Chapter 60: Frenzied Training

  Echoing through the Guild were murmurs and shock. Crimson was a local hero, beloved by many for his hardworking ethic and devotion to the gods. Even more so, he was now a legendary figure known for achieving something impossible during the Tournament. The public mainly saw his positive side, his darkness unknown, but for the first time, Guild Members got to witness the depths of his madness. Unmitigated, and unrelenting.

  Well, that was all an overblown way of saying it was Crimson’s third consecutive day of taking a break from dungeon diving, and had been spending every day thus far just sparring with Fade. Verity held her head in exasperation with Rhea and Mortimer sitting next to her in awe of the sight in front of them. Around the battle grounds stood other members of the Guild just watching the relentless sparring. Unfortunately, neither Fade nor Crimson understood how to hold back against the other. Both of them brought out the greatest intensity in each other. From one perspective, that was probably a good thing, but for another, well…

  —————

  -[Aura Viewing] 7/10 —> 8/10

  -[Artificial Mana Pool] 1/10 —> 3/10

  -[Divine Might] 4/100 —> 16/100

  -[Recursive Purity] 6/100 —> 22/100

  -[Infused Life] 7/100 —> 35/100

  -[Healing] 5/10 —> 9/10

  -[Healer’s Mark] 3/10 —> 8/10

  -[Mana Influence] 8/10 —> 9/10

  —————

  …While not all of that progress was just in these past few days, most of it was. Neither Crimson, nor Fade, held back on hurting each other, so she was healing them constantly. The biggest issue was her MP keeping up. The fact that her [Artificial Mana Pool Skill], which hadn’t twitched once in the weeks since she had gotten it, suddenly and violently leveled up twice was the most telling part of this affair, giving her a total of 300 extra MP to burn.

  The opinion from the watching crowd wasn’t all bad, those who were more acquainted with Crimson viewed his intensity as an example, and training had increased Guild-wide, but that wasn’t the case for everyone. The general trend was that those who were close to him viewed it as motivation, while those who weren’t saw the intensity on display with an emotion that approached genuine fear.

  Verity couldn’t fully blame them, Crimson was typically the easiest person in the world to read. A blind infant could still likely put together what he was feeling at any given moment, but as the sparring continued, he lost all expression, and his body language became unreadable.

  He was intense, focused, and unrelenting. Verity had seen that even Fade had been scared of him on the first day, but eventually he was poisoned by that same intensity.

  They skipped breakfast and lunch both days, eaten a large dinner, and passed out early. It seemed like the trend would continue for today as well. Crimson and Fade would spar for an hour at a time, a completely unreasonable amount of time, and it took its toll. They were both incredibly exhausted at the end of each hour, but they would keep going anyway. Even as their movement was sluggish and dull, they would still beat up on each other. Most of the injuries came from those moments.

  In one of the brief seconds Verity had managed to get Crimson’s attention, she’d asked him why he wouldn’t rest at that point, and he’d said something about practicing how to fight in ‘sub-optimal’ conditions.

  Past her would’ve viewed that as a bit more ridiculous, an unnecessary overreaction, but spending time with Crimson made her realize the obvious: you’re much less likely to die if you’ve prepared for every possible scenario or situation.

  Current her was willing to look past his insanity with that in mind. It wasn’t like she could pretend to be unaffected either, and was poisoned by his determination, but she was a bit more numb to his antics than other people.

  —————

  For Fade, the first day Crimson had invited him to spar had been the first day he’d genuinely faced death. It hadn’t started that way. They’d both lowered their stats to 10, so there was no way to hurt each other, but by hour six, Fade was left contemplating death as his party leader refused to stop.

  The second day had only gotten worse. Fade had started to feel something unnatural. A feeling that pushed on his will. It was mild, but the sensation was similar to what he’d felt the first time he’d made eye contact with Crimson. The more they fought, the stronger the feeling got.

  Eventually, the feeling got so strong that he couldn’t even feel angry. That had been at the end of the second day, and it was far scarier than any amount of intensity Crimson had displayed up to that point. Much like his anger drowned out all his other feelings, the feeling from Crimson was drowning out everything except determination.

  Unrelenting, unyielding, and impassioned, Fade was led along with that determination like a puppet on strings. He pushed himself harder than he thought possible, and his growth reflected it. By the end of the third day, his [Blessing] had changed enough to worry him a bit.

  —————

  -[Skill] Level Up!

  -[Meditation] 8/10 —> 9/10

  -[Emotion Resistance] 7/10 —> 9/10

  -[Robust] 6/10 —> 10/10 (Max)

  -[Attract] 9/10 —> 10/10 (Max)

  -[Improved Recovery] 4/10 —> 9/10

  -[Ailment Resistance] 2/10 —> 6/10

  -[Demanding Presence] 5/10 —> 7/10

  -[Shield Mastery] 1/100 (New!) —> 45/100

  -[Axe Mastery] 1/100 (New!) —> 22/100

  -[Skill Max] Rewards: 1 STR, 4 CON, 4 VIT, 2 CHA

  —————

  [Skills] like [Improved Recovery] weren’t meant to level up that fast. He’d had [Improved Recovery] before he’d reset his [Class], it had been one of the first [Skills] he’d learned, and its level had been 5. A year of training, and it had been stuck at 5 for months. The amount that [Shield Mastery] had jumped up to was just as unreasonable. It was extreme enough that he’d checked in with Crimson to see why it was increasing so fast.

  The only answer he got was a theory that Crimson’s [Sword Mastery] was so high that Fade was being forced to fight at a higher standard than he was used to. If it was anyone else, Fade would’ve thought they were bragging about their [Skills], but Crimson wasn’t like that.

  As far as his stats, he’d gotten a point each in INT and WIS, stats that had never increased during training. Additionally, three points each in WIL and PER, which were hard to train. Since his physical stats had all been restricted, they couldn’t get any increase from training, but that was to say nothing of the changes given by [Skill] bonuses:

  Stolen story; please report.

  —————

  Strength (STR): 14 Agility (AGI): 11

  Constitution (CON): 26 Vitality (VIT): 31

  Intelligence (INT): 11 Wisdom (WIS): 11

  Charisma (CHA): 21 Willpower (WIL): 19

  Perception (PER): 17 Luck (LUC): 20

  —————

  Just his CON and VIT belonged to a [Guardian] at Lv.8 or 9, and he didn’t even have a [Class]!

  In his heart of hearts, Fade already considered Crimson as having fulfilled his promise of helping him get a better [Class]. There was no way he wouldn’t get a High-Grade [Class] after all this, and the promise of a Hidden-Grade [Class] only seemed more realistic by the hour.

  He was grateful…he was grateful, but…could he please get a bit of a break?! He’d like to feel something other than determination for a bit! Even anger would be fine.

  —————

  Rhea had only heard about the spectacle from Verity on the first and second day Crimson and Fade had been training, she’d been acting on her impatience, and had been researching [Skills] that she wanted. Well, researching was a strong way to describe it. She was a weak reader, and Crimson’s notes weren’t written to be easy to understand, even if his handwriting was clear.

  He kept a running list of [Skills] that he’d been cataloguing. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the most complete list she’d ever seen. The Temple would likely pay good money for the list since they had similar records. The fact that miser Crimson hadn’t thought to sell them was likely an amusing oversight on his part.

  It had been an interesting conversation between the two of them. She’d approached him to ask for permission to learn some new [Skills], not just [Throwing], and he’d given her a confused look.

  “You don’t need to ask me for permission for that.” He’d said.

  “Really? I thought you didn’t want me to learn any [Skills] that weren’t on the list.”

  “I’ll discourage you from learning useless or conflicting [Skills], but if you choose to learn them anyway, then I won’t stop you. I will always offer advice when I can, but its up to you whether you take it or not.”

  “But that arrogant sphinx…?”

  “Fade? He understands that his list isn’t a restriction, but a minimum requirement. That’s why he has added a few [Skills] to it. I’m willing to give him as much time as he needs, and the same is true for you.”

  She slowly nodded, and realized in a blink that she’d had a lot more freedom than she realized. Crimson had been entrusted with her safety and to act as her guardian, so a part of her considered herself to be under his thumb to a certain extent.

  Maybe a human would balk at that, but it was common among Wolfkin. While no-one could force anyone to get certain [Classes] or [Skills], Wolfkin understood that the only way they’d survive is if everyone played the role the needed to. Like the creature they emulated, her people were pack-minded, and exchanged some amount of freedom for kinship and unity.

  Rhea had a similar mentality. Her pack was this party, and her role was to fill in the gaps that everyone else were missing. If there was a weakness, she’d cover it. Cooperation was built into her existence, it thrummed in her blood, and she was happy to play a role.

  She’d spent her entire life as an outcast, so having a pack she actually felt a connection to was a blessing to her. Even in spite of the glaring problem of that arrogant sphinx, Fade.

  He looked down on her and Verity. Crimson was the only one he truly respected of the group. It was subtle, maybe Crimson hadn’t noticed, but she’d seen it in his eyes instantly. After a month with him, she had begun to realize it wasn’t personal. He looked that way at nearly everyone.

  The only strangers that didn’t receive that subtle gaze were the women that Fade would try to pick up. He treated them so well and so kindly that it almost felt like a contradiction of the rest of his character.

  She had sighed, and said, “Then do you know where I can find a list of [Skills]? I’d like to see if I can get some ideas for it.”

  He’d passed her a journal, and she’d spent the first two days of Crimson and Fade’s legendary sparring just reading through the list. It was hard to get an idea of every [Skill] that would be useful independent of its context, so she’d had Verity tell her about every time she’d visited the dungeon with Crimson in detail.

  The stories helped certain [Skills] stand out as she looked over the list, and of particular note was a [Skill] called [Sword Armory], which had a more detailed set of notes than most of the list. The reason it stood out to her, is that it made her wonder if there were other [Skills] like it, and if so, there was one she wanted in particular.

  She needed a storage [Skill] to carry enemy drops so Crimson, Fade, and Verity wouldn’t need to be bogged down by their weight. The image of Verity’s laughing face as she described Crimson’s despair over leaving behind even a single drop was burned into her retinas, and being the porter was an obvious role she could take up.

  She’d spent the third day of the training watching Crimson and Fade. Once she’d gotten over the shock, she found herself filled with a mysterious determination of an undefinable source, and had started paying close attention to how they fought. She began to look for other areas she could fill in the gaps.

  Crimson was specialized in duels, and Fade specialized in crowd control. Between the two of them, they could cover most situations, but there was a limit to their specializations. Crimson couldn’t win every duel, and some crowds would be too big for Fade.

  The ‘buffs’ she aspired to would help increase the cap on what their specialization could do, but she needed another way to get involved. She didn’t fancy just sitting in the back and watching like a useless damsel. She was a wolfkin, and what her pack needed, she’d provide with her blood, sweat, and tears.

  —————

  It was the fifth day of the sparring, and Crimson couldn’t get over how good he felt. It was like a weight that had been on his back for the past few weeks had suddenly disappeared. He’d been fighting Fade every day, and on the fourth day, Rhea had joined in, and Crimson had fought against the two of them to practice fighting against groups.

  Fade was an extremely dangerous opponent for Crimson. He would adapt to Crimson’s every strategy, so it felt like a game of escalation. Strategy and counter strategy meant that Fade was a better target for [Skill] grinding than any other individual he’d faced.

  Adding Rhea into the mix, who was a natural athlete and physically gifted to an unreasonable extent only made the training better. She had a good starting point for her combat instincts as wolfkin were all required to undergo combat training to some extent, but her actual combat ability still had plenty of room for improvement.

  On the fifth day, today, they’d added another person: Mortimer. He added a ranged element to the fight that Crimson needed to practice against.

  Had he won any of the sparring matches? No. He couldn’t even handle it when it was just Rhea and Fade, and it was still too overwhelming for him to deal with three people at once, but the point was practicing so he could handle it later.

  He was at least giving them a run for their money based on some of the cursing he’d elicited from Rhea and Mortimer. Fade’s cursing had slowed during the first day, and he had stopped cursing days ago, seeming focused on just improving.

  Parrying a flying dagger from Mortimer, he ducked under a slash from Fade and dove into a roll to get away from Rhea. He got his feet back under him nearly instantly, [Adaptive Footwork] showing its worth, and pressed the attack once more, going after Rhea.

  Fade was much better at dealing with opponents who were singularly focused on him, so focusing on Rhea had weakened his fighting ability by a bit. He’d already gotten an earful from Crimson on being too reliant on his instincts, and was trying to correct the problem so he could deal with opponents who hadn’t focused their hostility on him.

  Rhea took a kick to the leg and a pommel to the face, and in a smooth motion, Crimson twisted and knocked aside a pair of daggers that were approaching him. One from above, and one from behind.

  Mortimer’s summoned weapons had an extreme weakness that only Crimson could take advantage of: they caused ripples of [Mana] that were very easy for him to sense and track. It was easy to the extent that Mortimer had asked him at one point if he had eyes in the back of his head.

  Twisting back to Rhea and Fade, he swept Rhea’s feet out from under her as a part of his twisting motion, knocking her a bit into Fade and allowing him to perform a powerful thrust, hitting Fade in his collar bone.

  While his usual instincts informed him that he should press the attack, his embryo crowd control instincts told him that doing so would leave him completely open.

  Eyeing Rhea, he could see that they’d already set a trap for him with the expectation that he would press the assault. Fade had backpedaled, and if Crimson had followed him, Rhea would’ve been able to tackle him from behind.

  Crimson’s attention shifted as a pair of daggers approached him from either side, and he stepped back to dodge them. Rhea, the clever wolfkin, threw a rock at him right as he stepped. The rock wasn’t aimed at his face or his body, but it landed right were he stepped, causing his foot to skid across the ground just a little, just enough for Fade’s axe to slip in and knock him further off balance when he tried to block.

  A shield bash and a tackled from Rhea later, Crimson found himself pinned. He grinned, ecstatic with the results. It was his best sparring attempt against the three of them.

  It was also quite late in the day, so now would be a good time to put a stop to things.

  Rhea let him up, and flinched when she saw his grin before slowly returning a grin herself.

  Crimson called an end to the training, and his opponents, who he had expected would leave immediately instead walked over and bowed to him. Fade took the lead, and said loudly, “Please give us mercy! One day off!”

  Mercy? Why would Fade call it mercy? They were just training.

  Crimson shrugged and said, “You want a day off? Sure. I understand if you have other training you want to do instead of sparring. I have some other stuff I need to do as well, so I’m fine with that.”

  A trio of sighs of relief greeted Crimson’s ears, and he looked at them with some amount of confusion. They were all getting stronger, so what was the issue?

  —————

  -[Skill] Level Up!

  -[Ul Byrn] 5/10 —> 6/10

  -[Adaptive Footwork] 4/10 —> 9/10

  -[Defense Pierce] 4/10 —> 7/10

  -[Darkvision] 5/10 —> 6/10

  -[Aura of Will] 1/10 —> 5/10

  -[Weak Presence] 6/10 —> 7/10

  -[Sword Armory] 2/10 —> 3/10

  -[Parry] 10/10 —> [Mighty Parry] 1/10 —> 2/10

  -[Advanced Sword Mastery] 14/100 —> 37/100

  -[Blade Spirit] 6/10 —> 10/10 (Max) —> [Blade Spirit 3] 1/10 —> 3/10

  —————