Chapter X: City Training

After Tyrone had finished showing his spells, Lucas had showed up and offered to help Kenneth with his training. 

"I'm not too sure. I'll probably be a burden with my current level." Kenneth seemed hesitant to accept his older brother's offer. 

"Don't say that. Since you're basically a cripple, it's always going to be a fact that you're not the strongest in individual combat. That's why we're here." 

By his last sentence, Lucas was referring to him and Lena. If Kenneth was the brains of the group, then his older siblings would be his sword and shield. 

"Aw shucks, fine. Lena, do you mind joining us for a quick training?" Kenneth called out to Lena, who was on the other end of the Range and was having fun blasting her Light Beam at some dummies that were clustered up together. 

Hearing his voice, Lena quickly turned around and spotted Kenneth waving his hands in the distance. She wasn't able to catch everything he had said, but still understood that they needed her. 

Channeling mana into her lower body, Lena rapidly Blinked across the whole distance. She soon covered the whole Range and appeared beside Kenneth. 

"Did you need me for something? I'm sorry that I couldn't hear you. I was having fun shooting my spells at some dummies." Lena said apologetically, her hand rubbing the back of her head. 

"No problem. Do you want to join us? We thought of running a few simulations of actual fights." 

"Oohh, really!? I'd be happy too. What's the trial?" Lena Blinked a small distance and reappeared beside Kenneth, who was staring at the screen in front of him.

"This isn't the screen for the simulation. I was just testing the limits of the machine. But the simulation area should be located in the next room." Losing interest in the screen, Kenneth brought his eyes off the hologram and pointed to the door, eager to head to the next room.

After a short while, the siblings had arrived at the simulation area. At the moment, the room resembled the first one they saw when they logged in. 

It was the same white room, except it was around twice as big. In the middle of the room was the same screen that was present in the other rooms. 

Moving closer to it, the A.I that had talked to them earlier suddenly spoke up without warning. The same robotic voice it emitted served as great nightmare fuel for Kenneth. 

"Welcome to the simulation room, customers. In this room, you will be able to modify the surroundings to your liking. The main goal of this is to allow customers to gain experience in environments they are unfamiliar with." 

As the A.I said this, screens bigger than the original once again appeared behind it, depicting the various environments that customers could choose. 

Looking through the many screens present, Kenneth's eyes landed upon multiple biomes. The two most eye-catching to him were the Forest biome and the City biome. 

Bleak and bland in appearance, Kenneth did not care for this. He was simply keen on getting used to these types of environments, as they would likely be the ones where most of his battles would take place. 

Experience in various environments would allow magicians to be able to use their weather and unique points to their advantages. If an Ice Magic user were to be sent to a tundra-like environment, the magician in question would find their abilities to be drastically more effective. This was their innate mana's home, where they were at their strongest. 

The same could not be said for users of the Fire Magic. Their innate mana would not mesh well with the surrounding mana, thus rendering their spells weaker than normal. Naturally, if they were in a hot place like a volcano, then their firepower could see itself increasing to extreme heights.

This was why experience in various environments was necessary. Even if you were somehow stuck in an unfortunate situation, you would be able to find ways to solve it, even when you are in a weakened state.

After the A.I had finished explaining about the various areas and settings, the siblings were free to choose what they would be training in. 

There were a wide variety of areas to choose from. Preset environments were an easy way for people to directly log in and train without having to modify them too largely. 

Once again fiddling with the screen, Kenneth soon decided on one of the preset choices. 

"What did you choose?" Lena had wanted to see what Kenneth chose, but Tyrone had pushed her away with his nose, indicating Kenneth wanted to keep it a secret. 

Understanding this, Lena took a step back, and calmly waited for the blank room to change to what Kenneth had chosen. 

After a few more minutes of fiddling with the settings on the screen, Kenneth let out a cry of happiness. 

An alert to confirm the chosen environment was sent, but Kenneth didn't bother reading it and just clicked off of it.

His decision was final. After a few moments, the siblings watched in amazement as the surrounding white room slowly began to turn from its blank atmosphere to that of one which radiated darkness. 

Kenneth sluggishly opened his eyes to find an unbearable weight on top of him. It wasn't to the point that he couldn't move, but he was having difficulty breathing. 

In an effort to relieve his chest of the weight placed on him, Kenneth attempted to push off the object. It was only when his fingers rested on the soft surface that he realized that the "weight" on top of him was Tyrone. 

Kenneth had finally identified what the source of his troubles was. But now this posed an even bigger problem. How was he supposed to get the dog off him?

Tyrone was at least twice as heavy compared to Kenneth. If he didn't find a way to get him off, he feared that he'd run out of air to breathe.

It was only then that an ingenious plan came over his head. His fingers that were stretched wide trying to push Tyrone off soon changed into slanted positions. 

Once again touching the dog's fur, Kenneth did his best to tickle the dog to get his attention.

"Woof." Soon Tyrone was awoken by the feeling of multiple objects assaulting his fur. Realizing that he was on his master, he immediately got off, looking apologetic.

"No problem. Now if I could just stand up… shit." Kenneth just remembered. His legs that were able to support him earlier had now reverted back to his original legs. 

Kenneth cursed at himself. He had originally changed the settings on his body to take away his sturdy legs and revert his original lower body back. 

 It was successful, but Kenneth quickly missed being able to walk around without the use of a walking stick. 

"Speaking of a walking stick… where'd mine go?" Kenneth turned his head around to look for the stick he had always carried around.

Alas, his turn was stopped midway, leaving his neck at an awkward angle. 

But that wasn't the important thing here. Rubbing his eyes a few times to check if they were messing with him, Kenneth finally accepted the fact that he and Tyrone were teleported on top of a building. 

It made sense. The air was somehow not as nourishing as he had remembered it to be. There was a lack of mana in the atmosphere, indicated by the slight feeling of weakness that was appearing all around Kenneth's body.

"Woof." Realizing what his master was looking for, Tyrone had rushed off to a nearby pile of rubble and brought back Kenneth's walking stick. 

"Ah, thanks." Bringing the stick to his right hand, Kenneth leaned the entirety of his weight on its wooden structure. There was no issue of it breaking, due to it being made of a sturdy material. 

It was only when Kenneth had fully stood up did he realize just how bad the situation was. 

Looking down from one of the nearby railings, Kenneth caught sight of many other buildings. All of them were either broken down, destroyed, overrun with plants, or all three combined.

His siblings weren't here as well. But that wasn't a major problem. He had used his Mind Link on them all the way back when they had sneaked out of the house, and had turned it off the moment they left the property. 

But now Kenneth could see that there was still a slight issue with his connection. This meant that his siblings were either very far away from him, or were in a place devoid of mana. Kenneth chose to believe the former. 

"How the hell does a communication spell have static sounds? This isn't a walkie-talkie." Kenneth was slightly irritated. 

He had tried multiple times to connect to his siblings via Mind Link, but each time it came back with static noises. 

"Anyway, this isn't a good place to be. Tyrone, we should head down to the lowest floor." Kenneth turned to the dog, who was busy smelling the surroundings, perhaps to scan it.

"Do you smell anything?" After Tyrone was finished, he had returned to his master with a thrilled expression on his face. 

"Woof." Responding with a bark, Tyrone bent down to the floor and gestured to his back with his nose. 

"You want me to get on? Okay then." Trusting in Tyrone's senses, Kenneth quickly got on the dog's back, unquestioning about the whole ordeal.

Once Tyrone had made sure Kenneth was holding tight, the dog instantly made for the stairway that led down to the lower floors of the building. 

"This is going to be a long way down. I just hope I regain the signal soon." Kenneth thought about the strain it would put on Tyrone's body if he were to ride him for too long. 

Tyrone's speed was noteworthy. With his hardy legs that looked like they could run a marathon, he led Kenneth all the way down the stairs.

Kenneth paid almost no mind to the wrecked building. From the small fraction of a second that he had looked at the interior, he gathered that the place was an old office. 

Various office chairs and desks lined the walls of the place, many having tipped over from the moss and vines growing on them like parasites. 

Even what looked like sturdy walls made from concrete had large gaping holes on them, truly showing just how much damage Mother Nature could inflict if left to her own devices. 

Still, there was a certain peace to the place that Kenneth found beautiful. As they descended down multiple flights of stairs, they'd be greeted by the chirping of the birds outside, or the fragrant wind blowing from the cracked windows. 

"Could you stop here for a while, Tyrone? I think the signal is getting better." Kenneth pointed to a secluded spot beside the stairs and had the dog carrying him rest. 

As they got off the stairs, Kenneth looked to his side and noticed the floor they were currently in. 

"We're on Floor 72… If I remember correctly, this place had 99 floors, discounting the rooftop. We're still quite a way down, but I'm already getting a signal?" 

Even Kenneth was surprised at the range his spell had. Considering each floor was at least tens of meters high, then truly his spell could beat some communication devices back in his old world. 

Once again Kenneth tried to reestablish a connection with his siblings. The static noises had started to subside the more they descended. By now he could barely hear it. 

"Come on, come on… Yes! Testing, testing, One. Two. Three." Kenneth was so caught up in his excitement that he had forgotten that his spell wasn't a walkie-talkie. 

"He-lo... D!ow y-u he...ar me?" It seemed that it had worked. Lena's voice came from the other side of the Link, indicating he was within range of them now. 

While Kenneth could now hear his sister's voice, it was just about barely indistinguishable from the persistent static sounds. 

"I can hear you. Give me a second, and I'll try to connect to your mind. I might be able to pinpoint your location." 

"Shit, it's still not working. Hey, Tyrone. Do you think you'd be able to go down ten or so more floors? The signal should get stronger the more we head down."

"Woof." Having received ample rest, Tyrone was already ready for their next move.