As they were escorted through the strange alien village Alana noticed several things
First was that the village consisted of three groups with the two main ones being the rabbit people and the turtle people They fraternized a little but mostly the groups of people they passed heading to the village spirit’s house was made up of one or the other but not often both And their philosophical differences seemed to be at the center of what the group from Donnyton had witnessed
The third group was what Alana believed to be the youth of the village but they were strangely uniform and shrunken with tight grey skin They didn’t appear to be either rabbit or turtle people and Alana was rather mystified by their presence
Finally they arrived and were ushered into a large building There was a circle of benches where several aged individuals sat At the center a grey haired rabbit and a turtle with a long beard sat the former on her feet glowering the latter stroking his beard
Grandma As you requested I’ve returned after making contact Razor began but he was swiftly cut off
You idiot Why the hell did you take so long The elderly female rabbit snapped smashing her fist down on the table Alana’s eyes narrowed slightly Not only was her fist blow obviously strong enough to create a shockwave of force but the table barely trembled This was system enhanced wood
Razor shrugged awkwardly looking sheepish It was just I didn’t know who to talk to It seemed like the people over there didn’t even know that the portal was opening
Hmm Be that as it may your chest young Fleetfoot The turtle spoke his words slow Are those wounds
Razor’s hands balled into fists I’m only wounded because
But this time Razor was cut off by his sister whose hand clamped down on his shoulder The room was very still
Finish that sentence The elderly grey rabbit’s tone was frigid Her gaze slid sideways to the elderly turtle who was looking with apparent concern towards Razor
This woman must be Grandma ’ Alana thought to herself Her eyes scanned to the sides seeing both Rabbits and Turtles in armor standing around It would not be easy to leave this place without their hosts’ assistance And for whatever reason it seemed that the other female rabbit was preventing Razor from telling the truth
Looking at the ground I’m only wounded because I fell down a hill
Is that so The grey rabbit’s eyes floated sideways to Alana So then strange travelers tell us how could you allow my grandson to fall so dangerously down a hill But more importantly how are you willing to make it up to me
With a gift obviously
Alana Devan and Razor all blinked Kiersty who had been carried here unconscious by Devan sat up
We are going to have to go outside though She added Plants need sunlight to grow
Well it’s not exactly simple but it’s not exactly hard either Do you think you can manage it Sam said scratching his head
Randidly looked in wonder at the needle in his hand covered in a network of runes He nodded slowly
Yes I believe so For when Randidly held the needle his normally recalcitrant mana trembled Initially Randidly had been very dubious over whether he could learn this skill especially without notifications That extra hint that flash of knowledge those were what he had relied on thus far to learn skills But he supposed that even without the notifications he was still gaining experience So there was no difference
The second problem that Randidly thought he would encounter was channeling the mana He had never been able to get his mana to so much as acknowledge him But the needle felt like literally a needle poking that impenetrable bubble that had been around his mana allowing the mana to flow freely down the needle to the tip
Of course he couldn’t do anything but basically control the amount that was flowing down the needle to etch with and even that was quite shaky But still Proof of a concept It was not that it was impossible to manipulate mana just that his method wasn’t currently sophisticated enough Again Randidly couldn’t help but admire Lyra’s accomplishments
But for now he furrowed his brow and focused on the iron shield in front of him focusing on flawlessly carving the lines of the Bear rune onto it It really wasn’t all that mentally restive in a way Of all the exercises although the others tired him out and the letters on the peg were endlessly frustrating nothing required the constant focus of this
At the same time it was enjoyable to lose himself in the focus It would make Randidly reflected a nice hobby
Chapter 116
The next day passed in a blur
When he wasn’t being derided by Sam for his lack of mana control he was going through one of Mrs Hamilton’s training games or dodging around Lyra’s mana birds which were becoming increasingly difficult to avoid Between those exercises Randidly ate as much food as he could fit inside of himself and burned through his mana throwing out spell after spell flexing the extra mana to increase the effectiveness He believed that he was slowly growing more proficient in this method but it was hard to tell
Then there were the times that Randidly trained in the individual steps of Footwork of the Spear Phantom familiarizing himself with the moves Only by repetition would the distances he could travel with the different steps become instinct and he would truly be on the path to mastery
Randidly also took time out of the day to practice his spear moves and skills He considered trying to improve the effectiveness of his Ashen Spear skill and perhaps learn the next Kata but Randidly didn’t know where to begin Once more he believed that the spear move was created due to the powerful image that Randidly had at the time
That image was due to Shal’s teaching and philosophies about the spear as well as Randidly’s own previous insights into the power that was Ash Together they formed a powerful penetrative move To develop another such move he would likely have to have more ideas and images about what to do Instead it would perhaps be more effective to simply improve on the moves he had now familiarizing himself with them
Which Randidly hoped would happen naturally during this time of training His ideas about how a spear advances would hopefully change and his meditative moments when he slowly settled and watched the soul skill cycle within himself gave him more and more insights into ash At some point he would be able to combine them he hoped but now was much too early
Instead he just threw himself into the training Unlike training under Shal there was no constant threat of violence but in a way that only made things worse There were moments where Randidly waivered during Mrs Hamilton’s grueling exercise regimen and wanted to quit or ease up Was it really necessary to go to such lengths Was it really possible to accomplish such things without improving his stats
Mrs Hamilton certainly thought so Randidly thought so initially but when he thought about how much the difficulty would increase over the next two weeks
After one of the exercises where Randidly dodged the mana birds he looked over to Lyra who was sitting on the ground His eyes widened as he saw that she grimly glared at him wiping a long thin trail of blood that was coming out of her nose Then she soundlessly stood and walked away
He obviously had noticed that the birds were moving in increasingly complicated patterns that made it difficult to dodge And he had noticed that halfway through just as he was starting to run out of options dodging became much easier He had assumed it was because his knowledge of the steps was beginning to pay dividends which was probably true but if it was also because he wasn’t the only one pushing himself beyond his limits
If Lyra was struggling furiously to grow stronger too
Randidly’s eyes narrowed That was right he wasn’t simply racing down this path in order to see what lay at the end but also because there were other individuals out there struggling forward on their own paths It wasn’t enough to be strong but you also needed to be stronger than the people who mean you harm
This Randidly said aloud watching Lyra walk away speaking quietly so she wouldn’t hear This isn’t enough I need more