Once the commander was out of sight, he said to Peniel, 'so, are you going to tell me now why I bust my ass off just for the chance to be allowed into a piece of empty land with nothing but a few wooden dummies?'
Instead of answering, Peniel came out of her hidden dimension. She flew around the training ground, observing the magic runes along the wall before returning to Jack.
"This training ground is not bad," she said after returning to Jack.
"How so?" Jack asked skeptically.
"Open your skill window," she ordered.
Jack didn't object to her request, he opened his status window and shifted to the skill page.
"And?" He asked.
"Take a closer look at the skill proficiency."
"Which one?"
"Any one."
Jack focused his mind on the proficiency of Energy Bolts spell. The first star section was around three-quarters full. When he focused on the first star, additional information surfaced. 352 usage to complete the first star.
"Is this… so does it mean I have to cast this spell 352 more times to upgrade it to the first star?"
"That's correct, genius. Now, how about you cast that spell on one of those wooden dummies there?"
Jack stood up and cast. Six magic bolts spread out and stabbed randomly on the wooden dummies.
"Now take a look at the proficiency again."
Jack did so, the information resurfaced. 349 usage to complete the first star.
"Hey, it jumped three numbers. Wait… Are you telling me this Training Ground can triple the speed we increase our skill proficiency?"
"Do you still think this as an empty piece of land?"
"Oh, great fairy! You have my reverence," Jack uttered with an exaggerated bowing gesture.
Peniel seemed to enjoy the show of appreciation. She added, "this one is not bad. There are even training grounds that increase the speed five times, or even ten times, but I doubt you will find them anytime soon. It was already lucky that you find one with triple effect here."
Jack didn't waste more time. He at once started practicing. He used all his skills and spells and repeated them when they were off cooldown. He did some checking on the spell's proficiency from time to time. He noticed that those with longer cooldown required less usage to upgrade. Probably to balance the difficulty of upgrading each skill.
The Heightened State spell helped increase his training speed even faster as it reduced all skill's cooldown. He had to continuously drink basic energy potions as his stamina and mana were decreasing at a rapid pace.
For Parry skill and Magic Shield spell, they were rather peculiar compared to the others as the count on their usages were depending on the number of times they defended an impact. Good thing the wooden dummies in the training ground were not as useless as they seemed. He could activate them to perform simple attacks, hence he could use his Parry and Magic Shield to defend from their attacks and increased their proficiencies as well.
Natural Body Recovery was another unique one, its proficiency increased each time the HP was healed within the 10 seconds interval. Jack used the same attacking dummies and allowed its attack to hit. He would suffer some damages, he would then allow the Natural Body Recovery skill to take effect and raised its proficiency. The best thing was, as long as he was inside the Training Ground, he would be considered as off combat, so the Natural Body Recovery would take effect even as he continued to dish out skills and spells and getting hit by the dummies.
Jack abused his time on the Training Ground, practically not willing to leave the place. When Lindsey came and fetched him for dinner, he blurted out that he was not hungry. It was only after she expressed displeasure and pointing out that it would be rude to decline a dinner invitation from the host, that Jack reluctantly stopped his training.
He was restless throughout the dinner. He ate his in a fast manner, acquiring commander Quintus' glare. Unfortunately, the dinner was a full course meal, with the dishes coming out at separate times. Hence, even when he had finished the current dish, he was not excused as there would be a follow-up dish coming up.
Commander Quintus could sense his impatience. He shook his head and let the anxious fellow go after he finished his dessert.
Jack went back directly to the Training Ground to continue spamming his skills and spells. His stock of basic energy potion continued to dwindle, luckily he had a large stock from the robbery incident. He told himself that he would need to stock up again soon.
Jack spent all his time in the Training Ground even after the night was late. There was enough illumination from several magical lamps above the enclosing walls, so visibility was not a problem. His Dragon's God Eye had also rendered him unneeded of the lightings.
If he could, he would spend the whole night awake and practicing in the Training Ground. Unfortunately, Commander Quintus came and demanded for him to leave the Training Ground.
"Didn't you say I can use this place freely during my stay?" Jack protested.
The commander shook his head. "I didn't expect you to be a lunatic after experiencing this Training Ground. Otherwise, I would have said only when the sun was up. Do you think it is free to maintain this Training Ground? Now get the hell out and go rest already! I will allow you to use it again in the morning."
Jack gave a defeated look. He walked weakly towards the exit of the Training Ground, but stopped when realized something. "Wait, give me a minute more!" He shouted.
The commander was confused. What's the difference of one minute?
While he waited impatiently and counting the time, Jack used the minute to perform skills and spells that he could do. When one minute was almost up, Jack's body burst with a red aura. Commander Quintus remembered that skill, Jack had used it when they were sparring earlier today.
Jack deactivated the aura as soon as it was activated. The Life Burning Art had a six hours cooldown. It was the skill with the longest cooldown in his arsenal aside from Overlimit, but Overlimit was a weapon skill that had no proficiency so using it in this Training Ground here provided no bonus. Seeing that the six-hour cooldown of Life Burning Art was almost up, it was a waste if he didn't use it, hence he asked for the one-minute extension.
"All right, I will go now. I can just come back here first thing in the morning, right?"
Commander Quintus sighed and nodded.
Jack smiled at the nod and went away to the guest room that Lindsey had shown him prior.
When he entered his room, he made a check on his skills and spells. Many of them were on the verge of upgrade. After hours of practice in the Training Ground today, several had gained their first-star grade. Namely Parry, Natural Body Recovery, Magic Shield, Energy Bolts, and Heightened State.
He studied the effects of their star upgrades. Each star increase of Parry reduced the extra effect from enemy attacks, strength modifier would be added to Parry's effectiveness. That was a vague description, Jack thought. By extra effect, did it mean like knockback effect? This increase didn't sound too impressive then?
Peniel was beside him as he studied his skills. She could sense his thought. "Don't underestimate this upgrade. Higher-level attacks or weapons can inflict many different effects like stun or dizziness. Also, with the added strength modifier, you would see better results during a parry. If your strength far outstrips the attacker, there might be a chance to even nullify the attack completely. Just like how your Magic Shield was affected by your intelligence stat."
Jack nodded at her explanation, for other players, the strength modifier might not mean much. But for him who had better stats due to his dual-class, the effect would be much more notable. He moved to the next skill, Natural Body Recovery. Each star would decrease by 0.5 seconds to its recovery frequency. This skill was more clear in its benefit description from the improvement.
He then looked at Magic Shield. Each star added 1 second before mana was consumed. This spell currently ate up mana each second, with this upgrade, it would only consume mana every 2 seconds. This practically doubled up the life of this spell.
He then checked on his Mage class' favorite spell, Energy Bolts. Each star reduced the cooldown by 3 seconds. The Energy Bolts had a cooldown of a full minute. A 3 seconds reduction didn't sound so impressive, but if he fully completed the ten stars, the cooldown of this spell would effectively be halved. Meaning he could cast this spell twice as many times. However, filling up all the ten stars sounded like an arduous effort. He would have to be content with its current 57 seconds cooldown for now.
