Chapter 4 – The God of Balance

"What... what is this?" Titus asked, shocked. The text had his name on and whatever the rest was he had absolutely no idea.

"Are you seeing it now, boy?" Mr Avery said with a glint of excitement in his eye. "You have felt the presence of The God of Balance, and it has posed a new question."

"Well, I don't know what to call it, but I can see words in my vision. It talks about me, but I don't know what any of it means, really. Is this normal?"

"And that is something that we, here at the arena, will teach you. But alas, it is not for me to do so," Mr Avery said. "There are other instructors here you will meet over the next few hours, days, weeks, months and years. I'm sure they will guide you through what everything you can see means. But from me, I will tell you that this is what we have come to know is the presence of The God of Balance. The God of Balance judges and balances all actions, and be warned, on occasion, he administers punishment."

"But how can this be? How can this not be common knowledge throughout the entire City? Why have I never heard of this before?" Titus asked with his eyes wide. He noticed that with a thought too, he could both bring up and dismiss the text from his vision, as though by magic.

"Because it is only Contestants of the arena and those who work within it who are given the ability to see. There is one lesson that I can give you, though, and that is as follows: focus your attention on me. Ponder upon the fact that everything around you, everything in the entire universe, has been weighed by The God of Balance. That everything in existence has been defined by these statistics. Focus on these numbers that you can see for yourself now. And then look at me again and tell me what you see."

Titus did so and then his breath caught as something impossible happened,

Mr Avery: Level ?

Class: Spellcaster

Profession: Guide

Titus finally stammered out a response: "I see the numbers relating to you instead of me. They are different, less of them. And your level is just a question mark," Titus said. "Does that mean you are better, or stronger maybe?"

"Stronger is not something that can be judged by such a limited view of some statistics," Mr Avery said with a smile. "It would do you well to remember that. A person's physical stature and their abilities are defined mostly by what is shown before you, but it also says nothing about their character."

"It says your Class is a Spellcaster. I've never heard of that being a thing before," Titus said. "I'm a Contestant, I understand that."

"I am indeed a Spellcaster, Titus. And a guide. But if you did not know that fact, would you have any preconceptions about who I am? And does knowing it change any of those ideas?"

Titus thought for a moment, but he eventually concluded that it didn't make a difference, and he shook his head.

"That is good, Titus," Mr Avery said. "Be sure to keep asking questions." Then he shouted: "Next!" And Titus had all of a sudden been summarily dismissed from the room.

Titus felt his head spinning from all of this new information which he still didn’t really understand, and staggered from the room. Could what he had just seen really have happened, or was it some delusion, some hallucination that he was yet to realise? Perhaps from the food that he had eaten, maybe that was it.

But then, as he was thinking about what he'd seen in Mr Avery's statistics, he turned to see two individuals standing outside the room and froze as their statistics faded into his field of vision.

Unknown: Level ?

Class: None

Profession: Arena Contestant - White

Unknown: Level ?

Class: None

Profession: Arena Contestant - White

Titus blinked and shook his head until the invasive text disappeared. 'I need to get a grip on this,' he thought. 'If every time I look at someone I'm filled with all this information, my head might just explode'.

Wondering exactly where he was supposed to go next, Titus staggered off in the direction that he had seen all the other Contestants go after receiving their treatment from Mr Avery.

A few steps down the hallway, thankfully he could hear Miss Kane's voice and he found the room where all of the Contestants were sitting, and just as he was about to enter, Miss Kane barrelled out the door and almost crashed into him.

"I'm sorry," Titus blurted out. "I didn't mean to..."

Miss Kane smiled at him. "It is alright, Titus. A little confusion and disorientation are to be expected once one has been awakened for the very first time. Now, it is time for you to learn. So please enter the classroom and take a seat, and Ovidius here will guide you in what you are supposed to do next."

Titus nodded, apologised again, and entered the room to find a seat facing the front. It was only when he was inside that he realised he wasn't seeing any more statistics. That was, of course, unless he focused his attention on someone. That was useful; otherwise his vision might've been filled with the invasive text. He experimented a couple of times with switching the text on and off and found after a very short while that he could do it at will.

The man standing at the front of the Class looked as though he'd been in a fair few fights, his face pocked and scarred and he had long, straight black hair. But as Titus took his seat, he received a warm smile from the man. He didn’t say anything to Titus though, or anyone else for that matter

The room filled over a short space of time with all ten of the Contestants silently observing Ovidius as they waited. Titus kept his gaze on the wooden table before him, so as not to stare at anyone and inadvertently bring up their statistics, as Titus didn't know if such an act was rude. Or even allowed.

"It is alright, Contestants," Ovidius finally said in a booming tone once the door had been closed, and the last Contestant had taken their seat. "Please look upon my statistics. I trust you all, being awakened, have the ability to do so. It is good to practise after all."

All of the Contestants turned their gaze to the man named Ovidius, and Titus was shocked by what he saw.

Ovidius: Level ?

There was just the one line of text, and nothing describing the class, profession, or statistics of the man before them. Just his name and a mysterious question mark by his level.

Ovidius smiled as he saw many confused faces staring back at him. "I have the ability to conceal my statistics and any information that you have not received from me directly. It is a very useful skill, as you can imagine, especially when faced with an opponent who you do not want to know your innermost workings."

A hand immediately shot up from beside Titus, and Ovidius nodded to its owner.

"Can you teach us?" the boy asked. "If it's such a useful ability, surely it's something we need to learn, right?"

"Just hold on for one minute," Ovidius said holding a hand out. "Do you really think that such a useful skill, such a well-rounded ability, can be taught so easily? Would it not be something that needs to be learned over days, weeks, months, and even years of painful study."

Titus felt his heart drop at those words.

Ovidius continued. "Because, in fact, it is something that I can teach you to do right here and right now, so you don't have to worry. It is the first and simplest skill that you will learn. It will also teach you the fundamentals of what you are dealing with in yourself, which is just an added bonus." He clapped his hands once. "Alright, boys and girls, I want you to think about yourselves, your own statistics, your own abilities, everything else that you can see courtesy of The God of Balance."

He paused for a moment.

"Good. I can see you have all mastered the technique of self-reflection. But now, I want you to focus on concealment. I want you to imagine that you are standing in a room, and there is a single door. On one side and in the room is you, with everything that you are and that you can ever be. On the other side of the door is an intruder, a stranger, who wishes to peer into everything that you have to offer. But you do not want to let them do so. So, with your mind, I want you to reach out and close the door, close it so tightly that you are the only person that will ever know what resides on the inside of that room." He paused for a moment for dramatic effect.

"But we don't want to block everything out and everyone else, do we?” He continued. “So, what can we do? We don't want to open the door again because what if they wedge it open with their foot, only to pry it open and walk inside? No, because the door has a keyhole, does it not? A tiny window for an intruder or guest to peer through. But they can only see a tiny fraction of what we have to offer, and the size of that keyhole is determined by how hard you concentrate on it. It is within your control my friends, so take that control."

Titus tried to put everything Ovidius was saying into an order, and he followed Ovidius's instructions to the letter in his mind. He imagined the room, he imagined the door, he imagined the intruder, and he imagined his full self residing within without holding anything back. Then he imagined the keyhole, and he felt something within him. He felt something change - an awareness, but it was something more than that - an understanding.

You have concealed your statistics.

This can now be done at will, and is considered a passive ability.

After a long moment when Ovidius had taken the time to view all of the Contestants' statistics and found that they had all managed to conceal themselves successfully, he spoke again.

"That is very good. You have now all received a new notification regarding this, correct?"

There were a few visible nods in the room, but Ovidius was happy that everyone seemed to have been successful.

"Now you will have separate Class instructors amongst some others. And believe me, there are more than a handful of them. It is more than can be asked of one person to teach Contestants everything they can possibly learn to be useful in the arena or as Hunters."

Titus raised his hand, and Ovidius nodded at him for him to ask his question.

"I'm sorry, sir," Titus said. "Is it rude to look at the statistics of others, or to use this skill against them?"

Ovidius beamed at the question. "No, boy," he affirmed. "Everyone you meet who has been awakened by the presence of The God of Balance will have been taught this technique. What you see if you should gaze upon them will be no more or no less than what they desire you to see, and what you already know to be true."

Titus let his hand drop down to the desk and wondered. So, that meant that Miss Kane and Mr Avery had allowed him to see just a portion of their statistics. He wondered just how strong each of them could be.

"And for the rest of this lesson," Ovidius said, "I would like you to practice with this new technique. I would like you to expand and contract the statistics you show others of yourself and I want you to investigate what you can see of others. Once you have mastered the use of the technique, I have just one more thing to teach you for today."