Standing in the empty hallway, Terran tried to open his system for the third time since entering the trial. Just as he expected, it appeared without a hitch.
The first thing that appeared in his retina was a small cluster of notifications.
[Second stage of the trial, Gaia's Blessing, completed! | Progress 2/5]
[New active skill unlocked]
[Trial cooldown: 2 weeks]
"So much for just entering another trial." Although he was not happy about not entering another immediately, it was understandable. It had been an easy opportunity to gain information. More importantly, he had even unlocked a new ability under his S-ranked blessing.
"Wait, what? That can't be right! Second stage? 2/5? Oi smartass, I think you made a typo!" Terran yelled in his mind, directing his complaints toward the system.
Terran was shocked, and his imagination ran wild, but after a minute, he decided to move on. It looked like this was just one more mystery added to the growing list of unknowns weighing on his mind. Thinking about it right now would only slow him down.
Excited to see his new skill, Terran pulled up the abilities tab.
--
Gaia's blessing | S Rank (1,562,500 AP required to upgrade.)
Skills:
1. Regeneration (Passive.) (Cannot be inactivated by any internal or external force.)
2. Mend (Active.) Heal any target. Mana will be consumed based on the vitality of the target and the distance of the target from the user.
Sell price: N/A
--
Seeing the skill, Terran was a little disappointed that it wasn't offensive. However, he quickly changed his mind. Maybe his body wouldn't have moved to kill the shadow if he knew he could just heal Hayley during the trial. But, of course, that was only a maybe. He still didn't know why exactly he swung his sickle in the first place.
"It's weird, why does this skill require mana when my other skill doesn't? They originate from the same blessing. They even seem to do similar things."
The sun was setting by this point. It seemed over half the day had passed while Terran was in his trial. Finally, mentally exhausted, he decided to head back to his dorm to get some rest. He had not slept at all the night before, and the trial had left him with quite the headache.
Entering the room, Terran found both Oliver and Ken quietly doing homework with music playing out of a Bluetooth speaker. The vocals seemed to be in another language, making Terran wonder if they could actually understand the song. Terran walked over and plopped into bed without minding the music, happy to get some well-deserved rest.
"Yo, Terran, you good?" Oliver asked.
To which Terran only grumbled back a sleepy "Uhuh."
However, just like the last time he had tried, sleep did not come easy. It only took a minute for him to give up.
"Hey, do either of you know anything about the blessings teacher called Silvia?"
As soon as Oliver opened his mouth, Terran regretted asking. "That silver-haired lady? Terran, you never told me you were into MILFS! I could have hooked you up with Ken's mom, we go way back!"
"Shut up retard! What are you, 12?"
"Nah, for your information I'll be turning 15 next month."
"Did I ask?
"You literally just did!"
"Really? That's so weird! For some reason, I can't seem to remember that at all!
Terran quickly gave up on getting any sort of answer as the sounds of argument serenaded the room. Thankfully, their bickering somehow drowned out the constant thoughts swirling inside of his head. Not long after, Terran finally fell asleep. As his consciousness faded, he realized this was the first time he had failed to complete the daily quest. Unfortunately, he was too exhausted to care.
--
The following day, Terran headed to his weapons training class. He had 3 classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He had only gone to his first class on Monday before skipping the other two. Meanwhile, he only had two classes on Tuesday and Thursday: politics and blessings training.
Still tired, he ended up arriving almost two minutes late. Luckily it didn't seem like he missed anything. Upon his arrival, the teacher, still wearing pajama pants, was just finishing telling the students to get in groups to practice the usual.
Instead of finding a partner, Terran went over to talk with the teacher. After all, he had not sacrificed an arm to be thrown to the side like the other kids.
"Ah, Terran my boy. I wasn't sure if you'd show up today. How's your arm?"
"Dandy," Terran replied while giving his shoulder a firm pat. "I'm looking forward to your training Mr. –"
"Oh, how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Damian Osborn, but you can just call me Master or Sensei as you will be one of my disciples from today onwards."
"Yes Sensei!" Terran quickly yelled while inwardly cringing at his own words.
A few students stopped fighting to glance at Terran as he shouted away his dignity, their faces showing signs of ridicule. After all, this was a class, not some martial arts dojo. Not to mention, it was not very-- 'with the times' to use such an honorific.
On the other hand, Damian's face was nothing but joy hearing Terran's words. It seemed he pictured himself in some kind of martial arts fantasy, and for him, it was great that someone else was finally willing to play along.
Terran's personality did not want to be below anyone else. On the other side of the coin, he also didn't care for anyone to be under him. However, words could only ever be words in Terran's mind, and it meant he would get to learn how to wield a blade. He could not always rely on his healing, and it was not the best feeling having his body ripped apart every time he got in a fight.
"Good. Good. I pulled these bad boys out of the closet last night," Damian said as he brought out a wooden sword and a pair of duel wooden sabers. As my disciple, I can't have you leaving class early every day.
"Aren't people supposed to start with wooden weapons, maybe upgrade to a blunt blade, and then finally graduate to the real deal?" This thought caused Terran to chuckle inside at how reversed this situation was for the whole class.
With that, Terran's training started. First, he would spar with Damian, who constantly shouted out every little mistake he made.
Whenever he got hit, Terran would have to plank. The first time was only for 30 seconds. During this, Damian went over to help Ken. Obviously, Damian wanted to hammer in the instinct to not be so frugal with allowing his body to get damaged. Because of this, Terran wondered why his punishment for a mistake was so easy. For him, planking was no challenge. His strength stat was at 10, which was the strength of an average healthy adult. However, his frame was much smaller than an adult's, meaning he had considerably less weight he needed to support.
Thankfully, Damian was going easy, so Terran did not have to spend the entire class in a plank.
It was not until a few other hits that Terran understood Damian's method. Damian added 30 seconds for every additional mistake, making the second plank last 1 minute and the fifth plank take 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Damian had realized that pain was not a good enough motivator on the first day. While, on the other hand, Terran seemed to want to learn desperately. That, or he liked getting his arms chopped off, but Damien found the second reason hard to believe. So, he had devised a plan to replace pain with decreased training time, effectively hitting Terran where it hurt.
Of course, Damian did not want to waste Terran's time, so after he saw Terran complete his 3-minute plank without showing any sign of breaking a sweat, he decided to place a few weights on Terran's back.
"Close combat is like a game of chess, you don't send your queen across the board unless you are sure it is safe, or if it opens a beneficial trade! So why did you just take that swing when there wasn't even an opening?"
"When you swing you need to step into it! Otherwise, your strike will be too weak to accomplish anything!"
"This isn't a marriage why did you commit so hard to such a pointless attack! What happens when your opponent just sidesteps it and leaves you sprawling on the ground!"
After each mistake, Damian would call it out. Whenever Terran got hit, Damian would show him 3 ways he could have gone about avoiding the blow. They didn't go over any fancy moves. Instead, they only focused on not getting hit. The method Damian wanted to impart was surviving until your opponent left an opening. After all, you could not win a fight if you were dead. This did not mean he was only showing Terran how to defend, just how to stay within his bounds. This was the foundation he had learned from, and he would not teach Terran anything else until he became sufficient at it.
By the time the class came to an end, Terran was finishing up a 10-minute plank with an extra 50lb sitting comfortably on his back. By this point, he was completely drenched in sweat.
Before leaving, he tried giving the wooden sabers back to Damian, but he refused. "You need to take those with you to practice your swings. Becoming a swordsman is not achievable by practicing 3 days a week for two measly hours. Much less, what was it? 15 minutes?"
The class only lasted for two hours, and after factoring in all the time Terran spent planking, his time actually practicing was minuscule.
With his two new swords, Terran headed back to his dorm to freshen up before heading to his next class.