One side of the T-junction lead further into the confines of the building Mike was in. The other…

  It opened out to a sports complex that wouldn’t have looked out of place at any local high school back on Earth. There was a low row of benches providing seats to the sides as stairs descended to an oval track with an open area in the center. The grass of a sports field was absent, though. Instead, the portion inside the oval track was sand, like the floor of the room where Mike had battled the zombies. All that was something Mike could understand.

  What made him stop and gasp was everything outside of the arena.

  The side of the mountain fell away to the ground far below. Structures rose up from it, towers, buildings, walkways, all carved out of the stone. Mike looked to the sides and saw more buildings circling the mountain. The training arena was on a ridge that had been flattened and broken, shaped to its current purpose.

  Above him, the mountain rose further than Mike would have believed possible. More structures rose from it, leading Mike to think the mountain was an entire city. The peak was covered in towers, rising higher than the peak itself. He was about a third of the way up, and the view from here was what stopped him.

  The training complex was high up, further up a mountain that Mike had ever been. He could see for miles, further than he thought he should be able to. At the foot of the mountain, farmland stretched for miles, split by the occasional waterway. Villages dotted the expanse with smoke rising from the chimneys. Further away, a forest sprang up, the treetops a smudge in the distance. The sky above was clear blue, with scattered clouds moving across it.

  “Pretty, isn’t it?” Haliard moved past Mike, who was gob smacked at the view. “Almost worth everything else going on.”

  “It’s stunning,” Mike answered, finally able to break away from it. “I guess I’m going to have to accept that I’m not home anymore.”

  “How far have you come?” Karl asked him.

  Mike glanced at the flat expanse of skin where the man’s eyes would be on a human before looking away. He was silent for a few seconds, examining the men and sentient floating crystal move past him down to the yard.

  “Further than I’d believe.” He started down the steps, resolutely following the rest of them. “Haliard, my friend, I’m just going to go with the flow until I know better what is going on.”

  “Good advice. I’ll help as much as I can, but you have some work to do. Come on.” Haliard moved to a flat section next to the stairs, where Mike was surprised to see what looked like a complex control panel made out of stone. He adjusted a few knobs, pushed a few buttons, then turned back to Mike.

  “I’ll take it easy on you until I get your measure.” Haliard led him down to the track where he and Mike started working through some stretches. The other men moved to the center area, where the sand started shifting. As Haliard led Mike through some basic warm-up exercises, the flat ground reshaped itself into a series of blocks, some only ankle high, some taller than Sum. They started climbing and jumping from block to block, trying to cross the flat sand without touching it.

  “Time to put you through your paces,” Haliard said as he rose. He led Mike into a slow jog around the track.

  Within twenty minutes, Mike was collapsed on the track, pushed further than he had ever been pushed before. He rolled onto his side as he tried to catch his breath, legs burning and chest heaving.

  “Hmm, bit of a rough start, but you’ve got dedication. You didn’t give up until you couldn’t keep going.” Haliard wasn’t even sweating yet, his words even as he breathed easily. “Respectable.”

  Mike hadn’t driven himself that hard to impress Haliard, though he was surprised to find that the man’s esteem did make him feel better. Instead, he was watching the green bar in his display, seeing how it changed. It had dropped when he exerted himself before, and he wanted to watch it. There was just a sliver left in it, the barest amount. Mike rolled over again to his stomach, trying to push himself up, but the motion was too much. That sliver vanished.

  With it went the last of his strength. He collapsed again, falling to his stomach as the little air he had taken in was forced out of his mouth. But that wasn’t what fascinated Mike. As the last of it vanished, he felt an odd sensation across his body, like all his muscles were stretched at once. The empty bar swelled for a moment in his vision, before shrinking back to its original size.

  Still, Mike was sure that the capacity of the bar had increased. His stamina, energy, whatever it was, he had more of it now. Once it filled, of course, which is slowly started to do as he laid there. He couldn’t even force a groan through his lips.

  “Come on, time to get up.” Haliard reached down and grabbed Mike’s hand, applying a little pressure to encourage him to move.

  Mikes eyes flicked to the other bar, the blue one. This one was down some as well, since he had kept the Identify spell up on Haliard as they exercised. The effort had increased the level again, giving him slightly more time with it. But he had an idea.

  The focus to cast it was taking him less than a second now, barely an eye blink. Again and again, Mike cast it, focusing on Haliard’s hand. Each time the blue bar dropped. Haliard cursed and tried to step back, but Mike had enough strength to maintain his grip.

  The blue bar dropped away, emptying entirely. The stretching feeling Mike felt before occurred again, but this time it was in his mind, his soul. The pain through his head made him want to scream, but Mike’s body hadn’t recovered enough for the exertion. He could only gasp.

  Haliard stepped back, releasing Mike’s hand. He was shaking his fingers while muttering under his breath and Mike remembered that there was a tingle whenever he cast his spell. He instantly felt bad for what he had done, taking advantage of his friend like that.

  “Sor…,” Mike started, but had to pause to gather himself. “Sorry.”

  “I’ll forgive you,” Haliard said with a small grin. He extended his hand again. “If you get up and do one more lap.”

  This time Mike allowed himself to get pulled to his feet. He stumbled into a forward movement, turning it into a light jog. Not even a dozen feet later, he was back on the ground, the stamina bar having exhausted itself once again. Disappointingly, there was no stretching, no growth this time.

  “After what happened when my stamina bar emptied, I wanted to see what the mana bar would do.”

  “What is a mana bar?” Haliard asked, no longer willing to help Mike up.

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  “The bar up here, the blue one.” Mike gestured to where the two bars were, in the upper corner of his HUD. “The green one emptied from our run and… well, it didn’t get bigger, but its capacity increased.”

  Haliard was silent for several seconds.

  “Let’s get you some water. And shade.” This time he put more effort into getting Mike up and led him back towards the steps. There was a spring there, flowing out of the mountainside. Haliard picked up one of the stone cups scattered beside it and scooped it full. Handing it to Mike, he continued. “Does your head hurt?”

  “Yeah, some. It happened when my mana bar increased.”

  “Well, I know what mana is, even if I don’t know what a mana bar is.” Mike went to throw back the water, but Haliard stopped him. “Drink it slow. Sip it. Thankfully it isn’t too hot today, but the sun and exercise can be a bit much for a newcomer.”

  Once he saw Mike take a smaller drink, he filled his own cup and sipped it. The water was cool and delicious. Mike felt refreshed as it hit his tongue. The stamina bar filled slightly faster than it was before.

  “Mana is the energy spell casters use,” Haliard said. “I don’t have much, what with me not needing a bunch. But a mage like you should have a bigger repository. I don’t know how to get more, sadly. We’ll have to find a mage to train you.”

  “When the bar emptied, I got more. Don’t ask me how I know, I just felt it. Isn’t it like that for everyone.”

  “I don’t know what bar you’re talking about.”

  “The one you can see, the blue one. Opposite the green one, with your injury display in between.”

  Haliard was silent again, thinking. He glanced over at the training men and floating giant crystal, then called them in.

  “Why don’t you tell them about it?”

  Once the rest of them had gathered around, water in hand, Mike cast his Identify spell on each of them before continuing. Each cast made his headache a little worse, but he felt it necessary.

  “Do any of you have little bars up here? Ones that show your mana, stamina, with a health indicator?”

  They all shook their heads.

  “Or little notifications that pop up that you can read?” More negatives.

  “A spell book containing your spells?”

  “I have one of those!” Aaron said excitedly. “It’s back in my room.”

  “No, I mean…” Mike trailed off. It had become obvious that none of them shared the display he did. The little windows that showed when he cast Identify, the indicator bars, the skills, none of that. He gave a weary smile and stared down into his cup.

  “I guess it is more evidence I’m far from home.”

  “Cheer up,” Bradiac replied with a smile. “You’ve got a good group of guys around to get you grounded. We’re all arena champions, we are.”

  “Fat lot of good that did the others,” Karl muttered, earning a stern gaze from Haliard.

  “That is enough of that. We all did our best, including them. They didn’t make it out, we did. We’re going to get stronger and do better.” He looked at each of them, meeting their eyes one after one. Except for Sum, where Haliard just gazed at the emblem on his closest facet.

  “It’s what they would want,” he finished. He moved to the control panel and adjusted a few knobs. “Now, the rest of you, get back to it. We’ll keep this up until lunch, then we’ll go through weapons training with Mike here. Find out what he is good at.”

  “I’ve never held a weapon before.” Mike watched the rest of the men head back to the sand arena. As they approached, the sand blocks started shifting, moving. The movement training became much more difficult.

  “That is obvious. Come on, we’re going to work on your stance and footwork, really elementary stuff. It will let your ‘bars’ fill up again.”

  Once again, Haliard escorted Mike onto the track. This time, instead of leading him into a series of warm-up exercises, he had Mike stand there as he walked around him, looking him up and down. Several minutes passed in silence this way before Mike spoke.

  “This is a little embarrassing.”

  “I’m just seeing how you stand. Move your right foot forward.” Mike did. “No, too far, bring it back.”

  Half an hour passed like that. Mike moving his feet, bending his knees, extending his arms. None of it made sense to him, but he could see his resources returning. The occasional need to top off the Identify spell didn’t seem to slow down mana regeneration much.

  “All right. I’m going to move you into a good base position. Hold it as long as you can.” Haliard grabbed Mike’s right hand and stretched the arm out. He closed the hand into a loose fist, then bent his elbow. Each limb was moved in sequence until Haliard stepped back, observing Mike further.

  “How does that feel?” the old man asked.

  “Actually, kind of good.” Mikes right foot was back slightly, left forward. With his knees bent, feet as wide as his shoulders, he felt balanced. Relaxed, almost, but ready to move. He wasn’t sure what to do with his hands, but he enjoyed the sense of power his body held.

  For a few minutes at least.

  “How long do I have to hold it?” Mike asked as an ache settled into his limbs. He wasn’t shaking, not yet, but it was getting close. It was getting hard enough that his stamina was starting to drop slightly.

  “Just a bit more,” Haliard said. He circled Mike twice, examining his body. Finally, when Mike was about to break, Haliard spoke again. “Go ahead and relax.”

  That was enough permission for Mike to lower himself to the ground, taking a short break.

  “You have other spells, right? You’d be a pretty poor mage with only one.”

  “Yes, I have a magic dart spell. It’s what killed the zombies I fought.” Mike brought the spell book up in his vision but didn’t cast anything. He could examine the spells without casting them. The knowledge was instinctive. “Oh, and one called ‘Conjure Ally.’”

  “A conjuration spell, that is nice. We’ll go over that later. For now, get back in the same stance.”

  With a groan, Mike got back to his feet. He was startled to find that he wanted to do this. Before, he hadn’t been physically active. His performance reviews mentioned his lack of drive. Usually, he did the bare minimum.

  Now though, this new world was a chance for a new Mike, a brand-new approach to life. Especially if it was one where someone would drag him by his neck to fight zombies. If that happened again, he wanted to be ready. Mike dropped into what felt like the same pose he had been in minutes before.

  “Not too bad,” Haliard said as he stepped up, moving Mike’s limbs in minute amounts. “Hold it now.”

  As far as Mike could tell, there were barely millimeters between the pose he took and Haliard’s corrections, but it was a world of difference. Each nudge the old man gave him pushed Mike towards better balance, a more solid base. He held it as much as he could, burning it into his memory.

  “Now, cast your dart at this.” Haliard held the solid stone cup he had been drinking from. “I’ll throw it in the air; you try to hit it.”

  “I have to point at it, I think. It feels like I do.” Mike pulled the spell book up and got ready to cast it.

  “That’s good. Make sure to get your arm back in position when you’re done.”

  He launched the cup into the air, and Mike focused on the icon in his spell book. The mana traveled down his arm, erupting from his finger as he tried to point at the cup as it rose. The blast of pure energy was visible by the way it bent the air, showing that Mike missed the cup by almost a dozen feet.

  Not being happy with that, Mike adjusted his aim and cast the spell again. He didn’t have the rote, almost muscle memory action of casting Identify, so the cup was falling again by the time he got it cast. This time he was closer, only a foot or so away from the cup.

  By that point, Mike knew he wouldn’t get it cast again in time, not without risking hitting Haliard, so he pulled his arm back in position. Haliard reached out and caught the cup.

  “Hmm, that is something else we can work on. Did that empty your mana bar?” As he spoke, Haliard moved forward, nudging Mike’s arm back into position. He nodded as he examined the rest of the pose, seeing Mike had held it while casting.

  “Not even close. I could cast it… three more times.” Mike didn’t know why he felt confident in that answer, but it felt right. He recalled how much of his mana had emptied when he cast the spell at the zombie attacking him and saw that it was reduced. He brought up the information window, ignoring the ache settling into his limbs as he held position.

  Force Dart

  Spell, Minor Mana, Instant

  Damaging spell. Deals minor damage to target. Mana cost decreases and damage increases at level up.

  It hadn’t leveled up, so it should cost the same amount as it had before. This confirmed his suspicion that his capacity had grown. The stretching feeling Mike had felt wasn’t just in his mind.

  “Good to hear.” Haliard stepped back, setting the cup down a dozen feet from Mike. “Hold your pose, hit that as much as you can. Between each shot, return to your current stance.”

  “How long can we keep this up?” Mike asked. He extended his arm, casting again. It kicked up a cloud of dust a foot short of the target. Haliard smiled at him.

  “We should break for lunch in a few hours.”

  Mike’s groan was loud, but he settled back, waiting until he felt ready to cast his spell again.