Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 90

A hand came down on Mortimer’s shoulder. If he hadn’t expected it, he probably would have had a violent reaction. That may have even been the case if he hadn’t known exactly who it was. Not that he wanted to hurt everybody, but his trained instincts screamed at him to throw the person. He would never do that to Alex, though. Fortunately, Mortimer recognized the familiar walking pace.

“Hey, Mortimer.” Alex’s androgynous face came into view. Alex grinned. “I hear you’ve been doing some questing.” Implied in that statement was that Alex knew who Mortimer had been questing with. Not that it was a secret. However, Alex had long since found out that Mortimer liked Solara. That was a secret, technically, just not a very well kept one. Alex likes to tease Mortimer about it, though not often enough to annoy him. “So, you ever gonna ask her out?”

“Uh. Hmm. I…” Mortimer didn’t know what to say to that. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about it. He definitely wanted to. It wasn’t that he didn’t know the right words. He just couldn’t find the right time or place to say them. Well, really, he just couldn’t say them when she was around. Which meant it was pretty much impossible at any time or place.

“Well, perhaps you should get on that, before someone else does.” Alex continued to smile, knowing some people already had. They had just been rejected. Of course, none of them had when Mortimer was around. Alex wasn’t sure if Mortimer realized it, but he scared away people who didn’t know him. Especially when they were going to talk to Solara. Not to the point where her friends couldn’t talk to her, but any men approaching soon reconsidered. That could have been a problem, but Solara would have said something if it bothered her. It also hadn’t been the case that Mortimer was always around or near to Solara, though such times had been growing more frequent. “I’ll see you later, then.”

Mortimer watched Alex head off to where Angela seemed to be waiting, and they walked off. Mortimer thought about what was said. He probably should ask Solara out. It was pointless to keep liking her and not do so. If she didn’t like him and rejected him… well, he didn’t want to think about it, but he could move on. Probably. There were, in fact, other women in the world. Just none that he liked. Currently liked. He could probably find someone else he liked… right? Before he dug his thoughts deeper into the hole, Mortimer realized he would have to try before giving up. Though, nobody said he would have to give up after just once. However, he would have to ask at least once, or nothing would happen. That might be alright for a while, but Mortimer knew it wouldn’t be good for him, even if it was easier. That said, he still wanted to find a good time.

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When he got home, Mortimer wanted to take his mind off of Solara. Homework didn’t help at all, so he went to Master Valarao. He had something to ask about anyway. “Since you’ve trained me, I’ve been kind of… twitchy? That may be the wrong way to describe it, but I feel like I always have to do something if someone touches me. I’d rather not injure anyone I don’t mean to, though. Do you have any idea what I can do about that?”

Master Valarao smiled. For some reason, that made Mortimer nervous. “Do I? In fact, that is one of the things I have yet to teach you. It’s really quite simple… come.”

Soon, Mortimer found himself inside the virtual reality training software with Master Valarao. However, instead of the more recent areas where hiding places had been abundant, this was a simple room, almost featureless. “Now, Mortimer, I am either going to attack you… or I am not. Thus, you must either counter… or you must not. Of course, there will be consequences if you are wrong.”

The consequences were soon obvious. If Master Valarao actually attacked and Mortimer didn’t react, he would die. Obviously, that hurt, as motivation to not let it happen again.Though Mortimer had improved significantly, and thought he might be able to react upon realizing it was an attack after the fact, this wasn’t going to work against Master Valarao. Mortimer just couldn’t keep up. Before, Master Valarao had lowered his physical state to be similar to Mortimer’s, but that was no longer true. It wasn’t that his attributes were enhanced, either, but Master Valarao’s body was well trained. Especially for being somewhat older, about the age of Mortimer’s parents.

Because of the consequences for not reacting to an attack, Mortimer had decided to always counterattack. When Master Valarao really was attacking, he would obediently allow Mortimer to throw him, though he always got away without injury. However, if he wasn’t attacking, Mortimer would suffer basically the same consequences as being wrong the other way. Eventually, however, Mortimer started getting the feeling correct.

He wasn’t exactly sure how to describe it. It was some combination of the movement of the hand reaching out toward him, posture, and looks. However, Mortimer reached the point after several hundred attempts where he could consistently determine whether it was an attack or not, and then Master Valarao moved to stand behind him. There, his only clues were possibly breathing, the sounds of movement but not always the sound of walking. Then, a very brief sensation of a hand grabbing him, usually on the shoulder, before he had to react. That was much harder, but eventually Mortimer got the hang of it. Somehow, he could tell through the feeling of the hand. At that point, Master Valarao started making it unknown when it would happen, and Mortimer would be surprised.

After a long time, however, he reached the point where he reacted appropriately, even when he wasn’t ready. Unfortunately, for him to truly not be ready was hard, since he knew he was training and his senses would be on full alert. Thus, Master Valarao added puzzles and other things for Mortimer into the simulation. He seemed to know when Mortimer was fully concentrating on these, and not just expecting it.

Finally, after many sessions in virtual reality, and more mistakes that Mortimer would care to count, Mortimer actually had it down.

“Very good. I think you should have no problems now. In fact, I have almost run out of things to teach you.”

Mortimer was surprised at this. He’d been learning for less than two years, and he knew he wasn’t any sort of genius. Then he thought about it, and realized that with the virtual reality training, not only had he spent a great deal of time more than would be traditionally available, he had been able to use faster, but more dangerous, methods of learning. After all, real practice was the best way of learning.

Master Valarao leaned closer to Mortimer. “I have almost run out of things to teach you, but I still have some things up my sleeves.” Master Valarao grinned. This time, Mortimer was sure that it didn’t mean good things for him.

//End Chapter 90