The Training Grounds

I was taken to some training grounds outside of Master Croghan’s tower. It was a large place, about half the size of a soccer field, and had tall walls reaching to the sky. There were hay dummies and archery targets lying around, and on the far end, a stairway locked behind steel bars.

“Is this it?” I said.

“Yes, this is it,” said Master Croghan. “What, were you expecting a high and mighty royal academy battle ring, hmm?”

“No,” I said. “I wanted to ask if this is where I would train. I apologize, Master Croghan.”

Master Croghan scoffed.

“Train, you say?” he said. “You could call it that, I suppose. We will test your capabilities here as a ReConstruct here, Number BS-8.”

“ReConstruct?”

“Yes,” said Master Croghan. “You are the first of your kind, Number BS-8. Never before has the soul of a human been transferred into that of a golem. With success, at least. Yes, there have been artificial souls placed in golems to turn them into sentries, but they are anchored to a place and are incapable of thought. You are different. You are a living, intelligent soul, but stronger, tougher, and simply put, invincible. You are the future of humanity, my creation. You are ReConstruct.”

I gave a gave a light tilt back and forth, in mimicry of a nod.

“I understand,” I said. “And what is my purpose?”

I just hoped that I would not be sent to go against people.

“You will be fighting monsters,” answered Master Croghan.

“Monsters?”

Master Croghan and Apprentice Sybille walked back into the gate from where we came and raised the bars high again.

“You will fight against that,” said Master Croghan.

He tapped the ground twice with his staff, and then the gate opposite to me opened.

Some kind of creature stepped out. It was something like a lizard, but bigger. Far bigger. It was a lot like a Komodo dragon, but larger, and a lot greener. Its eyes were also glowing, just like mine.

“What is that?” I said.

“That, my ReConstruct, is a monster,” said Master Croghan. “Specifically, a drakmar. They are plentiful little critters with a penchant for killing livestock. Leave them unattended, and sometimes they snatch people too. Let them be, and they sometimes become dragons. Your task currently is to kill the one in front of you.”

I clenched my fist and turned towards the drakmar in the ring. We walked slowly, moving in a circle, sizing each other up.

“I do not want to hurt an animal,” I said.

Master Croghan cackled.

“An animal?” he said. “Number BS-8, that thing is a monster. It is not an animal you are hurting.”

“Monster or not, it is alive. I do not want to cause it pain.”

The drakmar leapt to me, pouncing with its front legs, and biting at my head. I grabbed it, trying to pull it away, but its ferocity was relentless.

“Oh, Dark Heavens…” muttered Master Croghan. “Just kill it. It is a monster. It does not feel pain.”

If I had an eyebrow, I would have raised it.

“It doesn’t?” I said.

I shielded against it with my forearm, trying to push it away from the neck.

“It is a monster,” insisted Master Croghan. “See for yourself.”

“Still…!”

I did not want to hurt something I could avoid hurting. Nonetheless, the lizard kept latching on to me, breaking past my guard, and biting my head.

“Knock it… off!”

I forcefully pushed it away. As I did, however, I miscalculated my strength, and sank my hand into its chest. It was at that moment that the creature’s core crumbled like sand. It had no internal organs. It had nothing. It was just uniform matter with the shape of a creature on top.

The drakmar fell to the ground and dissipated into a smoke of purple dust.

“What was that?” I said.

“It was a monster,” said Master Croghan. “There are many like it, and in all different shapes and sizes. In the end, they are all just things made from accumulations of mana. They are not alive in the same way you are. They have no pain and desires. As far a thought as they have is how to kill and how to prolong their existence. That is the one and only thing they want to do. Simply put, they are just about as alive as the apple I ate this morning. They are alive only technically so.”

I closed my fist.

“I see,” I said. “So, they should all be killed. That is why I am here. To fight them.”

Master Croghan raised an eyebrow.

“You could say that,” he said. “Now, you see that dust that it left behind? Those are mana ashes. Leave them like that and you will get another drakmar in a few days. To get rid of them we usually burn them, use them as fuel, what not, but you are different. You can absorb it. Do it.”

“Absorb it?”

“Use the runes on your hand.”

I looked into a strange carving on the palm of my hand. It had been glowing for a while now, but only faintly. As I let my arm reach towards the dust, its glow became stronger and stronger.

“Absorb it!” insisted Master Croghan.

A new concept came into my mind. It was as though I could move a new arm or breathe through a new lung again. It was something that I could never have done before.

I instinctively managed to control the fallen ashes and raised them as though with telekinesis. I poured them into the rune in my arm, taking it on into my body. Right there and then, energy surged through my body. The cracks on my head, the scratches on my chest, they all were getting healed over by the mana.

“Well?” said Master Croghan.

“I feel stronger,” I said.

“That is the idea. Absorb more monsters, and you will get stronger. Your body is a mana-refinement machine. Keep using it, and you will become unstoppable. Now, then…”

“I have an idea.”

“Hmm?”

I aimed my arm towards one of the training dummies.

“What are you doing…?” muttered Sybille.

I focused my aim towards the dummy, and channeled energy into my arm… and then, into the rune in the palm of my hand. If I could absorb mana, then surely…

Blast!

I unleashed a green blast of energy across the field and pulverized the dummy to bits.

“My, my,” said Master Croghan. “Isn’t that novel? I never thought that the design would be able to do that.”

“I got the idea from somewhere else,” I confessed. “Maybe I could fly too. If I had some runes in my feet…”

Master Croghan scratched his bearded chin.

“I would not be sure about that,” he said. “Your weight is considerable. I will try to carve the runes, but I am not sure that sustained propulsion through feet could…”

Apprentice Sybille tugged at Master Croghan’s sleeve.

“Master!” she said. “What about wings? If we could install some flaps to his back, maybe they could stabilize him enough for flight!”

Master Croghan cackled.

“That is not a half-bad idea, my apprentice,” he said. “I will add it to the short list. Agreeable until then, Number BS-8?”

I wanted to nod. Being like this was quite problematic for expression.

“Yes,” I said.

That was enough.

As I turned around, however, a second tower adjacent to the field caught my eye.

“What are you looking at?” said Master Croghan.

“That big tower over there,” I said. “What is in there?”

The Master went silent.

“It is nothing that you need to be concerned about,” he said. “Come. I have some matters to go over with you.”