Chương 139: Chapter 122 – Settled Ground

Cade dismissed his Status screen, grabbed the Stormshore Shotstone, and walked over to the root-covered doorway. He focused on the faint trickles of essence flowing in from his shoulders and guided a small portion into his [Mantle of Dissolution]. Pearlescent ash swirled from his cloak and enveloped the roots, breaking the barrier down within seconds. Drifting motes flowed back into him, returning to where they had come from.

Cade recovered far less essence than he had spent growing the roots in the first place, but it was still better than getting nothing back. Morning light spilled across his face and Cade stepped outside to see some of the people in the camp had already started to stir. Farther off, Sasesh stood alone near an open stretch of mud. A spike of earth thrust up from the ground and with a flick of his wrist, Sasesh launched it over the wall and into the swamp beyond.

Another spike followed a moment later, and Cade walked closer to see exactly what his old lab mate was doing. Through [Essence Sight], he saw traces of blue Mana condense within each spike before Sasesh sent it flying. The Mana inside each one was concentrated, but not nearly as much as Cade would have expected. Sasesh's jaw tightened after the next spike. Cade was close enough now to see the frustration on the man's face.

"What are you doing?" Cade asked. Sasesh glanced at him, then looked back toward the wall.

"What does it look like? I'm training."

"Are you training, or are you practicing?"

"Excuse me?"

"I've watched you make a few of those spikes now," Cade said.

"They all had about the same Mana density and shape. If you're practicing consistency, then you're doing great. But if you're trying to train, doing the same thing over and over after you already have it down won't help as much as trying something new." Sasesh's jaw tightened.

"So I'll ask again," Cade said.

"Are you training, or are you practicing?"

"I'm training," Sasesh said, frustration creeping into his tone.

"Seeing you fight Kharvaxis like it was nothing was a wake-up call. If you can fight that monster by yourself, then why can't I?"

"That's a good way to look at it," Cade said.

"But you need to change how you're training. I can tell you right now, what you're doing won't make you strong enough to fight a Lord of the Swamp by yourself." Sasesh shifted awkwardly, then looked at Cade again. Some of his attitude had faded, replaced by an expression Cade could only describe as constipated.

"How did you do it?" Sasesh asked.

"Do what?"

"Get that strong." Sasesh gestured at him.

"You started with nothing. Literally nothing. No Core. No Class or Profession. No help from the System at all. You should have died within hours after leaving." Cade stared at Sasesh.

"But you didn't," Sasesh continued.

"You came back stronger than everyone here, and you're acting like it's no big deal." Cade looked at Sasesh for a long moment before answering.

"Honestly? I got really lucky." Sasesh frowned.

"That's your big secret to power? You got lucky?"

"That's certainly part of it," Cade said.

"I worked hard, and I fought hard. I struggled more than I ever did before the System. I almost died more times than I can remember, and you wouldn't believe some of the shit I've seen. But yes, a lot of what happened came down to luck, stubbornness, and a complete refusal to roll over and die." Sasesh's expression tightened, but he stayed quiet. Cade glanced toward the wall.

"How I got this strong is complicated. But the best answer I can give you is that I stopped expecting the System to hand me strength. I actually turned down its help more than once. I had to struggle, learn, experiment, and figure out how to do things without it." He looked back at Sasesh.

"And being perfectly honest, I think the System did all of you a disservice by giving you System Cores." Sasesh stared at him.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean the System forced you to choose a Class before you knew anything. Before you understood magic or what this new System-run world was actually like. It gave you a few options, made you pick one, and sent you down that Path before you even knew there were other Paths available." Sasesh's shoulders stiffened.

"The System gave me a choice, it didn't force me to choose anything."

"What kind of choice? Three Classes?"

"Five, actually."

"That's basically the same thing," Cade said.

"There are infinite Paths available now. With enough work, persistence, will, and luck, people can do almost anything. But the System narrowed your entire future down to five options and disguised that as giving you a choice." Sasesh opened his mouth, but Cade kept speaking.

"Why did you choose [Tectonic Graviturge]? Because it was a rare class?" Sasesh looked away.

"Don't take that as an insult," Cade said.

"I probably would have done the same thing if the System offered me a Class during the Initialization. Rare Class means better stats, right? Maybe more powerful skills. But did you choose it because it was the Path you wanted to walk, or because the System told you it was the best option?" Sasesh's jaw worked for a second before he muttered, "It was the only rare option."

"Exactly." Silence settled between them and Cade could feel Sasesh's frustration building.

"Think about it," Cade said.

"You're a smart guy, but I don't think you've questioned things since the Tutorial started. Why did Amanda choose a healer Class? Because her other options were something administrative, and in a world of magic, who wants to be a paper pusher? Why did Vikram choose Scientist? Probably because that was the most familiar choice he was given. It was who he already was. But do you think either of them would make the same choice again if they knew there were limitless options?" Sasesh looked down at the ground.

Cade's voice softened.

"Would you choose your Class again? Knowing what you know now?"

"I don't know," Sasesh mumbled. He looked up and met Cade's eyes. A flush crept into his cheeks before he glanced away again.

"Why couldn't you be like this before?" Sasesh asked. Cade blinked.

"What?"

"This," Sasesh said, gesturing at him.

"You're so focused and passionate. Back in the lab, you drifted through the days like you hated every second of being alive. When we first started working in Professor Sanders' lab, you were brilliant. Annoying, but brilliant. You cared about the research. You pushed yourself. You pushed me." Sasesh looked away.

"Then one day, you just… stopped." Cade said nothing.

"I kept having to pick up the slack," Sasesh said.

"Your work slipped, and everyone noticed, but no one said anything. I was the one stuck making up for your shoddy experiments. I respected you at first, but when you stopped caring and I had to pick up your slack, I started resenting you." His hand clenched around his wand.

"Then the System came, and just when I thought I was finally free of you, somehow you ended up in our Tutorial. Suddenly, everyone had to compensate for you again because you didn't have a Core." Sasesh exhaled sharply.

"It all sort of boiled over." Cade sighed. He wanted to argue. Part of him wanted to defend himself. But he knew Sasesh wasn't wrong.

"Before the System, I felt trapped," Cade said.

"I worked so hard for so long to reach what I thought was my dream job. But when I finally got the position in Vikram's lab, I realized I hated it. I hated every boring moment in that lab. I hated running experiment after experiment, only for the data to turn out as garbage. I hated the long days that turned into even longer nights. I hated the shitty pay. I hated the politics Vikram had to play just to get funding.

I hated that we had to pay journals to publish our work, and then those same journals charged us for access to every article. I hated the life that I thought I wanted." Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Sasesh's expression shifted.

"But I didn't know how to quit," Cade continued.

"I'd spent too much time, too much money, and too much of myself getting there. My identity was so wrapped up in that job that walking away felt impossible. If I quit, it would be like admitting I'd wasted years of my life. So I stayed, and things only got worse." Sasesh looked away again.

"I didn't know that."

"I didn't exactly go around talking about it."

"No," Sasesh said quietly.

"You didn't." Another silence settled between them. Sasesh rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry." Cade looked at him.

"For pushing you to leave," Sasesh said awkwardly.

"For what I said at the beginning of the Tutorial and for how I treated you. I was angry, and I had my reasons, but that doesn't mean what I did was right." Cade studied him for a moment.

"It was a dick move." Sasesh winced.

"Yeah."

"But at the end of the day, leaving was still my choice," Cade said.

"And I stand by that choice. I wouldn't be who I am now if I stayed with the group. Fuck, I'd probably be dead." Sasesh's blush deepened and for a long moment, neither of them said a word. Cade let the silence sit before he exhaled.

"I'm glad we talked. But I should probably get moving. The other Lords of the Swamp aren't going to kill themselves." He turned to leave.

"Wait." Cade stopped and looked back. Sasesh hesitated, then forced himself to meet Cade's eyes again.

"Do you think you could give me some pointers? Like you did with Amanda. I need to get better at using offensive magic in combat." He glanced away.

"And you're obviously good at fighting now." Cade smiled faintly.

"Sure. But let's be quick about it. I really do need to get going."

"Thank you," Sasesh said.

"How do you want to do this? Should I find something in the swamp to fight?"

"No," Cade said.

"That'll take too long. We'll go outside the wall, and you can just throw some magic at me. I'll get a better sense of how you fight if I actually experience it." Sasesh stared at him.

"You want me to attack you?"

"Pretty much."

"You're serious?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Sasesh looked like he wanted to argue, but after a moment, he just sighed.

"Fine. Let's go." They headed toward the gate. On the way, Cade spotted Kyle near one of the huts, still getting used to his new leg. The wooden limb looked a little stiff, but it was far more flexible than his [Rootbound Incarnation] had been.

"Kyle," Cade called. The archer looked up.

"Yeah?" Cade tossed the Stormshore Shotstone over to him and Kyle caught it on reflex.

"See if you can use that with your bow," Cade said. Kyle's eyebrows rose.

"What is it?"

"Just use your [Identify]." Before Kyle could ask anything else, Cade kept walking. He and Sasesh passed through the gate and stepped into the clearing outside. Cade stopped a reasonable distance from the entrance and turned to face Sasesh. Sasesh hesitated.

"Are you sure about this?" Cade waved him off.

"I'll be fine. Just don't go for the eyes. I've had enough of that for one lifetime."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it, just send an attack my way. I'm ready whenever you are." Sasesh exhaled, then raised his wand. Mana gathered beneath the mud, and a spear of packed earth shot up before launching toward Cade's chest. Cade shifted one step to the side, and the spear flew past with room to spare.

"Not bad," Cade said.

"But it's too straightforward. The earth you're forming the spear out of trembles right before you launch the spear. Try making two or three spears at once but only firing one. That way your opponent won't know where the attack is coming from until it actually launches out of the ground." Sasesh frowned, but he listened. The next moment three separate patches of ground trembled. The one on Cade's left launched first.

Cade dodged right and the middle spear fired just as he put his foot down, forcing him to shift his weight and duck under it.

"Better," Cade said.

"Still slow, but better." Sasesh's lips pressed into a thin line.

"Fine, what about this?" He lifted both hands, and a curved wall of earth burst from the ground in front of Cade, its ends sweeping wide enough to cut off his sidestep. A heartbeat later, the third spear launched straight at him. Cade ran forward and punched through the wall with raw strength alone. The packed earth exploded apart around his fist. Chunks of hardened mud scattered across the clearing. With the wall gone, Cade shifted to the side, and the spear flew past, missing by a hair. Sasesh stared.

"Why aren't you using any skills?"

"Don't need to for this," Cade said.

"Cutting off my way to dodge your spear was a good idea, but you made the wall too hard."

"What?"

"It was too brittle," Cade said, brushing dirt from his knuckles.

"That made it easy to punch through the wall and dodge the spear after." Sasesh frowned, but he listened.

"Try building weak zones into the wall," Cade continued.

"Places you can collapse in a direction you control. So far, you're using the earth like it's just a weapon. Try thinking of it as an extension of yourself." Sasesh's expression sharpened. The next few minutes fell into a steady rhythm of attack, dodge, critique, and adjustment. Sasesh launched spears from odd angles. Cade dodged some and swatted others aside. Sasesh raised walls, angled barriers, and jagged ridges meant to trip him. Cade broke through most of them and pointed out Sasesh could improve.

"You're still using the earth like it's separate from you," Cade said.

"Feel what you're controlling. Push your Mana into it and move it like another limb. Don't just make a weapon and throw it at me." Sasesh's face contorted as he raised his wand and sent another wall of packed earth directly at Cade. Cade balled his hand into a fist and punched through it. Only this time, the wall didn't shatter. His fist punched clean through, but the earth held together around his arm, then tightened before he could pull free. Cade grinned.

Aquelion had done something very similar with the plants he created through his Lifebreathing, but he wasn't about to say that out loud. Sasesh needed the win.

"That's clever," Cade said. Sasesh smiled for the first time since they started. Then he flicked his wand down. The wall of earth clamped around Cade's arm collapsed, dragging him into the ground with it. For one brief moment, the trap worked. Earth closed around Cade from every direction, pressure bearing down as Sasesh tried to seal him inside a tomb of packed mud. The pressure increased, but through [Essence Sight], Cade saw the Mana within the earth burning away fast.

A section near his left side dimmed as the Mana inside it ran dry. Cade drove his fist through it. The weakened earth split around his arm, and Cade forced himself through the gap like he was swimming through mud. A moment later, his head broke through the surface.

"That was good," Cade said as he pulled himself out of the trap.

"Using the wall to catch part of my body, then dragging me down into the earth itself. If it hadn't run out of Mana, I might have been in trouble." Sasesh nodded, breathing harder now. Sweat ran down his face.

"If you do it again, try feeding Mana into the ground the whole time," Cade continued.

"Keep control of it instead of dumping everything in at once. That way, you can harden or soften the earth as needed, depending on how your opponent tries to escape." They kept going for another few minutes before Sasesh finally raised both hands.

"Enough. I'm out of Mana." He dropped onto his back, chest heaving. After a moment, Sasesh tilted his head to look at Cade.

"Why didn't you attack me at all?"

"Because that wasn't the point of the exercise," Cade said.

"You wanted help improving your offensive magic, you didn't say anything about defense. Besides, I'm pretty sure you'd get seriously hurt if I actually punched you. Mages aren't known for being able to take a hit." Sasesh sighed and let his head fall back against the ground.

"After watching you bulldoze through my walls, I'm inclined to agree." Cade glanced toward the wall to the camp. Half a dozen people had gathered near the gate to watch.

"Looks like we put on a show," Cade said as he walked over to Sasesh. Sasesh lifted his head, saw the spectators, and groaned before letting his head drop back down.

"Fantastic."

"Overall, your tactics aren't bad," Cade said.

"I don't know enough about earth magic to give you specific pointers beyond what I already said, but there is one big thing I noticed."

"What?"

"You didn't use any gravity magic. At least, I didn't feel any. Why are you ignoring half of your Class?" Sasesh pushed himself up into a seated position.

"I don't have any real combat skills for gravity yet. Maybe I'll get one at level twenty."

"Don't you have one that changes your own gravity?"" [Gravity Veil]," Sasesh said.

"It makes me heavier or lighter. Not exactly useful in a fight." Cade stared at him.

"That sounds extremely useful in a fight."

"It isn't," Sasesh said.

"If I make myself lighter and float, my earth magic costs more Mana. I need a connection to the ground. The farther I am from it, the harder it is to control. And changing my own gravity costs Mana too."

"Then that's a limitation to work on," Cade said.

"The System gave you a starting point for the skill, but that doesn't mean you have to stop there. Try to apply the skill in different ways, just like you've been doing with your earth magic. Try affecting someone else. Or something else. It might not work at first, but if you keep pushing beyond what the description says, you might be able to change the skill yourself." Sasesh looked at him like he was crazy.

"Is that actually possible? Everything I've done with my earth magic is within the description of [Earthen Shift]."

"The System gave me two skills," Cade said.

"Everything else, I made or changed on my own. With help from a few… uh… teachers. But yeah, it's possible." Sasesh went quiet for a moment before nodding.

"I'll try." Then, after a pause, he added, "Thank you. For the advice, I mean. After everything I said and did, you didn't have to help me." Cade shrugged.

"What's done is done. I've moved on, and you should too. Now, this was fun and all, but I really do need to get going." Sasesh looked toward the camp.

"You shouldn't leave without saying goodbye to everyone." Cade chuckled and offered him a hand.

"I wasn't planning on it. Besides, I want to see if Kyle got that item working with his bow. It'll be a quick goodbye though, I really do need to leave." Sasesh took his hand, and Cade pulled him upright. The man's cheeks reddened again, but Cade assumed that was from exhaustion. They started back toward the gate. For the first time since long before the System arrived, walking beside Sasesh didn't feel like a fight waiting to happen.