An unknown time later Acheron was awoken by loud banging on the door to his dormitory, he stirred for a moment before closing his eyes once again, he was far too tired to deal with people.
Unfortunately, people were not too tired to deal with him, and in an instant, he was wide awake as freezing water was poured over him. He bolted upright to see who had thrown the ice water onto him; he wasn’t sure who he was expecting to see but the duke definitely wasn’t them.
“I think, we need to have a chat.”
Acheron frowned, trying to clear his mind from the fog of sleep, he had a good idea as to why the duke was here to see him but truly hadn’t thought it would be such a big deal. What did it matter if he completed a mission by himself? Wasn’t it better to have all the missions complete as quickly as possible?
“May I ask what the matter that you wish to talk with me is, m’lord?” Acheron answered formally, feeling a little bit tense from his current situation.
He was sitting on his bed with a gold ranker who had just broken down his door looming over him, he wasn’t scared of death but rather didn’t want to die until the cooldown had ended.
“How about you get cleaned up and then you meet me in my study, I’ll get Roderick to show you where it is once you’ve cleaned up a little.”
Acheron nodded, looking down at himself and his bed, he stunk of sweat and blood and was still covered in his own and goblin’s crusted blood. “Very well m’lord, I will be sure not to dally.”
The duke nodded, “good” before walking out of his dormitory and then out of sight.
‘That bloody lieutenant, if he hadn’t reported me to his captain then this wouldn’t be happening!’ Acheron sighed, well, I should clean myself up, don’t want to make the duke any angrier.’
Dragging himself off his bed, Acheron made his way to a block of showers that the barracks had, he stripped off and hopped under a hot deluge of water. It was nice to wash off the blood and sweat and even nicer to be out of his hot and sweaty armour.
Once he was finished, Acheron put on the clothes that he had been given when he slept inside the duke’s manor which was a nice change, although due to his bronze rank skill didn’t feel much lighter.
Acheron grabbed his armour and took it to a small building at the edge of the area dedicated for barracks, inside was a laundromat, where maids would clean the armour given to them. This was one of the perks of being a lieutenant and above and was something Acheron found to be quite useful at that particular moment.
Having cleaned up and handed his armour up to be cleaned, he headed to the common room to find captain Roderick. The common room wasn’t something he had spent any time in before and that trend was likely to continue. He was intent on making the most of his time as a soldier by spending as much time as he could either practicing, going on mission or resting when he needed to.
As Acheron stepped into the common room a Susurrus swept through the room, with everyone looking at him with expectation and interest. Acheron ignored the questioning looks and searched around for Roderick, it took him a second to find him due to him not being in his armour but he eventually found him playing a game of some sort.
The game seemed to be played with coloured tokens where each of the four players had a different colour. The tokens were on a 6x6 grid with the objective from what Acheron guessed, being to capture all the other players tokens.
When Acheron made his way to the table where they were playing there was audible grumbling from some of the players.
“I’m about to win, you can’t leave now! That’s not fair.” A soldier with red tokens said.
“You placed your bet, so you still have to pay.” Another soldier added, clearly not wanting Roderick getting out of having to pay.
Roderick just stood up, “sorry boys, the duke’s calling, I can’t leave him waiting so I guess we’ll just have to play another time.” He turned to Acheron, “You’re all ready to go?”
Acheron nodded, “I am.”
“Then follow me.”
Roderick led Acheron out of the common room back towards the manor.
“You could just keep playing once you return,” Acheron said suddenly, thinking about how Roderick had said they’d have to play another time. “It shouldn’t take that long to get to the duke’s study, should it?”
Roderick grinned, “Nope, it won’t take long, but once I started losing, I told those boys that the duke wanted to see me too, you’ve saved me from having to pay a silver talent.” He slapped Acheron on the back heartily.
Acheron was surprised at how friendly he seemed but didn’t mind, rather he was too busy taking in the new sights as they walked. Roderick had taken them into the great hall before going down a side corridor filled with more expensive looking ornaments.
They took a right up a stair case which led to another open area that had two large double doors on the opposite end. Acheron could guess by context clues that this was his study, and when Roderick knocked on the door his guess was confirmed.
“Who is it?” a familiar voice said, coming from behind the two doors.
“I have taken lieutenant Acheron here as you asked.”
“Ah, it’s you Roderick? Very well, send him through then.”
Stepping forwards, Roderick pushed on the door with great effort, straining to move it. Acheron was surprised as the doors didn’t look to be very heavy, yet Roderick was struggling to move them.
He considered helping but decided not to, it would probably be best not to make his captain feel weak by easily moving them. Instead, he just waited as one of the doors was slowly opened, once Roderick had finished Acheron moved inside and Roderick began closing them again.
Acheron bowed to the duke before the pair of them waited for Roderick to fully close the door. Once it was entirely closed the duke studied Acheron thoughtfully, Roderick had instructed him not to speak unless the duke had asked him a question and so he did nothing.
Minutes ticked by as the duke continued to look at Acheron, he found it difficult to stay still for so long but took the silence as a challenge. He would not be the first one to speak or make any large movements, no matter what.
Time passed slowly, each moment stretching as there was little to focus his mind on, yet it was once again far easier than what he had endured inside the administrator nucleus.
After a long while the duke sighed, sitting back with a slight smile on his face, “you are far more patient than I thought you were, after the stunt you just pulled Acheron.”
Acheron stayed silently, the duke not having asked him a question.
“There is a rule that a mission must be completed with at least one squad, I understand that you may not have been aware of this but what you did was incredibly stupid. You went and tried to complete a mission alone which was supposed to be done by ten people, while only being iron rank.”
Acheron had indeed not been told of any such rule, presumably because no one had thought he would go and try to complete a mission while his squad was gone.
“I thought that you did it because you were impatient, and yet that doesn’t seem to be the case. This leaves me wondering, why in Aganr’s name would you try to do something which is almost guaranteed to end in your death? It’s idiotic.”
Acheron wasn’t really enjoying being belittled especially because he knew he was supposed to stay quiet, he had done something which needed to be done efficiently and successfully, so why should he be getting in trouble?
“Do you have a death wish? Is that why you did this?” the duke asked, not really expecting a good answer.
Finally, being given an opportunity to answer, Acheron spoke, “I do not have a death wish it’s just that I don’t fear death. I went out and completed that mission so that I could improve and possibly gain a skill, as I said previously, life and death battle is the best way to improve.”
The duke looked at Acheron frowning, “you completed the mission? I was informed that you were forced to flee due to being no match to the beasts. Could you perhaps share to me your side of the story?”
Acheron scoffed, “I would have died before I fled.” And it was true, Acheron knew he needed to push himself as much as possible to improve and that death would sometimes be an unavoidable result of that.
Starting from when he first saw the goblins, Acheron recounted the events of him using the stream to prevent himself being surrounded before accidentally causing himself to be surrounded. He explained how he had been trapped underneath them and how he had broken out through sheer determination and had finished off all the goblins.
The duke seemed to be quite impressed by Acheron’s story, but he tempered himself, “even so, trying to gain or improve skills in that way is far too risky, I doubt you would be able to improve a skill like that anyway.”
“Actually,” Acheron said, speaking to the duke despite not being asked, “I both gained a new skill and improved one to bronze.”
The duke was at a loss for words, his eyebrows lifting slightly, before he put on a contemplative demeanour, “I apologise for what I have said, though I do hold that it is an idiotic thing to do. I would like to congratulate you for improving a skill and gaining a new one, but I will ask that you won’t do this again so as to prevent your death in such a short time.”
Acheron sighed but nodded, it was better than he had thought would happen but would slow down his progression. “If that’s all then may I return to the barracks, m’lord?”
The duke was about to say yes before he paused, “hm… maybe there is something else you could help me with, what skill did you improve to bronze?”
Acheron wasn’t too worried about sharing the details of his generic skills and so freely told the duke, “[Body Strength]”
The duke smiled, “that’s a useful one to have. I am yet to send a letter to one specific duke, informing them of what you have told me due to our strained relationship. So, to send you who received the message, and someone blessed by Kaiya herself to confirm what you say would be quite compelling.”
Acheron felt slightly alarmed upon hearing what the duke said. He hadn’t told him that Kaiya herself had admitted to not knowing how exactly he had come back and that she had no part in it. This meant that if he travelled with a priest when he told his story they would reveal that their priest had done no such thing and hadn’t told him either.
Not having been asked a question, Acheron wasn’t given an opportunity to speak, he could have interrupted the duke but thought it might be a bad idea.
“In one week, I will send you, your squad and Ash to the Eastgate district to inform duke Arden of what Kaiya has told you. Do you have any problems with such a plan?”
Acheron frowned, “It sounds fine, but Ash? Why are you sending her?”
The duke sighed, “I know, I only just got her back and now I’m sending her away, but she wants to travel and to help me with my duties so I figured that this would be a great opportunity.”
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Acheron shook his head, “That’s not what I meant, I apologise if this seems insulting but in what way will she contribute? Do we not just need a priest of Kaiya and myself?”
The duke looked at Acheron curiously for a second before a look of realisation dawned in his eyes, “I’m guessing Ash did not tell you, but she has actually received a blessing from the sovereign of forgiveness, one with enough jurisdiction that she could be a priest if she wanted to.”
Acheron almost slapped himself, it answered how she had felt his soul return to the body just like how the other priest had only been able to tell that the body he inhabited had been missing a soul for a short moment. It also meant that he probably didn’t need to worry about being called out for lying as she seemed to believe that it was Kaiya who had resurrected him.
“I will have a route and date of departure prepared for you, I suggest you take the next week to recover, train with, and get to know your squad mates.”
Acheron nodded, inferring from the dukes words that he was done talking to him, “m’lord, I just have one small question.”
The duke looked up from the papers he had begun shuffling through, “What is it Acheron?”
“Why is it that priests of Anura, sovereign of knowledge don’t already know about the invasion? Or do they know and are just not telling us?”
The duke sighed, “careful boy, that’s almost sacrilege if a priest heard you say that they’d try and string you up. Don’t worry I won’t tell them, I myself don’t know for sure although I have a guess which is pretty likely to be correct, do you know that the bearkin worship different sovereigns?”
Acheron looked at the duke like he was stupid, “The six sovereigns made the universe and the system and are the sole rulers of it, even I know that. There aren’t other sovereigns.”
The duke chuckled, “that’s what the church would like you to believe, but I can tell you that they definitely aren’t the sole rulers of the planet. The bearkin worship their own four sovereigns and one of them is Zarak, the sovereign of deceit. I believe that his chosen or many of his priests may be working to ensure that Anura and her priests don’t learn of the invasion before it’s too late.”
The duke’s casual demeanour belied the gravity of his words, which shattered his world. He had always believed that the Six were unrivalled, absolute beings—the creators of all things, whose very words could alter the course of fate itself. Yet what the duke said implied that they were not unrivalled or absolute and that they may not have been the creators of the world.
“I, uh, I’ll go now.” Acheron didn’t fully believe the duke but also didn’t completely trust the six sovereigns either.
The duke nodded absent mindedly, already having moved back to the forms he was shuffling through.
Acheron turned to leave, grabbing the handle of one of the doors and pulling lazily. The door didn’t move, Acheron put slightly more force into it, yet it was still immobile. Acheron flushed a bit, thinking how he had thought he would be able to open the door easily.
Setting his legs and arms, Acheron pulled, this time the door moved a little bit, about the same amount it had when Roderick had been opening and closing it. This meant that Roderick was also likely to have [Body Strength] at bronze which surprised Acheron. The man didn’t exactly look like someone who used his arms for manual labour a lot.
The door was far heavier than it looked, to a degree that seemed completely unnecessary to Acheron. It took a while, but he finally was able to get the door open, slip through and close the door behind him.
Acheron made his way back into his barracks, intending to go back to sleep to allow his body to heal a bit more, however, when he got back to his bed he groaned. It was still wet from water having been dunked on him and was also stained by the dried blood that had been on his armour.
Taking off the sheet that was wrapped around the covering of the straw mattress, Acheron took that to where the maids who washed his armour were. After that Acheron moved his mattress outside into the sunlight where it could dry, this meant that he didn’t have a bed to sleep on anymore.
Still wanting to rest, Acheron himself lay down on a patch of dirt in the warm noonday sun, closing his eyes to get some rest. He was pretty sure that he still had one more day before his squad mates returned so he figured that it would be best if he made the most of it.
Acheron opened his status, he had come quite far in just a bit over a month, about a week if he counted from just before his first death to now, while excluding his time waiting in the administrator nucleus.
It was a huge improvement, but if he wanted to get revenge, he had much further to go. Acheron, however, was resolute, his determination burning brighter than ever. The bearkin would regret the day they attacked his parents, and he would break their invasion no matter how many times he died.
Acheron moved in and out of consciousness, eventually moving his mattress back inside as night came. He found it difficult to sleep but was unwilling to be too active and so found himself just sitting on his bed.
He didn’t have much to do and so just ended up sitting in the silence, enjoying the peacefulness. His mind wandered through memories of his parents, dredging up echoes that brought a smile to his face. He remembered helping his mum bake bread, learning to shoot a slingshot with his dad, and celebrating with his parents when he had gotten his first skill.
Though it was persistent in avoiding him, Acheron did manage to catch some sleep in the early hours, when he would normally be up and awake. His body not waking him up due to how out of cycle his body clock was.
…………
A couple hours before midday, the door to dormitory 6 in block C slowly opened, nine dirty, dishevelled, and exhausted people making their way inside. Upon entering they found an almost uninhabited room holding ten beds, nine of which were unoccupied.
The nine people were tired and easily irritated, all of them having short tempers due to their weariness. This meant that when they saw the single person sleeping on the bed in the middle of the day, they quickly grew frustrated.
“What is this? We’ve been breaking our backs to complete a task given to us by the duke and you’re telling me that our lieutenant has been lounging around, sleeping in?”
“It’s ridiculous! How can we trust our lives to someone who doesn’t even take their duties seriously?”
“Somebody grab captain Roderick, he’ll set this sluggard straight, maybe he’ll even get latrine duty.”
There was a chorus of laughter that was enough to stir Acheron from his slumber, making him blearily sit up to see the nine figures spread out throughout the room. It took him a second to realise who they were and another second to realise that they were probably waiting for him to speak.
“Err… hi, I’m your lieutenant as you’ve probably guessed,” Acheron began, his voice still groggy from sleep. He rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to gather his thoughts. “you’re probably all pretty exhausted from completing the task the duke gave to you, so I think we should all get some rest, and we’ll talk after that.” Nodding to himself, satisfied by his words, Acheron put his head back down on his mattress and fell back to sleep.
The nine soldiers looked around at each other with a mixture of disbelief and indignation. They had all been working their fingers to the bone for the last week while this guy had just been relaxing, how dare he act as if he had endured the same hardships.
“Whatever,” one of the nine said, breaking the silence, “once captain Roderick sees his laziness tomorrow, he’ll receive his punishment. I’m too tired to bother right now anyway.”
Most of the others nodded in agreement, they began to disperse so as to clean themselves up in the showers before flopping onto their beds and falling asleep immediately.
…………
Acheron woke at his usual time the next day, feeling full of energy and very little pain. He noticed that the others were still asleep which he thought was poor discipline, but he chose not to wake them. They were likely quite exhausted from their task so he would let them sleep in for at least a little bit, besides he had things he needed to do.
Making his way out of the dormitory, Acheron made his way to the laundromat and retrieved both his armour and bed sheet. He returned to the dormitory, put his bed sheet back on and donned his armour before heading out to the common room.
There wasn’t very many people inside the common room but there was the one person that he needed to see. Acheron wondered what else the captain did because he only ever seemed to find the man in the common room, though he didn’t voice his question.
“You said that we would start doing some drills once my squad mates returned?”
“I did,” Captain Roderick said, “We’ll head out to the training ground with your squad as soon as they are ready. I must say, I admire your discipline and work ethic, I wasn’t sure I’d see you today considering your injuries. I hope your squad mates learn a thing or two from your dedication.”
“Thank you,” Acheron replied earnestly, “if you don’t mind me asking, what kind of drills will we be practicing?”
“I’ll start you off with some team building exercises to help you get to know your team before I’ll teach you some weapon forms for your war scythe. While I’m teaching you that I’ll have them doing some strength and endurance training. Later on in the week, we’ll move into some ambush scenarios, practice sparring and battlefield tactics.”
Acheron smiled, it sounded like he would have quite the productive week, even if it wouldn’t be life threatening.
“That should hopefully be enough to get you through your trip to Eastgate and back, after that we can take our time a bit more to help you strengthen your foundational knowledge and ability.”
“Alright then, I’ll get my squad to meet you out on the training ground in half an hour.” Acheron said, eager to begin his training.
“I’ll be waiting for you.” Roderick replied.
Acheron hurried back to his dorm room, expecting everyone to have woken up by now, and so was quite surprised to find they were all still asleep. He found that their their lacking discipline was ridiculous. Acheron had lived on a farm his whole life and even he was disciplined enough to get up early, these were soldiers and yet they had less discipline than him.
Looking around for something to wake them up, Acheron grabbed his steel helmet and rapped it against one of the stone walls, making a loud noise due to his bronze rank strength.
Groaning and grumbling immediately began to spread throughout the room, as the soldiers’ were woken from their cocoons of sleep.
“Rise and shine,” Acheron called out. “We’ve got a busy day ahead, so let’s get moving.”
With the sluggishness that only comes from the aftereffects of a deep sleep, the soldiers slowly began getting changed into their armour and making their beds. Some of them were looking at Acheron with scepticism which seemed completely out of the blue to him, he didn’t even know what they would be sceptic about.
“In half an hour I expect to see you all at the training grounds for us to begin some team drills, so make sure that you’ve got everything sorted out before then.”
Grabbing his war scythe off of the weapon rack inside the dormitory, Acheron made his way towards the training ground, a flat, open expanse with minimal features. The area was stark and unadorned, with nothing but a few weathered training dummies huddled in one corner. The ground itself was a patch of bare, compacted soil, so firm and solid that it resembled a layer of rock. The lack of any notable landmarks or vegetation accentuated the harsh, utilitarian nature of the space, designed solely for rigorous practice and training.
In an attempt to fight off the slight chill of the morning, Acheron tried to practice using his war scythe. It felt a little silly with him not having any real opponents to swing at or knowing what the proper technique to swing it was. It got by through doing what felt right and imagining he was fighting the bearkin who had killed his parents.
He made wide horizontal swings, upper cuts and descending strikes all intended to finish off his opponents with one lethal unstoppable blow. He also sprinkled in smaller quicker thrusts and strikes, more focused on quickly dealing damage or possibly severing a limb.
Acheron was acutely aware that a shield could easily counter him and so forced himself to stay mobile as he swung, cut, and thrusted, either dodging to his left or right or backing up or advancing.
Despite feeling foolish, Acheron pushed himself as hard as he could, to the point that once his thirty-minute deadline had elapsed and captain Roderick and his nine squad mates were gathered he was already covered in sweat and gasping for air.
“I think you’ve defeated them.” Captain Roderick said, causing Acheron to look up in surprise. With his focus solely on his imaginary enemies, Acheron hadn’t noticed the others until Roderick spoke.
Now that they were all in the daylight, Acheron was quite surprised at just how young his squad mates all looked. Most of them only looked one or two years older than he himself would be if he hadn’t died. The body he was in now looked to be at least thirty with a scraggly beard and a slightly bulging belly.
Roderick turned to look at Acheron’s squad, “As I’m sure you’ve all heard, this is your new lieutenant, Acheron. He may be new and a little inexperienced, but as I’m sure you’ve all seen, his diligence and drive are outstanding. I hope that all of you do your best to follow his principles both in training and battle.”
Acheron could have sworn that he saw multiple cynical expressions as Roderick talked about his diligence but decided that he must have imagined it as they barely lasted an instant and he couldn’t see why they would have reacted that way.
“First off, I want you all to go around in a circle, introducing yourself and what role you play in the squad. Then we’ll get into some exercises designed to get you working as a team. How about you start us off Nathan.”
A tall and slim young man with a slight amount of brown stubble growing on his upper lip and a short cropped hair cut, looked up in alarm upon hearing the captain say his name. He glanced around uncertainly before focussing on Acheron, “Well, err… I’m uh, my name is Nathan and I’m an arbalist, so I err… I supply ranged attacks.” Nathan look down awkwardly at the crossbow by his feet, motioning for the next person to go.
“Well then, I suppose that I’m next,” a loud and confident voice said coming from someone who seemed the opposite of Nathan in every way. He was the oldest person apart from Acheron, likely in his late twenties and had a short and stocky body, long, fiery red, facial hair growing from most of his face and a large tower shield in one hand. “I’m Lee, and as you can probably guess, a guardian, I protect all the fragile people like Nathan here from harm.”
Nathan’s face went red upon hearing Lee’s words which made his smile grow even larger, many of the others joined in laughing, though Acheron could tell that they weren’t laughing at Nathan’s inability to protect himself but rather his embarrassment.
After the laughter died down the next person spoke, “I’m Valerie, and am a swordswoman, I engage directly in combat, delivering lethal damage in close quarters.” Valerie had an athletic build with an average height, her dark hair was held up in a ponytail out off of her face while she casually held her sword and shield.
“I’m Lynn,” came the voice of another young woman, she had dark, tanned skin, long flowing hair that went down to her waist and a slim physique. “I’m an archer which also supplies ranged damage but is way better than an arbalist.” Lynn said, smiling cheekily at Nathan.
“Neither one is better or worse than the other,” came the voice of the next person, he turned to look at Acheron, “I apologise for her childishness, a witch cast a spell on her preventing her from ever maturing mentally.” The man said in completely serious tone.
“Hey!” Lynn protested, “you’re meant to heal people not hurt them!”
The man chuckled, “I am Felix, as Lynn said I am the healer, although I don’t have any healing magic skills, just skills for bandaging and dressing wounds. I also have one skill that allows me to buff my allies.” Felix almost seemed like a paradox, his skin was deathly white and he was so thin that it looked like he was suffering from a serious illness, yet he was the healer.
Four more people introduced themselves after Felix. Damion was another tank, but instead of using a shield, he relied on his own body for defence. Ty was a spearman, while Alicia was an archer. Eli, an axeman, wielded a large two-handed axe that seemed to be far more common among bearkin than humans.
Finally, it had come around to Acheron. “I’m Acheron Cadell, and I guess I’d fit as a frontliner, I both attack with powerful strikes and take blows all over my body.”
Roderick nodded, satisfied, “You should all memorise what each other does as your lives may very well depend on it. Now, that you all know each other, we can move into some team drills.”
The first thing that Roderick had them do was practice moving in different formations, Acheron didn’t really understand how it fostered teamwork although their need to move in rhythm and cohesively certainly required teamwork. He had them start of with simple ones such as just walking in a two-man column, with the more vulnerable people in the middle. After that they moved to more complex shapes such as advancing in a wedge and retreating in a way to protect the archers and healer.
This went on for several hours and while it was rigorous it was nowhere near enough to exhaust anyone physically; mentally however, it was quite the draining task.
Halfway through, Roderick let everyone go for a quarter of an hour to grab breakfast which consisted of an insufficiently sized, serving of lumpy porridge.
At midday, Roderick finally decided that they were done with formation drills for the day, everyone, Acheron included was glad to hear it.
From there, the nine soldiers were given a routine that they had to complete within the rest of the day. It consisted of multiple sets of workouts which each required them to do push ups, sit ups, squats, burpees, and run a certain distance while carrying weights. They complained at the harsh routine but nevertheless got right into it.
Meanwhile, Roderick took Acheron over to a corner of the training ground and moved one of the training dummies over. He first showed Acheron what he should look like, explaining what his stance should be like, how he should hold his war scythe and then how he was supposed to swing it. It wasn’t too different from how Acheron had been doing it previously, but that small difference could be the difference in a life and death fight.
Acheron tried to soak it all in as much as he could, knowing that this wasn’t something he could learn in a week, month or even a year. He needed to remember every detail in his mind so that after his death he could continue practicing despite no longer having an instructor.
The day passed quickly, with Acheron thoroughly enjoying learning as much as he could about how to fight properly. His squad mates didn’t seem to enjoy the afternoon as much as him, with all of them coming back mentally and physically exhausted after the day.
After a quick talk encouraging everyone, Roderick dismissed them all to get cleaned up and rest for tomorrow. He had decided not to inform them of the coming assignment and had also notified Acheron not to tell them due to them only recently getting back from their last task.
While everyone else headed towards the showers, Acheron stayed outside, practicing the weapon forms of the war scythe. He was already quite exhausted but that wasn’t going to stop him, he needed to memorise everything he could. Besides, if he stayed outside it would help him upgrade his physical exertion skill which would mean he needed even less sleep and rest.
Multiple hours went by, with Acheron training at a high intensity the whole time, though he did ultimately have to stop training after he almost collapsed from exhaustion. Even as he was forced to swinging, Acheron mind continued to perform the same movements, searing them into his memory through repetition.
His shower seemed heavenly after how exhausted and sweaty he was with his mattress feeling softer than clouds. Acheron’s mind slowly drifted off to sleep, while he continued to go over the patterns, movements, and stances he had learnt.
Acheron was thoroughly looking forward to the coming week, even if he was unlikely to gain a skill, Acheron could recognise that this was an opportunity to learn stuff that wouldn’t appear on his status screen, such as tactics, although… who was Acheron to know what the limits of skills were.
Unnoticed by Acheron many of his squad mates watched him, feeling a mixture of confusion and scepticism. The man they had met the previous day had seemed, lazy, uncommitted and incompetent, while the lieutenant they had been introduced to that day was the complete opposite. Someone so focussed on improvement that they would work themselves to exhaustion, treating pain and weariness as hurdles to overcome rather than reasons to give up.
Many of them wondered which was the real one, though it wasn’t very difficult to figure out, someone so lazy would not work themselves to the bone as Acheron had, they might put in effort, but it would be minimal.
This left some of them wondering why Acheron would have been resting the previous day, in the end it didn’t really matter, and they were all far too tired to think any more on the matter.
The dorm was filled with the sounds of snoring as everyone fell deeply into sleep, one person in particular snored quite loudly, with the sound reverberating through the dormitory like distant thunder, or maybe like a bear’s rumbling snore.
None were bothered by the sound though, all of them being far too tired to notice something as insignificant as someone snoring much louder than anyone else.