Hell Difficulty Tutorial

A day passes, and during that time no one says a word. The training didn’t stop even then.

I was forced to move under weaker Burden Enhancement Inscriptions. I fought the monsters attacking us on the way, the ever-strengthening Veil in the sky spewing more and more monsters.

Veil Guardians are the norm at this point, I even welcome them as I take the opportunity to sell the voidsteel blades.

There is no rest for me, and rather than the usual three hours of variety training, I find myself devoting that time to fighting. I manage to raise my level once more in the process, slowly approaching my goal of reaching 250.

Lately, I’ve been finding myself incorporating mana shaping into my fights as well.

It’s quite a lot. Only a few days have passed since I began 14 days with my "master", but I’m already starting to notice signs of exhaustion from the lack of sleep and the abundance of overtraining. I don’t mind much, it helps take my mind off the slew of useless thoughts and gives me time to regain control over my emotions.

It’s also when I decide to limit my use of [Focus] when it comes to regulating my emotions even after meeting Lissandra´s conditions. My overuse of the skill was probably preventing my subclass from leveling. Looking at it now, it’s so obvious.

Myrra gives me space to clear my mind, which I appreciate, and when we finally stop for a break, Lissandra steps in front of me.

“I had expected you to attack me at least a few times, little pup. You know I promised not to kill you unless you failed to follow my rules.”

“Well, you were wrong.”

She lowers her face, catching my gaze.

I return it.

Slow breath in. Breath out.

Good.

Now continue to calmly circulate your mana.

Good.

“Oh, so you’re biding your time until you have a better chance, little pup, you are…”

I open my mouth, just as I had so long ago with her descendant, an orb erupting forth and heading right for her eye.

Lissandra tilts her head in an amazing show of her lightning-quick reflexes, and the orb grazes her cheek. Behind her, the orb explodes, releasing a burst of kinetic energy and pushes her towards me.

I boost my movement with a lot of kinetic energy, and a blade of mana forms in my hand, while my other hand reaches towards the black dagger at her waist.

Then the world turns upside down. I feel a blow to my shoulder and in my belly and find myself lying on my back.

An impulse to jump back and attack again is sent through my body, but I force it away and stay down.

Lissandra looks down at me, and I watch as she reaches her hand up, touching the wound on her cheek, a bit of blood staining the tips of her fingers.

“Little pup, your movements are terrible. Stand up and repeat after me.”

I do as I’m told, and she reactivates the inscriptions for Burden Enhancement. Not at their full power, but still enough to make it difficult for me to move. Then, she slowly starts moving her body, slim muscles rippling as she takes a stance and then slowly moves her hand in a punch.

Her body twists, feet burrowing into the ground as she does so.

The movement is short and thrown at a normal speed, it would be quick. It’s the kind of movement that sacrifices a bit of power to land a few quick blows. And it’s probably been adapted to synergize with a variety of skills. Moving kinetic energy through my body, I mimic that movement.

Even before I finish the movement, I stop and start over again.

Lissandra steps closer, “Widen your feet a bit more. Send more of your kinetic energy to your feet and circulate it through your entire body from there.”

Over and over again, I repeat the simple movement.

“The last part is the most important. A short punch during which you release all the buildup.”

And more.

“Again. Don’t think about trying to use it in combat. It’s an exercise meant to show you some of the ways you could move your body. We don’t have enough time for me to teach you proper martial arts.”

At some point, she increases the power of the inscriptions, and my movement slows even more and I’m forced to fight them with more kinetic energy just to move.

The sweat plasters my shirt to my skin and drips from my nose.

I catch myself gasping for air, and my mind focuses on completing the next movement and sending the next burst of kinetic energy through my body to help me move.

By the time we stop, it’s dark outside.

Lissandra releases the inscriptions and wanders off into the forest, where soon after and far in the distance, a huge piece of the nearby mountain disappears, and the stones start floating in the air. Mana envelops the area, and I recognize it right away. It’s the Veil Weaver, a monster with extremely potent telekinesis.

The Cockroach is probably somewhere around my level, I would say. The moment she used Hadwin’s arm to regenerate herself, she had to start over, leveling up and all that stuff. Of course, she has the advantage of a shitload of knowledge, and at this point, I’m not sure if I want to know what level her skills are.

Actually, I would love to know that.

That’s also why I don’t think Veil Weaver will be enough to end her.

Keeping part of my mind on the fight ruining the landscape all around us, I wonder if I should take the opportunity to assign the bonus from my subclass to a skill.

This is like the passive skill combination token all over again, I hesitate. I can’t help but think that I might get more out of my training if I wait. I already have way too many things I need to work on, and experimenting with the effects of Pride would add more to the pile.

One of the problems is obviously the system and its habit of drip feeding me information as I progress through the floors.

As of now, I’ve pretty well confirmed that Initiate of Pride was helping me control my mana and that the effect has grown stronger.

I have a theory that it might even be making it easier for me to gain skills like [Mana Crown] and [Mana Domain]. In addition, it might have influenced my primary class offers.

Or maybe it didn’t. The relationship between subclass and primary class is still unknown. My primary class offers more direct boosts like stats, passives, and active skills - so far, the only way we’ve found to gain active skills other than learning them is through a primary class. Subclasses, on the other hand, are more indirect. It seems to work more like a passive with a broader scope of influence.

Looking at the new stuff it unlocked and my new ability to sense other devotees of Pride, I find myself wondering if reaching this new stage is going to open further avenues for improvement in the future. What happens when I reach Master of Pride? Will I have influence over others with the Pride subclass? Are Blights and Radiances separated into groups according to their subclasses, do they create some sort of bond between users?

More to think about and drag out of Lissandra. Even thinking about her right now sets my blood boiling though. Yet it’s all useless. It’s too late for Niall, and me throwing yet another tantrum won’t help.

It’s so easy to forget that natives are just fakes, but at the same time, I might like it more that way. It makes all these floors feel more real, and that might be the point.

Soon after, Lissandra returns. The wounds she had as we left the Workshop are long gone, and in the fight with Veil Weaver, she didn’t get any new ones if I remember correctly though Hadwin had a low grade healing skill so that doesn’t mean much.

“We’re leaving right away. The Veil will notice that one of its stronger monsters has gone missing.”

She seems to know quite a bit about the matter, perhaps she learned a few things from Niall or maybe she made her own observations. Either way, Myrra and I quickly follow after exchanging a quick glance. Our training continues nonetheless, and that leaves the two of us killing most of the monsters.

 

---

 

Three days later, my level went up by three. [Mana Manipulation] reached 49, and Crown leveled up once as well.

I only have eight days, and a few hours, to fulfill Lissandra’s requirements.

In the past day, we’ve flown under the radar, avoiding any Veil monsters to keep from revealing our location, though the countryside we find ourselves passing through is entirely devoid of them.

We pass huge cities, empty and destroyed, and smaller rural villages, located next to massive craters.

We see an absolutely massive forest burned to ash, leaving naught but a rocky plain behind.

Crushed mountains.

Rivers that drain into craters the size of cities.

The destruction is all encompassing, and we pass through a number of places filled with mana radiation. Places where Champions must have clashed, even hundreds of years later, signs of their skills and powers remain, like scars upon the land.

We also pass by an ancient battleground where an Absolute once fought, something Lissandra points out with keen interest.

There, inside one of the lakes, lies the skeleton of a monster. Something I fail to identify, there’s only half a skull and a few rib-like bones pointing toward the sky.

The remains alone are at least as tall as the tallest skyscrapers back on Earth. The bones are blindingly white, yet no flesh or connective tissue remains. There is no way something like that could decay after a mere 100 years. The flesh of powerful monsters is capable of lasting so much longer. No, it looks like something ate that monster, either during the fight or after, and only left the bones behind.

The water in that lake is eerily still and impossibly clear, seemingly transparent. There are no monsters either.

We avoid that place as much as we can, making a huge half-circle around it. Lissandra orders us not to touch any water from that area.

A day later, we reach our destination, passing over a hill crowned with trees covered in poisonous bark, which proves harmful even to us, despite our high levels.

“I never want to see that forest again,” Myrra hisses.

“Nice jinx.”

“Screw off, feral one.”

Looking down the hill, we see a huge cleared area, devoid of trees and stone. And the ground itself has been polished to an extremely smooth surface, almost looking more like metal than dirt.

There is a single pyramid, and resting against its side are the skeletal remains of a snake.

The problem, as far as my brain is concerned, is that the pyramid is huge, extremely huge, and so are the skeletal remains. It’s difficult for me to even grasp the sheer size of these things.

“This is one of the Veil Ignition Stations. It functioned as a converter, converting the power of a dormant volcano into mana. There was a Champion who made it possible using his trait and skill. He is long since dead, but the station still has a bevy of impressive defense mechanisms.”

Lissandra takes a step and heads down the hill towards the city.

“There are people here,” I note.

“Yes, the defenses are set to attack any Veil creature that gets close, so people chose to settle in this place, turning this device into their city.”

Device. The word alone almost makes me laugh. That thing is way too big to be a simple device.

“From the information I got from that broken Champion, the city is a lawless place, full of gangs fighting for territory and resources. Even now, they probably have groups devoted to breaking into the more important parts of the station.”

That piques my interest, and my inner loot goblin awakens. I’m quite good with inscriptions, am I not? I should be able to get into some of the more fancy places. Maybe I’ll be able to find some more interesting stuff to sell. A Veil Ignition Station reselling arc 2.0 might be on the menu.

“And what are you looking for here?” I ask.

“You’ll see when we get there, little pup. And control your mana more, that orb over your shoulder is a disgrace considering the amount of time you’ve spent on it.”

I do as I’m told, and our steps continue, resounding in strangely distorted echoes as we cross the metallic surface, which radiates just the slightest bit of heat.

As we get closer, the pyramid and the skeleton start to look even bigger, and I have to tilt my head high up to see the top of it.

With no one to welcome us, we pause for a moment when we find ourselves standing in front of the pyramid.

“Veil Ignition Station no. 2, also called Cinder,” Lissandra says, and we head in.