During the next 10 days all the newly awaken youngsters experienced an extremely demanding schedule and the intensity of their training also increased according to their progress. An awakened warrior required an accelerated schedule of training due to the amazing ability of their runes that provided the energy necessary for muscle reconstruction at a fast pace.
Thanks to the Runes and God's blessings, the amount and intensity of the exercises done the day before would not be able to accomplish the same results and so on and so forth forcing the training regime to evolve each and every day.
The diet also played an important role in the training of the new recruits and this meant that for the three months of special training, the elders provided highly nutritious food. For the lunch break the youngsters will eat a beef stew made with high quality meat from level 5 creatures as well as a few spirit herbs. Spirits herbs were used in Alchemy to make elixirs and other kinds of wonderful potions but since the Barbarian clans did not have an Alchemist, it felt on their shamans to concoct meals that will help their warriors with cultivation.
Alchemy in his most primitive form stemmed from cooking. The meals provided by the village not only recuperated the energy spent during the crazy training but it also provided energy towards their next level. It was not as fast as killing creatures and absorbing their energy, but the meat and blood of a high level creature still accumulated some of the energy of the beast and through cooking it could be extracted and fed to the trainees.
After ten days all of the new recruits had reached level 2 in their respective paths and had become a lot more proficient in the use of their weapons.
Rahz had reached beginner level in the use of 2h axes and had gained a skill from training called double attack which doubles the number of attacks per round. Level 2 also increased everyone's physical attributes according to their path of choice, the god of war blessing provided Rahz with an increase in strength as well as stamina. He would have gotten a bigger increase to these two physical attributes if he was a pure blood barbarian but since he was part elf he only got half of what the other kids in the village could improve upon leveling while the other half was applied to his wisdom and intelligence.
In terms of destructive power he was lagging behind the other warriors but his comprehension of skills and techniques was developing at a faster pace than his peers. With his new strength, Rahz was able to lift 140 lbs with ease. His axe swings were becoming more accurate and powerful and thanks to his higher intelligence and wisdom his battle sense was a lot better now. It even allowed him to win a couple of fights during the sparring with the other kids.
Seeing the vast improvement of the children, the first elder decided to gather everyone before the start of the training and made an important announcement.
"Since everybody is at level 2 already, It is time to start ability training" said the elder.
Everyone present was quite cheerful about this new development,they had practiced with their new abilities at home but their knowledge was quite superficial.
Since each path use a different type of energy it was necessary to separate them. The warriors energy was call Rage, The scouts energy was called Ki and the Mages and Healers used Mana as their energy resource.
There were 3 other warriors besides Rahz in this new group of awakened children, there were two guardians which include Bhirl and one more children while the third person was a soon to be Berserker that prefered the use two 1h weapons. The first skill of 1 handed sword user when he or she reached the beginner level was dual wielding increasing their damage and defensive abilities by quite a bit and changing their fighting style considerably from berserker with 2h heavy weapons like Rahz .
" As you already know, the name of the energy a warrior uses is called Rage and its name comes from the way it is generated. When a warrior receives or deals damage it generates an overwhelming desire to destroy, we called this killing intent. The manifestation of killing intent combine with the energy of heaven and earth provides the fuel that we need to perform our abilities and we called this fuel or energy resource Rage. In the stages Before a class has been decided all the types of energy could be called Runic energy as it comes from the absorption of your runes" explained the teacher.
" Teacher is one type of energy better than the other?"
" There is no better or worst when it comes to energy. They are all the energy of heaven and earth provided by the realm when it is in its purest form. Thanks to our path of choice and our runes, we are able to mold and change the characteristics of the energy. For example we already discussed where the warrior energy comes from. In the Shaman's case they use energy from the elements as well as the residual life force we call spirits found in nature in order to cast their spells. At the end of the day they are just combinations of different types of energy provide by our wonderful realm that is the reason one is not better than the other".
After answering a couple more questions the Elder asked them to pair up. Nothing changed much from their regular martial arts training except for the use of their abilities to attack and defend. Once their energy was depleted they will stop to recover and switch roles. This type of training was very important for Rahz and the others, it not only improved their energy management but it also developed a sensing skill that will allow the warrior to gauge the level of their enemy.
If the enemy had a higher level, then the warrior will feel a form of oppression from the enemy, the higher this oppression, the higher the level of his or her opponent. The skill was extremely important in a fight or flight situation since if there was no oppression it was safe to say that the enemy was at same or lower level than the warrior and he could decided to fight or skip town before the fight even begun. At later levels of this skill fighters could tell the kind of energy and power level the opponent had very accurately, many Grandmasters argued that it was the most important life saving skill a warrior could learn in the realm of Elysian where the strong rule.
Some classes and items had the ability to analyzed the opponent in more detailed but it was predominantly classes from the mage department that were able to develop such techniques.
Just like in the previous schedule, after the energy training it was the time everyone had been waiting for, the sparring.
Rahz learned his lesson and did not act cocky from the get go. Even though he had being improving and actually winning some matches, it was nothing to be proud of. Rahz went to the arena and waited for his opponent. This time it was a Barbarian girl called Blaire. She was pursuing the shaman path and was also at level 2. As soon as Rahz saw her up in the arena he started daydreaming about what pose he would do after he won't his fight. Rahz had beaten Blaire previously and was confident he could do it again.
The use of weapons was permitted this time and for the training session the were made out of wood and were pretty decently made. Rahz had a 2 handed axe and Blaire wielded a 2 handed staff.
Ready … Begin.
The fight started but Rahz was so caught up thinking about his after match pose that he didn't realized the match was well underway. while he was in la la land, Blaire was able to cast her first spell Icy winds. Icy winds was an elemental spell that slowed the movement speed of the enemy and inflicted damage to the muscles.
Rahz was completely unprepared, and immediately felt cold seeping into his bones which made him snap out of his stupor. Rahz Activated Strengthen Defense but it was too late. The spell not only cause minor damage to his muscles but it also slowed his movement speed.
Rahz try to close the gap between them but before he arrived close to Blaire another spell landed on him. This was the spell called Weakness. The spell decreased the attack speed and damage of offensive skills by a small margin.
Under the effects of this 2 spells, Rahz combat effectiveness drop to the floor.
"ARGH !!Fight like a man!!!" Rahz screamed in desperation.
Blaire sneered at Rahz comment and proceeded to land the business end of the 4 ft long staff on his face. The decreased attack speed signified that Rahz couldn't defend properly. Under the heavy barrage of blows, Rahz depleted his energy by using Strengthened Defense in an attempt to create an opportunity for a comeback but it was all for nothing. When everything was said and done Rahz was knockout cold.
When Rahz landed on the floor, everybody's jaw dropped. Nobody believed that a healer could be that scary.
The elder cast cure on Rahz to heal his injuries and had him come to before reviewing the fight and point out what he could have done in order to beat his opponent. Very soon everybody had a chance to fight and learn from experience without the need to feel belittle for losing, after each battle the fight was analyzed and pointers were given to increase the battle proficiency of everybody present.
Afternoon training was exhausting but highly rewarding at the same time. The depletion of energy helped everybody increased their energy towards the next level even faster than before.
Everyone was well on their way to becoming true warriors and under this training regime three months quickly went by. The special training was coming to a close and Rahz and the others were mostly level 4 but some trainees such as Bhirl were really close to level 5 and it was time to take their knowledge and put it into practice with a graduation test.