Chapter 140—Hammer Instructions

They still hadn’t managed to upgrade the skill they shared but they were working on it. 

Sweat was running down his face and his arms trembled as he swung the hammer. He was desperately mimicking the big shaggy man’s form to the best of his abilities while also participating in a semi-serious duel with him. Within the flow of the swings, he kept trying to strike Frankie his trainer, while making sure he wasn’t struck in return. Ultimately, none of it mattered. If he landed a blow, the practice hammer would bounce off and the recoil would hurt him more than his opponent. Likewise, Frankie had so much control that if the reverse occurred the large man would stop the blow before it did any damage.

There was no risk of injury, but the exertion was real, and it was glorious.  

A big foot swept his legs out from underneath him and he collapsed in a heap. When he tried to move, he didn’t have the energy.

“You’ve got good spirit,” a deep voice told him.

Tom only groaned in response, and with a chuckle the big man moved to give the other two some final verbal pointers before the session finished. Tom was very happy he had qualified for the semi-private lessons. A full on spar was just what the doctor ordered. The last hour had been amazing. The proceeding session with the entire class had been the opposite. It had been boring. The complete opposite of the individual session that he was just finishing. Frankie had stood at the front demonstrated the move and expected everyone else to copy him. They had done that for forty minutes. On earth eight-year-olds would have mutinied. Here in the orphanage the atmosphere was different. Everyone had dutifully gone through the motions. 

When they had all been offered the chance to do the follow-up session, he had almost declined, but the entry requirement had been a hammer skill and he had been looking for a chance to demonstrate his Heavy Smash ability. So, against his better judgement he had shown how the skill allowed the light practice hammer to strike with a resounding boom on the dummy.

He had done it only for his wider reputation, but he was so glad he had made the decision. A chance to go all out against a better opponent had been amazing.

Tom was the only reincarnator to gain the honour, as all the reincarnators were keeping a low profile. Two others had qualified. First a girl in the orbit of Amelia, one of the other reincarnators that by mutual decision Tom and Kang were staying clear of. The girl had somehow gained Hammer mastery and used that to great effect along with another skill that allowed her to use an extra heavy weapon. Her acceptance into the special class had never been in doubt. After all, she used a weapon that Tom could barely lift and would have had no chance of wielding. Reducing the weight of the weapon was a useful skill, but for a hammer where damage scaled off mass it went to the next level. Tom was seriously wondering if he should add it onto his lists of things to acquire. As a secondary weapon, when he resorted to hammer it would be to get through monsters with extensive armour. Doubling the weight of each blow would effectively double the damage he could do in most instances. He was starting to think it was an advantage he couldn’t ignore. Even if he didn’t gain it by experimental training, it would have to go on the list of early purchases once he gained access to experience.

The third guy was no better than Tom with the hammer, but had an ability that allowed him to phase his weapon out of existence briefly. It caused his weapon to be almost impossible to block and it would make him into a terror against similar rated sapients. It was useless against the monsters that Tom was planning on taking on with the weapon, but against people it was a good skill. It was not one that would suit him, Tom decided. If he fought sapients he had his magic and if push came to shove his spear.

There was still so much for him to learn about the best ways to use the weapon, as the instructor explained there were three types of hammer skills that made a difference. Ones that did more damage, those that bypass defences and finally movement abilities. If you were using a heavy weapon, you had to be able to retreat quickly and given the unwieldiness of a war hammer that had to be facilitated by a skill. In Frankie’s opinion, to be a competent hammer user you had to get one of each. Tom planned on developing one that bypassed armour. The movement side of things was already covered by his main build plan. For that, he was going to rely on teleportation abilities.  

The session ended as Tom regathered his breath. While he had been mainly focusing inward he had half listened as the other two received gifts along with parting words. 

The boy had received gauntlets that would apparently passively help him gain the hammer mastery skill while the girl had been gifted with a growth weapon that would strengthen with her. Currently, it was tier zero and only someone with a ranking in strength below three could wield it. Basically, it had to go to a kid and given most hammer users were muscly a younger child at that. 

The other two shuffled out and to Tom it seemed like it was almost by design.

A foot nudged his side shifting him a few inches. “You’ve recovered. Stop wasting time just lying there..”

He sprung to his feet excited to see what he was going to get.

Frankie, he had discovered after their first handshake was reincarnated. If he was giving such powerful items to nobodies, he expected a great reward to someone of his obvious potential.

The door clicked shut firmly behind the departing backs of the other two..

The large man winced and scratched behind his ear. “I hate this bit. Um… I guess I should get it over and done with. So, you’re a reincarnator aren’t you.” Unsettled eyes flicked around the room for a moment and then Frankie relaxed. “Thank the lord we’re alone. Now Tom let’s see what I can gift you.”

“Something powerful,” he said hopefully.

The other man laughed boisterously. “Let’s have a chat first. So you’ve managed to get the heavy blow skill but don’t have mastery of it yet. Is that right?”

“Yes, sir.” He said politely.

Frankie’s eyes flickered to the doorway. “And you’re an eight-year-old. That means you’ve been developing for four years.”

“Three and a half. I only just turned eight.”

“Good, good. We’ll call this your birthday present. Now what can I give you? I assume you don’t want something like those gauntlets? Because if you do then it makes this easy. I have a couple of sets.”

 Tom hesitated. The moment he accepted the gauntlets and stored them they would jump two tiers, and he wondered if they would give any extra training bonuses. Getting them might actually be the smartest course of action. He decided to gamble. If he wanted to specialise in the hammer, he would have chosen them, but that was not his long-term plan. “No, unfortunately, that’s not a great investment for either of us. My primary weapon is a spear.”

Once more Frankie scratched his long messy hair. “I had kind of figured that out all ready. Every reincarnator I’ve ever met has their core weapon mastery skill by seven and a half at the latest. What else do you do? Hopefully, I have something that can support one of your primary development lines.” He looked at him curiously like he had abruptly realised the absurdity of the situation. “Are you seriously developing hammer abilities as a decoy.”

Tom grimaced at the question. He could see how ridiculous such an approach might appear from the outside. “Not completely. They’ll be niche useful.”

The other man stared at him.

“Some monsters are just easier to kill with a hammer than a spear.

A huge sigh greeted that statement. “You are, you’re paranoid. You’re hiding your core build. What are you? A member of the heroes?”

It was Tom’s turn to say nothing for a long moment. He cleared his throat to break the awkwardness. “My key focuses are spear, precognition, lightning, healing and earth magic.”

The bushy eyebrows rose in surprise. “Is that all? That’s a little ambitious, isn’t it? And precognition, are you serious? As a reincarnated kid,” the man said hotly, “I can’t imagine anything harder to develop. You aren’t taking shortcuts, are you?”

“Definitely no short cuts. Everything I get is from first principles. As for the precog I have a very high affinity. It makes developing it worthwhile and easier than it is for most. Just so you know Dimitri approves,” Tom clarified hurriedly. He wanted to make it very clear that he was getting the titles and not wasting the opportunity DEUS had given him. He really wanted the gifts that this man might be able to offer.

“If your precog’s that powerful, then how did you die in your first life?”

Tom glanced at the floor and bit his lip. “By being stupid and I didn’t have the affinity then.”

Frankie had the grace to deflate. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have guessed. That extra affinity happens all the time. Never heard someone get precognition but,” he scratched his head. “I guess it makes sense. And I suppose I should be extra fair given your background and find an extra useful item for you. It’s just, I’m not sure I’ve got anything that can help you.”

Tom tried to hide his disappointment like an adult, but knew he wasn’t quite successful.

“I’m still intending on gifting you something good.” Frankie muttered. “But I’m uncertain about what. The problem is none of the stuff I purchased for hammer wielders is going to suit you.” Then he brightened. “I have personal stuff that might help.” The man’s eyes went unfocused as he clearly studied what was in his inventory.

“I’m not sure how I can say this safely,” the man licked his lips worriedly and briefly Tom there was a glimpse of an evolutionary potion in his hands.

Tom hesitated for just a moment. He understood exactly why the man was reacting the way he was. Evolutionary potions could be used the human way or the normal way. The human way relied on fate got vastly better results, but Frankie didn’t know if Tom knew the technique and because of the GEAs he couldn’t even ask. It would be a massive waste to give it to someone who was not going to consume fate to direct it.

“Don’t stress about it, Frankie. In my original Existentia life, I gained a title referencing fate.” At his age, Tom was pretty confident that such a generic line wouldn’t harm the other man’s future.

The concern around the man’s eyes vanished, and the potion appeared cradled in a single large hand for long enough for Tom to analyse it properly. It was tier four.

His heart rate quickened and he licked his lips. “That’s pretty valuable.”

“You don’t have to accept?”

Tom raised his hands rapidly. “Whoa, wait right there. I’d be delighted to accept it and I’ll have you know that I got a title when I first used one of these. I’ll get a lot out of it. It’s just… It’s just that its worth a lot.”

Frankie shrugged. “Not really. If you can use it I’m happy to gift it too you.” The big man examined the potion as he spun it in his fingers. “Honestly, it’s only a day’s work. If you’re able to make the most of it then you should have it. All of my core abilities are already above four. This is just trading Brič brac. I got it as filler when I gave away a skill stone for my sabatons.” He glanced down at his feet but because he was wearing them Tom couldn’t use identification to see what they did, but if a valuable tier 4 item was part of the chump change in the transaction, then they had to be at least tier six if not seven.

“I can use it,” Tom promised. “And it’ll help me grow stronger.” Internally, he was pondering exactly what he would be able to do with a tier five potion. Which of his many abilities would be best to upgrade.

“Take it.” Frankie shoved the potion into his hands. “Unfortunately, I’ve got another class to go to, so I can’t stay and chat and I know how starved for adult conversation you must be. Hang in there. Make the most of the time you have and the potion. Hopefully, one day I’ll see you in the top one hundred.”

“Hopefully,” Tom agreed. “Who knows, I might already be there.”

Frankie guffawed at that. “Of course. Let me guess you’re Tom Bradshaw! You’re a funny one.” Laughing, the large man departed the room.

For a long time, Tom just sat there staring at the door the other man had gone through.

The failure to be recognised troubled him. Frankie possessed Tom’s name via the title. He should have been able to see the connection, but apparently DEUS was blocking such discovery. A lot of him wondered why. Corrine, Everlyn, and Dimitri knew the truth, so it wasn’t an absolute block, but maybe there had to be more of a relationship before prior life status and links were enabled.

He shrugged. Working out such things were beyond his pay grade. It might be something common to all reincarnators, or he might be a special case. Either outcome was equally likely and ultimately the reasons didn't matter. 

The flask in his hand was cold and warm at the same time and even though his skin was against the glass and the energy was fully contained, he felt like his hand tingled. He stared at the beautiful blue liquid in disbelief, it felt amazing to have been gifted it.

Item: evolution potion – tier 4

Has a chance to evolve an existing ability to tier 4.

The ability impacted will be randomly chosen. Tier 3 abilities have an 80 percent chance of evolving and this decreases with starting tier.

Note: This only evolves abilities along the standard pathways. This means that abilities without a tier 4 step on their path may not be upgraded with this potion. 

 Then, since he was alone, he pushed it into his inventory and checked the outcome.

Item: evolution potion – tier 5

 Has a chance to evolve an existing ability to the tier 5 level.

The ability impacted will be randomly chosen.  Tier 4 abilities have an 80 percent chance of evolving and this decreases with starting tier.

Note: This only evolves abilities along the standard pathways. This means that abilities without a tier 5 step on their path may not be upgraded with this potion. 

It was a straight upgrade and while it seemed to imply that it should not be used on abilities less than tier three. Tom thought differently. From previous experience, at each step up a tier, there was a substantial chance of an extra sideways benefit being added. With fate in play, his preference would be to start with a lower tier ability and boost that up. Other species would go the other way.

He now owned a wonderful treasure. The real question was what to use it on.

AG. Only kind of back to writing. My wife is three weeks post surgery but its been very slow and will continue to be so. I need to do all domestic duties, plus look after her as her ability to do things is severly limited.

there will be four chapters this week but probably only three going forward at least until I get in a better rthym and my wife gets better. (She can't lift anythign more than a kilogram for at least six weeks and after that I expect what she can do will be only slowly increased).

I'll be locking comments all this week to reduce the amount of distractions... Because if I leave them on I'll be continual checking back for them.  

I'm sure you're all aware of it but be careful about apple subscriptions. If you're using them you're paying thirty percent? more than everyone else.