Return of the Woodcutter

Aito laid on the grass, his gaze fixed on the far ceiling, housing a fake sun much like the one on the second floor. He tried to move his arms, legs, and fingers. No results. He was paralyzed from head to toe.

'Just what is this?' He thought, only able to look around.

A few moments ago, he had been using Durability after drawing the last drop of mana from the second mana core. With Ogoro's knowledge, it had been easy to figure out how to do it. However, Aito had not predicted what would follow.

To his mind, it didn't make sense. The only possible reason for this paralysis he could think of was a shortage of stamina.

But he had recovered a certain amount of his stamina using Pneuma. In fact, he had already been using Pneuma during his "warm-up," which allowed him to finish the course that had felt like a goddamn marathon, albeit with straw targets falling on his head.

His gift Intuition had flared a few times to warn him, but ultimately he had to keep a lookout for those in order to properly dodge. Fortunately, he had trained his awareness by being on guard every second of his stay on the island.

But running with a heavy armor and his weapon while watching out for items dropping from a blind spot was something else entirely. The falling frequency had varied. Sometimes shorter. Other times longer.

So it had been impossible to predict the fall according to a fixed rhythm. He had tried to look up constantly. Bad idea. He almost hit another runner by doing so. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't figure out a way to dodge those damn straw targets every time. Was it even possible?

"I see you finally hit the limit of your soul power, ey?" Gwen said, appearing next to him.

"Wh…" he started, but couldn't manage more. His jaw felt completely loose. Much like his entire body.

"Don't force it. You'll regain control of your body in a wee bit." Gwen said, sitting next to him cross-legged. "In the meantime, how about a little theory class? Not that you can disagree anyway, gahahaha."

'Not funny,' he thought, showing his disapproval by breathing slightly harder than before.

But she didn't seem to notice as she said, "The state you are in is called soul power exhaustion, or we also call this feelless because you can't really feel your body."

Gwen blew a white cloud of smoke and continued, "It happens when your soul power reaches its limit. Before you use the very last drop of it, your body shuts down. Your soul needs soul power surrounding it to function properly, after all. Although it produces the soul power, the amount produced isn't sufficient to fuel its needs. Even if you reach a higher soul level, commonly called class level, you'll just remain feeless for a shorter amount of time."

'That's why there is a soul power reservoir, I guess.' He thought, feeling he should avoid soul exhaustion at all costs during a fight. 'Yeah, that much is obvious.'

"The point of this exercise is to first, familiarize yourself with the use of Durability." She said, lifting her index finger. "Second, make you realize your limits. To know how far you can go has many benefits. Amongst them, is a deeper understanding of how your skill works. Of how much soul power and mana it costs you to activate it. Since there isn't really a means to quantify it, at least to my knowledge, it's the only way I know of to get yourself accustomed to the dosage, quickly. I could use a softer method, but we don't have the time for that."

Aito felt a bit thankful towards her for taking the time period into consideration, even if her method was quite exhausting to say the least.

'But as long as it helps me get stronger, I'll do it again without batting an eye.' He thought. Aito had at first his doubt about this so-called training, but Gwen's exercises started to make sense to him. At least the soul exhaustion exercise. After all, getting a feel of how many times he could use a skill—considering the soul power limit—would influence the way he would fight in the future.

Back on the island, after acquiring skills, he had already thought about pushing his limits, although not the way Gwen was doing and certainly not the target dropping part. But ultimately, he had concluded to be too risky in an environment where he needed to keep enough stamina to be ready for an attack that could come at any moment.

"Anyway, you'll be doing that every day after your warm-up. As for what comes after you've recovered enough soul power...." She paused, smirking. "I hope you don't mind bruises, blood, and broken bones."

'Broken bones?' He thought, hiding his discomfort. Bruises and blood were fine by him. He had gotten used to the pain. However, broken bones had never been part of his daily struggle. A few times, yes, but not every day.

'As long as it makes me stronger...'

***

Around one hour after Aito regained his stamina.

"Shit!" Aito cursed. Shirtless, with only his linen pants, he had his back against an earth wall Gwen had summoned out of thin air to prevent him from stepping back.

An empty wooden human-shaped medieval armor powered by a soul core called dullahan was beating the shit out of him. Those could be crafted from different materials like iron, steel, or even beasts parts.

It was sometimes used on the front lines to fight against Fearmongers to avert too many casualties. But lacking a living being's intelligence, it could only execute simple tasks, such as attacking or defending with basic moves.

It could also be used for individual training, like in Aito's case, where no partners could be found or more like he hadn't any. The moderator couldn't get involved physically in his training since it would attract attention more than it already was.

If someone were to ask questions, she could simply brush it off as Aito asking for training equipment like the others. But if she showed real physical involvement, not just counseling, it was another matter. Gwen had to keep it "discreet" after all.

"Shit!" Aito repeated, blocking yet another punch from the dullahan with his forearms.

'I look like a masochist!' He complained internally, guarding against a low kick while thinking back to what Gwen had told him.

Coach Gwen had allowed him to only ripost every thirty moves. He wasn't allowed to dodge—hence his back against the wall—and could only block.

His body had endured a lot on the island, but one hour of "sparing" against a wooden dullahan. That was a first. Aito didn't even know how his body could still stand. Apparently, he had really reached an inhuman physical resistance.

Although he was allowed to ripost, his knuckles, knees, feet, whatever body parts he used, would get injured upon striking thick wood a few times. Though he could definitely destroy his opponent with bare hands, it took quite a few hits.

Taking one dullahan down barehanded could take up to thirty minutes, only then was he allowed to take a breather. Not considering his restriction, the damn thing could still move headless with one leg, and its chest area was more resistant than the other parts because of its thickness.

With his ax, it would no doubt have taken him seconds to bring it down, but weaponless was a true challenge.

'Thirty,' he thought, counting the blows. However, from time to time he could lose count of them because of the pain.

The armor went for a body blow, striking the area next to his liver. Aito gritted his teeth, contracted his bruised abdominal muscles to receive the blow, and countered with a devastating side body blow of his own, pulverizing the already badly damaged armor.

"Alright, that's enough," Gwen said, unsummoning the pieces of wooden armor. She then called him back.

Aito limped towards her, groaning from the pain of a few broken ribs, bloody knuckles, and bruises all over his body.

The few passers-by heading to the second floor for lunch break made complicated expressions seeing the state of his body, whispering "masochists" amongst themselves.

Unbeknownst to Aito, a new rumor overshadowing the naked man attached to the fountain started to take form.

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