SIAW Vol. 2 Chapter 8
Chapter 8 – Harsh Training Menu
It was pitch black outside.
I started by explaining the merits of training at night to Misha.
“Training at night lets you learn different skills from the daytime. Night Vision, Presence Detection, Sneaking, Presence Negation, etc…you can learn skills you have good affinity with. When you practice with the sword in the dark, you need to concentrate more than during the day, so you can expect your skills to improve faster.”
Besides, at night I could help her directly. I too expected to acquire new skills, such as Leadership and Tutoring. While training Ranga and the others, my proficiency in those two skills had grown, so I thought it was highly likely.
If I learned the Tutoring skill, I could help my pupils in increasing their proficiencies at a higher rate, so it was definitely going to be useful in the future training.
Misha looked at me suspiciously at first, but still drank the thinned Poison and Paralysis potions. She then went to her bedroom to change.
I too changed and put on my equipment, then turned to Sil.
(“You drink this, Sil!”)
I put Poison and Paralysis potions in front of him too.
(“I-I have to train too…?”)
(“Just a little, while Misha trains.”)
Relieved, Sil drank the potions.
(“Hey, my tongue stings. Why?”)
I changed the blend, after all.
I used Appraisal and confirmed that he was being affected by the status ailments. His HP didn’t decrease much, though, so I thought he should be okay.
Misha came back, so we went downstairs together.
“Okay, start by casting Sleep until you run out of magic power. We’re not going to use magic power recovery potions tonight, don’t worry.”
“But if I use Sleep, I’ll fall asleep for real.”
“I’ll wake you up if that happens!”
Misha looked at me with a frown, but started casting Sleep immediately.
She tried her best to keep her eyes open, despite the spell lulling her into sleep: I was so moved by her efforts that I couldn’t help patting her head.
Misha looked happy for a moment, then puffed up her cheeks.
“I’m the older sister here!!”
She didn’t push my hand away, though.
Misha continued using Sleep, eventually running out of magic power.
She ended up plastered over the table, but managed to pull herself up.
“Good! Let’s go practice with the sword outside!”
Leading the way, I exited the building.
Misha followed me, not without some difficulty.
“I can’t see anything!”
Misha sounded absolutely surprised.
It was completely dark outside: the faint lights barely illuminated our surroundings. My Night Vision skill was maxed out, so I could see like it was noon, though.
In her years of living in the village, Misha had accumulated enough proficiency to learn Night Vision with just a little more effort; if everything went well, she was going to learn the skill tonight.
I took a heavy breath.
“OK! Training starts now!”
Misha and I readied our short swords.
I slowly approached her and swung my blade down.
I kept the speed of the swing low, and Misha decided to block it with her sword. I didn’t hold back on my strength, though: Misha’s sword recoiled and hit her shoulder.
Misha winced in pain.
I tried giving her a pep talk.
“Concentrate and look well! Use Presence Detection too! You don’t have a lot of muscular power, so you can’t block enemy attacks head on. Dodge first and foremost, and if you absolutely can’t, use your short sword and gauntlets to sway their attacks!”
After I finished, I used Heal on Misha and cured her wounds.
“One more time!!”
After that, I continued targeting Misha with attacks, calibrating them so that she could barely dodge. Whenever she failed to, my attacks were going to hit her body.
I healed her wounds every time it happened, so she could continue training, and used Stamina Heal whenever necessary.
Misha was a bit intimidated at first, but the realization that any injury she received would be immediately healed probably made her feel reassured: the look in her eyes changed, and she started facing me with more concentration and determination.
Getting used to pain and fear would reduce hesitation due to nerves and fear felt in a real battle. The training was also going to help her acquire Pain Resistance, Mental Fortitude, Physical Resistance and other skills of this type.
A little while later, I saw that Misha’s magic power had recovered, so I suspended our duel for the moment and told her to use it all up again.
She seemed tired, but promptly obeyed. I turned towards Sil and called to him.
“Come here, Sil.”
Sil had been watching Misha’s training, so he moved away from me.
“It’s fine, we’re going to train by playing a game now. Hehehe…”
Sil approached me, albeit still wary.
I explained my intentions to him, with the gentlest tone I could muster.
(“It’s easy: you just run away, anywhere you like, and I’ll chase after you. Make sure I don’t catch you.”)
(“Oh, it’s really easy then! You’re never going to catch me!”)
Sil wasn’t alert anymore, and seemed just excited and eager to play: he wagged his tail furiously too. He really thought we were going to play.
“Okay….RUN!”
I gave the signal and Sil started running at full speed, but quickly stumbled.
Haha, did he forget about the status ailments?
He stood back up and looked at me, all embarrassed, so I barely managed to hold back from laughing.
He then ran off towards the forest.
I activated the Stealth skill and started chasing him: I ran at full speed too, so I caught up with Sil in no time.
He ran as fast as he could, while nearly crashing against the trees and other obstacles.
When I arrived next to him, I turned off the Stealth skill.
Sil, surprised to see me appear out of thin air, smashed against a tree.
“I gotcha~~!”
I grabbed Sil, casted Clear and healing magic on him, then caressed his fur.
“(Why~!? How~!?)”
So he asked, while I was still busy petting him.
“If you just run fast, it’s easy to catch up. You have to be careful of what’s going on around you too!”
I let Sil back down.
I had him run away and chased him again, using the Stealth skill at a level he would notice if he paid attention.
When Sil noticed me with Presence Detection, he ran off in another direction. I continued chasing him down like this for a while, healing him whenever he got hurt.
After finishing Sil’s training, I went back to Misha and found her swinging her sword.
She’s really doing her best! Fantastic!
It was time to start Misha’s training again: that day, we continued until midnight.
I was thinking of keeping her up all night, so she could learn Sleep Resistance, but we were going into town the next day, so I decided to keep that for another day.
In order to confirm today’s progress, I checked Misha’s status.
.
Name: Misha
Species: [C] Beastkin (Fox Beastman)
Level: 15
Gender: Female
Age: 15
HP : [D] 85/85 (UP!)
MP : [B] 145/145 (UP!)
STA: [D] 94/94 (UP!)
INT: [C] 102
STR: [D] 111 (UP!)
SPD: [B] 147 (UP!)
SKL: [C] 119 (UP!)
LCK: 61
Title(s):
Skill(s): Lifestyle Magic LV3, Gathering [C], Sword Arts [D], Presence Detection [C]
.
She hadn’t learned any new skills, but almost all her stats had increased, so it was a pretty good result for a single day of training!
Her stats had improved by about 20%, so even considering that she used “doping”, she had really worked hard.
…I almost felt a bit disappointed that we were going into town, and couldn’t train again the day after.
Just in case, I checked Sil’s status too,
.
Name: Sil
Species: [A] Silver Wolf
Level: 1
Gender: Male
Age: 14 days
HP : [B] 240/240
MP : [B] 240/240
STA: [B] 241/241 (UP!)
INT: [C] 180
STR: [B] 240
SPD: [A] 282 (UP!)
SKL: [C] 180
LCK: 72
Title(s): Tenma’s Familiar
Skill(s): Leadership [C] , Intimidation [C], Night Vision [B], Presence Detection [B], Presence Concealment [C], Physical Boost [A], Wind Magic [B], Magic Power Detection [C], Magic Power Manipulation [C], Poison Resistance [B] (NEW!), Paralysis Resistance [B] (NEW!)
.
Sil had gotten bored quickly and barely trained at all, so his stats only grew a little bit.
He had learned Poison Resistance and Paralysis Resistance very quickly, though: that was probably one of the characteristics of his species.
He had a bunch of other skills, possibly from birth, but since he didn’t use them, I suspected he needed some training before he learned how to. Normally, he would have learned from his parents or other members of the pack…
I’ll have to think of a way to make him practice them,
Well, Sil was just a fluffy mascot for now, so there was no need to focus on his training. I thought I could look up information about familiars in town the next day.
I praised Misha’s efforts and she went back to her bedroom together with Sil, all giddy.
As for me, I went back to my Room and thought about Misha.
In just one day, I had begun to understand her better.
In short, she was a naive-type musclehead foxgirl!
She had an assertive personality, but cared little about anything she wasn’t interested in. That was probably why she quickly agreed to the things I said, even when she didn’t understand well. But when it came to things she was particular about, she could be stubborn. Furthermore, she didn’t seem to dislike training hard: the desire to become stronger probably let her endure it, just like me.
In terms of physical age in this world, she was older than me, but she still felt like a little sister. I had next to none communication skills with women anyway, so this kind of relationship was better.
As I reached such a conclusion, I remembered that I hadn’t slept since the day before, so I went to my bedroom and promptly passed out.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
(POV: Misha)
As soon as I was in my bedroom, I laid down on the bed.
While holding Sil close, I thought about what happened today.
I really acted in a childish way at breakfast…
Back at the village, I always lived with my family, so the shock of not being called for breakfast hit me very hard…
If I had to become independent as an adventurer, though, I had to take care of myself properly, I guess…
“Anyway…that was really something…”
My mind went to today’s training.
It was really tough, with so many things happening that I didn’t think were possible, but after seeing my stats I realized that Tenma’s methods aren’t wrong.
I felt so excited that I had a hard time falling asleep.
I was definitely tired, though, since I trained like I never did before. On top of that, I had a bundle of fluffy warmth — Sil — in my arms too.
Before I realized it, I had drifted off to sleep.