Chương 69: In The Dark

I hit a hard foam block and bounced away, stepping back. The sensory training room was made to improve my Darkness Vision. The area was totally dark; there was no light. There were two doors and a heavy curtain at the entrance to block out any light. Various mechanisms controlled the movement of the foam blocks. I had to move quickly around the room, avoiding obstacles. This was also meant to help my Focused Breathing and Focused Running. Although safe, encountering a foam block was disturbing.

In the darkness, I could only see fuzzy outlines. My Darkness Vision was getting better, but my skills improved slowly, passive sensory skills were tough to level. They were simpler because they were a lower tier than resistances. I couldn't safely test my sensory skills in a dangerous situation. Other Alchemical mixtures were used for the resistance training, each with unique effects enabling the transfer of lightning, magic, fire, and ice damage.

Even though I practiced regularly, it was hard, and it hurt because my skills improved slowly. I could feel a new skill as well, most likely Skill Control. When combined with System Sense, I had much better control over which of my passive skills were active. Most skills were hard to grasp, and the experience was vague. I understood Pain Immunity, my sole tier 4 skill. Unless it were overloaded, it would stop all pain.

I felt it wouldn't level up unless I were swamped, and my resistances wouldn't increase unless I kept this skill off and suffered while training. Skills were about transferring knowledge to one's soul. For resistance skills, the knowledge was about tiny Mana changes within one's body to better handle damage. Mana Manipulation could unlock other skills for improvement, but resistance skills were too fragile and variable.

My mother could have boosted her resistance with Mana control, but I was forbidden from using Mana Manipulation without supervision. A mistake could easily slip past someone's defenses when using their Mana. Such a situation wouldn't activate Danger Sense. While my mother had said nothing, I had enough issues from messing about with my soul that I was content to wait for the Professors at the College of Advancement to teach me, even if I wanted to learn spell skills and other Mana-based skills.

Even when I asked about wasted reserves, the answer was that I needed a solid foundation before rushing ahead with higher-tier skills. I crashed into a hard foam block that had come into my path. I took a step back, then resumed running. That was frustrating, but that was the point. If it weren't frustrating me this much, they would be doing a poor job with all the gold I was paying them. At the College of Advancement, they will at least cover my tuition.

Although a six-month break sounded good, I wanted to test my self-improvement. It was my mother who challenged me. I knew in my heart that my way was best. If she wanted to wear herself out and become single-minded on her path, that was fine, but I was young, and she had at least a century to get to where she was. I wouldn't ask her age, but she was easily a century old. My father was young compared with her. However, she also had a lot more Vitality, so she'd live longer.

I hadn't thought about this before, though lately, I have, after meeting dwarves and elves. It was easier for them to raise Vitality, but other stats were a challenge. Elves found other physical stats challenging, while dwarves had difficulty with mental stats. Though generalized, the Eldarin Empire claimed they were built as slave races long ago. Both the dwarves and elves despised this reasoning, each insisting they predated humanity.

Because of their high Vitality, procreation was difficult, leading to the Eldarin Empire's victory. Despite winning some battles, the dwarves and elves lost wars because they weren't as numerous. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. It was also the reason my mother had a hard time giving birth to me, and demanded vast sums of money and resources for even the chance of giving birth. It was easy to forget, but I was her beloved child, born of her sacrifices.

Despite my father covering the cost, she surely called in favors to conceive. Even if she could suppress her stats, she still couldn't do that for nine months. Alchemical products, pricey ones, would have been needed by her. If legends had approximately 20 stats per level, she possessed at least 3, 000 stats. It wasn't easy picturing so many. Across all 8 stats, the average result was 375. I was sure it was a little higher because she was a supreme legend. I'd estimate roughly 400 to 450 per stat.

While I might overestimate my mother, it didn't feel like an overestimation to me. Stats increased power linearly. A bigger percentage increase happened when someone was weak, but strength didn't diminish. Damian said most invested in Vitality to live longer, particularly after having kids. It was more difficult because elves' and dwarves' Vitality stat initially rose during their youth. In both cultures, attempts to have kids at such a young age had failed.

Both groups withdrew in the face of unrelenting human expansion. The dwarves went underground, and the elves went to islands and forests. I drifted off, hit a head-high foam block, and flipped before hitting the ground. That was painful because I was deliberately not using Pain Immunity. I groaned and returned to my feet to resume running. Thoron clearly loved controlling everything and making me run into the foam blocks.

Healer Melon was mainly resting, but if my stamina reserves got too low, I felt them fill back up. Thinking while multitasking could slow leveling, but it had small perks once the Mind stat was high. The System had hidden, yet gradual, benefits. The Mind can focus on multiple things without feeling overwhelmed. Vitality gave someone a more robust body, and each healing point did a bit more. It was small, less than a single percent. Endurance had the same effect on stamina and aided survival in hazardous areas.

A hidden perk of strength was better impact resistance. Agility improved balance. Perception enhances someone's senses, allowing them to see more. Magic made each Mana point stronger and easier to control. Focus provided increased resistance to mental illusions and social skills. These boosts were termed second-order effects. Several of them had similarities to the primary stat results, like improving reserve point regeneration. I never asked my mother, but I didn't think there were any third-order effects.

Or those things might be too tiny to spot without a lot of stats. That was something I wanted to ask her, upon our next meeting. A foam block tripped my left foot, and I flipped to keep my balance. It was challenging to spot the small foam blocks moving into my path. I felt my abilities improve significantly because of this training. Not just these dark runs, but all my past training. Even without having my status open, my System Sense was getting better.

Especially on resistance training, it was easy to feel the levels go up. Training with my mother in the dungeon had been frustrating, but it was easier to progress mentally without her critiques. Even if I had killed a level 100 monster, she still wouldn't be impressed. Even though I disagreed, I knew she was correct. To be the best, spa days with chocolate were out of the question. I had to push myself daily to level up. That was what made it frustrating.

She would claim that she improved my mentality if I worked hard and leveled up. If I didn't work hard, I'd be blamed. Yet I knew better than anyone that the levels I gained would help me down the road. Though I was annoyed with my mother and her pushing me, I knew it was at my request. Even though training with her had been a nightmare. I knew people would pay quite a bit for the privilege, but it was beyond frustrating to be constantly lectured. At least I was in control of the training here.

I could feel I was making a lot of progress. I wanted to push myself to prove that I didn't need my mother constantly hovering over me to enhance my skills. Dodging a foam rod at chest level, I juked to the side. It would not have been very pleasant, but I was happy to have avoided it. Another foam road hit my chest, knocking the wind out of me and slamming me down. I got up swiftly after recovering. My work was far from finished.

Eventually, a special gas would be deployed in the training room to impair my Darkness Vision. More adjustments would always push me to improve as fast as I could.