First Chapter-with-parts sequence that's broken past 4 (Lol) :)

<Sc'the>

It was surprisingly easy to get used to the speed and attacks that these Dummies threw at me. They didn't use magic, and that was a huge part missing from this kind of training, but it was still a welcome experience for testing how strong I was compared to most humans at or near my level range. Then again...the only people that I've met at that range would probably have been that peasant couple that I'd first helped at the gates, and even then they were most likely too weak for even an accurate gauging in strength disparity to be put into consideration. 

The only people that I could compare to would be Red, Pops, Freija, Wreign, a few guards, and that Cinder guard captain lady here. All of them were likely above level one-hundred and Red was almost to level 70, which was further than my next evolution requirement in levels...just another thing to look forwards to when I evolved again; well, the pain was still something I was not ready to go through again, but seeing the differences after such an event was sure to be amazing. 

Almost made me want to try sneaking out to level again...almost. 

By the time this dummy had gotten a fatal strike in, disintegrating and reforming where it stood before the exercise started, I felt confident that I would be able to handle myself rather well if I faced anyone--or anything--at a similar level. I looked back at Pops, only to see that he was deep in thought and hadn't even registered that I'd been defeated this time. I didn't care to count the notches this time either, but I was definitely past level six for each dial. 

I lashed my tail, creating a small series of sparks as the blade cut through the ground behind me. It would probably have been easier to use my (Flame) but I didn't want to anger him accidentally by spitting fire at his face when he was distracted. It got his attention though, Pops' eyes refocused on me and he looked at the dials for a second before turning all of them back to the starting positions. 

"Now I want you to use your Skills as you fight. It'll be the same sequence as the first session, since you'll be attacking again. But I want you to use any active Skills you have, short of your breath attacks." Pops motioned for me to go back to the middle and I turned around as he re-set the dials, "I know that you are able to passively increase their levels when fighting like this, even without intent Skills at lower levels will be easy to level, with intent the increase per use as an active Skill will count more towards leveling and you should be able to get quite a lot from this." 

I took the moment to look at what's changed for my Skills' levels and was pleasantly surprised: 

Skills: Flame (Lv. 6), Toxic Slash (Lv. 36), Tail Smash (Lv. 33), Bite (Lv. 19), Flight (Lv. 4), Toxic Breath (Lv. 11), Hindrance (Lv. 12), Stealth (Lv. 18), Patient Hunter (Lv. 25), Steal (Lv. 19), Tracking (Lv. 9), Paralyzing Touch (Lv. 12), Dash (Lv. 41), Meditation (Lv. 5), Dodging (Lv. 16). 

My Special Skills hadn't changed at all, most of them couldn't even be used in this kind of setting but it was nice to see that Flight was slowly getting up there in levels: I guess using my wings more when dodging really helped with that...I'd gotten a level in almost everything, with (Bite), (Stealth), and (Tracking) being the ones with the most gains. I'd even gotten a new Skill from this: (Dodging), and it was already at level 16 too!

Made me wonder if there was a log or something I could see after--

{Skill Level Increased: Flame (Lv. 2)
...
Skill Level Increased: Flame (Lv. 6)}
{Skill Level Increased: Toxic Slash (Lv. 35)-->(Lv. 36)}
{Skill Level Increased: Tail Smash (Lv. 32)-->(Lv. 33)}
{Skill Level Increase--

Nope. I did not want a long ass list scrolling through my vision all at once, not right now thank you. I just wanted to see the newer Skills, Resistances, or Titles that I'd gotten if possible. I can tell how much a Skill has leveled up myself just from looking at my status...

{Title Gained: Unrelenting}

Just one?
...Alright, I guess that's fair. 

I probably had way too many Titles to be considered normal at this point, so I guess it would probably hurt me more in the long run if I gained any more anytime soon. I wouldn't be surprised if having just one Title at Redline's age would be an achievement all in of itself, so having fifteen--including the two that are hidden--is something entirely unheard of in this world. 

I went through the motions again with my Skills active this time, able to break past the barriers into the next set of zero's for nearly all of them: though (Tail Smash) stayed stuck at level 39, (Flight) only got to level 8, (Patient Hunter) was left at level 29, and Dodging was at level 28. It was extremely frustrating seeing so many of them stuck at a level or two before leveling out with a zeroed number, but I guess it couldn't be helped. That was probably after two, no three hours all together of just constant fighting. 

I couldn't imagine the amount of work and time needed to get both Skills and Resistances above the sixties or seventies in level. It was probably a miracle that my (Dash) was at Level 43, the highest leveled skill I had currently, and it was just getting harder to increase that number. I decided to look at the time, see how long I had till Redline was most likely to come back tonight: 

8:47am

It was still the morning!? I silently groaned, wanting nothing more than to just sink to the floor and beat my head against the ground in frustration. It had felt like so long had passed and it ended up only being eight hours...Why was time so long here?

It seemed that Pops might've mistook my reaction as fatigue, and beside the fact I was starting to feel a little mentally I was perfectly fine physically...though I as starting to get hungry, "Alright how about we stop here for a few hours and come back after getting something nice and big to eat. I'll go  and get a nice large meal from the Commerce market real quick," he waved a had at me and disappeared, "I'll be back in ten minutes or less so try not to destroy the house in that time..." 

Was I really that untrustworthy to be left alone for ten minutes?

Actually...now that I'm thinking of it; I probably am the least trustworthy person/thing to leave anywhere alone: I couldn't sit still, I got distracted by nearly everything, I loved moving things around the entire house, and I could breath fire; Fire and houses didn't generally mix all too well...

I got out a mountain of dried meats, jerky, from my (Void Storage)--the planet getting ever smaller as I did so--and decided to just munch on them as a small snack. Hopefully they would last until he came back...otherwise I'd have to find something else to do in the mean-time. 

Ten minutes passed in silence as I munched on the mountain of jerky, and he still hadn't returned yet. There wasn't something wrong was there? I was almost done with my jerky, you'd better be here by the time I was done with it or I might actually try to burn a few things...

...Those weights looked like perfect experimental pieces to use. Other than the dummies the steel they were made of was probably the strongest thing in the room; well, the walls and beams were probably the strongest, but I wasn't too keen on destroying the structure of such a large house--having it collapse on-top of me I mean. 

...Well. It's been twenty minutes now, and he still isn't back: it's time to burn a few things. I turned and looked at the dials for the defense setting, I believe that durability was the first set of crystals along each setting...I turned it to the fifth notch and stepped into the arena completely invisible. If I was going to do this I wanted to make it a surprise kind of thing as to maximize the full effect I could potentially have on something. 

Now my (Flame) Skill wasn't specifically a Breath Skill, it didn't have that specification like (Toxic Breath) did, so I had to assume that I didn't know enough about it to use it outside of as a breath attack. So what to do then? I could just charge it up with a tonne of Mana and see what happened, but what if the recoil shattered my face or something? Pressure from something as explosive as fire was not something to take lightly after all. 

I decided that I would use it normally for the first time and then see what happened afterwards. It was only Level 6 after all, so the likelihood of it actually destroying the dummy on the fifth level for durability was decently low...yeah, it shouldn't be able to. Not without something extra added in. I set myself facing the dummy's back, at the direct center as it was the biggest area I could hit and the Dummy would probably not be able to react as quickly than if I were to attack it from the front. 

Whether the simulation had actually started or not was also unknown, as I wasn't sure whether the system was able to sense something in the testing area with the kind of invisibility I supposedly had. I opened my mouth, channeled what I thought to be a decently normal amount of Mana into the attack, and let loose. The flame shot out like a typical flamethrower, and it wasn't fast enough to reach the dummy before it was able to turn around and raise a shield to block, but it was enough to me to know the basics of what I was dealing with here. Since I wasn't able to see my Magic or Mana stats I wasn't able to gauge exactly how much of either I was actually using when attacking so seeing something normal for once was actually pretty relieving.

I'd even gotten two levels from that too! Now it was time to amp things up a little...

I repositioned at the back of the dummy again and decided to just let loose with the Mana flowing into the attack, trying to aim it into a more concentrated beam of energy rather than just a simple flame and when I opened my mouth and let loose the attack detonated just at the edge of my mouth: creating a shockwave that knocked me back a little, causing me to actually have a need for my claws and dig them into the ground in order to hold me in place. a bright blue-green beam of light erupted into the space before me. Completely blinding me, but only for a second as my eyes adjusted unnaturally fast to the sudden light intensity. 

The beam seemed to start out as Green with the area nearer to my mouth being blue, then it turned mostly blue...entirely blue, and a spot of purple appeared in the corner of my vision before I cut the flow of Mana into the attack and looked at the damage. 

...The bottom half of the dummy was the only thing left standing there, not even having twitched it seemed, and there was a giant hole in the earth beyond it. Tunneling through the walls and what was probably hundreds of meters past the area I stood. Thankfully though, it didn't seem like it broke the surface and was seem by everyone in the city, otherwise I think I would've actually been locked in the mansion thinking there was an actual attack or something.

It seemed my awe in the absolute destruction I'd caused cut out everything else about my surroundings because I'd only realized Pops' had came back was because of the smell of seasoned meat...and his exaggerated whistle of amazement. "I did say to not destroy the house did I not?" He hummed playfully. I just looked away feigning ignorance and pretended not to notice the hole in the side of the Training area. 

Food

Never expected I'd have to make a Part Continuation that goes Past 4, but here we are...

And I'm also just now realizing that I have a huge plot hole with the name of Larry and the other reincarnates being stuck in Terra. Ugh. It's not that hard of a fix, and I already have an idea as to how I need to do so, but it's still a super annoying oversight of mine own design. 

Anyways. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next one(s)!!

Patreon Plug: https://www.patreon.com/Cr1mson_Fangs

Patreon Support: Nicolae, sselraef, ShadowOfShadow, EstenLyrics, Conner, erik
(If you want a Patreon Shout out please consider joining The Eyes of Amber, in order to gloat about them to the world!)