Return of the Woodcutter
Chapter 74 - Results Earned Through Hard Work... And A Cheat (part 1)

Third week of training. 

Sheyla stopped talking to Aito again. Not surprising, considering the outcome of their fight. Still, she would show up on the third floor every day for her daily quest or simply for training. 

Not that Aito cared much about it. But somehow, he felt he wasn't nearly done yet with her. 

After his duel with Sheyla, Aito resumed his training as per usual. Broken bones, bruises, exhaustion.

After three weeks, he started to get used to the pain. Added to that, the daily injuries he had suffered on the island, Aito was progressively developing resistance to physical pain. 

Not a skill, just a mental state where one would be used to injuries to the point of being capable of keeping a clear head, even with broken bones. Much like Sheyla and her broken fist. 

The pain was still there, but instead of impeding Aito's thought process, it would be more akin to a companion staying by his side. An annoying companion. 

By the end of the week, he could activate Durability instantaneously, meaning coating his entire weapon. Before, it averaged a bit less than two seconds, just like his other skill, though it still took around a second for him to activate Weight Control.

Aito got more proficient with coating his ax head with Durability. It took more time than it would to be efficient in a fight, but it was still good progress. He also tried to apply the same training to Weight Control. 

However, it proved to be much more difficult. He hadn't been able to increase or decrease the weight of his ax head. A mediocre result. Instead of discouraging him, it did the exact opposite, though. 

Whirlwind saw the most drastic improvement. Aito now had near-complete control over this physical-based skill. Safely halting the skill in an instant wasn't that far off. But was that truly necessary? Once he came to this conclusion, it all became clearer to him. 

Instead of trying to force Whirlwind to a stop, he would just progressively decelerate it. Also, he could simply stop the skill by lodging his weapon, or whatever he was using, into the ground or opponent's body by reducing its power beforehand to avoid completely slicing off the opponent's body. Though the real improvement wasn't in that realization. 

First, he became much more aware of his surroundings after getting used to the feeling of having his head spinning around.

Whirlwind was, after all, disorientating. It hadn't been rare for him to stop his skill while facing the opposite direction from when he had started it. Now, he would also return to his initial position if he wished it. 

Second, he succeeded in applying the Italian sword technique to his skill, well it could use some improvement.

Instead of just putting all his weight behind the skill, he would do it partially. Using the strength of his arms and the motion of the weapon most of the time. 

And when necessary, he'd give a boost of power by using his entire body. 

It was less taxing stamina-wise and easier to control, more effective and accurate. 

He was starting to be able to move around with it. His current goal with this particular skill was advancing while using Whirlwind instead of being stuck to one place. 

As for his training with Ogoro… well, he still got his ass handed to him, but fewer times. Every day, he would learn something new.

He even managed to land a few hits. Was it talent? Yes, and no. It was a mix of hard work, a cheat, a.k.a inheriting Ogoro's memories, and his own… talent if it could be called that. 

Moreover, now that Whirlwind was almost under his complete control, he wouldn't train his chain attacks at night with Ogoro or spar. Instead, he had asked Ogoro for advice on marksmanship. 

And so, he started training with his new crossbow, the repeater. His accuracy against short-ranged targets increased by leaps and bounds every day. Just like Gwen's satisfaction. 

She hadn't expected him to improve that fast and had no doubt he would reach the requirements to end his training earlier than expected. 

In a way, Gwen was kind of looking forward to their spar. Maybe, just maybe, he would be able to touch her. Since she wasn't planning on using her full power during the spar because it'd be over before Aito could even move. 

The more she looked at her apprentice's progress, the more it reminded her of herself, but also someone else. 

A black challenger from a few years ago, the last one before Aito appeared. At that time, she had also offered to train him. The crazy-looking man had accepted. 

However, in him, she had seen an unquenchable thirst for bloodshed fueled by vengeance. Turns out, that madman's increase in strength was unusually fast. Talent. Resolve. He had had it all. Such talent amongst challengers was almost unprecedented. 

Then, when the previous black challenger had almost reached her level, he disappeared a few months ago, who-knows-where. People supposed that he had finally become too crazy and killed himself somewhere nobody could see him.

He was known by many titles. Bloody Butcher, Bloody Bastard, Bloody Madman, all bloody titles. But he was mostly known as the sole non-bloody title, Durnium Fist, for he would always fight with durnium gauntlets, and no other weapons. 

Although, Gwen knew him as Alex Rai. 

***

Fourth week of training. 

Aito could now finish his warm-up without using Pneuma. However, like the training addict he was, he upped the difficulty by increasing the weight of his armor set by 2 times for this exercise. 

He came to realize that the threshold of Weight Control was now higher than before. How high, he hadn't checked his status window yet, so he didn't know. 

However, a two-times increased weight of his armor set was his limit for his warm-up. With it, he had to use Pneuma to keep up with the toll. Weirdly enough, he did realize there was a slight increase in stamina provided by Pneuma. It might just be his imagination, though.

Each warm-up was now more challenging because of this added difficulty. 

Something Aito thought Gwen hadn't noticed, but she actually had.

Aito would also carry his crossbow with him and try to shoot the falling straw targets when he could. However, a few straw targets still managed to hit his head from time to time. 

Mostly because Gwen would progressively summon more each day. A slight difference of one but it slowly stacked up to become twenty-eight by the end of the week. 

Something Gwen thought Aito hadn't noticed, but he actually had.