Chapter 108 (2/2)

As the laughter died, they examined each other, both aware that something had changed. And from the slightly sad gleam in Lyra’s eyes, it seemed she had more of a clue over what it had been that they lost, but she didn’t say anything, and Randidly was more focused on other matters.

“You can help?”

Lyra frowned at him. “Why the hell do you sound so surprised? I’m basically a shapeshifter now you know, I’m very useful for-”

Abruptly, Lyra blushed and looked at the ground. “Well… nevermind that. But you are wondering how to get stronger right? I always thought you were an idiot for looking at the system the way you did, but I couldn’t deny it got results. But now look at you-”

Again, Lyra stopped, and she flushed again. Less this time from embarrassment, and more because… it felt different. She wasn’t drawn forward into mocking him like she had been before, and the words just came out stale in her mouth. Things really had changed.

Slowly, she spoke again. “Well, anyway… I can help. But not for free.”

Randidly looked at Lyra, really looked at her. The determined look in her eyes conveyed her honesty. Her golden blonde hair hung down around her ears, curling with a natural grace. Her face was skinny and sharp, but he couldn’t deny he had always been attracted to her. Perhaps the reason he had refused it before, and focused on her age was due to an instinct he had that it was unnatural. And now…

And now everything felt strange. But that didn’t change the facts.”Yes, I would like your help.”

Smiling sweetly, Lyra held out a small potion, that seemed to be pitch black. “There are costs, of course, but I believe this will solve your mental problems. According to my… information, a sip will block your access to notifications. Think that will change your… perspective?”

Randidly was very quiet for several seconds. Blocking access to notifications would do nothing to change his improvement, on the surface. But at the same time…

If his thinking started to change, while he didn’t have notifications…

The notifications acted as positive reinforcement to his grinding mindset. They validated it. Without them, Randidly wouldn’t feel as though he was improving just by grinding. He would need to do some sort of training, with quantifiable metrics. Then, he would train, pushing his limits, not to get in more reps, but to make those reps count. Just like sprinters wouldn’t just run to get stronger, they would do exercises to isolate the different muscles, and then return to sprinting to fine tune the process.

Overall, it would mean that he would have to isolate the different parts of his fighting style, finding training regimes that would work them. Being without the notifications would hopefully focus him more on improving his results.

“But that would mean that I-”

“Actually,” Lyra interrupted, her normal smug smile returning, and Randidly felt a glimmer of the old frustration with her. “You’ve had Daniel and Mrs. Hamilton working on trying to find ways to improve the base skills for the squad members; they have some ideas, but need someone to test it out before they implement it across the board. Scale up the difficulty, and you will have a Doggy portion of exercise.”

After a long moment, Randidly smiled in spite of himself. Especially after his furious display the previous day, he realized how valuable it was that this girl, whatever they were to each other, just treated him like a person, rather than some protective deity. Dealing with her, it felt as though some of the tension that he now carried with him everywhere was finally dispersing.

“So, I’m a glorified guinea pig,” Randidly said wryly. Lyra rolled her eyes, but nodded.

If it blocked ALL notifications, there was some danger that it would prevent him from realizing that another Judgement was coming, but Randidly believed, and hoped, that it would take some time for that to happen. He would also miss out on getting a jump on new path availabilities, but as he wouldn’t be spending PP, because it would be better not to check the skill growth, he could wait until after.

Randidly decided that if he was going to do it, it was better to do it all the way; no notifications for a week, to start. Hopefully that would give him time to lose some of his bad habits, and give him some indications of the effectiveness of the strategy.

After all, even if it didn’t work, he would have only wasted a week. And in terms of possible notifications that he would miss, honestly, what is the worst that could happen.

Nodding, Randidly held out his hand. “Alright coach, count me in.”

“Coach? Kukuku, call me Mistress Lyra, if you please. By the end, you will be begging for my mercy~”

Randidly just winced.

*****

Devan casually discussed some of the new training changes with his squad, going over the parts that he believed were most important for their improvement, and then indicating specific areas of focus for each squad member. They studiously marked down what he was saying, and then looked up, as he stopped speaking.

Devan frowned, trying to follow a figure through the crowd, his eyes tracking after very distinctive ears….

“What is it?” One of his squad members asked.

Shaking his head, Devan said. “I think we brought a furry back with us from Franksburg; I swear I just saw a bunny walking around.”