Jack glanced between his outstretched hand and the approaching woman. He had already held his hand out too long to simply drop it. She only glanced at him once as he introduced himself and then stared at his hand with disgust. As quick as that she turned towards Monty and her face lit up with a smile.

  “Ohh no problem, nice to meet you too Jack!” He waved his hand up and down, pretending to have an imaginary greeting before he turned to Monty. The man had a straight face on, but the corner of his lip quivered as he held in a smile.

  “Lord Montarg, I missed you for the last few days. Riven said you were back but I couldn’t find you. I wanted to talk to you…” She glanced at Jack for a moment, as if she had only just remembered that he existed. She pouted slightly and turned her head back to Monty, her long braid swinging behind.

  “But I suppose it can wait. Ohh I did see the core charge went up a fair bit. Was it a consultancy fee?” She asked as she stared intently at Monty.

  “Ahh Yes, Rummi. Sorry I have been a little busy since returning and am only back temporarily. I was just showing my guest here around and conducting some training.” Monty responded, putting on his Lord Montarg persona. He motioned towards Jack as he continued.

  “This is Jack, He is someone a friend has asked me to help mentor and someone I hope will join our crew in the near future. Jack, This is Rummi. She is our resident Quartermaster and is responsible for keeping the ship running.”

  Rummi looked over at Jack again, as if only looking at him properly for the first time now that Monty had introduced him. He felt under inspection as her gaze seemed almost like she was scanning him and deciding his worth.

  “Now I do apologise, Jack I should have mentioned this earlier but Rummi is a Squamari. Physical touch is very intimate in their society. Rummi, I am sorry Jack is newly inducted and his education is a little lacking, Where he is from they shake hands as a greeting.”

  As Monty spoke, Jack stared at the man and made a mental note to get him back at some point soon.

  “Yes, Sorry Rummi. I didn’t realise. That would have been a good question to ask before being potentially introduced to a group of new people wouldn't it? I will know better for next time.” Jack said, trying to emulate Monty’s bearing and way of speech while giving the man side eye.

  “Newly inducted you say.” Her head tilted as she stared at him, suddenly very interested. “Hmmm well, I accept your apology Jack. I hope we will have the chance to interact more if you decide to join us in the future. I trust Lord Montarg’s insight so I am sure you are an interesting individual.” She turned to look at Monty once again, her hair swinging behind her.

  “What do I note down regarding the core recharge?” She asked, again with a very serious expression. Jack got the feeling she took her job very seriously.

  “Ahh yes, well that was provided as part of the mentorship for Jack here. We will be conducting some mana intensive training and as compensation for my time… Now how much charge did it amount to?” Monty replied vaguely, obviously not expecting this interrogation and being unprepared with his excuses.

  Rummi stared at him for a moment, analysing him and his response.

  “Our core charge increased by three percent. How long will this mentorship last? Will we be expecting any more ‘compensation’?” She looked between the two for a moment.

  “I spend a lot of time calculating expenditure and our capacity, while obviously welcome. I would like to be able to factor in any additional benefits.” Jack felt as if her gaze lingered on him a little longer than normal before she smiled at Monty again.

  “Either way I will leave you to your business. Do try to find me when you have some time though, we have a lot to discuss regarding the rift map.” She mentioned as she turned on her heel and walked off, her braid swishing from side to side as she moved.

  Monty turned to him and shook his head and then started to lead him towards a booth at the side of the room.

  “We can talk about that later. It was all in good fun but we will have to work out a better story for next time… Rummi is … tenacious and hates secrets. Sit down, I'll get something for us to eat.” He walked off towards the short lady Jack had seen before and returned not longer after with two trays of food.

  The trays had a bowl that seemed to have some sort of soup. A square piece of something that looked like bread but looked like it might break his teeth and a sausage. Jack watched as Monty sat down and picked up the concrete bread and dipped it into the soup, the bread seemed to absorb most of the soup all at once, as if it was sucking it up. Monty then tore it in half and ate it, licking his lips as he watched Jack for a reaction.

  Jack tried the sausage first, never wanting to conform with expectations. It was warm and surprisingly tender. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting for a space sausage but it kind of just reminded him of a normal beef sausage. They continued to eat in silence as Jack tried the soup bread, he had to admit it tasted much better than it looked. Sweet but filling.

  His stomach sated he asked the question that was on his mind.

  “Soooo, you and Rummi?”

  “Jack, I appreciate your humor and enjoy engaging on a more familiar level with you. But you do not know me well enough to step into that type of conversation. Instead let's talk about what is next. Most of the first day is done, we have about 30 ish hours left before I have to get you back. I want to spend 20 of that training and 10 of that sleeping.”

  Monty tapped him on the shoulder.

  “We will be exceeding expectations but I want you to have the Origin recognise your shockwave before we return, that is the main goal. In between training for that we will work on control for your vortex. Sleep, Shockwave Vortex. Then repeat, 5 hours each. No more interruptions.”

  Jack nodded, he was a fan of routine and while this would be a short one it was one he could get behind. He slurped up the last of the soup and stood up.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Ok, well show me where I can sleep and let's get about it.”

  Monty stood and together they left the room. Monty waved at the men in the room who had not approached at all during the time they had been sitting down.

  They walked for about 10 minutes before they approached a familiar room and Jack got a confused look on his face.

  “Sleep first right?”

  Monty smiled and tapped away at the door. It opened and he stepped into the training room that they had been in earlier. Jack followed and then saw Monty at the control panel, a few moments later a door slid open to his left revealing a very small but functional space. It looked a bit like a tiny hotel room if you put the toilet and shower next to the bed.

  “Cool and where will I be sleeping then?” Jack asked hoping that the bed would be more comfortable than the one they had at the Induction facility.

  “Funny, this is counting for your sleep time. I will be waking you up in four hours and 58 minutes.” Monty said as he walked over to the couch in the corner and sat down.

  Jack moved to the bed, not wanting to waste any of his time and sat. He took off his shoes and laid down in the bed. Letting out a content sigh as he finally felt a comfortable mattress, he closed his eyes and tried to still his thoughts. He fell asleep as ideas about mana and images of his pathways flashed in his mind.

  Jack woke up to a loud banging sound and slowly wiped his eyes as he sat up and stretched. He was used to not having much sleep, he consistently got 5 or 6 hours in his old life. He was not used to waking up feeling refreshed though, it felt like his new body needed less sleep overall which if that was the case he was not going to complain about.

  “Good… some time of the day, Monty. Guess it's time to get training, yeah?”

  “Yep, the room is activated, I have another timer set. Remember to let me know when you are going to do something stupid but otherwise I will leave you be.” Monty replied as he went and sat in the chair.

  Over the next five hours Jack sat in the center of the training facility, no longer trying to stand or make any physical motion. He pointed his hand and used that to try to work on his shape and the purpose he was instilling to the shockwave. Over and over he tried to get more and more familiar with the feeling and the sensations leading up to and after the shockwave occurred. He only had to have Monty put a healing weave on once around two hours in, of course it lasted until his five hours was up however.

  He checked his skill interface again:

  SKILLS:

  —--------------------------------

  Mana Sense (Internal): Tier 0

  But the only skill listed was his [Mana Sense]. Not letting it get him down he simply stood up and went to Monty as he waited to head back to the core room so he could continue his control training.

  “No, I think for the moment it is best to avoid directly charging the core anymore. That was a misstep on my part, especially with Rummi aware of it. I have a few empty mana gems here we can use to store any of your excess mana in and we can work out how we sort that out later.” Monty said as he slid forward a long crate that was at least two meters long.

  He opened it up and took out a rectangle shaped box. He flipped open the cover and inside were three equal sized crystals. The box was split in three equal sized compartments and each had a little door to open and extract the crystal.

  “Here is the deal, We will use these for now until we can work out a safe way to utilise your… abilities. I will keep two of them as payment for access to my expert knowledge and facilities and the other is yours for when you eventually get through the induction.” He tapped one of the crystals.

  “It should be enough to get you set up with anything you need initially if you decide not to stay on with me or my crew and get you room and board somewhere while you work out your next steps.”

  Jack was about to make a comment about using him for financial gain, but he realised that this was probably a way for Monty to pay Jack without it feeling like a hand out. The man obviously had his finances sorted. Not wanting to make it awkward with a no I insist you insist back and forth he simply nodded.

  “Do you want me back in that room for this then or to do it out here?”

  “Back in there but feel free to take a second to walk around if you need a little break, I could turn on the Terrain projector in the room if you want a change of scenery?”

  “Wait a second … so you mean… No it’s fine I don’t need any distractions anyway it's fine. Let me know when it's time to nap.” Jack said as he walked back through the shimmer and into the training room.

  Jack knew he was a little strange and most people would have gone a little stir crazy sitting in a static white box for hours on end with only their thoughts. Jack loved it, when he had something to focus on he would prefer a room with no noise or distractions so he could zone in. Hyper focus was something he had learned to try to utilise as much as he could. That often meant just going with it when the inspiration hit.

  And so he did, he sat in the center of the room and ran through all of the things he had been thinking of and dreaming of the night before. Trying his best to speed up or slow his vortex. His five hours quickly dwindled away but he was starting to feel he had a much stronger grip on his control as far as moving his mana around. He still had not been able to speed it up however, as soon as he tried to manually move the mana in his system the mana slowed considerably.

  He left the facility and noticed a tray near the door. He nodded at Monty and without saying a word sat down cross legged and began eating. He let his mind process his thoughts and while he felt a little rude not talking with Monty at all, he felt that the man understood.

  He finished eating and collapsed into the bed, once again falling asleep amidst ideas and sensations of mana flowing through his body.

  He woke up when he heard the loud ringing sound and rolled out of bed. He opened his eyes and looked at Monty who handed him what looked like a small oat bar.

  “Eat up, You are doing pretty well so far. I think the thing you need to work on is your shape. It shouldn't be a secondary thing you tag on to the end of your shockwave. I said you need all three, equal parts. Try to work on just making some shapes with your mana circles, squares, keep it simple and then try again. I think you can get it recognised today.” Monty said as he walked back to the chair in the corner.

  Being the first piece of advice Monty had directly given Jack since they had started this trainathon he decided to try to take it on board. He spent the next hour just sitting there and trying to use his mana sense to make small shapes out of his mana. He failed and failed and failed again, but he kept trying. After what must have been an hour, he finally managed to create a square shape and have it stay in that shape without it flowing away.

  He decided to try the shockwave one again as Monty had suggested. He did everything he had practised the previous day, everything coming fairly easily to him with his recent practice. When the mana consolidated in his palm, this time he used part of it to form a slight wall behind the mana. The shape he made was rough but it should help him direct much more of the shockwave forward.

  Using what he had just worked out to keep the shape solid, he released the shockwave. This one rocked his whole arm and his shoulder popped out as so much more force was pushed forward than the previous attempts.

  Something about that attempt had just felt right and in an excited rush he pulled up his interface to check his skills.

  A massive smile spread across his face and he fist pumped the air, the skill was there.

  SKILLS:

  —--------------------------------

  Mana Sense (Internal): Tier 0

  Shockwave: Tier 0