Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It was the next morning.

"Maybe I should buy some armour," I said as I laid in bed and studied my scars.

Tsch.

I thought I heard a silent tongue click again. I was pretty sure Piid was annoyed at me, for some reason.

I secretly got my sword and headed out to the usual park. Hoping to see Maria.

When I arrived no one was there, so I just sat on a bench and waited.

My body was still a bit hot, but I had mostly recovered from yesterday's absurd mana training. So I figured I'd get started.

"Open, Piid."

I blinked, and then I was standing in the white room. I heard the voice say:

Profile Menu, New Notifications

"Huh?"

And in front of me was the usual screen.

Choose between: [Shadow-Training+Swordfighting] or [Special Stamina Training]

Hell no I'd be choosing some special training for a while. I would choose the first option, but first.

"Profile Menu, open?"

Name: Jack Stardia

Level: 14

Occupation: Unemployed

Skills: Flash (Innate), Piid (Innate)

New: Increased Mana Capacity C

New: Light Affinity: Mana cost reduction for all light based magic.

"Wow!"

I had gone up in levels, and I had two new skills. This was amazing. It also meant I no longer had to waste money on that stupid appraisal at the stupid church, and keep revealing myself.

"So how do I go back to the other screen?"

I looked closely on the screen, and there was a button to press to go back.

Then I pressed [Shadow-Training+Swordfighting]

I blinked, and now I was out in a forest environment. In front of me was my shadow clone again.

He had his sword in his right hand. And without pause, he pointed his left finger at my face.

"Flash!" He yelled.

I was blinded. The next thing I felt was the sensation of the sword cutting off my head.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

I jumped back and fell on my ass. That was the scariest feeling I had ever had in my life.

I finally looked up while it was telegraphing another strike.

"Flash!" I yelled and stunned him. Even though he had no face and was just a shadow, it affected him.

I used to the time to get back up and prepared a stance, unsheated, holding my one handed sword with both hands.

"If you are a replica of my current skill level, then you can use Flash 20 times now."

While we were both staring each other down with distance, I took in my surroundings.

Compared to last time, the ground was now very uneven and I had to watch out for it.

I then looked at my Mission Screen at my periphery.

1st round:

Parry: 0/10

Evade: 0/10

2nd round:

Defeat him.

That last one was new, also the fact that he used Flash. I could tell he got smarter. But still, his form when swinging and speed and strength was still the same, just like me.

He copied my two handed form and stepped towards me as I stepped towards him.

I had to parry and evade ten times before I could defeat him.

In other words, currently we were the exact same level. So I had to get better than him during this fight or I wouldn't win.

We were now stabbing range. I predicted he was going to jab at me and I managed to parry it awkwardly. I could tell my swordsmanship had gotten a little better, but it was still shit.

After the parry, he got ready to take a big swing and I could easily predict what he wanted to do. I stepped back and evaded the slash.

He then pointed his finger at me and I closed my eyes.

But I didn't hear him say Flash. And then I felt a disgusting pain in my stomach. I looked and saw he had stabbed me.

"AAAAAAHAHHH FUCUCUCUCUCKK"

It hurted so much. Why did the pain have to be so real.

I jumped back and regained my composure.

But then he pointed again and this time yelled, "Flash!" but I didn't dare close my eyes and it blinded me.

I couldn't see anything, but I just swung my sword around and jumped back so he couldn't hit me.

"19 left, huh? I need a better strategy for whenever he threatens. Oh shit! I got it!"

I regained my vision, and again, he pointed his finger.

"Flash!" I yelled as he yelled it. This way I had checked him. He had to close his eyes and I too and there was no delay in vision he could exploit.

He swung at me again and the battle continued like this. He would sometimes put his finger out. And each time I would activate Flash. Even if it was a duke, I would activate it. Because I had to be safe. In the long run, this would be bad since if I activated on a duke, then he would have more spell uses. But luckily I only needed 10 parries and evasions.

We kept battling like usual, but then I saw my meter.

1st round:

Parry: 10/10

Evasion: 10/10

Completed

2nd round:

Defeat him.

I breathed in. Now I could finally attack.

I then decided to do the plan I had gotten during the fight.

The shadow closed the distance and again telegraphed a big swing. Instead of evading as usual, this time I dodged under the swing. And while dodging, and with both hands on the sword, I pointed a finger out and closed my eyes.

"Flash!"

I opened them again and I could see he was blinded. And I was now to the side of him.

I swung my sword from the side, driving my hip and back to get momentum, and I cut of his head.

Then the shadow disappeared.

Shadow-training, completed. Moving onto Swordfighting

"Oh shit." I had completely forgotten. And now I was kind of tired.

I knew that I would immediately change rooms when I blinked, so I tried not blinking and readied my stance.

Blink.

I was in the forest again. The same one with the sand ring circle. But instead of a goblin, there was a skeleton this time, holding a short sword.

"Huh?"

It wasn't moving, so I just sat down on the grass and rested for a bit. Uusally I would just jump straight into things.

This time I relaxed and took in my surroundings.

"How come the shadow-training started immediately but whenever it's real monsters there's that circle? Maybe because during shadow training I'm not in danger, which I am here. I was even expecting the fight to start immediately because I forgot about this sand circle. Mhm."

I looked at the circle then. It was 5 meters in radius.

I walked over to the edge of it.

I looked at the skeleton monster, but it didn't react.

"Can't I just throw my sword at it? Nah can't risk it, I don't have a backup weapon."

I took a deep breath and stepped back into the ring.

When I stepped in, the skeleton immediately reacted and readied its stance. It was taking a staggared, lowered stance. Probably to compensate for my sword having a longer reach. I could tell it was planning to dodge and weave my attacks, then get up close and stab me in the stomach.

The skeleton was also a little shorter than me, and I had longer arms.

I for sure needed to keep this advantage and have him at a distance.

"Are you really a D-Rank threat? You seem more dangerous than that goblin."

The skeleton took a step in front. I took a step back, careful not to trip in the sand. I knew that there was no rule that I couldn't step out of the ring, so I didn't care about that.

I looked into its skull and noticed it didn't have eyes. I wasn't sure if Flash would work. I wanted to test it out, but to test it out I needed to close my eyes. So if he didn't need to, then that would leave him an opening. So I didn't risk it.

"Fuck this shit! I'm better than you!"

I held the sword in both of my hands in front of me, then I lowered my body, and leaped and fell on my left leg while I jabbed the sword in a straight line towards the skeleton.

I heard this disgusting crack sound and saw that I had hit it straight into its clavicle and its body was dead and limb on my sword.

Congratulations. You have defeated a B-Rank Monster.

"Wait!" Before I blinked, I grabbed the dagger from the skeleton. It was in normal condition.

I wanted to reach out for the skeleton parts, but blinked.

I was outside again. Sitting on the bench with my sword sheated and a dagger in my hands.

"Huh? Got you, Piid."

My first thought was selling it, but then I remembered how I didn't have a reserve weapon, and that this would actually be perfect. Though I didn't have a sheathe for it. Because the skeleton didn't have one.

For now, I used my belt and leather sword sheathe to hold it on place on my back.

I looked out again and like when I left, it was empty. I had spent about 30 minutes inside Piid.

"I know I'm still weak, but when will the "Dungeon" part of Piid happen? Did those training rooms even count as a dungeon? not that I've ever stepped foot in one, this is just breaking the adventurer books I used to read as a child."

I then noticed my fatigue. Swordfighting was really tiring. I closed my eyes for a bit.

"Yahallo, Jack!"

I opened my eyes in a shock and jumped off the bench.

"Oh sorry, didn't meant to scare you!"

It was Maria. I noticed that I in instinct had put my hands on the handle of my sword.

"Oh, hello Maria."

"That's a really cool sword."

"Yeah, I also got this new dagger today as a backup, picked it off a skeleton monster. Though haven't gotten a sheathe yet."

"Wow that's really cool! But what do you mean today? it's noon?"

"Oh I meant last night. Anyway what are you doing here? And where's all your guards and attendent?"

"Oh, I ditched them. Was getting pretty tired of being followed around. Just thought I'd go to this pretty park, because why not," she said and smiled at me.

I was starting to think she came here for the same reason I came.

"Yeah, so I'm not doing anything now. I'm sooo bored, what should I do?"

"Oh, I dunno. You can hang out with me if you want, I got nothing to do."

"Oh really! Then I'll accept your offer. Should we go for a walk?"

"Yeah sure. Actually, maybe we should—" I was just about to say let's look for a sheathe, but then I got greedy and thought that Piid should give me one so I didn't have to spend money.

"Do what? Come on, tell me! hehe"

"Was just thinking to get a sheathe, but it's expensive and I could just find one in a dungeon."

"Wow, don't be stingy. YOu can't find one. Actually, let's say this, when's your birthday?"

"The first of January."

"Wow, new year's kid, huh? Well, let's say this. This sheathe will be your birthday present from me to you!"

"Oh, emmm, I'm not sure. This…"

"But then I of course also expect a present from you and that you come to my birthday party next week!"

"Well, okay. Sure…"

"Great!"

And so we started walking.

"I have to do something tomorrow so I won't be at the park all day."

"Oh…"

"Were you perhaps there yesterday?"

"Me? Uhh, maybe. Can't remember."

"I was there, though not the usual time because I had to get healed."

"Oh really! Yeah I forgot you had all those wounds, lemme seee lemme see"

She then started touching the scars on my arms.

"You should get armour."

"I know, but I expect to find some in a dungeon."

"You can't be stingy with your life. You know, I could…"

I interrupted her.

"So which shop do you recommend? I see you have a sword as well."

"Oh there's this really cute shop up ahead."

We went to the shop and she bought me a hidden sheathe for the dagger I could put behind my back under my teeshirt. It cost about 10000 relis, which was most of my net worth.

"Oh my, you look so cool!"

"Thanks Maria, you look pretty too," I said.

"Oh my!" she said and blushed and looked away.

"Th-Thanks…"

We then went out again.

"You want some food? I'll treat you as thanks."

"Oh, yeah sure!"

She was so feminine. It was as if she was doing a girly skipping while walking.

Suddenly she held her stomach and I could tell by her face she was in extreme pain.

"Hey, what's wrong!"

"Oh, n-nothing. Just a flu. I'm fine. C-Can we sit?"

I grabbed her by the shoulder and guided her to a bench nearby. She rested her head on my shoulder.

"There you are!" In front of me I saw her attendent.

"Where have you been, we were all worried sick! Let's go," she said and grabbed her arm.

Maria looked at me sad.

"Hey, wait!" I grabbed the attendents arm. In a flash, I was on the ground with her foot on my chest and sword by my neck.

"Holy…"

"Don't you dare touch me!"

I then heard a slap. It was Maria who slapped her attendent.

"If you ever hurt this man I will kill you."

She then helped me up.

"Okay, listen. Me and Maria were just headed to get something to eat, my treat. You can come as well."

"It's called, Maria and I… but, yeah sure. Sorry about that."

And so we ate some food at a food stall. It cost me about 3000 relis for the food, so now I was down to 9500 relis or something.

Maria looked happy, but her attendent obviously didn't like this low quality food.

"Sorry, I'm pretty broke. For now, at least."

"What do you mean for now?" her attendent said suspiciously, she was really ruining the mood. Maria shot her a mean look.

"Oh, that's a secret." I said and smiled at Maria.

We ended the meal and decided to part ways.

"I gotta head to the Hero's Academy now, I'll see you again?"

"Of course. Actually, here's my address." I said and wrote it down on a piece of paper. "I'm not usually there unless to sleep, but if you wanna contact me write me a letter there."

"Okay!" she said, and hugged me goodbye. She felt so soft and smelled so nice.

The attendent gave me one last death stare before leaving.

"Holy shit…" I thought back and that was the first time in my life I had been completely overpowered and at the mercy of someone else. It really angered me.

"Piid, open."

Blink.

I was back in the white room.

Choose between [Special Stamina Training] or [1st Dungeon (Unavailable until Special Stamina Trainnig is completed)]

I jumped at the dungeon. But of course, Piid was being annoying and basically forcing me to complete the stamina one.

"Wait a minute, exit? Leave?"

It didn't work. I just wanted to test it out, and it appeared I couldn't leave.

I chose the Stamina training.

Blink.

I was in the center of a gym room. There was a lot of different training equipment like a pullup bar, a dip bar, ropes, practise dummy, etc. But the most weird thing was that in front of me, on some holster, was a thin, white training suit. And next to the suit was a weird white box.

I checked the Mission Screen.

1st round:

Get naked and put on the suit, now.

It didn't show the second round. And, that now was a little aggressive, as if Piid was being annoyed. Probably because of how many hours the last special training took me. Wait, why should Piid be annoyed? Not like it's a person.

I got naked and put my weapons and clothes on the ground. I then put on the white training suit.

Activating Specialized Training Suit. Permission to intiate?

That voice sounded polite and nicer than those text screens I was getting. Wait, was it two different entities? The voice and the text?

"Y-yeah? I grant permission to intiate."

Thank you, friend. Initiation Sequence Beginning.

It called me, friend for some reason. Wait, was this the same voice as that obsidian ball when it told me to eat it?

But before I could finish that thought, I heard some weird electric sounds, and the suit activated.

"What the fuck!"

My body was moving on its own.

2nd round:

Pushups: 0/10000

Pullups: 0/10000

Dips: 0/10000

Sprinting: 0/10000 km

Squats: 0/10000

Sword thrust: 0/20000

Sword swing: 0/20000

"What the actual fuck!"

My body was moving on its own, but I could still feel that it was my muscles. Expect that I wasn't using effort to activate them, but I could still feel my energy being used.

My body picked up the white box. Opened it, and a yellow Stamina Potion was inside it. It grabbed it then closed the box again.

My body then reached the flask to my mouth, but since the suit didn't cover my head, I was the one who actually had to drink it.

"Yeah sure," I said and drank it. I actually used my arm to put it correctly to my mouth and the suit let me take control there. But as soon as I was done drinking, the suit immediately took over.

It got on the ground immediately and got into pushup position and did pushups continuously.

After ten pushups I felt completely drained and couldn't do anymore, but the suit didn't care and kept using my muscles and bones even after the point of failure.

"Ah fuck! Stop, this hurts!"

And of course it didn't stop. After one hundred pushups and my body feeling like it was about to break, the suit took another stamina potion out and I drank it and then felt completely normal.

"Huh?"

It was as if I had recovered instantly.

"Ah damn it!"

I was back to doing pushups. But this time something was different. The pushups were done faster, but I felt like on the eccentric part of the motion, I felt even heavier than normal.

As if to answer that question, the voice popped up out of nowhereAll muscles can do 200% the load of positive potential during the eccentric movement, so this Specialized Training Suit compensates for that by increasing your body weight, that is, the amount gravity acts upon it, during the eccentric portion.

"What? Hey why are you talking now? What's your name?"

No response.

It didn't take long for the pain to kick in again. And after 250 pushups in a row, it let me drink another potion.

"Wait, stamina potions only let you recover energy? what about muscle and skeletal damage?"

As if saying screw you to my question, the suit started doing pushups again. I was sure that if there were two people, the voice and the text, then it was the text controlling my body rudely.

It felt like the gravity had increased on the positive portion of the movement as well, and more on the negative movement, as if to compensate for the strength increase I had gotten. Or else the pushups would have been like walking I'd gotten nothing from it.

I got no more responses and this painful routine contined until:

2nd round:

Pushups: 10000/10000

Pullups: 0/10000

Dips: 0/10000

Sprinting: 0/10000 km

Squats: 0/10000

Sword thrust: 0/20000

Sword swing: 0/20000

When I was done, or rather, when the suit was done, I wanted to check my body to see if I had gotten any results. But nope.

The suit didn't care and it grabbed the box, took out another potion which I drank, then ran over to the pullup bar.

Even though my body felt completely recovered and stronger, my nervous system was fried. It could be that the suit was doing all the willpower part, but I was receiving the pain from the gains.

I also learned that the way I had been doing all of my motions until this point were very unsmooth and crude. Even when doing pushups, I would never care about form. Or when walking and running and standing, my posture would always be shit. But this suit, as if with a kind of dignity, activated all my muscles in the perfect way and did the motions with grace. Even though it made me bitter, I had to admit that if it hadn't been for the suit, no way I would have gotten so far so fast. 10 k pushups in two and a half hour, nope. More like in 10 hours just for this first part.

I was still curious as to why the sword swinging and thrusting was twice as much as the other motions, but I had no time to think. Or rather, I had all the time to think, but the pain was preventing me.

The same routine continued with the pullups. The suit increased my gravity once I was stronger at the pullup. The potion may have repaired my body, but it didn't repair the pain. I tried to close my eyes and just sleep or think about something else, but I couldn't. That soreness was painful. And the stress on my nervous system.

Also, it felt like my body was getting torn apart and then screwed back together.

It wasn't as painful as when I was getting stabbed, but it was a different kind of persistent, burning pain. Like with the mana training. Though this was the most painful experience in my life. I wish I could just eat the cake of Piid without paying for it.

2nd round:

Pushups: 10000/10000

Pullups: 10000/10000

Dips: 10000/10000

Sprinting: 0/10000 km

Squats: 10000/10000

Sword thrust: 0/20000

Sword swing: 0/20000

I was now done with all the strength training. For some reason it skipped the sprinting. Everything else it did in order.

I felt absolutely fried. But I did feel like all my muscles and bones had swollen in size. Even though I had all of the pain, I was excited to see if I had a six pack or something when I was done.

I now started running. I had never sprinted this gracefully in my life. The motion was perfect. How my body was leaned a little forward, the way my foot hit the ground perfectly, everything. As if this perfect way of the motion was being ingrained into my nervous system.

When I got out of breath and my muscles couldn't move, I drank the potion. Then when it got easier to sprint (I always sprinted full pace, not that I wanted to) my body felt heavier.

But I also started feeling runners high, which numbed the pain and I felt euphoric from running. Though I started wishing I had gotten this earlier during the other motions, but it seemed only running could activate it for me.

2nd round:

Pushups: 10000/10000

Pullups: 10000/10000

Dips: 10000/10000

Sprinting: 10000/10000 km

Squats: 10000/10000

Sword thrust: 0/20000

Sword swing: 0/20000

About 10 hours had passed. Sometimes during the motions I would be going at insane speeds while still getting resistance from the gravity increase.

I was feeling like hell.

But finally I at least got some relief.

Luckily, the swords couldn't increase in gravity. Only the suit.

My body picked up my sword, and started thrusting.

To be honest, I felt embarrased. The way I had been thrusting so far, with telegraphs and unneccesary movements and inaccuraies, it felt like the suit was putting me to shame.

I was stabbing at a combat doll. And that thing about expecting it to not get progressivly harder was shattered. The combat doll itself eventually got harder and harder and it took more strength to pierce it. Though because of the material itself, my sword never chipped or got dull.

The sword swinging and thrusting was the most boring part. But unexpectedly, the suit would always choose to alternative between thrusting and swinging. One thrust, one swing. That was the routine always.

By now, the motions had become ingrained in me and I could never go back to swinging badly.

I kept using the sword and I kept drinking potions.

"Is this potion like food too? wouldn't I need food for my body to grow?"

I started thinking. I probably couldn't even call it a stamina potion, I had no idea what it was. Just knew that it tasted, like all the other things, sweet like sugar.

2nd round:

Pushups: 10000/10000

Pullups: 10000/10000

Dips: 10000/10000

Sprinting: 10000/10000 km

Squats: 10000/10000

Sword thrust: 20000/20000

Sword swing: 20000/20000

Completed:

3rd round:

Take off the suit and put on your stuff.

As soon as I got control over my body, I violently ripped off the training suit. Then I collapsed on the ground.

Tsch

This time I for sure heard a tongue click! And it didn't sound like that polite voice. Maybe the text bot could talk as well. I could tell it was saying to put on my stuff and get out.

"Yeah, how about fuck you," I said as I got up. The pain was gone, but I still felt completely fried.

As soon as I had my clothes on and my weapons hilted, I blinked, and I was outside again.

"Huh? Not even any "Congratulations…". Yeah yeah, assholes, see you tomorrow."

I said. I dragged my tired body back home, got naked, and collapsed into bed. Didn't even hide the weapons in the shed because I forgot. I was so, so tired.

It was still day, but I decided to sleep until tomorrow morning when I was meeting Luna. Luckily my mom wasn't home when I went back. Not that I even cared at this point about maintaining appearences. Not after that torture.