I smiled at Yoru. “Don’t worry about it, man. It’s not like our lives depended on the outcome!”
“I let you all down.”
“You didn’t let me down,” Ressa said. “It was still better than anything we’d have come up with before Adam joined the team.”
He looked like he’d been shot. “It was a travesty.”
“It was fine. Seriously, the only way I’ll be upset from your presentation is if you keep going on about it. We all learned something valuable today, and that is that you’re a top fella, and that despite your numerous strengths, public speaking isn’t one of them. Luckily, you have so many others.”
He sagged but seemed to relax from my words. Then he looked behind us. “Where are Ellaazi and Torma?”
“They are picking some things up to help Adam train strength. We’re going to hang about here until they get back.”
With a nod, he slumped into the nearest couch. “I can wait for dinner. What are they bringing back?”
Ressa shrugged. “No idea, but they went to the forge.”
It didn’t take too much longer to find out, when Torma burst through the door about half an hour later carrying a small anvil.
“An actual anvil! That’s insane.”
He shook his head, panting from the exertion. “Talk later, eat now.”
Ellaazi came in after him and dropped a heavy canvas sack on the floor that landed with a resounding clang.
“Agreed,” the Nyvren said and headed straight back out of the door.
I shrugged and gave one last look at the training equipment, then followed after them with Ressa and Yoru.
I left them in peace as we ate, and only risked asking more questions on the way back to the room.
“That anvil looked damn heavy. What am I supposed to do with it?”
“Hit it,” he replied, giving me a sour look. Then he turned to Ressa. “It’s going to be noisy. Would you mind putting a cloak of silence over him while he trains?”
“Of course I will,” she agreed. “Good practice for me, and if it helps Adam catch up with his levels, then it’s a win all round.”
We arrived back at our dorm, and I entered eagerly. I’d made sure not to overeat so that I could get the best out of the training.
Torma reached into the sack on the floor and pulled out a hammer. “I want you to hammer the anvil as hard as you can for as long as you can,” he instructed. “This is not about speed, but I expect to see a steady rhythm. Don’t raise the hammer too fast.” He demonstrated raising the hammer in a smooth steady movement up to the side of his head. “Then you bring it down hard as fast and as hard as you can without losing control.”
He handed the hammer to me. “Slow and steady up. Smash it down like the anvil just insulted your entire family line. Do that as many times as you can until you cannot raise the hammer again.”
It sounded both awful, but sensible. “Then what?”
“Then you swap hands. And do the exact same thing with your left.”
“Until I can’t lift it anymore?”
“Exactly. Then you pass it back to your right. And then back to your left.”
“How many times?”
Torma grinned. “Until you can’t lift the hammer anymore.”
“You’re joking. I’m won’t be able to use my arms tomorrow!”
“Of course you will! We’ll heal you right up.”
“Heal? You can heal tired muscles?”
“Not tired muscles, but we can heal the muscle tears and you’ll feel okay tomorrow. Trust me, I have a little experience with this.”
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“I do trust you. But will my muscles still grow if you heal them?”
“Not as much as they would if they were left to heal naturally, but…”
Ellaazi jumped in. “Strength gains will be the same. But extra size is not always good depending on how you fight. I have not seen you fight yet, Adam.” She looked back at Torma expectantly.
The Grunir nodded. “It wouldn’t hurt to get a little extra meat on his bones, but you certainly don’t want to end up with a tank build. You really on skill and mobility. Those without speed and to a lesser extent skill can use weight as an advantage, but I think it would only detract from your strengths.”
“Alright, I’m sold,” I said with my hands up, then put my hand out for the hammer which he handed over. It had a decent weight, but wasn’t as heavy as I expected. “What happens if I’m up half the night?”
He regarded me with an evil grin “You won’t be.”
With nothing else to say, I moved over to the anvil. As I got close, a shimmering shield surrounded me, cast from Ressa’s glowing fingers. All noise from the room ceased.
“Cool,” I said to Ressa, but I could tell from her expression that she didn’t hear what I’d said, so I got to swinging.
As soon as I began, the others either plonked themselves into the couch or threw themselves onto their beds. As jealous as I was, there was nothing I wanted to do more than to better myself.
I got to a hundred and two strikes on my right arm. The burning in my deltoid was intense to the point that it began to feel numb and I literally couldn’t raise again.
There was nothing good about the feeling, but I dutifully swapped arms and set off again on my voyage of pain. I got to eighty-four strikes before my left arm gave out. This time, I looked out of the sphere to see that Torma was watching me and gesturing for me to swap over again.
Back in my right arm, I almost felt fresh for the first two strikes. But that deep fatigue and weakness set in quickly, and the fifty-eight strikes I managed felt far worse than the previous set. I hit thirty-nine on my left arm, twenty-six with my right, then twenty-two with my left. I didn’t want to go any further as I sensed I was close to doing real damage.
Torma was at the sphere’s edge now, gesturing for me to swap again.
Eleven with my right, nine on my left. I was roaring in agony now, trying to push through. A hard-fought five on my right followed by an equally hard-fought five on my left. On the sixth set, something twanged in my right shoulder, a snapping, sensation unlike anything I’d felt prior. I screamed out in pain and looked out the sphere.
Torma pointed to my left hand again and told me to continue.
“I’m going to injure that fucking shoulder as well,” I protested.
He must have been able to read my lips or my thoughts, but he just shrugged.
Deep down, I knew the healing would fix me, but it just felt so wrong. My instincts warred against picking the hammer up with my left. But as crazy as it was, I did trust Torma. So with a heartfelt grimace that I couldn’t hide, I stuck again with my left. I managed four. Took a brief rest and tried to lift it again. I growled and spat, but I couldn’t get the hammer up again. I was done.
Torma’s clapping reached me as the shield dropped.
“Well done, Adam.”
“Holy shit, that was horrible.”
“It most certainly is! I remember doing it myself a few years back. Luckily, with those numbers, we can make some big improvements in your strength. Seems most of your Toughness score must be from other things. Compared to a Grunir, you’re notably weak for your level.”
I took umbrage at that. I was definitely not weak. But I couldn’t deny Torma’s incredible strength either.
“Are you ready for healing?” Yoru asked, coming to stand in front of me.
I was a little surprised and upset that Ressa wasn’t going to do it, seeing as she was the best healer in the room by a country mile. When I looked over to her, she looked tired, but smiled.
“Yoru is almost as accomplished at healing as I am, he just goes slower.”
“As long as I can use my arms again, I don’t bloody care!”
Yoru rumbled a deep laugh. “They will be better than new when we are finished. Apart from the neurological fatigue, but that should pass as you sleep.”
A glow sprung up around his hands as he laid them on each shoulder. I felt the tear in my right heal up within a few seconds. Around half a minute more and my arms were as good as new. Then even better as a tingle passed over them.
Recognizing the sensation, I quickly checked my stats.
Name: Adam Henshaw
Title: —
Level: 18
Class: Warrior/Mage
Stats:
- Toughness: 21
- Mental Acuity: 15
- Harmony: 18
- Total: 54
Progress in Class:
- Warrior, Level 6: 15/40
- Tradesman, Level 0: 0/10
- Mage, Level 5: 15/50
Mage Skills:
Enchant Item Level: 1
Regenerate (Personal) Level: 1
Spirit Burst (AoE) Level: 1
Flame Blast (Projectile) Level: 1
Flame Burst (AoE) Level 1:
It didn’t make any sense. I’d gone up another level. But there were two anomalies. The first was that my Toughness had gone up by two, which didn’t seem possible, and Mental Acuity had gone up a point, though when that had happened I couldn’t be sure. I’d missed the sensation, so I suspected there had been a lot going on when I’d leveled that.
“Well?” Torma boomed. “Your level went up.”
“It did. I got two points in Toughness. How is that possible?”
“Point in each arm?” Ellaazi suggested seriously, causing Ressa to chuckle.
“Yeah,” Torma said. “It happens a lot for the first time of using the technique. It happened to me. It’s a point from increasing your strength, but we suspect it’s an increase in overall Durability, because of pushing yourself past the point of injury. We’ll never know for certain, and it won’t happen again. You’ll be lucky to get one the next few times we do this. And then it’ll probably be a point every few days as you increase in strength. And it’ll take longer to get there each time.”
“That’s fine, man. This is brilliant. I actually feel stronger. I feel like I could punch through a wall.”