1.14 Training - Week 2 Day 1 a_The Godless Paladin.

The next morning in some ways did not come soon enough. Today, things would change. I had always been able to wake up on time. Over the last week, my sense of time sense has been improving. So I woke up before the call this morning. That did not make much sense to me. How was I so aware of time? The room that we had chosen was the furthest from the mess hall, and even now I was not aware of any noise coming from the servers unless I activated my hearing skill, which I did just to check. There was some noise but even with my enhanced hearing active, it was barely detectable.

Now that I was more refreshed, I closed my eyes and considered the river system given what I had been told yesterday. Previously I had not been able to envision the complete river system. Now as I traced it upstream I came to a line of fog, the more I pushed my mind into it, the more the resistance grew until a momentary loss of focus had me flung out and immersed into one of the streams. That part of me that I considered my spirit as I had no better name at this point rang like a bell, and a feeling of angst resonated throughout my mind and body. That had not been one of my better ideas.

Looking across the flows that appeared as the river fanned out. It split and merged while at the start there were three main flows, but quite quickly It was apparent that the flow was slowly sinking into the ground. Each of the eddies was boosting the rate of the flow locally but some of the power that was in the river was being consumed by the eddies. For those eddies that I could identify, I noticed that those that were passive were consuming noticeable amounts of the flow. While active skills did not seem to consume any. I triggered “Listen” and noticed that an eddy suddenly started consuming the flow, and downstream there was a reduction in the amount that reached the other eddies.

The stream split erratically into the thinning and thinning flows. At some points, the shadows of potential eddies stopped appearing. An eddy seemed to need a certain depth and flow to be able to form.

In some places, it was apparent that the way the currents flowed any likely eddy would spin in the opposite direction to the bulk of the eddies currently existing. Given my experience with the single curse which spun in the opposite direction to the other eddies. That spin resulted in the flow being restricted. I suspected that activating any of these eddies would result in blocking that stream, which would cause changes in the nearby streams. The path of the streams was not ever branching but often merge back together. The eddies that had formed at the conjunction where two or more streams merged appeared to be stronger than those that had to form in midstream. The only ones that I could see that formed in this way were the eddies that were passive.

New Title - Scientific Method

New Title - Innovator

Title improvement - Outworlder II

TITLES, by all that is holy, how did I get two new titles and an upgrade to a title? And I am an idiot! I have a skill that clarifies skills and I have not been using it as much as makes sense. Maybe it will tell me something about titles as well.

“Understand, Understand, Understand” while focusing on the new title Scientific Method. Nothing appears and a flash of pain crosses my head. My heart beats just a little faster, and I feel a drain on my power. So at this point, I just have to guess what the titles mean. I have had notifications about the Outworlder and Hero Titles. They are the result of being summoned. And that somehow the Hero title enhances the rate that I learn things. I guess that will have to do at the moment.

I went and had a proper wash, it was nice to have enough time to clean myself. While we had been able to wash the exercises yesterday, It was good to feel fresh and clean after sleeping.

I went to the dining hall. Changes were occurring on the side of the hall away from the servers. Slowly the various members of the teams filtered in and sat in their teams. Red 4 looks like they had a rough night. I had a feeling that the knives that they were handling were not blunt, as they all had little nicks and cuts. I cannot imagine that having a knife always in one's hand was conducive to a good night's sleep. One of the team was so angry that he threw the knife at the wall. Even as the knife spun across the room. He raced after it. As the knife struck the wall and struck, the poor man ran as fast as he could straight into the wall. He did not attempt to stop himself or protect himself from the impact he just slammed into the wall. His hand went up and he grabbed the knife and crashed down onto the floor. He had smashed his face hard into the wall. With him flat on his back it was clear, that was a broken nose, and it looked like his front teeth had been knocked out.

That was a harsh lesson. He was picked up by some of the servants and carried into one of the spaces on the other side of the hall, the door closed after the servants had exited. A little while later as we all ate in complete silence one of the individuals that had come with Hanna entered the room. Within minutes the unfortunate member of Red 4 exited. His nose was fixed and he now had his front teeth. Which seemed impossible because a servant had swept them up and cleaned up the blood, it looked like he had picked something small and white out of the wall, while completing the clean-up.

So it seemed that his teeth had been regenerated. I looked at Fanny who had been peering at the cubical from the time Hanna’s aide had entered until the Red 4 member had exited.

He moved back to the table that his team was sitting around before anyone was able to say anything. The Aide that was their instructor came up, grabbed the knife, and slammed it through the back of his hand. Nailing it to the table. “ You were told to put the knife down, you were told not to throw it. Now you have to work out how to remove the knife from your hand.” he yelled into his face.

Fun times.

I did not know what would happen if I threw the cup, but since it looked rather breakable. I did not want to find out. Everyone that I could see was staring at the Red 4 team and their instructor. The difference between the old instructors was like night and day. These were tough but it was a competence that impressed, and they taught. Yesterday was illuminating. We got clear if still confusing instructions on how we could improve. While previously at least for our team, it had been “do this because I tell you”. The odd instructions that we had been receiving had been less than helpful.

Hopefully, today when we got to the Arena we would get better training as well.

After that breakfast was a subdued affair. There was little to no chatter, which was not unusual. James and his crew had not allowed any time for idle chatter, you were always struggling to get enough food to eat. Now rather than having to the servery there were plates on the tables and servants kept them full.

Even so, it did not take us long until we had eaten our fill. Holly just said in a quiet voice. “Ok time to head out” I would have thought that only at the table where she sat would have been able to hear. Yet I heard her voice as if she was standing just behind me. As I stood I realized that they had been eating the same food as the rest of us. This might explain the increase in service, quality, and quantity as Steven and his ilk had just stood at the entrance and glared at us.

We all formed up by the entrance, Holly and the instructors that had been allocated to each of the teams were joined by each of the previous instructors who it looked like had been waiting outside. There were 4 more people in Sphinx uniforms, they looked very hard-bitten, They had the feel of the people that had been on the front lines, walked the walk, and came through the other side changed by the experience.

Compared to the fresh-faced innocents of a week ago everyone was grim-faced, with the off-talked-about 1000-meter stare.

Rather than a march through seemingly random streets, this time the path was direct. While there were periods that we moved through alleyways and the streets had been swept clear of their inhabitants. My improved senses suggested that behind the walls and door people were huddling in fear. I could just sense the sniveling of young children and the hushing of the adults.

Skill improvement - Improved senses - 3/10

This was not a good place. We scrambled behind Holly and her team who were moving at a pace that none of us could match, while it appeared that they were walking at a normal pace, somehow it just covered more distance than was reasonable. We were all keeping up by switching between a fast walk and a slow jog, it was frustrating. I glanced at the other instructors and the troops that surrounded us, they had no problems. Their stride was similar to the instructors just not as polished. Holly in particular just seemed to be strolling without a care in the world, or a direction in mind. But she just ate up the distance, faster than our near run.

While most of the paths, and alleyways that we followed were new, we often crossed familiar roads, and on occasion raced down alleyways that could be recognized. I did not know why previously the path had been so indirect. Was it to isolate us, so that we did not know how to navigate this maze of a city, or was it the opposite, a method of forcing us to discover more of the backways?

Soon we were at the arena, we had covered less distance and the pace was such that it had taken a lot less time than usual. But even given the quickness of the journey we were the last to arrive much later than any previous day.

When we arrived the circle that we entered was already populated with some troops. Elizabeth explained “I don’t accept that the best training is against Static dummy’s Combat is about movement and controlling movement. Training against a static target is only going to result in bad habits.

Fanny, your healing has been neglected. None of the following combats will be to the death or even to serious injury. But the combatants will be needing healing to be able to cycle back into combat. This is one of the two major roles that a healer has to perform. It is the only one that we will worry about for now. Fonial and Robert, please hand me your cups. You will both be fighting separately for now. Fonial you will be facing these more heavily armored troopers. Robert, you will face the attack troops. Each to your weaknesses. You both will have to deal with those that have completed their basic training but have yet to have been deployed. You may use your base skill but until you face the more senior troops that I have brought, nothing that could be instantly lethal.

Once you or your opponent has been wounded then we swap things around. By the way, by wounded I don't mean nicks and grazes, it has to be something substantial. Both of you don’t get to use those weapons; they carry too many enchantments. Plenty of weapons on the racks.

And Robert you can use your spells, The troopers have been protected so that spells at your level are no longer lethal.

Well, Hurry Up.”

Her last words lacked the magical force that Stephan had exhibited but they were even more commands.

I swapped my weapons out for the training weapons. Entered my circle.

The trooper that faced me, nodded and dropped into a combat stance. I could tell that his stance was too wide, he was preparing to block with his shield and then try to counter-attack.

I moved forward, the hammer moving in a figure-eight motion. I swung up and was blocked by the shield. I had not put any effort into the blow, just enough that it was not taken as a feint. This resulted in the hammer being deflected down towards the ground. I extended my grip and pushed the hammer behind the lead foot of the trooper, pulling it back towards me as he attempted to drive forwards, to stab me. Of course, now his front foot was no longer grounded and he collapsed into the splits position. He screamed, rolled onto his back, dropped his weapons, and tried to reposition his legs, Which did not seem to be possible.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Fanny leaped forward and pulled him from the circle. She manipulated his legs so that he was long in such pain, but clearly, both hips had been dislocated. She glared at me.

Elizabeth frowned at me, then waved another trooper forward.

Again the nod and he moved into the same stance. I moved forward in the same manner. Once in range made the same attack, this time the trooper did not put as much force into deflecting my hammer, so rather than hooking the front foot. My hammer was driven into his knee. Which promptly collapsed.

Fanny sighed, rescued the new trooper, and went back to trying to heal the first one.

There was a wave, Another trooper who suffered much the same fate. But rather than the knee that was smashed, the hammer landed on his foot. While this was going on the more combat-experienced troopers were instructing the remaining troopers. It was not until the fifth trooper that she managed not to cause a self-inflicted injury. She had narrowed her stance so that she was able to move out of the path of the hammer. She did then commit to an attack, not expecting the speed of the hammer's return stroke.

The hammer moved the sword past me, swept up, and came down on her shoulder. It required some mental gymnastics on my part because the pattern that was part of the skill ‘Common War Hammer’ had the head of the hammer striking the temple area of the skull. And she had moved directly into the path of the weapon. There was a flare of some type of shield as the hammer struck. I suspected that without this the blow would have been more deadly than I had expected.

While I had not attempted to use the ‘Basic Strike’ skill this blow was significant. There was some level of synergy occurring across all the weapons skills that I had.

Elizabeth snapped “Hold”

“This is not working the way I had expected,”

I glanced at Robert. He was on his second opponent and was looking rather worse for wear himself. They were more closely aligned in their skills. Roberts' advantage was the sneaky bursts of flame that forced his opponent to flinch.

As I waited for Elizabeth to decide how to proceed I received some more notifications

Skill improvement - Common War Hammer - 7 / 20

Skill improvement - Basic Blunt mastery - 3 / 10

Skill improvement - Common War Hammer - 8 / 20

I even felt a hint that my ‘Basic strike’ skill had been influenced in these series of combats.

I smashed half of the recruit-level heavy troopers within less than a candle mark. A more senior healer was now working with Fanny to stabilize the wounded, only the first trooper had been able to return to the waiting area, and he was still looking pale.

Roberts’s first opponent was still leaking from a cut that bisected his chest a little lower and he would have been gutted. His uniform had several scorch marks and he looked a little cooked around the edges.

My sense of awareness washed over the wounded and I could feel their wounds. The damage that the hammer had done was very obvious but with Robert's trooper, I could also sense the nicks that he had acquired prior to the final blow. I combined my ‘basic regeneration’ and ‘remote casting’ skills and pushed the healing towards the minor wounds that he had collected.

I was only able to do this for a short interval, as I could feel my power levels draining rapidly.

Skill improvement - Basic Regeneration - 7 / 10

Skill improvement - Remote Casting I - 4 / 10

Elizabeth snapped at me “don’t waste your power, while you are vaguely impressive with those war hammer tricks. Let’s try you with more skilled opponents.”

At that point rather than the mid-level troopers that I was expecting, one of the veterans stomped in. He grunted, “Use any and all skills that you have, if you can touch me then that is a win.”

Clearly, he did not expect that I had any hope at all.

For the next hour or more I was batted around the arena. The only time that he ever seemed to defend himself was if I had enough time to prepare my strike skill. Which I never got to use, as it was countered before I could launch it.

I accumulated bruises, nicks, and various abrasions at a rate that was overcoming my ability to regenerate. Finally, with a nod from Elizabeth, I was knocked to the ground and his sword rested at the side of my neck.

Lying on the ground, I was flooded with notifications. While it had been a humiliating experience it was not unexpected. The veteran was all I hoped to be and was not yet.

Skill improvement - Basic Regeneration - 9 / 10

Skill improvement - Common War Hammer - 9 / 20

Skill improvement - Accuracy I - 2 / 10

Skill improvement - Basic Shield - 3 / 10

Skill improvement - Basic Strike - 10 / 10

Skill upgrade - Common Strike - 2 / 20

Attribute improved - Speed- +3

Attribute improved - Toughness- +5

Attribute improved - Strength - +1

Attribute improved - Speed - +3

Attribute improved - Awareness - +2

Attribute improved - Control - +1

Attribute improved - Vision - +3

Attribute improved - Will - +6

Getting slammed repeatedly into the ground had improved my attributes a lot, But considering that I never even managed to trigger my ‘strike‘ skill for it to improve and then upgrade was a real surprise, and on top of that it improved as well. Failure is its own reward sometimes. In this case, it meant learning how the skill could be interrupted even before completing the trigger. I had been taught a lot. The veteran did not appear to use any advanced skill, he was just faster and more aware of my actions. He just swayed and moved in such a way that my hammer never made contact with him. Just before the last beat down, I had managed to get him to tap the head of the hammer so that it missed him.

That was my big success in the entire combat, I had forced my opponent to defend against a blow that I made. Up to that point, it was as if he was made of mist. He was seldom where I thought he was, and when he was it was because I was about to eat a dirt sandwich.

While lying on the ground looking at the sky. It was clear that being a hero might just mean that I was going to have to put up with a lot of pain. I could understand the skill improvements and most of the attribute ones. Why my will had improved was a mystery. Then I could feel that I was still being observed from the stands. It was Lara, there was a tangible pressure that had her scent upon it. How pressure could carry a scent did not make sense. But while I got the feeling that she was hard-nosed and as tough as all blazes, her scent was stimulating. I suspected that was why my will had been improving.

The best that I could do was to turn my head and observe Robert. He was now facing one of the more heavily armored troopers. Unfortunately for him, not one of the ones that I had beat up. But a fresh-faced enthusiastic man, It looked like Robert was running low on power as his firebolts had lost quite a bit of steam. They were nice and fast but were unable to punch into his opponent. This continued until the trooper over-extended and Robert landed a flare into his face and a slice that cut through the lighter armor that protected the underside of the upper arm. Elizabeth called a hold.

Robert sagged to his knees, He was helped by one of the servants to a table that had a light meal on it. As he ate I could see life return to him. I was wondering why I was not receiving the same service. I started to push myself back to my knees when Fanny turned up and pushed me back to the ground. She placed her hand on my forehead and started to chant ‘restore, restore, restore’. The first few times nothing happened, then I could feel something that pressed against my stamina. It felt blocked by my will. But since it was Fanny and I trusted her, I allowed it to flow. It was quite amazing. I rapidly moved from a state of living death to a warmed-up piece of meat and then a living breathing human.

Fanny glowed and she looked so happy. I mean a real physical glow, she was radiating a pink light that was casting shadows.

Fanny announced, “I am now a ‘Junior Healer’”.

Elizabeth said, “Congratulations you are the first hero to obtain their base class.”

Be blessed and welcome Healer”

All of the people surrounding us and I could tell even up in the Sphinx section of the stands repeated

“Be blessed and welcome Healer”.

Fanny asked “what are Feats? And what should I choose?”

“As a healer, the first is Low Cost, as it reduces the power required to heal, Choose now as you have little time before the choice is made for you!”

Elizabeth returned to Roberts and me the cups. I had hoped she was going to forget that, but to be honest I had no expectation that she would forget, just a forlorn hope.

“I think that we are done here. We shall return tomorrow but for now, back to the barracks, you all need to put down those silly-looking cups.”

I realized that poor Fanny had been healing with a cup that had been moving from hand to hand. I thought that at one point she had held in her teeth as she pulled one of the troopers that I had damaged from the combat circle.

What Elizabeth had done to us was a pain.

But the short while that I had been without the cup had given me an idea or two.

It did not take long for us to return.

I discovered that the stamina that had been injected into me resulted in me being mobile. It was still lacking, my physical coordination was off, and during the run back while I had the strength I struggled to maintain an even pace and would stumble and nearly fall over in the smallest obstacle. And there were a lot more of them this time. Normally the roads had been cleared of both people and their accruements, But while major items had been removed there were still little things that had not been collected. A rug there, washing that was hanging from a window, a toy that was lying in a patch of weeds.

I was so distracted by the change in my physical state that some of the walls that surrounded my mind had crumbled as well. I had not been using the sense skills that I had triggered when I was experimenting with how this power that I was experiencing worked. In my confused and exhausted state. I realized that while Fanny had restored the stamina of my body, both my mind and spirit had been depleted in some way as well, by the effort that I had put out. This explained why I was such a mess, but it did have a number of unexpected results.

My vision at times sharpened, then narrowed, and at times it was as if I was looking through a fisheye lens. While this was occurring my sense of touch also went wild, from not feeling the ground under my feet, then in the next instant feeling my hair being moved by the wind caused by my movement. My hearing was the worst. As with the other senses I had not activated a skill with my hearing I had and I had even explored options. The world was alive with noise. I flinched from noises that were at a great distance, and at the same time could hear a deep base note that was reverberating. Sounds that were pitched above and below my normal hearing bounced across my awareness. The world had suddenly become a much more noisy place.