The pace she needed to sustain to avoid falling into last place was tough, but doable. To an average person it would appear as though she was moving at an all-out sprint, but to her it felt as if she was moving at about half of her top speed. If she were to guess, she would reach the hill in about 20 minutes if she kept going like this. She was confident that she would be able to complete the run without much trouble, so long as nothing surprised her.
As if her thoughts had summoned him from the ether, she heard confident footsteps rapidly approaching from behind. A split second later, the trainer emerged from a curve in the pathway behind her and sidled up to her left. She wondered where the two other cultivators had gone.
“Hey there! You ladies didn’t think I’d forgotten about you, did you?” the trainer hollered.
Upon hearing his words, the woman ahead of Samantha redoubled her efforts to stay in the lead. She was much faster than Samantha had initially thought. Each time Samantha started to close the gap between them, her speed would increase accordingly and maintain the space cushion between them.
The trainer lowered his volume to conversational levels and addressed Samantha, “Not bad, newbie! Not great either, but I’m guessing you’re here to change that. May I have your permission to use an analyzing art on you? That will help me get a better idea of what we’re working with.” His words sounded completely relaxed and unstrained, as if he were speaking to her while on a leisurely stroll rather than a run through the woods. He didn’t even appear to be sweating.
“What will the art show you, exactly?”
“The art I use exclusively looks at attribute and aptitude information–you have my oath as a cultivator on that.” he replied with practiced ease. Apparently he got this question a lot.
A Mid Bronze cultivator has offered you an oath (Oathbreaker Marks: 0). Violating this vow will result in the promiser receiving a permanent Oathbreaker Mark.
Accept? Y/N
She had never heard of anything like system-recognized oaths before. Was the Oathbreaker Mark similar to her Vortex Mark? What other marks could a cultivator gain? What effects would they have?
She had initially been wary about the art somehow giving away the hidden quest she had uncovered and her gained mark, but the oath completely settled her concerns. She accepted the prompt and responded, “Of course, sir.”
A subtle chill passed through her as he looked her over with a calculating eye, but she didn’t fight against the slightly invasive sensation and did her best to let down her natural qi defenses. After a moment the feeling vanished he nodded to himself, “I don’t see many come through with an exceptional aptitude for anything. You’re lucky for that–it’ll give you an edge in a fight if you properly capitalize on your natural advantage. The two low aptitudes will make things more challenging for you, but it’s not insurmountable with the right application of effort. Currently, all of your attributes are around half as high as they could be, but fortunately having so much room to grow also means you’ll progress quickly to close the gap. Do you have a training goal in mind already, or would you like my professional opinion?”
Samantha was a bit bewildered by the man’s change in behavior. This didn’t seem at all like the same person who was gleefully beating them with a stick just a few minutes ago. She supposed he wouldn’t keep getting business if he was completely deranged all the time, though.
“I recently got a new art that improves my kicking, so it would be great if I could increase the durability of my feet and legs so I can attack with less fear of injury. Other than that, I just want to improve everything as much as I can as quickly as possible, so your expert advice would be appreciated.” she explained.
“I understand.” he gestured over to a small patch of grass off to the side of the trail up ahead, “Stop there for a moment, I’d like to take a look at how tough your feet are currently.”
When they stood on the grass he motioned for her to take off her shoes. Samantha obeyed. He held out his hands for the shoes and she handed them over with no small amount of confusion.
“Show me the bottom of your right foot. Mhmm… Now the left? Ah, that’s easily fixable.”
“My low aptitude for Resilience won’t pose a problem?”
“It’s a common misconception that you don’t benefit from attribute training until the system notifies you that you’ve gained a point. It’s also frequently misunderstood that these gains are magically distributed evenly throughout the body–they are not. If a cultivator solely trained their upper body to the point where the System acknowledges that they deserve an increased Strength value on their profile, that doesn’t mean their legs suddenly become equally strong as well. In your case, you can still work to make your feet and legs tougher than the rest of you and benefit, even if it isn’t reflected in your Resilience.”
“So, in theory, someone with 20 Strength could have 18 of those points concentrated in a single arm? And the rest of their body would just be… weak?” she asked, trying to clarify the concept.
He chuckled, “It doesn’t usually get quite that out of proportion. It’s tough to strengthen a single body part without at least somewhat affecting everything else in the process. Using your example, let's say that cultivator lifted heavy weights to strengthen his arm. How could he lift the weight off the ground if his legs were weak? How could he keep proper form when lifting if his core was weak? It’s certainly not impossible, though. Some cultivators train their Resilience in mostly their fists, for instance...”
He paused his explanation, then gave her a side eye, “Now, as much as I love a good session of theory-crafting, I suspect you’re just trying to get a longer break at this point. Get back to running!” To emphasize his words, he made a shoo-ing gesture towards the trail.
Samantha held out her hands for her shoes to be returned to her, but he shook his head wryly and waggled his pointer finger at her. Taking on an air of eccentricity that she was learning to associate with the persona of the slightly unhinged sadist, he chided, “No, girl. Run without shoes. You think you’ll get tough feet by babying them? No! Suffer and grow, that’s my motto. Now move!”
He whipped his caning stick through the air and struck the ground near her toes, making her jump. Begrudgingly she started running again. Her pace slowed significantly as she tried to navigate around the roughest areas of the path, and she cursed every horrible rock, pinecone, and stray stick that now stood between her and her goals.
“Hmm… maybe some more motivation would spice this run up a bit.” he mumbled absentmindedly. Cupping his hands around his mouth and using an amplifying art so all the trainees could easily hear him, he called out, “By the way, did I mention there will be a reward for whoever makes it to the top of the hill first? I’m thinking… a nice elixir to make the rest of your training today a bit easier!”
In response to this new announcement, everyone visibly picked up the pace. The woman in front of her pulled even further away, and Samantha watched on with dread as the two male cultivators rounded a corner in the distance and began to catch up. She did her best to keep her expression neutral, but a mild scowl still escaped onto her face.
“Seems like things will be getting interesting again, right?” he asked her, a mischievous grin on his face, “Remember what I told you, girl: suffer and grow.” With those parting words, he slowed his pace and quickly fell behind so that he would be at the back of the group again.
After working through her feelings of irritation, she reflected on what he said. She was genuinely afraid that if she squandered her remaining time on the first floor, then her journey might end as soon as she ascended to the second. Why was she feeling indignant that he was going out of his way to make things more difficult for her? She should actually be grateful that he was taking her request to advance as quickly as possible seriously. He was right. If she wanted to grow–especially when it came to Resilience–then suffering was required.
Feeling a surge of grim determination, she changed her running path. Instead of avoiding the toughest looking areas as she had been doing she ran directly into them on purpose. It was uncomfortable, but none of the small pains she felt were even significant enough to activate [As One]. She kept expecting debris to pierce the soles of her feet, but even the sharp rocks she ran over left her with small scratches at the most. It seemed that in this area of her life she was still stuck thinking like a mortal, too. She resolved to use this training experience to find her limits, then push them.
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Samantha was neck and neck with the woman as they neared the base of the hill. Both were gasping for air and dripping with sweat trying to outrun the other, but they had reached an impasse and neither could keep the lead for long. The woman was actually faster than Samantha was, but her Endurance must have been a point or two worse. Samantha was hindered by the lack of shoes, but the occasional qi point into [Swift] during strategic stretches had seen her slowly gaining on the woman. Now they were at the end of the race, and both women were nearly out of steam.
Just as they were beginning to move up the incline of the hill with shaking limbs, a blur of motion effortlessly passed them. Samantha nearly tripped over her own feet as she saw the Low Bronze cultivator from earlier sprinting up the rise without even a glance behind himself. In seconds he ascended to the top, claiming first place in the race before the two had even made it halfway up the slope.
She cursed inwardly but didn’t allow herself to slow. It couldn’t be helped, after all. Bronzes were simply on a different level than Coppers.
When she reached the top–just a half-step behind the other woman–she nearly collapsed with exhaustion. Even using nearly her entire qi pool to boost her chances of winning, she had still come in third place. She laid down on the soft, cool grass, and looked up to the sky. She took solace in the fact that at least she could recoup some energy until the last of the group finished the run.
Silas had gone off on his own shortly after the sadist had taken her shoes and made the elixir announcement. He had gotten bored of running, and instead wanted to forage the area to find something to snack on while he waited for her training to conclude. Feeling his contentment through their bond, she could tell that he was enjoying himself.
“Hey, Silas. I’ve just reached the training area. You feel a bit far away, could you forage a bit closer to where I am? That way we can reach each other quickly if we run into unexpected trouble.”
He sent a twinge of disappointment, “Aww! I just found something good.”
“We can stop by there again on the way back–how about that?”
After a few seconds of thinking the proposal over, she felt his mood improve, “Okay!”
As she sensed his qi signature drawing nearer to her location, Samantha returned her attention to the task at hand. At the very edge of her hearing she could catch the sound of wood against flesh as the final members of their group arrived. Looking down towards the trail, she noted with pity that the last two men were in poor shape and looked as worn out as she felt. The man in the back limped slightly and appeared to have injured himself somehow during the final stretch of the run. Just before both men reached the top of the hill, Samantha stood up just in case the trainer would give her a hard time for laying down.
“Good! We’re all here. I’m glad to see you’ve defended your title as my fastest trainee even with the handicap of a late start, Alex. I assume you dropped off Torak at a clinic since he’s not here at the moment. As a reward for coming in first, here’s an elixir that will help you recuperate your energy reserves faster for the next several hours. Julia, second place isn’t bad at all, nice job! You’ll also get a recuperative elixir for being first among the Coppers. Samantha, I can’t fault you for any lack of effort. Despite coming in third, I respect that you really gave it everything you had. As for you two lads, way to not give up! I know Agility is not your strong suit, so good on you for toughing it out.“ he encouraged, making sure to give everyone a bit of praise.
“Everyone, take five minutes to stretch and get some of your energy back. Now that we’ve finished our morning warmup and our blood is pumping, we can get started on the real training!” he beamed, then moved off to the side to begin his own series of stretches.
Samantha took his advice and did some stretching while looking around the training grounds. Contrary to what the trainer had first called it, this ‘hill’ was closer to a large plateau. The top portion they all stood on was approximately a mile long and a half mile wide, and relatively flat. A teardrop-shaped lake dominated the center of the area with the tip of the teardrop leading to the southern edge of the plateau. The flow of water was only stopped from tumbling over the edge of the plateau by a crudely constructed wooden dam. On the far north side overlooking the lake was a simple wooden cabin. It was shaded by the only tree in the area: a large, wide oak that must’ve been hundreds of years old. From her vantage point near the western side, it seemed the rest of the plateau was overgrown with high grass and small shrubs.
A short series of three claps returned her attention to the trainer, and signaled that their five minutes of rest were over, “Everyone gather around! I’ll be explaining the training regimen for today.”
They all followed him obediently as he made his way towards the dam, walking backwards as he spoke to them. “This is relevant for anyone with Resilience below 8 who wishes to train it. Show of hands?”
Samantha and the man with the limp raised their hands.
“You’ll be doing this exercise until I ring the lunch bell and we all meet at that cabin over there, or until you cannot continue. Understand?”
Samantha and the man both nodded and the group made their way to the extreme edge of the plateau–just beyond the dam. The dam itself was about 10 feet tall and 20 feet across, set between two earthen walls that had been carefully dug out and reinforced with rock to direct the lake water towards the edge of the plateau. The dam was placed where the teardrop shape of the lake narrowed to its thinnest point, and there was a release hatch locked in place with a lever that could open or close the floodgates. Water continuously flowed through small, square openings cut into top of the dam, making a shallow river as it passed through the man-made channel and tumbled over the edge of the plateau into freefall.
As they got closer to the edge, Samantha got a good look at just how far that freefall was.
The ‘hill’ they had climbed to get here was deceptively tall. Because of the relative gentleness of the incline, she hadn’t realized how high up they actually were. On this side of the plateau, rather than a smooth slope down to the forest floor, there was only an abrupt edge. Beyond the cliff face was at least a 200 foot drop--maybe more--into what looked like a miniscule puddle of water below.
“So, the proper way to land a jump from this height is either head first with your arms straight and hands pressed flat together above your head, or feet first with pointed toes and arms pressed flat to your sides. For beginners, I recommend the feet first option, as that is usually a bit less intimidating.”
Samantha did a double take. He couldn’t possibly expect them to jump from this high up. She opened her mouth to protest, but her fellow trainee beat her to the punch.
“Are you insane?! We’ll die if we jump from here!” the man accused, pointing towards the cliff.
“Well, of course you’ll die if you jump from this exact spot! You’d miss the water by about 10 feet. You need to jump from over there.” the sadist teased, pointing out a long wooden plank about 30 feet away.
One end of the plank was firmly weighted down by a large boulder, while the other end dangled precariously above oblivion. It didn’t look remotely safe.
“I’m not jumping.” the trainee declared firmly, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’d need to be suicidal!”
The trainer shrugged, “It’s your money, do or don’t do whatever you want. However, if you’re not going to abide by my training plan you can leave and waste somebody else’s time. No refunds either way, so it’s up to you. What about you, girl? Will you take the leap?”
Samantha gulped hard and nodded weakly. If this would improve her stats and potentially save her and Silas’s lives, then she’d resolved to do anything no matter how crazy it seemed.
“Good! As a bit of added Strength and Endurance training, you’ll be required to climb back up for your next jump using this rope.” The trainer reached down into the shallow creek and pulled up a two-inch thick braided rope. Now that Samantha knew the rope was there, she could see that it hung down in the center of the small waterfall, and ended somewhere in the water below.
Is this even humanly possible?
“I can see you asking yourself if such training is even possible to complete. The answer is yes, and I’ll tell you now that this is the beginner level difficulty. Once you become used to it, you’ll be required to climb up with only the power in your body, no rope allowed. As a sign of good faith, I’ll go first.”
The trainer promptly turned and jogged over to the diving board. He calmly walked out along the board and gave everyone a short salute. Then he stepped off into nothing.
Samantha gasped as she watched the teacher’s form gracefully flip and twirl end over end until he was a speck in the distance. A small splash erupted from the center of the pool, and she saw a dark speck swim over to the base of the waterfall and begin the climb. From there, Samantha lost sight of the man, except for those rare occasions where the waterfall would break around his body and she noticed that he was making impressive time climbing the rope with nothing but his arms. Not even two minutes later, the trainer lifted himself up and out of the waterfall, getting back to dry land and wringing out his robes.
He gave her an easy smile and then gestured to the plank, “Your turn.”
As she walked to the plank, she tried to breathe deeply and calm down. She decided now was as good a time as any to try and talk with Silas and warn him about what was about to happen. “Silas… I’m about to start the training program. I wanted to warn you that it’s probably going to hurt both of us because of [As One]. I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to make this easier for you. All I can say is that this pain isn’t for nothing, and that this is something that I need to do so that we can survive in the future.”
Samantha fought every survival instinct she had as she gingerly walked to the edge of the plank and looked down. The world seemed to swirl around her and she felt her balance become precarious, so she dropped down to all fours and hugged the plank for stability. Her heart pounded in her ears and she felt like she was going to be sick. She wondered if this was what Silas’s fear of heights felt like for him.
She forced herself back on her feet and looked down into that small speck of liquid far below her.
“I love you!” she sent, then jumped feet first into the abyss.
The wind whipped past her as she plummeted downwards, and she felt the tears of terror streaming from her eyes being pulled away from her face by the powerful gusts.
“I understand. I love you too, Samantha!”
And Samantha fell… and fell… and fell…