Felix punched the little shit right in the jaw. Just a regular, everyday punch.
Atar fell like his bones had turned to jelly. The fire winked out. The fight had lasted less than twenty seconds.
"Ah, whoops." Felix turned to see Evie and Vessilia watching with a frown and frustrated surprise, while Magda only shook her head.
"Just pull him out of there. Ladies, you're up again." Magda clapped her large hands. "Let's move!"
They fought for hours, just as Magda promised.
The Silver Rank brought them to the edge of exhaustion again and again, letting them recover only the bare minimum of Stamina. Atar slept off his knockout with little ill effect as far as Felix could tell, which was a relief. Not that he'd thought he'd killed him, but getting knocked unconscious back on Earth was never a trivial thing. It could seriously mess with your brain.
No, ultimately Atar was only nursing his bruised pride after a half hour's rest. Felix didn't have time to worry about that though, because he was thrown up against both Evie and Vessilia together. The pair of them outclassed him fairly solidly, their ranged abilities preventing him from getting up close while their evasive maneuvers kept his Shadow Whip and Acid Stream from being as effective as they might have normally. Felix could tell he'd might be able to wear them down, but not before they'd riddled him with wounds.
They rotated again and again, Magda forcing Felix to fight all of them over and over as his Stamina seemed to regenerate the fastest. He wasn't sure how she could tell he wasn't as tired as the others, but Magda knew, somehow. His Meditation kept his Stamina regen at a little over 1 point per second, so as long as he kept his movements from getting too wild, he never dipped below 30%. Even when Atar returned to the fights and began pelting them all with his Sparkbolts.
His biggest problem? He was hungry again. Two hours in and it felt like he hadn't eaten anything in days, like his stomach was trying to escape through his back. It was distracting, but nothing he couldn't ignore, at least in the short term. Just have to make it to lunch, he kept repeating to himself while he muscled down the ache.
It was a slog, a marathon of Endurance and Willpower. Luckily, he had plenty of both stats, but it proved something to him again; stats were less important than Skill, overall. Maybe he could take down Evie with a Corrosive Strike, but only if he actually could hit her; he was plenty fast, but she was more Skilled at evasion.
When they finally sat back down at the fire-pit around midday, Felix was nursing several new wounds on his arms and thighs. His pants were beginning to fall apart too, now, though his new tunic was only faintly singed. The others all had bloody gashes or gnarly bruises in varying states of healing. Rapid regeneration or not, getting hurt was unpleasant, and it seemed the others didn't heal quite as fast as he did. For whatever reason.
As he eagerly watched a new spit of Ofrenok meat begin roasting, Felix toggled his notifications for his training.
Fire Resistance is level 18!
Heat Resistance is level 18!
Acrobatics is level 23!
Physical Conditioning is level 22!
Long Blade Mastery is level 13!
Axe Mastery is level 5!
Staff Mastery is level 7!
Blunt Weapon Mastery is level 8!
Armored Skin is level 22!
Meditation is level 31!
Bastion of Will is level 30!
Dual Casting is level 15!
Acid Stream is level 23!
Shadow Whip is level 21!
Holy hell, the hits keep comin'. His Skill was improving significantly thanks to these training sessions. He had incorporated Harn's advice on switching out weapons, giving himself a chance to get better at all of them. Most of these were simple one or two point jumps, but he felt suddenly...better; more knowledgeable, though he couldn't for the life of him pinpoint where this knowledge originated. Felix had long since experienced a vague instinctual knowledge when it came to Skills, so perhaps this was the same effect, only amplified due to the larger amount of gains?
Either way, despite his aches and bruises, it was a morning well spent.
Now to eat some fucking grub.
Felix barely waited for the meat to cool, cutting off huge chunks and putting them away at a rapid pace. He was dimly aware of the others staring at him, but honestly he didn't care. He had to feed this strange, superhuman body he had created. By the time the meat was all gone, Felix had eaten around half his own weight in protein.
And I could still go for a bit more. He shook his head. This new metabolism is wild. He side eyed Evie's plate as he idly played with his empty platter.
She rolled her eyes and scraped the rest of her food onto his plate. "You're a monster."
Felix only grinned and said, "But it's so good."
Vessilia sniffed, still picking at her food. "It is...a challenging meal, I'd say."
"You don't like it?" Felix mumbled through a mouthful. "It's just the right amount of spicy, I think."
"It is not that," Vessilia frowned, before setting her silverware down on her plate. She looked up at Felix. "Why aren't you exhausted?"
"Hm?" Felix paused, mid-bite as juices ran down his chin. He swallowed. "Oh, my Stamina isn't too bad off, especially now that we're resting."
"Feh, speak for yourself," Evie said, leaning back against the step behind her. "I'm barely passed 20% now. Ain't gonna be fit to do real fighting for an hour, at least."
"That is my point. Felix you fought all of us, repeatedly. Often with little breaks. How?" Felix could feel the others lean in toward him, each of them eager in their own way to hear the answer.
"I've got, uh, some pretty good Endurance. Plus, I've got a few helpful Titles," Felix started to explain, before every one of them simple nodded quickly and looked away.
What the hell?
"Did I say something wrong?" Felix looked between them all, eyebrow raised. "Do you not talk about Titles?"
Atar pursed his lips before responding. "One does not speak of their Titles with just anyone. Not a civilized person, at least."
"It's like revealing your strengths and weaknesses and exposin' a trump card," Evie explained. "And having stuff close to the chest can keep you alive."
"Well, can you tell me how people get a Title? In a general sort of way?" Felix prodded, unsatisfied with their evasions.
"You have some, correct?" Vess asked.
"Mhm, some." It was hard but he kept his face straight for that one.
"How did you get them? Generally speaking, of course. Was there a lot of emotion and stress involved?" Vessilia picked delicately at her food, eating one small piece after another with her little fork.
"Oh, yeah. Almost all of them were like that." He blinked. "So Titles are like Skills? They are only garnered when you, what, meet a prerequisite and are stressed out?"
"Heightened emotional state, as it was called by my tutors. Titles and Skills, as you pointed out, are two sides of the same coin; the System is pushing them onto you due to circumstance, need, and strain. The more of any of those and you'll have high likelihood of gaining one." Vessilia gestured with her hands, ticking off each prerequisites.
"So what's an easy, common Title then?" Felix asked.
"Ehhh, hard to say," Evie supplied, her mouth still full. Does she do that on purpose? Shit. Do I look like that when I eat? His hand, which held a piece of orange meat, paused midway to his mouth. Vessilia kept talking.
"It tends to vary from person to person, though most professions usually employ similar Titles. Those are passed down by master to apprentice during training, I understand."
"Passed down? As in the circumstances are repeatable?" Felix asked.
"Of course, bumpkin. In fact, my Master passed down unto me several of his Titles and Skills," Atar said, puffing up in pride. "Sparkbolt and Spirit Immolation are my prized possessions."
Felix opened his mouth, impressed despite himself. "Does that mean you started off at a high Skill level? Or just that it ensured you learned the same thing? Is there a worry about learning a slightly different version of the same Skill?"
"Calm down, man!" Evie laughed, slapping him on the back. It felt like a piece of paper hitting his shoulder. "How many questions you got in that head'a yours?"
Felix laughed, a little self-consciously. It's a hard line to walk, asking enough to learn but not enough to raise suspicious even further. "Too many, I think," he laughed it off, hoping to throw them off the scent of his strange ignorance.
Vessilia cleared her throat, and looked a bit uncomfortable for some reason. "Your tutors...were they not concerned with this aspect of your training?"
"My what?" Felix laughed. "No, no tutors for this guy. Self-taught, if you can believe it," Felix added sardonically. She sighed and leaned back, her armor creaking slightly.
"Oh we can believe it," Atar muttered. Evie gave him a look, but he just smiled innocently.
"You're kind of an ass, huh? That punch didn't knock any common decency loose, did it?" Felix asked. Atar screwed up his face, ready to retort with vitriol, but was interrupted by Evie's braying laugh.
"Haah haaahaha!" The young woman spit up a wad of meat into the fire, nearly choking. "Haha, shit. That's good."
"Alright enough fun, I think," came Magda's voice. The four straightened and turned, looking toward the arched stairwell where Magda was standing, arms akimbo.
"Time for a real challenge."