SB: Chapter 244 – Exercise The Body, It Is A Weapon (Patreon)

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We had been descending for a month and we had already reached the 11th layer. Now, we were heading off in a direction that should take us to the beastkin continent. Boris hadn’t said much so far. He truly was a man of few words and even fewer complaints.

The only time he complained was to ask for more food at dinner. I had budgeted him three times what I ate, but he needed even more than that. So, he got enough food for four people. It was an absurd amount of food, but I wasn’t worried. Instead of five years, we had four years worth of food at his current rate of consumption.

Unlike my last team, I had to bring Boris back or there would be huge problems. He wasn’t an adventurer and hung far back from the fighting. He would only get a very small bit of experience from the fights, since he wasn’t fighting and stayed far away.

Each day was the same. We got up, had breakfast, killed monsters, cleaned up, and then had dinner. I would work on mental skills for an hour or two while Boris did physical exercises like push-ups, hand stands, squats, and various other physical exercises while wearing the heavy sword case on his back. I had to applaud his dedication to his physical fitness.

But with the System, it seemed mostly pointless. After being down here for a month together, I was honestly curious. “I don’t want to pry,” I said as I gave Boris the rest of the pot of the stew to eat from along with the ladle. “But why do so much physical exercise when we have the Strength stat?”

“I train my stats. Other people train skills. I don’t have the money or ability to study such things. My grandfather taught me this. Train your stats, since they are the true foundation,” Boris explained.

“I can respect that. Since I am doing something similar. I haven’t used my free stat points,” I said and his eyes went wide slightly.

“Truly?” he asked me and I nodded. “Very impressive. I put most of mine into Strength and Vitality and I keep training, every day. As long as you break your limits every day, you will naturally get stronger,” he said.

“Why be a porter and not an adventurer?” I asked.

“Monsters are annoying. Especially magic and flying monsters. Also, I need money for a strong weapon,” he said and I nodded satisfied that my questions had been answered. Boris was an odd man, but his grandfather was probably the poor version of my mother.

She also knew stats were the foundation of everything, which was why she encouraged me to hold off using my free stat points. Even a stat enthusiast like Boris still used up his free stat points. He was the epitome of hard work, but without proper direction.

Or he had proper direction, but it was too hard. Just mindless exercise wouldn’t carry a person to the heights of a legend. One needed to be mentally adaptable to the various monsters and situations in the dungeon. I wouldn’t call him slow, but he wasn’t inclined to thinking about fighting.

Boris was solely focused on self-improvement, but he couldn’t channel that kind of improvement properly as an adventurer. One tricky situation and he would be finished. While my mother might have disparaged the Supreme Legend Blood Gore the Butcher, she also respected his combat intelligence.

Her words were, ‘The man is a pig in human form, but a smart pig. He manages the pacing of his fights incredibly well, riding the edge of life and death as some adventurers call it. But he has mastered that edge and honed his body and mind into a singular weapon.’

Boris didn’t have enough craziness to ride the edge as a physical combatant in the dungeon. My mother talked about how Blood Gore made sure he could defeat everything he encountered without too much difficulty on a layer before descending.

That kind of fighting, was much more linear or tried to be in terms of risk. The real challenge was avoiding the spikes in risk that exceeded one’s ability. Being cautious enough to survive, yet reckless enough to level up at a reasonable speed. Despite Blood Gore’s constant fighting, he had leveled up slower than my mother, since she was willing to take much greater risks during her initial descent.

One wouldn’t have thought that with the name and title of Blood Gore the Butcher, but he was a cautious individual. Or as cautious as one could be for a supreme legend. The records and research studies I had read in the restricted section of the College indicated two main paths to becoming a supreme legend.

The first one was Blood Gore’s approach. A slow and steady approach. But one had to keep at it constantly. It was more about endurance and tenacity to keep fighting over and over again without being exposed to too much risk. The second approach was my mother’s approach, which was to push as far as possible and hope one didn’t die while overcoming the impossible.

More individuals tried the second approach and less succeeded in that method, since it was still incredibly dangerous. At least that was the general conclusion that the researchers had come to after analyzing countless biographies and historical accounts of supreme legends.

I still hadn’t committed to one approach or the other. But it also explained why my mother was annoyed with me after my first solo descent. She wanted me to be like her, pushing myself to the utmost and taking insane risks. Instead I was more like the first category, willing to grind away and improve over time.

Even now, just thinking of rushing to the 16th layer seemed like utter foolishness. But that was what my mother had done, pushing as deep as she could and fighting the standard monsters as champion monsters. That had propelled her growth from farm girl to supreme legend.

I couldn’t help but respect that accomplishment, even after she had passed away. It made me reflect on what a remarkable woman she truly was. Once the stew was finished, I cleaned things up as Boris began to physically work out.

He was ultimately a glass cannon. Even if his Strength stat doubled from its current value, I would still be able to defeat him with ease using spell skills. That was the other reason why pure physical combatants struggled. The power one could leverage with Mana often overshadowed physical abilities. But physical abilities were necessary, since Mana consumption was a big deal in the dungeon.

I pulled out the book on Seraphim Etiquette my father had left me as well as the lesson packet that I had purchased from the restricted section of the College. Without the skill book, the lesson packet wouldn’t make sense, but it appeared that my father had the main book this skill was taught from. Probably something he had tucked away somewhere over the centuries.

After he had stepped down as Emperor he had disappeared and I hadn’t heard anything more from him. I had left him a letter at the College saying that I hoped we could meet and speak someday. Whatever he was doing, he was probably creating a lot of trouble. What did one do after pursuing world domination?

Boris was breathing heavily as he worked out, which was annoying while trying to study Seraphim Etiquette, since there was a lot of nuance in how one used Mana in conjunction with what one was saying. Intonation had some impact, but how one projected Mana had a much greater impact on how one was perceived.

It wasn’t enough understanding this concept, I had to constantly practice and refine it. That was my current small goal. Max out Seraphim Etiquette and to combine all my maximized Tier 1 etiquette skills.

The biggest challenge was that my Mind stat felt like it was finally pulling away from the number of skills for the first time in a long time. Once I started consolidating skills, I would be stepping away from Meldor’s threshold and my soul wouldn’t be under so much pressure. That would make leveling up Soul Immunity impossible.

I could always learn more skills, but I didn’t want my skill list to become messy with useless skills. I had enough of those already. What I needed were higher tier skills that had a large impact. Perhaps, I wasn’t pulling away as I thought, just giving myself some room for higher tier skills.

Looking at Boris as he let out a grunt, I was annoyed, but I also couldn’t help but appreciate that having someone so hard working nearby put more pressure on me. Perhaps that was why I should bring someone along, so they could put pressure on me just by being nearby. I had only one solo descent in my life so far.

Every other time had been with someone else. Well I guess there was the period of time after I left Harren and before I picked up Lanner. I was solo for a while there. So, two solo descents for relatively short periods of time, while the rest of the time I had been with someone else.

Perhaps I should take on some squires once I became strong enough or bring Boris along with me. And that would be a step backwards. I needed to be able to pressure myself into improving without someone nearby. Still, it was inspiring that someone like Boris, who had almost no chance of becoming a legend, was still working so hard.

Even Lanner with his wands had a better chance, since magic had more versatility. It was a slim chance. I would put it at 0.2% instead of 0.1%. Now combine wands and Boris’ physical dedication and then you might have something going on with that type of build. A physical brawler, but with wands in reserve with some kind of quick recharge skill.

It would be a potent combination. While the spellcasting side would lack versatility, as long as someone could use wands quickly enough while also fighting in melee combat, then it would be doable.

Regardless, it came more down to determination than a specific build. If someone was capable then they would go the distance regardless of what their build was. It was just a question of how painful that journey would be. My father had opened my eyes to less preferred skills like poetry.

The fact that the Seraphim had a translated book of poetry showed that there might be something behind a skill almost everyone considered completely worthless. I still wasn’t going to get that skill, but it was something I had been thinking about ever since I had first looked at the Dean’s List of heavily restricted books and having spent so much time studying Seraphim Etiquette recently.

I also liked working on Tier 1 skills, since I felt I was making quick progress on them compared to higher tier skills. It would be nice once I could maximize most of my Tier 1 skills. Driving and Deception would take a bit of focused work to maximize, but they were extra skills for the most part.

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