With the help of mother, my new schedule finally helped me to increase my stamina. We started with some weight and some months later she gave me some old armour of father and I realised the difference between the training I was doing since the beginning. Moving with an armour restricted some of my movement. It obliged me to really know where I should stand next, where I should put my feet or how high I should raise my hands.
It was the same with weapon, my mother explained that she couldn’t help me with training with mastering a weapon but she asked me to use one of the old sword of my father so that I should understand how heavy it can be.
“HUFF... HUFF... Cough”
“Stand up Arthur just 10 min left,” Mother said.
“Please mother give me one minute,” I said.
“Do you think that goblin will give you one minute? You should know that you are not even holding all your equipment and adventure will most of the time hold a bag containing your tent, clothes, water bag or some conditioned dishes” She explained.
“How can they continue to do this for decade for some?” I asked.
“With time you will gain experience you will learn what type or armour is more appropriate for you, leather or full plate? add a chainmail? It depends on your role in a team and you fighting style. The same can be said for what you put in your bag, should you distribute resource in all the bag of your team member? Should each one keep his resource or should you buy mount to help you? But can you keep them?” my mother said.
“I see so I cannot really what I can use as equipment as I don’t even have a fighting style,” I said.
It was true that for now I didn’t even have a fighting style and I really needed to start to think about it right now, and I had in front of me someone who had knowledge, at least in magic
“Mother I have something in mind since sometime which can be seen as a part of a fighting style,”
“Oh I am listening to you Arthur, I have already told you that I can’t do anything concerning fighting mastery but if it concerns magic I will see what can do to help you,”
“Thanks mother. To start I have thought about using a shield it is the first thing which came to mind, I have always thought that only using a weapon to defend oneself is too light. I will use with the shield a one handed weapon “
“Hum if you want to fight using a weapon and a shield there is only two role you can take in a team , a tank or a secondary damage dealer, I don’t think that I need to explain the role of a tank you will most of the time be in the front line taking the damage and attract the attention of your enemy to leave your companion free to attack from other angle or to allow your support to move and help you without fearing to take hits, you should know that tanks are not just wall they have weapon not for nothing ; and a damage dealer is responsible to inflict damage to your opponent the fastest possible ,they can be physical or magical damage dealer. Now what do you think” my mother said.
Thinking of the possibility I had I first of all thought about how I would start my journey as an adventurer. In the beginning I didn’t think that I would just find people who would accept to party with a beginner so I would for the start adventure alone. I didn’t think that being a pure damage dealer corresponded me. I knew that I would form a party at a moment maybe with people who will be dear to me and at that moment I will only be at ease if I am at the front, so be a tank can be the best choice for me.
Looking at mother I said “I choose the role of the tank”
Furrowing her brow, she said “It is a dangerous role Arthur, if you are in temporary party people will not hesitate to abandon you to save their live, Tank focus most of the time to improve the quality of their armour so at the start you will have problem to keep a good weapon”
“I understand mother but I still think that it is the best solution,” I said.
“Good” thinking for some minute she added” I may have something that can help you but you will have to acquire some knowledge before”
This was the manner for mother to tell me that we would resume how magic lessons. As she had said mother really keep some information in our previous lesson and decide to give me everything she thing could be useful. Starting with the interaction of mana and our body.
“As you must be already aware your body will change to adapt to your mana thus developing resistance, but it is not the only case. We can also find another case for example when you reinforce yourself with your mana. Mana reinforcement consist of improving the performance of your body by infusing it with mana. You already know this technique so I will abort what really interest us” my mother said.
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Saying this mother showed me a map of a body with all the muscle visible, she then explained
“When your grandmother was alive she had the chance to treat many adventurers she realised that some of the most experience has the habit to have injury in specific region of their body an after some threatening they explain that focusing a huge amount of mana in a part on the body will give a huge boss contrary to the basic reinforcement known by everyone. At first she didn’t understand why they did it, because it really stresses the mana circuit and the muscle which in case where the technique is not master can destroy the mana circuit. You should know that actually few people are able to repair destroyed mana circuit “
Another news which calmed my mind concerning the creation of my skill, I didn’t forget that I could create a skill if I have the knowledge of the phenomenon I want to produce, a good control of mana and sufficient mana storage. But now if I lost control I can lost even mana circuit, Considering the number of mana circuit I supposed I could find some heading in the same region of my body but I should not forget that there are major circuit which are unique so I may pay more attention when I train now.
“Your grandmother wanting to help your aunt chose to study that technique and combined it with her knowledge of anatomy that simple adventurer didn’t have. It took her 5 years but she succeeded and created 2 skills which are just the same skill but much more specialise. The first focused on speed just pure speed not movement speed you should remember that It focused on muscle on leg and thigh to give explosiveness and a huge burst of speed for a moment, it was means to help to flee because it wasn’t possible to maintain the speed for a long period ,To assure the balance during the movement she added some mana on add and the back so the up of the body can follow ,the rest on the mana was on the head so it would increase your reaction speed but this was the hard part because the brain is a difficult part to enhance but I will help you with it. Next was the skill for the defence it was means to focus mana on the skin and the organs to protect them over shock.”
Listening to these skills I understood that as my mother my grandmother was also a monster, it made me regret the fact that I would never saw her.
“And to finish the third-“
“Third? didn't you said that there were only two versions on reinforcement? “ I interrupted her surprised.
“I said your grandmother created two versions but I created the last, possessing the note and research of my parents I continued to improve that skill to form a version which could be useful for your father. This one focused on increase strength, it focused on the muscle of the arm and hand “She clarified
I saw so even father used this skill it could explained why he was one of the most powerful of this town
“You should remember that these skills are only modified version of an existing skill so you can find people with better version but at least you can use it as you like without hiding it,” she added.
These skills could be the bases of the skill I could use in the future. Combining The defensive version with my shield I could really become a better tank.
“Depending of the person who use it you can see an increase of your performance by 50 % but as you understand there is a cost so most of the time you will only using it as a last resort or if you have a healer in your party,” my mother explained.
Now I was depressed if they were only lifesaving technique what should I use the rest of the time should I really create my skill?
“Don’t worry honey, I know what you are thinking and you are not the only one thinking like that I remember your aunt throwing a tantrum when mother gave this order. So this time with father they once again modify these techniques. Father was most focused on the comfort and long term evolution than mother and sister. So he significantly reduced the power, redistributed some of the mana to tendon and bones to avoid discomfort. We started with a ‘self-harm technique’, followed with a ‘lifesaving technique’ and ended with want we can call a ‘Buff’. These Buffs increased your performance by 15-20% depending of the user but you can maintain the skill much more longer but it still costed a certain amount of mana,” She reassured
It was much more than I expected depending the situation I could use these 15% to surprise an opponent off guard. But as always there was this problem that came again and again: Mana capacity. I knew that I was young and my mana capacity would increase with time but I still felt like I should do something. It was an evidence that I would use magic in fight and if I added the my self-buff I didn’t think I would end the fight on my feet.
As the tank I should be the last to fall so I should find a solution for this and I already had an idea on what to do I would create a skill. I didn’t really know right now but I thought that mother and her knowledge would help me.
Now knowing exactly what I learned mother started the lesson without wasting time.
“You know that you should understand a phenomenon to launch or create a spell, it is the same with these skills you should know how the mana will interact with your body to be able to launch them, So I will start by teaching you what you need to know about anatomy and next I will teach you the skills,” She finally added.
Following this most of the time I went on the forge the morning and in the evening I found mother in her clinic to learn more about the body and the week end I increased my stamina. Yes, these 5 years had been a hell but I really improved and not only in mom’s lesson but also about another skill: mana eyes. Yes, I finally managed to consistently launch and use this skill after years of practice. Finally, able to use this skill I didn’t just stay idle but I followed Jorn’s advice and tried to improve it and I should say I was really proud of me. I could even remember the day I finally understood what I was doing wrong.