Chapter 31: Rigorous Training[3]

The next hour passed with me doing the exact same training except with air magic. Believe or not, my earth magic training was actually pretty easy compared to the air magic training. The problem I had to deal with was dodging near invisible attacks. If I couldn’t notice the slightest shift in the air in front of me, I would take a wind bullet to the chest. And then another one. And then another. Until I could finally see the difference in the air whenever someone launched an air based attack. I didn’t notice the air attack all the time, but enough for Simon to be satisfied.

Since I had to stare at the air for any noticeable differences, my enhanced vision skill leveled up quite a bit. I also learned how to do several new air spells. The most important air spell that I had learned was an air vortex. By launching an air vortex, I could have my enemies sucked towards it. Once they were close enough, my vortex would automatically explode, injuring anyone who was too close. The downside of this was that I would be affected to if I was too close to it. This meant that I would have to be careful when I used this attack if I didn’t want to get hit by it.

I also learned how to use the earthen cage that Simon had used against me in the previous spar. Right now I could only make an earthen cage that would trap my opponent. Once I gained proficiency in the skill, I would be able to make the cage sink slowly into the ground. With the enemy still inside it.

When Simon taught these skills to me, he made sure to tell me not to just spam these attacks. I had to use them strategically in order to win. If I didn’t, I would surely be killed in the future. He gave me several strategies to use such as laying an earth trap and then putting an air vortex right on top of it. This way when my enemies were sucked into the vortex, they would have to deal with my trap and the vortex explosion. I made sure to remember these strategies since they were bound to be useful in the future.

Before I continued my magic training, Simon ordered me to take a bath and rest for a little bit. Did I smell or something? Taking a glance down, I noticed the state of my clothes. If you could even call them that anymore. My pants were little more than rags while my shoes had various holes in them. The only thing that remained on my chest was my fanged necklace. Over the course of my training, my bandages had become so dirty that I just took them off. I didn’t really need them anymore, so it wasn’t that much of a bother.

As I followed Simon, I wondered what I was going to do about my clothes situation. I could try skinning some rats, but I didn’t know if Simon would let me fight them yet. And even if he let me, I had no idea how to make clothes. The other option was to cover myself with a bunch of moss. I wasn’t looking forward to doing that since I had tried it before. I only had one thing to say about it. Luminescent moss was extremely itchy on your skin.

After a few minutes of walking, I finally decided to just ask Simon if he had some spare clothes. What was the worst that could happen?

“Hey Simon, I have a question.”

The vampire let out a grunt to let me know he was listening.

“Do you have any spare clothes I can have? The ones I have on are the only ones I got.”

Simon took a brief moment to glance at what I was wearing. After a few seconds of debating he nodded his head. Nice, problem solved. We walked for another few minutes before we arrived at a small cave. With Viola in tow, I followed Simon threw the entryway. I could hardly wait to take a bath. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had taken one.

Inside this small cave, was a small lake of steaming water. Huh, I had never seen a lake that was naturally this hot. This was nice since this meant I wouldn’t have to take a cold bath. Heading towards the lake, I chose to put my stuff on a nearby rock. The items that were on the rock included my necklace, my belt, and my gauntlets. These were the only equipment I had left that wasn’t in need of repair.

After placing them on the rock, I glanced up to see where Simon was. I wasn’t embarrassed about being seen naked, but I would prefer not to. Especially by another man. But as I looked around, I noticed he had vanished. The only thing he left was a bundle that I assumed were my clothes. I would have to look at them when I finished with my bath.

Taking off my poor excuse for clothes, I slowly sank into the bath. Letting out a sigh of pure bliss, I sank deeper and deeper into the water. Although the water was a little bit too hot, I was fine with it. I would just have to wait a few minutes and my body would grow accustomed to the heat. I was about to close my eyes when my bath was interrupted by a loud splash.

The hell?

Extending my neck as far as I could, I looked for the source of the noise. I couldn’t see anything on top of the water therefore the cause of the splash had to be underwater. As I looked around cautiously I began to notice ripples in the water. Wait. Were they heading towards me?

Before I could move, a black mass exploded from the water and slammed into my chest. As the air rushed out of me, I was forced to go underwater due to the force of the blow. With panic setting in, I released a wind gale to shoot me out of the water. As I rose several feet above the lake, I took a deep breath of air. Now that I was out of the water, I needed to find out what had just hit me.

As I slowed my descent into the water, I noticed a head of some creature looking at me from within the lake. Wait a minute. Taking a closer look at the head, I soon realized it was Viola.

You have got to be kidding me.

Stopping my wind gale, I allowed myself to fall into the water with a splash. I couldn’t believe Viola had managed to scare me. I should’ve known. She was on my shoulder when I was walking with Simon. I guess this is what he meant when he told me that I was normally oblivious of my surroundings. As I rose to the surface of the lake, I gave Viola a glare. Seeing as how she was currently laughing, I could tell that she thought this situation was funny. I guess I would have to prove her wrong.

Moving my hands up from under the water, I splashed Viola with a handful of water. I allowed a grin to appear on my face as Viola spluttered in shock. From the look in her eye, I could tell she was not going to let this slide.

The next ten minutes passed by with Viola and I splashing each other with water. The fight was forced to end however when Viola used wind magic to nearly drown me. Having a giant wave of water come crashing down on me was not fun. At all.

Now we were both just sitting in the lake and relaxing. The warm water helped sooth my aching muscles and filled me with energy. I needed to make sure to appreciate this because once I was done bathing, it was back to training. As I relaxed in the water, my thoughts began to focus on Simon.

Simon was quite nice for a vampire. Or a human for that matter. Sometimes I wondered if he was treating me this way just because he needed me. I mean I didn’t even know him and he was helping me become stronger. Hell, we weren’t even the same species. From the way he answered some of my questions, I knew he was at least hundreds of years old. Since he lived that long, he had to know secrets that no one else did. Just by witnessing him use magic I could tell he was special. His understanding of magic far surpassed my own. All I wanted was to learn a bit of what he knew. If I did, I was bound to become stronger.

My thoughts continued further to my family. I hoped they were doing well. Hopefully they found a shelter or something to hide in. I didn’t need to worry about my older brother since I was sure he could handle himself. My parents were a different story however. I couldn’t even count how many times I almost died in this dungeon. And by low level enemies too! I could hardly imagine the power of a level fifty monster. It could probably kill me in one glance. But that was only at the current moment. Every day I was growing stronger and every day I was getting closer and closer to my goal. I just hoped that when I escaped this dungeon, my parents would still be alive. If they weren’t, I don’t know what I would do.

Once I was finished soaking, I got out of the lake and walked over to my clothes. Rather than the shirt and jeans I had worn before, I was now forced to wear some sort of medieval armor. Separating the items into individual piles, I glanced at the status of all of them. I didn’t really care if they gave me bonuses since I needed the clothes anyway. But if they did, I wasn’t complaining.

Steel Breastplate of the Night

Description: A sturdy steel breastplate that strengthens the user in the dark. 

Effect: User is harder to detect in dark areas. 

Dark magic is strengthened when wearing this armor.

+10 Vitality

Durability: 60/60

Requirement: Level 10

Steel Leggings

Description: Sturdy leggings that can withstand a great deal of punishment.

Effect: +5 Vitality

Durability: 40/40

Requirement: Level 10

Steel Sabatons

Description: Steel shoes that help protects the user's feet.

Effect: +3 Vitality

Durability: 40/40

Requirement: Level 10

The underwear, t-shirt, and socks that were in the pile didn’t give me any buffs unlike the steel armor set I received. As I put on my new clothes, I thought about my new armor.

The steel breastplate I had just received was the best out of all the other armor I received. This piece of armor would not only help me hide, but it would also strengthen my dark magic. If I combined this with my steel spear, then I would be a force to be reckoned with when I used dark magic. I also received ten vitality which improved my paper defense.

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My other weapons gave me some more vitality strengthening my defense even further. Now if I got hit by a strong attack, my bones wouldn’t immediately break. The only downside was that I would be slower with this armor. But as long as I trained my strength with Simon, I wouldn’t have to worry about the weight. I also noticed that I just made the armor requirements. Did Simon give me this armor because of it, or was it just coincidence? Either way I was thankful.

Once I finished putting on my armor, I walked over to the rock where all my other items were. A few minutes later and I had on everything I needed. As I headed for the door, Viola burst from the water and landed on my shoulder with a flourish flip. I moved my head to the side as water splashed on me from Viola’s fur. Hwaah. Couldn’t she dry herself before she flew on my shoulder?

With a look of resolve on my face, I left the cave that I bathed in. It was time to train once more. The next few minutes were spent with me walking down various pathways looking for Simon. Where the hell was he? This fucking cave was like a maze. He really needed some directions or signs because I was positive I already walked down the pathway I was currently in. In the end I had Viola lead me to Simon. It turned out that she could find out where he was by his scent. I wish she would’ve told me about that earlier since I would never get back the precious minutes that I wasted.

With help from Viola, I found Simon quite easily. It turned out that he was waiting in the clearing I had trained in. Man, did he have nothing to do? I mean I wasn’t complaining but I hadn’t seen him do anything. He wasn’t even training. Just waiting.

Hmmm.

Oh well, it was none of my business what he did with his time. As I was walking towards him, Simon glanced up. His eyes examined me up and down before he let out a grunt. I guess he approved of how I looked or something. I could never tell what his grunts meant.

The moment I neared him, I let him know how thankful I was for the armor he gave me. He could’ve given me rags to wear and that would’ve been my clothes for who knows how long. However he didn’t do that. Instead he gave me some decent armor that would help protect me in battle. And for that I was grateful.

“Your welcome. Now we have one more training spar to do before your magic lesson is over. Once we’re finished with this lesson, we will move on to your necromancy chants and the rune on your spear. After that we will work on teaching you how to fight without magic. There are going to be times where you are going to have to fight without any mana left. And if you don’t know how to fight properly, you will be killed.”

Whew, one more lesson left until we decipher the necromancy chants. I was pretty excited for the deciphering part since I always wondered what my necromancy symbols meant. If I understood was I was writing, my necromancy ritual would improve greatly.

The rules for this spar were the same as the past two times except I was using electricity this time. I tried telling Simon that I didn’t have electricity magic yet, but he didn’t care. He told me that I needed to gain it in this spar and we wouldn’t stop fighting until I did. This meant that I would have to change how I got my electricity magic.

Unlike air magic, I wouldn’t be able to try to understand the element in order to get the magic. Instead I would have to spam different types of electrical attacks until I got the magic. The only reason this worked was because each time I created a new spell, I gained a little bit of knowledge about the element. This would be hard, but it would be worth it in the end. At least Simon was going to go easier on me than he normally did.

The moment Viola flew off of my shoulders, the battle started. With a powerful kick, Simon pushed me across the battlefield. Fuck! I thought he said he was going to go easy on me. Taking several deep breaths, I thought about what type of electrical attack I would use. I needed something that would allow me to attack from far away.

Hmm.

Placing my hands near each other, I began to circulate electricity between them. The longer I did this, the more hairs that began to rise on my body. I pushed my hands closer and closer together as more and more electricity was gathered. A few seconds later and I had a unstable ball of electricity in my hands. What was I going to do with it? I had no idea.

Lobbing it wasn’t an option since it would explode before it reached Simon. Slamming it into Simon was an option, but I didn’t want to get close to him quite yet. I needed this ball to reach him before it exploded. Utilizing my concentration skill, I watched Simon’s every move to make sure he didn’t attack me while I was thinking. Man, thinking of attacks to create was quite challenging.

Finally, after a few moments of debating, I decided to just go with the flow. I pushed my hands closer and closer together until the electrical ball felt like it was about to explode. With my body face Simon, I made both of my hands completely smother the electric ball. I could feel it shift and fluctuate in my hand, but I didn’t release it until it felt like it was about to explode. This was when I opened a tiny bit of space between my finger and slammed my hands together. The electricity in my hands rushed out of whatever spot they could. Directly at Simon.

Due to the tiny space between my hands, the electricity that came out of my hands took the form of a long cylinder object. Thanks to my smothering of the electric, it shot towards Simon at extreme speeds. Even I would be hard pressed to dodge this attack if it came towards me. Would Simon block this attack, or dodge it?

Time seemed to slow down as Simon fully concentrated on the battle we were having. He only had a look of concentration on his face when I released a strong attack at him. For some reason he didn’t want to get hit by any of my spells. Maybe it was because of his pride or something. Crouching down as low as he could, Simon ducked below my attack. However that little move wouldn’t save him from my attack. Since electricity was still shooting out from my hand, all I had to do was swing down and Simon would be hit. And that is exactly what I did.

As my electricity neared Simon, he began to perform what maneuvers he could to dodge my attack. But no matter what he did, I followed him with my attack. There was a few close calls where my attack almost reached him, but he managed to barely dodge somehow. I was forced to stop my attack however since it was starting to use up to much of my mana.

Letting out a long sigh, I glanced at Simon. Did the last few minutes even affect him at all? As I looked at him, I noticed that he was in quite a relaxed posture. I could tell that he wanted me to know he could’ve continued all day. But thanks to my enhanced vision skill, I was able to notice beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. Hah, I guess he wasn’t as all powerful as I thought he was. Maybe after several weeks of training I would be able to fight with him as an equal. Who knew? That was a long way off.

The moment Simon crouched on the ground, I knew he was up to no good. As his mana began to fill the ground in front of him, I launched several electrical bolts toward him. I needed to stop him from doing whatever it was he was doing. Sadly my attacks were blocked by an earthen wall that blocked my vision of him. Tch, now I knew he was definitely up to something.

Charging up electricity in between my hands, I forced it to take the shape of a long whip. Shooting it out as far as I could, I swung it towards Simon. Thanks to the way I swung it, my whip would bend pass the wall and electrocute him once it hit. The moment my whip struck something, a look of suspicious appeared on my face. Simon had not been hit by one of my electrical attacks once. Why would he start now?

Releasing my lighting whip, I began to run around the battlefield. Not too close to Simon, but just enough to where I would be able see past his wall. But the moment I glanced past his wall, I regretted it.

God Damnit.

This man told me that he was going to go easy on me during this spar. But from what he had just created, I knew that was going to be impossible now. The creature that was now looking at me seemed to be made of earth and some type of crystal. Although it had an intimidating size, I should be faster than it. Being several feet taller than your opponent didn’t mean anything. After all the bigger they are, the harder they fall. The only thing I was concerned about was would my electrical attacks damage it. It was made out of earth after all.

As the earthen golem charged towards me, I risked a glance at Simon. I could tell from the way he looked at me that he wasn’t going to interfere with the fight between me and his creation. Tch, I would have rather fought him than the creature in front of me. Thankfully he allowed me to have some help.

“Since this earth golem will be quite a challenge for you to fight at your current level, Viola can now join in the battle. You are still only allowed to use electrical attacks though.”

Although I was thankful that he let me use Viola, I was still kind of ticked that I could only use electrical attacks. While I was fighting Simon, I had gained some electrical skills, but I still didn’t have electric magic. I needed to gain it soon or this fight would never end.

Mentally giving Viola some commands, I began to run in the opposite direction of the golem. There was no way in hell I was fighting that things in close quarters. If I received even one punch from it, my ass would be flying across the battlefield. And that had already happened too many times for my liking. No more flying around for me.

Conjuring an electrical bolt in my hand, I made it as unstable as I could. This way when it exploded, the golem would have to deal with the force of the explosion even if it didn’t receive any damage from it. I launched the at the same moment Viola launched a wind bullet. Due to Viola launching it from behind the golem’s back, it only noticed my attack. With a swipe of its arm, my attack was deflected to the side in an explosion of earth and dust. As the golem stared at me in contempt, I just looked at it unimpressed. I wasn’t alone in this fight after all and that wind bullet that was heading for his leg was going to be quite painful.  

The next thirty minutes passed with Viola and I tag teaming the golem. After a surge of inspiration for an electrical attack in the last few minutes of the fight, I had finally gained electric magic. Even though we didn’t manage to defeat the golem, I was still happy. Now we could move on to my necromancy symbols. But before we could begin, I once again sat down and restored my mana. All I had to do was wait a little bit longer and  I could finally study what I had been most interested in since coming down here.

Necromancy.

 AN: Thanks for reading!