[You are now in the mission: Combat training. In this mission, upon death, you will respawn. The mission will be completed as long as you clear one of the difficulties. Attribute progress in this zone will be reduced by 80%. Time limit : 90 minutes.]
The not-so-familiar sensation of dissipation overwhelmed my senses again as I was teleported back to the place I died before. In front of where I spawned, a white crystal floated a good few feet above the ground, rotating on its own axis.
Reading the message, it mentioned a few things that took me by surprise. First, I shouldn’t be worried about dying in this area, and while that prompted a relieved sigh from me, I knew dying itself would still be agonizing regardless. Next, it said that my attribute gain would be reduced by eighty percent, and that confirmed the theory about the PROGRESS (%) increasing my attributes.
And also, this indicated that the primary source of getting stronger wasn’t all that different than how it was. The things that you train for, you will get stronger at. And the things that you neglected…
Then… What about stuff like magic? I had no way of training those attributes, so am I doomed forever? Was being a mage an impossibility for us humans?
[Combat training dummy: Select a difficulty. Each difficulty will spawn a different enemy.]
Three difficulties were presented; They were the typical difficulty suggestions you’d normally see in games, starting from Easy and ending on Hard. It stated that I wouldn’t take any damage here — aside from the pain — So there wasn’t any real risk in selecting the hardest difficulty.
I assumed Hard would lead to a fight with the spearman. But there was a chance that the spearman would spawn on the medium difficulty instead, and the chances of that weren’t low, either. The top tens— save for Idris — all died to the orc that was spawned after the lizardman.
In the end, the medium would be the best difficulty to train with. If the spearman spawned, I had a few more things going on for me this time, the first being my knowledge from fighting it before, and the other being my unassigned attributes.
[Medium difficulty selected. You will be fighting. Lizard spearman.]
[Select your weapon(s)]
Recalling the one-sided beatdown I experienced before, the difference between our reach and speed was the foremost problem that I had against that thing. Should I go with adding two points on speed and strength, then?
Wait, not yet. I didn’t know how much one point would increase my speed. I needed to be patient, and try to last as long as I could against the spearman now. Besides, my progress had almost reached 100%, so wouldn’t it be wise to assign attributes after?
I shelved that idea for later.
Okay, before I start… Weapons.
Previously, I chose a dagger since I was the most familiar with it. It served me well, but with the option of not dying, I wondered if it would be best to learn how to use other things.
In this case, since the range was one of my biggest drawbacks, a spear or a sword would be beneficial. But… I didn’t know how to use them well. Spears were easier since they were more forgiving than swords, so it would be the best option out of these two.
I pictured myself fighting that Lizard with a spear, and… I didn’t see that I could ever beat it. But what about pairing it with a shield? How big of a difference would that make?
Let’s just see what happens.
[You selected an Iron spear and Iron shield. Your enemy will spawn in 30 seconds.]
Both weapons appeared from the air and dropped on the floor. The roundish shield, despite it being nearly as big as my torso, felt light enough when I lifted it on the floor, its straps fitting snuggly on my left arm. The spear was, well, lengthy — almost as long as my height — and the balance was sublime upon grabbing it.
Again, like the previous dagger I got, they were perfect.
The lizard spearman spawned once the timer ran out. My heartbeat raced as I saw the one who killed me, my arms unconsciously tightening the grip on both the shield and spear. The tension had paralyzed my shoulder; I was barely able to lift the shield up as its spear made its way toward me.
Clank!
I was thrown behind from the initial impact. What little guard I had was gone when it launched another jab front its spear again, and I was able to nudge my shield to divert its incoming attack away from my chest, avoiding a fatal blow straight to the heart.
I won’t die this quickly! Fuc-
Hiding behind the shield, I gritted my teeth and steadied my hands which were trembling from the recoil of its jabs. There was no chance of me even landing a single hit on the spearman at my current level, so my only option right now was to use this shield and learn its movement patterns.
A series of thrusts and jabs rained upon me. All my eyes could see were glimpses of its assault. I was fortunate that my shield was big enough to compensate for my lack of accuracy, however, it led to my arm losing the strength to keep my shield up after only a few strikes. A few more thrusts later, it broke through my defense by knocking my shield away from my torso, and then-
[Restoring your health.]
[Error: Conflict detected. Prioritizing healing protocol…]
When I came to, I was kneeling on the floor regurgitating my insides out, reeling in the radiating pain throbbing in my chest. The sensation of having my heart torn apart wasn’t pleasant — no it was agonizing, more than I could ever imagine — even if I knew I wouldn’t die from its attacks.
The shield and spear were nowhere to be found.
“*Cough* Fuck! Fuck!” Another massive load of vomit propelled off my throat, coating the ground with a layer of noxious sludge. How many times had I vomited today? I slammed my fist on the floor, collecting dirt in my hand, frustrated.
I lost… There is no way a shield and spear would do much against it.
Frankly, I learned nothing from that fight. I couldn’t see it well due to the shield limiting my vision, and I didn’t even launch a single jab at it and my spear was an utter hindrance. I would achieve a better result by just holding the shield with both my arms that fight.
“Okay… Calm down…” As I breathed deeply in and out a few times, I opened the status window and thought about using the free attribute points to get better results. But I stopped right as I was about to assign those points.
STATUS
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
HEALTH
20/20
MANA
10/10
RANK
-
Level
0
POINTS
168
RACE
HUMAN - 1
ACTIVE CLASS
none
SUB CLASS
none
FREE ATTR. PTS
5
ATTRIBUTES - BODY
ATTRIBUTES
Progress (%)
Total Attr.
STRENGTH
0
94
-
SPEED
0
36
-
TOUGHNESS
0
58
-
VITALITY
0
79
-
RESISTANCE
0
0
-
ATTRIBUTES - MIND
ATTRIBUTES
Progress (%)
Total Attr.
ARCANE
0
0
-
ARCANE. POWER
0
0
-
ARCANE. DEFENSE
0
0
-
WILLPOWER
0
0
-
AFFINITIES
??? - unlocked after clearing the trial
My… progress increased? And they were about to reach 100%… Thank goodness I didn’t assign the points earlier.
Hope, paired with the sense of progression, filled the broken void inside my soul. Another fight or two would net me a point on most of these stats, and all I had to do was die, Over and over again. I grimaced imagining what that entailed, but I had to do what was best to get as strong as I could.
But man… I would be lying if I said that my legs weren’t shaking from the image of dying again. I slammed my face with both of my palms to jolt myself awake, hoping that it would fend off the fear, but that had close to no effect on getting rid of those pesky humanly hindrances.
Who’d expect that after dying numerous times, I’d still be so averse to it?
As I sighed, I recalled the same feeling I had as I slept my life away, day by day… It was putrid, petrifying my soul every time I reminisced about them, yet… comforting, at the same time.
Not gonna lie, a part of me desired to return to the allure of that listless life. There was something about sleeping your day away that felt so destructive, yet I couldn’t help but want it at the same time. Strange, I know, but that is just how it was for me.
I glared at the floating crystal. Don’t give up.
[Medium difficulty selected. You will be fighting. Lizard spearman.]
[Select your weapon(s)]
Instead of the spear, I chose… nothing in its place. I know, it was a weird choice, but I didn’t have any plans to attack this round. With my full focus on defense, I hoped that I could last a little longer and learn a thing or two by putting my focus all on blocking its attacks.
And boy was I naive.
Stab. After stab. After stab. After stab. Each one hurt like no other.
It felt like I was in a loop. Deaths merged with one another, with agony circling in its core.
[Restoring your health.]
[Error: Conflict detected. Prioritizing healing protocol…]
Upon my second death, My physical attributes had increased by one. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a difference, which there was; but it was subtle, almost imperceptible, even. One point of strength made it easier to lift the shield for a prolonged period of time as if it was half a pound lighter. Hell, It was so subtle, in fact, that I didn’t even know that I’d gotten stronger before I was about to die again.
[Restoring your health.]
[Error: Conflict detected. Prioritizing healing protocol…]
After the fifth death, the difference was more recognizable, like I was lifting a barbell that was a few pounds thinner. At this point, the stabs caused a bit less recoil in my grip, and I could maintain my balance better. I’d say that I could last maybe a few seconds more, but my mind had turned into a mixture of soup and numbness at this point.
Dying over and over again dulls some areas of your emotions.
[Restoring your health.]
[Error: Conflict detected. Prioritizing healing protocol…]
The same messages were so obnoxious up to a point that I yearned to stop seeing them. The floor was visibly wet from the constant vomit that I’d launched outside, and the tears had salted my cheeks up to a point that I could almost smell it.
But… I know that I am getting stronger. That one single line of thought kept me going.
[Restoring your health.]
[Error: Conflict detected. Prioritizing healing protocol…]
And then, after the twelfth death, I was about to let the white flag soar, but not before another message appeared :
[Time is up. You have failed the mission: Combat training.]
I let myself fall on the floor, gasping for air as I was kicked out of the training zone. The cold felt numb on my skin, and I wasn’t able to feel much other than the sheer numbness inside of my soul. I’d gone far above and beyond what I intended to do, and to be frank, there was a small corner of my heart that was happy I went through the gauntlet of anguish.
Was it the fact that I persisted, somehow, and did not give up? Was it the fact that I earned my progress? There were so many points in this mission where I wished I could quit, but at the last possible minute, my mind snapped me back in the other direction.
Yeah, I conquered that lazy, depressed part of me today. By no means was it gone — no, not even close — but the next time it showed its ugly face again, I’d be able to handle it better.
Hopefully.