Time to train in our skills

“You’ve all had some training in the basics.” Kiara says. “Now we’re going to train in some of your skills. Just one skill for now, but each of you will have a turn.”

Kiara gets Ryul to stand in the center.

“One of your skills is [Two-Points Stance]. It is a skill which allows you to choose between two stances. I want you to practice [Heaven's Stance] for now." Kiara explains.

"And how do I do that?" Ryul asks.

Kiara adjusts her position. "This is what the stance looks like. Other monks who can use this stance stand like this. Once you activate this stance, 2 new skills will open up to you, a passive skill and an activated ability. The acivated ability is called [Snake Strike], we'll train in that one another time. The passive skill this stance provides is [Sixth Sense], which allows you to have increased reflexes and helps you to intuit. We'll be training in this one."

Kiara then uses her [shadow manipulation] to put a blindfold on him.

“I am now going to give you some small taps like this.”

Kiara then lightly taps his shoulder.

“You are to try and use your skill and try to intuit where my next tap is going to come.”

Kiara starts slowly walking around Ryul and gives him some light taps. When Ryul notices she keeps going in the same clockwise direction, she changes course and catches him off guard.

“Don’t try to predict me.” Kiara tells Ryul. “Rely on your instinct, let your intuition guide you.”

Kiara goes on for a bit, but then she asks Wendy to take over from her.

Kiara then gets Miranda to stand a few steps in front of a training dummy and tells her try using her [Cleave] skill.

“You don’t need to make contact with the target.” Our mentor explains. “[Cleave] allows you to send an air current so sharp that it allows you to cut from a distance.”

Miranda then starts swinging her axe. At first it seems like she can’t get her skill to work, but then faint slashes start to travel all the way to the training dummy.

“Shalia, you have a skill called [Sunlight Shield].” Kiara says. “It allows you to create an energy barrier around a target which mitigates physical damage. I want you to cast that skill on the dummy Miranda is attacking and block her attacks.”

Sahlia aims her hands towards the dummy and at first Miranda’s attacks keep coming through. Then a very faint translucent shield seems to form around it. Miranda’s attacks still get through it, but the dummy seems to get hit less hard.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” We hear Wendy say.

We turn to her and Ryul and notice the blindfold on Ryul has disappeared.

“The blindfold simply disappeared.” Wendy informs us. “I guess I got too close.”

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Ryul says.

My elven friend takes off his leather armor, then pulls off his shirt but stops just short of pulling it off his head.

“There, now I can’t see again.”

With his shirt hanging over his head, Ryul and Wendy go back to training.

Now Kiara tells me to take out my sword and spar with Leona.

“Now, Leona. I want you to train your [Blind Thrust] skill. It’s a skill that puts your opponent, Darx in this case, in a trance where he is **** to attack you. That means defeating Darx will only hamper your defense training, so keep that in mind.”

“Darx.” Kiara says as she turns to me. “You are supposed to resist attacking her. If you can’t help yourself, that’s her skill working on you.”

“I know.” I reply. “My mom has that same skill and I’ve seen her use it a couple of time.”

“Perfect.” Kiara smiles.

Leona and I start sparring with Kiara supervising us. My sword clashes with her shield a couple of times, and Leona provokes me with her sword, but it’s never a serious attack. At least I am getting some decent exercise out of it. Based on all that armor she is wearing; I’m guessing Leona is getting some good training as well. Eventually, I think I notice an opening in Leona’s defenses. If I am to make use of it, I’ll need to give up some of my defense. But if I could defeat an A rank like her, maybe my card will update again. I move in, ready to defeat Leona, but suddenly her shield is there. Shit, now I’ve got a hole in my defense. Then I receive a kick from Leona in my side which throws me to the side.

“Darx!” Kiara yells and quickly runs to my side. “Are you alright? Do I need to call a cleric?”

“Uh, I think I am.” I groan and cough. “She just kicked the wind out of me.”

“You’re an A rank now.” Kiara scolds the cat girl. “You’re stronger than you are used to. You don’t have control over your new strength yet.”

Leona shrugs and says, “He should have kept his guard up.”

“Right, well now you get to train [blind thrust] by yourself.” Kiara replies.

Leona looks at her confused and asks, “How do I do that?”

“Guess you should have thought about that before you incapacitated your sparring partner.” Kiara says. Then she leaves Leona to check up on her other students.

Leona first seems upset. Is she blaming me? Then I see her lower her eyes and her face changes to regret. I shouldn’t worry too much about her. I get myself to sit up, but it isn’t easy. That is totally going to leave a bruise. Maybe I should go see a cleric anyways.

While I am resting, I check out my fellow trainees. Miranda is getting better and attacking the training dummy from a distance, but she seems to be getting tired. Looks like activating that skill takes quite a bit out of her. The shield Shalia is generating has cotton a little more color. Ryul seems to notice when Wendy is to his left or to his right. But she still manages to tap him a few times. I even notice the redhead groping his elven butt.

After Miranda becomes too tired to continue training, Kiara has her take a break. She then tells Shalia to switch places with Wendy and takes Wendy to the training dummy.

“Take this.” Kiara tells Wendy and gives her a belt with 5 throwing knives on it. “You’re going to practice your [True Aim] skill.”

Wendy ties the belt around her waist. Then she and Kiara each grab one of the knives.

“[True Aim] improves your hand-eye coordination. People can learn to be skilled at it without it, but their aim will never be perfect. You can use this skill to have perfect aim.” Kiara says. Then she throws her knife at the dummy and misses.

Then Wendy tries it, and misses as well.

“That is because you didn’t activate your skill.” Kiara informs her. “That’s fine. You’ve never used a skill before. You still need to learn how to activate them.”

“But what about my [Null Field]?” Wendy asks.

“That is a skill which is always on, even when you don’t want it to be. Since you don’t have to put any effort into activating it, we call it a passive skill. [True Aim] instead will only work when you activate it.”

When Wendy starts practicing her knife throwing, Kiara returns to me and asks again how I am doing.

“I fear it may be worse than I originally thought.” I say. “It’s definitely going to be a bruise. Maybe I better see a cleric anyways.”

“Come with me.” Kiara says.

My mentor then helps me up and accompanies me to a collection of royal guards in the center of the courtyard. That’s right. Yesterday, Kiara mentioned the queen hires adventurers similar to how the guilds do. That means these should be several clerics in the royal guard. I guess these guards are stationed in the middle of the three groups of trainees to keep an eye on them.

As I open up my leather armor, we can all see the beginnings of an internal bleeding. As a B rank, my mom was already strong. Leona is both an A rank and in the prime of her life. She probably even restrained herself. Had she gone all out, I’ve no doubt she would have broken some bones.

The royal cleric lays her hands on me and casts a healing spell. The bruise starts receding and soon I feel like before Leona kicked me.

As I am putting my armor back on, some guards who were stationed at the gate are heading towards us.

“Hey there, newbie.” One of the guards says while he is looking at me. “Do you know which one of you is named Darx?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” I say. “Can I help you with something?”

“No, not me.” The guard replies with a smile. “But someone has come to see you.”

The guard then steps aside to reveal someone standing behind him.