Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Skullius took in deep breaths as a sharp light died down from his body, strings of steam rising from his sweaty (watery) muscles hidden under a linen shirt.

He would never take it off when others were around as they would naturally question what the dark tattoos on his chest were.

"Some Mage you are..." Oliviana who was five meters away from him also breathing rapidly said while shaking her hand and standing up straight from her lowered stance. "You seem to gravitate towards close combat more than actual magic. Or perhaps it's you just holding back?"

Skullius flashed a smile as he also dropped his guard.

"Maybe a bit of both," he said.

The two were in a large room much like one of the evaluation spaces that Skullius had been taken to by Jac to assess his prowess.

There were grey walls that were chipped but sturdy along with a dark floor which resisted much of the force from powerful mana reinforced attack forms.

There was some good lighting within the room, which made every corner clear and enhanced the experience, though it could be tweaked as one saw fit.

"Hmph. When you put it like that it really makes it hard for me to not actively try to help you of my own free will."

Oliviana could admit that Skullius had left a bad impression on her when they had first met. She had felt insulted by how he had looked at her chest disappointedly and as someone who had grown to be sensitive about such her stature, it was really easy for her to get biased off of one wrong move from an individual.

Now however, her thoughts had started to change.

Ever since Silrat approached her, offering her not only a large sum of coin but the promise of any request she desired which he immediately granted as it was wholly within his means, Oliviana had discovered quite a few things about Skullius during the seven-day training period.

First, was that he was apparently a criminal.

Second, was that he wasn't a swordsman as he had claimed.

Third, this bastard was cursed, and there was a risk associated with... associating with him.

These details were shared after she had decided to continue training him and for her, while she wasn't overly concerned with morals, she did have boundaries.

Killing indiscriminately was one of them.

Thus, her initial attitude when training Skullius this time around was extremely harsh.

On the first day, she had not held back her punches, giving the Discount Human heavy blows as she instructed him clearly.

To her surprise, this man didn't react with grunts or groans. Instead, he looked exceedingly focused as he stood and took the stance which she would have told him!

On top of this, he had already mastered [Mana Shroud] and having seemingly evolved it into something else!

Ridiculous!

The silvery eyes of the Discount Human with a figure that was vastly different from when she had last seen him didn't show the hate and fury she had expected for a murderer. Or the cold and nonchalance towards life.

Instead, they strangely held an innocence together.

Neither evil nor pure.

The man seemed to simply exist with what he knew.

What was right was right, what was wrong was wrong.

This detail had lessened her hostility towards Skullius somewhat and she began instructing him properly.

Of the 18 hours per day that she would train him, the first 9 were dedicated to hand-to-hand combat.

Oliviana taught Skullius all the basic techniques she knew and the Discount Human greedily absorbed them all, becoming semi-proficient in them in a few hours!

The rest of the hours would be dedicated to swordsmanship.

It boggled Oliviana why Skullius would want to learn this, as she new very well that there were such things as Mages who preferred close combat while utilising their magic, but ones that used swords, seeking out their true depths like swordsman?

Was it some kind of Advanced class?

She didn't know.

On the fourth day of their training, Skullius was already exhibiting more advanced forms of techniques in both swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat!

Nothing extraordinary but for someone who just started learning, it was ridiculous!

And to make matters worse, the Discount Human asked for her help in perfecting a few techniques of his own.

Perhaps help was a strong word. The Discount Human didn't ask, but directly tried them out on his tutor who had almost been caught off guard and sustained minor injuries.

How could Oliviana possibly believe that this man was simply ordinary?

With each day, he kept changing physically, his body becoming more robust and his speed gradually increasing along with his form.

She also noticed that Skullius preferred to be excessive during their training sessions.

He would usually run around a lot without much rest while exhibiting some rather quick speeds and during hand-to-hand combat training, the Discount Human would fling as many punches and kicks as he could with his newly learned proper form every chance he got.

It was strange for Oliviana but Skullius would usually emerge with a smile after each training, as if he was seeing something that everyone else couldn't.

Which he was.

Right now, Oliviana couldn't deny that she saw Skullius more favourably.

What else could draw people in than such a hard worker?

"Should we stop here for today?" Oliviana asked.

"That's fine," Skullius said as he started to stretch.

It didn't exactly do him any good but he had begun to learn more human mannerism through his interactions, particularly Oliviana.

As he did this, he looked behind Oliviana and saw something that made him frown.

"He's here again?" he said begrudgingly.

Oliviana turned and saw a particularly old man standing there as he gazed at Skullius while nodding sagely.

The female instructor sighed and turned back to the Discount Human.

"I can't stop him from coming. He said he wanted to see if you're regretting your decisions yet," Oliviana said.

Skullius clicked his tongue.

This old man might fade from the memory of others, but to Skullius, he would never forget that face.

This was the old man who had given him trouble back at then at the gates of the College of Battle Arts.

A single eye open, a hunchback and half a head of white hair... that continued to moonwalk backwards. This was the second time that this old man had appeared here, watching him and Oliviana spar only to walk away again, which made Skullius wonder who the hell gave him permission to enter anyway.

"I see you didn't walk the path to regret. I was sure you would cry and run away. Oliviana tells me you have much potential," the old man said.

"Uh... potential in what? Gardening?" Skullius retorted.

"Oh that too. I could get you some tutelage."

"I'm fine."

Skullius waved his hands in dismissal.

He recalled that the old man had told him that he was but a gardener when they first met.

"Don't regret it later, hahaha!" the old man chortled as he began walking away.

Skullius watched as the old man left, his eyes following the old man's movement until he vanished from sight.

Why was that old man so obsessed with regret?

*

The news happening all around Feinheath, in particular Pelian wasn't lost to Skullius but he didn't focus on this as the progress he had made was simply astounding.

First off, the Discount Human had decided to use the Enriching gems over the seven days as with a bit of research, he found that using Enriching gems changed the looks of other creatures as well, but not as drastically as him unless there was a lot of change that needed to be addressed.

At this point in time, as he sat in his cell after sparring with Oliviana, the only time he was allowed to leave the enclosed space, he had finished absorbing all the purple-red gems, the pure red ones being the only ones that remained.

He would proceed to absorb them right after checking out the progress with his skills.

With this aspect...

Skullius grinned while locking his fingers.

"It's amazing what a can Discount Human can do if he abuses his newfound endurance," Skullius said.

He had been practising so intensely that most of the skills he paid particular attention to had actually evolved.

[Quick Strike] which he spammed during the 18 hours of practise had become [Flash Flicker].

[Great Rush] which he practised by excessively running around during spars had become [Great Rush I].

[Brawn] which had been the first to evolve since it went very well with hand-to-hand combat, had transformed into [Raw Impact].

The last to evolve was [Mana Shield], after the relentless attacks from Oliviana and Skullius attempts at manipulating it manually to focus it on certain points that he aimed to receive the damage with, becoming [Guard Light].

This was the skill he relied on the most during spars after [Elevated Mana Manipulation] which also levelled up crazily.

Him using the abundant mana from his Penetrator form greatly helped with this.

This was the most basic of the progress that Skullius however, as he had more profound results to show from these seven days were from his attempt at fusing the evolved skills plus [Mana Force] which, unfortunately didn't work out.

Apparently, seamlessly combining skills required a lot more than seven days and much more knowledge on the composition of skills.

That said, it wasn't a complete wash as Skullius had actually managed to learn to seamlessly apply all these skills at once to create what one would call a pseudo skill.

A conscious activation of multiple skills simultaneously that made it look like a singular skill.

The result was ultimately weaker than the seamless combination of the skills into one but was still useful.

"I'll eventually get it right, I guess," Skullius mumbled to himself.

This wasn't what he was most proud of though, as there was something else that made all his hardwork worthwhile...