Inside-Outside-In

Shay

Shay and the other trainees were standing in a loose semicircle around Cara. After revealing herself to be their trainer, she had them get up and within a conversation distance of each other.

Her skin was a light green color, with darker green splotched all over. She kind of had the appearance of being covered in moss.

“Sorry for being a pest,” Cara apologized. “I like to test my new students. Those with short tempers tend to need a lot more work.
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“Now, I know everyone in the entire world hates self-introductions, but you won’t just be learning together, you’ll be doing missions together. At least until your debts are repaid. This is a reminder that you are required to be part of a team until then. Doesn’t have to necessarily be this one, but you can’t request a team change until a month from now.
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“I’ll go first. I’m Cara, your combat trainer. I worked as a mercenary for over 30 years, and still do from time to time. My Skills are [Plant Affinity], [Wind Magic] and [Insight], and my level is 562. I mostly attack with magic, but I also use a whip.
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“[Plant Affinity] allows me to control plants, and [Wind Magic] allows me to control wind. [Insight] helps me understand people, monsters, environments and more, which really helps with teaching.”

She would absolutely fucking obliterate me, holy shit.

Cara continued, “That’s me done. Be sure to give a brief explanation of your Skill. Now, who’s next? Oh, and you should also mention any information in your introduction that will be relevant to what you’ll learn and how you’ll learn it, like the weapons you use. I’ve already seen your sign-up sheets, but everyone else hasn’t, and never will.”

I haven’t felt like talking about home with anyone since finding out I still have a long way to go before I can see it again, but I guess I’ll have to start with it.

The woman with shiny, white hair and glittery skin spoke up first. “I’m Tria. Level 41, and my Skill is [Focused Refraction]. I can create beams of searing hot light. I don’t have any particular weapon I use or am good with.”

She ended it there, and the silver-scaled man went next. “Melo. 38. [Telekinesis]. I have several knives I use, and the gem allows for bursts of greater power and control.”

Guess he’s not a talker, then.

The snakelike woman went after him. “My name is Zena, and it’s nice to meet all of you. My level is 44, and my Skill is [Mana Sense]. It allows me to detect and identify sources of mana if they aren’t hidden, and it also gives me some minor healing capability. I use a spear.”

Like the warrior princess¹Referencing Xena: Warrior Princess, in case you aren't an old person.? Neat. Vicky would get a kick out of that.

The other man went next. “Konial is my name. My Skill is [Lightning Magic], which lets me use and generate lightning. My level is 55, and I use a sword that conducts my lightning.”

Ugh, I feel embarrassed about my level now. And now that I’m next to him, I can see that his irises have lighting patterns in them. That's cool.

Fuck, I’m the last to go.

“I’m Shay. My Skill is [Adaptation], which… I guess lets me manipulate any magic I’ve experienced to an extent. My level is only 13 and I’m good with my body, but I’m open to trying something else.”

Taking a breath, he continued, “I’m from a different world that had no magic, and I’m still getting used to everything. Please bear with me while I catch up.”

Everyone except for Cara was surprised, but not freaking out or anything to that extent.

Cara spoke to the group, “Shay will need some time to catch up, and as fellow members of this team, you are all expected to help her.”

Shay was about to correct Cara’s pronoun usage, but wasn’t up to dealing with that right now.

My [Mental] adaptation will make it irrelevant within a few months, anyway. Should I just go with it? Fuck it, I’ll experiment with pronouns. Damn, I remember when Vicky said she wanted to do that.

“Shay?” Cara asked, looking at him.

He replied, “Hm? Ah, sorry. I was lost in thought.”

Zena put a hand on his arm. “I can’t even imagine how hard it must be. If you ever need to vent, I’ll listen.”

“Thank you. I’ll consider it.”

He held his palm up toward her like he was lazily waiting for a high-five. He had learned that this was a common gesture associated with thanking someone.

 

———

 

2 weeks later…

Shay’s teammates had proven to be nice people, which he was grateful for. Being on a team with someone like how Cara had initially acted would’ve been aggravating. They were all close in age to him, too, which helped them get along with each other more.

They were understanding of his situation and patiently answered his many questions. He hadn’t told them about his unwanted sex change, though, which meant he was also keeping it a secret that his Skill was causing him to get used to it. He didn’t want them to worry, but also hadn’t fully accepted yet that he would become adjusted to the change.

That first day had mostly been everyone demonstrating what they were capable of, which made Shay feel humiliated because of being so far behind everyone else.

It also motivated him, though. On Earth, seeing a skilled martial artist made him excited, and he felt that same excitement here.

He had been a little worried about fighting hand-to-hand, but with all the magic he would eventually be capable of, it would lead to a powerful fighting style involving inflicting varying types of magical damage in addition to physical damage.

After that day, they started sparring with each other, and his level rose accordingly. He also gained adaptations for plant, wind, lightning, psychic and light.

Something irritating he had noticed was that psychic and lightning mana seemed to be practically nonexistent around here, meaning he couldn’t increase his sub-skills on his own.

Psychic mana was what Melo’s [Telekinesis] used, and other Skills out there used it as well.

Zena’s [Mana Sense] Skill didn’t give him a sub-skill, but she did teach him that by controlling how his mana flows through his body, he can hide from magical detection like hers. It would still take a lot of practice to pull it off, of course.

Something they had determined about Shay’s sub-skills after some demonstrations and calculations was that the active abilities were about a quarter as powerful as a true mage of any of those elements would be. Which then meant that whichever sub-skill he had as his main would be half as powerful.

Even though his [Mental] adaptation wasn’t a specific element, it still used mana. That meant that all of his sub-skills had that demerit. Where he had the advantage was in the plethora of magic types he could choose from.

It was a trade-off, with positives and negatives to both. His only real specialty would be hand-to-hand combat, with his numerous sub-skills supplementing him.

This also meant that it was best for him to keep his stats relatively even with each other. Other people might specifically be mages or swordsmen, but he would need all three in a decent balance to fight as he planned to.

Another thing he had learned was that all of his [Adaptation] sub-skills seemed to be capable of improving somehow beyond just the percentages he currently had. Unfortunately, the Skill was rare, and the documentation on it was scarce. He would have to find out what that meant on his own.

Shay had tested out using various weapons, but found that not only did he not like them, but with so many types of magic at his eventual disposal, he would need to be highly flexible in combat, which was much easier for him without a weapon in his hands.

That also led to him wondering why he hadn’t seen any guns. The answer to that was that most people’s Skills were more powerful than what a gun, either mundane or magical, was capable of.

Bows were still used, but not as much as he had expected. Drawing a bow and nocking an arrow were both much more involved than simply pulling the trigger of a gun would be, and as a result, were much more compatible with Skills than guns were. It was apparently much easier to infuse magic into an arrow than a bullet.

As he trained, he wondered about casting multiple spells simultaneously. He wasn’t capable of it yet, but casting two or more of one element was possible.

It was also possible to cast spells of multiple elements simultaneously, though that would supposedly require more effort.

The strain of maintaining that level of concentration would increase a person’s mental resistance, or in his case, his adaptation.

As he trained, his mental adaptation’s percentage rose. It was actually a bizarre feeling, because his dysphoria was decreasing by casting spells. The sub-skill was apparently applicable to any kind of mental strain.

The mental resistance other people had didn’t work in quite the same way, though. In Shay’s case, the nature of his [Adaptation] Skill is what made it possible to gradually feel less dysphoria. Other people didn’t have that.

He was actually grateful they didn’t, though, because it meant their identities weren’t changing or being erased by magic. The idea of people's minds being altered like what was happening to himself was horrifying.

Even if it's expensive, it's still so much easier for someone to transition here than it is on Earth. Most people here are able to save up for a transition, and then never have to deal with it again.

The Center hadn’t been able to find a space mage for him to train with, unfortunately. It was just too rare of a magic, and the mages who did have it weren’t interested in training some random person with barely any levels.

Other than fighting each other and receiving advice from their trainer, the whole team was also trained in tactics and took classes for studying and dismantling monsters. There was also another class relating to plants and various environments. That one even sometimes had simulated environments in the training rooms, courtesy of powerful mercenaries.

 

———

 

After two weeks of training and classes, they went on their first mission, which was to kill a badger. It had grown to around two meters²2 meters = 6'7" in length, and had killed some livestock and given one man a close brush with death when it took him by surprise.

The five of them went beyond the city walls, which provided some incredible mental relief he didn’t know he needed. The last two weeks were filled with neon lights, being attacked indoors or studying. None of them could be described as a reprieve from the others.

Shay had spent even more time indoors than the others because of all the reading and studying he’d been doing, working on improving his Tiirve and learning about the world.

Tria and Melo both had their own armor they were wearing, while the other three had the basic equipment the Center provided. It was just there to do the minimum until they eventually got their own. Shay also had gauntlets that allowed him to hit harder and take less damage from hitting something stronger than himself.

One thing Shay had been wondering about for months, and had now confirmed, was that the amount of mana something had was an indication of its general strength. This applied to nature, as well.

So if the mana in an area was dense, it meant the monsters there would be strong, and even doing something like snapping a stick would take more effort, as the stick would have an inherent strength to it because of the mana.

So that left Shay in the bizarre situation where he could punch through stone back at the village, but another of the same stone, but near Marlonn instead, would maybe crack but not shatter. Everything was just stronger where the ambient mana was denser.

Over the past two weeks, it had been ground into his mind and body to go for the kill. He didn’t think two weeks was enough time to properly integrate that mentality into himself, but he was going to try and continue to work hard at improving what he was capable of. This mission would be the first real test of his current abilities.

Their target wasn’t far enough from that city that they needed a wagon, so they just walked there instead.

They began walking through the forest, keeping a formation just like they had trained.

Shay’s level had jumped a lot during the last two weeks of training, but everyone else’s had increased a bit as well. At the moment, his stats were a little over half of what everyone else had.

This meant his current place in the formation was at the back with Zena.

Her Skill wasn’t combat-oriented, so she wasn’t at the front, but was directing the group from the back.

The report they’d been given indicated a couple more things about the badger than just its size. Based on how much it had injured that man, it was estimated to be around level 60. It also stated that it had used earth magic.

Precise levels were impossible to know for certain. And few people could even make guesses about them. Zena’s Skill allowed her to estimate what she could feel of a being’s power, as well as what type of mana it had.

So she was currently on the lookout for a source of mana that felt like a level 60 earth mage. It was possible that it could hide its mana to an extent, but monsters with this low of a level that could do that were rare.

Konial was at the head of the formation because his lightning magic was the fastest, with Tria and Melo to the sides. Shay did his best to be wary of his surroundings while Zena occasionally mentioned something she sensed.

It was after another hour of walking that she finally said, “I think I sense it up ahead.”

 

———

 

[Plant Adaptation]: A slightly sadistic combat trainer had a little fun, resulting in this sub-skill.
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[Passive]: Plant matter digging its way into your flesh will have a harder time doing so.
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[Active]: You may manipulate the plants around you.

 

[Wind Adaptation]: Learning what it feels like to be in a wind tunnel wasn’t on your list of things to do, but you did it anyway.
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[Passive]: Your mana has adapted to strong winds, making you somewhat aerodynamic.
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[Active]: You may manipulate the gases around you, generating wind.

 

[Light Adaptation]: Magic lasers are much more deadly than the ones you are familiar with, as it turns out.
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[Passive]: The intensity of light magic no longer affects you as much, meaning you sustain less damage, and can see a little more clearly in bright places
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[Active]: You may manipulate light itself.

 

[Psychic Adaptation]: Being pushed around without even being touched was a new and frustrating experience for you.
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[Passive]: Psychic magic will no longer affect you to the same degree as before.
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[Active]: Reflect psychic magic back to its source. If your spell isn’t powerful enough, you will only weaken the effect of the opposing magic.

 

[Lightning Adaptation]: You had fun electrocuting yourself with a toy as a child because you were a weirdo. Now, as an adult, you get other people to do it for you. Freak.
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[Passive]: The burning and disrupting effects of lightning on the body will no longer be as effective.
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[Active]: You may manipulate electrical currents.

 

———

 

Shay had wondered why the System was sassing him, and it turned out to be because parts of the System worked based on the subconscious. Meaning it was his own fault. He was sassing himself.