Slowly, Lucas extricated himself from the bush. He still had some lingering soreness, but it was actually in his best interest to let his body take care of that naturally, if only for the progress toward [Rapid Regeneration]'s next level.

For the next leg of the day's training, true combat would have been best, but Lucas wasn't about to track down a monster or anything on his own. He also couldn't safely train [Shock] with a sparring partner, as that would risk hurting them. No, the best way to do things would be to tediously grind the Skill up, level by level, against an inanimate target until he had a proper understanding of it and it would provide a useful tool in a true fight.

Any random log around here would do just fine for that, so once Lucas was back on his feet, he chose the closest open space amongst the debris. The log he picked out as his target was a wide one, bereft of moss and still relatively green. It wouldn't feel the best to hit this thing, but it ran the least risk of starting an uncontrolled fire. Still not exactly an exercise he was looking forward to, but he would heal.

As he stared at the log, however he got an idea. A quick search later, and Lucas had a sturdy branch in his grasp. With a thought, he put just a single point of his regenerated MP into [Shock]. A pulse traveled down the length of his arm and hit the branch, immediately dashing Lucas's brief hope of using it as a temporary weapon with a sparking char, and a small billow of smoke.

Seems the even though it is mana, it will behave like actual electricity, he thought with a frown. He might have been able to force the mana to envelop the stick without causing damage, but that wasn't a long-term solution. Lucas would need to address this issue when he inevitably later went about evolving the Skill, but for now he would simply have to accept he'd be using his fists.

Like when he started running laps, Lucas started striking the log slowly, not even using his active Skill just yet. While one purpose of this was to progress [Shock] however much he could, that purpose yielded to the necessity of him gaining a better understanding of [Tempest Fighting]. This was also a good time to observe just how fast his mana regenerated.

Lucas split his attention between striking the log and watching his status. He counted the passage of time between whenever his MP would tick, and found it to be around twenty seconds, give or take a few. So, he recovered about three mana every minute. Now that he thought of it though, that would be after [Rapid Regeneration] took effect, so he wasn't sure what the full breakdown would be.

Three mana per minute wasn't too bad considering his level, as far as Lucas was concerned. And it was just the start--eventually he'd be regenerating mana faster than he could spend it.

Well, that might actually be going too far. I have some extremely mana-hungry Skills already, and higher evolutions might only increase that.

But, in theory, he might see a day when he could keep his augmentation on constantly. Not for a long, long time, but the prospect itself was exciting. Until such a day came that his resources eclipsed the strain he could put on them, he would have to use his Skills sparingly and decisively. Not all that unlike what he was doing now.

Every other point of MP Lucas got, he gave to [Shock]. With each mana-enhanced blow, he struck the log just a bit quicker than before. Not once did he sacrifice his precision in doing so. He made sure to hit the exact spot he'd been targeting the entire time. It wasn't exactly a complicated form of training--the most complicated part was simply when he switched which arm he used to strike. In consequence, he wasn't expecting very many levels in [Tempest Fighting] anytime soon.

However, there was a specific part he recalled from [Fighting]'s description. It had called the combat style he'd develop through it 'quick and decisive.' That much made sense, as those were qualities Lucas would attribute to lightning itself, and those were the qualities he was currently trying to embody.

The description had also used the words 'powerful' and 'unpredictable,' and Lucas was definitely falling woefully short on one of those at the moment--all he could do was switch which arm he struck with at random. Put together, he wasn't entirely sure how he could one day fight unpredictably and decisively at the same time.

Though, did he have to abide by the description of the Skill in order to level it? Or could he just follow Eugene's teaching, and get better at fighting in general? He was still quite early on his path to be developing his own style.

Whatever the truth of that matter, Lucas knew he was clearly doing something right with just this when he checked his notifications.

[*ding [Tempest Fighting] has reached level 21!]

[*ding [Shock] has reached level 2-3!]

Already a level in [Fighting]. Let's see how many I'll get by the end of this.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

So, Lucas fell into a bit of a routine only mitigated by the randomness with which he switched up his strikes. It wasn't really all that entertaining, but he could handle a little boredom for the sake of progress. Eventually, however, his mind started to wander and his precision went with it. His strikes started deviating in positioning ever slightly. It really wasn't by much, but at that point he knew it was time to move on to some other activity. Midday still had not come to pass, so he could realistically think up another way to grind out levels before heading back home.

He wasn't sure what, though. Lucas could set aside working on [Fighting], as that would be most efficiently trained with Eugene, but he really needed to keep working on [Shock]. In that light, he didn't really need to move away from his current activity, did he? But man, was it boring. He was still trying to come up with an alternative when he sensed something coming up behind him at the limits of his awareness.

"What in the world are you doing?"

Lucas sighed, turned around, and glared at--surprise, surprise--Harry. "You followed me."

A moment of guilt or embarrassment might have flashed across his face, but the [Hunter] quickly covered it with feigned ignorance.

"I came out here to check my traps. It's literally my job to be out here, but what about you?" Harry asked again.

Harry clearly wasn't carrying any small game on his person, but that didn't necessarily discount the possibility that he'd left a larger catch somewhere behind while he checked his other traps. However, Lucas knew the immediate area around his hollow quite well, and he knew no [Hunter]s laid traps nearby. They didn't even frequent the area because the best hunting game couldn't be found so close to the village.

Lucas didn't feel like arguing the point, though. It would just be a waste of time. And besides, the older boy was correct that, of the two of them, Lucas was the only one that didn't have a permissible reason for being this far out of the village. So he just stepped to the side and pointed out the log he'd been striking.

"I'm trying to level up an attack Skill," he said without inflection. "Not exactly something I can do easily in the village, and it wouldn't be all that useful against a monster at level 1."

He looked back to Harry, and now that Lucas had provided a reasonable answer to his question, the boy looked much less confident.

"Oh. Well, you shouldn't be out here on your own. Haven't you heard about the goblins in the area?"

Lucas just threw up his arms a little in a shrug. "Are you volunteering to keep watch?"

He hadn't been sure how the other boy would answer, but when he did, it wasn't what he'd expected.

Harry visibly brightened at Lucas's suggestion, though he didn't do anything so overt as smile. "Sure," he answered with deliberate nonchalance.

They both stood there for a moment.

"Ok. Get comfortable, I guess," Lucas sighed.

He only half paid attention to Harry from there, and the other half was devoted back to hitting the log. Just for a little variety, Lucas started mixing kicks into the routine, and started circling the the log as if it were a real opponent and he was navigating around their guard. From the sounds of the System dinging in his ear, he guessed that this was a much more effective technique than hitting the same spot over and over with practically zero variation.

He started moving faster and picking his target location before striking. Honestly, he'd been acting fairly stupid before Harry showed up. Skills could level through use, but they level'd faster by challenging your mastery over them. That was true for active Skills, just as it was for passive ones. So he kept mixing it, performing acrobatic movements that really just made it more difficult to land a solid strike, but he repeated each one till he managed it--testing his ability to properly deliver the [Shock] no matter the circumstances.

Lucas imagined he looked pretty ridiculous as he jumped and flipped and spun. Certainly, this kind of behavior wouldn't pass in an actual fight, but for the time being he thought the dings were going off a bit more frequently.

He probably could have been forgiven for anticipating interruptions on Harry's part as he worked, but he was pleasantly surprised that the boy didn't disrupt him even once. At one point, so long had passed in relative silence that Lucas looked back to see if the [Hunter] was still there. It was a needless effort because Lucas never lost at least some amount of focus on him, through his Limited Sensory Enhancement, but looking back allowed him to notice just how raptly Harry was following Lucas's movements.

He sat there, leaning so far forward that he was nearly standing, watching Lucas. It was more than a little strange, but Lucas tried to put it out of mind so he could keep working. However, it grated at him and eventually he had to stop.

"Is there something you need?" He turned to Harry and asked, "Why do you suddenly find me so interesting?"

Harry looked as if he might deny his assumption at first, then he clearly swallowed his first reply and summoned up some confidence. "I want to know how you do all this..." he waved vaguely at Lucas. "How you were so strong even before you got your Class."

Then his confidence seemed to falter, and he practically whispered, "I want that too."

Lucas sighed, and took a seat facing the other boy on the very log he'd been hitting, though a bit further down from the numerous scorch marks he'd created. "It's not exactly something I can just teach. And even if I could, I don't really see a reason why I'd share it with you. Also, you're not a [Warrior] or [Mage], so I don't even know if anything I could teach would be any use to you."

"You're not a [Warrior] or [Mage], either," Harry countered.

Right, I register as a [Healer]. Stupid [Identify].

"My Class is just complicated--I've got [Warrior], [Mage], and [Healer] Skills. The point remains, though, that you're a [Hunter], and I have no reason to help you."

Lucas's words seemed to physically fall upon him. Harry wasn't about to abandon his pursuit, however. Lucas watched his eyes flit back and forth in quick contemplation, before they finally settled and looked back up at him.

"What if I could make it worth your while?" Harry resolutely asked.

Lucas shook his head. "There's not really anything I want."

Harry leaned forward.

"Not even the location of a Dungeon?"