Jack chose a different part of the gorge from where they escaped last time, so he won’t be near the cave with the trial. It didn’t take long before he landed back at the bottom of Valley of Tempus. He was back again in the dim environment full of fog and eerie atmosphere that he had been trying to escape from several days ago. He never thought he would be willingly coming back here again.
“This place felt strange?” Domon said after feeling the place. “So, what are we doing here?”
“We will be training here. First, accept this,” Jack handed over several basic healing potions, healing potions, basic regeneration potions, and basic rejuvenation potions.
“Remember what I taught you about HP and recovery potions yesterday? These are those recovery potions. When your HP is getting low, drink them. But you have to remember you can’t drink the same kind of potion right after you drink one, they have a cooldown. That’s why I gave you four different kinds. Try to alternate between them.. Or better, try not to get hit.”
“Heh, aren’t you underestimating your gramps a bit too much? When have you ever see me so easy getting hit?”
“It is still better to be prudent. They will be coming soon. I will do some interference but I will try to not kill them, I will leave the killing to you so you get the exp,” Jack said as he took out two common longswords with level 10 and 12. They were the two weakest longswords in his inventory.
“What will be coming soon?” Domon asked.
Jack already saw the group of incoming red dots on his radar. As expected, it was twice the number that he used to deal with when he was alone.
“Those,” Jack pointed in the direction. The shadow creatures soon showed themselves. Half of them were level 30, the other half was level 19.
“Please pay attention that they didn’t react well to hits, as if they don’t feel pain, but they still suffer damage from any hit. Also, try not to get hit as much as possible, you have a chance to become weaken every time they touched you,” Jack explained the monster’s special feature so that his grandfather didn’t have to find out for himself.
The level 30 ones were obviously coming for him, so Jack distanced himself from his grandfather to allow him to deal with the ones of the same level as him first.
After putting a sufficient distance, Jack engaged the shadow monsters. He didn’t use any of his battle skills, since his objective was not to kill them. He didn’t want his level to increase before he became an elite class. Instead, he used only standard attacks with his low-level common swords. The damage inflicted was laughable, but this was also a chance for him to practice the Formless Flowing Sword style.
Still, it was much harder to perform the style against real opponents compared to when he was simply training. Many of his opponents’ attacks caused him to break from the fluidness that was the core of the style. He was having trouble maintaining the style in real combat. Forget about having this skill increasing his battle prowess, with his current mastery of the style, it instead became a hindrance.
Jack tried his best to incorporate the style, but he had to keep on retreating to avoid being overwhelmed by the Living Shadows. After a while, there was not a trace of the style that could be seen in his movements. He was only moving in response to avoiding and parrying the shadows’ assaults.
“That is one pitiful style,” Jack heard Domon’s voice. He turned in the voice’s direction and saw his grandfather and Peniel was not far away, watching him. “I never teach you any of that disgraceful style,” he added.
“You are done at your side?” Jack asked.
“Who do you think you are talking to?” Domon asked back.
“Stop boasting and deal with the ones here. I intentionally don’t kill them for you. Be careful though, they are much stronger. They follow after my level, after all.”
Domon didn’t give more comments. He instead rushed into the group of monsters, brandishing his Black Iron Glaive. He used Swing. The skill combined with the superior reach of the glaive weapon, sliced through many Living Shadows simultaneously. The ones that got attacked immediately turned their attention to the new attacker.
They all lunged at Domon at the same time. Although they were faster due to their higher levels, they were still unable to touch the old man. Domon’s expert footwork, allowed him to dodge with only a little shift of his pivoting feet. Every time the shadows seemed to almost hit him, only to miss him by a hair. Domon, in the meantime, delivering counterattack with every dodge.
Jack had never seen his grandfather fight seriously before, since there was never an opponent strong enough to cause his grandfather to fight seriously. Even now, against that many high-level monsters, Jack felt as if his grandfather was simply dealing with his students as he gave them a casual spar.
His fascination caused his own movement to stop and ended up getting hit by the Living Shadows. He suffered from Weakness status ailment. Cursing himself, he disengaged from the monsters and ran around as he baited the monsters to follow him in a circle as his grandfather fought a small portion. All the while continuing to watch his grandfather dealt with the shadow monsters.
After being taught by Jack, Domon could better incorporate his game battle skills into his martial art techniques. The high-level rare armors and weapon from Jack also helped. In the end, although it took some time, Domon managed to clear out all the Living shadows that were supposed to be Jack’s portion.
Due to killing monsters much higher level than him, the exp he received was also substantial. Domon’s exp bar was already not far from leveling up, so his level increased to level 20 after this one fray.
Once everything calmed down, Jack asked Domon, “so, what do you think? Can you fight the two groups on your own next time?”
“Will be difficult,” Domon admitted.
“All right, then we will continue with the same strategy. I will lure a portion away while you deal with them one step at a time. Take a rest, they will come again in another two hours, give or take.”
Jack himself also take a seat as he went into meditation, putting himself into the ideal state to training himself in sensing mana. Seeing his grandson’s determination, Domon didn’t disturb him nor give him any advice. He had explained all he could yesterday, now it all depended on Jack’s own effort.
They continued on like this. Domon monster grinding for exp with Jack helping him reducing the pressure. In between the shadow monster’s assaults, Jack would practice mana sensing and the Formless Flowing Sword style.
Because they continued to spend their time inside the valley, they could only sleep two hours at most before the Living Shadows came again. Domon had no problem with such brief rest. He had trained himself physically and mentally to be able to rest at once under any situation and to fully recover his fatigue even with such short rest. Jack, on the other hand, was more struggling. But because he had also done it during the last time he was in this valley, he could still cope with it.
He was thinking at first to maybe go back up to the plateau to have a full rest before going back down to the valley, but decided against it. All because that meant he would waste a night’s worth of time. While if he rested down here, he could continue to fully utilize the time difference. Based on his time in this valley before, a week here was only a day outside. He was fully intending to use this time difference, considering he had already lost much of the time spent to fill up the exp for Lightning God Blessing.
Four weeks passed by. At this time, Domon was already at level 27. He was currently fighting alone against a hundred Living Shadows which half was level 27 while the other half was level 30. Jack was sitting at one corner with his eyes closed, completely ignoring his grandfather’s fight.
After getting to level 26, Domon had tested fighting by himself without Jack’s interference. He had some difficulty at first but had now gotten used to it. At level 27, he was already accustomed to the fight that he no longer felt that it was a struggle. His utilization of the battle skills was also getting better, although most of the time he still preferred to depend more on his martial art techniques.
Even though the level 30 Living Shadows were originally coming for Jack, Domon drew them away by hitting each one of them at least once. Thus, Jack could now do his own training without any break.
