Posted by While Aker was diligently swinging away in the forge Kara would quietly study her medical books. As she studies, she would listen to the sound of Aker’s hammer as it slams metal against metal a heavy collision that would release a pleasant song into the air. Normally one would think that the sound of metal hitting against metal would be an irritating and grating sound which is true except for those people who study in blacksmithing. As an apprentice becomes a novice blacksmith who is working their way towards advance novice the sound of their metal colliding is an art which can become a symphony of its own as they progress on the path.
Every now then when it seems like Aker is stuck Mavis will nonchalantly pick up his hammer and work on his own project, and each time he does the sound that echoes through the forge is borderline heavenly. As Mavis swings his hammer the light of inspiration can be seen on Aker’s face as he takes in Mavis’s posture, rhythm, swing and stance. Each time Mavis only swings his hammer for a couple of minutes and then proceeds to go back to watching over Aker, and each time after Aker finishes watching Mavis he is recharged with new innovative ideas slowly moving forward.
Leaving the forge and blacksmithing training Aker would head over to the kitchen to make himself some food but more importantly to practice his cooking skills. Upon showing up Kara would disappear excitedly into her station while Aker would quietly walk over to his reject area.
After a couple of months within the kitchen Aker had come in one day to find that the kitchen had been slightly changed as the waste pile and his reject station had been moved to another corner. Now instead of watching the sauté station he had a clear view of the frying station and sushi station. He also had a fairly decent view of a specialty station that seemed to experiment with a hodgepodge type meals. By hodgepodge it was cooking that seemed to take vegetables and entrees that had no business being together and worked towards blending the flavors to create a rather unique and delightful delicacy. Aker had already discovered his great elation in experimental cooking so having his reject station moved here was for him a huge motivator.
Aker’s ability to cut, dice, slice, brunoise, chiffonade, julienne and various other cuts may not be at an novice level however compared to the other apprentices Aker could be considered top shelf.
Aker’s increased understanding of fire has helped with more than just his forging capabilities as his cooking has improved because of it as well. Aker had also unknowingly been developing what the other apprentices know as the “Divine Ear”. The divine ear is the ability to listen to the sound of the food as it cooks under the fire and hear when it has reached the perfect temperature for cooking and flavor. Cooking a well-cut piece of chicken for too short a time will leave it raw and cooking it for too long would make it dry. The divine ear helps the chef listen to the sound of the food in the fire, grease and such to determine when it is cooked the right amount to be called perfect. Of course, Aker is years, decades, and perhaps a lifetime away from being able to completely develop his ear but he has subconsciously learned the method. Very few chefs ever develop the ability and only those who can combine all of their senses into their cooking can truly become a heavenly chef.
No one had told Aker or asked him about moving his reject station which made perfect sense, due to the hierarchical method of the kitchen Aker was an insignificant member of the kitchen. Even that wasn’t right as the apprentices that cooked for the prisoners were the truly insignificant members of the kitchen and Aker could only look up to them as he was even in their shadow. When Aker first started in the kitchen his situation had bothered him a great deal…. who wants to work at the reject station? Who wants to dig through the waste pile for their ingredients and food? Who wants to use garbage equipment?
Now though, Aker had come to consider himself lucky that he was in the reject station. Sure, he wasn’t working with the best tools and ingredients, but so what. He was carefree and nonchalant about his cooking due to his situation. The other apprentices had to be fully aware of their cooking as each time they failed it resulted in high quality ingredients going into the waste pile. There was no excuse or reason for any failures as they only worked with the best tools and food, whereas Aker could smash and destroy countless creations, he could experience epic failures while still learning and growing. The very reason Aker was advancing so quickly was because he was getting to the true essence of cooking wherein the other apprentices were only going through the motion of cooking. Aker’s cooking style seemed wild and unrestrained however his results would certainly have him advancing to the next level if he was tested. While he hadn’t been formally tested since he stepped into the kitchen, he had to be at least an apprentice level 4 at this point and perhaps had even reached novice cook.
Almost all supporting skills followed the same standards for advancement whether referring to blacksmithing, herbalist, chef or magic cook, potions, pills, tamer and so on. The basic progression was first apprentice 1, followed by apprentice 2, 3, and then 4. Following the apprentice levels they could move on to the novice level which also had four levels. After novice level was the advanced novice, followed by the intermediate, competent, expert, lower master, master, and finally supreme master or godly levels. Each level consisted of four sub-levels which were beginner, transient, advanced and peak.
For a place like the Underground Empire the intermediate skill already represented the extreme level and no matter which supporting skill it was, an intermediate level master would be highly coveted.
Following Aker’s time within the kitchen he would end up out in the arena fighting. For the first few months he was fighting one on one with magic beast. The magic beast he was facing were getting progressively more vicious and tougher. After several months of one on one fights they upped the ante and had him fighting two different Level 1 Basic Magic Beast. Originally when this happened, he would fight the same beast just in doubles, for example he would have to face off against two Fire Apes or two Wind Wolves. For Aker this change was extremely difficult and he was struggling with it. He had reached a point where he could face off against the singular magic beast and wasn’t in extreme danger however, he was still struggling to conquer them. While he had managed to pull out a victory each time there were a couple of fights that brought him to the brink of his capabilities.
The fight against the Savior Lion and Thorny Jaguar were both incomparable close fights. While he did get to fight each them individually their magic power was unbelievably difficult to fight against. The Savior Lion was able to instantly heal itself as it was a wood based magic beast. No matter how many times Aker slashed, cut and hurt that Lion it would come back at him full of energy and vigor as if though nothing had happened. Thankfully Aker had learned that the Savior Lion consumed a considerable amount of magic healing and after a roughly twenty-minute weary fight the Lion fell over exhausted. It was strange to look down at it as it laid there as it didn’t have a single mark on its body when it fell over.
The Thorny Jaguars fur was completely a dark earth brown color and was exceedingly difficult to deal with due to its earth magic capability of producing thorns on its body. Every time Aker tried to get close to the beast, he would find himself getting cut by its thorns. The Thorny Jaguar stood over two meters tall on all fours and its thorns protruded out one third of a meter. The thorns were especially hard and sharp to the degree that even the slightest touch of them on his skin would result in excruciating pain. Ultimately Aker had to get very creative with defeating this beast using his knife and two swords as projectiles he was able to injure the beast enough that it couldn’t continue to attack.
Thankfully Aker had a fight against Menacing Hawk a few weeks before his fight with the Thorny Jaguar in which the bird was able to fly a few meters in the air. Aker had to coax it down to him in order to defeat it as he didn’t have any projectiles to launch and hadn’t practiced. After the fight with the Menacing Hawk Aker would spend a couple of minutes each day practicing his knife and sword throwing. Without this practice there would be no way to know how he would have done against that Thorny Jaguar; however, one thing was for certain, it would have been a much, much harder fight.
Following his fight with the Thorny Jaguar Aker made up some small throwing darts in the forge. In fact, the mold and darts were the very first weapon that Aker made himself from scratch. For the throwing darts Aker used Sky Metal which turned a very light shade of blue after being heated up then cooled. The reason he used the Sky Metal was twofold. First and most importantly, it was strong enough to penetrate the skin of even a Level 1 Advanced Beast and perhaps even a Level 2 Basic. The second reason was due to the light blue color that made it nearly impossible to see under light. He had planned to make a set of black throwing darts for when it was dark but after thinking about it decided it wasn’t necessary as he is always fighting under the lights of the arena.
When Aker started fighting the two Level 1 Basic Beast at the same time if it wasn’t for his throwing darts he probably wouldn’t have survived through the fights. Even injuring one or both beast with his darts he would still struggle to take advantage in the battles. Somehow or another he was still managing to tame the beast within the arena as they fought, however his success rate had gone way, way down from his time with the Kulga. He was now lucky if he could tame two out of ten of the magic beasts which bothered and disappointed Aker to no end. If beast tamers were to hear that he was disappointed “only” succeeding at a twenty percent rate, considering Aker’s level they may want to slap him. While Aker’s twenty percent success rate couldn’t be considered a peerless genius, it would certainly make him an apprentice worth nurturing. If they were to discover that Aker had no training at all and solely focused on taming through battles, they might slap themselves for fear they heard wrong. Most beast tamers spent a considerable amount of time and effort learning a multitude of different approaches to beast taming and in most cases taming through battle would be considered perhaps the least effective last resort option.
After the first fight against the Level 1 Basic magic beast Aker had leveled up to 6 in his Peerless Body with getting a whopping 2000 points for the one beast. Unfortunately, after leveling up his Peerless Body and reaching Body Conditioning Level Muscles he was now only getting 5-10 or so points for each magic beast. If Aker understood his Peerless Body accurately the more difficult the fight was for him the more points he would receive through the battle.
If that assumption was correct then that would signify that according to his Peerless Body his fights against the Level 1 magic beast should not be so strenuous and he should be winning fairly easily. Admittedly the first two fights against the Fire Ape and the Wind Wolf was the only time that Aker truly felt the hand of death on his neck. In all other fights even though he struggled and had to push himself to his limits he never seriously felt the reapers blade.
What this signified to Aker was that it wasn’t his capabilities that were lacking but his skill set. In theory if his skill set matched his bodies capabilities he should be easily crushing and defeating inside the arena. When Aker first had this thought he felt slightly devastated at the thought, however, after really considering his progression and growth he realized it should probably be expected. Over half a year ago he was tossed into the forsaken pit with no experience, no hope and reason to believe he would be alive today. How many of the other prisoners would give anything to be in the same situation as Aker wherein their bodies capabilities were outpacing their skills. For most people the cause of death was not some overwhelming battle, it was generally the long arduous march of battle after battle taking its toll.
In order to break through to the next level of the Peerless Body Aker needed 3200 points. From the 400 left over he received in the first battle he was left with 2800. For the first few months he was fighting once a day, slowly working his way towards level 7. While fighting against two magic beasts made his battles much more difficult, it also doubled the amount of points he would receive in each battle. After over six months of tough battles Aker was now closing in on level 7 and should break through in the next battle or two. It had been awhile since Aker was able to grow his skill points and he had plenty of time to consider this time. Even with all of the time he had to consider it was still very difficult to decide on how to allocate.