The training yard was nearly empty – perhaps it was the time, perfect for lunch, or perhaps most adventurers simply trained elsewhere, if at all.
The only person besides myself was a taller-than-average woman, with silky black hair, her lean figure clad in leather armor, and in her hand – a small hand crossbow, not unlike the halfling's.
However, unlike the halfling, she also had a second crossbow hanging from her belt, although her left hand, bandages visible from underneath the leather handguard, was not holding it.
She was practicing in front of the archery targets. Paying her no further mind, I went to a different corner of the yard, and pulled out my sword.
swoosh
My sword movements had improved tremendously in the last two days – or, should I say, returned closer to Sebastian's original form?
For a while, I trained, using the instructions of Sebastian's father, the memory still vivid in my mind, as guidance.
At a certain point, I suddenly remembered another thing I needed to train.
I made a series of connected swings, only that the last one…
[Arc Slash] ~
Instead of a regular slash, after bringing my sword to a fitting position, I tried performing the skill - and succeeded!
Well, calling it a complete success would be a stretch – the gap between the starting stance and the swing itself, albeit less than a second, was still a glaring weakness that could be easily exploited by a fast opponent.
'But I can actually see a path forward with this. If I improve more, it could be used as a proper part in a combo! Or, well, I could at least chain it with regular attacks.'
With those thoughts, I suddenly remembered I actually had a way to check my progress – one which I hadn't used for a while now.
Ever since that night, I only opened the 'section' of the panel that had to do with Soul Conditions, but it could actually be used to see many more things.
---
[Skills]:
[Charge Thrust] - Lv2 (75/100)
[Arc Slash] - Lv1 (15/100)
—
There it was!
Since the first time I checked this section, between my experiment in the tunnel, the wolf battle, the demonstration to Harold, and the training just now, [Charge Thrust] had gained 2 proficiency points (or rather, percent), and [Arc Slash] gained 1.
'This might not seem like a lot, but considering I haven't really been focused on training those two…'
This was definitely solid progress!
The only questions remaining were:
One - whether this progress would slow down at higher levels, and if so - by how much.
I wasn't really sure how to confirm this, especially since my higher-level skill-gained more proficiency, but I had a feeling the progress would become slower the higher the proficiency level became, and that the higher [Charge Thrust] progress was simply due to me using it more, and in more intense situations… which led to my second question.
Would those techniques improve at the same rate when training as compared to real battles?
I tried to probe Sebastian's memories for his training of [Charge Thrust], but all I got were a few visions of his father instructing him about muscle usage, breathing, and other subtle things I already instinctively knew of the skill, and Sebastian himself practicing an incomplete stance on the same grassy field most of his training took place.
It was clear this skill could be trained without combat, at least to some extent, but I wasn't sure about the efficiency.
'Well, I could just make note of my improvement during regular training and after a few fights.'
Although it was interesting, I had no way of checking this theory right away.
However, the short memory regarding [Charge Thrust]'s initial training, while containing no new insights, did give a certain idea.
'Why do I need to [Thrust]? Why can't I just [Charge]?'
Now that I thought about it, this skill felt like an intricate fusion of two types of movements – one of the body, one of the sword.
'Surely, there is no reason why I couldn't just use half of it?'
I put the sword behind my back, and tried to enter a familiar stance.
My knees were slightly bent, my calves were tense, but…
That special feeling, the one that felt like the world ready to give me a little push forward, wasn't there.
No, actually, I could faintly feel it, but something was missing.
I tried to think about a possible solution, subtly changing my balance and focusing on different muscles.
I thought I noticed the feeling increase when I went in a certain direction, but after a bit, I was hit by a wall again.
'Actually, what if…'
Then, I suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
From the incomplete stance, I raised my empty hands and tensed the relevant muscles, as if I was about to thrust a sword.
Despite not having an actual sword, the feeling reignited, indicating the skill was ready to be used.
Slowly, I began relaxing my upper muscles, trying to instead shift some of the strain to my abdomen muscles.
The filling grew fainter, and vanished; However, I knew exactly which muscles to focus on to regain that feeling.
After some more experimentation, I found a few promising directions.
'I'll definitely continue this.'
The only problem right now was the accumulated strain from the stances, which, while much lower than the actual skill usage, was starting to weigh on me heavily, likely exacerbated by the [Arc Slash] usage earlier.
'Well, let's at least try this version out.'
I knew the current version was not what I wanted, but I wanted to use my remaining stamina to try out [Charge (work in progress)] at least once.
I readied myself, and…
whoosh
Everything blurred, as I flung myself forward.
The initial momentum was comparable to [Charge Thrust], carrying me over 5 meters forward.
The momentum of my bare hands and upper body was much lower than the original, but unfortunately, it was still there, causing my body to lean forward mid-air, my arms stretched like some light athlete in the middle of their acrobatic jump.
What greeted me next was the ground, slowly stopping my momentum over a few meters of sliding on my (leather protected) chest and knees, and filling my mouth and nose with dust in the process.
COUGH COUGH
"Hi-hi… Hi hi hi.."
The sound of shrill laughter, partially suppressed, entered my ears.
Coughing out another bit of dust, I turned my head to see the woman from before, hands already covering her mouth, instantly turning away, doing her best to suppress the sound from escaping.
"Hi.. haa…"
A few more sounds escaped before the woman regained her composure.
I frowned for a moment, but then I imagined how my charging dive (straight into the dirt) must have looked from the side, causing me to just sigh before getting up off the ground.
"I'm sorry. That just looked… Ehm. I apologize."
The woman came over, clearly not proud of her initial reaction.
"...that's fine. I know how it must have looked."
Thinking back, I honestly couldn't be mad. If I suddenly saw the woman perform a deep dive straight into the dirt, I'd probably be struggling to hold back a similar reaction.
"No no! All of us had to train our techniques at one point. There is nothing.. wrong… hey, are you Sebastian by any chance?"
I couldn't help but raise my eyebrow. I got how my new (temporary) party members recognized me, but this woman was definitely not at the Blue Mushroom that night.
I looked at the woman, trying to piece together where I might have seen her, without much success, until a certain idea came to mind.
"Could you be… Hilda?"
It was the woman's turn to raise her eyebrow, confirming my guess.
"How did you know? I didn't think Bern had any chances to introduce us."
"Well, you knew my name, so you heard about me. Being here, you're clearly an adventurer. And I remember a story about Bern cleaning up some thugs around here after he arrived. Hilda was the name of his female companion."
"He he..."
The woman, Hilda, laughed awkwardly.
"He did say you were a sharp kid."
"By the way, he doesn't look more than 30. Should someone that young be calling me a kid?"
For the record, Sebastian's body was around 19 years old. Well, my real age was 28, so being called a kid did irk me a bit, but regardless, that wasn't that big of a gap.
"They say a year of adventuring is worth five years of age. So by that measure, he is over forty."
Hilda chuckled, as I opened my mouth before closing it again and chuckling myself, unable to find a retort.
My eyes glanced at the bandages covering Hilda's left arm.
"Got bit by a venomous snake in the last mission. We had the antidote at hand, so it's only a few days away from fully healing."
Catching my glance, Hilda casually explained the origin of her wound.
"No, I… was just curious as to why you weren't at the Blue Mushroom. I guess this was the reason."
"In part. I also don't really like taverns. Definitely not enough to drag myself over there like this."
"I see. A shame you missed that soup, though."
"Ah, that. No worries, Bern brought me a bowl afterwards."
Well, it wasn't surprising they gave him one to go – he was the star of that night, after all.
"Anyway, I was just about finished here, so I won't keep you from your training."
"Erm… actually, I was also about done. Are there any good places to eat around town?"
"Hmm… there was this one meat stall on the way to the industrial district. Also, there was a restaurant called Red Lock in the commercial district, but it's not cheap. Ah! There is also a dining house two streets north of the Sun Shrine. If they'll have any shepard's pie left when you visit, you really should try it – Bern always visits that place at least one between missions, just in case they do."
"Thank you. I'll give it a try, then."
Even without the enthusiastic recommendation, I'd probably go to that dining house, if only because of its proximity to my next destination.
And so, we both left the training grounds, and then the guild, and went our separate ways.
After some time, I found myself standing before a wooden hut with a small open terrace. On its deck were a few tables, and a couple of people eating at some of them.
On a bigger table, one without adjacent chairs, an old lady was in the middle of putting down a metal tray.
Even before I saw the lady, my nostrils had already picked the scents – a mix of freshly baked pastries, and well seasoned meat.
"Welcome, young man. Would you like some pie?"
Thanking whatever god was responsible for fortune in this world, I ordered two slices, as well as a small vegetable plate, consisting of salted tomato slices.
The moment the plate touched the table, I instantly took a bite of the first slice.
The pie's texture, crispy on the outside but tender beneath, served as the perfect contrast to the juicy, soft bits of meat, their mildly hot yet sweet seasoning bringing the whole experience to another level.
In less than five minutes, the first slice was mercilessly devoured, and the second one followed soon after.
'I get why Bern always comes here.'
Sitting with a blissful expression, I quietly appreciated the meal, feeling all my troubles being slowly washed away by the divine delicacy.
'..hurry…'
sigh…
Of course, this was only an illusion; a complacency I could not afford right now.
Before leaving, I decided to buy another couple of pie slices to go.
After paying (5 copper per slice, which was not cheap, but a bargain for its value), I stood up and made my way to the nearby Sun Shrine.
It was time to seek help with my biggest problem.