”You gotta dodge,” Jake said telepathically as Temlat was attacked by the centaur-like creature. ”Stop trying to block everything or trade blows. That only ever works against those weaker than yourself.”
Jake floated above the clouds nearly a hundred kilometers up in the air as he observed this battle as he tried to stop himself from face-palming.
Below, Temlat held his usual dagger coated with curse energy as he yelled while attacking. His style was hyper-aggressive, which Jake was fine with, as long as the young man didn’t act like he had a Transcendent making him immortal like the Necromancer from the Colosseum of Mortals.
Swinging his dagger, he released waves of dense curse energy that sought to tear apart anything it touched. Temlat was still only level 189, and the centaur he faced was 185, but despite the level disparity, the young man found himself pushed back as his opponent swung his halberd like a skilled warrior. His swings were wide, giving Jake’s little student no space to get close and attack, forcing him to only make his pretty weak ranged attacks.
When Temlat did try to get close, he found himself with a nasty cut or got blasted back as the centaur wielded some wind magic. From an outside perspective, Temlat was clearly on the losing side… but to Jake, that wasn’t the case. Assuming the young half-elf didn’t act like an idiot.
”You wield curses; you’re not some brawler. Curses are not known for their immediate destructive power but are slower and far more insidious. Reign in your own anger and let it loose with purpose and intent to infect your foe. Remember, time is on your side in a fight like this. You just need to last long enough for the curse to do its thing,” Jake sent telepathically once there was a slight break in the fight after the centaur retreated to make some distance.
Temlat listened to Jake for once and restrained himself as he summoned two bolts of black fire. This was something Jake had noticed early on he was capable of, something even Jake wasn’t really sure how to do. Temlat had a class in E-grade that revolved around fire magic, as that school tended to be the most useful in production jobs and whatnot. When he evolved and his curse energy manifested, the young man learned to let his curse energy take the form of flames, even keeping some of the inherent concepts of the fire affinity. It was a good combo with his curse of hatred, as both fire and a budding Wrath Sin Curse had a lot to do with destruction, which made it a shame Temlat didn’t focus more on this direction compared to becoming a good knife fighter.
Throwing two black fireballs, Temlat managed to take the centaur by surprise as it only had time to dodge one, and when it swung to destroy the second, it exploded and bathed its body in black flames. Screaming loudly, the centaur stumbled, but the flames quickly subsided as they seemed to merge with its body.
”Learn when it is your time to land decisive blows. Right now, it’s a slow back and forth, but you need to act without hesitation when you see that one all-important opening. To you, that opening is something you create by yourself as the curse energy accumulates, but you still need to determine when the curse energy is sufficient to end the fight once and for all. If you move too early, you risk your foe eliminating all the curse energy before you win the fight, while if you move too late, you just waste time and resources. So choose your moment of ignition carefully, but not cowardly.”
A constant stream of black flames shot out from Telmat toward the centaur as the creature in vain tried to block with its halberd and wind magic but found itself still afflicted by the curse energy. Its swings got more and more furious as its otherwise calm demeanor changed until finally, the centaur yelled loudly as it charged, eyes red with anger.It had lost its marbles and no longer acted like an expert fighter but just a dumb beast. The curse energy had thoroughly taken hold of its mind, inflicting it with an uncontrollable surge of anger. Telmat managed to take advantage well as he retreated constantly, and even if he still got hit way more than he should have, he managed to hold on long enough until it was time to land the killing blow.
The centaur had just finished a furious flurry of swings as Temlat simply raised his hand and pointed. Right as he did, black veins appeared all over the centaur’s body as black flames erupted. The curse energy turned against its own temporary vessel with hatred as it consumed the centaur’s body whole. Its arms were hued black before turning to ash as the halberd fell to the ground. Its legs gave out, making it fall to the ground, and all its flesh turned black and wooden before slowly disintegrating.
Yet, despite all this, the centaur kept trying to crawl toward Temlat with only anger in its eyes. There was no sense of self-preservation or instinct to survive, only a singular will to destroy whatever was before its eyes. Even as its eyes turned to black orbs that cracked soon after, its gaze had been full of hate.
Temlat, seeing his foe had died, fell to the ground exhausted as he took out one of the healing potions Jake had handed him before going out on this particular training mission. Jake, standing up in the air and looking down, had a mixed look on his face as he sighed.
“Well, that was kind of shit… but I guess he won,” Jake muttered to himself. That amount of curse energy had been crazy overkill, but hopefully, Temlat would get better with time.
Jake was not an expert when it came to combat, even if he was an expert fighter. He had a fighting style that worked for him, and while it had proven highly effective, it only worked for Jake due to his Bloodline. So even if Jake tried to teach someone his own fighting style, it would prove detrimental compared to learning more standard styles. Jake’s style relied pretty much solely on his Bloodline-empowered instincts, and anyone who didn’t have it would be unable to follow his expert advice of ”just dodge everything and stab when you feel like it.”
Also, he wasn’t like the Sword Saint, who could explain in-depth how and why something the old man did worked for him and, more accurately, could point out what would work for others. Jake couldn’t look at someone swinging a sword and instantly point out how the way they placed their index finger was slightly wrong or how they needed to shift their center of gravity when swinging. The best Jake could do was tell someone they were doing something wrong and give some basic advice. All of this is to say Jake sucked at teaching others how to fight.
However, Jake did know one method of teaching combat that was approved multiversally by every single faction: practical experience. Nothing was better at teaching someone how to fight than live combat. Sure, live combat also carried the risk of the person getting trained dying due to some fuck-up, so most factions wanted to at least have their members reach a good baseline before it was time for life-and-death battles.
With Temlat, Jake would teach him how to fight the same way Jake had been taught. He would throw the young man into life-and-death fights right from the get-go and hope he made it. Temlat knew a bit about how to fight from the streets already, but he still sucked ass, to put it nicely.
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The planet Jake had found, which he deemed suitable for Temlat’s practice, was one filled with large plains and different humanoid and semi-humanoid creatures. Their levels were nice and varied, and considering it was a planet that was constantly at war, their combatants were all pretty skilled. Skilled enough to be better than Temlat, for sure.
In pure power, Temlat actually had a good shot against even the peak D-grades. His stat gains hadn’t been horrible from the looks of it, and his class was already pretty good even before Jake took him in as a student, with the profession also acceptable. After Jake had helped him make his curse stronger, he now had a pretty good advantage against equal-leveled opponents stat-wise.
Jake, using One Step, teleported down from up in the air within a few steps before he appeared in front of Temlat. The young man quickly gathered himself and kneeled. “I apologize for my horrible display.”
“Don’t apologize, but improve. Your foes will not care how sorry you are, and the targets of your hatred will not hesitate either just because you aren’t powerful or skilled enough to carry out your revenge. These centaurs are nothing compared to even the guards of the woman who kept you as a pet. And I am not talking about the C-grades like the captain, but the D-grades ones,” Jake said in a pretty harsh tone.
“I will do my best,” he quickly answered.
“And I ask of nothing more,” Jake said in an attempt to not be all stick and no carrot. “You are already improving rapidly, far more rapidly than any of those you wish to kill. With time, you will catch up and end them. C-grade shall be your turning point, and upon evolving, I believe you should become capable of holding your own in the power department. However, when it comes to pure skill and learning how to use your curse energy, you still have a long way to go, which is why we’re here.”
“What does Lord Thayne want me to do?” Temlat asked.
“Remember where the portal we entered from was?” Jake questioned.
“I… it was that way,” the young man said as he pointed in a direction. Jake couldn’t really fault him for being disorientated, as Jake had brought him there using One Step and his wings, but at least he had the general direction right.
“So you know the way back,” Jake smiled under his mask. “So, meet me back at the lab.”
“…I… what?” Temlat asked, confused enough to forget being courteous.
“Make your own way back alive. That’s what I want you to do.”
“That’s…” the young half-elf muttered as he steeled himself. “I shall do my utmost.”
“Great,” Jake said as he took out a bag of healing potions and placed them down on the ground. “Good luck then, and remember not to die.”
With those words, Jake turned around and flew into the air, quickly getting away from the still-kneeling young half-elf. He flew high up and kept observing him as Temlat slowly gathered himself while picking up all the potions. Jake kept observing for an hour or so more as his little student seemed to realize Jake was serious and began making his way back slowly and carefully. He seemed to plan on sneaking back, but Jake knew that wasn’t going to work.
There was a large centaur encampment directly in the way, and if he wanted to make it to the portal, he had to make it past it. As he was currently, Temlat wouldn’t have a chance, so he would have to use his head and abilities or be stuck in this world forever.
This entire scenario would also serve as a good way for Temlat to get more life experience and see more things. He had been stuck in that megacity his entire life, and seeing new things like this and experiencing an entirely new world filled with greenery had to be healthy, right? Ignoring the murderous centaur running around in the area, of course.
Jake was fully aware this training method was harsh, but he had never claimed to be a gentle teacher. He just did what he thought was best and the most efficient while using rather elementary training methods. And, let’s be fair, throwing a student into the wilderness and asking them to survive was as classic a training method as they came.
Naturally, there was a chance Temlat would die, but it was a risk Jake was willing to take. Temlat had also said he would do anything to make his goal possible, and Jake genuinely believed this was a good method. If he made it back alive, he would do so notably improved, while if he died, it would suck. Ultimately, though, should he die, perhaps Temlat was just never meant to get strong.
After being satisfied with Temlat’s initial approach to this trial, Jake headed back to the House of the Architect building to keep working on his own stuff. It was probably rude to admit, but Jake felt a sense of relief from not having to think about Temlat for a little while as the young man did his trial. Or, well, didn’t do his trial, but hopefully, he would return safe, sound, and less incompetent in the staying-alive department.
With no one around to disturb him, Jake would dedicate his entire focus to his special curse-nurturing poison. He would make the best damn curse-feed the Architect had ever seen.
As Jake began his focused crafting session, other top contenders for the Leaderboards also began to make their way into the House of the Architect. Compared to all the prior Challenge Dungeons, this one stood out for requiring something none of the others did: creativity and the ability to make something.
One thing many top geniuses had in common was a singular focus on a specific Path. Even if someone was enlightened and had a profession, this profession was often chosen with the express purpose of making them more powerful in combat. Moreover, what they could make with their profession was also focused.
Azal the Ghost King was a brilliant example of this. He was an expert combatant who had only lost in the Colosseum of Mortals when he faced Valdemar and had even managed to get his recognition, netting him a 20% point amplifier. He also did well in the Test of Character, with even Minaga’s Labyrinth going well. The Labyrinth was primarily due to his profession.
He was something known as a Spirit Architect. Whenever someone died, their Truesoul would return to the system, but some energy would always linger behind from the broken soul. This energy could take many forms, including curse energy, affinity-filled energy based on who died, or just mana in its purest form, turning the area into a blessed land for monsters.
However, sometimes, spirits were also formed. Monsters that fed on the energy released. These ghosts were not truly something related to the person, even if they could sometimes possess emotions and even fragmented memories of the deceased.
Azal had the ability to collect these spirits within himself. Not only that, he could manipulate them and even merge different spirits. These spirits could then be used in different formations, controlled as summon-like creatures, or consumed directly to empower himself by effectively letting them possess him or his equipment. His blade was tailor-made to be possessed and was a blade he constantly empowered by merging souls into it. Everything he did was with the purpose of getting more powerful.
It was inarguable that Azal had a high-tier profession. One worthy of a top genius of the multiverse. But it was also limited. It dealt only with spirits, and even if there were many ways to use them, Azal had never had to or wanted to learn more nuanced disciplines. He had supporters to do all that, so why would he need to learn how to, for example, craft a piece of equipment or even a catalyst for a spirit to inhabit? The only weapon he ever worked on himself was his Soulbound sword, which he had successfully gotten to mythical rarity through constant feeding and maintenance. It was also a blade directly bound to his profession and was his primary method of housing spirits outside of a hidden internal space in his body.
Anyway, the answer to whether Azal would need to learn more nuanced crafts was that he didn’t when he had the entire support system of the Risen behind him. Which became a weakness when he entered the House of the Architect.
Even if he could make a few good Creations, the fact you had to make ten became the big limiter for him and many others. At some point, it also became a question of efficiency. Would it be worth it for him to spend years trying to get a slightly higher score or to try to clear one more floor once he was done with the Challenge Dungeons? To many, Azal included, the answer was clear.
This turned the House of the Architect into what many considered a place to quickly get done with. You would just do what you could and accept the result before moving on to more important matters. Even if you spent a few extra years, that potential 5% extra Nevermore Points wouldn’t be worth it to learn something entirely new. Getting to 10% was entirely possible, but anything more than that just became too hard.
Besides, it wasn’t like there was any reward for getting a high score in all the Challenge Dungeons, right? And even if there was, who would be crazy enough to go for it?