Chapter 190: Chapter One Hundred Ninety One

The most obvious way to prove ourselves, according to Alden, was  apparently to undergo a kind of obstacle course. It was designed by the  Pavilion to test combat capabilities. It sounded similar to the testing  at the Academy, but when I asked about how it worked I was informed in  no uncertain terms that the Pavilion course was rank neutral. The  obstacles were enchanted and could be adjust for the stats of the  participant. Since the Pavilion prized combat standards, Skills were  still allowed, but in order to beat the times of previous course runners  you needed some real skill.

The obstacle course was one  of the first things most pavilion members did on joining, and the score  you got was basically an indicator of who would accept a challenge if  you decided to fight. Being an entire organization of battle maniacs,  the Pavilion was heavily influenced by fighting strength. Challenging  others was a prime way to earn respect, and people would even bet on the  outcomes, but no one would accept a challenge if your time wasn't  within a certain number of seconds of their own time.

So,  in order to raise our profile and become better known here, we needed to  take the course, do well, and then fight some people. When we announced  our intention, I expected it to be mostly ignored, and for Alden to  lead us to a small underground area or something. Instead he bellowed.  "Obstacle course!" And threw his fists in the air, with every other  pavilion member echoing his yell with a loud cheer. Then he led the two  of us (Jessie wanted to stay with Randall and Benny didn't want to leave  her alone, bear or not) behind the seating off to one side and through a  tent flap that led us into another open space.

I was  reminded of Cicero's tent, but this side tent seemed much less cramped,  so it was probably a bigger spatial distortion. When we got inside,  everyone stampeded past, climbing up onto the seating in this room,  excited to watch us throw ourselves against whatever impossible odds  these were supposed to be. Oddly despite having just fought, I was  looking forward to this exercise. It would give me a chance to cut loose  without feeling so stifled or like I was on a razors edge like when I  had to beat my clone.

Alden walked us out to the middle of  the ring, which was also dirt, but seemed to be covered in strange  objects and constructs, some for running over, some for climbing, and  some humanoid and obviously meant to fight. There was a huge selection  of options for what would be tested, and I was excited to try it out for  myself, but I had one more question about this whole thing. "So, just  to clarify, is this solo only, or can we try in teams?" Callie and I  were partners with exception compatibility, so I was sure it would  improve our time to work together.

Alden chuckled. "Tag  teams are fine, but your time is doubled for the purposes of the record.  Can't have doubles screwing up our times. In some ways bringing a  partner is even harder than doing it solo, so are you sure that you want  go up together?" Despite the warning words, his tone was eager and  excited, and I smiled internally at how up front everyone here was. It  was refreshing after dealing with a backstabbing dick like Cicero.  Granted these people could also secretly be sneaky manipulators, but  somehow I doubted it. They struck me as people more like myself.

I  looked over at Callie, letting her decide, and she grinned and winked  at me, an obvious sign of approval. I nodded to Alden. "Yeah, take us to  wherever we're supposed to start." He led us over to a seemingly random  spot in the center of the circle of seats, equidistant from a few  different machines and obstacles.

He pointed over to the  nearest few. "Now, there's no specific suggested order for the tasks,  coming up with an efficient way to tackle everything is part of testing  your combat capabilities, but we do give a few minutes to come up with a  proper strategy. Don't feel too bad if you don't get some legendary  score first time. There are people here who have spent years trying to  refine the fastest and most efficient path through the course. All you  really need to know is that the humanoid constructs detect damage based  on how and where they're struck, and will shut down once you reach their  limit."

With that he turned and left, giving us time to  discuss our strategy. Callie scanned over the devices, most of which  were pretty obvious in terms of use and execution. She went over  everything a few times in her head, discussing our route out loud  minimally to avoid giving away any of our tactics before the big show,  but once she finally came up with what we should do she whispered in my  ear so softly it was barely audible even with my perception.

Once  that was settled we officially set off toward the first obstacle on our  list. It was a mystery to me how they were going to arrange for the  stat totals to matter on the obstacles, but once I got closer I realized  that I could feel gravity itself seeming to increase. Callie and I both  came up short in shock as we realized that our physical abilities were  greatly hampered by even the proximity of these things. Alden had  mentioned that the constructs could adjust their stats to match us, but  apparently he'd decided to keep it a surprise that they could also do  the opposite.

This was the second time we'd run across  some amazing structure or device down here, and both had to do with  Abel. I could see someone like him arranging this kind of place for his  friends or subordinates to help them improve, and the existence of this  and the labyrinth illustrated a big gap in what we thought we knew about  enchanting and creation in general and what we actually did. The  hatchery itself illustrated some interesting things about how crafting  could be applied on a larger scale, but it was clear that invented  buildings weren't unique or the only way for crafting to interact with  the larger world.

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Putting aside how individual powers  could interact with those abilities in unique ways like that whole  brewer thing, and the sheer variety of possibilities boggled the mind.  That said, we didn't have time to think about it because we had to get  through this, but we were unfortunately neutralized in terms of advanced  physical abilities. The first obstacle was a relatively simple one. A  wooden ladder led up about fifteen feet to a platform connected to  another platform by a beam system with hanging steps.

The  steps moved consistently, spinning and swinging without ever tipping,  but being swapped along within a large field of empty space between the  two platforms. Basically we had to jump from one step (small wooden  boards that would barely hold two feet) to another to reach the other  side, finding a path between them through the randomized movements of  the steps in question.

Callie was staring at this thing in  genuine horror, clearly unsure how to proceed. Luckily, I had something  for this. I stepped forward. "Ok, I got this one." If she wanted to  cross she would have to use a massive amount of shadow to create her own  path or pin the things down, and that would defeat the purpose. I,  however, had a variety of useful and powerful skills I could use to  traverse the distance. In this specific case, Minor Gymnastics Mastery,  while reality breaking, still put me at the level of a mortal who had  been practicing for years.

I climbed up the ladder, not  daring to lag behind in case I screwed up our time. I could see why they  doubled it. Two people meant two Skill sets, not to mention we could  probably double up on some tasks. For this one I triggered Minor  Gymnastics Mastery and Leaf on the Wind. I decided since this was  training as well as a test I wouldn't use cloud step, because it would  invalidate things. Once I had Leaf on the Wind active I leapt for the  first step that came close.

I landed on the wooden board,  my body swinging away from the platform on the board's circular  trajectory before I came within range of another board and jumped to  that too. I controlled my movements perfectly, using Lead on the Wind to  give me the hang time to really optimize my gymnastics. It might not be  necessary, but working on my other Skills couldn't hurt, and besides,  this was fun. I spent longer than I probably should have on the boards,  unable to properly gauge the timing on some of them and having to take a  more roundabout route, but I made it to the other side in about ten  minutes or so.

In doing that, I realized the purpose of  these tests. Abel's philosophy was about creating refined and cohesive  battle strategies from your skills and ability. By forcing people to  adapt to a variety of situations he was able to arrange for people to  form a single coherent doctrine they could use in any part of their  Ascendant career. It was kind of like making your own martial art, but  on a much bigger and more inclusive scale.

More  than that though, this was FUN. I'd kind of started taking my Might  stat for granted given the fact that I couldn't turn it off, but trying  to use my body from a mortal level again was kind of a blast. It was  also somewhat scary, and I knew that if it was a thing outside this  limited environment I would have been way too worried to enjoy it. It  made me wary of higher tier planets with gravity naturally closer to  this. I could see why despite people our rank being able to survive  there most people didn't make that trip until closer to E rank.

After  we got past the first obstacle, Callie was up next. The one after the  platforms was a series of wooden stakes designed in such a way as to  require extreme grace and a very light step to cross them. While  gymnastics made jumping around easier, this was a simpler task for  Callie with her years of training in stealth and careful movement. I  used Leaf on the Wind on her first, and we tore through the test in  like, thirty seconds, easily making up for my slow time on the platform  obstacle.

We  continued on like that, switching back and forth between the two of us  depending on who was best suited for the task, sometimes her, sometimes  me, and a few times we ran across tests we handled better together. As  we moved though, the downside of this gravity became even more obvious,  not just in its difficulty, but in the toll it took on our bodies.  Neither of us were used to moving under these constraints, and I felt my  muscles burn as I did my best to ignore the fatigue that was slowly  overtaking even what my Vitality could fix in a short time.

I  could see why this was considered such a good indicator of combat  ability. It wasn't just Skill use and methods this tested, it also  forced us to economize every motion and try to get the maximum possible  energy from our now shockingly mortal seeming bodies. Of course, we  weren't mortal, so we didn't get injured or anything, our Impact still  offsetting things like the ground or strikes from other items, which  made the test hard but not dangerous. Finally though, after almost an  hour, we moved on to the part of the test where we needed to face the  humanoid constructs. Oddly, part of me was looking forward to fighting  like this. I had a feeling it would be a real challenge.

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