“You’re way too good at these games Trinity; do you practice just so you can beat me?”
“Of course I don’t you’re just so bad that you’re easy to beat.” Trinity laughed, once again easily defeating him in another round. While neither of the two could be considered gamers, it was a great way to pass the time, especially during summer break when it was way too hot out to even consider going outside. The sun beat down on you like a hammer, who would want to be outside during that?
Just like clockwork, a “You Lose” prompt came up on his side of the screen, showing once again he had been swiftly defeated by the girl next to him. Her reaction time was simply incredible, that or his was just far too slow. Not that he minded much, spending time together was all that was on Cyrus’ mind to begin with.
“I guess I’ll have to practice more, maybe then I’ll stand a chance against you.”
“I wouldn’t count much on it, I’m too good.” Trinity bragged, turning her nose up to the sky. “You know, maybe if you actually dedicated your time and took something seriously for longer than a few hours you might be better. You don’t take anything serious enough.” She remarked thoughtfully.
“I don’t know I just don’t have the drive to take anything on like that. It just seems mundane, like it doesn’t have any real purpose.”
Trinity lay down on her side, gazing into his own eyes as if searching his own mind for an answer he already had. As if arriving at a conclusion, she propped her elbow up so her head was resting on her arms. “I think you just need a goal, something to work towards. You worked really hard studying to get into college. If you have a purpose, I think you could accomplish anything you set your mind to.”
Cyrus laughed a bit, the answer seemed obvious and a bit cliché, but he couldn’t help feeling like she was right, as usual. “You’re probably right; I’m just not really sure what I want. I haven’t felt the need to go after anything.”
“You don’t want anything? Not even anyone?” She inquired playfully, mischief clear in her eyes.
“Anyone? As if, you know how that would work out. I’m not exactly boyfriend material anyways. I don’t have the effort to chase someone in that regard. It’s not like you’ve gone for that sort of thing either.”
Her eyes looked a bit disappointed, but the smile remained on her features. She was only a smiling and witty personality around him for whatever reason. Ever since they were kids, the pair took solace in the others company. “Hm, who knows?”
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It was starting to feel like a running gag, considering headaches were becoming more of a problem these days. Thank god Peluna had a spell that helped easy the pounding pain his head or he may have gone off the rails. He woke up for the umpteenth time, after having been knocked out for the third time that day. This was par for the course, over the past several weeks he had fought with Albus every single freaking day. Each time they sparred it always ended the same, with him on the ground.
Most of the time he was conscious and ready to go again, but more often than desired he would get knocked out by the sheer force of the blows Albus was able to land on him. Peluna never got knocked out a single time in comparison, all she was learning was how to support him and how to dodge some attacks better. Even during her defense classes, Albus never knocked her out a single time unlike him.
Despite his grumbling and need for antics, the past few weeks had been more than lucrative in terms of levels. He was bordering the edge of breaking through the first bottleneck. His class was going to unlock at level 30, and he was just one level away. He would be lying if he said the past weeks hadn’t been at least some fun but getting knocked out repeatedly in the name if training really put your life into perspective. That would be, that he was a training dummy and Albus was having fun turning him into a walking rag doll.
His ability to handle pain had skyrocketed as a side benefit. While he wouldn’t say he was numb to the feeling, he was able to remain focused during a fight even through the aches and pains of being injured. In addition, Albus had been teaching him to fight with a more controlled and smooth technique. Before this, Cyrus had been merely waving and slashing his sword around like a toy. All of his movements were predictable and unrefined.
This was changing drastically, while stat points enabled an individual to become strong and more coordinated, this was no supplement for actual ability. There were stories of swordsman so skilled that they were able to defeat opponents 100 levels above them in a dual. This was provided that no magic or skills were used by the stronger opponent, but the point was there. If two opponents of the same level faced each other, it would be prudent to have the skills needed to dispatch them without taking much damage.
Albus had proven to be a swords master in all but the real name, his style merged with Cyrus well. It was geared towards striking swiftly and as many times as possible, rather than a single hard attack. Having Void made up a large difference in strength though. There had been much initial shock from both Albus and Peluna about him being a Void mage, but neither of them was out to get him thankfully.
His [Void Aura] was a massive increase in strength and sword ability that allowed him to fight at a higher level. Not that it made much of a difference to Albus when it came to their sparring matches, but it at least gave him something better to work with.
Peluna had also been greatly improving, her shield at first was not strong enough to block even a single attack from Albus and his fists would go straight through them like paper. Now, even though it was for a mere second, her barriers gave his attack some pause. This allowed Cyrus to have more of a chance to dodge the man’s attacks, this really only extended the fights by a few second at most but he would take the wins where he could get them.
Cyrus had been resting for a few minutes and decided he had been down for long enough, he got up and readied himself for the next one-sided slaughter. On his way outside he took a moment to review his stats one last time.
Name: Cyrus Rainer
Race: Outsider
Level: 29
Class:
Titles: Beginner, First steps, Survived the Void, Herb Lover, Slayer, Defiance
Strength: 44
Dexterity: 53
Constitution: 46
Intelligence: 33
Charisma: 18
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Luck: 34
Free Points: 0
Through the 10 levels he was able to get an additional 20 stat points. While it may seem foolish, his goal was to be able to overwhelm an opponent with speed. This gave reason for 15 of his stat points to find their way to dexterity, the other 5 going into constitution. On the bright side, those measly 5 points allowed him to be knocked out at least a fraction less of the time. The toughness of his skull had increased, and he would take what little victory he could get.
“Glad you’re finally awake kid! Ready to get knocked around again? I’ve been missing my punching bag.” Albus laughed from here him and Peluna were having a drink. A third cup was sitting beside her ready for him, as they were likely waiting. Peluna snorted at the jab, unable to hide her laugh from behind the cup.
“Find that funny did you both? I’ll have you know I lasted twice as long this time.” Cyrus replied, sitting down next to Peluna and enjoying his own water.
“Is that what you tell every girl Cyrus? You need to find a better line if you’re going to make this work.” Albus teased.
The sentence was followed by two immediate reactions, Cyrus spit the water from his cup in surprise and Peluna choked on hers. To be fair, he had walked himself right into that one, his line setting Albus up for success. The trio had grown much closer over these past weeks, living together having made a profound impact on their relationship. Something about being stuck in the same boat together really brought people closer.
Regardless of their closeness, there was still a wall. Cyrus outright refused to talk about his past, the idea of thinking about it was hard enough, sharing it with strangers was far worse. It was better to bottle it up and ignore those fleeting emotions. They weren’t going to be together forever, so telling them was another pointless endeavor. It made him sort of uncomfortable that the other two seemed to whole heartedly disagree with him.
One thing was for sure about Peluna, she loved her siblings like nothing else in the world. She had grown up here in Twilight on the outskirts of town. She had two younger brothers and a sister, making her the oldest of the bunch. Her parents worked in the market; they made a decent living off of it but they were still lower class. Peluna become an adventurer in order to see the world and hopefully bring some good fortune back to the rest of her family. It was a nice goal and she put her heart and soul into those ideals.
She told us that her parents hadn’t supported her becoming an adventurer at first due to the dangers, but she was set in her ways. This much could be set about Peluna, while she wasn’t the most outspoken of individuals he had met; she was firmly stubborn and unrelenting about what she cared about. That sort of determination was hard to find these days.
Albus was a whole different story; he was born into a family of high-class mages. Given everything right from birth, he had the tools he needed to succeed and become a powerful adventurer before he even turned 15. Magic came naturally to him; his family had preset parties of strong and seasoned veterans that taught him the ways of spell casting and technique. His family however, was targeted by another unknown family; this forced them to go into hiding, which had to do with why he was down here in the dungeon.
He made it clear that much of his family was still alive. In order to survive though, it was prudent for them to scatter across the kingdom in order to protect one another. If they stayed together, that only increased the chances that their enemies would be able to hunt them down.
Cyrus had shared very little, only revealing that he wasn’t from around here. Peluna was clearly frustrated when her attempts at getting him to open up were met with closed doors but he would have no argument. Albus had made his own attempts as well, but he was far more withheld when it came to his questions. If Cyrus chose not to answer than they would move on to another topic. What they chose to share was their own business and the same could be said about him, it was unfair for them to expect anything else.
Cyrus finished cleaning up the water he spit all over the table, recovering from the verbal attack he was just hit with. “Normal people apologize for knocking someone out you know.”
“Guess I’ll have to do my best to work on that.” Albus replied with a smile that said it was never going to happen before standing up. “Time to get back to it, I hope your head is ready Cyrus, just ask Peluna to catch you.”
“Fat chance, besides I doubt Peluna is going to catch me before I hit the ground.”
“I wouldn’t want to miss a chance at seeing you tumble anyways, how else am I going to be entertained down here?” Peluna laughed, getting up as well as the trio went towards their little battlefield.
Cyrus readied his rapier as always, steadying his breathing to calm his beating heart. Focus was the first and most important step of any fight, losing it would most assuredly cost you your life. There was little reason to wait as he charged forward at Albus, using his enhanced dexterity to stab at his robes in quick succession.
As expected, none of his attacks made contact. At the very least Albus was forced to maintain focus so that none of the jabs would catch him off guard. Behind him, Peluna repeatedly through up shield barriers in order to try and make Albus get backed into a wall and unable to dodge. They were all strategically placed and probably at the best positions they could be, but the man was just too damn fast and fluid. He danced around the sword strikes and barriers like it was a mere simple task, occasionally shattering a barrier or two that would have otherwise gotten in his way.
Cyrus was getting sick of never coming close to hitting the robed man, he’d been knocked unconscious more times than he could count. At the very least, this time he wanted to make him struggle, even if only for a second. He was broken from his concentration when a fist shot out and filled his vision, Albus finally taking some offensive against him. He tilted his head back and ducked under the punch, a second one followed up aiming for his side without hesitation.
On pervious days these sudden quick attacks may have caught him off guard, in truth they had. But Cyrus was a far cry from where he had once been just two weeks ago, he was determined to improve for once. Like the flow of water he danced and bended around each punch that was thrown at him, now allowing a single hair on his body to be grazed despite the speed and variety of punches being thrown. He was finally beginning to figure it out, patience was important if he was going to catch his opponent off guard.
Like a predator lying in wait, he waited until Albus threw a straight jab that came right for his face. He used that timing to strike, grabbing Albus’ wrist in one of his hands and pulling his opponent downwards toward the ground. He used the momentum to pull Albus down almost on to his sword, finally about to at least graze the man for the first time.
Albus’ eyes widened in shock at the attack, there was no way for him to dodge and little time to react if he didn’t plan on being impaled. He conjured his magic sword in his free hand and deflected Cyrus’ rapier away from his body before jumping away to protect his body from further harm. Despite the close call with bodily harm, Albus still has a smile on his now serious face.
“It’s about time you finally made me draw my sword, now I can finally hit you with this too.” Albus said with a sinister smile.
“I’m glad you’re taking pleasure in hurting your student, you sadist.” Cyrus grunted, his training would only be filled with more pain and despair than before.
“Don’t worry, I can always use some light healing on you!” Peluna attempts and reassuring him from behind, where realistically she is perfectly safe from the mad man with a magic sword.
Cyrus grumbled under his breath, knowing how crap that statement is when she isn’t the one who has to be tossed around. This entire time that he had been getting his ass kicked, Albus never had to use his magic even a single time. At least this was showing some sign of progress in his abilities, even if his stat increases were minimal at best.
Albus charged at him with the intent to press his advantage, forcing Cyrus to go on the constant defensive. There was little room for him to even try to attack, in fact he was never able to swing at the robed man at all. The time between attacks gave Cyrus no time at all to even formulate a plan, keeping him on the edge. Much to his own credit, he was able to block most of the attacks with minimal backlash. The problem was, if this were a battle of attrition than he was destined to lose. His arms were aching from the force of blocking each attack, every sword blow came down like a landslide falling on his arms.
He could only last so long until the blunt edge of the magic sword finally whacked him in the forehead, sending him sprawling across the area and hitting the rock with a solid thud. At least this time he hadn’t passed out, and he would take what he could get at this point. Not passing out and forcing Albus to draw his magic sword was some kind of achievement. He had to admit, working so hard to accomplish this goal felt good.
It was just like Trinity had told him, that feeling of achievement after working so hard towards a goal. All you had to do was set your mind towards something, and you really could reach greater heights. His chest tightened as he really thought about her for the first time since coming to this world. Sweat mopped his body, making it glisten in the darkened cavern. During his thinking, Peluna came into view and held her hands out, a yellowish glow emitting like light out of her small delicate hands. The cuts over his body closed up, while the pain faded, there was no true way to entirely be rid of it except from the highest of spells.