First, as it would seem, was torture. Specifically, it was training my new Dull Pain skill. Kelly stood with a whip on one side of the room, keeping her red eyes closed as I sat with my back to her, my shirt off. Her wrist was constantly in motion, the snap of the whip ringing through the air as it struck my back. I hissed in pain as the whip left a red line on my skin, quickly activating the Dull Pain skill.
However, before the skill could finish activating, the next strike was already descending. Let alone dulling the pain, this prevented me from being able to completely heal at all. I was left gritting my teeth, constantly activating the skill as fast as I could while clenching my teeth. “Bear with it.” She said in a harsh tone. “If you can’t evolve Dull Pain to its second stage, you won’t be able to withstand the real training.”
“What… what is the second stage?” I asked in a hissing breath. I was desperate to find something, anything else to occupy my mind. More importantly, I was sure that her whip would slice my body in half if I didn’t have my enhancement skills active.
“Dull Pain shortens the healing time of external injuries. The second stage, Set Bone, does exactly as its name indicates. It sets your bones and shortens the healing time of bone-related injuries. The third stage, Internal Recovery, shortens the healing time of injuries related to muscles or organs.”
“Is… is there a f-fourth?” I asked, letting out another hiss as her whip stroke an already open wound.
“The fourth stage is special. There is a different name entirely for the skill if you train it all the way from the bottom. Furthermore, this enhanced skill cannot be taught to others, and can only be trained by oneself. For instance, the standard progression of a basic ice spell is Ice Bolt, Ice Spear, Frozen Rain, and Blizzard. If you train the skills from the very beginning, without fusing, it becomes Ice Bolt, Ice Spear, Frozen Rain-X, and Ice Age.”
“Normally, the fourth stage skill of this tree is Expel Poisons. With the four stages individually, the body can shorten the recovery time of all forms of non-magical injury. If you reach the pinnacle from the initial Dull Pain, the result is the Golden Body skill. The recovery power is increased, and it offers a substantial defense.”
“Then… you have that?” I asked, doing my best not to cry out at a particularly hard lash to my lower back, once again focusing on my training.
“No, I possess Internal Recovery-X at level seventy-three. Healing skills only gain experience when you use them while injured, and my teacher forbade me from doing something as reckless as stabbing myself just so that I could activate the skill. I will train my skill when I have an opponent capable of inflicting harm upon me.”
I didn’t want to ask what level she was at, if she had a third-stage skill that high, and given how strong she had been in our earlier spar. I simply closed my eyes, fighting back tears of pain, and continuously cast Dull Pain. On the bright side… this was doing wonders to train Resilience and Adrenaline Rush.
It took more than two hours before Dull Pain was at a level where it could keep up with her whip, healing one lash as the next one descended. Another hour later, I received the notification that the skill was ready to evolve. When that happened, I finally let out the shout that I had been holding in for three hours, informing Kelly that I had hit level twenty in the skill.
For the first time since she had grabbed the whip, she stopped moving her wrist, and I was given some time to breathe. “Before… before I evolve it… are there any fusions that I should wait for?”
Kelly seemed surprised at my question, giving it serious consideration. “If you were to get the Troll’s Blood skill, I’ve heard that you can turn Dull Pain into a passive. However, a passive skill isn’t as effective for you as an active one, since you can repeatedly use it without cost. By the time the combination reached a high enough level to overtake what you would be learning now, you would find that you had given up on the Golden Body.”
“As for other fusions… if I were to keep you here for a few months, I could have you train all of the basic weapon proficiencies. If you have all of them at level twenty, you can gain the All Weapon Proficiency skill. While I would like to do so, I don’t believe that is feasible with your timetable. There’s only so much that you can learn from here, after all.”
I gave a nod at that. I needed to get what I could get, and become as strong as I could before moving to another area. Even if it wasn’t to get away from this barbaric trainer, it was still necessary. “So… it is safe to evolve the skill now?”
“That’s right, hurry up. There’s still one more skill that I want to teach you before dark.” Why did I feel a sense of foreboding when I heard that? Regardless, I evolved the skill into Set Bone, happy that I had a bit more healing ability now. Once I did so, Kelly instructed me to stand and face her. When I did, I saw an ominous smile on her face.
Another quest window appeared, this one for the Empty Hand skill. The quest description was to be killed ten times by the martial arts instructor… As soon as I read that, she was in front of me, grabbing my wrists and tearing my hands off with unnatural force. Before I could even scream out, I was back in the city’s center, with the counter ‘1/10’ at the top of my vision.
I didn’t bother to check my inventory or skills, resigning myself to my fate. I walked back to the school, expecting to reclaim my body, but she tore off my hands again as soon as I stepped foot inside. Back at the city center, I shuddered from the pain, gritting my teeth. Why… why does she always go for the hands?
This time, I made sure to activate my Stealth skill, making my way back and planning to discreetly loot the two bodies. Regardless, my hands were crushed and my head was torn off. This continued… seven more times. I could tell that my gaze was somewhat dead when I started heading back the final time, as I saw the guard who had given me directions before looking at me with a knowing gaze. So that’s why he had pitied me…
At this point, it was no wonder all the players left her care, because she taught by killing them. Repeatedly. After my tenth death, I saw all of my bodies piled in a corner, and walked over to loot them one by one. “No luck, huh?” Kelly asked, leaning against the wall.
“Luck?” I asked, not sure what she meant.
“The negative trait. It didn’t drop after ten tries?” I blinked slightly when I heard that, checking. Sure enough, it was still there.
“Is it possible to do a quest that targets someone’s negative trait? You know… like a gathering quest with monsters?” If that was the case, maybe there was hope. Though, those hopes were soon dashed.
“Skills and traits can’t be the subject for a specified hunting mission. You can use them as trading objects, but only while they are in object form.” Seeing her shake her head, I let out a long sigh, and she continued. “There are objects that can lower a trait’s quality, and remove one-star traits. However, they are exponentially more expensive, costing five times as much as a trait of the same level. Moreover, their stock is incredibly limited, since it takes a special combination of traits and skills to make.”
Thinking back to the trait that had dropped from the boss, that meant that an item to reduce the quality of a three-star trait would be more than a platinum. If I understood the conversion of prices right, the price to reduce a nine-star trait to an eight-star one would be hundreds, if not thousands of platinum coins. Assuming that I found it on the market at all.
I nodded my head, having already resigned myself to the fate of retaining this trait. Besides, I probably shouldn’t be comfortable issuing a quest to kill me constantly… I blamed Kelly wholeheartedly for that.
Thankfully, I received the Empty Hand skill. At first, I thought that she was going to demand that we train for the rest of the day, until I had evolved it into the Sturdy Hand skill. Instead, she told me that I could leave for the day, but she expected me back by dawn. In addition, she told me not to deactivate the skill until then.
Although confused, I left the training ground immediately, worried that she would change her mind. My first stop was to find an inn, wanting to take the chance to rest. I had walked through the night to reach the city, and it was already starting to move into the evening hours.
Before I could get to the inn, though, a flash of black moved in front of me, forcing me to a halt. Looking down, I found Diane standing there, staring up at me. “You finished the quest?” I asked, to which she nodded. Confirming the details with the quest window, I marked it as complete to issue the rewards.
As soon as the reward had been given, Diane glanced off to the side, and I received a private message from her. Reduced Earth, Ki Palm, Light Step, Disguise.
I looked at Diane curiously, and she soon met my gaze. “All martial skills that drop from the first floor of the dungeon I’ve been training at. You like lower level skills, right? This dungeon is raided regularly, so these skills should be at the shop. First one enhances speed in short bursts. Second enhances damage according to Magic stat. Third is a support for Stealth. Fourth lets you change minor features.”
When Diane said that, she focused. Nothing seemed to immediately change about her, until she lifted her hand up to show that her player brand was missing. Soon, she deactivated the skill, and it was back. About ten seconds later, I watched as it burnt out, though her eyes remained just as piercing as ever.
Realizing what she was trying to convey with this, my eyes widened slightly. She was offering me the chance to get rid of the ‘evidence’ that I was a failure. However, on further thought, I shook my head. “A skill like Disguise won’t be at the shop.” I said confidently, causing her to tilt her head.
“If that skill was able to be sold openly, there would be too many people able to impersonate government officials, or cover up their crimes by pretending to be someone else. It’s one of the skills most likely to be used for crime.”
Diane narrowed her eyes slightly, letting her hand drop as she thought about it. “Then I’ll get it for you.” She said, surprising me.
“What?” I looked down at her, not entirely sure I heard it right.
“I said I’ll get it.” She told me firmly. “You give me plenty of skills. My turn.” After she said that, she turned and left, not waiting for my response. If this skill dropped from the first floor of the dungeon, I had no idea how she would ‘get it’ for me. She had to have already looted all of the chests on that floor herself, and waiting for a monster to drop it wasn’t at all feasible.
Still, I shook my head, confident that she would find some way to get it done. As for the other three skills? I could just head to the store after tomorrow’s training to look for them. Making it to the inn, I paid for my room, finally accepting the sweet embrace of slumber. And, of course, I did my best not to think about the pain of having my back whipped for three hours straight, or having my hands torn off or crushed ten times in a row… okay, so it wasn’t a good sleep, but it was sleep.
