“AAAAH!” Snow-in-Blood screamed as she spun her body through the air, sweat flying from her head as her arms suddenly whipped out, shattering the training dummy with her sword.

“Good, just keep on doing that,” I said to the large woman as she heaved for breath.

At my bored tone, she flashed me a look of annoyance, but nodded and continued to gasp for air. After a few seconds, she straightened her slight slump and returned to destroying the straw and wood dummies.

The Baron suggested the use of his hunting manor to keep the secret of my profession. I could train his daughter without outside observers, and how I did it would be hidden. If we didn’t take any of the Baron’s retainers, we would have the place to ourselves. My addition to the plan was to suggest that I start rumors about being hired (shanghaied) to provide resources for her advanced combat training. A couple nights at the inn complaining about having to produce the precursors to health and stamina potions and the Baron’s guards spread the rumor well enough for me. The overuse of stamina and health potions was a well known and brutal method of training. It had no long term physical effects, but the same couldn’t be said for its mental effects. Which made sense. Few people could train themselves through exhaustion and into muscle damage, chug a stamina and health potion, endure the rapid healing, and then return to training. The rumor was that my Master loaned me out to the Baron while Snow-in-Blood was trained by a foreign combat expert.

The ironic bit was that this was our actual plan.

I couldn’t be sure that Snow-in-Blood’s skill was unique, the mages had destroyed almost every source which discussed mana, but it certainly had all the hallmarks of a unique skill. Her mother’s tribe was known for their skill that boosted their speed based on the blood they had spilled, theirs, or their enemies. Snow-in-Blood’s skill seemed like a modified version. This wasn’t the same as a skill evolution. Well, there was a bit of a disagreement within the Skill Trainer’s Guild on that point. Some argued that unique skills were a mutation of another skill, others claimed it was something else entirely that caused unique skills. They were rare, and by definition, unique, which made them difficult to study.

The goal of our training would be to enable Snow-in-Blood to actively use her skill. The lack of information on the active effect made me think it was a unique skill. Still, it could just be that she had never triggered it, so the information was unavailable.

Arcanum of the Blood - Tier 1: 3

The power of the unseen world courses through your blood.

Passive Effect:

Minor: Stamina Recovery - Stamina recovers faster than usual at the cost of mana.

Active Trigger Effect:

Minor: ?

Minor: ?

Lesser: ?

In a way, the Baron and his daughter were lucky that my father wasn’t available to train her. My father’s skills were formed from hard work, life experience, and rote training. He was, by far, the better warrior and for the skills that he knew - and he knew many - he would be the better choice. Mother was the same, she had learned her skills through the usage of them in the real world and only became a trainer later. This was how most of the Skill Trainer’s Guild members developed as well. It was only after they had made a name for themselves or had become disfavored politically that they became Skill Trainers. Teaching or Training were skills they learned later after having mastered their crafts.

I was the odd duck out.

From a young age, I knew I would be a Trainer first while my other skills came second. My parents taught me their skills, but it was secondary to learning how to teach others. The first step to that goal was learning the primary principles of Snow-in-Blood’s skills. While the giant warrior drove herself into exhaustion, I watched her recover and tried to work out how her passive effect worked. At first, I just let her attack, her training sword slamming into the padded target dummy as she threw her body from position to position. Watching her monstrous performance, I failed to notice anything significant at first.

Eventually, when her body was left pumping air like a bellows, expanding and shrinking along with her breath, I called out to her.

“Is your skill working right now?” I shouted.

I’d done similar exhaustion training with my father, so I knew that at this moment, her ears were pounding with the beat of her heart.

Nodding, she continued to breathe deeply as she tried everything to keep from bending over as she caught her breath. That was a sign of someone who had experienced extensive physical training. Deep breaths, with stomach muscles held taut but loose enough to avoid spasms, while she breathed through her nose to warm the cold air. When her breathing slowed, she returned to hammering the wooden practice dummy.

Snow-in-Blood had been steadily hammering on the training pell for almost three hours. For the first hour, I provided healing and stamina potions when she reached the end of her capability. After chugging the two potions, she would twitch and grimace as she healed, then gag while trying to keep the drinks down. Next, she returned to beating on the dummy. I needed to see how she performed while her skill remained mostly inactive. After I was confident that she reacted to the two potions in the same way as anyone else. Then we moved on to her only consuming the healing potion without the stamina potion. When her skill triggered, the difference was clear.

When she was recovering with the stamina potion, she took short gasping breaths except when she was gagging. At a few points, she even held her breath as she flinched in disgust from the potions. When her skill was active, she was always taking long even breaths.

“Snowy, come over here. We need to talk,” I said, not even noticing the use of my mental nickname for the large woman.

Even if stamina and health potions removed the damage and the exhaustion from excessive exercise, there remained a deep-seated mental strain. Snow-in-Blood looked deeply exhausted from the use of her skill. The effect of her skill was a regenerative one rather than the stamina potion’s sudden near-instant recovery.

Once the imposing woman was close, she dropped onto one of the wooden benches that lined the grass training field. I waited for Snow-in-Blood to say something, but she remained silent. I was starting to worry about her mental state. The ride to the hunting manor had been quiet, the two of us gently trotting along for hours without comment. At first, I just assumed that she had been preparing herself for the coming ordeal. But, after a few hours of riding and Snow-in-Blood saying nothing, I came to realize that something was bothering the woman. Throughout our training, this was how she continued to behave. She would nod or answer questions, but she would answer my questions with short, clipped comments. This couldn’t continue. I didn’t need to listen to my clients when we were doing resistance training, often I simply strapped them down and gagged them, but with a skill like this, some give and take would be needed.

“Alright, what did I do to upset you?” I asked.

I probably should have been more circumspect, more roundabout, maybe presented some casual banter beforehand. I should have, but that wasn’t really my style. I was better at deception than earnest ingratiation. For some reason, I didn’t have the heart to try and manipulate Snow-in-Blood.

Flinching at my abrupt manner, she clenched her hands, which creaked like the sound of steel bands pulled tight through leather. Keeping her head facing the ground, she responded to my outburst, “My apologies hunt-leader, I will work harder,” she said.

I was confused about the unfamiliar term, but my confusion was short-lived.

“No, now. None of that. I’m not your hunt-leader, and you aren’t my subordinate. I’m doing a job, and you’re helping me do it. Yeah, it helps you, but your dad is paying me, and I can’t do this without your help. Besides, you’re working harder than most I’ve worked with,” I said while trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

Despite her large and imposing appearance, I felt like I had accidentally kicked a kitten and needed to coax her back gently.

Her hair flipped across her face, the sweat still dripping from her efforts, her blue eyes met my own brown and locked on. She searched my face, seeking something in my words, which she apparently found. Nodding, she lowered her head again, the weariness from her efforts overtaking her again.

Awkwardly, I shifted on the bench and looked out to the field, trying to let the moment pass.

“Right. So. I think I’ve figured out the first part of your skill. How to trigger one of the active parts. I think it’s a unique skill. I’m almost certain, in fact. So I wouldn’t be surprised that there are more parts hidden within it,” I said as I rubbed my chin.

From the corner of my eye, I could see her tilt her head, and then stare at me, trying to figure something out. Something about what I said concerned her in some way, I couldn’t tell what, but it was clear to me. Snow-in-Blood was subtle in her expressions. She ranged from silent stoic to obviously emotional but controlled. To others, she might seem to be stone-faced. Still, to someone who was continually trying to control their own emotions, she might as well have been screaming her emotional state.

“How could you discover something so quickly? My tribe tried to understand my skill for months. It was finally decided that it was part of the Way of the Shaman and that I was anathema for usurpation of the skill. We have been here a day, and you have done nothing but watch!” she said, her voice rising by the end only to cut out as she tried to choke back her emotions.

I mentally brought up my pride and joy, my mutated teaching skill, and shared it.

Teacher of Skills - Tier 2: 18

Your life’s focus has been the teaching of skills. Teaching is the best way to learn.

Passive Effect:

Lesser: Epiphany - Correlate and accumulate skill information when exposed to new experiences.

Active Trigger Effect:

Major: Favored Student - Focusing on one student allows the teacher to notice mistakes and important clues needed for skill gains.

Lesser: Cross-Training - Any skill the teacher possesses which has a related principle, can assist in a student’s skill gain.

Minor: The Student is the Teacher - When studying a student’s use of a skill that the teacher does not know, they have a small chance to learn a primary principle of the skill.

Synergistic with other known mental skills:

[Self Awareness].

I tried to keep the smug smile off my face, but it was hard not to be proud. It was a mutated skill, meaning it was a skill that was core to who I was. It had shifted to fit my life. A tier two skill, something most couldn’t boast of until they were in their thirties, and oh yes - a skill with a Major scaled effect. Most skills never gained anything more than a Lesser scale, which was impressive enough. Still, a Major scaled effect was almost magical. It was only an information gathering triggered effect, but it was vital for my work. From my point of view, it was likely the single most essential effect of all the skills in the world. That perspective might be exactly why I gained that specific mutated skill. Skills ruled this world, but a skill which allowed someone to skill up faster? That was priceless.

My mother had the Trainer skill; it was useful, but it was basic and had few frills. She could mainly induce a small boost to skill gains for anyone she was actively trying to teach. She also gained a little bonus in figuring out what information her student needed to learn a skill. Father, on the other hand, had a far more spectacular set of skills. A paired set of skills called Favored Disciple and Favored Teacher. Favored Teacher allowed him to bestow the skill Favored Disciple on one student who had to follow his instructions. In exchange for obedience, they gained massive improvements in all martial skills while my father trained them. His skill had many restrictions: it worked only with his martial skills, the student was required to follow all instructions to the letter, they had to train daily, and so on. But even then, they were a fantastic pair of skills.

Somewhere along the line, while my father trained me with his skills, I picked up some part of it. I learned something, some tweak or bit of knowledge, and it shifted my budding Teaching skill and laid the groundwork for my own skill’s mutation. It was the only thing that made sense given the Favored Student portion.

Unfortunately, it only worked when I was focusing as hard as I could. It felt almost like trying to memorize every action of my student. The mental drain was staggering. I could only use the active Favored Student portion of my skill in bursts of a few minutes at a time.

Snowy finally broke my smug silence and asked the question I had been waiting for.

“So, what is the key that everyone has missed?” she asked.

Flashing her a smirk, I answered, “Breathing.”