Chapter 53

53 Chapter 53 Train more, live longer

Now, regarding the skills that I mentioned earlier; their descriptions made it quite clear why their names didn’t sound like the kind of ability they should be.

There you have a simple but quite technical description of the skill, I understand a little why it is called that way, but I can’t help but notice that it works somewhat similarly to my innate ability overload. Besides the fact that it is a simplified version of higher skill, there is another fact that catches my attention; from the way it works it should be possible to use it for more than just moving faster from one point to another, you should probably ask Elaisa about it.

Let’s look at the other skill. . . there you have it.

Just for the fact that it is an ability used in conjunction with another ability that I already have, that gives it extra points in its favor; Also with my melee level and new armor, a skill that protects me from ranged attacks is more useful to me than a general defensive skill.

There is only a slight problem now. . . more training, I still haven’t finished mastering the rising mana whirlwind and focused mana shot and already have two other skills on my training list; someone please shoot me. . . preferably after the reverse mana spiral has mastered, I bet someone’s pants would fall off if they shot me and all the bullets deflected right before they hit me.

All my unproductive random thoughts aside, I think I’ll prioritize training the two new abilities for now, and after gaining a bit of mastery over them I’ll go back to concentrating on the focused mana shot.

You know what they say: a protagonist who trains is a protagonist who lives.

(Days later, Desmond POV)

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I don’t know who the idiot was who said that thing about training more and living longer, but I’m sure that idiot doesn’t know anything about training for real; In just a couple of days of training, I have suffered more injuries than I suffered while in the Serefia forest.

.....

As Kyuru would say “Thanks to Serefia” that no one was here to see me make a fool of myself, as some inconveniences arose during my training in my new skills; the most constant and painful was the lack of control in the use of the mana burst.

You see, gathering a small amount of concentrated mana wasn’t that difficult; as it was similar to the initial process of using a concentrated mana shot, I can only assume that this was not a coincidence because given the compatibility that exists between my abilities it was obvious that Elaisa took her time to find the perfect options for me. Channeling that concentrated mana to my legs was complicated, but not too difficult, the problem arose in the execution of the last step of the skill; detonate mana by directing energy into my legs for a speed boost.

It took me many attempts to keep the mana from dispersing when I detonated and it took me even more effort to direct the mana towards the muscles of my legs; When I finally manage to do it and try to move, well. . . I ended up taking a very close look at the ground half a second later.

I lost count of the number of times I kissed the ground or crashed into a tree, it was incredibly difficult to control the speed resulting from the use of mana burst, and coordinating my movements to maintain balance proved to be more of a challenge in the process.

After hours and hours of training, I finally acquired a rudimentary mastery of the skill; but it is still far from being suitable for use in combat. At least my progress in using reverse mana spiral was much better, there was only one small incident where I used too much mana on the skill and the resulting spiral force ripped my clothes off. There I was in a battle pose in the middle of my backyard wearing only my underwear, even someone like me would die of shame if someone had seen me, but only little Kyuru was here and she was too asleep to perceive anything around her.

Desmond’s only consolation is that with his current advancement in mastering his abilities he would probably be ready to take on a mission soon. The fact that he had his long-awaited date with Claire this weekend only served to improve his mood even more. Giving a quick glance at his status on the notebook, a smile spread across Desmond’s face.