~Thorben~
“We’ve been at this all morning!” Thorben exclaimed in frustration, pounding his hand onto the grass covered ground. Aldwin had been trying to guide him in an active meditation technique, that he was convinced would help Thorben maintain control of his rage.
“We’ll be at it for as long as it takes for you to achieve it. From what you’ve told me you have snapped a couple of times, both ending in your collapse and one in near death.” The drunk snapped. “If you can’t keep control of your temper, it is a matter of time before you loose your shit and kill an ally or yourself. A HUD helps by redirecting energy, and preventing the build up of dangerous levels of experience. Your debuff will significantly impact this benefit. So the status of your soul will be a critical component in managing the controlled release of this energy, rather than it just bottling up and exploding whenever you decide to have a hissy fit. So shut up and get to it!”
Aldwin had only become more difficult to deal with, and Thorben simply referred to him as the angry drunk in his thoughts. Tea time helped but Thorben suspected that Alfred was slowly decreasing the alcohol level in the so called healing tonic. Yet the angry drunk was right, damn him.
During the four days until his Soul Damage debuff had worn off, the two men had explored his HUD, and discussed every aspect of it until they had a decent working theory. His unique HUD had the potential to be a powerful tool for growth, but the counter-balance was that he had to deal with dangerous levels of experience energy. They hypothesized that rather than safe levels of experience accumulating and then transforming into attribute points that would immediately be spent and thus the energy utilized, his energy level would build and transform into attribute points that could only be irrevocably hoarded. This energy buildup would cause flare ups in his emotions, and strain on his mind and soul. If his experience energy reached critical levels then it had the very real possibility of reshattering his soul. He had to develop some way of managing his mind, body, and soul.
Both of them had come to the realization that the only hope was a meditation technique. This was beyond frustrating, as this was the one area of his training growing up that had always escaped him. His parents, brother, and almost every dwarf in the mountain was able to utilize an active meditation technique. For years, he watched as others accomplished what he couldn’t… still could not. Now it was his only hope.
“Stop your brooding! Pity parties get you nowhere. You’ve built this wall in your path, now you have to figure out how to tear it down.” Aldwin admonished, as he sat on a log and sipped from his tankard of tea. They had moved outside, a short distance from Alfred’s Inn. Which was both a description of who owned the establishment as well as it’s actual name, as he’d discovered that morning as they walked out the door for training. He’d turned to get a good look at his place of residence the past almost half moon, and seen the large sign above the door. Aldwin was convinced that Thorben was somehow self-sabotaging his meditation training. Thorben was on the verge of lashing out at the man.
“I’ve tried, I’ve been trying. Breathe in your anger deeply, Thorben. Hold it a heartbeat and then breathe your anger out.” He said in a sarcastic imitation of Aldwin. “This doesn’t work,” Thorben vented. Aldwin had been pushing him all morning, constantly angering him. It had been a lesson in pure restraint to not punch him in the face. Despite not wanting to admit it he was forced to concede that Aldwin had a point. As his anger increased he could feel pressure building in the core of his being.
“Fine, give up. Let’s practice your sword work so that you can just put your brother down when he returns. It’d be more humane that letting him ride around not knowing when you’ll snap and kill him. At least don’t be a selfish little prick, be a man and stab him while he looks you in the eyes. A coward stabs someone in the back. Are you a coward, Thorben?” Aldwin yelled throwing his tankard on the ground and retrieving his short swords.
Time seemed to freeze in Thorben’s mind. This mother fucker! His hand raised on it’s own accord and he didn’t even hear himself say the words ‘Saighead Tintreach.’ A bolt appeared in his hand, made of three strands of power. Blue, white, and a dark purple intertwined yet never seemed to touch. Without a thought it flew towards Aldwin, who waved his hand and a bright yellow shield appeared deflecting his bolt into the dirt safety away from him, causing a small crater to form in the ground.
“There it is,” Aldwin said with a sneer. “Breathe in your anger deeply, Thorben. Picture that rage and breathe it in deeply. Hold it a heartbeat and then picture yourself breathing your anger out as you exhale. Do it now!”
Thorben heard the words but before he could even think about complying he saw the words Tintreach Saighead floating in his vision. Without a sound being uttered, a second bolt flew through the air, deflected again by that mystical yellow shield, though beads of sweat appeared on Aldwin’s forehead as if he had strained heavily to block his bolt. An even larger crater appeared this time. “You want to suffer more soul damage, be my guest. You want to accidentally kill your brother, that’s on you. You throw one more bolt at me and I will react in kind,” the look of rage that flashed across Aldwin’s face was enough to blunt the edge of his own. “Breathe your anger in, hold it briefly, and picture yourself exhaling it as you breathe out. NOW!”
He closed his eyes, he could see his rage. It was a ball of turbulent liquid lightning, he could feel it wreaking havoc, wanting to burn his enemies away at the risk of all. He forced himself to breathe it in, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation in his lungs he held it for an impossibly long moment, and then imagined that liquid chaos calming into a blue wisp that he breathed out as he exhaled. When he opened his eyes he could have swore that he saw a wisp of blue dissipate in the air before him. The rage was still there, but it was manageable. He could control it, he was in charge and not it!
Achievement
Inner Mana Core Subjugation (Basic): You’ve begun to subdue your mana, setting your figurative feet on the path to mastery.
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25 Experience Gained!
Aldwin approached him with a sinister smile on his face, swords sheathed, “Good, now the training can begin in earnest. Now that you have the knowledge to control your rage, we will work on summoning it, and then we will shape you into a danger your enemies will learn to fear.”
As his Thorben’s anger fled, he fell into the dirt. His muscles seemed to have given out, and he wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and rest. “Sorry I almost killed you Aldwin.” He mumbled tiredly.
“If you only could,” he heard Aldwin whisper in a near inaudible voice that Thorben knew he wasn’t intended to be able to hear. Louder the angry drunk continued, “Kill me! Kid, I have more tricks up my sleeves than you are aware of. It will take a lot more than that parlor trick to even scratch me.“ As Aldwin spoke Thorben’s eyes began closing in exhaustion. ”Did I say rest? Wake up,” Aldwin ordered him. “Check your HUD for status effects.”
Thorben forced his eyes open, and pulled up his status screen and read it to Aldwin.
Minor Soul Damage [temporary-00:0:59]
Due to casting without the use of a focus or proper runic preparations you are temporarily unable to safely channel mana. Limit physical exertion and refrain from any mana use or you risk more severe damage.
“We will break for a mid day meal. That will give you enough time for the debuff to expire. Then we get back to it.” Aldwin declared, and walked into the inn.
Thorben lay on his back breathing heavily, doing his best to rest before the next bout of training began. He knew better than to go eat a midday meal, as he was never able to keep it down under training conditions that almost put his mother’s to shame. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the sounds around him. The wind blowing through the trees, the dripping of water into the horse trough, and the slight rattle of loose window panes. It seemed like something was missing and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The sounds had been a respite during down time in training. Especially the birds. The birds! He knew something was wrong as soon as he realized that he birds weren’t singing. Muscle memory saw him rolling out of his current position as he sprang to his feet. Well tried to spring, it was more of a slightly quick climb to his feet. Though he noticed that he had rolled out of the way not a moment too soon. An arrow was embedded in the ground right where he had been laying. He dashed behind the corner of the Inn just as another arrow embedded itself in the Inn door just behind where he had been standing.
“Boy, what the hell do you think you are doing shooting arrows at the door!? Alfred will have your hide!” Aldwin said as he opened the door. Thorben saw his eyes widen in surprise before he rushed out the door towards where he was picking himself off the ground. Thorben was shaken out of his shock at seeing just how fast Aldwin had moved by the old man’s words, “How many?”
Again his training kicked in. Information won battles. “I’m not sure. I think I spotted three as I was dodging that damn archer. So I suppose 4.” Thorben replied.
“Alright typical death squad then,” Aldwin replied nonplussed.
“Death squad?” Thorben asked.
“Less talk, more killing,” Aldwin replied. “I’ll take these three. You find the archer. On the count of three. One… Two…Go….”
Thorben had been waiting for three so was a bit slow on the uptake. He zigged and zagged. Narrowly avoiding arrows. Following the arrows trajectory he was able to locate the black caped bastard just as one of his arrows clipped his left shoulder. The flare of pain caused his rage to blaze into life. As he threw one of his axes in an attempt to put his attacker off balance, a part of his mind screamed at him to breath it out, so he did. He still had one of his daggers in his off hand, but that was no way to engage the enemy. He nearly forgotten his newest addition to his arsenal. Luckily, his mind cleared in time for him to re-summon his Katana and engage his enemy who had thrown down his bow and drew two longer daggers. They were somewhat between a hunting dagger and a short sword in length and glowed with a dim reddish light. Dammit the Order.
Closing the distance he went on the offensive only to have his katana stopped by the daggers which the would be assassin had crossed to intercept his swing. They went back and forth parrying each other for a few seconds. Thorben was tired and knew he had to end it fast. Knowing he had the advantage in reach, he baited his foe into an attack that utilized both daggers and in a flash flowed out of the way and severed both of the assassins hands which strangely enough retained their grip on the daggers. Thorben followed up with a sideways swing that removed the mans head.
He quickly turned to help Aldwin to see that two were dead, one was breathing but knocked out and his drunkard mentor was sitting cross legged watching him.
“Good work. You didn’t get anybody killed, and some might say you almost contributed to this fight.” Aldwin said. “Now you can do what you want with the remaining death squad member. They are trained to resist torture and you will get no useful intelligence from him but I figured you would need to learn that for yourself. I’m going to finish my lunch. Clean up the mess.”
“Mother fucker,” Thorben muttered as the door closed behind Aldwin. He drug the last living assassin off into the woods to question him. Just as Aldwin had said the man wouldn’t speak and before Thorben was able to locate his suicide pill the man used it. As the assassins body convulsed in it’s death throes Thorben stood up and kicked it. “Fuck you! Making me clean up this mess.” He waited to verify that the assassin was truly dead, cut of his head for good measure, and began to drag the rest of the bodies out of the makeshift training yard. After he had returned the inn and surrounding area to some semblance of normal training resumed.
The next quarter moon, or week, as Aldwin had insisted was spent training his active meditation technique in a similar fashion. He got better and better at summoning it at will, and for the most part was able to wrestle it back under control. When on debuff from unsuccessful attempts, they would study other things to pass the time. Apparently he’d been telling time wrong his entire life, though he did see the benefit of the new system, and the numbers next to his temporary debuffs made a lot more sense now.
Aldwin had needed less and less of the tea, and seemed to have a bit of light back behind his eyes. He was still a cantankerous old bastard most of the time, but at least he was a mostly sober cantankerous old bastard.
A couple more days passed and Aldwin declared him “mostly competent” with his active meditation technique. Unfortunately, Aldwin’s magical knowledge was tied to learned skills and therefore was of limited help to Thorben’s unique system. Rather, than struggle to understand his magic system, or unlocking the secrets of his locked skill system, they shifted their focus into combat training. Thorben was a skilled warrior, but Aldwin was in another league. He did his best to absorb every lesson, whether it was a slight twist of his wrist or a widening of his stance, he ingrained it. Thorben could feel the improvement, and part of him craved a test. He might not gain the incredible boosts that he would from attribute points, but he could still improve his body and skill through traditional methods. His understanding of his newfound control, and class abilities had instilled a confidence in him. It was yet to be seen if it was completely founded.