Chapter 24: Chap. 20 : Training Session

There were grumbles and a mumble from Zoemie as she woke up, or at least came to consciousness back from sleep. She did not open her eyes yet, however, keeping them closed and resting for a while, the crust over her eyes fading as she did so.

She shook and wrapped herself in the blanket further, the dragon pajamas keeping her warm and comfy. A little too warm. Summer was inching closer now, and at some point Zoemie would have to remove the comforter, but right now she didn't want too.

Maybe conjuring an extra bed for gaming ? Zoemie considered, since otherwise she'd cover this one with sweat when the weather was hot, but she decided to think about it later, instead refocusing on her games as she slowly woke up to full attention.

Following a large yawn which caused a sharp pain in her jaw, Zoemie uttered a swear before rocketing out of bed, and promptly sitting back down letting the black static pass. She only then teleported to the kitchen and started eating her breakfast.

Zoemie sighed internally as she ate, for she was annoyed. No way around it, huh ? The events with the adventurers had made it clear : she couldn't simply sit on her ass all day. Dammit ! She shook her head, and finished her meal and routine as she considered what to do.

Train ? Zoemie sighed. She wasn't the biggest fan of sports, having bad memories of school PE. Urgh. But she clearly needed to practice her sword skills, because she could see that they were dreadfully lackluster. She teleported back to her room, however, and opened up her computer, stripping to her panties and putting herself under the blanket. Maybe I'll just play for now. She would do the training later, she didn't want to bother right now.

---

Zoemie had interrupted her gaming session eventually by going for her bath, and was currently soaking in the water, frowning heavily. She was spinning and circling her memories of the fight within her mind, ruminating on her failures. Everything about it told Zoemie she was too weak still, despite her equipment and raw magical power.

She grumbled as she dried herself off and put on her equipment. She then started to walk to the training room, before teleporting, the cursed slab still here despite everything. She pulled out her sword, putting her left hand in front and right hand in back, and sighed. "No fucking way around this, huh ? Let's go."

There was a first swing, from up to down, a vertical strike to separate an enemy in two halves. There was a second swing, horizontal this time. There were a few more swings from Zoemie, her grip starting to get out of position, before she gritted her teeth. "This feels like this isn't working. Do I just have to, like, swing the sword a bunch ?" This sounds really fucking boring.

Zoemie's problem was, to put it crudely, that she didn't know how to train. "Thing is I never needed to really fight well." She had never had any use for it in the Before – it simply was a place where battles, especially life-or-death battles were rare, and the best option was generally "running away". Most of her fights had been ugly brawls she won through trickery, surprise and dirty fighting, or failing that legging it.

She had never fought someone to the death before the purple-haired archer, and the ability to win life-or-death battles reliably was one Zoemie never needed before. This isn't just about getting better as swordfighting, this is like a whole paradigm shift. She looked at the sword, frowning. She sighed, corrected her grip, and got back to swinging. Her shoes stomped into the gravel, kicking off small amounts as she charged forward.

She swung her sword to the left, before her frown deepened. "I need something better than this to train with." The slab was great for testing damage output, but otherwise unsuited for training, for everything bounced off of it and it didn't behave in a even remotely realistic manner, and that was disregarding monsters with no flesh like skeletal beasts.

It was okay for training against golems, but otherwise rather inadapted. Zoemie considered the conundrum. She would keep the slab, that much was obvious, but... she sighed. She needed something that would behave more like a person, including when taking hits.

She decided to change plans, and sat against the wall. She modified another room, turning it into grasslands rather than a solid floor, and teleported there. She then conjured a strawman, similar to the one she had used a while ago and then cursed it, much like the slab, to regenerate from damage. "That might work better, yeah." After this Zoemie tried another swing, but dropped her weapon.

Following a swear from the black-haired girl, she knelt, picked up the blade, and swore again as she realized something she forgot. A summon-to-hand ability. She would add it later, but she definitely would have to at some point. If I keep dropping it this is gonna be unbearable. She corrected her grip again, and swung, almost hurting herself but confirming that the strawman worked correctly. Good.

---

Zoemie snarled. She hated sword training. Or, well, she found it annoying. She was sweaty, she kept hurting herself or dropping her weapon, and she could never make it look remotely decent. She stored back her sword, her arms fatigued, and slumped against the wall, where she fell into a nap without realizing.

She came to in yet another dream, although it took her a bit more time to realize it this time, as she floated above grasslands. An enormous, black shadow with blood-red scleras, looking like the torso of a girl, was staring down. From her back spouted black shadowy tentacles with red spiked tips, and her lower stomach, which seemed to lack a navel, was sunk within the ground.

Three people were staring at the thing, and Zoemie had seen them before, although it took her a while to remember who they were. It's the other adventurers, those that showed up after that bandit guy. The trio was staring at the horror, injured but ready and willing to stand their ground. The horror screamed in rage, and from the ring six tentacles spawned, starting to spin and stretch outwards, going for a large-area leg sweep.

The three nodded in understanding, and the mage cast a levitation spell on the spearwoman, while the leader, the axe woman gritted her teeth. I believe her name was Sae-something.She moved her weapon weirdly, holding her axe with the head facing downwards, and at this point Zoemie understood. The tendrils slammed into the blade, cutting themselves off as the axewoman wobbled from the impacts.

The creature emitting scream of rage, at which point the spearwoman chucked her spear. She targeted the right eye, but the spear was poorly deflected by a an arm swing. For a giant monster its voice is oddly high-pitched, Zoemie thought. The creature seemed to have had enough, however, and starting to channel pure darkness into a wave that wrecked all it touched, leaving dark brown, lifeless earth behind.

Before the adventurers were hit, however, the dream greyed out, and the mechanical voice spoke with no emotion whatsoever this time.

"cold that speaks inside

void that h a u n t s

 

the lord of dark

sin of hatred

 

monsters and men huddling together

like siblings staring at the g a t e s

 

we could not accept this"

---

Zoemie woke up, groggy and her body not feeling very well due to her poor posture while asleep. She shook her head, thinking a bit about the strange dream. What was this monster thing ? She was not certain and a part of her really didn't want to think about it. She sighed, still sore, and decided to stop the training for now.

She was tired, she was sweaty, her whole body hurt, and she only wanted to rest. So she decided to do just that, starting by taking a shower. Zoemie wasn't much of a shower person, most of the time, but she already took her bath and didn't want to take a second one, as it would take too much gaming time out of her day.

Following said shower, a energetic and slightly agitated Zoemie teleported to her room and booted up her computers. The music and gaming did wonders to calm Zoemie's nerves and body aches. I will have to do magical training as well, she realized. Tomorrow, she decided. She had had enough of training for today.

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Zoemie had become more aware that her big issue was not power as much as speed and skill. She had a lot of power, but was inaccurate and slow. I should try to become faster and smoother rather than having more raw force. She mumbled to herself something about "weakness is an imprecise word".

She sighed and refocused on her game. She was getting somewhere, but it was also getting late, and she felt her stomach grumble. "Hrmhrg". Guess all this training qualifies as exercise. Maybe I should stretch a bit ? Zoemie said, as she absentmindedly stretched her arms outwards, fingers interlaced, and then up and above her head.

She then did a quick but thorough round of stretches before getting up and going for dinner, teleporting into the dining room, but was distracted by Xajymzia who was looking at a set of photos. "What are these ?" Zoemie asked, the maid not even turning to answer. These are... dunno. Marks ?

"I do not know. Both of the female adventurers had these on their shoulderblades, and they appear to match.", Xajymzia explained. Zoemie scratched her head, but was distracted by the food, and decided to just dig in. This time it was a Welsh rarebit, with red cheddar base and an egg, light on the mustard. Zoemie ate everything, albeit rather slowly.

The evening and night, Zoemie mostly spent them playing some more, recruiting Mokepons and clearing out dungeons with mechanical efficiency. Gotta love WM gens. Makes this shit a lot easier, you can just give yourself anything you need pronto. She did, however, think a bit about things to improve the efficiency of her training, but couldn't come up with anything.

---

The next day started much the same, although Zoemie appreciated the lack of nightmares. She in fact had had a pretty pleasant dream for once, of a date with Neth, and it hadn't been interrupted by noise or an alarm. Although waking up did depress her a bit.

Today's goal is training in magic, Zoemie decided, refocusing. Her arms hurt a bit, although Zoemie knew it would go away in a few days, so she decided to focus on her casting instead. First thing first. She teleported to the kitchen and broke her fast. After this, she had a short gaming session, which mostly involved Zoemie bashing her head at trying and failing to recruit a boss. Annoyed, she decided to stop early and go take her bath.

"Today will be magic training." Zoemie confirmed to herself as she drew the bath. "Tomorrow we'll see." She soaked in her bath, calming herself down from the frustration of her repeated failures at the boss fight. She stayed here a while, letting the heat work out knots in her back and soothing her body from yesterday's efforts.

Once dried off and dressed up, Zoemie shook her head, and crashed in the sofa, considering. Do I train now or do I game some more ? Trainin'. Zoemie had been in a bit of a foul mood because of the boss, and while she could keep bashing her head against it... Blowin' shit up with fireballs sounds a whole damn lot more satisfying.

She teleported back into the room, returning to the strawman. Yesterday's sword training had confirmed her she needed better training tools for later, but for now it would do. She grinned and started to put on her combat outfit, before thinking things through. "I still have that orange skirt for uber mana regen, right ?" I will def have to get one of those magical items for quick item-switching, she grumbled.

After a bit of frantic looking, Zoemie eventually found it in her personal storage. "Alright. I'm kinda stupid for not findin' it earlier, but you're gonna come in handy now." She smiled, and teleported to the training area. She had traded her usual combat skirt for the orange one, but otherwise was wearing her combat outfit. It clashed quite heavily, but Zoemie didn't care.

She started throwing a first fireball, then another. Mana channeled into balls of flame, of searing heat and boiling energy. First a direct blast, then a shotgun-style spread shot. She then used electricity, lacking solely the hoarse screams of one's unlimited power. Purple lightning danced on her fingers, tearing through the air and charring the strawman. "Hmm. Might not be that useful, at least against inorganics."

Next up came wind, Zoemie calling first a vortex of wind blades, a tempest of mana that could thrash wood with no more difficulty than steel. She then switched to a tornado, howling winds flaying the strawman apart layer by layer.

After this came ice, first in the form of ice spikes, like ten swords impaling the king, and after this large wave of water. "...Surf is powerful, but really tiring." she mumbled, levitating above the wave that had thrashed everything. After waving her hand, clearing out the water, Zoemie took a short break, letting her mana regenerate for a short while and distracting herself with music.

"Okay.", Zoemie decided. She then casted another spell, causing a detonation at the strawman's core, whoch promptly regenerated as if it hadn't been blasted by both sword and magic two days in a row. "Darkness is the big remaining one ? Maybe ?" Zoemie wasn't very sure what other options she had other than this and raw, non-elemental magic. That one's gonna be worth trying out, actually.

Zoemie's impression is that non-elemental spells in video games were generally more expensive and less powerful than normal ones, but they made up for it by hitting everything for good damage. She shook her head, and focused. She casted pure darkness at the strawman, the doll coming undone at the seams, the regeneration outdamaged by two orders of magnitude.

As Zoemie's impression of cosmic magic is that it wasn't for direct combat, she hadn't bothered practicing it. As far as she was concerned, her daily teleportations were enough practice for that. There was one last thing Zoemie wanted to try, however. She channeled her mana, keeping it pure and colorless, the sludge moving under her skin.

And then she tried to blast away with that pure mana, pushing it out as far as she could, before quickly interrupting the process out of the sudden pain in her limbs, Zoemie stopping instantly and teleporting to her room for a while, sitting on her bed. Ouch. That really fucking hurt !

"Let's... let's not do that again..." she decided, conjuring a healing potion and teleporting the cork away. Zoemie wasn't unused to pain, but she wasn't a fan, and would much prefer avoiding it if she could. After drinking the potion, Zoemie felt the pain subside. "Man, tastes like crap tho." Gonna maybe have to figure out something.

"That's... enough for today, yeah. More than enough, in fact.", Zoemie decided as she considered hat to do. Playing seemed like a bad idea, she could hurt her arms even more, and she didn't want to bother with the boss again. So, she just took a breath and looked around, thinking about something to do.

---

"My apologies for calling you here." said the governor, Saeja and her friends looking at him. He took a deep breath, as in to fortify himself. Saeja was nervous, while Ruvarie seemed annoyed and Tarac was calm as usual. A message, from the governor of that town, where that Warden dwelled ? That could only mean bad news.

"A group of adventurers have gone missing." he started, the slim, classically handsome fellow a bit uncomfortable. "Normally, I would not bother you with such trifling matters, but..." He took a deep breath, to fortify himself – frankly, Saeja could relate. It was odd, indeed, for dying was part of an adventurer's job description, and the man seemed to know it. The discrepancy only worsened her unease.

"Duke Vosvelz." Saeja felt her blood boil as the mention of the name. Him ? She took a deep breath, taking a quick glance outside, carefully keeping her expression neutral despite the rage and hate that name awoke within her, her friends staring at her with covert concern. The man continued. "He wants to know what happened to them. And as you may imagine, I am in no position to refuse."

It took all of Saeja's willpower to not scream. He won't tolerate anything from a small town governor other than results, even in a duchy hostile to his. The guard captain took over, stopping Saeja's reverie. "Three adventurers matching the intel did in fact stay here. We know that because one of the lasses stayed at the Drenched Peach for a night." he explained in that thick Northern brogue of his.

"The... Drenched Peach. What is that place again ?" asked the governor, confused. Saeja wondered how a small-town governor didn't know all of the establishments within their town, but the guard captain answered her question.

"That be the brothelhouse, ser." he said, Ruvarie suppressing a snort, while Saeja's opinion of the governor improved. "And that's... all we know. Went missing after, haven't been seen since.", the guard captain continued.

"But there is one place we didn't check." the governor took from there, Saeja gritting her teeth again. She could feel it coming, her stomach starting to heat up in unpleasant anticipation. Tarac threw over her a weak soothing spell, which she greatly appreciated. He had learned that one from their first visit at that Warden, apparently.

"The Warden ?" she said, anticipating the end, the two men nodding, the governor's grave face speaking volumes about how conflicted he was, and just how aware he was of the grave risk that came with kicking the hornet's nest.

"Yes. ...I am loathe to ask this of you. I truly am. But... nobody else we know went in and came back out. And as you can imagine I cannot countermand the duke either." Saeja considered. He's right. She knew the duke very well. He wanted results, and if he didn't get them things could turn sour very quickly. Duchess Zajera might interfere with Vosvelz, but... it would be simplest if it didn't come to that.

She thought about it for a while. How did a bunch of adventurers from the northeast Vosvelz duchy went missing here, in the southern Zajera duchy of all places ? She knew adventurers were more mobile than most, but, although she was loathe to admit so, she understood the duke's suspicions. He has a lot of enemies. Saeja included herself, of course. Although that was the result of his own actions, as far as she was concerned.

The man looked troubled, but Saeja knew she couldn't refuse. However... "Two conditions from us." Saeja said after a while. "First : don't mention our identity to the duke.". The men nodded, and so did Ruvarie. "Second.". She looked to the side, gathering her focus and courage. "If we're not back in two-three days after we enter the forest... start evacuating."

"Wise words, la... dame." said the captain, the two men and Tarac nodding in agreement. "Wise words indeed."

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