Condition Evolution 2: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure by Sinclair, Kevin (black female authors txt) 📗

cut my lessons short with your aptitude. Quite the boon, as I have many things to prepare for landing. We must be ready for anything. I will take you to the ship's training room where you can pick the weapons that you chose to wield going forward. Obviously, you can change your minds at any point, but for now, whatever you pick you will have with you when we land. So, practice, practice, practice. You should try to combine your weapon skills with your mental skills to be a true warrior, capable of holding your own against a Fystr.”

He led us to a large room that looked like a gymnasium. We walked across it to a smaller room where the walls were lined with weapons. There were a row of guns too.

“These are all laser rifles. Projectile weapons are ineffective against the Fystr. You can manipulate bullets with your mind, but you can’t manipulate lasers. I can see you eying the swords and axes here. They have energy-infused blades and will deflect laser fire too. You may also wear a shield on your wrist. Here.” He picked up a bracelet, pressed something and a shimmering almost body height shield sprung up. He quickly deactivated it. “Normal shields don’t stop lasers, so we use these shields. The problem with them is that they could easily cut off a limb, or a head with one wrong movement. No good at all in a melee. We do not use them unless you’re making a shield wall. You are both untrained with guns and they offer only offensive abilities. You’ve had a year fighting with melee weapons, so I suggest you pick one of those.”

“This daft ass hasn’t. He used shovels and baguettes!” Ember said, pointing her thumb at me over her shoulder.

Ogun ignored her jibe and continued, “Still, most people would pick guns because you come from a world where guns rule. My people focus almost entirely on melee for close quarters fighting. There are good reasons for that, as you will eventually find out.”

“Those shelves over there hold various weights and objects to practice combat telekinesis. So, enjoy, develop, and don’t forget to armor up.” He pointed to the back of the weapon racks where I saw an area with body armor.

After that, he left us to our own devices.

We both mooned over the weapons for a long while. Ember chose a wicked looking sword. For me, there was only one choice, seen as they didn’t have a scythe. Part of me made the decision because I’d never fought with my axes much in Anatolia. So, two hand axes for me. The worst thing about them was that I had to press a button to turn their function on. I couldn’t just charge them with a thought. I mean, yeah, I might be able to eventually with telekinesis, but that sounded like more work than just using my thumbs.

I pressed the and they sprung into life. A glowing, blue aura, shimmering around the heads and the hafts to the handle. I uncharged them and followed Ember to get some armor.

The gear on the racks went up in sizes and I was just about to grab one I thought would fit, when Ember stopped me. Leading me down the line, she stopped at a rack. “This one’s yours.”

“I have my own?” I asked excitedly.

“Yup. Has a little inscription right there with your name on.”

I leaned in to have a look, and sure enough, there was Shaun Sutherland engraved onto the side of the breast plate. It was easy enough to put on, but Ember helped me all the same. It consisted of an over the head chest piece and shoulder pads. Arms and legs were left unencumbered. As soon as it was settled on my frame it began self-tightening onto the uniform, like they were supposed to be one. When it had tightened enough to fit my frame like a dream, turquoise lights came on like it was some kind of power armor.  All in all, I felt cool as fuck.

Once kitted out, we had a light spar, with the weapons turned off of course. We tried to get the feel of fighting with our almost, brand new bodies. From our time in Ogun’s little experiment we had increased in strength and stamina and reverted back to a physical age of around twenty-eight years old. For me personally, I also wasn’t a ginormous fat-ass anymore.

We went really slowly, almost like we were making a dance up. These weapons were lethal even with the energy layer off. We needed to figure them, and ourselves out. We had built experience in-game, but the bodies we had now definitely did not have the same abilities, nor could we respawn.

We went at it for a little while, slowly speeding up as we gained confidence and showing a surprising amount of skill. I felt like I understood my weapons of choice well. Then, Ember called a halt.

“We really need to practice telekinesis and levitation,” she said.

“Absolutely,” I agreed, and we set off to put our weapons back.

“Here, carry some of these Shaun,” Ember said, handing over a some of the telekinesis aids. We carried a few handfuls each of the various metal balls to the middle of the floor, then sitting opposite each other we both went to our interface rooms.

Within seconds, Ember had a ball floating and I quickly matched her. She sent her ball moving slowly around the training room. Again, I copied her. My ball following her ball around the room. She began to speed her ball up, faster and faster. I tried to copy, but for some reason my ball wouldn’t go as fast. She slowed her ball speed so I could catch up and once again, our two balls spun around the room in unison. Ember managed to bring another ball up into the air and set it spinning in the opposite direction. I tried hard to replicate the feat but couldn’t even