The morning arrived and I was woken by Steven and the other instructors of Red barracks quietly entered each room and nearly whispered “Wake, Clean yourself, Eat”.

Just those words ringing with the force of command triggered a swift response. Even though I was affected, while the curse did not drive a forced response the echoes still impacted my inner self. I had believed that the curse had been stopped, but while it clearly was less harsh in comparison, I still felt the impact particularly when I first woke up this morning.

We all rushed through morning ablutions and a quick breakfast, there was so little time that by the time we were filling out the door into the street, I was still hungry. I had to try and rise earlier if for no other reason than I needed more food. My new body was impressive but unlike my previous one carried no spare weight and 2 days of heavy physical and mental activity were starting to put a strain on it. One or two of the mage archetype people were looking really very peaky.

We moved swiftly through yet another set of streets that were new. Again they were emptied as we passed but there were traces that many had been occupied shortly before we moved into them.

We all moved quickly into the appropriate colored training space. As the Green team's instructors who had arrived first today entered the circles the shield appeared. There was no casting, so either they had an item that acted as a key, or there was someone watching from the stands that were blurred out from the overall shielding.

Robert, Fanny, and I almost ran into the first Red circle that we could see. The pressure that I felt from the instructor was significant, and that was without the active curse, I shuddered to imagine how much worse it must be for those that still had the curse driving their minds.

We looked towards Steven as he strode into the circle and the shielding expanded to cover us. With no preamble, he started

“Since you have all now got a basic understanding of your base martial skill it is time that you learn an active skill that will multiply that amount of damage delivered. For you, Fonial its a skill called Strike. Swing the hammer at the dummy’s head from directly above. The purpose of the blow is to destroy the head of the creature that you are fighting. Envision the head of your hammer striking the crown of the head delivering massive damage. The third invocation must be timed with precision as the hammer meets the head. Use the word ‘Strike’

Fanny since the mace is a particularly useless weapon to cause damage I will have you focusing on a speed attack. Hammering will allow you to hit the dummy three times in a very small interval while with each blow the damage would increase. This should knock the opponent back and out of the fight for a short interval. Use the skill word “Hammer”

Robert. A bladed weapon has useful abilities but since you are particularly weak I will have you work on ‘Cut’ this skill causes any wound inflicted when timed correctly to be many times larger than the weapon could other ways be expected to cause.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

You will all only focus on these skills for the rest of the day. I am not optimistic that any of you will achieve much.

For all of us, the rest of the morning was a grinding agony as I forced myself to do as commanded, while for the others it was clear to me that the curse was driving them. At some point, late in the morning, I could tell that something was changing with my strike.

I had reached the first level of Strike. I had also gained an upgrade to my Stamina at some point. My body was aching at a fundamentally deep level, I had been drained of all resources.

New Skill - Strike - 1/10

Improved Attribute - Endurance + 1

Fanny was making no progress at all and as for Robert even his normal strikes with the dagger were now barely scratching the surface of the dummies.

The lack of any actual training was painfully clear. How could we learn if we did not know what we were doing wrong?

Steven had no sympathy for any of us. He told us to grab a drink first, then “Refresh. Eat, Rest”

The training just continued after a short break.

The afternoon just continued to be the nightmare that the morning had been. I did gain a point of strength, and the other two looked a little faster. But as for damage on the dummies using the new skills, not a bit.

Improved Attribute - Strength +1

At least I was still damaging the dummies with the normal passive war hammer skill. Towards What I was hoping to be at the end of the day I had some more notifications occur, I was unable to review them until we headed back to the barracks. It was not until Steven had finally decided that there was no further progress that could be made, that he had us head back to the barracks. There were a couple of the circles that were still active, but most were now empty. Several had more damaged dummies than undamaged.

To be quite honest I could not see the point of the entire day.

While slowly moving back through the alleyways and back streets, I was finally able to review the notifications that I had received.

Skill improvement - Basic War Hammer - 5/10

Improved Attribute - Strength +1

Improved Attribute - Speed +1

New Skill - Accuracy I - 1/10

While there were a number of notifications considering the effort expended it did not add up. Why were we training this way?

Finally, we got back to the barracks, we ate, washed, and collapsed onto our Cots. Both Shamhila and Dakota were asleep by the time I reached my cot.

My plans for ‘Status’ just failed to survive contact with reality. My body was completely exhausted, I had no stamina left. While my mind had some strength left, I focused on the new skill ‘Strike’ and chanted “Examine, Examine, Examine”. The blue screen appeared, but I was now so tapped out that I fell into a deep sleep immediately. I didn't even get to look at the screen before the blessing of sleep captured me.