Running errands again, Arthur? I wish my son knew how to spoil his parents, sotis the young butcher in front of grumbled.
Your son is only five years old, Garnt. Dont you think youre being a little unreasonable? I asked with mirth.
Garnt chuckled and handed the assortnt of at he had prepared for my family. Now that little Amber had been born, my parents were too busy fussing over her needs to worry about things like small errands.
I bid our local butcher goodbye and walked ho, unbothered by my slow pace. It occurred to that I had never taken the ti to explore our little town, since I had been too busy training as a kid. There wasnt much to explore, mind you, but still. There was sothing about satisfying both nostalgia and curiosity simultaneously that made taking my ti worth it.
After a few minutes of walking, I approached our little bakery. An expensive sign had been placed on the inside of our newly installed windows, letting all passer-bys know that the bakery would no longer be doing at ho deliveries. Due to the recent increase in popularity of my parents little business, the task of running all over town had beco too demanding. Back in the day, my parents had introduced that delivery service because it was a great way to increase our monthly profit, which was necessary to stay afloat at the ti. Now, however, such a service was no longer necessary, since my parents had acquiesced and accepted the 1000 gold coins I had forced on them. With such a large amount of savings, they couldve retired right this second if they wanted to. Being the hard-working people that they are, though, they had their own pride and were intent on continuing their work in full force after Amber got a little bigger.
I entered our ho, noticing that my parents were quite busy coaxing their little new-born to sleep. Amber had been a difficult baby so far, apparently. I had nothing to compare it too, but apparently my first few weeks had been much calr. In my mind, that just ant that Amber was energetic.
I headed to the kitchen and stored our at in an enchanted frozen locker, which had cost 10 gold pieces. To the average citizen, that was a fortune. Only the wealthier townsfolk could afford such appliances, and we now belonged to that category.
With that all done, I notified my parents that I would be heading out for the day to train. I could only barely make out their muffled assent as Amber continued to cry, though.
-scene transition-
A few minutes later, I arrived at a familiar small clearing in the forest. This had been my main training spot for several years and even now it served that purpose. A few weeks ago, after Ambers birth, I had made a training schedule that I would be following for a few months. Since I decided to take a break, I might as well use this ti to tier up a few more skills, so that I could get the best class possible.
At the ti, I had first taken another look at my status screen.
Na: Arthur Titles [Dark prodigy] Class: [Overloading Death Knight] LVL 50 Strength 304 Constitution 300 Dexterity 300 Intelligence 100 Wisdom 263 Affinity 599 Free stat points 0
Skills:
Passive:
[Dark radiance core](63%), [Dark flow sight](0%), [Cascading mana-intrusive Swordsmanship](13%),
[ntal palace](N/A),[Dark Form](48%), [Overload Aura](67%), [Weak mana sense](N/A), [Blackened essence(formative)](0%)
Active:
[Ghost apparation](19%), [Corrosive mark](0%), [Relentless orbs](0%), [Overloaded sword](81%), [Dark Blade Maelstrom](76%), [Aura step](41%)
After so deliberation, I had chosen a few skills to work on for the next few months. I couldnt work on all of them simultaneously, since that would be too inefficient and ti-consuming.
The ones I chose were [Dark radiance core](63%), [Overload Aura](67%), [Overloaded sword](81%) and finally [Dark Blade Maelstrom](76%). These four skills were the closest to the next tier and were all tier 3. Therefore, they wouldnt take an absurd amount of ti to train. [Dark form], for example, would only really increase in proficiency when I was seriously wounded and near death. As a result, it would naturally progress while adventuring.
To facilitate my efforts, I made a training schedule, that still gave so ti to spend so ti with my family in the mornings.
07:00 08:00 wake up and ditate in ntal palace.
08:00 10:00 spend ti with family/running errands.
10:00 12:00 practice [Overloaded sword] (continuously increase pace of skill-usage and improve mana generation to keep up)
12:00 13:00 Break ti
13:00 15:00 practice [Dark blade Maelstrom] (continuously increase size of the maelstrom and improve mana generation to keep up)
15:00 18:00 experint with [Overload Aura] (co up with new and fun ways to improve control over overloaded mana, while also increasing size and detail of constructs)
18:00 20:00 ditate in ntal palace.
20:00 22:00 spend ti with family
22:00 00:00 practice [Dark radiance core] by generating as much overloaded and normal mana per second as possible (ramp up until dark form cant keep up anymore)
00:00 07:00 sleep
Now, I believe my little list needed to take account of so more context, in hindsight. Lets begin by explaining why I spent a full three hours per day in ntal palace. One of the reasons was to break up the monotony of practicing a single skill for hours. Another reason why is because I was afraid. I was afraid that I would get lost in my training again, that I would succumb to my affinity again. ntal palace was a precaution that kept on my toes.
I dedicated one window of ti to each skill that I wanted to train. My core skill and Aura were technically in use while I was practicing the other skills as well, but these two skills were extra difficult to train, so they warranted a window of ti separate from my other training as well.
All In all, my schedule had proven to be rather effective so far. [Overloaded sword] had gone up by 8% and reached (89%), while [Dark Blade Maelstrom] had gone up by 9% and reached (85%) They were on track to tier up within another three weeks or so.
[Overload Aura] and [Dark radiance core] had, unfortunately, proven to be a bit more stubborn to get the hang of.
To start, it simply wasnt feasible to push my mana generation to [Dark form]s limit. The healing skill far outclassed my core, which didnt regenerate enough mana to compare. My core was smaller and didnt have much capacity, yet its mana generation was supposed to be quite incredible compared to other cores of its tier. Despite this, it often felt like my core as gasping for air, even in the middle of the night. There wasnt enough mana in my surroundings to supercharge my core, which was necessary for my training. Even with my cores ability to absorb minute amounts of mana with other affinitys, it wasnt enough.
This led to the issue I was having with [Overload aura]. I had made great progress on increasing my control by making more detailed and small movents with the overloaded mana. When it ca to larger scale practice, however, I ran into problems. Again, I was just lacking too much mane to push my own limits. Whenever I tried sothing big with my overloaded mana, I would run out after a few minutes and the mana would dissipate.
Sothing you had to understand about all mana was that it wasnt finite. However, mana would enter a state of inactivity after dissipating, which usually occurred after mana had been used by soone or sothing. In other words, it would take a few days for mana to beco reusable after I had used it to practice, which ant that I was draining the mana around town faster than it could recover.
Thankfully, I had co up with a plan to counteract this issue. My hotown Rolla had a single dungeon, the goblin dungeon that I had raided and gotten Revan from. Sothing of note about this dungeon was that its caves were pitch black and generated a lot of dark-mana every single day. Enough to maintain my training even after I reached tier 3! Unfortunately, I couldnt just use a dungeon as my private training ground. Dont get my wrong, its not like anyone else ever goes in there, unless the appraiser has passed by and awakened a bunch of hopeful 18 year-olds.
The issue was bureaucracy. The mayor of Rolla was a kind old man, but I couldnt just snub him and do what I wanted. Therefore, I had sent a letter to the townhall a few weeks ago, requesting permission to exclusively use the dungeon for two months. So far, I hadnt received any reply.
Right as I was thinking about this, a cloud of dust appeared on the horizon. I squinted my eyes and nearly drew my sword, but left it in its sheath when I recognised the familiar black pile of bones that I called my familiar. Usually, I left him near the bakery to protect my parents in case of an ergency. He had taken to Amber like a fly to shit and had refused to help with my training if it ant leaving the vulnerable little bun behind. At first, I found this tendency endearing, but after a few dozen torn-up trees, I was starting to get annoyed by it. Briefly, I wondered why he would rush over here on his own. Had sothing happened? I heaved a sigh of relief when I noticed that he was holding a letter between his teeth, stamped by our mayor. My parents had probably asked him to deliver it.
When he reached , the horse-sized lizard demanded I pet him before he handed over the goods, but eventually Revan dropped the piece of paper and headed back ho in a rush.
Sighing at his antics, I opened the envelope.
Dear Mr. Arthur,
It is with great satisfaction that I grant you the exclusive delving rights to our local tier 1 dungeon! Please make sure no problems arise within the dungeon during your stay.
By the way, congratulations on your placent in the tournant, young chap! All of us in Rolla are proud of your accomplishnt! If you are ever interested in investing in our local economy, be sure to pay a visit at the townhall. Im a busy person, but I dont mind making so ti for honoured guests such as yourself!
If you have any further questions or requests, dont hesitate to seek out.
From your dear mayor, Barnaby.
I chuckled while I read the letter. Mayor Barnaby liked to brown nose rich and influential guests, everyone knew this. Apparently, I had joined the group of people he acted overly familiar with. Still, this ti, it had worked out in my favour. On to the dungeon I go. If my estimates are accurate, each of the four skills I was working on should have tiered up by the end of this two-month period.
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