The next day, I left the inn early, making my way to the martial arts training ground. As Kelly had asked, the sun hadn’t yet come up by the time I entered the courtyard. I found the bearkin teacher already waiting, practicing by herself by striking at a wooden dummy, her arms alternating between slowly striking at multiple pegs.
Before I could say anything, she spoke up, having sensed my presence. “Did you keep the skill on?” She asked.
“That’s right.” I nodded my head. From the time that I learned the skill until now, I hadn’t deactivated Empty Hand, treating it like one of my basic passive skills.
“Good… go ahead and tell me your skills and their levels. I’ll use that to plan your training.” Kelly said, stepping back from the wooden dummy.
I nodded my head once again, and began reciting out my skills. “Stealth, level thirty-nine. Fast Runner, twenty-nine. Assassinate, twelve. Herbalism, eighteen. Resilience, twenty-eight. Strongman, thirty-one. Studious, thirty. Observe, seven. Fireball, nine. Fire Magic Proficiency, twelve. Ruby Rampart, nineteen. Arcane Arrow, thirty-four. Bow Proficiency, nineteen. Adrenaline Rush, twenty-seven. Shadow Blade, seven. Shadow Spear, thirteen. Shadow Plate, eight. Animate Shadow, twelve. Sage, twenty-nine. Detective Analysis, eight. Sword Proficiency, two. Shadow Magic Proficiency, three. Power Attack, three. Set Bone, one. Empty Hand, nine.”
Kelly arched a brow as she listened to each of the twenty-four skills. “You usually fight with a bow, and your magic?” She asked, glancing over at me.
“I enchanted Arcane Arrow on a bow that dropped from a level thirty-five monster with innate poison.” I explained calmly. “Combined with my Stealth and Assassinate, it was my most powerful strategy for difficult fights.”
“That’s to be expected.” She said with a nod. “As for your magic… well, I’m surprised that you’ve been willing to put yourself through the training enough to get so many skills like that. For the time being, we won’t be focusing on any magic skills. After all, I am here to teach you martial arts.”
“The fact that you managed to get Empty Hand to level nine overnight shows how effective your traits are, so I think that I have a good idea for how to train you.” Kelly had a playful smile on her face, pointing a thumb towards the wooden dummy that she had been fighting. “Start on that. If I’m not mistaken, Ruby Rampart is a Martial skill. I want you to start by striking the dummy, activating Empty Hand, Power Attack, and Ruby Rampart with every strike. However, keep all of your other skills disabled.”
My eyes widened when I heard that she wanted me to keep my enhancement skills off. “Mind if I ask why?”
“It’s easy.” She shrugged her shoulders as she explained. “With that skill combination, you can evolve Ruby Rampart soon, followed by the other two. Additionally, that dummy is made of Devilwood, and you will feel a rebound every time you strike it. Use that rebound to train your Set Bone skill.”
My brow twitched, and I finally understood. She was worried that I would be able to withstand the rebound force too easily if I had my other abilities active, and wanted me to use this to train my healing skill. I gave a nod of resignation, disabling all of my enhancement skills. Although I didn’t enjoy it, I understood the importance of this type of training.
Leaving only Ruby Rampart and Empty Hand toggled on, I then activated Power Attack and punched the dummy. Immediately, I hissed in pain, feeling my skin and bones cracking from the recoil. That wasn’t just the rebound of my normal attack, but rather felt like the attack force had been multiplied.
Hastily, I activated Set Bone, repeatedly using it until the pain cleared. Kelly watched in amusement, leaning against the wall of the training hall. “Your highest level skill is Stealth, but you lack most of the supplemental skills of a rogue. Observe and Detective Analysis are good for short-range scouting, and Assassinate is good for an instant strike, but there are a lot more that you’re missing. Your skills don’t really seem to fit any niche at all, do they?”
“I never… planned to be a rogue in the first place.” I said, throwing another punch while gritting my teeth, hastily applying Set Bone once again. “I just didn’t want to be noticed, and it was the first skill I got.”
Kelly gave a soft chuckle. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, Drake. Stealth is an important skill, whether you are in combat or not. You run solo because of your traits, so being able to scout for yourself is a requirement. In a way, you need skills to fill every role of a traditional party.”
“The problem you have now is that you’re only half-assing each role. If anything, the thing you have most invested in to this point is being a mage. For someone that can’t cast magic themselves, doesn’t that seem a little ridiculous?”
I hissed in pain from my third strike to the dummy. “Arcanhide was on the way. I plan to get some more skills after I leave here today. And there haven’t been any good options for ranged combat in Martial skills.”
Kelly arched a brow when she heard that. “Excuse you? You think you can’t fight at range with Martial skills?” I blinked at her question, looking over at her as she continued. “The evolved form of Power Attack is Power Projection. It allows you to shoot a melee attack out at range.”
As if to demonstrate, Kelly sent a light punch forward, and a golden projection of a fist shot out from her body, traveling three meters before dissipating. “Martial skills might not have a ranged attack in the first tier, but they still get them. Of course, that’s discounting bow techniques. Now, tell me about these skills that you’re planning to get later.”
I told her the three skills that Diane had suggested to me, and Kelly nodded her head. “If you’re going for Ki Palm, make sure not to evolve your Power Attack yet. Ki Palm has a decent fusion with it that you won’t want to miss out on. The other two will help with your shortcomings as a rogue. Are those the only skills that you’re looking for?”
“I want to see what other basic skills the shop has.” I admitted, once more striking the dummy and immediately proceeding to heal myself. Especially after Kelly explained to me about the benefits of fully evolving a skill.
“Got it.” She nodded, pushing off the wall and heading to leave the courtyard. “You keep practicing. I’ve got to go for a jog.”
I wanted to question her on where she was going, I really did. However, at this point, the pain from striking the dummy was particularly mind-numbing. It took everything I had to just be able to keep training. Every strike caused bone fractures and cracked my reddened skin. I lost count of how many times I had broken my wrists in just the first few strikes.
The sole advantage to this method of training was how quickly it allowed me to improve my skills. Over time, I began working on finding different angles to attack that might lessen the recoil, spending less and less time between strikes.
I had no idea how long Kelly was gone. What I did know was that the sun had fully risen by the time she was back, and I only had to pause three seconds between strikes. Power Attack and Empty Hand had increased to level fifteen each, while Set Bones was at level nineteen. As for Ruby Rampart, it had hit level twenty-two, but I hadn’t evolved it yet, in order to consult with Kelly.
“Hey, kid!” Kelly called out as she walked over, examining my progress. “How are you coming?”
When I reported my relevant skill levels to her, she nodded her head. “You can go ahead and evolve Ruby Rampart. I don’t know much about the skill tree for that one. But before you do, I need you to hand over three gold.”
I arched a brow, not sure why she was suddenly asking for money. Was this a tuition fee to receive training from her? Regardless, I gave her the money that she was asking for, and she grinned. “No hesitation at all, huh? Clara said you hit a payday, and I guess she wasn’t kidding.”
After she said that, she retrieved ten books from her inventory, piling them next to herself. “You can start training these once you’ve evolved the last two that you’re working on now.” She informed me, causing me to stare at the pile in shock.
“Okay… what are those skills?” I couldn’t help but ask. Three of them I was certain were the ones I mentioned earlier, and her words confirmed my suspicions.
“Well, the first are Light Step, Ki Palm, and Reduced Earth. I also grabbed you Provoke, Ki Arrow, Parry Stance, Intimidate, Disarming Strike, Farsight, and Detect Weakness. These should help cover up your shortcomings as a solo combatant.”
I blinked, and again. “That’s… a lot. But, I thought you wanted me to be an unarmed fighter. Why did you grab me a bow skill?”
Kelly shrugged her shoulders at that. “Sometimes, there are enemies that you can’t get within a close range. Even Power Projection and Power Relay have limitations on their range. If you can be good with a bow, that will let you deal with such enemies. But, before you learn any of these skills, get Power Attack and Empty Hand to level twenty.”
I nodded my head, returning my focus to the training. Though, as Kelly said that it was fine for me to evolve Ruby Rampart, I did so before my next strike. The evolved skill, Crystal Wall, allowed me to strike the ground and cause a solid wall of crystal to rise in front of me, with its defense based on my Stamina.
I was surprised to find that this was no longer a personal defense skill, but now a barrier. However, that just meant that I could no longer include it in my training. When Kelly saw that my skin was no longer red, she questioned the change, and I explained to her the details of the evolved skill.
Kelly pursed her lips, thinking. “Try striking your chest and channeling the skill.” She instructed. “It doesn’t make sense for it to lose the personal defense aspect, so you should be able to achieve the same effect through channeling.”
I blinked, but ultimately accepted her instruction. Focusing on channeling the skill, I slapped my chest with one hand. Immediately, dense crystals grew out of my body, giving me the appearance of a crystal golem. To my surprise, it didn’t feel overly cumbersome, though I did notice a slight reduction when it came to freedom of movement.
To test the skill, I struck the wooden dummy again, and the crystals on my right arm shattered, followed by the rest of them. After shattering, they faded away into dust, and I was left hissing while activating Set Bone once again.
Okay… so there was probably no need to keep using this skill during training, now that it had already evolved. It was far too weak without my enhancement skills active. Instead, I focused on training Empty Hand and Power Attack, as she had instructed.
Thankfully, that didn’t take long, at which time she had me evolve Empty Hand and learn the other skills. Throughout the entire process, Kelly had an almost wicked grin on her face, and I couldn’t help but dread the idea that I was about to enter another death rally.
