I logged out of MSE the moment that I had recovered from the ordeal. According to my implant it was now Tuesday evening, which meant that I hadn't eaten anything in nearly two days! Seriously, these implants need to come with a medical warning. You know like they have "Warning: May Cause Cancer" on the sides of cigarette boxes, except this would say; "Warning: May Starve To Death Unknowingly."
My stomach was gurgling audibly as I rushed into the kitchen, my inner monologue not stopping my need for food. Opening the fridge, I found it empty. Flinging the pantry open, I found it empty too.
"What the hell?" I shouted in despair as my stomach started to eat itself.
That's when I saw a note on the kitchen counter that I'd missed in my hurry to find food. Picking it up, I read, "Your father and I had to run to a meeting in 2nd Chance, I transferred some money to your account. Love, Mom." It was dated Monday, just after I'd entered MSE.
Grabbing the keys on the counter, I ran to the garage and jumped in my dad's SUV. Turning it on, I found another note taped to the steering wheel. "Scratch the car and I'll teach you the real meaning of pain. Love, Dad."
"Why do they have to be so different!" I yelled as I backed out of the driveway and rushed to my favorite burger bar.
Sitting down at the bar, I ordered before the waitress could even give me a menu, "Two guacamole-bacon burgers, a large chocolate shake and the giant sweet-potato fries!"
I closed my eyes, laying my head on my hands in exhaustion. I don't care if your body doesn't move or get injured while you're logged into MSE, I was still completely spent. While waiting for my food to arrive I heard a somewhat familiar voice complaining, "This place is insane! I'm not weaker than those idiots who passed, yet I'm stuck in the hell of remedial lessons while they're all off messing around in MSE!"
I couldn't help but think about how I'd spent the last few days, in comparison the bootcamp was nothing. 'I should check with Beth, Rick, and Connor when I get home.'
Lifting my head, my mouth started watering as my food appeared magically in front of me. Biting down on a juicy burger covered in bacon, Swiss-cheese, and guacamole I moaned in delight. That's when the golden light that'd entered my mindscape earlier moved. A feeling of pure contentment came from the light as I chowed down.
"Hmm," I said, talking to myself as I got ready to take another bite. "So, you don't have a name yet?"
An image of a roiling tornado with thunder and hail flying everywhere appeared in my brain. "So you want to be called tornado?" I asked, and a chunk of hail in the image flew over and smashed a miniature version of me. "That's not nice!" I said, chuckling. Taking another bite, I thought 'I could always call you stormy.' An image of a giant red X appeared.
"I can't wait until you can talk." I said as I reached for my shake. "I'm just gonna call you Blob." Taking a sip, my taste buds screamed in joy. 'Just the right mix of cream and chocolate' I thought to myself as I put it down.
A giant question mark appeared in my brain, so I said, "Cause you look like a Golden Blob." It seemed to take offense to that, and started shaking, condensing into a golden miniature female version of the soul body that the Storm Emperor had. "Well, I guess I'll call you Patrice then."
She seemed OK with that, because she nodded her head and then transformed back into a roiling golden cloud. Suddenly, a massive amount of information was transferred to me from Patrice. Apparently, the act of coming up with a name for her was the final step in completing the contract between us.
An infant Royal Soul Storm Spirit, she'd been lazing about in that giant storm cloud for nearly a thousand years. She'd just been starting to develop sentience when I appeared, and something about me called to her. She didn't have much strength yet, but as a Royal Spirit she has the ability to contract other spirits and use their powers. She'd be my only contracted spirit for the rest of my life while she could currently contract with 3 spirits, one of Lightning, Air, and Water.
While I'd been going over the information she'd sent me, I'd finished eating in record time. Paying the bill, I stood up to leave while thinking, 'I've seriously got to change the description of the Storm Calling manual, it doesn't say anything about this.'
I was so busy going over everything I'd learned about Patrice that I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. Looking up just in time, I dodged to the side to avoid running into the back of someone.
"Sorry," I said, as I kept walking out the door.
"Wait, Sam?" The voice that was complaining earlier said, and I suddenly knew it.
"Craig?" I asked, turning back to look at him. He just joined the Gifted Academy's bootcamp a few days ago. No wonder he was bitching, he didn't get to ramp up to the level of difficulty we'd gone through. I'd be bitching too if I was him.
"I haven't seen you since Friday, does that mean you passed that test?" Craig asked me incredulous. Most of the new people underestimated me because they didn't realize that I'd joined Storm's Refuge. They thought I was just some lucky kid who'd managed to snag a spot because I was already going to Gifted Academy before the implants came out.
"Yeah, it was tough but I passed. How bad are the remedial lessons?" I asked him.
His face darkened in memory, but he didn't answer me instead yelling, "I challenge you for your vacation spot!"
*Ding*
*Mandatory Mission Received*
*Craig Mallens has challenged you to a duel for your week off*
*Rewards: You can keep your time off*
*Penalties: Join the remedial class until next Monday.*
*Teleportation portal activated, if you refuse you automatically forfeit the dual*
*Accept . Deny*
I accepted immediately despite my surprise. "What is this duel thing? I never heard about it before."
Craig's face looked smug as he said, "That's probably why you're still on vacation, I can't believe a no-name scholarship student like you actually passed that test."
My face went cold as I examined him, the countdown of the teleportation activation ringing in my mind.
*3*
*2*
*1*
*Activated*
A bright light covered both of us as we were teleported to a private arena in Gifted Academy. Alaric's voice echoed through the room as we arrived.
"Duel Formation Activated!"
The room reformed into a precarious rope bridge hanging several hundred feet over the grand canyon, barriers on either end forcing us to fight on the bridge. A gust of wind blew through the canyon, moving the bridge erratically. I snorted in amusement as I watched Craig grabbing at the hand holds trying to keep his balance.
'Yep, he's new.' I thought to myself as I stood rock solid on the rope bridge. One of the most important lessons Alaric gave us was fighting on precarious footing, changing up the fighting formation every day forcing us to fight while under heavy gravity during an earthquake or on platforms that'll randomly jerk in different directions.
"Hehehe!" He laughed at me in disdain as he pulled out a sword and charged at me, "I can't believe they even let such poor trash like you into this class, when I'm done with you they'll kick you out!"
'What an idiot.' I thought to myself as I decided to test out my new abilities. Now that I'd started refining my mind I was able to store Elemental Energy in my mindscape. Pulling Storm Energy out, I focused on the Ultimate Barrier technique that my Grandfather had made and it instantly snapped into place around me. It was transparent, but I could feel it hovering there around me. I smiled as Craig finally reached me a couple seconds later thinking, 'So slow'
He had a huge grin on his face as he brought his sword slashing towards me while it was covered in a dark glow.
*CLANG*
His sword collided with my barrier and was repulsed with such force that it flew from his hands as he was knocked flying into the air. I was about to use elemental strike to finish him off since this was just a waste of my time when I felt Patrice moving in my mindscape. My eyes suddenly glowed a burnished gold color as her power flowed through me and into the air around us.
Suddenly, a dark gold bolt of lightning tore through the air and slammed into Craig, sending him smashing into the barrier. The formation suddenly activated and surrounded Craig in a white light, attempting to heal him back to full health while he convulsed on the ground in the training room.
Alaric appeared in front of him. "Fool!" He started to yell at Craig even as the convulsions still wracked his body.
Meanwhile, I was too busy trying to communicate with Patrice. 'I thought you didn't have much power yet?' I asked her in my mind, completely blown away. A sense of disdain seemed to emanate from her form in my mindscape. She sent me images of lightning bolts smashing into the ground with such strength that they tore through to the core of a planet and destroyed it. Her message was quite easy to understand, that's what she considered real strength.