Quinn did not join them for the second round of physical Skill training, or as he was starting to refer to it as, 'beat Lucas into the ground' time.

He and Eugene spent the rest of the daylight out in front of the house grinding levels. Though Lucas was ready and willing to go through with this, it could not be said that he was having a good time. Training with Eugene before his unlock had never been so brutal, and at times it almost made him wish the circumstances hadn't changed.

Almost being the key word here. As brutal as the results of his spars with Eugene turned out every time, it was startlingly effective, and the man never went far enough in his treatment of Lucas to warrant any healing beyond the capabilities of [Regeneration]. No, Eugene demonstrated great judgement and restraint the whole time--the issue was just that Lucas was unused to the pain of being struck, especially by someone stronger than himself.

He resolved to quickly get used to it as he watched his Skills level one by one over the course of the session.

After a little while, and once Lucas acclimated to the treatment a bit, he began to have fun again. His determination to land at least one solid strike upon his opponent still persisted within him. He started carefully cataloguing each one of his mistakes that allowed Eugene to end each bout. He observed each time he reached too far, each time he did not reach far enough--little things that he did subconsciously as a result of anything from paranoid anticipation of a strike, to an overeager desire to land his own. Lucas made mistakes constantly, but that was also very easy to do with an opponent that outclassed him in every way.

Lucas was under no delusion that he could actually beat Eugene in combat, but that only meant that in order to land his strike, he would need to catch Eugene in a mistake of his own.

So Lucas started repeating a few of the actions that earned him a blow, with predictable results. He did not repeat only a single one of these actions, and he did not repeat them over and over for each bout. Instead, he did so roughly every third bout and kept the rest of their training as normal. As another part of his plan, Lucas started feigning mental exhaustion from the long period he was staying focussed.

This started about two hours after they returned from lunch, reaching the frequency of a repeated mistake every third bout another three hours after that. Exhaustion after that much time spent in intense physical training was more than reasonable, but just as it healed his injuries, [Regeneration] did a remarkable job in prolonging his stamina with every level. It wasn't explicitly stated in the Skill's description that it would have this effect, but he took it as a side effect of increasing his HP regeneration. What the Skill did not do was affect his mind in any way.

Lucas's true lack of mental exhaustion after nearly a full day practicing combat was not brought about by a Skill at all. It was the same trait of his resurfacing that allowed him to perform the straining procedure of manual augmentation before his unlock. His near unnatural ability to focus had been with him from the day he was born--but he was now counting on Eugene falling victim to the boredom of repeated sparring with repeated mistakes and repeated results, and forgetting about this trait of his.

It was natural to grow tired from all this training after all, so why would he suspect a thing?

Lucas drew out his scheme for a long time. He occasionally received a word of reproach from Eugene for one slip-up or another, and he would make sure to heighten his displayed level of focus for a short while before inevitably returning to his previous behavior. Once the light started to fade, Lucas knew he could wait no longer and it was time to act.

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For the last dozen bouts, Eugene had become quicker to act. The man's patience with Lucas's blunders could only stretch so far before its frayed, and now he would move to end a bout almost the moment Lucas repeated an action he should have learned from. It was the perfect state for his plan.

"Up," Eugene commanded shortly. "It's getting dark now and we only have time for a little more. Let's not waste it."

Lucas did as he was told and brushed the dirt off his pants. He picked his spear up from where it had fallen after the last blow, making sure to move sedately still. He got into the ready position once more, but kept his spear just a little lower than the correct angle. He'd been making these little mistakes so long that he actually caught a twitch of annoyance from his opponent.

"We go on your move," Eugene said, still not bothering to change his own relaxed stance.

Three heartbeats passed and Lucas took a step forward. Critically, he took a step with his right, leading foot first rather than his left. With the technique Eugene had taught him, this momentarily put him out of balance. By Lucas's count, he had made this mistake in particular no less than nine times already, and a tenth proved too much for his the man facing him. Eugene moved to strike before Lucas's foot had returned to the ground.

He moved at the same speed he'd displayed over the entire day, just beyond Lucas's ability to directly perceive as anything other than a blur. Lucas could not react that quickly, but he didn't need to. It was a bit out of order and made the move more awkward than it should be, but he quickly ducked and pushed off his back foot to the side. Lucas moved quickly, racing against Eugene's own reaction speed, and moved to thrust as soon as his leap finished.

In a stroke of luck, the false sense of security Lucas had carefully lured the man into, and the negligence that followed, caused Eugene to overcommit to his strike. Lucas's spear flashed up at his side, aimed unerringly for the heart. He was going to land the strike.

But when the spearpoint got to less than a hand's span from its target, Eugene suddenly disappeared. He just vanished from the position, causing Lucas to stumble forward and to a stop. He was about to look around when a hand fell on his shoulder.

"Lucas," Eugene sighed from behind him, "all that time, every mistake--were you building up to strike when my guard was down, only to use a move I just taught you?"

Lucas spun around, and there he was, looking decidedly unamused. "In my defense, it nearly worked. You are just unfairly fast."

Eugene pressed his hands to his face and groaned, long and slow. "You know what? You're right, and I will not give an excuse for myself." He removed his hands and stared Lucas down. "But don't do that again, understand? You still need to internalize the correct way to do things, and purposely doing them incorrectly for so long will build bad habits."

"Ok," Lucas quickly nodded in agreement. He didn't think this once would build any bad habits but he that didn't make the man wrong.

"I believe that is enough for today," Eugene told him. "What are your Skills looking like?"

Lucas had been ignoring the System notifications as they popped up over the hours, but he quickly checked at his request.

[*ding Congratulations! [Basic Combat Training] has reached level 8-10!]

[*ding Congratulations! [Fitness] has reached level 8-10!]

[*ding Congratulations! [Learning] has reached level 6-7!]

[*ding Congratulations! [Regeneration] has reached level 4-5!]

"Two Skills at level ten, and only [Regeneration] will pose any difficulty to level on my own," he reported brightly.

"Alright," Eugene nodded, "we can discuss ways for you to safely do so inside. Come on, it's about time for us to get some rest, and I have to work tomorrow."

Eugene stayed long enough for one more meal with Mary and Lucas, before finally returning to his own home. They made plans for him to check up on Lucas's leveling progress again in a few days, to prepare for his first Class evolution, and everyone said their goodnights. Despite how tired he was after everything, Lucas stayed up long enough to clean the kitchen so his mom wouldn't have to. The next day would see a return to a more usual schedule, as they trained his healing-related Skills.

He finished quickly and went to bed, intent on getting a good rest so he would be ready for what the morning would bring.