After a relatively large meal of foraged vegetables, herbs, and stolen rations, the trio each left to sleep and prepare for the next day, where they'd again be training themselves to exhaustion. Ralf walks over and sits on a nearby log, taking the first watch as Michael and Tiffania enter the one they shared.
Only, Michael didn't fall asleep next to Tiffania as one might expect, instead, his extra training would begin. He flips open the now named Book of Heroes and pushes his mind into Rhasta's world/prison.
After his talk with Riki and his promotion in rank from Commoner to Hero, he'd found that time in the book wasn't just slowed down anyway. Indeed, when he pushed his soul into the Spirit's worlds, time stopped while he was inside.
This was a fantastic finding, and one Michael desperately needed to enhance his strength further. He couldn't avoid training in the real world as his body's muscles would atrophy and his muscle memory would slowly be lost. This is the main reason he hadn't been explicitly training with the Spirits in his book.
There was one negative to this however, he could only spend one hour in each Spirit's world. Meaning, between Rhasta, Slark, and Riki, he could only train for three hours before time resumes again... This time stop recharged after twenty-four hours though, so once a day before he slept, he'd been learning under his respective masters.
Of course, there was the problem of his mental exhaustion from a full day of almost constant training, so his first stop is usually Rhasta's world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Thud*
Michael feet heavily hit the ground as he drops from a couple meters in the air, entering the Spirit's worlds was weird, and more often than not his entry would be at some random location... Sometimes he appears high in the sky, and once he even appeared with one of his legs buried up to his thigh... Still, he was slowly getting the hang of it
*Clack!*
"Ouch!" Michael yelps as he bends over and rubs the back of his head where he'd been hit by a rock Afterwards turning and sending a glare at Rhasta who had one hand extended in a throw all the while meditating atop a large boulder.
"You said you wanted to be trained young one! So stop slacking and begin!" he exclaims, the Serpent Wards around him flaring their hoods while baring their fangs at Michael as if to emphasize his point.
Michael lets out a sigh and nods, "Yes Master." he says, the difference of the words still sounding awkward to his ears and tongue despite how many times he'd said it. He walks over to a boulder sitting opposite Rhasta and stretches his back, limbs, and neck before sitting down in a meditative position, one that is almost identical to what Buddhists do in his old world.
This was the main reason Michael picked Rhasta's world first. The act of meditation wasn't physically stressful, and in fact helped alleviate the mental stress he'd built up through the day. Even if he eventually mastered Rhasta's teaching, he'd continue to meditate like this merely for the presence of mind and clarity it provided.
He wasn't just relaxing however, during this hour, once he was properly calm and relaxed, he'd spent all his time attempting to feel the spirits around him. Despite the weeks he'd already spent doing this however, he had yet to even sense the existence of a spirit, let alone 'feel' them. The only reason he hadn't given up and declared it a lost cause was because he could distinctly feel Rhasta's Serpent Wards.
This only worked because they were as physically manifested as a spirit could get. In Rhasta's words, where a regular spirit would be like the slight wind disturbed by the wings of a butterfly, his Serpent Wards were like a Lion's roar, loudly and proudly declaring its presence to the world.
He had little talent, he knew that. But even if this process took hundreds of years, Michael didn't think he'd find it to be annoying or a chore. With time stopped outside, he was fine meditating like this, and had no reason to even contemplate stopp-"Ouch!" he groans as another pebble strikes him between the brows.
"Less thinking, more feeling!" Rhasta loudly states, reminding why Michael had thought of stopping these lessons before... His master's propensity to be annoying and demanding despite his best efforts. Regardless, he understood why discipline was required, and continued to meditate until his next lesson.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael appears inside the gold-filled room within Riki's world, instantly throwing himself to the side as a dagger flips through his previous position.
"Good reaction, thought you'd be dying for another two days until you learned your lesson." Riki chuckles as he slinks out of the darkness, looking as much like a demonic imp as possible without actually being one.
Michael just gives an exasperated frown in response as he rubs the side he'd landed on. "Do you have to do that? I've just been doing Rhasta's 'Peace and Tranquility' training for an hour, I need to warm up before we start knife fighting." he mutters his complaints, but is slightly annoyed to find Riki ignoring him and walking towards the window.
He turns and gives Michael a shit-eating grin, "Oh, are you done talking? I didn't hear a word, but I assume it was 'please continue teaching me Lord Master Riki of Shadows and Gold."
Michael palms his face as he gets up, shaking his head, "Yeah, whatever you say... Shall we start?" he asks, pulling the earlier thrown dagger out of the wall... Wait, it's made of wood? And it stuck into the stone wall anyway? The fuck?
Riki just laughs at his expression, "Let's see if you can keep up this time." he says as he throws down a Smoke Bomb and drops backwards out of the window, Michael only seeing his shadow do so as he tries to follow.
It was only then that Michael remembered that Riki's Smoke Bombs silenced anyone caught in them, preventing him from using Blink Strike or any other spell as he threw himself out of the window.
"Fuuuuuuck!" he shouts as he plummets, eventually falling out of the range of the Smoke Bomb just in time to see the cobbled street of White Spire rapidly approaching him, or was it the other way around?
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He glances around but finds no targets for Blink Strike, and is forced to kick off of the wall of the nearby building in an attempt to gain enough momentum to begin a roll. The force of his kick cracks the wall slightly but it's barely enough.
*Thud!-Crack!*
He hits the ground hard, landing on his shoulder as he tries to roll with his momentum, but only succeeds in breaking or maybe dislocating his right shoulder and arm. He quickly gets to his feet as memories of Riki's previous training sessions flash through his mind.
His arm continued to hang limply as he drew the wooden dagger in his offhand, the fact that his Shadow Dance passive wasn't working made it obvious that he was being watched. And since there was only one other occupant of this ghost town...
*Thwip!*
His shadow lurches as Riki lunges from it, slashing at his neck with the intent to kill. Michael shifts his weight to the side and barely dodges it, the attack cutting through his ear lope and leaving a long red trail on his face.
He stabs his dagger at Riki in response, but the assassin was already gone, disappearing down an alleyway as his form fades into the darkness. He's about to pursue him but his first step stumbles, causing him to drop onto his knee...
Michael's eyes widen as he touches his cheek with the side of his hand and immediately spots the green interspersed with the red of his blood. "Poison, how is this even fair!?" he exclaims, wondering what this lesson was even supposed to convey.
"Life isn't fair, get used to it and you might live longer than I did." Riki's voice states from behind him.
Michael shakes his head, "Oh yeah? Let me show you some B.S then." he mutters, using his dagger to widen the wound on his face as he activates Dark Pact.
After a second's delay, black, inky smoke explodes from Michael's form, instantly removing all poison from his system while also pushing his arm back into position. It was still weak from the injury, but he could use it now at least. Of course, the pain from having all of his skin dissolved and healed causes him to pause for a moment.
Allowing Riki to easily dash over and cut his face again, poisoning him yet again...
Michael growls, "Are you fucking serious!?"
Riki laughs, "Ahahahaha! Nice ability you've got there, why not do it again?" he mockingly asks, but despite the sarcasm in Riki's tone, Michael does indeed cast it again.
*Thwip!*
Michael tries to dodge Riki's attack this time, but again, get poisoned... Not only that, but two casts of Dark Pact without any healing had left him in a pathetic state. His knees trembled as they struggled to hold his weight, the grip on his dagger was weak enough that a grandma could pluck it from his grasp, and his mind was fuzzy from the effects of the poison in his system.
Riki, seeing that his student didn't dare use that ability again nod with a grin, "Now, what have we learned?"
...
"Don't ever trust you?" Michael asks, dropping to a knee as his body slowly begins to shut down, his heart basically liquefying in his chest from the poison. Riki grants him mercy by closing his eyes and letting Shadow Dance heal him for a bit.
"No, that was our first lesson. What did you learn today?" Riki asks, casually spinning his dagger with a bored expression on his face.
"Oh, jeez, I don't know. Don't rely on my abilities, especially if they are self-destructive?... Where did you even get the poison?"
Riki shakes his head again, "That was our third lesson. No, this lesson was to teach you to analyse the situation before rushing in... I asked you to follow me, out the window of a building with a Smoke Bomb stopping most of your abilities, to a street that you knew wouldn't have any targets to use Blink Strike..." He walks over to Michael and stands over him, "Tell me, what part of your plan was smart, or even approaching rational?"
...
"That's what I thought. Remember this lesson, my student won't be killed by some loser with an ill-planned ambush. Now get up, we'll begin where were left off yesterday, hopefully now you'll be able to keep hold of your weapon."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael lets out a sigh as he pops into existence on the beach within Slark's world. He was on guard immediately, watching his surroundings like a dragon would its treasure. It was honestly quite a shame that Slark decided to be a piece of shit. Otherwise he'd spend far more time simply relaxing on the beach instead of fighting fish-Hayabusa.
"Come out your big-eyed bastard! I'm gonna fuck you up for what you did to me last time" he shouts, readying his magic after realising his distinct lack of any weapons.
Michael waits as he listens, hearing the waves crashing into the sand, the ocean breeze... And the squelch that Slark's disgusting feet give as they step onto the surface. He turns his head towards it and spots the fish already holding his curved dagger and rapidly approaching.
"I've got you this time! Hex!" he exclaims, turning Slark into a chicken and preparing an Ether Shock... But is interrupted as Slark's form reverts back to normal as Dark Pact activates.
"Hah! You ain't the first cocky mage I've run into! Die!" he laughs, striking down at Michael in a similar fashion to what he'd done the first time he'd killed him. But Michael barely escapes this time, using Blink Strike to appear behind Slark, "Shoc-*Squish!*" he starts but is stopped as one of Slark's gross feet smack him in the cheek with a surprising amount of force.
Michael is thrown through the air, spinning as if he were a Bayblade ready for battle... He quickly regains his focus and summons a Smoke Bomb into his hand and throws it down, trying to get some distance. But all is for nought as Slark's shadowed form barrels into him, his knife piercing Michael's heart as he does so.
Michael falls onto his back with Slark standing on him, the fish was trying to say something, but the Smoke Bomb stopped it. Allowing him to die and leave the world without having to hear the bastard's taunts.
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