The Forgotten Faithful: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 2) by Cajiao, Jez (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

going my own way anyway. I selected the path of Creation and felt a shudder run through me.

Congratulations!

You are now a Creationist Alchemist. A path trodden by few means that greater rewards could await you.

I grinned and dismissed it, resolving to make the most of the trip. It’d take a full day and a half to arrive at the city of Himnel, and for obvious reasons, we wanted to arrive in the dead of night. It was starting to get dark now, and Decin had made the decision to head east by southeast from the Tower, meaning we’d approach from the side least likely to be heavily guarded.

I looked down at the lake that was approaching in the distance, and I hoped that this one didn’t have thousands of goblins pissing in it.

I’d wanted to try to find more of the waystations as well. The Golems that Waystation Four had provided were a huge help but searching for them on the way would have meant heading more towards the south, and Narkolt. Approaching from anywhere that Himnel was already at war with wasn’t likely to help our attempts at stealth at all.

I shivered suddenly, with a feeling like someone walking on my grave, and I turned around. Lydia’s squad was long gone, which meant that Bane…

“Well?” Bane said from beside me, and I turned to look at him.

“Well, what?” I asked him, and he shook his head at me, making my heart sink.

“What, you think I’d forget our agreement already? Because we will need the potions, I left you to play with them until your alchemist had learned enough to make them, but now? Now, it is time to start training.”

“Fuck.” I muttered, already knowing that I was going to regret this.

Bane had me strip out of most of my gear, setting all but my naginata aside, and bare to the waist.

I saw the looks my bandage-wrapped chest and arms got me, but I ignored them, standing opposite Bane as he stood holding one of his spears.

He guided me through a basic spear kata that he knew, slowly. The influence of being an aquatic species was clear, as his movements were far more fluid than my own, and the kata seemed…slow as hell at first. I just knew it wasn’t going to stay that way.

We began with a slow sweep upwards, pausing, then pulling down, the butt of our weapons striking the ground. We pulled them in close, hands well spread, and held the weapons to our sides, our feet steady and braced. I slowly brought the naginata up till it was horizontal, before sweeping it down slowly to my right. Once the point dipped below my knee, I spun it slowly, arching around behind me until it returned to the horizontal. I repeated the move, switching my grip to dip the blade down on the left, spinning it and returning to holding in on my left side now.

It was a simple kata, meant more to make sure that my footwork and grip were both firm, but as Bane made me repeat it, over and over again, slowly increasing the speed of my movements, I became less jerky and more fluid as I went.

He made me repeat the kata for two turns of the hourglass, missing the evening meal as it was served, continuing on until it grew dark enough that the crew lit lanterns around us.

Eventually, he let me take a break. My stamina reserves had bottomed out, and I collapsed to the floor, wheezing, and covered in sweat.

“Are you okay?” Oracle asked me as she landed beside me, back to her usual diminutive size.

“No,” I managed to gasp out, and I felt Bane laughing. I managed to lift one shaky hand and give him the finger, resulting in multiple voices raised in laughter from my right.

I turned my head and saw that the majority of the ship’s crew were seated there, having finished their evening meal and just watching me.

“How… how long… have they… been there…?” I managed to gasp out, and Oracle gently stroked my face as Lydia replied from my other side.

“We’ve been watchin’ for the last hour or so, m’lord.”

“Feck,” I groaned, my stamina slowly starting to return, and I could see that I was surrounded on three sides by people who’d just been watching my kata, and the way that Bane kicked my ass on every mistake.

Just what I needed.

“Thanks for that, Bane,” I said as I forced myself to my feet, my muscles aching as I stretched and pretended that I was fine. “I think that was a good bout.”

“It was; you did well, my lord,” He replied, and I looked at him, considering the fact he called me Jax normally, at my insistence. I just knew the fucker was being sarcastic.

“So, ready to give in for the night like a normal person, or can you keep going?” he asked me, and the low murmur of voices that had begun to climb immediately silenced.

Goddamn evil…sadistic…motherfuc…

“Yeah, I can go a bit longer…” I said, forcing the words out with a fake smile. I hadn’t felt this bad with training since I first started with the Nigerian. Even Flux’s workout this morning had been gentler, and I’d only done one damn kata!

“Excellent! Perhaps it would be better taught without lights, however. We don’t need to be seen here, hmmm?” I quickly agreed with him, and people moved to put the lights out, the mid deck where we stood vanishing into blackness.

A low grumble rose from the spectators, even as Decin and Lydia started chivvying their people away, forcing everyone below decks or back to their stations now that the entertainment was over.

“Oh, thank fuck,” I whispered, slumping over my naginata. I drew in a few deep breaths and straightened, facing Bane. “Come on, then, let’s get it over with…” I whispered, and he shook his head firmly.

“No. I wanted to see if you’d push past it and continue, that’s all. Flux