Steam curled out the top of the shower stall like morning mist over a battlefield. Alex stood under the heavy spray long after everyone else had left the changeroom, letting the heat soak into muscles that felt like they had given up and decided to quit on him.

  Every fiber in his body screamed mutiny. His calves and thighs throbbed and wobbled, his back ached, and his arms hung limp at his sides, twitching even when he wasn’t trying to move them. To wash his hair he had to curl over so he wouldn’t have to lift his arms very far. He had never been so sore in his life.

  Whoever designed Phys Ed for Adventurers had clearly been a sadist.

  He’d expected some cardio. Maybe a jog, a few pushups, something to shake the travel out of their legs and make sure they weren’t couch potatoes. Fair. Instead, Captain Vance had shown up with other ideas, all square-shouldered, sun-browned, and carved from muscle and attitude.

  The memory made him wince even now as hot water beat across his shoulders. Every muscle felt like it had been individually stretched to their ripping point and then reattached with crazy glue and zip ties, all out of order. Just like his arms, his calves twitched every few seconds. The class had been brutal. Disciplined, methodical, implacable and absolutely merciless.

  He leaned his forehead against the cool tile wall, steam swirling around him, and reconsidered all the choices that had brought him to this point.

  The worst part wasn’t the exhaustion, it was knowing that Captain Vance hadn’t even looked tired when it was over, which meant she could, would, push them even harder in the future. At the end of the class, she’d just stood there at the edge of the lake, arms folded, watching them all with a smile on her face as they collapsed like broken marionettes.

  “Pretty sure she enjoyed that,” he mumbled to his reflection on the frosted glass door. Even moving his face to talk hurt for some reason.

  “Note to self,” he said. “Next time, fake a tech malfunction and sit it out.”

  He sighed and blinked open his HUD.

  A faint blue shimmer washed across his vision, forming into the now familiar semi-transparent interface that floated just inside the rest of the world. The company folks all called it “ANIP, or Augmented Neural Integration Protocol,” but to him it really felt like a VR game menu. Without the clunky headset or glasses.

  >>> ANIP SYSTEM ONLINE

  >>> Subject: Mercer, Alexander

  >>> Designation: Battle Mage (Class A Trainee; Cohort 13)

  >>> Condition: Fatigued (8) / Abundance of Microtears detected (9) / Protein deficiency (5)

  >>> Physical Status: 54% (-)

  >>> System Sync: 92.7% (+)

  Alex grimaced. Even the stats looked tired.

  He flicked his eyes right to open the Performance Metrics tab. A small chime sounded, and a series of status bars bloomed into view.

  >>> STRENGTH: 7.5 (+0.4)

  >>> ENDURANCE: 5.9 (+0.6)

  >>> AGILITY: 12.0 (+0.3)

  >>> VITALITY: 8.7 (+0.4)

  >>> WILLPOWER: 14.7 (+ 1.4 )

  >>> INTELLIGENCE: 17.6 (0.0)

  >>> NEURAL SYNC: 38.3 (+5)

  “Not bad for a day of suffering,” he said weakly. He looked over the numbers and wondered what they actually meant though. Were they all percentages? Or on a numerical scale? Apparently the nanobots had analyzed his system and taken a baseline.

  A new icon blinked into view near the corner of the display. A small trophy emblem, pulsing gold.

  >>> [ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED] — “Some Pain, Some Gain”

  >>> Increase a physical ability by 10% through training and ANIP optimization.

  >>> Reward: +3% Adaptive Recovery / Access to “Pain Filter (Beta)”

  “Pain filter?”

  There was a short description below the listed reward:

  >>> Optional sensory dampening for non-critical pain signals.

  “Oh thank God.”

  He ‘clicked’ the affirmative option with a hard focus and the soreness in his body immediately dulled. Not much, but it was like putting headphones on and dimming the sounds of the world.

  Small mercies.

  He wondered how it worked. The nanobots were probably crawling around inside his brain somewhere right now, making new connections. Probably best to not think about it too much, he thought.

  He finished up in the shower and walked back upstairs into fantasyland. He stepped out of the trainee hut and back into the sun, which was now bleeding gold across the horizon. The village glowed; warm and alive with smoke curling from chimneys. Laughter fell through the windows of a nearby house and the smells of roasted meat curled through the air. It wasn’t quite the same as smelling a neighbours BBQ back home, but it was close.

  I could eat a horse, he thought and then stopped and looked around. Maybe literally around here!

  Jay was in the front yard, swinging a massive axe in rhythmic arcs that whistled through the air; twisting and leaping forwards, then back and finally striking out. Each strike landed with a satisfying thunk into a training post.

  Alex gawked. “How are you still going?”

  Jay turned, grinning like a golden retriever who’d found a stick. “Can’t rest till I perfect the form, bro. Repetition builds mastery.” He swung again, muscles rippling through his cotton shirt like some kind of motivational poster.

  Alex just stared at him. “Repetition builds insanity.”

  Jay laughed. “Come on, wizard-boy. Gotta earn those gains. You look like you’re made of noodles right now.”

  “I am made of noodles right now. I doubt I could even pick your axe up.”

  Jay finally rested the weapon on his shoulder, still smiling. “Tavern time?”

  Alex didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely. I’m starving”

  The Silver Gate Inn was already buzzing when they arrived. The wooden sign out front, featuring a pair of interlocking silver moons, swayed gently in the cool evening breeze. Yellow light spilled from the windows, carrying the sound of music and clinking mugs.

  Inside, the place was alive with noise; adventurers and village staff crowded the tables and laughter bubbled through the room. Somewhere on the other side of the central hearth, a bard strummed a lute and Alex could just see a pair of dancers twirling between the benches. Jay clapped for them as they walked near.

  Their team had already claimed a long table near the bar.

  Sarah sat at one end, posture perfect, arms folded across her chest, laughing at something just said. Melissa leaned across the table mid-argument with Rae, her lute propped against the bench. Danny sat beside them, idly flicking crumbs at an empty seat.

  “Look who finally dragged themselves out of the hut,” Sarah said as Alex and Jay approached.

  “I would salute,” Alex muttered, “but I think my arms quit.”

  Jay dropped heavily into his chair with a satisfied groan. “Man, that was the best workout of my life.”

  Melissa gave him a look that could curdle milk. “You enjoyed that?”

  “Hell yeah,” Jay said. “It’s like bootcamp with dragons.” Sarah nodded.

  Rae groaned softly, resting her head on folded arms. “I can’t even feel my legs. I think they detached somewhere between the lake and here.”

  Danny patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Rae. Pain means progress.”

  “Not if it kills me,” she muttered.

  Tomwell appeared beside the table carrying a tray of mugs. He was a broad man with arms like tree trunks. “Evening, heroes,” he said with a wink, sliding their drinks down the table with practiced ease. “Same as yesterday.”

  Alex blinked. “Wait – you remember what we ordered?”

  Tom tapped the side of his head. “You’re not the only ones with ANIP, kid. I just use mine a little differently.” He winked again and turned away.

  “Hey, we didn’t pay yet!” Alex called after him.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Tom waved a hand without looking back. “You’ve all got tabs now.”

  Jay raised his mug. “To free drinks!”

  Rae looked at him with a bemused look on her face. “You do realize that a ‘tab’ means you have to pay later right?”

  Jay paused in his first sip and then slowly wiped foam off his upper lip. “Ah. Makes sense. I’ve never had a tab anywhere before. Well, to paying later then!”

  Melissa clinked her mug against his. “And to never doing that lake drill again.”

  “Until next time,” Rae moaned and the table erupted in laughter.

  The conversation rolled along easily for a while. They compared bruises, complained about the instructors and talked about their favourite parts of training so far. And their least favourite.

  Sarah smirked at them every time the conversation returned to the phys ed class from hell. “You’ll get used to it. The first week’s always the worst. After that, you start to crave it.”

  Melissa groaned. “I crave a nap.”

  “You crave attention,” Rae teased.

  “Exactly! Bards are supposed to be adored, not exhausted.”

  Alex chuckled into his second drink. It tasted faintly of cinnamon and honey; some local brew called Moonfire Mead. He’d never had mead before and couldn’t tell if he liked it. It wasn’t bad, just – different. Like an odd type of fizzy wine.

  “Hey,” Danny said suddenly. “Did you guys hear? They posted us up on HeroBook!”

  “Already?” Jay leaned in eagerly. “How do you know?”

  Herobook was Dungeon Inc.’s proprietary social platform – patterned off the ubiquitous Facebook except that only adventurers from the show could get pages. It contained everything about the popular series, including player ranking system, quest & mission tracking, and a ridiculously popular fan portal that allowed viewers to create and join player or team fan clubs, partake in polls, and occasionally interact with the actual ‘actors’ of the show.

  Every adventurer had a public profile that tracked achievements, combat footage, and “hero metrics.” The fans on Earth ate it up.

  On Earth, thought Alex. It had only been two days and he was already thinking about his home world like some far off place like it was no big deal.

  Alex opened his HUD again and flicked to the Herobook tab. He had found the section earlier but hadn’t had much time to explore. It seemed like he had an internet browser and app portal in his head now and it was somehow connected to the internet back home. The cables in that third portal, he remembered.

  The Herobook app opened and Alex searched his own name. His profile floated up, complete with an unflattering still image of him mid-run from the obstacle course.

  >>> Alex Mercer

  >>> TEAM ROLE: Battle Mage

  >>> Current Followers: 28,902

  >>> Engagement Rating: 7.1 / 10

  >>> Trending Tag: #WizardNoodle

  28 thousand followers already? Holy hell.

  Jay burst out laughing. Apparently he was flipping through their profiles as well.

  “#WizardNoodle! Dude, you’re famous already!” he said and punched Alex in the arm.

  Alex groaned. Loudly. “How? Did they show us during training?”

  “Of course,” Melissa said. “They always show the cohorts in training.”

  “So don’t get caught picking your nose,” Rae said, around her mug.

  Food and another round of drinks were ordered, the alcohol helped with the pain, and talk turned to other teams.

  “I saw the Iron Vanguard guys come back through the gates today,” Rae said, eyes bright. “When I was waiting for everyone to get out of the showers.

  “They had this huge chest of coins and a sack full of loot. Weapons and armour bits – and the short one… you know, the little fighter?”

  “Derek,” Mel offered.

  “Yeah, Derek. He was carrying a marble bust with huge emeralds for eyes.”

  “No way,” Jay said.

  Rae nodded eagerly. “One of them was carrying a sword that shimmered. The crowd was going nuts. They said it was a drop from some dungeon near the ridges to the south.”

  Jay whistled low. “Man, I can’t wait till we get to go out there. How long do you think it will take?”

  Sarah leaned back in her chair and said, “Earn your strength first and learn how to fight. The ANIP gives us a huge advantage, but the world out there doesn’t have respawns.”

  The table quieted.

  Then Melissa broke the silence. “Alright, alright. Doom talk later. Tonight we celebrate survival!” She raised her mug again, and the others followed.

  As the night deepened, the tavern filled with more adventurers.

  At one point Alex leaned back, full and buzzing with enough alcohol that he could almost appreciate the weird rubberiness feeling of his muscles. He looked around the room, half-listening to the chatter at his table and let his eyes wander.

  The Silver Gate Inn really was beautiful inside. The ground floor was built from heavy stone and timber beams that glowed amber in the lamplight. Above that, a balcony wrapped around the room, with a couple of hallways that lead to the upper floors and rented rooms. Occasionally people would drift up and down the stairs. They were an eclectic mix of company adventurers, outside mercenaries, travelling merchants, and road weary travelers.

  And then Alex saw her.

  A woman near the stairwell, moving with unhurried grace. Her dark hair caught the lamplight and looked streaked with purple. As she ascended the stairs, a faint shimmer surrounded her, subtle at first, but the more Alex focused, the stronger it became. She stepped off onto the landing and approached a man already standing at the railing.

  Light seemed to bend toward both of them. The very air shimmered, as if drawn in by invisible threads.

  Alex blinked. “What the hell…”

  Melissa followed his gaze and scowled. “Wow, checking out the locals already?”

  “What? No!” Alex said quickly. “I just… uh… something weird’s happening around those two.”

  Rae rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah, the dudes are all staring.”

  But Alex didn’t hear her.

  The air around the woman pulsed softly, and then Alex could see it all – her aura, her power, the motes of light drifting through the room. She had so much energy he could feel its strength from where he sat. He shifted his eyes to the man beside her and saw the same thing.

  The mana in the room had all shifted, flowing gently towards them and when it got close enough, it just disappeared into their auras like mist pulled into sunlight. He squinted and looked harder. The mana seemed to be feeding their auras!

  Alex’s pulse quickened. His HUD flickered slightly, static dancing at the edges of his vision.

  Was this magic?

  Could he do that?

  For that matter, what were they doing?

  He glanced down at his own hands. They looked ordinary. Pale, trembling slightly from exhaustion. No aura that he could see, no matter how he squinted. He focused on the little mana blobs floating around. Willing them to be solid. Trying to catch one between his fingers.

  Something deep in his belly hummed, just a faint vibration. He raised his hand slowly, palm open toward the room.

  The chatter around him faded away.

  He imagined the air as a sea of light, particles flowing like a current. There was a tide that he didn’t understand, that made the mana flow one way or another, but he could almost feel the flow itself. Which meant something was pushing it. Which meant that the mana had to be solid enough to BE pushed.

  He gritted his teeth as he focused. If she could pull it in, then maybe he could too.

  He reached out further. Not physically, maybe mentally. Just through will and effort.

  Nothing.

  He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to feel his surroundings instead of forcing the issue. He imagined the warmth of the air, the flicker of the lanterns, then the pulse of energy that seemed to hover just beyond his reach.

  Potential, he thought. That’s all it is. Just raw potential waiting to be shaped.

  He reached again.

  And this time, he felt something.

  A surge of heat flooded his palm. His eyes flew open and the world snapped into blinding focus as threads of light twisted around his hand, spiraling inward like a miniature storm. Not a lot, but some. They almost looked like little comets swirling around the orbit of his fingers.

  “Whoa…”

  The glow brightened until it seared against his skin. The pain hit next – white-hot, but electric, not fire.

  “Ahh!”

  Instinct took over. He flailed his hand in front of him, trying to detach, to fling away the light that gloamed there. But the more he tried, the more he seemed to collect and the faster the mana flew towards him; towards his hand. He shook harder, and tried to fling everything off towards the floor.

  BOOM!

  The entire tavern went silent.

  He had smacked his hand against the table, but it had sounded like two barrels of a double barrel shotgun going off simultaneously. The thick, heavy oak table split down the center, a spiderwebbed fracture that ran almost the length of the boards. His drink had toppled over. So did almost everyone else’s.

  Alex froze, staring at the smoke curling off the scorched tabletop where his fingers had hit. Just his fingers? His heart pounded.

  Every eye in the tavern had turned toward him. He looked up.

  On the balcony, the raven-haired woman had stopped. Her eyes, glowing faintly blue, locked onto him with a fierce glare. Fury or anger Alex thought. The man who had been with her was no where to be seen.

  The air between them seemed to shimmer and a pressure descended on the room. His ears popped. Someone at the table groaned. Alex fought against the pressure and pushed it away. He turned to see who had made the noise, swallowing hard. Everyone was looking at him. “Oh, uh… oops?”

  Jay leaned close, whispering through clenched teeth. “Oops? Bro… what did you do?”

  “I… don’t know.”

  Melissa’s eyes were wide. “You just broke the table. With your hand.”

  Danny knocked on the table with his knuckles, eyes wide. “No freakin’ way!”

  Alex looked back up towards the balcony. The woman was gone.

  A faint alert echoed in Alex’s HUD.

  >>> [SYSTEM ALERT]

  >>> Unexpected energy resonance detected.

  >>> Calibrating ANIP synchronization…

  >>> Warning: code #2349237!@*&

  Alex sat there in the silence that followed, the glow around his palm gone, his heart hammering in his chest. The hair on the back of his hand, and his neck felt like it was standing straight up.

  Around him, his team just stared, but the rest of the tavern went back to their own business.

  Melissa rested a hand on his forearm and asked if he was okay. He nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Sarah leaned forward, eyes sharp. “Whatever that was, Mercer… careful huh? You could take someone out with that karate chop.”

  Alex nodded dumbly, still staring at the cracked table.

  But inside he was smiling. He had done it. He’d felt it.

  He didn’t know what he had done, or exactly how. But for the first time, he had made magic.

  Jay finally spoke. “So… hell of a workout today huh?”

  Tension broke and everyone laughed, even if it did sound a little forced.

  Something happened today that I don’t have words for yet. Not pain. Not really anything I can explain. But it felt like strength.

  We were running drills when it hit me—like the air had weight, like my body suddenly remembered how to breathe properly. Every movement felt cleaner. More centered. Later, when I stopped, it didn’t fade right away. It was just this feeling that settled in.

  I checked the ANIP logs afterward. Nothing was flagged. There were no alerts; no optimization prompts. It feels like that should have bothered me more than it did since I knew something was different.

  Whatever it was… is… it felt… earned. Like I’d been pushing against something invisible for weeks and finally slipped through it.

  I don’t really know what this is yet.

  But I do know that, whatever I touched, it’s still there.

  Personal Journal

  Hiro Tanaka

  (??ヮ?)?*:???

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