CHAPTER 71(Becoming A Warrior)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

Sitting inside Yang and Welf's tent, the Trifecta and their Captain can be seen reading through a stack of papers in awe and dread.

"I really really want some of these to be a bad joke, but considering what we've seen already..." Welf says, unsure if he wants to continue his statement.

"Yeah, but any particular reason these things read more like love letters to some of these monsters rather than just stats?" Tsubaki questions while holding up a sketch of a page with Odogaron on it, a picture of a large musclebound doglike canine creature with two sets of claws, one atop the other on each paw.

"To adapt and survive against larger foes, the Odogaron has developed synapses which allow it to think and reach 4x faster than trained fighters," She quotes from the sheet, "You sound like a fan honestly it's a bit weird."

"He's an ecologist, studying these things was his job and passion, makes sense it sounds like he wants to bang em, some of these definitely belong on the deep deep floors though. Kushala Daora sounds like Ais with 24/7 Ariel," She says while holding up a page with a large scaly dragon surrounded by a tornado.

"Yeah that's a pretty accurate estimate from what I know of both of them, but those are straight forward, monsters like a furious Rajang are the problems, lightning element that fries your nerves and synapses, dunno if healing magic can fix that," Yang says with an awkward expression.

"This guy looks cute, and he's a walking forge from the sound of it, Dodogama huh," Welf adds in.

"Yeah he's adorable, normally pretty docile unless you get right into his face, dunno how the dungeon will change that." He gives an awkward shrug.

"I don't think the floors below the '60s are big enough to support some of these, so we probably shouldn't send all to the guild, not like we wouldn't notice the big problems show up anyway right" Tsubaki chimes in with a shrug as she begins sorting the papers and packing them for transport.

"Alright, with that over, Welf, can we borrow your shortsword for training?" Thalie suddenly asks.

"Uh sure, just leave your stuff that needs repair," Their smith comments while rising to his feet and handing over the weapons.

"Alright Yang, time to get you into form," Thalie says with a devious smile on her face.

As Welf gets ready to begin repairing equipment and Tsubaki heads to the entrance to the camp to await Bete. Thalie and Yang find themselves a secluded spot to do some swordsmanship training.

"Hey, just a heads up, don't ever disrespect Freya in any way if you want to survive around her familia, got it?" She suddenly tells Yang.

"Uh, yeah I assumed as much, so what's with the sudden sword training?" Yang counters.

"Remember when I said you fight like a mage, that was very far from a compliment, we're gonna fix that. Simple really." She says with a shrug.

"Thanks, was gonna wait till we were out of here to get some training in but this is way better," Yang says with a smirk.

"Thank me when I've made you a warrior, now show me your stance..."

After an hour of correcting his stance and posture, as well as grip. They finally began a very slow version of an actual fight, just to get his body used to the motions.

"Shouldn't we be using sticks for this?" Yang asks as he receives another small cut on his arm.

"No, pain is a good motivator, now repeat after me alright," Thalie commands.

"I'm going to kill people," she says, giving him an expectant look while parrying his awful strikes.

"What?" his surprise is in no way hidden.

Immediately he receives another cut on his arm.

"What the hell!"

"I said repeat after me, now, again. I'm going to kill people, say it." Thalie commands.

"But- ach!" Another cut, this time on his cheek.

"I'm going to kill people!" She says, much more forcefully.

"Th-" he suddenly leans back, avoiding the sword swipe aimed at his bicep.

Lowering her sword, Thalie locks her gaze with his, giving him a harsh glare.

"We don't have time for you to be soft, all that no hurting people bullshit is gonna get you killed. You're level 4 already, like it or not that puts a target on your back by default, much more so for you Mr. I break every level record and excel at adventuring. Envy, greed, spite, whatever reason people will be coming to put a knife in your neck, this is conditioning to get you out of your own head so you don't freak out next time you kill someone, NOW REPEAT AFTER ME, I'm going to kill people."

(Fun fact, this is how certain militaries train troops but it's done over the entire Bootcamp time)

"I'm going to kill people," Yang says, his voice shaky and unsure.

"Again," Thalie says as she begins to go through the sparring motions with him.

"I'm going to kill people."

"Again."

"I'm going to kill people."

"Again."

"I'm going to kill people."

"Again."

"I'm going to kill people."

"Again."

"I'm going to kill people."

"Again."

After hours upon hours of this training, eventually, Yang's voice became hoarse, but not before his words became monotonous, his mind simply going through the motions, slowly beginning to accept his reality.

Eventually, later that evening their small team sat outside their tents eating their dinner. As Thalie and Welf spoke, Yang simply stared at his meal, his mind still unsure how to handle the reality that was forced onto him earlier that day.

"Welf is your greatsword fixed yet?" Thalie asks their smith before taking a sip of her drink.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well apparently Yang doesn't just have the finesse of a brick in talking, it's in swordplay too, figured he'd be better with a greatsword so he could take advantage of his ridiculous stats, that way he just needs to outstat and do some small prediction for his enemies," She explained.

"Hmmm, guess nobody's good at everything, your plan makes sense, and the switchaxe is supposed to double as great axe and greatsword so his practice would transfer over nicely."

"Exactly my plan, he's already stupidly good at dealing with monsters, now just to get him decent at fighting people," she says with a deep sigh.

"Did you really have to do, that, to him?" Welf asks as he nods at Yang, still just staring at his food.

"He'll be fine after he sleeps, uh, maybe don't sleep near him in case he has a nightmare and roasts you or something," She says with a sheepish look.

"Yeah, thanks for the heads up, jeez." With an exasperated sigh and combing a hand through his hair, Welf can't help but shoot Yang a sad look before returning to his food.

The very next day, after barely seven hours of sleep, Yang and Thalie were up at their training spot once more, this time however Yang not wielding any weapon.

"Alright, unarmed combat time, DO NOT make full contact, got it. This is a light practice, I don't need all your skills synergizing and impaling me with your fist or something ok." Thalie says giving him a harsh glare.

"I don't think it would be that bad, but got it."

"Alright, fighting a monster, what you've been doing is working but again it---"

"Won't work like that on people that know how to fight, got it," Yang finishes her statement.

"Good, take your stance," She instructs.

Taking a simple boxing stance, Thalie quirks an eyebrow at him.

"You're way too linear with that, too stiff and immobile, try keeping your hands a bit more loose, unlike most people you can move freely in three dimensions, you can readjust in mid-air and create your own leverage so stay loose and fight in places they aren't used to, Finn does that by using a spear for reach while taking advantage of his Pallum size to make himself hard to hit, most adventurers aren't gonna be ready to deal with a flying enemy that actually knows how to brawl."

"That... wow, that makes a lot of sense."

"No shit, battle prodigy remember. And when in doubt, you can fly and they can't. Remove their leverage and they only have their arm muscles to punch and leg muscles to kick. Should work on people that aren't as experienced at least, now, let's get started." She says while taking her own fighting stance.

"Shouldn't we go over some moves first?!" Yang asks, clearly caught off guard.

"No, again p---"

"Pain is the best motivator, got it. Trial by fire..." He groans as she smiles at him.

"Glad you pick up quick. Now, DODGE!" She says while lunging forward with a right hook.

After ten hours(6 am-4 pm) of brutal bare knuckle training, to Thalie's pleasant surprise, Yang was a natural at unarmed combat. Pondering it for a moment she quickly realized that she shouldn't have been surprised considering his skills.

Now their team could be seen having a late lunch at their tents, unlike his teammates, however, Yang was happily munching away on a ration bar.

"You're so weird, we've got real food and you're still eating those," Thalie comments, giving him a strange look.

"It's actually pretty good, and I burn calories a lot so these keep me full longer anyway, one a day and all that right," he responds with a shrug.

"That's fair I guess," She responds, as she's about to ask something else however Welf pats her arm.

"What?" She asks, looking over at Welf.

"Why are they coming here?" He says, nodding off toward the main tent of the expedition, with Ottar and Hedin Selland(White Knight) of Freya familia casually walking toward the Trifecta.

"Yang?" She asks without shifting her gaze.

"No idea..."

"Oh great."

"Hey Ottar, what brings you here," Yang asks, quickly standing up to greet the man.

"Yang, your magic may become problematic in the future," Immediately everyone was on edge, their thoughts ranging from this being a complement to the start of a pre-emptive strike, before Ottar continues, "Hedin will assist you in containing it," Ottar says, turning to the man.

With a deep sigh and a side-eye to Ottar, Hedin begins to speak.

"My name is Hedin Selland, you may call me Mr.Selland. When you entered the camp I noticed your magic permeates the environment around you, it's a bit distracting to those with an acute sense of magic such as myself. It also means you're never truly at full capacity as you're always LEAKING magic, understand?"

"Yeah, but how can I fix it?" Yang questions.

"Training, I'll show you," With another harsh glare to Ottar, Hedin continues speaking, "One lesson, that's all, let's go," he says abruptly before walking off.

"Uh, see you guys later," Yang says before looking at Ottar, unsure what to say.

"Don't keep him waiting," Ottar says as he turns on his heel and begins to walk away.

"Right..." Yang mutters, completely confused by what the hell is going on.

Quickly catching up to Hedin, Yang finds the man standing in the same spot he and Thalie were using to train.

"Your training spot will work well for this," his, teacher...advisor said.

"How'd you know we were training here?"

"I can feel your magic..." Hedin says, giving him a look as if to ask 'Are you that incompetent.'

"Right, sorry, um, so what's the training?"

"Sit down and close your eyes," Hedin commands.

Clearly hesitant to be that vulnerable around someone he's just met, Yang is unsure what to do, at least until Hedin speaks up.

"My familia captain told me to help you, I won't harm you." He says in a matter-of-fact manner.

"Oh..." Yang sits down, unsure of how he should feel about this situation.

"Mages need to draw magic from within their bodies into the outside world to perform magic, you need to do the opposite, release your magic into the environment then try to reign it in until you cannot feel your surrounding with it anymore," Hedin said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world to the new adventurer, giving the impression he was offended at having to explain this.

"Ok."

With a deep sigh, Yang breaths out, releasing as much of his magic as he can, allowing his mind and body to completely relax and unwind.

Unbeknownst to him, the hairs on the back of everyone's neck within the camp stood on end as the energy permeated around. Every mage, including Hedin and Freya's Dark Knight had wide eyes as they stared off into his direction. The amount of mana released catching all of them off guard as it was well above what a new level 4 should have.

As Yang tried to reign it all back in, however, his brow began to twitch, controlling his magic and containing it was much more difficult than simply letting it flow. With furrowed brows, he opened his eyes to find his new advisor gone.

"Guess that's the end of his teaching, self-teaching starts now huh," Yang says with a small sigh, "Back to the grind," he says before releasing less magic this time as he focuses more on his control.

END CHAPTER---

Ottar the homie?