I flung myself over the wooden wall, and kicked off the backside to nimbly leap over the mudpit waiting for me at the bottom. I let myself drop, kicking off against the ground the moment my right foot landed, leaping into the ropes. With far more agility and dexterity than any monkey or ape, I swung through the course, building up speed.

At the far end I let go, letting myself soar through the air without magic, entirely bypassing the sand pit that was the end of the obstacle course. My toes landed on the edge, and I bent my knees to absorb the impact.

There were no cheers or accolades. It was just another aspect to honing my body, and the few dozen other members of the School’s combat team were off doing their own thing.

I did give a small nod to Iris. The selkie had been on my team every School event I’d attended, and I was hoping she’d be on my team for this last one.

Finished with my 10th run through the obstacle course, I moved to an isolated section of the field, and started to practice my skills.

I wanted [Blink]. The way to get it was to practice a ‘similar’ skill, and the best I had was [Lair].

I started to [Channel] [Lair], the only way I could cast the skill.

The theory on [Channel] was great, but what Destruction had never mentioned was how inefficient it was at low levels. It took me a solid 15 seconds to cast [Lair], while at full efficiency it should’ve only been around 4 seconds.

[Spatial Affinity] was already giving me over 90% of its maximum theoretical efficiency. The curve on the early efficiency levels was steep.

I popped into my disappointing space after the skill finished, and immediately started to cast it again, to get out. I figured that was the closest thing to ‘blinking’ I could do, even if my mana pool only let me cast it a few times before I needed to pause.

The place was pitch-black, but [The World Around Me] let me see without light. I’d brought a sad little blanket with me that I snagged from where it was floating. I wasn’t sure what would happen when I dropped the skill, but why waste?

I’d picked an arbitrary direction, and called it the ‘floor’. A bit misleading, since there was no gravity in my pocket dimension. I just floated in the middle of space, the pocket dimension its own little world.

The floor was hard and unyielding, and best that I could tell, it wasn’t made of anything. It was just… there.

I was standing on the end of the world.

I’m sure if I didn’t have [The World Around Me] that it would just look like a black floor or something, but I had the skill. It was deeply unnerving to see nothing under the razor-thin ‘floor’. The world, the universe, literally just ended.

Same with the walls, and the ceiling.

Utter, suffocating darkness. I just floated there, slowly rotating in place.

It might’ve been fun to bounce off the walls and float like my own private trampoline park, but there was no getting over the thinness of the walls, the knowledge deep in my rune-etched bones that I was a hair’s breadth from oblivion. Intellectually I knew I was safe, but my intellect was entirely overruled by the rest of my body almost literally staring into the abyss.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [When You Stare into the Abyss, the Abyss Stares into You.]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

I rejected the skill, only to get a few more.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [The Void At the End of the Universe.]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Cracks in Reality.]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [The End.]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]

I rejected them all, and tried to purge their memory from my mind.

Best I could do was put them all into one ‘book’ from [Astral Archives] and put it in a dusty corner.

To be fair, I could easily conjure up my own light, and I could turn off [The World Around Me].

I popped back into existence, and I held my breath, waiting for the notification.

…

…

…

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the Class Skill [Channeled Blink]! Would you like to replace a skill with it? WARNING: Skill will automatically merge with [Channel].]

YES!

Channeled Blink: Vanish from the world, and reappear a short distance away! The skill is not responsible for existential crisis about the nature of the soul, consciousness, persistence, and if the person who reappears is really you, and not a perfect clone with your memory, knowledge, skills, and levels. Ah heck, what does it matter? You’ll always think you’re you, regardless of the truth. 0.1% decreased mana cost per level, improved channeling efficiency and retention per level.

I paused at the message.

I knew how clones worked, how they really worked. Too many people had the idea of making clones, and that it’d be ‘them’.

No. It didn’t work that way at all. Twins were an excellent example of how it did work. A clone was an entirely different person. There was no consciousness transfer. It was a distinct person, mind, body, and soul.

Oh!

Soul!

This was easy! If [Channeled Blink] really disintegrated me and created a perfect doppelganger, one so good that not even the new me could tell, then I’d be dead. If I was dead, my soul would go flying back into Samsara. I wasn’t on great terms with a lot of the gods, but I was dating the most wonderful woman in the world who was. I could just ask her to poke Selene for me, and they could tell me if Spatial mages tended to have a steady stream of extra souls showing up and marching towards reincarnation.

Putting it that way, it seemed unlikely. All those souls would have to come from somewhere, and I didn’t think blink and teleport-happy Spatial mages were creating a steady stream of souls.

Plus, like. I’d already been teleported a dozen times by the master of the arena.

I took [Channeled Blink], replacing [Lair].

I was “out of mana”, and by that I meant [Channeled Blink] probably wanted half my prodigious mana pool for a single cast. If it was efficient! Right now, it might take more like my entire mana pool, although that would go down as the skill leveled. There was no way I was waiting to try out my cool new skill though!

I thought about ‘jogging’ over to the arcanite pillar in the stadium, but eh. My ‘jogging’ speed was a blistering pace that most people in my age bracket couldn’t follow. Why bother? New magic waited for no one!

The anti-friction runes on my skin lit up as I sprinted full speed at the arcanite. I would’ve plowed a pair of deep furrows into the dirt as I stopped, but my fancy enchanted boots did the job for me. I ignored the looks I got as I slapped my hand onto the pillar, draining a few hundred thousand points of mana out.

I wanted to test the skill here and now, but that would be rude beyond the pale. I went back to my testing area, blazing across the arena.

I made it back to a testing area, and stood at the corner. I focused on the far corner, and tried to cast [Channeled Blink].

Nothing. I felt that the skill didn’t even ‘take’. It was like trying to step on a stair, only to find nothing but air.

I slowly ‘walked’ my focus point back, until it ‘clicked’.

Then there was nothing to do but wait as the skill channeled. I felt it ‘charge’, and knew it was ‘primed’. I held the skill, noting that my mana had stopped draining - at least that I could tell, rounding errors in my regeneration made spotting small drains hard - then I unleashed the skill, teleporting a short distance.

Not to the spot I’d been aiming for though. I’d been trying to get myself to move about a meter straight ahead, instead I ended up more like half a meter at a 30 degree angle to my left.

[*ding!* [Channeled Blink] leveled up! 1->2]

I wanted to groan as I ‘saw’ my clothing fall in a pile behind me. [Channeled Blink] was the entry-level skill, and clothing apparently didn’t count as ‘me’ yet.

Iona was going to love my new ability. It was the ultimate stripper move.

Oh! It would also act as an instant, on-the-spot bath! I would be teleported, not any of my dirt and grime! I was probably going to hold off on that, Auri liked the daily flame baths too much.

I turned around and started getting dressed again as I mused.

[Channel] was great for packing more mana into a skill than my power normally allowed, but it did nothing for my control. If I wanted accurate blinks, I needed more Magic Control. It’s why the class had offered balanced amounts!

Well, the skill was practically useless right now. It was going to take years, if not decades, of dedicated practice to level the skill up enough to pretend to be practical, let alone get enough magic power to instantly cast it. I also had noticed that the skill mentioned nothing about the range increasing with the level, just channeling efficiency and total cost reduction.

But it was the first step. The first step on a long road, one that would hopefully end with me being able to teleport at will, wherever I wanted.

That was worth a few decades of investment.

And hey, I was Immortal.

I had the time.

I finally had that last open general skill slot. I’d been practicing, getting skills and merging them into my class skills for some time, and I was now at the end of the road.

Only thing left to do was get [Imbue]. That one was a little tricky.

I knelt down to the dirt, and started hitting it with a lightly-powered [Nova Lance]. At the same time, I conjured up [Kaleidoscope] butterflies from where the lance was ‘hitting’, focusing on having one skill ‘make’ the other.

When that didn’t do anything, I took my butterflies and manually detonated them a short distance away from me, popping up my [Mantle of the Stars] as each one exploded.

I took the [Mantle] and touched it with my finger, triggering [Sunrise] as I did so.

It took a few rounds, mixing and matching different skills, before I got it.

[*ding!* Congratulations! You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Imbue]! Would you like to take this skill?]

I gladly hit ‘yes’.

“Attention everyone! Please come over here for a short meeting!” Shirayuki called from the middle of the field, her voice magically amplified.

I seized the moment to practice trying to move while channeling a blink. I could, but the skill ‘broke’, and the mana didn’t come back.

Drat.

I jogged on over, joining the rest of the members of the School’s team.

“The next Gladiator Gauntlet is fast approaching. I know you’ve all been eagerly waiting to see what the teams are. There’s been some background events going on that have caused us to delay. Well, no more! The teams are as follows. Unrestricted free for all: Floris, Renoir…” Shirayuki started to read off names.

“Now, for the under 100 and under 30 age groups, we have a new team member who’ll be competing in every group.”

That got a murmur out of all of us.

“Someone under 30 who can compete with the under 100’s!?” I whispered to Iris. The mage returned a raised eyebrow.

“You can’t even compete in that group can you?” She asked back.

I shook my head.

I’d had a crazy life, and was a silly high level, with strong quality on all my classes.

The members of the under-100 team might not have had equally absurd lives - although some of them had - but more importantly, they’d had triple the time to work on themselves. More than that, if I ignored the first 8 years of my life where I couldn’t level up at all.

Someone my age who could compete with them!? I had to see this.

“Everyone, I’d like you all to meet Morning Breeze, the newest member of our team.”

A black hat - just a black hat - floated through the air towards us, then started to swirl around the group.

“Good morning!” An eager voice whispered in my ear. “It’s really exciting to meet you all! I can’t wait, all of this sounds like just so much fun!”

My jaw dropped open as I realized what was going on. Someone else said it though.

“We got an elemental on our team!?”

I had no idea how I could even touch a Wind elemental, let alone harm one. My first instinct was to use Wind magic, but that would be like trying to fight a Fire elemental with Fire. It’d just make her stronger. My anti-friction runes might let me ‘slip through’ her, but that would just make it a stalemate.

Shirayuki gave a curt nod.

“Yes. The pendulum has been swinging the wrong way on cheating at the Gladiator Gauntlet for too long. This is one of the minor games outside of the 16 year cycle of major games, but we want to send a message. Nobody cheats, because when cheating is accepted, we win. With that said, I’m going to have specific directions for each team. The remaining members of the under-100 free for all are as follows…”

“... lastly, for the under-30 team event. Elaine, Iris, Ling Li, Sir Polarton, Pascal Bischoff, Sarama Dheer, Morning Breeze. Thank you.”

We broke into our teams. There was no overlap this year, the School was serious about winning. They wanted our full focus and attention just on our event, no splitting practice.

I’d been with Iris, Ling Li, and Pascal since my first tournament. Sarama had joined us a bit later, the dragonling from Ralakar an excellent alchemist. She didn’t directly fight, but having her on our team allowed us to use the potions she brewed.

Morning Breeze was obviously new, and I had no idea how to talk with him or anything. Sir Polarton was new as well, although I’d encountered him before, leaving Linnet’s office.

I had to crane my neck back to look at him.

“I’ve never been teammates with a bear before!” I stuck my hand out for a pawshake.

“I’m not a bear.” Sir Polarton denied. His mouth didn’t move at all, and his eyes had the characteristic movements of a Sound Classer.

I raised an eyebrow doubtfully, and opened my mouth to protest that, no, he was obviously a bear. Iris caught my eye and slowly shook her head.

“I propose Elaine acts as team leader this year.” Sarama said. “She’s got the experience, and has successfully led the team in the past.”

“Sure.” Iris said while Pascal nodded his metal head. Almost five years at the School, and I hadn’t heard him utter a single word.

Ling Li gave a grudging nod.

“Errr, Morning Breeze, are you okay with this?” I asked nowhere in particular.

A black hat came on a light gust of wind.

“Sure! What do you need me to do?” She asked.

“I’m not sure what you can do. Did Shirayuki talk with you?” I asked.

“Oh yeah! She said I should just do this!”

With that, I got picked up off the ground, my teammates hovering next to me. Then we were involuntarily zoomed across the arena, and dumped on the sidelines.

“Just like that! That’s apparently all I need to do to win? Oh wait, I didn’t hurt any of you, did I?” Morning Breeze earnestly asked us.

I traded shocked looks with my teammates. We were all thinking it, but Sarama said it.

“This is going to be a breeze.”