Owen spent several hours trying out his new weapon, each of its forms had worked flawlessly, but the only downside, the weapon had almost gotten him killed. Whenever he channeled mana into the weapon, the weapon would begin transforming back into his bracers, which he hadn't known before fighting against a golem type monster. That fight had gone very badly for him and he could only be grateful that the golem was slow.
By the time he had made it back to the school grounds he had not only met Xerxes's goal for him, but he had exceeded it. There were just too many weapon forms to try out and the amount of monsters it took fighting to get comfortable on each weapon had been more than a couple. He didn't bother saying any hellos once he got back, he went straight back to the armory and chose his temporarily new favorite weapon. Grabbing it from one of the racks he grinned at the weight of it and moved back to the training grounds.
Lucas had already finished his round of training with the simulator, so Owen stepped in and waited for the first goblin to form. Before the goblin had a chance to form, Xerxes moved next to the artificial dome that was created by the constellations hovering in the air. "I received a request from Myra's sponsor, I am to let you contact her once you adequately meet my expectations. Seeing as you have already done that, I will go with something else. You may contact her once a day, as soon as you are able to clear round 10. I know you may find it unfair, but she still has to meet her expectations, so I thought I would make it an even goal. One I expect you to finish by the time she finishes hers."
Owen felt his heart beat faster and butterflies form in his stomach. He nodded seriously and looked down at the weapon in his hands. He wasn't comfortable with it enough to clear all the way to round 10 today, but if he worked hard enough tomorrow, then maybe, just maybe. He didn't let himself think about it for longer than necessary. He brandished the zweihänder and stared down the goblin that appeared. It had barely managed to fully form, before Owen cut it down with his new sword. The sword glided effortlessly through the air as it ripped through the goblins body, sending gore and viscera everywhere, which promptly disappeared as the next enemy was being formed.
Each monster barely lasted longer than the five seconds it took to spawn them. The downside, Owen's forearms burned like he had lit them on fire. His arms had already started feeling like jelly, but the weapon felt good in his hands, even if he didn't have the strength to wield it effortlessly like he had outside of the gauntlet. As the kobold with the spear and shield appeared, he stabbed forward, but kept all of his power mostly in his legs, still yet to be released. Just as he expected the kobold moved to intercept the attack with its shield, but as soon as sword met shield, Owen pushed forward with all of his strength, flinging the kobold onto its back.
It scrambled to get up, but Owen had already predicted where it would moved to, with a swipe of his sword that looked more effortless than it felt, the kobold fell into two pieces. The five second window between fights had never felt so short as the next enemy began spawning before Owen was ready. Forcing himself into a defensive stance, he thought about Lucas's fight and the enemies that spawned. Cringing back he stared at the rock golem that appeared, his weapon wasn't amazing at piercing or slicing through stone, but he prepared anyways. The fight with the rock golem had gone much easier than he had expected.
The pommel of his zweihänder had been a heavy set jewel, or at least was supposed to be, instead it was a large metal ball, made out of the same steel that the blade was made out of. Knowing that it was probably supposed to be the end of the run for him, he had swung his sword with all of his strength behind at, but flicked his wrist at the very end. The sword spun in midair for a split second before he grasped the blade. He had almost lost the fight there as the blade sliced into his fingers, but without losing his focus he swung the pommel towards the golem, the large metal ball at the end swinging towards its face at breakneck speeds.
And just like that the fight had ended. The pommel had smashed through its head, slightly chipping a red gem that had been imbedded in its forehead under a layer of rock. Channeling HP to his hand, his changed the grip on his sword again and prepared for round 6. He had wanted to tell himself he had had an even chance against round 6, since the fight was a flesh and blood monster. But the bugbear that had appeared at full strength, while Owen could barely lug around his sword now, tore through him.
Owen sighed but felt proud, not only had he managed to defeat the kobold, but he had managed to get through a rock golem with a weapon that left him at a disadvantage. He felt like there were some things he needed to think about when it came to the fights, but before he did, Xerxes walked over smiling. "You have exceeded my expectations twice today, though I am not sure if I have seen that technique used on a zweihänder before." Owen grinned back in response. "I saw it in a video once, though the guy was using something else, thought I'd give it a try anyways." Xerxes nodded mirroring the grin. "I can tell you have a lot on your mind, so feel free to take your time with it." Before eh was able to walk more than ten steps away, Owen stopped him.
"Are we able to look at the monsters in the later rounds?" Owen asked, feeling slightly curious. A gleam entered Xerxes eye's and he grinned. "I was wondering if anyone would ask. The answer is yes. If you go to the training gauntlet, say view rounds before the goblin spawns and a list will appear. On an unrelated note, there is a library on the grounds over towards the south side of the compound, maybe you'll find it useful?"
Xerxes walked off then, and Owen didn't waste a second. Rushing over to the gauntlet, he made of list of all of the monsters that would show up and rounds one through twenty. Once he had the list, he spent several hours inside the library trying to figure out what each monsters weakness was. The best part, it was along the lines of what he had been realizing after he fought against the golem. If there were a limited number of rounds, then at a minimum, it would have taken him the entire month to finish the entire gauntlet.
There was more to it however, so far some of the enemies had made it seem like certain weapons would provide an advantage throughout the entire gauntlet, but it didn't make sense to him that something meant for training would want to limit what the trainees could use when trying to succeed. Which had led him to the thought that he had been missing something about the gauntlet as a whole. If it was designed to help develop a secondary class, despite feeling like it was fully combat focused, then there was an aspect that he had missed.
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As he came up with a game plan against each monster type, he decided to make plans for each of the weapons he was working on now and that he would try a different one each time. He still had over three weeks of access to the free training, so he would take as much advantage of it as he could. He would use it to make him both a better fighter and create an incredibly strong secondary class. The following morning, he decided to switch to a different weapon than the one from the day before. He wanted to have a bigger disadvantage against the early enemies as a test to see how far he would get.
The weapon he chose for the mornings run was a large scythe. Now the reason for the choice hadn't been for nothing. He had vividly remembered the red bladed scythe that Quinn had used when fighting against him and how it was probably lying under the rubble of the buildings there fight had knocked down. He wanted a chance to use it, so he had decided practicing how to use a scythe. He had also chosen to use it this morning, to try and give himself the biggest disadvantage possible against the golem, since he felt like his win had partially been through luck.
Each of the fights had gone similar to the day before until he once again reached round 5 with the rock golem. Preparing, he remembered the notes he had taken the day before and smiled. Rock golems had a gem inside their head that was what powered them. So the argument could be made that the rock golem wasn't the enemy, the gem was, only problem was it was located under at least 3 centimeters of stone. Several minutes went by as Owen danced around the slow enemy, continuously using the point of the scythe to act as a pick every time it crashed into the forehead of the golem. Several minutes went by, and the vibrations that shot up his arms weren't doing him any favors, but it wasn't long before the stone finally chipped.
After that is was a short cycle of dodging several attacks, then crashing his scythe into the same spot, until the gem finally cracked and the next round began. Round 6 was several times easier as the bugbear appeared. Owen had been awkward when using the scythe at first, but he pushed the fight as long as possible with the scythe, until finally the bugbear fell over, each of its limbs almost completely severed. Owen wasn't feeling up to another round since he had this gut feeling that he was still missing something about how the gauntlet was supposed to work.
He gave a halfhearted attempt against the monster on round 7, with the horns it could launch from its body, but he ultimately didn't put up much of a fight. When it was time for him to go down the mountain side again, Owen changed his bracers into a basic sword form he had practice and prepared to fight monsters. His goal was slightly different this time, he had still felt like something was missing in his attacks, but it didn't feel like something he wasn't capable of doing.
Instead of rushing to go fight monsters, he sat down instead and just let himself breathe and meditate for a while. He wasn't trying to enter his core space and he wasn't trying to do anything with mana either. As he focused on his weapon he felt like he could feel a connection form for the briefest of moments. Not the same type of connection as he was used to, but it felt like something had brushed up against him for a moment. He tried to focus on it again, but nothing happened.
Sighing he stood up and felt like he had brushed up against what they were supposed to focus on when in the gauntlet. That entire day he just focused on feeling his weapon and he cleaved through monster after monster. He did his best to hold back his other skills and only used his boosting skill when it was necessary, but by the end of the day, he felt like he had a better grasp of what he was supposed to focus on. He used a dagger the following attempt against the gauntlet, but he focused on the weapon itself more than the fighting. While it was the first time he had lost against the golem, he wasn't disappointed.
Everything felt like it was closer than ever before to snapping into place and that he just needed a single push to get over the hump. That night he ignored sleeping and focused again on what he thought he was supposed to be learning. Lucas had also gotten stuck against the seventh round, they both would grow too exhausted by the time they reached it, that there was nothing to do but keep trying. But he knew that they were supposed to be able to clear the entire thing without constantly switching between weapons.
The following morning everything had started to feel right, every swing of his sword was exactly as he picture it in his mind and it did exactly what he had wanted it to. The goblin was easily cut in half, the hobgoblin was no better as he barely moved as he made his attack. By the time he fought the kobold with the shield, something told him that he could slice right through it without even needing to worry about the power put behind the blow. As it moved closer, he pictured the shield splitting in two as and he swung his sword, the kobold and shield slowly fell into two separate pieces.
As his swing finished, he felt like something had sparked inside of him, like a jolt of lightning had come from his blade and entered his core space. A system notification appeared at the same time as the spark did and Owen began laughing as the next enemy appeared. The rock golem stood tall before him and again Owen had the same feeling as he had had before, a swing of his sword would be enough to cleave the enemy in two. He watched the forehead of the golem and swung his sword even faster than before and unlike anytime he had fought the golem previously, the entire top half of its head fell to the ground.
Owen began laughing even louder as the golem was finished faster than he had thought possible. He still felt tired, but there was something telling him he still had a little bit more left in the tank. When the bugbear appeared, Owen didn't bother using whatever the special energy was that he had used to kill the rock golem, instead, he cut it down the same way he had done to the goblin and waited for the horned beast to appear.
*Ivory Hound - Round 7*
When it appeared, Owen remembered Lucas's fight against it and his own research into the monster and gathered up that spark he had accessed in his fights earlier. He pictured himself cutting through both horn and body, separating the hound's head from its body. As the beast charged towards him, Owen prepared and swung his sword down with finality. Just as he had picture in his mind, the head fell from the beast's neck and the body quickly dissolved.
Owen felt shaky on his feet, like he had been sapped of something, but he forced himself to stand tall against the ogre that appeared. He was barely able to dodge its attacks as each of his attacks made shallow wounds in its legs and chest, but it eventually fell without him needing to use whatever energy had helped him get this far.
Round 9 was similar, an even larger ogre appeared with a full set of armor and an enormous great axe. Swinging his blade, imbued with the energy, the ogre didn't even have the chance to move as his blade tore through plate armor and even its resilient body. He didn't get to see round ten though, he felt everything grow slightly darker and the world began spinning. The last thing he saw was the system notification that he had ignored and he smiled.
*You have achieved combat resonance.
Basic Weapon Mastery has been changed to Intermediate weapon mastery: Level 4
Synergistic Wielder of Chaos Spear Mastery has reached level 14*