Chapter 104: Major Milestone
( One Month Later, Leo’s POV )
[ System Notification – Congrattions yer ‘TheBoss’, for earnestlypleting your training for a month.
You have gained +4 levels! ]
Leo received this notification, the moment he logged into Terra Nova Online for 31st day of his training with Ben.
With these +4 levels as reward! He had finally reached level50.
” Yes sir! That’s what I’m talking about” he said with a smile as he headed off to train, with the first challenge for the day being the mountain climb.
Ever since Leo realized that he wasn’t giving his 100% in training about three weeks ago, he decided to start training as if his life depended on it, as everyday he would push himself to the very limits of his capability to improve as much as possible.
Although he wasn’t aware of this, the Terra Nova Online game was designed in a way that rewarded yers who worked hard to acquire skills. Movements that would need to be practiced 10,000 times in the real world to be a part of one’s muscle memory, needed to be practiced only 3,300 times within Terra Nova Online to achieve the same result, hencepared to the real world, even the most average yer was three times faster at grasping concepts within Terra Nova.
Leo, however, was 12 times as fastpared to an average yer, with his progress in Terra Nova Online.
In just one month, he attained mastery over his tasks which would usually take a year, as by the day 31 mark, Leo could climb up and down the mountain with nothing but the rope to rely on with both his feet touching the mountain slope.
Just like Ben could, with his first demonstration of climbing the mountain to Leo, after day 28 Leo too could almost effortlessly scale it, or at least appear to effortlessly scale it, as in reality it needed incredible core strength, bnce and precise muscle coordination to achieve this feat.
Within one hour, Leo could climb the mountain and back over 7 times, clearing this stage of his training 6 months before Ben expected him to.
If it was only the mountain climbing that he excelled in, Ben would have probably attributed it to the activity being suitable to him, however, like a true freak of nature, Leo was not limited to progress in just mountain training, as he made strides in every training routine across the board.
The squirrels that were Ben’s notorious adversary when he was a disciple, were easy pickings for Leo, who could hunt them with his precise dagger throws, sometimes even taking down multiple one’s at once for breakfast.
In terms of weapons training, he had perfected the art of throwing eight daggers at once and was rapidly perfecting the continuous throw method, that could turn an Assassin into a short-ranged archer performing rapid shot.
Not only were his dagger throws precise, but they prated their targets with power as his technique was nearly wless.
Thankfully, his stretch training remained to be one aspect where his progress was within the realms ofmon sense for Ben, as his improvement seemed to be slow and consistent instead of astronomical.
By day 31 he could nowy his palms t on the ground while standing without feeling a stretch in his hamstrings and if he really tried, he could also ce about half an elbow’s length more on the ground while standing upright.
As for his back and shoulders, Leo’s dormant muscles that had all clogged up together due to neglect andck of use, were now starting to split apart and gain mass as Ben could physically see back muscles popping out of his skin, forming an admirable shape which was previously missing.
In Ben’s eyes, this exercise was the foundation for any sessful assassin, as whether it was hiding on rooftops, or the corner of a room, one needed to have flexible joints, muscles and the capability of being bent at odd angles for extended periods of time.
As a veteran assassin, Ben understood the importance of this exercise and the reflex training that followed, as he knew that someday Leo would be hiding in the corner of a room, waiting for a target to assassinate, but would then have to face unprecedented danger, suddenly being thrown into a fight, which was why he always followed up stretch training with reflex training, so that it became second nature to Leo and prepare him for the real world.
It was undoubtedly the reflex training however, where Leo showed the maximum progress.
His reflexes were simply otherworldly as even after modifying the course to a difficulty level where Leo only had two toe’s worth of space to maneuver andnd, he could still manage to block and dodge all of Ben’s dagger throws as his judgment of where attacks woulde from and dodging was simply unbelievable.
” Come on, master, you can do better than this, I haven’t even warmed up properly” Leo taunted Ben, when after fifteen minutes of reflex training he wasn’t even scratched as Ben then proceeded to show a sliver of his true strength as he bruised Leo left and right.
-10
-10
-10.
” Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I yield, I yield” Leo said, waving the white g as Ben stopped his assault and allowed Leo to walk out of the reflex training arena.
” Your improvement over the past month has been impressive to say the least. So I’ve decided to make two important decisions today” Ben said, as he stroked his chin and pondered into the distance.
” Firstly, from tomorrow I’ll alter your training routine. Except for stretch training, your exercise routine will change, with the inclusion of more hunting and weapons training.
From tomorrow we will start sparring seriously and learning to wield the sword.
And from tomorrow, I’ll start imparting my three core techniques to you, the ones that made me the legendary assassin Ben Faulkner” Ben said as Leo’s eyes sparkled at the thought of finally getting to learn some real skills, as he too was feeling slightly bored following the same workout routine daily.
“Secondly, and this is contingent on you mastering my imparted skills to at least the second stage of mastery…
We shall enroll you into the grand tournament held in the capital city as an independent fighter.
If my estimations are not wrong, you should be able to single handedly sweep that tournament, winning favor from the Emperor, but for now it’s only a thought.
Whether we go or not depends on how fast you finish your training” Ben said as Leo felt intrigued about this ‘Grand Tournament’ which allegedly had the Emperor personally rewarding the winner.
“Don’t worry master, I will definitely exceed your expectations” Leo said, as he gave the old man a wink as Ben could only chuckle dryly.
Truth be told, Leo had already exceeded Ben’s expectations to the point where Ben felt incredibly lucky to have a disciple like him.
His rate of growth was so monstrous that it made Ben question his own worth as a master, however, seeing Leo progress so fast he was truly content with life, for the first time since he himself was a disciple under his father.