“Half a centimeter higher on that swing. You should take a slightly greater step to the right to set yourself up better for your next movement. Increase the rate of your breathing slightly, then decrease it with the flow of combat. Tighten up your dagger throws, predict the flow of combat, your aim is poor. Adjust it.”
As I fought the horde of humanoid bear creatures on the 8th layer, my mother kept up a running commentary of things I needed to correct. I had been down here with her and Healer Melon for almost a year now.
My rate of improvement was immense, I could feel it, but to my mother, the Supreme Warlady Elena, it was slow, and I needed to work harder. I moved around the level 40 monsters with ease, cutting them apart. Each move flowed into the next.
“Don’t fall into a rhythm. Increase your combat tempo,” my mother called out and I forced myself to speed up. “Don’t let your accuracy decrease. Your blade is off angle by 1 to 2 degrees. Dodge don’t deflect, I keep telling you this. Mind your footwork. Use your off hand to assist, but watch its positioning. Tighten up your movements along your waist line.”
One comment after another were given in the middle of combat. My mother thought I wasn’t improving or listening well enough, so she had taken to this method of instruction. I was reaching the breaking point. While she did have useful advice, I couldn’t focus on it while fighting.
Out time down here the depths was becoming more miserable for the both of us by the day. I killed off the last monster and turned to face my mother. “Enough. I can’t take it, your constant commentary while I am fighting. It is hard enough to pay attention to the fight, my skills, and the environment, but listening to you as well is impossible,” I was breathing heavily and sent her a glare.
“Complaining again?” she asked back with her own glare.
“Being realistic. Let’s enjoy these last couple of days and end without a fight,” I said.
“Are you improving?” she asked me.
“Yes,” I said. I knew I was improving rapidly under her guidance, but it was infuriating.
“Then there is no basis for your complaint. Learn to focus on multiple things at once. Correcting you after your fights is too slow. Constantly iterating and improving while fighting is far more effective and helpful to leveling up your skills,” she said.
“It is infuriating,” I replied.
“So?” my mother asked. I didn’t say anything as I kept glaring at her. “Your moodiness is getting worse. I suppose we have been down here for almost a year.” I let out a sigh of relief at that. Fighting monsters near my mother and arguing with her was the worst.
Every second of every day was a test, quiz, or trying to push a skill further in some way. It was utterly exhausting. Mentally exhausting, not physically, since Healer Melon was standing by at all times to boost my healing and stamina points.
I knew other people would kill to get such training, but it wasn’t with their mother. She seemed to take delight in finding everything wrong that she could. Getting instructions during fights was too much. I was my own person, not some puppet for her to control.
“Get to work,” she said, and I got to work helping Healer Melon getting the cores out of the monsters. My mother had saved them all up in her spatial storage.
“What is happening after this?” I asked as she loomed over me. I was waiting for her to critique my monster processing, but it was one of the few skills she didn’t have that much input on.
“We will return to the surface, and you will sell your monster cores. The next six months will be up to you,” she said.
“What? Really?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes. You clearly don’t appreciate my detailed instructions. So, consider the next six months’ time for you to do what you want to do. Go back into the dungeon, train some skills, relax, it is up to you,” she said.
“And after that?” I asked.
“You will be enrolling in the College of Advancement. You must be there on the enrollment day and I will meet you there.”
“You are coming along?” I asked.
“Yes. To review your initial course selection and to speak with The Mathemancer about your time at his college. I have no doubt he will rope me into a guest lecture, but my presence will let any other legends know not to mess with you,” she replied.
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“Is it that concerning?” I asked.
“Anywhere else, yes. But the College of Advancement is a safe place from outside forces. If you leave, anything can happen. But while you are there, The Mathemancer will only ensure you are subjected to his torture, not anyone else’s torture.”
“Torture? How hard are the classes?” I asked.
“Brutal, my son. You think I am harsh, this is kindness. As for preparing, you need to keep the mindset I have tried to instill into you down here. Constant improvement. But we shall see, how you compare.”
“I just need to graduate as the top student in my class?” I asked.
“Yes. That’s my only requirement. Not even every year. Since I doubt you will be the top student in your first year,” she said.
“Doubting me?” I challenged her.
“Yes. Your mentality is weak and soft. While you can put in the effort, you are always looking towards the end. Not focusing on the moment as much as you should be. Distractions are a weakness for leveling,” she declared, dealing some more emotional damage. No matter how much I thought I was ready, she always managed to strike right at my heart.
If there was an emotional resistance skill, I should have gotten it long ago. “Well, I have confidence in myself. I might look forward to breaks, but after enduring this kind of training for a year, anyone would,” I replied.
“Weak. But enjoy your sweets and spa days my son,” she said with a touch of mockery in her voice. I winced at that, since that was what I had planned after leaving the dungeon.
“I am young. I am building up my mentality,” I countered.
“Whatever you say to comfort yourself and deflect from your weakness. Perhaps you should have been a noble instead,” she replied, dealing another critical blow. My mother wasn’t afraid to mix it up with me verbally. If I wanted to try and talk back to her, she was unrelenting in her verbal beat downs.
I knew she loved me, since there was no way, she would do all of this and put up with my nonsense from anyone else. But it was suffocating to the extreme. At the College of Advancement, no matter how brutal it was, it wouldn’t involve my mother looming over everything.
“You didn’t get a teaching position at the College of Advancement?” I asked with a touch of fear.
“No. I would never work under anyone else, especially that old man. Instead, I will be sorting out my equipment in the next six months for a long descent after that. During your time at the College of Advancement I plan to accomplish several things, from meeting with Blood Gore the Butcher, to honing some skills,” she replied.
That was one thing I liked about her, despite all her faults. She didn’t hesitate to answer my questions with actual answers. Not some vague wording that I wasn’t ready to know, or that I would find out later.
“Is he stronger than you?” I asked, referring to Blood Gore the Butcher.
“No. But he is more feral and aggressive in his fighting style. Prey that you never meet him, since he shows no mercy to anyone or anything,” my mother replied.
“Really? But he is a supreme legend?” I asked referring to someone over level 150.
“Indeed. But he is a pig and a brute. But his help for a long descent would be invaluable. Having another front-line combatant will reduce a lot of the pressure on me, if he can be convinced to work together,” my mother replied.
“Don’t die,” I said quietly.
“My son do not worry about such things. I am Elena. When death comes for me, I shall kill death and carry on,” she replied. For a moment I truly didn’t doubt her. My mother was a woman of single-minded determination.
“So, we headed back up now?” I asked as the last of the monster cores were collected and handed over to my mother to put in her spatial storage.
“Yes. And I shall give you a treat. I know how you are. You want to see me use my skills in a fight,” my mother said, and I nodded eagerly at this.
“Come, the passage up to the next layer is a chamber over,” she said, and I quickly followed after her along with Healer Melon, his bald head glinting in the dim ambient light of the dungeon.
We reached a ruined wooden scaffolding leading upwards. “Stand in front of me. I will grab you. Watch the upcoming fight closely.” My mother grabbed the back of each of our necks and kicked off the ground. We went soaring into the air, through the wooden scaffolding, she used her head to smash the way forward.
Clearing the top of the passage, we landed in the 7th layer of the dungeon. There was a massive figure in dark armor with a huge ball and chain. The Champion monster for this passage, a level 70 monster. My mother dropped us and drew her sword.
She did a small step to the side as the ball and chain went flying past her. “Minimal movement for a dodge.” She brought up the flat of her blade and knocked the chain away. “Deflect with the flat of the blade.”
She ran forward. “Advance quickly. Then unleash your skills. Or your most powerful skill. Watch closely, I will only do this once. Consider it a reward for working hard this last year, my son. Dawnbreaker Destruction!” She called out the name of her skill.
Everything seemed to slow down as all the Mana in the chamber was pulled into her blade. It glowed with an immense light. This was a tier 6 skill. I felt my heart clench and my eyes water from just trying to witness it. Her sword swung forward, leaving a trail of fiery white light behind it.
The air inside of my lungs was being forced out as everything was drawn into the leading edge of the blade, creating an instant vortex of Mana, air, and debris. A white inferno rushed forward at the monster as my mother swung her blade.
The vortex of light and everything else swept forward, the monster was instantly obliterated, the chamber wall was obliterated, the entire dungeon shook as half the chamber collapsed from the attack. A tier 6 attack. The debris was also partially molten from the heat of the skill had given off.
My mother waved her blade several times, sending out flaming attacks across the chamber to various lesser knight monsters that were rushing forwards towards us and her. They instantly exploded into piles of melted scrap.
She then returned her blade to its sheath, not one speck of dust on her armor. She then turned to face me. “And that my son, is why your mother is the best in the world,” she said. I nodded quickly at this as my mouth hanging open in shock. I knew she was strong, and I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.