Training Results and Hidden Tricks

The week to come was the definition of grueling.

Six days remained until Drew's initiation would begin and that was how much time he had limited himself to grow stronger to deal with that Bastard, Sebastian.

So because of this deadline that Drew had self-imposed, he had to make these 6 days count.

He and Flux headed deeper into the forest and after an hour of hard work and Flux's tyrannical strength, they managed to set up a decent area for training.

It was a small clearing that was pretty even where they could spar without having environmental obstacles.

During the 'Construction' Drew took the opportunity to test out Flux's strength and endurance. It started off slow, him having Flux help remove shrubs and small growths of plants. But it ended up getting pretty insane when Flux managed to rip out a tree with only a few tries. And to top this crazy feat of strength, the wolf wasn't even tired.

'His endurance and strength are incredible...' Drew thought with wide eyes as he saw Flux look at him to get another task.

"Um... clear out the trees to make a decent space so that we can spar..."

Flux nodded in response, oblivious to the fact that Drew was shocked to the core by him.

'His physical power is only at level 4,'

'It's one higher than my weapon mastery skill which is what I thought it correlated to... but it seems as if I was completely wrong,'

Drew watched Flux clear out a large circle in the forest with ease and tried to put his mind at rest by clearing out some of the smaller vegetation and rocks that covered the newly cleared area.

'Is the 'General Stats' area in Flux's status different from mine?' Drew wondered to himself.

[Confirmed]

Drew jumped a little at the Systems' sudden answer to his internal thoughts but smiled after he realized it might be able to explain this insane gap of strength.

'But why? I don't even remember having a General Stats area in my status,'

[The tab to which you were referring shows the estimated Physical and Magical Power of that individual]

[The reason why there is not a [General Stats] panel for you is that it is much harder to measure your strength compared to a summoned creature]

[Summoned creatures are made up of magical energy and can be read much easier by the system compared to most organic-like organisms]

[In addition, the gap between your strength and Flux's strength is not only due to his Physical Power level. It is also based on the differences between your species and his]

'The species thing should have been obvious. A wolf is gonna be stronger than humans, at least innately that is,'

'But the strength that Flux is showing doesn't seem normal... not compared to the animals on earth at least,' Drew thought while watching Flux demolish the last of the trees in the new clearing.

[The reason behind this is that wolves and similar predator creatures are no longer considered animals on Lune. They are instead referred to as monsters. This is most likely because of their incredible power difference compared to most prey creatures, though even some Prey creatures can be considered monsters given the right situation]

'So they aren't really like the wolves I used to know,' Drew concluded with the information the system gave him.

'I thought that most creatures were normal since most the creatures I have seen and hunted up till now have been pretty normal,'

'But it looks like this world is weirder than I already thought it was, though I should have just assumed that,' Draw thought in annoyance while watching Flux decimate the surrounding area.

-

After the training yard was finished Drew began drafting up a timetable to not waste as much time on figuring out what to do and to help them in the future.

The gist of the list was that they would wake up at 8 in the morning, eat, and then train for six hours. After that, they would eat again and train for another 4 hours. Then they would finally eat dinner and relax or study until they went to bed, repeating everything again the next day.

It was boring. It was bland. But it was consistent, and it would likely show progress very quickly.

He spent his time training, eating bland food, questioning the system, and sleeping.

It was 6 days of torture. But Drew enjoyed every second of it.

It wasn't intense physical suffering... it was growing stronger and bonding with Flux.

It wasn't terrible food... it was sharing a meal with a friend.

And it wasn't boring repetitive questions... it was learning about the culture and inner workings of the world.

---

After a week had passed Drew and Flux finally had the chance to sleep in and let their bodies rest a bit.

Drew was the first to rise, as always, and he ate a few strips of bland dry meat before going to the stream to clean up from the previous day's training.

The cold water gently flowed across Drew's body and his muscles relaxed. It was a long-deserved soak. He cleaned himself to the best of his capabilities before getting dressed, but he didn't leave the stream.

He sat on a large rock on the edge of the river and watched the water flow naturally towards its destination.

The wind gently brushed against his wet skin and sent goosebumps down his arms.

"Life is good," He said while taking in the fresh air of the forest and the sounds of the river rushing by.

'I've made so much progress in the past week,'

'And even though there isn't much to show for it on the status page... It still feels good to grow stronger,'

He checked his status page and noted the increases silently.

His Scythe Mastery skill had increased to level 4 though only a single word had changed in the skill description. It simply said his strength with the scythe had increased to the 'Practiced' level.

Though the words hadn't changed much, Drew felt the clear difference between the two levels far clearer than the system could ever describe them in words.

His body was better than before. It wasn't a huge difference since it was only a week of training but it was still a qualitative difference.

The thing that stood out the most to Drew, however, was his understanding of combat.

Drew remembered the last week in his mind as he stared at the flowing river.

'I feel faster than before,' He observed while slowly feeling the Scythes hidden on his body.

'Not in physical speed... but in reflexes and the fluidity of my movements,'

The feeling of his body dodging and twisting when fighting Flux filled his mind.

At first, Drew was pummeled by the wolf... but as time went on things changed.

His movements with his Scythes turned from hacking and slashing to controlled and efficient movements that naturally found their targets.

Though his blades did little harm to Flux(Drew made sure to check before he used them on the pup), they still managed to hit their mark frequently.

It was like comparing a stumbling drunk to a practiced dancer.

'I get why the System would have a hard time actually analyzing my combat strength,'

'There are constantly small improvements in our strength. If I were to try and put a number to my physical capabilities I feel as if it would be impossible,'

'But with summoned creatures it's different,'

'Instead of constant growth or gradual increase in strength, it all happens at once,'

'The creature increases their skills level and their magical and physical power after their summoner crosses a certain threshold,'

'But since it's the same most of the time, it's pretty easy to put a relative number to it,'

Drew's strength had increased but Flux's hadn't. Combat Experience was the only thing Flux gained during their training, and even then it didn't help improve his skills which were the things that make or break you in this world.

'The key to reaching the next level of my weapon affinity is to make or learn a combat stance,' Drew thought, remembering his questions to the system.

'A stance is your specialty in a way... The unique way you fight and your special perspective on the art of battle,'

'Apparently, there are tons of different Stances and styles that affect the way you fight with your weapons,'

'But for those who don't have a combat stance, they tend to be limited and very easy to read by superior opponents since they only have a 'basic stance' as described by the system,'

'And Combat stances aren't additional skills either, instead, they change the nature of your Weapon Mastery skill,'

'They can constantly evolve and grow stronger with a deeper understanding of the stance and more information of similar stances or those that are more advanced,'

'If I want to increase my overall strength instead of focusing on one path... I need to learn the perfect Combat Style that fits me,' Drew thought as he thought over his skills and opened up the skill panel.

---

[Skills]:

Scythe Mastery: Lv: 4

Mana Reaper: Lv: 1

Blessing of Bram: Lv: ???

Acceleration: Lv: 1

Stealth: Lv: 1

Time Magic Mastery: Lv: 1

Focus: Lv: 3

Remembrance: Lv: 1

---

Over the last week, Drew had done a lot of things. He spent a lot of his time training... but there was a lot of time he also tested skills out or tried to get the system to show him their hidden tricks.

His current combat skills only consisted of [Acceleration], [Scythe Mastery], and [Mana Reaper].

[Focus] was also a skill that increased his strength but was more of a passive ability than something that actively changed how he fought, while [Stealth] doesn't increase his combat ability at all. It may be able to be used to get the drop on someone or position yourself better but it doesn't have utility in actual combat, so these two skills were on the back burners of his mind for now.

His practice with each of his skills rewarded him with some interesting information and each affected how he was going to move forward.

'Acceleration,' Drew thought as he began his evaluation.

-

[Acceleration: Lv: 1]: You have begun the first steps in the path that is speed. You have mastered the ability to control your body in the most minute ways to bring out the speed that normal humans could never do in their lives. You have increased reflexes and increased overall speed. You may sacrifice a large amount of stamina to increase your speed to an inhuman level and move faster than most wild animals.

-

'It increases my natural speed and reflexes by a noticeable amount and can also act as an active skill that increases my speed by a massive amount if I spend a lot of stamina to fuel it,'

'The interesting thing about this skill that is not listed in the description of it or in the guide is that it can be switched on or off at will,'

'Initially, I thought it was a one-time activation which would increase your speed for a short amount of time,'

'But instead, it can be turned off after a short amount of time and will consume stamina equal to the spent time,'

'This may not seem useful... but with this in mind, I can increase my speed halfway through a swing of my Scythe and do a lot more damage compared to not using the skill, and is more efficient than using the full duration at once,'

'It becomes incredibly versatile when it can be used in short bursts while not taking up as much stamina,'

'It's a much better combat skill than I had initially thought it was and may even be a winning trick in a life or death situation,'

'Now Scythe Mastery is a very different skill and was much harder to test for hidden tricks,'

-

[Scythe Mastery: Lv: 4]: Your current level of mastery with the Scythe. The pace at which you increase this skill varies depending on many factors but the main one is your Affinity with Scythes. Scythes are weapons that are meant to reap your enemy's blood out of their bodies. It is a tool to harvest your enemies like crops. You are at the Practiced level of strength on the journey of the elegant and dangerous scythe. You have access to a basic combat stance with your current understanding and can learn skills unique to the Scythe that other weapon users cannot learn. You have moderately increased physical stats while wielding Scythes, the distribution of the increase is as follows: Speed gets the highest increase, Strength gets the middle most amount of increase, and Endurance gets the smallest benefit.

-

'The definition of the skill doesn't give many hints as to what it does other than measuring my ability to fight with a Scythe and increasing my strength when doing so,'

'But I have learned that the way the system describes skills is to give out information while hiding it simultaneously,' Drew thought while remembering his examination of the wording of the skills.

'The line of the skill that says that 'Scythes are meant to reap blood' sounds as if it is for flair. It seems like a useless sentence that is supposed to set the tone of the skill instead of giving any meaningful information to you,'

'But in a literal way, it can change the entire skill,'

'I hunted animals and fought with Flux with the intention of drawing out their blood from their bodies and it had a strong effect on my combat abilities,'

'The only time I actually managed to cut Flux was when I used this 'Intention' based upgrade of Scythe Mastery,'

'And after I cut him, his wound wouldn't stop bleeding and it took 20 minutes for him to recover,'

'So the secret effect of this skill seems to be that it 'Draws Blood' from the enemy,'

'That means I'm more likely to cut through their 'Skin' and that they will lose blood at a faster pace than normal,'

'So a skill that makes me a speed demon... and a skill that makes me look like some sort of vampire,' Drew thought while trying to think of viable paths to follow with those skills.

'Mana Reaper... is a different story, however,' Drew sighed as he remembered what a pain in the ass this skill was.