Kelly and I charged at one another, both of us fighting with our bare hands. For the purpose of the training, Kelly intentionally slowed down her movements, and only used skills that were variations of what I knew. For the most part, the two of us clashed directly with unarmed combat.
My skills had surged over the last week, as I was not restricted from using any of my abilities, and even encouraged to use them as much as I could. I had even achieved four skill evolutions, some of which brought me to the third tier of skills. First, my Sword Proficiency evolved into Sword Expertise. This was easy to understand, as it was just a straight increase in my ability to wield a sword.
Secondly, I managed to evolve Set Bone into Internal Recovery-X. This skill came from the constant training with Kelly, who had absolutely no concept of slowing down when the opponent was wounded. If anything, she enjoyed striking while her enemy was off-guard. Meaning that I ended up using Set Bone dozens of times in each spar, often back-to-back, before ultimately being killed regardless.
Now that I had Internal Recovery-X, my self-healing ability was vastly improved. There was still nothing that I could do for a missing limb, or anything that was instantly fatal. However, as long as that wasn’t the case, it was quite hard for me to stay down.
Next, my Adrenaline Rush evolved into Adrenaline Surge, which was a direct increase in how much it boosted speed, strength, and stamina. There was no real surprise there, as I kept the skill constantly active.
The last evolution was a fusion. After all five of my basic stat skills reached level fifty, I fused them together. The result was the Duke of All Trades-X. If I had to guess, the preceding skill should have been the Jack of All Trades, if I had fused the first tier of skills at level twenty. Now that I had this higher version, the increase in my physical prowess was noticeable.
To be honest, part of me worried that I had already outgrown the equipment that Hammerhead made for me, without having ever had the chance to properly use it. I hadn’t even enchanted it yet, due to the training with Kelly.
However, the armor came with the convenient self-repair feature, Blood Soaked, which I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to easily find again. Even if the armor wasn’t quite fit for me anymore, it would be better in the long term than me having to get a new set that was regularly repaired or replaced.
Back to the fight… with the enhancement to my abilities, I was still not a match for Kelly when she went all-out, and she could easily disappear from my sight. When she lowered herself to the same strength as myself… then it became a contest of pure skill, which is where I was able to learn the most.
For the majority of this week, she taught me basic fighting styles, using the skills that I had trained thus far. She taught me how to properly fight with a sword and shield, and how to fight empty-handed. Because of her, I had even obtained the Unarmed Proficiency skill.
I reached my palm out, aiming a strike at her abdomen. At the same time, a yellow spike appeared behind her, aiming to pierce between her shoulder blades. This was the Ki Projection skill, which I had learned how to more properly use. I wasn’t simply making a projection of myself or my attack, but I could project my ki in any form that I could properly envision. The most common forms I had it take for me were a fist, spike, sword, shield, or armor. Aside from these forms, there weren’t any others that I had trained myself to manifest.
Kelly gave a knowing grin, reaching out to grab my wrist as she spun to the side, pulling my body into the path of the ki projection. It pierced into my shoulder, causing me to hiss in pain, but the wound quickly closed as I pointed the fingers of my held hand towards her. A golden beam shot out from my fingers, catching Kelly by surprise and actually causing a small cut to appear on her cheek as she jumped back.
I couldn’t help feeling a sense of accomplishment at that. Even though she broke my wrist during her retreat, this was the first time that I had drawn so much as a drop of blood from my teacher. She brought a hand up, wiping the blood off to show that the wound had already healed.
“Actually pulled a fast one on me.” She chuckled. She didn’t teach me the ‘traditional’ forms of martial arts, as those were made to fight people. What she taught me was meant to fight monsters. And that was why she had always gone so hard on me, so that my body instinctively saw her as a monster.
“Last I checked, this is day seven. So… let’s end this with a bang.” She said, taking a stance with her body turned to the side, both arms raised and aimed forward, fingers curled inwards like claws. I had… a bad feeling about this. One that I had experienced numerous times recently, and had come to identify.
She wants to kill me. I thought to myself, seeing a golden glow surrounding Kelly’s body. “Take a good look. You shouldn’t be far off from this.” She spoke up, the golden glow mixing with an icy aura. The temperature in the arena plummeted, talons of ice forming over her hands.
My eyes widened, realizing what she was doing. I crossed my arms over my chest, activating the armor-type projection as well as Crystal Wall to try to protect myself. She’s enchanting herself.
My goal was no longer to win this fight, but simply survive a single strike. “Myriad Strikes earned its name because it allows you to effectively combine the power of your other skills into your unarmed attacks. What would normally be a frigid armor, when properly channeled, can become a lethal weapon.”
“Furthermore, the success rate of Myriad Strikes’ enchantment is far higher than when enchanting equipment, as you are enchanting that which is the most familiar to you.” As Kelly said this, she took a half step forward, pushing her arms out. I could hear the sounds of something shattering, and see that there were ten holes in my chest, piercing both my heart and my lungs.
“Congratulations.” Kelly said as I fell to the ground, my vision going faint. Despite the attack not sending me to respawn immediately, I couldn’t activate my Internal Recovery-X. I was in a state of Mana Burn, so her attack should have completely sapped my mana, negating all of my skills. “You’ve passed my training. Next time we meet, make sure to show me something new.”
After she said that, my eyes shot open, and I was standing at the center of the city once again. Several familiar guards smiled towards me, giving me pitying looks. At the same time, I played back through what Kelly had said, and began running for the martial arts training ground.
When I arrived, I found the place empty, aside from my body laid out on the ground. No matter where I looked, I couldn’t see any signs of Kelly. After delivering that blow to kill me, she had left the area, maybe even the city.
I shook my head, reaching down to collect the loot from my corpse. I hadn’t expected that Kelly would simply disappear after the training was over. She hadn’t given any signs indicating that she would depart. At most, she had scared away any new players seeking to receive training, letting them see me as what they could expect if they stayed.
Throughout the entire week, only one brave player had accepted this training. However… he changed his tune after Kelly killed him twice, claiming that her teaching wouldn’t be worth the experience he lost fighting her.
Now that Kelly was gone, I had to decide what I wanted to do. Both my Stealth and Sturdy Hand skills were just shy of evolving, but I was obviously not going to get the finishing touch for that in Decashear. Well… Stealth I might. It was possible that I could wake up to that leveling up.
Closing my eyes, I decided to check my friends list, seeing how Ennolf and Nuoda were doing. Both were online, so I sent a message to Nuoda. Sorry if I’m bothering you. Just thought that I would check in, it’s been a while.
The last time that I heard from either of them was more than two weeks ago. By now, they should have definitely made it to the capital and registered their guild, right?
Oh, Drake! Did you get our mail? You never responded, so we just assumed that something had happened and you were busy. Nuoda responded almost immediately.
It’s fine. I was in some rather intense training, and hadn’t gotten the chance to check my mail lately. Were you able to establish the guild? As I asked that, I began to make my way towards the city’s mailbox. I felt bad for not telling them in advance that I had acquired my own healing skill, as I guessed that was what they had mailed me.
Yeah! We’ve got that all set up, and we’re currently working on building the city. If you want to come visit us sometime, we’re about seventy kilometers north of Corsales. Of course, we don’t have a road to it yet, so you’ll have to walk. For now, the name we’re going with is Fallowton.
I nodded my head, soon reaching the mailbox and opening it. What I saw was a small package that had apparently been waiting for more than ten days. Inside was a thank you message for the two rings that I sent them, as well as an apology that they had been unable to get a healing skill book, due to the church tightly controlling the related dungeon near the capital.
Instead, they had acquired a scroll, a single-use item with a powerful healing spell on it. Since that was the best that they could do for someone not affiliated with the church, they decided to send the scroll to me.
Got it. Do I need to go to Fallowton to get a guild invite, or are you able to send it remotely?
This time, there was a brief pause before her message appeared. We’ll need to meet in person. If you let me know what city you’re in, I can teleport over to meet you. We managed to secure a couple of dungeons during our travels, so we got a nice sum, and there are three dungeons near Fallowton that we have a monopoly on.
I blinked at that, but nodded my head. I had been planning to visit Corsales via teleport and travel north. Do you already have a teleport station?
Nope! But we met an orc mage that is proficient with spatial magic, and has learned the Teleport skill. As long as we tell her where we want to go, she can send us there if she’s been before.
Right… I nodded my head, focusing on sending the message. I’m in Decashear right now. If she can’t get you here, I can head to Corsales. Originally, I was thinking of heading west, maybe visit the elven lands.
Let me check, I’m pretty sure that she has Decashear as a destination. Also, there is some news that I want to talk to you about, face to face.
After she sent that, I waited for a few minutes, until suddenly, I heard a familiar voice calling out from behind me. “There you are!” Turning, I saw the familiar figure of Nuoda. Her outfit hadn’t changed much, having perhaps found her preferred style and tailored later outfits to look similarly. “Give me just a second to send this invite.”
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You have been invited to join the guild, “Successors”. [Accept] [Decline] |
Naturally, I chose to accept the invitation, nodding my head. “Will I be able to invite someone to the guild myself? I have another friend that traveled west a week ago, and she would like to join.”
Nuoda smiled, nodding quickly. “Of course, there’s no problem with inviting others. In fact, we encourage it. Now… let’s find somewhere private that we can talk, shall we?”
