"You lasted quite well against Peklla! A good start, boyo!"
Axl groaned, but he was no longer dizzy, his fogginess rapidly clearing up. He could have used his gill's poison absorption organ to drain the ale's effect, but he didn't want to dilute the poison in his storage gland with the much weaker alcohol, so he tried to focus Bilesong on his stomach. It has some effect, but there was simply too much liquid, and having to split his focus with Charisma kept him from utilizing the poison-resistance Attribute to its fullest. This was very much unlike Perception and Endurance, the two synergizing very naturally with each other. This was like trying to move his eyes in opposite directions.
"Only your sparring for choice of drinks went badly," Soffal continued. "You completely fell apart with both your Charismatic reading and projection. But that was on purpose from her side, since she wanted the enjoyment of getting you morning drunk."
Axl took out a canteen of water and cleaned out his mouth with a gargle. "Would've been useful to know those terms beforehand. I guess reading is when you detect the thoughts of others, projection is when you make others think what you want them to?"
"Not quite so directly, at least not yet, it’s a more subtle influence. More like getting a bit more from a conversation than the other wants to expose, and being a bit more convincing than you should from what you're saying and doing. But there are no real principles here, it's about body and face and the situation all rolled up into one, so really no use in getting any rune-learning on this. Just bar time."
Axl already regretted pre-booking an entire week of training with the man.
"Anyhow, I think I'll be running late for my training with Suliana if I don't head out."
"Yeah, not a good idea to schedule these training sessions back-to-back, now is it?" Soffal belly-laughed at his own very, very funny joke. "Bring her a mug of brewer's. She'll really appreciate it."
Axl took a step towards the bar, grateful for the chance at ingratiating himself with the stern trainer, then stopped himself. He turned to the orc, eyes wide. "That was… Was that even Charisma? It felt so natural."
Soffal winked, a smug smirk blooming on his face. "Three seconds, not so bad. Keep it up, and we'll eventually make something out of that adorable fumbling of yours!"
Axl gave him a short bow, at a loss for words. Soffal waved him off and turned back into the bar. As Axl made his way to the training ground, impressed at what he just witnessed, being so utterly convinced that the obviously terrible suggestion of bringing Suliana a drink was a good idea, to the point he even started to act on it. Even now, he wasn't sure what exactly got him to agree so readily.
He was rapidly appreciating the importance of Charisma, how it could help him negotiate higher prices for his potions, hide the full extent of his system-granted advantages, even see if people were actually tempted to kill him for the Geas of the Weak quest. Not to mention if this could be used in battle, say by getting an enemy to be fooled by a feint more thoroughly, or be afraid of him. Did it work against beasts too? He thought of the [Filial Deathshroud] in his storage, wondering if it was synergistic with the soul damage it could do, the Limerence Attribute being listed near Charisma, after all.
Almost more importantly, Axl was finding that using [Mana Shroud] to examine the orcs around him let him gauge how powerful they were, slowly starting to distinguish the ones barely into the F-Grade from Suliana and Soffal. It was subtle and hard to make out, but Axl constantly kept trying, since he figured this would be an essential use of the Skill going forward.
He set all that aside, focusing on getting any remaining bit of poison out of his system as he arrived at the training grounds, seeing Suliana finishing up with another Orc. He turned away and waited at the edge of the dusty open area, politely not looking into another's private session.
"Approach, Roken," Suliana said.
The other orc was slowly leaving towards the bathhouse, an exhausted expression on his face.
"For your individual training, you may either request a certain focus or allow me to do so, based on my own judgment. Every three sessions, you may revisit this decision."
"Your judgment, please," said Axl, without hesitation.
Suliana nodded. "Good. We start with Intelligence and Wisdom. Most fighters neglect the Attributes, especially if they only have one or the other, but your Oocilian class does not allow that luxury."
The trainer then sat down and motioned for Axl to do the same in front of her.
"This is the game of Lomenkkar." She took out a large sack from her dimensional pouch and threw it at Axl, then took out another for herself. She then picked a small domino-sized carved piece of wood from the bag and placed it on the ground. "This tile holds the rune for soldier," she took out another tile, "and this one for sword," then a third, "this one for provisioning. These three tiles connected by a line in this way states that you provision the soldier with a sword."
The little tile indicating sword dragged itself over the provision tile, turning it over to its blank side, then snuggled under the soldier tile. A misty representation of the sword rune formed over the soldier tile. Suliana then took the turned-over provision tile and put it back in her bag.
"From this, you can create battle formations from simple parties up to entire armies, including all the necessary support structures they require. First, try to mimic my formations as I explain each of the one hundred runes in the first simplification of the game."
Axl did so as the trainer introduced more and more concepts, such as supply lines, available backup forces, scouting range, even down to the purity of the available water supply. At first, he expected this to be an easier version of glyphistry, but was quickly dispelled of that notion. With glyphs, each curve and inflection was heavy with meaning, imparting will onto the world that you could detect as you used them. But these runes were completely inert, as far as he could tell, so he had to actively memorize what each one meant, there being no rhyme or reason why a certain set of dots and lines meant "supply wagon" while a similar one meant "directional threat".
Nearly half their training session went by simply with him imitating a single setup of a small party, and not even having them fight, just setting them up to maintain a reinforced formation while defending a small encampment. Next, Suliana had Axl form another party from scratch with a different goal and composition as she corrected his mistakes. He was barely able to finish before their training session was over.
"I am genuinely surprised you managed to construct a functional setup in your first try," Suliana said. "You certainly did not neglect your application of Intelligence, which is commendable."
"Thanks," Axl said, not feeling quite as confident in his performance, having made many mistakes Suliana had to point out. Any of them would've collapsed the party if allowed to percolate through the formation.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"Any questions before we end the session for the day?"
"Yes," he replied. "I sense these runes are very different than the glyphs I use for alchemy, but I can't sense the logic of what each rune means. Is there even one?"
Suliana nodded. "A very good question. Indeed, there is one with the full set of runes, but it is tenuous, since runes were made to be neutral to the Deep System, and thus have strong constraints to their design. They are solely to assist in clarity of thought, and thus shouldn't be assisted, even by the whispers of the heavens."
Axl nodded, this making some more sense now. It would indeed be counterproductive if the rune for a regular meal in the game somehow invoked a burst of frost Mana or whatever.
"Also, these runes seem similar to the ones I saw labeling the various artistry shops. They are in Okkar, right? Or are they something else that just looks similar to an outsider?"
Suliana paused for a moment. "That is indeed the case, Lomenkkar being one of the traditional ways of learning Okkar. I don't expect you to learn the full logistical language, of course, that is well beyond the need of even the most dedicated warrior, only relevant to administrators and sometimes higher leadership."
Asking only a handful of other questions on the game's details, their session ended, and Axl went back to his alchemy hut to make some more healing potions before it was time for group training.
Group training for the day was training Dexterity, then Strength, then a combination of both. Axl couldn't infer the difference between Dexterity and Agility from the exercises themselves, but figured they were very close to each other. Meaning there wouldn't be a huge gain from getting the extra Attribute, since he likely got two-thirds, or maybe even more of his Agility as Dexterity. As much as he salivated over another Attribute that would benefit his class, for now he needed to fix the mess his new Attributes had caused before piling on any more.
The training ground had hundreds of short, narrow stakes stuck into the soil throughout, on which the training first involved standing on each for increasingly long periods of time, then perform mock-fights on them, then actively sparring on them. The Strength component came from adding weights to each trainee's arms, legs and shoulders while also doing the above. It was somewhat harder than the Endurance and Perception training from the day before, but nothing unmanageable as Axl got the hang of it. Soffal even had to up his weights three times in the second half of the session, since the other trainees had a harder time adapting.
Axl was under no delusions that his decent performance was due to him being some unparalleled genius or anything, it was just his ability to use his Attributes catching up to their stated value. For most others, he figured it was the other way around, any increase in Attributes from an Achievement or level up happening slowly enough that they had plenty of time to get used to the increase. He just had an unusually strong start with all the help from Terrania, Oocile, and Nox, so he couldn't afford to slack off now.
This was particularly apparent since his Attributes of 125 were impressive for the rank-and-file F-Grade he trained with, but it was not enough to match Soffal or Suliana, much less what he imagined Woyfret would be capable of. Maybe when he got into the F-Grade himself, or when he formed his core, but Axl wasn't willing to bet on that.
After training, Axl did some light shopping for materials for his alchemy, specifically needing more flasks to sell his potions, then did some tinkering on his own on the recipe to improve his healing potions. Every once in a while, he'd chat with Moxlin, who was focusing on talisman production, and they even had a meal at the cantina for a change, the short-haired orc woman he had reassured the previous day joining them when she saw him.
The next week was spent in a steady pattern, mornings training Bilesong and Vitality with Folom, then Charisma with Soffal, then playing Lomenkkar with Suliana, followed by some lunchtime alchemy before group training and then recipe development. He also made three vials of his Empowerment potion, in case he needed to up his bargaining power, and twenty doses of centipede and calcium-depleting poison, just in case.
On the fifth day, he had finally managed to replace all the ingredients of his healing potion with stronger vale material, no longer needing to rely on the weak natural treasures from Olkan's stash and the moss from the caverns. This made the potions much better, even if they were still in the G-Grade. Still, it felt like a real accomplishment, since Folom evaluated them to be peak G-Grade, or at least as close to peak as any standard he'd ever seen applied. This development also earned him another step in his alchemy proficiency.
Technical Arts: Glyphistry: Glyphic Alchemy (G.4), Glyphic Spellcasting
This was certainly easier than my usual way of gaining proficiency, Axl chuckled to himself, firmly understanding why most artisans really weren't fighters. The delay in progress was more than justified by the lower risk, not to mention the profitability of selling your incremental products.
Gaining the bump in income from the more powerful potions and having saved up, Axl finally set up for his first instance of Limerence training with the shaman, going into his office right after his gaming session with Suliana.
"I see you've had Charisma training with Soffal and Wisdom training with Suliana."
"Only via the Lomenkkar game, but I'm not sure how that trains Wisdom, really."
"How many runes are you using?"
"We're up to three hundred as of two days ago, but still no active engagement between our formations."
"Then you are well into even training between Wisdom and Intelligence, which is good for my lesson. We will take turns attacking each other's soul, first myself with means of my own that I will not discuss further, then you with your item. Both when attacking and defending, focus on the defense around your soul.
Axl nodded, having previously decided to tell the shaman when they first met about both [Filial Deathshroud] and [Mind-Soul Bulwark], since without that information, the very expensive training session likely would've been wasted. It's not like he knew any other way of attacking the soul, and the orc would almost certainly immediately figure out he had something like his defensive skill anyway.
"Ready yourself," Ramsen's voice was slow and soft. "I will strike weakly, at first."
Axl focused on the small octahedron around the marble of his soul, his will holding it steady, as if redoubling its thickness and sturdiness, feeling the construct solidify.
A pressure pushed against one of the faces of his mental defense, and was soon gone.
"Did you feel the unidirectional assault?"
"Yes," said Axl. "But it didn't hurt or anything."
"Good, that you felt it at all is promising, sensing this is a subtle use of Perception that is very difficult to train, so I assume your defensive Skill also assists in this detection. I will attack now with increasing vigor, resist it as you can."
Axl focused on the flat surfaces of his soul's defense, and soon a piercing strike attacked, one of the shape's faces shuddering and dimmed. He reinforced it with his active will, and it was soon back to its previous shimmering luster. Barely a moment later, two other faces were attacked, and similarly dimmed, forcing Axl to strain to repair two at once. Before he could finish, yet another received the piercing strike and cracked, its luminance gone immediately, the strike proceeding into his soul.
The world felt off-kilter, as if he were watching himself from a long distance away, his body paralyzed, a distant pain diffuse on his head. He tried to reach back down to the sphere of his soul and its defenses, but the way there felt murky.
Ramsen took a dagger from beneath his desk and brought it towards Axl's neck. The sight of it felt artificial, as if watching a vid. Axl knew he had to defend himself somehow, but couldn’t. The blade traveled the distance slowly, its gleaming edge stopping right before his jugular vein.
"This is what an undefended soul attack feels like, and this one I weakened substantially after piercing your defenses. Most attacks that would overcome your mental block cause far more damage."
He nicked the blade against Axl's skin, a thin line of blood streaming down the blade's edge.
"Do you think I'm not tempted to kill you? Claim that quest and its alluring reward?" Ramsen's grip on the blade tightened. "How about this. Defend from this strike within the next three seconds, and I will let you live. Prove yourself worthy of surviving your unique difficulties or become fertilizer for another's path, as you cultivators are so fond of saying."
Axl's hand struggled to rise, shaking and weak. Because of all his Charisma training, he could tell the shaman was dead serious. This was no feint or fake test, he needed to shake out of it or die.
"One," the shaman said.
Axl swatted at the dagger with a limp arm, but Ramsen's arm held firm, Axl's hand flopping to his side.
"Not good enough. Two."
[Gastric Cauldron]'s stored healing potion was activated, but it could find nothing to heal other than the small cut on his neck, and Axl redoubled his focus on [Mind-Body Bulwark]. He sensed his soul now, its mental defenses entirely extinguished, a slender spike sticking out from the small sphere, feeling foreign to his being like no other attack had before. He clutched at it with his will and strained to remove it like a splinter stuck in skin, the pain in his head building into a piercing wail.