Careful Not To Break Reality - Reality Bending (Book 1)

Chapter 9: Training Commences (Part 2)

'So do you pay some sort of rent here?' Rydel hasn't even been here for more than two days, yet he has already started to worry about the logistics of everything. Years in higher education and moving between planets had him keep the money matters on top of his mind and the lack of such concerns is really freaking him out.

'No. Ol is a monk after all, so he managed to convince himself that investing money to pay for everything here is for the greater good. You just need to be nice though since all of this is him.'

Cellica then put on a serious face because she understands what Ol is doing. He is following in through his vision and what he believes to be the right thing to do. Even though he will inevitably end up meeting and working with a bunch of different beings, it's all worth it in the end. He knew that they need to gather so that they can fight this threat when it comes.

'That's very generous.' Rydel paid Ol some respect deep down, and started eating his dish.

'The galaxy isn't exactly running out of space or potatoes.'

The next day, Rydel actually woke up extremely early, in relation to the standard day set by the compound's central neural network. Everyone except Torelamri gathered to have breakfast, or just hanging out, in Dolon's case.

'Don't know if you know, but us Aquarian don't eat big meals three times a day!' Dolon waves off at the idea as she sat down next to Ol, 'real fighters eat when they need to, and don't when they don't.'

'But are you sure you don't want to try this out?' Cellica teases her with a potato wedge pierced at the end of the fork, 'despite all of our differences, you still consume carbohydrates.'

'Not today.' Dolon dodged the 'attack', 'oh hello, Rydel! Shall we start with our training?'

'Ah, I will have some food first. I am still a human after all.' Rydel made a face and sneaked past the two Aquarians, 'remind me what training we are doing today?'

'Find your limits, train, get turbed, repeat. And you can walk out of here in twenty one days.' Dolon knocks on the table as she spells out what's going to be a hellish schedule for Rydel, 'But there is a plus, you do get free accommodation and food!'

Turbed? Rydel looked around confused.It's an Aquarian swear word. Cellica whispered in his ear.
'Yeah......the things we do for those.' Rydel signed, it doesn't make any difference now.

Improvements here means less hustle in the future, whether he decides to confront this greater threat or not.

The first training session was as simple as it gets. Dolon was the only one there as everyone else have work to do. It seems like Dolon is just the resident coach and artifact master around.'The first and possibly only task for this morning.

'Find the size limit of your......Summoning? Is that what you want to call it?' Dolon looked at Rydel, who's warming up, and laid down the plan for the morning's session.

There are many massive rocks of varying sizes on the outside training ground and he just need to find out the biggest and heaviest rock that he is able to 'summon' and find out the limiting factors.

'Hell yes. Let's go.' Rydel loosens up his arms a bit and clapped the two together to get himself hyped up like he is attempting to lift a heavy weight, which he actually is.

Rydel looked at the smallest rock that he could find, reached out and easily scooped it in. He then turned and released it in an open area to the right of all the rocks. The ballsized rock twisted out of nothing and dropped onto the ground with a light stud. That was easy enough.

'Can't help you if you are not talking to me, on the scale of one to ten, how hard was that?' Dolon sat a few meters away from Rydel and monitors him carefully. She has a notepad between two of her spare hands and is prepared to make notes.

'That was easy.' Rydel moved on to a bigger rock. As the glove glows gently, he easily grabbed onto it and felt the rough edges pressing into his palm. The weight definitely got heavier, but still well within his control. He dropped this one right on top of the previous rock and watched it completely crush the other one and pieces of rainbow colored metal rolled out of the bigger rock.

Now Rydel felt like he is all warmed up. He is a man of reason, but not always one of caution. He glimpsed at a rock similar to the chunk of material he summoned a day prior, breathed heavily and reached for it. Comparing to last time he attempted something that big, it felt much sturdier, but a lot heavier and more densely packed. He felt around the edges until it's well within his grip, then he closes his fist against some hard resistance.

It's like trying to compress a heavy spring, or push together two north poles of magnets together, there is some sort of force preventing him from closing his fist. The resistance felt too great for him, maybe there is a limit to what the glove can handle.

'Which rock are you going for this time?' Dolon was slightly confused as to what Rydel is doing, 'I didn't see anything move?'

'Yeah, thanks fo that.......' Rydel shot back, 'just give me a second!'

Rydel once again reached out with his left hand, fingers pointing to the outlines of that giant rock. He grips his right hand firmly around his left wrist and closes both hands slowly. He was once again met with the same resistance, but instead of the impressionability of solids he thought that was putting up the resistance, it actually felt more elastic.

If that's the case, all Rydel had to do is just grip harder and continually drive his fingers towards each other. He just need to force through whatever resistances that's preventing him from moving that damn rock to another place. As he increases the effort and concentration level, the space around the rock starts to bend as light are gently distorted and the straight edges started to vibrate. His gloves are humming gently and letting off bright yellow rays of light in all directions.

'GET. IN. HERE!'

Rydel shouted with all his effort and letting go of the breath he had been holding as he closed the fist with all his might and locks his finger in place.

When he looked up, the big rock is no longer there. His hand was pulled down to the side of his body almost instantly and he had to keep all trunk muscles nice and tight to prevent tumbling and falling on his butt. He took few small steps to orientate himself towards the open area and rocked forward to get into a lunge position and let his arm swing forward. Catching the end of the swing, he finally released the giant rock he had been holding,

'COME!'

As the space twists and bends, the rock spiraled out of a single point and bashed right into the ground. An extremely loud sound of impact and explosion pierced through the air and hurt the eardrums of Rydel and Dolon, forcing them both to raise their arms to block out the ear. When the dust finally settles, both of them slowly put their hands down and tried to shake off the tinnitus echoing in their heads.

'Oh boy.' Rydel was about to walk towards Dolon, but a rush of blood pinned him exactly where he was standing. He put his hands on his knees and gives it a few second to calm down.

'That was very loud. And very heavy.' Dolon looked at Rydel and then turned her attention to the shattered rocks, 'This is very good work. Do you reckon you can do something heavier?'

'That ain't funny.' Rydel waved off the idea as he helped himself stands straight up once again,' but I do think I know what the limiting factors are.'