Arthur slowed to a stop, his breath ragged as he finished his final lap around the clearing. Sweat dripped from his brow, soaking into his shirt, and his legs burned with fatigue. Just as he bent forward to catch his breath, a familiar chime rang out.
CONGRATULATIONS!
DUE TO PUSHING YOUR STAMINA TO ITS LIMITS, YOUR ENDURANCE HAS INCREASED BY 1 (9 → 10).
Dismissing the notification with a wave of his hand, Arthur rose to his feet and wiped the sweat from his brow. There should have been a feeling of pride upon accomplishing this feat or at the very least a momentary sense of satisfaction.
Yet all Arthur felt was frustration.
Frustration at how long it had taken to there.
Over the past two days, Arthur had thrown himself into training. He ran laps around the clearing without stopping as well as various exercises like push-ups, pulls ups and so on. He even darted in and around trees hoping that might work on improving his agility which was linked to his Dexterity. All so that he could improve his stats and get stronger, just like he had intended.
He was met with some success.
His Strength and Dexterity had both increased by 1 a few days ago.
But it was when it came to increasing his Endurance that Arthur had found himself hitting a wall. It had taken so much longer to increase his Endurance that it wasn't even funny.
PROFILE
NAME: Arthur Hale
LEVEL: 2 (42/200 EXP)
HEALTH: 190/190.
MANA: 80/80
STATS:
- Strength: 9
- Dexterity: 8
- Endurance: 10
- Intelligence: 9
- Wisdom: 7
- Luck: 5
STAT POINTS: 5
"It's not enough," he muttered, clenching his fists as he looked over his PROFILE.
The problem was clear.
Without any proper knowledge of how to train his body efficiently, he was left fumbling in the dark. Even though he had managed to scrape out a few more stat increases the way he had been so far, it wasn't enough. Clearly, the higher his stats were, the slower and more difficult it would be to increase them further. That had shown itself when comparing the speed at which he acquired new stats in Strength, Dexterity and Endurance.
Considering his Dexterity was the lowest, even though he had next to no real understanding of how to increase agility besides trying to change direction as quickly as possible, it was Dexterity he gained a point in quickest. This was followed by Strength and then after some great effort, Endurance.
"I'll hit a wall sooner or later," Arthur said, his voice filled with resignation. "This kind of training is going to be meaningless eventually. It pretty much already is unless there's a better way to do things."
The realisation of his current limitations weighed on him, but he didn't really have a choice. If he gave up then he would have to spend endless hours just stuck, trapped inside the Safe Zone with no means of escape. Or enter into the First Floor, underprepared and at the mercy of the monsters residing there.
"I need another way to get stronger."
Looking back down at his stats, Arthur clicked on the SKILLS tab and quickly scanned over the contents below. He quickly crossed out the Blade Flurry and Shield Bash as both of those required a weapon to be equipped in order to use. It was annoying, but Arthur had begrudgingly understood why that requirement was in place. At the same time, Swordsmanship (Basic) also required a weapon. He had no way of knowing as unlike with his Active Skills, there was no notification to tell him when it was in effect.
So, without a weapon, he was stuck in regards to increasing his proficiency with them. This alone was beyond frustrating as increasing the proficiency of his skills was the only other way Arthur had believed would help him increase his power.
'If only I could get more skills.' Arthur thought to himself, frowning deeply as he thought back to the notifications that had popped up. It had described how he had unlocked the skills he had currently, through repeated action or fulfilling certain conditions. He didn't know if those were the only way, but based on that, Arthur didn't think he needed to know for the time being. 'Maybe I can get more.'
As Arthur moved toward the tree to lay down, he crossed his arms behind his head and looked up at the branches. "Maybe if I start randomly throwing punches and kicks in the air, I can unlock some martial art type skill?" He wondered, looking through the branches of the tree and into the unnaturally blue sky. "But I don't really fancy punching monsters with my bare hands unless I have to. If only I could get a weapon I could increase my proficiency in my current skills."
His gaze closed slightly, Arthur intending to get a little moment of rest. 'Wait!' As quickly as the thought came to him, Arthur's eyes snapped open and he sat upright, looking toward the branches of the tree. "What if a branch can be used as a weapon?"
Standing upright, he turned toward the tree he had been resting under, placing his hand against its trunk. The bark was firm and tough, breaking off a branch wouldn't be easy even if it was possible, which Arthur didn't fully know if it was. Yet his eyes drifted upward, noticing a few thinner branches higher in the canopy.
If any of the branches could be broken off—if it was possible—they would be high up. "I'll have to climb." He told himself, Arthur taking a moment to plan his ascent yet he smiled sardonically for a moment. "What if climbing the tree repeatedly unlocks a skill?"
It was a ridiculous idea, but Arthur didn't really have anything to lose at the moment. He either climbed the tree to get a branch or he didn't. Whether he unlocked a skill for doing it or not, didn't really matter. What did matter was whether he could get a branch and use that to practise his skills.
With that thought in mind, Arthur jumped up, grabbed ahold of the nearest, sturdy branch and began to climb. It was tricker than he had expected, Arthur not having climbed trees since he was a kid and some of the gaps between the branches were in awkward places that would have been no problem for him to work around as a kid. Now, older, taller and bigger, it was deceptively more difficult. The bark was smooth in some places making gripping harder, and in others rough making it easy.
Thankfully, the Safe Zone had helped him heal his sore muscles from his earlier workouts otherwise he would have probably struggled a lot more. As a result, despite a bit of difficulty, Arthur finally managed to reach a branch that looked thin enough to snap off.
Reaching out, he tested his theory.
His hands grasped around and with a tug and a satisfying crack, the broken branch snapped off. He smiled, looking at it before giving a nod only for his attention to quickly turn toward where a light shimmering was coming from. It was precisely where the branch he had snapped off had once been.
Before his very eyes, the tree was healing itself, growing an entirely new branch in a matter of seconds that was the same length and shape as the one in his hands.
"Well, that's convenient," he said.
With the branch secured, he began the descent, which proved even more awkward than the climb up. It was only after he got halfway down that Arthur had enough of awkwardly holding the broken branch and just dropped it to the floor. At that point, his descent was smooth and easy, Arthur thankful when his feet touched the ground once more.
Moving over, he reached down and picked up the branch, holding it up to examine it closely. It felt solid enough, though it was far from a real sword, but if his theory was true then that would hardly matter to him.
He gave it a few testing swings, adjusting his grip as he moved.
At first, nothing happened.
But after a few minutes of repetitive practice, a chime rang out.
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOUR PROFICIENCY IN SWORDSMANSHIP (BASIC) HAS INCREASED BY 1%.
It was a small message, a small increase in proficiency, but Arthur's face split into a smile as he looked down at the branch in his hand. Small though this victory may be, he felt so much better.
Emboldened by the minor victory, Arthur decided to test out one of his active skills. He stood before the tree, holding the branch in both hands.
"Blade Flurry," he called out.
The branch shimmered faintly, glowing with a faint yellow energy before the glow faded. Arthur scowled as he looked upon the branch, his gaze then turning to the notification that popped up moments later.
TO USE BLADE FLURRY PLEASE SELECT A TARGET
'At the very least that means this branch will let me use my active skill.' For a moment, Arthur was worried that it wouldn't, it technically wasn't a bladed weapon or a sword. But he supposed that training swords weren't either and so, maybe the system was giving him some leeway in that regard.
It was nice to actually be given a break for once.
Turning to look around, Arthur turned back to the tree he had gotten from the branch he had climbed up. "I wonder, can I just think the skill rather than saying it." He raised the branch in the air and this time prepared himself. Once more the branch shimmered with the same glowing yellow energy and suddenly Arthur felt his body move.
It was a truly alien feeling.
His body moved like a puppet on strings.
He couldn't resist even if he wanted to.
All Arthur could do was sit in his own body like a passenger as something else took the wheels. His arm holding the branch swung around in a chaotic flurry of strikes that struck the trunk with surprising speed and power that left marks upon the bark. Yet with each strike, bits of the branch broke off until by the end of the skill, Arthur was hitting nothing but air as he was left holding nothing but a stump following the skills end.
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOUR PROFICIENCY IN BLADE FLURRY HAS INCREASED BY 5%.
YOUR PROFICIENCY IN SWORDSMANSHIP (BASIC) HAS INCREASED BY 2%.
Arthur chuckled quietly. "Well, at least it worked." Out of curiosity, Arthur then checked his PROFILE once more, seeing that his mana pool had dropped from ninety-five to eighty-five. It had cost ten mana, just as the skill had described and while the damage he had done to the trunk wasn't all that great, in fact it was healing already, the results were promising.
He then looked down at the remains of the branch in his hand, Arthur sighing. "I'm going to need a lot more of these."
Arthur turned his gaze back to the tree.
His first climb had been more tricky than exhausting, but he couldn't deny the potential it held. If he could incorporate tree climbing into his routine, he might unlock another skill and if not at the very least, it would serve as a full-body workout.
"Guess I'll test my climbing theory," he muttered.
He approached the tree again, grabbing hold of the trunk and pulling himself upward. He broke it off, watching as it shimmered and regrew, then tucked it under his arm and climbed down. He could have waited, breaking off the branches all in one go considering they regrew. But Arthur had decided to use the tree climbing as an opportunity to work out.
By the time he'd climbed and descended three more times, Arthur was drenched in sweat, his arms and legs trembling with fatigue. He had a small pile of branches to show for his efforts, but no new notifications had appeared.
"Maybe it takes more repetition," he said to himself.
For now though, Arthur's goal was on emptying his mana pool through repeated use of his Active Skill. Once that was done, then he would work on his Passive Skill. That was how he intended to progress his training from this point on. In his eyes, using his Active Skill worked both skills, whereas simply swinging his sword would only increase his Passive Skill. Therefore, it worked better for him to empty his mana pool using his Active and then while letting his mana regenerate, work on his Passive Skill.
As a result, Arthur bent down, picking up one branch and turning to face the tree. Once more, he activated Blade Flurry the branch glowing with golden yellow energy before his body moved without conscious thought once more. It was a feeling he doubted he would ever get used to any time soon.
But after the skill ended, Arthur tossed aside the remnants of his branch, leaning down to pick up another. He then repeated this action over and over again until by the end of the session, Arthur was left with only a broken pile of branches on the floor.
CONGRATULATIONS!
YOUR PROFICIENCY IN BLADE FLURRY HAS INCREASED BY 2%.
YOUR PROFICIENCY IN SWORDSMANSHIP (BASIC) HAS INCREASED BY 1%.
Sitting down, Arthur pulled up his SKILLS tab and looked over the current proficiency of his skills.
PASSIVE SKILLS:
- SWORDSMANSHIP (BASIC)
- DESCRIPTION: Click to expand
- MANA COST: None
- PROFICIENCY: 15%.
ACTIVE SKILLS:
BLADE FLURRY
- DESCRIPTION: Click to expand
- MANA COST: 10 MP
- PROFICIENCY: 36%
SHIELD BASH
- DESCRIPTION: Click to expand
- MANA COST: 8 MP
- PROFICIENCY: 1%
His Blade Flurry had grown the most, not that he expected any differently. But it was clear that progress had grown slower as his proficiency had increased. It wasn't completely surprising though, he had prepared himself for this fact when he noticed after his second use of the skill that his proficiency gain had decreased from five percent to four percent. Then from four to three and so on.
As Arthur sat on the ground, catching his breath, he stared at the tree overhead. A cautious optimism had replaced his earlier frustration. The work was slow and gruelling, but it was seemingly working and baring fruit.
If nothing else, it gave him purpose and kept him occupied while trapped inside the Safe Zone.
"I'll keep climbing," he said aloud. "I'll keep swinging. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be ready next time."