The surroundings had shattered, and he had been summarily expelled from Kang’s system room and into Existentia proper. It was weird, as there was another moment of stilled time - presumably to allow his mind to integrate back into his real body seamlessly. Some serious system aid was taking place, because he had gone from standing to mid-step, and it didn’t feel at all unnatural.

  It was a surprisingly pleasant experience.

  Briana was still ahead, because, back then, all those weeks ago - at least for them - she had been fleeing from them. Those spatial relationships remained intact, even if the invisible emotional bonds of shared experience had changed beyond recognition. Two months spent elsewhere made what should have been familiar surroundings feel off. The overly-spacious, but stern wooden decorations of the orphanage felt almost alien.

  Then the grace period was over, and Briana stumbled slightly as she pulled to a halt. He completed his step and then decided to jog over.

  Time froze once more.

  An invitation from Eloise had appeared, and it was waiting for him to acknowledge it.

  Somehow, he knew this was a perfect freezing of time versus the immense slowing that the trial administrator had caused by triggering his trait, and a small part of him wondered if this bonus thinking time could be used strategically. He couldn’t cast spells in this state, but it did buy extra seconds to strategize. The critical question was, if no one accepted the offer, did the ability reset? Did they have an infinite time glitch on their hand that could be exploited? He doubted such strategic arbitrage was going to be allowed, but it was worth testing, especially if Adam - or DEUS - had put a finger on the scale to help them.

  If they had taken those steps, then, rather than this being an exploit, it could be an intended, if undisclosed, benefit of the ability.

  Because he wanted to test as much as possible, he didn’t accept the offer, and, after five seconds of relative time, he felt a mental prompt urging him to hurry up. The opportunity to join was passing, and, before it did so, he accepted.

  The real world vanished, and he was brought into a room of smooth marble walls and clean lines. It was wildly different from anything he had seen before, and was not done in any architectural style he recognised. There were weird spherical bulges rippling up the walls, and he wondered whether this was from Eloise’s imagination or a memory.

  Then he shook the thoughts away. Not only did it not matter - it was a conversation he could have at a future point, when there was no danger of discovery.

  His focus switched to people. This time, all of them were present, and they were standing in a comfortable distance from each other in a rough diamond shape.

  “Eloise! Your leg is fixed!” Briana squealed before engulfing Eloise in a hug.

  “And you look better. You were so sad and in so much pain.” Eloise exclaimed back, her face’s expression transforming into one of joy. The two girls clung to each other. There were tears of both relief and happiness running down their cheeks. Kang wrapped his own arms around the two of them, and, because it felt right, so did Tom.

  After about ten seconds of tight hugs, they broke apart, because they all knew they were on a timer.

  “This is going to be so good. I can’t wait to get Joseph back.”

  “Eloise!” Kang snapped, sounding affronted. “You can’t. We spoke lots about this.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. No showing off our powers. No one can know we came in here and survived. Blah, blah, blah.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “We know,” the small girl said tiredly. “I know. Because you’re a shitty reincarnator, we have to be secretive.”

  Kang shook his head. “No, that’s not the reason. It’s to protect you, not me or Tom. You can’t expose us. All you showing off your powers will do is make everyone think you’re the reincarnator and I don’t want you to be assassinated.”

  The topic was a heavier one than Tom wanted to talk about, but he couldn’t dispute the need. This was something they had to make the girls… well, if he was being honest, just Eloise… take seriously. Tom figured Kang was better at it than him, so he focused on Bri. “Briana, how are you feeling?” he asked.

  Everything fell apart around him, and Tom cursed internally as he realised that the session had timed out. Two of them had already used their once-a-day abilities, and he still hadn’t had a chance to assess Bri. Without hesitation, he engaged his own.

  Time froze, and he immediately threw himself into interpreting the boundaries. There were twenty seconds available to him, and all three of them were close enough to be included. He just needed to flex his mind in order to extend an invitation to each of them. If he wanted to just invite Briana, that would have been easy, but he knew she wasn’t going to like that, so he didn’t do it.

  It only took a single thought, and then he was standing in his own system room, with the other three at points of a square instead of a diamond. The room was the same as the one he had used throughout the tutorial and his first life in Existentia. His subconscious had banished the couch and screens that he had included in this life to monitor his body when in the system room.

  Kang looked around himself in disbelief and then doubled over, laughing. “Tom, is this really your system room?”

  He ignored the other reincarnator, as all of his attention was on Briana. “Bri, are you okay?”

  She touched her stomach area, and then, after a moment, poked it harder. A smile flickered across her face. “It feels normal.”

  “I’m sorry you had to suffer.”

  Her response was to hug him. “No, I’m sorry I dragged you there. It was my fault.”

  “Shh,” He whispered. “No one has to apologise for anything. We’ve all made mistakes, and we can fix that now, and we’ve got our whole lives to do it.”

  “No, seriously, Tom, is this your system room?”

  He twisted his neck around to glare at the other reincarnator. “Yes, it is. I set it up to avoid unnecessary emotional entanglements.”

  “You chose metal walls? Why?”

  Before he could respond, the session ended. A minute, he was discovering rapidly, did not last very long.

  Once more he transitioned back to Existentia and jogged toward Briana, only to have an invitation from her arrive before he reached her. He accepted immediately, then smiled as he glanced around. It was a system room that definitely had April’s touch on it.

  It wasn’t a standard room. It was closer to an outdoor garden. There was probably a ceiling, but an illusion that not even his special hidden ability could pierce made it look like a sunny sky with a few wisps of cloud. There was soft lush grass instead of a carpet, and the walls were hedges, with the closest one being almost twenty metres away from where they stood. It was a massive space, and there was even a refreshing breeze that complimented the sun that was high above them.

  “It’s beautiful.” Tom told her.

  “Yes, it’s where I go for the weekly trial. Or, at least, the start of it.” While she responded warmly enough, it was clear she was distracted and wanted to talk to Eloise. Tom didn’t blame her - the two girls had forged a strong friendship during the couple of months in the trial.

  He and Kang stepped discretely back to give them their privacy, then watched them as they chatted together.

  “Not a single picture, Tom?”

  He shrugged, only slightly embarrassed. “I didn’t want an incentive to stay within it permanently.”

  “Anyone ever told you that you’re weird?”

  “Yep. More than one.”

  Kang smiled at that. “For me, the room is a shrine. It’s too sad to stay in for long, but when I visit, I’m reminded of the stakes I’m fighting for.”

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “That’s the choice most people took.” Tom agreed.

  Kang shook his head, then sighed. “Girls, enough. We’re out of time. Remember, the darkhole trial never happened. Don’t show your new abilities to anyone. Don’t talk about it, either, unless we’re in one of these chats.”

  Both girls nodded vigorously. The session ended, and then they found themselves back in real life.

  Tom stopped running. Briana turned to face them, and, twenty seconds later, Eloise scampered up to them from the corridor behind them. Almost shyly, they gathered together, their covert glances conveying the weight of the history that now existed between them.

  “What now?” Eloise asked.

  For a moment, Tom wasn’t sure how to respond. What time had it been when the darkhole trial had drawn them in? What were they supposed to be doing?

  “Obstacle course,” Kang suggested after a moment’s thought.

  Briana agreed and rushed off in front of them. He could tell by the way she moved that she was excited at the opportunity to test her gains out, but, despite that, her hand was continually touching her side. The psychological scars from the petrification energy, Tom was certain, were going to be felt for a long time.

  They were alone in the room, and, after a couple of normal runs, he saw when Briana used a burst to increase her attributes to allow her to effortlessly go through the three obstacles that have been causing her problems.

  She got a personal best, and then stood proudly on the exit platform with a massive grin on her face. Eloise cheered her on, and the two were giggling together. It felt amazing to see her so carefree and happy after the months of stress.

  Content with how everything was progressing, he retreated to the Divine Champions’ trial to maximise the use of his time. He was disappointed to find out that Corrine was not available, but was not surprised. While his body got caught up in kid’s stuff, he used the time to slave away under Throm’s tutelage, and was amazed by how much he covered. The progress was equivalent to ten hours of effort rather than three. It was incredible, and he figured the break had refreshed him.

  “Fuck, they make survival courses hard,” Corrine announced as she slumped down beside him.

  Tom smirked at her.

  She did a double take and squinted at him suspiciously. “Why the fuck are you looking at me like that?”

  He concentrated for a moment and sent her a challenge.

  She stared at him in disbelief. “You want to fucking challenge me? You think I’m so fucking exhausted that it’ll give you a chance? You’re delusional if you think so.”

  Throm shifted his massive bulk. He seemed to be radiating a feeling of amusement. “I think a break would be useful for him.”

  “He doesn’t stand a fucking chance. I’ll butcher him, and, despite what I’ve done at the start, I don’t fucking like doing that.”

  “I’ve learnt a few tricks.”

  “He’s learnt some tricks,” Throm said in an overly-wise tone.

  They both glared at him, and the centipede raised a hundred arms in mock surrender. He was clearly amused by their interaction.

  “It’s been one fucking day, Tom. Yesterday, you told me that you were weeks away from anything that might make a fucking difference.”

  “Maybe I had an epiphany?”

  “An amazing epiphany.”

  “Shut up!” Corrine yelled at the centipede. “Your mindless comments aren’t welcome.”

  Suddenly, she seemed to freeze in time, and it took Tom a moment to realise what he was sensing. He stared up at the big centipede in disbelief.

  “Should I keep teasing her?”

  “You…” he responded dumbly. “You know.”

  “Of course I know.” A group of his hands waved at the complicated ritual he was creating out of wires. “It’s a very interesting trait that you’ve gained. You didn’t suddenly become three times faster at constructing wire frameworks, that’s for damn sure.”

  “You’ve been triggering it?”

  “Selectively. If you’re distracted, you don’t notice. That’s an issue you need to fix.”

  He scratched his head as he tried to remember the whole session. It had felt longer than normal, but he couldn’t recall any changes in time dilation. Somehow, the trait had been triggered without him noticing.

  “You’re right. It’s a problem.”

  “The issue is that your original trait can be tricked reasonably easily. I can focus hostile intent on you and suppress it. Your new trait is at a different level, and that doesn’t work, and that’s what I’ve abused. Before, you’ve been tracking your trait’s activation by measuring the disconnect between your perception and body movement.”

  “And if I can’t tell I’m losing the scouting potential… something can be out there wanting to kill me, and I won’t even notice.”

  “Yes, but most monsters and people you face won’t have the level of control I do. But some will, so you will have to learn how to recognise when your first trait activates. The good news is that I found the experiments to be fun, so we’ll continue.” It waved its arms at the wire framework he had created. “We’ll continue our experiments, yes. Of course, abusing these traits to increase your ritual construction speed is rightly frowned upon. Training my battle intent and your ability to notice shifts in attributes is a different matter.”

  “I…” he started to say, and then felt Throm’s focus shift away from him.

  Corrine flinched, appeared startled, and then glared at him suspiciously. “I must be more tired than I thought - you seemed to blur.”

  Tom smiled back at her blandly and refused to glance at Throm, or even to flick his eyes in the centipede’s direction. “If you want to concede my superiority, we can fight another day.”

  “No fucking way.”

  An instant later, he found himself on a flat, sandy surface. There was not a single other feature present that could be used in the battle.

  The eight second countdown passed, and they stood facing each other without either making a hostile move.

  Corrine sighed. “I’m too tired for this. What’s this about?”

  “I want to duel.”

  Across from him, she manifested her fire whip. It coiled around her in a clear threat. “I’m not going to go fucking easy on you.”

  “I don’t want you to.”

  “Then you’ll be crushed.”

  Tom shrugged. There were spell combinations she could launch that were likely to trouble him. The flame whip, however, was not one of them. His extra speed would allow him to avoid it, and, when his additional trait kicked in, he would have a casting advantage as well. “Do your best. As Throm said, I’ve learnt some new tricks.”

  “You said that. He just repeated it.”

  Tom shrugged again. “Whenever you’re ready.”

  The whip lashed toward him, and, rather than it being impossibly fast like the last time it had been used against him, Tom found he could follow its progress. His body, of course, reacted slower than he would have liked, but the extra speed he got from Corrine was sufficient to sidestep it. The whip flashed down, and the fire sizzled into the sand, melting it; however, he had only needed to buy a fraction of a second. The spell formed at a speed that was seemingly impossible relative to his usual casting expertise. As she casually flicked her whip to reload it for another strike, he infused the javelin with Power Strike, and precognition mana, and then launched it at her.

  It moved too fast for her to react, but she had cast defensive magic, and a magical shield intercepted his attack.

  The tip of his weapon flared green, and the shield shattered, and the almost-insubstantial projectile slammed into her now-effectively undefended stomach. It went through the thin armour as though it was not there, and then he saw that electricity crackled through her. She convulsed and fell, and the whip failed due to a lapse in concentration caused by the painful currents of electricity running through her body.

  Casually, he launched his physical spear at her prone body. If it had been a real fight, he would have used Power Strike to ensure it got through, but for this bout, there was no need. The weapon slammed into the sand next to her.

  It was close enough for her to feel the wind and the burst of grit that it caused to splash against her neck, but it did not make contact.

  Then Tom waited.

  It took almost ten seconds for the twitches going across her body to end. Then, when she regained the control of her muscles, she picked herself up from where she had landed. He smiled when she glanced at the weapon he had thrown. “You fucking missed.”

  “Did I?”

  “How bad’s your fucking throwing form? You missed from less than ten metres away.”

  “It’s good.” With a thought, he materialised one of the physical Javelins he had grabbed from the armoury and threw it in a single smooth motion. Power Strike infused the weapon a moment before the impact, and the javelin split the shaft. It was not all the way through, but it penetrated a full foot into the base of the weapon.

  The accuracy of the throw, and what it would have done to an unprotected human body, was pretty clear.

  Corrine stared at it and raised an eyebrow. “Impressive. So you didn’t miss, but instead chose to let me live. Don’t tell me that a pretty face is one of your weaknesses?”

  “I didn’t want to kill a fellow human.”

  She smirked. “That was an interesting bout. You seem to have a few tricks up your sleeve.”

  “As Throm said.”

  “Shut up about him.”

  This time, it was Tom’s turn to grin. “You haven’t seen them all yet.”

  That got the reaction he expected. Surprise flared over her face. “More than a lightning spear and a remote shield breaking?”

  “Yes. Enough to crush you consistently.” He bragged, even though he was pretty confident that wouldn’t be the case.

  Her eyebrows rose. “Are you being fucking serious? You won one round. Do you really want to go again and lose your bragging rights?”

  “Who said anything about losing?”

  “Fine. Fucking reset and we’ll go again.”

  Since it was a friendly duel, Tom found that he could reset things, and, when he did so, the spear he had thrown appeared in his hand, unharmed, and the javelin back in his storage space. They were also separated, back to their usual starting locations.

  The eight second countdown started up again.

  This time, Tom knew, he would not get the benefit of her taking it easy. She had seen him dodge the whip, and so would likely counter the risk of him avoiding her attack by using a more potent strike, something with either a larger impact area or a faster deliver speed. He was willing to bet on the first.

  The instant the countdown ended, he felt Corrine lock onto him, and the time dilation struck.

  He burnt a single burst.

  Five ranks of attributes gain, plus the extra rank from the difference between Corrine and himself, kicked in instantly. He sprang to the side, anticipating the attack.

  Flames exploded from the spot he had been standing. They spread rapidly, but being able to move five times faster than usually got him out of the danger area.

  His Lightning Javelin formed while he was still in motion, and his perception was sped up enough that he had time enough to aim carefully and adjust for his rapid sideways movement.

  Then the second of boosted speed came to an end.

  He had crossed almost ten metres during the time, and, behind him, there was an inferno that covered around six metres. It was the size of a large living room.

  Corrine had not held back, but it hadn’t helped her. He had escaped the attack, and she stood with electricity crackling through her, somehow standing still, even with her muscles locking up.

  He charged her while keeping an eye out for any suspicious magical activity.

  Her eyes, he noticed, were shut, and so she didn’t see him coming. When he reached her, he gently prodded her on the shoulder with the butt of his spear.

  She toppled over with a squeal of outrage, but managed to gain sufficient control of her muscles to convert the fall into a more controlled landing.

  She sprang to her feet a moment later and spat out the sand that had gotten into her mouth from her face plant:

  “How the fuck are you doing this? How did you move so fucking fast? And you’ve got both the skill and spell you were looking to gain? What the fuck, Tom?!”

  Tom laughed at her look of amazement:

  “I have a lot to tell you.”

  The Distinguished Mr. Rose

  by QuiteTheSlacker

  There is one thing Lucius values in life above all else, and that is beauty.

  As the humble owner of a flower boutique, one with a bloody secret hiding underneath, Lucius is surrounded by all the beauty he could ever want. Flowers, art, and even people... everything in no short supply.

  But when he's suddenly whisked away into the sky along with the rest of humanity, and forced to participate in a series of games, trials, and adventures into foreign dimensions by astral beings, Lucius discovers a new frontier full of possibility. This wide universe, these unique lands brimming with beautiful, blossoming souls—the world is endless, and so too is inspiration.

  With style, with grace, and with a gentlemanly candor, Lucius seeks to draw out the inner beauty in all.

  And he will not rest until they bloom as their truest selves.

  CONTAINS: A villainous, but gentlemanly MC, excursions into a wide variety of worlds, classes and skills, deception and manipulation, tea parties.