[Avatar] 4 – The Absolute Basics

As the days passed, more of my fellows picked up on the currents of the Force around us, leaving only a few of us still trying, including the Twi'lek I bunk with. Shaking my head, I focused on the exercise our Instructor set for those of us who could sense the force, attempting to levitate a small iron ball into the air without touching it. 

The only advice our instructor gave was to 'force' and bend the Force to our will and make it move the object, but despite what he said, I knew there were other ways. The Force was alive. I could request and ask for its help, but if I did that, I had no doubt I'd be found out immediately and tortured for information. 

The way the Force Sensitive of Star Wars went about using and manipulating the Force was almost religious, with countless groups forming and coloring the Force with colors or morality when the Force just was. It was neither light nor dark, no matter how much the Sith or Jedi claimed. There were some groups who believed that you could balance the Light and Dark, but even they were wrong, as they still colored the Force with their morality and ethics.

The Force just was. It was neither the Light nor the Dark nor the combination of the two 'sides.' Or at least, that was what I believed, as I felt the currents of the Force flow around the room. The Force, to me, felt like Nature, but also not. It was the air around us, the ground beneath us, and the sky above us outside the Academy. The Force was in everything, and to some, it was everything, but to me, it was an independent thing. The Force was energy. Energy that seemed to have some intelligence behind it sometimes, especially with how the Force seemed to act like a puppy as it flowed around one of my classmates.

I could not see the Force, merely feel it around me, but it was a beautiful thing.

As I relaxed into the Force through my mediation, I continued to reach out, trying to will the ball into the air, finally getting a slight tremble and a small smile on my face, one that I quickly hid.

...

Our Instructor had us learn basic lightsaber forms and CQC by the fourth day. He did not give us actual lightsabers to practice with; instead, he had us use wooden poles that mimicked the weight of a lightsaber. I was one of the few who knew the basics of CQC, so another member of our group and I were forced to spar before the others so that the instructor could get a good grasp of our skill at hand-to-hand combat. The man I faced was strong and challenging, but I lost. I was still weak, and my body was far from healthy enough to take on someone as large and skilled as the Human I had to fight, but despite my loss, I did gain something from the fight: yet another skill to my arsenal.

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-[Basic CQC]-

Type: Passive/Technique

Level: 11/100

Description: You know the absolute basics of Close Quarters Combat, granting you a slight bonus to your fighting prowess when fighting in CQC

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Unlike meditation, this skill did not have any notable advantages aside from 'granting a slight bonus to fighting prowess when fighting in CQC,' something I'd need to test as that could mean anything. It was my highest-leveled skill outside of Force Sensitivity and was my fastest-growing as our Sith overlord forced us to constantly spar and practice with the other exercises he taught us when we weren't sparing.

I also had two new skills, but while one leveled at nearly the same pace as [Basic CQC], the second was tough to level up.

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-[Force: Telekenises]-

Type: Active/Force Technique

Level: 12/100

Description: The most fundamental skill taught to practitioners of the Force. Manipulate the Force to levitate or move objects, items, and eventually, people

Weight Limit: 12 lbs

Drains: 3 MP a Second 

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-[Danger Sense]-

Type: Passive/Force Technique

Level: 4/100

Description: One of the fundamental techniques of the Force granting the Practitioner a warning against incoming Danger

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These are two skills that would prove beyond valuable to me in the future if I trained them and honed their fine edges. 

I won’t lie; with the status screen and system, my new life sometimes felt more like a game than it did real, and boy, did I like seeing numbers go up. However, I still haven’t found out how to gain EXP and ‘level up.’ If it followed game logic, I guessed that I’d only be able to earn XP from Quests or Fighting, things I’d rather not have to deal with concerning my weakness. 

Even now, I was in the middle of the pack with my strength when it came to our little group, something that would only lead me to my death against any real opponent. Hell, even now, I felt that our Instructor, who was probably not that high on the Sith totem poll, could kill everyone in the room without breaking a sweat and that a 'Darth' or someone of equivalent power or rank, could slay everyone in the Academy with minimal effort.

In general, Sith were notoriously bad people. Many were straight-up insane, murderous, sadistic, and so much worse if I could, I'd stick as far away from them as possible, but knowing my luck, I doubt I'd get far before some bullshit happens and I'm dragged into something again. Don't get me wrong, there were some 'good' Sith, but they were few and far between and usually either always defected to the Jedi, died, or remained stuck in the lower rankings of the Sith. It was a dog-eat-dog world when it came to Sith, especially with the Empire's use of Slaves, torture methods, and war tactics.

As I lifted the small metal ball the Instructor had us use to hone our Telekenises, I found the skill harder and more challenging to level up as the strain was near nonexistent. My MP, so far, has been the limiting factor in my use of the skill, as the drain forced me into exhaustion in a little over eight seconds. The first time I exhausted the entirety of my mana, I nearly passed out.

I found that my MP was essentially my endurance for using the Force actively instead of Magic, as I thought it would have been at first. With my 25 MP capacity, my use of the Force was noticeably lackluster compared to my fellow Acolytes, especially when most of them could levitate their metal balls far longer than I could, something that the Instructor noticed but has yet to speak about.

By the sixth day, I noticed something: My attribute points were rising. 

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--[Attributes]--

Strength: 13 (+3) - Agility: 11 (+1)

Endurance: 11 (+1) - Vitality: 10

Perception: 12 (+2) - Reaction: 14 (+4)

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Intelligence: 11 (+1) - Wisdom: 13 (+3)

Willpower: 16 (+6) - Resistance: 12 (+2)

Control: 12 (+2) - Focus: 13 (+3)

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Under the SIth's brutal training, It was clear that I was getting stronger. From the increase in my attribute points, I could discern what some of my stats did, and they seemed to be placed in a specific order. The top three rows of my attributes clearly concerned my physical body and senses. The first row, Strength and Agility, seemed to revolve around my Physical body itself and how much strength I could muster or how fast I could move. The second row was more regarding my constitution, my body's health, and hardiness. The last row was about my senses and reaction time.

It followed the same order for the bottom three rows, only they seemed to target my mind and maybe even my soul rather than my body. The top row, Intelligence and Wisdom, was clearly about my, well...Intelligence and Wisdom. Willpower and resistance seemed to be about my mental durability, while the last row was about how good my control and focus were.

From the names, I could get a good guess as to what each Attribute was about, though I did wonder how far I could train my Attributes before I hit a wall. After all, it wouldn't be very balanced if I could train for a decade and unlock the raw strength to crush mountains or split the ocean like some Chinese Cultivation protagonist.

With two days left till our supposed teacher would stop teaching us, I couldn't help but look to the back of the training hall, finding the Twi'lek still struggling to levitate the metal ball before her, though one of the other Acolytes proved to be even worse, as they were still stuck on sensing the Force. If they didn't speed up, they likely wouldn't make it.