Ryan pulled his palms apart, leapt to his feet, and punched the air.
"Yeah!" Ryan shouted in celebration. "I fucking did it!"
Ryan didn't know if he ever felt so serene and euphoric before. Maybe on his vacation to Paris with Vanessa, but other than that, never before. How could he ever have taken the comfort of the calm breeze softly licking and enveloping his body for granted? The world felt so nice and comfortable in comparison to the hellish hour he just went through.
But then Ryan winced and blushed when he looked around and remembered that there were other people around him. Some slaves glared back at him, and some of them snickered.
"Stupid apes," he heard a nearby elven guard, stationed by a wall, mutter under his breath. The elven guards glared at Ryan, seemingly irritated by him breaking what was probably a calming silence.
Countess Gladine and her brother, Franocles who sat with him on a dais at the edge of a training yard, looked at him. Franocles did so with a scowl as he gripped his manbane wand. But he pulled his hand away, seeming to probably do it by instinct. Ryan just realised that if he was owned by any other slaver his random outburst would've probably resulted in some punishment and discipline.
But Countess Gladine looked at him with a blank expression and just snorted as if she watched a dog chase its own tail. She turned away from him and back to her brother as if nothing happened.
He was glad that neither her nor anyone did anything about his impulsive celebration, but he still felt embarrassed as he sat down on the floor and crossed his legs. Not even Cameron and Zack looked to him to acknowledge his success, they were busy meditating; as they should be.
And then reality finally dawned on him. Dread wormed its way up his stomach. He was gonna have to do that again to make it mean anything. He only had four hours left. He didn't have time to celebrate and chill out.
So Ryan took a deep breath, crossed his legs, pressed his palms together, and chanted the mantra.
And no, it didn't hurt any less than before.
----------------------------------------
Congratulations! You have performed the Infernal Meditation Skill for 1 hour!
Reward 6 XP
Ryan fell back and onto the grass as he pulled his palms away from each other. Whilst the relief he felt from exiting the torture of the Infernal Meditation was euphoric more than anything he felt in years, the dread of knowing that he'd have to do it again was awful. He may not need to do it again for the rest of the day because that was his fifth hour, but he would have to do five more hours of it the next day and the day after. It hurt even more considering how that day of meditation only allowed him to gain 30 XP. He still had 570 XP to go before he reached Level 2, let alone reach Cameron's or Zack's levels. He sighed in frustration.
Oh well. At least he could bathe in the comfort of not being burnt alive for the rest of the day.
One of the guards slammed spear to shield and shouted for them all to stop meditating. The slaves all did so and seperated into different groups across the field.
Zack and Cameron led Ryan to one corner of the yard. Four others followed them. Cameron gestured to one of them with spiky hair. His face seemed like it was in a permanent grimace. It was the sort of face that would make you feel weird if you saw a smile on it. "This calm and compassionate guy is called Dennis," Cameron said. "He is one of the Warriors of our team."
Dennis rolled his eyes, huffed, and crossed his arms.
Ryan stared at him and looked at his stat screen.
Race Human Level 3 Class Warrior Mana 100%
Cameron gestured to a woman next to him. Her hands would regularly switch from fiddling with her shaggy brown hair or fiddling behind her back. When Cameron made eye contact with her, her eyes would quickly swivel to the floor. She was a nervous one. Why in the world did she become a gladiator? "This brave and battle-hardened lady is called Marissa," Cameron said. "She is our team's Mage."
She blushed, turned away, and shook a little wave at Ryan. "Nice to meet you," she muttered.
Ryan nodded back. Whilst her choosing to be a gladiator over a household slave was still utterly bizarre to him, choosing to be a Mage who'd fight in the backline would be ideal. Hopefully enough to calm her down in a fight. The only issue would be what'd happen when the enemy would attack her from the flank. Hopefully getting stronger and through getting experience by fighting monsters on whatever the Continent of Mana was would toughen her up. But it's not like he had that much fighting experience either so it'd be a bit weird to judge her too quickly and harshly.
Regardless, he stared at her stat screen. Nothing much of surprise, she was the same level as Dennis.
Cameron then presented another woman next to her. She seemed to be the opposite of Dennis and Marissa at the same time. She stood wide and open with her hands on her hips. She had a permanently smiling face that'd appear greatly disturbing if he saw a frown or a scowl on it.
How could she be so upbeat when they were literally slaves was beyond his comprehension. But it was crazy people like this was what a good team of gladiators needed. He needed to learn a bit of crazy from her and Cameron if he wanted to succeed. And to be honest, the Infernal Meditation was doing a good job of that thus far. He'd be surprised if he had any sanity left at the end of the month.
"This clinically depressed ball of pity and misery is called Natalia!" Cameron said.
"That's me!" she shouted, whipping her arm up in the air and waving at him as if he was a hundred miles away. Why was she shouting again? None of the slaves began sparring or training yet so it's not like the yard was noisy. Could this be her regular talking voice? Horror flashed in his stomach at the thought of having to hear her screeching voice every day of his life until he won the gladiator tournament. "I'm the team's Archer! Great to meet you, Ryan!"
At least her voice would annoy the enemies just as much as himself.
Cameron then finally gestured to a man beside her. He was a tall and lanky man with a long face. He always had a specific frown and narrowing of the eyes that made it look like he was constantly pondering deep philosophical dilemmas. Or just chewing a particularly sour apple. He had the look of a man who you'd want to ask what the meaning of life was when experiencing any existential dread. But also the last person you'd invite to a party. "And last but not least, this zany and silly goofball is called Charles Cooper," Cameron said.
"I am the Healer of the team." Charles said. He gave a slight bow. "Your diligence when practising the Infernal Meditation skill was sublime. It is my distinguished honour to make your acquaintance, Ryan."
A team of nutjobs. Ryan sighed. Just what he needed.
After they made their introductions, a household slave laid a crate filled with books by the training yard's archway entrance. Another slave came up behind him and placed a cavas bag with wooden spears poking out beside the crate. All of the gladiators turned to look. Soldiers approached the crates, picked them up, and went to each group of gladiators one by one, handing each one selections of books and wooden swords.
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"He's currently passing out Skill Books," Cameron said, standing by Ryan's side. "All of us except you have already learned all the Skills we can learn at the level we're currently at. With those Skill Books at least. So only you will be practising Skills today. We'll be sparring."
The soldier finally approached them with the crate and handed Ryan a book. It had a blank leather cover except for the word's Tier 1 Warrior carved into it. Ryan opened up the book and flipped through it. He saw lists of Skills detailing their level restrictions, their effects, instructions on how to learn them, embed them into your System, and how to use them. However, the maximum level restriction was Level 20.
"Whilst this Skill Book is good for now," Cameron said, whilst picking up the bundle of wooden weapons the soldier gave them. "We'll need a Tier 2 Skill Book to learn better skills once we get to Level 20."
Ryan flipped back to the first page of the skill book to check the level 1 skills. There were four Skills that Ryan could learn, Augmentation, Aegis, Aegis Rush, and Crippling Cut.
Augmentation and Crippling Cut were both offensive Skills. And their team was lacking in defence due to not having any Guardians on their team and only having one Healer. Even if he changed to a team with an abundance of defence, he could always just un-learn his defensive Skills and learn offensive ones. So for now, he decided to try and learn Aegis and Aegis Rush. He specifically picked Aegis Rush first because that one looked pretty cool. He'd leave Aegis for when he got to level 10.
Skill Name Aegis Rush Effect (Activation) Caster summons a mana shield in front of them (Durability = Defence * Level), and dashes to the target location. Upon arrival, the mana shield dissipates. Mana Cost 10% (Decreases by 0.5% per each 10 points in Magic). Cooldown 60 seconds. (Decreases by 2 seconds per each 10 points in Magic). System Insertion Ritual Sit with crossed legs, press your palms against the ground, nod your head forwards twice every second, whilst chanting the following incantation ten times. 'Maka camarini thi kappa. Grallee eighta thata kappa."
"Between Level 1 - 10, you can only learn one Skill," Cameron said as he passed out wooden spears to Dennis and Zack, passed wooden daggers to Lucien and Marissa, and a bow and quiver filled with blunt arrows to Natalia. "That increases by one every 10 levels."
"How do you get rid of a skill?" Ryan asked as he sat down on the floor and crossed his legs once again.
"Perform the System Insertion Ritual, for the Skill you've learned but want to forget," Cameron said, finally finishing passing out wooden weapons to everyone in the team. He spun the spear in his hand and turned to the rest of the team. "Let me know when you've finished learning a Skill and have had a go at using it. After that, you're gonna need to learn basic fighting techniques as well."
"Why did you only use the Aegis Skill in the fight against the Expana Bear?" Ryan asked Cameron. "Don't you have three other Skills? And don't have you Level 20 - 40 Skills aswell?"
"My four Skills are Aegis, Aegis Rush, Eagle Eye, and Ghost Slash. When stabbing the Expana Bear's eyes, I did use Eagle Eye, you probably just didn't notice because visually it only makes my eyes glow. And Ghost Slash may allow my weapon to phase through armour, the Expana Bear's scales don't count as armour since it's part of it's skin. I fought an Expana Bear before in the Continent of Mana and I tried Ghost Slash on it before. Not very helpful."
"What Skills does Zack have?"
"He has Aegis, Aegis Rush, Javelin - which he used when throwing his spear at the monster, and he has Shatter Slash."
"Thanks," Ryan said with a nod, trying to chizel the names of all of their Skills to his memory for when they fight as a team. He placed his Skill Book next to him and read through the System Insertion Ritual instructions a few times, making sure he didn't forget a step.
Cameron gestured for Dennis, Lucien, Natalia, and Marissa to come at him.
But Zack stepped in between them. "Spar with me," Zack said to Cameron.
Cameron shook his head.
"Why? You don't learn anything from sparring with weaklings."
Dennis' face twitched.
"I want to teach them," Cameron said. "My personal training can come later."
"They can teach themselves."
"They can, but it'd take a long time."
Zack shrugged. "That's their problem."
"You can spar with Dennis if you want."
"I can, but it takes a long time to learn anything from sparring with weaklings."
"I dare you to say that again once I level up higher than you!" Dennis said with a scowl.
Zack snorted and ignored him.
"You don't want to spar with him, that's fine," Cameron said with a shrug. "Which makes you alone today. That's your problem."
Zack sighed, turned away, and resigned to shadow sparring. Dennis pulled his glare away from Zack and turned to Marissa, Lucien, and Natalia as they began sparring with Cameron.
Cameron stood on one foot and only used one hand to hold his spear, gently grasping it with two fingers and a thumb. Yet, Cameron still easily tapped aside Marrissa's hesitant throwing of rocks, simulating the shooting of fireballs. He slapped away Lucien's clumsy slashes, it's not like he had much combat to practise as a Healer. Cameron easily parried Dennis' powerful and rage-filled spear swings. Cameron was even able to slap away Natalia's blurring wooden training arrows that she shot from behind the frontline.
Cameron was a monster. Marissa squealed as Cameron flicked his spear at her bag of rocks, slapped them out of her hand, and tapped his spear on the top of her head. "You're out," Cameron said.
That must mean the way their sparring worked was supposed to reflect a real fight. If you hit someone with an attack that was supposed to hypothetically kill them, then you lost the sparring duel.
And thus, Cameron slapped his spear at Lucien's head, knocking him stumbling to his knees.
Dennis faked a thrust at Cameron's head, ducked, and slashed at his legs. But Cameron's spear blurred down from his head to slam away Dennis' spear. As Dennis recoiled from the parry, Cameron flicked the spear at Dennis' shoulder. He winced as he stumbled to the side, flung his spear down at the floor and shouted in frustration.
Only Natalia was left. Cameron didn't run at her. She shot arrows at him, but he slapped them away. He then raised his spear over his shoulder and threw it at her. She ducked to dodge it, but Cameron seemed to have already predicted a duck. The spear hit her in the stomach and sent her stumbling backwards and onto the floor.
"Well done!" Cameron said, a big smile on his face as he approached Marissa and Dennis, held his hands out for them to grab them so he could pull them up. "You're all getting a lot better."
"What're you talking about?" Dennis grunted with a scowl. "You dominated us."
"Less than last time at least," Cameron said as he pulled them up to their feet. He approached Natalia, picked up his spear and helped Natalia up. "That's what matters guys. Doesn't matter if you lose, as long as it's not as bad of a loss as last time."
Dennis shook his head and picked up his spear again. Marissa picked up her rocks and dropped them back in her bag. Lucien picked up his daggers, and Natalia picked up her arrows and bow. Cameron spun his spear in his hand and stood on one leg. He beckoned them to come, and they ran at him.
Ryan could hear Countess Gladine and her brother, Franocles, behind him. They were talking whilst reclining in the shade, at the top of a dais at the far end of the training yard. Despite Cameron's immense display of finesse and strength, their eyes were still focused on Zack. Especially Franocles. Zack was just shadow sparring. His movements were slow and deliberate, but they didn't look unique or impressive. Was it just his level that interested them>?
Ryan turned away; he needed to focus on getting stronger, not on the strength of those around him. He read through the instructions of the Aegis Rush Skill's System Insertion Ritual instructions enough. It was time to put it into practice.
He pressed his palms on the grass around him. He took some time to fully recall the incantation, rehearsed it in his mind, and then began.
"Maka camarini thi kappa," Ryan chanted, making sure to nod twice every two seconds. His head nods would occasionally stutter, and he'd every now and then stumble over his chanting of the incantation. It was difficult to keep track of the passage of each second, making sure to nod twice in every second, and also chant the incantation. But he rehearsed it and took his time to prepare so he seemed to do it without any severe mistakes.
"Grallee eighta thata kappa." And with that he finished the first round of the chanting. Now he'd have to chant that same incantation nine more times without losing track of the passage of time or nodding too quickly or too slowly.
It got harder and harder the more he did it. It took so much concentration a few beads of sweat re-appeared on his head, dripping down his temple. The noise of the slave's sparring didn't help his concentration. Neither did the constant chattering and occasional giggling and laughter that came from Countess Gladine and her brother who sat on the dais behind him. It was especially difficult to not get distracted by them because of the potential to gather information about the outside world from them. He wanted to listen. But he had more important things to do.
So he kept his head down, kept chanting, kept nodding, and kept keeping track of the passage of each second.
Until eventually, a blue box appeared before him.
Congratulations! You have learned the Aegis Rush Skill!