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26.78% Return of the Woodcutter / Chapter 54: Advent of a new rumor

Chapter 54: Advent of a new rumor

Aito laid on the grass, his gaze fixed on the far ceiling, housing a fake sun much like the one on the second floor. He tried to move his arms, legs, and fingers. No results. He was paralyzed from head to toe.

'Just what is this?' He thought, only able to look around.

A few moments ago, he had been using Durability after drawing the last drop of mana from the second mana core. With Ogoro's knowledge, it had been easy to figure out how to do it. However, Aito had not predicted what would follow.

To his mind, it didn't make sense. The only possible reason for this paralysis he could think of was a shortage of stamina.

But he had recovered a certain amount of his stamina using Pneuma. In fact, he had already been using Pneuma during his "warm-up," which allowed him to finish the course that had felt like a goddamn marathon, albeit with straw targets falling on his head.

His gift Intuition had flared a few times to warn him, but ultimately he had to keep a lookout for those in order to properly dodge. Fortunately, he had trained his awareness by being on guard every second of his stay on the island.

But running with a heavy armor and his weapon while watching out for items dropping from a blind spot was something else entirely. The falling frequency had varied. Sometimes shorter. Other times longer.

So it had been impossible to predict the fall according to a fixed rhythm. He had tried to look up constantly. Bad idea. He almost hit another runner by doing so. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't figure out a way to dodge those damn straw targets every time. Was it even possible?

"I see you finally hit the limit of your soul power, ey?" Gwen said, appearing next to him.

"Wh…" he started, but couldn't manage more. His jaw felt completely loose. Much like his entire body.

"Don't force it. You'll regain control of your body in a wee bit." Gwen said, sitting next to him cross-legged. "In the meantime, how about a little theory class? Not that you can disagree anyway, gahahaha."

'Not funny,' he thought, showing his disapproval by breathing slightly harder than before.

But she didn't seem to notice as she said, "The state you are in is called soul power exhaustion, or we also call this feeless because you can't really feel your body."

Gwen blew a white cloud of smoke and continued, "It happens when your soul power reaches its limit. Before you use the very last drop of it, your body shuts down. Your soul needs soul power surrounding it to function properly, after all. Although it produces the soul power, the amount produced isn't sufficient to fuel its needs. Even if you reach a higher soul level, commonly called class level, you'll just remain feeless for a shorter amount of time."

'That's why there is a soul power reservoir, I guess.' He thought, feeling he should avoid soul exhaustion at all costs during a fight. 'Yeah, that much is obvious.'

"The point of this exercise is to first, familiarize yourself with the use of Durability." She said, lifting her index finger. "Second, make you realize your limits. To know how far you can go has many benefits. Amongst them, is a deeper understanding of how your skill works. Of how much soul power and mana it costs you to activate it. Since there isn't really a means to quantify it, at least to my knowledge, it's the only way I know of to get yourself accustomed to the dosage, quickly. I could use a softer method, but we don't have the time for that."

Aito felt a bit thankful towards her for taking the time period into consideration, even if her method was quite exhausting to say the least.

'But as long as it helps me get stronger, I'll do it again without batting an eye.' He thought. Aito had at first his doubt about this so-called training, but Gwen's exercises started to make sense to him. At least the soul exhaustion exercise. After all, getting a feel of how many times he could use a skill—considering the soul power limit—would influence the way he would fight in the future.

Back on the island, after acquiring skills, he had already thought about pushing his limits, although not the way Gwen was doing and certainly not the target dropping part. But ultimately, he had concluded to be too risky in an environment where he needed to keep enough stamina to be ready for an attack that could come at any moment.

"Anyway, you'll be doing that every day after your warm-up. As for what comes after you've recovered enough soul power...." She paused, smirking. "I hope you don't mind bruises, blood, and broken bones."

'Broken bones?' He thought, hiding his discomfort. Bruises and blood were fine by him. He had gotten used to the pain. However, broken bones had never been part of his daily struggle. A few times, yes, but not every day.

'As long as it makes me stronger...'

***

Around one hour after Aito regained his stamina.

"Shit!" Aito cursed. Shirtless, with only his linen pants, he had his back against an earth wall Gwen had summoned out of thin air to prevent him from stepping back.

An empty wooden human-shaped medieval armor powered by a soul core called dullahan was beating the shit out of him. Those could be crafted from different materials like iron, steel, or even beasts parts.

It was sometimes used on the front lines to fight against Fearmongers to avert too many casualties. But lacking a living being's intelligence, it could only execute simple tasks, such as attacking or defending with basic moves.

It could also be used for individual training, like in Aito's case, where no partners could be found or more like he hadn't any. The moderator couldn't get involved physically in his training since it would attract attention more than it already was.

If someone were to ask questions, she could simply brush it off as Aito asking for training equipment like the others. But if she showed real physical involvement, not just counseling, it was another matter. Gwen had to keep it "discreet" after all.

"Shit!" Aito repeated, blocking yet another punch from the dullahan with his forearms.

'I look like a masochist!' He complained internally, guarding against a low kick while thinking back to what Gwen had told him.

Coach Gwen had allowed him to only ripost every thirty moves. He wasn't allowed to dodge—hence his back against the wall—and could only block.

His body had endured a lot on the island, but one hour of "sparing" against a wooden dullahan. That was a first. Aito didn't even know how his body could still stand. Apparently, he had really reached an inhuman physical resistance.

Although he was allowed to ripost, his knuckles, knees, feet, whatever body parts he used, would get injured upon striking thick wood a few times. Though he could definitely destroy his opponent with bare hands, it took quite a few hits.

Taking one dullahan down barehanded could take up to thirty minutes, only then was he allowed to take a breather. Not considering his restriction, the damn thing could still move headless with one leg, and its chest area was more resistant than the other parts because of its thickness.

With his ax, it would no doubt have taken him seconds to bring it down, but weaponless was a true challenge.

'Thirty,' he thought, counting the blows. However, from time to time he could lose count of them because of the pain.

The armor went for a body blow, striking the area next to his liver. Aito gritted his teeth, contracted his bruised abdominal muscles to receive the blow, and countered with a devastating side body blow of his own, pulverizing the already badly damaged armor.

"Alright, that's enough," Gwen said, unsummoning the pieces of wooden armor. She then called him back.

Aito limped towards her, groaning from the pain of a few broken ribs, bloody knuckles, and bruises all over his body.

The few passers-by heading to the second floor for lunch break made complicated expressions seeing the state of his body, whispering "masochists" amongst themselves.

Unbeknownst to Aito, a new rumor overshadowing the naked man attached to the fountain started to take form.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
YoanRoturier YoanRoturier

I won bronze in WPC! (But damn I wanted sweat cover pic rewarded for gold)

*cough*

Two announcements:

1) I'll be locking the chaps soon, probably by August 12th at the soonest and August 19th at the latest. So... well, stock up fast passes xD. Although, I would appreciate if you guys used coins from time to time. *cough*

2) I'll soon be using the auxiliary volume to add some neat stuff like characters' status windows, a bestiary, a list of races, a vocabulary list of words I invented for this novel, and maybe a few more things.

I'll read you later.

Chapter 55: Diluted divine blessing

"This… is more… torture than training," Aito said, sitting by Gwen.

"Nay, it's training alright. Don't be a sissy little man." She said, "True warriors get that kind of training when they are not waging war. Sometimes, without healing means. Even some cowardly beast hunters do. You can't make tasty omelets without breaking eggs. The same goes for your body. It does give some warriors a weird reputation, but well… things are what they are."

Too injured to ask what she meant, he simply grunted.

Noticing his predicament, Gwen took out two beads filled with tiny green particles from her inventory and handed it to him.

"Take them." She said, "Don't absorb them, just break the beads. The diluted divine blessing inside will speed up your body's recovery rate. In two or three hours, your few broken bones would have mended back and bruises disappeared. Mostly. Three would be ideal, but those aren't cheap for challengers."

"No… kidding, urg." He said, breaking the beads. A green glow spread from his fist to his entire body accompanied by a wave of warm, soothing feeling. He could sense the pain lessening bit by bit as the divine blessing worked its magic. "Worth 800 TPs each, I suppose."

"Aye." She said, smiling. "Deserving of the name recovery bead. Although those don't compare to healing or miracle beads, they are practical and easier to get your hands on."

Intrigued, Aito sent her a quizzical gaze.

"Time for another theory class I guess." She said while refurbishing her pipe. "There are a few ways to heal yourself in Iris, that I know of. Concoctions, herbs, surgery by a battle surgeon. But recovery beads are the most common for treating injuries and can also vary in effectiveness according to their purity. Yours look good though. The greener it is, the better."

Aito nodded, glad he hadn't been tricked by the shop owner.

"You're lucky, you usually get lower or intermediate qualities because the process to craft them is complex." She said, lighting her pipe. "Recovery beads are made by a delicate process involving diluting a divine blessing contained inside a healing bead, which is diluted from miracle beads. And miracle beads are gods damn expensive. Only available by using glory points with the gods. With just one, you can create around a thousand recovery beads of good quality. More if bad ones."

The giantess took a puff, blew smoke, forming a circle and another smaller one that passed through the first. Her complicated gaze fixed on the grassy area, she said, "We developed that technique for economic reasons, lack of personal, and also because mortals simply don't have the power to heal wounds instantly as divine beings do. Battle surgeons can mend broken bones, sew wounds, organs, even reattach limbs. The best can do it in a matter of minutes. But it still takes people and time. Time we don't necessarily have to save lives."

Aito found it weird. He had thought the gods would grant mortals instantaneous healing skills, spells of sorts, to help reduce casualties during their war that has been waged for who knew how long. Even if they only considered mortals as resources, it was the least they could do.

Battle surgeons apparently were indeed equipped with skills to heal, but it seemed dumb since it could take time better spent elsewhere. Also, minutes, seconds even, could mean the difference between life and death.

A difference recovery bead couldn't necessarily cover every time. He didn't know about healing and miracle beads, though. But he sure could guess those weren't found lying on the streets. Following that train of thought, he wondered…

"'Just why are they keeping the secret of instantaneous healing to themselves?' If that's what you think, I'd advise you to give up the thought." She said, waving her free hand. "Even if you know the real reason, there is nothing you can do about it."

"So there… is a reason."

"Of course," she said, her face darkening. "There is a reason for most, if not all, of the gods' actions. I suspect that most of the time it's always the same one."

"Control…" He said, furrowing his black brows. It was predictable. For him, at least since he considered the gods a pain in the ass and had already come to that conclusion before when thinking about the System.

"Correct, yet incorrect," she said. "But, if I were you, I'd avoid uttering such profanity in front of the common folks. You can get into trouble for much less. After all, the gods are revered by most, little man."

That was also predictable. Aito had already guessed it would do him no good to insult them in front of others. That much he could do. When faced with one of those bastards, that would be harder. However, he had already seen the consequences of his own thoughtlessness and wasn't about to do it again. Purposely, at least.

"Why didn't you… make 'trouble' for me then?" He asked, already feeling better to the point of making longer sentences and being suspicious of the moderator.

This time, it was the giantess' turn to frown. "Don't ask unnecessary questions."

At those words, Aito knew he had stepped on a cat's tail and stopped his questioning. She probably had her own reasons she was unwilling to talk about. Certainly something upsetting.

They spent the next few minutes in uncomfortable silence until Gwen broke it. "Anyway, just grab your lunch. Get some rest. Since you have no partner, you'll be training against a dullahan again this afternoon."

"Ag—" Aito started.

"With weapons, this time." She interrupted, "I'll provide wooden ones so that you don't have to use yours. But you won't wear armor, for this week at least."

That last part told him he would be in a world of pain again, but also felt relieved. His full plated armor had been challenging to equip. He had walked out of his room later than the others because of it.

He had had to first wear a special jacket and pants on top of his linen ones, then use the laces fixed to these special clothes to attach armor parts to his body.

Figuring how and where to attach those laces had been harder than he initially thought, even more alone. Fortunately, he had Ogoro's memories, but they were a bit blurry about how to wear medieval armors. It had taken him almost an hour, if not more, to figure it out alone.

"If it's not forbidden to ask, how does all your summoning thing work?" He asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"Nah, it's no secret, considering where we are it could even be considered common knowledge," Gwen said. Noticing Aito's interrogative gaze, she added, "You don't know where we are, ey?"

"Obviously the Tower." He replied.

"We're inside a god's soul, little man." She said, tapping her pipe to force out the ashes. "The tutorial is held inside a god's soul. White, blue, red, and black trials included. To my knowledge, in a god's soul, anything is possible. I have been temporarily granted rights to summon certain nonliving matter and items, not living beings, but it is possible. However, the third floor isn't meant for that purpose."

Aito stared at his bloody knuckles, having mixed feelings about this news. On one hand, it made sense, since the moderator could summon... training items using whatever power she had been given.

On the other hand, this went against Belmand's words. The god of sloth had talked about the black trial taking place on a floating island, with a large-scale illusion covering the entire area. And if the gods could create literally anything inside their souls, why did an illusion had to be cast on the island by another god?

It didn't make sense to him since they could have just created it with a mere thought, apparently. Unless Gwen was wrong about the black trial. If she was right, however, it meant the god of sloth had lied to him.

Aito sighed, thinking that reliable information was truly hard to come by these days.

—————————————————————

IMPORTANT Announcement in the Creator's Thoughts.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
YoanRoturier YoanRoturier

I've applied for August 12th to go Premium (lock chaps). I'm waiting for validation, but if things go well, I'll upload two chapters tomorrow or the next day to lock at the point in the story I wanted. So... I guess it's also good news for you since you'll get two chaps? XD

Read you later guys.

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