Chapter 30: Why Didn't I Level Up?
"A Gravity Stone? Why would you put something like that in my cell?" Aker asked Vance not understanding. There were two points of confusion for Aker hearing what Vance had told him. The first and most obvious was "what is a Gravity Stone?". The second point of confusion was, why would something that makes just standing in its presence feel so uncomfortable, be considered a treasure?
As Aker asked, the moaning of the two prisoners on either side of Aker's cell periodically rang out.
"A Gravity Stone is an extremely rare stone whose density is so extreme that it has the capability of affecting gravity in the area around it. Without getting into specifics, based on the quality of the stone as well as how much power you put into it, you can change the pressure or gravity from just a couple of tenths higher to even hundreds of times normal gravity. The area of affect is also affected by how much power you supply it."
Vance explained stopping here, waiting to see how Aker digested the information. While Aker was young, he did understand the concept of gravity and was consequently astounded. You can alter and change gravity? How could that be possible and why would you want to?
"To answer your second question, the manipulation of gravity is extremely beneficial in a multitude of ways. I have heard that in the CenterVerse gravity stones are common and are used for ship propulsion, but for me it is used extensively for training. By training in a denser gravity, you will work your muscles and bones gaining twice the affect with using the same amount of time. Right now, what you lack the most is time and this gravity stone will make the time you spend training more valuable, consequently you will have to work significantly harder during that time. For now, the gravity is set to 1.25 of normal so it is only raised a quarter and you can already feel the impact. I won't tell you the upper limit of this stone but I can tell you it does exceed more than 10x normal gravity. Your goal should be to see its limit."
Aker finally understood why Vance had buried the Gravity Stone in his cell. When he is training in his cell the time spent will be exponentially more effective. If he can move .2 second faster while training in his cell at 1.25 gravity, when he leaves his cell, he will be 2.50 seconds faster outside.
While it doesn't sound significant, anyone who has been in a struggle of life and death knows that a tenth of a second can be an eternity. To increase his efficiency by .5 by simply training with a stone, no wonder it's such a treasure. To think it has the capability to go to 10x and higher of normal gravity.
"Master, tha...." As Aker suddenly realized how valuable the treasure Vance had given him was his first instinct was to thank him. With all sincerity he was truly touched by Vance's actions. While Vance had said he was taking Aker as his disciple and that he would be pouring his all into him, it was one thing to say, and another to do.
Vance could easily offer small gestures as they slowly built up trust and a relationship. Vance could test out Aker, determining over and over again if he was really worth dedicating all of his effort and resources into. Already in less than a day or two he had taught him knife basics, established his relationship with three teachers, considered his safety and risk in poisoning and put his most valuable treasure in Akers control. How could Aker not be feeling emotional at this moment?
As Aker was going to say thank you, he caught the slightest bit of sorrow and frustration from Vance. It dawned on Aker at that moment that a "Thank You" would have the opposite effect.
While a thank you from a child to a parent is appreciated from time to time it isn't necessary. Family takes care of family. While Vance is not Akers family, as his Master he has become something that is similar, if not more. It is often said "Master for a day and a father for life." When a disciple has a true master, it is no different than that of a parent. For Aker to say "thank you" here is to take a step back, catching himself Aker immediately corrected himself.
"This disciple will not let you down."
With Akers corrected statement the bit of sorrow on Vance instantly changed to a mild elation.
With Vance's new bit of elation he nodded his head in approval of Akers actions. Is it possible for the same person to bring such embarrassment and such joy at the same time? Perhaps this is the case for all people that are cared for? The highs and lows were truly a first for Vance as he couldn't remember a time that he had experienced so many all at the same time.
"I saw your fight today and your basics were good. You need lots more practice before you can call yourself proficient with the basics, but it was adequate. You used combination moves a couple of times in the fight with the last Kulga which you also need to focus on. You have more than just your knives, no you have more than just your weapons. When fighting use everything. You have legs for kicking and sweeping for example. If you focus and train to much in one area without training the others you will not be able to use all of your capabilities. I know you have only been training and fighting for a few days now, but that's why it's important to acknowledge it now. If you train properly from now, we won't have to try and fix it later."
Vance explained while he kicked out his feet and crouched down low to the ground sweeping his legs out. He demonstrated a couple of combination moves involving blocks that transitioned into attacks. His movements were fluid and smooth as he moved through the combinations, sometimes connecting three and four of them together. While Vance did not expect Aker to be able to connect three and four combinations together now, he wanted him to be aware that was the way he should be training too as a goal.
Aker watched intently as Vance moved through combination after combination. Incorporating blocking moves that transitioned into avoidance moves that were used to unleash a flurry of offensive attacks. The part that Aker struggled with the most was that even when Vance was unleashing his offensive attacks, advancing like a madman he seemed to still be guarding himself. Aker hadn't yet figured out how to guard and attack at the same time. When fighting the Kulga one on one he had managed to perform dodging attack combinations even if they were raw and dirty.
'Just like everything else I can't rush it. Right now, I need to focus on my basics and focus on dodging and attacking. Once I can dodge and attack simultaneously, I should be better prepared to practice attack and defend simultaneously.' Aker thought to himself.
"Is there anything else you need before I go?" Vance asked Aker before leaving.
"No Master I will continue to practice." Aker looked up at Vance a fire burning in his eyes. Someone people decide what they want to do and they build a motivation and desire for it. That can happen slowly over time or instantly. That fire that burns, it propels and drives them towards their goal until they reach. However, the fire that Aker showed was different than the fire one emirates when they want something. The fire that burns from someone who is forced into something the way Aker is has a totally different feeling. It's the kind of fire that burns in the soul and is seen in the eyes. When Aker looked at Vance and made a simple statement "I will continue to practice" which can be said by trillions of people every day, it had the feeling of dominance as if though it was a law written for Aker. It wasn't just his mouth that uttered the words it was his soul speaking it out.
"Make sure you rest too. You should have learned from today but this is an important lesson as well. A warrior needs to fight when it is time to fight, practice when it is time to practice and rest when it is time to rest..." Vance thought about it and decided to leave it at that for the saying.
"You can be forced to fight at any time. In war, the enemies' goal is to wear you down and defeat you. Your job as a warrior and fighter is to never let them. Rest and recovery are also part of your strength and shouldn't be neglected."
Vance felt like he had conveyed what he wanted to so he decided there no reason to keep going on about it.
"I understand, I'll make sure to account for the fact that they can call me to fight at any time. I'll get rest and focus on recovering as well." Aker was feeling the wear and tear of the day so he understood what Vance was trying to convey.
It had truly been a long day. At first, he thought that Vance would take him back to his cell after his fight. He had only gotten a few hours of sleep in-between fights. However, it was extremely obvious from Vance's actions that he had every intention of pushing Aker.
Aker already knew that was going to be the case so that is why as the day progressed, he never asked his master about resting. He is in a daily struggle of life and death so naturally every day would be a struggle and battle.
Watching Vance walk away Aker took his practice knifes from the night before and began his routine of swinging. He practiced dodging and incorporated leg kicks and attacks into his practice.
As he moved through his practice, he was developing a routine. He would practice swinging his knife following a trajectory that would aim for the neck of the last Kulga he fought. He dodged left and swung his knife in one awkward movement. He sliced at the leg and jumped back. He managed to visualize his last fight with the Kulga practicing dozens of different attacks. He was able to put together two combination moves while facing his imaginary foe.
As he visualized the fight he tried to do three combination moves, he couldn't make it work as his movements didn't flow and created deadly openings and the vicious Kulga would tear him apart. As such he focused on two combination movements.
As time progressed, he created sets. Each set consisted of dozens of swings, jumps, and combinations. Once he completed the set he would start over from the beginning. One time, two times, ten times, one hundred times. Aker moved through the sets.
Initially he felt the impact of the increased gravity as he felt significantly tired and sluggish moving through the sets, but he pushed on. By the time he completed two hundred sets he could barely move any longer. While .25 gravity didn't seem like a significant amount, in the course of thousands of swings and movements and hundreds of sets it became excruciating. To suddenly have your body experience something like that was beyond describable words.
Finally, Aker couldn't take it any longer and he finally collapsed to the floor. Knowing he wasn't going to be able to go any longer he had managed to work his way over to his beast blood floor spot where he finally laid down.
As Aker laid on the ground panting heavily, he focused on catching his breath. While focusing he caught the image of his Level and Skills. At this point it occurred to Aker. Each time he had seen this HUD with his Level and Skills was during an extreme bought of exhaustion and tiredness when he was focused. Did he need to exhaust himself to be able to see it? Perhaps it was like applying Skill points and he just needed to focus on it?
As Aker was pondering on this, he noticed something that he found a bit disturbing. Truthfully at this point he didn't truly understand what the Levels did. He did understand that as he reached a new level, he got Skill points. With those Skill points he was able to apply them to the Skills listed but even then, he didn't know what it did.
He had a pretty good idea and was over 90% confident in his assumption, but he couldn't say with 100% certainty. He clearly understood that since applying points to the skills that he had changed.
First and probably most significant is his understanding and comprehension. While he doesn't instantly learn, he has realized that topics that just a few days ago that would have caused him considerable pain...No... It would have been impossible. For him to learn anatomy in just a few hours there was no way, maybe not even years would have been sufficient. Additionally, he has found that he is able to visualize just as when he was practicing first aid and even now when he was fighting the Kulga. This was something he could never do before.
His cuts, bruises and injuries from his fights are healing at a much faster speed than normal. He was never the slowest person in class but he was never the fastest either. His speed and strength have improved.
Based on his observations and just the plain facts, when he applies points to his skills the skill that gets the points improves him. The only hesitation that Aker has in being 100% sure is the experiments with the needles when he was first kidnapped. It is in the realm of possibilities that his improvement was related to that, but that seemed highly unlikely. There did seem to be a direct correlation between the skills and the improvements he was noticing.
If in fact the Skills are responsible for his improvements then there is another question that needs examining. It seemed when he first activated his comprehension, vitality, agility and strength there was a drastic improvement in that skill. However, when he applied more points to comprehension there was a definite improvement but it was not to the same degree as the initial activation. If say the first point tripled his current ability the second point improved it by 1-2% at most.
As Aker was reviewing his Level, Skills and Points he saw something that confused him even more. Previously when he had fought in the Arena, following his fight and when he saw his Level, it started to advance moving him from level 0 up to his current level 4.
Prior to the battle against the ten Kulga he was Level 4 with 800 points. Prior to this battle he had fought only three Kulga and advanced 4 1/2 levels but today his point total moved from 800 to 1200 giving him a total of 400 more points.
How was that possible? He defeated three Kulga and received thousands of points but today he defeated ten and only received 400?
After pondering on it for a moment Aker could only come up with three reasons.
First, he was no longer capable of leveling up. He had reached the maximum value and as such he couldn't advance any further. This seemed unlikely as the bar was only over half full and had still advanced by 400. Why would the maximum be in the middle of levels?
Secondly, he had decided not to kill the Kulga so therefore he didn't receive any points. While this was more likely than the first option it still seemed unlikely. Prior to this it was true that he killed all three Kulga advancing four levels. The first level required 100 points. The second level required 200 points. The third level required 400 points and the fourth level required 800 points. He had reached halfway to the fifth level.
In total killing the three Kulga resulted in 2300 points or over 700 per Kulga. Today he killed several Kulga even if he didn't kill all of them, which means he should have received at a minimum of 700 points per Kulga he killed.
Even that didn't make sense as when he killed the smaller weaker first Kulga he only advanced to level 2 with 111 points left over. That means the first Kulga was worth 411 points to him. The remaining two Kulga were then worth 1,889 or 944.5 each. How was it today that after killing several more Kulga and defeating a total of ten he only got 400 points?
This led to the third and most likely reason. The points he received was based on his strength and the strength of his opponent. In the first fight the Kulga he fought was far inferior to the two Kulga he fought.
At the time he fought the two Kulga he had improved in some Skills but he had not improved across the board yet. So, a much stronger opponent, while he had improved it was not nearly as abundant as when he fought the ten Kulga today. To be honest as he was fighting the ten Kulga he didn't feel danger until he fought the Kulga one on one.
If his assumption was right then that means as long as he is fighting the Kulga he probably won't be getting any more points for it or if he does the points will be nominal. He still doesn't know if he needs to kill the Kulga or not. There are too many variables to make a determination right now. For example, after killing the first one did, he get all 400 points and all the others were worth nothing? Did he get 40 points for each one he defeated? Did he only get points for the ones killed?
Based on his assumption then did that mean the answer is that he needs to fight more dangerous and higher-level enemies to get points to level up. If his assumption is right then the only way to get his revenge is to constantly be looking to battle against bigger, stronger and faster?
All of that didn't matter because the only real question Aker had was "Why didn't I level up?"
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