“Fuck them,” she said decisively. “I didn’t come here to be treated as a child.”
“Then you may as well pack up and leave the monastery,” Vesma countered. “I don’t like it any more than you do, Mahrai, but if we want to keep learning, we have to play by their rules. At least until the guild tells us otherwise.”
“What do you think, Kegohr?” I asked.
Kegohr slurped soup out of a bowl and shrugged. “I get to fight an old monk, learn how to use Physical Augmentation, and get some control over it. I’m not complaining. But if you guys want to leave, then I’ll be right behind you.”
“You’re not seriously going to roll over for that wrinkled old skeleton, are you, Ethan?” Mahrai demanded. “You’re just going to sit there, say sarcastic shit, and do nothing?”
I met her eyes and smiled humorlessly. “Does that sound like me?”
Mahrai avoided my gaze after a second. “No.”
“I don’t like it any more than you do,” I said. “But we don’t want the monks as enemies, and they haven’t done anything to hurt us just yet. At least not the ones inside the monastery. I’m not about to stick out my ass and ask for it gentle, but we’re all learning things we can’t find anywhere else. So, we keep going until we have the basic concepts mastered or something happens that we can’t ignore.”
Mahrai exhaled sharply. “I hate it when you’re right.”
Vesma nudged her with a playful sparkle in her eyes. “Aww, look who’s actually starting to learn how to work in a team.”
“Say that again,” Mahrai told her, “and I’ll hit you halfway across the fucking mountains with this table.”
Vesma’s grin just widened, but she didn’t provoke her any further. I finished my dinner, said goodnight to the others, and returned to my room to meditate. If Environmental Augmentation was as tough as I thought it was, I had a long few weeks ahead of me.
I wasn’t wrong.
Physical Augmentation was a simple process compared to the Environmental training. I began each day with breakfast and a brief chat with the others before I sat down in the center of the hall and focused my Vigor. Tymo's directions were short and sharp, and he never offered me more than a few sentences to tell me to ‘try harder.’
I strained, struggled, and constantly re-evaluated the process, but I just couldn’t seem to tap into the Vigor of the world around me. My sense of raw Vigor increased, and my meditation replenished my Vigor faster than it ever had before, but I couldn’t find a way to draw upon the environment to power a technique. After hours of struggle, Tymo would dismiss me for dinner.
My friends continued to grow in their own techniques and described their progress as best they could, but without actually seeing the results, it was impossible to determine just how far they had come. The temptation to sneak out of the monastery and take the others in the Vigorous Zone to train became stronger and stronger.
Kumi and Faryn returned from their mission a few days later after my Environmental training began.
I couldn’t help but smile at them as they took their seats across from us in the dining room. They had both left behind their peasant clothes and found fresh robes from Wysaro City. Kumi dug voraciously into her rice as Faryn brought us up to speed. The last of the monks filed out of the room, closed it with a snap, and Faryn started her story.
“It took a day just to lead them out of the village,” Faryn explained. “They couldn’t believe that we’d burned down the Lost Shrine and that their guardians were gone. Tolin eventually decided to break the spell by setting their houses on fire.”
“You can’t be serious,” Vesma said incredulously. “He actually did that?”
“Mhm,” Kumi confirmed. “I didn’t like it any more than Faryn did, but it helped to move them along. I helped extinguish the fires after Faryn and Tolin finally convinced them to leave. Danibo Forest is far too valuable a place to destroy.”
“Did Tolin use any more of his Augmentation?” I asked.
Faryn shook her head. “He simply unleashed the full brunt of his personality upon the villagers. That was enough. It was a short journey after that. Tolin left once we reached the outskirts. He said he had a temple to tend to and an insatiable cat to feed. He also said to tell you to watch yourself.”
“I guess he thinks I stumble around with a basket over my head and my hands tied together,” I said. “How are the villagers holding up?”
“Well,” Kumi said. “It took some time, but thankfully, the healers have seen this sickness before. We stayed a few days to watch over them.”
“Kumi wanted to see more of Danibo Forest,” Faryn said. “I was more than happy to show her, of course. I wanted to be sure that there weren’t more demons running rampant through the trees. But we didn’t see a single one of them. Hopefully, the worst is now behind us.”
“Depends on what you mean by ‘worst,’” Mahrai grumbled. “I’d rather fight off another army of demons than be subjected to these wise old farts and their mumblings.”
“We could find a comfortable middle ground,” I said.
The others turned to look at me, confused.
“I’m with Mahrai,” I explained. “I’m getting nowhere with my own training at the moment. There’s nothing as good as training with your friends to make progress.”
“But we can’t—” Vesma began.
“We’ll have to keep it quiet,” I interrupted. “But I don’t think your teachers will really have a problem with it, if I’m honest. Tymo runs things around here, sure, but if they see you improving, then my gut tells me they’ll look the other way.”
“But what about you?” Vesma insisted.
I shrugged. “I’ll deal with it if it comes to that. Kumi and Faryn, are you in?”
Faryn shook her head and sipped her tea with a satisfied
