After the cadets had all followed the First Lieutenant down into the dark underground tunnels of Genova, they’d all ended up inside a giant dome-like cave at the end of a narrow tunnel.
As soon as they stepped inside the cave, the cadets were left in awe at the amazing sight that stood before them. The entirety of the cave, from the walls to the very floor was covered in magnificent crystals radiating a beautiful crystalline blue. Somewhere along the middle of the cave, a crystalline stream of pure water ran from one wall to the other, separating the entire dome into two almost equal sides. Compared to the previous caves they’d encountered on Genova, vegetation was extremely sparse?—?almost as much as on the surface?—?although the cool underground air remained.
The cadets all closed their torchlight as they made their way deeper inside the cave, slowly walking around the dome which was around 10 meters in diameter. Some of the cadets immediately made a beeline for the stream, and after testing the water, started filling the empty reservoirs in their backpacks, with Jake doing the same.
Ed, what is this?
[This is a biotic vein, where biotic crystals grow naturally. Biotic crystals are the primary compound used in the manufacture of stims, among other things, although they are far from being the most valuable thing here.]
The cadets looked at each other for a moment, and Jake guessed they’d also just received clarifications coming from their implants, although he still felt just as confused as when he’d first stepped inside the cave. Yes, the crystals were valuable, but what did it mean for them? Surely they’d need to give the crystals to the Intersystem Alliance, so getting excited over something they couldn’t use felt pretty stupid.
[ Hold on, kid. As I was saying, the most valuable thing here isn’t the crystals, but the vein itself. In this cave, your biotic energy will recover around 4,92 faster than normal, allowing you to make tremendous gains in your spec in a short amount of time.]
Jake almost gasped at the sudden realization that came with the implant’s information. If they could stay here for some time, Jake would be able to upgrade his specs multiple times in a single week.
“I’ve already received confirmation from Officer Gwyra and the Headquarters, they’re allowing us to stay here for an entire week so that we can work on your specs. First of all, I want everyone to set up camp as fast as possible, we’re beginning training in 5 minutes.” Officer Neilr announced.
“Yes, sir!” The cadets answered, with unusual enthusiasm.
In the end, it barely took the cadets a few seconds to set everything up before they all made their way back to the First Lieutenant, going as fast as their battered and exhausted body could manage. It was probably the first and only time they’d be getting excited over Officer Neilr’s training, although the feeling was quickly replaced by the usual loathing that came with the officer’s gruesome training regimen.
After the entire week of training inside the cave had passed in the blink of an eye, and it was clear as day that every single cadet had improved by leaps and bounds. As per usual, they had spent most of their time either fighting duels, undergoing combat training or doing regular basic training aimed at strengthening their bodies, all of this while absorbing the ambient biotic energy to improve their spec. None of the cadets had worn their armour even once during the entire week, instead choosing to spend every unit of biotic energy available to improve their attributes, and it had paid off huge dividends.
Name: Jake Hawkins
Rank: Cadet
Energy Core: 80/80
Recovery Rate: 0.4
Strength: 15
Dexterity: 17
Constitution: 14
Recovery: 14
Perception: 18
Cognition: 23
[Basic Reinforcement | Lvl. 11 | All attributes +11, Core +55]
[Basic Telekinesis | Lvl. 1]
[Basic Biotic Reinforcement | Lvl. 3]
During the last week, Jake had managed to improve his spec a total of three times thanks to the increased recovery that came with the biotic vein’s proximity. Overall, this meant he’d finally reached a total of 80 units in core capacity, which was four times as high as when he’d first awakened.
However, his improvements were leagues below those of his squadmates, who’d all managed to improve their spec by at least five entire levels. The reason why their growth had been that much more noticeable was because the boost in energy density from the inside of the biotic vein could only improve his natural biotic energy recovery, which excluded the bonus that came from his father’s amulet. Such artifacts had been made to provide a constant influx of biotic energy to their wearers, hence would not be affected by the cave’s extreme density of energy.
It meant that during his stay inside the vein, his biotic energy recovery had reached a record high of 1,845 units per minute, on top of the 1 bonus unit from his amulet, for a total of 2,845 units. On the other hand, the other cadets all possessed a natural biotic recovery located anywhere between 1,5 to 2,7, which meant their total biotic energy recovery had reached anywhere between 6 to 13 units per minute inside the cave, which represented an amount many times superior to Jake's.
Ryan, Kirk and Owens, for example, had each gained a total of 6 levels during the last week, placing their specs at the 14th level, giving them all a huge bonus to their cores and attributes.
Even though he’d made tremendous gains on his own, Jake couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed at the huge gap that had once again been dug between him and the other cadets. He’d worked extremely hard to catch up, yet he‘d been thrown back at the bottom of his promotion again, making it that much harder to reach them again moving forward.
Jake was still lost in thought when the First Lieutenant’s voice echoed inside the cavern.
“We’re leaving in 5, make sure everything is packed by then.” He said, in his usual impatience.
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“Yes, sir!”
It barely took the cadets a minute to put back their shelters and sleeping bags inside their backpacks, and they didn’t waste a single second before they all made their way back up to the surface along with the commanding officer. It wasn’t like they were eager to get back to the surface, but spending a week inside a small cave cramped up with other people will turn claustrophobic even the most courageous of cadets. More importantly, every single one of them was more than willing to test their new strength against the Vertaerax. They were still making their way up across the tunnels when Jake spoke up.
“I wish we could have stayed there forever.” He said while letting out a small sigh.
“Actually, we couldn’t.” Owens objected. “Our bodies can only absorb so much biotic energy above its usual, natural rate before it starts suffering from energy toxicity. We would have probably started to feel the aftereffects of the toxicity within the next few days, at the latest.”
“That’s too bad, having your spec go up multiple times in a week is borderline addictive,” Jake answered, lost in thoughts.
It barely took half an hour for them to reach the surface, and they had barely stepped outside of the exit tunnels before they fell face to face with over a hundred Vertaerax Spawns, who’d visibly been waiting for them to come out of the tunnels.
“Wow, and here I thought the cave sucked,” Kirk said aloud, “Anyone wants to go back in?”
Jake smirked as he activated his strengthening skill before he took position around the other cadets according to his implant’s instructions. His body had recovered a lot since their last fight with the Vertaerax a week ago, but he was still covered in wounds that’d barely begun closing up, with their commanding officer’s gruesome training regimen playing no small part in that fact.
Moments later, leagues of Spawns fell on the cadets, and Jake’s sword almost felt light in his hands as he swung it around with unprecedented speed. Even his body fell lighter as he weaved around the Spawns with a speed that could almost finally rival theirs, cleaving one or two enemies with every swing of his gigantic sword. But it seemed that even with his newly improved spec, his dexterity still wasn’t on par with the Spawns, who kept slicing and biting at him mostly unimpeded, adding on to the already imposing collection of wounds littering his body.
Jake looked all around to see that his squadmates seemed even better off than he was, with Owens, Ryan and Kirk each mowing through leagues of enemies. Especially Kirk, whose dexterity seemed to be on a whole new tier now that he’d improved his spec to level 14th, seemed even faster than the spawn as he weaved around the enemies like a leaf in the wind. The creatures could barely lay a claw on him as he danced around them, slicing them in two with his lightning-fast shortsword.
Overall, it only took the cadets a little under 5 minutes to decimate the entire legion of Spawns that had been waiting for them outside of the cave. Even with Jake’s meagre energy reserves, he hadn’t even been able to spend all of his biotic energy before his sword fell on the last spawn. While their progress in all of their attributes had played a role in killing the creatures, it was clear that the improved dexterity brought by levelling up their spec had been the deciding factor in this battle, with only Jake ending up covered in wounds by the end of the squirmish.
“Not bad. Glad to see you lot haven’t wasted that week inside the vein. Let’s keep moving, I’ve just received news from First Lieutenant Gwyra, things are getting pretty rough over at the settlement, so let’s not waste any time and take care of that nest before things get out of hand.” Officer Neilr suddenly let out as the cadets caught their breath.
“Yes, sir!” They all answered as they started running again toward the nest.
That day, Team B managed to travel for almost 60 kilometers, only stopping to fight off the Vertaerax or to catch their breath. It was only once they finally took their first real pause of the day that Jake realized how drained he was. Now that the others’ attributes had improved by leaps during the last week, the officer had noticeably increased the pace. On top of all that, even with his newly improved attributes, Jake’s sword was still a pain to carry and fight with, on top of the sniper he had yet to use even once during his assignment which felt more and more like dead weight as time went on. Jake was having trouble keeping up with the group more than ever before, and by the time they finally stopped running, he was simply exhausted, and he fell to the ground as soon as the officer ordered a halt.
“You okay?” Kirk asked from the side.
“Y-yeah, just a little tired. I’ll be okay in a few minutes.” Jake answered, his voice shaking and barely louder than a whisper.
“Want me to carry your sword for you?” Ryan suddenly asked, “That’s why you’re so tired, right?”
Jake looked at the giant for a second, and for a moment he was tempted to accept his offer, but in the end, he finally declined.
“Don’t worry about me, I should reach the next level of my spec in no time. It’ll be a lot easier then.” Jake answered, forcing himself to sound a lot more enthusiastic than he felt.
Of course, Jake knew only improving his spec by a level wouldn’t change much of anything, and even then he was still pretty far away from the next level, so he couldn’t rely on an upgrade to pull through the next few days. Still, Jake kept a confident expression as his two friends?—?along with Owens?—?all looked at him visibly concerned. He would die before he’d let someone else carry his stuff for him, and certainly not one of his friends. If anything, carrying the sword around acted as a good form of training for his spec?—?which improved faster when one was under great physical strain.
As always, the cadets set up camp immediately as soon as the officer ordered a halt before they began cooking a few slabs of Crawler meat on the stove. After an intense day without food or water, it felt amazing to finally eat something, even though the insectoid meat wasn’t exactly his favourite meal.
By the time they were done eating, most of the cadets went to sleep right away as Jake and Owens had both been assigned to the first round of guard.
“Are you going to be okay tomorrow?” She suddenly asked as soon as they sat down near the stove, which offered a pleasant warmth in the cold night of Genova.
“Of course, I already feel much better. Also, carrying that sword all day makes my spec progress a lot faster, which is kind of necessary for me as I have the shittest core in the history of mankind.” He answered, making Owens chuckle for a bit.
“All right then, if you say so.” She answered, giving him a small smile.
Suddenly, Jake lay flat on his back after a moment. He’d never really noticed before, but the night sky on Genova was something else entirely. On his home planet, the pollution in the air was so bad a thick layer of smoke seemed to taint the atmosphere permanently, hiding the stars during the night. Here, however, each star shone brighter than Jake ever thought possible.
He stared at the sky for a second before a thud echoing next to him indicated that Owens had decided to do the same, and they both looked at the stars silently for a few minutes. It was only later that a question from Jake broke the silence.
“You think they’re going to end up okay?” She asked, “Over at the settlement, I mean.”
“Let’s worry about ourselves first before we start worrying about the other squads.” He answered with a chuckle.
“Anything can happen on an assignment, you know. Even our commanding officer could get killed if he’s not careful.” She added after a second of hesitation.
“I know, but I have a feeling we’ll be just fine,” Jake answered.
She let out an exasperated sigh that drew a small laugh out of Jake. In the end, they both stared at the sky and talked for the remainder of their shift, which hadn’t been interrupted by any attack of any kind for the first time since they’d reached Genova, at least excluding the time they’d spent inside the vein.
It wouldn’t be until much later that they would finally realize this wasn’t a miracle of any sort, but only the calm before the storm.
