It’s Training Time!
Jason awoke to the orchestral cacophony of chirping birds and rustling leaves. The light peered through the foliage directly into his eyes, and the hate reader blinked twice, rubbing his eyes groggily.
As he tilted his head upwards, the black-haired teenager suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar creature, and his eyes refocused on the moving blur of black stripes. Karl swung through the trees as if it were second nature and landed nimbly in front of the hate reader with a smug smile.
"Good morning to you, Master," the Doom Monkey said humbly as he presented a reed basket to the hate reader. "The mushrooms you requested, sir."
"Good morning, Karl," Jason replied matter-of-factly.
He quickly inspected the basket and nodded approvingly before putting it aside. Slowing getting to his feet, Jason prepared himself for his morning stretches when suddenly, a shout burst through the air.
"NOOO!" a frightened voice screamed at the top of her lungs. "Mother! Father! Don't leave me here alone."
The silver-haired vampire jolted up in a cold sweat and looked around anxiously.
"Mother? Father?" she cried again, taken aback. "Where are you?"
Jason quickly rushed over to her side and gave her a hug.
"Big Brother?!? Why are you here?" she asked, tilting her head quizzically. "I think…I just had a bad dream..."
Her voice trailed, and she wiped the tears from her face, not wanting to cause any trouble to her only friend. But the signs of worry were too obvious.
Her hands trembled, and her lips quivered as Jason pat her on the head.
"It's okay, Eve. You're not alone," he said consolingly.
Beads of sweat dropped from his forehead as many ideas raced through his head. Given that the black-haired teenager had not dealt with many women in his life before, he knew very little when it came to the Herculean task of navigating female emotions, and his lack of experience did not help him very much in his current situation.
The words were stuck to the roof of his mouth as he watched the bewildered girl shiver in fright, and he gently stroked her hair, but he knew he needed to do something more.
After a moment of silence, Jason mustered his courage and said in the most confident tone he could feign, "Don't worry, Eve. We'll find your father soon, I promise."
Raising her head, the young girl moved to look at her older brother and smiled gently.
Her azure blue eyes sparkled as they fixated on Jason's disheveled hair, obsidian black eyes, and shaking lips.
She knew that he was trying his best to fake a smile, but for some reason, his attempt eased her pumping heartbeat, and the tension dissipated from her body. She felt safe by his side, and her experienced with the black-haired teenager had shown her Jason was a trustworthy person.
Eve slowly got to her feet and cupped her hands as she walked next to the lake. Digging her palms deep into the reservoir, the silver-haired girl splashed her face with cold water and stared blankly at the brilliant blue sky in a daze.
She lowered her hair and turned to face her older brother when a hiding monkey caught her attention.
Afraid for his life, Karl immediately rushed to her side, falling to his knees and screamed, "Thank you for sparing my life, O great and mighty warrior. I have made a massive mistake and sincerely regret my actions...I couldn't bear to live with my regrets, and yesterday, I decided to sign a contract with Jason."
Ever the master bullshitter, Karl continued to describe the events that transpired while she was asleep, shaking his arms and dancing wildly for emphasis.
Of course, as expected of the clever wordsmith, the black-striped Doom Monkey did not forget to omit a few minor details such as his attempt to scam her beloved brother and feed him poisonous mushrooms.
After all, he had just gotten a new lease on life, and he didn't want to lose it so soon.
When Karl finished his report, he bowed royally to the little girl, and Eve swiftly turned to check up on Jason.
As she neared the Elderwood Oak where Jason sat, her eyes opened wide with shock at the unnatural sight in front of her.
She watched as her Big Brother scarfed down the multi-colored mushrooms, one by one and fell to the floor in a seizure-like manner.
An undying burning sensation spread throughout Jason's body, dissolving his internal organs and causing him to writhe with agony. Once. Twice. Thrice.
The hate reader clenched his heart and sat up, breathing heavily, as he proceeded to toss the yellow mushrooms into his mouth.
The electric waves immediately decimated his body, frying his nerves and leaving him unable to move on the floor.
Within seconds, he gasped for air and sat up once more as he grimaced in pain.
'Only three left,' he thought to himself. 'We can do this.'
With a final burst of motivation, the black-haired teenager tossed the dark mushrooms into his mouth, and nightmares of a more formidable Nemesis flooded his mind.
The poor hate reader froze him on the spot with fear and foamed at the mouth as a ten times stronger Nemesis crushed him repeatedly with the flick of a finger in his Spiritual Realm, leaving it in tatters.
Notifications rang loudly in Jason's head as he slumped to the ground from the nine mushrooms.
Ding! Ding! Ding! x3
Hate Counter: 816
Hate Counter: 815
.
.
.
Hate Counter: 808
Jason glanced in the corner of his eye and watched as his body quickly reformed before crawling to his feet. Shaking heavily, he wobbled over to his petrified little sister and flashed a faint smile as he reaffirmed his initial hypothesis.
His "strengthening through suicide" method had allowed him to endure for several minutes longer than he had the day before, and though he still continued to experience searing pain across his body due to the various status ailments, he had felt the effects of the purple, yellow, and black mushrooms diminish slightly.
Brushing the dust from his legs, the hate reader wiped the saliva from his mouth with the back of his hand and continued his daily routine, running sprints, doing pushups, conditioning his shins, and hanging on trees with Karl.
Eve released a heavy sigh of relief as she saw her brother train with a healthy body and soon began to explore her power.
She practiced sweeping motions with the blood scythe, utilizing both the handle and the blade as lethal weapons. After several hours of practice, she continued to experiment with her claws and slashed in downward motions repeatedly until it felt like second nature before practicing basic blood control at night such as creating and releasing spheres of blood.
Karl watched in awe as his two masters trained for the full day. A creeping feeling of solitude gnawed at the Doom Monkey's heart, and he clutched his beating heart in anguish.
His friends had been killed right before his eyes, and his beast servant status now restricted him from returning home to his proud and independent tribe of Doom Monkeys. Karl slowly got to his feet and climbed the tallest Elderwood Oak he could find.
Tasting the bitter feeling of defeat, he gazed at the rising moon and vowed to get stronger so that, at the very least, he could protect himself from harm in the future.
Like this, the trio continued their lives for many moons, and soon a month passed quickly by.
—
Jason wiped off the sweat from his forehead as he tossed the last of his daily mushrooms into his mouth. He had eaten these fatal fungi for the past twenty-nine days straight, and his Hate Counter had dropped down to a shockingly low 547.
Dying to poison, paralysis, and spiritual attacks repeatedly had fortified his mind, and he prepared for the soul-shocking sensation of the various effects as he sat down.
Only…this time was different. For the first time in his life, Jason ate the mushroom, and only silence filled the air.
Jason furrowed his eyebrows, puzzled by the sudden change.
'When is the notification sound coming?' he wondered to himself, scratching his chin. 'Is this mushroom fake?'
He glanced into the corner of his eye to double check, but the value remained unchanged.
Hate Counter: 547
"YESSSSS!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Whatever it is, I think I've finally reached it!"
Now only a third as painful as it had been the month before, Jason had finally seen the fruits of his labor.
He rolled on the ground laughing and sprawled out his legs with a sigh of relief.
His unique strengthening protocol had turned his life into a living hell, but at long last, he had developed the appropriate resistance to poison, paralysis, and fear-based spiritual attacks.
In addition, the hate reader had made significant progress on the physical side and could now run a 100m dash in eleven seconds. His arms felt bulkier with a max pushups of 45, and he could comfortably perform up to 5 pullups without breaking a sweat.
Jason's improved grip strength allowed him to swing among the trees like a "clumsy monkey" as Karl always remarked, and his conditioned shins granted him additional kicking force, enough to create 2 inch dents (5 cm) into the trunk of a BrittleLeaf Tree.
With regards to flexibility, Jason was already halfway to a middle split and could roughly hold a handstand for twenty seconds. Though none of these feats were individually impressive compared to the natural-born fighting talent of the Islesians, Jason felt himself inch closer to full body mastery, and his nimbleness, dexterity, and strength had increased tenfold.
The once-average hate reader smiled at the thought of his hard-earned transformation as he walked quietly over to Eve's "training ground."
The young vampire swung her scythe in a dazzling sweep, hit, kick combo, sending the imaginary target high into the air before slashing it with her sanguine claws.
Over the past month, Eve had continuously honed her bloodline ability, unlocking two new fundamental skills.
The first skill, titled Veil of Blood, was perfect for assassinations as it allowed her to disappear with stealth under the cover of the night and imitate someone's appearance with a prick of their blood during the day.
The second skill was a combat move that made use of her natural disposition to slashing. Titled Sanguine Claws, the move laced her hands with dark red blood that slashed through steel swords like butter. She had experienced this first-hand when she accidentally ruined Karl's only battle axe during a mock fight, shattering it into a thousand pieces.
Last, Eve's prodigious talent for blood control empowered her to call and recall blood within milliseconds. With precise control of each milliliter of blood, she sculpted thousands of intricate little figurines and took advantage of Jason and the other Curious Grove residents as models.
Karl, on the other hand, had spent the month practicing both his ability to escape and his ability to disrupt enemies. Dashing through trees at the speed of sound, Karl hurled vicious insults at the nearby trees, ideating new and derisive curses day after day until he was confident that he could piss off anyone in the world.
If he was previously a C-rank threat for his mental warfare, he would now be an A-ranked Doom Monkey, capable of triggering any friend or foe into a blind fury, regardless of rank. Furthermore, his agility among the Elderwood Oaks rivaled even the fastest creatures in the Curious Grove, placing him at around a C-rank in physical prowess.
Equipped with new powers, strengths, and skills, the trio felt that they could conquer the world, and with a final bath in the translucent lake beside them, they set south in search of Garlacia.
The hate reader, angry monkey, and cute vampire trudged through the Curious Grove for hours until a sudden growl caught their attention.
"Oh, are you hungry, Big Brother?" Eve asked gently as she flung her silver hair backwards.
"Yeah, haha. I think so," replied Jason, scratching his head.
"Okay, then why don't we take a break over there?" she asked happily, pointing over to a small clearing. "I think I need a break too!"
"What about my opinion, Masters? I don't need a break," said the Doom Monkey confidently.
But the poor creature was left ignored as the trio walked into the open clearing. With the sunset shining beautifully on their backs, they sat beneath a grand Elderwood Oak and fanned themselves with leaves.
As the Doom Monkey and vampire turned to leave in search of berries, Jason cautiously glanced around the open area and noticed three mysteriously cloaked figures deep in sleep...