Second Genesis

Grey knew that he was on a time crunch, he also knew that his Quest had told him that speed was of the essence if he wanted to benefit from the Baron’s favor.

However, he didn’t feel like walking himself right into a 3v1 battle, which is exactly what would happen if he left the Safe Room right now.

Part of him wanted to spend the 50 credits to teleport right to the city, but he decided against that for now for several reasons.

For one, these new abilities of his were starting to pile up and he really needed a more tangible understanding of them. And second, the moon was still high in the skies.

The Baron might very well be asleep right now. He had had to knock for quite some time for Memm to come to the door, and the latter had also been in sleeping attire.

While Grey could afford to piss the one-eyed rat humanoid off, he had to keep the Baron happy. After all, the favor of the Baron was what was going to get him Globb’s shop, and Globb’s shop would be his only shot at getting the tool belt back before they realized the tome was inside.

As such, the earliest he could go and bother the Baron was after sunrise. That gave him some time to work with.

For once, a messed up sleeping schedule was going to be his super power.

Grey stepped into the training room and found stainless steel covering everything from head to toe.

— 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

[Training Selection]

[>Partner]

[>Target]

[>Assessment]

—

Grey thought for a moment and then picked Target.

Veins of blue that ran perfectly vertical and horizontal raced across the stainless steel walls until they gathered to form a target in the distance. It was only about three meters from him.

He reached to his side and plucked out one of the needles he had looted from M’bade’s body.

—

[Muskrat: "WTF. Go fight them, this is boring."]

—

Grey had been tuning out his chat this entire time, he wasn’t about to start paying them any mind now. All of his attention was focused on the needle in his palm.

’I should be able to control this, right?’

But Grey wasn’t sure which he should use. Should he try and use Metal Affinity? Or should he try and use Magnetic Resonance? What was the real difference between them?

’One at a time.’

Grey focused, replaying a similar scene in his mind. His flesh vanished, then went his bone, until all that was left was a firing network of neurons.

He bet that if this was how he got a Magnetic Hero Frame, then a similar visualization method would help him understand how these skills worked better.

The first he tried to visualize was Metal Affinity. If this was correct, it should give him some control over metal, though its main ability was actually incorporating metal into himself without breaching levels of toxicity.

Grey didn’t want to use it for that, though. He wanted to use it to attack, to truly control metal.

The needle in his palm shook and it rose before plopping back down.

Grey’s eyes opened. ’That’s the feeling.’

After a moment, Grey tossed the needle into the air and flicked a finger forward.

The needle launched itself forward, whistling through the air. But just about a meter and a half from Grey, he lost control. The connection was severed.

The needle dipped down after losing its momentum and just barely punctured the edge of the target.

’My spatial awareness is holding up, but I literally can’t control it much more than a meter or so away from my body, probably because its level is too low.’

Grey pulled out another needle but then he hesitated and stopped.

’Is training this worth it? It won’t be any different from trying to learn a ranged weapon. There is a better way to make use of something like this.’

Putting the needle away, Grey pulled out the Curved Rusted Saw. He closed his eyes and felt for his Metal Affinity again. But for some reason, it felt further away now.

Grey opened his eyes with a frown. ’It’s not that it’s further away, it’s that the amount of metal in the Curved Rusted Saw is much more than the needle. So my limiting factor isn’t just distance, it’s also quantity, and maybe even quality of the metal.’

Simply put, if the metal was too far from him, too much, or too high quality, he would have more difficulty in controlling it.

’What if I try and focus on a more concentrated part?’

Grey tried to focus his Metal Affinity on the edge of the blade alone. But he found that it was incredibly difficult to do.

It almost felt like he was heating the blade up, and the metal was so conductive that it quickly spread to the rest of it. He couldn’t just control a piece of the metal, he was practically being forced to control the whole thing.

Grey stopped.

’My control isn’t good enough. Let’s try the entire thing again, then.’

Grey allowed his Metal Affinity to spill into the entire weapon. He could practically feel electrical signals running down his arm and into the weapon, a tingling sensation very similar to the Goblin Warlord Spirit taking shape.

Slowly, Grey raised the Curved Rusted Saw and swung it. His Metal Affinity pushed against it, slowing his swing to a crawl.

’It’s taking my stamina.’

Grey could feel his stamina ticking down faster than normal, his breathing becoming a bit heavier. It was only about as bad as a light jog right now, but the more he pulled on Metal Affinity, and the more he resisted his own swing, the harsher it became.

And then Grey suddenly reversed it.

WHOOSH.

Metal Affinity and Grey’s own strength melded into one, the speed of his swing increasing by as much as 50% in a single go.

Grey exhaled a breath, grinning from ear to ear.

Why should he waste time trying to learn how to become a ranged fighter? If he used his Metal Affinity and Magnetic Resonance to control his weapons in battle, using Goblin Warlord Spirit as a guiding light for his skill...

What chance did his enemies stand?

’Now I just need to figure out how the hell to increase my stamina units. Why has increasing END not increased it at all?’