After Diana went to town I taught Ibuki the new Fist of Chaos moves during the morning and Érica focused on her magical training today.
At noon I made food for everyone and then called Kira to train with me.
"What training do you want to master?" (Kira)
"I only realized this today, but I've just been doing normal training and sometimes fighting monsters." (I)
"What's the problem?" (Kira)
"There is no sense in fighting using martial arts against dumb monsters, I need to train fighting other people, preferably someone who has a lot of combat experience." (I)
"So the best training partner for you would be Diana, but now she's gone to town, so the master came to me, right?" (Kira)
"Yes." (I)
"During Diana's stay in the city of Valen and fulfilling her special mission, I want to train with you." (I)
"But make no mistake, you're not a replacement because Diana isn't here, I chose to train with you because, unlike Diana who specializes in combat itself, you specialize in killing with a single blow." (I)
"You've learned to identify your opponents' weaknesses and exploit them, if I train with you 'll know where I'm missing." (I)
"..." (Kira)
Hearing my explanation Kira has a worried face and looks like she wants to say something, but she's hesitant.
"You look worried, don't hesitate, speak your mind." (I)
"I can understand the master's thinking, but I must refuse to train with you." (Kira)
"Why?" (I)
"My mother trained me never to hesitate in combat, but after she died and I became a tool in that shitty nobleman's hand I went through life and death training." (Kira)
"Because of the training I've done and the various fights, I've done each time I fight and to kill, whatever the enemy, each of my blows is directly or indirectly to kill them." (Kira)
"Diana has already invited me to train with her in a mock fight too, I refused for the same reason." (Kira)
"If you're worried about it, then that's not a problem." (I)
"Like this?" (Kira)
"One of the reasons for this training is to fix your problem too." (I)
"Diana had already told me about it, even though it's good for her body to react quickly in a fight, it's not good when you don't have complete control over your actions." (I)
"But master what if I hurt..." (Kira)
I cut him off before she says anything else.
"You forgot Kira." (I)
"You and Diana are my kin, as such you are not capable of killing me, normally not even capable of harming me if the books I read are right unless I allow it." (I)
"Thanks to that I will be able to train with you at the same time you train to lose your bad fighting habits." (I)
"But I can still hurt the master a lot during combat, I can't do that." (Kira)
"Actually, it might help me train my unique healing skill." (I)
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not a masochist, but the higher the level of my healing abilities the safer I'll be when I meet an enemy who wants to kill me." (I)
"If the master puts it that way, it's hard for me to keep refusing." (Kira)
Kira and I go to an area of the camp where there's nothing around, we each go to an unarmed side.
"Combat is without using any skills, just our bodies, okay?" (I)
"Right." (Kira)
"Well let's get started." (I)
The moment I start combat Kira becomes a blur and the next thing I feel is someone choke me with their arm from behind, so I blacked out.
"..." (I)
"Master..." (Kira)
"..." (I)
"Master...soon." (Kira)
"..." (I)
"Master wakes up soon." (Kira)
"Hmmm!" (I)
I opened my eyes and realized I was lying on the floor with my head resting on Kira's legs.
"What happened?" (I)
"You passed out while I was hanging you." (Kira)
"Now I remember, the moment I started training you disappeared and the next thing I know I felt someone behind me, so everything went blank." (I)
"I think I have to try not to hang the master next time." (Kira)
"Don't worry about it, I know you guys are stronger than me, it just makes training better for me as I'll get used to fighting stronger opponents." (I)
"How long have I been out?" (I)
"Just a few minutes." (Kira)
"Then let's resume training." (I)
This time I mentally prepared myself before starting training.
By the time training starts, I keep my eyes locked on Kira, this time I can at least make out the direction in which the blur is moving.
I do a half spin and try to land a kick to the side of the blur, but I feel something grabbed my leg and took advantage of the momentum of my spin to knock me away where I hit the wooden wall of the camp.
"There!" (I)
"Sorry master, are you alright?" (Kira)
"It's hurting a lot?" (Kira)
"I'll get you an HP potion." (Kira)
"I'm fine Kira, I just have a lot of pain all over my body, but it looks like apart from a few bruises I haven't broken any bones." (I)
"I will use my ability to heal myself, then we will resume training." (I)
Kira helps me to sit up against the wall, so I activate the [ Weak Recovery: 6 ] ability to recover using my STM, after a few uses I was already recovered, but I had spent a third of my STM.
"I've recovered, let's continue." (I)
After one more fight where I was kicked in the stomach and was thrown into a tree by the force of the kick, I used my skill again [ Weak Recovery: 6 ].
Ding!
<[ Your skill leveled up [ Weak Recovery: 6 > 7 ] ]>
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I spent the rest of the afternoon training with Kira, I spent more time recovering than actually training, in every fight I lost on the first hit.
We had to stop training so I could eat twice to replace my STM that was gone, I had to do like when I was still a Leech with low STM, I had to eat and meditate to replenish my energy faster so I could go back to training.
This type of training was painful, but it was very effective, its results were obvious.
Ding! Ding!
<[ Your skill leveled up [ Weak Recovery: 7 > 9 ] ]>
.
.
<[ Your skill leveled up [ Meditation: 8 > 9 ] ]>
.
.
<[ Your skill leveled up [ Weak Resistance to Physical Damage: 3 > 4 ] ]>
I had even forgotten that I had an endurance skill for physical damage, if you continue with this training it won't take long to maximize those three skills.
It's going to be a cycle of being hit until I can't get up, recover, get back to training, get hit again, recover again, meditate to reset the STM, and get back to training.
With training that only an idiot like me would be willing to do, I should be able to gain a lot of experience for these skills, but my martial arts skills haven't even gone up a single level, I can't even complain as I was defeated on the first hit.
"Master, I think you have to reconsider this training." (Kira)
"Don't worry Kira, I know what I'm doing." (I)
"I agree with Kira Master, I don't like to see you get hurt like this." (Érica)
"This can't even be called training, I'm basically torturing you." (Kira)
"I know it can't be nice for you guys to see me being hurt continually, especially for you Kira since you're responsible for my injuries." (I)
"But it's working, some of my skills have already leveled up, unfortunately, it wasn't any combat, but it still proves that the training is being effective." (I)
"I still haven't been able to react in time to the fight, but in the last fight of the day I realized that I could see your Kira moves better, after a few days I should be able to defend or deflect a blow or two before being defeated again." (I)
"If the master insists on continuing there is nothing I can do." (Kira)
"But you also have to realize that you haven't dealt me any killing blows, if you keep this up you'll manage to break your bad habit of instinctively killing your opponents." (I)
"Now that you say it, it's true, but I don't know if it's worth it to keep hurting you." (Kira)
After the long day of this horrible training that I thought about, Kira, Érica, and Ibuki talked for a while inside the cabin.
Érica didn't like the training I'm doing with Kira at all, she tried to convince me several times to abandon this training, but I refused.
Ibuki was also sad when he saw me hurt, she even started crying once, I had to explain that this was the most suitable training for me at the time.
It was difficult to explain to her, it was even harder to convince her not to do this training too, it is useless for her to do this training after she learns the martial art of the Fist of Chaos and the weapons technique that I will teach her yet, I'll be able to train with her after that.
After talking to them we split up for the watch shifts, we decided the first shift will be me and Kira, leaving the second shift to Érica and Ibuki.