Chapter 88 - Swordmaster’s Swordsmanship Training

The soft light of the rising sun gleams off the fresh morning dew before it violently vibrates due to the loud sound of a strict, heavy voice splitting the brisk air.

"Reincarnate! Awaken, Dirtling! Earthling? Eh, your world's name doesn't matter."

I fly up, smacking my head into the taut fabric of the tent. "Fuck—!"

The other boys begin to stir, blinking slowly. "Reincarnate?" Lynsel mumbles sleepily. "who's he talkin' to?"

Before I can rush out, I see a flash of silver in the tied tent flap, splitting it open horizontally. "Wake up, Reincarnate! You're one whole minute late!" Vao pops his head through the hole, sheathing his shorter sword as he pulls the new tear open wider to look inside.

"Oh nooo~ one minute? I've missed half the training session." I grumble, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"For every minute you miss, we shall tack on eleven more!"

In a flash I'm beside him, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and socks. "Ready, Sensei!"

He looks me up and down in slight horror and disappointment. "…I will allow you time to properly dress."

I look down, mouth agape, and then smile at him awkwardly. "Heh."

I dash back in, a tornado of plates and demon fabric and a pair of simple black shorts. Lynsel looks up, still half asleep with a teddy bear so comparably small to him, he may as well be cuddling a pea in his arms. "Did he call ya a Reincarnate?"

"Tellyoulater," I say before leaping through the torn gap. However, my arm catches on one of the flaps, and unable to catch myself my body whirls around wildly, my arms and legs flailing until I fall into a crumpled heap at Vao's feet. He can't hide his ugly look as he once again assesses me on the ground.

"I got it!" He says after a while. "You must have a combat-related Dexterity-boosting Skill, and your actual Dexterity is extremely low! Ha, how strange."

"… Not that far off, funny enough," I grumble as I stand back up on my feet.

"Are you ready to begin?" Vao asks, unusually chipper. I nod, and an unsettling evil grin spreads across his face. "Good. Prepare for your new Keyngdom."

"My kingdom? What the hel—"

"Silence! We'll start you off easy. So, your first order: 1,000 push-ups, 1,000 sit-ups, and 10 miles run by the end of the day!"

I stare at him for a few seconds. "All of that… today?"

"What are you waiting for? Tick tock."

I reach over my shoulder, and before I can even grab my sword, he is in front of me, slapping my hand away, and his sword is suddenly over my head. It cleaves me in two, my vision splitting in different directions before—

"Eeek!!" I shriek girlishly, leaping out of the way like a frog as his edge slams heavily into the ground, creating a small crater. My blood runs cold when he looks up, clear murderous intent in his eyes.

The blow was slow enough for me to dodge, which meant one of two things: either he was using psychopathic methods to motivate me, or wanted to kill me at a speed I could comprehend.

"Well, if you aren't planning to even train…"

In any case, I wasn't willing to find out.

- - -

I fall down flat on my face, unable to take a decent breath into my body.

"Fuckin'… hell… Gonna die…"

Vao leans over me with an amused expression. "Impressive. Other than running ten miles in just about ten minutes — and taking two hours to recover — you completed the sit-ups in four, and the push-ups in six. This concludes the easy part of the training. I'll see you tomorrow."

He whips around and strolls outside my field of view. I let out a long sigh when I finally regain my breath, checking the time to see it's almost 8:40. I drop my phone, my arms like floppy noodles at this point, and pull up a few messages that had popped up while Vao was talking, scanning them with a small frown. "What the hell?"

[The user cannot raise Stats by training.]

[The user is being rewarded Stats to mediate this inability.

+2 STR, +1 AGI, +2 VIT, +1 INT]

I would never say no to Stats, but the messages were worded differently. "I can't raise Stats by training? That seems dumb."

"Uh, Klum? Can we talk to ya for a second?"

I lift my head up to see my party members, led by Lynsel, all approaching, and drop my head down. 'Shit.'

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Uh… So, we all heard this mornin', and we were just wonderin'…"

Her impatience winning, Termi steps forward with a huff. "Why didn't you tell us? Was it because of this loser?" She jabs her thumb back over her shoulder at Yorun, who tries to say something but is cleanly cut off. "Still, why hide it?"

I shrug. "So you guys don't view me different, or something. Plus, what are you gonna do now that you know part of my strength and growth comes from being a Reincarnate?"

She laughs. "Knowing your luck? It hurts more than it helps. And the other day, I got 20 free Stats watching you kill shit. So, I'm not worried."

I perk up. "You got those achievements? But how?"

Eniyala speaks from the back of the group. "You have two more Saints with you, and we're all linked. Actually, the minute I became the Mage Saint, you lost the ability to leave the party, didn't you?"

The entire discussion of my reincarnation is forgotten as Termi and I immediately open our Party tab to see that she was right. "What…"

"What the fuck?! This was supposed to be temporary!" Termi cries out, swiping at what I guess is her Statbook in anger.

Slowly, Lynsel raises his hand too. "Uh, I can't leave either."

Yorun shrugs. "I can. I don't know what you're talking about."

This was beginning to make less and less sense, and I held my hand up to my head to try and calm the dizziness. "This isn't a big deal, right? Please tell me it's not."

Eniyala shakes her head. "No idea. It's probably just a Saint thing."

Termi is still pissed, and stomps off to cool down.

We brainstorm for awhile, but nothing seems to fully fit. If it was for the original party, then Termi shouldn't be included. If it was only Saints, then why was Lynsel having the same thing? He was essentially a pacifist — no, he IS a pacifist, so it made no sense for him to be a Saint. The only Saint he could be from the two remaining was Cleric, and Eniyala confirmed with her Magic Eyes that his only Affinity was a weak Sky one.

We continued to try to reason it over during and after dinner, but still can't figure it out. We eventually split to our tents, and Lynsel lays a hand on my shoulder, pausing me from going into our damaged tent.

"Hey, uh… Can I talk ta ya for a second?"

I pause, watching Yorun crawl in the ripped hole that leaves our tent with a brand new window, before turning to look up at Lynsel in the eye. "What's up?"

He wrings his fingers out, looking away with his own eyes. "I know we haven't known each other for that long, but… I want us ta talk to each other about things. I trust ya, ya know? I may be plannin' ta go to the Bard's College once you guys no longer need me, but… I still want ta see and hang out with y'all again."

My mouth drops slightly agape as I process his statement. Finally, a small grin creeps on my face. "You're a good dude, man. We'll get you settled well, you got it?"

He smiles back, nodding, and heads off to the tent. I lag behind, clearing out my head.

I may have a lot on my plate, but I had people looking out for me even while I tried to look out for them.

It was nice, and different.

I said a silent good night to the giant moon watching over us gently, and head off to rest before another grueling day of training. My bones and muscles ache and protest, but the small grin remains on my face.