Chapter 25

Crimson sat back in his hospital bed. It was unfortunate that the hooded man had escaped unmolested, but at least his efforts weren’t wasted and he learned quite a bit about affinities. Lena sat quietly on his shoulder, not saying anything.

The nurse on duty walked over to him and politely told him that he could “leave at any time” while making it clear that he was to get out as fast as humanly possible. It was clear that she heard what Rhinese had told him about wanting her Class. Before leaving Crimson made sure to thank her, then left as fast as he could without running. The look in her eyes promised the opposite of ‘gentle loving care’ that most hospitals in his old world were proud of. She may be good at her job, but having a Cat-Kin as the nurse may be a bad idea: her hearing plus her personality made her dangerous if she heard something that she wasn’t supposed to.

Crimson walked out of the infirmary, unsure where to go, when he discovered a maid waiting for him. She gave him a dainty bow.

“Please follow me.”

“Yes, thank you for showing me the way.”

“It is her highness’ wish.”

He followed her to the front entrance of the castle, passing a few maids on the way. The exited into the main hall from the hallway opposite the one leading to the cafeteria. Crimson bowed to her and thanked her again, to which he got another dainty bow, before he left.

It was still night so he ran back to the barracks; Lars had fallen asleep at the front desk so Crimson poked him a few times to wake him up.

“Huh…Wazzat? Wazzit?”

“Lars, you need to go to bed!”

“Hah? Oh, brother! You finally got back, you had me worried!”

“Yeah, I was in the infirmary. Don’t worry though! I’m fine now.”

“I’m glad you’re okay brother. You better head to bed I think tomorrow will be a rough day for you.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see brother. Just brace yourself.”

Crimson bade the Tiger-Kin goodnight and headed to bed.

What’s going on tomorrow that would have Lars flicking his ears like that?

- - - - -

Crimson was on the training field. He’d been doing his training for the past few hours with Lena quietly watching him. She hadn’t said a word since he shouted at her in the library and he was worried, but he wouldn’t talk to her first. He strongly believed in giving people space when they need it and Lena apparently wanted space. When she was ready, she would talk to him.

He really wanted to open the affinities tab in his menu, but it was best to wait until Lena was talking to him again. He finally decided to check his gains instead, hoping he leveled up running again.

Skill: Level up [Balance IV]

Skill: Acquired [Focused Mind I]

Skill: Level up [Focused Mind II]

Skill: Level up [Running IV]

Well…he did level [Running], but he didn’t recognize the [Focused Mind] skill.

[Focused Mind]: A skill that assists in focusing the mind on a task and ignoring distractions

Lore: There are a lot of distracting things out there: girls, pain, girls, hunger, and girls! Gotta keep your mind off them if you want to get anything done.

Bonus: Increases ability to ignore pain and hunger by 10% per level, max 75%. Boosts resistance to Charm, Mind Control, and Illusion magic by 5% per level.

…Why does this skill seem to think that I spend all my time thinking about girls?

Aside from the Lore [Focused Mind] was an amazing skill for it’s bonuses. It would be a big help just for the first half of the bonuses, but that second half…he felt almost like tap dancing. It was worth the pain!!

Lena chose this moment to pad over to him. She looked up at him and in a small voice asked, “Would you please pick me up master?”

He leaned down and gathered her into the palms of his hands, like the very first time he met her and brought her up to eye level.

She looked at him for a moment before she started crying.

“I’m sorry master! So, so, so sorry! I couldn’t do anything and you almost died! I was useless! I’m nothing more than a waste of your time! I-“

Crimson cut her off by hugging her tightly, but not too tightly. “It’s okay Lena. You don’t need to beat yourself up over things that you can’t do anything in. You can’t interact with anybody but me and you’re only a few days old. Cut yourself some slack. You did exactly what I asked and you trusted me. That’s all I ask for Lena. I’m not going to hold you to unreasonable expectations; so, you shouldn’t beat yourself up over them.”

Lena cried for a few more minutes before she stopped. Crimson held her the whole time.

“Thank you master,” she said in a small voice, “can I ride on your shoulder now?”

“Of course you can.”

He set her back on his shoulder and resumed his exercises, careful of the cub on his shoulder the entire time.

Skill: Level up [Lena IV]

Dang.

- - - - - -

Crimson went to the cafeteria and got breakfast right when it opened. Unfortunately he didn’t see Sariya or Lars. After eating he went back to the training field which, unlike the previous days, was starting to fill with a few DGs training. There was one especially interesting person on the field who was getting nervous looks from the training DGs:

Captain Mars Ursidae.

He spotted Crimson and beckoned him over.

He complied while feeling nervous. This was only the second time he’d met the Bear-Kin and he’d forgotten how imposing he was. Honestly, Crimson hadn’t even really noticed how powerful he look the first time he met Mars.

“I thought I was given a week to train Captain?”

“You still have four days recruit. I’m just here to help you train to get the Class you want.”

Dang. I was going to check my affinities.

“Thank you Sir!”

“What Class are you training for?”

“I would like to get the best Swordsman Class I can sir.”

Though my version of ‘best’ is definitely different than yours.

Mars nodded.

“Very well then. Go grab a wood sword off the rack.”

Crimson sprinted over to the rack of wooden weapons and grabbed a simple sword off the rack. It was big enough to be used two handed, but small enough to be used with one. Honestly, I’d like a Katana or Odachi, but it’s best to learn on something simple like this. I don’t even know if I can get a Katana here.

He ran back to Mars and stood at attention. Mars now held a wooden spear 3 yards in length and was staring Crimson down like he’d just woken him during hibernation.

“We’re gonna start off with sparring. I want to gauge your abilities.”

“Yes sir!”

Crimson felt extremely excited. He fully understood that Mars was about to wipe the floor with him, but it was his first fight: even if it wasn’t real.

He took a two handed grip on the sword and turned slightly off center. Time to use my theoretical W.C. Kung Fu for all its got!

A big focus on W.C. Kung Fu is positioning and Crimson started using that. He didn’t present his whole body for Mars to strike as he charged him. Instead of attacking him head on he slid over to Mars’ left hand, the hand not holding the spear, and performed a quick strike as he dodged to the side.

Good thing he did. The second Mars felt Crimson’s wooden sword make contact he performed an overhead strike with his spear that would have caused some blunt force trauma if it had hit.

Crimson quickly backed off and tried to assess the situation, but he didn’t get the chance because Mars performed his own charge attack: leading with his spearhead.

The only reason Crimson was able to dodge when he dove out of the way, holding his sword carefully to the side, was because Mars was holding back. Had he been going all out Crimson would have been impaled, wooden spear or no wooden spear.

Crimson spun around and tried to slice Mars on the back of the legs and was met with a spear pressed up against his throat.

“That’s enough. While this was a short bout it was very informative. You have a good head on your shoulders recruit, but you are completely lacking in any form of skill. I’m surprised that you didn’t drop your sword or fall over during that whole exchange.”

Crimson nodded seriously, “Thank you for the feedback sir. Could you help me improve?”

“That’s what I’m here for. Take a stance.”

Most people when corrected get frustrated or don’t like it, but Crimson valued every second of training he got from Mars and didn’t resent him for any of the actions he took while training him.