Ch05 - Training

Once he separated from Bing, he went to sparsely populated area of White Stone City. It was time for some dungeonning.

Once he was sure there was nobody in the surroundings, he released a few items from his inventory and equiped them: A steel spear, a belt with steel needles and wires, and throwing knives, a brigandine, a pair of leather gloves and steel bracers. He lifted his hand toward the sky.

"Ghost Town Instant Dungeon."

The sky darkened and the buildings seemed to age decades in a few seconds. A thin mist and a slight rotten smell covered the area.

He started to explore the area with his guard up and his senses sharp. It didn't take long to come across his first group of undead, 7 squeletons soldiers armed with a spear or a sword and shield, and 3 zombies. They were all between lv5 and lv8. He started the hostilities with throwing knives aimed at the head of the zombies, with as much strenght as possible without hindering his speed and accuracy. He didn't know if these zombies had a zombie virus, and since he was outnumbered, he didn't want them to get the drop on him.

The attack got an immediate reaction from the squeletons, who turned toward him and advanced at a fast walk, producing a clattering noise with each step. The zombies reaction was slower. 2 seconds, 3 dead zombies. A notification appeared at the edge of his vision with the first kill, and updated the number with the following 2. He absently realised that while the notifications were more centred during peacefull moments, they were excentred for better visibility during combat. There was no mention of the experience gained

It looked like the squeletons couldn't move faster than a fast walk, so instead of waiting for them to be positioned, he charged at the closest one with the intention of finishing it fast. While they had a low movement speed, they had a decent attack speed, but it was lower than Yang's speed. He easily dodged the spear strike and retaliated with his own to its forehead, and shattered its skull.

He turned to the next 3 targets about to be at weapon range, and went for the one on the edge. It attacked with its sword, which Yang batted away with the blunt end of his spear and retaliated instantly with a swipe to the top of its head, unprotected by its shield. It broke the top of its cranium, and the squeleton fell like a puppet who had its string cut.

Growing confident after seeing their speed and reactions, Yang entered the middle of the group. This time it was to see if his level of awareness would be enough to detect attacks in his blind spots, and if he could properly react to them.

"YIKES!!!!"

He quickly realised it was hard to keep his focus on both what he was seeing, and what happened behind him. There was no time to attack, he was too busy dodging and blocking 3 strikes. He had to dive in an opening around their feets and roll forward before taking some distance. A spear had missed him by inches.

"Whoa, that was close... Better learn that lesson with dumb oponents rather than ones with decent minds and a minimum sense of teamwork."

He attacked again, this time making sure he didn't have to deal with more than 2 squeletons at the same time. It was much more managable. Within 10 seconds he had defeated them, and observed the battlefield. The zombies had dissipated and left his throwing knives along with some copper coins. Of the 7 squeletons, the only thing left was a lesser dark essence stone.

[You have gained a level. +5 attributes points. +100 credits.]

"Full Status"

[Name: Yue Yang - Age: 19 - Race: human male

Level: 8 - Rank: Apprentice - Alignement: Neutral Moral

Occupations: Apprentice Summoner - titles: Yue clan's third young master, Yue clan's failure

Life: 100% - Stamina: 95% - Qi: 100% - Bonus points: 5

Strenght: 50 - Constitution: 59 - Agility: 55 - Dexterity: 58

Wisdom: 139 - Spirit: 115 - Charisma: 260 - Luck: 250 ]

[Twin Star Inherent Skill: Divine Vision lv2 - Counterfeit lv2

Summoning lv1

Instant Dungeon lv5

Yue Clan Spear Technique lv16

Earth and Heaven Cultivation Technique lv4

Mountain Tiger Body Cultivation Technique lv4

Shadow Concealment Technique lv3

Forest Lord Scouting Technique lv3

Fierce Fist Technique lv3

Revolving Guardian Technique lv3

Binding Fighter lv2

Hidden Hand Technique lv2

Accupuncture lv2

Field Medecine lv2

Angel Hand Massage Technique lv2]

"There is no need to use my bonus points now when I can still raise my stats through training easily. Let's leave them for emergencies."

Satisfied, he collected the loot, copper coins and a lesser dark essence stone. It was the stone that interested him. It was basically concentrated dark element. When he realised that, Yue Yang was happy. With those essence stones, he though he could give elemental affinities to his beasts, or even himself, or other people. The Ghost Town instance could be considered a dark element instance, and Yang looked forward to unlocking other elemental instances. He intended to give the Barbarian Cow Shadow earth and fire affinity, and the Bloody Queen wind and lightning affinity. He wanted 3 other dual-affinity beasts to counter aquatic beasts, ground beasts and lying beasts. They would be back-up for the main fighters.

Yue Yang resumed his dungeoning. While the zombies had slower reactions than the squeletons, they moved faster and had more power. Still, they had no fighting style, unlike the squeletons who could use weapons with basic skills. It was abit easier for him to deal with multiples zombies, as they hindered each others and could easily be tripped.

After dealing with the second group of undead, he fought only with the Fierce Fist, the Revolving Guardian and the Hidden Hand. He tried to use his Counterfeit with Shadow Concealment to trick the undead, hidding his attacks or making them misread his position. And adding them to his Forest Lord Scouting, it became near impossible for the undead to land a hit on him.

The level of concentration required to keep all those skills active in the middle of combat was such that he increased his spirit by a few points. His level 3 skills rose to level 4, the level 2 ones rose to level 3. He aquired 7 more lesser dark essence stones and nearly 200 copper coins. Finally, he reached level 9, and got another 5 bonus attributes points.

"That should do for a first time. Tommorrow I'll test the Slums instance. After that, it'll be intense dungeonning even in the evening."

He spent a bit of time in the city to continue training his stealth and scouting skills, then went back home at sunset.

The next day, after lunch, he was once more accompanied by Bing as they went to the backyard. This time he had asked her to come.

"Bing, as you've noticed yesterday when you tried to use division propagation, summoners are limited by their supply of energy. Even if the grimoire shield can protect you, it still consume energy, and when you run out of it, you're easy picking. Do you understand."

"Yes."

"That's why I'm training in martial arts. It not only helps with my reserves, it also allow me to not be dependant on the grimoire shield to protect myself, thus conserving energy. So, I'm going to teach you a bit of martial arts. Don't refuse, you told me yourself that plant-type beasts aren't the best for combat (at least, not at the beginning), and you've seen the limit of your stamina."

Bing, who wanted to protest at first, lowered her head in surrender.

"I'm going to teach you some defensive and evasive moves, as well as exercises to improve your agility and stamina."

He taugh her the basic dodging moves and evasion footsteps from the Fierce Fist, the basic deflecting moves from the Revolving Guardian, and the basic throws of the Binding Fighter. As he taugh her, he would sometimes correct her stances and moves, and he used the occasion to thoroughly check out her body.

She had a lean hourglass body, fit but not toned except for the legs and butt, probably due to some runing. And it was a nice round apple butt. She had nice C cup breast that would probably grow a bit more during the following few years.

She really was a good student, like it was said in the novel. He taugh her those basic moves for an hour before moving to the body building exercises for another hour.

The Mountain Tiger Body Cultivation was a fairly high quality body cultivation for non-innates, and could be usefull for low level innates, those who reached the innate realm too fast, with unsufficient building and couldn't move past rank 2 innate. Yue Yang downgraded the exercises so it would be accessible to Bing. He focused on agility and endurance building exercises, but it would still improve her strenght slightly. He expected her to start feeling the effects after 2 weeks.

At the end of those 2 hours of workout, he finally was finally able to use his Angel Hand on someone other than himself. He took her to his room where he laid a blanket on the ground and told her to lie on her belly, and gave her a small pillow to rest her head. He started the massage with her shoulders first, then moved to her back.

"Hmmm.."

"Looks like someone is enjoying herself."

Bing turned scarlet after letting slip such an ambigous moan. She tried to come up with a retort, but bit her lip when his fingers released a knot to keep herself from groaning. She decided to keep her mouth shut while he worked.

[Angel Hand advanced to level 3]

'Nice!'

He moved to her hips, then her tight and legs. While he worked on those area, he sometimes squeezed her clothes in such a manner that it became very form-fitting for a few instants at times. At those times his eyes would lock on her bum. He was lucky his cousin didn't dare to look behind her, or she would have seen his boner struggling against his clothes.

'Calm down. That time will come. That time will come...'

Bing silently suffered from embarrassement while simultaneously enjoying herself for 30 minutes. Over time, getting massages from Yue Yang would become her guilty pleasure.

Once he finished with Bing, Yang went back to the area where he used the Ghost Town ID, and opened the Slums ID.

This time, he would focus on hidden weapons and accupuncture to defeat his opponents. No spear technique, and martial arts only if got overwhelmed. He would use Shadow Concealment and Forest Lord Scouting a lot more than in the Ghost Town, as he would be dealing with rogue-type opponents.

Unlike the Ghost Town which showed decades abandonned buildings, the Slums had mostly recents, but dirty or damaged ones. The streets were narrows and had broken materials and trash lying here and there. There were a lot of shadows and covers, a terrain ripe for ambushes.

He cautiously moved around, much more wary and focused than in the Ghost Town. It quickly paid of as he noticed the ambush right before it sprang. He was barely able to notice the presences, 2 at his back, and 1 some small distance ahead. The one ahead was motionless, so its stealth level was likely low. The ones behind him, he noticed because they had modified their position after he passed, ready to strike.

That wa s why he dived backward, simultaneously sending a throwing knife with each hand towards the presences behind him. They were on the roofs of opposite buildings. The first one was missed because the knife hit the wall, he had aimed too low. The other one hit its target in the throat. The rogue stumbled back in surprise before losing its footing and falling down on the street near near him.

Ahead of him, the one he detected showed himself, and 2 others emerged from the shadows on either side of him. The second opponent on the roof jumped down on the street to cut of his retreat, and the other 3 moved closer to him.

The first one he had detected was a lv8 bandit. At his sides were 2 lv6 thieves. The one that had blocked his escape route was a lv5 thief. A female one. Neither side attacked, while the one hit in the throat, another lv5 thief, drowned in its own blood.

While calm outward, he was greatly disturbed inside. He knew that at some point he would have to kill people. He knew that the opponents in the Slums dungeon would be humans. He knew that these humans would only be constructs from the dungeon, not real ones. But still, hearing the rogue struggling and chocking, slowly dying like a normal human, made him feel like he had killed a real human. As someone who had died killed by a fellow man, he knew how what it was like, he knew what it was he was inflicting to others. He had nearly forgotten that he had been an innocent person, while his killer had been a criminal.

'That's right. Even if I kill, I'm not like them. I may not be the greatest kind of guy, but I'm no monster. I don't kill for the sake of killing. I don't attack innocents. My victim brought it on themselves.'

And with that last though, he attacked.