14-57. The First Phase

The roar of the crowd followed Elijah as he left the arena behind, though it cut off as soon as he entered the adjacent tunnel. He paused, letting the Chronomancer remove the anchor before he moved on.

Predictably, Sara, Tura, and Birk were waiting for him when he got back to the room meant for preparation. Elijah hesitated to call it a locker room, largely because it didn’t fit his impression of one. Instead of lockers, showers, and questionable smells, the space looked more like a lounge – and a luxurious one at that.

When she saw him, Sara squealed and rushed in his direction. However, before she reached him, Elijah snapped out a hand to hold her at bay. “The blood.”

“Oh,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “This one pushed you a little harder, huh?”

That was an understatement. The latest fight – his tenth, completing the first phase of the tournament – had started out much the same as the rest. But the other fighter had used some sort of artifact to block his spells. So, he’d been forced into a melee. And while it had ended in Elijah’s favor, it also proved that he still had a long way to go when it came to fighting with his spear.

But he’d emerged victorious, just as he’d won the first nine fights. What had begun as a pool of more than a million contestants had now been narrowed down to a few more than a thousand.

“You’re still twitching before you attack,” said Birk.

“I know.”

“If you know, then fix it.”

“Trying.”

“Try harder.”

“Leave him be, Birk. He did well,” said Tura. “This is not a day for training.”

Birk grunted, then mumbled something that sounded a lot like, “Every day is for training.” He’d said it under his breath, but Elijah still heard it clearly enough.

“What’s wrong?” asked Sara.

Elijah shrugged. Over the past weeks, he’d experienced something of a malaise, and it wasn’t until the most recent fight that he’d come to realize its source. His opponents just weren’t on the level he’d been led to expect. Sure, some of them could push him out of his comfort zone, but no one had even managed to force him to use his bestial forms. Instead, he’d dispatched them all with spells or his spear.

Was this really the best the Empire of Scale had to offer?

“Don’t lose your edge,” Birk cautioned, almost as if he knew exactly what Elijah was thinking. “You got lucky with your seeding. No up-and-comers. That’s over, now. Next phase will see you facing off against the top demi-gods in the Empire of Scale.”

Tura cleared her throat. “The top young ones. There are some old monsters out there who would destroy the best of this generation.”

“Really?” Elijah asked. “I thought it would be the opposite.”

“Have you learned nothing, boy?”

“Clearly not,” Elijah sighed.

Sara cut in, “Beware the very old or the very young.”

“What does that mean?” Elijah asked.

“The youngest within a tier are normally prodigies,” Tura explained. “The oldest are monsters who have learned to get the most out of their limited abilities. Spells, abilities, and skills are like old shoes. If –”

“I don’t really wear shoes.”

Tura fixed him with a glare, preempting any further flippant comments. “You are familiar with the concept, I am sure,” she stated icily. “Old shoes are more comfortable. They fit the wearer better. So too is the case with the old. We know our limits. We understand how to stretch our abilities. We know how to push past the system’s constraints in ways no young prodigy ever could.

“You may have immense talents, but you are raw. Unrefined. And you have not learned to push past the limits of the system.”

“And you have?” Elijah asked.

“In some ways, yes. In other ways, I am just as much a prisoner of the system as anyone else,” she answered.

Elijah frowned. “So you’re saying that all those times I evolved abilities or my class in a different direction, I put myself at a disadvantage? I should’ve just stayed in the same lane?”

“Bah. Familiarity is good, but there is no substitute for raw power. Or suitability. You should know yourself well enough by now to understand the options available to you. If you chose to change direction, then you had a good reason.”

“That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Elijah remarked, grinning broadly. “You love me. You really, really love me. Come give me a hug!”

Tura held up one finger, stopping Elijah in his tracks. “If you touch me, your next meal will be quite unpleasant.”

“Unpleasant how?”

“You do not want to know, boy.”

Elijah felt a shiver travel up his spine.

“Noted,” he said, backing away. Then, he looked around and asked, “Can I get a little privacy so I can get dressed?”

“Of course,” Tura said before dragging Sara away. The girl had no boundaries.

Once Elijah was alone, he stripped out of his bloody armor, then took a shower in the nearby bathroom. After dressing, he turned his attention to something he’d been anticipating for weeks.

Each victory had given him a little less than a level. Not quite ten, total. Closer to eight, but enough progress that he wasn’t going to complain. That meant that he’d finally surpassed level three hundred.

He canceled all his buffs, wanting to see his status without artificial enhancement or power borrowed from equipment. Then, he opened his status, pleased to confirm what he’d already discovered:

It was odd, seeing that all of his unbuffed attributes had surpassed the three-thousand mark. The most obvious difference came from his increased strength, but the other attributes were just as impactful. The only difference was that it was more difficult to gauge the effect of a few hundred extra regeneration.

It really hadn’t been that long ago that he’d been excited to reach four digits in everything. But the incredible attribute bonuses associated with his new class had irrevocably altered the trajectory of his power scaling. By the time he reached level five hundred, he would be closing in on five digits.

Elijah had no idea how that would feel, but he was eager to find out.

For now, though, he was more interested in the other notification he’d received upon victory:

“These might be the shortest descriptions yet,” Elijah mumbled to himself. Was that normal? Did the system give less information as someone progressed? He couldn’t be certain. What he did know was that he was excited at the prospect of evolving Shape of the Sea. Unabashedly, he considered it his favorite bestial shape, and not just because it came in the form of a giant turtle. It also exposed the sea to him in ways he never could have imagined.

And as a former marine biologist, that was quite a big deal.

With that being said, the options were strangely divergent. Despite the short descriptions, Elijah felt confident of the implied direction of each choice. The first would shift Shape of the Sea into a form more appropriate for magic. Likely, he would gain some new spells that would help in that respect.

Meanwhile, the second felt the most like his current form, which meant that it would assuredly focus on physical attributes and bestial survivability.

Finally, Elijah’s instincts told him that the last choice – Mastery – represented the largest difference. When he focused on it, he felt something like lordship and dominion.

Which put him off more than he could have expected.

Did he want to become a lord of the seas? Not really. He wanted to be a part of the ecosystem, not above it. Could it have offered more power? Maybe. But it wasn’t the sort of power he really wanted.

With that in mind, Elijah ruled that out straightaway.

Similarly, Elijah chose to eliminate the first choice. He liked magic. He enjoyed casting spells. But he’d never wanted to be a Sorcerer. Not really. And besides, he liked his current shape. It served a vital purpose and had saved him more often than he cared to consider.

Because of that, Elijah didn’t really hesitate before choosing the middle option – Might.

“Damn,” Elijah breathed, feeling like he’d made the only correct choice. He didn’t care if the other options offered more raw power. Maybe they did, and maybe they didn’t. But Elijah was comfortable with the old version of Shape of the Sea, and Shape of the Primordial Deep looked like it was the most direct continuation of that familiar form.

But he wouldn’t know for certain until he tried it out.

And he had no intention of putting it off. With that in mind, he dressed before rejoining the others and letting them know that he had some things to do.

Of course, Sara wanted to go with him, but considering where he was going, he was forced to decline her company. She said she understood, but her quivering lip told another story.

Soon enough, Elijah found himself slithering high above the jungle canopy to a spot he’d discovered a week or so before. The massive sea was a little around three thousand miles away, so it took him more than two hours before he caught sight of it glittering on the horizon. Ten minutes later, he arrived on its shores.

From experience, he knew that the sea played host to some truly powerful creatures. He could sense them even from the shore. Fortunately, they were disinterested in attacking someone with his attunement.

So, without further delay, Elijah waded into the surf and, for the first time ever, used Shape of the Primordial Deep. Over the next second, his body expanded, and far beyond the former limits of Shape of the Sea. When his form settled, it was nearly two-hundred and fifty feet long, not including the tail.

To Elijah’s delight, it looked almost identical to Shape of the Sea, which meant that it was an armored sea turtle. Though the ridges along his shell were quite a bit sharper now than they had been before. It was as if he’d become more of the same, which was precisely what he’d hoped to achieve by taking the evolution.

When he checked his status, he was unsurprised to see that his attributes had increased significantly, granting him twelve-hundred and seventy extra points in all three physical categories. More than three times the bonus he’d received from Shape of the Sea.

Unfortunately, if he found himself entirely landlocked, he lost four-hundred and fifteen points in those same categories.

Clearly, the form was still meant for the sea.

That was in line with what Elijah had come to expect. His shapes were there for specific purposes. None of them were perfect. Even his dragon form, while powerful, had plenty of detriments.

Still, Elijah was more than happy with his choice, and that was before he had even put Shape of the Primordial Deep through its paces. With that in mind, he paddled out to sea, ready to see what his new form could really do.

He cut through the water much faster than ever before, and soon enough, he’d reached deep water.

Now, he could really let loose.