Wardens Rest

After stuttering in disbelief at seeing Wake in the flesh standing in front of me, he motions for me to follow him through a door attached to the back of the building. After following him through the door I freeze in my tracks as I look around the room in shock and wonder. A large floating screen covers the entire wall across the room, multiple images and videos of my combat against both the blight and the snail are playing continuously on loop. A large lazyboy chair sits facing the screen with a long sofa on either side, a small coffee table made of some type of gemstone sits in front of each sofa with various weapons on them. A kitchen is off to the side with a full set up of top of the line equipment. My shock deepens as I see a working fridge, a toaster oven, and even a working range in the kitchen, after shaking my head I glance back around and notice a large spiral staircase in the corner of the room that I overlooked. Before I can ask Wake Walks out another room off to the side and smiles to me before motioning for me to take a seat on one of the couches.

"I'll wait for the prompt to appear before I explain." He says with a teasing smile before the prompt actually appears before me.

{Welcome to the Wardens Rest! This area is a special zone that is only accessible to the Soul Reader, those who have had the skill Noble Preservation used on them, or those allowed access by the Soul Reader. The Rest is an area that Preserved souls are kept so that the Soul Reader may learn from their life experiences, possibly learn new skills, and mentally spar to increase the Readers reaction time and battle knowledge. All souls are kept in their own established homes that are furnished to their wants and only the bet materials are used to ensure their comfort.}

"Ok so your not alive but your still here and this is your home? But why is it like a modern house from my....er.....village?" I ask as I watch Wake shake his head while laughing.

"You can drop the act boss. Once I got here a voice asked if I'd like to have my dwelling built up as something from my home or yours. I was curious so chose yours and this all appeared. The television shows all your battles as well as any show or memory you have so I used it to see where your from. So I saw your old life and your reincarnation, meeting Wug and the others, even freeing us from the gnolls and the Blights death. Nice job by the way but Now that I'm here apparently I can only train you and talk to you here. And apparently now we can only really communicate when your unconscious which just a heads up the snail knocked your ass out cold." Wake explains as I finally nod along and sit down.

"Also this all explains why your such a shit fighter but a great strategist. Your world never required you to actually fight for survival in a literal sense. This world is vastly different though and its time to start mentally training you for its challenges. My class was a gladiator which I earned fighting in my peoples arena's for entertainment. i have the ability to let you view my memories as well so you'll be able to study past fights I've been in and I'll teach you how to fight to survive. But for now take a break relax here with me and watch your fight with both the blight and snail. Tell me what you did wrong and how you could fix it." He says as he nods towards the screen and my fight with the blight starts playing.

I watch in fascination before realizing that my movements are slow and jerky. As I'm watching I see how Wake died, I look towards Tugta to inspect the elemental beast she summoned and within that split second vines snatched wake through the ground and forcibly pulled him underneath it to the blight. By the time I glanced back Wake was already close to death and my rage activated and I charged the blight with little regard for my safety.

"I was to distracted, I shouldn't have inspected the other enemies mid battle. If I hadn't looked away for that split second I might have been able to save you. My movements are also slow and sloppy compared to everyone else I've seen. I need more combat experience for my level." I say as I watch Wake nod his head.

"True but you missed a few things. First off you have actual magic at your disposal to some effect. You took that ape's mental attack which you did use eventually but you need to learn to use all advantages when available. Using those blasts could have worn him down over time making the fight simpler. Second you let him talk. NEVER let your enemies talk unless your the one initiating combat. If your attacking and they talk it could be a plea for mercy or for surrender so it makes sense to an extent but if your on defense they have no reason to talk unless they're buying time or trying to affect your morale. Third you didn't pay attention to your surroundings. In this case it wasn't a factor since the enemy had control of the battlefield but in most cases you can use the environment to your advantage." Wake explains patiently as I nod along realizing the sense he makes. As I rewatch the fight I notice the truth in his words. I could have barraged him from the start and caused a massive amount of damage instead of letting him taunt me, his taunts leading to the cages coming to life and becoming reinforcements which made our fight more difficult. The elemental spread fire along the area which I could have used to create distractions or just burn his plant like body.

After the play through ends a new one appears of our fight with the flail snail and I watch as I flounder around throughout the fight. After it plays It loops around but this time it zooms in on certain points as Wake begins speaking.

"In this fight you did better but were still lacking. This snail is mutated and evolved so its faster and stronger than the average one but you still held an advantage. But you underestimated your enemy based on it's looks. You approached it cautiously but you still held in your mind that this beast wasn't as powerful as you due to your humanity or some broken idea. After it showed you it's power you took on a defensive fight even though you knew you had to keep it distracted. Yes you attacked but you should have kept moving. This creature is large and although quick it can't turn quickly so if you had kept moving in the fight you could have overwhelmed it to an extent. You should have also realized that most creatures that are built for defense or offense like this one have a weakness to mental and magic attacks normally. Slab made a good choice though cus this thing is a damn beast. It's mutation gave it two eyes vs a normal flail snails 4 tendrils around the eyes but in exchange its gained massive magic immunity and its normal defense is fantastic so mental attacks are it's only real failing point. It's also evolved meaning its mace tail is a dangerous weapon and this species is a common battle mount to some species. In the next few days we'll work on mentally getting you prepped for battle so that in reality you'll move smoother in a fight. Also you should train yourself against the swamp beasts to get yourself some battle experience. Now lets head out to the yard and spar!" Wake explains before excitedly exclaiming, his body jumping out of the chair and heading to the door.