Of course his return to the training area made him doubt his previous assertion. Training with Error was already rough. Training with an Error pissed off at his trainee disappearing for hours with no explanation was Hell. There was no more “easy” mode to the gauntlet, it got cranked up to twenty three. Then he added archers with blunted arrows using status effect skills, just to make sure that every single obstacle, trap, or machine got its chance to bash him in the face, or otherwise disrupt his run. Thunk eventually calmed his fury by promising him the second pair of socks to come out of Marsh’s Clothier. The priest claimed he had to have the first himself to make sure that they were up to the proper standards. He couldn’t possibly subject his truest friend to substandard quality socks when he’d never had a pair before. Dix, despite his own love of new socks, was beginning to worry that Thunk was overselling the situation by treating it like the sudden existence of internet porn. He filed that idea away as well, just in case he could figure out a way to make it work in a magical medieval society.
The gauntlet was turned back down to “nearly impossible for a level ten (even though he was still level zero)” from “not even the Japanese would use this as a gameshow.” Dix was fairly certain he was soaring through the skill levels, but refused to look. He’d spent his entire life not having a system to tell him when he got better at things, so unless he was restricted by specific levels, or had a pressing need to know where his levels were he wasn’t going to look. New skills though? He’d check for those every once in a while. Sometimes things got easier for no other discernible reason, so he imagined he had a few at least. The decrease in difficulty was probably either gaining the new skill, or it being snatched up by Devouring Stride.
Periodically Dix would glance over at Error running his own gauntlet. The Elf was determined to gather new skills for his Devouring Stride as well, and was pushing himself through the same training he had Dix running. The difference was that the speed and ferocity of his training course was utterly terrifying, yet he still seemed to almost glide through it completely untouched. Even without pushing his skills, his stats were so much higher than Dix’s that he could only barely keep track of Error as he flowed through the course.
Apparently the point of running a gauntlet was to force your stats and skills to work together to save your ass, causing them to grow in the process. There were two problems. First, pushing your stats higher became impossible after a certain point, the moment you gained a class. Even before that, there was a cap per level. That meant that Dix would eventually get to head back to the dungeon, as his growth would be limited until he had gained some more levels. First though, he had to actually hit the cap, something that was apparently a bit of a gray area for people at level zero.
The second problem was mostly related to availability and location of the training gauntlets. There were plenty of well documented gauntlets available in dungeons all over the continent, but they were of the significantly more lethal variety. If you wanted one to train on, you had to go to where they were. Portability was never even on the list when it came to gauntlet design and construction. Dix suspected that no one had ever bothered to look into the possibility. Afterall, Resize alone would at least make it feasible. Luckily for his current purposes, Pursue was a city designed around training new adventurers. As for the course that Error was using, trainers needed to keep working on their skills too, as well as make demonstrations to prove they were skilled enough to be teaching someone else. Watching the money changing hands amongst some of the nearby resident staff at the end of each run indicated that there were other reasons for high end gauntlets to be built there.
Such training tools were actually not as commonly used in Pursue as most people might think. The lowest level trainees often had next to no actual training or skills, so using such a dangerous piece of equipment would be reckless, as well as useless. Instead they were most often used by those who had just gotten their class that were looking to familiarize themselves with the changes the process brought. That meant that it was actually rather simple to find one available for a whole day of use for Dix, although it was reserved for several days later in the week. Error had only stated that he had plans for changes to their training regime during that time. The smile on his face at the time made Dix a bit nervous.
Much of the skill based training that he needed to get was still in the process of being set up. Error had Thunk making the arrangements for a variety of different trainers to work Dix through their programs. So far he was looking to have a fairly busy schedule containing a number of different tutoring sessions. Thunk was also looking to get him into some of the lectures at the Adventurer’s Guild, pointing out that both he and Error would need breaks as well and sending Dix off to classes would be a wonderful way to arrange them. The Elf had laughed, but pointed out that the lectures were actually exceptionally well done and covered a wide variety of topics that every adventurer of any stripe should know. Generalities of monster species, party tactics, and the basics of dungeoneering were regarded as the most important ones, although they told him to check out the class lists to see if there was anything else that caught his eye. Thunk had that same terrifying smile from before when he explained Dix could pay them back for the costs.
Dix was beginning to get a little nervous about the amount of debt he was running up. Perhaps more worrisome was that he didn’t even know how much interest was going to be charged. On the other hand, from the little chatter he had heard from some of the looky-loos and gamblers, Error was a bit of a legend. If you are going to go into massive debt for an education that will save your life, make sure you get the best available.
His moment of distraction cost him as a horizontally swinging arm smashed into his chest, and hurled him from the platform. Coughing and groaning, he rolled onto his back on the hard packed dirt of the area around the gauntlet. With the protections of health and defensive stats provided by the system, there was no need to pad any of the pounding, swinging, slashing, or crushing arms, nor the rest of the variety of dangerous implements that made up his foreseeable future. As long as the blades were blunted, a blow would certainly hurt, but the worst thing trainees risked was a broken bone. On Earth that would put someone out for at least a month, but with health regen and healing magic available to the people of Mantra they were only down for twenty minutes or so.
After a quick pat down assured him that he hadn’t broken anything, he decided to take a break from the course for a bit and try some of his other options. Weight lifting and running were pretty much the same as Earth, although there were some small stylistic differences and fewer safety concerns. He’d had a full workout in the morning and had had enough of getting hit for a bit, so he decided it was his turn to hit things. In this case he chose a humanoid golem. It was time to start working through his martial arts to see which ones would grant him skills, although he wasn’t sure how well it would work without any way to control the thing. He chose a humanoid because it was more comfortable to work with, particularly in light of him having no clue how well martial arts designed over centuries to fight other humans would hold up against monsters.
He’d actually started his martial arts training the day before, but mostly just to get a feel for fighting the golems without weapons. His original concern was mostly physical. As in how physically painful it is to fight a creature made of wood with a closed fist. It was similar to hitting a tree, and not those little three inchers that youtube girl managed to punch through in thirty or so shots. No, it was more like punching a redwood, without the bark. Painful, and would definitely leave a bruise, but less likely to split the skin. Getting hit back by the golems was quite similar to what he had just gone through with less force. Easier to dodge, but they still got some less painful hits in. As he had spent a great deal of time learning different martial arts over the previous two decades, he was used to the after effects of attacking something made of wood, and wasn’t truly concerned.
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What was concerning though was the strange feeling of currents swirling through his body as he practiced his forms. He had his suspicions about what was causing it, and tried to focus more on how the currents moved in response to different actions. Over the next couple hours, while he didn’t make a lot of progress towards what he perceived to be his goal, there were some improvements. At times, when he did briefly sync his movements and attacks to those currents, each motion seemed easier, effortless and pure. And oddly uncontrolled by him. He felt as though the current of energy was guiding and fueling those actions. The slight flutter he felt in his mind at those moments made him think he was touching upon a new skill, but wasn’t quite there yet. With no other guide towards what he was attempting to do, that flutter in his mind was the only indication of how close he was getting to gaining the skill.
Dix was contemplating his failure to make anything actually work for him with these newly discovered currents when Error appeared at his side. “Time to go, kid,” he said. Despite the fact that he had been running his own gauntlet at high speed for a fair chunk of time there wasn’t a mark on him or his clothing, nor was he sweating. Dix wondered if there was a skill to keep you from looking like you had been working hard. If there was, it was probably an Elven racial skill, or just unique to Error.
As the two started their journey back to the cathedral, they discussed the training Dix had gone through that day, as well as what was expected for the next few days. Error pointed out that the changes to the current training regime would start earlier than expected. “They need to start using the training area and the gauntlet starting tomorrow afternoon. We could have used it for the morning before handing it over, but I’ve got a better idea. Since you seem so keen to get out and see the world, I thought we’d start with that.”
Dix got the impression that this wouldn’t be a pleasurable outing for him. The elf was still slightly irritated about Dix disappearing earlier, even though he knew it was all Thunk’s fault. Dix knew there was no doubt they’d be going outside the walls tomorrow, but he was also sure it wouldn’t be a casual tourist hike through the surrounding areas. He could just agree with the plans to torture him, or embrace the opportunity. “Any chance you could help me grab a few skills to fold into the Stride while we’re out there? Most of the things I have fed it so far are more suitable to an urban environment. Although I guess they could be adapted to a fortress, dungeon, or cave. Not sure how well they would work for trees.”
Error scratched his chin while he thought through his options. He did want to work the kid half to death, but there was nothing that said he couldn’t teach him useful things at the same time. It was his actual purpose after all. “Sure, we could do that. That will actually give you the chance to learn some other things you need to know about how to utilize skills. Mainly how to use a skill that presents similarities to what you are trying to do, but has limitations keeping it from working properly. And also how to force those same skills to not activate so that you can learn a new skill instead. Just don’t expect it to be easier on you than what I had originally planned.”
Just nodding in reply, Dix moved the conversation along. “Any word yet on the other trainers?”
“Sure. We’ve already got most of the physical side of things set up. It will eat into your time on the gauntlet, but that might be for the best at the moment anyways. You need to train up your stats a bit more before you can handle it correctly according to your planned multirole style anyways.”
Dix was briefly stymied by the information. New questions, important ones, popped into his head. Two main directions to take it, but which was most important to know now? Having made a quick decision, he asked, “Handle it correctly? What do you mean?”
“Ha! Finally, something you didn’t figure out on your own,” Error crowed. He laughed at the irritated look on Dix’s face, saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll explain. I’m just glad to see you can’t think of everything. It’s been a little embarrassing so far with how little Thunk and I have to explain to you.” His smile only broadened when Dix huffed at him.
“Anyways, what I mean is that different combat roles handle the gauntlet differently. You’ve been approaching it like I do. Which is to say as a melee fighter that can’t afford to get hit. Shield and heavy tanks just walk through the thing, soaking up the hits. Thief styles, the tricky bastards, might seem to work like me, but they will spend a fair amount of time figuring out how to disable or dismantle parts of the gauntlet before they work their way through. By the time they actually do start moving through, they have all the patterns and timing memorized so that they can actually stop to disable most of the traps throughout the course, or avoid them entirely. Most physical ranged people will get on top of the gauntlet to run it, as staying at a higher elevation means they can shoot things without hitting their teammates. When made to go through it, they work through it like I do, but with more acrobatics and less speed. And mages just ignore the whole idea.”
“Yeah, I imagine they just teleport through or something,” Dix said contemplatively.
“What? No! That’s insane!” Error’s clear surprise and fear at the idea piqued the Folk’s curiosity. He would have asked questions, but found it was unnecessary as the Elf stopped walking and turned Dix to look him in the eye as he continued. “No one, and I mean NO ONE, does combat teleportation. There are no skills or spells for it, and those who try to make them all end badly. NEVER try it. People lose their lives, limbs, and sanity doing so. None of which can be fixed, so don’t try.”
“Why though? What causes it?” Seeing Error about to yell again, he added, “I’m not going to try, I just want to understand what happens so I know why I’m not going to do so.”
The elf glared suspiciously at Dix, then started stalking angrily up the street. Even in a foul mood, the assassin couldn’t seem to make noise if he tried. Error was also less than convinced by the statement Dix had made about not trying combat teleportation, and endeavored to make him realize the dangers of looking into it. “This isn’t like the rest of the information you’ve questioned. It really is a death sentence. I’m no mage, so I don’t know all of the specifics, but I will try to explain as best I can. If nothing else, at least promise me you will talk to a real mage before you try anything at all regarding this topic.” He waited for Dix to respond.
“You have my word,” was all Dix said. On the inside, he was gleefully certain that he would be the one to figure out how to make it work. Still, he had given his word, and he planned to keep it. He would need more magical knowledge than he currently had before he even could attempt it, so it wasn’t like he was restraining himself at all.
Still suspicious, Error reluctantly continued his explanation. “The mage that explained it to me said that skills and spells like your Return contain a number of safeguards within the form of the activation. Safeguards that take a fair bit of time to activate, hence the reason it takes so long for transportation skills to activate. Combat teleportation, to even be useful in a combat situation, has to be done fast. That means there is no time to put such protections into place. Without those, whatever dwells in the space between places can do with you what it will, and what it wills is never pretty.”