Chapter 58 — The [Empower] Skill

  Laiya was indeed a quick study. Getting the quiet girl to shout out her anger took a few tentative tries, but once she overcame the initial embarrassment, each shout and wave of intent grew more and more fierce. Not really unexpected, considering what she had been through—more than Toren knew, judging by Emina’s few leading comments on the matter and Warnel’s complicated expression while proud at her accomplishment.

  Teaching Warnel the initial [Berserker Weapon Arts] sword form and Laiya the spear form also went quickly, even the weapon imbuement part. Again, he could only think that having the [Mana Transfer] skill must have made the process easier for them. Maybe he should have gone that route himself when he was a [Hunter], instead of working so hard for [Empowered Thrust]?

  When Laiya gushed “Dad, you look so dashing as a swordsman!” after watching Warnel slash through the full sequence, the man puffed up amusingly and put even more energy into his practice.

  Satisfied that the pair no longer needed direct guidance, Toren left them to it and returned toward the house where Falma was already working on her archery and Emina was abusing the scarecrow with her frying pan.

  The hounds were attentively sitting near Falma, the older pair anyway. The pups had a branch broken off the downed tree and were tugging it between them, gnawing on their respective ends. Every so often, Nog and Nilly would excitedly bound off to retrieve the arrows when Falma issued a ‘fetch’ command. The girl really was putting in the work to level her new [Beast Handling] Skill.

  The two stopped their training when he stepped out from the shadowed spot he was observing from, and he taught mother and daughter the Warrior Spirit stance and the [Berserker Weapon Arts]’s initial club form, just like he had done for Laiya and Warnel. He had complicated feelings of his own that Emina mirrored when Falma volunteered that her shout was full of her desire to protect her sister and parents, and Azi and Azu, too.

  Demonstrating and properly learning the three sets of forms himself was just as good for his own practice as it was for the Hatterwicks, helping him to better understand the unified set of Arts that Horevi had given him as part of his [Burningblood Berserker] Profession. Thanks to the elemental attunement of his blood, Illusory flames were beginning to form around his swings when using Warrior Spirit, and the path his Profession would take was becoming clearer in his mind.

  The World Spirit agreed.

  Around late-morning he called everyone over to the felled tree for a potion break and gave them tasks—Warnel and Laiya, he set to removing branches using the weapon forms, Emina and Falma, he had help with making the weights for physical conditioning, both weight-sets that they could wear and weight-sets for lifting.

  The enchanted sword’s length was particularly helpful in slicing up the trunk. Warnel and Emina also had a matched pair of enchanted crafting knives they had received as a wedding gift from their parents. Though not much use for combat, the magically sharp blades made quick work of the carving.

  From the reminiscing while they worked, Falma and Laiya had used their parents’ knives extensively during their apprenticeship. The [Haberdasher] couple had been planning to similarly gift paired knives for Laiya and Falma and their husbands when each’s joyous event had come. Reality hadn’t worked out that way.

  Watching the Hatterwicks’ [Knifework]-Skilled hands work reminded Toren of his time training with Old Sellim and the old [Monster Hunter]’s admonition to always reach beyond what the Skill taught, to try and understand the why. For Toren, that first skill he had taken to such heights was his [Archery]. A Skill that was no longer a part of his Profession and, possibly, no longer part of his path.

  Raising a Skill to proficiency was mostly a matter of following in the footsteps of those who came before and putting in the work to reach the destination. Progressing beyond that was what required insights—to give back and improve the shared knowledge. But Skills were also more than shared knowledge. They were part of the search for one’s truth of existence. In a way, Skills were a path that would become one of the stars that made up a person’s divine constellation upon ascending to divinity.

  Lunch was mostly a grumbly affair as everyone suffered under the pains of muscle-mending potions.

  Afterward, came sparring. Toren played ‘moving target’ for Falma and her sister’s coordinated attacks. Crafting arrows with blunted wood arrowheads let the youngest Hatterwick shoot her bow at him without worrying about serious injury. Emina stayed back to protect her daughter, and whenever Laiya gave him the opening, he would charge at Falma, forcing her mother to intercept.

  For Warnel, there was a different priority, and Toren instructed the man to sit out every other round of sparring, blindfolded to work on his awareness and senses. In the rounds where Warnel did participate in the sparring, the father and daughter pair working together did a much better job of ‘keeping him from Falma’.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Each round of sparring was followed by conditioning training. The conditioning training had two phases: lifting weights and team tag. Each phase was followed by more potion guzzling.

  For ‘tag’, an ‘escaping’ team would run through the orchard and a ‘hunting’ team tried to hit the pair of the escaping team with their practice weapons. Like the sparring, the game of tag was done in full armor. A full set of weights was added to everyone’s limbs to further press them. Between rounds, Warnel took it upon himself to [Mend Material] the accidental damage to the trees.

  Toren actively joined in the tag and weight training—testing his theories on using [Burning Blood] to expand his limits. He did get some quick rewards, but no Attribute increases had shown yet.

  His constant use of [Flurry of Blows] to precisely control impact points and damage was leading him steadily toward the Ability’s first threshold. All that remained was applying the gains in real combat where he could smash things full force. Whether that was on the morrow or the day after, he was certain the breakthrough would come. It was just a question of the exact direction he would choose for the Ability’s first refinement.

  The use of his weapons art also led to a surprise as afternoon was drawing late and he strained to dodge a [Sure Cut]-assisted strike from Warnel.

  Toren held up his hand to pause the game of tag, and Warnel stumbled to a stop mid-swing.

  ~~~

  Name: Toren of Theravos

  Race: Human

  Age: 20

  Profession 1: Level 7 Burningblood Berserker (3200/14000)

  Mana: 32/112

  Strength: 16

  Constitution: 14

  Dexterity: 14

  Agility: 12

  Wisdom: 12

  Intellect: 8

  Will Power: 18

  Perception 15

  Appearance: 8

  Charisma: 8

  Luck: 10

  Attribute Upgrade Points: 6

  Traits:

  Sacrificial Guardian

  Abilities:

  Burning Blood (WIL, Rank 1, Proficiency: Mid)

  Control Blood (WIL, Rank 1, Proficiency: Low)

  Flurry of Blows (DEX, Rank 1, Proficiency: Low)

  Ability Upgrade Points: 6

  Profession Skills:

  Severe Wound Recovery 6

  Focus Rage 5 → 6

  Combat Awareness 6

  Berserker Weapon Arts 2 → 3

  Pain Tolerance 6

  Physical Conditioning 6 → 7

  Intimidate 5

  Skills:

  Danger Sensing 3

  Stealth 18

  Mana Sensing 14

  Wilderness Harvesting 12

  Theravos Language 11

  Religion 10

  Meditation 5

  Bone Strengthening 3

  Divided Focus 5 → 6

  Hunting 20

  Archery 19

  Running 13 → 14

  Wound Binding 8

  Arithmetic 4