“Are they always this efficient?” Sepeti asked Gran between mouthfuls of delicious Extuano breakfast.

Morning sunlight streamed in through the white drapes that covered the large windows, filling the cramped room with a sickening happiness that Sepeti just couldn’t affiliate with morning time. The only reason he was even up early enough to enjoy some freshly made breakfast was because of Gran. The giant had insisted he wake up early so he could go over some of the written exam materials.

As nice as the hotel room was, it was marred by the mess Gran had made. Books lay haphazardly all over the place. Most appeared to have been set down in the middle of a reading and completely forgotten. This wasn’t just a few books here and there. Sepeti had tried to count but lost track when he got into the upper three hundreds. It made sense that the giant was a huge bibliophile.

“I dunno,” Gran answered as he pulled a pair of reading glasses off of his bulbous nose. “I ain’t part of the Hunters so I dunno how they work on the inside.”

“What Collective are you a part of?”

“None,” Gran said with one of his jagged smiles. “I do a little bit of this and a little bit of that for the Association. It affords me a pretty lavish lifestyle.”

“Sure,” Sepeti said as he pushed aside a pile of books to make room for his food. “Whatever that means.”

Sepeti chewed noisily as he reread the concise brochure the Hunters receptionist had provided. The Faction list wasn’t as long as the Artisans had been so he didn’t have as much to tap through. The names were different, sounding more like group names rather than faction descriptors. The top three factions under the Hunters collective were; the Dragon Hunters, Mercs-R-Us, and Big Game Bunch. He found the names amusing.

The other document he’d been provided had a very basic overview of the exams. First up was the written exam, which he would be taking in a couple hours. The second was the practical exam, scheduled for the next day at the same time. The third exam was a field exam, scheduled for the day after.

“You know anything about these exams? Anything that would help me out?”

“Nope,” Gran said, still smiling. “I know that some say the written exam is pretty easy. And that all you have to do is pass two of the three exams to be accepted as a Collective member.”

“Easy for who?” Sepeti asked as he looked over some of the primer questions the receptionist had provided. “I don’t know half of this shit.”

“Probably because ya ain’t from around here. Just do yer best. You should be fine.”

Sepeti hadn’t seen Gran eat but he assumed the giant had eaten before waking him up. Still, the amount of food was a bit much. He ate until his stomach ached and then he ate a little bit more. Wasting food wasn’t something he’d ever liked to do but he was going to have to let most of this go to the trash.

“So,” Sepeti began, picking at his teeth as he savored the wonderful tastes of his breakfast. “You finally gonna tell me how you and Boba got in connection? You contracted to him or something?”

“Nope,” Gran said, pushing his reading glasses back up his nose as he flipped through a new book. “That info ain’t necessary right now. If anything, it’ll distract ya from what yer supposed to be focused on.”

The giant’s obstinance was irritating.

“Then why’d you go and let me embarrass myself with the Artisans yesterday?” Sepeti slipped his eyepatch on. It had become a habit of his to don the thing only after he was fully awake and fed.

Gran shrugged and continued reading. The man was infuriating and he knew it.

Sepeti sighed, letting the frustration seep out of him. It was too early for him to get upset. Too early for the giant to get under his skin.

“Is there anything you can tell me?”

Gran snapped the book shut and pulled his reading glasses off once more. He stared at Sepeti for a moment and sighed.

“Have you figured out what language we’re speaking?” The giant threw his long beard over his shoulder for some reason.

“Common?” Sepeti answered the question with a question. He wasn’t sure where Gran’s question was coming from. It struck him as odd that this, of all things they could be talking about, was what came up.

“Nope,” Gran said. “Try again.”

Sepeti scratched his head. He’d been over this himself before. Back when they’d first met. And he’d gotten nowhere at the time. But now, after some time spent with the giant, he had a few more clues. The large man was still speaking to him in the one language they shared and it wasn’t his newest acquisition. The longer he thought about it, the more the pieces fell into place. Everything started to make sense. From Gran’s odd appearance to his weird tendencies.

“You’re a monster?” Sepeti asked.

Gran gave him the most jagged smile he’d ever seen and Sepeti realized that the giant had far too many teeth.

“Took ya long enough. Thought ya woulda figured it out after our first meeting. I could see it in the way that you looked at me that my glamor wasn’t working on you.”

“Glamor?” Sepeti wasn’t sure what the hell the giant was talking about.

“Yeah, this.” Gran waved at himself and nothing happened.

“Nothing happened,” Sepeti said.

“Yup. Knew it. Looks like you can see through glamors. Might even extend to illusion magics as a whole. Look, son, the me that ya see is my real appearance. But it isn’t what everyone else sees.”

“You mean other people don’t see a huge, nine foot tall, bald, heavily bearded giant?” Sepeti didn’t like feeling dumb. He wasn’t the brightest bulb around but he definitely wasn’t a dimwit. Yet, for whatever reason, he currently felt like an extra dunce.

“Nope,” Gran said, shifting one long leg on top of the other as the couch creaked under his weight. “Most folks see me as a middling, balding scholar. I am a scholar, don’t get me wrong, I just ain’t a human scholar.”

The pieces fell into place. It made sense why people weren’t constantly craning their necks as they spoke to Gran. He had taken it in stride, thinking that it was normal for giant’s to be around city folks.

“So, what are you?” Sepeti bit into a juicy fruit that sprayed a fragrant liquid into his mouth. He wasn’t hungry anymore but he wasn’t sure what to do with his hands or his mouth. These ‘seek to understand’ conversations had never been the type he enjoyed having. Conversations, any form of them, were things he usually avoided.

“I’m Gran,” the giant answered. “We can worry ‘bout what I am later. It’s not necessary information for us right now. I can only be honest and forthcoming with you if yer willing to be the same with me.”

“Fine,” Sepeti huffed, sucking the fruit dry before discarding it. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Gran returned to his book as Sepeti acted like he was going over the provided literature for the exams. For the third or fourth time so far, he felt like a complete idiot as he glossed over the important terms. Gran had taken the liberty of highlighting certain parts he thought would be important during the exam but Sepeti just couldn’t seem to retain any of the information. His mind felt like a sieve and it was frustrating. Terms such as “positions of power” and “group battle simulations” were easy enough to understand. But the rest just passed right over his head. What in the hell was a “supersimilate difunctional metronome?”

Had he always been a below average intellect? He couldn’t remember any of his test scores from ‘Oseni and he hadn’t ever needed to take any back when he spent his second lifetime fighting the Machina. All he ever did was fight and train and grow in power.

A sense of dread spread through Sepeti as he continued to convince himself that maybe, just maybe, he was as stupid as Boba.

A bell tolled and pulled him out of his head. He realized he’d been pondering so hard that time had flown by.

“Let’s get going, sonny,” Gran said, sofa sighing with relief as the giant stood and dusted himself off.

Sepeti dragged his feet as he exited the room where the written exam had been held. His heart felt heavy. How? How could he be such an absolute dunce? There was no way he was this dumb. It had to be the host body’s limitations. It just had to be. He’d completely blanked during the exam and had forgotten nearly everything he’d ‘studied.’ He’d tried to extrapolate and infer the answers based on the provided questions but his damned brain had been busy doing a jig. A skill had propagated, |Concentrate!|, right at the end of the time limit, further incensing him. It felt like the system, and by extension the God’s, was mocking him and his scholarly ineptitude.

“Didn’t go too good, huh?” Gran rumbled as he silently fell in step next to Sepeti. It was disturbing how eerily quiet the giant moved.

“I forgot everything I’d read up on.” Sepeti sulked. He wanted to jump into the nearest shadow and hide for a bit. But his better judgment kept him from acting too rashly. “I think I’m stupid.”

Gran let out a loud, boisterous belly-laugh, startling the locals and hunters that passed them.

“Son, we’re all stupid. The earlier we accept that fact, the faster we can get to working on solutions toward appearing not to be stupid.”

Sepeti joined the giant in laughing despite not really wanting to. Why should he laugh at his own misery? This was all Boba’s fault for sticking him in a host body that was basically a dunce. Their laughter died down and he actually felt a little better.

Being stupid couldn’t be that bad, could it?

“There any training areas open to public use?” Sepeti asked as Gran bought some desserts from a vendor they passed. He refused the offered food, thinking how it was way too early in the day for dessert.

“Yeah, one right there,” Gran said, pointing with his eyes at a squat building next to the Hunters HQ. “Any association member can use that one. If yer accepted into the Hunters then I think you gain access to their specialized facilities.”

“Cool,” Sepeti murmured as he scrolled through his skill list. He felt he needed to get some physical time in to wash away the stink of stupidity that clung to him. “I’m gonna go there. I’ll meet you back at the hotel.”

The building was nondescript and plain. Sepeti thought this boded well for a place of training. He remembered some of the gaudy places that had been popular back in his homeworld. His parents had taken him and his brother to one. They hadn’t been all that impressive, in his opinion.

A clerk sat behind a desk. Unlike most of the inhabitants of the desert city-state, this person was dressed in a skintight ensemble he hadn’t seen before. Maybe it was some sort of uniform that this training yard used?

“Welcome!” he boomed, unnecessarily loud. “Good to see a new face! How can I help you?”

His enthusiasm was nearly terrifying. Sepeti froze for a moment, brain falling into a holding pattern. He stood staring at the clerk for a few moments, frozen in place as he willed himself to say something.

“Oh, sorry!” the clerk boomed as they extended a hand. “Name’s Bo, Bo Rivers. You can just call me Bo!”

Sepeti shook the clerks large, muscular hand. Bo looked like he was one large mass of muscle, veins popping through the strangely elastic material of his clothes. Even sitting down it felt like the clerk was towering over him.

“Hi,” Sepeti said, suddenly shy in the face of so much extroverted energy. “Sepeti. I heard I could train here?”

“Hell yeah you can!” Bo shook his hand vigorously, giving it a tight squeeze before letting go. “This here gym’s available to all Association members. All I needa see is your ID and you’re good to go!”

Sepeti handed his ID over as he resisted the urge to rub his ears. He had the distinct feeling that doing so would only cause Bo to get louder.

The clerk looked his card over then slid it under a light that Sepeti had completely missed due to the muscular man’s overbearing energy.

“Nice, nice,” Bo murmured. He spoke loudly even when he was trying to speak softly. “Since it’s your first time, here’s a complementary workout suit!”

Sepeti had a set of clothes he had been planning on using tucked away in his inventory and had been planning on training half naked. The suit the large clerk handed him looked exactly like the skintight suit they were wearing. He thought about refusing the uniform but noticed that everyone in the gym was wearing one.

“You’ll get used to ‘em,” Bo said as he appeared to be actively toning down his exuberance. “It feels weird the first time you workout in these but you’ll notice the benefits after your first session. There’s some benefits to wearing them in the gym, too, that other clothes won’t apply.”

“Ok, thanks,” Sepeti said quietly as he took the clothes in hand. “Where can I change?”

Bo pointed him in the direction of a changing room that was just off the main floor of the gym. He shuffled over to the room and quickly changed into the suit. It consisted of a top and bottom and wasn’t as uncomfortable as he’d expected. He felt self-conscious as he stepped out onto the gym floor and really took a look at his surroundings. There were a bunch of machines and heavy metal plates lined up along the walls that resembled some of the training equipment he could remember. They didn’t quite fit with his image of a ‘training grounds’ but he figured that maybe this place was modeled after another offworld place.

He watched as the few people who were busy training went through their routines. Many were busy lifting the metal plates while others were running or walking on stations that allowed them to do so while remaining stationary. The machines looked interesting so he spent some time looking them over. Some had cables and wires attached to neatly stacked weighted plates that were ensconced in a thick rubber. Others were simple benches that he saw a few of the others laying on as they pushed up bars weighed down by weights on either end.

Excitement coursed through him. ‘Oseni had never had these kinds of facilities. Their ‘training grounds’ had been focused around holistic and bodyweight training. On the world of the Machina he’d never had to work on his physical body due to his being in a constant state of battle and the special constitution he’d been granted when he’d arrived there. This gym seemed to be much more geared toward physical betterment through rote exercise. While he was disheartened by the presence of some people who looked so much more physically fit than he was, there were others who looked just as ordinary and mundane as he.

Sepeti began to feel a bit better about himself. He might be stupid but that didn’t mean he couldn’t physically better himself.

The thought of using any of the machines and strange benches was daunting so he found an empty space for him to work on developing some skills from his previous lives. Mats were set in the far corner of the gym, just out of sight so he could comfortably work on his forms.

He pulled a few dulled and safe weapons out of his inventory and set them down. A practice sword, practice ax, wooden staff, a whip, a pair of gloves, and a few other weapons he’d pulled out just to give himself some variety. Images and visions flitted through his mind as he picked each one up. The various forms and stances that he’d collected for each weapon cycled through his inner-eye. The same thing had happened before when he’d summoned his locked weapons but he’d been in no position to sit and carefully study the visions. Now, he was able to take his sweet time.

Sepeti picked up the ax first. It was small, practical, and evenly weighted so that it wasn’t unwieldy. He’d seen some of the axes that some of the Hunter’s carried and had scoffed at how impractical they’d looked. Some were large and double sided, others looked damn near ornamental with the amount of metalwork that had gone into the look of the weapon. He had also seen some smaller, more useful looking axes that were carried by people who actually looked like they knew how to handle themselves.

The images in his head showed him where to grip, how to slide his hands during an attack, how to pivot his feet, how to keep his balance, and so on. The knowledge was just suddenly there and he didn’t feel so stupid anymore. He ran through a few forms, letting his body flow as he focused on matching the movements of his current meatsuit with the mental images. The first few strikes were weak and effete. His cheeks flushed as he felt the awkwardness of what he was doing. Then he let himself sink into the work and he quickly brushed off the embarrassment. After a few minutes, a message dinged in his ear and disrupted his flow. He took a quick peek before minimizing the invasive dispatch.

Sepeti huffed as he swept some sweat from his brow. He hadn’t been swinging the ax around for all that long but his body had heated up fairly quickly. Usually, with the way this body was set up, he would be sweating buckets by now. But the benefits afforded to him by the workout suit seemed to have kicked in as the fabric wicked away his sweat and kept him feeling limber.

He took up the staff and the images in his head changed from him wielding an ax to him swinging a metal staff about. With some effort, he was able to slow the images down so he could follow step-by-step. It didn’t take long for him to sink into the workout, mind clearing as the knowledge took hold and guided his body. A few minutes into his routine and he was spinning the staff, flaring it around and mixing in spinning kicks that he hadn’t even bothered to try before. A message dinged, throwing him off his flow once more. He would have felt frustrated had he not been aiming for these exact messages.

It felt good. The weapons felt right in his hands. It only took him a few minutes to get comfortable with each one. The first minute of awkwardness and embarrassment was excruciating but the payoff was always worth it. The system messages quickly went from flow-ending annoyance to nearly orgasmic reminder.

“All right, Mr. New Guy!” Bo’s booming voice startled Sepeti, weapon dropping out of his grip. It was a strange thing that looked like a cross between a pair of swords and a garrotte. He couldn’t quite remember when he’d come to possess the strange weapons but he’d grown to like them. “It’s closin’ time! If you can do me a favor, please wipe down the mat’s that you used!”

The muscular clerk held out a spray bottle that looked incredibly tiny in his large hand and a towel.

“Thank you! Just turn ‘em in on your way out! Hope your first workout sesh gave you that good pump!” The muscular man flexed his large right arm as he walked away. Sepeti would have found the interaction off putting had the man not been so damned nice. Everything Bo said and did seemed to be so genuine and Sepeti could feel it. He didn’t like that something about this random stranger made him feel an emotion he rarely acknowledged. But he had to admit that it was nice to, occasionally, meet people he didn’t have to be completely on guard against.

Without so much as a grumble, Sepeti began to clean his area. He figured the bottle had some sort of disinfectant in it so he used it liberally. There was something incredibly cathartic about cleaning after a good workout. His muscles ached, especially his legs and lower back, but his brain was flooded with dopamine and the aching felt good. It had been so long since the last time physical exertion wasn’t absolute torture for him.

New Skill Acquired!

|Weapons Mastery: Ax - {Low}|, |Weapons Mastery: Staff - {Low}|, |Weapons Mastery: Sword - {Low}|, |Weapons Mastery: Whip - {Low}|, |Weapons Mastery: Gloves - {Low}|, |Weapons Mastery: Povai - {Low}|, |Weapons Mastery: Garoshay - {Low}|