Chương 23

Almost fifteen minutes later the icy lake disappeared, alongside the displays that announced the end of the v-duel. Five Templars were standing silently in the middle of their state of the art, Olympic sized v-station.

"That's enough dueling for a day, I think," said Adam carefully. He stepped off the platform, his body flashing with bits, un-virtualizing as he crossed the boundary. Kennedy glanced at the swordsman.

"Luke?" she said. The swordsman seemed deep in thought.

"Ah—yeah, sure." The beauty and the grandeur of the city was still spread before them, but the neither the swordsman nor the mage gave it a glance.

"You haven't been many duels yet, right?" she said, to the mage and the swordsman.

"I wouldn't overthink it. Truly. That last fight—" She wasn't sure how to say it.

"It was… unusual."

"What just happened?" It was the mage. He seemed paler than the swordsman, which surprised her.

"What the hell was that?" At her silence—"Was he Institute? Didn't Echelon just get that new guy—that wasn't him?" He looked to her, imploring, and she was forced to tell him the truth—"I'm not sure." And then, to clarify—"I don't think it was," she said. He would've been wearing Guild armor if he was a top-flight Guild talent.

"No freaking way it was," said their healer. Another silence.

"v-Duels can be weird," said Adam, cheerfully breaking it.

"Especially provisional duels. And it's getting late. We'll have to get up bright and early for O-day tomorrow." O-day was orientation day, which included a city-wide scavenger hunt hitting several famous Awakened locations in the city, as well as a speech from a star Duelist upperclassman. Several of them would also be selecting their final F-rank Skill shards, and receiving new Uncommon-rarity weaponry as well.

"What do you say we get some rest?" Adam said gently. The swordsman and the mage both agreed. Kennedy called up three rides—two to send their teammates to their respective hotels, and one for her and Adam. The elevator ride down, through a glass box, visually traveling from the top of the city to street level, was also in silence. The healer's limousine left first. By the glance he gave her, he seemed slightly amused.

"We won 5-0," he said.

"Lighten up, guys. Training hasn't even properly started yet. See you tomorrow." The swordsman and the mage were silent. Their own limousine arrived.

"Ms. Devereaux. Mr. Devereaux," said the driver. The first few minutes of their ride were also in silence.

"Luke seems like he'll be okay?" she said. She glanced at Adam—her twin brother was always better at reading people than she was—what they were feeling, at least. What the swordsman had just seen could easily have been soul-crushing, especially in his mental state. She wasn't certain the swordsman wasn't crushed; she couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"We'll see how he reacts," Adam said eventually. He seemed contemplative.

"We'll have a better idea in the next few days." She nodded. These next days—hours—how he dealt with defeat like this would be psychologically crucial. A few seconds.

"I wouldn't check up on him tonight," he said, giving her a glance.

"Give him some space to think, process things." Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"I'll give him space," she assured him. She felt guilty.

"It's Jason I'm more concerned about," said Adam. He had a knowing look.

"I get the sense he was expecting something a little more one-sided."

"Yes," she said. Another few seconds, as the skyscrapers whipped by.

"Safe assumption we just met a member of the new batch," Adam said casually. The new batch of Outworlders who'd arrived on Earth, due to the spatial distortions that the new Towers had created. There still wasn't an incredible number of Outworlders, between than ten and twenty thousand worldwide. They were already being absorbed into institutions, like Guilds or Professions' workshops, at a startling pace.

She knew of several new Templar recruits, in her class, who were Outworlders—she'd seen them in their class's social media groups. She glanced at Adam.

"Do you think…?" Adam nodded.

"Stone cold genius."

"I've never seen that level of Pure Mana Manipulation before, at Level 2," she said, recalling it.

"And his processing speed—""Was insane," Adam agreed. It wasn't simply his pure intelligence stat, but his soul's ability to make use of it. A few seconds.

"We could also be washed," said Adam, grinning.

"Washed at Level 3?" He was joking about it, which made her think the encounter didn't give him the slightest bit of imposter syndrome. She hadn't truly been worried about Adam. Genius was a word that'd also been applied to him. She didn't feel flustered by it either, for similar reasons. She was intrigued about the implications.

"He can't be the only genius in the new batch," she said, glancing at him.

"He isn't," Adam agreed.

"The next few months will be pretty interesting." His eyes glinted as he said it. The limousine rolled to a stop in front of one of the pencil-thin skyscrapers for the ultra-rich. The doorman greeted them, and they took the elevator up to the penthouse suite. Adam went up first; it dropped her off a floor below, at their private bar. She ordered a drink—not a treasure yet, but one suitably strong for her physiology—and gazed into the distance, across Central Park, toward the Hudson river and the ocean beyond.

It felt like the past few hours had complicated things tremendously. These days, it felt like the world—her world, and her teammates' worlds—was moving very fast. The world's Class Level cap was rising above 130. Part of that was due to average rift levels rising globally at the top end, at an accelerating pace—but that also meant more and more Awakening stones were discovered; it was the quantity of Awakening Stones, not the quantity of talent, that was the bottleneck.

Every day, more and more talent joined this invisible, global race to the top. You could see it on social media, with all new talents' accounts she saw popping up every week, and in the sheer talent in the international dueling scene these days. It was having strange effects. She recalled that certain instance items were becoming stunningly expensive, because of the sheer global demand for excellent items to equip the burgeoning wave of rising talent. The level was rising worldwide.

The Templar development program was a microcosm of the reality of the world. It only prepared them for reality. She accepted the necessity of it, but the fact that it was so all-encompassing was precisely why she'd tried to shield them for at least this week. A few hours, at least. She felt foolish. She sat there silently.

She texted a few friends and glanced out over the city, following individual people walking about, living normal, unAwakened lives, blissfully unaware of it all; even as they walked under billboards plastered with Tomoyuki Ishida's grinning face, advertising his upcoming duel at Madison Square Garden. She wasn't truly focusing on all that. Her mind started replaying the duel, which wasn't by itself special. Her mind often started doing it, especially in duels she lost.

She hadn't lost this one, but some part of her felt like it. She'd genuinely been a few seconds from drowning. She spent a few minutes thinking. Then she opened Instagram, went to DM's, opened a particular group chat with a few Awakened friends she considered her peers. has anyone heard of a duelist with the handle 'arcstyrion'?

'Genius' was a moniker that could apply to many young talents today. Only a fraction would truly achieve their potential. And yet she'd typed the question; she wasn't even certain why precisely. It wasn't any of the talents he'd showcased necessarily. His Mana Manipulation was impressive, and he seemed a natural at utilizing mana. She sensed a quality in him she recognized, a quality of the mind, that made her wonder. He has ice in his veins. The ability to execute under pressure.

It wasn't sufficient, by itself, to become a top Awakened. But with his other talents… it piqued her curiosity. She'd dropped the question in the middle of a conversation, and replies were quick—no-one knew, which wasn't especially surprising. She was only slightly curious. Her mind was turning to other things, such as tomorrow's activities, when a reply ping'd her— is it this? It linked a brand new account.

Yeah, I'm for sure taking a break tomorrow. Fuck. Alex left the v-Dueling station. His real-life body was covered in sweat. He toweled off with one of the conveniently placed towels near the v-pod, stretched a little. ping! It wasn't his soul, but his phone. He picked it up, wondering if his aunt or uncle had texted him. It was a notification from Instagram. Someone had followed a 0 follower, 0 follows, brand new account. His assumption was it was a bot—then he checked the username, and blinked.

He tapped the account, which was now his first and only follower. It was a verified account.

"50k followers?" he said, slightly incredulous. It was the person he'd just fought, who was apparently somewhat famous? She'd modeled for a few name brands, at least. She had to have searched up the username deliberately to find it, which made him wonder what she wanted. But she didn't message him. Sure? He set the device down. The sound did remind him to finally check the notifications that were truly important. The ping's he'd heard in his soul.