DD 204 Chapter 34 (This is the real one)

"I can't go on. Please. Make sure they honor my last will and testament." Wendy fell during our laps around the room.

In the end, DPS had lost.

Even with my own [Liminal Speed], being forced to simply try and beat down the tanks had been a futile effort. Nearly one-for-one healers versus DPS turned out to be a much harder ratio to overcome. Not to mention, Harley had actually managed to keep the healers mana at passable levels.

In the end, the DPS members started dropping like flies, exhausting their own mana first. They wore themselves out, or in my final case, built up so many stacks of [Liminal Speed] that I quite literally sapped myself of strength. To the point, I had fainted, only being revived by Des giving me mouth-to-mouth and then pumping orange juice down my throat. 

Unfortunately for the DPSers, particularly those without much physical strength, like the casters or a beastmaster like Wendy, were struggling with the 100 laps, especially after losing the contest.

Crimson, however, had a gleeful smile on her face. Her eyes sparkled with delight as she watched me run laps. "Ken, just think how much stronger you're getting." She flexed, though she didn't put any actual strength behind the move.

"Uh-huh. When we're all done, I'm dialing this up to 100 and I'm trapping you in here, Crimson." I grunted back, a little more breathless than I would have liked.

"Don't promise me a good time." She cackled before turning her attention back on the room. "Keep at it, everyone. No slacking, no stopping. If you pass out, don't worry, all of our healers are free and resting to bring you back to tip-top shape." 

Crimson was being incredibly sadistic with this training. However, the way my muscles ached, this was working out my body.

I checked my CID. In just a few hours of what Crimson liked to call training, I had gained two points of stamina, one in agility, and strength, along with a point in my magic as well. The only thing that hadn't risen was my mana, though perhaps that was because of how few abilities I had been able to cast at a certain point. With [Liminal Speed] active I had just gone all out with the two daggers to the point of passing out.

"Just imagine when you can all do this for days at a time." Crimson continued to demoralize us with the idea of more exercise. 

"I think I'm actually going to die." Taylor grunted as she ran alongside me, huffing while doing a pathetic jog that matched the rest of us.

"Why did I have to stop being a tank now?" Taylor wheezed. 

The tanking group definitely had an advantage in the exercise. Not only did they have higher strength and stamina, but they were the fulcrum rather than the two competing levers.

"Here, I thought you would never want to be a tank again. I mean the way you complained about it all the time makes me surprised to hear that," I teased her, only for the duelist to shoot me a scathing glare. 

"You know, this is probably all your fault, Ken. Did you do something to Crimson? Is that why she's punishing us all?" She asked.

"Hey, hey," I held up my hands, only to give up part way. "This had nothing to do with me. If it did, don't you think I would be finding a way out of all this exercise?" 

"I don't know. Maybe Crimson's converted you into a masochist. I don't judge." Taylor snickered. 

"I'm so happy that's amusing for you." I rolled my eyes.

"You should be.” Taylor wheezed.

“If you have energy to talk, then I expect you all to move faster." Crimson’s whip bit at her heels as we wrapped up our run with one last burst of speed.

Most of us staggered past, barely standing on our wobbling legs. 

"All right, healers and tanks, it seems like they're exhausted. Why don't you show them what push-ups and squats look like? One hundred of each." Crimson twirled her finger in the air, as if to signal it was time to get going. 

Harley did a double take and pointed at herself. "Me? No. They lost. They do the exercises." 

Crimson's whip smashed down beside Harley. "It’s a team building exercise. Everybody together. Unless you’d like me to turn up the gravity?" 

"Yes, join us in our misery." Des grinned at Harley as the Warlock not-so-gracefully flopped down on her stomach for pushups. "There's no escape for you." Des cackled evilly.

"No. You're only supposed to make them work hard, not us," Harley whined. Despite her words, she got down on her hands and knees, ready to work out with the rest of us. 

It perhaps sounded bad, but I was enjoying watching her squirm. It was some salve for how much we'd all just run.

"All right, and start," Crimson motioned. Against everyone's instincts, we all started with the pushups. Every inch of my body complained as I dipped down, only to throw myself back up, if only to get a moment's respite before having to collapse down in another pushup.

"You know, despite this being literal torture, my stats are looking pretty good," Penny said, weathering through this far better than I.

"Penny," I said, staring at her, "don't talk or Crimson's whip will find us."

The Frost Knight glanced warily over her shoulder at Crimson, who was walking between students, with their hands behind her back in a slow, leisurely stroll. It didn't even look like she was affected by the gravity.

Crimson paused and turned back to meet my eyes.

"What level are you at, Crimson?" I suddenly asked, realizing she had likely gotten a substantial boost during her Naga hunt. And since getting control of [Limit Break] and use of my [Portal ability], she had been diving deep within the dungeon to train on her own.

"67," Crimson answered. "Does it worry you, Ken?"

I scoffed at her. "Not one bit. When I started at Haylon, you had a full 57 levels on me. Now you only have, what, 22?" I chuckled a laugh, which turned into a more gutteral noise as I dipped down into another squat before coming back up. "Crimson, it seems like you've lost your edge. I think I'm catching up."

Crimson's eyes glowed blue as a giant smile spread across her face. "Did everyone hear that? Ken wants to catch up to me. If he's got that kind of resolve, we can't let him down. So, it sounds like more training for all of you." She held her hands wide, as angry glares from across the classroom stabbed into me.

I chuckled, not letting the looks bother me. This was just another way that Crimson operated, and I was used to it by now. "Well, if you're gonna pay for it, I think we should soak up as much training in this gravity room as we can. Our bodies be damned," I challenged her back.

She laughed, walked up to the tablet and typed a few more things in before waving her CID over it. "I've extended the time. We can't waste the UG’s kindness. After all, this place is quite expensive." She tapped a button, and suddenly the gravity disappeared as we finished our squats.

"Everyone, you get 30 minutes to stuff your face full of as much food as you can manage. You're going to need the energy for round two." Crimson told us

Nobody even questioned her, sitting down and getting to work on some of our most efficient food sources. 

A whole box of protein bars appeared in front of me, and I began to scarf them down one after the other. A sugary sports drink came out next, which I used to wash down the peanut butter flavor that got stuck in my throat.

Everyone around me was doing the same. Even Penny wasn't eating a salad. Instead, she was stuffing her face with candy bars and bacon, consuming as many calories as she could before we went into the next round.

Crimson came over and pulled out one of her eggy, veggie, and meat-stuffed discs, placing it in front of me. "I wouldn't want you to go hungry, so eat up. You're going to burn more calories than anyone else." She then put down a few bags of potato chips.

I took her peace offering, acknowledging the potato chips for what they were, but returned a glare of challenge. "I'm going to catch up to you, Crimson. And after I do that, I'm going to push you further down the dungeon."

"You're going to push me down?" she asked, licking her lips. "I look forward to it," she teased in front of the entire class.

There wasn't even a snide comment from Harley, which told me just how exhausted Harley was at this point.

"Make jokes, Crimson. One of these days, I might be the one forcing you to train." I had to keep the pressure up.

She gasped and put a hand to her lips. "Too bad for you, Ken. I'll enjoy it either way." She laughed and then walked away, popping her hips from side to side. She wasn't so insecure as to look back to make sure I was watching. She knew I was. Instead, she went around the class with [Eyes of Wisdom], presumably to make sure we weren't actually going to die.

The thing about adventurer bodies was that, between refueling them with calories, we could recover far faster than a normal human. There was the whole problem of lactic acid buildup, but a silly thing like that wasn't enough to make Crimson give us a break. If anything, she just pushed us harder until we could resist it better.

I remembered the day she had done lactic acid training, and I shuddered at the thought of going through another round of that.

When our thirty minutes were up, Crimson didn't even step back over to the pad. It must have been on a timer, because it let us know time was up. Gravity slammed back down on our shoulders, and each and every one of us felt the pressure. The only difference now was that hopefully our DPS group had a little more motivation.

"I want to see focused fire. Damage dealers, don't let me down. Prove that you're the most important part of the party." Crimson cracked her whip when we didn't immediately jump to striking each other, and it had the desired effect.

Spells began flying immediately.

Penny got a green fireball to the face.

Des called out "Sorry, Penn, but Myrtle's an absolute brick wall." Penny groaned, but held her sword out in front of her, ignoring me and instead focusing on blocking Taylor. 

Every part of me wanted to argue with Des over who should be the next target, but Penny's tanking style was not a fit for the current exercise. Thus, Des had actually made the right decision. Following her lead, I shot forward as quickly as my legs could move, which still felt like wading through molasses.

***

Four rounds later, I was amazed at the change in my stats. Though the exhaustion was worse than I had imagined, a sheer bone weariness permeated both my body and mind.

The mental fatigue was the most surprising part. Pushing through that level of pain and effort for so long was a type of exhaustion that the human brain was not prepared for. We needed rest even if we could refuel and heal ourselves, our minds wouldn’t let us keep going.

"I'm going to sleep for days," Des said, leaning on me. 

We stumbled our way out of the gravity chamber, and I realized that four rounds had been roughly eight hours of training. We had gone well past what the school day would mandate. Not a single one of us asked Crimson to stop, especially after people started checking their CIDs.

Two and three rounds in, some of my classmates had earned double digit stat points. All things considered, it was the best stat training any of us had ever experienced. It put the normal weight training we’d done before to absolute shame.

I could only assume it had also cost us a giant pit of mana crystals. And since the UG was picking up the bill, that was fine by me. I quite literally might not get another chance for that type of training scenario for a long time.

However, as we stumbled our way out of the gravity chamber, we were met with chuckling Orkai who paused to look at us in our wobbling gaits. 

"First time?" one of them asked, laughing and smashing a meaty green fist against his chest. 

I still had a little [Liminal Speed] sparks coming off my hands as I glared at him, and they glowed by my side. 

"Oh,” Another pointed to me. “Careful, he's got the trial of speed. He might run circles around you," the second Orkai teased the first. 

"So what, it's just the trial of speed," the first scoffed at me, only for Crimson's eyes to spark red. 

"And the trial of power," the second laughed, "you guys must not be too bad. You've gone through the trials." 

The second extended a hand towards me. "We're the Melon Crushers. You can ignore Kazik. Most people do." 

"You make it sound like the trials are pretty common and known," Des commented, still leaning on my shoulder, but perking up for this topic. 

"Of course. After all, the seven trials are famous. They're the reason Star City and the other seven were built." 

Those words got everyone in class's attention. They all subtly leaned forward, giving the Orkai their ears. 

"And what do the seven trials have to do with the seven cities?" Candice asked, fidgeting with her CID as if she was itching to take notes. 

"The seven cities were originally built on top of the seven trials. Though, of course, the shuffles have changed that fact. Usually, the trials appear lower in the dungeon than where we are now.” He replied as if that were common knowledge.

“Does Star City know the location of the trials right now?" Taylor asked, hope blossoming in her eyes. 

The two Orkai shook their heads. "Finding one of the trials right now would be highly, and I mean incredibly highly, valued information that you should sell to our guild if you do find it." 

These words were a not-so-subtle threat, enough to make Crimson's eyes spark red. 

Most cowered when that happened. These Orkai only chuckled.

"Cool it in here. Even Karnak isn't stupid enough to pick a fight in Star City. I think you know that," the smarter of the two Orkai dared Crimson to take a swing at him. 

Crimson clicked her tongue. "I was just testing the two of you. I would caution either of you from targeting my students." 

"Yeah, sure," Karnak chuckled. "I'll take you real seriously when you have the power to back that up. Until then, you can keep blowing hot air. I'll even make it fun for you if you want." He shot her a cheeky wink.

Crimson's temple pulsed with a danger that suggested she might actually take a swing.

The last thing we needed was another involvement with the Orkai Arbiters. I put a hand on Crimson's shoulder. "They're not worth it, quite literally," I said.

Crimson grunted, and instead of shrugging my hand off her shoulder, she curled into me. "They're just jealous," she said, kissing me on the cheek.

I watched Karnak's eyes smolder with fury at Crimson's actions. She might have actually been right.

Regardless, Karnak snapped, "If you do venture deeper, do keep an eye out for the other trials. Perhaps you'll want to swap out your speed for something better." 

I could tell there were several in my class that were nearly drooling for more information, but I thought it best we end the conversation. "Sure. One of these days, when you can't touch me, I'm sure you'll think speed is so worthless." I pulled Crimson forward, and the rest of the class followed.

The brief, hostile encounter with the two Orkai was not forgotten. 

Candace breathed heavily. "We could have gotten so much more information." 

"And we can still get information," I said to her. "There's another demon that I've become passably friendly with in Star City. We can ask her for information without risk of them being assholes." 

"There's another demon in the city?" Harley perked up. 

"Yeah, a succubus even." Harley's eyes turned into two giant saucers. "Wait, what did she- no, don't tell me, don't tell me." Harley held her hand out in front of her. "I want to see for myself." 

Penny snickered behind me. "It's not going to be what she's hoping for." 

"Well, don't spoil it for her," I cautioned Penny. I was still a little bitter from when Harley had given Crimson lip and gotten us even more training. “Otherwise she might complain so much that we end up with an extra hundred squats.”

"She was being unreasonable!" Harley shouted as we walked out of the lobby and back into Star City. 

"When can we meet this demon?" Candace asked the second we exited the building. "Inquiring minds would love to learn more about the Trials. I think I speak for everyone here. An ability like yours or Crimson's isn't just stupidly powerful, it is outright ridiculous.”

“Overpowered." Taylor butted in with her own opinion.

"Yeah, yeah." I waved a hand. "It's not the skill, it's how you use it." I tried to defend myself, but I was on thin ice. After all, [Liminal Speed] was stupidly powerful, as was Crimson's [Limit Break]. 

"I can go check the guild hall to see if Mel is there. But if possible, I would like to go with a smaller group." I glanced at the 20 people all standing around me. "It might be a little strange if I go with this size of group." 

"It's fine by me, as long as you tell us all how to become overpowered." Harley yawned. "I'm gonna go sleep." 

"Gee, thanks for your overwhelming support," I deadpanned as Harley gave me a thumbs up and tried to escape with the rest of her party.

Quickly, various groups gave their own excuses and scattered. Felin also left, more interested in a nap than the questions right now.

It narrowed down until it was just my party minus Felin, Crimson, and of course Candice, and her desire to learn from the source. 

"Come on, let me show you the guild hall, if I remember where it was." I hesitated, spinning around in Star City until I found a familiar landmark and oriented myself. Much of Star City looked the same, built out of opulent white stone and glowing crystals that were likely all powered by mana crystals. 

"Now, before we get there, I need you all to be on your best behavior," I said, casting a glance at Crimson. 

"What? I wasn't actually going to pick a fight," she replied dismissively. "I just needed to stand up for myself, rather than let them try and push me around." Crimson pulled out a bag of chips, popping one into her mouth.