Leif brooded while he waited for his [Gilded Body] skill to recover after overuse.

Imagine for a moment, that if, whenever you wanted to talk, you had to solve a puzzle cube while balancing on a tightrope. Ok, now imagine something more sensible but equally as challenging. What I’m trying to get across is that it wasn’t easy.

Leif and Marcus sat off to the side watching Sieg get further and further into the statues training, with every attempt he grinded away, progressing more and more. The large man's movements were powerful but nearly perfectly controlled. The axehead parting the air like a scalpel, each swing surgical.

“He’s really good, you know?” Marcus said with a smile. “Sieg I mean. Really smart too, he beat me in several systems theory classes.”

Leif gurgled non-committally. Was there an easier way to switch between contrasting consonants?

“Oh hey, that's different.” Marcus said, putting aside the notebook he was writing in and perking up.

The spriggan looked up when he detected something manifest within the chamber. An intent, directed at Sieg. The axe phantom had solidified, it now stood, tangible and in a combat stance.

“Final part?” Sieg grunted. “Gods I hope so, this seriously sucks.”

“Kick its ass big guy!” Marcus cheered.

Sieg cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. Then the projection attacked. It moved in familiar motions, never deviating from the forms it had been imparting. Though it moved in new and unpredictable patterns of the pre-existing stances and strikes.

The two combatants whirled and struck, their battle constantly picking up speed. Steel axehead met spectral projection and sparks flew. Sieg winced and drew back as the phantom pressed him. The tall man fell a step behind in the dance of combat, then a second.

The projection spun out from a flurry of quick testing strikes into a devastating overhead swing. Sieg caught the attack on his armoured forearm. Blood seeped from where the armour had cracked and down into the pool of water.

Sieg roared and the air grew cold, shards of ice misted into existence and the water below quickly froze over. Then Sieg burst forward, no longer in the statues' stances, power surged around him.

Ice-layers built up around his axehead, sharpened sheets of infused elemental energy. His weapons edge grew in size and the air screamed as he struck forward and parted the projections head from its shoulders.

It flashed red, then poofed out of existence.

“Nobody fights without skills!” Sieg complained loudly. He gestured to the axe statue. “I don’t have your stupid class. Shouldn’t have to fight like I do.” He trailed off, letting his skills disperse into spooling vapour.

Leif stood. Couldn’t he do something about Sieg’s wound?

===

Blight's Bounty:

Aspects: Enhancement (Body)*, Technique (Blood)*

Your attacks passively drain vitality from struck foes. You may actively syphon or bestow lifeforce via continuous touch.

Blood you absorb is converted into the amber sap that beats within your heart. This amber sap naturally becomes compatible with any target you bestow it upon.

After you have drained a being of vitality you gain up to +40% to all attributes for one hour. This bonus is lost incrementally over the hour-long duration.

===

He could! Leif had never used the healing portion of the skill on someone else so maybe… He made to walk over but Sieg quickly popped a small red object into his mouth and started chewing. The tall man squinted at Leif. “What? You wanted my blood?”

“Not… blood…” Leif managed to get out. “Can… heal…”

“Sure you can. I’ll stick with restoration pills thanks.” Sieg grumbled and plopped down where Leif had been sitting next to Marcus.

“You mean ‘healing beans’?”

“No. That name is childish.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“But it’s bean shaped!”

“I’m not in the mood for this conversation.” Sieg sighed. “This whole chamber calibrates to my current level and attributes, but it assumes I have certain skills from a mythical class I don’t have. Hells, no one has it as far as I know.”

Leif was confused. Mythical class? What's that?

“Hmmm?” He hummed, looking between both men.

“Oh?” Marcus said. “I thought you already knew. This structure is a Mythhold, a training ground of sorts built in ancient times.”

“Yeah, but nobody gets a mythical class unless they're already incredibly powerful. So what's the point of a training complex?” Sieg grumbled. “And yes, I know why, I’m just complaining. They used artefacts or ‘mythstones’ to impart the class onto others, but they don’t exist anymore so now these structures are just holy sites.”

“Right, but the orc above our heads doesn’t know that. He thinks there’s something down here that will grant him incredible powers. I don’t even know if monsters can even gain auxiliary classes.” Marcus said with a shrug.

“Why… here… then…?” Leif asked. If there wasn’t whatever a mythstone was down here then why come at all?

“Oh there will still be something of value. Maybe a mana geode? Structures built in ancient times usually incorporated them into their foundations.” Sieg said.

Marcus bumped him with his elbow. “Sieg here is hoping for a promotion item. An emblem or higher.” The man continued seeing Leif’s lack of understanding. “Monsters naturally evolve when they reach certain levels right? Well, humans need to use promotion items like seals or emblems to increase our class tiers.”

“But they’re damn rare. The system sometimes grants them for performing feats of excellence, but most people buy crafted ones.” Sieg said. “We’re just academy second years, even seals, the lowest tier promotion item, are prohibitively expensive.”

“But we’re willing to steal!” Marcus declared. “What’re they gonna do? Un-promote our classes? Don’t think so!”

“Steal from an elite? What a truly amazing idea.” Sieg deadpanned.

“What… About… Milestones…?” Leif asked. The last word took several attempts to say coherently.

“Ah!” Marcus said. “The milestone bottlenecks are a massive pain. A lot of people struggle greatly with the first one. I don’t know what they’re like for monsters though.”

“Level twenty five, fifty and one hundred.” Sieg said.

“Right. But reaching the level one hundred milestone is a huge achievement. There are rumours of milestones at even higher levels but I don’t know how valid they are.” Marcus commented.

“Getting below the skill threshold is a feat in and of itself without spending either a ton of time or a ton of money. Sometimes both. And then there’s the advancement trial…” The man shivered.

“Advance…ment…?" Leif asked. He wanted to get an idea of what was involved. How dangerous it might be.

“It’s different for everyone. Personal and tailored to the individual. Both Marcus and I passed ours during our first year at the academy. It’s usually kept private but there’s a bounty put out by certain departments for information about each person’s trial. Good money doing it, I have no regrets sharing mine.” Sieg explained.

“I still don’t think you should have. It’s bad luck, I heard the system makes the next bottleneck even harder if you share.”

“That's superstitious nonsense.” Sieg nodded in Leif’s direction, seeing the spriggan’s interest. “My trial was about my decision to leave my tribe and come south, about walking away from perceived responsibility and accepting my choice.” He shrugged. “There was a monster too but it was hardly worth mentioning, I killed it in a single hit while it was forming.”

“I failed my first attempt, lost three levels and was sick for a month.” Marcus said with a faraway gaze. “I had to get further below the skill threshold by fusing more than is recommended at such a low level. It cost a ton but shouldn’t be harmful in the long run."

“Fu…sion…?” Leif was struggling to form words as he pushed [Gilded Body]’s limb creation to its limits.

“It takes a long time.” Sieg explained. “But it can be sped up with mana catalysts like shards. Pretty much any skill can theoretically be fused with any other skill, as long as you can picture what a successful fusion would look like.”

“The Academy teaches the ‘Trestotle Model’ for progression. Each level is like a balloon, gaining experience expands the balloon with the ultimate goal of ‘levelling up’ being like popping the balloon.” Marcus said in a lecturing tone, hand gestures demonstrating something slowly expanding.

“Skills are like a counter weight. They push back against the expansion, only a little bit for each one. But if you go over your skill limit, usually between fifteen and twenty, your skills push down with enough force that progress becomes impossible.”

“It's a balancing act, you need to fuse skills to keep yourself below the limit. But each fusion is harder and harder, takes more time and resources. So you can’t just fuse a bunch of low grade skills. You need to be selective or else progress at higher levels will be extremely difficult.” He explained.

Leif nodded, it seemed to make sense.

“What was your advancement like?” Sieg asked. “Can’t say I’m not a little curious how a monster's bottleneck differs from our own.”

Leif paused. He hadn’t completed his advancement. I still don’t know why they think I’m level thirty. He realised.

“You don’t have to tell.” Marcus said, waving away Sieg’s question. “It’s personal, I have no intentions of sharing my advancement.”

“No… I… don’t… know…” How could he explain? Words were hard so he’d settle with a half truth and try again later.

Sieg frowned and shifted. He shot Marcus a look, the other man shrugged.

“I’m taking a break from the pool. It’s all yours.” Sieg said motioning to the ring of statues.

Leif nodded. He wanted to see how far he could get. Think about his first skill fusion while he was at it.

===

The two humans watched the spriggan activate the unarmed statue and begin the training routine. It was remarkable how quickly Leif was improving over just a few days.

“Think he gained a comprehension skill that involves combat?” Marcus asked as he stretched.

“It’s possible. Hard to tell. It’s not like we know all the rules of monster skill gain.”

“So…”

“First whiff of dishonesty my skill has detected so far.” Sieg said flatly.

“So he does know but doesn’t want to share?” Marcus considered thoughtfully. “Eh, if anything that makes me more inclined to trust him. Everyone’s got secrets, you know?”

Sieg grunted in agreement. “At least I know my skill is working.”

“...I can lie more often if you’d like?”

“Helpful as always.”