[STT] Chapter 97: Testing Something Unnecessary (Patreon)

Ben punched the punching bag, and it swung out on its chains as a number lit up beside it.

It read 141 on the reading, though Ben had no idea what it was actually counting. How could the force behind a punch be counted, exactly?

He was in the training grounds, and Alice had led him there after they'd finished their meal.

Ben had ended up eating a lot of food, so much so that by the end there was a pile of plates on the table. Alice was astonished, asking all the way here how he managed to do that. It was magical food, too.

Ben had no real answer how he could eat that much. He'd just found it incredibly tasty, and tasty food was one of his weaknesses. The fact that his body was so efficient and used so many calories now also meant that he could eat however much he wanted and not gain a single pound of weight from it. It was quite convenient, actually.

Though, not so much for his wallet.

Which was why he liked free food.

Alice had been sitting on a bench, talking to other kids he didn't know, while he tried out the various training equipment, and now she'd made her way over to him. "That's a decent punch."

"That was the normal way though, I'm just testing out the equipment before I try my skills or mana."

The force bag, as she called it, was the first thing she'd introduced to him once he'd told her he'd taken [Mana Compression] and [Adaptive Regeneration].

Since he had no idea what [Mana Compression] actually did, a bag on chains with a construct inside to measure how much force Ben could exert was quite the perfect way to test it out.

There was a small board beside the bag, and it could tell the force behind its punches. And that was what he wanted to test out right now because that was the thing he was curious about the most.

How much would [Mana Compression] help him with physical attacks? Because he could compress the mana he used behind those attacks, so maybe his attacks would be more explosive.

He also wanted to test out [Mana Cannon] and mana manipulation in general, and wondered how that could have changed with the skill evolution. For now, though, he drew back his hand, balled his fists, and gathered mana within.

He had to consciously keep the mana from spreading around his body, as it was a habit, and he had to be careful not to explode his hand off.

"Well?" Alice said.

"Give me a moment."

He let the mana settle, and looked around as his mind wandered. The grounds were bigger than the glimpse he'd had on the way to lunch, as there were at least six or seven rings with chalk lines, two of them with spars going on with a crowd surrounding them.

Then there was the outdoor archery range, the obstacle course, and a few other things he couldn't identify.

But it was busy, with people training in groups, sparring, or doing their own thing.

All of it was surrounded by a trail where people were walking around very slowly, as if they were carrying something heavy.

"They're wearing vests enchanted to weigh whatever they want," Alice explained, noticing his curiosity.

"Enchanting?"

"Yes. Basically construct work, but not on the body. You do know you can etch constructs onto pretty much anything right?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah so anything that has a construct etched into it is technically enchanted."

"So I'm enchanted."

"...Technically, I suppose so."

That was interesting, but he focused back on his mana and thought about what he wanted to do.

He was trying to gather mana into his fists and utilize a sort of [Mana Cannon] in a way that his hand would explode forward with an explosive force, but it would not hurt his arm or actually create a [Mana Cannon], rather he was only trying to imitate the concept of it.

And the reason why he thought that [Mana Compression] might help him with physical attacks was precisely because of this.

Because typically it required a lot of mana to be put into a small part of his body for those attacks to be actually effective, explosive, or strong. And that typically left him pretty fucked up.

His arms would get injured, his legs would get injured, etc. But if he could compress that mana, then... wouldn't it let him do more with less?

In theory, yes.

But now he just had to test it.

And that was proving to be hard. But that was what he had [Focus] for—to work on something and do something else at the same time. So, as he worked on trying to figure out a way to attack with this new skill, he talked more with Alice.

"What about the chalk rings?"

"They're for sparring, mostly. The popularity is mostly due to the rankings, I guess."

"What is that?" He asked as the mana started to come together in his right fist. He felt the pressure, and he immediately knew this wasn't going to be like a normal attack, but it felt as if something was wrong, so he let go of the mana and started again as Alice talked.

"The House has a rank for its fighters, yeah? There are a lot of these sparring rings throughout the House properties, and it's quite a big spectacle at the higher ranks as well. And the reason why it's popular is that you can gain more resources the higher up you are on the ladder or ranking, however you want to call it."

"Ah."

Ben punched, the mana ricocheting in his fist in the wrong direction, dampening the force being his attack instead of increasing it, and giving him quite the punchback, making him shake his fist to get rid of the numb feeling.

"Did it not work?" Alice asked, curious.

"I'm still trying to figure it out. To be fair to me, this is not really the intended use of the skill as far as I see it, but—"

"Since you're a nutjob you're testing out what things you can do that you should not be able to before you do any of the things the skill excels at." Alice rolled her eyes.

"Exactly." Ben said with a smile.

Ben practiced for a while until he noticed another board that seemed to keep track of all the numbers.

...is that a fucking leaderboard? He blinked, looking at the numbers on the board.

There were a few hundred names, all with different scores beside them, and the highest score was 3225.

"What is that?" He asked, flabbergasted.

"Oh, that's another way to encourage the young to do well. It's the daily high scores, and there's a monthly one somewhere else. The one at the top is the guard captain's son."

"What, do you gain rewards for a high ranking there as well?"

"Resources, yes."

"Huh, interesting." He looked at it a bit more, but he didn't see his name. "I don't see my name. How often does this update?"

"Oh, that's because it updates every ten minutes."

"I see."

"Yeah, do you want to compete?"

"I mean, I wouldn't mind—"

"Oh my, it is unexpected to see you here, Lady Alice! Showing the new one around, are you? I was here to do my daily routine, but I wouldn't mind if he has a go at it first!" A pleasant voice interjected from behind them, and Ben turned to see a man, older than him by a few years at best, wearing a white shirt and black pants.

He was tall, his body toned, his hair blond, and he had a charming smile on his face.

"My friend here is testing a skill," Alice said, face souring a little. "He is not here to punch bags with you."

"Hm? I did not say that, Lady Alice. And well, a bag is for punching, is it not? Since you mentioned it, I wouldn't mind if he tried to test against me, haha."

Alice's expression turned even more sour. "Ray, my friend is not interested."

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