Sher Aka’s Training I
Two and a half months ago in Talon, Sher Aka wakes up in what looks like a doctor’s room.
“You’re finally awake,” a man with long pink hair says.
Looking into her eyes he pulls up his finger and adds, “Please follow the finger with your eyes…Alright looks good. Can you move your body?”
“Yes…What happened?”
“My brother brought you here to give you a pretty difficult surgery.”
“Surgery!? What the hell did you do to me?”
“I cut you open and engraved your bones and organs with regeneration runes as well as a unique magic formula. I put special attention to your spine, ribs and skull and added some defensive runes as well.”
“So you cut me open for that!? Hahaha. I don’t even know how to use magic. I don’t have an affinity for any element! This will be completely useless. All you did was give me more scars!”
“Quite the opposite. Go check yourself if you don’t believe me but even the deep scars on your back have healed.”
“What…”
Frantically checking her back with her hands she says, “You…How did you?”
“Like I said, your entire innards are plastered with self replicating regeneration runes. They function the same way most magic tools do. You just need to flow mana through them to activate them and despite having no affinities you still have a decent mana capacity. The more you train with those runes and the more your mana increases so will the effectiveness of the runes increase.”
“That’s…Amazing. Why isn’t this widespread yet?”
“Because the survival rate for the surgery is about 25%. For most people there are safer ways to get strong. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to sleep. I’ve been awake for forty hours to perform this surgery. Carlo is outside waiting for you in the yard if you want to talk to him.”
As he slowly truts outside the medical office Sher Aka, still a bit groggy, gets up from her bed and bows, “Thank you for your hard work doctor.”
“Just doin my job. Glad you’re doing okay.”
Seeing the King lying in the grass outside through a window, Sher Aka opens it and jumps out, “Oy bastard, what the fuck were you thinking!?”
“Oh~ Seems like you’ve recovered well.”
“No thanks to you! 25% survival rate!? Were you trying to kill me!?”
“I know quicker ways to make it a 0% survival rate. This was necessary to make you strong enough to survive the training. Now, you should be able to take lethal hits and survive them.”
“So…I’m practically immortal?”
“Far from it. All this does is make sure that you get a second chance. An otherwise lethal mistake will not kill you anymore but if you take two lethal blows in a row you still die. The runes are designed to be always active and require as much mana as you can currently replenish. In cases of you being in danger of dying it will sap all your reserves at once to restore you. Here, let me show you.”
Taking out his rapier, the king, in one swift motion cuts Sher Aka in half diagonally from her shoulder down to her hip.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”
“Yeah, the pain will take some getting used to, but look, your wounds are already closing. In about a minute most of your torso will be restored, in three minutes you should be fully healed. Ah…Looks like she passed out. Great, now I have to explain it twice.”
About two hours later Sher Aka wakes up again in the middle of a grassy field wearing what looks like a poncho made from a cut out table cloth. Frantically checking her body for wounds she does not find any.
“Ah, great you’re awake again. In a real combat scenario you shouldn’t pass out th-”
“You…You killed me. Without hesitation.”
“I didn’t kill you, you’re still alive after all.”
“My…My body was completely severed. I couldn’t even see the attack coming.”
“Well, that’s what we’re going to train for. I won’t be able to get you anywhere near my level but I can get you a little better than this sorry state.”
“What…What happened to the other half of my body?”
“I ate it.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t just leave it out on the front porch so I ate it. Better than having it rot somewhere.”
“You are…Completely insane.”
“If you say so. It looks like you need some more time to recover from the shock. We have dinner at sundown, until then you can lay here, come inside, whatever you want.”
Sometime after sundown Sher Aka is still laying in the grass, not having moved at all.
Seeing this, the doctor approaches her with some food, water and a blanket, ”It gets cold out here at night. How about coming inside?”
“I died, John. I died today.”
“Can you open your mouth a bit for me?”
Sher Aka opens her mouth and the doctor puts something inside it.
“What is this? Some medicine?”
“It’s just chocolate. It will help you calm down.”
“Thanks, John.”
“You’re welcome.”
About five minutes pass and Sher Aka slowly comes back to her senses, slowly sitting up as the doctor is lighting a bonfire.
“Thank you for the chocolate doctor.”
“You’re welcome. Now drink some water, it will help.”
“Thank you…”
“So…You two are related?”
“Yep, he’s my big brother.”
“Do you know why your brother is so insane?”
“Heh! He isn’t insane, though he isn’t normal either.”
“He just forced a surgery on me, cut me in half and ate my body…If that isn’t insane what is?”
“You know what, fair. Maybe he is a little insane but he wasn’t doing anything to you that he wouldn’t do on himself.”
“What do you mean?”
“He went through the same surgery as you. In fact he was the first living test subject. We developed this idea together. That’s why he asked you if you’re okay with dying for what you want to protect.”
“So this whole training thing is not just a euphemism for torturing me?”
“Nope, he really does intend to train you. Most likely the same way he trained to get this ridiculously strong.”
“And what is that way?”
“Essentially making you fight opponents way stronger than you in actual combat until you get strong enough to beat them or at least compete without nearly dying.”
“Great…”
“Can you do me a favor? Try looking at me with the thought of ‘How strong is this person’ on your mind.”
“Okay…? What…You’re glowing?”
“What color?”
“Red.”
“Good so it works fine. This is the original magic formula I mentioned. It allows you to compare someone else's strength to yours. Dark green means they’re a pushover, light green means they’re slightly weaker, yellow means they’re equal, Orange means they’re stronger and Red means they’re far stronger than you.”
“So you can kill me easily too, huh?”
“I don’t know. The way this rune works is by comparing the physical strength and mana capacity of your opponent with yours. It can’t account for skill. I’m not a combatant so there is a chance you could beat me. Please don’t try it though I don’t like fighting.”
“I wasn’t intending to.”
“Good…Anyways this skill together with your regenerative abilities provide for a relatively safe environment for you to train so if you don’t want to go through the torture my brother has planned for you you can go and train on your own.”
“I’ll consider it. Right now I don’t feel like I can make any decisions.”
“That’s understandable…Oh! Are you able to memorize some more info?”
“Sure.”
“In cases that your rune is unable to show you any color it usually means one of four things. You’ve completely run out of mana, your opponent is using anti spying magic in which case be careful or they are so far beyond you that the rune can’t comprehend the difference between you. Either way it usually means drop your weapon, run and hope for mercy if they’re sentient.”
“What about the fourth case? Those were only three.”
“Right, the fourth scenario is that you forgot to turn it on, haha.”
“...”
“Tiahaha, I guess that would cause it not to work, wouldn’t it?”
Standing up the doctor offers her his hand, “How about we go inside now? Get some actual sleep and some real food?”
“That sounds good, thank you doctor.”
“You’re welcome…Also the whole eating you thing…It’s not really an excuse but it’s something he developed during his training. Your body has an easier time healing when it has nutrients. So, when he lost an arm or a leg, he’d usually eat it to help it recover faster.”
“Even if it sounds logical it is still an insane thing to do.”
“Fair…”