Chương 92: Leaps and Bounds

We headed to the training pits. We could bathe after our last workout, before they closed the bathhouses for the day. But there was no sense in cleaning up before what I was about to attempt. The evenings were still free time, which we were supposed to use to study and plan our skill merges. We could do that as well, given that our bodies needed less sleep as our Focus and Vitality increased. But I had an experiment to run. I drew a circle, about five paces across, then said, "Who's up first?"

Brawl, holding his wooden flail, and still wearing his backpack with the riftrocks in it, stepped forward.

"Me, Brother."

"Great, with me." I stepped into the circle with him, wearing my backpack as well. Sage and Anchor glanced at each other. Sage said, "Oh no…are you planning what I think you are, dustbrain?"

"Sarge, you sure you want to do this?" Anchor said.

"Am I the only one who has no idea what he is planning?" Brawl asked.

"It would seem so, yeah," I said.

"Ready?"

"Ready for what, brother?" I triggered my Art on top of us. It was a direct Art, pushing from above or pulling from below, enhancing the regular gravity. Immediately, the air rushed out of my lungs, and I fell to my knees. Brawl stumbled as well, but he held himself up better than I did. His Strength and Vitality were already far greater.

"Do you want to… spar like this?" Brawl grunted. I could only nod as I pushed myself up to my feet with all my effort, then readied my training spear. Both hands on it. Right now, there was no way I'd be able to pull this off with a shield. Brawl flung his flail at me. It was easy to duck away, but I stumbled and fell. Pushing back up was a herculean task. Blood rushed in my ears, and my vision trembled. It took all my effort just to keep breathing, between the riftrocks and my ability.

I got one swing in with my spear before falling to my knees. Before Brawl struck me and sent me stumbling out of the circle. I flopped onto my back, looking up at the sky.

"Oh, it's going to work, alright." I caught my breath, then added, "I've got plenty of Presence left. Who's up next?" ~ ~ ~ We went a week with the exact same schedule. In the mornings, the Dupes trained with the riftrocks. At first, we only performed our regular exercises, but on the last two days, we cracked a layer of ice off the castle estate's pond. Our task was simply to pick up riftrocks from the bottom. No one succeeded on the first day.

Although the pond's walls were steep cobblestone barriers, and they had ladders on their sides, we weren't allowed to use them. We had to swim down, pick the rock up, and carry it to the edge. It didn't help that it was always the last activity of the morning. Owl said that was so that we could change into something dry for lunch, but it also meant we were exhausted from everything else. All through lunch, we used the infused food that the Drillmaster had assigned for our group.

I hesitated to call it eating, because it felt and tasted more like medicine than food. Not exactly arcane steroids, either. It was like consuming as much magic protein powder as you could. In the afternoons, we sparred in our groups. In retrospect, it seemed somewhat unfair to also make Sage and the other druids use riftrocks, because they wouldn't start enhancing their body until they advanced to Steel. While the rest of us were starting to get used to it, the druids were lagging behind still.

But not everyone was using riftrocks while they trained. Some of the other groups hadn't reached the point where the Drillmaster and the other sappers deemed them ready to begin training with the riftrocks. Still, seeing us, I figured they now had more incentive to catch up, before we widened our lead. They may have performed better in sparring for the short term, given how exhausted and burdened we were, but it didn't last long. We were getting used to the riftrocks, and our attributes were already climbing.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Dinner was the same. Use as much infused food as we could. Try to catch our breath after sparring. Then, once we finished eating, head back out to the sparring pits. No one else joined us for this, but that was fine. Training under the influence of enhanced gravity had to be helping just as much as any of the other activities they had us doing.

By the end of the week, I was able to make three swings before the gravity well forced me to stop. I spent eight Presence to make it happen, every single day, and that meant all of us got four attempts to spar with each other under the well. After that, we retreated to the library, and we all worked together—including Brawl—to plan the entire squad's future Skill merges.

Although Sage wasn't able to merge Skills like we were, she had to study her Arts as well, and there were plenty of druid-focused books to look through. When the morning of the next labyrinth run came around, I didn't feel rested. I wanted nothing more than to just sleep in, but I couldn't. We had a job to do. It was time to see if any of the work we'd done had paid off. Before I went to get breakfast, I used my reading tablet to assess where I was standing.

I hadn't done it earlier in the week, following Owl's advice: if you obsess daily over what the numbers are saying, you'll miss the bigger picture. We were only supposed to check weekly. It seemed like good advice, so I followed it. Largely, the status sheet was the same, except the stats now read: Vitality: 7 Agility: 7(+4) Strength: 8 Perception: 3(+1) Focus: 14 Presence: 14 In total, thirty-nine attribute points directly attributed to me (Presence didn't count, and neither did bonuses from my armour).

If I kept this up, I should be able to hit Steel in a few weeks. I'd seen the greatest improvements in Strength and Vitality, though, and I needed to find a way to push my Focus just as hard. But that could wait until later. We had another quarter golem to destroy. This would be the first true test of how far we'd come. The first quarter golem had almost defeated us. It had been a Titanium, and we were up against another high-tier Titanium.

I ate breakfast, and as we ate, we devised a route through the Labyrinth that'd take us closest to the golem. No stops, just making a beeline straight for it. As we talked, I mused, "What if we were to destroy the central level guardian before the quarter guardians?"

"Good luck with that," Sage replied.

"Remember, it gets stronger based on how many quarter guardians are left. We have to take out the quarter guardians first." I nodded.

"But if someone was up to the challenge…"

"The central guardian is a Gold," she said.

"You may be crazy, but that'd be suicide. If you push it too far, you're going to get us all killed." I winced.

"I won't, I promise. And not here, either. I'm not going to get us killed by these quarter golems. Remember what I told our squads from the 294th? We retreat if we have to. Our squad members' lives are most important."

"We're with you, Levi," Anchor said. After breakfast, we geared up, then met in the labyrinth's entrance room—or what I was personally calling the 'vestibule.' The Drillmaster read off our rankings: I was back to third in the entire training group, and our squad was overall fifth. I knew Yesman was ahead of me, but I wanted to know the other Dupe ahead of me. Not necessarily to take them out, but in the competitive spirit. I paid close attention, and finally, the Drillmaster said, "Habit, second.

Habit's squad, seventh overall." I'd never met Habit, and I couldn't see anyone in the crowd reacting to that information—who even was Habit's squad? I'd find out at some point, I supposed. Until then, I needed to focus on the run. We entered the Labyrinth, navigated to our starting point in the city, then stopped on the balcony. In the fall, we'd killed the quarter golem closest to us. Next, I pointed to the quarter north of the first, where a different golem had taken refuge.

"It's going to be farther away today," I said.

"So we'd best hurry. Brawl and I will lead. Anchor and Sage, you're our eyes until we arrive."

"Understood," the others said.

"Before we arrive, I need to know what's special about the golem. Last one was a flame golem, but from the sounds of it, they aren't all going to be that way. Anchor and Sage, if you figure it out, tell us as soon as you know." We set off, avoiding as many conflicts as we could, and avoiding the other squads. I didn't want to be selfish, but other squads might be opportunistic. If they saw what we were doing, they might try to steal the kill once we'd weakened it.

We kept to the side streets, navigating as quickly as we could through the ruined city. If a monster stood in our way, we slayed it, but we did our best to avoid conflict—even with the high concentration of monsters around the quarter golem. Finally, when we arrived, I stopped in an alleyway. Sage said, "It's got an air aspect of some kind. And it's a Titanium, of course."

"Air aspect…" I breathed.

"What's its weakness?"

"It's highly maneuverable, I'd say," Anchor said.

"And it will be difficult to damage. But until we get to see it in action, I won't be able to pick out a weak spot." With a grimace, I nodded.

"Alright. Brawl and I will go first and probe its defenses. Sage, keep at a safe distance. Anchor, look for a weak point, or anything we can do to defeat it. On my mark…" I waited until everyone was back in formation, then hoisted my shield in front of me.

"Go."