However, reading about the Narrator didn't make Fen forget about where he was. He was trapped in a facility built inside of the Void, with the purpose of being forged into the Foundation's tool as a Guardian. They needed him in order to overcome the consequences of bringing back the Fallen races, but what about after? After the planet settled down and no longer needed the Guardians, would they keep him around, or would they remove him; that question determined his fate. His entire life was in the hands of an organization that did not know him.
Fen missed his life on Earth. Given enough time, he might have shed his past entirely with Miko's help and lived a real life, instead of being alone. Now, he didn't have that option anymore. But if he wanted to get back then he had to succeed through the Program.
While he waited for Amelia, his eyes narrowed in thought. He had done a lot of thinking when he was alone on Earth, simply because he had nothing else to do when both his sister and parents were occupied, so he was quite skilled in logical thinking. Of course, he spend the majority of his life as a child so although his thinking capabilities could be considered advanced for his age, they probably weren't comparable to someone vastly older than him. Like Raisen. Well, no. Maybe somebody with Raisen's age, but not the old man himself; it was basically proven fact that he didn't have much brain activity going on.
If the old Knight knew how low his image was inside of Fen's mind, he might have a stroke from how terrible he looked in the eyes of others. After recovering from said stroke the old man might just vow to purify his image in the eyes of others and become a saint. Too bad Raisen didn't care about asking about how others thought of him.
Fen needed a plan to survive while in the Program; simply taking the [Introduction into Vitality Manipulation] Lesson taught by Raisen was putting too much hope in that old man and what he could teach him. He had managed to formulate the beginnings of a plan after spending so long looking at the Shop at the items being sold, but in order to begin he needed more points.
After purchasing the Lesson with Raisen, he admittedly didn't have many assets remaining: a measly 111 points. Though aesthetically pleasing, that number of points was only enough to buy a single healing potion, and only a minor one at that. The Narrator made sure to describe how meager the effects of that item were, so there was very little chance of him buying one.
There were many Lessons that seemed to offer immediate benefits to Fen, such as [Theory of Magic (Lesson)], and [Basic Weaponry Training (Lesson)], both of which were described by the Narrator to have some benefits, if you censored out the constant verbal slandering in your mind. But, they costed a large number of points as listed in the Shop, being 500 and 400 points respectively.
Surprisingly, they costed less than what he had spent for Raisen's Lesson. Though the Archon with electric fetishes had mentioned that while a higher price meant higher quality, it did not necessarily mean more potential benefits. Factors such as talent and learning ability played a role in the amount of benefits he could gain, which, if he was correct in his analysis, meant that Lessons with a lower point price required less unpredictable variables, such as talent, in order to be successful in that subject.
He wasn't underestimating his own ability; he was being strategic with his purchases. It simply made more sense at this point of the Program to invest in Lessons with more immediate benefits than more advanced Lessons that might not grant him as many 'profits' proportional to the points he spent. Going by that logic, choosing Raisen's Lesson probably wasn't the most advantageous decision Fen could have made, he might've made a different decision had he been given more time to think.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there was no return feature for the Shop. At least he wasn't given the choice between choosing a different Lesson over Raisen's, or he would've experienced another headache.
Overall, more points equaled more benefits. Though, it was a little pointless to realize that now that he was poor. At least it served as motivation to get more ponts.
Too much of his plan hung over the amount of information he could find from inside the interface or from Raisen; neither of which seemed that appealing.
...There was another option for gathering information, but because that option was Archon Ellora, that option would be put off unless he really had no other choice. As in, he would exhaust every other possible source and if he could manage without her, then he would. Just thinking of talking to the Archon by himself sent shivers down his spine.
Best case scenario, Fen would get matched up against another Opfer and would have much less of a disadvantage than if he faced a Chosen. Killing another person tugged his stomach slightly, but the reaction was a lot better than he thought. After killing Malique, he wasn't as opposed to killing as he was...
He didn't know if that was a good or bad thing to be less resistant towards killing another human being but for right now that resistance gave him an advantage. In a situation where he was pinned down by his opponent they'd hesitate just like how he did with Malique and allow him to finish the Task by killing them.
For now, Fen stopped thinking about winning the Task. Thinking about killing somebody else was a little too much for his psyche to handle right now.
Fen started to think that the Archon was right. In order to survive he had to make full use of any and every advantage he could get his hands on.
'And in order to gain more advantages... Damn it, I need more points!' A headache began to brew in his mind just by thinking of the never ending loop of issues. Rubbing his head gave him some minor relief, but if Fen really wanted to get rid of the migraine then he had to figure out a solution to his issue. 'All my problems right now need points to solve. Even if I can't solve the issue of the Task, getting more points can at least alleviate the pressure.'
The issue of points wouldn't be solved anytime soon and it probably would never be solved; it was just like money.
Money can solve almost every problem, or at least make it go away. The more of it you had, the happier you tended to be. This was the way the Foundation designed the Program's points and when they introduced the method of gaining more points then the Opfer would have no choice but to do whatever it took if they didn't want to be left behind by their fellow Opfer and end up with an overwhelming disadvantage in the first Task.
In order to emphasize the true value of the points in the Shop the Foundation would hide how to gain more until everyone realized their meaning. Of course those who figured out the true meaning of the points would be rewarded for their efforts; if they discovered the process in the system through their search then every point they gained would grant them an early head start over their peers.
Being completely unaware about the Foundation's logic Fen could only curse them inside his mind for failing to tell the Opfer about everything in the Program. It wasn't like the organization cared about his opinion about them anyways, so they weren't losing out in any way.
His thinking came to an end after Amelia came out the shower and he told her to check her Lesson on the Interface for a note left by her instructor, just in case it was different than how his own Lesson worked.
With ideal timing Fen suddenly felt a burning sensation on his left wrist. Flipping it over he saw the small golden sapling was growing, slowly transforming into a slightly larger sapling. The golden roots grew longer, and began to wrap around his wrist into the palm of his hand. The entire Mark now took up a sizeable portion of his forearm.
Strangely, another sapling formed on the top of his wrist, opposite the other one. This too grew to take up about half his forearm, the roots stretching down his fingers. He looked at the Mark with interest, carefully examining both saplings to see if there were any differences; they were almost the same if you ignored their shape. Although their roots stretched onto his hand differently, they had a much more distinct difference.
The sapling on the bottom of his wrist closer to his palm had roots piercing into his hand, as if connected to him. He must've not noticed before because of it's small size, but now that the mark was bigger he could see the change. There was no pain thankfully, despite how violent the image of golden energy piercing his hand was.
The new sapling on the top of his wrist had different roots. Unlike the original Mark, the roots that grew on his hand and fingers didn't pierce through the skin and instead pointed up towards the air. The effect wasn't very noticeable at all and Fen had to look really closely to notice it but the roots were definitely pointed up.
Whenever he moved his hand through the air, the roots left a glowing trail of particles. The view looked almost ethereal. Very strange. His uniform covered most of the particles, leaving only a negligible glowing trail that quickly vanished whenever he moved.
He would have to examine the Mark closer later. Right now he needed to go to the Training Hall, and the faster he arrived the more time he would have to question Raisen on the interface and how to gain more points. Through his answers- if he had any- Fen could finally find a path to develop his plan to survive the first Task.
At the exit to the Squad Room, he pulled up the uniform's sleeve and held the Mark on the top of his hand to the interface to get directions to the Training Hall; he found his way there in the past but that was much slower than if he received proper directions. But the interface didn't react. Only when he showed the original Mark on the bottom of his wrist did the interface react.
'Weird. Another thing I'll have to ask Raisen about. He should at least have some answers about this; it's another Mark after all.'
The energy pathways on the walls reacted and began to glow gold, showing a path that led him through a bunch of hallways and rooms until he reached the Training Hall. The path was much faster than the one he used originally.
Stepping inside, he saw Raisen preparing materials on the floor and on some tables he had set up, and Fen could see a very strange assortment among those materials. There were, for some reason, a very sharp knife, a piece of meat, a cup, and a couple small balls covered in glowing inscriptions.
A happy grin appeared on Raisen's face when he noticed his arrival.
"You're here! Excellent, I'm just preparing a couple things right now, so just wait over there somewhere." He gestured towards the vastly smaller number of desks in the room; Fen assumed that there were much less people who purchased this Lesson as the old man predicted.
"I'm expecting one more person, so if you have an questions just ask away," the old man grunted as he worked. He glanced back at him. "Not too many though; you nearly drove me crazy yesterday."
'You're already crazy though...' he mumbled in his heart, where he couldn't hear him.
"Where can I get more points?"
*Bang*
Something exploded next to the old man and soot covered his normally rigid face as he started coughing. The materials on the floor looked fine however; the explosion was isolated to just Raisen's face and hands.
Blood oozed out the few small cuts and abrasions on his hands, but as Fen watched they healed very quickly and returned to their normal fleshy color. He quickly wiped the shock off his face as he watched the process of Raisen's skin healing.
"You...You really are something, 'ey?" Raisen rubbed the soot off his face, acting as if nothing happened.
"You asked some good questions last time, and now you already discovered the value of points?"
A incredulous frown appeared on Fen's face; his 'discovery' was nothing significant to him. It was simple math. More points equaled more stuff from the Shop which equaled increased odds of winning the first Task. It wasn't too hard to just think about and come to the same conclusion.
He said so to the old man.
"Simple to you, maybe." Raisen sighed.
"Remind me, what happened to you when you arrived here?"
Fen narrowed his eyes; he began to see the point he was trying to make.
"So because I know the value of my own life, and personally experienced killing another person it was much easier to realize that?"
The old man nodded his head, flashing a smile.
"Exactly! We told everyone what the first Task was," he continued, unknowingly confirming Fen's suspicion of the existence of more Tasks.
"But for most of the other Opfer it won't sink in that they have to kill another person until death looks them in the eyes. Hell, they're even some Chosen who won't fully understand that until the Task." Another grin. "Which gives you an advantage that you can use against almost every possible opponent."
"Yay, I have an advantage because I killed someone." Fen said dryly.
"Don't make it so morbid. You should consider yourself lucky that you got that as your Initiation."
A glint of anger appeared in Fen's eyes, and his expression twisted at his words. His mouth filled with venom as he responded to the old man's comment.
"Lucky...Yeah, I guess I should consider myself truly blessed to experience killing Malique as my Initiation. If I hadn't I wouldn't be able to stand here today and talk about how to gain even more advantages," he snarled.
"I must be the fucking chosen one of all the Opfer, destined for greatness!"
Raisen swung his arms up, his smile not fading despite the venom the young Opfer showed.
"Exactly! Now imagine how exciting it is for me to be your instructor!" His smile evaporated Fen's anger. How could he stay angry at someone like this, who feels zero shame or embarrassment? He couldn't, so the venom returned to the pocket inside his heart, waiting for another chance to erupt. Meanwhile, his anger would continue to build up and store itself alongside the venom.
"Fuu... Answer the question old man." Fen sat down in one of the chairs in the Training Hall, resigning himself to another long episode of Raisen speaking.
"Of course, of course. I'm sure you have your suspicions, so let me give you a hint-"
"No hint! Just tell me how." Fen said, his patience already wearing thin. If he had to endure Raisen's personality, then he would do so, but he would not tolerate anything that he didn't have to.
A tiny frown appeared on Raisen's face, but he continued speaking. "You're no fun. I said it before, but its true..."
"The large interface in your Squad room is how you can gain more points. Through some magical process that I don't give two shits about you can interact with it and access a certain part of the interface. After doing it on the big one, you can use any interface in the whole interface; I recommend using the one in your room, so your Squad mates don't see."
Fen was slightly confused. He wasn't able to do anything to the large interface no matter what he tried. And in the time when he was waiting for the Mark to activate, he tried a lot of things.
"Oh, here, I should probably..." Raisen pulled him next to the interface in the Training Hall, and after going through several pages he grabbed his left hand and pressed it on the golden particles. An electric feeling passed through his arm before settling on the Mark of the sapling.
"Now you should be able to use it. Just standard procedure for when an Opfer or Chosen starts to ask questions."
'Oh, so it's that simple. Eh, can't say I have any complaints.' Fen fiddled around with his left hand, checking to see if anything changed on the Mark. When he rolled up his sleeve however, the old man grabbed his wrist and pulled it close to his face, startling him.
"Ha! Amazing!" When his hand got increasingly closer to the old man's face, Fen slapped his hands away and nursed his wrist against his chest. The damned old man's grip was unexpectedly tight.
"Your Mark's different! So Vitul's react differently to the Mark! And it's absorbing the natural Mana, too!" The excitement in Raisen's eyes were unaffected by Fen slapping his hands away. If anything, his enthusiasm grew stronger!
"Eh?" Fen's brows furrowed as he digested his words. Was the new Mark something weird? Now he cursed himself in his mind for not checking the others' wrists to see any differences. Preparation and information was everything after all.