You know what? I'm starting to regret picking Silvia...
Because when we were about to leave the encampment, while I was excited that my life became a game, she asked me a question, something I am both thankful for answering honestly and regretful for what happened to me next.
She asked me if I had any experience with the weapons and items that I have since the crude knife was meant for dismantling yet my dumbassed self was using it as a primary weapon, the darts weren't arranged right, so I'd be hurting myself from trying to grab one since they were dumped into the satchel unorganized, and the scrolls would become useless should the darts manage to puncture them, since I hired her, I trusted her somewhat thanks to the oath, to which I answered.
"No, no I don't~"
Since I can 'change' myself, this was strangely enticing just thinking about it to go on some epic adventure; however, upon hearing my answer, Silvia looked coldly at me before saying this.
"Oh really...? Looks like I'll need to make a man out of you~!"
All while sporting a sadistic grin which led me to my current predicament, of helping around the Encampment, Charsi made me chop a few hundred bundles of wood to help her smithery, then with keeping the flames of her workstation, it did have its moments though, underwear doesn't exist in this world yet and this Buxom of a blacksmith was wearing some thin clothes that stuck to her skin as she was sweating making me quite 'focused' for quite some time especially during her tempering sessions that showed a few near nips slips...!
So I was a little too enthusiastic about helping her as I enjoyed the view, not that I can help it, a hot and sweaty woman in a smoldering hot environment working hot metal made me think I was starting to get some kind of fetish for sweaty women.
I was given an hour's rest before moving on to the next task at hand!
Akara used my mana via mana drain to power her potions and thanks to how her shop was made it increases mana recovery by 50 times while it brought my mana regen up to 0.25 to recover a point every 4 seconds, it was still agonizing to try and keep a pace up even to make a health potion even more so for a mana potion, as Mana is one of the main ingredients mixed with a few ingredients made for parts of monsters!
Gheed, that greedy bastard, had me spar with a few mercs as the 'fall guy' to earn more coins as I learned a few moves of dodging and blocking as a healer that worked under him tended to our injuries as I did get a few lucky punches but still came out black and blue.
Warriv had me do the basics of swinging the sword vertically, horizontally, diagonally, each for 1,000 times while saying a swordsman should integrate their moves instinctively through effort, as he had a kind smile on his face, but for me, the victim, it looked anything but kind!
The cool thing was, though, by the end of it all, I gained 3 points in vitality with the rest gaining two!
Making my stats into this!
Health 130/130
Health regen per second 0.024
Mana 120/120
Mana regen per second 0.006
Strength 1.2
dexterity 1.2
vitality 1.3
energy 1.2
Sadly, still no skills, but at least I know my way around a few things~ something I quickly came to regret again when a certain little girl heard me blurt that out loud!
"Hoho, so you know you're way around?"
She drew her blade, then said with a Hanya-looking face.
"Let's spar!"
Not even ten seconds later, the people of the encampment heard a grown man squeal in agony as he begged to be saved!
After suffering under her 'torture' for half an hour, I knew then that I should keep my mouth shut about a few particular aspects of her; the reason it came from a 10-minute spar to a full-on beatdown session, anything about her figure is taboo!
Unless you are complimenting it!
Even if there isn't anything to complement!
Silvia, who was walking away, suddenly turned around and asked me this as she glared at me so dangerously.
"Did you think of something rude just now?"
I was shaking my head from side to side as I was sprawled on the ground facing upward in pain before she sat on my lap as if hoping to get a reaction from me or hurt me, honestly, I wasn't sure. Still, sadly, I am too tired and in pain to even have any dirty thoughts, even more so for a girl who was around the age of my adopted sister.
Then again, this is a world where people can die at any time, so early marriages do happen.
But sometimes it's as if she wasn't used to fighting or was purposely giving me a chance or something else, it was a weird thought, but it quickly slipped my mind due to the pain.
Silvia was now just sitting there cleaning her nails with a knife all while rocking her butt (that was non-existent by the way) so it was just hurting me more than anything.
Silvia scowled a bit before leaning forward to whisper a few words.
"I'll be a bombshell in a few years, let's see how you'll react then!"
Before getting up, then walking away, the only thing I was thinking about now was, her methods may kill me one of these days!
I also learned another upsetting thing: there are no levels or corrections, I cannot level up!
Skills from skill books can 'grow' but stuff learned without it is something you need to 'maintain' constantly or it will degrade One of the reasons the archers, swordsmen and women, spear users, and other weapon users are practicing every day to stay ready as well as alive!
This became my routine for a few days, with some dart throwing included, only when my stats were more than double did Silvia finally let me go hunting monsters with her!
Resulting in my stats being this.
Health 330/330
Health regen per second 0.064
Mana 310/310
Mana regen per second 0.0155
Strength 3.4
dexterity 4.2
vitality 3.3
energy 3.1
Mana was the hardest one for me to understand, which is why it was currently the lowest stat, while dexterity, on the other hand, became the highest thanks to a little something I learned through trial and error.
I had to hit the bulls-eye on my target a certain amount of times to increase dexterity I haven't found the right method for my other stats, so I have been focusing on the one I can increase I wasn't easy though as I lost some sleep a few times thanks to trying to hit the next milestone.
I increased it by 1 point from hitting my target dead center 10 times at first, then I had to hit it 15 times then 23 times, then 35, and so on.
Meaning with every increment or milestone I hit, I have to multiply it by 1.5, to know what is my next milestone to reach the next point!
and mind you, despite the increase in dexterity it really didn't help me with my accuracy as I needed to learn how to control my hands more to even start after every increase!
But the feeling of getting stronger was always welcome, although the look Silvia and her sisters gave me wasn't a pleasant one!
Especially when she upped my training to improve my 'skills' afterward!
But yeah, I was finally allowed to go outside, just that I wasn't expecting to be dropped in the middle of a small group of quill rats!
As Silvia had a smile on her face, trying to look kind (failing rather badly at it) while stating this!
"Fight for your life! Win and we can proceed with what sister Akara's task, lose and it'll be two wee- no, a month of training this time!"
I think she might've sensed my thoughts or wanted to train me more since she changed the duration of the training, thus I was mentally crying as I had to face these porcupine-looking animals!
And holy fuck, these bastards were big rodents!