Silvia returned to the camp with Walter in tow, holding him by the uninjured foot, dragging his body on the ground, which caused quite the commotion, seeing how battered and bloody he was.
They asked the girl who dragged him to camp as to what happened, but she kept her mouth shut for two reasons, one to keep her and her new master's reputation intact, and two, it was embarrassing to even talk about a grown man's struggle with a mob monster!
But her silence seemed to make things go in an odd direction, the mercenaries assumed that he might've come across some kind of strong monster making the imagination of the mercenaries randomly give birth to some sort of powerful monster that fought Walter leaving him in such a state and with the girl uninjured it was either dead or managed to escape, in turn, this created a misunderstanding quickly after that.
While some were suspicious, the majority of the mercs were actually looking forward to having the injured man join their group~
This made the people of the camp go on edge, but Silvia, one of the culprits who unintentionally caused it, was heading to Akara to get the dumb oaf to get healed!
Akara was surprised at first but quickly resumed her gentle motherly look before healing him with her magic, upon seeing what kind of injuries the man had she cocked her an eyebrow at the little girl who turned her head to the side trying hard not to look at her in the eyes, with her hands behind her head.
Akara quickly understood what happened and kept her silence about the matter, but she still left a few words for the girl.
"Make sure to double, no, triple his training to make him into a fine man~"
All while giving a thumbs-up as a sign that she'll provide the necessary healing after every training session!
It had nothing to do with the extra coin she would be earning with each session, not at all.
Throwing the knocked out man even Further into a hellish training that will do more than peel a few layers of skin now that Akara was willing to 'invest' some time into the man but what got her attention was the strange presence that dwelled within the man it wasn't evil or anything like that but more like some kind of protective being or something of the like.
But no matter if it isn't evil and not causing trouble, she didn't care, as even druids, necromancers, and other adventurers had some kind of pet or companion, so Akara just went about her business.
Shortly after this, Walter, who was passed the fuck out, was brought to the training grounds again as his body was sprawled out on the ground before a sadistic little girl that goes by the name of Silvia decided to dump a bucket of cold water on his face!
This caused the man to wake up and go into a coughing fit as the water entered his nose and mouth, and some went down his windpipe as he tried to get the water out of his breath way, a familiar high-pitched voice started talking down to him just low enough for him to hear.
"Well, Walter, I've got some good news and even better news for you, which would you like to hear?"
Since he noticed that look in her eyes was similar to during the times they trained, Walter knew better than to trust her words!
But he had no choice but to bite the bullet and ask while his heart started to sink...
"The good news is?"
This caused Silvia to smile widely as she laughed delightfully before dropping the dreadful news.
"The good news is, I get a full month to train you to tip-top shape! And by the way, nothing isn't allowed~"
Walter gulped as this was bad, like really bad, just the torture labeled as training with her was bad enough now, 'she can use any means?' Well he will undoubtedly get stronger, but this will be another level of 'training' when it comes to her!
So he was hoping that Akara could help talk some sense into her, as he really didn't want to be traumatized after this, but her following words were like a cold grip of the abyss enveloping him.
"as for the ba-*ahem* even better news... Lady Akara will be making sure you will be ready for the next day~ and one more thing, you still have to help around the encampment like usual, alright?"
Walter was on the verge of crying as the little 'angel' was trying a bit too hard to help him, and the last part she mentioned was something he was all so familiar with, as it literally meant that she won't take no for an answer!
Or there will be hell to pay!
During their first training session, Walter was abused physically and mentally as the girl was reminding him constantly of his mistakes during his bloody fight with the quill rats, at the same time, the reaction of the mercenaries that stayed at the encampment was something as they upped their training after seeing the 'Fierce newbie' giving his all in training!
They overlooked the fact that he didn't have a choice, something he learned quickly in the first week for even attempting to slack off, as for what happened... that is something that Walter will take to his grave!
Thus began his hellish training.
Within a month, Walter noticed a problem as the training did help; however, it also made his stats cap out completely at a certain point, as his status left a few strange messages.
Class: none
Health 2000/2000
Health regen per second 0.4
Mana 2000/2000
Mana regen per second 0.1
Strength 20(limit)
dexterity 20(limit)
vitality 20(limit)
energy 20(limit)
!@#&!# level 0/0 (1/3) fragments
)(*&&^%$ level 0/0 (1/10) available
there were two strange skills or whatever it was in his status board, however, he had no idea as to when or how it came about, on the bright side he knew how to use any weapon that Silvia can use and despite his seemingly overwhelming stats it was still useless against Silvia and the other important characters within the camp.
As for the reason why he was so sure it was useless, was due to the fact he tried sneak attacking Silvia to spank her in revenge for her constant taunts and hellish tortu- *cough* training which ended with him getting a broken jaw to which Akara healed shortly after as she assumed it was just a lover's spat between them.
Since he was unable to grow through stats at the moment, he resorted to learning all the general skills that he could as it was better to be versatile than be good at one thing, then suffer for it in diablo!
Sneaking, hunting, simple traps, to simple magic-wielding and mana weaving, as there were monsters immune to physical attacks and there were those immune to magic, thus his currently usable magic was healing hand, mana bolt, and stun, while the three weren't much, it was better than nothing!
As for the Mercenaries, their numbers dwindled to less than half thanks to some leaving, some dying, and some becoming corrupted by the temptations of the evil nature that was around...
Walter was also getting some weird dreams about a Quill rat that was constantly trying to communicate with him to no avail. At first, he thought it was trying to attack him, thus he attempted to retaliate, only to make himself seem like a fool as his body went through the beast.
But yeah, after a few nights of going through that, Walter decided to speak his mind to the beast as the training was starting to get to him, as his devil incarnate instructor, Silvia must have some kind of method to know how much health he had left as she always beat his ass until it was less than 10 points!
The man was looking quite different now, as he was wearing a complete set of studded leather, with numerous pockets for his collection of darts, knives, and a batch of large needles within his sleeves from the money he earned from Gheed's constantly working arena, he also received a shortsword from Charsi from helping her often with the smithery it also had four slots!
Akara helped him by crafting three trinkets which were two rings and a necklace, the necklace granted him a slight boost in mana regeneration, one ring provided him with an increase in light radius which helped quite a bit as a ranged attacker, then finally the last one provided him some resistance from poison, something that he suffered from last time~
Kashya provided him with a short bow that allowed him to fire an ice arrow provided that he used the necessary amount of mana with a few quivers before giving him a hug which surprised him quite a bit as she was always so cold towards men and him included especially after he hired Silvia!
Warriv provided him with a strange coin, no, it was a charm. It provided him with an increase in stamina recovery; the man smiled at him again with that same kind look he had before he said this.
"May you have safe travels during your trials to come."
Upon saying that, Warriv's eyes flickered solemnly before returning back to their doting look as Walter was going on to his first trial, which was the den of evil as Silvia also mentioned one detail that made him feel a bit anxious for one reason.
As this trial of his, he was going there...
alone!