At this point I heard one of the other instructors yelling, “Breakfast call, Wash then come and eat we leave for training in four candle marks.“
Maybe I could ensure that I did not screw up my future today. I was sure that running out of power was going to do nasty things to me. But to do that I am for sure going to have to fake stuff and not master any new skills. Until I worked this stuff out.
I think that improving my skills will be alright. We will surely find out today.
I pretended to wake as the others in the room started to move as well. Quickly heading to the washroom. I had only just been able to visit the jakes the previous night and now felt gritty and just dirty. I did achieve something that roughly felt like a clean. I had a piss. Then rushed to the mess hall.
I grabbed some food, and eat as much as I could before Steven called
“Red 1 follow”
That felt as if he was commanding dogs, not humans. It was wrong on so many levels.
I was expecting the command so I led the team out the door and into the passageways. But even as we left I noticed that one of Red 3 was missing. We followed Steven, we soon were moving through the alleyways and back routes of the city. While some short aspects of the trip were familiar Steven led us by a different route. It was not until we approached the arena where we were to be trained that the pathway became the same as the first visit.
Several other teams had already arrived and their training circles had already become opaque. Steven led us to a different circle than last time.
As we had moved toward our destination, my mind had been clouded with thoughts. I was aware that I had made a little progress toward managing my power consumption Yet I was worried that I would be pushed into one of those dead ends that Steven had suggested in his comments.
Upgrading a skill definitely had less impact on my power levels than adding a new skill. I still suspected that changes in my attributes which I still could not examine would have benefits to either the size of the pool or the rate of generation.
“This morning you will all work on increasing your critical weapon skill.
Fonial you must improve your Strike,
Fanny Achieve your Hammering. A healer is useless if they are unable to defend themselves. Once mastered it will allow you to knock an opponent back so that your team will be able to kill it.
Robert, you are useless, only gaining a basic understanding of your weapon after all this training. You must catch up. You will learn Cut by the end of the day. If not I will beat you. And by the end of the day, you need to have upgraded your ability with your daggers. If you don’t you will surely need the healer. Pain will become your teacher! “
I had watched movies over the years where the drill sergeant would be harsh, and bully the newbies into reaching standards that they did not believe they could reach. This did not feel that way; it really seemed that he wanted to destroy the ability to be useful.
I wondered what had happened to the missing member of the barracks.
When I approached my dummy I noticed that it had been strengthened. So it could withstand my blows without falling to pieces. Rather than just using the Strike skill I attempted to strengthen the link with my passive hammer skill.
How could I help Robert? Ran across my mind as I practiced the form of ‘Strike’ while empowering the blow just enough to fool Steven into believing that I was truly striving. As long as the blows were happening and I was chanting. He seemed to believe that I was putting in one hundred percent. I felt safe that at least Steven was unaware that I had broken the curse that they had placed on us.
Steven kept haranguing us as the morning progressed, Fanny and I got a share but poor Robert was constantly being verbally assaulted. He was improving but as the morning came to a close while I could feel that he was getting close to achieving “Cut” he was just so tired that he was missing the timing by such a small amount. Steven was pushing him to move faster and faster. This resulted in more mistakes rather than fewer. I had been able to whisper to Fanny that she needed not to worry about speed and just to focus on her form, and timing. After just a few minutes of being able to give that feedback, she was able to announce that she had achieved the skill and even got a bonus level in her Hammering.
This reinforced the assumption that I had made that Steven really did not want us to succeed that much. It was confusing because I could not understand any advantage for Steven or more importantly the Nobles for us to fail.
Lunch arrived and this time I was aware enough to see some servants enter the shielded area and deliver the food and water. Yesterday I missed this process as I was so consumed with learning the skills.
Once the servants left. Steven drew his sword, and commanded Robert to come to the roped-off circle in the center of our little space and “Fight”. It was not a fight poor Robert came nowhere near even being able to defend himself from the blows that rained down on him.
The only advantage that Robert had was that Steven only struck him with the flat of the sword. Even allowing for that inside ten minutes he was beaten to the point where he could not stand.
Robert then commanded “Fanny heal him. Robert, you are very lucky to have a healer in this group. While I would have used a potion to restore some function they are extremely painful. This is why your beating was as harsh as it was. You must still master Cut, or this beating will only feel like a love tap.”
Fanny chanted “Heal, Heal, Heal” multiple times as her chanting continued. I noticed that Robert was still noticeably recovering, and at odd points, a flare of light appeared in Fanny’s eyes. The first time that this occurred one of those annoying blue boxes appeared.
Skill improvement - Basic Perception I - 2/10
I had already dismissed the two boxes that announced my two improvements to my Strike and the one to my basic hammer. I suspected that the flashes were blue boxes appearing for Fanny. Steven had not picked anything up during the training either today or yesterday, except when we suddenly stopped moving to examine the text. I suspected I would become grateful for this if I ever managed to overcome the power issue.
Steven after the beating stormed out of the arena.
As Fanny exhausted herself by healing Robert I rushed over and helped him to his feet and whispered to him my theory about how to improve his skills. The concentration of form, and slowing everything down worked for me and Fanny. So I was hopeful that if I could distract Steven from the constant bullying then Robert would get there. I told him to wait until I had Steven paying attention to me.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
As a group, we ate and drank. I focused on my power levels after all I had ‘improved’ three skills during the morning. If anything, my situation seemed a little better. So either as skills improved they used less power or in the act of improving they increased the amount of power that was accumulating or pooling. It was very frustrating, for every small increase in the knowledge I discover more that I did not know.
Perhaps this was how I would be able to distract Steven. I could get him to focus on answering questions, then Robert could focus on form and hopefully get the skill. And also achieve some levels. I did not expect to be able to distract Steven long.
Steven returned a short time later, he waved at us dismissively “It is time to get started, Robert, that beating is only a sample of what will happen if you don’t master Cut”.
We quickly moved towards the dummy. I moved more slowly than the other two. Once they had started hacking and slicing at their dummies I went towards Steven
“How do I increase my Stamina, Steven? Every use of strike is using a moderate amount of stamina according to the skill ‘understand’, and I seem to have so little.”
Steven glared at me, I got the impression that he was not interested in responding, but before he dismissed me he glanced up towards where the stands stood. As if he could see through the shielding and that there was someone there that he was answerable to.
With a sigh “Stamina is a product of the strength and endurance attributes. You need to improve those attributes to increase the amount of stamina that you have. Also, the more skills that you have that use stamina will affect the amount.
Remember too many skills will render you useless as you will find that you cannot advance the important skills. I told you this yesterday.
Then that will change is that as you move a skill across the levels the amount of stamina that it will use will reduce.”
Be warned though when you upgrade a skill that will change the amount of stamina that is required for its use, as normally the effect will become significantly better. After it makes sense that the skill “common war hammer” will be better than the basic version of the skill.”
I replied “that makes sense but I am concerned that while we are getting incidental improvements to my attributes, nothing is actually targeting attributes. Why is that?”
I paused and waited, the silence stretched and I continued to wait.
With a snarl and another glance up and towards the stands
“All right I’ll go get some of the attribute training equipment, you at least achieved a barely passable level of combat skill. But while I am fetching it, you must continue to train your ‘strike’ skill.
Steven angrily stormed off. Every aspect of his body language was radiating frustration.
I quickly dashed to Robert and asked “how is it going?”, He indicated that he felt that it was closer than before but he was still stuck and did not know what to do.
I asked him “what do you expect that skill will do?”
“It cuts the target”
“Invest emotion into the image that you hold, you need to consider what the result will be. When I visualize my strike it is of the head exploding into little bits not just hitting it. Rather than think about the cut, think about the wound that will be caused. Imagine a gaping open wound.
Now try”.
He tried one more time, and the dummy was sliced nearly into two pieces. The shock on his face was comical.
He said “that did it, and it leveled straight to level 2. Yet the skill I gained was not cut but slice “
“Keep practicing, slowly build up the speed because Steven seems to be of the opinion that it must be done fast. But just try for small improvements, don’t just jump to as fast as you can.”
He moved to a different dummy and as he did so I noticed that suddenly Fanny’s Hammering was much more effective, after a quick cycle of two combined attacks the dummy she had been working on exploded out of the ground.
New Skill - Basic skill trainer - 1/10
Skill Improvement - Basic skill trainer - 2/10
That was very annoying because while it seemed like a useful skill right now it was rather unwelcome. I wondered as I kept up my damage if I was making the same mistake as Fanny and Robert.
Perhaps my image was too simple, was it the blow that caused the damage, or was it just the start of the damage process. Glancing at Robert the wounds he was now causing were greater than the length of his dagger. Rather than a vision of the head of the dummy exploding I consider what happened as the head of my hammer struck the dummy. So I made my image more complex. It now included the sound of the strike, and noise of the skull shattering, and the movement of the hammer through the space previously occupied by the head. Then the fragments of the dummy’s head exploded outwards from the opposite side of the head, with the hammerhead bursting out.
In just two ‘strikes’ my Hud was flooded with messages, as the head of the latest Dummy exploded, the hammer continued through the shoulders and crushed the chest. At this the dummy was flung out of the ground and hit the shield wall behind its previous location
Skill Improvement - Strike I - 2/10
Skill Improvement - Basic War Hammer - 6/10
Skill Improvement - Strike I - 3/10
Skill Improvement - Basic War Hammer - 7/10
Skill Improvement - Basic War Hammer - 8/10
New Skill - Basic Blunt weapons - 1/10
Skill Improvement - Basic War Hammer - 9/10
Skill Improvement - Basic War Hammer - 10/10
Skill Improvement - Basic Blunt weapons - 2/10
Skill Upgrade - Basic War Hammer to Common War Hammer 1/20
New Skill - Critical Damage I - 1/10
Attribute improvement - Strength +1
Attribute improvement - Endurance +1
Attribute improvement - Body +1
Attribute improvement - Will +1
New Title - Fast Learner
The sudden impact of all these changes triggered the same response that occurred when I arrived in this world.
I collapsed to my knees and was racked with pain. It was massively less than what occurred the first time, but still very unpleasant.
Skill improvement - Common Pain Resistance - 2/10
Skill improvement - Common Pain Resistance - 3/10
It was just my luck that Steven arrived just at that point. Several servants were dragging a small cart into the circle. I just know that I am not going to be able to hide as much as I wanted to. But since he did not know what my current skill set was, I thought that I would be able to conceal some of what had occurred.
“WHAT HAPPENED here while I was gone!” His anger was palpable.
We all started talking at the same time, I had learned to respond as quickly as possible, as this concealed that I was not affected by the obedience curse.
Fanny said “I have achieved Hammering 4!”
Robert blurted out “I have learned the skill Slice!”
I said, “I have gained an additional unit of Strength, my Strike improved, and my basic war hammer upgraded from basic to common”.
Waving at the other two Steven called out “I don’t care about you two. Fonial what did you say I could not tell over those fools babbling?”
I repeated “I have gained an additional unit of Strength, my Strike improved, and my basic war hammer upgrade from basic to common”
“How much did the Strike improve, you could not have done that much damage at level 2.”
“My ‘strike’ is now level 3 and ‘basic war hammer’ Upgrade all the way to Common.”
“What changed? Skills don’t just improve like that! What did you do DIFFERENTLY?”