Chương 107: Practice

The next few days proceeded the same. Wake up, train with Lord Ceonwin, let him tell me a few tips for concealing my memories and distracting any onlookers in my mind. I hadn't yet gotten to the point where I could create a memory, but I was getting close. After the training session, I continued practicing in my mind throughout the day, pushing my Focus higher and turning it into second nature. No one could notice me straining my Focus node when they interrogated me.

As the days passed, the jousting grounds rose outside the castle—partially with our help, and partially with the help of locals from Winworth. An audience stand made of wood stood on one side, with a fence surrounding it, and multiple tracks for horses to charge at each other. A fence ran down the center of each lane (which, apparently, was called the 'tilt'), delineating the jousting tracks.

I didn't exactly know the rules of jousting, or if it was the same here as it was on Earth, but I knew the general theory, and this looked about right. We'd see if it worked the same, but I wasn't going to be participating. On the third day, the first visitors pitched a tent on the fields outside the jousting grounds, on a flat patch of land that we'd cleared of shrubs. I couldn't see who they were, but considering the lack of heraldry, they weren't all that important.

In the afternoons, it was sparring practice as usual, though we always scrambled for the sparring pit closest to the outer gate, so if anyone arrived for the joust, we could see them coming, or get a glimpse of who it actually was. Finally, on the sixth day, it was our next Labyrinth run. As usual, I checked my reading slate on the morning of, seeing how far I'd come over the past few days.

It was mostly the same, except for my attributes: Vitality: 17 Agility: 17(+4) Strength: 19 Perception: 9(+1) Focus: 27 Presence: 21 A good boost, and still steadily climbing. Though my little excursion had caused us to miss one Labyrinth run, we were sure to catch up today. My squad and I gathered in the Labyrinth's entrance room. I'd commissioned a new shield from Drywsone and the blacksmiths, and so had Brawl. Likewise, we'd used our immense scrap allowance to get our chainmail repaired.

"What's the plan today, brother?" Brawl asked as the Drillmaster read off the rankings. I was still third overall, and my squad was second overall.

"We're going for the farthest quarter golem, and we're going to use it for training to see how we stack up against the floor guardian," I explained.

"Along the way, we should have plenty of opportunities to practice our Skills." I reflected on what I needed. To upgrade my archery Skill, I'd need one more Skill related to the crossbow, and one of them would have to reach the Apprentice tier. Likewise, the others in my squad had to be getting close to advancing as well.

"If we find any higher-tier skeletons," Sage began, "could we make sure to kill them instead of just running past?"

"Of course," I said.

"Skeletons specifically?"

"Yeah." She looked away.

"Is there a reason?"

"Yes." She crossed her arms.

"In order to complete my body enhancement, I need the marrow. It is ancient, and it has soaked in the ambient maegen fields of the world for long enough to be a powerful alchemical ingredient. I will use it in the slurry that melts my flesh and muscle, before pouring more maegen into it to rebuild them—""I get the picture," I said, noticing that Brawl was on the verge of gagging.

"Yeah, we can do that." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I charged my crossbow, slung it over my back, then readied my spear and made sure my armour was tight. As soon as the Drillmaster set us loose, My squad rushed off, sprinting through the upper levels of the Labyrinth in a breeze, following our usual route.

There were no overarching objectives from on high today, no flags to capture or any pretend missions to worry about—nothing except our training endeavour. It would probably lose us ranking overall for this week, since we'd kill less monsters, but I wasn't concerned. There was still plenty of Presence to use, and my squad was going to get a massive Presence infusion from our latest mission.

We descended into the Labyrinth's main chamber, then took as direct of a route to the quarter golem on the far side of the Labyrinth as we could—of course, skirting around the center, and the dense patch of monsters gathered there. As we ran, Brawl asked, "Is there a reason we cannot simply practice on the level guardian, brothers?"

"Aside from the fact that it's far too dangerous and would probably kill us at our level?" I replied.

"I don't think so, actually. Mostly just concern for our lives. It's a Gold. We can hit above our weight, but not like that. Even practice would be far too dangerous, and we'd make a mistake sooner than later."

"This should help our squads practice maneuvers against it without putting us directly in danger," Anchor replied.

"A quarter golem is tough, but it's not nearly as deadly as the golem at the center." As we circled around the center of the lower city, I continued swapping between my crossbow and spear, practicing changing weapons as quickly as I could whenever there was a threat. Our first challenger was a fully-grown ruin-hound, a Steel, but on the high end. It sprang out of an alleyway, lunging toward us, aiming to split our group in half. My impulses were almost instant.

I whirled around, not hesitating for a second, and intercepted it, then called, "Brawl, front line!" Using my spear, I jabbed the beast under the jaw, holding it back and stopping it from getting in the middle of our squad. We adjusted, moving to stay in front of it. Brawl took the weight off me with a swipe of his flail, and I moved back. I swapped to my crossbow as Anchor readied a shot of his own.

With my crossbow already charged, I just had to slot a bolt into the firing groove, which I drew in a fluid movement with my other hand. In a second, I was ready. I aimed the crossbow, targeting the ruin-hound's chest, then fired, activating a resonance Skill. It wasn't as effective as it could have been, but the impact pushed the beast back, giving Brawl the time he needed to grip the beast's jaw.

He dropped his flail—the ruin-hound had gotten too close—then pulled its mouth apart, wrenching its upper maw apart from its lower teeth. As the beast thrashed, Anchor put an arrow in its mouth with a resonance Skill of his own. It blasted out the other side of the ruin-hound's head, piercing straight through its spins and killing it in an instant. I reset my crossbow before I put it over my shoulder this time, so if I needed to pull the same maneuver again, I could.

In battle, I needed to be able to swap multiple times. I couldn't just pull that trick off once. We continued toward our target, dispatching foes in a similar way. I practiced swapping my weapons, and Anchor and Brawl worked on more subtle Skills—stance adjustments, weight shifting, among others. When we encountered a skeleton, we always destroyed it. I wasn't exactly sure what Sage was looking for, until we came upon a Titanium-tier giant skeleton. It was twice my height, and it wielded only a shield.

Though it was a bit of a detour, it was our chance to get Sage some good ingredients, and I couldn't pass it up. So we spent a minute attacking it. Brawl went for the knees, while I relied on swinging my spear. In sparring, I tried to practice more than just the standard jabs. They were good, but a spear could do so much more. I led with a little poke to harry the skeleton, then, as Brawl bought me time, I pulled the spear back, shifting my hand to the back end of the shaft, then whipped it around in an arc.

Even without a resonance Skill, I struck the skeleton's leg with enough force to crack the bone and make it stumble. For good measure, I switched to my crossbow and aimed at the beast's chest, firing a shot that cracked its sternum. Brawl got the kill this time, smashing its skull with his flail, and Sage picked up a few bones. She gave them to Morph, who absorbed them into his tree-like form. Once he had them, we continued on, aiming directly for the rendezvous with Habit and Yesman.

We were the last to arrive today. Habit, knowing the area best, had chosen a wide street with a good view of the golem.

"Our goal today is not to kill it," Yesman said.

"We are going to practice our vanguard formation and test how it holds up against a real enemy. Levi, you saw how fast the floor guardian could move. Can you help us simulate that?"

"I've got it," I said.

"But I'll stay in formation, too."

"Excellent," Habit said. Then, he announced, "Formation! Vanguard One." Yesman led the Vanguard One formation. His squad had two tanks—him and another—and they led the way, followed by his squad's skirmisher and healer. Habit's squad circled the side, with Squirrel moving to guard their flank and look for opportunities to do something sneaky. My squad entered last. We were the most varied, capable of attacking flanks or supporting a front line, so we had the most discretion of how we would engage.

The golem in this quarter was a water-aspect golem. The flame at its core was pale blue, and it rippled, almost as if it was made of water, but it was still warm enough to create a swell of heat and steam around the golem. Tendrils of water condensed out of the humid air and rushed toward the golem, writhing and twisting, before wrapping around its limbs. A column of steam rolled off its back, and the mist travelled to its arms, forming guantlets—almost exactly like the floor guardian.

"Now's our chance to see if any of this works…" I said.

"Stay in formation, and keep tight. We'll need all the practice we can get. And let's not mess this up."