In less than five steps, Elizabeth was within striking distance of Jane.
'Welp, here goes nothing,' Elizabeth thought in the moment her body shifted its weight and threw a textbook straight punch.
Unsurprisingly, even with her most impressive Speed Stat, Elizabeth's punch was effortlessly blocked by Jane.
"Good," Jane smiled. After a short pause she added, "Now, continue." Elizabeth obliged, but… soon enough, her feelings of relief turned into minor depression.
To her, Jane might as well have been some sort of invincible punching bag. Only, punching this invincible punching bag felt like punching a mountain which moved and pointed out all the errors in one's use of their Martial Art.
It was undoubtedly harder on Elizabeth's body, even if she used the same amount of strength she would have against a normal heavy bag.
However—
[Quests:
Name: Hidden Quest: Martial Arts Milestone #1 (Complete)
Difficulty: F
Objective: Get any Martial Art to Level 5 ✔
Afterword: Congrats, you now qualify as a Mortal martial artist. It's not much really, but hey, we all have to start somewhere, right? Here ya go! Hope this bad boy is put to good use~
Reward: Trash Tier Elemental Affinity Stone
Skills:
Name: Martial Art: Art Of Eight Limbs (Muay Thai)
Level 5
Experience: 70/100
Grade: F
Current Effect: Unarmed combat at the Mortal Stages yields a 31.25% buff to Strength and Defense.]
—Sparring against Jane was that much more efficient when it came to increasing Elizabeth's Muay Thai Skill.
Elizabeth would have grinned if not for her Quest's uninspiring Afterword and Reward. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and grumbled incoherently as she focused her efforts on trying to hit Jane anywhere other than right in the center of her palms.
Elizabeth persisted for an admirable period of time before her Inner Strength reserves failed her, but she never reached her goal. At least now that she had earned herself a break she could question P.
'Hey, P. I know I should have asked the other day when I completed your Side Quest, but… What's with my Quests' Afterwords? What exactly is a Trash Tier Elemental Affinity Stone? And how can anything described as "Trash Tier" be considered a reward in the first place?' Elizabeth asked internally.
P, apparently ever-available, didn't even take a second to respond back. She said, 'The Afterword for that quest comes straight from [REDACTED]. Apparently, [REDACTED] really likes your gamer thing and decided to contribute in making the process more fun,' the static-like noise P's voice conveyed whenever she spoke whatever noun was being redacted tickled Elizabeth's ears in a most unpleasant way.
'As for your reward…' P paused, as if in consideration, 'An Affinity Stones is it? You can think of them as cheats that instantly improve your talent. Like, you know how in RPGs there are usually level caps?"
Elizabeth, very much involved in the conversation taking place in her head, nodded as she confirmed with a questioning, "Yes?"
P continued saying, 'Well, you can think of the limit of your talent as a level cap. Every time you improve your talent, your level cap increases accordingly. Trash-tier is basically the worst, most basic, level of talent one must possess to begin generating either Magic or Qi. So you better stop disrespecting Trash Tier quality since as of now, you don't even have talent…'
What?
Elizabeth felt her blood chill and heart stop.
'No talent? What about my Time Affinity? What about Elizabeth Ultimatia's background? What, then, of the past three day's worth of training? How can I not possibly have any talent?!'
How would anyone expect her to have even the slightest chance of running the gauntlet that was the Cataclysm and coming out alive if she didn't have talent?
'Whoa, relax there before you have an aneurysm,' P said, not helping Elizabeth's mental state in the slightest. 'Your concerns are valid, but they can all be resolved if you just take a closer look at your Status...'
With a heavy heart, Elizabeth summoned her Status and looked through it as carefully as she could tolerate.
[Innate Skills:
Name: Fragmented Affinity
Tier: Transcendent
Description: Upon losing the totality of your Cultivation Base before descending from Heaven, all that remains of your previously cultivated talent for Time are shattered remnants of divinity. Fortunately for you, your master didn't cripple your talent, only fragmented it.
Alas, even a God can't achieve the impossible and only the Time aspect of your talent was preserved; Space and all your other previously cultivated types of energy have been lost to the void in exchange for you not ending a cripple.
As a result, your affinity for time can once more be cultivated upon the shattered remains of your previous godlike talent, thereby allowing you to progress through a path already paved by your previous efforts.
Current Effect: With regards to the cultivation of Time Affinity, you improve twice as fast while only having to put in half the effort.
Name: Time Affinity
Tier: Sub Trash
Generic Description | Applicable to all normal Affinity-type Skills: Created from practicing with a Time-type Cultivation Method or Skill, you have begun the process of increasing your talent with Time, yet currently possess none of significant value.
Generic Effect | Applicable to all normal Affinity-type Skills: No effect at the Sub Trash tier of proficiency.]
'...Improve twice as fast while only having to put in half the effort?' Elizabeth thought, 'That's quite the convoluted way of saying I'll learn four times as fast, isn't it?'
'It's not that simple,' P sighed through the void. 'But, you wouldn't get it even if I explained it right now.'
'Uh, ok,' Elizabeth shrugged off the feeling that she was missing something…
Something profound.
'Anyways, and to clarify... When you said I had no talent, what you meant is that I currently have no Affinity. In reality, the conventional definition of "talent," which I am thinking of, can't be objectively quantified by my Goldfinger. I, or anyone for that matter, can cultivate talent and raise my Affinity.'
'Something like that, yeah,' P nonchalantly said, much to Elizabeth's irritation.
Unable to find a reason to continue talking to P, Elizabeth cleared her mind and entered a meditation to recover her spent Inner Strength. She had a limited amount of time she could spend every day in the dojo and one of the least efficient ways of spending said time would be by considering aspects of her Cultivation, like Affinity and talent, when they weren't even applicable to her current training.
When she returned to her Martial Arts practice against Jane, Elizabeth was in for a rude awakening…
"Now that we've gotten you all warmed up and I've seen just how quickly you improve with half-sparring… Why don't we take things to the next, full-sparring level?" Jane rhetorically asked as her stance and the very air about her changed into something… aggressive.
The first time Elizabeth got knocked over, she realized that seriously sparring against a much capable opponent hurt like nothing she had ever experienced in her life. Even if Jane was being "gentle" with her and Elizabeth's body didn't so much as scratch or bruise upon being smashed down into the ring, the fact of the matter was, she had never been in a fight before; she had never been physically hit in her life.
Fat, RPG-obsessed, Adrian had been raised as the son of multi-billion dollar business magnates. He had never so much as suffered the pain of tripping and falling or even being disciplined for being an unruly child. To go from a coddled and spoiled brat to sparring martial artist…
'Uh… Actually, this isn't so bad,' Elizabeth got over it almost uncomfortably quickly.
'Unbelievable,' P relayed her thoughts to Elizabeth through the void. Elizabeth could almost picture her shaking her head as she said, 'You crazed gamer addict, I can't believe how quick you were to look past the pain...'
'I mean, it's like you said.' Elizabeth managed to respond as she tried and failed to check a punch, 'I'm a "crazed gamer addict," and frankly, the pain from Jane punching me in the liver hurts remarkably less than that time I decided to get a catheter installed to win that 38 hour tournament that one time. I probably wouldn't complain if the pain were five times as bad with how fast my Muay Thai Skill is getting experience.'
'Whatever you say,' P said, though... She wished Elizabeth had refrained from sharing that slight tidbit of too much information.