Chapter 57

Training continued diligently for me as the days to the start of the Counties dwindled. My visits to the library got shorter and shorter as I focused more on integrating what I had already read into my fighting regime, not that they were completely abandoned, I would never do that. As I much as I wanted to get my body physically ready for the grueling it would go through during the Counties, I knew that I needed as much knowledge as I could get too. I lacked a lot in terms of basic knowledge of how everything worked, and I had wasted, I wouldn’t call it that though, most of my first weeks in the Realm of Mesily. I used the later visits to brush up on the perplexing, and maybe a little forgotten, topics. Of course there was the occasional dally into the historical section of the library, to follow up on Halle’s exploits. From what I had gathered, Khudonia was either in a remote area of the continent I was on, or on the nearby continent. The accounts were misleading, and I had yet to get my hands on a map. I should most probably invest in one.

Back on training, after hours on hours, day in day out of trying to create channels, I had finally succeeded, though just barely. The secret was isolation control as Clare had said; it took a while and a lot of headaches before I finally managed to add attributes to my own channels for them to become impassible by Mana in either sideways direction. Then it had been to the grass again, and after mastering isolation in the grass channels, I learnt that all I had to do was create an isolated closed loop Mana channel in the stick, and it would be able to keep the Mana for a while.

It still lost its impassible attribute as soon as I cut off my Mana from it, and Mana leakage from the loop began almost immediately, with the rate increasing exponentially. If I reconnected my Mana, the rate would reduce, coming to a stop if I applied enough Mana properly. It had to be done the right way, otherwise the leakage couldn’t be fully curtailed.

I knew that I needed a much more complex channel system to further reduce that rate of leakage and help the stick maintain the imbued Mana for longer. It currently could only keep it for around an hour. I had read that having a highly Mana attuned element such as the crystals used for the light fixtures would highly make it easier to achieve that stability, helping an object keep Mana for days, weeks even.

The most surprising thing about creating the channel in the stick was the presence I felt from the stick. Even without connecting it with my Mana or me touching it physically, I could still feel it at the edges of my senses, or what I would call a Mana sense. It felt like a part of me that wasn’t exactly attached, but all I needed to do was stretch a little and it would be. It meant that if I put in enough training, I could finally learn the staff retrieval Skill I had been longing for since I had my first fight for The Grand Competition.

After many, many years of trying to get that Skill to work, I was finally heading in the right direction. I had spent dedicated periods when I had the time, trying to get a feel of the staff, to no avail. If I hadn’t began working on Mana attenuation, I would never have ever figured it out. I couldn’t even remember how I came to be working on Mana attenuation, but I was so glad for it.

Even if I played around every day with the new Skills and techniques I had learnt, I was still most diligent in my other areas of training. I couldn’t forget what Boni and Riuki had told me, I would train myself as hard as I could, to get to Level 40 as fast as I possibly could.

As the days progressed, so did the weights I used to train with increase. I didn’t want to just get used to fighting with a certain weight, I wanted my [Strength] to raise in tandem with the other Attributes. But as it was, my [Agility] was suffering from the training.

Not that I didn’t see any increments in the Attribute, but the level up was minimal compared to the other Attributes. [Strength] itself had managed to level up by three points, with [Endurance] doing two better. Compared to the previous week, it was like the Attributes had swapped experiences gained. I had increased the weight, yes, but there still was a limit as to how much I could increase for a given period of time, and I always ended up training for long under a certain weight, thereby working on [Endurance] more than [Strength]. There was also the point that I didn’t actually perform any [Strength] based exercises the whole time, something I came to the realization of too late in the training period to do anything about it. I could have managed a Level or two more had I been thorough in my training regime. I did somewhat regret not paying the training facilities more visits besides the one time. If only I had noticed it earlier, I could have worked for a higher level, then it would have boosted my fighting options, giving me a much more varied repertoire.

[Intelligence] had gained four levels, which was to be expected with the amount of effort and time I put into [Mana Cultivation] and Mana attenuation. There was also the amount of new information I had ingested during my library forays, I knew that not all had stuck, but enough had to have for it make a bit of difference in the Attribute final level. I sometimes felt like I should have spent that time actually working on the Skills I did have, and knew that they worked, but every time I found myself causally working my internal Mana flows, it felt so nice to have such kind of control that I forgot all about those pesky thoughts. I was a control freak before, and other number of freaks, and I still was, even in the new Realm.

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[Agility], [Constitution] and [Wisdom] had all gained two levels. I expected it of [Agility] and [Wisdom], but I had been hoping for a bit more from [Constitution]. I had worked to exhaustion and beyond for too long during that time for it have gained barely more than two levels.

[Agility]’s poor performance was due to the lack of proper training environment. I could create obstacles and other such things, but those were poor substitutes for incoming projectiles and enemy attacks. The obstacles I created never truly offered enough experience and exposure for it do much for the Attribute.

[Wisdom]. I had spent most of the time trying to actually understand the basics of the more fundamentals topics dealing with Mana than actually trying to find ways of using and incorporating the knowledge I learnt into my everyday use. Barely any of my preexisting Skills had seen more training than was necessary to keep them sharp. When the training began, I had had every intention of pushing them to their limits and beyond, but I always seemed to have something better to do. I didn’t regret the choices I had made, I just hoped that they had imparted me with the knowledge I would need to see myself through the Counties.

In the end, other than the new Skills, I had gained no level in all my other Skills. It seemed most of my training had been focused on the Attributes themselves, chasing that Level 40. I had complete confidence that my Skills were more than good enough to get me through. Who am I kidding? I’m sweating just thinking about it, and there is no one to comfort me. Not that I need it.

I had never expected nor wanted any comfort from anyone before, and I was sure that part of me had carried over. And if it hadn’t, I would still try to stick to the principle as much as I could, not that it was proving that difficult. As far as I could recall, ever since I arrived at the Realm of Mesily, I hadn’t felt the need or urge to bond with anyone; either emotionally, or physically. I hoped it would stay that way.

My willingness to interact with other people was at an all-time low, and I spent a lot of time dreading and avoiding people when I was out of my own room. That was one of the reasons as to why I had extended my training hours to near full night time. The curfew for entering the city was around 2000hrs, with any late comers paying a hefty fine to be let inside.

The Counties were hours away, and I hadn’t spent that much time with anyone other than the visit to Xan’s, or the occasional encounters with Artina, Sunshine and their friends. I had yet to meet Artina’s boyfriend, though. Yes, I was actively avoiding them, which had led to some pretty bizarre routes taken through Choska City in my endeavors.

But that didn’t always work, sometimes even working against me. I would detour to avoid maybe Artina and one of the others, only to end up in an unavoidable encounter with Sunshine, or the other way around. She really enjoyed herself when such cases happened, which had me suspecting that she was actually aware that I was avoiding them. I either didn’t encounter the other two on their own, or I hadn’t learnt their appearances enough for me to be able to pick them out from a crowd. I really hoped it was the first case, because the second one was… it meant that I passed them outright without showing any signs of recognition. There is a word people used for someone like that, arrogant? Self-important? Or was it high and mighty? Either way, it wasn’t something I wanted to be associated with.

As the competition drew close, I had gotten lax in my avoidance regime, at least that was what I blamed for my current predicament.

“Just how much of an antisocial are you?” Sunshine asked as she bitterly chewed through a fruit stick she had purchased from a vendor. “I had thought you were being shy at first, but having interacted with you for over a week, I think it’s more than that.”

“He was like that even in the Baronies, he didn’t interact with the others,” Artina piped up before I could reply.

“I did interact with others, you just weren’t one of them,” I told her. “Have you seen our other finalist?”

“Yeah, I’m not like you. We meet nearly every day.”

“Hey, you deliberately changing the subject,” Sunshine complained through another bitter mouthful of her fruit stick.

I suspected that she was more angry with the fruit stick, but directing that anger at me, which wasn’t fair at all, I didn’t force her to buy the damn thing, or even eat it. Why was she still eating it?

“Why are you still eating that? You look like you are being tortured,” Mutex asked for me.

“Yeah, it’s painful watching you eating it. I would ask to help you with it, but I’m not sure I would be able to go through a single bite,” Akos said, belching through the statement.

“That’s the whole point,” Sunshine said as she managed another swallow.

“What? Are you a masochist or something?” I asked in surprise, but mostly just to drag the conversation further away from the topic of me and my antisocialness.

“No!? Wait… what is a masochist?”

“Smart of you to refuse first, otherwise it wouldn’t have looked pretty for you,” Akos said.

“There is nothing wrong with being a masochist,” Artina said, making Akos to turn her in surprise, eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

“Close your mouth, its unbecoming of you,” she said as she threw him a glaze before returning to face ahead. “I’m not saying that I’m one, but as long as it’s what someone wants, I don’t see what the problem is.”

I kept my mouth shut through that, I didn’t have an opinion either way, as long as I wasn’t involved that is.

“Hey, why are you guys ignoring me?” Sunshine asked as she threw away the fruitless stick to what looked like a dustbin. It was the first time noticing something like that, thinking about it, the cities I had been to had looked unusually clean, I had just attributed that to the lack of plastic.

“What is a masochist?” she asked as she looked from one of us to the other with imploring eyes.

“Someone who enjoys pain, or humiliation,” Mutex answered the question when no one seemed to be in the mood to. “Or derives pleasure from harming themselves, or being harmed by others.”

“No, I’m not that. But I wonder…” Sunshine said looking thoughtful as we finally made it to the street The Competitors’ Inn was at.

Akos and Artina were still engaged in their debate, if it could be called that, it was more of Artina making statements that kept eliciting horrified expressions from Akos, one after another. And I was trying my best to disappear in the background with the assumption if I spoke less, they might forget I was there altogether.

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