Choosing a Weapon

As he was right now, he had no chance of being able to complete even the easiest of the Scenarios. He had too many weakness, and shortcomings. For now, he would have to prioritize on fixing these weaknesses, or at least finding a temporary solution.

From the little that Fen knew about the Earth from before Heaven's Virtues left, he could come up with a short list of possible enemies he could encounter upon entering a Scenario. Encyclopedias that contained detailed information about the monsters that were on Earth were extremely rare however, as most of them were destroyed in the fighting that consumed humanity. However, they still existed, which meant that thanks to the man-made wonder of 'the internet', he was able to access it when he was home.

Every young child, even the social loner Fen, went through a phase where they were obsessed with monsters, spending hours and hours reading through the descriptions and staring at the pictures. After wasting so many hours, Fen had memorized a couple of those pictures, but unfortunately he didn't memorize their descriptions.

The Foundation was sure to have something similar, if not better, than the information that even children on Earth could possess. After all, they were self-proclaimed masters of the magical arts. Not that they acted like it...

Looks like Fen had to go to Raisen again. Well, at least he had to see him again in the next Lesson anyway, so he might as well profit off from the exchange.

Not that the lack of information was sorted, that left Fen with a couple hours of free time. He could read through some more of the Narrator's stories and hope he could find some more information on monsters, but the chances of that happening were very unlikely.

It would be more beneficial to start training his strength, to see how much his body had grown from Raisen's energy. Already, as he extended his senses to inside his body, he could feel that a large part of the old man's Vitality had been purified from his control and was steadily flowing throughout his body. Raisen's energy was much easier to control and move around himself, and Fen could feel the energy strengthening him when he moved it around his body.

The overall effect wasn't that dramatic, Fen could only describe the feeling as currents of energy stimulating his muscles, nerves, and other organic parts.

He clenched his fist, making a nice grasping sound. His body wasn't any different on the outside thankfully, so Fen didn't think that he had to worry about his abilities effecting his appearance. It'd be very difficult to explain his new appearance as a macho man to his family, which might shock them and perhaps give his poor mother a stroke if her boy came home with the body of a guerilla.

Looking up from his body, a smirk grew on Fen's face as he noticed the appearance of a new room. The interface had very briefly mentioned this room when he entered his Mark into the golden particles, so the room came as a pleasant surprise. The entrance must have unsealed itself while he was busy checking in on his body.

It was exactly what he needed at that moment. According to the interface, this room would serve to be the personal Training Hall of Squad 42, and his status as the first to access the Points Table meant that he would enjoy a considerable advantage, along with the rest of the Squad.

What those specific benefits entailed however, was for him to find out after entering their personal Training Hall.

The room's entrance had two big double doors securing the entrance, with a large 42 emblazoned in big golden letters on the entrance, vibrating with the same golden particles as the interface.

The inside was surprisingly different than the rest of the facility; a bright white material was used to build the walls while metal was used on the floors, constructed to be durable. There was no windows, and no other interior decorations except for the walls. In a corner of the room was another interface, designed to interact and manipulate the room's properties to aid in training and other miscellaneous activities.

Looking through it, various weapons and supplies were listed, which could be quickly taken out and used inside the Squad's personal Training Hall. It didn't appear as if he would be able to take these items out unfortunately, which would've solved many of Fen's problems.

[Squad 42 Training Hall]

[Candidate 178-3001: Fen Altairus]

[List of Weapons:]

[1. Glaive. Properties...]

[2. Hammer. Properties...]

[3. Throwing Knives. Properties...]

[4. Double-sided War Axe. Properties...]

[5. Foundation Issued War-Pistol. Properties]

'Huh. So they do have guns... So why the hell don't they use them?!' None of the Executioners nor employees carried a weapon other than some melee tool, and some didn't carry any at all, and were probably mages or another type of magic user.

Fen didn't know that tools could only help their user to the extent of the technology used to manufacture them, and so, of course a gun created by the Foundation would not have nearly the same effect as a lightning strike created by Archon Ellora.

The Foundation wasn't created with the goal of becoming a technological superpower in mind, and instead focused on developing the bare minimum of technology needed for the Succession to succeed while at the same time cultivating powerful individuals, people like Archon Ellora, to aid the Foundation in conflict.

Many organizations were like the Foundation, and focused more the power of quality over quantity in order to fuel their organizations rather than developing powerful technology to arm their soldiers and protect themselves.

It was very rare for an organization as large as the Foundation to not possess both, even when compared to the grandness of the Universe and the multitude of races across the nearly infinite number of different dimensions. But, the amount of resources the Foundation spent to reach the point they're at now required a number of sacrifices, and the ability to train massive numbers of combat-ready soldiers was one of those sacrifices.

The Guardian Program in of itself can serve as an example of this sacrifice. Because the organization only had access to a limited amount of resources, the number of talented individuals they were able to nurture decreased, resulting in the need of the Tasks, which would cut down the number of candidates and produce tougher and more powerful Guardians while at the same time requiring less resources.

In summary, the Foundation was cheap.

However, they really had no other choice. They had rushed the decision to perform the Succession, and their rashness showed itself in nearly all other aspects of their plan. Nearly all of the Foundation members knew this, and they also knew the reason for the rush:

The planet was nearing its limit. Already, the natural Mana on Earth was dissipating, and when there was no more Mana left on the planet, no amount of effort from the Foundation would bring Heaven's Virtues back. They were on an unavoidable crash course with the end of humanity, and the only way to stop it was to rush the Succession and allow several already existing risks to multiply and proliferate in their plan.

If the Foundation failed to bring back the Fallen races and with them, Heaven's Virtues, then there would be no more hope for their planet, their civilization. Decades of work would be wasted, and their organization would be forced to relocate away from their home if they wanted to continue progressing.

In a world without Mana, there would be no more progress. Eventually, all life on the planet would die out from the lack of energy. Vitality sparked the lifeforce of all beings, but there was a limit to how much life a constant amount of Vitality could produce. Without any Mana to spark the process of creating more natural Vitality that would fuel all life on a planet and beyond, the energy would eventually run out.

Powerful individuals were able to use Mana to create Vitality, thus extending their natural lives. In the natural world, creatures and people lived because they were given a certain amount of Vitality from birth, and absorbed a little more of this energy through eating and breathing. The planet produced Vitality using Mana naturally, and without any natural Mana, the amount of Vitality would eventually run dry.

At that point, nothing would be able to escape the collapse of life.

It was the modern disaster that could potentially affect even Heaven, although the event could only occur in a planet not graced by a higher being. Higher beings and planets formed symbiotic relationships. Higher beings would stimulate a planet's ability to create their own energy, and would act as bases where resources and manpower would be created.

Although higher beings could produce their own materials, even life, the rate at which they were produced couldn't be compared to a planet's natural abilities.

However, the relationship between higher beings and planets and how it was formed was a paradox, a paradox which a multitude of research organizations had studied and were unable to give a logical explanation. It was common belief that higher beings originated from planets, but that belief contradicted their relationship; how could a planet produce life without the presence of an already existing higher being?

Heaven's Virtues offered their own beliefs into that paradox; they believed that the Creation God was the spark to which all life was created from, guided to their current place within the universe.

Of course, that was not the only explanation to the Origin paradox. But, it was the one that the Foundation was the most familiar with, and because the organization saw only Heaven's Virtues as accessible higher beings with the highest chance of coming to Earth through the Succession, their plan was based around them.

That was the main reason why the Foundation wasn't attempting to bring back other higher beings ,such as the Sins; the history of mankind served as a precedent that the Virtues wouldn't negatively impact humanity, and so were the best option at stimulating the planet Earth.

Fen was unaware of the grandness of the Foundation's plan, and was still looking through the large number of weapons available weapons in Squad 24's Training Hall. Although he wouldn't be able to bring them outside of the Training Hall, they could still be used as training materials.

Before he actually used the Points Table to access a Scenario, he wanted to familiarize himself with his own strengths, as well as a potential weapon that he might possibly obtain to increase his chances of survival to the highest levels.

Before he could pick one such weapons however, the sound of footsteps could be heard outside the personal Training Hall, along with gasps of surprise.

"What the hell happened to the room? Why is there a Training Hall? Why is the big interface opened?!" Among the gasps, Fen could make out Amelia's shocked tone of voice. She must be super excited about the changes made to the room...

Turns out they didn't need to ask their instructors to edit their Marks since he already activated the interface.

'Looked like I have some explaining to do.' Sighing, Fen turned away from the golden interface to explain to his Squad mates what had transpired while they were busy in their Lessons.

"Hey guys." He spoke softly, so as to not scare them when he exited out of the Training Hall, but little Gray still jumped from fright. Exactly like a mouse. Fen's desire to protect the little guy only grew stronger inside his heart.

Amelia relaxed when she noticed him, the complete opposite of Gray's reaction.

"Oh, so you did this," was all she could say. In contrast of her usually fierce personality, she patiently waited for Fen to explain everything, including the Points Table and the dangers inside of the Scenarios. He also warned them against telling others about this, otherwise they would lose the advantage that he had earned them, even if the potential benefits were surrounded by risks.

Even if they couldn't earn any points at the moment, that didn't mean that they would never be able to; they had everything to gain and nothing to lose if they kept this piece of information to themselves. And although Fen was still unaware about the specific nit-pics of socializing and friendship, he understood benefits.

After Fen finished explaining about the Points Table, even playing the Archon's video, they all sat down on the table.

"Qin, I need a favor." Qin's head perked up at Fin's voice. He motioned for him to continue speaking.

"I want you to teach me how to use a weapon. Not the spear, though," Fen continued explaining his need of the basics to Qin, "I just want the basics."

Hearing this, a frown appeared on Qin's face. He sat forward on the chair as his mouth opened up, like a circle, as his face crunched up in confusion.

"But... I'm taking the Lesson for handling a spear- and you want me to teach you the fundamentals of spear wielding, which I totally understand, but the reason you want to learn this... is not to use a spear?"

Fen nodded.

"A weapon is a weapon, even if it has a different shape, there's still the same intent behind their creation; to inflict damage upon an opponent.

"Using that logic, and knowing that you just started taking your Lesson, it shouldn't be difficult for you to remember what your instructor says and then recite it back to me." Fen said aloud, while the others didn't know if he was still talking to Qin or not.

"Yes, and with your help, I can get a head start with weapons training, and won't need to experiment with what works best if I get the knowledge firsthand."

The table was quiet after Fen finished explaining. After he finished, in a very anticlimactic twist, Qin agreed without any extra hassle. Anyways, it didn't hurt him to share what he learned. If anything, he would benefit from helping to instruct Fen as he could solidify the knowledge within his mind.

And he would even earn a favor from Fen, two birds with one stone.

Seeing the exchange between the two Squad members, Amelia also wanted to gain a favor from Fen, also seeing the benefits from being able to instruct him on what she learned.

"I can also teach you-"

"I don't need that." Fen shamelessly cut her off.

He knew his limits; having to balance learning weapon-handling and how to manipulate Vitality was already pushing his limits, and adding a new foreign energy to his learning cycle would overbalance his mind and tire him out.

It wasn't that he couldn't do it; he would simply reduce the efficiency at which he learned. Rather than eating from multiple dishes at once, he could be more productive if he ate from two at first and move on from that. This way, he could pick and choose, and not tire himself out to excessively.

He turned and asked Gray the same question, to which the young candidate happily agreed, his eyes lighting up with excitement. Amelia grumbled in a corner of the table as the three Squad members excluded her from their talk unintentionally.

"Its not my fault you guys didn't learn magic first, so why am I the one being excluded? Fen isn't even taking a weapon related Lesson!" She mumbled to herself. However, she resolved herself to playing the long game; Fen would eventually need her help if he also learned how to manipulate Mana to use magic. Then, she would be the instructor, and Amelia could be as strict as she wanted because he had no one else to ask for help.

"Both of you haven't learned enough in your Lessons for me to gain anything substantial, so after your fourth or fifth one, we'll get together." The three settled on meeting four days later, after they each learned something and could benefit the most from helping one another.