Weapons of Mass Destruction

I forcefully stop myself from training and let my mind rest. The orbs I was using for practice disappear, and I deactivate my Restrictive Training Emblem. I even reduce the effort I’ve been putting into Mana Cycling.

It all becomes so eerily still. So strangely quiet.

Once again, I check the clock on the wall and close my eyes, lying on my bed for a while longer. Only then do I stand up and change into a pair of black swimming trunks. They fit perfectly, ending just above my knees. They’re very comfortable and fit so well that I’m almost afraid to ask where they got my measurements not to mention how.

Glancing at the mirror, I throw on a loose shirt before heading outside. The manor is already empty, and it’s a nice, quiet day.

It isn’t very hot, but I’ve overheard Sophie and the others making plans to create some kind of effect over the lake to intensify the light, making it stronger and warmer—almost like a true summer. They’ve even been discussing different ways they could add a slight breeze. Looking at the mana web over the lake and the way the light is interacting with it, it’s safe to say they’ve succeeded.

It feels almost alien as I walk slowly to the lake about half a mile away. I don’t use kinetic energy to fly, nor do I run or teleport. I just walk at the speed I once did back on Earth.

Inside the tutorial. Here, on the surface of a planet that is just as likely to be destroyed by the mimics, or those responsible for stopping them. A planet where war rages even at this moment. But there are no signs of war here. The sun’s rays are warm; the breeze is calming and cool. The grass and the leaves sway in the wind.

The memory of Champion Feroy’s recent death feels so distant now, almost unreal. It’s so melancholic. He died, and yet there are countless people living here who never met him, never even knew he existed. Just over a month after his death, here we are, taking a day to sunbathe and blow off some steam. And he wasn’t the only one. A lot of people died just the same as he did.

I don’t even use my senses as I pass under the trees. I don’t try to read mana or sense vibrations of kinetic energy or heat signatures.

It’s interesting how, in just two years, I’ve gotten used to all these things. I wonder what I’ll be like after the tutorial. In ten years? Twenty? A hundred?

I push those thoughts away as I begin to hear voices, leaving the patch of trees with a clear view of the lake. The temperature increases immediately. I wonder if they haven’t made it hot enough to boil a normal human alive.

“I thought you were just going to keep training?” Tess greets me first, walking ahead. She’s changed her hair again, as is her custom. This time she wears it tied back at the top of her head, and dressed herself in a light yellow bikini.

“I decided this would be good training for my mental resistance with so many people screaming all over the place.”

“Oh, you did?” she smiles. “I’ll be glad to help you then.”

Together, we head toward the sandy bank only for Tess to take off running towards the water. Part of me wants to start picking apart the methods Sophie used to create all of this, but I stop those thoughts in their tracks.

Instead, I remove my shirt and lie back on the sand, and close my eyes against the bright sun. The warmth on my body is pleasant, and soon enough, I hear sniffling next to my ear. Then Biscuit licks my face before running off to do something else.

I can hear the twins and Maya talking about the best way to cook some meat they’ve managed to get hold of. Min-Jae asks Sophie if she can make the drinks any colder. Izzy uses her enhanced stats to leap as high as she can into the air before landing in the water with a huge splash, laughing in excitement each time.

“Feral one,” I hear Myrra whisper, taking a seat next to me.

“What?” I ask without opening my eyes.

“There’s a dangerous predator eyeing you,” she continues quietly.

“I’m sure there are no monsters around.”

“It’s something worse.”

I can hear the smile in her voice, and I feel sand on my body as she starts piling it on me.

“Don’t worry, I’ll hide you, feral one.” She continues covering my legs, chest, and shoulders with the sand.

“Are you having fun, Myrra?”

“A lot, feral one. Even Lady Lissandra’s taken a moment to slack off somewhere, so why shouldn’t I, just for a bit? That little human, Isabella, told me as much herself. She might be scarier than any of you—after Tess. Are all human girls like that?”

“Why Tess?”

“She’s always watching and looking right through people. She adapts her behavior to fit each person, but it never feels fake or like she’s putting on a mask. There’s a raw, untamed purity to her, reminiscent of the noble Champions and Absolutes from stories. A queen. A leader. Someone who judges, rewards, and punishes, a person totally unafraid to make the hard choices.”

“What about me?”

“You? You’re feral. At first, I thought you may have been tamed, that perhaps your group was making you weaker.”

“But?”

“But I was wrong. I think you’re far more feral than before. You just control it better, and that’s scarier.”

I give it some thought, but I can’t imagine being too scary when my head is the only thing poking out of the sand Myrra’s piled on top of me. I open my eyes to meet her gaze and see her typical fanged smile. Unsurprisingly, she’s also wearing a bikini of her own—black this time.

She notices me looking and strikes a pose, emphasizing her figure. “What do you think? My beauty was well-known in Virelia. Many would have fallen at my feet with the merest of glances.”

“As thanks for protecting me from a dangerous predator, I’ll say you look pretty.”

“That’s certainly more than I expected from you, feral one.” She chuckles, patting the sand on my chest before rushing off to browse the nearby table of food.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I sit up, letting the sand slide off my chest slide, and watch as Min-Jae creates some sort of field around his part of the bank and the lake to help the others jump higher than normal. The field doesn’t extend very far though, so they still land at normal speed, plunging into the water with shouts of joy before swimming back to shore.

As I stand the twins rush over, one striding up on either side of me and pulling me over to the table. They’re wearing swim trunks like mine but theirs are blue.

I think the twins are around nineteen now, and I notice they’ve grown taller. Their bodies are slim, but like everyone here, there’s defined muscle. Unlike me though, their skin isn’t pale. With their blond hair, blue eyes, and facial features, they’re undeniably handsome—maybe not to the point where you want to punch them on sight, like Channeler, but still.

Min-Jae joins us soon, and they start taking an assortment of meat from the table, grilling them on some kind of contraption they’ve made. They’re using no skills, just charcoal. They don’t even use magic to light the grill.

“Help us, Nat,” Dennis pleads. “We said we’d prepare the meat, but we’ve either burned it all or left it raw inside.”

“Why ask me? I don’t know any more than you do.”

“You can’t be worse than we are, and you said you made the best pizza ever for your disciple.”

“That’s true,” I admit, looking at the pot they’ve rigged up with a grill. “Aren’t the coals supposed to turn white before you put anything on the grill?”

“We thought so too,” Aaron sighs, “but we burned everything.”

Min-Jae folds his arms across his chest and proceeds to flex his arms in a fashion that looks deeply uncomfortable. “I think the problem is that this is high level animal meat, and the coal isn’t normal. It needs to burn at a higher temperature to even affect the meat, so I don’t think Earth’s knowledge will help us.”

I look around, trying to figure out why he might be so tense. Nearby, I spot Sophie and Maya sitting with Izzy, eating some sort of chilled fruit. Maya’s wearing a white bikini, while Izzy and Sophie have dressed themselves in a set of modest pale green swimsuits.

Maya’s gaze sweeps over me dramatically, lingering as it moves from my stomach to my chest. She then winks at me and licks her lips, causing Izzy to giggle and Sophie to scold her, telling her to stop corrupting her younger sister.

I shake my head before facing the boys again, focusing on their conversation.

“Then why the fuck did you tell the girls we could do it?” Dennis demands.

Min-Jae hisses quietly, “Keep it down. Their hearing is sharper than it was on Earth.”

“Well, sorry for ruining your reputation. And why are you sticking your chest out like that? You aren't a girl, no one’s staring at your tits!”

“Shut up, Dennis. They’re called pecs!”

“Yeah? They didn’t help you last time we sparred, you still got wrecked!”

“I only lost because we weren’t going all out. I’d kill you otherwise!”

“You couldn’t even locate my real body!”

I exchange a look with Aaron, who seems to be tuning them out as well, and we start sneaking away while they’re distracted.

On my way, I pick up Biscuit and head toward the lake, sitting in the sand closer to the water.

(Food! Food!)

"You'll eat later. Have you gained weight again?"

(Sustenance! Food!)

"Don’t give me that, I saw you gobbling up the meat they threw away."

Biscuit growls cutely, but I don't let go, holding him so his hind legs swing in the air, just the way he likes it, as confirmed by his wagging tail.

As I expected, Aaron sneaks away too and sits next to me. “You’re not using any mana or sending out any scans at all,” he notes.

“Yup,” I confirm.

“Izzy?”

“Izzy,” I nod.

“A twelve-year-old girl, by the way, and she’s probably the least messed up of all of us.”

I think about it for a moment and end up agreeing.

Aaron gazes at the lake with a faint smile. “Sometimes I wonder if this is all just a dream. Like maybe I’m in a coma, and my mind made it all up. Or maybe we actually died in the bus crash and this is our second chance.”

“If this is a dream, I never want to wake up.”

“Yes,” Aaron says, his smile broadening. “Yes.”

“So, is today’s menu charred meat of unknown origin?” Tess asks, emerging from the water. Drops roll off her body as she sits next to us.

“I prefer calling it a surprise meal,” Aaron replies.

I hear footsteps behind me, and something lands on my head. Looking up, I spot a large straw hat—the kind people wear to avoid heatstroke. Another hat is placed on Aaron’s head and then Tess’s, and then Lily takes her own seat between us.

I don’t really think we need the hats, but this almost feels like we’re roleplaying a beach holiday, so I don’t complain.

Reaching out, I adjust the straw hat on Lily’s head and follow her gaze to my left arm, which is still noticeably pale. Then I notice hers is just as pale. Still unchanged.

“What is this?” she asks, touching the emblem on my chest, right over my heart.

“Restrictive Training Emblem,” I explain. “A gift, or in some cases, a torture device from Lissandra.”

She pulls her hand back. “I see!”

Silence descends until Tess giggles. “Nat, I think Lily might be fishing for a compliment. She spent hours picking out what to wear.”

“S-shut up, Tess!” Lily snaps. “I did not! It was a few minutes at most!”

Tess ignores Lily’s anger and lies down on the sand. “I’ve never gone to the beach with friends. Actually, none of us have, except perhaps Maya and Min-Jae a long time ago.”

“Is this how you thought it’d be?” Lily asks once she’s calmed down.

“Nope,” Tess says, shaking her head. “But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I just don’t think we’ll ever experience things like we would on Earth. Sometimes I wonder if I really want all this, or if I’d rather live like a normal human. Work in a cubicle, find someone to fall in love with, get married, have kids, grow old, and die.”

“You wouldn’t want that,” I say.

“I wouldn’t?” she asks.

“You wouldn't,” I confirm.

Before she covers her face with the straw hat, I see her smiling.

After that, I stand up and look at Lily. “You look pretty today.”

I calmly hold her gaze. I know she’s changed since we left the first few floors, she’s built up some resistance. But I keep staring at her until the corners of her lips twitch, and she turns away.

Damage dealt.

I’ve been teased enough here, so I stop in front of her. “No compliment for me?” I ask.

“You also look good today!” she blurts out, turning her face further away.

From beneath her hat, Tess’s muffled voice reaches me. “Nat, don’t bully Lily.”

“Fine, I’ll just go for a swim instead.”

“I thought you didn’t know how to swim?” Tess calls from under her hat again.

“Yup, I don’t.”

Wading into the lake, I find myself determined not to use mana or kinetic energy, even if I do start to drown.