Chapter 59: How to Train Your Hero

I'm not sure why the queen used the word "we" when she wasn't coming with us. It was just the hero parties and Elder Sensei, plus Eclair and the filolials that the queen provided. Elder Sensei explained some of the basics of energy as we went, when the other heroes weren't too busy complaining that is. We ran into a few dragons as we got closer to the area we would be training in. None of them came close to the size of the zombie and all seemed to be unintelligent beasts. They were put down easily enough. Anyone in my party, save Therese, could end them in one attack, as could Motoyasu. Ren and Itsuki took a bit longer, but didn't have any trouble. It was late afternoon when we reached the training spot. It seems a bit cliché but it had a small waterfall pouring into a shallow mountain pool. Then again, having a source of water nearby is important if you are going to stay in the wild for an extended period of time, so I guess there's a reason behind the cliché.

"This is the place for you to train with energy. Everyone, please take a deep breath and assume a meditation position." (Elder Sensei)

Motoyasu hopped up on a bolder and sat cross-legged, likely imitating someone from a martial arts movie.

"God, what a PAIN!" Harlot complained before a shadow told her something and she sat down next to Motoyasu. Everyone else followed suit, with about a third of them offering some sort of complaint.

As we sat down to meditate I couldn't help but get the feeling that Therese's focus was more on me than trying to understand energy. It was a little distracting, but I managed to ignore it. I also blocked out the senses coming from the clone with Keel, Freon, and Blake. I had to consider energy and try to feel it within me, something I had been trying to do for a good portion of the trip up here. I thought about the similarities between the feeling of being the Lord and the boost from Aura. I remembered how it felt to make accessories while under the effect of Aura. The energy was flowing from me and into the tools. I need to find that but within me. Feel the energy flowing inside me. Guide the energy, manipulate it.

We spent about half an hour meditating before Elder Sensei clapped loudly. "Good! That is enough meditation for today!"

"This all seems completely useless to me." Motoyasu complained as he stretched.

"Yeah, I don't feel any different." (Itsuki)

"I don't see what just sitting here was supposed to accomplish." (Ren)

Sigh. "You three don't get the point of meditation, do you? It's not the sitting; it's about what you are thinking and having the peace to feel what's happening inside yourself."

"The shadow saint is right. If you don't have the right mindset you won't get much out of it. Now then, I suggest we move on to sparring work. Is there a hero who would be so kind as to act as my partner?" Elder Sensei crossed her arms and the other heroes looked at each other. Obviously none of them wanted to do it.

"Fine, guess it's round 2."

"Very well, shadow saint. Let us begin."

She had a different stick than before in her right hand while her left hand was behind her back. She lowered her stance before rushing me. Level 95 or not, she is faster than anyone I've seen in this world outside of my party. As before I blocked and felt vibrations enter through my shield. This time I was ready for it. I tried to push out the energy as it reached my elbow.

"Well that's one way to do it, but you're wasting your energy just expelling it like that."

She started thrusting the stick repeatedly, each attack having the same defense countering properties. I started to see what she meant. Each time I pushed the vibrating energy out, a lot of my own energy went with it. And as I lost energy I felt myself becoming more and more exhausted. Think. Before, she said something about making a softness to let the energy flow out. Maybe if I- PAIN!

I was on the ground coughing blood again.

"Holy shit. She really did take him down."

"Are you sure he's not faking it?"

"I don't think he'd fake coughing up blood just to make himself look weak."

I'm not sure who said what because I was pretty out of it until Therese healed me, again. I must have gotten distracted trying to figure out how I should be doing it and missed one of her attacks. Or maybe I just didn't get all of the vibrations out, since it wasn't quite the same level of pain as the first time.

"That was good for a first try, shadow saint, but when you force the energy out you lose a lot of your own in the process. And, as you just experience, you end up being unable to sustain such a method. Most people probably wouldn't be able to do something like that more than a 4 or 5 times before running out or actively drawing in more. Remember what I said about making a softness. You need to let the energy flow out on its own, not waste your own forcing it out."

Talia and Therese helped me to the sidelines before Elder Sensei turned to the other heroes. "Who's next?" They looked terrified. And rightly so as the all went down as soon as she made contact. But they were at least able to walk away afterwards.

"Endou, how were you able to withstand so many of her attacks? And why did you suddenly collapse and cough blood after that last one?" (Motoyasu)

"Sir Motoyasu, don't bother with that pathetic shield hero." (Harlot)

"To answer your second question first, it's because my defense is so high. She used attacks that do damage based on the target's defense, which is obviously a major weakness for me. As for your first question, it's because I was forcing her destructive energy out of my body. I felt something before that I think was energy flowing out of me and basically replicated that with more force. But while effective, it isn't very efficient; I was starting to feel exhausted after a few blocks, which led to that last one getting me."

Elder Sensei clapped to get everyone's attention back. "The shield hero fights differently than the other heroes here today. Today's goal is to destroy these boulders using only your energy. Like this." She poked a boulder and her finger went in like clay, except a large crack was made around it. "This is performed without using any of the special powers available to you heroes. You can clearly see what I've done, so I would like you all to do the same."

The others went up to boulders and started poking them and complaining.

"And me?" I wasn't exactly fond of having to wait and watch.

"It would normally be impossible for the shield hero who is incapable of attacks, but using that technique to manifest copies of yourself might work. However, you need to recover your energy before you can try anything. I suggest you use this time to contemplate where you went wrong earlier."

I sat down and thought about it. I may have been close to finding the answer before her last attack, but I don't remember what it was. Softness… flow… hmm…. path of least resistance? That might be it. Instead of trying to force it out I need to make it so it is easier it to leave on its own. The hard part will probably be figuring out how to tell the difference between what is easy to move through and harder.

About an hour into the boulder training there was a commotion.

"FEEEHHHHHHH!"

What's happening with Rishia now? …It's a bit sad that it has reached the point that that's the first think I think after hearing the sound she makes. I looked and everyone else was crowding around her. They were all asking questions at the same time, but it sounded like she managed to crack the boulder and they wanted to know how.

"Feeeehhhhhhhh! I don't know! I was just trying to copy what she did and it cracked."

Mald apparently didn't like that answer and borderline threatened her to spill the details. This managed to trigger Motoyasu's female protecting instinct and he tried getting Mald to back off. They seemed to be getting close to coming to blows when Elder Sensei stepped in and made them go back to their own boulders. I was then able to see the crack Rishia had made. It was pretty small, but she's still the only one who had been able to make one so far. As for the others, they started poking their boulders with much more enthusiasm. Too much enthusiasm in Mald's case as he managed to break his fingers.

"You can't just jab the thing with all your strength and hope to break through. You need to feel your energy and use it." Elder Sensei ignored the fact that he was injured other than to scold him for causing his own injury.

"Hey, Endou. You know healing magic right? Think you could help?" Itsuki called me over to deal with Mald's fingers.

"Fine, let me take a look." I started to walk over to them.

"I don't need healing from the shield demon." (Mald)

"Sounds like he doesn't want my help."

"Mald, Endou isn't our enemy, just let him heal you." (Itsuki)

"Fine, just be quick about it." Mald held out his hand and I saw his middle and index fingers were bent back.

"This is going to hurt." I grabbed his hand and quickly straightened his fingers out.

" #$%^&*-+=_#*&#& ^%#+%-$=%!" I don't know why but the only thing I understood from Mald's screaming was that he was swearing.

"[Zweite Heal V]." Mald's screaming swears lasted long after I healed him. "Hey Itsuki, is it just me or are you unable to make out what he's saying right now either?"

"All I can tell is that it's a long chain of swearing. Did you really have to twist his fingers first?"

"I've found that healing magic works better if everything is already in the correct place. And if I had warned him or gone slow it only would have hurt more."

I noticed that everyone had stopped their training to look at Mald. I would later ask Seb what Mald's swearing meant and found out that many of the swear words in Melromarc's language had sexual meanings, not unlike some earth languages.

I had recovered enough that I figured I would try using energy on a boulder too. It did feel a little ridiculous to just be touching the rock without knowing what to do. At least she explained how to counter the attack she used. Wait, this is supposed to be the same technique she used before. It felt like a bunch of vibrations, so maybe if I tried vibrating my energy and aim it at the rock. Trying to get it to vibrate wasn't an easy task. In the end I didn't do anything to the boulder.

"It's only been a single short day. For such a short amount of time you heroes seem to be on the way to grasping the fundamentals." Elder Sensei whispered to herself as she watched everyone. "Ok everyone, I think that's about enough for today. I suggest you continue to think about how the energy feels and how to manipulate it until tomorrow."

It was just before sundown. Because the teleport skills all had the summoning room as the default location and it would be more than a bit crowded if we all went back at once, we went in groups. Ren and Itsuki's parties went first. Then a few minutes later Motoyasu and I would take our parties, Eclair, Elder Sensei, and Rishia, who Itsuki couldn't bring with him due to the skill having a limit of 6 people.

"I wonder if Freon is back yet." (Motoyasu)

I knew I was forgetting something. "I'll check." I reconnected to the clone that was training Keel and got a minor headache from the hours of memories being sent to my brain. "They're still out training. I'll get them after my portal skill recharges."

"Shadow saint, have you been maintaining a manifestation elsewhere this entire time?"

"Yeah, there's a new member to my party that needed to learn how to fight and get his level up. He's been doing pretty well and should be able to join in on our training starting tomorrow."

"To think you managed to last as long as you did defending with that faulty technique while maintaining a separate one… You really are something else."

"Shouldn't Keel get a bit more combat training in and at least reach his class-up first?" (Talia)

"We only have so much time. He's doing well in training, especially considering how hard I've had to push him. Plus there are monsters around here that I could have him train against after energy training, so it saves time."

"Not to interrupt, but I think we've given them enough time to clear the room. [Portal Spear]!" Motoyasu's party disappeared.

"Right. [Portal Shield]." The scenery around us changed to the summoning room.

A soldier was speaking to Motoyasu when we arrived. "-ro. Oh! Sir Shield Hero, you as well. Her majesty would like to speak with all the heroes at once."

"Oh my. It seems we've returned at an interesting time." (Elder Sensei)

POV: Clone

The first day of Keel's training had been a bit slow considering we had to find what he was good at and start at the basics. But now he was really getting into it. He was able to use his natural speed and the boost from the kigurumi to evade monster attacks while cutting them with the set of claws he was currently using, by the end of the day he may be ready to try using one of the sets we got on Cal Mira. He was in a party with Blake and Freon so he was gaining experience from the few kills made from Freon's training, but mostly it was his own hard work that was allowing him to level up quickly. I was actually a little surprised by how determined he was. When I trained Seb and Talia, I had to take it a bit slow since he had a weak arm and she was a scared little girl, but Keel is different. I don't know if he built it up as a slave or if it's how he always was, but his defiant resolve allows him to face any monster no matter how big without backing down. Even if he gets hit, he gets up and keeps fighting. In some ways his attitude is more like a Haulia's than Seb, Talia, or Blake. The scary part is that I barely had to do anything to get him like this.

Keel was fighting some dog monsters when my main body blocked communication to meditate. It didn't really mean much for me since I had yet to figure out any energy stuff anyways, but when I quickly became exhausted about a half-hour later and felt like I would disappear if I tried to move too much… that was concerning. It was bad timing too, since the leader of the pack had finally appeared and made Keel look like a literal underdog. It had two heads and was much bigger than the one we had fought in the mines back before the second wave. To make matters worse Keel was having a similar reaction to Talia back them, freezing. He snapped out of it when one of the surviving pack members bit his arm, but his movements became erratic. He got the one that was biting him, but was barely able to jump out of the way as both of the leader's heads went in for the kill. After that the other two survivors tried to get him, but he scratched one of theirs's eyes and ran.

"Keel. I know you're afraid because it similar to the one that destroyed your village, but this isn't the same as back then. You can fight and you can kill it."

I guess talking made the now blind dog realize I was there because it lunged at me. I was able to grab it by the throat, but was lacking the strength to do much else. Luckily the others saw it was in trouble and tried to attack me to save it, giving Keel the chance to kill the leader after he regained his focus. The other one tried to get me, but wasn't able to when I used its blind friend as a shield. After which Keel was able to finish them off.

"Good job, Keel."

"Why do you sound exhausted?"

"Because of whatever my main body is doing. Energy must be connected to stamina or something, because I have never gotten so exhausted so fast before. How's your arm?"

"I've felt worse. That thing wasn't able to break through though the armor, so I'll be fine."

I gave his arm a quick tap now that the adrenaline was dying down and he barely held in a scream. "You don't sound fine. Let me take a look at it."

Keel complied and slowly worked the kigurumi off his upper body. He wasn't growing quite as fast as Talia and, like Ren, looked rather feminine for a guy. But two days of training without taking the thing off… he did not smell good. "You're getting yourself washed up when we get back."

"Fine." Keel held out his arm. The area where the dog bit him was already turning into a massive bruise. "So can you heal it?"

"Unfortunately my clones can't use this world's magic, which is why I had you bring those medicines with you."

"Oh, right." Keel dug into the pouch he'd been wearing under the kigurumi, mostly to store the food he needed to get through his growing period. "Umm… which one do I use?"

Sigh. "The ointment. I told you before that the ointment works for small cuts and bruises. This vial is for larger cuts and that one is a general antidote for most monster poisons." Keel slowly started rubbing the ointment on his now very purple arm, with his face showing how much pain it caused. "It's a good idea to remember that while something may not hurt too much when it happens, it can end up hurting a lot more if you don't treated quickly enough."

The ointment was absorbed through the skin and the bruising faded in a matter of minutes. I'm sure Emily would have a field day studying all the strange and powerful medicines this world has to offer and then trying to combine them with the ones from Earth and Tortus.

We didn't run into any monsters larger than an usapil until we met back up with Blake and Freon. Freon, while terrible with most weapons to the point that she repeatedly almost accidentally hurt herself, was actually able to handle a tree branch decently well. Maybe it was from watching Motoyasu spin his spear around so much. It's a bit funny that they discovered it from taking a joke Keel made seriously. She could probably use an actual spear or staff, but I'll let Motoyasu handle that part.


AN: Endou may use energy, but it doesn't mean he knows how to manipulate it. And Mald's curses are getting censored by the legendary weapons. It's not impossible considering what happened with the Lust Spear.