There were currently 3 Tier I Raid Bosses and 1 Tier II active in the area and
A rumbling distracted Decklan from his thoughts He frowned because it was a rumbling he recognized from long experience in battle that was the noise hundreds of feet made when moving
He left his small burrow house and sought out the others Alana and Devan were already there grim faced and the rest of his squad was waiting for him Tera was wide eyed talking to Annie who was covered in dirt and blood but appeared unharmed
Did you cause this Decklan asked already knowing the answer
Annie winked back at him Well technically no It’s the Tier II raid boss that asshole who’s at fault If he would have just stood still for one more second
The Rabbits and Turtles were panicking groups of them hastily throwing on armor and moving up to their low walls Decklan quickly followed gazing out at the mass of monsters that was coming for the village
Quickly returning Decklan grimaced at Annie If that giant Ape Raid Boss was the culprit why are monsters from the other Raid Bosses attacking too
Annie pouted Because they are dead dummy I figured if I just killed all the Raid Bosses we could go back And I was so close That dumb neanderthal just has such thick fur how was I supposed to know that even an Empowered arrow would just annoy his throat
A roar rang out too close for Decklan’s comfort
Chapter 120
Randidly was distantly aware that Donnyton sent squads to help out their sister village which apparently was a thing but ultimately decided to ignore it He had his own work to deal with and they were adults It was no longer solely his job to defend the village And these opponents seemed to be on their level
Under Mrs Hamilton with Lyra’s occasional assistance the training continued to escalate His footwork drills came under increasing strain as Lyra used more and more mana birds moving in strange beautiful patterns to encircle him The weights he was forced to train with grew and grew
Afterwards he would have sometimes short sometimes long conversations with Lyra answering her one question a day for her assistance The longest day was of course when Lyra had wormed out his intimate relationship with Ace and Sydney and asked him how he had met Sydney
There was a short answer that they were born next to each other in the hospital on the same day and there was a longer answer that he hadn’t learned her name until his best friend Ace had brought this girl back to their apartment after a party and their eyes met both filled with recognition
Strangely as Randidly told this story he found he couldn’t stop and he told her about how the three of them had grown so close and how a shadow had come across Sydney’s life and it made him realize some things about his own life culminating in him breaking up with Tessa and walking home in the underground tunnel when the world changed
Lyra had simply nodded and walked away The next day she asked him what his favorite meal was and he answered honestly veal cutlet with spaetzle and red cabbage In the same manner she nodded again and the training continued
For the accuracy test with the hanging loops to thrust through the spinning speed increased Then he was no longer allowed to touch the hoop but had to thrust through it without disturbing its motion
The strange exercise with letters on the spinning poles grew more complicated as a second set of letters were scrawled on the sides of the pegs painted with a different color Sometimes he could use both but increasingly often he would need to use just one or need to alternate between the two Or Mrs Hamilton would make up an esoteric and pointless order for the colors and he would need to memorize that while calculating how he could move
Soon there were 4 colors and more often than not his movements led him into a dead end where he couldn’t move forward at all But eventually he could push through retrying his exercises By the end of the day he had managed to fit in everything Mrs Hamilton had planned barely and Randidly turned his focus to spells or to meditating on his Soul Skill
Around 2 AM he would then go to work with Sam slowly learning Engraving His skill improved gradually as he mastered or at least managed to achieve moderate success at controlling the flow of his mana through the needle He successfully completed one of each type of rune they had available slowly nearing 40% which Sam told him would be the line to become an uncommon quality item and therefore much more useful to the village
Still Randidly remained just a hair away from that line even after several repetitions
From dawn until Mrs Hamilton had prepared the day’s exercises Randidly went out by himself and created avatars of roots to practice the spear with Form by form detail by detail he carefully examined how the system guided him seeking to understand why those motions improved his skill with a spear and to improve on that
After two days Randidly was forced to make a more sophisticated root avatar so his grip and stance were more realistic so he could continue to refine his form A few days later Randidly had enough control and mental strength barely to manage two Avatar’s at once He pressed and pressed working tirelessly even in his rest hours After all there was no other way for him to follow his own path of strength
When he was called over to train he went slightly begrudgingly bitter and yet excited to see the impossible feats that Mrs Hamilton would set for him Although he hadn’t yet been physically unable to complete anything some had come very close And often he would fail and be forced to restart the exercise
At first these failures didn’t mean anything until one day when a new individual arrived at the scene a strange hunched over and wrinkled man who looked like a turtle For a long time while Randidly struggled through his exercises the man stood with Mrs Hamilton listening to her talking animatedly
He spoke infrequently but when he did Mrs Hamilton’s smile which Randidly had somewhat come to dread spread ever so slightly wider
Finally he completed the assigned task and after a brief water break walked over to the two individuals
This is Bert Mrs Hamilton introduced the man simply He is from Kith Klark Due to our assistance with a little pest problem earlier in the week he agreed to do one favor for our Village We have chosen to have him give you some guidance He is I am told an extremely accomplished fighter
Randidly felt it too there was something slippery about the turtle man as his eyes slowly blinked and glanced at him When he finally spoke what he said surprised Randidly greatly
You have created a skill for yourself
Randidly blinked then nodded
The turtle smiled and it was a small twisted thing and suddenly Randidly swayed slightly dizzy struck but a wave of battlelust from that old turtle But then it disappeared I will show you the exercises I used to develop the skill that made me the most powerful warrior in Kith Klark
So the old turtle did a strange scuttling dance waving for Randidly to join And under Mrs Hamilton’s approving grin he did There were three basic exercises each more strange and impossible than the last They involved squats and tiptoes and spins and rotations
After a single time through the first exercise Randidly stumbled almost falling on his face despite his high stats and his Grace skill He shook his head in wonder
Bert just grinned and completed his demonstration Luckily Mrs Hamilton’s training had familiarized Randidly with memorization so it was quite easy to follow the steps They weren’t complicated they were just designed to be impossible for legs to actually perform
Strength comes from the base Do these and your base will be strong Bert grunted turning back to Randidly But remember to form a skill most important is
Image Randidly whispered and Bert grinned at him and then turned and left