Chapter 390 – Training Options
After returning to the frigid temperatures of the thirtieth floor Damion did not summon his Ice Sword. He was already wearing the training bangles on his wrists and ankles, so instead of flying down to the passageway to the twenty-ninth floor, he started running through the snowy plain, adding further resistance to his movements.
Just wearing the training bangles constantly helped him raise his strength. With the addition of the physical exertion, he was putting himself through, he was expecting to see quick results. It took Damion twenty minutes to cross a kilometer of snowy tundra and from there he started climbing the rocky mountains of the floor.
Once he reached the edge of the glacier, he began climbing down the face. To descend the sheer surface Damion punched and kicked holes to allow him to climb down. The wind howled past his ears as he slowly made his way down. When he was about twenty meters up, Damion pushed off the face of the glacier and let himself fall the rest of the way to the ground. From there, he began running to the passageway to the prior floor.
Floor by floor, Damion continued his workout as he descended towards Elicia’s floor. Any Demonic Beasts that crossed his path became practice for his spellcasting. He did not go out of his way to hunt the Demonic Beasts on any of the floors, but there were plenty in his path. When he reached the safe area around the passage back to the twenty-fourth floor, he took the opportunity to rest.
After a few hours of rest, he continued his descent. Damion continued down and by the time he reached the twelfth floor he was beginning to feel the need for another rest. The D Rank floor now had a few teams moving about, hunting skeletons and zombies in the massive graveyard.
Elicia was fighting a D Rank skeleton while Phil watched from high in the sky. Despite his familiar being aware of Damion’s approach, the Blizzard King stayed in the air above her, faithful to its duty. Damion held back from approaching Elicia and let her fight the skeleton.
With Damion’s sword ablaze in one hand and casting Wind Slash with her other, Elicia was methodically cutting the skeleton up. Each spell she cast cut slightly more of the skeleton’s arm off. After Wind Slash removed a few centimeters of one arm, Elicia would extinguish the flames on Damion’s sword and slice a few centimeters off the other arm with the blade.
While Damion did not know how long Elicia had been at this, but after the most recent slashes, the skeleton was down to only about eight centimeters left of either arm. When she reignited the sword, Damion figured she was about to go through another round. Since the skeleton was already defeated and Elicia was merely practicing her control, he decided to go ahead and end the fight. A quick Ice Shard destroyed the Demonic Beast’s head.
Elicia turned, ready curse whoever had stolen her kill, but when she saw Damion sitting on a nearby tombstone, the anger in her eyes evaporated.
“What are you doing here?”
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“I made a bit of progress in my training and came back to see how you were doing and to head back home,” Damion answered.
“Has it been that long already?”
“Yes. I’m sure my mother will be happy to see us.”
“Helge! I can’t believe I’ve been away for three days.”
“We’ve both been away. And that is why I’m here, so we can head back together.”
“I guess I can’t fault you for spending a day in here anymore,” Elicia said, feeling a bit down that she had managed be so absorbed in training that she had forgotten her son.
“Don’t worry too much about it,” Damion told her. “Soon we’ll be back with Helge and can take a day or two off training if you want.”
“I don’t think that will work, at least not for you. One of us needs to be with Helge and I can’t ask you to put your training on hold.”
“There are ways to train without going into the labyrinth. I’ll start saving any Wind affinity cores I acquire for you. Absorbing the mana from high level cores won’t get you practical experience, but it is a start. Hopefully, Leland and Flannery will be able to create a battle simulator for Avalon and then you will have a way to improve your combat proficiency.”
“Don’t try to make me feel better. I want to train. I want you to train. But I also don’t want to be apart from Helge. I don’t know what to do.”
“Train when you can, while taking care of Helge. How close are you to C Rank?”
“Eighty to ninety percent.”
“Focus on small obtainable goals that move you forward. One step at a time and before you know it, you’ll be where you want to be.”
“Is that what you did? Small obtainable goals?” Elicia asked, though there was a bit of jealousy in her voice.
“Mage Teft started training me when I was six. I may not have been able to cast any magic until I was eighteen, but that does not mean I did not spend twelve years learning to control my mana, growing my core and strengthening my body.”
“You’ve told me this before. You said that was why you trained so hard every morning. To make sure your magic advancement did not surpass your physical.”
“And where are you?” Damion asked her.
“About even, I guess.”
“Go see Flannery. He can supply you with training bangles. If you wear them all the time you will be in a constant state of training.”
“I suppose the training bangles will help keep me train without leaving Helge alone. Let’s go home.”
Once out of the labyrinth Damion and Elicia handed over their spoils to be processed and the trio returned home for a freshly cooked meal. Sharon and Caleb were quite happy to see them and despite being worried the entire time they were gone, understood the reason. After the family shared a hearty dinner Damion and Elicia enjoyed time with Helge and the next day they took the day off from training to spend it with the whole family.
The day after, Damion resumed training in the labyrinth while Elicia trained during Helge’s naps. At the end of two weeks from when Damion first made it to the A Rank floors, he had made significant progress on his journey to A Rank and Mage Teft returned from the labyrinth to give Mage Levine a turn.
In those two weeks Damion had managed to increase a number of his spells in Rank. What was better than the Rank increases, was the quest completions that came with them. He was fast approaching the experience needed to reach level 4 of the Magic System. With that upgrade would come the option to purchase a quest hint in the System Shop.
Now that Mage Teft was out of the labyrinth, he wanted to have a conversation with Mage Thresbane. Since the SS Rank mage was the strongest of humanity, unless the Protectorate was still holding back, Damion felt he could learn a lot from him. However, he held off approaching the Shadow mage until Mage Teft returned since he felt he owed it to his teacher to share any insights.