Rumors and Romance Novels
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Job Equipped: Warlock
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Quest: Swordsman Training: Swing Diabla x1000 in 6h
Reward: +10 STR +10 DEX +10 END
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Quest: Heavy Swordsman Training: Swing Weighted Diabla x1000 in 6h
Reward: +40 STR +40 DEX + 40 END
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Quest: Extreme Swordsman Training: Swing Diabla x10,000 in 6h
Reward: +25 STR +25 DEX +25 END
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Quest: Extreme Heavy Swordsman Training: Swing Weighted Diabla x10,000 in 6h
Reward: +75 STR +75 DEX +75 END
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Quest: Ultra Fabulous Style Swordsman Training: Swing Diabla x100,000 in 1h
Reward: +100 STR +100 DEX +100 END
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Quest: Ultra Fabulous Style Heavy Swordsman Training: Swing Weighted Diabla x100,000 in 1h
Reward: +200 STR +200 DEX +200 END
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Quest: Omni Ultra Fabulous Style Swordsman Training: Swing Diabla x100,000 in 1m
Reward: +250 STR +250 DEX +250 END
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Quest: Omni Ultra Fabulous Style Heavy Swordsman Training: Swing Weighted Diabla x100,000 in 1m
Reward: +400 STR +400 DEX +400 END
Sweat beaded down my face as I slashed with all my might. My muscles strained under the weight while my aura struggled to keep me in place. Every swing blasted the air itself back. The campfire flickered violently threatening to go out. I stepped forward moving as if my every step conquered the ground beneath my feet. Snow flurries flew up and away from camp. Still, I swung with all my might.
White aura peeled off of Diabla's blade a series of spells I used to weight her. Controlling my aura to keep Diabla from swinging me had become second nature but using it when she was weighted took some concentration. A thousand swings in six hours wasn't much only about 17 a minute and I was golden. I added a haste spell and used some low-key Aura Rush to increase my speed. Still my muscles protested under the strain. This wasn't like combat, Diabla was heavier than ever and enjoyed it.
"I never knew a woman more eager to put on the pounds." I muttered. Diabla too was busy grinning like a loon at the wind each swing generated to care about my insult. I couldn't blame her. A heavier blade was a deadlier one if the wielder didn't lose swinging speed. She had been around 50kg before. Balanced as she was it was manageable with aura to keep me anchored. Now she weighed 500kg+.
"Look at that one Jacob. I think that's the furthers you blasted the snow yet. Keep it up, I bet we can blow down the ward posts next." Diabla gushed. She was in such a cheery mood. Even my comment couldn't bring her down.
My hands took the worst of the punishment. Every swing nearly fractured my wrists. If I didn't get the swing just right my bones were punished. This training was just as much about aura control as strength. If I didn't stay focused, then I'd break something.
All around me the inquisitor's retinue stared in a mix of awe and fear. My swings threatened to blow a few off their feet and caused damage to the area around me. This was just training but they might have thought it was some technique.
Eventually, I hit the threshold and felt the rewards wash over me.
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Quest Completed: Swordsman Training: Swing Diabla x1000 in 6h
Rewarded: +10 STR +10 DEX +10 END
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Quested Completed: Heavy Swordsman Training: Swing Weighted Diabla x1000 in 6h
Reward: +40 STR +40 DEX + 40 END
Strength: 171
Dexterity: 161
Endurance: 251
I felt my muscles bulge and I felt a little more limber. In three stats I just gained a little more than six levels worth of points. They would also carry over when I ranked up. None of those stats were my strong suit. Creating quests like these normally ended badly. To mitigate the free stats, I put time limits on them. Completing 1000 swings would be easy if I swung with a wooden sword. I could probably complete all of the quests now with the sword I gave Janus.
By limiting the criteria of the quest and making it more difficult, I limited the chances of a backlash. Admins pay attention to rising powers and powers in places they had no business being in.
I hadn't received a message from any admins since arriving here. That could be taken in multiple ways. Either I was completely under the radar and following the rules or they didn't care at all about balancing the world. Dol's defeat and possible death disproved the latter hopefully. It could have been a coincidence that something that large happened to sense the tower and decided to go out of its way to rip it from below.
Despite my random encounter that thing was too powerful to be random. I doubted it was winter itself. More than likely, it was one of the children of winter. If this world was currently ruled by an arch demon, I hoped I hadn't gotten its attention.
I placed Diabla on my back and sat down. Janus got up and swing once before stumbling on his second swing. He could reliably swing with a single step now. That was impressive. I expected him to fail but he greatly exceeded my expectations.
"You practice what you preach though on a larger scale. I doubted your ability to take down an Abominable Bear, well I don't anymore. Using a weighted sword was thrown out as a useless training style because of the damage it did to the spine. And weighted weapons often swung the user more than the user swung them. You've taken a different approach. By using aura control training as a counterbalance this training is viable." Priest Margos said.
"Are you jealous?" I asked. The older man scrunched up his face.
"Hardly, this is a good tool for training, but the boy needs more structure than a single training style. With his aura awakened and hopefully stable, I could give him a recommendation to join a knightly order. Unless you genuinely want to take him on as an apprentice." Sid said.
I opened my mouth to protest his doubts but shook my head. "He's a good kid but I'm not much of a teacher. I could give him the challenges and show him the way, but the rest is up to him." I said.
"Is there a flaw in him I'm not seeing?" Sid asked.
"Not at all, he's talented. I'm sure by the time we get to Gendry Town he will have aura of his own. I hope doesn't get scouted by some vampire looking to slum it up with a novice inquisitor." I said.
"Janus, no I can't see the boy falling for something like that." Priest Margos said. Star sat beside us and took on a look of concentration.
She glared at the boy for a second then shook her head. "Does he normally sleep with the locals or has he kept himself pure?" Star asked. Janus began to grunt and yell Ha, after every successful step.
The Priest looked affronted. "Of course not, we've been careful to watch him. Janus is as pure as the snow and as bright as Sol's heavenly messengers. I have no doubt that he will say his vows pure."
"That's what I'm afraid of. His purity is considered a turn on for many maiden vampires. Well that's the rumor." Star said. I stared blankly at Star. She waved her hands in protest. "Hey, Lewis is chatty about rumors and stories while I'm cooped up in the carriage. All he has in there are the cheesiest of romance horror novels."
I wiped the sweat from my face with an old rag to give myself time to collect my thoughts. "Are you suggesting Priest Margos and I take Janus to get laid?" I said.
Sid choked on his soup and started spluttering. "I'm a priest of the Solare church. We take vows of chastity to devote ourselves to the teachings of our god Sol, the histories, and white magics of the world. Though not always in that order." He coughed again. "Why am I not considered a target to some young romance obsessed vampire?" The priest was right, he didn't look a day over 20.
"With you its different. You're a priest, they aren't going to romance you like they would some knight or inquisitor in training." Star said.
Janus grunted, "I can hear you and I'm neither of those things. If anything, I'm a magician's apprentice in training who is just unlucky with women." Janus said.
"Did you say you wanted a weight increase?" I asked.
"No master, I said I'm happy to have such a caring teacher devoted to training his student." Janus said.
"Then show your devotion by gaining that second step." I said and the teen continued swinging his sword. After the boy stumbled for the fourth time, I shook my head. "Since when did I call him my apprentice? That has a different meaning than student." I met Star's eyes. "How do they treat mages?"
She hummed to herself for a moment. "They normally rape and turn them. With the priests they just rape them most of the time. Then the priests start liking it and chase after them or they vow revenge and chase after them. Either way the priests normally end up as blood slaves. Unless they're related to a turned vampire. Then, its all incest from there." Star gushed.
"Lewis has been a horrible influence on you." I said.
Sid nodded his agreement. "I'll have a talk to my, good friend about his choice in reading material."