Chapter 9 – A Little Pain

  Year 3001, Sunday. 22 days until classes start. Training room 5 of Dormitory 12D.

  I pulled out a little package from the backpack I had brought with me as Athena stacked the frisbees in a storage compartment. Wiping the sweat from multiple hours of focus I looked around for a microwave or something to warm up my food but couldn’t find anything.

  I held up my little container, “How do I warm this up?”

  She looked up, “Just heat it up.”

  “Is there a microwave or something?”

  She frowned, “Try heating it up with ether.”

  I thought for a second and looked up, “Don’t I need a medium?”

  With a slight smile she tossed one of the frisbees over to me, “Let’s see the results of your few hours of practice.”

  Snatching the metal disk out of the air I squatted down on the ground and placed my meal on top of the disk and closed my eyes with a finger on the edge of the disk.

  Over the past few hours, I had figured out how to limit the flow of ether exiting my body. Apparently most people need to have their entire hand be in contact with the frisbee to infuse an adequate amount of ether into it. However, with my ether pathways being eleven times wider than normal, I would have to take measures to avoid oversaturating stuff with ether.

  My hand still tingled from the feeling of accidentally oversaturating multiple frisbees. Still, I could do it. I knew it. I not only knew the theory, but I had done it. How hard would it be to do it again but slightly different?

  I gently touched my pointer finger to the frisbee and felt the sensation of blood rushing out of my finger. I closed my eyes. Heat. I felt a slightly warm sensation on the tip of my finger. Some strange smell suddenly hit my nose. Smell? Wait.

  My eyes shot open and I looked down to see my finger smoking, “ACK!”

  I suddenly felt the restrained flow through my finger release. The frisbee started glowing. Well. That can’t be good. Athena grabbed my hand and held it to the frisbee. She snapped her fingers in front of my eyes, “Focus!”

  I stuttered, “Wha…”

  “Breathe it back in!”

  Breathe in? How? I closed my eyes again and vaguely felt my fingertip attempting to restrain the torrent of energy coming out. Breathe in? How? Through my finger? Hm.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  The flow of the energy gradually slowed as a tightening sensation squeezed my finger. Opening my eyes I looked down at what was once my lunch. I stared at the little pile of ashes in the metal container.

  What. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. What. I looked up, “What…”

  Athena gave my pile of ash a sad look, “It’s alright, let’s go grab something.”

  I held in tears. My chicken. It was gone! I breathed, “Grab something?”

  Athena threw the container in a disposal bin, “Let’s go eat while I figure out your classes.”

  “My classes?”

  -----

  The central hub of Dormitory 12D was a big room with tables for eating, studying, and other activities with the seventh side of the dormitory building for useful facilities such as a gym and cafeteria.

  Athena returned to the table she picked with two bowls of pink sludge. I stared at it, “What’s this?”

  “It’s paste.”

  “Paste?”

  “You’re gonna be eating a lot of paste in the next few years.”

  I stared at the shiny pink sludge, “This?”

  “Yup. How long do you usually take to eat?”

  I frowned. I could be eating some great crispy chicken. Instead, I had to eat this? I glanced up, “Thirty minutes?”

  Athena frowned, “You’re going to need to improve that.”

  I thought about it for a second, “Why does it matter how long I eat?”

  Athena sighed, “Whatever, what classes do you want to start with?”

  I remembered what Grant had told us the night before, “Corvette design.”

  Athena blinked, “Corvette design?”

  I nodded, “I’ve been into manual corvette racing since middle school. The jump to ether shouldn’t be too hard.”

  Athena stared at me, “Are you sure? This would be an advanced course.”

  “I think I can do it.”

  Athena frowned, “Well, we’re going to need to do a lot more practice before the start of the semester to make this possible.”

  “Is it because of my ether channels?”

  She started tapping away at her tablet, “Yup. With your current ability you’d destroy every system with the quantity of energy you emit.”

  I slipped a spoonful of goop into my mouth, “So, is it not possible to fly?”

  Athena glanced up from her tablet, “Nothing’s impossible if you’re willing to sacrifice a little bit now.”

  The pink sludge slipped down my throat with a sickening texture. As I held back from gagging on the lump I looked up at Athena, “Sacrifice what?”

  “A little pain now for less pain in the future.”

  My hand froze. Dad said the exact same thing. I looked up, “But once I get over a little pain wouldn’t you just add more?”

  Athena frowned, “And?”

  I stared at her face and realized. These people were insane. Totally insane. There would be no end. I would forever be stuck in an endless loop of training. Did dad know about this? I’m sure he did. Heh. Good for me? Since when did good for me mean it was something I wanted to do?

  Athena snapped her fingers in front of my face, “Hey, get back here.”

  I flinched accidentally swallowing another spoonful of pink goop, “Aurgh, ugh, yes?”

  She showed me a list of missions on her tablet, “I picked out some good missions to give you practice on high throughput ether manipulation. Choose one.”

  “Missions?”

  “The best way to learn is through hands on experience.”

  I stared at the missions, “What if I mess it up?”

  She blinked, “Then you’ll have to fix the mistakes.”

  I looked at the tablet at the missions.

  -----

  Sense Ether Veins For Exploitation

  Sort Lunar Samples By Blood Purity

  …

  -----

  I pointed to the first mission, “Isn’t an ether vein extremely dangerous?”

  “In what way?”

  I remembered a book I had read in high school, “Aren’t ether veins prone to imploding?”

  “Yup.”

  “So… why would I do such a dangerous mission?”

  Athena stared into my eyes, “You need to learn failure.”

  “But I already know failure.”

  Athena shook her head, “Really? Do you really think you have ever felt failure?”

  I nodded, “Yes?”

  She frowned, “We’re going to the ether veins on Monday. You better be there.”

  Yo. The shouts are starting. Yup. So today the swap is with a really really big story that is pretty different from this one. The similarity being that it is pretty psychological which means if you like that part of my story, you'll probably enjoy this shout. Their also an incredible writer so I would highly recommend checking out their work on RR and amazon.

  Aight. So now it's time for my usual song and dance of begging strangers for money. If you can give me it. Obviously.

  The best way to make sure I keep devoting time to this hobby is to help me cover the costs of the hobby which can be done through . Being a writer is actually pretty expensive time and money wise. I might have to get a job if the finances get too tight. (Although I doubt patreon would prevent that from happening even with how frugally I live). How about this, every person who donates on patreon gives me 2 meals a month with that $10. Giving me 2 meals a month gives you access to 5-10+ chapters (I'm trying to keep this promise. I try. College is rough sometimes) Now don't ask what I consider a meal with just $5. You don't need to know. Just know it's a meal.

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