The room was quiet, even though Logan knew a bunch of other adventurers were training on this level. Opaque walls separated Logan from the other sections, though, which was a courtesy for new adventurers so they didn't get too distracted by everybody else's lessons.

Logan focused, avoiding Horace's tail by stepping and rolling back, and then dodged the following strike. During the roll, he caught the rustle of scales close by. It was much closer than he had expected, proving just how fast the serpentine bard was.

To avoid smacking headlong into whatever strike came next, Logan eased out of his momentum as he came out of the roll. He faced where Horace should be, but was surprised to see nobody.

A gentle flick tapped Logan on the head from the opposite side.

"Well done! That is a consssiderable improvement."

Logan blinked. The bard was on his left, not his right. "How did you—? I could have sworn you were over there. I heard you."

Horace smiled, fangs just slightly visible. The sound came again to Logan's right, but still nothing was there.

"Ah. A sound illusion."

His mentor shrugged lightly. "I am a bard. Besssides, you're getting good with that combo, ssso I wanted to introduce an extra element. I can ease back, if you'd like."

Logan had worked up a small sweat, even with his decent Endurance. The training was actually more challenging than he had expected, and his Dodge skill had steadily risen all the way to 16. He hadn't even had a chance to try multi-training his affinity skills. Only now were the Dodge gains slowing. If Logan let Horace take it easy on him, the gains might stop completely. "No, this is good."

The serpentine nodded. "I thought as much." He slithered back to his starting point, and Logan took the cue to get back to his own mark.

This was probably a good point for Logan to test his limits beyond just the dodging.

Meditate!

Time seemed to slow as a portion of Horace's tail curved toward Logan. The tip was drawing back. Logan had been noticing the angle and length from which the tail tip struck changed based on this first tell. He wasn't sure if the bard was intentionally telegraphing his move, or if that was thanks to his high Perception.

He was glad he had done the first bit of training without Meditate because it had helped him gain an intuitive sense for that kind of telegraphing. But now he wanted to get a better grip on anticipating opponent's movements.

Aetherlens!

Unrelenting Hunt!

Mana strands appeared around the area, but Logan's main reason for using Aetherlens right now was to hide his use of Unrelenting Hunt. Usually the skill helped him follow tracks. Now, he was still doing that, but they were tracks as they were being created.

Right now, the contracting muscles beneath Horace's scales were still rippling down his tail. Any moment, they would contract, triggering the whip.

It happened.

Between Meditate slowing things down and Unrelenting Hunt showing even small tells in the bard's movements Logan backstepped perfectly. He went into the roll, and just as expected, the illusory sound kicked in halfway through his roll to his right. Even though he was using Aetherlens to mask his Void skill, it still let him see the sound was an illusion by the way the strands of mana thrummed as Horace manipulated them.

But it wasn't only mana helping him map the scene. Unrelenting Hunt showed him how the dust was getting disrupted, and in the same area. The illusion wasn't responsible for that. It had to be the real location of Horace, too.

Horace probably assumed that Logan was expecting a similar feint, and considering Horace was actually positioned where it sounded like he was, he was also probably expecting Logan to come out of his roll, ready to land a counter strike against Horace on the opposite side. But if Logan did that, he would hit open air and stumble under his own momentum.

He finished his roll and came out of it with an uppercut.

His fist connected with Horace's jaw.

Time slammed back to full speed as Logan released his grip on Meditate.

Dodge is level 17!

Gauntlet Mastery is level 22!

Meditate is level 34!

Aetherlens is level 32!

Unrelenting Hunt is level 31! Unrelenting Hunt is level 32!

"Oh my," said Horace as he rubbed his jaw. "Very good! I'm glad you have those training gauntlets on and not your normal ones."

Logan grinned at the compliment. "Well, I figured you had another trick up your sleeves."

Horace looked down at the open, padded vest on his scaly chest.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Ah, never mind," said Logan.

"Right. Well, I would like to see you reach the Dodge perk today. Don't expect me to make it any easier!" He slithered to the entry door. "And I don't think we need the room blinders anymore. The added distraction may challenge you even more."

With that, Horace tapped a small, square panel, and the opaque walls became translucent, revealing everyone else busy with their own training. Along with the visuals, sounds came through too, and Logan realized even the ambient mana suddenly flowed into the other rooms. He still had Aetherlens active and hadn't noticed the negative space of mana shields until the opacity dimmed, but now those separating shields were gone completely.

Senna practiced in an area just to Logan's left. Apparently, the removal of the walls separating him from her caught her off guard too. "Heads up!" she called out as a projectile, already midair, whizzed toward Logan.

At the same moment, Horace's voice rose, melodious. "A helping friend is but a breath away!" The wind kicked up so fast it almost knocked Logan off his feet. The projectile swerved up, redirected by the powerful gust.

Logan wasn't sure how much of that had been wind as opposed to condensed Force mana, or possibly a combination thereof. But the ball Senna had thrown exploded high above.

"Don't mind me," Senna said. She lobbed a metal sphere with a plant stem poking out of its top at a bouncing mechanical target. "I was using that wall to hit it on a ricochet."

She wasn't the only one engaged in training. Alden used Festered Veins to spray black ichor from his wrists at a series of targets. Bromlin laughed as his axe hit wooden pegs that popped up from the ground like a giant whack-a-mole game. There was an occasional stone peg, and for those he smacked his axe down on the flat side to avoid dulling his blade.

Cassandra was to Logan's right, chest rising and falling with heavy breaths as a hanging punching bag swung ever so slightly in front of her. Sweat drenched her face, but her expression remained oddly blank, and Logan quickly realized why. She was forcing herself to keep her calm while her trainer idly picked his fingernails and yawned.

Logan recognized his face from the row of busts in the Adventurer's Guild. He had been in the same line-up as Cassandra's father, but positioned much lower down.

"You know, it's okay to have a skill you end up never using. You can always stick to Radiant mana. But just because you can't make the bag swing more than an inch, it's not a complete waste of my time. Our time, I mean. Once I get an idea of all these weaknesses I'm seeing in you, I can design something that will really make you shine."

Cassandra didn't seem willing to accept his condescension. She pulled an arm back, and Force mana gathered around it.

But Logan saw an opposing Force shimmer from behind her punching bag. It wasn't mana actively being used, so she wouldn't see it with her Manasight skill. This was woven into place ahead of time.

Aetherlens is level 33!

Cassandra's punch landed with enough force to deal some serious damage.

But the punching bag barely moved.

Cassandra's jaws worked as her mentor snickered.

That is so unfair. The guy had placed a block behind the bag to hold her back!

Before he could see more, Logan doubled over and landed with a thump on the ground as Horace connected a punch to his ribs while he wasn't looking.

The serpentine trainer clicked his tongue, which took longer than most people did considering its length. "Perhaps I brought the walls down too soon. Our training is still where your focus should be." He sounded more disappointed in himself than Logan.

"Sorry, no, I'm good."

He returned to his starting mark. In the direction he faced, he could still see Cassandra.

She caught his eye briefly, and only then did he catch the flicker of embarassed disappointment.

Logan shook his head and opened his eyes a little wider. He wanted to tell her that her training was rigged. A chat message would be easier, but she didn't have the Dream affinity and wasn't part of the Tetherlink contract, so he had to resort to the old method of exaggerated facial expressions.

She cocked her head and scrunched her face.

Logan waggled his eyebrows and then jerked his head to her trainer and the bag, but she shook her head to show she didn't understand.

Horace cleared his throat, and Logan flashed him a sheepish smile before getting into his ready stance.

Cassandra glanced between Logan and the punching bag with a still-confused expression. To her credit, she was gearing up for another punch. The way the shifting ambient mana moved, Logan could tell she was mustering as much mana as she could. It was like watching someone take a deep breath and then try to keep inhaling more even beyond the lung's capacity. Even with all that, though, she wouldn't break past the barrier erected behind the bag.

Her trainer's chin dipped as his smile turned even more insincere.

Horace wasn't waiting around either and launched his next attack sequence.

Meditate!

Time slowed. Force mana gathered at the tip of Horace's tail as it wound back. That was something new.

Likely, it would create an extra concussive blast when the tail strike landed at Logan. If Logan did his traditional backstep, it wouldn't take him back far enough to avoid the blast. As far as Horace knew, Logan didn't have Manasight or Aetherlens. For day one of training, that might be unfair, but unlike Cassandra's trainer, Horace seemed genuine in discovering Logan's limits so he could help him improve. The bard probably had a reason for it.

Even though Logan could dodge whatever force skill Horace was using by stepping back further, that might raise questions. Besides, his teacher probably would have a lesson for Logan at the end.

Logan decided he would take the bait and let the strike land. But he wasn't going to waste an opportunity when he saw it.

He slipped his hand into his pocket, where his finger grazed the Amulet of Bleed Immunity.

Affinity Touchstone (Life) detected! Would you like to rotate your affinity?

You have assumed the Life Affinity! Penalty: Void affinity lost. You may not use any Void-aligned skills that require mana until your Void affinity is restored.

Eldertread! Invigorating Flame!

The pull on his mana increased dramatically. He had cast Eldertread on himself first, expecting mana depletion might happen, and now he was glad he had.

Horace's tail lashed toward him. Logan backstepped, entering his roll, but was still within range of the blast from the bard's tail. It sent Logan sprawling to the floor.

Eldertread, though, reduced the impact.

Eldertread is level 34!

Shortly after that, he got the notification that his mana was depleted. He heard the loud crack from the adjacent section, where Cassandra was, and looked up just in time to see the punching bag swinging wildly.

Cassandra's instructor wore a dumbstruck look.

Horace extended a hand to help Logan up. "Sometimes your opponent will use tactics they think you cannot detect."

Clearly, Logan thought as he relished Cassandra's instructor stuttering over her display.

As Horace continued and said he had planted a hint about his own skills with the gust of wind that redirected Senna's small bomb, Cassandra flipped her hair and adjusted her skirt.

"Don't worry about missing the clue," said Horace. "These things come easier once your Perception reaches around 50."

Logan kept a straight face as he thanked Horace, but shared one more glance with Cassandra. Considering she had accepted his buff from Invigorating Flame, she seemed to have understood now that her instructor had rigged her training based on her maximum power.

Horace tucked his thumbs into the arm-holes of his vest. "Now let's see what else I can pull from this vest's sleeves."

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