63 Breath In, Breath Out #63

Gotham Park

"Breathe...." Ben calmly said as he turned his body and sent a high kick to the side of my head, with his arms crossed in front of his chest. I immediately reacted, taking a deep breath as I ducked under his kick, causing it to fly right over my head.

"You must remember that the anger is inside you. It is part of the man you are, and to deny it is to deny yourself, a fruitless endeavor," Ben said, nodding as he raised his fist in a feint, only to kick at me again, and I dodged again.

"It will always be at the back of your mind. It is a part of being human, so is every emotion you feel, be it negative or positive," Ben remarked, bringing his foot down after stopping it above my head, causing me to raise my hand, blocking the attack and warding it to the side.

"You cannot deny it. You cannot overcome it; you must embrace it, control it, and channel it," Ben said, nodding as he took a step back and stopped his attacks.

"That's cool and all, but shouldn't we be doing this more peacefully, like meditating or something...?" I asked, scratching my head to cut off Ben before he could continue.

"Under normal, peaceful circumstances, you are in perfect control of your emotions. It's during stressful situations that you tend to lose your temper, or so I understand," Ben said, shaking his head as he waved a hand to the side in dismissal.

"You had an outlet to let out your anger and temporarily put it under control when Richard was around to spar with you daily. You began losing control after he left," he added, gesturing towards Richard, leaning on the lone tree nearby, reading a book.

"No, you need to learn to control your aggression while fighting. We need to fight the symptoms before curing the roots because you need to be in control of your emotions as soon as possible," Ben explained as he spread his arms and beckoned for me to attack this time.

"You've been lucky so far, but if you happen to face a group of competent opponents, they can easily take you out while you're tunnel-visioned and focused on one of them," Ben added with a shrug.

"That's why we need to prioritize the symptoms before dealing with the sickness itself," he concluded as he beckoned for me to attack again with a gesture.

"Makes sense, I suppose," I remarked with a nod, sighing as I slowly approached Ben, raising my fists in front of my face.

"Good, now breathe... and remember, you are in control..."

...

Gray's hideout

"83k? Don't mind if I do," I remarked with a chuckle as I opened the money bag I took from the bar, my brain calculating the rough amount of money inside.

I'd left the bag in my inventory as I didn't need the money and focused on my training with Benjamin and Richard, which mainly included sparring with the former for the first two days.

And although Benjamin was Richard's equal, the former didn't have the advantage of teaching me everything I knew about fighting, and I managed to land the occasional hit on him.

Of course, he'd land five for every one of mine, but getting an advantage over someone on the same level as my teacher still felt immensely satisfying to me.

We only started working on my so-called anger management issues today.

It wasn't that different from what we've been doing before, other than Benjamin teaching me how to regulate my breathing while fighting and the mentality I needed to stay calm and in control.

Long story short:

Breathing in, I am in control.

Breathing out, I release my impulsive urges.

Breathing in, I know that I am stronger than my anger.

Breathing out, I slip out of anger's grasp.

Breathing in, I make my own conscious choices.

Breathing out, I break free from anger's puppet strings.

Breathing in, I am in control.

It was a bit more complicated than that and came with a mind-clearing breathing pattern, but that's basically the gist of the training session.

Now, if it would work in a life or death fight or not, I had no idea since I wasn't feeling angry or stressed enough to lose control, but it definitely helped me clear my mind.

Other than his methods, I had my own doubts about Benjamin himself. As the Bronze Tiger, he tended to switch between hero and villain regularly, and people like that rarely have a happy ending in comics or any form of narrative.

Worse yet, these types of characters are infamous for making everyone around them miserable, so it wasn't Benjamin himself that I mistrusted, but the damned comic book narrative.

But in the end, he was an okay guy, and there was nothing I could do about it since he was close to Richard, and I'd have to deal with him if I wanted to maintain my relationship with my teacher.

And speaking of my great teacher, Richard told me he had a specialized training method to let me quickly grow stronger by utilizing my healing factor and energy channeling.

Though I didn't know the specifics yet, I couldn't imagine it being anything pleasant since it would rely on my healing factor and how hesitant Richard was when he told me about it.

'Oh, well... I'll deal with it when it comes, and I can always refuse to use it if I don't like it...' I mused, shrugging my shoulders as I turned to the accumulated notifications.

I still went out to beat up thugs to grind my Guns skill every day, and kept up my usual swinging and hacking routines, so I most likely maxed out my Gunman class already.

[+3 levels to the Guns skill]

[Guns (level 16)]

[+2 levels to the Crime skill]

[Crime (level 36)]

[+3 levels to the Gunman class]

[Gunman (level MAX)]

[+9 stat points]

[You have reached the maximum capacity of your current class. Would you like to choose a new one now?]

'There's still more level up notifications, but I might as well chose a new class first...' I shrugged as I looked at the available classes and took the Mechanic class without hesitation.

I've already explained why I wanted the Mechanic class (what with creating gadgets and repairing my equipment if it broke), but now that I had a hideout, I could use it to build some defences and contingencies to fortify it, just in case.

[You have gained the Mechanic Class]

[Mechanic (level 1)]

[You have gained the Mechanics skill]

[Mechanics (1): if it's broken, this skill can fix it. If it's not broken, it can improve it (sometimes making it worse). If it just isn't, it can build it. Mechanics covers all technical and craft skills, from carpentry to mechanics to roadie work. It is what you need if you want to rebuild the engine of that mean machine you're tricking out or to make sure the rock concert comes through loud and clear]

[+1 level to the Mad scientist Archetype]

[You have gained the Machinery Scan power]

[Machinery Scan: the ability to understand the inner and outer workings of any machine through scanning it with energy, enabling the user to find any malfunctions and generate a blueprint of the it in their head, depending on how advanced the target is and how high the Mechanics skill and Mind attribute are]

'Not bad...' I raised an eyebrow as I took out a regular gun from my inventory and activated my Machinary Scan on it.

A rush of information flooded my brain, and I instinctively knew the gun needed to be cleaned and oiled, or it would malfunction and most likely jam after going through another magazine or two. It goes without saying that I now know how to create a copy of it as well.

'Let's see what other notifications I have...' I shrugged as I put the gun back in my inventory and turned to the rest of the notifications.

[+1 level to the Brawling skill]

[Brawling (level 39)]

[+2 levels to the Acrobatics skill]

[Acrobatics (level 18)]

[+4 levels to the Computers skill]

[Computers (level 26)]

[+4 levels to the Mechanic class]

[Mechanic (level 5)]

[+12 stat points]

'Everything checks out...' I nodded as I turned my available 47 stat points and didn't hesitate before investing 15 points into each of my three attributes, taking one last look at my character screen.

...

Name: Grayson Whitlock

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Archetype: (The Mad Scientist level 3)

Class: [Thief (level MAX)] [Fighter (level MAX)] [Acrobat (Level MAX)] [Programmer (Level MAX)] [Gunman (level MAX)] [Mechanic (level 5)]

...

Stats:

Body: 85

Mind: 85

Spirit: 85

Stat Points: 2

.....

Skills:

[Brawling (level 39): call it fighting, martial arts, fisticuffs, or flailing your arms around wildly, this skill covers the art of using your hands and other assorted body parts to hurt your fellow man (or critter) and avoiding such punishment yourself]

[Crime (level 36): breaking and entering, pickpocket, lock-picking, skulking around, lifting evidence—if it's illegal, this skill covers it, with two exceptions, computer hacking uses the Computers skill, and conning people the Influence skill. You don't have to be a criminal to have this skill; cops, private investigators, and other honest but street-wise folks have it as well]

[Acrobatics (level 18): the favored skill of cheerleaders and circus performers, the ability to perform tumbles, somersaults, and other such maneuvers; You can use it to dodge attacks, climb obstacles, and achieve similar feats of agility. Acrobatics can replace Crime when trying to move silently (use the higher of the two skills when attempting to sneak around)]

[Computers (level 26): the nerdy art of keyboard slinging for fun and profit, and with this skill, you can make computers do what you want, including programming and hacking. People don't need this skill to use a computer. Anybody can find the on-switch and use a mouse. The Computers skill lets you do fun things like breaking into confidential databases, writing your own programs, programming your VCR, and other cool stuff]

[Gun Mastery (level 16): This skill covers your basic things that go "bang" — shotguns, pistols, and the like]

[Mechanics (1): if it's broken, this skill can fix it. If it's not broken, it can improve it (sometimes making it worse). If it just isn't, it can build it. Mechanics covers all technical and craft skills, from carpentry to mechanics to roadie work. It is what you need if you want to rebuild the engine of that mean machine you're tricking out or to make sure the rock concert comes through loud and clear]

....

Perks:

[Dormant Metahuman: you have the Metagene, the source of all Metahumans' powers. However, it lies dormant for now]

[Silent Step: as a seasoned, hardened criminal (your mother must be proud,) your footsteps are silent, and only those with supernatural hearing ability could detect you through the sound of your footsteps]

[Eidetic Kinesthesia: sometimes called Muscle Memory or Photographic Reflexes; it is the ability to instantly mimic any physical skill, including various fighting techniques, acrobatics, or weapon skills]

[Superhuman Stamina: sometimes called enhanced stamina, it is a term used to describe the ability of some characters to function without tiring or feeling undue strain. People who possess this perk can often go for long periods of time without rest or even sleep]

[Perfect Recall: sometimes confused with genius-level intellect and known as photographic memory, it is the ability to recall anything and everything you have ever been allowed to remember over the course of your life]

[Accelerated Healing: is the ability to recover from bodily injuries or disease at a superhuman rate. It differs from Regeneration because although you can recover from tissue damage and even regenerate entire cells, it cannot repair separated limbs or torn cells]

[Energy Detector: the ability to sense the presence of energy, whether they are electromagnetic (magnetic/infrared), psionic, magical, spiritual, etc and possibly gain a detailed understanding of the power you are sensing, including the amount/size of energy they are perceiving depending on the particulars of the target, and your energy]

[Energy Concentration: The power to focus one's energy into any point of the body to perform attacks, techniques, or spells (if they are trained in the arcane arts)]

...

Archetype powers:

[Network Crash: the ability to negate or destroy protected networks by injecting energy into them through physical on wireless contact (the Network Crash power is dependent on your programming skill, and you will not be able to salvage any information from any network you may destroy]

[Code Manipulation: the ability to create and break any code, from simple firewalls all the way to the universal equation itself, depending on your combined Programming (Computers) skill and Mind attribute]

[Personal Computer: the ability to integrate a single computer into your brain, giving you full, telepathic access to all of its functions (you may choose to assimilate a different, more powerful computer at any time)]

[Machinery Scan: the ability to understand the inner and outer workings of any machine through scanning it with energy, enabling the user to find any malfunctions and generate a blueprint of it in their head, depending on how advanced the target is and how high the Mechanics skill is]

...

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