Restart Again: Volume 1 by Adam Scott (pocket ebook reader TXT) 📕

we learned from each other about our pasts, we also learned a great deal in our training. I made the decision to severely accelerate Lia’s training routine, aiming to bring her up to a rough competence in all the fields I felt were essential instead of focusing on mastery of a single technique. Every night we camped out in the field was spent learning a new skill: proper footwork, two weapon fighting, using a shield, unarmed fighting, and fighting with enhancements were all on the table.

Lia continued to exceed my expectations at every turn. It was immediately clear that she wasn’t any sort of hidden martial prodigy; everything she learned took hours of hard work and intense focus until I felt confident she could perform the skill reliably. Through all of my critiques and the various bumps and bruises, she never once complained. There would be over-exaggerated whines and moans during the next day’s travel, but Lia always remained serious and focused during her training.

She particularly struggled the first night I started hand to hand combat lessons. I noticed quickly that she was pulling her punches out of concern for my wellbeing. No matter how many times I reassured her that she wouldn’t hurt me, and that at worst I would suffer a broken nose, Lia never threw a punch at full force. It took two nights worth of practice and some particularly relentless attacks to draw out her full power in her attacks, but once that switch was flipped it was never an issue again.

On the few nights that we stayed at a roadside inn we spent the bulk of our time in magic training. Although there was no physical exertion involved, my practice regimen for magic and mana manipulation always left Lia far more exhausted than the combat training ever did. Her first goal was successfully using the most important combat enhancements: Sharpening, Agility, Heighten Senses, and Combat Acceleration. I would demonstrate the ability first and describe what it felt like when cast correctly, and then try to help her replicate the effects. Aside from Combat Acceleration, which was a notably more complicated enhancement, she quickly grasped the concept of the other abilities.

After she felt comfortable with the basics, my entire training plan for her was solely focused on repetition. How many times can you evoke a combat enhancement? How long can you sustain a single ability? How well can you maintain control over multiple enhancements at once? Although the training was simple and somewhat boring, it proved to be extremely effective. The progress Lia made was quite astounding; in less than a fortnight, she had gone from not knowing what mana was to channeling three different abilities at the same time for over five minutes. In comparison, within my first two weeks of practicing magic with Brusch I was proud to have maintained Lesser Agility for three minutes without blacking out.

With our days spent walking from sunrise to sunset and our nights packed full of physical exertion, time passed us by without a second thought. We had little reason to keep track of the days when our traveling directions were so simple: Follow the main road to the west. Without any sort of schedule to keep Lia and I were content to travel as fast or slow as we pleased, depending entirely on how we felt in the moment. As such, we were both taken by surprise when, after emerging from a thicket of trees, a large city was looming on the horizon.

Lia was walking a few paces in front of me and was the first to spot civilization. She gasped loudly and turned to me excitedly. “Lux! We’re almost to Atsal!”

I caught up to her and looked through the break in the tree line; off in the distance, I could see a large walled city. We were too far away to make out any details, but it had one distinctive feature: Two ivory white towers stood parallel to one another within the walls, casting menacing shadows over the battlements in the late afternoon sun. The enormous columns looked featureless from my vantage point, glowing immaculately in the clear day’s light.

“I guess we traveled faster than I thought,” I remarked cheerfully. The idea peeled another layer of stress from my psyche. At this rate, making it to Lybesa unharassed doesn’t seem like such an impossible task. “Lia, what do you know about Atsal?”

We resumed our travels as she spoke, moving much more quickly than moments before. “Well, I know it’s the second biggest city in Kaldan behind Yoria. I think it used to be an important military fort, but we haven’t needed those for so long that it’s just another city now.” Lia had a lightness to her gait as we walked, as though she were just barely suppressing the urge to skip. “I’ve heard the whole city is made from perfect white marble, and it has the largest garden in all of Kaldan. Oh, and because it’s so close to the border, you can find lots of exotic things in the markets!”

Lia’s positivity was irresistible, bringing a large smile to my face. “It sounds lovely.” Caught up in her excitement Lia broke into a full skip, moving even faster towards the large city. I had a quick internal debate as we continued down the road. One extra day in Kaldan can’t hurt, right? I mean, it COULD hurt, but it won’t. Besides, I told her I’d take her wherever she wanted to go, not just out of the country. “Lia,” I started with a smirk, “How would you like to stay a day in Atsal before we head to Lybesa? We could explore the garden, check out the exotic markets, do a little exploring of—”

My offer was interrupted by a leaping hug that threatened to knock me head over heels. Lia hung her arms around my neck and looked up at me, her amber eyes shining brilliantly. “You really mean it?!”

Giving her head a quick pat,