Training Fricking Sucks

Jason collapsed onto the dirt. His entire body ached from the pain that Lyle had given his body. It had been a few fights, most of them ended with Jason getting a sword placed on one of his vitals or he getting smacked around by Lyle with the flat of his black sword with glowing red runes.

Jason rolled up to that he could properly breathe. Lyle walked up to him and peeked over his head to meet Jason's eyes.

"I guess you did fine, and I think you get the 2nd form."

Jason didn't want to admit it, but he had started to understand the 2nd form in a very twisted way, but after getting beat up by it, he started to see the core and foundational parts of the form. Somehow, he understood a bit about the form. It wasn't direct knowledge like how Charlie taught the 1st form by memorization and a bit of formal dueling. But more of an instinctual way with how his entire body could react before Jason's mind processed the movement. Jason guessed that that was what getting pummeled by the same skill over and over again did to you eventually if you were focused enough to learn it, Jason guessed that it was a different style of teaching.

Lyle pulled from his satchel another vial with the red liquid with a bit of a golden glow. He opened it and handed it to Jason, who downed it with one go.

Jason could feel the wounds and bruises healing. His entire body again felt like he had just jumped out of bed, fresh and ready for anything. Lyle sighed and commented

"I've never seen a potion like this, i mean holy magic is another thing but dang, this potion could be sold for quite a lot of money. It seems Charlie really wanted to hurry you up or something."

"heh maybe, I've heard that the final trial is coming up"

Lyle's smile dropped a bit

"yeah it is, it should happen around the time you're done with the hell week, so be prepared dude."

"really that soon?"

"Yeah, it seems pretty urgent according to the madam so were all kinda pushing ourselves to the limit."

Jason asked Lyle curiously as the two sat together waiting for Jason's potion to completely kick in.

"is the blue 2 team an administrative team or something? I mean judging from how everyone treats you and how you know more information than most its kinda weird."

Lyle cocked his head to the side as if thinking a bit. After a bit, he finally answered

"ehhh yeah I guess, we're a bit "special", the only reason why we know a bit more is because the madam drops in sometimes to talk with us. "

"and by Madam, you mean Lady Megra right?"

Lyle nodded his head

"the one and only, the one almost worshiped in the rose knighthood, we're pretty lucky to be able to talk with her it seems but she keeps on saying that its almost tradition so yeah I guess"

The talk started to descent into an awkward silence, the potion took a bit to kick in, it happened before, but now it felt like it took a much longer time to do so, even though it was the exact same amount of time. Jason tried to break the ice by asking Lyle even more questions

"So what's the rose knighthood like in the kingdom?"

Lyle answered instantly

"we're protectors, even if the navy is much stronger and better then us, we still are the strongest land knighthood this kingdom has. And trust me, the things the rose knighthood has done for this kingdom are way too many to count. Though of course, the navy has done just as much, or maybe even more."

Jason looked at Lyle with a confused face. This was not like the regular Lyle that he knew. Lyle before was an active young boy who was earnest in anything that had to do with fighting. But now Jason could see a bit of wisdom and thoughtfulness in that boy who had a complicated background with his family.

God, all of the Blue two members had a weird background, Lyle was from a noble family though he never talked about it, Colby he had no idea, Mark and Ethan were adventures since young and that was basically all that he knew. And Charlie, well he knew holy magic and apparently some magic swordsmanship too. Charlie was probably the most mysterious out of all of them. And yet he was the de facto leader for the Blue 2 team. Heck, the members of the barracks all treated Charlie with respect.

Lyle interrupted Jason's thoughts by standing up and motioning for Jason to do the same.

"Alright, your potion should have kicked in by now, you should have gained a completely restoration energy-wise."

Jason nodded and Lyle regained the cheeky smile that he always wore.

"Alright, I'm going to teach you a bit about my family's secret technique."

Jason was a bit taken aback at the words secret and asked Lyle

"Are you sure isn't it supposed to be secret?"

"eh yeah that's true, but like my family didn't do crap for me, I don't really care about following their rules. Alright, this technique is a movement one. I taught this skill to all of the Blue two team members so you should also know it in turn"

In Jason's mind, he vaguely thought about something that he had seen both Charlie and Lyle do, he didn't want to hope for too much, but if it really was that skill, then he was going to be the happiest person alive.

"are you talking about that? like what you just did a few seconds ago?"

"haha yeah, it's pretty useful for many things, just be careful it causes a big strain on your body if you use it periodically."

Jason decided to just shut up and let Lyle continue to talk.

"yup the fabled movement skill of my family, one passed down from generation to generation, legend has it that our first-generation head, was taught this skill by a void dragon of all creatures!"

Lyle looked at Jason seriously for once, the serious Lyle was something Jason thought was impossible until recently, before he wasn't taking his job seriously only playing around and just doing whatever, but now Lyle stood in front of him gazing into his eyes solemnly. Lyle spoke

"I will teach you the skill Shunpo, and I dearly hope that you can keep up Arch"

Jason's eyes glimmered and he looked back at Lyle with set eyes. The two didn't need to exchange any words, to see the person's determination.

From the mansion, a figure dressed in a red dress watched them again on a balcony. This time she was holding a map in her hands. Her face was no longer peaceful, instead it was filled with unrest and nervousness.

She whispered to herself as she gazed at the two figures who were training.

"Please, hurry Lyle time is not giving us any leeway,

One of the figures disappeared suddenly. While the other figure even from the mansion could be seen focusing intensely on the first figure, his eyes heightened his entire body leaning forward as if to glimpse one more vital piece of information. Jason was filled with determination.

In the same area as Jason. Perseus returned with a carriage full of boys. He had stopped by the adventures guild to grab as many monster quests as he could with his rank. He may have gotten a bit too many. But when he gathered all of the boys to the empty main hall, he dumped the quests on the table he dragged in from the kitchen.

"boys, each one of you is doing 4 of these, work in groups of 3 and don't die"

All of the boys yelled out "yes sir "and scrambled to grab a quest

Perhaps it was a bit cruel to be forcing the boys to start doing quests on their own. But Perseus didn't care. He would gladly sacrifice people if he could save his master and twin brother. Perseus's eyes glimmered in a cold and calculative way, anything for his master.

Far away from Jason and Perseus was Arjuna, diligently toiling away listening to lectures, picking herbs, and eliminating the stray monsters that attacked periodically. Every day he would learn production skills by the famed dawn alchemists and learn ranger skills from a master archer, while simultaneously improving relations with almost everyone in the adventures, archer, and alchemist guild, well the alchemist guild had some problems, but all in all, Arjuna was doing his part and much more.

In an unknown place in the real world of Alexa, a hand slammed down on the table in frustration. He was losing so much, already, the game hadn't even had people reach the real world of WOW and he was already losing so much.

"Fine"

he muttered to himself

"if you can't take them out from the outside, destroy it from the inside"