Chapter 17: Training

Nadran wiped his brow, displacing the sweat that had accumulated there as he trained. He took a deep breath, then began drawing a sigil in the air. This sigil was substantially more complex than the ones he had 'acquired' in the past from lectures, and was not easy by any means. Thankfully, ever since he had become able to break down sigils in his mind and learn the individual components, he had been able to learn sigils much faster. His tracing speed still left a bit to be desired, however.

Nadran took 5 seconds to trace the sigil, forming a 2-dimensional shape in the air with his purple energy, the lines being sometimes curved, sometimes straight, and crisscrossing over each other dozens of times. He then gestured with his hand, activating the sigil. His arms and hands began glowing faintly, ethereal claws extending from his fingertips as the sigil took effect. Nadran crouched down before lunging forward, slashing his claws against a rock, leaving inch-deep scars on the rock's surface.

Nadran continued to run around, leaping and slashing as he experimented to find the ideal fighting style for using his claws. After nearly half an hour of continuous exertion, Nadran stopped, breathing heavily. He then entered a pose and began cultivating the Dragon's Eye Technique, restoring his depleted internal energy.

[This sigil seems quite powerful, but it requires a continuous stream of internal energy to maintain. Until I reach the mid-slate sigil realm, I'll be pretty limited in the duration. If I learn the sigil to a higher level, the energy expenditure could increase even more.]

While sigils could be cast as long as someone had the energy and correctly traced the sigil, the effects could vary wildly. Higher amounts of internal energy could be put into a sigil to make it more powerful, but this was generally the crudest method of increasing a sigil's strength. It would work, but the added energy was not very efficient, and a large amount of energy could equate to a small increase in the sigil's strength. By gaining greater understanding of the sigil and tracing it more accurately, though, the sigil would naturally become more powerful. While it may seem that as long as the sigil is traced and activates properly, the exact shape traced doesn't matter, this is not the case. The better and more perfect the traced sigil is, the better the energy can flow through the sigil and take effect. Even the amount of energy imbued in each part of the sigil is important, and if the balance is correct, the power of the sigil can increase dramatically. While this increases the power, however, it becomes increasingly difficult to form a sigil quickly the higher the sigil's quality is. In general, the faster a sigil is formed, the less power it will have, even for the same sigil.

As Nadran maintained his pose, feeling the energy flowing into him and nourishing his tired body, he had a thought. [I'm starting to get the hang of combat with this sigil, but I think it would help if I had something a bit more challenging to hit than a rock. Wasn't there a challenge hall or something at this academy? Maybe I should go there and see if there's something there I can use to train.]

Nadran finished restoring his internal energy, then walked into the center of the academy before reaching the Challenge Pavilion. This building was more like a plaza than a normal building, and was made up of a large number of rooms surrounding a central square. These rooms contained different challenges within them, and there were leaderboards above each room, displaying the records set by each of the top students who had entered. Some of the rooms were currently occupied by students who were currently taking on the challenges, while others stood with their doors open. There were a lot of students standing around, waiting for rooms, watching others' performances, or just chatting amongst themselves.

Nadran stood in the center of the pavilion, looking around at the different rooms and trying to decide what room would be the most beneficial for him to train in. There were a surprising amount of options, and he was having a hard time deciding between them.

Suddenly, a voice spoke out from behind him. "Trying to decide on a room?"

Nadran whirled around to face the sudden voice, seeing a girl looking toward him. She looked to be around his age, maybe a bit younger, and had long, black hair and bright green eyes. She had a slight smile on her face, looking very relaxed.

Nadran, by comparison, was like a tightly wound spring. [Is she with Tyval, too? What could she gain by asking me this? The question seems innocent enough, but she must stand to gain something from this. Nobody ever approaches me without some selfish motive… well, other than my family, that is. But I still can't figure out what her goal is.]

Nadran forced down his apprehensions, trying to remain calm. After being unable to discern her motives for a few seconds, he finally answered. "…Yes."

"Cool, what are you looking for? Maybe I can help."

Nadran stared at her in silence for a few seconds before he responded. "Training… melee combat training."

"Hm, interesting. Maybe one of the survival type rooms could work? That one over there throws increasing amounts of enemies at you as time goes on, and you have to last as long as you can before you get kicked out. I feel like that could be helpful."

Nadran looked over and slowly nodded. It did indeed seem like it could serve to aid his training. [Maybe she has some vested interest in getting people to use that particular room… whatever, it doesn't matter. Let's go with that room.] "Alright," Nadran finally said before beginning to walk toward the room. After walking almost five feet, he remembered his manners and quickly turned back to the girl. "Thanks," he said briefly before turning back toward the room and continuing to walk toward it. [Ugh, I'm so bad at dealing with people who conceal their motives like that. It's much easier to deal with people who don't hide their hostility.]

Meanwhile, the girl was watching him walk away, an interested expression on her face. [That guy isn't very easy to talk to,] she thought. [Is he always that cold? I was just trying to help him out, since he looked like he was having a hard time deciding. I don't know if I've ever seen someone so opposed to casual conversation before, to be honest. Despite that, though, he doesn't seem like a bad person.]

Nadran walked into the room, closing the door behind him. The room was not too large, being around a 20-foot cube in size. It was currently empty, with a stone floor and walls. Attached to one wall was a clock that showed the current time, and a light sigil floated by the ceiling, bathing the room in a soft light. He walked into the center of the room, then heard a monotone voice speak.

"Welcome to the fighter combat survival challenge. Please choose your settings."

Nadran was not surprised by the voice; someone had to oversee the challenges and update the records, after all. "Uh, default," Nadran replied, unsure what options there were and wanting to get started quickly. He could look more into the settings when he wasn't on such a short timetable, and while it probably wouldn't take that long, he still felt like every second was valuable. Just because he believed he could beat someone in a day didn't mean he thought it was feasible without putting all of his effort into preparing.

"Alright. Get ready, the trial will begin in 3, 2, 1, begin."

A timer sigil appeared next to the clock, and began counting the amount of time since the start of the trial. At the same time, a dark figure materialized out of thin air, taking a humanoid form.

Nadran did not waste any time, immediately casting the wyvern claws sigil. Before he finished, however, the dark figure finished their own sigil and began charging toward him. Nadran grimaced and focused on completing the sigil, finishing just before the shadow reached him. Upon finishing the sigil, Nadran immediately leaped backward, dodging the fist that flew through the spot he had been just half a second prior.

[I really need to work on my sigil casting speed, or I may face an opponent who can stop me from even completing one. In that case, the fight would be over before it even began.] Nadran attempted to calm his nerves after the close call, and analyzed his opponent.

The shadowy figure had strength of the low slate sigil realm, matching Nadran's. They charged forward, attacking once in range, but did not seem to be employing any real tactics. Nadran waited for them to approach, then dodged to the side, raking his ethereal claws across their side as they passed. The shadowy figure stumbled, then turned around and lunged forward again, not seeming to care about the large wound in its side.

Nadran frowned, then dodged again, this time striking at the figure's heart. The shadow fell to the ground and dissipated in a puff of smoke. The room fell silent as he looked around the room that was once again empty. 30 seconds had already passed, and now, Nadran stood in the center of the room, watching the timer tick up. [Um, that was easier than expected. So, do I just wait here for now?]

Right as the timer hit one minute, more shadowy figures formed. Except, this time, there were two of them. Nadran's eyes lit up as he saw this. [So that's how this is,] he thought, readying himself for the second round of combat.

Outside the room, the girl glanced over at the screen in front of the room to see Nadran appear. "Oh, he left the visual feed on. Considering how he was acting, I figured he would probably turn it off," she muttered. She glanced over at another room, where the door was firmly shut with no indication as to what was happening inside. [She'll probably be a while, might as well watch this feed to pass the time.]

As she watched, a few people noticed her, and stopped what they were doing before walking toward her. "Fancy meeting you here, Miss Ivelus. How are you today?" One of the boys stepped forward and greeted her.

Lilia Ivelus turned to glance at the approaching group, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. "I'm doing fine, thank you," she replied politely.

The man who had spoken before looked at the screen, then began to laugh. "Who is this loser? He looks like he's already 20, maybe older, and yet he is still only in the low slate sigil realm. How is he even in this academy?" He turned toward Lilia and asked, "Why are you watching that guy, anyways?"

Lilia shrugged and responded, "He seems interesting. I'm just passing the time."

The man frowned and resplied, "Why watch some random nobody fail at a survival challenge? He'll probably fail in less than a minute. If you want to pass the time watching someone complete a challenge, why not watch me instead? I was just planning to enter one of the challenge rooms, and I'm much better than that guy."

Lilia looked at him and smiled coldly. "I believe that I can decide for myself what I want to do with my time. Besides, if he is indeed going to fail so quickly, then there's no problem with me staying here, is there?"

The man smiled awkwardly, then straightened out his face. "We'll see, I guess. I bet he will be defeated within two minutes."

"I have a feeling there's more to him than meets the eye. I think he will last at least ten minutes," Lilia replied with a smile. "Why not make this more interesting? I'll bet 3,000 points that he lasts until the ten minute mark. If he doesn't make it that long, you win."

The man looked shocked, then smiled and agreed. "In that case, I guess I'll have to accept." [Even I can only last 6 minutes in there, there's no way that guy can last 10. The people who can last that long are few and far between, and with his talent, I'm sure he's not one of them. This is literally free points, and quite a few of them, at that.]

Lilia nodded and looked back toward the screen displaying Nadran. In truth, she didn't have any real expectations for this bet. She just thought that Nadran may actually have some skill, and betting made everything more interesting. Some may call her impulsive, but she tended to win more often than not, and she had the money and status to afford to make a few mistakes. Of course, it must be stated that, had she been a more cautious person, it is likely she would not have the status she did today.

Meanwhile in the challenge room, Nadran was completely unaware of the fact that people were currently betting on how long he would last. What he did know was that fighting two enemies was substantially harder than fighting one. He was still able to defeat both enemies without much trouble, but it took longer, and he needed to be more careful than before.

When three opponents appeared at minute three, Nadran began to concentrate more. This was getting to be a good scenario for him to train his combat prowess, and he didn't want to miss this opportunity. While the challenge of the room steadily rose, he could feel himself improving at the same time. [It seems like this room is very useful for developing combat instincts and offensive tactics. Even just becoming familiar with the flow of melee combat is helpful. I should definitely do this kind of thing more often.]

Soon, seven minutes had passed from the start of the challenge. While Nadran was able to dispatch each enemy with a single strike, the increased number of enemies made it harder to get any hits in. He had to spend an increased amount of time dodging, and while the shadows were not particularly fast or smart, he didn't dare to underestimate their power and risk getting hit.

Dodging two attacks and leaping over a third, Nadran ran up to one of the shadows and slashed his claws across its neck, destroying it instantly. As he turned to deal with the remaining two figures, another eight figures began to form.

[Uh oh, it's already been a full 7 minutes. I still need to finish round 7, and round 8 is already starting. This could get tough.] Nadran dashed over and finished off one of the two remaining enemies, then looked over to see that the 8 shadow figures had already finished forming. A couple of them were even shaped like vicious beasts, on all fours with shadowy teeth that seemed razor sharp. In addition, there was still the enemy Nadran had not managed to finish off in the last round.

[This is starting to become a real challenge,] Nadran thought, grinning as he braced himself for the coming onslaught.