Dai's cheeks clenched in fear. She was going full speed on the Stigma and was making her fifth lap around her Dimension, but she still hadn't gotten rid of the fear of falling. It took a few hours before her cautious stride turned into a trot and then into a fast ride. Stigma was fast! Dai needed to get rid of her fear though, or else she would be completely screwed out there in the trees. At least here she had nothing to stop her and nothing to dodge. But out in the woods, it would be a different story. Maybe the awareness was keeping her from relaxing? Did she know that even if she learned here, she would probably be knocked down by the first low branch outside?
But there was nothing she could do about it. She could only practice it carefully once she was out of Shelter.
She slowed down and then just trotted back to the store where a few customers were coming out of the Shop. The Cultivators eyed her curiously but just bowed respectfully before hurrying to the exit. Dai dismounted and left Stigma to go get a bite of grass.
Two more days passed and Dai was down to the last two before Devvil was supposedly due back. She needed to be gone by then.
Filn was getting trained in the shop and was quite nervous on the first day, but Dai kept close so that customers would notice her and not get the impression that they might be trying some jokes with the new staff.
Dai rubbed her sore butt, her whole lower body aching. The first day had been terrible, the second day even worse, but now she felt like she was returning to the pain of the first day.
So she was getting used to it?
Filn walked out of the shop. He looked a little better. Dai was right about the best thing to do is to keep him busy. He had less time to think.
"We're about to close. Do you want to double-check things?" He asked her.
Dai looked at her Star Coin state. It was good that things were working even if she wasn't selling herself. The coins were adding up for her, and even though Filn wondered where all the crystals were going, he just accepted that it worked that way. He asked Dai how she had come by all this. But she told him a strange tale about some crazy star. He didn't ask any more questions. It was a secret, probably.
Dai gave Filn a thumbs up. "Looks good. You're doing well. I think I can safely let you handle the sale." She smiled.
Filn smiled modestly and scratched his head. "Thanks."
Leonid came in a moment later, yawning. "It's been quite a drag today. Didn't fewer people come than usual?" He mentioned. Dai, checking Star Coin, could tell that fewer had come than yesterday and even fewer the day before.
"Hm... looks like it. Hopefully, it's just for a while. I doubt people have started to lose interest, especially since we've added new items." She replied, turning to the two.
"Now I need your help."
They both looked at her. "With what, lass?" Leonid asked.
"I want you to look for me."
"Um... what? Why do you want us to look for you?" Filn didn't understand, and Leonid felt the same way.
"I have a new ability and I want to try it out. It's a camouflage ability, so I want you to look for me when I use it. Leonid you as a cultivator have to try everything you can to find me. This ability should be able to camouflage me even from the cultivators' eyes."
The two men looked at each other.
"Well, all right." They agreed. Dai nodded and ordered them to turn around for a moment. Then she moved and.... stood next to the front door of the store. She squatted, took a breath, and activated her camouflage ability.
She felt a slight tingle spill from the top of her head all over her body, but that was about it. She looked down at herself, but to herself, she still looked the same.
After waiting for a moment, the two men turned and began to look for her. Filn looked around for a moment before going behind the shop. Leonid let his spiritual energy circulate and tried to focus on Dai. Which shouldn't be hard, since she was the weakest of all present. Even the strange Worm had stronger cultivation than her.
After a moment, he frowned because he couldn't track her down. So really, her ability was able to hide her? That was really useful. It made him feel a little better knowing that the little mouse was about to go into the wild.
Dai couldn't help but smile. She watched them trying to find her, and she was right next to them! She had to praise herself for making a good decision to choose this ability.
She raised her hand to pat her chest lightly in praise, but at that moment Leonid's eyes were on her.
"I see you." He said.
"What?" Dai stood up, confused. She hadn't even made a sound, just moved a little.
She frowned. "One more time." She said and called out to Filn.
They did it again, this time Dai lay down in the grass on her stomach, even closer to them, and started another round.
They didn't see her again. Filn even almost stepped on her. Then Dai deliberately shifted a little and Leonid found her again.
They tried a third time and Dai was sure. The camouflage was really good. But she couldn't move or make a sound. Otherwise, she was immediately detected. It was still a useful ability, but this was limiting. Now it was easy to see why it was only an E-rank ability. If it couldn't hide her from the cultivators' view, it would barely reach F rank. So the ability ended up at E because it could hide it from the cultivators, but it wasn't allowed to move. Dai could only hope that once she upgraded it she would be able to move. She also hoped that simply using the ability would be enough to improve it.
She tried for about an hour before checking all the possibilities she could think of. She even tried to see if her rapid breathing would reveal it. As long as she didn't move her chest too much, it was fine.
"Okay. That's enough. Now let's get to training." She said.
Filn had been bored for a while now, so he entertained himself by trying to calculate in his head how many crystals they had made today, which were disappearing, but it was still a bit more interesting.
"What, training?" his attention returned to the present.
Dai nodded and opened her shop's interface, switching to the external equipment.
Currently, her SC balance was 125, not including the SCs she was saving to unlock Shelter 1. Just as she was learning a new technique after nights, the time she had reserved for resting because they didn't have nights here, and of course, she had to read it from the book again, she came up with another trick she could use in the System Window. Filter. That way she could directly look up the things she wanted instead of tediously searching for them herself! She was sure she would soon be an expert at this!
So she found the outdoor training equipment.
Dai clicked on the Training Ring.
Name: Initiative Training Ring
Description: Suitable for warriors of the Lower Realms. It can be set to four difficulties. Low, Normal, High, Hell. The Training Ring will scan the parameters of the warrior and bring up suitable opponents for them depending on the difficulty selected. The Training Ring simulates actual injuries that will disappear outside of the Training Ring.
Warning: Avoid excessive stress. Mental damage is real. Simulating pain and injury put a strain on your psyche. Dragons&Fan accepts no responsibility in the event of injury.
Price: 80 SC
Dai paid and tried not to look at the decreasing number of Star Coins. A screen appeared in front of her with a bird's eye view of Dimensional Space. She hesitated for a moment before noticing the sign telling her to choose a space to place the Training Ring. She began to run her finger across the screen and saw a transparent blue illusion of the Ring that followed her finger. Oh, that's handy!
Finally, she placed the Training Ring on the left side of Shelter 22's door about halfway between the door and the shop.
Her eyes lit up when she got the idea. What if she charged for the use of the Training Ring? The Cultivators would surely welcome such an almost-real way to train!
She confirmed the selection and removed the System Window to see the result.
Leonid and Filn looked at her the whole time, feeling uneasy. Dai just stood there for a moment before she started waving her hand in the air, and then she started grinning even more like some kind of mischievous person.
Leonid had suspected for a while now that Dai wasn't quite right in the head. Filn was beginning to think so too.
They all felt a small tremor, and both men turned their heads in the direction Dai was looking. Suddenly, the ground opened up in an area not far from the shop, and a building grew out of the dirt as if by magic.
The arena was about 30 square meters in diameter, built in a circle with most of the space taken up by a ring with a sandy floor. The west side of the Training Ring, however, was taken up by bleachers that could comfortably fit about fifty people. Everything was made of thick greenish stone and dark wood. It would have looked a bit ancient if it weren't for the small white balls flying around the entire Training Ring. If Dai had looked into the Old World a little more, she would have recognized that these were drones.
Dai was quite pleased with her appearance. The two men at her side stared a little in awe.
They hadn't seen how things appeared here on their own yet, so it was quite a spectacle for them.
"Dai... are you doing that?" Filn asked slowly then, looking at Dai with a slightly different gaze than before.
Dai scratched her nose. "Well... you could say that." She admitted. It wasn't her specifically, but more like only partially.
Filn was impressed. He had no idea what had happened to Dai, but for her to do something like that she must have become really strong!
Leonid, on the other hand, knew that Dai wasn't really strong. But he understood that she had gained some special powers. But he could not explain them. What kind of ability could even do something like that?
"Shall we try it?" She encouraged them and went into the Ring.
Filn and Leonid followed her.
They walked into the training circle, and as their feet sank into the smooth sand, one of the white drones flew towards them and a holographic screen unfolded before their eyes.
Dai was quite used to it by now, but Filn and Leonid gasped. Leonid even tried to stick his hand through.
An electronic voice came from the drone.
"Welcome to Dragons&Fan's Training Arena. What difficulty do you choose? Do you want to summon enemies appropriate for your level or choose them yourself?"
Dai glanced at the screen in front of them, which had difficulty options at the top, a button just below it titled "Auto Customize," and next to it, "Custom Customize."
Curiously, Dai clicked on Custom Customization first, and a menu unfolded in front of her with a list of enemies and even terrain.
Dai could see terrain menus with lava, grass, stone, jungle, increased earth gravity, decreased earth gravity, something that looked like a blue forest, and snowy mountains, she could even set her handicap here.
Next was a menu of enemies that consisted of not only cultivators but also beasts. Some she knew, some she didn't, but all of them had their strength, cultivation, and also their birthplace determined by numbers. She shivered when she saw a monster called Skull Breaker Wyvern there. It resembled a dragon from ancient times, but it had a huge mouth with so many teeth that the monster's mouth couldn't close and strong hind legs. Underneath the picture was the label 'Earth: North'
There she also came across what looked like a humanoid plant, which had empty sockets for eyes, was all pale, and had broad, massive arms full of light green tentacles. It was called a " Mutated Cell Viper" with the location of Earth: East.
And there were not only these two but many other monsters to choose from. She was momentarily confused by the location markings. But when she thought about it, it made a certain kind of sense. Somehow the System seemed to be able to pick up records of existing creatures on Earth. So theoretically... if she ever went to another planet, it would be able to scan the local monsters as well?
The System: "That's right, boss. As more places from other planets and galaxies join your Dimensional Space it will be possible to duplicate the records of local hostile creatures you can simulate combat with in the Training Ring." The System responded helpfully.
Dai pursed her lips, surely that was good. To practice fighting beasts ahead of time. She just found it interesting how System kept making excuses about 'lack of power' and then just scanning all the beasts of the planet like it was nothing.
Dai still didn't ask. She knew she wouldn't get an answer.
Instead, she exited Custom Customize and hit Auto Customize.
"Dear customer, you have selected Easy Difficulty and Auto Customize. Please note that there is a non-cultivating user in your group. This device is not appropriate for this user and access to Combat Simulation will be denied." Announced an electronic voice from the orb, and Filn was gently but firmly pushed out of the arena by some force.
He staggered in surprise and looked at Dai and Leonid. Now he wished he could be a cultivator too and join them. The last time he felt like this was when he wasn't invited to join the treasure hunt game in the trash as a child.
"So I... I guess I'll just watch?" He muttered and went to sit on the bleachers.
Dai wrung her hands, she was excited but nervous at the same time. She quickly explained to Leonid how things worked in the arena so he wouldn't be surprised that he was hurt and feared for his life. But she also warned about the psychological harm. The illusion of injury is supposedly quite real and so is the pain.
Dai didn't really have any combat experience and in this arena, she needed to learn the fighting technique she had gained. She felt ready for this.
Leonid was still rather stunned, but he activated his Spiritual Energy, which began to swirl around his body in the form of a white-golden glow. He quickly became excited. Almost as soon as he became younger and gained strength he was eager to fight! Now he finally can!
The drones around the arena began to fly faster and the environment around them began to change. The sand turned to black stone and it warmed slightly. Not far from them, two creatures began to form.
One of them seemed pony-like to a large armadillo. His body was armored with black stone plates, and a red color flickered faintly in the joints between them. It had long black claws on all four of its feet that clawed at the stone floor. The second creature was a human. Well... maybe a human. It looked like a living, six-foot-tall, armor. The armor was dark gray and the only other color was a gold crest on top of the helmet.
"Yeah!" shouted Leonid, who had already put on his gloves and was beating his fists together excitedly. In turn, Dai pulled out a Court and Sentence from her inventory, which she gripped tightly. Court and Sentence were both curved sabers that look identical except for a small gemstone embedded in the pommel of each weapon. The stone on the left was colored red and the stone on the right was green. They did not differ from each other in any other way. As Dai held them, she just felt that these two belonged together.
"Um…yeah…hooray?" she swallowed. Two armored enemies? How is he supposed to fight it? Shouldn't she get a Nutcracker for them?
Dai scanned the enemies again and then said to Leonid.
"You take care of the Knight." She was staring at the Armadillo. Both were armored, but the Armadillo at least had some soft spots and cracks where she could stab.
Leonid smiled widely. "With pleasure." Dai shook her head. Is Leonid a battle maniac after all?
Leonid shifted his weight to his toes and shot his body forward. In an instant, he was at Knight's side, and his clenched gloved fist slammed into the chest plate.
*clinkchrrr*
There was the sound of metal being squeezed. The Knight was pushed back a few steps by the blow, and a dent formed at the site of the strike. The knight regained his balance immediately and the dent began to smooth itself out again. The knight raised his hands together and touched his palm, a flash of light flashed in his hand and he drew his energy sword made of spiritual energy. The first hilt of the sword, and then as his hand withdrew, a single blade appeared and continued to expand until the knight drew a large two-handed sword that he held with both hands.
"Ha! Just come at me with your toothpick!" Leonid provoked him.
Lunging forward again, the Knight raised his two-handed sword above his head, but Leonid wasn't going to wait for the Knight to attack. He lunged to the side and punched him in the hip with his fist, and then again. Knight's body tilted a little to the side because of this, but he didn't abandon his stance. He swung his sword, but instead of striking forward, the energy blade curved and stabbed toward Leonid.
"Ugh." Leonid huffed and lunged to the side, the energy blade managed to scratch him in front of his stomach. It tore his clothes and he started to bleed a little. Leonid grinned. It hurt more than he expected as if little bees had stuck in his wound. An injury caused by spiritual energy was no joke.
Dai didn't have much time to watch Leonid and Knight fight. She had to deal with the armored Armadillo.
She didn't rush into the fight like that, she didn't have the speed and strength of Leonid. Besides, she didn't know anything about this creature.
The armadillo began to move towards her, leaving light lines of claw scratches on the stone floor behind it. Dai didn't want it to touch her with those claws.
But she could see that the armadillo was rather slow, she hadn't quite expected that, but it was probably the plates on its body that were to blame? They didn't seem light or very flexible.
They began to slowly move towards each other. They were still a few meters apart when the Armadillo suddenly lifted his head and a light flickered between the joints on his body.
Dai froze and darted to the side just in time as Armadillo spat a ball of liquid magma from his mouth, which flew like a cannonball through the spot where she had been standing.
Damn it, it's spitting lava?! She couldn't think about it for long. The armadillo's cheeks puffed up again and spat another ball of lava at her. Dai dashed to the side again. The armadillo kept turning its head in her direction, spitting out more and more lava balls, Dai was quite fast but still had to work hard to keep dodging.
She gritted her teeth in frustration. She had to think of something. The Armadillo needed a certain distance to do this, otherwise, he wouldn't have intentionally approached Dai.
So Dai started trying to get closer to the beast, she began dodging more in the direction of the Armadillo than away from it.
Finally, she got close enough and swung her sword at him. The blade sparked on the hard plates but left no wound. The armadillo shuddered, bowed its head, and curled into a hard ball.
Dai could finally take a break from the constant dodging. She picked up Court and Sentence and planned to drive them into the joints in the plating.
But before she could do so, the joints glowed red again and boiling compressed air shot out, hitting her face and body.
"AAaaagggg!" She screamed in pain, dropping her weapons and grabbing her burnt face. It felt like someone had poured boiling water on her face.
Then suddenly the pain disappeared. "The user has been eliminated from the fight." came an electronic voice.
Dai pulled her trembling hands away from her face, only to see that she had been removed from the Training Ring and had no injuries.
"Damn..." She was angry, but she also felt relieved. The pain was really too realistic.
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