Tower Climber 4 (A LitRPG Adventure), page 10
Zack sighed. “I’m ready when you are. C’mon. Time to show me this break-mode of yours.”
Max nodded, stretched his hands, and cracked his knuckles.
Now the training would truly begin.
Zack stood nearby in the mana-training box, waiting to see what the pupil-he-had-never-asked-for did next.
He went into the mana-training box’s editor mode and made sure to put a glassy energy shield around himself, which would block his own scent.
He wanted to be able to observe his pupil, not run away from him as his hostile form chased after him, destroying everything in its wake.
The young red-haired man stood a few meters away from him. His eyes were sharp and determined. His fists clenched.
The boy was fully focused on triggering his break-mode and attempting the trial challenge for the first time.
Zack felt a wave of energy emanate off the boy as his body began to transform.
The boy’s muscles bulged. The kid expanded to at least triple the size he was before.
His skin went a deep crimson red. Horns formed out of his shoulders and his hands became large terrifying demonic claws.
The boy screamed as the break-mode took over his body more and more.
Zack was speechless.
The sheer power he was feeling from this break-mode was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before.
Who is this kid!?
Soon the boy’s screams dissipated as his face morphed into the full demonic monstrosity that he had become.
His face was pure monstrous chaos: ridges, scars, horns.
It was out of control.
The easiest thing you could make out from the monstrous amorphous creature was its glowing red eyes and large molar like teeth.
Once the boy had fully transformed into demon-mode it only took ten seconds for him to destroy all the practice dummies.
It smelt the scents of hostile flesh and it reacted with pure destructive instinct.
Zack’s eyes widened.
It may have been the fastest he’d ever seen a break-mode rip through the practice dummies.
23
Well, would you look at that, Zack thought to himself. This kid has one of the most powerful break-modes I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately, though, speed and power wasn’t what the challenge required.
What the boy needed was the opposite.
Restraint.
Zack sighed and crossed his arms.
That kid’s break-mode is very powerful and impressive, the mentor observed. Which will only make it all the harder to gain cognizance over it.
Half an hour later, Max regained consciousness.
He was panting for breath and lying on the floor of the mana-training box.
He felt the prickles of the straw that lay on the ground around him.
The detritus and remains of the scarecrow practice dummies.
“Did I do it?”
This had been his third attempt at the challenge and so far he couldn’t say it felt any different. That was the difficult part: he barely felt anything at all. He triggered the break-mode and next thing he knew, he was on the floor covered in the remains of dead scarecrows.
“Not even close,” said Zack, offering Max a hand to get back on his feet. “You’re getting faster at destroying the dummies. The exact opposite of the exercise.”
Max stood back up and sighed.
His shoulders fell with disappointment.
“Can you give me any hints on how to do it?”
“Nope,” said Zack. “What kind of teacher would I be if I did that?”
Max was starting to believe Zack did have the sadistic streak that his other mentors had, it just manifested in different ways.
I should maybe count myself lucky that being an early riser isn’t one of Zack’s central tenets of mentoring a pupil.
Zack walked away from Max and started setting up the practice dummies for round four.
“You go over there and take a quick rest,” said Zack. “It’s straining on the body to go in and out of your break-mode. It becomes easier the more your body and mind gets used to it. As you catch your breath, take a moment to think about your break-mode. Try and remember as much as you can after you triggered it last.”
Max nodded and walked a few meters away before sitting down cross-legged and closing his eyes to contemplate.
He began to run over his third attempt at the challenge with Zack’s words in mind.
Try and remember as much as you can after you triggered it last.
He started it at the beginning and tried to piece together what happened next.
He had triggered the trait.
He felt a swarm of energy, power, and pain overtake him.
He could catch glimpses of his body transforming.
There was also the same message he saw the first time in his profile, explaining how the demon-mode worked.
That fact gave him pause.
Was that normal?
“Hey, Zack! Quick question: when you were first learning your break-mode were you able to read its stats and passive abilities when you were first moving from transformation to cognizance?”
The mentor froze in his actions.
He looked over his shoulders to the boy and narrowed his eyes.
“Where did you get that idea from?”
Zack glared at him with a serious and intense expression.
Max hadn’t expected that from the man. He figured he was just asking an innocent question.
But maybe it wasn’t so innocent.
Maybe it was the key to gaining cognizance over his break-mode.
“Um,” said Max, trying to answer Zack’s question without getting any more glares. “I can see the break-mode’s profile right before I fully transform.”
Zack marched over to him and said gruffly, “You better not be lying to me boy? Are you theorizing that? Are you trying to skip the training? I woke up extra early to train you! You think it’s normal for me to get up at eleven in the morning. That’s ludicrous!”
“I’m not trying to get out of training,” said Max. “I’m just trying to contemplate the ability like you told me to.”
“Well,” sighed Zack. “Sorry for getting worked up. No break-mode user I’ve ever met has had the ability to read the ability’s profile prior to the cognizance stage. For that to even be possible, it would have to be getting help from some sort of passive ability, something like—”
Max’s eyebrows bulged with surprise. His shoulders shot up.
“That’s it!” he said.
He walked away from Zack and started pacing in a circle as he put together all the separate puzzle pieces floating in his head.
When he triggered demon-mode, he could see the ability’s stats in his profile very briefly. After that it was all a blur, but the memories that did poke through had an almost slow-motion quality to them. Like the demon-mode was registering information with far more powerful and faster perception than any normal climber could possibly achieve.
He suddenly understood exactly what was happening.
It was his sister’s passive ability.
Heijo-shin (intense focus).
It was considered one of the great passive abilities. Sakura had explained it to him once. His kokoro (warrior spirit) passive was also considered immensely powerful; but while his passive seemed a bit mysterious and didn’t seem like it had any immediate practical implications to his climber training, heijo-shin on the other hand, was on a whole other level.
Heijo-shin was sometimes referred to as battle calmness.
It was such a powerful perception that enabled you to see infinitesimally small movements and react to them at lightning speed.
In the mind of a heijo-shin wielder, the fastest punches flew at your face at the speed of a tortoise.
Max had forgotten about his sister’s passive ability until then. He thought he had only borrowed her break-mode with his mimic skill; but the passive add-ons to her ability also carried over.
He didn’t have the heijo-shin passive entirely, just only when he used demon-mode.
Even still, it was an incredible boon to an already super powerful ability.
A grin began to form on his face.
He realized what he needed to do now.
“What is that smug grin on your face?” said Zack.
Max thought over his new strategy.
Up to that point, he’d been going about the challenge in the wrong way. He had kept thinking about not attacking the scarecrows when he transformed; like somehow his normal human thoughts would carry over to the demon-mode’s consciousness.
That was the wrong way to go about things.
There was only one goal when he triggered the break-mode.
It wasn’t to stay still or not attack the scarecrows.
Trying to do that was as absurd as trying to play the guitar before learning how to walk.
There was just a massive gulf between those steps.
What he needed to do was simple.
He just needed to stay conscious for as long as possible. Even if he didn’t have full control over himself, just being able to perceive everything while in demon-mode would be a good start.
Once he did that, he could begin to try and gain control over the powerful transformation ability.
“Alright,” Max said, turning to Zack. “Let’s try again. I’m feeling more confident this time.”
Zack stood within his energy shield, observing the boy attempt the challenge for the fourth time.
The kid nodded his head to him before turning away and beginning to focus on the transformation.
Within seconds, the screaming filled the entire mana-training chamber.
Here we go, Zack thought.
The mentor crossed his arms and observed.
The kid seemed a lot more confident prior to this round than he had for the previous attempts. Zack struggled to figure out what exactly the epiphany the boy had come to, especially considering how early into their training they were.
It had taken Zack hundreds of attempts before he began to gain even the tiniest bit of control over his break-mode so many years ago when he was training it for the first time.
Others he’d met had taken even longer.
This wasn’t the kind of power one learned quickly.
Still, Zack thought, there was something about this kid that was different. Maybe he’s going to be the one to buck the trend. A break-mode genius savant.
The boy had completely transformed and for a split second the creature didn’t react or move.
No way! thought Zack, only to be disappointed a blip of a second later, as the demonic creature wreaked havoc on the practice dummies for a fourth time.
As expected, Zack groaned to himself. This is going to take awhile. No one can control their break-mode this early in the process. It’s just simply unheard of.
He waited for all the dummies to get destroyed and then paused.
The dummies weren’t all destroyed!?
Zack looked closer and saw there was one scarecrow remaining.
How could that be?
Zack saw the demon monster dragging its clawed hands in the ground, trying to stop itself from moving forward.
It was fighting against its own primal instincts.
“What amazing progress,” Zack gasped with disbelief.
He watched the transformed monster with amazement.
He even rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
It was unheard of for someone to make this level of progress so quickly.
It was outstanding.
It was truly remarkable.
The same two words kept coming up again and again in Zack’s mind.
Absolutely incredible.
24
Despite the impressive gains on his first day of training, it still took Max a week to gain full control over the demon-mode transformation.
First, he started with just staying conscious.
Even if he couldn’t fully control every action of the demon-mode transformation, if he could observe the whole thing as it was happening, that was the first step.
Second was fighting against the primal urges of the break-mode.
He didn’t concern himself with trying to not move or control every action, he just focused on destroying one less scarecrow every time.
By midway through the week, he was dragging his claws and fighting the instinctual destructive urges before he even got to the first scarecrow.
A few days after that he found himself able to transform and stand still for ten seconds.
Then thirty seconds.
Then a minute.
Then as long as he liked.
And when the timer was up, he could walk around, flex his muscles, jump, shadowbox, do anything while in demon-mode.
Clap! Clap!
“Well done, my boy,” said Zack. “You’ve passed the first stage of mastering one’s break-mode faster than anyone I’ve ever known. Perhaps faster than anyone in known history. Seriously, the achievement is astounding. I’m still dumbfounded. There’s only one thing to do next.”
“Start training the next stage?” Max asked, eagerly.
“No, you idiot!” shouted Zack. “We celebrate with a nice cold beer! C’mon! The next stage can wait until tomorrow!”
And so they sat around the campfire of Zack’s private trailer park home as the break-mode specialist worked his way through cans of beer and Max sat happily in the warm glow, satisfied at the knowledge that he was getting stronger. That he was getting one step closer to achieving his goals.
The following day, inside the mana-training box Zack walked him through the next stage of mastering break-modes.
“So, you’ve successfully gone from the transformation stage to the cognizance stage,” Zack said. “Now, we’re going to be working on moving you from the cognizance stage to the segmentation stage. So far you’ve learned to transform into your break-mode and retain control. Now, you need to practice only transforming a part of yourself into the break-mode.”
Max raised his hands.
“A question? So soon?” Zack said. “Go on.”
“Why is segmentation important though? Wouldn’t it be better to go full break-mode?”
“It’s all situational,” Zack explained. “Sometimes fully transforming isn’t a bad idea; but being able to call upon the strength of your break-mode while still being able to utilize your other abilities and skills allows for more second-to-second versatility.”
Max grinned.
“That sounds good,” he said. “How do I do that then?”
Zack crossed his arms.
“Always in such a hurry,” said the mentor. “It’s actually not that difficult once you understand the theory. The harder part is being able to do it quickly and easily.”
Max nodded.
He was ready to learn. He didn’t care how difficult something supposedly was, or how impossible it might be to learn.
He wanted to learn. He wanted to grow stronger. He wanted to get closer to his goals.
He wanted to stop his sister and make her see the results of her actions.
He wanted to make her come home.
“Okay,” said Max. “What’s the theory then?”
Zack looked around awkwardly.
“It’s moments like these when I wish I could bring a beer in here,” he sighed. “Then you wouldn’t be able to rush me as much.”
“Beer later, theory now,” Max said.
“Alright, alright,” said Zack. “Many traits and abilities can be quite malleable. The only limit to the way one uses their own traits is the amount of creativity and imagination they possess. For instance, let’s take a common human trait like slice.”
Max grinned.
Slice was Sakura’s trait. Reviled as one of the most common and weak traits a human climber could have, Sakura proved that it could be an unstoppable force if you were determined enough.
With the simplest skill, she was able to rise through the ranks and even become climber president.
She was truly an inspiration.
“I’m familiar with the trait,” Max grinned.
“I’m sure you are,” said Zack. “But if I quizzed you right now, I imagine you could come up with two or three different usages; but realistically, there could be many more. I once met a human climber with the slice trait and he didn’t even create lengthy energy beams that people commonly do with such an ability. He focused the trait so that the power was concentrated into small orb-like beams in the palm of his hand and then would use that extra magical energy to deliver powerful martial arts punches and kicks. He did this to conceal the ability from his enemies. Then when it was necessary he’d stretch out the slice attack when his enemies least expected it. Incredible, huh?”
Max nodded, enthusiastically.
He wanted to share the technique with Sakura, not that she needed advice from him on how to use her slice ability.
Still, he loved the ingenuity.
“That’s amazing,” said Max. “But how does that apply to break-modes?”
“It’s just an example,” said Zack. “Here’s another one. Elemental wielders and their conjured weapons. I’m sure you can think of a few.”
Casey came instantly to mind.
Casey could create a powerful wind katana that was absolutely devastating to anything that came in her path.
“So you know a few,” said Zack, smiling. “So you must have noticed that the conjured weapon isn’t always the same shape and the wielder can manipulate that very shape. Sharpen it, strengthen it, enlarge it. All at will, right?”
Max nodded.
“Break-modes are similar. The same principle applies. You just need to will that into existence. Train your break-mode to work the way you want it to.” Zack crossed his arms and looked Max dead in the eyes. “Okay, enough theorizing. It’s time you gave it a try.”
Max blinked.
“Wait, what do you want me to do?”
“What I just said: only transform part of yourself into your break-mode. Maybe try your arms?”
