Orakalos

After being told about my power I was sent to Orakolos to train it should be easy since I'm being trained by gods. I am excited to meet others.

The city looks busy with gods working. At least that’s what I think they do I’m not sure what someone who never ages does with all that time.

The city is weirdly enough on a planet which came as a shock to me. I mean I thought gods lived in clouds and rained judgment down to mortals through lightning and plagues and random punishments but if they are more like us then I thought. Maybe I could have one of them fight with me. After all, maybe other gods were tasked with saving worlds on this planet.

I am thinking of way too many maybes.

I suppose I should begin training. Walking towards the training complex or what looks like it, I notice just how serene this city looks. This part of town is marble white with different accents of blue complementing it beautifully. Most look like temples with how detailed the design is. The training complex is divided into 2 colors, one on each half. Dark blue and Dark red.

‘Hmm, I don’t see anywhere specific to go.’

I walk over to a brawny-looking man looking admiring swords and the like.

‘Hello I am here for training do you know perhaps where I would go’

‘You are in the right place son. This is the only training complex that all who live here come to improve at.’

Well it is the only one so not much competition

‘I am Sergios, the god of training.’

The god of training? Seems pretty specific.

‘ I didn’t realize there were gods of training’

‘Well it is my specialty, I love training people and seeing them grow.

Besides you can become a god for most things. Are your parents gods or powerful immortals?’

‘I came by myself’

‘My mistake I didn’t realize you were a powerful immortal or god.’

‘I’m not’

He looks confused

‘Then how are you here.'

‘I was sent here to train.'

His eyebrows widen

‘Well hit me as hard as you can right now and I can get a fair estimate of your ability.'

I punch him right in the jaw and my fist is stopped with his face not budging at all.

'You really didn't hesitate to hit me huh? Well from the fact that my face hasn't moved a centimeter I'll assume you are not very strong.'

'Correct.'

'Probably even weaker than child immortals.'

‘What do you mean?’

‘Children of immortals or gods will almost always pass down some power however even if they don’t they can usually raise their kids and take advantage of the boost of training from a god they know or themselves.’

‘Hmm, so I am weak but surely the god of training can make me a master right?'

‘Well, we will see what we can do for you. Training starts tomorrow. ' He smiles.

Awe yeah training with a god.

Day 1 of training

I come to the training complex the morning after and see only Sergios. 'Hey doesn't training start today?'

'Today you will just be settling into the dorm. Students live here while they train to optimize the amount of time and ease of return after intense sessions.'

'I see.'

Makes sense

'I will show you to your room you can go out but don't for too long. you should rest for as long as possible.'

The room is just a bed and a dresser and a training dummy. To be honest it looks more like a slightly bigger closet than a room. Must be to strengthen my resolve or something. After Sergios leaves I draw my sword and start slicing the dummy. After 15 seconds of constant hits I stop. The dummy regenerates Its ripped skin. Hmm, that's cool I can try out things with this.

If only I had some cool skills to use on this. Maybe I should explore the plaza where some of the gods hang out.

Later that day

I walk into a plaza where some gods are flying around and others are selling items.

My mind starts racing

This place is huge, some gods have stands where they sell items or let everyone see them training their powers. Makes sense that gods would want to buy and sell items of godlike quality to each other.

I walk by a man who is causing a rock to launch up at the ceiling and back down to the ground. I look away for one second and then I see that he is on the ceiling. He is wearing a mask colored half white and half black with a top hat and a suit.

'Whoa, how did you get up there.'

He smiles ' Well an interested person. Allow me to explain. I am Gravitos the god of gravity. I can choose where the source of gravity for my body with an easy spell. Care to learn?'

With that name, he was destined to be the god of gravity

'I wish I could but I have no money. Sorry.'

'No need I would be happy to teach anyone interested in such a great power for free.'

'Well, I suppose if you are offering.’

I look over and start walking towards him

'Come come. Watch how I perform this spell'

He opens his hand up and then closes it and all of a sudden he is flipped upside down.

After looking around I realized. I'm the one flipped upside down.

'Woah how do I do this.'

'This spell is called Gravity Source. It is the most fundamental of all the gravity spells. It allows you to make an object your source of gravity. All you have to do is envision the object. After saying the incantation of ‘I control gravity, Gravity source change. Then the spell will do the rest! ‘

'Sounds amazing.'

I look at the ground. well, the real ground not the one I'm currently on, and imagine it as the regular ground, and well it is the regular ground.

‘I control gravity, Gravity Source Change, Ow’

When I open my eyes I am flat on the floor in the shop

I fall face-first onto the ground.

'Well, that was to be expected. My teaching can only help you so much. Don't worry you will get used to it in no time. We can keep on practicing for a while and luckily this skill requires little experience to level up.'

I get up. Mastering this spell would be cool and it might come in handy somehow.

An hour goes by in training and I already feel exhausted.

'Why am I so tired.'

'Most likely you have run out of mana. Abilities can't just be cast infinitely for free. These things require resources to work. Unfortunately, mana takes a while to come back but I can give you some of mine since yours is so low, to begin with.'

After a few more hours of training, I eventually get to the point where I can reliably do it without losing control.

' That was awesome and it didn't take that long to become decent at it. '

'Alright time for the second spell. Gravity Change. With this, you can change the intensity of the gravity on a person. you can increase it or decrease it. Watch and learn.'

He begins the incantation

'I Control gravity. Gravity change 3'

All of a sudden I feel like the planet is forcing me to the ground. I lay down and I feel a sense of relief. My body felt like standing up was taking my entire being. after about 15 seconds it fades

'Wow, that seems like it could be great in combat. why don't I just cast it before I attack.'

'Unfortunately, the gravity spell takes a percentage of mana instead of a flat amount so even gods with high amounts will be drained by using it. It might work on a mortal however enemies who are strong like gods will probably be able to resist it anyway. So that doesn't do much, unfortunately. To be honest neither does decreasing gravity. even if you increased it by 1000 times my gravity spells are merely just something that will force someone down for a few seconds.'

He begins to talk with a sadder tone as he goes on about the downsides of his spells

'They could cause damage theoretically. The biggest problem is most gods or immortals have enough strength to resist the effects of this change until it runs out and with the amount of mana it uses it would be easier to just use a spell that does more damage more reliably and for cheaper. The only saving grace is that even as a novice, you will probably only be able to increase gravity highly for a few seconds. I can for longer as a god but even still everyone says there are much better ways to stun somebody than just increasing the gravity. That's why nobody wants to learn them.'

He frowns looking at the ground.

'Hmm, why don't you need to do the incantation for the first spell but you do it for the second spell?'

He stops for a second and puts his finger on his chin

'Well, incantations are good for learning spells since they focus your mind to do the task the spell is trying to accomplish. They also usually take less mana than casting without the incantation since it's faster to focus on the spell. However, some spells require rapid use or concurrent use with other spells so many just don't use it after maxing it out and becoming comfortable with it. Plus most god's mana pools are high enough to not even need the bit of mana saved by the incantation. I suppose it's like a man of great wealth not needing to worry about prices compared to an impoverished man trying to save every bit he can.'

'That makes sense.'

Damn the fact I'm not immortal means I have less mana too. Which means I can't cast spells as much as they can.

'What happens if you use more mana than your body has?'

'Well, you can go into mana debt. However, It's terrible which is why it's almost avoided at all costs. Your mana goes into the negative numbers and takes a minimum of 4 times longer to regenerate. It also increases the cost of all abilities the more you are in debt and takes a great toll on your body if you go too high. It is no exaggeration to say that even a god with hundreds of thousands of mana in debt could be no more of a threat than a mortal with no training.'

'But you gave me mana earlier why don't people do that? Is it still not enough?'

'Yes, and it's not as easy as just taking mana from others. If you are a god your mana pool is extremely high and mortals, in general, have extremely low mana pools. Giving mana to others has the same penalty as mana debt. I only gave some to you since yours is so low and it does not do much to me. Plus I have acquired all skills that increase mana regeneration I could along with drinking potions since my spells do take percentages. Some Gods mana pools take days or weeks to fully regenerate. '

'I see you are dedicated to the end with gravity. Well, thank you for the spells and lessons about mana. I apologize for my ignorance. Is there any more I should know about these spells?'

'Hmm well, technically you can make any object your source of gravity and If it is in the air it will detach from the planet's gravity. You will move towards it once you declare what gravity you are using.'

'So if I threw something into the sky and made it my source of gravity and applied the amount of gravity I would just go flying towards it.'

'Yes, it would probably cease being your source of gravity once you hit it and it was destabilized. That is all you should know for now. Just keep practicing the spells and you should become max level in no time.'

'Alright thanks, gravitos, hopefully, I can put these to good use.'

'No thank you, another happy user is all I need.'

After leaving I reflect on the encounter. I feel bad for Gravitos. He knows how bad his spells are but he loves them anyway. I suppose sometimes we are drawn to things that aren't always the most optimal things possible because we don't want to suffer doing something we don't like.

Well, I will use his spells in a great way and prove they are amazing.

However, it does makes sense why they are so easy to learn then. They are almost just passive spells rather than anything combat or support. I can't imagine these would do really anything in battle if they are resisted easy

I think about it some more and walk back to my room.

I return home and spar with the training dummy again this time using my newly acquired spells.

'Gravity change 10' I imagine the dummy.

When I open my eyes the dummy looks like nothing is happening.

I kick it but it seems extremely sturdy.

Well I guess it was made to stand up by itself

I guess ill just keep trying this for a while

after cycling back between resting and using the spell more I am exhausted. Not only that I realize even more how hard these spells are to use well. Since the dummy doesn't use energy to stand up because it's designed to stand up the gravity basically does nothing to it and it is made with magic. I don't know if that affects it but worth mentioning. All this means I can't even practice on the dummy. But at least using it on a target gives me experience so I guess it's not all bad. I try using 100 and just using it takes all my mana.

Afterward, I lay down and start thinking. I'm so excited, I can't wait to be powerful like these gods. I mean if I have a god training me it should be easy. Like how when Gravitos did I was able to learn super easily. Saving worlds after powering up should be a piece of cake. I wonder what I should become the god of? Alpha said all you have to do is pass some trials but I have a bunch of people all around me who have passed them and I could learn from the god who had the same specialty I want to become.

Day 2 Of Training

Hmm everyone in this class looks normal. we are lined up in rows of 2 in an inside dojo-looking area.

Sergios looks around.

'Alright, today we have a new student.'

I am about to introduce myself but Sergios continues

'Today we will train 1 on 1. You will be with me for now'

Sergios walks over to me and hands me a wooden sword. Once we begin training I can't even keep up with him. All the other students look at me as I keep losing.

'Damn why am I so weak'

This continues for the week.

Every time I walk into class I get weird stares.

Day 4 of training

'Alright, you can try training with the person next to you now.' Sergios says

Next to me is a boy who looks about 15 with blonde hair.

Hmm, this shouldn't be too bad I mean he is just a kid.

I look and say "Hey my name is Neon, I'm a mortal so please go easy on me'

the kid smirks back.

'Neon huh? I'm Percy don't worry I will go extremely easy on you. You look like your extremely weak anyway.'

Who does this kid think he is. He acts like a seasoned god in a beginner's training class.

Brushing off that idea I say 'Let's go.'

I begin to draw my sword but before I can even reach above my waist he has already kicked me right in the gut. Knocked to the floor I feel like the air in my lungs was sucked out.

'hmmph I knew you were a weakling'

What does that even mean, I mean who wouldn't get knocked down by that I had 1 second to react and didn't even have my sword out.

'what the hell are you' - I say with barely any breath

'I am the god of speed Nike's son. I have perfected father's speed technique and I'm only 50 years old.'

This must be some sort of joke. I mean first off why the hell is he using a power like that in a light sparring match. Didn't he say he was going easy? In what universe is a hit where you have less than a second to react considered easy? And why the hell does this 50-year-old look 15-years-old? Everyone here looks 13-18. I mean at least they look that way. Is there a way-... No Don't tell me he could be way older I mean Alpha did mention that gods can stay the same age that they choose. But who would choose to look like they are 15?

'I can't believe you actually thought I would go easy Hahaha. I guess mortals really are just insolent fools.'

Sergios looks over and says' Neon are you alright? Percy, you should go easy especially since he is a mortal. They are very delicate.'

Sergios laughs

Does he know I can hear him? I didn't die or pass out. I brush it off and painfully get back up.

'I'm fine this at least lets me know how strong I can strive to be.'

Percy bites his lip and starts laughing hysterically

'HAHAHA you think you could ever come close to becoming as powerful as a god or an immortal. ? You really are just a foolish mortal.'

I look around and the other kids or should I say 'kids' are smirking and holding back laughter.

'What's so funny?'

'Don't you know how hard it is to become this strong? We were born powerful and most of us trained extremely hard with our parents. We will not be outdone by some mortal. You will never become as strong as any of us.'

'Why can't I become as strong as you and Why do you hate me so much!? I haven't done anything to you. You act like I killed someone close to you.'

'You did. You mortals are all the same. You walk into this class thinking we are equals when you are nothing compared to any of us. You think you can reach my level. You think you can get help from us and become like us. You are just like those damn mortals that have destroyed my family. My mother was too kind to you fools. She was too peaceful to resist and look at what happened to her. She is gone. Now you are here trying to use the gods to become as strong as us. We are not tools for you to use to fix all your problems at our expense. You being here is a disgrace to her. The way you walk around like you are equals to all of us. Like we have been through equal amounts of pain. We have all lost so much and yet you have lost nothing. Just seeing you here makes me angry.'

While I can't dispute this since I can't remember just the idea that this could be applied to any mortal makes no sense.

Percy starts walking to me with the sword.

Surely Sergios will stop this. as I look back Sergios is watching.

I blink. Pain. I look down and there is a sword in my chest.

Sergios says' Thank goodness you got rid of him. Couldn't believe he thought he could actually get in here and train.'

While bleeding out I say

' Damn you, damn all of you. I never did anything to any of you.'

'Foolish mortal. Your presence was enough.'

I look towards who said that and I see Sergios smiling.

So it was a setup from the beginning huh.

Before fading to death I think to myself. How could this happen? I wasn't even killed by fighting on the planet I am trying to save.

.

.

.

.

'Welcome back' Alpha says with his glowing fox mask.

I end up back this time in a field. Well, he was not lying I did come back to life. But currently, that is the least of my concerns

'What the hell was that? As soon as I get my memories back I am leaving.' i reply angrily.

'That?'

'Why did they hate me? Why did they kill me? in fact, why did you send me there if you knew they wouldn't like me?'

' I had to let you see that not all gods would be your ally. You probably think your journey will be easy. Those gods hate mortals. Virtually all the gods on Orakolos hate mortals. That is why they live on a planet that mortals aren't allowed to be on. However, I did not think that it would happen this fast or radically. I didn't even think they would recognize you as a mortal. Well until you announced it I guess.'

'Then why are they training?'

He lets out a great sigh of sadness. Looking down he says

'They wish to conquer planets and enslave mortals.'

'But gods are supposed to help mortals not harm them!'

'Many of the gods on Orakolos have bad histories with mortals. Many were betrayed, others were hated. Some just heard what had happened to gods who were closed and started hating mortals through that. Mortals generally fear what they do not know and they especially fear what they can not control if they believe it has a possibility of ever going against them. You would be wise to remember that.'

'Does that give them to right to murder and enslave as they please?!'

'No it doesn't but one thing you must learn is that this happens all over the universe. There are many bad people all over the universe. Immortal or not. However, most gods have enough power to impose their will without any resistance from those they are imposing it on. Power is the ultimate deciding factor. The strongest control everything especially when the gap between them is so big. Good or bad, only someone willing to stand up to them and strong enough will be able to stop them. Still want to leave after you get your memories back?'

'I will think about it.'

'Good your next place to go will be Pride. But we will train a little bit first since I'm sure you didn't get an opportunity to train in Orakolos. I will train you for 1 week.'