Having spent the entire evening and night keeping an eye on the man he was sure was there to spy on him, James arrived back at the AA thoroughly exhausted.
He had been hesitant about leaving his home, not wanting to let his grandparents be undefended while such a dangerous person was around. Still, he had eventually decided that it was much more likely that the man would follow him rather than stay behind and watch over two perfectly normal elderly.
James had briefly considered the possibility of it all being an intimidation tactic. If someone outside the AA learned about his sensory skill, they might have devised such an intricate way to torture him.
Still, the knowledge that only his teammates and his teacher knew the specifics of his skills calmed him. Occam’s razor in mind, it was much more likely that the Guilds were keeping a close eye on those involved with the Dawn Initiative to see how and why they were able to keep going, rather than it all being a deliberate and complex way of sending him to the madhouse.
When he finally entered Team 0’s room, he was surprised to find that Miss Walker was not already there. The woman was usually punctual and wouldn’t miss a training session without alerting them.
Checking on his phone to see if he had unread messages, James was unsurprised to find one from a few minutes before where she apologized for taking the day off with so little notice, saying that some things she needed to handle immediately had taken precedence.
“She has to be doing something about the Guilds’ investigation, right?” Maria asked, noticing that he was reading the same text she was.
James glanced at the redhead, glad that at least she seemed to have gotten some good sleep in. “Probably, yeah. I just wanted to see her because I’m 99% certain that we are being constantly monitored.” He answered.
The Fire Mage paled dramatically, and he heard the others turn towards him, silently asking him to expand on that.
“There was an Awakener at my neighbor’s house. A decently strong one, who I’ve never seen before despite living next to him for years.” Seeing they didn’t seem particularly convinced, he added “My neighbor’s family is dead, and he’s well known as a lonely man. He could possibly be a new friend, but they spoke about the weather for more than one hour. I’m not being paranoid.”
“You heard them talk about the weather for that long?” Daniel asked gravely.
“Yeah, it wasn’t even a good attempt at hiding. I don’t know if it was on purpose or just because he was incompetent, but to have somehow convinced Bobby to let him stay on his lawn for so long… Something fishy is going on.”
Ezekiel gulped, immediately catching onto what he was saying. “You think he was using a mind-altering skill.”
James nodded, lips tightly pressed together. The discussion was interrupted when he noticed a strangely familiar presence approach the training room.
Soon after, the blast doors slid open, revealing a giant of a man, both in height and width, which he recognized from his license test at the AA.
“Good morning, children.” Marcus Bethany rumbled “I was asked by young Leila to sub in for today as your combat instructor.”
There was some confusion, as no one but Miss Walker had ever taken the role, but eventually, they decided to go with it. Mr. Bethany, as he told them to call him while he was teaching, seemed a jolly person, and it wasn’t like they could say no.
That impression was quickly shattered when he started putting them through physical drills that would have broken hardened soldiers. The man might have looked like a friendly Mall Santa, if one ignored his height and the rock-hard muscles hidden beneath the fat, but his training regimen was nothing short of brutal. It was a reminder that even the friendliest of faces in the AA could be seasoned and formidable warriors.
“This is nothing! You must be ready to spit blood if you want to see some results! Are you ready to spit BLOOD?!” He roared as he guided them through a grueling run where they were weighed down by purpose-made suits.
“Yes Sir!” They yelled back. They had made the mistake of not being loud enough once, and as punishment, all their weights had increased even more.
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Mr Bethany had a different style to Miss Walker, being much more oriented towards training rather than sparring, but he was evidently very seasoned as a teacher. He immediately caught on when someone was starting to flag, like Ezekiel and Maria, who didn’t put nearly as many points in the physical stats and lowered the weight accordingly. That way, they could continue to run, he explained with a demonic smile.
In less than an hour, they were all so exhausted that they couldn’t even lift a finger, much less have the mental wherewithal to discuss possible spies.
“I can see that little Leila has let you slack off when it comes to physical training. I’ll have to talk to her about it.” Mr Bethany said as they were busy inhaling as much air as possible, after the grueling run had finally ended once their muscles simply couldn’t move anymore.
“Bu-But why would we train this much if we can just put stat points in?” Lauren finally asked once she had recovered enough.
A roar of laughter startled them as the massive man shook with mirth, making the entire room move. “This is why you youngsters are so soft and can’t reach the high ranks despite all the advantages you have!” He answered, dropping into a lotus position next to them “Yes, it’s much easier to put points into your attributes and get immediate results.” He acknowledged “But if you only do that, you’ll never grasp the full potential of your bodies. Thanks to the System, Skills and attributes become inherent to you, but you are not immediately taught how to use them in the most efficient manner.”
“But that’s why Miss Walker makes us spar so much. She says we’ll become accustomed to our changed bodies much faster that way.” James interrupted, defending his teacher’s methods.
Mr. Bethany grinned, looking very pleased. “Yes, and she’s correct. To get used to fighting in a stronger body, there is nothing better to do than sparring.” He then raised a finger in admonition “But, that’s not the end all be all. If you never push yourself to the brink of physical exhaustion, you’ll never actually know what you are truly capable of!”
Ah, I think I’m understanding now. He means to say that though our stats increase, we might not be using them to their fullest extent because we have never pushed them to the limit, simply seeking to add more points for a quick power-up.
“Does that make a big enough difference to be worth it?” Daniel asked, as always cutting to the meat of the problem.
Mr Bethany hummed, twirling his well-groomed mustache with one sausage-sized finger. “I’m not saying it’s all you must do, but alternating between sparring and extensive physical training will put you above those in the same weight class.”
“But will it actually have any effect on our Status?” Maria inquired, looking interested. As a Mage Talent, she wasn’t keen on wasting stat points on her physical stats. If she could get more out of those she had, it would mean having plenty for her main attributes.
“As you might already know, increasing one’s stats without using the System is an extremely long and arduous procedure.” Mr. Bethany admitted “Weeks of effort, if not months, all to receive a singular point. It’s time much better used inside a dungeon, where growth is measured in hours.”
That much was common knowledge. On every forum dedicated to Awakeners, guides for all kinds of Talents rightly warned rookies away from wasting too much time in the gym. It was simply not worth the effort.
“However.” The old man continued. “Your Status is just a raw display of your stats. It doesn’t take into account your mastery of those stats. Two people with the same strength stat may not be able to lift the same weight if one has trained their body and the other hasn’t. The same goes for all the other attributes. Training your body and mind to handle these increased attributes makes you able to use them far more efficiently. You are not technically stronger, faster, or more resilient, but knowing how to use your attributes trumps even a minor bump in stats.”
That gave them all pause. It was counter to almost everything that was commonly said about the best methods to train, but it was also an intuitive concept.
It’s also similar to what Miss Walker taught us about leveraging our STR correctly. Two different people with the same stat might not use them the same way, and though on paper they are the same, their outcomes are likely to be different.
“And don’t think this is just about physical attributes. Mental attributes benefit from this sort of mastery, too. The more you use them, the better you get at using them efficiently.” Mr. Bethany continued. “Pushing yourself in a safe environment like this, even if it brings you to the brink of exhaustion to do it repeatedly, will help you be more efficient in its use in a real-life situation.”
Mr.Bethany, it turned out, was an excellent teacher, despite his draconian methods. He enjoyed pushing his pupils physically and mentally, and then, while they recovered, he’d explain the philosophy behind it.
It was grueling, and more than once, James felt like he might actually pass out, but he pushed through. They all did.
By the end of the day, they were all utterly spent, but there was a sense of accomplishment too, a feeling that they had really achieved something. As they limped into the changing room, James couldn’t help but feel a grudging respect for Mr Bethany. The man knew what he was talking about, and James could already see the benefits of his approach.
“We’re all going to be sore for a week.” Daniel grumbled, but there was a smile on his face too. As the Tank, he had been pushed the hardest in END-focused exercises. So much so that James had been afraid his friend would collapse.
Instead, he had risen to the challenge and pulled through. Just like James had done when his limbs had been weighed down enough that he felt like he was walking around with a small car in his arms. When he had been told to go through a boxing routine like that, he had almost thought the old man was joking, but one look at his deadly serious expression had made him rethink. He had made it, though, and that was all that mattered.
Once they were out of the showers, feeling as if they had been wrung dry, they were met by their teacher for the day sitting on one of the sofas, taking the entire space. “Please join me; I have a couple of things to talk to you about.”
Hesitantly looking at each other, they did as bid. Mr Bethany had gained their respect with his peculiar but effective training methods, but that didn’t mean they were any less wary about him. Not many people at the AA had earned their trust.
As they all sat down, some sprawling on the floor for lack of space, the large man took a deep breath. His eyes moved from one student to the next, and James felt the full weight of the man’s attention. It wasn’t intimidating in the usual sense; it was the intensity, the complete focus, that felt so heavy.
“Now.” Mr. Bethany started, his voice surprisingly gentle compared to his earlier roars during the training. “I know that this day has been quite the departure from your usual schedule and methods, but I hope you have learned something valuable today.”
They all nodded, albeit some more begrudgingly than others.
“You might be wondering why I was brought in today and what's happening with Leila. Let me tell you about the truth behind the Dawn Initiative.”