Chapter 31: Training Day-- Err, Week

The next six days were a blur. True to her word Bracha made them battle Grimlocks constantly for three hours straight. By the end of the evening both Katrin and Agni were dead tired.

"I'll take these." Bracha had a self indulgent look on her face as she demanded all of the monster drops from their hard work. Her reasoning was quite simple:

"Without me, you wouldn't be getting monster drops at all! Besides, you owe me for the gear. I can use these to pay off your debt."

Apparently in order to receive drops from Grimlocks, one had to accept the general skills ' Monster Drops' to do so. Several other useful abilities like this were locked in the General Skills category as well -- such as various types of gathering for herbs, ores, metals and edibles.

With those two reasons offered up by Bracha, they had little choice but to give up their drops for the next four of the six days. Luckily, Katrin and Agni gained much more in return than items from their efforts. By day two's end Agni had grown so comfortable using her Succubus Vision that the skill reached 25% mastery and gained a new effect.

[Succubus Vision - (Passive) {25%} Use carnal energy to activate a special type of sight which reveals sensitive or erogenous zones on the body. Heightens your senses, allowing you to react more quickly. You can now see thermal energy within a distance of 6 meters. Cost : 0 ]

While her Succulust still remained at 9% mastery, she felt somewhat closer to gaining control of it. Agni had slowly become aware of a "second" energy coursing within her body each time the Succulust activated. She could feel this force growing until finally her senses ran wild, making it difficult to control herself. With more practice she anticipated being able to activate the skill at will.

Katrin , on the other hand, made leaps and bounds when it came to combat. She switched from crossbow use to a special type of pistol called a 'Mag-Gun'. The Mag-gun allows the wielder to fire condensed mana bullets. According to Bracha :

"Most adventurers avoid using this type of weapon, because the bullet's power and effectiveness depend on the user unlike normal ammunition."

Bracha also clued them into another facet of strength growth that they'd forgotten about. Wayla mentioned the ability to sacrifice current XP in order to directly increase stats. The trade off being that the stat gain was very, very small (0.1 increments per 5-50 XP). Normally, leveling up or distributing level points would be quicker but according to Bracha :

"Growing your strength quickly isn't always the goal. That's easy. Rather you need to focus on what type of adventurer you want to be later on down the road. Only by building a solid foundation can one hope to grow truly powerful."

However this method only worked to a degree as at some point the ability to raise their skills would become too costly to warrant raising their stats in this way. For every point gained the XP required increased slightly. For now it was somewhat manageable, but Agni could see why the method wasn't used much, if at all. In fact, the only reason Bracha mentioned it was because she was very insistent that neither Katrin or Agni use LP to raise their stats and offered this method instead. Agni felt affirmed in her thinking that, though it would take much more time, the gains would be better spent raising Growth Rates.

After their first night in the Lull Forest Bracha laid out their full training schedule. Each morning they trained their various skills and abilities with tasks dictated by her. For Agni she was sent to meditate just outside of the Sprim Row gate for an hour each day. This was as long as she could stand before her Succulust got the better of her. The goal was to be able to walk freely in the area while controlling her ability -- eventually. For now, after each training session Agni was forced to return to the Trainer's Chapel and drench her head in cool water to cancel out the effects of her ability. Otherwise she found herself randomly groping Katrin, who seemed not to mind that much...

Katrin spent her hour of morning training writing endlessly with weighted pens. Scribes used a set of 64 different symbols to obtain the effects they want to use in their craft -- thus the faster these symbols could be written, the better Katrin's abilities to cast on the fly. Bracha offered up three different pens, each with a different density and Katrin would switch between them every ten minutes to strengthen the muscles in her hands.

After their hour of morning training the two sparred together against Bracha who, as it turns out, was extremely strong. Despite their best efforts the combined forces of Agni and Katrin could not even lay a finger on Bracha.

Next came an hour of magic practice for both. The goal was to empty and refill their mana as many times as possible using all of the skills at their disposal. For Agni this was her favorite time of the day, allowing her to freely experiment with her magic. She could now create projectiles which flew for a couple of meters before dissipating. Agni found that the more she mastered Elemental Manipulation, the easier it became to have her magic do as she pleased. Absolutely thrilled at the notion of being able to hurl lightning bolts, she worked like a mad woman to great effect. By the start of day three she'd managed to raise her Elemental Manipulation mastery to 39%. By day six, she'd managed to reach 47% mastery.

Agni also learned that she could spam cast her Whisper skill in the mirror since she could not compel herself. This further contributed to raising the effectiveness of Whisper, which in turn increased it's range to 1 meter after she reached 10% mastery.

In the afternoon the trio would relax, often taking baths together and touring various sights of Grenvale. Then, each day around five PM they would set out for their combat training to repeat the process. After six solid days Agni had to admit to herself that she felt much stronger, despite still being a level 9 Succubus. It seemed that acquiring mastery over skills and abilities was even more important than blindly amassing stats.

Rather than repeat the schedule of the previous six days, Bracha informed them that they would be taking a special trip on the seventh day. Bracha's orders were simple, to prepare however they saw fit for travel into an unknown area. She offered them 2,500 Gol as a preparation budget from her own pocket (though Agni was sure they'd made this money in drops several times over by now). After a couple of hours of prep, purchasing potions, Ward Charms and anything else they felt might be suitable, Katrin and Agni felt confident they'd done all they could.

"Good. Now, it's time to venture into your first shard." Bracha said as she gazed upon the two fully prepared adventurers.