Time continued to flow on until it had truly lost meaning to Randidly but he believed it to have been around 6 months since they had come down to the Badlands and started Shal’s training At that time something else changed he was allowed to fight other people
The local spear users had been aware of Randidly’s hellish training and largely made fun of him During that time Randidly transformed that chemical hot anger and turned it on those others of whom he was insanely envious To freely wander without constantly training all day So it was with great enthusiasm that he began to wander afield and challenge people
He won
And he won again And again
Honestly Randidly felt very little challenge from them He perhaps hadn’t realized it because each skill had only gained about 10 or so levels even after all this training but when 20 skills gained 10 levels that was the difference of 200 skill levels It was quickly starting to add up
He was also pleased to see that fighting in battles and testing out different things that he had thought about while training once more added a bit more to the speed with which his skills grew Hoping to prolong this effect he began taking the black potion which still remained strangely full much more frequently completely cutting himself off from notifications He submerged himself in the feelings of fighting and violence searching for efficiency and grace
They were eventually forced to move from the Southeast to the middle of the East where Randidly once more began to struggle But Shal and Marco Polo were unforgiving teachers They pushed and pushed demanding constant advancement Slowly bitterly he fought and continued to win
It was now mostly due to the accumulated experience of having constantly fought for so long and the growing realization that Randidly possessed a body that could withstand damage much better than most of the people he faced Very quickly he realized how to force exchanges that were perhaps even a little in his opponent’s favor but his superior regeneration passives quickly enabled him to fight through it and grasp victory
But the string of victories was not to last Just at the edge of the Eastern area before the Northeast there was a wall of Spear users who beat Randidly back again and again and again and again leaving him bloody and broken in a way that was much more dangerous than Shal or Marco Polo
Finally his master relented and he trotted back exhausted Shal walked over to him and held out his hand Your spears Give them to me For a month you do not deserve to even hold the weapon after that performance
Randidly gritted his teeth and glared up at Shal But Shal’s face remained impassive Marco Polo happily ate off to the side seemingly oblivious to the whole exchange They stared at each other for several seconds Randidly did not move But neither did Shal
Finally while grinding his teeth Randidly handed over the obsidian spear and the dozen or so remaining bone spears Sam had made him for training Shal simply nodded and left
For several long minutes Randidly sat looking at the ground shame pumping through his arteries instead of blood But Randidly felt very clearly that he had hit a wall The difference in strength between him and those spear users was like the difference that existed between him and the people from the Southeastern area now It was the difference of skill levels in the triple digits With it feeling like he wasn’t improving in Spear skills perhaps it was a good idea to take a break
It was just bitter to admit that he was weak
Shaking his head sadly and trying to shake a strange melancholy Randidly produced a bracer used Weeping Cloud and began to engrave
Shal sat next to the strange fat man and watched his student Engrave They both remained quiet for a long time Shal thought the focus on Engraving was foolish especially considering how much trouble they could truly encounter if the guilds discovered it but it was hard to worry about such things here
Marco coughed and then sighed That boy is monstrous
Shal allowed himself a small smile He had always expected that within his disciple’s body was something more than a talent for running and it had been true Although he didn’t have any natural affinity for using a spear he quickly picked up the ways to commit acts of violence and had a sharp mind for battle tactics
It had been slightly daunting to train him at first due to his strange ability to recover so quickly which was why Shal allowed Marco Polo to remain although he was leery of staying around him a man who clearly recognized Shal and Shal’s school But he was skilled enough and gave Shal some time away from the zombie that his student was becoming so it worked out
Has his skill always risen so quickly And his recovery Marco Polo continued to speak shooting small glances at Shal The only response that he received was a chuckle Shal had some guesses as to why his growth was so quick but Shal respected his disciple’s secrets The amount of improvement had been quite staggering however
So much so that it was somewhat of a hassle to travel all the way over here to an area where there were spear users that would defeat them His disciple was distinctly too clever for his own good learning to rely on his superior physical capacity to bully his way here That was a dead end and Shal had rushed them forward as fast as possible to get away from that so Randidly didn’t develop any bad habits
Now that they had made it to a very distinct line in skill it was time to settle and allow some of the training he had gone through to sink into his bones Already the attitude seemed much improved All that was left was to finalize the images Shal smiled and closed his eyes
Marco Polo sat silent for a long time then spoke hesitatingly Did you truly simply come here to train I suppose that this is filled with skilled spear users but to come here and throw your disciple to the dogs like this I do not know any other Style as crazy as yours
Shal’s eyes snapped open and he shot Marco a glare losing control of his Battle Intent for a second The man paled and fell backwards scared out of his mind
I I Didn’t mean
No worry not What you say is true Shal closed his eyes forcing the anger down After all the reason that all this was necessary was revenge A revenge he couldn’t let go of now that he had smelled The Spear Phantom Style only attracts those with unearthly determination and drive Those who do not accept the bonds of the world
Allowing himself a small pleased smile Shal looked over at Randidly and said barely audibly Even our youngest member
Chapter 159
It really was only a month but Shal forced him to remain calm for a month It was annoying at first but as Randidly let go of the shame this month really let him focus on mastering his increasingly high Control and Focus stats Where those didn’t boost his damage in quite the same way as Intelligence it let him cast the spells more quickly and accurately which in a fight was more important
After stalling out in the spear it was also nice to gain some relatively easy levels in some of his other skills pushing them to the forefront Of them all Randidly chose Incendiary Bolt as his main focus to allow him to have enough direct target damage to get him out of any sticky situations This tournament would be mostly 1 v 1 after all and would likely give him an edge against most opponents
At the end of the month Randidly was once more allowed to use spears but the training had mellowed somewhat with Marco Polo taking over most of the direction while Shal sequestered himself in a small tent Randidly was curious but could only shrug One thing at a time
So he allowed Marco to beat his bad habits and hesitation out of him So much so that although his skills and stats weren’t changing much what had changed was the way that Randidly looked at fights
Fights were fast brutal things Especially against Donnyton Randidly had taken advantage of the fact that he was faster and hit harder than everyone else His consumption of Stamina was prodigious but it almost allowed him to succeed despite the fact that he was facing dozens of people