Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn and his friends settled into a routine. In the morning, they would train under harsh circumstances under Refix’s critical and creative eye. There was no end to the things he could do to cause them minor suffering that could roll into mind-bending discomfort. The sand inside the armor was just the first example. Reivyn’s least favorite tactic was doing physical exercise in the water.

Just because they had massive Stats did not suddenly thrown physics out the window. Even though the weight of the water was made negligible by his superhuman Strength Stat, the mass of the ocean still existed. Reivyn’s confidence that he wouldn’t struggle in the waters was shattered quite quickly.

There were Skills and other things Reivyn could do to bypass the immense mass of the ocean waters, but Refix specifically forbade anyone from using them. The point of the exercises was to get exhausted in the first place. It wouldn’t make sense to sneak around the stipulations, and if they did, they would only be hurting themselves.

Teilon was a master grumbler, so much so that Reivyn suspected he had unlocked some sort of Skill around the practice, but he never cut corners. He was in the water with the rest of them, shouldering the mass of the waters like everyone else.

After their “warm-up,” as Refix lovingly called it, they would perform individualized sparring sessions according to their Skill Level for about an hour. Once they were done with that, Kahl and his troops would saunter over and receive instruction from both Refix and Reivyn on a myriad of different weaponry.

Kahl had just assumed that Reivyn and Refix were masters of a couple base weapons and proficient with many others. He and his men were all flabbergasted after the first couple of sessions where the father and son duo displayed an understanding and ability far surpassing anyone with any weapon that could be produced.

It had become a sort of game for the guardians to show up with an obscure weapon type and seek guidance on its use. It came to an end when Reivyn picked up a piece of seaweed and used expertly used it as a whip. Even without using his Mana abilities, the seaweed-whip didn’t suffer any damage while still producing the whip-crack proving the force with which it was wielded.

Reivyn didn’t want to break their minds completely, though, so he left off the fact that he could pick up a handful of sand and use it as an effective throwing weapon. It probably wouldn’t have been able to do any substantial damage in a real life or death fight, but it could still cause more problems than simply getting in the opponent’s eyes.

After the instruction of the guardians was a short break as the rest of the squads made their way over to the beach. It wasn’t the same faces every day, and even Kahl and his group weren’t present for one session, because they all took turns being on duty at certain times. They had specifically altered their schedules to allow everyone the maximum amount of time participating in the war games, too.

Reivyn and Refix came up with different ways to simulate an amphibious combat assault on the beach. The first change-up of stipulating that someone was out after three taps during a spar had fueled the competitive nature of the guardians, and the second assault had been far more intense than the first.

The island was a Tier 4 Region, and it was surrounded not only by a wall of Tier 8 energy that would sometimes leak energy and treasures into the area, but there were infrequent visitors and regular excursions by the locals. They weren’t an isolated village in a Tier 1 Region far removed from power.

The average Level of the guardians was low-Tier 4. The veterans were anywhere from mid to high-Tier 4, and the candidates and recruits were anywhere from mid to high-Tier 3. If one only looked at the Level, even Reivyn wouldn’t be qualified to join their ranks.

Nobody thought to actually question Reivyn’s Level, though, after they witnessed his prowess with weapons and ability to Command.

Some of the scenarios they set up were situations that they might never experience, but they wanted to practice it anyway, just in case. They launched staggered assaults in waves. They had the defenders charge the beach as they made landfall. There was one time when Refix had all the defenders huddle around the flag signaling a successful assault and they just used their mass of bodies to prevent the attackers from reaching the flag in a timely manner.

That last one might have seemed foolish to some on the surface, but it made perfect sense to Reivyn and Refix. An attack might not always be about driving the enemy away. They might have specific objectives to accomplish,and the defenders might know exactly what that objective was. In this case, acquiring the flag was technically the objective.

Reivyn didn’t spend every exercise leading the assault, either. Every other day, he and his father would switch off. They not only figured out how to accomplish their goals on the fly through the practice and experimentation, but they fed off of each other and learned twice as fast with half the effort.

The teams were randomized each day, too. Reivyn tried to always have Kefira and Serilla on the defense. He argued that the danger posed by falling into the deep water was an unnecessary risk for her to take, but she argued that she was going to be fighting by Reivyn’s side in the future during his combat missions, anyway. What was a little danger during training if not to bolster their confidence for when it was more apparent.

His argument didn’t hold up, though, when there were no more close calls with the siege Spells like the first time they were almost capsized. Kefira and Serilla only had to stew on the shore for a couple of days before they got their way.

They went pretty hard during the week. They still got most of the afternoons off, but they didn’t hold anything back during their training. Kahl and the other guardians were curious about the pace they were setting, and Reivyn’s non-understanding of what they meant threw them all for another loop.

Reivyn had spent pretty much his entire life constantly training at the speed and intensity they were on the island. He had just assumed that most successful high-Classers lived the same way. Kahl had told him in no uncertain terms that Reivyn’s way of life was unusual to say the least. Reivyn had just shrugged and said he enjoyed it, so it never seemed like a burden.

“Probably one of the reasons you’re such a monster at your age,” Kahl muttered under his breath.

Reivyn heard him perfectly fine, but he had enough tact not to pierce the man’s bubble.

Reivyn and Refix were both pleased with the results of their training. Sure, the progress of the guardians was nice to see, but they were happier with the different tactics and strategies they had devised through coming up with all kinds of different scenarios. The main point of the training for them was for command and understanding reasons.

Reivyn didn’t foresee them using what they learned in actual amphibious assaults any time soon, but not only was it good to expand their repertoire of abilities, the things they learned weren’t exclusive to amphibious assaults. Teilon seemed to learn a lot, as well. Reivyn was confident he could hand the scouts over to his friend and he would do a good job with them.

After almost an entire week of training, the Dungeon was finally about to reset. They called a halt to the next week’s training sessions so they could explore the Dungeon. They planned on delving at a leisurely pace the first week and figure everything out without unduly stressing themselves out. The information packet they purchased only did so much to teach them what they were going to be facing.

Reivyn sat on his bed in the room he shared with his father. It had become a nightly ritual to wait until Refix and Serilla were “asleep” before they met up to sleep in the same bed. They never allowed themselves to cross the line, but the added intimacy, especially after having been apart for several months, was needed.

Reivyn sat in the lotus position, Meditating. He was performing his Mana Circulation and still probing for the most beneficial route to take for his Class, but he was only doing so subconsciously. He was taking the time to review his Skill gains over the past week.

Skills Leveled Up!

Tier 1:

Aim (47 ->49)

Athleticism (64 ->73)

Balance (55 ->61)

Dancing (33 ->35)

Heavy Armor (31 ->39)

Hiding (35 ->37)

Observation (60 ->62)

Ride (24 ->25)

Running (54 ->62)

Rhythm (30 ->32)

Shields (50 ->53)

Tutor (11 ->24)

Tier 2:

Acrobatics (30 ->33)

Ambidexterity (25 ->27)

Backstab (9 ->10)

Camouflage (22 ->24)

Eavesdropping (33 ->35)

Evasion (65 ->70)

Gab (20 ->23)

Mana Absorption (61 ->63)

Mana Circulation (50 ->52)

Meditation (49 ->50)

Pain Resistance (61 ->63)

Sense Mana (80 ->81)

Silent Step (24 ->26)

Stealth (28 ->32)

Strategy (31 ->38)

Tactics (46 ->49)

Teach (19 ->24)

Tracking (10 ->12)

Tier 3:

Ambush (13 ->15)

Battlefield Awareness (49 ->50)

Blind Fighting (38 ->40)

Command (51 ->57)

Commanding Shout (33 ->40)

Detect Lies/Truth (17 ->18)

Eagle Eye (3 ->9)

Infiltration (3 ->4)

Inspire (60 ->64)

Mana Conjuration (55 ->58)

Mana Manipulation (65 ->68)

Mana Shield (44 ->50)

Mana Sight (71 ->74)

Mental Fortitude (49 ->51)

Night Vision (40 ->49)

Sense Threat (20 ->22)

Silver Tongue (12 ->14)

Sure Step (24 ->29)

Tier 4:

Charm (2 ->3)

Dual Casting (50 ->51)

Iron Will (25 ->29)

Spatial Awareness (68 ->70)

Tier 5:

Multi-Casting (28 ->30)

Tier 6:

Weapons Master (102 ->103)

Tier 6.5)

Divine Sense (15 ->18)

Perfect Domain (13 ->14)

Every Skill increase was a story unto itself. Reivyn could picture most of what had spurred his Skill gains on, but some were a little obscure to him. He didn’t fully understand how he Leveled his Stealth and other sneaky Skills so much, but he had a suspicion it had to do with the nightly visits with Kefira.

They weren’t exactly hiding it, but they were still going through the motions. It probably had more to do with trying to be sneaky around Refix who was much higher Level than they were. Skills grew in adversity, even if one didn’t succeed, and they definitely didn’t succeed in hiding anything from Refix.

His Mental Fortitude Skill had finally pierced the second threshold, and he could remember every grain of sand and wave of the ocean that contributed to the breakthrough. His Iron Will Skill, though… He had a hunch it had more to do with keeping his hands to himself than training on the beach. He would have to ask Kefira if she had a similar Skill.

His Meditation Skill finally reached Level 50 after having stalled out at Level 49 for a long time. The very act of him focusing on his Notification Page and thinking about it while simultaneously in a state of Meditation and circulating his Mana was what had finally tipped him over the edge. Before, he wasn’t able to split his focus so much while Meditating or he would pop out of the Skill. His Divine Sense and how it forced him to be able to focus on multiple things at the same time was probably a large help in that regard.

Some of his Skill increases were completely incidental. Fighting in the loose sand necessitated closing one’s eyes every now and then to prevent sand and grit from getting in said eyes, hence the increase in Blind fighting. Randomly tapping an opponent in the back and laying in wait as a defender increased Backstab and Ambush.

Some of the Skill gains completely baffled Reivyn. He had no idea how Charm and his other Social Skills increased. He thought that Charm would go through the roof with his interactions with Kefira, but it seemed that her feelings for him being cemented before gaining the Skill prevented it from being a major contributor. If that was the case, he didn’t know whom he had Charmed in order to have the System recognize a Skill Level. He could at least assume his Gab and Silver Tongue abilities went up from their time talking to the locals in the marketplace and other areas.

It really wasn’t that big of deal, though, so he simply threw it to the back of his mind. He wouldn’t ignore the Skills, but he didn’t have a whole lot of immediate use for them.

All in all, a good week, Reivyn thought. Considering the Skill gains and my new Class, I wonder what my next Monthly Experience Calculations will look like. Speaking of Experience, I wonder what new Achievements I’ll get from the Dungeon and what the clearing Experience will look like. The data packets don’t contain that information, just on how to best go about getting them. It makes sense, though, considering it would be highly likely that an Adventurer would already have the corresponding Achievements.

They would begin their week of delving the Dungeon the next day, and Reivyn was very excited. He wasn’t too excited about the prospect of holding his breath for basically an entire week, but challenges meant rewards, so he wouldn’t balk.

Reivyn put the errant thoughts to rest and fully focused his attention on his Meditation and Mana Circulation. There would be time to think about the Dungeon and the rewards associated with it tomorrow.