Enhancement Training Day 2
“Alright, today I will be in charge.”
It was the second day of the enhancement training for Stella and the others. After the chaotic melee that unfolded the previous day, they were left with significant fatigue and an unexpected amount of equipment wear. As a result, the number of people present for training was fewer than on the first day. The six participants included the three trainees—Stella, Rio, and Fon—the instructor for today, Crew, the assistant Lulu, and the observer and stopper, Philo. The others were either bedridden due to damage or had gone to the commercial district to purchase new gear.
By the way, Crew was dressed in military formal attire today. After assessing what was lacking from the previous night, he had decided on this outfit to facilitate the training.
“First of all, all three of you are lacking stamina. While Stella can stand up through sheer willpower, it’s unstable when considering prolonged combat. Rio, you’ve expended a lot of mental stamina from facing strong opponents. Fon, you seem to have stamina left based on your involvement in yesterday’s melee, but you tend to conserve it.”
The three of them, who had been warned by Ferno that Crew would change character, could not hide their unease as they listened to him. However, they were not foolish enough to let their anxiety cause them to miss anything. They attentively awaited the training that was to be directed at them.
“Well, since you’re lacking stamina, we’ll work on building it. However, it’s not something you can acquire in just one day of training. Still, stamina is essential.”
With that, Crew paused for a moment, then slowly drew a dulled dagger from his sleeve, pointing its tip toward the three who were listening intently.
“I’ll be a bit forceful in pushing your limits.”
With those words, Crew swung the dagger sideways, as if to slice through something, shaking off the blood and flesh that clung to it.
Suddenly, Stella, Rio, and Fon collapsed to the ground. It felt as if their consciousness had been severed, as if they had been ambushed on the battlefield and had their lives snatched away. They fell to the ground, their knees and hands pressed against the earth.
Seconds passed in silence.
“…Am I alive?”
Rio murmured as she placed a hand on her neck. This prompted Stella and Fon to regain their senses, both of them also placing their hands on their necks as they breathed heavily.
The moment the dagger was swung, they felt death. They envisioned their throats being slit, blood gushing forth, and their breaths ceasing. Their bodies felt as if they were engulfed in flames, yet frozen in ice. In that moment, they collectively sensed that they had died.
Overwhelmed by an extreme fatigue that surpassed yesterday’s chaos, the three glared up at Crew, who looked down at them in silence. In response, Crew spoke calmly, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“At the moment of death, life expels everything from the body. This holds true even for self-inflicted death or hallucinations. Therefore, experiencing death is a highly effective means of building stamina.”
Death Experience
While one can visualize death, experiencing it is an abnormal phenomenon that living beings typically never encounter. Why is that? Because death is something life only experiences once at its end, and one does not clearly understand or communicate that experience to others. No living being can distinctly impart the experience of death to another; that is common knowledge, even for the three undergoing training here.
“Ah, rest assured. I have received permission from the God. As long as it doesn’t become a trauma, it’s fine to push you to your limits. Of course, the threshold for trauma varies from person to person… but you can be assured of that as well; I consider myself quite adept at discerning limits.”
However, the person standing before them was a being from the realm beyond common sense. The one who had requested this training was also undeniably a being of the extraordinary, far superior to Crew, a true embodiment of the supernatural. The three of them, now acutely aware of this through the words spoken and the events that had unfolded, held their breath and listened intently.
“Thus, for today, you will continue to experience death. The goal is to overcome this experience and be able to strike me back. If you can’t reach that point, you won’t be able to keep up with the training ahead.”
After all, if they were to fight alongside the God, they needed to be able to do at least that much. With that, Crew concluded his words and once again readied the dagger for another swing. The three, unprepared to receive the next death experience after merely listening, swiftly lost consciousness once more.
Yet Crew would not allow them to waste time in unconsciousness. He approached the fallen trio, grabbed them by the scruff of their necks, and positioned them upright before lightly tapping their foreheads to rouse their scattered consciousness.
“Now, let’s continue. By lunchtime, I expect you to experience death about a hundred times.”
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Thus began Crew’s repetitive death experience training. The concept was based on the torturous experiences Crew had undergone at the hands of Ferno in the past. He had repeatedly faced death through exsanguination and shock, followed by resurrection and awakening via Potions, thoroughly breaking his spirit in that hellish ordeal.
His ability to discern the line of trauma stemmed from his own experiences, having endured a prolonged trauma himself.
After all, there had been no mercy whatsoever. The memories of the dark assassinations had become a trauma, and as a result, he had developed a semblance of humanity compared to when he was a mere assassination machine. Yet, it remained a trauma, and even now, just imagining a serious fight with Ferno made him feel nauseous and left him with a deadened gaze.
Setting Crew aside, the three were undergoing the repetitive death experience training. While they had not yet reached the extraordinary level, they had still faced their share of brutal situations. Thus, from the start of the morning training until lunchtime, they experienced death one hundred and fifty times, and after a break, they continued for an additional hundred times.
As a result, Fon was the first to overcome death. Though he had a glaring weakness when it came to women, he was the oldest among the three and had a fair amount of experience. Therefore, he was the first to succeed.
With the dagger swinging, Fon managed to leap toward Crew, delivering a kick to his arm and following it up with a heel drop and a sweep. Although his instincts had guided his counterattack, only the kick landed, while the other two moves were easily dodged by Crew. Nevertheless, the fact that he had overcome death was undeniable, and after succeeding two or three more times in a row, Fon achieved the goal for the day. Consequently, he was allowed to rest for the remainder of the day, receiving a Potion from Lulu while watching the other two continue their training.
Next to overcome was Stella. The difference in experience was significant; combining her past battles against superior foes during her knight days with the experiences from yesterday’s melee, she managed to overcome death the moment she experienced it for the three hundredth time.
As she felt death, she sprang into action, drawing her sword and delivering a swift strike aimed at Crew’s neck. However, Crew had anticipated that she would overcome it today, so he dodged her attack, preventing her from following up with her second and third strikes. Still, she had indeed overcome death, and unlike Fon, who had reacted out of instinct, Stella had accepted death and countered it.
While her timing was not as rapid as Fon’s, she succeeded in her fifth attempt, managing to disarm Crew and drive her sword into his neck, forcing him to respond seriously.
Thus, she too passed the test. Like Fon, she was allowed to rest, but she chose to continue experiencing death alongside Rio, wanting to grasp the sensation better.
Fon attempted to join in, but instinctively realized that he could only retaliate, which would only hinder Rio. Thus, he chose to step back and observe.
And so, it was the six hundredth time, surpassing five hundred. While Rio had grown accustomed to the sensation of death and no longer lost consciousness, she still hadn’t reached the point of counterattacking. At that moment, Ferno returned from shopping and switched places with Crew. It was time for Ferno to experience death, as it seemed that the sensation of not dying had taken root in Rio, preventing her from retaliating.
As she envisioned the scene of her neck being twisted and her heart pierced, Rio instinctively moved, pressing her knife against Ferno’s throat in a counterattack. The speed at which she retaliated surpassed even Fon’s; it was a defense mechanism triggered by the literal threat of death. Fueled by murderous intent, Ferno deflected Rio’s knife and, while spinning, brought her down to the ground, declaring her successful.
Ideally, Ferno wished for her to think rationally and execute a sure counterattack, but neither Crew nor Ferno expected that level of performance on the first day, so they concluded the session there.
On the second day of Enhancement Training, Rio ended the session having experienced death and managed to counterattack even in a state of extreme fatigue. The results were promising. Compared to the first day, her performance had improved significantly, and with the remaining twelve days of training, she would be able to utilize her time meaningfully. After all, she had gained the willpower to remain conscious and keep moving, even in a state of exhaustion.