Chapter 32

His morning had been productive. Through sheer willpower and determination…and a lot of serves, he’d managed to get his Flat Serve up from an 8, all the way to 10, in just two hours of training before school started. Mind you, that was hundreds and hundreds of serves, and by the time it was done, his arm was toast. The only reason he was able to train like this, was because of the special system of powers that flowed through him. Otherwise, he had no doubt in his mind he’d have faltered long ago. After all, a human body shouldn’t be able to simply keep going and going, needing only a short rest to recover stamina, it just wasn’t right.

Granted, right or wrong, Dan didn’t really care. He had goals he wanted to achieve, and he was going to use these new powers he had to his full advantage. After all, what point was there to being gifted supernatural powers, if you weren’t going to utilize them to their fullest.

That being said, Dan’s good morning was quickly ruined as he started his first class. Math. Good ol math. He’d been so caught up with tennis as of late, he’d been slacking on doing homework. Which, wasn’t too big of a nightmare, given the curriculum and the fact that the homework was a small percentage of his actual grade. The problem about not doing his homework though, was he’d been neglecting actually learning the various methods and formula’s being taught. Which was why, as he sat in his first class, flipping through the paper in front of him, with a scantron sheet next to it, he felt his mind starting to panic.

This was the first big test in his class. Percentage wise, tests had a much bigger impact than the homework did. After all, when it came to math, being able to do the math problems actually applied to the class. The problem that was compounding here though, was his grade in the class already wasn’t stellar, given his failure to turn in completed homework. And if he got a bad grade on this test, then he felt like he might face problems with the tennis team. His previous schools, you’d needed to have a C or higher in class, in order to play sports. If that was the case here, and he did bad on this test, he wasn’t going to be able to compete for an actual spot on the team at the end of the month. Which had been he and Peter’s plan. Train for the first month of practice, and then Dan would utilize the challenge system St. Arthur’s tennis team had, and he could secure, at the very least, in theory…, a spot on the Junior Varsity team. Which was the minimum he needed to try for mixed doubles, and his pairing with Sophia.

All that was fine and good in theory, but it required him to actually pass this stupid test. He Dan let out a heavy sigh, and looked down at the paper once more. He’d flipped through it momentarily, just skimming the questions. There were 50 in total. Each one had four different answer possibilities, meaning there was a 25percent chance he could guess and get it right. He chuckled as his mind flashed to the possibility of having the bad luck to miss every single question on the test. For a moment, he vaguely remembered someone mentioning missing every question on a test, was actually akin to answering every question right, by some strange theory. That was over his head for this moment though.

“Here goes nothing.” Dan muttered, resigning himself as he picked up his pencil, setting his focus on the test proper. Just as he did though, a message flashed across his vision.

Academic Trait Unlocked (Test Taking) Rank 2 Unlocked

Skills retroactively updated at Tier 2

Test Taking (34)

Unlocked- Test Aid

Dan looked at the messages. That…was new. Sure, he knew his powers didn’t apply just to tennis. When they’d first been unlocked, he’d found out gaming could give him skills as well. At the time though, when he’d first unlocked his powers, his gaming skills had shown as 1/100 initially. Now that he thought about it though…Dan realized he’d completely ignored those traits since that day. Hell, he’d not really gamed since he started training full time in tennis. Most of his time was spent either playing tennis, or watching things on tennis…or ya know, sleeping and eating.

Which meant ever since he’d leveled his powers up to tier 2, he’d not checked on his gaming stats. Had they been updated as well? And did this mean anything he did that technically had a skill applied to it, would update to show his standings relative to his powers now? If that was the case, Dan couldn’t help but wonder what his soccer skills were like, and what all traits and skills he’d actually have. He’d been good at soccer. Really good. So he was curious how those stats would reflect compared to his tennis skills. If anything, he was curious to see a baseline comparison within himself.

That could all happen later though. For now, Dan had a math test to take, and a new skill to use it seemed. He focused on the Test Aid skill, and much like he did with Minor Skill Assist, activated it. As he did, he turned to the first question, and let out an audible gasp. Two of the answers had been crossed out to his mind, leaving only two of the four options available to choose from. What had started as a 25percent chance at guessing, had just been cut down to a fifty-fifty. And that was without him even taking in the actual problem. Because sure, he’d been neglecting his homework…but some of the math he still had to at least know partially how to do. Right?

Lucky you. The snarky voice appeared and caused his hand to flinch, messing up his filling in of the scantron. He groaned as he worked furiously to completely erase the errant mark, in order to ensure his scantron was filled out properly.

What do you want Syn? Dan asked mentally. The strange being had been less active lately, seeming to take on a more passive approach to Dan’s life. Passive, not meaning silent, of course. More often than not, Syn would pop in with random music scores, as if Dan was going through a training montage, when he was working on his tennis skills with Peter. Occasionally, Syn would offer a hint here or there, but mostly…it seemed he was just enjoying trolling Dan when he could.

Just pointing out your luck, and answering your unasked question buddy. Syn started. Also, word of advice, you should at least make some notes on there like you’re showing your work. Sheesh. Minor Skill Assist might help there. Who knows?

Was that your help? Dan responded. He had resumed filling in the scantron. They had the tests, as well as scratch paper, to show their work on. And now that Syn did mention it, his teacher might get suspicious if Dan turned in a completely blank test worksheet, while his scantron was full. As much as he hated admitting it, Syn may have just helped him out there.

Nah. That was just me pointing out something obvious you’d missed. Syn chuckled. What I was going to tell you, was you just barely met the bare minimum on your Test Aid skill for the advanced support. A 1-33 would have hidden only 1 false option. For 34-67, 2 options are hidden, and 68-100 hides 3 options.

That was spiffy indeed, and also meant if Dan could get his test skill to a 68…he would never miss a question again. Though, when he compared that mentally to stats of equal quality…meaning close to the 70s and above, he realized what that would mean. He’d been a damn near pro test taker already, so the success rate would make sense.

There’s also a slight chance it doesn’t work. These powers are magical yeah, but not like, godlike…at least, not yet. Syn continued. He made his tongue click. The real fun begins when you unlock the final tier of your powers. Though, I’m excited for when you hit Tier 3. I’m pretty sure you’ll have a lot of fun with that on your little quest to become tennis star extraordinaire.

Anything else? Dan was only half listening now, as he continued to work his way through his test. He’d activated minor skill assist, and similar to how it helped in tennis, it was showing him flashes of the formulae and problems on the paper. If he focused on one, he could catch glimpses showing how it was solved. He did note though, that sometimes the flashes were incomplete, meaning between how rapid it was showing, and the incomplete nature of it, the ‘minor’ part of the skill was painfully obvious. Still, if there was one thing he could do, given the tools at his disposal…it was work backwards with the various answers, and the partially shown flashes of work, to make it look like he knew what he was doing on the test.

Uh, try and be a little more entertaining? Syn yawned, the other individual I’ve been watching just got himself killed. Idiot ran into a massive cave full of dragon eggs. Unfortunately for him…they were primed for hatching…and his powerful ‘shout’ powers happened to provide the aid the babies needed to break out their shells. And of course…when the babies started wailing, well, mommy dragon was soon to follow. Let me tell you, that was not a pretty sight to see.

Uh…right. Dan didn’t really know what Syn was trailing off on, but maybe that had been the other reason Syn had been quiet lately. Surely he had other things to do, than just watch over Dan. How many people did Syn and whoever he was a part of impart with powers at a given time? How many other worlds were there? Dan stopped thinking about it before his head could begin hurting. Right now…it was time for math and weird techniques named after ancient individuals with even weirder names. Goodbye Syn. Dan added, feeling like the voice was about to continue rambling. For a second, he was pretty sure he heard a dejected sigh come from the being, before silence filled Dan’s mind, leaving him to focus on his…now much easier, math test.

Ambition +2 (66), Happiness +2 (63)