded and walked off back to the group as well. Drake watching her as she went. Well, parts of her.

"I'm a lucky man."

"Calm down there Romeo," Bjorn said from behind him, "Don't let the rose-tinted glasses get you this early bro."

Drake turned his head splashing some water on Bjorn, "Debby downer as always," Drake scoffed.

"I just don't want to see you turn into Tom," Bjorn scoffed, slicking his wet hair back, "Last time he confessed to someone he was crying for three days. I thought the tutorial introduced banshees…"

"Last time? You mean three days ago?" Drake laughed.

Bjorn sat down and nodded, "Yeah bro, I'm sure Hudson regrets bunking with the guy now if he didn't already."

"Maybe you should give him some dating advice then. I'm doing alright over here," Drake chuckled.

"I can see that. You know where she's coming out?"

"I thought I told you? She's around the central states, so might be a long way depending on how large the world got after the introduction and merge."

Bjorn put his hand to his chin, "Oh that's right. I wonder how I'm going to get down from Canada. At least I won't have to worry about a visa anymore."

Drake raised a finger, "That's not entirely true. The world's gone mad, but I'm willing to bet whatever remains of the people in charge, are ganna want to stay that way even though they probably shouldn't."

Drake shivered, "Damn that means longer career politicians doesn't it…. People are going to be living for thousands of years, might have some Darth Sidious-level stuff on our hands."

"That's a good point. But I'm optimistic, I don't think it's going to get that bad. We have magic powers now bro."

"Yeah but so do they. It will all depend on who comes out, and just how strong they are. All we can hope for right now is that the right people come out on top, and the losers are the bad ones," Drake sighed.

"Don't be so down, man! Have some gratitude!" Bjorn said, slapping Drake on the side, "We just lived through this mess, and you beat an E-Rank. How many other people are going to be able to say they did that?"

Drake smirked, "I can think of at least two."

"You're friends again?" Bjorn said raising a brow.

"Yeah, I'm convinced they're going to be coming out stronger than even I am. I just hope they haven't changed too much."

Drake and Bjorn watched the others train, letting the conversation die down as Drake sun spells in his hand, continuing to practice.

This was the pattern for the past couple of days. Everyone would practice, Drake on the sidelines. Then when everyone was finished, he would practice again on his own, only to go to his tent when Claire retired for the night.

Despite his wanting to have fun not stop, he restrained himself in lue of training. All that was on his mind were the foreboding feelings eating at the back of his head.

Bjorn a stone's throw away from E-Rank and turning into a monster with no solution other than to kill him. The possible state of the world after certain unscrupulous people gained magic powers. And the location of his family.

He had to master his new skills and perfect them to a knife's edge.

Drake in the night would drill and practice, pushing himself to his newfound limits. And today was no different.

Once the day was waning and everyone was back in camp retiring for the night, he would let Claire fall asleep in his arms, then sneak out using his wind magic to gently let her down as he slipped out from under her.

In the pitch black of night far away from the camp, he would let himself practice.

"I'm glad I watched DBZ, this training method lets me stretch myself thin while practicing so many different things…"

Drake raised his hand, a myriad of colors cascading as several magic circles formed beneath it.

"Summon! Primal Elemental!"

Drake concentrated, forming a body of earth, then a shroud of fire and lightning around it. Containing the mass of magic and spells a thick sheet of ice that constantly reformed around it.

Once it was finished, Drake wiped the sweat from his brow, pulling two vials from his inventory and downing them both in a quick gulp.

"Alright Steven, ready to go again today?" Drake asked the mass of magic.

It didn't answer, and of course, couldn't. It wasn't a sentient Elemental but just spells Drake controlled.

This is what made it quite fun for Drake though, he both had to control to an extent the elemental and also fight against it. He had packed it full of so much mana it was a struggle to even form the spell at first. But now after a few days of practice, he was able to manage quite well.

The elemental contained so much mana that Drake surprised himself. Because of the amount of mana within it, the makeshift Elemental was able to cast spells as well.

"Good to hear it, buddy, alright same thing as yesterday. Anything goes, no hard feelings right?" Drake said, jumping back a few paces.

Drake began counting down himself, "3! 2! 1! Start!"

On his word, the elemental spell activated and it began the fight, straightening both arms and aiming at Drake. Firing off masses of ice.

Drake shifted into his Endowment, his hair shimmering into peerless white as he raised his arms as well dodging to the side.

Throwing out an equal amount of condensed fireballs Drake tried to circle around the elemental, but the impacts of the blasts between the ice and fire covered the field.

Drake lost track of the elemental in the explosions of magic even with his enhanced eyesight. He ceased his reign of fireballs waiting for the debris to clear only to have the elemental burst out of the cloud of magic.

"Cheeky!" Drake smirked, his arms glowing red, and bracing for impact.

The elemental increased its speed similar to how Drake had done previously, a combination of wind and fire magic to propel itself.

Drake pushed mana into his remaining tattoo it humming with power.

"Attunement Lightning!" Drake shouted, throwing his fist forward to meet the Elemental's.

The Elemental's fist evaporated and reformed as the spell contested with Drake's raw power thanks to the amount of mana he funneled into it beforehand.

But the Elemental didn't wait for its mana to be exhausted, it wasn't casted for that, it began a flurry of blows matched by Drake's one arm. Both a blur of speed.

The Elemental then took the advantage, casting spells before Drake had, forming magic circles in Drake's blind spots.

Drake was only able to see the bloom of the spells last second in his peripherals with his Magic sight, his head not bothering to turn as he casted a defensive skill.

"Guardians Reprieve."

The spells collided with his back and sides bombarding him as they continued to exchange blows. But only long enough for Drake to hear the crackling of his shield.

[Reprieve Charge Gained]

Drake quickly teleported behind the Elemental, his hand already charging a spell of white-hot fire.

"Blaze Palm!"

Drake's hands were engulfed in fire as he threw them forward, evaporating the Elemental at a reckless pace.

The Elemental shot forward, taking the damage Drake had done as it tried to escape. Its raw earthen skeleton slowly having ice reform over it.

Drake rushed after it pursuing the Elemental, his hands shooting out blasts of white fire all around it.

The spells missed their mark and careened past the Elemental, cutting off its escape.

Unfortunately, it was now at a disadvantage, it couldn't travel instantaneously like he could.

The Elemental quickly turned unable to escape further, the ice on its arms shimmering to a purplish sheen as it pushed mana to its icy outside.

Drake smiled, keeping himself from using too many of his innate buffs to keep it as difficult for himself as possible. Instead pushing mana into his tattoo once more, matching the Elementals.

On cue, they both surged forward meeting each other as they exchanged punches and kicks. Drake weaving in and barely evading the pointed ice-tipped strikes as his hands continued to throw out balls of fire all around them.

Quickly the exchange became heated. Literally, as the area was covered in glowing balls of white flame, the Elemental slowing down as its mana couldn't keep up with regenerating itself.

"Looks like this is the end of the session Stevie," Drake said, jumping backward out of the encirclement of fireballs. His hand reaching out, his palm up and open.

"Crush and Bloom!"

Drake roared as he balled his fist, the fire around the Elemental convening into one location a massive explosion sounding off a thunderous boom as it rocked the area.

"Good fight Stevie, See you again in a few hours," Drake smiled.