Assimilate All Talents

Sol woke up to the grinding sound of the metal door opening as Weaver came in.

“I’m baaaack, darling~!”

Weaver was now dressed in a formal white suit with a lot of unnecessary tassels. The sound of his wooden boots echoed in the cell. Still groggy and sore from sleeping on the hard stone floor, Sol begrudgingly sat up as he saw the man enter.

Weaver produced a chair from his spatial ring and gestured for Sol to take a seat.

As Sol sat in the chair, he couldn’t help but ask, “What about breakfast? Or lunch, I don’t even know what time it is down here anymore.”

Weaver laughed, “Of course, you'll get to eat! Buuuut only after you finish today's lesson.” After saying that, Weaver took out a blackboard and wore some obviously fake glasses.

With his usually playful tone, he said, “Class is now in session!”

“...”

“While I know you can cast water magic, I am not an expert in it as my magic is a bit unique. I am well versed in fighting and that is what we will focus on today. So let me begin class by asking my favorite student a question, what does the swordsmanship skill do?”

Not knowing why he asked such a basic question, Sol answered anyway.

“Umm, it helps me improve my techniques and power carried in each attack, increasing the damage?”

“Ding Ding Ding! Correct! But I’m gonna let you in on a little secret …” Weaver leaned into his ear and Sol shuddered a bit as he whispered, “You don't need to go all in on every attack.”

Holding back the urge to smack the weirdo, Sol asked, “Why not? Won't it end the fight faster?”

“Maybe if you were fighting a low leveled monster or another newbie like you, then sure. But as you fight stronger enemies they will have more experience and with just pure technique can close the gap in skill levels and even stats. Though I doubt you will be fighting anyone like that in the near future, you still need to work on the basics.”

Weaver took out a white chalk stick and began to write on the board.

“We don’t have too~ much time for the auction, so let's focus on the basics. First, we have your strong attacks, these are the ones you use to deal the actual damage or even finish the fight in one blow if aimed at a vital area. You mostly do this already, but we will go over improving where you should focus on actually committing your strikes, I saw yesterday how you went all in on attacking the puppet's limbs and while it may incapacitate your opponent, there are enemies who can keep fighting after losing a leg. For example, Sandy tends to lose her limbs often during tough fights because of her [Sand Shift] skill.”

Sol nodded as he witnessed that first hand when “Sandy” lost her one leg but was still able to fight and even landed two more acidic strikes on him. Although he won in the end, that was still mostly thanks to having passives that countered the damage of all of her attacks.

“The second type of attack will be a weak attack. These are to wear down your opponent by inflicting smaller injuries when you can't commit or land your main attack. These attacks can be faster, focusing on landing a hit over dealing a lot of damage while not committing too much power into it. When fighting someone equal or stronger than you, it is especially common to use weak attacks to force them to block or parry and you quickly recover from it to follow up with even more light attacks or a bigger attack.”

Weaver with his chalk stick wrote on the board “Weak Attack” and circled it seven times.

“You really gotta work on this one, darling~. But there is one more attack we will go over.”

He continued writing, and below “Weak Attacks”, there now was “Feints”.

“Feints are similar to weak attacks in the fact that you don't commit your all into the attack but with a different purpose. Weak attacks are meant to be numerous and to bother your opponent but feints trick your opponent into thinking that it is your real attack. You would make a grand motion as if you are committing to a real attack but with no real force behind it. The opponent will react with a block or focus their attention on it and then you will move your sword into position for a real attack that bypasses those defenses.”

‘Ahh, that’s what Sandy did with me…’

Before getting captured by Weaver, Sol fought the red cloaked assassin which used similar tactics. Fake attacks that tricked him to block them and in turn created an opening they exploited. They also peppered him with quick but low effort attacks that would have eventually worn him down if he didn’t turn it around in an instant.

Weaver recalled both the blackboard and the chair sending Sol to his butt. With a grunt, Sol stood back up and glared at Weaver.

“So, for today’s training, we are going to work on the two different kinds of attacks you're lacking in, weak attacks and feints. Let's~! Get~! To~! It~!”

Summoning the same wooden puppet and wooden sword from yesterday, Sol was once again made to fight. Although it was his captor teaching him, since these combat techniques were an overall good thing to learn, Sol didn’t hesitate to fully focus on learning them. There is also the ongoing bet he had with Weaver to get all his questions answered if he won against the puppet which motivated him even more. So after organizing his thoughts Sol grabbed the wooden sword and charged towards the puppet.