Sixty yards is a dang long way.

Todd holds out his left hand, and supports it with his right. There’s no guide, no sight, no line to depend on. So he peers out between his thumb and forefinger, then rolls his shoulder out and up to see around it better to the target. Still not right. Winching his lip back in a half-face grimace, Todd tilts his hand up to compensate for distance and then shuffles his right foot to widen his stance.

“I’ve got a ration token and one sparkle glow pebble that says he can do it,” Joe declares confidently as he sets down the small wooden toggle and F-class nexus crystal.

“He’s tried it a million times already, you’re out of your mind Joe,” chuckles Hobblin’ Pete from his sitting table. The injured man leans forward carefully, minding his mending leg to toss a toggle and stone of his own into the pot. “He’ll never get it.”

Todd blinks a wavering blur out of his vision and sniffs before his nose starts to get runny. His shoulders hunch and his head droops and his shoulders tense, and this is his sixteenth miserable attempt at the shot. Swallowing, Todd dredges energy from his body and directs it: some to his arm to steady its little tremor, some to his upper neck to clear his mind. It’s all expensive but necessary as he draws the last remaining drams out into his left arm, out to the skill fractal in his hand where the [Water Spear] drinks deep. He feels the bucking force in his arm and shoulder.

Shutting his eyes to narrow slits, Todd watches the narrow azure ribbon arc through the air, falling with gravity towards a tin man with outstretched arms. A sandpaper scratchiness rises in his throat and warmth in his eyes, because as he watches that perfect shot, Todd already knows that he’s failed.

It’s the air resistance really. When he releases his ability, the skill fractal somehow binds the jet of water with an intense internal cohesion. That contained pressure is part of what allows a simple liquid to be so precise and damaging in the first place. But over the course of a hundred and eighty feet of distance? The beam wobbles and unravels into a heavy spatter of droplets, registering barely more than a buckshot patter of mid hue red impacts on tin.

The chest, legs and neck of the doll glow with polka-dotted scarlet and orange, but Todd’s name doesn’t budge from its position on the quest tracker.

Second Place.

It had been a long day, made longer once it became clear that there were no limits to the number of attempts any one Cultivator could make in an event. The early morning revelry had exhausted itself by noon, as all but the most driven competitors had grown bored, sober or tired. But those two dozen or so in the top tier? They had hardened into an almost fanatic determination instead. In the aftermath, seven of the training mannequins had been ruined during the iron-mangling crusade of attempts made to unseat Andrew Kreutzer’s ludicrous blue iron record. In addition, a shocking number of people had run the twelve-k twice or more, and a brain trust of contenders are deep into an hour long argument, conspiring over how to unseat Walter’s third-attempt yellow record in the Flux event.

Todd had known early which events he should be focused on. The marksmanship shot seemed perfectly designed for his skill. It was one of the few long ranged attacks, and further there was some part of the arcane mechanism of the thing in his hand which was correcting his aim. It should have been cake, and at first he’d even held the first place title. After that, he’d tried his hand at events that he was less equipped for. Realizing he hadn’t the slightest chance at the strike events after scoring a four at the whirlwind event, he’d taken midday to make the long distance run and try the Cosmic Energy expenditure tests.

Over at the race track, Nayira Seacole makes one last attempt at the long race, her hair matted down with sweat and her face set with determination. A shower of electric sparks trail out behind her as she touches her fingertips scraping to the ground in a sharp turn. She and Dr Chowdhury had been working all day on improving their Cosmic Energy efficiency through cultivation, and this last circuit round the track, Naya’s [Magspark Rail] has almost carried her a full loop without time to recover. Todd’s noon attempt had been good exercise, but he couldn’t possibly beat that.

The flux event had also been a wash, as his [Water Spear] was simply too efficient to draw the huge volumes of energy to place in the top three. So he’d focused on the breadth challenge, which measured total Cosmic Energy output expended over a longer period of time. The goal was to test the limit of one’s full reserve, and probably was thus a healthy measure of their overall Cultivation. His tactic had been to repeatedly fire his [Water Spear] into the air, but the inbuilt delay and his improved cultivation meant that he wasn’t spending fast enough. He’d basically had to improvise and spill Cosmic Energy directly out of his body, and the process had hurt all over his skin. While it had been a grueling affair, leaving him feeling wrung-out miserable; it had been enough to secure the third place position. But then...

Clearing his throat and putting on a smile for the sake of sportsmanship, Todd turns around towards his tiny audience. Randall is there to give him a few encouraging claps, and Joe wears a mask of condolence over the face of a gambler’s remorse. Todd approaches the jubilant woman hopping nearby, and waits for her to stand still and stop pumping her fist, then he offers her a conciliatory handshake. Todd hadn’t known her. She’d been a nobody, a level two who’d hidden behind the defenders during the swarm invasion and lost her fight on day one. But she’s also apparently a lifelong dart throwing enthusiast, so once she had her bonus five to strength and dexterity... it was like watching laser-guided missiles in action.

Todd huffs a slow nasal breath. “That was amazing, really. Thanks for humoring me, this was fun.”

He had to admit that this woman deserved the win more than he did. After all, he was technically cheating since his skill was doing most of the work for him. After waiting a moment for his opponent to collect the three weighted shards of her [Mercury Rod] and reform the weapon, he lets his friends know that he needs to recover a bit, then he plods over across the way to the Shop crystal.

There’s little to do now but wait for the final results; but while it would probably be nice to spend this time with his friends, it kind of hurts to let his Cosmic Energy dip this low. How is it possible he’s lived his whole life without magic and now his body aches when it’s gone? It’s yet another thing for Todd to worry about. Digging through his bag until he finds his Cultivation Manual, he slumps down into a lotus position and begins working on tightening up his cycling.

Todd’s knuckles whiten as his fingers clutch hard into fists. His friends had done so well today. He draws in ambient energy and cycles turbulent swirls through his body.

It’s sloppy technique, so he grits his teeth and tries again more slowly. Second and third place, how mediocre. He’d really thought he could win something, but the other Cultivators were all so amazing. It was starting to become intimidating. Extending his senses further inward, he lets his instincts feel out the geography of his developing spiritual foundation.

Dipping his mind beneath the surface of his cultivation manual, he skims the resonance exercises for finding his secondary foundational lines, but there are too many distractions outdoors so he withdraws and sticks to his cycling technique.

Not for the first time, Todd considers that his skill choice may be holding him back. He needs to get more control over his magic, and that means practice. Todd pulls up his completed skill mastery quest, and sees that finishing the first task in sequence had unlocked a new one:

Skill Mastery I: Water Spear (COMPLETE) Reward: ₦200, [F – Nexus Crystal: Water]x1, [Skill Treasure: Minor]

Skill Mastery II (Tutorial Only): Water Spear (Reach Middle Proficiency) Reward: ₦800, [F-Nexus Crystal: Water]x5, [F – Ravine Mausoleum Meditation Tea]

The first quest had been quick enough to satisfy, but not entirely easy. He’d thrown a lot of H2O down today, a LOT. Between his improved cultivation channels and higher level from yesterday, it had more than doubled the number of spears he could release from a full tank. The problem seemed to be: he needs to hit something to count for quests. The metal dolls were and are valid targets, but he’d wasted a lot of empty energy during the breadth test by shooting some-where instead of some-thing.

When it drops into his hand, the water energy crystal casts a cool blue shadow, like light through the surface of a pool. Moving his thumb over it, he feels the stone is smoother and rounder than its un-aspected cousin. The other reward is stranger: it presents simply as a thick ball of wax. At the center of the lump is a discoloration with all the visual appeal of discarded tobacco juice. There’s no more than a droplet of it, and it arrives with a thin scrap of paper which he cannot read.

Walter’s voice brings Todd’s attention to the old man sitting in one of the bamboo chairs. “That there’s just the dosage warning,” the elder explains. He tips his paper cone upside down and shakes a few crumbs out onto his palm. “You can ignore it, not like you’ve got a second one lying around.”

Todd puts the two items carefully into his satchel. “Thanks for reminding me about the skill quest,” he says as the sound of footsteps arrive. Looking over his shoulder, he sees Doctor Chowdhury approaching and he reciprocates her polite wave before turning back to his senior.

Walter licks his fingers and nods. “You’ll be high right out of your mind, for I’m guessin’... full half-an-hour once you take it. Make sure to focus on the whats-it,” he taps twice on his upper belly, “before yeh start. I lost some time on mine, and it ain’t as a whole a fun trip. No point in wastin’ minutes.”

“Thanks Walter, I really appreciate it,” Todd obliges sincerely, then scoots over a foot to allow Abhigjna to join them.

The doctor sets down into a standard seated Cultivation position and pulls out her manual and a single Nexus Crystal. She looks up with tired eyes. “I am not certain if you are both aware, the crystals here have the Cosmic Energy inside them.”

Walter tips his head. “Sure doc, if you say so,” he shrugs for Todd’s benefit, wiping his fingers on his trousers.

Abhigjna’s mouth firms in a tight line and her eyes narrow. “I noticed that the other people are not using their crystals while they are performing Cultivation. It goes much faster if you –” With a deep inhalation, the doctor wafts her hands up from her belly to the level of her face, then down again with the exhale. “Draw in from the crystal,” she finishes.

Todd looks down at her stone and then reaches back into his bag. “Really? Nice, I knew they were good for something.” He thanks her as he pulls out a standard F-class crystal and settles in to a meditative position, but she’s already closed her eyes in focus.

The final announcement of the Event results is informal and anticlimactic. By this time, half of the subsection has already gone back to their rooms, and the other half is seated, exhausted, and clustered around the floating shop stone. Befor is uncharacteristically leading the announcement while the other two pixies produce a wide cloud of smoke that displays a hazy montage of the winner of each category.

The crowd cheers as a giant figure of Andrew appears overhead, his face red and strained, his beard bent crooked as air whips past him. He’d needed two attempts to beat Joe’s inhuman first time, but it looks like he’d pulled it off.

The next vision is a welcome surprise. Todd hollers in excitement as Candra’s face appears and then she explodes off of the starting point. It’s amazing how fast she’s going, but so far he can’t tell how she’d beaten Nayira. Then suddenly, about 50 yards from the finish and without warning, Candra’s whole body rockets forward like a cannon ball and her legs and arms reach forward across the line marker. A few titters break out from the audience as the Candra vision recoils backwards, pulled by an invisible force backwards to the position she’d leapt from while sliding on the floor with a yelp.

“Give it up for yo-yo girl!” Howls a voice and brief laughter follows as the vision fades.

The Single Strike and Energy Flux winners had been unchanged since Todd had seen them, and the same with Lynne, the Marksmanship winner.

Then the Triple Strike almost looks like a repeat, displaying Drew killing another dummy the same way he killed the first one. The only difference is that this time he jabs it in the elbow and shoulder joint too.

The big surprise is Doctor Chowdhury, who appears once and wins twice. The replay shows her physically repositioning the detection steles in the middle of the mass strike test range. Then the doctor raises her arms out wide, and dozens of long tiny distortions appear in the air like shards of glass and stab into all nearby target mannequins.

“Oh my God,” Todd chortles. “Doc, that was crazy! Why didn’t you use that on the bugs?”

The doctor wobbles her head sideways. “It seems I cannot choose who is affected,” she replies grimly then grumbles, “I would not have chosen this skill if I had known.”

Then one final round of cheers and applause go up as the final results are posted in a giant [System] window in the sky.

400m: Cassandra Muñoz, Nayira Seacole, Andrew Kreutzer

12k: Andrew Kreutzer, Joseph Faucheux, Nayira Seacole

Singles: Andrew Kreutzer, Joseph Faucheux, Teodore Alamilla

Threes: Andrew Kreutzer, Bernice O’Shea, Joseph Faucheux

Marksmanship: Lynne Genton, Todd Kalogeropoulos, Abigail Fletcher

Whirlwind: Abhigjna Chowdhury, Andrew Kreutzer, Randall Cho

Flux: Walter Jones, Jennifer Roth, Randall Cho

Breadth: Abhigjna Chowdhury, Mister Marmalade, Todd Kalogeropoulos.

Todd looks down the list, and a smile grows over his face as he reads his friends’ names with pride. "Look at that!" He points out excitedly, "Randall, you picked up some spots! Cho Champion!" He nearly shouts his voice hoarse.

Any lingering disappointments melt away as he exchanges congratulations and laughter with the others. Then his grin sours as he reaches the end of the list.

His hands droop down to his sides in confusion as he croaks: “who the fuck is Mister Marmalade?”