Unbound

He didn't manage to level any more spells before Harn returned, fresh from beating Atar into the ground. Felix almost felt bad if the kid wasn't a huge dork. Still, he felt some grudging respect as he saw the mage keep getting back up. Harn got right back into with Felix, starting up the same sort of weapons training as before, pushing him into spar after spar until time blurred.

It was late, though no one seemed to be settling down. Too much work to be done, too much to prepare.

Not that Felix had the time to think about it.

Harn came at him again, his two swords moving in opposite directions. Felix twisted sideways and used his bronze blade to catch one sword even as the second sliced open his hip.

"FUAAAA!" Felix kicked out, catching Harn's bicep. Harn shifted backward, not so much shoved as flowing with the momentum, spinning into a new set of strikes. Felix flailed, golden sparks rising from his Crescian blade as the steel swords caught and flung it from his grasp. He stared after it a moment before springing into a backwards roll.

Acrobatics had become increasingly easier, his body more flexible due to his Dexterity and Agility, but his fights with Harn was pushing him to a new limit.

"No retreating!" Harn came after him, swords striking deep furrows into the solid stone floor. Felix tumbled three times, each revolution ending with those blade closer and closer to his face. On the last, he pushed up onto his hands and twisted his body into an awkward round off.

Acrobatics is level 22!

It was weird and looked bad, but it was effective. Harn's blades once again barely scraped against Felix's skin, though still managing to draw two gouts of blood into the air. Gritting his teeth, Felix reached down and grabbed the axe resting against the wall. As Harn came in again, Felix swung the axe in a low arc, intending to catch the bastard on the knees. And he did.

Faster than he could blink, the two swords crossed and came to rest against his neck. Felix swallowed audibly.

"Ya lose," Harn smirked. "Again."

Felix stood up as the warrior retracted his swords, sheathing them in a single fluid motion. "Again," Felix said.

"Yeah again," Harn smirked as he turned to walk away. "That was the sixth time ya lost. I'm startin' ta think yer throwin' this on purpose."

"No," Felix said, his voice firmer. "Again."

Harn half turned and eyed him up and down. Then he grinned.

"Oh you got it, kid."

Twenty minutes later, Felix was exhausted. He laid out on the ground, the stone cooling his sweaty body. Harn sat down heavily next to him, his armor clanking dully on the floor.

"Siva's eyes, where'd that last bit come from?" Harn asked.

Eyes closed, Felix smiled. He'd managed to catch Harn off guard in the last bout, using Shadow Whip to grasp and pull the man's weapon just slightly off target, letting Felix get close enough to land a single punch. For the first time all night, Felix heard Harn gasp, though he doubted it was from pain.

Still, it was music to his ears.

"That was some clever Skill use. Didn't expect the spell. What was it?"

Felix cracked open an eye, looking at Harn from where he laid on the floor. Felix was covered in sweat, blood, and no small amount of bruises, while the burly human was still in his near pristine armor. Small scratches covered Harn's armor, but it wasn't from him. "Shadow Whip."

Harn grunted. "Interestin'. Next time though, no spells. Can't learn weapons proper if ya have a crutch."

Felix frowned. He'd been proud of using his new understanding of Shadow Whip to get one over on the walking suit of armor. "It's a good spell, though."

Harn held up his hands. "I'm not sayin' it ain't. Can see a lotta utility in somethin' like that. My point is, weapon mastery'll get you more over the long run. Spells are...well, they're gimmicks. Level to level, Skill to Skill, ain't no mage is gonna hold up against a true warrior."

Felix chewed on his lip, considering the words.

Harn shook his head and smiled as he stood up. "Yer a weird one, Felix. Take a rest for the night. I gotta focus on the other kids." He walked off.

Frowning at being included with the term "kids," Felix took a breath and cleared his mind. His hip still hurt from where Harn had sliced him earlier, though it was nearly healed over by this point. After thirty seconds, he checked his notifications.

Acrobatics is level 23!

Parry is level 8!

Physical Conditioning is level 22!

Armored Skin is level 21!

Axe Mastery is level 5!

Blunt Weapon Mastery is level 8!

Long Blade Mastery is level 14!

Small Blade Mastery is level 13!

Staff Mastery is level 9!

Thrown Weapons Mastery is level 13!

Blind Fighting is level 19!

Mantle of the Long Night is level 3!

Even Blind Fighting jumped up? Felix was impressed, though his body wasn't. Aches and pains littered his flesh, and though the worst of it was dulled, it certainly wasn't a picnic. He'd sure as hell worked for those gains.

I could rest now. Take a nap by the fire...Felix eyed one of the side rooms and huffed a small breath. He stood up.

Too much to do. He had come up with some training ideas, and now was as good a time as any to try them out.

Pit, he sent to his nearly asleep Companion. Can you watch over this doorway, bud? Squawk if anyone comes near.

Felix could feel the tenku's grudging assent over their connection, though the lazy bird didn't rush. Felix could sense him take a long luxurious stretch, flexing his wings out in a show of not being hurried. He grinned before ducking under one of the cloth covered archways. This was where the "magic basin" was, and the room was filled with several bench-like objects. Like the basins themselves, the benches were somehow carved from the stone itself, as if the entire room was chiseled from one piece of rock. Or someone had a Stone Shaping spell.

Felix walked over to one of the unused basins, a waist high pedestal carved with pale figures along the four corners. It was deep enough to submerge half his body were he to jump in, and was one of many that had a non-functioning lever and still caked with dust. No windows dotted these rooms, unlike others, though there was a drain in the floor and odd holes bored into the ceiling. What they were for he wasn't certain, though the entire set up looked like some sort of communal shower.

Regardless, anthropology wasn't why he had come in here, no matter how fascinating all of this stuff happened to be. Felix held out his arms, raising them above the basin.

Acid Stream.

Two orbs of green acid bulged in his palms, suspended by some strange aspect of magic, before jetting a concentrated stream directly into the basin itself. He paused, letting the acid bubble and burn for a while. He didn't know if it would eat through the stone or not. When the bottom of the basin didn't fall out, he cast again. Felix had to stop and regenerate his Mana twice before filling the entire thing. By the end of it, he felt a little light headed due to Mana loss and the pungent odor of the acid which was an acrid tang on the air. It was gross and reminded him viscerally of the copse grubs and their pale, wriggly bodies.

His stomach gurgled, his body reminding him that he'd been training for hours now and wanted more food. Wonder if there's any more of that Hoarhound left? Feels like I could eat a horse.

Felix shook himself, exercising his Willpower to reorient. Food was later. Now was the experiment.

The basin was full of thick green acid, merrily bubbling away. Taking a deep breath, Felix lift his left hand and pushed it wrist-deep into the liquid.

Ahhssshhh---that burns! Felix held back from screaming, but the pain was excruciating as the acid ate away at his skin beneath the surface. Moments later, his Pain Resistance must have kicked in because it dulled down to a mild roar. Once that happened, he gritted his teeth and pushed the rest of his forearm into the basin.

His arm shook, muscles spasming as nerves misfired. The smell of acid wafted into his face, mingling with the scent of dissolving flesh. This close he could see bits of his skin peel off the top of his forearm and slowly disintegrate, each second the pain mounting higher and higher. In the corner of his vision, he saw his Health begin to dip, dropping 25% in as many seconds.

Acid Resistance is level 21!

It worked!

His Health loss started to slow, and Felix could almost feel his body fighting back. The acid was mostly opaque and the roiling bubbles occluded the rest, but the top of his forearm didn't get much worse. Though he couldn't stop the shaking. Tick after tick, his Health dropped, until he reached 50% and the shaking was almost uncontrollable. The pain felt like it had dug sizzling needles into his muscles, a fizzing torment that was getting increasingly difficult to ignore.

And then, finally, relief.

Pain Resistance is level 29!

Acid Resistance is level 22!

The acid, once merrily bubbling away at his arm, stilled. Felix pulled his arm out of the acidic goop and stepped away from the basin, taking big lungfuls of clean air as he did. His arm was angry and red, covered in welts and burns from the acid. Felix held it up awkwardly, the pain of it only intensifying as his scoured flesh met the air, and held his elbow as if that would somehow stem the worst of it. Only after a minute passed and his Health began to slowly creep back upward, did he let himself relax.

Can't believe that worked. Felix had suspected that his own acid would hurt him, but wasn't positive. He had Acid Resistance, right? And it was his own spell, so why would it hurt him? I was right. My Acid Stream was higher level than my Acid Resistance, so it hurt me. The moment they evened out, the acid was less able to affect me. So if I can get Acid Stream higher than Acid Resistance again, I can power level it, probably right along side Pain Resistance.

Felix held out his arm, still pink and tender, but much better than only minutes before. Patches of new skin slowly spread across his flesh, his Perception picking out the morbid details easily. He leaned against another basin and stared into the middle distance as he pondered resistances. What did Tempering your body do to affect this sort of training? If I were stronger, would this not work?

Better get all the training he could before that happened.

Ever since Harn explained Tempering, Felix was careful not to push any Skill into Apprentice Tier, even going so far as to refuse to dodge some of the man's strikes. It helped that it seemed to take a lot to make that jump from level 24 to 25, but he had a couple Skills that were on the cusp, and even more that were within five levels of it. As much as he ached to finish his Apprentice Spell quest, Felix felt a deep sense of unease when he thought of Tempering himself. He wasn't sure what it was, but the more he pondered it--the closer he got--the more he shied away.

If Tempering myself is like burning away that poison, I'm not in a big rush to try that again. His thoughts flashed back to the silver vials Harn had shown him. Besides, weren't those basic Essence Draughts? If I wait, am I missing out on better Essences? It's stupid but I'd be kinda pissed if I missed out on something better for something right now.

Felix tilted his head back and considered the ceiling. Then again, if I don't live through the next few days, what's the point? Ugh. This is a pointless debate to have with myself. Instead, he folded his legs and sat down on the ground, letting his mind wander toward his core. He wanted to see the results of his resistance training.

Previously, his Resistances were all hard to perceive within his core. The imprint of their ethereal patterns were vague and strangely inert. Felix assumed that was because they were passive rather than active abilities, only engaging when circumstances required. Sensing his Acid Resistance now, he thought he could perceive something, but it was either extremely faint or not there at all. He couldn't focus on it like he had with Shadow Whip, sadly, and would likely have to train it in a normal way.

His Mantle of the Long Night was similar, only appearing as a simple impression in his core. It was an active Skill for sure, but maybe because it was so low level it did not generate enough activity within his core to really show him anything. The pattern it displayed was a simple spiral and contained no extraneous or convoluted details, nothing that gave him a hint as to its nature. Why is that? Shadow Whip is a maze of shapes and Stone Shaping is a corkscrewing roller coaster comparatively.

Every Skill he owned had a uniqueness to its pattern, though many were at least passingly similar. Resistances, for instance, were all inert and faded. His spells were all wild variations, though. It was like learning a language based on pictures of someone else's notes, written in another foreign language. The further he investigated his core, pathways, and intricate Skill imprints, the more he realized he needed to level his Fire Within Skill. Which was another Skill that faded and inert, though likely for different reasons, and investigating it led no where.

No ringing. No humming or buzzing. Just the crackle and flare of his own core, burning just out of sight.

Makes sense that I can't level up my Fire Within Skill so easily. Not gonna lie though, that's disappointing.

Grooooouuuuuugglle

Felix's concentration broke as his stomach let out a powerful gurgle. He patted his bare stomach, enjoying the sensation of having a flat midsection. "Better go eat though. Who knows when I'll get more meat."

Felix stood and walked back into the main chamber, still not liking the feeling of the thickened air against his skin. Pit slept quietly near the archway, his little beak open as he snored. Felix smiled and kept going.

The room was still abuzz with activity, despite the late hour. In fact, Felix was a little surprised at how alert he was feeling despite the training he just did. Must be an effect of higher Endurance? He could still feel the urge to sleep, but it was easily put off, like riding a caffeine high without the jangly nerves. His body even ached less since his Pain Resistance went up again, and his regeneration was taking care of the bruises and cuts left by Harn.

The Tin Ranks were sparring again, this time Evie versus Vessilia. As Felix climbed down into the tiered fire pit, he watched the two young women fight with their respective weapons. Vessilia utilized the reach of her spear to keep her distance from her much more agile opponent, but Evie was hard to pin down. She flipped and twisted, moving up and over the spearwoman's attacks in a dizzying dance. Vessilia tried to keep up, but it looked like she was trying to grab dandelion fluff from the air; each attempt only made it float further away.

Wonder what her Acrobatics Skill is? He ate as he watched, grabbing whatever was left over of the meat from a nearby tin platter. The thing was piled high with scraps carved from the carcass. Definitely higher than mine, which means at least Apprentice Tier. And Vessilia has that way she jumps. Evie called her a Dragoon. But Harn said classes weren't a thing. So what's she referring to?

Felix licked his fingers, the meat juices cold but still good. Maybe it's an organization? So there's the Guild and now Dragoons. What else is out there? Felix felt a flutter of excitement race through him at the idea of exploring this world. Maybe he was trapped here and he'd never see home again, but it was a taste of freedom he'd never had. If only things stopped trying to kill me.

Felix reached down for another piece of meat and found the simple tin plate empty. "Huh?" He looked around, but there was nothing left.

"How'd that happen?" There had to have been five or six pounds of meat in that pile. He even had a pile of bones left next to him, evidence of his massacre. Is my metabolism that high now? He didn't even feel full. If I could, I would probably eat more.

Felix held his hands out, feeling the sticky residue of pounds of monster meat and grimaced. Full or not, he was done, and he couldn't go back to training like this. He stood, luxuriating in a long stretch before finding his waterskin and a rag, using them to carefully wash his hands and chest. He was remarkably dirty, covered in dust and dirt, a bit of blood and acid, and now greasy smears of meat. What's more, it had been literal DAYS since he last showered, and oh man did that feel gross.

He was basking in the warm memory of hot, daily showers while scrubbing himself with a cold rag when someone threw something in his face. Felix turned and caught it, but the item ended up being cloth and bigger than his hands and just flopped onto his head. Pulling it down, he recognized it as a faded green shirt. He looked back up.

"Time to stop being naked, weirdo," Evie said, sipping on a dull yellow potion.

Felix laughed, more happy he had a shirt than embarrassed. He'd been on and off bare-chested for weeks now. "Yeah, I have a problem with shirts, I guess."

"Psh," she scoffed. "I don't see a problem." Evie looked him up and down while sipping on her potion. "But you're distracting people."

Felix, caught between a blush and a snarky reply, turned to see Vessilia and Atar looking his way. The noblewoman quickly found herself busy and turned back toward whatever she was doing...some sort of slow fighting stance routine. A kata, is that was those are called?

Atar, as he half expected, wasn't even looking at him. He was looking at Vessilia. When they did meet eyes, Felix could practically feel the anger radiating from the teen wizard.

Felix rolled his eyes.

He put on the shirt.

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