Mentored Training Finale

Author’s Note: I made a mistake on the previous post and left out most of the chapter in the post. If you haven’t gone back and read the updated chapter, please do, it’ll make more sense now. Sorry y'all!

Olivia picks up a small bag of iron cubes that she got me to order from the abyss auction before, and hands one to each of us. She steps back and continues to instruct us. “Now, I want each of you to close your eyes and concentrate on letting your elemental power flow into the cube. Gemma, use your ice elemental powers for this. Ivy, do not worry about this exercise, since your powers aren’t elemental in nature.” She says, and the two of us nod.

“Remember, you are not trying to use a spell, you are not attacking or expelling your power in any way. If you try to **** it, you will fail. Let your elemental power flow out of you naturally, like water might flow down a hill.” Our teacher instructs, and I close my eyes to try to do what she says. I concentrate on my ice power specifically and do my best to let it flow out of me into the cube, rather than pushing it out.

After a full minute of concentrating on this, reigning myself back in from expelling power actively, I feel a new sensation. It feels almost exactly like Olivia described, as if a small stream of power is simply flowing out of me. It’s a strange feeling, but I concentrate on keeping it up, and letting it fill the cube in my hands.

The cube isn’t very big and in a few seconds, the flow of power stops. I open my eyes and see Skylar and Mia with their eyes open too, looking pleased with themselves. It takes another minute or two for Paige to figure it out, but soon, she too opens her eyes. “Good. Now let me check your results.” Olivia says, and steps forward.

We each hand her our cubes and she inspects them all carefully. “Good job, all of you, you did it. You have each created a mid grade magical metal, corresponding with your element. It requires higher levels of power to create higher grade metals, and the most powerful elemental metals cannot be created by any known means.” She explains.

“Magical metals are some of the most coveted materials within the abyss. They can be used to forge incredible weapons, nigh on unbreakable armour, and marvels the likes of which combine magic and technology to beautiful results. I know not the limits of these materials, but the best forgers in the world can use them to incredible effect.”

“These metals can come in many different forms: there are metals infused with just one element, there are metals infused with multiple elements. There are metals infused with equal amounts of all eight elements combined, the strongest of which is called Adamantium. There are mana enriched metals, the strongest of these is Vibranium.” Our teacher continues.

“There are even some metals that even fall from space, contained within meteorites. Nobody knows where they come from or how to make them, and the existence of some of them is shrouded in mystery. Uru metal is the most well known - although it is still relatively unknown in the scheme of things - and likely the most powerful. Even the knowledge of this metal is scarce to come by. Most don’t know of it’s existence as a real abyssal metal.”

I can’t help myself. “Sorry to interrupt, but those are all names of metals from Marvel comics? Is there a correlation?” I ask. Mia and Ivy grin at me, knowing I couldn’t help but ask. Olivia smiles at me too. “Actually yes there is. Stan Lee, one of the most famous Marvel Comics creators, was an abyssal, and named fictional metals in his stories after magical metals.” Olivia explains. That stuns me for a few seconds, and our teacher continues her explanation.

“These metals, while very rare, are important substances to have access to as we get more and more powerful. They are extremely powerful and versatile, and even the lower grades of similar metals are quite useful, such as adamantine, which is one grade below adamantium. Obtaining these metals is difficult, but worth it as we face more and more powerful enemies.” She says.

“While the metals are powerful on their own, the enchantments and method of creation for the final product can boost the level of power to completely unknown realms. It is said that the most powerful of weapons made from these metals have the ability to split stars and cause supanovas. Of course, this is just a rumour and it has never been confirmed. But these metals can be incredibly powerful, and if you should ever come up against an opponent wielding one, do not underestimate them.” Olivia concludes her explanation.

Olivia has us go through the same exercise again, except this time, using our raw mana rather than our elemental abilities. That being the case, Ivy participates as well. I get it quicker this time, knowing the feeling that I’m going for already. One by one, my girlfriends get it down too, with Ivy taking the longest, owing to the fact that this is her first time doing this. Once Olivia has checked our results, she nods, satisfied.

Our next exercise is a test to see if the range of my freezing blast ability can be extended with Mia’s wind. Disappointingly, though expectedly, she can’t do anything to influence the range or power of the spell, just the same as I can’t. I find myself once again hoping that one day, I can get freeform control over my chosen element.

We train for another hour in combining our abilities. We learn to reinforce each others attacks with our elements. Maybe I can’t modify my spells at all, but I find that I am able to combine an ice bolt with a shadow blast from Skylar, to deal both kinds of elemental damage at once.

We find many different elemental combinations such as this, and it takes a while, but we find that we can combine all of our elements together. I can even use a fireball and an icebolt at the same time, though I have to push my hands together for them to fire as a combined spell. We manage to put together a spell that combines fire, ice, air, shadow and earth, all in one.

It’s a powerful damage output, and as Olivia comments, would be devastating to a single target. The downside is that it requires concentration from all four of us, but even so, it’s still an incredibly useful tool that could come in handy in a pinch.

Besides that, we also train with using our powers on top of one another. Paige and Ivy working together can create an extremely unpleasant spike pit, filled with irritating and painful plants in addition to earthen spikes, Paige and Skylar can put up barriers to concentrate and enhance the **** of Mia’s wind attacks, Skylar can create platform for us all to walk on for enhanced mobility.

We come up with a few more ways to combine our powers, and by that time, it’s getting towards late afternoon. Olivia advises that we all go through a dungeon run, to test what we’ve learnt in an active combat scenario. We agree, and all don our armour quickly, before I open the giant rats dungeon, which seems to have become our default dungeon for when we need to test something.

This is our first time trying a dungeon run through with all of us, after the power bursts that Paige and Skylar have both gotten. With that in mind, I expected the dungeon to be a bit harder than before, with the system not having to adjust the difficulty anywhere near as low as it did previously, with Paige and Skylar being much lower level before.

In actuality, I find that it doesn’t seem all that much harder. I’m not sure if that’s because the difficulty wasn’t lowered much in the first place, or that the power bursts offset the increased difficulty, or that we’re just better at combining our powers and understanding the full extent of our capabilities after the day spent under Olivia’s tutelage. Whatever the case, we’re ripping through the dungeon.

Paige flinging giant boulders and opening pits under the rats to throw them off their charge, which she can do much faster and more powerfully than before, Skylar dispatching of multiple rats with ease, Ivy, Mia and I working with our usual ruthless efficiency to tear through the enemies and finally Olivia, standing off to one side, observing our team work and taking mental notes as to where we need to improve.

Ivy and I level up once we clear the dungeon, and I allocate our statpoints quickly, before we pick up the loot and exit the dungeon. My mana bar is looking pretty good, at a comfy 1557 max MP. We’ll see what happens when I get to the next stat milestone, which I’m assuming is either 200 or 250.

Olivia addresses us before she has to leave. “You all did very well today. I’m very proud of each of you. We have a lot of training ahead of us if we’re going to make Sydney a safe place, but I believe in us; I believe that we will get there. You’ve earned a rest.” She says, smiling at us.

We all nod, and I smile gratefully at her. “Thank you for being our teacher. I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we’re learning a lot from you, and that we’re honoured to have such an amazing, experienced and knowledgable mentor.” I say. I’m not sure if my eyes are playing tricks on me, but it looks right then, like Olivia blushes for a moment. It’s gone before I could confirm it though.

“As I said, we have a long way to go, but you are all doing extremely well. I’m honoured to be the teacher of such fine women. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” She says, and turns to leave. “Wait, but Elsa’s coming over to study the Kingdom barrier tomorrow, we won’t have time to train.” Mia says. Olivia smiles at us briefly. “I shall see you all on Thursday then.” She says, before raising her hand and exiting the barrier.

As we walk back inside, I turn to Mia. “Did she just use a contraction?” I ask, and she looks at me, confused. “What?” She asks. “Haven’t you heard her? She never uses contractions when she talks. Except for just now, she did.” I point out. “Huh, I didn’t know that.” Mia says, shrugging. I shrug it off too, and walk back inside with my girlfriends to get changed and relax for the rest of the evening.