Chương 110: Skill Gathering

I didn't see any sign of the Subtle Men after that. Maybe they had left, but I doubted that. With the joust only two weeks away, they would want to stay behind to squash any dissent—among the Dupes, or among the many thegns gathered. As the days passed, more and more tents sprang up around the castle, creating a massive moat of white fabric and makeshift roads. I also picked out a few tents with colourful heraldry and house crests, though I had no idea who they belonged to. All the while, we continued our training.

Lieutenant Owl tracked our progress with the riftrocks. Every morning, we gathered in the outer ring, and went about our regular conditioning activities. Then, finally, within the last hour before lunch, we had to flip a riftrock dish, nearly the diameter of a tractor's tire, around the entire outer wall's circumference. So far, I only made it a quarter of the way around. Anchor made it slightly less than me, but Brawl managed to get it a third of the way around the circle.

We still had plenty room to improve, and it didn't help that Owl kept upping our weights in the earlier conditioning tasks. We were always exhausted when it came time to flip the dishes. Sure, it was making us stronger, and would help in the long term, but in the short term, it just exhausted me, and it felt like I was making negative progress when it came time to challenge the riftrock dishes. At meals, all the sapper candidates were using infused food now.

Gone were the pleasant aromas of cooking meat, replaced with the dull insistence of the infused food. It was more like the smell of dust. But it was helping us improve faster and maintain our attributes, so I kept my lips sealed. After dinner, we began our evening training sessions, both with my squad (and using gravity wells to practice sparring, where we each managed to pull off a chain of ten strikes against each other before the well overwhelmed us) and then with Yesman and Habit.

Our training always ran late, and by the time we were done, the bathhouses were almost closed. I usually just rushed to the bathhouses, scrubbed myself clean, then returned to my bed, but on the morning before the Labyrinth run, I was a little later than normal. The water of the bathing pools was placid, and my reflection caught me by surprise. I was nowhere near as bulky as Brawl, and I wasn't becoming a bodybuilder any time soon, but I'd absolutely put on muscle, and it had more definition.

My shoulders were a little wider, too, but not so much that I'd need to resize my armour. But I couldn't waste too much time pondering all the changes. I cleaned up, gathered my equipment, then rested. On the morning of the next Labyrinth run, I woke up early and met with Habit and Yesman. We agreed to use the quarter golem as a threat to help ourselves learn Skills, while ostensibly practicing our formations against the level guardian.

No one would kill it yet, because it was the second best threat we had, and it would help the Skills condense faster. (Of course, the floor guardian was the best threat, but I didn't trust our ability to survive against it yet.) I ate breakfast, then checked my attributes. Again, they'd increased, all across the board. Vitality: 19 Agility: 18(+4) Strength: 22 Perception: 10(+1) Focus: 30 Presence: 23 I was only one point off a hundred regular attributes—once I boosted my Presence enough, I'd reach Titanium.

But more importantly for the moment, thirty Focus was the threshold I needed to hit for my next merge to my Art, and with ten Perception, I could finally think about merging my archery Skill to a tier higher. But if I wanted any of that to work, I needed a couple more Skills, and I needed to upgrade them slightly. Our Labyrinth run today could fix that. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. I gathered the rest of my equipment, then rushed down to meet the others.

Our entrance into the Labyrinth was mechanical at this point, and we rushed down to the city level as quickly as we could. When we arrived at the same meeting spot as last week, I turned to face all three gathered squads and said, "Alright. Listen up, everyone. We're working on developing Skills. Getting random fodder is nice, but we're looking for things related to our Arts—or whatever Skill you're working on upgrading.

I hope you've all been to the library a few times and planned out your next upgrade as best you can." I winced internally when I said that. At the moment, I was going off the beaten path with my gravity Art. I hadn't gotten a full Skill from the memory manipulation yet, but I was close. Whatever it was called, I was going to merge into my gravity Art at some point. That wasn't a method described in any of the books I'd read. But then again, a little customization couldn't hurt anyone.

If I just followed a rulebook, I'd be far too predictable, especially to my enemies. The more important question was if I wanted to add my Focus-manipulation angle to the Art now, or develop it on its own before drawing it in at a later date and a higher-tier merge. The good news was that I didn't have to choose right now. I wasn't terribly close to advancing my Art.

"Everyone ready?" Yesman confirmed, checking his squad's armour, then giving his axe a whirl.

"We're following Levi's lead today—he has the most experience gaining Skills in a Labyrinth." Most of the other Dupes nodded in approval. I faced the crowd, then said, "It'll be an easy in and out. We're not trying to damage the golem. We're just using it to increase the threat level, making it easier to earn and upgrade our Skills. Understood?" Everyone nodded.

"Don't prioritize a Skill over your own safety or your squad's," Habit reminded everyone.

"Let's move," I said. I led my squad in first, drawing the water golem's attention. It launched a concentrated stream of steam at us, but I moved the squad to the side quickly, avoiding the worst of it. It flowed in a concentrated bar, hissing along the stone, but was nowhere near hot enough to melt the rock. As soon as I entered the golem's plaza, I continued to practice my Focus manipulations. First, I drew on old inconsequential memories, taking and bringing them to the forefront of my mind.

At the same time, we circled around the golem, practicing dodging its attacks as a squad. The other two squads joined us, moving similarly, splitting the golem's attention between the three of us, buying all of us time to mess with our Skills a little more. Anchor practiced stringing and unstringing his bow after every shot. It was a waste of time, sure, but it would help in an ambush if he could string his bow quickly, whenever he needed. Brawl was working on a deflection Skill.

He used his new shield to deflect rubble from the golem's attacks, redirecting it in a different direction. Sage and Morph didn't advance their Arts the same way we did, so I didn't worry about what they were doing—as long as they stayed in formation. Once I'd gotten a grip on the situation, I practiced creating new memories for myself, filling them with Focus, all while maintaining my concentration on the team and the battle ahead. It was strenuous, but I hadn't overloaded my Focus yet. I had thirty Focus.

That was more than enough for three tasks. So, I continued working on swapping my weapons, switching between my crossbow, drawing a bolt from the quiver and loading it, then firing and swapping back to my spear soon after. The golem, with its attention split between three squads, turned in circles, slamming its arms down or swiping side to side. Water condensed from the air around its hands, then flowed up toward its back, but I left the weakness analyzing to Anchor. After all, he was working on a Skill for it.

Anchor didn't call out any points of weakness at the moment, but then again, we weren't even supposed to be destroying this golem. We'd promised to leave that to Yesman and Habit's squads. When the horn sounded and the Drillmaster ended the Labyrinth run, we rushed back to the edge of the plaza, leaving the golem alive, then took a direct route out of the Labyrinth, only killing what we had to. We were one of the last squads to return, but the Drillmaster handed out our squads' Presences from last week.

My squads' pouches were heavy, and they bulged larger than I'd ever seen them—packed to the brim with Presence.

"We didn't kill that much last week, did we?" I asked.

"Courtesy of Lord Ceonwin," the Drillmaster told me.

"For your successful mission, and for returning the messenger to us in one piece." I bowed my head, then continued on. I didn't think he'd have it ready so quickly for us. When we reached the surface, Sage said, "You better not use all that at once, dustbrain." I laughed.

"Well, maybe just to stress you guys out. I think I'd prefer to use them all throughout the afternoon, though."

"You're braver than I, brother," Brawl said.

"This much Presence should be spread out through an entire week."

"We don't have that kind of time to spare. Besides, I'm on the brink of Titanium," I said.

"I'll be fine."

"If you fry your leys, don't cry to me," Anchor said.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just go enjoy our afternoon." I turned to Sage.

"And, if you're here to lecture me about not taking risks, I've seen the books in the library. You're not supposed to be using ingredients above Steel for your initial body enhancement, as a regular Path-walker. You're not one to talk."

"I didn't think you'd notice…" she muttered. She folded her arms in front of her stomach and sighed.

"I'll be fine. I've taken risks before. That's just a recommendation for average Path-walkers."

"If you say so," I said.

"We can worry about that later. For now, it's off to Winworth."