Shal chuckled No But it is a way that non spearman can slowly come to know the spear Even I am not yet even close to being spearman I am a man with a spear But to you
His spear blurred and Randidly felt his left arm which was lightly holding onto the spear shatter from the impact But to you such concerns are too far in the future For now do you best to survive
And through mana shields and Iron Skin Randidly did his best
Chapter 14
Time had lost meaning There was only opening of his eyes in the morning the training and closing the eyes at night
Randidly wondered about whether even that was an accurate way to tell time As time passed as one week of the hellish training turned to two the time they spent training grew And yet night never came before Randidly laid his head down on the ground There was a strange magic in the place that the day would continue for as long as necessary for it to be filled
Which made him realize that time meant increasingly little and that the span of time he spent inside this dungeon was growing much faster than could be anticipated
But even as his worries mounted Randidly did not try and rush things nor ask Shal It was all that Randidly could do it survive the exponential increase in difficulty His skills grew at a prodigious rate under the large strain Each day Shal had found some new way to torture him to push his limits
Randidly swiftly gained the skills Fighting Proficiency First Aid and Block And Shal seemed to know and to change up his strategies to isolate those new skills forcing them upwards
It only took a week and a half for Randidly to gather enough PP to finish off the Shal’s disciple path Shal had recommended that he refrain from putting the PP in until all at once so he could experience how the stat changes affected him by feeling it all at once rather than gradually So Randidly had putting the last 24 PP in all at once
So starting with 14 it was
Congratulations +3 End +2 Agi
Congratulations +1 Vit +1 Agi +1 Int +2 Reaction You have learned the skill Spear Phantom’s Footwork Lvl 1
Congratulations +4 Agi +1 Per
Congratulations +1 Agi You have Eyes of the Spear Phantom Lvl 1
Congratulations You have earned 5 stat point
Congratulations You have completed the Disciple of Shal Path You have learned Phantom Half Step Lvl 1
It was 24 distributable points in total and upon Shal’s urging Randidly chose to put it all into Willpower Immediately he felt his mind sharp and clear There was a focus that he hadn’t possessed before Although focus isn’t such a good word for it due to the stat labeled focus
With firm eyes he met Shal’s gaze
Shal grinned Good Finally some spunk What skills did you learn
At the end Shal grunted Your luck is pretty good Those are all core skills Now show me this half step It appears to be an inferior version of the Step of the Spear Phantom’
Randidly did so It was a skill that needed a target so Randidly targeted Shal Immediately Randidly felt something strange He could use it in two ways away or towards Deciding to do towards Randidly stepped
He immediately appeared halfway between his original position and Shal He tried again stepping backwards But unfortunately the skill took 80 stamina and he barely had enough to use it once
But Shal didn’t require anymore demonstrations and grim faced began the training
The great weakness of the Step of the Spear Phantom is the lack of utility It can cross vast gulfs to appear before an opponent but the distance is such that you must immediately attack or risk the opponent getting within you guard But this Half Step of his Although it is clearly a strange mutation Its potential is limitless ’
Although Randidly’s Willpower had reached the level Shal desired the training continued focusing on the new skills that Randidly had learned If anything it intensified
It was brutal and every day the training ended not because of weariness but that Randidly’s injuries had reached the point where he couldn’t continue
There was a small part of Randidly’s heart that was unsatisfied at the continued trainings but one day as if sensing this Shal allowed Randidly to fight against a howler monkey
The experience quickly dispelled any lingering doubts in Randidly’s heart he remained weak Although he had mana skills the howler monkey’s vastly superior health let it force health trades that Randidly could not keep up with Very soon Randidly was out of mana and only Mana Shield and Entangling Roots allowed Randidly to escape fleeing back to Shal who watched on with cool eyes
Why did you lose Shal spared the monkey a glance and it was enough to send it stumbling backwards unwilling but intimidated by the obvious power of Shal
The difference in stats Randidly finally said unwillingly
Nodding slowly Shal finally said and it will continue as such until you leave this place and find a Guide to give you a class So what will you do
Clenching his fist Randidly said Raise my skill level to the point that stats become meaningless
Shall simply laughed
Chapter 15
Randidly began ripping through paths as his skill level shot up He began with Pathless IV which gave him 1 stat point at 5 and 10
Congratulations You have completed the Pathless IV Path +3 stat You have realized that all paths are the same and all paths lead to the same place
In a rare conversation between them during training Randidly asked Shal whether he had any further recommendations about stat distribution Shall just snorted and spun his spear the spearhead ripping through the muscle of Randidly’s shoulder
So after careful consideration Randidly decided to return to his initial plans of raising his skills at mage craft So 3 of the stats went into Int 1 into Control and Focus
But Randidly didn’t stop there The training had had truly unfathomable results Randidly had more than enough PP to complete Pathless V Pathless VI and Pathless VII
Altogether they gave 25 stats 10 went into Int and 5 to Control Focus and End End was due to the fact that as Randidly’s skills expanded he began to use an increasing amount of stamina just to fight The brief skirmish with the howler monkey had disturbed him
The day after Randidly unleashed his magic with wild abandon throwing out Mana Bolts as fast as he could None of them landed but their strength definitely caught Shal’s eye And the boost in power was enough to give Shal pause
That day Randidly’s mana based training shifted and the Howler Monkey’s became his new training partners It was less of an exercise in him overcoming but more of him surviving Entangling Roots and Mana Shield underwent a baptism of constant use their skill level rising quickly
Mana Bolt became Randidly’s bread and butter the increase in his Int was enough that a direct hit to the face of a Howler Monkey would stun them giving him time to escape
Struggling in this new environment Randidly completed Pathless VIII which netted him 11 stat points to distribute These all went into Control Shal began forcing Randidly deeper and deeper into the forest and now it was a common occurrence for 7 8 monkeys to be chasing him down He couldn’t afford to miss That would mean being caught And being caught led to one thing
Death
There was only one time that this was close to happening The combined rock throws and a tackle by a monkey had broken through his mana shield and brought him to the ground
The monkey had a rock in hand and brought it smashing down towards Randidly’s head He reflexively activated Iron Skin but he still felt something crack when the rock struck him
Although Randidly was dizzy he still instantly produced the dagger he had found inside the snake but the monkey reacted quickly using his free arm to catch Randidly’s wrist Because it was so unexpected Randidly did nothing for several seconds he just laid there gaping
The howler monkey screaming its glee raised its stone and brought it down again
Again Randidly activated Iron Skin but the pain in his head grew only larger the vision in his left eye fading to black