Chapter 28

Crimson headed back to the field to train after breakfast with Sariya. She’d been fun to talk to, and she was so happy all the time that it made him happy to be around her. They hadn’t talked about anything of great importance, but Lena had stared longingly at their food the entire time. He’d asked her about it, but she’d said it ‘was nothing.’

He hadn’t bothered her about it after that.

After arriving at the field he went back to grinding. Instead of his old routine he would run until his Stamina was under 60 instead of 30, then he would meditate while he waited for it to recover. While he was meditating he would use W.C. Kung Fu’s breathing techniques, when his Stamina finished recovering he would then use a blunt metal sword off the rack to work through the sword forms. He’d do that until his Stamina dropped under 30 and meditate again. Rinse and repeat.

It was very effective from a training stand point, but he was starting to reach the end of the usefulness of this type of training.

After a lot of hard work, and trial and error, he’d finally found the perfect rhythm for running. The best angle to hit the ground, the best angle to push off the ground with, the perfect way to breath, and the perfect way to hold his arms. No, the ninja run from a certain popular anime didn’t work. It was actually uncomfortable to hold his arms like that.

After conferring with Lena he had decided that he needed to find some rough terrain and a hill to run on. So far he had only run on a flat ground that had been well flattened by hundreds of pounding boots. It had made his training less and less effective for skill leveling-‘diminishing returns’ would be a great term for what was happening with his training.

His [Flexibility] skill was still doing fine, based off what Lena had told him; [Balance] was starting to suffer because his running had stopped helping it and the sword forms, while straining, didn’t really require any great feat of balance. His [Sword Mastery] skill was also slowing down: repeating the same few forms over and over again doesn’t do much. Even with all that slowing him down he ended up leveling a few of his skills right before lunch.

Skill: Level Up [Sword Mastery VI]

Skill: Level Up [Running VI]

Lena told him that he was close to leveling [Flexibility] too. Another 20 minutes or so and it would have leveled up, but lunch was the priority for the moment.

He headed to the cafeteria and when he entered he saw Lars waving him down.

“What’s up Lars?”

“Let’s get some food brother. We haven’t had much opportunity to eat together, and I have to pass along a message.”

“Sure.”

They hopped in line, grabbed their food, and sat down at one of the tables-away from anybody else.

“How’s your training going brother?”

“I think it’s going well, but I don’t have anybody to compare it to.”

“Well, at least you’re working hard. What Class are you trying to unlock brother?”

“A Swordsman Class.”

“Ahh, that explains it!”

“What?”

“That message I’m supposed to pass along is from Captain Ursidae. He’s going to meet you in the training field at 1330 for training brother.”

“Really? Awesome!”

“…Are you some kind of masochist brother?”

“No, I just want to get stronger. Plus, my [Sword Mastery] skill’s level has kinda stagnated.”

“I still think your a bit of a masochist brother. Even if it’s to get stronger the Captain’s training methods are brutal beyond belief. I haven’t trained under him personally, but I have seen what’s left of the people who do.”

“You’re exaggerating Lars, the training is hard, but it’s all about getting stronger as fast as possible.”

“If you say so brother. Just take care of yourself ya hear?”

“I’ll be fine!”

They finished up their meal with some light banter and Crimson told him about what happened at breakfast with Sariya.

“She trained under Captain Ursidae too? She must be one tough lady to survive a training with him without a Status brother.”

“Yeah, she said that she couldn’t move for a few days.”

“I’ll bet…and she waited for you too brother?”

“Yeah.”

Lars shot him a huge grin, “You have a chance with her brother, I’m a bit jealous. I need to find a lovely Fox-Kin like her.”

“You really like Fox-Kin don’t you Lars?”

“They’re really pretty, and their tails look so much more elegant than other Tiger-Kin. Ours may be soft, but their tails are better.” He let out a long and happy sigh.

“I’ll agree with you on that: they are very pretty.”

Crimson had to quickly end the conversation after that exchange or risk being late to meet with Mars. He sprinted back to the training field just a few minutes before 1330 and grabbed both a wooden sword, and a blunt metal one. Both the swords had the same general shape and design, the only difference between them was the weight of the materials.

It only took a few more minutes for Mars to show up-precisely on time. He looked Crimson up and down and looked at the two swords he had with him.

“Good, you’re on time and prepared, very good. What is your [Sword Mastery] skill’s level?”

“It’s six, sir!”

“Hmm…Do you have a protege or genius title recruit?”

“No. Why do you ask sir?”

“I’m just surprised, your level is a little higher than I thought it was. After yesterday’s training it should be level 3 or 4.”

“I practiced the forms you taught me this morning sir!”

Mars looked him over with interest then nodded with a smile.

“I’m glad to see that you’re motivated recruit! Let’s get your [Sword Mastery] to X by the end of the day.”

Mars was vicious in his training methods once again. Crimson learned even more of the basics through the same method as the previous day, the difference was that the spars took less time as he got the hang on implementing new forms, techniques, and tricks into his fighting style. During the few breaks he got he used the W.C Kung Fu breathing techniques while he rested. By the end of the day his efforts were shown through one simple Skill screen.

Skill: Level Up [Sword Mastery VII]

Skill: Level Up [Flexibility V]

Skill: Level Up [Sword Mastery VIII]

Skill: Level Up [Sword Mastery IX]

Skill: Acquired [Stamina Meditation]

Skill: Level Up [Stamina Meditation II]

Skill: Level Up [Sword Mastery X]

Announcement: Pick one of the following Sub-Skills for the Skill: [Sword Mastery]

|Military Standard| |Self-Taught| |Style Creator| |Adaptive Swordsman|