Uh no The assistant seemed to squirm It’s uh A talking rabbit
Hahaha Sam laughed slapping his knee Who knew that this guy was such a jokester Normally he would hit him with a wooden 2 x 4 for such a flippant comment but violence in front of Regina was a bit Well let’s not keep her waiting then
No I think the rabbit is male The assistant interjected anxiously
Sam froze and then turned slowly to look at the man
Setting aside magic for now Mrs Hamilton said glancing at Lyra The training will be split into 4 areas Physical Fitness Attack Accuracy Footwork and Perception Randidly you already have skills for all 4 of these correct
Then we will begin immediately You have taken a sip of the potion
Randidly nodded again
The goal is to always be working two of the 4 areas at once We shall start with Physical Fitness and Footwork Please put on the jacket
As well as her notes Mrs Hamilton had brought over a wagon pulled by a very large and very well behaved wolverine Even as she was speaking to Randidly the wolverine was nosing towards Mrs Hamilton’s pockets looking for treats Exasperated she removed a banana from her spatial ring which the wolverine lumbered over to and began to eat with gusto
On the wagon was a sizable looking vest Randidly picked it up and his eyebrows rose This vest was likely around 200 pounds Although he probably wouldn’t notice the extra weight initially especially after carrying around a spear for so long that was just over 250 it would still begin to drag on him as the exercises dragged on for a while
Putting on the jacket Randidly turned back to Mrs Hamilton who was now looking at Lyra Although we eventually plan on setting up a mechanical apparatus the details are still being hammered out As it is Miss Silver will be handling the footwork portion of this activity
With a snap of her fingers 12 glowing blue birds came into being They began to fly in lazy circles criss crossing one another the group of them slowly drifting towards Randidly
I didn’t hold back you know Lyra added With how low your resistance is I wouldn’t recommend letting them touch you It would be so tragic to have to patch up that nice vest that everyone worked so hard to make for you now wouldn’t it
Depressed and thoroughly shaken Razor Fleetfoot stumbled away from the incredibly loud building run by the incredibly loud and angry hairless male Sighing Razor ignored the weird looks that everyone kept giving him and walked over to a strange tree with burning leaves next to a watchtower
Feeling profoundly tired he sat under it and leaned back against it Why were things so different than what the elders had anticipated It was all just so
So
Abruptly Razor felt like the world was swaying softly around him He shifted enjoying the leisurely movements a smile coming to his face
Perhaps he had just become too obsessed It might be good to take a small break here
All at once the stress of being yelled at faded away and Razor relaxed falling asleep against the tree that moved evenly slowly rocking him to sleep
Chapter 110
Lyra watched Randidly carefully as he went through the second exercise this one focused on weapon accuracy and eyesight It was an extremely large mobile with dozens of small wooden disks hanging from it The disks were numbered 1 through 60 Randidly’s task was simple hit them with his spear in order within a certain amount of time Complications emerged as Randidly had to hit them while they rotated slowly around him and also while the disks themselves spun sometimes hiding their numbers from him as they were only written on one side
But despite this his spear blurred his expression determined the soft click of wood evidencing his success Although most of it was due to the fact he appeared to have memorized where the first 30 or so were They would need to rearrange where they were hanging soon
With his eyes narrowed his mouth firmed into a line he seemed extremely capable and Lyra couldn’t help but feel a bit of that old longing for his approval an acknowledgement from him Still it was different now without the strange magic that the system had worked on them drawing them closer to one another
Unfortunately the exercise that Lyra had administered had gone rather poorly Mrs Hamilton had insisted that she keep a steady number of birds and keep them at a steady speed to use as a baseline Therefore although Randidly was forced to dodge back and forth and he was clearly out of breath by the end it wasn’t the embarrassing performance that Lyra had assumed would happen in her heart
The weight was obviously having an effect on him but it wasn’t enough his skills still let him move with an unnatural grace avoiding her swarming birds If she had been allowed to make them move just a little faster
But Lyra had learned very early on in her life that playing outside the rules didn’t pay off in the end It was much more satisfying to beat him at the game than cheat
How smart are you
Lyra blinked turning to look at Mrs Hamilton who was regarding her speculatively Excuse me
Oh I didn’t mean in a bad way Just I have some thoughts about the dodging exercise and I just need to know how much complexity you can handle
Frowning Lyra said as much as you can give I can use more birds
No that’s unnecessary Mrs Hamilton said shaking her head Just like he’s training consider this training for you too The problem isn’t the number of birds although the problem might solve itself with more birds Just like Randidly would still be strong just by increasing his stats to the point his skill levels don’t matter Maybe even by getting a class But do you know why he doesn’t do that
Inwardly Lyra was torn between feeling annoyed and feeling intrigued She had always known that Mrs Hamilton had expertly handled the NCC village and basically managed housing production potion making food and clothing distribution but that had always struck Lyra as slightly dull But now as Mrs Hamilton coldly looked her in the eye a small smile on her face Lyra abruptly remembered that Randidly had given this woman a very sinister sounding class
So she suppressed her annoyance and like any good actor allowed the emotion the audience wanted to see come to the surface Curious Lyra said Because our Randidly’s normal face hides a perfectionist He wants every advantage he can have
Yes in a way He takes the extremely long view Based on his actions he seems to think that an impending crisis is just beyond the horizon Pausing Mrs Hamilton turned and looked back towards the village She stood still for so long that Lyra thought she would have to speak but just as she was about to Mrs Hamilton turned back shaking her head
Well if something bad happens I’m sure someone else will notice Anyways the reason Randidly can dodge is because when you attack with the birds you are only moving 2 or 3 at the same time The rest just drift in a direction I suggest instead of attacking you work on making several smaller units and just move them around Namely 3 rings of 4 birds moving in a circle Go on try it
Lyra did making the 3 circles She furrowed her brow and was able to swiftly get the hang of it Honestly once you had them set it was relatively easy and she was able to tie the mana together in such a way that it didn’t take much attention
Good Now I’m going to switch up the disks and have Randidly try this exercise again from the beginning In the meantime try and master 3 things moving the rings with the birds staying in formation widening and tightening the rings and reversing the flow of the birds Once you can manage those three things we will see how easy it is for Randidly to dodge
Alana sat with her legs folded beneath her contemplating It was a simple thing but it was a question that had tortured her endlessly should she get her very rare sounding class or should she continue to train
It was now widespread knowledge that a certain amount of skill levels quite a bit over 400 without getting a class would lead to a strange Aether Starvation but the Ghosthound had made some cryptic comments to her the previous night that would seem to indicate that she didn’t have to worry about this issue and could continue to train for as long as she wished