Two Years

Roger looked down from above on his three little disciples, an intense look in his eye. Arne, Thea, and Eli stood nervously below the imposing pillar on which Roger sat cross-legged.

"First," said Roger correcting his posture, "I must explain the process of stat acquisition."

He jumps down from atop his pillar and lands in front of the three like a meteor. He stands tall and lifts his shirt, showing uncountable scars just on his chest. Thea turns away quickly.

"Gaining stats without leveling up as I have is simple, but it is immensely difficult, especially for those with weaker wills." His eyes drift to fall on Eli. "It requires effort, the likes of which you have never given to anything." He walks to stand in front of Arne, looking down on him. "You must strain your body to its limits, surpass them, and you must go even further. You must break every inch of yourself so you are built back stronger, sturdier, and better in every way than before."

Roger looks at Thea. "You will feel more pain than you have ever felt, and ever will feel. Pain will become your teacher, your master, and your partner. If you do not feel pain, you are not gaining anything." Roger walks back towards the pillar he was sitting on, his back facing the three. "This 'training' will not be 'fun' but you will learn to respect and appreciate it. This path is rare, and is not for the faint of heart. If you doubt yourself, I recommend you leave before we begin, because you will not stop until I tell you."

He turns to face them, his sharp eyes gleaming as he stares at them. The three feel chills and sweat cold, as if his eyes dominated their very souls, forcing them to shrink back. Eli looks at Arne and Thea, who are unmoving despite the pressure, and grits his teeth. He stays shoulder to shoulder with them.

Roger removes the tattered scarf from his neck and wraps it above his eyebrows like a headband. His face shows a wolf-like smile and he begins to explain his training plan.

"My specialty is physical combat and stats, so if you want to increase INT, WIS, and DEX you'll have to talk to Lily about it. That stuff just isn't my style."

Roger walks over to the first and shortest set of pillars and faces the three. "These pillars, and the rest you see, will all be used for strength and vitality training. The more you beat these pillars the more strength you will gain, and the longer you do it, the more vitality you will gain. It seems simple, but you will be doing it without the use of mana, or magic in any way. Just using your bare hands."

He walks to the center of the platform and faces them once again. "In the center, you will train your AGI and PER. I will roll discs of stone at you while you are blindfolded, and you will have to avoid them or get hurt. You can train your SP by just running, so we will do that in a later session."

"Is there a better, less dangerous way to do this?" asked Eli, scratching the back of his head.

"I'd guarantee it, but I don't know it, and this is the way me and Lily train. If you find out a way, then I would be happy to hear it, but for now punch those pillars until they break. Do it as fast as possible, each person gets one pillar. When you break your pillar move to the next set of pillars which will be on your right."

Arne quickly chirped: "What do we do when we get through all of the sets?"

Roger chuckled and his smile got wider, "We'll find out when we get there won't we?" he said.

"I guess?" replied Arne, scratching the back of his head.

"Get started. You're done when I say so." replied Roger.

Arne, Thea, and Eli each walk up to a pillar, Thea on the far left, Arne in the middle, and Eli on the right. The simultaneously lift their fists and punch the pillar as hard as they can. One thought shuts out all other stimulus in their mind.

Hard.

Cold sweat forms on their backs as a sharp pang of pain jolts up their arms like lightning, they each feel their hand swell and the newly formed cracks in their bones throb in pain.

Tears appear in the eyes of Eli as he holds his hand tightly, he stomps his feet to try and make the feeling of the pain dissipate. Arne and Thea look at their pillars and notice that there is barely a mark left on its surface. Arne ignores the pain in his hand and punches the pillar with his other hand twisting his body with it while his injured hand is tucked against his side.

CRACK

Waves of pain rush over Arne like the tide, and his left hand goes numb from the powerful punch. Thea does the same and on the surface of the pillar is a small crack. Arne cradles his broken hand, and Thea continues to beat the pillar in between waves of pain.

Finally Eli manages to recover from the first punch, his breathing is quick as he holds his right hand. He grits his teeth, and rests his left hand flat of the face of the pillar. He punches the pillar with his injured hand. Over and over and over.

THUD THUD THUD THUD CRACK

Tears stream down Eli's face as he lifts his shaking, now purple hand from the rubble of the destroyed pillar.

[SP: 6/25]

[+1 STR]

He falls to his knees, his entire body shivering from the adrenaline. "AAAAAAAH" he yells into the sky, spitting and coughing, doing anything to help calm down the crushing pain he feels in his hand. A shadow moves in front of the yellow sun's rays giving Eli a bit of shade. The voice of Roger comes from the person standing in front of an exhausted Eli.

"Now move on to the next pillar. Thea finished hers about five minutes ago."

Now all that remained on the first set of pillars was Arne, who was beating away at an increasingly large spiderweb-like crack on the surface of his pillar alternating hands with each punch.

THUD right THUD left THUD right THUD left

[SP: 7/15]

[+1 VIT]

Time passed more and more, as Thea and Eli weakly beat the second group of pillars, Arne finally finishes pulverizing his. The skin on his hands have long since been scraped bare, both are throbbing purple.

"Stop!" yells Roger, "That is enough progress in strength. I'm surprised you all got through your pillars. Excellent progress so far!" he says excitedly.

Arne, Eli, and Thea slowly turn towards Roger with dull eyes. He laughs at the sight and begins to talk about AGI/PER training.

"You'd better focus my newfound pupils, because you won't want to get hit by the stuff I will be throwing. Let me give you a visual example."

While the three stand almost lifelessly watching Roger, their survival instincts kick in when they see him moving incredibly fast around the edge of the arena sending rolling discs of stone speeding towards the center of the platform. Every once and a while, Roger slows down and speeds up to throw them off. Arne, Thea, and Eli snap out of their stupor in a cold sweat.

'We just finished the easy part,' they thought collectively.

After Roger's demonstration, they all reluctantly enter the center. Roger tears his dark cloth shirt to give them three blindfolds. While the three of them put them on Roger walks to the outer edge of the platform.

"Ready?" he says.

3...

2...

1...

The sound of a disc rolling is heard behind Arne and he quickly jumps out of the way, only to be pummeled by a second disc that intercepted his path.

A disc rockets towards Thea's left side and she jumps out of the way, only to bump into Arne causing him to stumble forward and lose focus. Eli stands perfectly still with his eyes shut tightly as he tries to shut out the screaming pain from his broken and bruised hands. He listens closely for Roger's footsteps and hears the heavy thuds directly ahead of him, he pivots on his left foot just in time for a disc to whiz past him only centimeters from the tip of his nose. As he continues his elaborate dance, both Thea and Arne begin to form similar movements, and when Thea closely dodges her fifth disc.

[+1 AGI]

The pattern continues on and on until Arne, Thea, and Eli's SP all runs out. All three lay collapsed on the floor breathing heavily as the sun hangs lower in the sky. They all have swollen purple hands and are drenched in sweat.

"Excellent session today eh?" said Roger, leaning over the three. "Now let's take you to Granny to get your hands healed before your parents have heart attacks. She will ask for payment in some chores, so be ready to dust some shelves." Roger takes them to the clinic, and the two year cycle of school and training begins.