Side Story- Steph and Will's training

No!

Steph bolted upright, gasping for breath as she tried to calm her pounding heart. She’d had the dream again, the same one she’d been having ever since their demon hunt. Ben dead on the ground as she was powerless to do anything, with it only getting worse each time she had it. Soon enough it wasn’t just Ben she was seeing, but the others as well, Will, Wedrow, and Thera, and before long it was encompassing other old classmates too, with her powerless to do anything to help.

She reached beside her, looking for Will’s hand, but only finding more empty bed.

Waking up alone again it looks like. She thought dejectedly, knowing he must have gone out to train as soon as he was up like he had been ever since they got back, and decided to get an early start on her own as she got dressed and left her room.

Her living conditions were more than satisfying as she made her way down the long hall, greeting the servants that had been assigned to ensure her every need was met outside of her training, but it all felt like a bit too much at times. She hadn’t exactly been in poverty on earth, but her family was comfortably middle class, the idea that she could simple ring a bell at any hour of day or night and have someone come to attend to her was something she’d never get used to, but it did give her time to focus on the other things she needed.

“Would you pass along the message to Sweetdale that I’ll be going to the hospital early today?” She told the guard as she left the building, before making her way to the place she’d been putting her life magic to the test since she’d come back, her nightmares motivating her to get to work.

Originally her schedule had been much different, with one day of each week being devoted to practicing each of her magic skills, two for being educated about the world, and two days for rest, with the occasional excursions. It had honestly been far less taxing than she’d expected when she’d first found herself on the world and learned just what was expected of her, but the reasoning she was given was simple enough. The nation simply didn’t plan for her to raise her skill levels.

It wasn’t like they wouldn’t be overjoyed if she did, but awakened skills were supposedly notoriously difficult to level. Doing it required a monumental amount of effort and the point of summoning them wasn’t to burn them out before the fighting even started when they were already so powerful just by some at the zeroth.

A part of her thought it was likely to keep them from being resentful of both the nation and the world as well, she could only imagine how she would have reacted to being worked to death after all they’d gone through and given just how powerful awakened skill users could be, it seemed that any nation that housed them made it a priority to keep them happy in exchange for the work they did.

Of course, that led to the question of why they needed training if they were already so powerful and weren’t expected to raise their level, but things weren’t so simple. Arriving in the world didn’t give them the innate knowledge on every way their skills could be used, at most it left them with a bit of instinct on the topic, something that they’d supposedly feel a bit more of with each level up, but it was no replacement for actual knowledge and practice, and by god did they need it.

As things stood, just a bit over a year since they’d arrived and they were still far from competent, using their skills more like they were high levels of the first tier than people who had reached greater heights, but from what she’d been told that had been expected.

Though rare, there were cases of people being born with an awakened blessed skill as a result of an intense affinity to it, and whenever that happened it still took time for the skill-holder to be able to use it to its full potential. Just having the ability to do something was no substitute for the practice someone who gained the skill through hard work would have, but the time it took to catch up was considered far shorter. The plan had been for both her and Will to have become fully proficient in their awakened skills by the earliest possible date the invaders could arrive, with any years they didn’t then devoted to trying to get their skill levels up if they could.

After their disastrous demon hunt though things had changed for both of them. While her space and time magic lessons were still only one day a week each, she’d insisted that her life magic be bumped up to four, leaving her with a single day off and only the occasional hour or two throughout the week to learn more about the world. After a year on the topic, she was sure that she knew all of the most relevant information at least, with everything else being covered and learned as she went.

For Will’s part, he focused on his one active blessed skill, unarmed master, throwing himself into learning various combat techniques and getting fighters of every sort lined up for him to go up against, testing himself and learning what he could. From what she knew he was doing well, there was just a single weakness he was seeking to overcome, though she knew the fact he wasn’t having much luck was getting to him.

She let out a sigh as her thought’s led her to the hospital, it was time to get to work.

---

Enhance the immune response, stimulate cell growth, focus on blood regeneration to make up for what was lost, keep going until it’s done. She thought to herself as she devoted herself to treating the injury before her.

Usually, Steph focused on treating the symptoms of chronic illness that plagued the long term patients of the hospital, the sort that could only be truly cured if she was to make it to the mid-range of her awakened skill, but all of the healers knew to get her for any injuries that needed to be treated. On the one hand, they tended to be easier to deal with than any illness considering she only needed to direct her magic to speed up what the body would be attempting to do anyway, but on the other, she knew that these were the wounds she would be dealing with the most, maybe in the near future too.

With the war coming eventually she needed to be able to take full advantage of her skill to get the speed she should be capable of to treat various wounds. Which meant practice. As time had passed she’d at least managed to get acquainted with the variety of life and light mages around, and they knew the role she was meant to serve, leaving them happy to give her whatever work she wanted. It might not be good for their own skills, but all of them were levels four to six, with only a couple sevens, they didn’t have any illusions about how much more valuable it would be for her to be able to properly wield her skills compared to if all of them managed to go up a level in that time.

“Who’s next? She asked as she was done, looking up to find her life magic teacher beside her instead of the doctor who had been assisting.

The small life=affinitied fairy flew beside her, shaking her head as she did. “What’s next,” Sweetdale told her, “Is taking a break.”

“I still have plenty of mana left, I can keep going.”

“Not in such an exhausted state,” She said as she placed a tiny hand by the bags under Steph’s eyes. “I know you’re still not sleeping well, you need a rest.”

“I don’t need rest, I need to get better,” She didn’t want her nightmares to become a reality, to stare down at the mangled bodies of her friends. She didn’t want to be in the position where someone she cared about was right in front of her when she didn’t have the skill or practice to do anything about it.

The fairy sighed with a shake of her head. “You and your lover have been impossible since you’ve returned, I know the experience must have been traumatic, but I’m here to help and guide you. I’ve already informed the hospital not to provide you with any more patients today.”

“What, but there’s still plenty of people here, I can help!”

“The staff got on fine before you arrived and will be able to manage, especially with the amount you’ve already covered today. Besides, there’s something we need to talk about. Do you think your counseling has been going well?”

“I mean, I’d say it took a bit of a hit recently,” She told the small fairy dryly. Like many of the other summoned across the world, she’d been assigned someone to talk to, to help her adjust to the massive changes in her life. She couldn’t deny that it helped make things easier, though the disaster that was their hunt had set her back.

“But all in all, you’d agree it’s beneficial, yes?”

“Yeah, it helps. Why?”

“The nation in charge of Will has put in a request of you, it seems he’s been skipping out on his appointments and they’re beginning to worry.”

---

Will watched as the dulled edge of a sword came down at him and made the instantaneous choice to push forward instead of pulling back to land an attack of his own, punching the chest of the orcish swordsman he was currently practicing with, weakening the blow of the attack he received and knocking them back in the process.

Still not enough. He thought angrily to himself. Not only was his technique not enough to meet what should be possible with his skill, but his strength was lower than it should be too. He knew he was immensely more powerful in this world compared to his old one, he could feel the energy running through him when he first woke up in the church so long ago, but he was dealing with the issue of truly believing he could be that strong. He could easily make himself lift weights far beyond what he’d ever had in the past, but when it came to throwing punches and kicks they kept falling short of the energy he knew he could exert.

Really, at this point what he was best with was his blessed skill, tough skin, and that was really a passive one in nature. His body was capable of taking more damage without issue without his input, but at the least it let him get away with riskier things, like taking a sword swing to continue on his attack.

With that fight done he went to his current sparring partner and gave them a hand, helping them up as they both went to some nearby healers before Will went back to another target, starting a whole new fight.

While originally his weeks were fairly evenly divided between actual sparing and lessons on technique, now sparing took up the most of his time. It wasn’t that he’d cut down on lessons though, he’d just made sure that when they could be, they were incorporated into more physical practice, as well as upping the amount of opponents he could see each day.

Instead of having just two or three sparring partners, he had dozens to go through, winning more and more as time went on, but still getting a few defeats from people who had lower skills than him but years of technique and practical experience. He was told that sparing with him had been put up as a request at the adventurers guild in a few nearby cities, as well as cities that could easily be reached through the gate, and anyone who was particularly skilled or managed to beat him would be invited back for even more pay, with each win netting them an increase.

Since it was a quest locked to only those who were at least rank four at the guild it guaranteed he was only getting those who were competent, and the variety of fighting styles, races, and weapons he’d faced off against was enough to ensure he had a good experience as he trained.

If possible, he wanted the chance to try going against someone else with an awakened fighting skill, but since those were few and far between he took the next person in line, a cyclops that towered at nine feet tall, rippling with muscle as they used the rather unusual weapon of a head-sized rock.

As the fight began Will dodged to the side as he closed the distance, having fully expected for it to be used as a projectile, only to be proven wrong as his opponent went to meet him with a long stride and brought the stone down on his arm with enough force to hurt him, even with his tough skin.

He’d made a mistake, but not an insurmountable one as he grabbed the outstretched arm before it could be pulled back and with a quick move threw the giant of a man over his shoulder.

The intention was to bring him to the ground and hopefully knock the wind out of him, but with a level of dexterity he would never have guessed the cyclops to possess they landed on their feet and using their strength reversed the situation, dropping their rock to instead grab onto him, throwing him against the dirt with enough force that his body bounced.

The cyclops seemed to be waiting to see what he would do, but he only raised a hand and let out a groan. “I give, you win this one.”

He was sure he could have done a bit better if he’d been using his lightning augmentation, but he wanted to get proficient with his most powerful skills before he went back to training that new one, and even if he’d put it to work he was sure he still would have lost.

Being a gracious victor, his opponent helped him up and thanked him for the fight as Will began to walk over to the healers, only to find Steph standing with them.

Oh, this might not be good.

“Uh, everyone! I’m going to take fifteen so bare with me for a little!” He yelled out as he went up to her as she started treating his wound before he could even ask.

“You know, I’m not sure why I’m spending so much time at the hospital when it looks like I could be getting even more work here.”

“Haha, well you know how sparing is, it gets a little rough.”

She reached up and grabbed his head as she started applying magic to it. “If you think hitting the ground so hard you bounce four feet in the air is only a little rough then you must be concussed,” She told him, before continuing in a more worried voice. “I was told you aren’t going to your counseling appointments.”

He couldn’t help but wince as she said it. Yeah, this probably isn’t good. “I just don’t think it’s the best use of my time right now, the practice I’m doing is important.”

“Will… I know neither of us are doing the best right now, but I don’t want to see you battered and beaten every day.”

“I’m always healed up by the time I’m home.”

“You know what I mean. I’m worried. When Sweetdale told me you were skipping she made a suggestion I wasn’t planning on accepting, but I’ve changed my mind. We’re going on vacation. We need a break to take our minds off everything that’s happened before going back into all of this.”

He wanted to argue, but could see in her eyes she wouldn’t yield, so rather than turn it into a fight he decided to just give in. “Alright, if you feel so strongly about this then maybe a break would be nice, where do you want to go?”

“It doesn’t just have to be one place. Spending some time in the mole peoples kingdom could be interesting, or maybe the fairy homeland. Is there anywhere you might want to go?”

Anywhere I want to go? I mean, I’m still getting used to this place, let alone another nation. He thought to himself, before remembering what Ben had worked so hard to tell him before everything had gone downhill.

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind visiting Anailia.”

Authors Note

Hello everyone, I'm back and well rested! So it looks like Will may be interested in getting the same skill he learned Ben had earlier in the demon hunting arc, you can expect it to be at least mentioned a bit farther in the future in the main story. Aside from that this was a fun one, I figured it might be good to show their own personal fallout from being in such a dangerous situation, as well as giving an idea on how they'd been living before hand. I can only imagine how poor Ben might feel if he learned that the various other summoned weren't facing nearly as many life and death situations as he'd ended up in. Anyway the next poll should be in about a week as always, until then I hope you enjoyed it and stay well!