Chapter 357 (2/2)

There was a small fraction of time where she felt a tinge of fright. If she overshot, and actually hurt him seriously… But then his body was smoke, dissolving as her spear pierced his body, and Alana realized that this whole time, he had never been in front of her, but he was hovering behind her, holding his spear in a wicked crescent, whirling down to take her life.

Her blood slowed, and her pounding heart was the only noise in the still world.

‘If I died now…’ Alana thought dazedly, ‘Who would train Tykes…? The defense of Donnyton… the growth of our Squads… How… how would they…’

‘...would they mourn me….?’

“Burn.” Alana whispered, activating her Lvl 30 Skill, causing flames to emerge from every part of her body. She spun around and slashed upwards with her spear, a trail of liquid flame arcing up in the wake of the spear’s passage. It headed towards the Ghosthound, but his burning emerald eyes just crinkled in satisfaction. Within a split second, he leaned easily out of the way and landed on his two feet, spinning his root spear.

Her double use of Solar Flare faded out, and her body began to tremble, unable to withstand the strain of her speed and strength. The Ghosthound seemed to notice this, and moved out of a fighting posture to a thinking one, regarding her with a frown.

“...those are interesting Skills. But they aren’t sharp enough. That burst one, where you grow stronger briefly… what Level is it?”

Alana blinked. She had actually gained two Levels in it during her fight with him, using it like that. “...it’s Level 48. I have had it for two months, but it is ultimately a finisher, and I thought it would be better to focus on my base Skills-”

“The theory is correct, but in practice, the execution is a bit…” The Ghosthound said, and Alana’s stomach dropped, a sour taste in her mouth. He seemed to notice, and coughed, scratching his head. That only made her feel worse. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to train it, it was just… simply repeating the exercises didn’t work well, and it wasn’t feasible to use it repeatedly against monsters. It drained too much of her Mana, and left her weak for a short period of time.

“...well anyway, what about your Spear Mastery, what Level is that?” He asked.

Straightening, Alana said, “Level 67.”

His wince was all the answer she needed for what he thought of that. They stood in silence for a while, Alana feeling oddly scolded and indignant, but also a sense of relief. Her Skill Levels weren’t the highest in Donnyton, not by a long shot, but that was due to the fact she trained up multiple different types of Skills, ones that usually required different sorts of training.

Alana had received some assistance from Mrs. Hamilton in terms of training strategies, but that woman managed so many different things that Alana wasn’t willing to foist her problems on her as well. Everyone went to Mrs. Hamilton for advice. Except for the few things that Mrs. Hamilton said to her in passing when viewing her training, Alana didn’t bring it up at all.

“We will have to get those up, over 80 at least, within a month. Well, less than that. Say 3 weeks…” The Ghosthound said, rubbing his chin. “Most of what you need is a training partner, yea? I’ll help with that when I have time. But first…”

The Ghosthound flexed his hand and produced two potions, one of which was made of clear liquid that Alana had never seen before. Throwing those potion bottles to her, he said. “Take these. Hopefully it will restore all of your Mana, and heal whatever status effects from the aftershock of using that Skill so much. And then we are going to go again.”

“Eh…?” Alana said, catching the bottles. The Ghosthound flicked his fingers, and three more root spears popped up out of the ground. He walked over and carefully inspected each, and then he selected two, tossing one over to Alana, who had barely swallowed the liquid before it arrived.

The Ghosthound’s smile was sharp. “Don’t rely on your weapon too much. Now, take a stance, Alana. Let me see you do that again… but if you try it the same way twice, I’ll make you pay for it.”

Then he disappeared, and Alana was left scrambling to raise her weapon in time.