System Break

The water swished up and over the sides of the copper tub while I lay back and soaked in the goodness. The coals beneath the tub still smouldered and the water was warm. The sun would rise soon so I dunked my head a few more times.

Leonell availed himself of a basin only and waited patiently as I dried. "All clean?"

"Yeah, thanks. I didn't know places like this existed."

"It's good to get in early before the rush." He looked around nostalgically. "It's been a whiles since I was here before dawn."

"Speaking of dawn it will cause problems if I miss training in the quad."

He sighed. "I cannot wait. I will eat and head off to bed."

"You're not worried about Fred?"

He shrugged. "Not really. He will not suspect me, us. I'm an old drunk fool."

"The money changer noticed you were coming out of your drunken haze."

"He would never speak to a red cloak. His kind, yes, but not to our mutual acquaintance. But even so I will take precautions. I'm not done with him yet. Take care not to remove it from its box."

"Can the box be traced to you?"

"I had it made over ten years ago."

I nodded and held out my hand then we shook, and I turned to go. "See you at training," I said with a chuckle.

"I will sleep until then. At least I can get another couple of hours." The bastard had napped in the tunnel.

.

Gunk's lump was coming along nicely. In a few days I had pushed my main skills well past ten and my stats had risen a couple of points as well. 

I stood in the quad looking at the other fourteen simps. Waylander approached me and I nodded a greeting. He stood next to me. "Hey," I said.

"Hail and well met," he replied. I wanted to puke at their fake roleplaying.

While he stretched I used qi stamina on my muscles. 

Jerome strode through the ranks pretending to be a capable instructor. "Good. You're all on time. I've been tasked with bringing you up to a satisfactory level." He turned and spat on the grass. "This is going to be the biggest challenge of my life and if any of you fuckers let me down I'll kick you from the guild and reset you. We don't want dead wood. So you either gonna improve or get out."

I peered at the adepts tower and connected wing. They were too stupid or proud to ask for a proper instructor; despite them living  just across the lawn. And then there were the monks who wore orange, yellow or white robes.

Jerome was rambling on and he barked a command. I dropped with the simps and ran through a dozen exercises like we were at the local gym.

Waylander struggled to keep up with me even though we reset at the same time. When there was a water break he asked, "How'd you get ahead? I've been working every spare moment."

"Work smart, not hard," I said. "Push yourself to deaths door and then take the rest of the day off." I forced a laugh. "I've almost died three times since reset." It wasn't true, maybe once was all, but I'd been in some serious fights and had ten times the qi that he did.

He scratched his chin.

I wanted to tell him more, but I was supposed to be an idiot. A simp powered, highly motivated for my narcissistic queen type idiot. "I'll kill myself each day until I can serve my queen properly."

"This training isn't hard enough?"

Wasn't he listening? "This is a good warm up."

"You think you're too good for this Gunk?" Jerome was eavesdropping on the last part.

I smiled. "I want to prove myself. Give me your worst."

He sneered at me and looked me up and down. "Where's your red cloak?"

"I'm training. Why do I need it?" Not to mention it was the worst camouflage gear known to man. Only half the guild members were wearing their red cloaks which meant he was looking for a reason to pick.

"How about you spar with me?" he asked and laughed.

"Sure, but won't you be embarrassed if I win? Like, everyone expects you to win, so no biggie if you do. But if I beat you, you'll be a joke for a week." Sometimes I couldn't help myself. I am me and sucking down shit isn't in my nature.

Another guildy asked, "Want me to fetch the others?" There were only five others and they were the Queen's group.

Jerome shook his head. The coward had doubts. From what Waylander and Stonk had said to me – this guy was Gunk's bully, and he reset Junior last time.

"Wooden swords?" he asked.

"Why? We're immortal."

"Because you owe a ton of qi cores already moron."

"I'll use yours to pay some off."

"Oh, you're gonna fucking die again."

I smiled and drew my sword swing in down in two quick arcs. Qi flowed through my streams without any prompting from me and I let it cover my muscles with the body techniques.

"I wouldn't be so sure," a man in a green cloak said. He was a stern looking bastard – probably a master of the adepts. One who wouldn't normally lower himself to teach scum like us.

Wayland held up and cloth like the adjudicator did at the tournament and the other guildies made a large square for us to fight within.

He looked at his sword and min. "Last chance," Jerome said.

"Don't be such a coward," I replied.

Jerome nodded at Waylander who counted down. We were over five yards apart when he brought the red cloth down. I held back and waited for Jerome to close. If I moved too quickly it would have been a dead giveaway.

He ambled closer and took up a side on stance. I could have killed him four times by now, but I twirled my sword like an idiot.

As he approached I crouched which confused him. He lifted his sword up high and lunged in with one long stride before bringing his sword down.

His front leg was slightly out of reach when I flicked my sword, but I released an arc of qi which sliced his ankle in two.

He never finished his strike he bent over in pain and screamed. The onlookers just stared, none of them was sure what happened. I peered at the green cloak. All except one, the green cloak knew what I did. It was probably a protector level attack from the look on his face. 

Guild members rushed Jerome and his severed foot to medical. I didn't want him dead; this was much better.

Waylander was the only one who approached me, the rest were in shock or trying to save Jerome's foot. A good qi healer could attach it - even I could give it a go.

"That was fast," he said.

I sheathed my sword. "Maybe they'll take me seriously now."

Waylander frowned. "Or try and kill you in your sleep."

I ignored him and watched the green cloak depart. He headed back to the adept's building and my guess was probably right. "Do you know who that was?"

Waylander peered. "I think he's second in charge. They call him Second."

I laughed. "Dead giveaway."

"He's not a protector there's no insignia on his cloak."

I smiled. "I guess training is over for the day." I turned and walked back to my room. Now I had made some time to play with the artifact I would feed it the remaining Crocroach cores.

Waylander watched me go while scratching his head. "Who wants to duel?" he asked the others.