Level 1 Fallen Chapter 37: Graduation

Kelly and I charged at one another, both of us fighting with our bare hands. For the purpose of the training, Kelly intentionally slowed down her movents, and only used skills that were variations of what I knew. For the most part, the two of us clashed directly with unard combat.

My skills had surged over the last week, as I was not restricted from using any of my abilities, and even encouraged to use them as much as I could. I had even achieved four skill evolutions, so of which brought to the third tier of skills. First, my Sword Proficiency evolved into Sword Expertise. This was easy to understand, as it was just a straight increase in my ability to wield a sword.

Secondly, I managed to evolve Set Bone into Internal Recovery-X. This skill ca from the constant training with Kelly, who had absolutely no concept of slowing down when the opponent was wounded. If anything, she enjoyed striking while her enemy was off-guard. aning that I ended up using Set Bone dozens of tis in each spar, often back-to-back, before ultimately being killed regardless.

Now that I had Internal Recovery-X, my self-healing ability was vastly improved. There was still nothing that I could do for a missing limb, or anything that was instantly fatal. However, as long as that wasn’t the case, it was quite hard for to stay down.

Next, my Adrenaline Rush evolved into Adrenaline Surge, which was a direct increase in how much it boosted speed, strength, and stamina. There was no real surprise there, as I kept the skill constantly active.

The last evolution was a fusion. After all five of my basic stat skills reached level fifty, I fused them together. The result was the Duke of All Trades-X. If I had to guess, the preceding skill should have been the Jack of All Trades, if I had fused the first tier of skills at level twenty. Now that I had this higher version, the increase in my physical prowess was noticeable.

To be honest, part of worried that I had already outgrown the equipnt that Hamrhead made for , without having ever had the chance to properly use it. I hadn’t even enchanted it yet, due to the training with Kelly.

However, the armor ca with the convenient self-repair feature, Blood Soaked, which I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to easily find again. Even if the armor wasn’t quite fit for anymore, it would be better in the long term than having to get a new set that was regularly repaired or replaced.

Back to the fight… with the enhancent to my abilities, I was still not a match for Kelly when she went all-out, and she could easily disappear from my sight. When she lowered herself to the sa strength as myself… then it beca a contest of pure skill, which is where I was able to learn the most.

For the majority of this week, she taught basic fighting styles, using the skills that I had trained thus far. She taught how to properly fight with a sword and shield, and how to fight empty-handed. Because of her, I had even obtained the Unard Proficiency skill.

I reached my palm out, aiming a strike at her abdon. At the sa ti, a yellow spike appeared behind her, aiming to pierce between her shoulder blades. This was the Ki Projection skill, which I had learned how to more properly use. I wasn’t simply making a projection of myself or my attack, but I could project my ki in any form that I could properly envision. The most common forms I had it take for were a fist, spike, sword, shield, or armor. Aside from these forms, there weren’t any others that I had trained myself to manifest.

Kelly gave a knowing grin, reaching out to grab my wrist as she spun to the side, pulling my body into the path of the ki projection. It pierced into my shoulder, causing to hiss in pain, but the wound quickly closed as I pointed the fingers of my held hand towards her. A golden beam shot out from my fingers, catching Kelly by surprise and actually causing a small cut to appear on her cheek as she jumped back.

I couldn’t help feeling a sense of accomplishnt at that. Even though she broke my wrist during her retreat, this was the first ti that I had drawn so much as a drop of blood from my teacher. She brought a hand up, wiping the blood off to show that the wound had already healed.

“Actually pulled a fast one on .” She chuckled. She didn’t teach the ‘traditional’ forms of martial arts, as those were made to fight people. What she taught was ant to fight monsters. And that was why she had always gone so hard on , so that my body instinctively saw her as a monster.

“Last I checked, this is day seven. So… let’s end this with a bang.” She said, taking a stance with her body turned to the side, both arms raised and aid forward, fingers curled inwards like claws. I had… a bad feeling about this. One that I had experienced nurous tis recently, and had co to identify.

She wants to kill . I thought to myself, seeing a golden glow surrounding Kelly’s body. “Take a good look. You shouldn’t be far off from this.” She spoke up, the golden glow mixing with an icy aura. The temperature in the arena plumted, talons of ice forming over her hands.

My eyes widened, realizing what she was doing. I crossed my arms over my chest, activating the armor-type projection as well as Crystal Wall to try to protect myself. She’s enchanting herself.

My goal was no longer to win this fight, but simply survive a single strike. “Myriad Strikes earned its na because it allows you to effectively combine the power of your other skills into your unard attacks. What would normally be a frigid armor, when properly channeled, can beco a lethal weapon.”

“Furthermore, the success rate of Myriad Strikes’ enchantnt is far higher than when enchanting equipnt, as you are enchanting that which is the most familiar to you.” As Kelly said this, she took a half step forward, pushing her arms out. I could hear the sounds of sothing shattering, and see that there were ten holes in my chest, piercing both my heart and my lungs.

“Congratulations.” Kelly said as I fell to the ground, my vision going faint. Despite the attack not sending to respawn imdiately, I couldn’t activate my Internal Recovery-X. I was in a state of Mana Burn, so her attack should have completely sapped my mana, negating all of my skills. “You’ve passed my training. Next ti we et, make sure to show sothing new.”

After she said that, my eyes shot open, and I was standing at the center of the city once again. Several familiar guards smiled towards , giving pitying looks. At the sa ti, I played back through what Kelly had said, and began running for the martial arts training ground.

When I arrived, I found the place empty, aside from my body laid out on the ground. No matter where I looked, I couldn’t see any signs of Kelly. After delivering that blow to kill , she had left the area, maybe even the city.

I shook my head, reaching down to collect the loot from my corpse. I hadn’t expected that Kelly would simply disappear after the training was over. She hadn’t given any signs indicating that she would depart. At most, she had scared away any new players seeking to receive training, letting them see as what they could expect if they stayed.

Throughout the entire week, only one brave player had accepted this training. However… he changed his tune after Kelly killed him twice, claiming that her teaching wouldn’t be worth the experience he lost fighting her.

Now that Kelly was gone, I had to decide what I wanted to do. Both my Stealth and Sturdy Hand skills were just shy of evolving, but I was obviously not going to get the finishing touch for that in Decashear. Well… Stealth I might. It was possible that I could wake up to that leveling up.

Closing my eyes, I decided to check my friends list, seeing how Ennolf and Nuoda were doing. Both were online, so I sent a ssage to Nuoda. Sorry if I’m bothering you. Just thought that I would check in, it’s been a while.

The last ti that I heard from either of them was more than two weeks ago. By now, they should have definitely made it to the capital and registered their guild, right?

Oh, Drake! Did you get our mail? You never responded, so we just assud that sothing had happened and you were busy. Nuoda responded almost imdiately.

It’s fine. I was in so rather intense training, and hadn’t gotten the chance to check my mail lately. Were you able to establish the guild? As I asked that, I began to make my way towards the city’s mailbox. I felt bad for not telling them in advance that I had acquired my own healing skill, as I guessed that was what they had mailed .

Yeah! We’ve got that all set up, and we’re currently working on building the city. If you want to co visit us soti, we’re about seventy kiloters north of Corsales. Of course, we don’t have a road to it yet, so you’ll have to walk. For now, the na we’re going with is Fallowton.

I nodded my head, soon reaching the mailbox and opening it. What I saw was a small package that had apparently been waiting for more than ten days. Inside was a thank you ssage for the two rings that I sent them, as well as an apology that they had been unable to get a healing skill book, due to the church tightly controlling the related dungeon near the capital.

Instead, they had acquired a scroll, a single-use item with a powerful healing spell on it. Since that was the best that they could do for soone not affiliated with the church, they decided to send the scroll to .

Got it. Do I need to go to Fallowton to get a guild invite, or are you able to send it remotely?

This ti, there was a brief pause before her ssage appeared. We’ll need to et in person. If you let know what city you’re in, I can teleport over to et you. We managed to secure a couple of dungeons during our travels, so we got a nice sum, and there are three dungeons near Fallowton that we have a monopoly on.

I blinked at that, but nodded my head. I had been planning to visit Corsales via teleport and travel north. Do you already have a teleport station?

Nope! But we t an orc mage that is proficient with spatial magic, and has learned the Teleport skill. As long as we tell her where we want to go, she can send us there if she’s been before.

Right… I nodded my head, focusing on sending the ssage. I’m in Decashear right now. If she can’t get you here, I can head to Corsales. Originally, I was thinking of heading west, maybe visit the elven lands.

Let check, I’m pretty sure that she has Decashear as a destination. Also, there is so news that I want to talk to you about, face to face.

After she sent that, I waited for a few minutes, until suddenly, I heard a familiar voice calling out from behind . “There you are!” Turning, I saw the familiar figure of Nuoda. Her outfit hadn’t changed much, having perhaps found her preferred style and tailored later outfits to look similarly. “Give just a second to send this invite.”

You have been invited to join the guild, “Successors”.

[Accept] [Decline]

Naturally, I chose to accept the invitation, nodding my head. “Will I be able to invite soone to the guild myself? I have another friend that traveled west a week ago, and she would like to join.”

Nuoda smiled, nodding quickly. “Of course, there’s no problem with inviting others. In fact, we encourage it. Now… let’s find sowhere private that we can talk, shall we?”