Chapter 29: Rigorous Training[1]

As I arose from my stone bed, Viola leapt onto my shoulder. With her in tow, I began walking down a series of caves in order to look for Simon. The vampire had mentioned that he was going to train me and I planned on taking him up on it. As I walked, I began to notice that the area around me was unlike anything I had ever seen in the sewers.

Instead of cracked brick walls and worn out lightbulbs, various crystals lit up the stone wall around me. It looked as if I was in some sort of cave. There was a patch of ore on the wall that resembled gold. If I knew how to mine, I would probably be able to pick the gold out and make myself some armor. But alas, I didn’t know how to pick, and I didn’t know how create armor. Oh well, you couldn’t have everything.

I was able to walk for a good five minutes before I arrived in a small clearing. Normally I would’ve been annoyed by this little walk since I was still sore, but the cool breeze helped alleviate my pain. As the cool breeze ruffled my hair, I noted that I would need some clothes in the near future. The only thing that covered my chest was a series of bloody bandages. If a monster attacked me in that defenseless spot, it was bound to be painful. I still had my pants thankfully, but they were hanging on by a thread. It didn’t look like they would last for much longer. Maybe I should try making my own clothes when I fought again.

Thoughts like these ran around my mind as I looked around the clearing for the vampire. After scanning my surroundings for a few seconds, I found him looking at me a couple feet away. Walking up to him quickly, I notified him that I was ready to train.

“Good. But before we begin I need to know what skills you have so I know what to help you train.”

As he said this, my face unconsciously turned into a grimace. Although it made sense, I still didn’t like telling people my skills. It was like telling someone your most prized secret. But what choice did I have? In order for him to train me correctly, he needed to know my skills. Letting out a long sigh, I begrudgingly told him all the skills that I had.

“Do you need to know my level too?”

Since I already told him my skills, it wouldn’t even matter if I told him my level.

“No, I already know you’re level ten.”

Oh, he already knew. When I asked him how, he told me that it was because of a blue box above my head. Huh, that was just like what I saw when I was examining monsters. Did everyone have one of these blue status boxes? If so, then why didn’t the person in front of me have one? When I asked Simon, this is what I received in response.

“Why do I not have a status box that you can see? Well that’s a secret.”

Hwaahh. That’s really helpful. The next ten minutes passed by quickly as I explained to Simon how some of my skills worked. He could tell what some of the skills did by name, but for some of the others he wanted to make sure.

“Before we train your skills, I’m going to teach you how to fight. Your skills won’t help you if you get killed five seconds in the battle after all. ”

My face scrunched in confusion as I thought about what he said. I thought I already knew how to fight. After all, if I didn’t I would’ve died a long time ago. Simon got into some sort of stance and motioned to me with his fingers. Wait, did he want me to attack him? Shrugging my shoulders, I examined his posture to see where most of his weight was. After spending a few seconds looking, I realized that I had no idea how to find his weak spots. Man, on the movies it seemed so easy.

Letting out a long sigh, I charged toward the vampire. From the look on his face I could tell that he disapproved of my attack. Ignoring his look, I narrowed my eyes and activated my concentration skill. Once Simon was almost on top of me, I utilized my earth magic to make a thin earthen pillar erupt right beneath my foot. By balancing my body, I was able to make the pillar shoot me up in the air quickly. Since he didn’t specify the rules, I was going to use my magic. I wouldn’t attack him with it however since I didn’t think that was the point of the lesson.

Glancing down towards Simon, I raised both of my hands to the air and activated wind gale. I clenched my teeth as my body came soaring down towards my opponent. Since I had used both hands with this spell, I was naturally going faster than I had ever gone before. Even with all of this armor, Simon would be hard pressed to defend. I allowed a small smirk to appear on my face as my feet neared his breastplate. But right before they would’ve hit it, he fluidly moved to the side.

Fuck.

With a sickening thud, my feet slammed into the ground. A squeal of pain was forced out of my mouth as I tried to ignore the painful sensation in my feet. Damn that hurt. Thanks to Simon dodging my attack, everything below my knee was stuck in the ground. Man, I probably should’ve thought about what would happen if Simon dodged my attack. Before I could think about my situation any more, Simon spoke.

“This is what I’m talking about. If you tried this little attack on an opponent that was stronger than you, you would be dead. Let me show you the error of your ways.”

Sweat unconsciously began to pour down my face as Simon walked toward me. I didn’t like how he said that last part. Suddenly, with a vicious grip, he grabbed my neck. Shit! Couldn’t he grab it more gently? Wrapping my hands around his, I tried to force his hands off my neck. But before I could attempt it, I was ripped from the ground and thrown across the clearing. As I flew through the air, only one question was on my mind.

How fucking powerful was this vampire?

Normally I would be scared for my life, but I wasn’t. I had been thrown into the air far too many times. It seemed that getting tossed into the air was becoming a daily occurrence. Twisting my body around in the air, I positioned both of hands to face the ground. Gathering wind beneath my palms, I let out a burst periodically to slow my descent. I was going to keep on doing this until I landed safely on the ground. But as I was slowly descending, I noticed Simon running towards me. Tch, I guess he finally decided to get serious.

Several thoughts ran through my head as I thought of how to get out of this predicament. Staying in the air wasn’t an option since I had a limited supply of mana. But if I tried landing on the ground, the damn vampire would be waiting. And I had a feeling that he wouldn’t just let me land safely on the ground.

Hmm. I needed to distract him somehow. As Simon got closer and closer to my position, my panic kept on growing. I did not want to get tossed again. My neck still had red marks from where he grabbed me. As I glanced around, I noticed Viola watching me from the side. That was it! Telling Viola my plan mentally, I stopped my wind gale so I would reach the ground faster.

The moment I did this, Simon picked up his pace. If I didn’t do anything, we would be face to face in just a few seconds. Luckily I had Viola to count on. Flying quietly behind Simon, Viola began to gather and compress air inside of a ball. Once I saw the spell she was casting, I raised my eyebrow in confusion. I had seen that spell before.

I was forced to look away as a hardened fist came surging towards my face. The hell? Why couldn’t he have gone for my stomach or something? Getting hit in the face was never pleasant. Ducking under his swing, I began to form a wind blade on my right arm. But before I could finish it, his other arm slammed into my stomach.

God Damnit

All of the oxygen left my body as I tumbled across the ground. Air! I need air! I gasped several breaths of air as I tried to refill my body with the precious resource. As I panted on the ground, I glanced up only to see Simon still coming towards me. Couldn’t I have a few seconds to rest? Thankfully it seemed that Viola was done charging up her attack so I would finally be able to go on the offensive.

With my hands on the ground, I launched three giant earthen spikes at Simon. Unlike my other spikes, these were stronger and more durable. The only drawback was that I was only able to launch a few of them. By twisting his body a few inches, Simon was able to dodge all three of my attacks. Not a single one hit him. Normally I would be discouraged, but my attack didn’t even matter. The whole point of them was to distract him. It was time to see just how powerful Viola’s wind spell was.

Viola’s ball of compressed air struck the vampire right on his back thanks to my distraction. But the force of the blow only made Simon lean forward a little bit. Tch, was the attack not effective? Then the ball exploded.

My eyes widened in shock as Simon was thrown across the clearing just as I was. Damn, how powerful was that attack? From the look on Simon’s face, it seemed he didn’t think that the attack was going to be that strong either. I sent Viola a quick mental message concerning the attack she just did. This is what she told me.

She had learned the skill wind bomb by experimenting with her attacks on a berserker rat. By compressing a ball of air, she was able to make it explode once it hit the enemy. The reason it was so effective was because it wouldn’t explode until after it hit the enemy. They would never see it coming. The only downside of the attack was that it used up all of her mana. So until she regained some more, she wouldn’t be able to launch anymore spells.

I nodded my head and took off towards Simon. Although I was still out of breath, I wouldn’t get another chance like this. This was a one-time opportunity! Conjuring three wind arrows above me, I sent them flying into the cloud of dust that had erupted from around Simon. As they soared through the air, I made both of my hands face each other. In between my hands, I began to form a ball of electricity. Ignoring the stray sparks that shocked me, I combined my ball of electricity with a ball of air. The attack Viola had done had given me quite a few ideas and I wanted to try it while Simon was down.

Once I had a ball of electrified air, I placed it gently on the ground. An angry headache pulsed throughout my head, but I ignored it. The attack I was about to do would be worth all of the pain in the end. Manipulating the earth below me, I began to make it surround the ball of electrified air. This was the first time I had tried combining three elements. If I accomplished this fusion, my attack power would expand exponentially.

Minutes flew by as I focused solely on the ball below me. I had no idea why Simon hadn’t attacked yet, but I didn’t care. My electrified ball of air was being slowly surrounded by earth. If I tried making it go faster, the ball would explode. So I had to be careful. The only problem with going slowly was that I was running out of mana. How much mana did I even have left? I glanced at my mana bar only to see it completely empty.

Shit!

Lobbing the half formed ball away from me as fast as I could, I crouched down and attempted to surround myself in an earthen dome. From the way the ball was fluctuating, I could tell it was about to explode. And I did not want to be near it when it did.

Although I tried forming an earthen dome, it didn’t work. The reason was quite simple. I didn’t have any mana left. I watched in horror as the ball began to grow brighter and bigger. This was going to hurt. But right before the explosion would’ve reached me, I was surrounded by a dome of darkness. Thanks to this dome, I was left uninjured. And from the sounds I could hear outside of the dome, I should be glad. Anything out there would be destroyed.

A few minutes later, the dome of darkness fell apart around me. It was then that I was able to see the results of my failed spell. Jagged burns stained the ground as various craters decorated the wall and the ground around me. I could still see sparks of electricity lighting up places here and there. There was also a cool breeze flowing in the clearing that wasn’t there before. Sensing someone behind me, I turned around to see Simon staring at me with a blank look on his face. Scratching my head bashfully, I began to speak.

“I guess I got a little carried away huh.”

The moment I said this, Simon pinched his nose. I could tell that he was more than a little annoyed with me. Oh well. What had he expected to happen? There was no way I could’ve won against him in my current state so I had to think of something. And if I managed to perfect the move I just butchered, good things were bound to happen.

“A little? You mean to tell me that you almost killed yourself with a failed spell and you claim that you just got a little carried away? You humans are something else. This spar was meant to show you the difference in strength between to two of us and how skills can make up for our difference in level. It was supposed to be simple.”

What can I say, accidents happen. As we were talking, Viola flew towards me from her hiding spot. With a flourish spin, she landed on my shoulder. With a shake of his head, Simon continued speaking.

“You’re lucky I was able to erect a dome of darkness before the explosion went off. If I hadn’t…..let’s say that the end results would not have been pretty.”

Oh, so it was Simon that saved me. I gave him my thanks and then thought about the dome he had created around me. In order for the dome to protect me, Simon had to be able to surround me with darkness faster than the explosion that was going off. Was he able to do this because of his skill level or because of the darkness that was around us. I might as well ask since he is right in front of me.

“You know how you just made a dome of darkness protect me?”

Simon nodded his head.

“Well I was just wondering something. Is the dome of darkness you just made more powerful here because we’re essentially in complete darkness?”

It was easy to forget that we were always in darkness thanks to my enhanced vision skill. I had some guesses about what made my elements stronger and now I would finally be able to get them answered. Hopefully.

“Yes. If you are near whatever element you are using for magic, your spell will become more powerful. My darkness for instance is almost twice as powerful than it normally would be thanks to how little light there is in this dungeon. For example, if you use water magic in the middle of the ocean, its power will strengthen exponentially. Wind and earth magic are quite powerful since it is almost always around us.”

As he spoke I nodded my head. I had thought it was like this, but I wanted to make sure. Talking about his dome of darkness made me realize something. Where was my spear? Did Simon grab it? Hopefully he did since I probably wouldn’t find another spear like it. At least until I got into the bat boss’s lair again.

It turned out that Simon did have it. Whew, that was a load off my mind. I also asked him if he would help me decipher the rune that was on my spear. After a few seconds of thinking, Simon agreed. But he would have to do it later. He had some other things planned for me to do. Once those were done, he would help me with the rune on my spear and my necromancy runes. I could hardly wait. Once I understood what my necromancy runes meant, my skill level was bound to increase.

I was ready to start the next lesson, but Simon told me to restore all of the mana I had lost. I would need quite a bit of it for the next lesson he had in mind. As I gathered mana, a small smile crept up on my face. Slowly but surely I was getting stronger. Soon nothing would be able to stand in my way.

AN: Thanks for reading and thanks for all the tips and thanks you give me. It means a lot to me.