At the training center, I met up with Oliver and he asked to spar with me, in order for us to better understand the areas we lack in and help each other out. I, of course, agreed, as it was a very good opportunity to observe some of his powers.
"Ready? Here I come"
Oliver said, immediately rushing forward. Surprisingly, although his speed was more or less the same as yesterday, I could see it, and even react to it. I think it's because of that dream, when I faced someone whose speed was miles faster than this one. I sidestepped and threw a right hook at his face, but he dissappeared right as I was about to reach him.
[MOVEMENT ART DETECTED. CONCRETE INFORMATION ACQUIRED. CATALOGUE UPDATED]
Suddenly, multiple voices transmitted this message in sync, similar to what happened to me when I was in that cursed void, but I didn't have time to dwell on it, as I was in the middle of a fight. I sensed Oliver behind me, and, by instinct, ducked my head, only to feel the air generated by a powerful punch grazing my hair. I thought about lauching a back kick to his abdomen, but decided against it, thinking about what happened in my dream. Instead, I turned around and feigned a kick, only to deliver a superman punch on his face. Surprised, Oliver didn't have time to dodge and sacked the hit. Taking advantage of his confusion, I continued with a barrage of punches, but he had already recovered, swiftly evading all of my jabs. He closed the distance and aimed for an uppercut, leaving himself open on the flank. I saw the opportunity and immediately threw a hook to exploit it, only to be met with parry from his side. It seemed that he created this gap on purpose in order to catch my hand. As he did that, he pulled me with a strength that far surpassed mine, destroying my balance. As I fell down, I was met with his fist, a few millimeters in front of my face.
"It's my loss. But damn, you are strong as hell!" I said, genuinely surprised by his physical prowess. I wonder what his stats are... Can't be that different than mine. I didn't get absolutely obliterated, after all...
"Thanks. You're not too shabby yourself. I was surprised that you not only reacted to my speed, but also countered it. Also, your instinct is terrific!. I think we have a lot to learn from each other!"
After the spar, we took a break, speaking about random topics and what to do in the future.
"By the way, Oliver, if you don't mind me asking, what's your rank?" I decided to drop the bombshell, unsure of how will he react. Considering he's good-natured though, I doubt he will get angry.
"I'm rank G+, mostly because my agility, which is rank F right now. Outside of that, I'd say I'm average. What about you?"
Fortunately, he seemed open about his abilities and didn't get offended. Fitting image for the 'main character', yet again.
"Well, I'm not proud to say it, but I'm rank G. I strive to get strong despite that and I'm sure that if I work hard enough I will compensate for the gap of abilities that exists right now!"
Damn, I should really get an Oscar for the performance I'm putting. Joking aside, I think appeasing to his emotions will benefit me in the future. With his ideology layed out in one sentence like that, I'm sure he will be quite pleased. He most likely is the type of guy who thinks efforts never betray you, after all.
Of course, all that is speculation. For all I know, this could all be a facade. This is not some game or novel, this is real life. And here, most of the characters are not one-dimensional. I just have to work with what I have.
"Haha, that's the spirit! We should go back to training now, that's enough resting! I'm planning to do some swordsmanship training now, want to join me?"
"Sure, but I haven't really tried swordsmanship before and I'm not sure if I will just be dragging you down, to be honest"
"Of course not! I even think it will benefit me to teach you, as I haven't refined my basics for a long time. Also, teaching you also gives me a better understanding of what I can do, as I have to present to you my ideas in an orderly fashion, which is much better than the chaos I have in my head right now."
Just like that, Oliver started mentoring me on swordsmanship. I have to say, he was a very good teacher. He predicted my questions and concerns and spotted my mistakes immediately. While he was showing me a tehnique, the voices returned:
[SWORD ART DETECTED. CONCRETE INFORMATION ACQUIRED. CATALOGUE UPDATED]
As intriguing as it was, I planned to see what was that about when I went home, as I didn't want to seem to space out while Oliver was training me.
After some hours, we finished training. I was exhausted, and didn't have much spare energy left, so I asked Oliver if we would meet tommorow at the same time and he confirmed.
Reaching my apartment, I continued my routine and went straight to bed. Only that this time, I didn't go to sleep immediately. Instead, I opened the system
[Name: William Adams
Age:15
Rank:G
Skills:N/A
Traits:N/A
Arts:N/A
Abilities:Synchronization(EX)
Strength: 18/100(G)(+7)
Agility: 25/100(G)(+12)
Stamina:31/100(G)(+23)
Mana: 50/50
Mana core:G
Intelligence:S
Catalogue[1]]
I checked the Catalogue next
[DUE TO THE SYNCHRONIZATION ABILITY, THE CATALOGUE HAS BEEN MODIFIED IN CONCORDANCE WITH THE RESPECTIVE ABILITY]
[Catalogue[Oliver]]
I opened the 'Oliver' component of the catalogue
[Oliver(last name not known)
Philosophy:(not known)
Tendency:(not known)
Impression of you:(not known)
Stats:
Rank: ???
Skills: ???
Traits: ???
Arts: Basic swordsmanship(sword art, grade 1, proficiency:???), Impulse generation(movement art, grade 3, proficiency: ???), ???
Abilities: ???
Strength: ???(???)
Agility: ???(???)
Stamina: ???(???)
Mana: ???/???
Mana core: ???
Intelligence: ???
Familiarity:1%
Rewards
Keep in mind that transfer tokens are only applicable to the respective person in the catalogue. You cannot use transfer tokens from one person on another person
10% - 1 stt(stat transfer token)
20% - 1 stt or 1 att(art transfer token)
30% - 1 stt
40% - 1 stt
50% - 1 str or 1 att or 1 sktt(skill transfer token)
60% - 1 stt
70% - 1 stt
80% - 1 stt or 1 att or 1 sktt or 1 ttt(trait transfer token)
100% - 1 stt or 1 att or 1 sktt or 1 ttt or 1 abtt(if applicable)(ability transfer token)
1 stt - a chosen stat can become 1/10 of the same stat from the selected person
5 stt - a chosen stat can become 1/5 of the same stat from the selected person
10 stt - a chosen stat can became 1 of the same stat from the selected person
1 att - you get a chosen art from the selected person at 0.00% proficiency
1 sktt - you get a chosen skill from the selected peron at level 1
1 ttt - you get a chosen trait from the selected person at level 1
1 abtt - you get the ability of the selected person]
Holy shit, there's a lot to unpack here; first of all, it seemed that the catalogue updated when Oliver showed me a proper art. Therefore, I can deduce that, in order to activate synchronisation on a person, or, in other words, to add them to the catalogue, I need to observe a characteristic like skill, trait, art or ability. It seems that the system automatically detects everything and categories it in the catalogue, which seems tied to my ability. It seems that I have to grow this 'Familiarity' to get other people's powers.
Now, this power is extremely awesome, but I can't help but wonder a few things. Why is Oliver's rank '???' ? Didn't he tell me it'a a G+? The same goes with speed. Either he lied to me or the system needs a concrete proof, like with the two arts. After all, what Oliver said were just words, nothing concrete. Also, I can guess what 'philosophy', 'tendency' and 'impresion of you' mean, but aren't I supposed to know them already? Are there special conditions to them? Or maybe Oliver is just a very good liar and this is all a facade, just like I previously thought? Well, I have consumed too much fiction in my past life about that, so I know I am a bit subjective and delusional, as this shouldn't be literally the first thing that comes to mind while thinking about Oliver. But, let's say I'm right and analyse everything from the retrospective.
Everything about Oliver's behaviour, or rather acting in my hypothesis, is on point, so there's no need to analyse that. Let's think about his actions. But, let's analyse not the actions, but the intentions. Yesterday, when we had our little conversation, he accepted me way too fast. After basically just introductions, he asked me if I came there tomorrow, with the intention of meeting me again. At the time, I went along with it as it benefited my plans. But why did he do that? Sure, one could argue that he wanted to be friends, but still, even with his 'naive' persona, this little caution doesn't sit well with me. Speaking of the naive persona, today I saw that we was very sharp today, when he was teaching me. Too sharp, from someone who was supposed to be naive and good-natured. Also, him being G+ would mean he should be much stronger than me, to the point where he would break no sweat if he wanted to defeat me. But it didn't seem that way today. There are a lot of inconsistencies that add up, now that I think about it. Or maybe I am only seeing what I want to see. Either way, I need to pay close attention to Oliver from now on and try to force his hand a little bit.
While thinking about complicated things that I would have no chance of trying tommorow, I fell asleep.