Return of the Woodcutter

After Aito recovered enough to move and use his right hand to wield a weapon, Gwen made him use a skill that intrigued her and didn't know how to nurture.

The active skill, Whirlwind.

At first, she asked Aito to use his weapon in order to destroy human shape straw targets with it. Then wooden, iron and finally steel ones. Steel targets had been the limit. However, she supposed that with the right weapon and a level 4 or 5 strength, it might be possible for Aito to shred it to pieces.

But Gwen rapidly came to realize he had no control over it. Not complete control, at least. Using her experience as a battle-hardened warrior, she deduced he'd have to increase his body basic stats to bear the toll of forcing the centrifugal force to a stop.

Or he could improve his overall technique, leading to manual activation and possibly a skill level up.

She decided to focus on that possibility since betting on the level up of his body wasn't a complete fix. Not at Aito's soul level, at least. If Aito's strength basic stat increased to level 4 before his body did—which was a very likely outcome—he'd have the same issue.

That skill was powerful for a level 1 warrior class, no doubt about it. It was also unusual. The god of pain, Brutalina, always provided "power slash" or a power-something skill to a level 1 warrior. Aito's skill was… unusual. She assumed it was normal, considering he was a black challenger.

Gwen decided to focus a part of Aito's training on that skill because of two reasons. First, its sheer power, which would come in handy later on for Aito. Second, it was a stamina-based skill.

Stamina-based skills didn't use mana and soul power like aura-based ones. They were rare and only relied on the user's physical prowess to demonstrate their powers. In that sense, they were practical because they could be used to avoid soul power exhaustion. However, they sometimes can have a bad reputation because they are generally less powerful than aura-based skills.

For the purpose of increasing his proficiency with the skill, she came up with a peculiar exercise. Instead of using an ax to train the skill, Aito would use an item crafted with a rock attached to a rope. It was like a hammer used for hammer throws in regular track and field events.

Aito had to control the rotation force and activate the skill as long as possible without letting go of the rope. If it did, the hammer would crash against the earth walls surrounding him. A security the moderator installed to avoid the hammer killing other challengers.

"My head," Aito said, holding his head with one hand. After thirty minutes of almost non-stop spinning around, he felt sick. Aito used a hand to lean against an earth wall and threw up.

He felt even worse than when he had drunk an entire bottle of alcohol. Aito had tried to push this feeling away, which had manifested only five minutes after starting the exercise, but he had reached his limits. He laid on the grass, waiting for the sickness to ease.

'So tired…' he thought, only realizing how exhausted he was after today's training by lying on comfortable grass. Immediately after, his mind went blurry as he fell asleep amidst the thick earth walls surrounding him.

***

Aito woke up, with aching muscles, on the moderator's bench. He sat up feeling his muscles screaming with pain due to the fact that they had endured intense training, but it was nothing alarming.

Muscular soreness happened when someone underwent physical activities one was not used to. Something Aito knew all too well because of his past training with his dad.

Intrigued as to what time it was, he looked around him, only to see Gwen on the grass sitting cross-legged with her eyes shut. However, he did not see anybody else apart from her.

Also, the staircases had disappeared.

'Did I sleep for that long?' He thought, realizing it was past the cooldown period time. 'No sleeping in my room tonight, I guess.'

His stomach rumbled loudly as if to confirm to him that he had been sleeping for a long time.

To appease his hunger, he took out an indigo, a piece of dried meat from his inventory bag, and ate them while staring at Gwen, wondering what she could be doing.

The giantess appeared to be in a meditative state, like the cultivators in eastern novels Aito had read about. Deciding to inspect, he walked up next to her.

By taking a closer look at the moderator, he realized her muscles' fibers from her toned arms were slightly moving under her skin. As if she was…

'Training? Is she training by only using her mind?' Aito thought, thinking how ridiculous that sounded.

On Earth, he had heard about theories of how visualizing yourself training could prove effective to… actually train.

"Slept well, little man?" Gwen said, opening her eyes.

Flustered because he was found out, Aito stiffened. "Hum, yeah."

"It's rude to stare at people like that, you know?" She said, hinting at Aito who had been staring at her while she was training.

"Sorry… I was intrigued."

"I see," she said, smiling. "It's called visualization. It's not a skill, but a state of mind in which you can picture yourself training."

"How does that work exactly?"

"Nothing fancy, it's just like what I said. You imagine yourself training." Gwen replied. "There is no secret to it, no magic words. Only your imagination matter. It's not easy at first, but with time and practice, your body will come to react to your imagination. Anyone can do it, but only a few bother practicing it enough to make it effective. You can try it if you want. That's what I do when the staircases are closed."

Her last sentence made his mind wandered to how he had abruptly fallen asleep, causing him to be "trapped" on the third floor with the moderator.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" He asked.

"Because you needed sleep." She replied as if stating the obvious. "If your body shuts down on its own like that, it could only mean you needed rest."

"But—" Aito started.

"Sleeping is an important part of training, little man." Gwen interrupted. "It gives time for your body to assimilate everything you did during your training. At least at your level. So don't worry about it."

"I… thanks."

"You're welcome. Now, if you don't mind, I'll go back to my own training. It's past working hours, so don't expect me to train you. If you're bored, you can try visualization, or do whatever. I'm sure you'll figure something out." She said, before closing her eyes.

Aito was about to protest, saying he had paid 1000 TPs, but then thought back to how Gwen took care of him all day long and stopped himself.. To his mind, she had already upheld her part of the agreement.

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