Picking Stones

Julian's Training Center was divided into two training stations, one for warriors and one for sorcerers.

Jax checked the Sorcerer section first, but upon finding out that he needed to at least have a Navi Stage to even get started there, he was told to get acclimated while he trained physically first.

"How do I get a Navi stage?" Jax asked Gemma.

"You'll need to absorb some Navi," Gemma quickly answered. "There are breathing skills to do that, but to use it, you need Navi itself. So for now, like that guy said, you will need to get acclimated with this environment."

Jax slowly nodded. "What happens when I do get one?"

"Then you become a proper sorcerer and can start learning spells."

"A single spell, you mean," Jax reminded her. He still hated that he was going to be able to learn just one spell. "How do I learn a spell?"

"There are scrolls you can use from shops. Or sometimes even monsters leave it behind when you kill them instead of Navi Stones."

"Monsters leave it behind?" Jax asked in surprise. "How can monsters leave behind scrolls? Do they make it themselves?"

"No, silly. It's just something that happens in the Celestial Express. It's common here," Gemma explained.

"Must not be very common elsewhere, otherwise, I wouldn't be this surprised."

Jax finally arrived at the warrior training section. This was the place with dozens of people practicing with wooden swords and spears. Off in the distance, a group of people watched as two men fought against each other with no weapons.

As Jax walked in, a man wearing a blue shirt stopped him; a trainer from what Jax understood.

"You must be new," the man said. "When did you arrive?"

"Just minutes ago," Jax told the man. "Can you tell me what I need to do?"

The man gestured toward the pile of wooden weapons spilling out from a wooden crate. "Grab one and go hit the side of those wooden stumps. See if you are familiar with any weapons."

Jax nodded and walked over. There were four types of weapons in the crate: swords, spears, staffs, and bows.

Jax grabbed the bow but immediately placed it down. It just didn't feel right. He grabbed the spear next, and while he seemed to know how he was supposed to use a spear, it didn't feel right either.

The sword was the same as well, and so was the staff. But the staff at least felt natural to hold compared to the others. He took the staff with him to the wooden stump wrapped in thick ropes and started hitting it from the side.

He put quite a bit of force into his attacks and felt the rebound with each strike. Something about the motion felt familiar, but nothing much.

Jax was getting into the thick of it when he heard Gemma asking him to stop. When he stopped, he realized that the trainer had walked up to him at some point, while a few others close by that were training had stopped to look at him.

"Why is everyone looking at me like that?" Jax asked. "Did I do something I shouldn't have?"

"No, you're good," the trainer quickly said. "It's just the loudness of your strikes that surprised the others a little." He turned around. "Keep training!"

The rest went back to practicing by themselves.

"I was loud?" Jax asked.

"Yes! And those hits sounded quite firm," the trainer said. "Did you fight with staffs before you came here?"

"I don't know," Jax said. "I don't remember."

"Ah! One of those, huh? Well, suffice to say that we have found you your weapon."

Jax looked down at the staff. "I don't think that's right. It doesn't feel right."

"Oh, do you want to try the other ones?" the trainer asked.

"No, those aren't it," Jax said. "I'll stick with the staff."

The trainer nodded. He pointed toward the side next and asked, "Can you lift those rocks over there? Go from left to right."

Jax looked confused. "Why?"

"I just want to test your strength. You mentioned that you have no memories, correct? Then you wouldn't know if you were a different species either. I want to test how good your natural strength is."

"Oh!" Jax was excited about this. "Alright, let me do that."

He quickly ran up to the side where the rocks were lined up. From left to right, they didn't get larger, but their colors changed.

"Different types of rocks," Gemma explained. "The least dense ones seem to be to the left."

Jax saw a number on the side of the first rock.

25

"What does that number mean?"

"That's the weight of the rock. 25 slimes." The trainer had arrived next to him at some point and explained.

Jax nodded slowly and softly whispered to Gemma, "What's a slime?"

"A type of monster," Gemma explained. "They are all of the same weight, regardless of their species and what Carriage they are in, so they are a solid unit of measurement throughout the various carriages, regardless of any gravity differences."

"How heavy is a slime?" Jax asked.

"That's like asking how long a mile is. It's a slime. It's its own weight."

"That… frustratingly makes sense," Jax said. "So how many slimes am I?"

The man measured Jax with his eyes. "60 slimes? Maybe 65. No more than 70 at the very most."

"Oh, so this would be light," Jax said and walked over to the first stone, picking it up. As he had imagined, it was quite light. He could easily hold it up for minutes.

"Not bad. Next one now. That's twice as heavy."

Jax walked over to the second one as well and held it up easily. The third one was easy as well, and so was the fourth one. The fifth one finally presented some difficulty. On the sixth one, Jax could barely hold it up for three seconds before having to let go.

By that point, Jax was feeling light-headed from all the strain. He turned around to tell the trainer that he couldn't continue when he noticed the stunned sight of the man.

"Are you alright?" Jax asked him.

Gemma giggled on the side. "You shocked him quite a bit. New people probably never go beyond the 3rd or 4th one."

Jax narrowed his eyes in a frown. "You should've told me," he said quickly. "I would've stopped earlier on and not revealed so much."

"Reveal what?" Gemma asked. "You didn't even know what you could do."

Jax paused. That was right. Why was he so worried that what he could do had been noticed? Looking into himself, it seemed to be an instinct ingrained into himself.

What was it in the past that made him feel this way?