26. Training montage.

Days started to quickly go by we developed a nice routine when it came to training. My body seemed to however adapt rapidly to the training so Rook was always increasing the workload or switching things up so we wouldnt adapt as well and keep improving.

By the end of 3 months I could easily lift hundreds of pounds single handed. I had cut down all the hand signs for Ember, Leech Life, Speed Boost, Fear and Bind. I was working on the next set of Techniques, Fireball, Drain Touch, Body Flicker, Nightmare, Strangle and Soul Shake which I had to start learning new hand signs from scratch for.

Drain touch just improved on leech life and the purple aura covered the hand instead of just the finger tips and doubled the absorb rate.

Body Flicker instead of pushing the energy in my body to both my feet for one move I would have to alternate from left to right foot so I could make multiple steps, stop myself in place and change direction, like going from jumping forward to running forward long distances. It was extremely stressful on the legs at first and you get nasty tunnel vision.

As for Nightmare, I had Stella test it on me and it was a kind of illusion or Genjutsu where you experience some pretty realistic terrifying things. For example I found myself at the top of a skyscraper about to fall to my death, it felt realistic as I could feel the wind on my skin and my heartbeat skyrocketed as I instantly panicked. Nearly had my own heart attack, for someone like me with a fear of heights this was terrifying. Fear was a weaker version, you ever have that feeling where the hair on the back of your neck and arms stand up, like you've been watching some spooky shit and now your in the dark alone and you know there is something there? Yeah, that's what it feels like.

Strangle just makes the previous shadows from Bind wrap around the body and throat and choke the air out of someone.

As for Soul Shake? I don't like the feeling of that move either, as soon as Stella used it on me something inside rattled that wasn't supposed to rattle, I threw up all over the ground and felt like I had gotten the flu or motion sickness, my body got cold and clammy and I started to sweat. It was fucking awful and terrified the girls when I basically collapsed. The soul isn't used to being attacked like that and your body reacts very violently. All these ghost moves where fucking terrifying. If you combo them then it's worse. Strangle someone while they are in a nightmare, if you rattle thier soul you cause them to vomit and then choke them so they can't breath you could easily kill someone.

It's some nasty stuff. It's like having status effects and illusions trap you and then your just fucked because the shadows attack from all angles. Once they are bound up you just drain the life force out of them.

If you can get rid of the hand signs then just looking at someone can rattle the soul and send them into a nightmare. Plus with the perks of a ghost body, invisibility and Intangibility. You don't even know where they are attacking from. It's the perfect assasin combo to terrorize.

In other news our energy reserves had been bumped up 3 more times from training in the energy chamber. This put me an Amber firmly into C rank for energy reserves meaning we could technically cast Grand Fireball and Flamethrower however we were doing the same for our D-Rank Fireball skill which was master it to completion.

Stella and myself with Ghost energy were around mid D-rank since we didn't have any soul crystal's if those existed and had to rely on eating soul fruits and flowers to increase the energy.

Martial arts were also going well, with Rook teaching what she knew. We were rapidly becoming proficient in boxing, kick boxing, military boxing and judo. Rook herself was taking time to study up other martial arts so she could teach us since she had spare time during our elemental training. She of course kept up with her own training as she didn't want to become rusty and wanted to improve her skills even more.

She couldn't improve in certain areas as there were no skills for them available. After body flicker there wasn't anything else because people couldn't see if they moved faster than that, thier eyes couldn't keep up with the movement. What's the point of moving faster if you can't see where you are going.

I had a fix for that but it wasn't in this world.

Speaking of another world I had unlocked 2 more slots, one for hitting D rank and one for hitting C rank. However that was just energy levels, it didn't determine skill. For example an a rank could easily lose to a D rank if they didn't have any good martial arts or elemental abilities, or even weapon skills to back them up. It could be some lazy fighter who just sits in the meditation chamber and does nothing else but meditate, they could easily lose in a battle against a more well rounded fighter.

What was it the novels called them? Flowers raised in greenhouses? Nobles? Young masters? High class cannon fodder?

Anyway I planned to go to a different world once I had mastered at least two life saving skills.

The ghost bodies invisibility and the Intangibility. If these weren't life saving skills I dunno what was.

I had a couple of goals in mind that needed these skills. I also had to look up some other skills as some of the things I had planned to do weren't exactly...good. However it needed to be done, it would be an incredible improvement to some of our skills which we were lacking. However proper steps needed to be made before anything else and that starts with invisibility and Intangibility.