Time passed. It was a period of training, training, and more training for Viers. Routines done repeatedly, Viers’s effort was focused on physical exercises and Mana-mastery. Following the first week after Teldo taught the trainees about Arte, those blessed with talent already distinguished themselves. It was gradually becoming clear which kid had high talent and low talent, Viers’s performance was about below average to average, most of the time. He was struggling to keep up with the others because of the limitation of his talent.
With his talent, the subpar performance was to be expected, his imagination and understanding of spells or magical phenomenon gave him the boost to stay at the average rating. Naturally, the imagination and information were not his own, he cheated by borrowing the knowledge from the Spring of Wisdom while performing things.
“Look fellas, the great big Viers. Look at his Arte, he certainly gives that earth doll a nice bath. See his doll? Isn’t it looking cleaner than the others?”
“This is how it should be done, humph! See that? I cut the doll’s head off. Go on, try it, I’m giving you a hand here. I already set an example for you, don’t be shy, go on. What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue? I seem to remember you aren’t this quiet some time back. Could it be? Could it be you can’t do it? Oh, my apologies then. I shouldn’t have used my standard to measure your ability, ha ha ha ha ha.”
Classmates JKL would often mock him but Viers never rose to their provocations. He always turned his face to stone when they were gloating and rebuking him. He paid their scorn no mind and treated them like barking dogs, annoying but insignificant, they were already dead men walking on his mind.
His fat turned into Super Saiy*n fat. It evolved into something that’s very tough and hard to kill, he already felt hungry almost constantly and he was exercising regularly but the SS fat kept on clinging to his body like a gum on the sole of a shoe. Viers was very bitter about this development, he didn’t know how or why it happened, the damned thing just won’t go away.
Despite his healing factor turned off, his war with the meaty, jelly like substance on his body wasn’t going well. It certainly reduced, his weight on a body scale he recently bought was indeed decreasing albeit very, very slowly. However, his effort was not all in vain, his muscles were developing quite nicely. He could run farther each day, his push-ups were gradually getting easier, and his stamina remarkably improved without the help of his cheat. With the fat enveloping his body, his muscles couldn’t be seen from the outside, Viers’s appearance didn’t change from a chubby boy.
The gods must have a grudge against me, they clearly gave me a fatness heavenly tribulation! What should I do? No MC is shown as a fatty, all MC has a lean or muscular body so the manga or the film can show the MC’s coolness while battling their enemy whether said MC is male or female. The fatty characters usually are shown as comic relief or some gentle giant, maybe they even would be dead before the series is over, like a certain pitiful door holding guy! Sigh, this fat will be the death of me.
He also improved his hearing little by little, there were two reasons for this. Improving too quickly would be detrimental on him because he couldn’t control it, Viers needed time to adjust before improving his hearing yet again. The other reason is because he didn’t have enough Victa, he used most of his Victa to practicing Arte.
He went to the guild’s library and browse the books about Arte there, the trainees picked then copied some Arte that suited them and practiced it in the following days. Viers noticed that the books only contained low-level Artes, none of them were depicting complicated or advanced Arte. Most of the books were about the common elements but there exist a few about the rarer ones. Viers looked at the sound path Arte, it was about producing some kind of sound blast, the user either needed to shout or using a musical instrument to use this Arte.
Viers already knew all of them, courtesy of Spring of Wisdom, he knew the forms but it didn’t mean Viers could create thousands of high-level techniques that he saw on Earth’s fantasy works. There was more needed than simple imagination to create a good and functioning Arte, he chose some simple water path Artes from the library. He made note of how it works, the structure and bones of the Arte, the procedure to conjure it, and so on. Viers was practicing them vigorously the next day.
He wasn’t too disappointed by his inability to re-create Earth’s techniques into Artes, Viers realized he had the template to create a bunch of overpowered Artes, he just needed the skill to bring it to creation. Skill he would acquire in time as he continued his training.
The Training Center started to teach combat training, warrior-type was taught by Teldo while Nakala taught the mage-type. Viers chose to be a warrior-type combatant, if he could, he would also learn to battle like a mage-type but that idea was shelved for the future.
The reason he picked to be a close-ranged fighter was because of his mutation powers, no need to mention his healing factor’s usefulness, he also had enhanced senses although it was only his for his hearing at this point in time. Nakala also told the trainees that generally, warrior-type spent less Victa than mage-type. With all the facts assembled before him, Viers believed he should focus on fighting with his body rather than spell-slinging Artes left and right because he was concerned about his Victa expenditures.
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At the warrior-type’s first lesson, Teldo told them to pick their weapon of choice, Teldo created the trainee’s weapon with his Arte. Viers chose a sword, his first and only choice that day. Teldo’s created weapon was unlike his first demonstration, it was blunt and more like a stick than an actual sword.
Naturaly I would choose a sword, how many main characters use other weapons? There exists of course but ninety percent main characters use a sword! And swords are cool, it’s just my personal bias but hey, this is my life. I want to cut down my enemies while looking cool like in the movies and no one can stop me, muahaahah… and swords are practical. There’s a reason so many people use swords as their main weapon, whether it was in the real world or in fiction.
He noted that Max, Farley, J, and L, were among those who chose to be a warrior-type. The twenty trainees were split about even for the two courses. Of course, most of the girls chose to be a mage-type while most boys chose to be a warrior-type, Farley's choice was a bit of a surprise for Viers.
For the first lesson, Teldo created an earth doll again only this time it could move. It was moving quite freely and human-like considering it was made from dirt and mud, the doll was shaped similar to humans. Teldo told Viers and the others to spar with it,
Viers was chosen to be the first test subject. Viers went forward without hesitation, he held the training sword on his right hand, it was more akin to a stick rather than a sword but Viers wasn't picky about the weapon for practice and had no complaints. His chosen sword type was a one-handed type, not a long sword or big like a bastard sword, not thin like a rapier. A generic straight sword, Teldo asked if he wanted to use a shield but Viers refused, he used both hands to grip his training sword.
Teldo told him to not used his Victa or buffed his body in any kind. When Viers came up in front of it, the doll created a weapon similar to its opponent. Then, without any warning, the doll slashed at him. Viers was a bit startled but managed to block the attack.
“In a real battle, no one will give the signal to begin,” said Teldo nonchalantly.
After blocking, he knocked back the doll’s weapon and attempted to counterattack. He thrust his sword aiming for its hand, his own movement was quite fluid in Viers’s opinion, he thought he would get a hit from it but the doll was moving faster than he expected. The doll used a simple sword swing to altered his attack trajectory.
Viers maintained his momentum and seek to add more wind to his sails, he slashed his torso but the doll took a step back and he missed. His swing was a bit wide and the doll capitalized the opening in Viers’s defense. When the attack was closing in, Viers couldn't afford to think, he felt something akin to a spark lit up in his head. He reflectively did a dodge roll to the side. The doll’s sword went past his head as he was performing his low dodge, he stood back up after dodging and straightened his posture, ready for another offense or defense.
Both went forward at the same time, a series of attack was exchanged between them, but Viers was slowly getting pressured. The doll had more power and speed than him, his regular exercise improved his muscles and physical capability but he was still fell short from the doll. He was slowly getting overwhelmed, if he didn't do something, he would lose.
Viers decided to use the move he often saw in mangas and movies, the doll slashed diagonally from his upper-right. Viers moved his body to dodge by making a small movement, as minimal as possible to perform the dodge. He felt the wind caused by the swing on the skin of his neck, his dodge was successful.
Viers felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins, he was completely in battle mode, fully focused on his enemy. Viers raised his weapon from his bottom-left and slashed it, not putting too much strength nor too little in his swing. He soon felt a satisfying feedback of impact, he'd hit the doll’s chest cleanly.
“Stop, it was adequate. You next, go.” Teldo said while pointing at another kid. Viers's breathing was a bit heavy, he let out a long breath from his mouth as he walked back to the other spectators.
“That was quite good Viers, I’m impressed,” Farley said to him, Viers replied her praise with a nod, he unintentionally let out a faint smile. He heard a snort from Classmate J but showed no reaction for the taunt. He watched the trainees sparring session while contemplating his own spar earlier.
That was quite good, my body was moving easier than expected, because of the daily exercise? I reflexively did a dodge roll… did I play the souls games too much that the move ingrained into my mind? Well, whatever, as long as it works I’ve got no complaints.
Now that I think about it, I did quite well at fighting others aren't I? I killed the bandit trio with nothing but my body… I could fight the JKL in a three versus one situation and came out victorious. Maybe I got some latent talent in fighting? Possible but not definite, more data required. Is the talent stems from the Earth me or from this world’s body? Oh well, it's just conjecture at this point.
The sparring continued, he was pleasantly surprised that day, the result of the spar was above his expectations. After all the trainees experienced a round of fighting, Teldo explained about the doll capabilities, he made the doll moved like a standard weapon-wielding human. Its strength, speed, and other physical abilities were the average of human adults. Viers managed to score a clean hit during the spar, including him, only Max and Farley achieved the same result.
Teldo created ten dolls this time for each of the trainees to spar, the remainder of the day was spent doing sparring against the moving humanoid dirt. At the end of the day, the sparring sessions confirmed Viers’s suspicion. Viers slept soundly that day, he felt that finally, he’d found something he was good at.