There was silence for a whole minute before Robert finally opened his mouth.
“I had a long and detailed dream about another place, far away from here. The place was on the verge of destruction but managed to hold because of its protectors. In that dream, I was one of them. Taken as a little child, trained to fulfill that role, I never saw anything except a permanent battlefield. Using only my mind, I controlled hundreds of war golems waging death upon horrible creatures. Tens of thousands of them died until they managed to take my own life, but all this time I was wondering why people... the ones that I protected, felt like my help was a given. I never saw any gratitude from them. I felt that my whole purpose of living was to be an instrument just to be replaced with another one when I broke. I never had any options to choose. What is funnier, when I woke up from this dream, I found myself in an unknown forest full of poisonous plants. The first settlement I managed to find was burned to the ground… corpses lying everywhere… and some bastards wanted to kill a few children. Still, I didn’t manage to save but at least I tried… later I was taken here for questioning and forced to join the militia… But returning to the funny thing – right now I am in the exact same damn situation where I don’t have a real choice. I will be used as an instrument again and again until I break.”
Robert made another long pause, organizing his thoughts. His vague story sounded a little crazy, but surprisingly William listened to it with sincere attention.
“I created a goal for myself – to survive. However, only now, after seeing you with your lover I unexpectedly understood what I lacked. The reason for my survival. I don’t fear death as it is, but I fear I will not see anything in this life. So, I want to explore, to experience things, to taste different food, to fuck up my first serious relationships, to plant the damn tree, to get into a fight in the pub, to… lots of things. Crap, maybe I need to think about the actual list.”
“Hm, don’t know what to say. I also didn’t expect such a story,” William sat on the ground. His eyes were focused on two moons in the dark sky, “but glad that you shared it, even vague and full of figurative meaning.”
“Me too. Hard to keep everything inside. Plus I thought – if I know your goal, I can tell you mine. Not that it is a huge secret though…”
“Yeah. To survive for enjoyment doesn’t sound very ambitious,” Aspen agreed with a serious face.
“Oh, not everyone has a pretty daughter of marquise to love you!” Robert countered, hitting William in the shoulder, “And that is a grand goal if you take into account my chains. Just you know that only for survival I will need a lot of strength and luck. To be able to enjoy in such circumstances is a goal, which has no less difficulties than marrying that girl for you!”
“Of course, of course… if not to take into account that we both need to survive in incoming war, plus I need to get enough merits to be promoted to the knight’s rank, and after that impress some higher noble to get baron’s position. Yeah, harder,” the sarcasm was almost visible on William’s face.
“You know nothing, man! I bet that the incoming war will be child play in future events. Plus, by my chains, I mean restrictions that I never will be able to avoid. I will have some freedom, but only in defined borders. The problem is that the latter could be very thin in some cases.”
“That surprisingly doesn’t explain anything. Again,” Aspen wasn’t convinced.
“Indeed, but the lack of info is a common thing. Like mind sharing what household she belongs to? When did you kiss the first time? Who trained you? Are you a bastard of some very high-ranked noble? Did you have sex with her?” Robert looked like he would never stop with questions, so William had to interrupt him quickly.
“Point taken. Enough, I agree,” He sighed. William tried to keep his emotions in check, but the memory of their kiss just refused to disappear. Her red lips, her flower smell, her…
“Now, I definitely see you had something more than just a kiss,” Robert grinned, before continuing: “Did you stab her with your own long SWORD?” He emphasized the last word, making William blush.
“Oh, man, I literally just lost my virginity, but I feel more mature than you. Small pervert joke and you become red as a little girl. So, I will rephrase my question – the sword that you used in the fight – was it your own or did she bring it? No wonder, I thought you were gay…”
“What?” William asked with a disbelieving voice.
“What?” Robert repeated his question, pointing at a weapon near his fried.
“Oh no! She forgot it! I need to return it immediately!” Aspen jumped to his feet but was stopped by Rob.
“It would be a dumb idea. Just keep it here. Don’t think anyone will try to steal the forgotten sword of the knight here with poles for punishment, waiting for someone right in the center of the camp. No one has suicidal thoughts. Good, now return to your calm and pretentious demeanor, and let’s train. I need your help with that. Not just with sparring, but with systematic physical training to become a better fighter, so I can fulfill my goal to be strong enough to survive in a bloody future to eat a hamburger!”
“What is a hamburger?”
“It is the same as an ambrosia for God. Wait, do you even know what ambrosia is?”
Around thirty more days went under the flag of total exhaustion for Robert. It was painfully hard both physically and mentally to constantly do something without rest. A few times he even hoped to fall ill to have an excuse, but his regeneration killed any chances for such an outcome. Having a clear goal helped him to endure it, but barely. The biggest difference was that he needed to go up to his natural limits, regularly vomiting from tiredness and always on the brink of losing consciousness. No one without a problem with his or her head would train like this. Even if they did, they would give themselves enough time to restore their body. In Robert’s case, enough time would be less than a few minutes instead of possible days. He started to hate this – this constant stress, constant movement, constant feel of heaviness.
On the other hand, such a level of intensity under William’s guidance did a wonder to his physical form. Rob even managed to set his results in the middle of his squad. It was easier for him with running and any endurance workout, but strength wasn’t his best forte in comparison with others. Reason stayed the same – he was the shortest, smallest, and lightest, despite his height of 213 centimeters (7 feet). Together with the passive mana imbuing of locals, their physique was far above Earth’s standards. Therefore, to be on par with them was a huge achievement for Robert. However, it was a far cry from William’s results.
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Moreover, from conversations Rob found out that Aspen didn’t get his spirit heart yet. He was almost as strong as most of the regular knights, but not yet there. Robert could only imagine what a peak knight could show. His own status gave him possible limits of his body and he was sure there were much lower than locals had. Still, Rob was happy to progress further, growing over himself. Maybe that was the main reason why he kept training. Survival was the right goal, but as any human, he sometimes wanted to be lazy, to rely on luck, to think that nothing bad would happen, to think that current preparation was enough. Seeing as his body was turning from a walking skeleton to someone fit was a pleasant experience.
Envoy of Wepwakor (candidate) – Tier 0
Strength 11/23 Agility 10/17 Endurance 14/25 Toughness 7/15
Vitality 8/16 Perception 9/14 Mind 40/50 Core 16/20
Mana regeneration (7): 1% in apr. 141 seconds
Current level of mana – 100%
Abilities: Adaptive
Traits: Remolded, Envoy, Spirit, Anchor
Compared to average peak Earth human stats, Robert still fell behind almost by two times in terms of Strength and Endurance, despite all growth. His Perception and Mind hadn’t changed at all, and one point in Toughness could be connected to more muscles on his body. The latter with overall fitness activity could lead to adding two more points in Vitality, as an indicator of his health. Core increased because of intensive exhaustion of mana, but at the same time, it again decreased the speed of mana regeneration to a full capacity. It was unfortunate, as it was an actual trigger for Adaptation ability, thus creating a situation, where the more mana he had, the less actively he could train. It somewhat was compensated by growing physics, but not totally. Moreover, Robert noticed that his progress began to slow down after reaching some point.
Another interesting observation was tied to the Agility stat. Recalling an explanation about it, Rob figured out that he only worked with body control and coordination aspects but did nothing about his flexibility. That could be the reason for slower numeric growth because, in reality, Robert felt his body much more clearly than before. This conclusion might help him with Perception and Mind stat, when or if he needed it. However, that was a thing for the future because right now he was busy with no less important deed.
“When will you finish eating, Robert? It is a third portion of the porridge you are throwing inside you. Your stomach is like a bottomless pit” William, who was sitting near Rob on the ground, didn’t try to hide his displease about wasting time.
“We had to name you the Pig because of your appetite, and not Stick. You are not even that thin anymore,” Wolf interjected, “How did you manage to always get an additional meal? I asked once but was sent off with curses.”
“I am just a nice guy, who started to praise the food from the very first day and wasn’t cheap with my words,” Robert briefly smiled, before lowering his head again, “Cooks like compliments for their work. And I eat everything every single time, without loud comments about lack of meat or bad smell as if directly from fecal pot, Wolf. They have memory and dignity, they are not golden fishes… Okay, I am done!” Rob finished, hastily moving to a barrel with water to wash his plate under the gaze of Aspen.
I indeed don’t understand where all that food goes… I have a feeling that I will not die because of lack of nutrition, but additional calories somehow help me to quicken the process of growth. Or maybe I just want to replace absent quality with quantity? Where the hell is my pizza, even with pineapples? Stop, Who am I lying to? Everyone likes it but hides in fear of public condemnation.
“How can you eat it so easily? Wolf was right back then. It has awful taste most of the time,” William asked again when they were walking to the training ground.
It was already evening, and they planned to spend at least three hours more there. Several days after their talk about the goal, Wolf and Monk voluntarily joined them. A few more squad mates also tried but failed to make themselves appear next time. After a full day of hard working out, additional sparring felt like unforced torture. Not many wanted it.
William’s mask of indifference and higher goal crumbled under constant group talks during these training sessions. He turned a bit serious and righteous, but a nice guy. He was surprised to find out that Monk’s combat skills and physical strength were almost on par with his. However, the demeanor of Paul was completely different. A little shy, very calm, and somewhat filled with fatalism, he followed the flow and did what was needed, without arguing with anyone. On the other hand, Wolf couldn’t hold himself without telling them his honest opinion, loudly and often directly into the face, even when no one asked. Impulsive, and emotional, Lawrence was also quite sincere.
They both soon discovered secret relationships between Willian and his knight-girl but kept their mouth shut. Still, Aspen had only two opportunities to spend time with his beloved one. She never came to them, nodding from afar. William also never talked about her, only once mentioning that she insisted on being a squire of her dad’s knight and using such reasoning came to the military camp to see how militia was trained.
During this time, Robert, Paul, and Lawrence fought in a free-for-all spar, simulating a possible chaotic battle. That was a painful experience for Rob because both of his mates aimed at him at first, trying to take out the easiest target at first. Still, that helped him a lot, especially in using his hyper-focused Mind versus a few opponents. He felt a huge lack of multiple sensors, but even with two eyes, he once managed to keep himself on the foot almost for two minutes.
After putting some thought, Robert realized that he actually learned all he needed to make a not one-sided fight. Hours in front of the dummies taught him how to make proper hits with an axe blade all the time. Spars with William, on the other hand, made him figure out how to take a hit from a stronger foe on his shield. The same situation was with footwork, group fighting, and even overall strategy to kill different enemies. Right now, he just needed to practice, so everything could start to work together without any delays, extra unnecessary movements, and even pauses to think about what to do next.
There was none of those flashy hits with pirouettes. No techniques to disarm the opponent. No special tricks, which could look cool, but would fail when the enemy wouldn’t follow it from the beginning. The swing of the axe didn’t differ from what side it was used – be it from the right or from the left. Basically, it wasn’t some rocket science or string theory – just all reactions had to be embedded in the subcortex of his brain. Therefore, active sparing with William, Lawrence, and Paul helped to progress by a lot.
Altogether, four were quickly turning into friends. No one talked about details of their past or it was spoken in a very vague manner. William still thought that Robert was an escapist from mage tower and Rob didn’t try to correct him. Explanation about dying in a different world just to become an envoy of the real God with the solo goal of hunting during the incoming end of the world was quite a dumb idea. No one would believe him. Robert still tried to push thoughts about bigger threats to them. What he got was - “Everything to the will of our God” from Paul, “We will see whose the end it will be!” by Wolf and William’s “Is that a trustful information about mage’s revolt?” Therefore, Rob stopped trying and just continued training to increase his chances and maybe help others, when it would be needed.
“Are you deaf? Oh, I think that the waste that only by mistake is called food finally poisoned his brain!” Wolf exclaimed, pushing Robert out of his deep thoughts. However, before he managed to suppress his surprise at the suddenly clever joke from Lawrence and prepare a proper answer, he was interrupted by the loud sound of the horn, going through all of camp.
“I think our training is over. War is coming!”