I am not allowed to leave the basement for eight days.
By now, Lirin has gotten the lunch lady that I usually see around the mess hall to bring our meals directly down to the staircase door. Day after day, I work on with the wannabe-warlock for hours. After each session, I am allowed to eat while Lirin lectures me on mana theory and other things contained in the books around the room. Immediately after the meal, we go back into the testing room to start again. When the day is finally over, I just move to the corner of the room where my mat is located and fall asleep. After day two, I had already moved my sleeping area to the testing room. After day five, Lirin had given me permanent access to some of the arrays controlled by the ‘Mana Blueprint Archive,’ which is the device I had always seen him screwing around with on the wall. Now, during the times he is busy or when I am supposed to be resting, I can check over my results from the day and attempt to adjust my technique from there.
Today, I am busy regulating my emission rate while slowly keeping the mana cycling technique going inside my network. In my week of constant training, I have finally completed the cycling technique without fail by matching my radiation expulsion interval with my mana conversion rate. It took a while, but now I can release the excess energy within a few hundred milliseconds of my mana creating the stuff. It takes a few minutes of more powerful bursts that can burn my surroundings, but after I match the rhythm and expel any build up from beforehand, I can finally control my normal mana at close to the same efficiency as a normal person should be able to.
“Good, now try to feed more mana into the loop. For added difficulty, change your emission vent to the soles of your feet since it is the farthest extremity from your main network. It should force you to release the kinetic buildup faster and with more power than before just to keep up.”
The ever-so-helpful asshole warlock calls out commands from my side. Throughout each session, he devised new ways for me to control my mana while under new types of stress that force me to adapt quickly or else I fail and receive another punishment.
And at this point, the punishments are no joke.
It only took thirty hours of us training before he got tired of the slapping since it didn’t bother me much. After that, he started taking things away or adding difficulty in things that shouldn’t be difficult. On day three, my bulking plan was thrown out the window as he would take away a meal for every ten times I failed an exercise. During one especially hard exercise in which I had to my neck with radiation while keeping a tendril of normal mana from falling apart beyond the confines of my skin; I didn’t get to eat for two days straight. The exercise caused my blood vessels to dilate due to the pressure, so I had to battle passing out while keeping two skills up and running, while at the same time keeping up my constant rhythm of emission.
After he realized I actually needed to eat in order to function, he started making daily tasks harder and harder for me to complete instead. One time I screwed up an exercise so bad that the asshole locked the bathroom door with an inscribed mana stone that I couldn’t complete, so I ended up pissing my pants while in the middle of another task.
Jokes on him though- I didn’t let the interruption stop me from finishing the task and I was rewarded with another one of his weird looks that I find so satisfying.
“Your circle is losing shape, fix it now. After you do, shrink your emission vent to the balls of your feet. When this is complete, I will begin questioning you on the systematic development of mana reactive light bulbs. Each question failed is another five-minute extension.”
This pattern continues and I earn myself another thirty minutes of ridiculous skill applications because I didn’t magically memorize the entirety of this world’s technology history in the span of a week. I swear, this man is practically insane. The fact Garf trusted this man to teach anyone is a sin in itself. The asshole-insane-wannabe-warlock went from abandoning me the second I couldn’t cycle my mana, to now never leaving my side other than when I go to the bathroom or to sleep. I don’t understand what caused him to flip the script, but his behavior is bipolar enough to convince me that he belongs in a mental institution rather than some random basement with a guy whom he has complete power over due to their staggering level differences.
“Stop. We are done for the day.”
I let out a heavy breath that I had been holding for the last minute or so, and crumple to the ground.
“I regrettably have other things that require my attention, so you are free to leave my study until I come back tomorrow morning.”
I am too exhausted to react with any semblance of joy, so I just grunt and attempt to catch my breath while Lirin puts his robe back on and heads out of the testing room. Eventually, I push myself to my feet and head toward the bathroom to clean up. My favorite part of the day has finally arrived, and while the hot water of the shower relieves me of the copious amounts of dried sweat that cover my skin, I pull up my status.
[Status of Sebastian Bet]
Pillar Difficulty: Death is Certain
Floor 2: The Silent Castle
Time Used: 18:12:04:59
Time Left: 2171:47:55:01
Level: 11
Body (BDY): 19
Mind (MND): 18
Agility (AGI) : 12
Power (PWR): 29
[Unallocated Points: 0]
Class: Undecided
Form Association: Undecided
Skills:
Emit [Lvl 15]
Polarize [Lvl 1]
Fixation [Lvl 8]
Mana Control [Lvl 13]
Infuse [Lvl 6]
Traits:
Thermal Resistance [Stage 1/3]
Augments:
1. Mana Foundation
2. Undecided
3. Undecided
Condition: Mana Mutation [Permanent]
Today I was finally able to push to level 15. Despite what I think about the raving lunatic that is in charge of me, his training has allowed me to progress in leaps and bounds in such a short amount of time. and have improved the most, which isn’t a surprise given the fact that they are the primary focus of every exercise I do. I’m more pleased with the supplemental levels I received in and . The former I earned most likely due to the extra difficulty add-ons that Lirin piles onto me when I am not doing enough during my training. The latter is almost certainly a result of the thousands of insults I have forced myself to bottle up over the course of my time with the warlock. The cherry on this bittersweet cake is the three points in MND that I earned at some point in the last eight days.
There is one problem though.
I haven’t gained a single level.
I can only get so far with training my skills and expanding my knowledge. I need the levels I was gaining on Floor One to keep progressing. The fact remains that everyone on this floor is an obscenely high level compared to me and the rest of the group. In order for us to complete the floor objective, we need to be strong enough to face whatever might be in the way of us advancing. I’ve even asked about the possibility of going out to gain levels during my time with Lirin, but of course the man immediately shut me down in order to continue the ridiculous regiment of meaningless tasks.
As I use to evaporate the water clinging to my skin, I quickly get dressed before heading toward the mess hall. The feeling of being free from the basement is invigorating, and with the nice cleansing shower I took earlier, I am ready to get a meal in before going to see what the others have been up to during my imprisonment. I haven’t bothered hopping onto the Forum at all, so it will be refreshing to have a little bit of social interaction beyond the lectures Lirin gives me.
Swinging by the cafeteria, the lunch lady already has something out and waiting for me, so I thank her before heading to the barracks. As I pass by the sadist-nurse’s office, her door cracks open and Angus steps out with a pained look on his face.
“Hey man.”
“Oh! He-hey Seb.”
I guess I surprised the younger boy with my presence, but he doesn’t say anything about it while we both head back toward the barracks. It would seem that during his training under Garf, the bald man had wacked him a little too hard and broke Angus’s wrist.
“I can’t tell what hurt more, the metal ruler that he hit me with, or the nurse’s treatment.”
I can’t help but laugh while the boy cradles his wrapped hand protectively while pouting.
“So, is that what you and Garf have been doing? Training pain thresholds?”
Angus relaxes with a small chuckle before shaking his head.
“No. Mostly mana shaping exercises and array tracing. Apparently, my skillset falls within the range of Garf’s specialty, which is engineering mana devices.”
Hmm. Now that I think about it, I don’t actually know what Lirin’s specialty is supposed to be. I guess it never really occurred to me that each trainer is fit for specific tasks. It makes sense of course, as they wouldn’t have picked us if they didn’t know how to train our skills properly. Perhaps I was just so focused on the fact I got delegated as a chore rather than an actual choice by the wannabe-warlock that I didn’t bother thinking of what the guy specialized in.
“Has he been teaching you anything else?”
“Like what?”
“Like the curing time requirement for milk using a mana dependent heating panel without taking into account the charge variance for low quality mana batteries.”
“What the hell?”
Angus tries to question me further, but I ignore his inquiries and instead increase my pace toward the barracks. It is exactly as I suspected. The maniac warlock has been teaching me utter garbage. I just pray that the others have been having similarly bad experiences with their own mentors. Angus’s broken wrist is enough for me to forgive him for receiving actually useful lessons, but if the others tell me about their exploits and they don’t correlate with my own experience then I will lose it.
Eventually, we arrive at the barracks where a few people are still hanging around.
“Is that Seb? Where have you been man? Maybe try using the Forum once and a while to let us know you are still alive, yeah?”
Wade lounges on a nearby bunk with Pawl where it looks like he had been talking with Kathryn and Nikki. The other two wave and Angus heads over to his bunk to grab something while I approach the small group and give the cat a much-deserved scratch under his chin.
“Only you three? Are the others still out training?”
“Yeah, we are all just on break right now and Kat here was just complaining about getting the cold shoulder from her mentor.”
I try to remember who Kathryn’s trainer was. If I’m not wrong, it should’ve been the same woman that chose Sandra and Benny.
“Wait, if you are here. Where are Benny and Sandra then? Do you guys have different schedules?”
Wade and Nikki both try to cover up obvious smiles while Kathryn’s face is composed with only a slight twinge of her brow to indicate any reaction to my questions.
“It would seem that Lady Hylin doesn’t hold much interest in my ‘lacking talent.’ She prefers to spend the majority of her time teaching the others while leaving me to train my combative skills outside.”
Haha! Another poor soul getting abused by their trainer! My shoulders relax slightly at the short summary of her training experience so far.
“I would rather not talk about it anymore.” Kathryn finishes while pointedly staring at Wade.
“I feel bad for you, really! Nikki and I have been having pretty good luck so far with Bertrum. He does a really good job of giving us new ideas on how to use our skills without outright telling us. I asked him about it one time, but he said that telling someone else how to use their skill correctly somehow hinders the leveling process.”
Nikki nods in agreement but I am too invested in something else he said to bother with the obvious injustice that comes from them being treated like actual human beings by their trainer.
“Skills can be affected by other people telling you how to use them?”
“Yep. Bertrum mentioned it while going over the basics of the System and how best to steer your skills toward specific class upgrades.”
“Class upgrades?”
“Yeah, he said at a certain level you get a class based on your applications of your skills, attributes, and stuff like that. Didn’t your mentor give you a rundown of the basics?”
I look desperately toward the others, but Nikki and Angus are also giving me concerned looks. My last hope, Kathryn, is also looking at me pitifully with a small hint of enjoyment upon hearing about my ignorance. It would seem that she is not an ally like I had thought previously. In fact, all of these creatures in front of me disgust me with their forbidden knowledge.
“So, while I’ve been learning about the fermentation process of yeast influenced by the application of a dynamic mana wavelength lens, you all have been gathering information that actually matters in regard to the System?”
Everyone just stares at me like I have lost my mind. Wade looks to be holding back a laugh, but he masters himself before trying to cheer me up.
“Well at least you have been getting free levels, right?"