Unbound

Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen - 114

"Best thing to do before sundering is to build up any Skills ye might have that are similar." Rory paced in front of Felix, his heavy arms akimbo. "The only problem with your situation is that ye probably don't have enough Skills to fold in. In that case we can load you up with a few nice alternatives, then train em. Sound good?"

Felix nodded. He'd shown him the broken Skills, but he wasn't about to reveal his full Skill list to Rory, nice guy or not.

Over the next hour, Rory detailed Guilder Skill basics. Typically a new Tin Rank recruit was expected to learn at least two passive Physical Enhancement Skills, one active Combat Skill, one Mental Enhancement Skill (typically an informational type Skill like Herbalism or Analyze), and sometimes one or more Mana Skills if their Titles extended in that direction.

"Don't your recruits have Skills already, though?" Felix asked.

"O' course! If they're useful, we lean into em. If not, they're abandoned. Can't be learnin' too many Skills or else you'll end up unbalanced." Rory took a drag from a pipe he'd procured somewhere. After letting out a cloud of smoke, he sighed. "A lotta young idiots get it in their heads to play the hero."

Felix kept his face as neutral as possible before swiftly listing the Skills he had that fit into Rory's framework.

"Good. Ye've covered most of the basics. Surprised that ye got so many Resistance Skills, those're notoriously hard to get," Rory gave Felix an appraising look. "Makes sense that Pain Resistance is on your list. Ye'd need it."

Felix cursed inwardly. Perhaps telling him about those wasn't the best play, but three of his broken Skills were resistances. It made sense if he somehow combined them with his others. He'd already admitted to being trained in several martial Skills by Harn, so that cat was well and out of the bag too.

"We can build up your Resistances, I think, if your up for it. The weapon mastery Skills ye have can be pushed toward Martial Mastery, which is what our more talented recruits achieve, though not normally before Iron Rank. Ye'll be ahead of the curve there." Rory grinned, excited at the prospect. "Your broken Acrobatics is a toughie, but we'll build up your Running and Swimming Skills to push on that one. Intimidation, however, stumps me. I'll have to think on that.

"So. Shall we get started?"

For the first few hours, Rory had Felix exercise with a few of the others. The movements pushed him to his limits, earning a significant amount of Skill levels. But that wasn't the end of it. The Dwarf said he wanted to get a baseline reading on Felix's general abilities.

He was also not allowed to run the Gauntlet. Not yet.

"It'll crush ye, lad," the Dwarf insisted. "You're barely level twenty..."

Right. The Veiling. It was obscuring his capabilities, though the how still escaped him. It seemed to present a different set of information to everyone, yet no one had noticed the discrepancy. Was that part of it too? A sort of...forgetfulness aura?

He had many questions for Caerwin. But that meeting was days off, and the training was now.

Much like his morning water runs, Felix was forced to carry thick wooden beams while doing laps around the Gauntlet. At first this was manageable, if a strain, as the beam was very dense in addition to being fairly unwieldy. Keeping balance of the ten foot long object was more of a concern. But every five laps, Rory changed it up by adding either more weight or telling Felix to increase his speed. By the end of the first hour, Felix was burning through his Stamina prodigiously and doing sprint intervals around the warehouse.

It was torture. His heart hammered and his skin was covered in sweat. His muscles ached with a terrible intensity, while the shoulder the beam lied upon became so numb it felt like it was going to fall off. Felix's Stamina regeneration was impressive by this point, but maintaining Meditation while he ran was an insurmountable task at first. All of his regeneration took a sizable hit.

Breathe. In through the nose, out of the mouth. A circle. A cycle. In and out.

In.

Out.

Felix pushed himself harder than he had in a long time. Though it wasn't the same as fighting for his life against monsters, his body was being stressed in new and terrible ways. The beam went from hefty to impossibly weighty as he ran on, his arms screaming while his legs were pillars of electric lava. Pain crackled through his hips and spine, setting his flesh on fire where it wasn't numbed by the beam's compression.

He didn't stop.

And the notifications poured down like rain.

Running is level 22!

...

Running is level 24!

Pain Resistance is level 43!

Pain Resistance is level 44!

Physical Conditioning is level 25!

Congratulations! You Have Reached Apprentice Tier in Physical Conditioning!

You Gain:

+10 STR

+10 END

+10 VIT

Physical Conditioning is level 26!

Meditation is level 34!

Meditation is level 35!

Meditation is level 36!

In fact, as the hours ground down, Felix felt himself...not reveling in the exertion and pain, but appreciating it almost. His Body was powerful, he'd known that for a while, but he hadn't recognized his new limits. He was running headlong into them now.

A mad laugh often slithered through his defenses while he worked, sending fissures of pain through his chest. Each time Felix had to clamp down hard on his Bastion of Will. He had to train his Mind as well, and the Maw was an...eager participant. Every time his defenses slackened, it was there, testing the edges of its prison.

Bastion of Will is level 43!

Deep Mind is level 32!

Pain Resistance is level 45!

Through the haze of pain, Felix worried at what the Maw could do. He had to admit, however, that it was perfect for practicing constant vigilance. And despite his growth, his bloodline progression hadn't changed by a single percentage.

"That's enough!"

After four hours, Rory called it. Felix collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted. While he'd learned to flare his Meditation occassionally while running, Felix still had trouble activating it the entire time. His Stamina was in the red and had been for a long time. He didn't even bother to sit up and simply laid down on the floor and tried to reign in his jerky, erratic breathing.

At some point, Karp, Kelgan, and Yan had joined Felix in his torture. They hadn't run as long as Felix, but they were all varying degrees of a mess. He blinked. He hadn't noticed at all.

I might be...worse off...than I thought. He gulped lungfuls of air. Even my...inner monologue...is winded.

Eventually he gained control over his breathing and Felix felt Meditation activate, soothing his aching muscles with the benefits of enhanced regeneration. Slowly, so very slowly, his mind cleared from the haze.

"Back on your feet, all of ye!"

At this point, Felix wasn't even thinking anymore, he simply lurched more or less upright. Rory stood in front of the small group and started doing...stretches. Felix's beleaugered mind took a long moment to realize what was expected of him, then followed suit. Strange as it was to see, the Dwarven trainer was extremely limber and the positions he forced them into were complicated to the point of being punishment. Felix's body had never moved or bent in such ways, but he doggedly pressed on even while Karp and Yan collapsed. The stretches were extremely painful, both because of the extent of the movement but also due to the intense, agonizing knots that his legs, back, and shoulders had become. Each push and pull sent rivers of heat lightning across his joints, burning his tendons and ligaments as much as they did his muscles.

His advanced physical stats gave him an edge over the others, Dexterity alone doing a lot of heavy lifting; but ultimately it was his monstrous Willpower that let Felix shunt aside the agony and continue. Regardless, Felix eventually fell from proper form...again and again, but Rory just shoved him back into place each time.

Time passed again in a sweaty blur. The stretching felt almost as rigorous as the sprinting, and by the time Rory stopped all of Felix's muscles felt like jelly. Weak and wobbly. Felix ached for rest.

Physical Conditioning is level 27!

Physical Conditioning is level 28!

Meditation is level 37!

With a strained grunt, Felix was hauled back to his feet. He wasn't sure who did it at first, but the sawdust and leather smell of Rory had become unmistakable.

"You're not done yet, lad. Keep pushin'!"

Somehow, he picked up his dense wooden beam and hefted it onto his shoulder again. Felix and the others were led outside, into the afternoon sunlight. The journey was at first a succession of light and shadow, little more than flashes across his beleaguered vision. However, his Meditation had caught up to his exertions, at least a little bit; Felix found enough clarity to recognize that he had been led to the river.

Green and fast flowing, the river wound through the Dust Quarter like a sleeping dragon. It smelled of wet boards, moldering stone, and something deeper that he couldn't place. A few boats moved up and down its length, each with long, brown spindly legs that took Felix entirely too much time to realize were oars.

Rory stood in front of them and said something that Felix couldn't make out above the watery slap of the river waves and the roaring in his ears. He shook his head and focused, just in time to see the Dwarf gesture down a slick set of stairs.

"...is Swimming. One mile, completed twenty times," Rory grinned. "Ye've got until nightfall."

Judging by the long shadows and dropping temperature, that was only a few hours away. Felix's head spun slightly as his Stamina fought to catch up. Was this what it meant to push himself? Was it enough? The roaring in Felix's ears became a high, sadistic laughter.

Yes, keep going, child. Break for me.

Felix snarled wordlessly, causing Yan and Karp to step back from him. He didn't even notice. I will not break. Not here. Not ever!

Before his mind could catch up, Felix ignored the stairs and leaped directly into the river.

When Felix began his running, Pit was more than content to sit in the pretty Human's lap and get pets. Disguised as a Dire Hound meant others were far less cautious around him, and Pit was enjoying that immensely. The pretty Human, for instance, had always felt nervous around Pit in the past; scared, even. Now, however, she seemed delighted by him.

Pit chirruped happily as she scratched just the right part of his neck. He liked this magic stone.

Additionally, the tenku found he was becoming more and more aware of the emotional state of the big folk around him, to the point that he could track their general feelings moment to moment. There was limited use for this ability, Pit realized, but it helped net him a significant amount of treats. The pretty girl and the scary one both caved after a few minutes of what Felix called 'begging.' Felix's concept of the word was surrounded by a gentle admonishment, but Pit couldn't imagine why. His stomach was full from all the treats they snuck him. How could that be bad?

Over the course of the day, Pit observed his Companion training with several of the other Humans, and it was exciting. But after the tenth time around the room with that strange, dead tree Pit started to feel sleepy. If Felix's emotions were any indicator, the running was very difficult and only grew more tiresome as he went on...but Pit could only muster a bored disinterest.

They stopped the running after a while, this time to do some strange poses. These were not interesting either.

Pit took a nap.

When he woke, he was alone. The pretty girl had abandoned him to fight against one of the burly Humans, this one with a big heavy hammer. As he contemplated finding another Human to beg for treats (his stomach was feeling empty again), his legs wobbled beneath him. A thrill of terrifying weakness strummed across Pit's chest, and the tenku let out a surprised whimper.

Felix...

His Companion was hurt, somehow. But it didn't feel...it felt intentional. Strain. Yes. Strain was the word the chimera sought; Felix felt as if his Body, Mind, and Spirit were being stretched thin. That thinning, it reverberated across their bond like a sharpened chord, a music that sawed dangerously close to....

Pit snarled, unable to stop himself. He scented the Enemy on his Companion, more so than usual.

Back off!

Pit's scream was silent and devoted entirely within; the powerful strings that connected him to his Companion shuddered with that exclamation, however. There was a discordant squawk that cut through the air, then silence. The connection between Felix and Pit snapped back into crystal clarity, and though the tenku could feel the immense physical and emotional exhaustion the Nym was enduring, it was clean. Pure.

The Enemy was back in its cage.

Shortly after that, Felix stumbled into the warehouse along with three others. They were all soaking wet even though the rain had stopped a long while ago. Felix was obviously exhausted, his Stamina almost completely depleted, but as the Nymean fell to his knees he began to regain that ground. Rapidly.

Pit snorted in satisfaction. If nothing else, his Companion was relentless. Felix might bite off more than he could chew and nearly die multiple times a week, but he never gave up. A sense of satisfaction wafted around his Companion, flaring just slightly stronger than the exhaustion that plagued him. Thoughts of fighting, spells, and new heights rolled through his mind like storm winds.

Pit chirped in excitement, relishing the idea of more combat. Perhaps this time, he could even...

The not-quite-small one (a Dwarf, he reminded himself), the Dwarf said something about resting and visualizing his gains. Pit didn't fully understand his meaning, but Felix seemed to; his Companion had simply nodded and closed his eyes.

Just...sat there. Thinking.

It was extremely boring.

Huffing a breath rife with dissatisfaction, Pit folded his legs and settled in to watch. Even when his stomach called for more food, the tenku did not move. The Enemy tried to strike when he was weakest, and Pit would not give it the chance. It was the least he could do, for his friend.

He just wished there were more treats.