Chapter 6: Training Regime.

Author: Special thanks to Gaju-Nim for proof reading chapter 5 for me. I will be re-releasing chapter 5 shortly after posting this chapter. Thank you so very much! Now enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wa... up....... Wak...... Up.... Dipstick! Wake up!" I hear a loud sound next to my ear. I sit up and my left cheek is burning.

Dremal: "Huh? Did you slap me?"

Alice: "Yes... Yes I did. You wouldn't wake up when I called, so I slapped you. The first thing we need to train you in is less sleep and light sleep I guess. If I was a monster you would be dead."

Dremal: "How long have I been out?"

Alice: "It has been 4 hours on the dot."

Dremal: "ONLY 4 HOURS OF SLEEP!!"

Alice: "Yes, this is all the time I will allow you to sleep. Like I said we are going to train you. To be ready for battle at any moment. You asked for training and I am delivering." She gives her trademarked smile again. Devilishly cute though.

Dremal: "*Yaaaaawwwnn* Hopefully when we get to doing training, I will wake up. Alright!" I quickly jump to my feet stretching my arms and twisting my body. "When do we start?"

Alice: "Good, we start right now. We will do the form that I showed you yesterday. Then do some light calisthenics. Jumping jacks, sit ups, push ups, squats, etc. etc."

I head on over to the table, that holds my foam weapons that I will be using. Picking up the dagger and Karambit, I then walk back towards Alice. I stand a little bit to her side and then we begin. At first I was clumsily doing it, but I quickly found my grove. My feet and hand coordination was a lot better than yesterdays after about 5 minutes of messing up.

An hour went by pretty fast. I had the form down solid. Just I know I am far from perfect, but Alice was like a completely different person. It looked magnificently down close to perfection if not perfect. How hard did she train after I went to bed? Can 4 hours really do this much?

Shaking my head, Alice stops her form and so do I, then we take a small couple minute break then head into the work out routine. She had me do 50 of everything that sucked. She is even calling that just one rep. I guess she is going to increase it even more when I can actually handle it.

After completing the morning training we head to the table and set down our weapons. Then we move towards the kitchen area. Washing up, then begin preparing a morning meal. This time she makes me do a majority of it while she directs me. Needless to say are meal was sub-par.

After eating a silent meal with her. I take the dishes and wash them. We then go back into the training room.

Alice: "Now then since you have the form basically down. Spar with me, don't worry we will do things extra slow using only the form. I hit you, you use parry and the counter-strike we will go through the form."

Dremal: "Ok, let's get to it!"

She starts with the first stab a diagonal slash from the bottom left to the top right of her left hand weapon. True to her word it is pretty slow. I use the first parry form stepping in her zone and using a outer sweep block sliding my blade against hers. I use the strike continuing from there looks like I am trying to punch the air to the right of her head. With the Karambit though the blade should hit her neck.

She parries me then ripostes. This goes on for quite a while we finish going through the whole form 10 times. Then on the 11th time she speeds up noticeably. That was rough, but after 2 forms later I was able to keep up. 3 forms later she speeds up again. This continues until about noon time or well what I think is noon.

Why do I think its noon? The answer is because I am back in the kitchen being the main one to cook the lunch for today. We don't really have to talk much besides in the kitchen when she tells me how to cook something. During training she doesn't say a word, just expects me to learn from my mistakes, I guess.

After lunch when we go back into the training room I start to grab the foam weapons again.

Alice: "No, not those in the afternoon you get combat experience. Your going to fight golems until you kill at least 5 of them. Don't worry I will only make you fight one at a time this time."

I then grab the steel dagger and Karambit equipping them in the proper hands. I walk back over to Alice.

Alice: "Golem! Settings: Level 5,Numbers: 1, Player: Dremal. Begin!"

A foam golem my size pops out of the ground. I take my stance, the moment it stops forming it attacks. I wait in the same spot I started until the punch comes. I parry with my dagger ripping the foam a little. Then I try and go for the counter-strike, but the golem dodges by jumping back.

Were they always this weak? That punch was actually pretty slow compared to Alice's strikes. They also lacked power. Why was I getting beat up so badly before? Whatever, I can't be thinking about these things. I need to focus on the battle at hand.

The golem comes at me again doing the same exact punch. Again I wait then parry, but this time the golem redirects his punch to my parrying hand. They connect and the pain almost made me drop my weapons. I was stunned by its different action. That was what it was hoping for I guess.

The next moment I find my self flying  about 15 feet away and am on my back. The damn thing kicked me in my stomach. What did I say about it not having power. Whoever said that is a damn lair... shit that was me. I try to get up as fast as I could, but it was an awkward slow get up.

The golem arrives while I am still getting up. Screw it, I am not going down like yesterday. It goes to kick me. I make a big long gash along its leg. Exposing the wooden frame that is under that foam. I don't give it time to recover its lost stance. I target that exposed wood two quick slices breaks it.

The golem starts to collapse on that side. As it is going down it takes a swing at me. I wasn't paying attention to anything other than its leg. So I got decked in the face. My face hits the floor pretty hard, luckily the floor is made from foam too. I am a little dizzy, but that is it.

Getting back up I see its leg has torn off completely by its collapsing form. After the leg finished tearing off it hit the floor and melted. I smile as I walk over to the golem on the ground. I bat away its arms trying to hit me then I stab its throat. A split second later it melts.

Dremal: "YEEESSSS! My first victory!!!!"  

Alice is just shaking her head from side to side. "You need to pay attention to everything when you are fighting! Don't just tunnel vision. Golem! Setting: level 5, Numbers: 2, Player: Dremal. Begin!"

Dremal: "Wait ... no, no. Not re..." I was then attacked by the two newest golems made. They both attacked from the front.

I parried one blow only to get hit by the other golem. After I was taking a few hits from the golem in this fashion. I got frustrated and broke form a little. I was using the left blade to parry the left golem and the right dagger to parry the right golem. There I began taking less hits about every 1 in 5 would land on me.

I am full defensive though. How am I supposed to attack? This class I am supposed to be is about speed and stealth. I haven't learned anything pertaining to stealth. So all I can rely on is speed. Thus I have to push my self to be faster and faster. I begin waiting till the final moments of me almost getting hit centimeters to my body. I then whip of my blade parrying. This time I also aim to gash exposing the wood.

It was a slight success. The next attack I did it even better. They now have gashes on the inside of there arms and legs exposing the wood. Now its time for my defensive offense! They attack me again. I parry by targeting the exposed wood. Their left arm and right arm of the two golems were the first to break off. Then the right arm and left arm break. They only have little nubs now. Time for my great attack!

I stab the right golem where the heart would be on a human and on the left one I slashed its throat. The golem that I slashed its throat melts immediately in the floor. The stabbed heart one goes to kick me. I am not as unprepared this time. I parry the kick by slash the wood with my left hand weapon the karambit. The leg rips and falls off to the floor melting as well. As the golem begins to fall. I take my dagger and plunge it through the chin to where the brain would be. As it lands it melts.

Phew! My heart is pounding a million times per minute it feels like it at least. Quickly I am trying to catch my breath before she calls the next ones in.

Alice: "That was better! This time do not use as much defense go full offense you are a attack class not a defender. Golem! Setting: level 5, Numbers: 2, Player: Dremal. Begin!"

As soon as they begin rising near me I launch myself forward. Standing behind one of them I aim the dagger in its back and towards its heart. At the same time the karambit placed on its neck slicing from one side to another with all my strength trying to decapitate the damn thing.

She wants to do this shit when I am tired and unprepared. Then I won't even give the golems a chance. Needless to say the golem melts back into the floor much quicker than when it was forming. The other golem starts running toward me. I run to meet it. I know there speed and attack power now. One is no problem. Without stopping the monster tries punch me. I thrust my dagger straight into his right arm. Turning my body using my momentum and weight I roll with my dagger and its arm.

I have never done this before, but I can't die so what is there to lose being a bit reckless. The roll is successful. The movement caused the golem to be flung a distance of about 10 ft away with its arm being completely ripped off. I stand up and run over to it before it got a chance to get back up. I then rammed my dagger down through the top of its head. It then melts like a puddle into the ground.

Dremal: "Hah.... hah... How was.....hah... that?" I say while trying to calm my heart and breathing. She just shakes her head and points at my dagger. I look at it and it has blood on it. Weird those creatures don't bleed. Shit.

Alice: "That was definitely a battle like what your class is supposed to be, but you don't have the skills necessary to actualize yet. Proof would be that when you rolled since the arm melts you stabbed yourself in the shoulder. I bet you didn't even notice."

I begin checking my shoulder yup my top left shoulder is bleeding. I walk over to my bag and pop some Killjoy Herb into my mouth. I don't even care if all it does is turn to dust in my stomach. Swallowing it my wound stops bleeding and recovers and my breathing and exhaustion returns to a normal condition.

Alice: "I think your getting addicted to Killjoy. You are relying to heavily on it. What is going to happen to you when we no longer have the herb?" She smiles.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Dremal: "NOOO! Don't say that... I will always need my fix. MY PRECIOUS Killjoy Herb!" I begin laughing. Along with Alice.

Alice: "Hihihi....Alright, you have completed my task sooner than I thought. I guess we can start the next side of training. Working on your magic and abilities."

Alice grabs some Killjoy Herb in her hands. Guess she plans on me running out of mana and returning to that state again.

Alice: "Alright since we discovered you don't have the actual mana capacity to cast the shadow meld skill lets move on to something you can cast. Golem! Setting: Level 80, Intelligence: 0, Players: None, Enemies: None. Begin!"

A Golem pops out of the ground the same as any other golem. Except he just stands there. Doing nothing.

Dremal: "Umm. Why?"

Alice: "You are going to practice your attack magic on him. Face him and close your eyes." I do just that. "Now imagine an orb in your hand made out of darkness or shadows. Cover that orb in a blue color. Then Imagine the ball flying towards the golem."

I imagine an baseball then I covered that image in shadows. That was easy. Then I made a blue outline covering the image of the Shadow baseball. Then I imagined be throwing the said baseball at the golem. Bam! I hit it dead on. Hehe I feel good.When I opened my eyes after hearing the bang I see the golem just standing there. Uh.. Did I even do it?

Dremal: "What happened? Did I cast it?"

Alice is shaking her head. "Yes you did. However your an idiot that chooses the most inefficient way possible to attack."

Dremal: "What do you mean by that?"

Alice: "You threw the Shadow Orb physically. Thus you missed, horribly at that. I told you just to imagine the orb flying towards him not being thrown at him. The orb can be programmed to track your target to a certain extent, but the way you made it had no way to do that, thus you inefficiently missed. TRY AGAIN!"

Shit. This time I try to imagine the shadow baseball again. Outline it all in blue then I had the quick image of Avata* A*g and his elements circling around him. Then he directs them with his hand towards a target. Thus, I tell the orb (by Imagining it) to circle around me until I command it to attack what I am pointing at. The orb seemingly obeys because its just swirling around me.

I then open my eyes and I see this black ring round my waist (not trapping my hands). I see Alice shaking her head again. Guess she thinks I have failed. Hehe lets mess with her.

Dremal: "Did I do it?"

Alice: "No you dipstick look down all you managed to do was command it to circle around you."

Dremal: "Ah man I thought I programmed it right. Let's try and see." I point at the golem and say in my mind attack. The orb quickly goes off and hits the golem between the eyes. Knocking the golem to the ground. A couple seconds later it get off the ground and stands back in place. "See looks like I did it right after all. Damn that thing is tough it looks like it didn't even take any damage."

Alice: "Alright smart ass. I am sorry for thinking you didn't have the intelligence to program something properly. It is not my fault given the fact that you have proven against your own intelligence time and time again. What did you expect me to believe." She smiles.

Dremal: "Whatever, spells are pretty awesome though. They can especially be over powering if you program them with a bunch of good settings. This is gonna be fun in the future. OOOooo I have an idea."

I thought about how dark elf's have that globe of darkness spell that they can cast. I thought about that spell surrounding me. Then I outlined the area in blue and imagined that it not only follows me wherever I go, but that I myself can see through it. I then open my eyes I feel incredible drained starting to feel like I shouldn't even try this. Guess that means I am almost out of mana.

Dremal: "Not entirely sure did it work?"

Alice: "What do you mean your not sure the entire area is flooded with darkness. How exactly did you program it to make you not sure?"

Dremal: "I imagined a globe of darkness that will follow me wherever I go that I can also see through. That I guess is how I was not sure. I can't see my own spell in action, but holy crap does it take a lot of my mana to cast. I am feeling the effects of not wanting to do things."

Alice: "Besides the fact that you can't tell if the spell is active or not. This is actually a pretty good spell to think up. Since you apparently understand magic enough to make new spells. I don't really have to teach you that much just make up a bunch of spells and when you can't think of anything else come to me and I will teach you something new. Work on using magic as much as possible it is just like any other muscle it needs to be worked out."

Dremal: "Cool!" I walk over to the backpack and munch on some of the herbs to restore my magic.

Alice: "Damit Dremal deactivate your spell I can't see."

Dremal: "Kay.....How do I do that?"

Alice: "Tell it in your mind to stop. Simple as that."

Oh. So just like how I told the ball to attack in my mind. I can tell spells to stop. 'Deactivate'.

Dremal: "Did that do it?"

Alice: "Yes, next time you cast that spell imagine its opacity to be low enough so you can see through it, but not enough that you can't see the spell itself. Remember for you is the condition. If you try to imagine the spell with low opacity it will just be like that for everyone turning the spell useless. Also next time put in the condition that party members can also see it as low. That way I won't be hindered in combat trying blind fighting."

Dremal: "Oh, I didn't think of that."

Alice: "Of course you didn't anyway. Lets move on to the next part of training before dinner. This is actually the fun part. Agility training. Seeing as how you tried to do stuff in your lunch time combat this is especially going to come in handy. I need your balance and vision to go up for battle. So we will be doing Somersaults, Back flips, tumbling, and some aerial maneuvers."

Dremal: "Uhh... I have a slight fear of back flips."

Alice: "Good then we will start with those. Show me what you can do."

Shit! Okay so I try to jump up while leaning back. Looking at the ceiling then seeing part of the floor. Wamm! I land back of the head first  then on my back. Sitting up I feel dizzy and nauseous.

Alice: "Wow that was pathetic."

Dremal: "Shut up I wanna see you try it." As I finish saying it while looking at her she smiles. Then she jumps really high with no preparation doing three beautifully done back flips and lands in the same place. What the hell! "Tsk* So is the trick to jump higher?"

Alice smirking at me that pitying look again. "No there is no trick to it. Practice makes perfect." She then redoes a back flip without any jump just lands a foot back from her previous position. "See no jump. Just flexibility, balance, and the confidence to do so. From what you said you are not confident and are afraid of doing a back flip. Thus you are the only person holding yourself back."

She walks over to me and tells me to do a bridge stomach up. Then she lifts my legs flipping me over. I land my feet awkwardly. We did this quite a few times until she decides to call it for dinner. I make the food with her guidance, eat, and then head back to training room.

This time she has me try to do the back flips supported by hands by myself. The first 20 times I failed however I soon was able to do it landing okay. I was told to do the back flips starting on right side of the room to the left side. About 500 ft or so. The line I did was not straight and I was sweating be hell doing them and also was very dizzy, but after about 3-4 hours later restarting a bunch of times since I had to stop. Alice told me to restart if I stopped.

Anyway after 3-4 hours went by I finally completed going from one side of the room to the other. Amazing progress if I don't say so myself. She then calls me over to tell me to do it again. I start walking over kinda grumbling as I go. When I begin doing so she stops me again. She told me to do it without hands this time.

I landed on my back a bunch of times about 3 out of every 10 tries. But about 6 out 10 I landed on my belly! 1 out of 10 was me actually doing it. Yeah, progress. After 1 hour of constantly restarting an accident occurred. I landed exactly as I always feared I would. I broke my neck.

This was the worst because I didn't instant die like before due to the condition of this Sandbox. No, I was hurting my brain not functioning right. I couldn't breathe at all. It was painful, but still no where near as bad as the spiders torture. Luckily this time I have Alice. She rushes over to me and then a second later my tilted vision was realigned. Then I had a warm feeling envelope my body and I could feel my neck bones realigning as well. I can breathe again!

Alice: "Phew, Luckily I managed to expand my mana pool enough that I can cast a heal spell now. That could have been painful constantly dying, but never could until walk out of my Sandbox and finally die to be rezzed again."

Dremal: "Yeah, thanks a lot. See this is why I didn't like back flips I always knew something like this would happen."

Alice: "So? It happened now get over it. You didn't die and it took hours and hours of practice before it did. Now learn from what happened don't be scared of it. Just make sure you don't make the same mistake twice."

Dremal: "Ah, yeah. I guess and even if I did die its not like I actually do. Fine! I need this this will help me kill and live through my battle with those bastards." I get up to start over again. Alice though stops me.

Alice: "No, Go take a shower then to bed with you we will practice more in 4 hours after you wake up."

I nod then head out to the bathroom, took a long shower and bath, then put on a clean pair of clothes that was in the closet. Inside the closet was also my starting clothes all washed and folded neatly there too. I walked in to the training room then moved to the corner and passed out.

Back to Main PageStat WindowsNEXT CHAPTER