After about an hour of stance practice, the recruits were allowed to take a break. They gathered on the side of the hall and sipped at water from bottles that they’d been provided. Wren couldn’t help but wonder where the water came from. In all his travels across the island, baring in mind he’d only been there three days, he hadn’t come across any natural sources of water, no rivers, no lakes, not even a man-made reservoir. Perhaps water had to be shipped in externally on the big Ark’s, or maybe there was something underground, a huge underground cavern filled with water. There had to be some sort of water source, how else could the forest and grass be explained. Either way, it made him question the logistics of living on a floating island on a strange planet with Earth on the other side of the galaxy.

It was probably the reason that only the really wealthy people left Earth. It would be difficult to maintain a lifestyle on another planet. He couldn’t imagine how much it would cost to ship water to their island, let alone build a civilisation on it. Elementals were truly built different.

“Break time’s over. Back over here. We’re moving on.” Snake said to the class.

It was strange, he was stood in the centre of the hall and yet he hadn’t shouted or even raised his voice. His voice somehow carried all the way across the room to the recruits stood against the wall. It sounded as if he was right next to them.

“Form back up into lines, we will now be incorporating the palm thrusts.”

“Yes Instructor.” The recruits answered in unison.

Wren was one of the last to line up, so he was placed in the fourth row. He was between two boys he didn’t recognise; they were from different homeroom classes. The boy to his left was tall with long blonde hair down to his shoulders which was quickly tied up in a stupid looking top knot. The boy to Wren’s right was more average height, his hair was also blonde, but it was shorter and styled so that it messily stuck up at the front. Wren couldn’t decide which boy looked more ridiculous.

They began the exercise, returning to the stance they’d been practicing for the last hour. Wren’s joints still hurt from holding the position for so long but the break had done him good, he was able to go for a while longer, hopefully to the end of the session.

The recruits followed Snake’s direction. The instructor stood at the front of the class, guiding them through the first stage of the palm thrust. They were only using their right hands.

Wren grounded his feet, making sure to point them forward, and raised his palms lining them up with his feet. He remembered to bend at the knees, that was where the power came from, and gave a hard push of his palm. He felt the air resistance as his right hand shot forward and his left pulled back.

He repeated the motion, resetting his hands and feet, this time he gave the palm thrust more force.

He did it again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

He was dripping with sweat, the open palm strike costing more stamina than he thought it would.

Just then, he heard a ding and the blue screen popped up in front of him

[Congratulations, you have learnt the Open Palm Strike (Right Hand)]

[You have gained 20 XP]

He was stunned. He gained experience points just for learning a new skill.

With a thought he closed the pop up screen and opened up the main system. Cycling quickly to the skills page, he was surprised with what he saw.

[Skills]

[Wind]

[Wind Slice: Level 1]

[???]

[???]

[???]

[???]

[Martial Arts]

[Open Palm Strike (Right Hand)]

He wondered whether he could get any more information about the move if he focused on the skill in the system, like how he had done with the wind slice. As soon as he thought about it, the information revealed itself.

[Open Palm Strike (Right Hand)]

[A strike from the right hand, causing resonating force damage upon its target]

[Skill cost: 0.5 Stamina]

“Interesting.” Wren mumbled.

The skill cost half a point of stamina. Did that mean that strength and speed were a different kind of stat to stamina. He wasn’t sure if strength or speed could be consumed.

He opened up the status screen on his system and checked it over.

[Status]

[Name: Wren Spectre]

[Race: Human Level 1]

[XP 30/100]

[HP 20/20]

[EP 20/20]

[Strength: 5]

[Speed: 14]

[Stamina: 4/7]

It had changed. Where his stamina stat used to just be seven, it had now decreased from every palm strike he’d done while still showing him his max possible stamina. He wondered how it worked, his stamina stat hadn’t gone down at all during the physical tests even though he had felt truly and utterly exhausted, and yet it had gone down here.

If the system was to be believed, then Wren would only be able to do the palm strike eight more times before completely running out of stamina. If it was anything like elemental depletion, then he had no desire to see that happen. He would have to be careful with how many times he did the strike in the lesson.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?” Wren said.

He quickly closed down the system and turned to his left in the direction of the voice.

“What are you doing?” The blonde boy with the top knot asked him. He was doing his own palm thrusts.

“Nothing. Just spacing out.” Wren replied.

“Huh. Okay I guess. You’re Wren Spectre right?” Top Knot asked.

“I am. How did you know?”

“We know Chadwick, he’s in our class.” The spikey haired boy to Wren’s right said.

“And what’s that got to do with anything?” Wren asked back.

“He wants to see you after classes today. He told us to tell you to meet him on the Dead Fields.” Top Knot said.

“And why would I go?” Wren asked Top Knot.

“Because if you don’t meet him, he’ll find you anyway.”