Chapter 3: Sweat and Tears

As I sat, enjoying my freshly made kimchi stew and watching television, something on the screen almost made me drop my bowl.

"Genius of the Albreuin family, Clyde de Albreuin, announces his debut as an upcoming Ranker in the famous game Clash of Blades! Does his genius know no bounds in the world of gaming either?"

The now 17-year-old Clyde took the stage and grabbed the microphone: "To all of you watching me right now, look forward to witnessing the proof of my undisputed genius within the world of Clash of Blades, brought to you by my prestigious family and ZENOS!"

I almost spit out my kimchi stew when I heard these obnoxious words coming out of his disgusting mouth, filled with sheer arrogance and of course, since it's the Clyde I knew since he was a kid, full of lies and bullshit.

He dares to call himself a genius, whilst abusing his family background for attention and only being a bit above average in school at best and additionally dares to call himself "the rightful heir" as if I have already completely vanished from this world.

Filled with rage Davos thought: "Just wait my dear little brother, I will show you sooner or later, just how pathetic you are if confronted with my true self. Just like my game class indicates, I will lurk within the shadows until I have gathered up the strength to annihilate everything you have built upon your tower of lies and mischievous schemes."

Afterwards, I went to sleep, needing all my energy for the upcoming gaming sessions.

The next morning at 9:00 on Wednesday, 6th August 2026, I booted up the game to start my training.

Before entering the training room, I purchased 10 Stamina potions from the item shop for a total of 100 BC, aiming to maximize my training duration.

At 10:00, I opened the door to the training ground.

In front of me, I can see a variety of different training gadgets to test the limits of my strength, endurance, vitality and stamina as well as practising fighting against AI-controlled holograms with adjustable difficulty.

Before engaging in combat, I wanted to assess my current physical abilities by testing my strength and stamina.

After about 2 hours of intense training, I concluded that my character's strength was slightly above average for a young adult, my speed comparable to a decent high school sprinter, and my stamina could last around 10-15 minutes of intense movement before requiring a short rest or a Stamina potion.

I also discovered that stat training here was possible, but it required a considerable amount of time for just a single-point increase.

I needed an efficient plan to avoid wasting time on unnecessary actions.

Next, I decided to test the combat training facility.

It offered two modes: offensive and defensive training, both simulations lasting up to one hour, unaffected by character death, with the main goal of refining combat skills.

During offensive training, the objective was to defeat as many enemies as possible within the time limit.

In defensive training, the goal was to survive against an opponent without fighting back.

The difficulty levels ranged from 1 to 5, and I initially chose 3, thinking it was normal.

However, I quickly regretted that choice.

In both modes, I struggled significantly, unable to win in offensive training and getting defeated quickly in defensive training.

So, I adjusted the difficulty to 1 and tried again.

This time, during offensive training, I could follow my opponent's movements more effectively and began landing attacks with my dagger.

*sounds of clashing blades fill the area*

After five simulation runs, totalling five hours of training, I consistently defeated three enemies within an hour, earning a passive skill called Dagger Mastery (Rank F), which slightly improved my accuracy when using a dagger.

I was satisfied with my progress for the time being, so I decided to switch to defensive training.

Unlike offensive training, which always lasted for an hour, defensive training ended immediately if I "died" or after a maximum of one hour if I managed to survive the whole time.

My initial attempts in defensive training were short-lived, usually lasting only 2-3 minutes.

I struggled to dodge my opponent's attacks, and my poor movements led to a quick defeat.

The sensation of death in the game felt strange, and I gasped during the initial experience.

The AI-controlled opponent's attack patterns were not repetitive, making it challenging to predict and avoid attacks in subsequent attempts.

To improve, I focused on utilizing my senses and observed my opponent's leg movements to find the best counters for each step.

Learning such skills would take more than a few hours, and even after training for 5 hours, I still died within the first 10 minutes of each attempt.

As it was already 22:00, I decided to end my training for the day.

The night passed uneventfully.

The following day, I logged into the game at 8:00 and immediately began agility training.

Agility seemed crucial for survivability in battles, enabling me to evade my opponent's attacks and respond quickly with counterattacks.

After engaging in various exercises for about 3 hours, my agility improved by 1 point, which might not seem significant at first glance but represented an almost 20% increase compared to before.

Continuing my training with the expectation of obtaining a decent agility stat within a day, I soon realized that each subsequent stat point required more time than the previous one.

After another 5 hours of training, my agility increased by 1 point again.

Already 8 hours had passed, so I decided to shift my focus to endurance and vitality simultaneously.

Since these stats were naturally lower, improving them was easier than agility.

Within 6 hours, I managed to raise my endurance by 2 points and my vitality by 1 point.

As it was 22:00 again, I planned to return at 8:00 the next day to continue my training.

Over the next 3 days, I dedicated myself solely to improving my stat points, and the results were as follows:

Training from 8:00-22:00 (4d=56h)

Strength: 5->9 (total training time: 21h)

Vitality: 4->7 (total joint training time Vit+End: 11h)

Endurance: 3->7

Agility 6->10 (total training time: 24h)

Intelligence: 4

I received the title Hard Worker at the end of the 4th day, which decreases stamina consumption by 10%.

With two days remaining, I planned to spend them in the simulations again, as the stats were useless without the proper skills to use them effectively.

Utilizing my 10 Stamina Potions, which each recover 50% stamina, I would increase my training time by 250% for each simulation.

At difficulty level 1, I tried both offensive and defensive training.

During offensive training, I managed to defeat 6 enemies within an hour, and my Dagger Mastery increased to (Rank F+), providing a minor 5% buff to damage dealt with dagger attacks.

In defensive training, I significantly improved my evasion skills and survived the whole hour after only two failed attempts.

Exhausted, I lay down on the floor to catch my breath.

As a reward, I obtained the skill "Haste (Rank F)," which could increase my speed by 10% for 30 seconds, consuming 10 Mana with a cooldown of 30 minutes.

Now, it was 11:00 on Monday, 11th August, and I planned to proceed with difficulty 2 of the simulations.

Devilish Shadow

Titles:

Happy Helper

Hard Worker

Lv. 1

Hp 42/42

Stat Overview:

Strength: 9 Atk=21

Vitality: 7 Hp=42

Endurance: 7 Def=23

Agility: 10+1 Spd=22

Intelligence: 4 Mana=16

Stamina: 28

Skills:

Active:

Haste(F)

Passive:

Dagger Mastery (F+)

Exp: 0/25

Equipment:

Beginner Dagger (Atk+3, Agi+1)

Adventurers Jacket (Def+1)

Adventurers Cap(Def'+1)

Accessories:

—

BC: 25

Sidenote:

As Skill usage is now starting to matter: Mana has a base replenishing rate of 5%/minute, rounded up, so a minimum of 1 mana/minute