Chapter 10 - One Year Later

Over the course of this past year, Miles continued going to the wizard’s tower with his mother every other day in order to learn more about magic and to train in his mana sense. It was really hard to do and he saw no progress towards getting the skill. However, going to the tower was fun because he could also meet other children his own age aside from Aila. The both of them found a new friend in a boy named Remus. He was training in the tower as well to become an earth mage. Though their year going to the tower wasn’t very lucrative for Miles, Aila was able to get a lot out of it, combining the teachings of her mother and the instructors from the tower to get a lot of magic skills.

On the first weekend of the month, Miles and his father left to go on hunting trips. During these trips, they focused on developing his outdoorsman skills like Botanize, Hunting, Tracking, Field Dressing, and his Stealth. These ones were much harder to train up because they only went on their hunting trips once a month. Especially Hunting, which he had only just gotten on the last trip they had done.They’ve never come across another camp of monsters like they did on that first trip, but they did manage to track down some horned rabbits and more of those worm things. 

Miles and Aila also continued training their lightning resistance together and they were very close to finally getting it capped out and completing that quest they got. They were going through a final push this past week to get it done. 

But the best, for Miles, came from his spear training where he was able to get another resistance skill, Bludgeoning resistance.

Their birthdays also passed just last week. Remus, as the only outside friend their own age, had come to both of their birthday parties, held several days apart. He had gotten a new spear to replace his old one, which was now beaten up from all the hunting trips. This new one still had the leaf shaped head and the wings, but it was a white silver color. Apparently it was made from White Steel, a tier one material that helps with Stamina skills. Aila had gotten an ornate Brasswood lyre, which she now plays in her downtime.

~~~

"Very good, Miles!" His father said as he dodged his latest attack. The blade of Mile's spear missed his father's chest by inches. They had started sparring with actual spears when his Spearmanship skill was capped for tier 0 a couple months back. It made these morning spars so much more intense, but Miles loved it. It really goes to show how far he had come this past year.

Blocking an attack from his father, he sidestepped to the side to lessen the blow he felt in his arms and also to gain a better position to attack. He activated Thrust, not aiming to kill, but at his father's hand to try and disarm him. It was the skill they were currently trying to achieve after all. Can't get too excited and forget why they were sparring in the first place.

Father activated his own defensive skill and just took the hit. The skill stopped the Thrust from piercing skin, but the force of the blow "knocked" the spear out his father's hands. You had to actually disarm your opponent to get the skill, obviously, so they came up with this. Miles would be disarmed as well, no faking anything there, and he had to run to fetch it. Apparently there's another skill that helps in that. Spear Fetching, or something.

"Good." They paused while father fetched his spear. "I think that's enough sparring for today. For the rest of our time, you can either try to sense your Stamina flow again, or go back through the forms for the Youran style spear arts." Miles decided to go through the new spear forms. When his Spearmanship skill was capped, in the Empirical Spear Style, they had started learning other spear arts, beginning with the Kresan style.

The Kresan style was very different from the First Empirical style that Mile’s initially trained in, and focused on mobility and gaining power from speed. It was also sweeping and flowing, where the Empirical arts focused more on stability and strength. They had started on these Kresan forms when he had decided to focus on Alacrity. It came very easy to him, and he quickly mastered the basic forms. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any Skill to go with it, because he already gained the Spearmanship skill. Currently, he is going over the Youran style, which likes to mix in the shaft of the spear, focusing on adaptability.

As they stopped for a small break, he didn’t get any new levels in any of his skills.It was getting harder and harder to level up his active skills, Thrust and Riposte, and his Parry was a high enough level it took two or more sessions to get it higher. It was a bit frustrating to see so little improvement in his status, but his father said that he was getting to the point in his spear training where he needed to focus on quality of skill, not just grinding out the levels. That’s one of the reasons why he was studying other spear styles, even though he wouldn’t get any new skill from it. When he gets to tier 1, it would apparently evolve Spearmanship to Spear Arts or something more unique to him based on his efforts.

Once he was done with the Youran forms, they went back inside. Miles brought up his Status page to check his progress.

[Status] Skills Quests Library Friends Notices Settings

General Info:

Name: Miles Reamore

Class: [Child of Ateia / Linus Reamore (Sta)] 

Race: Human

Level: 0th 91

Age: 9

Experience: 15.7 / 91

Health: 425 / 425

H. Regen: 6.0 / day

Stamina: 610 / 675

S. Regen: 7.0 / day

Mana: 150 / 150

M. Regen: 3.0 / day

Stats:

Strength: 60

Intelligence: 20

Constitution: 75

Willpower: 10

Alacrity: 80

Acuity: 40

Pending Stat Points: 0

Favored Skills:

Lightning Resistance 0th 98

Tumbling 0th 74

Parry 0th 83

Riposte 0th 42

Bludgeoning Resistance 0th 12

Thrust 0th 70

Skills:

Cleaning 0th 100

History of The First Empire 0th 100

Standard Language 0th 100

Empirical Language 0th 100

Mathematics 0th 100

Stealth 0th 82

Running 0th 100

Pain Resistance 0th 100

Meditation 0th 100

Analyze 0th 76

Jumping 0th 65

Hunting 0th 1

Tracking 0th 23

Botanize 0th 51

Field Dressing 0th 20

Spearmanship 0th 100

Footwork 0th 100

A bath and a breakfast later, Miles was over at the Waesdove estate. Today was a special day for them, because it was the day they would finally cap the Lightning Resistance skill. It was an intense year, and it had taken several solo sessions for him to catch up to Aila, but it would soon be over. They would also complete the Quest they had gotten, “Lightning Friends,” and would be getting a lightning type skill. If Miles guessed right, this would be some sort of active skill that cost mana. The first mana skill he would get.

Aila was playing on her Lyre when he entered the library. When she saw him, she smiled and called out to him. “Miles! Listen to this, it’s a new piece I just learned yesterday! It was made by Ragella.” Miles had heard of Ragella, as she was Aila’s favorite musician. Aila started playing back from the beginning, and he couldn’t help but smile at how bright and happy the music was.

Miss Rowvyre had come in sometime during the song, and when Aila finished playing they started today’s lessons. Their skills in mathematics, history, and language were already capped out for tier 0, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t more to learn! Or so she said. Apparently there were many other academic skills besides the ones he had, but neither Aila nor Miles were trying to get that sort of class, so they would wait until they’re tier 1 before continuing on with other subjects. Well, Aila would. Miles wasn’t that interested, and he wasn’t a noble so he didn’t have to.

After studies, Miles and Aila were playing hide and seek, tag, and other games like that. They also continued their little balance game, with the book or something else on their heads. Just walking was getting too easy so they either ran or balanced more things on their head. It got really silly and when it inevitably came tumbling down they would both giggle crazily at the mess they made.

It wasn’t long before they went down to the basement training rooms for hopefully their last session of Lightning Resistance training. 

They found both of their mothers downstairs, examining several potions on the table. When they came in, they both rushed to their moms and gave them hugs. “Are you ready to finally end this training, Miles?” His mother asked. 

“Yeah, and finish that quest too.”

They began their last session, with both mothers carefully monitoring their health. By now both Aila’s and Miles’s pain tolerances were rather high, plus the actual Pain Resistance skill reducing the pain by a full 10% allowed them to continue until they lost a full 70% of their Health all in one go, and they didn’t scream anymore. It was a gradual process, and they took health potions in between sessions.

At the end of the third session, they checked their notifications. Miles gained a level, making his resistance level 99. Just one more level to go.

“It’s capped!” Aila exclaimed, “And I finished the quest! I got the new lightning skill! And I leveled up!”

Her mother cheered for her, relieved that it was done. “What skill is it?”

“It’s called Flash Step!” and with that, Aila used the spell and blue lightning arced around her feet. When she took a step, she was suddenly several feet away.

“Whoah!” Miles shouted, “Did you just teleport? That’s so cool!”

“No, Miles,” his mom said. “She was just really fast. If you raised your Acuity high enough, you’d be able to see her move.”

Mrs. Waesdove went and hugged Aila. “That’s wonderful, sweetie! Such a useful skill!” And she showered Aila in kisses.

Unfortunately, Miles hadn’t capped his own resistance yet, so he continued on gritting his teeth. Aila stayed, though she was zipping around. It took another 3 more sessions before he got the final level.

Lightning Resistance gained 1 level. +1 EXP

Quest Completed!

For successfully completing the quest, Lightning Friends!, you have gained the skill: Flash Step.

Congratulations!

You’ve gained the skill: Flash Step!

+50 EXP

You wreath your feet in the mana of lightning, letting you move with its natural speed.

Effects: Costs 50 Mana/ step, and can step up to 10 feet. Distance increases +0.25 feet /level.

He didn’t level up from getting the new skill, but he didn’t care when he saw that the skill used mana to cast. “I have the same skill! It uses Mana!” Having an active mana skill that he could use could help him a lot in his Mana Sense training, so Miles was practically jumping with joy. Though with how much it cost to use even once, he would only be able to use it twice for now.

Miles activated the skill and felt his feet become energized, looking down he saw small sparks of electricity shoot off from his feet. When he moved to take a step, Miles felt the spell trigger and he was thrown forward ten feet and the momentum nearly made him stumble, but he caught himself and was able to walk it off. He grinned happily to himself as he thought of combining this with his spearmanship. This was so worth it.