Wyrm 7:
Ugh, this sucks.
Skanda-sama's training routine for me sucks.
I remember being relieved and even a little excited that I would be getting a helping hand starting this new life.
But as we started my training, my excitement soon faded away, replaced by discontent.
The first thing Skanda-sama made me do is acquire four Skills with my large pool of Skill Points.
[Appraisal], [Mana Perception], [Mana Operation] and [Technique Perception].
They were expensive, costing me a total of nearly 5000 points.
I need the first one to be able to see my own Stats and Skills, but only once it has reached a high enough Level.
It is absolutely trash starting out, practically useless even.
No, it's even worse than useless as I would get a massive headache everytime I tried to use it.
Skanda-sama said he just got used to the pain as he brute forced his way into levelling up by appraising everything in sight, even the floor, walls and ceiling.
Even now, after 'weeks' of training, I still don't think I will ever get used to it.
But it is getting better I guess, just very slowly.
As for the next two Skills, I need them to be able to use Magic.
Problem was, I didn't have any Magic Skills to teach me any Spells to use.
Skanda-sama quickly solved that problem by introducing Manual Control.
A harder and more dangerous but ultimately better way of using Magic by constructing the Runes for Spells by one's own hand, well, [Mana Operation].
All I had to do to learn Spells is to use the fourth Skill to 'see' the Runes Skanda-sama constructed and then do it myself.
He would make them slowly so I could follow, and used the simplest Spells so I wouldn't have to do anything too difficult.
Thanks to this trick, I have obtained [Poison], [Shadow], [Dark], even [Healing] and [Spatial Magic] after a lot of trial and error without spending any more Skill Points.
Seriously though, it is ridiculous how much harder [Spatial Magic] is to use compared to the others, talk about a difficulty spike.
[Healing Magic], while not as hard, is still considerably harder than the other Magic.
The fact that Skanda-sama finds them relatively rather easy himself impresses me.
There is also [Abyss Magic], but it is down right impossible for me to replicate with how hard it is to use.
I mean, even the master of Magic that is Skanda-sama said he needs an extra mind form a Skill called [Multi-Minds] to be able to pull it off.
The idea that I am actually talking to one of his many minds still weirds me out.
The other problem with [Abyss Magic] is that it is too destructive, the nuclear option essentially.
Can't exactly practise it without causing massive damage to our surroundings.
There is another type of simpler Magic he could teach me, [Heretic Magic], but he won't for the simple fact that maxing it out would give me a Level of [Taboo].
I am not to raise [Taboo] no matter what, the Appraisal description of the very Skill in question said so as much.
He then warned me of Ruler Skills, really powerful Skills based on the seven deadly sins and seven heavenly virtues.
Heh, I remember catching Skanda-sama struggling to recall what the adjective is for the virtues, guess no one is perfect, and we laughed it off once I told him.
Anyway, tempting as their power is, acquiring them also raises [Taboo], so it's a no go.
In fact, before I even bought the four Skills, he told me to always consult him before making any purchases of my own.
An example Skanda-sama brought up was [Detection], a cheap but cursed Skill that will essentially lock the user out of using Magic until they can handle its negatives.
It would be bad if I bought that Skill without knowing its hidden downside, Skanda-sama speaks so from experiencing that himself.
Seriously, I am so glad to have someone with actual experience guiding me in this new world.
That said, it is still a really good Skill if you can use it, so Skanda-sama has been using the Heretic Spell [Discomfort] on me to raise my [Heresy Resistance] so that I will one day be able to use it.
From the name alone, it is obviously uncomfortable, to the point I feel so sick I fainted many times.
It has gotten a bit better as my [Heresy Resistance] and [Coma Resistance] grows but it is still my third least favourite part of my training routine.
Second place goes to the food, which consists of frogs, centipedes, bees, snakes and more disgusting creatures to help me build up various Resistance Skills.
They taste horrible and hurt a little to eat.
It didn't take long for me to miss the food from my old life dearly.
Skanda-sama even adds in little pieces of rocks for me to eat so I can get and build the [Rock Body] Skill.
At least I soon got the Title [Fowl Feeder] to help lessen the stomach ache.
But the fact that Skanda-sama pushes me to eat more even when I am full to build [Overeating] sucks.
It's a useful Skill, I won't deny that, but I feel like I am going to throw up from eating so much.
Skanda-sama promised me that he will catch a catfish from the Middle Stratum, saying it is one of the few Monsters here that actually taste good.
Problem is, they keep hiding in the magma where he can't do anything about it, so I have yet to be able to taste Skanda-sama's personal favourite food around here.
Speaking of the Middle Stratum, he would take me there from time to time to build up my [Fire Resistance].
It is so hot in there I thought I was going to melt into a pile just standing in there.
And Skanda-sama has the nerve to put his legs into the magma to build his [Fire Resistance].
He really wants [Inferno Nullification] so he can dive into the magma to nab those catfishes.
Skanda-sama is kind of insane, I am not going to sugarcoat that.
I mean, what he does make sense logically but to put yourself in that much pain is just literal torture.
I can hardly handle attacking myself to build my own Defence and Resistance Skills.
And I have yet to max out [Pain Resistance] to get [Suffering Resistance] to deal with the pain, which sucks.
Definitely the number one of my top three worst parts of my training.
Sigh...
I suppose I should try to move away from the negatives to focus on the positives as Skanda-sama has taught me to do when times are tough.
When it comes to my eventual acquisition of [Detection], Skanda-sama is also trying to up my Mental Skills to help with it.
To do so, he would give me maths lessons.
Yeah, we are in the middle of a cave filled with Monsters and I am still learning about maths for some reason.
It is to build my [Arithmetic Proficiency] but it's still pretty weird all things considered.
I was not happy to hear about learning maths initially given how hard it is.
But my mind quickly changed as Skanda-sama would help me with the basics to build a good foundation for me to tackle more complex problems.
I am actually starting to enjoy solving maths questions now that I have a good idea of what I am actually doing.
Though part of it may be because there isn't much else to do here.
Something I definitely enjoy is when I get to play and mess around a bit.
Skanda-sama would play hide and seek with me to build my Stealth and Detection Skills.
Sometimes, I would parkour around obstacles he setted up to build my [Spatial Manoeuvring] and [Athletics].
We would also play dodgeball with a silky ball to help me build [Concentration], [Prediction], [Throw], [Hit] and [Evasion].
All these games we play remind me of when the caretaker my parents hired to look after me would take me to the playground.
I mostly played with boys as there weren't many girls around.
I probably picked up most of my masculine traits from them, now that I think about it.
Heh, good times, I feel like a kid again.
If only Aiko and Kumiko were here to play with me, but I wouldn't want to subject them to the lives of Monsters either.
One thing I was surprised I didn't have to do was fight Monsters to level up.
The reasoning boils down to these Stat Growth Skills that improve my Stat growth when levelling.
Skanda-sama wants me to max them all out first to maximise my future growth, prioritising Speed above all else as it is the most useful Stat.
You need to be fast enough to react to situations, and being able to pick your fights by having the ability to run away is super important for survival, as he has pointed out.
Skanda-sama has setted up a hamster wheel for me to train my Speed, it also helps with my SP too.
The eventual goal for me is to obtain the [Humanification] Skill, I can't get as I am now but Skanda-sama suspects that I will gain access to it once I evolve into a high-ranking Dragon.
Most of my time spent here is just training.
Even when I want to sleep, Skanda-sama would tell me to resist it as much as possible to build [Exhaustion Resistance].
Honestly, what a slave driver.
All the same, he has my utmost respect.
When I had my first meal here, he told me to pay my respect to the frog I ate, even if only internally.
It was just another creature doing its best to survive, just like us, so the least we can do to respect it is to acknowledge its will to survive and do our best to survive in turn.
It is the hunter's responsibility to use the hunted without waste, that is how you respect the dead he said.
That was when I knew Skanda-sama is someone truly wise, even if his action seems rather crazy.
Well, not seem, he is crazy, but there is more to him than that.
I am too embarrassed to actually call him sama out loud given all my outspoken complaints, but he is Skanda-sama to me nonetheless.