Chapter 211: Brotherhood II
Bedwyr stared at the sky above; sweat ran down his brow, his shirt long thrown into the dust. In the distance, he could see the lights of the Kingdom. Lights to keep the streets alive, even in the depths of the night; though there was the sun cycle on the surface, the people had long adapted to working in three separate shifts. The tradition still continued, even up here.
“Not enough.” He said quietly—a boulder was nearby, along with several others—his only decoration in this wasteland; training of this sort didn’t tend to do well when inside the Academy. Too much attention. Some of his class had ideas on what being a Knight meant; their ideas weren’t his. As they filtered out, they found their niches and applications, and this raw Strength training was often abandoned in favor of more specialized or more practical training geared to help their marks in class.
Unless, of course, they were going for power.
To him, though, with his Talent…
This kind of training was often the most simple way to advance everything. Want to get stronger? Lift heavier things. Over and over and over again, he kept lifting heavier and heavier things. Tedious, sure. But every time he gained an increase in his Virtue… All of his virtues advanced.
“Another set, then,” his muscles burned with pain, but the tournament was coming up. In it, he would face several strong Knights, and that was from the people in the academy alone. Who knew what was outside of their walls?
It was hotly debated in the second year who the strongest among them was. His name often came up in the rankings, but regarding raw singular Virtues, at least a few other Initiates exceeded him. Including, he suspected, his brother. Focusing on a specific area, complemented with a Talent that might lead to better growth, could do that.
Still, he knew when it came to a straight fight… He would likely win. It wasn’t a sure thing, but none among his peers had found a way to compete in an even fight against him.
“Only because I work like this,” Bedwyr sighed, massaging his arms. The pain was a dull constant ache. In the last couple of weeks, he’d had to go to a healer since he’d overdone it and torn muscles; still, he’d seen two increases in his tier. For him, that kind of growth was unprecedented since hitting the C-Rank. At this rate, if he kept pushing, he would reach the B-rank in time for the tournament. Passing that bottleneck, though, was admittedly quite intimidating.