Mentored Training 1

“As I understand it, your dungeons are most effective at helping you and Ivy increase your powers, yes?” Olivia asks. I nod in response. “I am unsure if they are potentially the most effective thing that the rest of us could be doing to train. My raw power cannot very effectively be increased through your dungeons, and while I gain experience fighting different enemies, there are other means to do so.” Olivia continues.

“In addition, from what I gather, your dungeons are very linear, as are the gains in experience they provide. I believe that a more effective way to work towards an increase in power level for you three, Mia, Paige and Skylar, would be to work towards a proper breakthrough in power, rather than a steady linear increase.” Olivia explains.

“What does that mean?” Skylar asks. I can see that Paige is just as curious, and Mia is already figuring out what Olivia has in mind. The lady of the beasts smirks at Skylar. “That my dear, means that you are going to spar with each of us, one after the other. We are going to push you to your limit, and beyond.”

“We know that you have the potential now to be far more powerful than you are. Gemma’s dungeons are helpful for a gradual and linear increase in power, but it is only through pushing you to your very limit, something her dungeons do not achieve in the necessary way, that you can have a breakthrough and push past a previously inaccessible barrier in a spectacular and rapid way.” She replies.

Skylar sighs, smiling at Olivia. “I was afraid you’d say that.” The teacher chuckles light heartedly. “Do not worry, we will make sure that you will not be adversely affected. In the end, this will make you stronger, if done correctly.” Olivia assures. “Is Ivy necessary for this to work?” I ask her. She turns to me and shakes her head.

“It is not about hurting them. The sparring exercise I have planned is much more about pushing them to their physical and magical limits, and forcing them to dig deep into that. Their speed, their strength, their stamina, their will to fight, their magical reserves and power, all of this will be tested and stretched to the limit.” Olivia explains.

“By the end of this, they will much more likely be incredibly exhausted than hurt seriously. However, if you want to go through more of your dungeons, try not to keep Ivy away for too long, if possible. Having a healer around for emergencies is always a preferable precaution.” She states. I nod and turn to Ivy.

“Would you be okay helping me train my mana shield skill up to max today? I want to get it over and done with.” I ask my girlfriend. She nods, smiling at me. “We can do that. Just no long dungeons.” She replies. With that decided, and our reserves and energy recovered, we head outside to train. I elect to wait before heading inside a dungeon, as I’m really curious to see Olivia spar with Skylar.

Before they begin, Olivia lays out the rules. “We will begin with careful usage of our power. We do not want to hurt each other, the aim of this exercise is not to win for either of us. We will ramp things up over the course of the fight, to see how much we can each take. Do not aim to kill. Your goal is to keep fighting, no matter how exhausted you get. Understood?” She asks.

Skylar nods. A green flash of light envelopes Olivia as she transforms into her four armed, gorilla like form. I think she called it a Tetramand? Skylar readies herself, and Mia takes the opportunity to be the announcer. “Everybody ready?” She asks. “Ready.” Comes the confirmation from Skylar. “Indeed.” Olivia replies. Mia shakes her head at her choice of words. “Alright, good. Begin!” She yells.

Olivia immediately advances towards Skylar. The umbramancer adopts a defensive stance, having seen what the lady of the beasts is capable of, and being careful to measure the older woman's strength herself. Skylar puts up a wall between them and Olivia effortlessly smashes through it. Skylar takes a step back, intimidated.

Olivia is already upon her, and swipes at her with one massive fist. Skylar dodges the punch, being unsure how to handle it. "I have seen your magic. You can create solid constructs out of shadow. Yet you do not seem to have proper control. Concentrate, and you may be able to create a shield or a smaller object, to help defend yourself." Olivia coaches.

Skylar nods wordlessly and a look of concentration appears on her face. The teacher takes a step back so as to not break Skylar's concentration. Her magic manifests and swirls around her hands, a dark mass of shadow coalescing in a shapeless cloud. It starts to take shape, and after a full minute of Skylar concentrating hard, it starts to settle into the shape of a shield.

Olivia gives Skylar barely a second to adjust before she goes on the offensive again, swinging a massive fist towards the umbramancer. Skylar raises the shield and blocks the blow, the shield holding even under the impact. The lady of the beasts nods, satisfied. “The smaller the surface area of your constructs, the more you can concentrate your magic.” She explains.

Olivia continues to batter away at Skylar, the umbramancer blocking blow after blow, continually reinforcing the shield with more of her magic until finally, it cracks, splinters and breaks. “Good. Again. Try to counterattack this time.” She says. Skylar manifests another shield and the two of them clash once more.

“She’s brilliant.” I whisper to Ivy, who nods, awestruck. Olivia has more experience than any of us, and seemingly a better understanding of magic than we do, even when it comes to our own magic. She’s already helped Skylar figure out a new use for her magic, who knows what shenanigans she might be able to help us pull off in future?

Satisfied with the training that Olivia is putting Skylar through, and having made sure that she won’t get hurt, Ivy and I enter a simple dungeon, the giant rats, in order to power level my mana shield skill. The strategy for doing this is a bit dangerous, which is why Ivy is here, to make sure that I don’t accidentally put myself in more danger than necessary.

It’s pretty basic, I simply stand in one spot with the mana shield skill activated and let the rats hit me as much as they feel like it. Not trying to avoid the blows or fight back is a weird experience, since by this point, I’m so used to doing both. But, I have to let them hit me and drain my mana if I want to level up the skill, so I keep at it.

Through this process, I start to notice things about the skill that I haven’t fully paid attention to yet. The flare of purple sparks when an impact strikes the shield is actually really pretty when I pay attention to it. It’s almost enough to make me want to tank more hits in regular combat, just so I can see the effect.

In addition to that, the physics on how impacts actually affect me seems a little wonky. I’m not completely immovable while the spell is active, far from it actually, as the Queen proves when I’m sent flying backwards as it charges at me. Any pain I would have experienced from a blow is completely negated, and the same from being sent sprawling to the ground.

The actual machinations of the spell prevent any HP from being lost to strikes that it absorbs using my mana, so it makes sense somewhat that this is extended to the pain of being hit. However, while the spell doesn’t make me some kind of immovable object, it does seem to reduce how easy it is to toss me around.

I don’t know how it would affect people trying to grab and throw me, which I make a mental note to test with Olivia at some point. However, I am able to stand against impacts which would have previously knocked me over. If I brace properly, I can tank hits from the rat Queen without so much as taking a step. How much that’s due to my strength stat, and how much is due to the spell, I’m not sure.

Thanks partially to Ivy and partially to the care I took in not making myself too ****, we clear the dungeon while managing to avoid any particularly hairy situations. With mana shield now being at level 52, up from 39, I’m pretty happy with the result. It’ll take a few more dungeon runs to max out the skill, but we have the time.