Several hours had gone by, and Silver had yet to get past the golems. Every time he made some form of progress some new trap would stop him. There were a few times that he reacted quickly enough, but even then, dodging both traps and golems would prove too much, throwing him back out in short fashion.
To make things worse, the random nature of the golem's swings were hard to adapt to, throwing any attempt at memorisation out the window.
*huff* *huff* "I don't think I can keep going." Silver laid on the floor, completely out of energy, as had yet to stop relentlessly throwing himself at the course, taking no breaks in between.
"You did a phenomenal job at not giving up, newbie." Shino, with a proud look, appeared at Silver's feet, offering her hand out to help him up.
"I'm guessing I didn't do badly?" Grabbing Shino's hand, Silver stood up, unsure if her words also meant that he performed well. Still, even if that wasn't the case, he was proud of himself.
"For someone's first try, you did a lot better than some of the people that work here. However, I am not here to reward you, as you have yet to earn it." Shino didn't want Silver to get content with his current results just yet, as there was much more for him to learn.
"I see." Nodding his head, he understood that he hadn't completed the course yet, so it was too early to celebrate his progress.
"Good, now come with me. I want you to look back through what you just did and analyse it. Also, don't worry about not knowing where you can improve, as I have had two people take notes during the entire time. I trust they will give you some pointers." Walking out of the obstacle course, Silver followed closely behind until they arrived at a set of desks with one space free.
There was a man and a woman typing away on some kind of tablet while a recording of Silver played on a hologram. It was quite surreal for him to see his attempts at the course being played back, but he also saw the usefulness of such device as he already spotted some things he could improve on.
"Jenny and Otuka here will be looking after you for the rest of the day, so once you are done, they will also show you to your new room." Shino gave a small explanation, as both her subordinates looked up from their desks, making eye contact with Silver. He gave a small wave, feeling slightly intimidatedTheir expressions were quite stern, so it seemed like they were judging him.
"Well, hello, I'm Jenny, and I look forwards to working with you, Silver. You have certainly impressed me, so you can relax." Jenny's expression softened, giving him a welcoming feeling that allowed him to relax.
"Likewise! Although you can certainly improve, it was a great first try." Otuka pushed up his glasses while giving a more neutral and reasonable response.
"Thank you; I hope I can improve even more with your help." Silver did a small bow, showing his respect as they were his superiors as well.
"Alright, I will leave you three to it; if there is something urgent, you know where to find me, Jenny, and Otuka." Shino then vanished from where she stood, leaving Silver in Jenny and Otuka's care.
"Let's not waste any time, then. First, I have cut down the footage we got of your training, and I want you to watch it. Make sure to take note of anything you think you need to improve on, and then I will point out anything you may have missed." Jenny pressed a few buttons before a screen appeared over the vacant desk.
Silver took a seat on one of the wheelchairs. At first he was very confused, but he quickly got the hang of it. He even got a sudden urge to spin in it, but he refrained since the video of himself began to play.
Looking at himself from a third-person perspective, it was easy to see the kind of mistakes he was making. Most of the clips that were being shown were of the golem section, and from what he could tell, he just couldn't react quickly enough.
He thought back to when those moments happened, and it wasn't like he didn't see them, but it felt like his body was not moving as fast as his brain.
'Grrr, I was so close that time.' It was beginning to get frustrating for him to watch, just seeing how close he was to dodging some of the traps.
Eventually, the video would come to a halt, with the final clip being his final attempt, which was more or less the same.
"So what could you see?' Jenny rolled over in her chair with a few pieces of paper in her hand, seemingly a report of Silver's performance.
"From what I could see, I wasn't able to react quick enough. It was like my body wasn't capable of keeping up with my mind." Giving a short analysis of himself, Jenny nodded in confirmation before flipping through some of the papers in her hands.
Once she stopped on a certain page, she pulled it out and passed it to Silver.
"So far, you are correct, but there is something you will need to learn in order for this to not be a problem. Hopefully, during this next week, you will be able to understand what it means to fight on instinct." Jenny then pointed to the page, which gave a detailed overview of every clip that he just watched.
"Instinct? I guess that makes sense, but how is that reliable?" Silver understood what it meant to fight by instinct, but to him, it felt like something that would be inconsistent, as there was really no way to make proper decisions in a split of a second.
"You've got a good head on you, Silver, but instinct doesn't mean you throw away all thoughts. It's about reacting to your surroundings without taking the time to think. Most of your failures were due to you taking too long to think about what you should do."
"At the start of the course, it's fine, but when you reach the golems, the course speeds up, cutting that time to think. What you need to do is act on your first thought. You know what an arrow sounds like when fired; you know the sound of the spring about to launch you. As soon as you register this sound, you need to act without actively thinking about it."
Otuka jumped in, going in-depth into what it meant to fight on instinct, and Silver was finally able to see its worth. Initially, he thought it was some kind of mindless style of fighting, but it was much more than that.
"There are also a few other things that you need to improve on. I'm guessing you are mainly self-taught?" Jenny wanted to explain some of the other errors since his movements were also far from perfect.
"Mhm, I don't think I have ever gotten proper training from anyone. I've sort of been just learning as I go and using whatever has been comfortable." Thinking about it for a moment, Silver realised that he had never received training from anyone, not even from his own mother.
"Interesting; you move quite well for someone who hasn't gotten any training. However, it is certainly not good enough if you were to compare yourself to someone who knows what they are doing. You are entering a stage where the people you face are all going to be strong."
"Many people naturally reach tiers 5 to 7, especially those with a good aptitude for magic, but to go beyond that, it requires a lot of dedication and effort to get strong. You may have heard it from others: anything above tier 5 or 6 is when the dungeons start to become more unique and begin to show intelligence, especially those above tier 7." Jenny elaborated on her reasoning behind why Silver will need to improve. It would do no good for his motivation to mindlessly train without even knowing why.
Sure, it would be of use against strong people like the pope, but in the more immediate future it would be of great use in dungeon clearing, which will be part of his training.
"I see, so now the people I will be facing will have actual merit behind their tier, and the dungeons now pose more of a threat without any preparation." Silver recited Jenny's words to make sure he was understanding them correctly.
ραΠdαsΝοvεl.cοm "Precisely! We need you polishing up your movements as well as learning how to properly prepare for a mission. You are in the intelligence department after all, so it's best to get as much information as you can and prepare accordingly. Intelligence can always be useful, even if things don't go exactly how we expect them to."
"Enough chatter, Silver! Are you ready to be analysed to death?" A grin appeared on Otuka's face, as this was the most egregious part of their training regimen.
"It's not like I have a choice, haha."
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter