Still Shal just looked at Randidly Randidly gritted his teeth and pushed himself up He wasn’t truly an interesting person before the system He was quiet and disliked interactions with others Without the pressure of classes he never would have met Tessa Without being forced to have a roommate he never would have met Ace Sydney
Well Sydney was a special case They were always connected in a way
But he had been bland sleepwalking through life Then the system had arrived and crushed the previous world and left chaos and death in its wake But also a path that led to power Where before Randidly had just been a quiet guy as he founded Donnyton and interacted with others he slowly discovered his identity he was someone strong
Shal had showed him the basics and then needed him to return and use the strength Randidly had borrowed from him to do him a favor In that Randidly stubbornly found a new version of himself he was a man who would keep his word
No matter what it took That was a type of strength he wanted to possess
So even though his body was barely able to keep his limbs in working condition despite the furious pulse of Aether Randidly stood swaying He settled into a fighting stance and lowered his spear to point the tip at Shal And so it would begin again
Some of Randidly’s previous rivals were curious and watched from afar but after seeing Shal move none dared approach It annoyed Randidly but Shal was clearly too powerful to be here even when he used a regular spear and not his personal spear
As they expected the prison did not pursue them even though Shal was a prisoner a few tiers higher than Randidly So they remained in peace with no disturbances
About a month and a half after they escaped Randidly had grinded his skills mostly Spear Mastery Spear Phantom’s Footwork the Inevitable Phantom Arrives and Bacterial Regeneration enough that he reached 500 in Path of Carnage V and received the familiar notification
Congratulations You have completed the Path of Carnage V Everything around you is blank and barren The loneliness of your path lays across your shoulders like a cloak Your hands stink of blood You finally arrive at a crossroads To your right the path leads towards the keeps of your enemies To your left the untamed wilderness stretches unending as far as your eye can see But before you a rusty sword sticks out of the ground Shall you take the sword and depart from this path here Shall you head to your enemies keeps Shall you head into the wilderness You have encountered an Extending Path Continue or recieve your current reward
For several long seconds Randidly hesitated with his finger over the option to select the sword but then he sighed and lowered his hand He couldn’t bear the thought of remaining on this path without receiving the greatest reward for it There had to be something further
But the next thing would be Path of Carnage VI How could the 6th stage really be the last one Still he would not choose the sword Instead he considered what to take of the other two Sure he did want to be able to attack the keeps of his enemies but that might include skills or qualities that a leader would require That wasn’t truly him He preferred throwing himself into the unknown So he chose the left path into the wilderness
You have passed the Warlord’s Sword The rewards for choosing the Warlord’s Sword +12 Str +10 Agi +5 Vit and End Quelling Blow (Un) Lvl 1
You have passed the Path of the Conqueror Yours is not the bloodletting that inspires others to follow you
Randidly checked and sure enough Path of Carnage V 500/500 was now Path of Carnage VI 500/1000 He could only grit his teeth swearing that he would resist the impulse next time to choose the longer payoff After all if he didn’t receive anymore benefits from this path some very useful paths were beginning to pile up while he remained here
But these things were put out of Randidly’s mind training took all of his attention and effort Shal wasn’t trying to kill him he was just trying to keep Randidly as close to death as possible without crossing that last line At this Shal was very very good
Blood routinely filled Randidly’s lungs His legs were sliced and lacerated and his arms trembled Shal had Randidly use both training spears and the larger obsidian one attempting to master different methods but Shal seemed only endlessly disappointed Still it was obvious that the training was having effects
The most obvious one was how quickly Randidly now sprung back from near fatal blows His body seemed to leap to healing with alacrity earning Randidly Shal’s grudging admiration
Truly you were made to be bullied Shal commented on one of the rare occasions the training stopped long enough for a meal Randidly was too tired to even answer
But it was also clear that his spear arts were progressing even if it wasn’t at the rate that Shal wanted Through repetition and brutal training this was slowly being made up one strike at a time So exhausting and brutal was the training that Randidly largely dropped all of his Engraving He still trained spells when he could mostly the Weeping Cloud to recover but anything more he just didn’t have any gas in the tank
Chapter 158
This process continued until a familiar face arrived looking for Randidly Marco Polo At first Randidly was excited that there would finally be a distraction then he was worried that Shal would kill Marco for interrupting and there was indeed a long moment of tension as Marco Polo arrived his jovial face falling as he saw Randidly reduced to such a miserable state hanging onto life by a thin thread
Still Randidly reflected as Marco slowly turned to Shal it probably wasn’t apparent but the thread was thin but strong It had served him well thus far He just seemed extremely pathetic
But something passed across Marco Polo’s face very quickly and he bowed slightly Shal nodded in return It seemed that they instinctively recognized their relative strength and it was not close Shal was more powerful than Randidly had expected
What he had also not expected was that Marco would quickly come around to the idea of training Randidly and bring his own exercises and tortures to the table More along the lines of Mrs Hamilton Marco believed that repetition outside of battle would have a powerful effect on building up things like endurance and muscle memory so more exercises were worked into the routine
In theory Randidly was all for it he was tired of being almost murdered for hours on end In practice he swiftly was filled with dread by the exercises that Marco suggested Often there would be heavy penalties associated with deviating from the exercises of failing at balance or improperly following instructions which were much worse than simply being attacked These were designed to inflict pain
As the brutal training now with Marco Polo’s assistance stretched on first one month then two and his skill growth slowed Randidly was forced to wonder whether Shal had a point he was a rather talentless individual when it came to the spear But he tried to ignore those thoughts Which was rather difficult when Marco took to expressing them constantly
Ah boy boy you are truly cursed To have such a powerful master yet be so unworthy it is a hard burden to bare Fear not I will encourage you no matter how pathetic you may be
A hot flame of rage and humiliation began to burn within Randidly constantly driving him forward The sighs and snide expressions from Marco were even more motivating that Shal’s brutal glares
There were moments when it got so bad that Randidly considered murdering them both with spells so they wouldn’t expect it But he was forced to admit that it probably wouldn’t work especially on Shal And it truly seemed like they were doing it to help him
However sometimes it was very hard to remain focused on this fact especially when they constantly discussed how disappointing he was It was purposeful Randidly knew but that didn’t mean it didn’t affect him