Why a government building like the City Hall had a training hall was beyond me, but I had to say, they didn't pull any punches when it came to building the facility. The training hall was like a massive gym complete with all sorts of equipment, though instead of treadmills and barbells, hundreds of assorted wooden weapons were lined up neatly in racks. With the size of the place, I'd have expected it to have dozens of people using it, but it was practically empty. Rings dedicated to sparring matches lined the other side of the room, and it was there I spotted Camille swinging a sword.
But instead of the metal armor that she wore in her office, Camille was now dressed in a sleeveless shirt and tight-fitting pants that ensured ease of movement. I had to say, her outfit accentuated all the womanly curves that her metal armor hid.
“Didn't realize you looked that good beneath your armor,” I said as I entered the sparring area where Camille was.
The Governor gave me a single glance before returning to her sword forms. “Are you hitting on me, Constable? Be informed, it is unprofessional for a government official to date a fellow government official.”
“You're not saying no, though,” I said as I sat down on a bench, eliciting a small smile from the woman. “But no, I'm not hitting on you. My life is already a mess, no point in making it worse by engaging in romance. I was just wondering why you keep wearing all that metal armor in your office, and my first theory was that you were hiding something on your body. But after seeing your form, I doubt you're ashamed of it.”
“That is a stupid question. I wear my armor for its purpose: to protect me from harm. Why else did you think I wear plates of heavy armor for?”
I shrugged. “Maybe you just wanted to look awesome.”
Camille shook her head as she finished her sword forms. “The more important question is, where is Lance?”
“I left him behind at the cafeteria with something to think about,” I said.
Camille raised an eyebrow at that. “And what would that ‘something’ be that he would think it more important than attending his training?”
“Something about his ex-girlfriend,” I said, not willing to elaborate.
“I suppose love always blinds a man to everything else,” Camille said.
“See why I don't want to pursue romance?”
“Only miserable people say that.”
“I guess I am one,” I said with a shrug. “But does that mean you're finding some boy to ensnare with your beauty, then?”
Camille smirked. “Not yet, but in time. I find romance tedious as well, but as a member of the Empire's nobility, it is my duty to produce an heir. I am just too busy with managing my city at the moment.”
“Nobility? Like, dukes and stuff?” I wasn't exactly knowledgeable about that kind of stuff. I just heard it sometimes from the youngsters on Earth when they talked about TV shows and pop culture.
Camille stared at me like I just grew a second head. “Did your parents drop you when you were a child?”
“Whoa, how did you know?”
Camille closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. “It's a good thing you now know how to read and write, it should make your ignorance easier to fix. I shall be revising your training schedule from now on. Instead of studying in the morning and combat training for the entire afternoon, you will be having general education lessons for four hours in the morning, etiquette lessons for four hours in the afternoon, then two hours of combat training in the evening.”
“Whoa whoa, do I get paid overtime?”
Camille glared at me, but I didn't back down. We're talking about two extra hours of overtime here. “Fine, you shall be receiving overtime pay. But you better take all this seriously, or I'll dock your pay.”
“Crystal clear.”
“Now get up. We begin our training now.” Camille instructed me to stand in front of her, about three meters away. “I will take a measure of your current combat strength first by sparring, then we will do what we can to fix your flaws.”
“Sounds good to me. Should I go get a wooden sword or something?”
Camille considered for a moment. “No. Warner told me about your healing prowess and I would like to see it for myself, so we shall be using real weapons. Do not worry about me. I doubt you could hit me tonight.”
“We'll see about that,” I said.
“Before we start, I suggest you take off your uniform first,” Camille said. “You wouldn't want to dirty it.”
That was actually a solid reminder. Even if I was getting these uniforms for free, it'd be a massive waste if I got them shredded every day.
I took off my uniform, but I had to leave my pants on. I was currently having a wardrobe shortage, and I kind of forgot to buy myself some underwear. I was going commando right now.
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With my muscled torso bare to the world, I stood in front of Camille with my steel axe. “What are the rules?”
“We keep fighting until I say stop,” Camille said as she drew her sword. It was a beautiful piece of work that shone like platinum, about a meter-and-a-half long. The sword was double-edged, and based on the length of the handle, it was supposed to be held by two hands, but Camille gripped it with one hand like a boss. She placed her other hand behind her back. “Don't hold back. Ready?”
“Yeah.” The moment I gave my affirmative, Camille was suddenly in front of me, her sword stabbing into my stomach and sprouting out my back.
When the fuck did she even move?!
Before I could respond to her attack, she pulled her sword out and kicked my chest, sending me flying with a cracked sternum. I slammed against the wall and fell to the ground.
“You are slow,” Camille said from where she stood.
“You're just stupidly fast, you fu—”
I hurriedly clamped my mouth shut. I almost forgot that swearing in Camille's presence would result in a pay deduction.
I stood up slowly, wiping the blood that dripped from my mouth. By the time I was standing again, my stab wound was already closing and my ribcage was healing.
“Impressive,” Camille said as she witnessed my healing. “Does your regeneration cost mana?”
“Nah, I could do this all day,” I said with a grin.
Camille gave me a bigger grin. “How fun.”
I charged at her, my axe gripped in two hands as I looked for any opening. To be honest, I didn't even have any idea what an ‘opening’ in combat looked like, so as soon as she got within my striking range, I just swung for the fences.
I almost looked ridiculously slow as my axe whooshed through the air with a heavy sound. But Camille easily dodged it with a bored face and a step back, and as soon as my axe missed, she darted forward and stabbed me in the torso ten fucking times in less than two damn seconds.
“That hurt, you bi—”
I almost did swear at that moment, but Camille saved me from myself by slitting my throat with a clean slash. Her blade cut through my neck easily even even though I was reinforcing it with Hard as Fuck. How powerful was this woman to easily ignore my sheer physical resistance and defensive Skill?
“No swearing,” Camille said with a smile as she fell back to watch her handiwork.
I glared at her as I waited for my body to heal. My blood was already coating the stone floor, and my head was a bit woozy from the blood loss. I activated my Blood Bag Skill to replenish my lost blood, and my body suddenly felt warm as my mana turned into blood.
You know, now that I was thinking about it, wasn't my Blood Bag Skill redundant? My regeneration naturally replaced my blood as I healed. I only chose Blood Bag because Lance told me it'd be lucrative, and money was always my end goal.
Now that I had a high-paying job, though…
Dammit, I shouldn't have listened to my greed back then. Add the fact that I had been too excited about my first Class Skill, and that resulted in me making an impulsive decision. Next time, I probably shouldn't make a Skill Choice while I had adrenaline pumping in my veins.
As soon as my wounds were quickly healed, I charged back in with no regard for defense. Camille cut me up again and again, her blade slashing through my flesh easily like a hot knife through butter as I tried my best to hit her with my axe, but the bitch was too damn fast.
But that didn't really matter. I already knew that I would never reach her in a million years, so I decided to lean on my advantage: my infinite regeneration and stamina.
For the next five minutes, I kept charging at Camille like a raging bull, suffering slice after slice from her sword without relenting a bit. She had seen through my plan early on, and she responded by increasing the rate of her attacks. Dozens of sword cuts would ravage my body in the span of a few seconds whenever she came into range, and I would ward her away with my axe, giving me scant few seconds to heal back up. She tried cutting off my limb once, but then her sword got lodged in my bone for a brief moment, and I was this close to chopping off her hand. She didn't try it again.
[Physical Resistance has leveled up to Lv.4]
When Camille finally realized that I was not being fatigued at all, she put a stop to the spar. “I will admit, your regeneration is quite impressive.”
“You really had to test it, didn't you?” I said as I held my severed ear to my head and waited for it to reattach.
“I had to see it for myself. Warner's report of your performance in the smuggler raid had been honestly outlandish,” Camille said as she wiped her sword clean. Her weapon was the only thing on her person stained by my blood, while the rest of her was ridiculously clean. Even the entire ring was splattered with my blood.
“So what did you glean from our spar?” I asked.
“That you are completely incompetent in combat,” Camille said with a hint of disbelief in her voice. “For a man with such a powerful regeneration Skill, I expected you to be a decent combatant. If I knew you were this incompetent, I would not have sent you to the raid on the smuggler's base. The only thing you've done in the entire spar was to swing your axe like a madman and hope for the best.”
I shrugged. “That sums up pretty much everything I do in life.”
Even though my ‘Champion of Carnage’ Accolade said it significantly improved my combat proficiency, it didn't seem to do much. Maybe because I had no formal training at all? It did say it improved my combat proficiency, which was almost non-existent outside of my experience with brawling. A million multiplied by zero is still zero, I suppose.
“And you have been extremely lucky so far,” she said with an irritated look. “Your sheer strength and regeneration have been enough to deal with your enemies so far, but you will never stand a chance against a well-trained warrior. And don't think that you can rely on your regeneration forever, because there are hundreds of ways to counter that.”
“Yeah, well, I never aimed to fight strong people anyway. After this Constable gig, I'm going back to being an ordinary laborer at the Laborer's Guild,” I said.
“I highly doubt that things will go as you see it, but that is irrelevant to your current situation. You are a Constable right now, and so you shall know how to properly fight,” Camille said as she instructed me to pick up my axe. “Are you certain that you wish to use an axe as your weapon of choice?”
I considered for a moment. The tool I was most familiar with was a sledgehammer given that I had a lot of experience knocking down walls in my past life, but an axe was similar enough to it that I was confident I could wield it well enough. Plus, an axe seemed more capable of dishing out damage: it had the weight of a sledgehammer and the sharpness of a blade. Two for the price of one.
“Yeah, I'll be using an axe as my main weapon.”
“I am not familiar with the intricacies of wielding an axe, but I know enough to get you started,” Camille said. “The first thing you shall learn are the basic forms.”
Camille proceeded to show me the best ways to chop a poor bastard. I learned it quickly thanks to my Champion of Carnage Accolade which ‘significantly improves combat proficiency and battle intuition’, and soon enough, Camille nodded at me. “At least you learn quickly. Now, I want you to perform each form perfectly at least a hundred times. If you make a single mistake, you will start over.”
I sighed. This was gonna be a long afternoon.