Posted by Aker’s skill within the forge had improved drastically and he felt he was getting close to being able to finish his mold and create his armor. For practice Aker had created his own sword which he turned out to care for immensely, so he created a matching second one and used them extensively in his battles.
Aker had tried different variations of swords using a single bigger sword, a sword and shield and sword and knife combination. After trying a multitude of different options Aker found his favorite setup was dual sword wielding. Wielding two swords he could still use one sword for blocking while using the other for attacking. He could use both to attack and if he had to he could use both to block and deflect.
The two sword option allowed him the most flexibility and range, wasn’t cumbersome so he could still move around unhindered and gave him the most amount of freedom with his strongest attacks if needed.
Aker still practiced his throwing darts and kept them on him at all times despite the fact that he hadn’t had to use them for awhile in the arena. For the longest time those throwing darts had been Aker’s lifeline allowing him to injury his opponent enough that he could take the upper hand. With his huge boost in strength he simply didn’t need to resort to them but he didn’t want to get careless either. He knew that just around the corner his advisory was plotting his demise.
While Aker worked in the forge his understanding of fire was growing slowly but steadily. He was now able to heat the different types of metals almost perfectly every single time. It wasn’t just his understanding of fire that was helping him with his forging capabilities but his divine ear was beginning to play a role as well. Typically the divine ear is known for cooks as they use it to tell when their food is perfect but that doesn’t mean it can’t play a role outside of the kitchen. Aker’s divine ear listens to the sound of the metal heating up and he has learned how to pinpoint the moment the metal is at its optimal temperature to be worked. Aker had also discovered that different types of metals were more palpable if you heated them up differently. For example Jaclite preferred to be heated up slowly and steadily allowing the metal absorb the heat and spread it evenly while the Sky Metal he used for his throwing darts was stronger and easier to shape and mold if it was heated as quickly as possible.
Aker felt that he had perfected his body armor mold and was ready to start creating it, he was just waiting on the Midnight Metal he would need. Aker wanted his full battle ensemble to be Midnight Metal as he felt it provided the perfect amount of weight to durability that he wanted. He had talked to Mavis and was told that he was expecting the Midnight Metal any day now.
For all of Aker’s growing fame within the medic station he was probably significantly more popular as a cook it was just that nobody knew it.
Aker’s Dragon Rolls were stripped down with cheaper ingredients, especially the badenise bird as it was considerably expensive. The badenise was replaced with the much, much cheaper shoal which was still a juicy and flavorful bird but very common and not quite as rich in texture and flavor. For the Dragon Roll it didn’t matter whether it was the badenise or the shoal since it was shredded and mixed with the astrio root. The astrio root remained the same as the astrio root was already a very cheap and inexpensive ingredient to begin with. The same was true of the sea vine and the puggaves. The flux see was replaced with the ochagon which had the same properties as the flux seed it just didn’t get as flaky and crispy. The cugaseed was just replaced with oil as it was a much easier and cheaper process.
After being stripped down the Dragon Roll was sold initially to people who worked The Pit through the kitchen windows in the foyer. It was immensely successful there so they began offering it to the crowds that were attending the fights where it instantly became their number one selling food as it was wildly popular. Shortly after it initially went on sale people would stop by The Pit just to pick some up to take home for dinner, a few weeks after it’s introduction it was viewed as a reason to visit The Pit even if you didn’t want to watch the fights.
In the kitchen Aker continued to work from his reject station and continued experimenting and trying different types of foods. Many of the apprentices and cooks began visiting Aker at his reject station to ask for ideas, have him try their creations. They weren’t just going to Aker to ask him questions they were also many of the cooks and apprentices who were stopping by Aker’s station to teach him different cooking concepts and loan him books. Aker was quickly learning the common sense of the kitchen and cooking of the outer universe and he was fascinated.
On the other hand Aker had also brought some of his home cooking to the outer universe which is where he got the idea for his Dragon Roll and other types of creative foods he was experimenting with. It turned out that Earth had some unique concepts in the culinary arts that at least this portion of the universe hadn’t experimented with. It wasn’t that Aker had cooking experience prior to starting in the kitchen in The Pit because he didn’t, but Aker had been exposed to numerous different concepts and ideas on earth and while he was in the kitchen, because he didn’t have anyone to show him, he was basing everything on what he had seen before. Aker didn’t feel that his ideas were that creative but to those other apprentices and cooks his ideas seemed revolutionary in some regards.
Over the months seeing how Aker was using the waste pile to experiential and grow there were apprentices who threw away their pride and started digging through to collect ingredients to practice. After the first one had done it there were many, many who jumped on board with the idea who had been biting at the chops to get in their but were to embarrassed. It happened that one day Aker came in and found there was no usable ingredients for him to experiment with or even cook his meal for the day which Aker mentioned to the bearded Advanced Novice Cook who strangely enough was named Baker.
When Baker heard this he immediately flew into a rage, yelling at no one in particular passing a rule that only Aker would be allowed to dig through the waste pile. The apprentices were initially very upset hearing that as they were also enjoying the freedom of testing to their hearts content. All went back to normal until one of the disciples figured out that if they didn’t throw away their “not” perfect ingredients in the waste pile then it wouldn’t be breaking the rule of digging through. They could then use their own failed ingredients to do whatever they wanted. After the discovery of the first apprentice it wasn’t more than a couple of days later that none of the failed ingredients weren’t getting tossed and were being kept instead.
Again Aker came in to find there were no ingredients and again Baker flew off his handle, screaming and spitting all over the poor apprentice who was closest to him. Other than that affair Aker just continued on with his cooking and experimenting.
Inside The Pit Aker had been dominating the beast and was having no problems with handling thirty of the Level 1 Basic magic beast.
After his skilled had improved so drastically due to his huge mental change and breakthroughs The Pit quickly jumped him from the two he was fighting to ten. The climb from ten to thirty took almost the full nine months it had been since his initial jump to ten.
Aker was strictly taming the beast during his fight for the last few months. When he was orginally struggling in his battles against the magic beast he was doing whatever he had to do to survive and as such he wasn’t trying to tame, he was just trying to get out of there. At that time he was only taming roughly twenty percent of the beast he was facing. Now facing thirty of the magic beast he was taming almost one hundred percent which was an insane number. Because Aker was fighting so many beast at a time he was learning little tricks to each type of beast, their weaknesses and strengths. He was quickly learning the quickest and most efficient way to defeat the different types of magic beast which significantly helped in his conquering and taming of them.
Aker had grown popular with the crowd and him standing in the arena with his mask would drive the crowd into a frenzy. While Aker didn’t move around The Pit the same way he had been before his fighting style was still very mobile. Due to fighting so many magic beast at the same time Aker’s throwing darts came back into heavy use and his accuracy would startle the crowd who saw him throwing for the first time. It wasn’t just his throwing darts that would startle those first time observers, it was also his ability to attack and defend at the same time.
So many times Aker would jump right into the middle of the pack of beast, swinging his sword as they madly rushed at him. From the stands Aker would disappear under a mountain of flesh that would try and press down on and destroy him and then as if though a miracle occurred Aker would emerge and the beast would be bowing down in reverence to him. With just his two swords he would stand tall and never back down, blocking a claw or fangs with one sword while the other attacked the opening. Aker was becoming a master of fighting against mobs, a skill he was developing a little at a time fight after fight repeating hundreds of times.
Back in his cell Aker’s gravity had been increased to 3 times normal gravity. Vance had just changed it from 2.75 a couple of days ago and Aker found it difficult to even breath after the change. Each time Vance would change the gravity for the next week or two Aker would find it difficult to be in his cell. What Aker found fascinating was that Vance never had a problem no matter how high Aker’s gravity was getting which suggested to Aker that Vance had long ago trained with the gravity stone.
What Aker was most pleased with was his growth in controlling the nature particles as he was not able to slightly manipulate them and move them around. To date he hadn’t had any success with actually using them to do anything but he could draw them into his body at a much faster pace. Aker had been working on Body Conditioning Bones for almost nine months and was ready to break through which had him extremely excited. He had also found that because of the way he was moving the nature particles through his body and then into his bones using his Venas his blood was also filling at the same time. Aker calculated that when he broke through the Body Conditioning Bones that he would also break through Blood at the same time.
If that was the case his strength would grow immensely and more importantly he would be ready to begin forming his Source Core.
While fighting all of those magic beast didn’t give him very many points towards his Peerless Body the sheer amount that he has fought has resulted in him gaining enough points to break through the 8th level. In order to break through the 8th level he needed an additional 6,400 points for a total of 12,800. Each magic beast he defeated was only worth 3-5 points and as such he had only broken through a month ago. What really had Aker frustrated was that in order to break through to the next level of his Peerless Body he would need a whopping 25,600 points in total adding an additional 12,800.
As Aker thought about it he realized he needed to fight more difficult opponents if he wanted to advance. It surprised Aker when he would stop and think about it that he was hoping for more rigid and tough battles. Who besides Aker in The Pit would want their battles to be harder, to push them to their extreme to the limit.
Aker had thought when he put on the mask for the first time that his battles were going to be getting considerably harder but they never really did take that leap. Initially when Vance came and told Aker that he needed to wear the mask Aker had pushed back as he didn’t want to be covered up and hiding all of the time, however Vance didn’t give Aker much of a choice. All of Aker’s teachers had seemed different at that time as they were whispering and seemed busy and side tracked. All of Aker’s teachers stopped working with him while he was busy in there area and would just sit close by Aker. Doctor Life & Death stopped treating patients for a bit and wouldn’t allow Aker to get close to the patients having Aker learn some methods of diagnosis from a distance, at least Dr. Life & Death framed it as a learning opportunity.
Mavis stopped working in the forge when Aker was there and stood at the door while he watched Aker work. In the kitchen two cooks were always assigned to guard the waste pile which according to Baker was to prevent people from stealing and when Aker was in the kitchen Baker would stand at the door while keeping an eye on everyone.
And so with Aker’s schedule time marched on. Day by day he was advancing a little at a time in some cases and in other cases it seemed he was taking gigantic and mamoth steps forward.