The first day of training was exciting, but not as productive as it could have been. The display of James’s nearly bottomless mana pool was something the dwarves hadn’t ever seen, and even Helios and Lunaris were quite surprised. But as a downside of the spectacle, James slept like a log, barely able to wake up even the next day.

It wasn’t a complete loss though. While he was napping, Lunaris and Helios had a grand old time, indulging in a fancy feast with the three dwarves. They kept trying to wake James up to at least offer him some food. But even though the smells made him drool even while sleeping, his slumber was just too deep.

The next day, the gang were finally ready to eager get some work done. But the dwarves were still too shocked from James’s display of power to actually get started on anything.

“This opens up so many possibilities! Having so much mana will allow him to do anything!” Eruditus exclaimed with an excited glint in his eyes, the imps still dancing around him.

“Yeah, yeah! For example, there’s … hmm. Ok, nothing comes to mind right now, but I’m sure we’re going to find some really good uses for it!” Ruppus added, the vines moving around excitedly and nervously like their master.

“Having so much mana that you don’t know what to do with it is quite a rare ‘problem’.” Bacchus replied, the runes over his face constantly morphing as he was looking at James. “But it still needs to be used with care. Even though your mana supply might seem nigh bottomless, it’s not without its risks, it can make you develop unhealthy habits. You need to use your mana efficiently in order to fully capitalize on your strength.”

James nodded. Bacchus’s words rang true. He had already developed some bad habits. The very existence of the [Overloading Mana Prongs] was proof of how careless and inefficient he had become with his mana supply. He created this spell with the intention of continuously delivering his mana into the target until inevitably they were overwhelmed.

It did its job well, and it would be even more powerful now that he had so much more mana at his disposal. But it wasn’t efficient at all.

The three mages were discussing amongst themselves, trying to develop a training program for James. Though his build was so weird that they didn’t really know where to start.

Helios knew him a lot better though. “You have become quite a formidable attacker, but you still have many weaknesses.”

Before James could even look at him, Helios had already moved in behind his back, placing a dagger at his throat. “If I were an enemy, you’d be dead already.”

James couldn’t deny that. The attack came from nowhere, so he didn’t even see Helios make his move. None of his eclectic defensive measures could protect him against that.

“It doesn’t matter if you can launch a million attacks. If you fail to defend a single one, you’re dead. Especially since you tend to sacrifice your health so often. If that barrier of yours ever breaks, you’re a goner.” Helios added. He cared a lot about his brother. He wanted to make sure he would be safe in any situation.

“I agree.” Lunaris interjected. “If we are to face Garantep, we need to be aware of all our weaknesses, and try our darndest to get rid of them. Neither SARM, nor your Combat Clairvoyance or Chaos Barrier are enough. What you lack is speed and toughness.”

“Well said, Lun. Not only would he die in one good hit, which is enough of a problem. But since he is so slow, for a truly powerful opponent, delivering that hit would be like hitting a piñata without even wearing a blindfold.” Helios added.

Helios then attacked James again. But since James was already in a fairly alert mindset, his Combat Clairvoyance predicted it, and SARM dodged out of the way.

Helios’s speed proved to be more impressive than James thought. In the blink of an eye, Helios he was already behind him. If this had been an enemy, he could’ve poked several holes into James already.

James still had a card up his sleeve though. He sacrificed his health, activating [Reckless Abandon] and the Chaos Barrier. The world was suddenly plunged into slow-motion, and even Helios looked a lot more sluggish.

But Helios wasn’t playing around. He wanted to really show James his weaknesses. Even though he was seeing the world in slow-motion, with his own speed being greatly enhanced, Helios’s attacks were flying so fast that he didn’t even know which way to dodge.

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James’s SARM tried to get him out of the way, launching him in random directions, but dozens of fists were already bombarding James’s barrier.

Fire began consuming the barrier. Immediately, small cracks began forming.

Suddenly, he stopped.

“Well, I guess I proved my point already.” Helios said while flexing his muscles. “I’ve been telling you that you need to train your other stats for a long, long time, brother. Looks like you can’t postpone it anymore.” He grinned.

As much as James hated the idea of training other attributes, Helios was right. If those hadn’t been his friend’s fists, but the attacks of a real enemy, he would’ve been dead already.

He hadn’t relied much on dodging during the previous fight with the agent, he had to keep improvising ways to make up for his lack of speed, even with [Reckless Abandon]. But improvisation wouldn’t cut it, not this time. He couldn't keep relying on bullets or barriers to keep compensating for his lack of speed.

He knew they were right, but he was still a bit disappointed. If he could use the three months to fully dedicate himself to learning new attacks and ways to utilize his mana, he would be an unstoppable force.

But being an unstoppable force doesn’t mean much if you can be taken out in a few seconds.

“Wait, what if I just use half of my mana defensively?” James blurted out. “I have plenty of it! Even if I use half for some sort of powerful version of a mana shield, or even a bunch of other defensive measures, I’d still have a whole heck of a lot left to attack with. So then I wouldn’t have to waste time training other things!”

Lunaris and Helios smiled. That side of James was quite endearing. He was like an innocent, lazy child. But he couldn’t have his way this time around, unfortunately.

“I’m sorry, James.” Lunaris said in a melancholic tone, sounding like a doting mother who had to take her child to the doctor so he could get a shot. “Everything has its diminishing returns. You already have a barrier. Adding more of them isn’t really a solution. What if you encounter an enemy that can easily deal with barriers, like Helios?”

As reluctant as James was, he knew they were right. Hell, he understood his weaknesses better than anyone.

He always had a weak body. Both in his past and his current life, he was bad at anything physical. It took him a lot of effort to exercise or do anything that others took for granted. His lungs felt like they were burning every time he had to run, even when he was a kid. And he was never really able to do a pull up.

Exercising felt like torture. And even now that he was torturing himself on an almost daily basis in order to use his skills, he was still not looking forward to actually training his physical attributes. It was a different kind of torture.

But it was time to man up. He wasn’t doing it for himself, he had others he cared about now. And if he didn’t fix his weaknesses now, he’d just drag his friends down with him. And that was the thing he feared most, much more than just losing his own life.

Helios proved how important it really was to train his speed and toughness. And he had plenty of help now, especially since the dwarves were here solely to train them. With his friends’ support, it wouldn’t be as hard either, at least from a psychological standpoint.

Before they really started the training, Lunaris, Helios and James displayed most of their skills to the three dwarves. They dutifully recorded everything, displaying an unusually focused and serious attitude. Only their intermittent gasps of awe and amazement were reminiscent of the goofy mages of yesterday.

After analyzing the footage for a while, each of the dwarves decided to focus on a single person. That way, they could more efficiently guide them, while getting to know their strengths and weaknesses in a more intimate manner. But they would still consult each other and pool their minds together in order to be as efficient as possible. Time was short, so they couldn’t goof around like yesterday anymore.

Ruppus would focus on Lunaris. He was the best healer of the bunch, and since Lunaris wanted to develop her healing powers as much as possible, he was the right man for the job.

Eruditus went with Helios. Helios was quite a versatile fighter, not only a tank and a swordsman, but a fire mage too. Eruditus’s knowledge surpassed the bounds of disciplines, so he could mold Helios in a way that would make better use of his many talents.

But while Eruditus’s knowledge was wide, Bachus’s was deep. No one was suited more to guiding the mysterious and eccentric powers that James possessed than him.

With their duties assigned, their weaknesses analyzed, and their strengths determined, they were finally able to begin training at maximum efficiency.

Lunaris’s and Helios’s powers were much more balanced, so they could jump straight into optimizing themselves for battling Garantep.

But James had a long way to go before he could even think about Garantep.

“Why you need to increase your speed is obvious.” Bacchus said. “But it’ll also increase the effectiveness of your SARM and Combat Clairvoyance, allowing you to dodge and react much quicker. So it’s even more important to train it.”

Bacchus then poked James with his finger, a tiny rune glowing on it. James immediately screamed in pain.

“And then there’s toughness and vitality. Not only is your HP a joke, but you have basically no resistances against damage. I barely put any mana into my finger, and it was enough to cause you so much pain. To be honest, I have no idea how you’re alive right now. How did you make it this far, killed so many enemies, with such pitiful and uneven stats?”

Bacchus shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Luckily, since your mana levels are just so god damn ridiculous, I may know a way out of your little predicament.”

James had been quite upset at his own weakness, but hearing that made him perk right up.