Chapter 12: Training
Dream finally knew everything he needed to know after the talk with Riddick. He knew the power system and the general geography of the world. Everything else could be figured out when he went into the world.
For now, the only thing Dream had to do was train and experiment. Which he did everyday.
The morning training consisted of him getting beaten to a pulp by the girls until he figured out how to fight back. The only advantage he had was his strength. He was slower than the girls by a pretty decent margin. That was until a week later when he tried something.
Dream was in his room one night lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. He had been getting his ass handed to him for a week straight and needed to find something to help him. The only reason he was alive was because Luna could use healing magic.
Dream was racking his brain. So he started breaking down the problem.
"My problem is my technique, which can't be fixed quickly, and my speed. I don't have enough agility to match them. So.....I should use predictions? Everything has a pattern, people included. I doubt they use tons of different fighting styles so I just need to counter them. But that would never work practically. Maybe....could Savant use my senses to....Hey Savant!"
[Listening]
"Would you be able to use my senses to predict a person's movements as they happen? Like track muscle twitches, air movement, body language, and then use visualization to pass the information to me?"
[....Commands may be possible. Experimentation with the overlap of [Visualization] and your perception will be needed.]
"I think so as well. Savant, is the information transfer from my senses to you and then construction using visualization faster than my brain processing and reaction speed?"
[The transfer of data from your senses to me is faster than the brain's processing speed. But the construction of an image is not.]
"Hmm. You don't use Awareness as your sensing mechanism?"
[The use of [Awareness] was used on the occasions in which your question could only be answered using it.]
" *Sighhh* Savant...From now on, you have full access to all passive skills of mine. You know what? As you are my skill, if it will allow the increase in your capability, I allow full unrestricted use of any skill I have."
[...New parameters confirmed.]
<[Savant] has leveled up!>
<[Savant] has leveled up!>
<[Savant] has leveled up!>
<[Savant] has...>
"Wha...Alright then? What the hell did he do?"
After several seconds of notifications, Savant leveled 18 times! He was level 50 now!
"Holy crap. Guess he got a little excited. Not that I'm complaining."
Dream pondered a little more, went to sleep, and woke up the next day.
He was very eager to fight the girls with Savant helping him.
'Alright Savant, Awareness to sense everything about my attacker and visualization to give me the necessary information to block hits. We can worry about counters later.'
[Confirmed]
Dream was fighting Iris first. He squared up and began the fight.
And right when Iris started moving in to punch, he saw images popping up in his head. The images were of two people in exactly the same positions as Dream and Iris. And Iris' figure was moving in fast. Dream threw his arm up to block where Iris' image was hitting his image but missed. He kept trying to take in the information but wasn't able to match the simulations. So he gave Savant a command.
'Savant! Overlap her image from visualization onto the one in my vision. Then apply the predictions to that image. Make the predicted image look like a ghost or something.'
[Confirmed]
And seconds later, it happened
*Whoosh* *block* *Whoosh* *block* *Whoosh* *block*
Dream blocked a series of hits from Iris flawlessly. She actually stopped fighting from confusion.
"Dream? What was that?"
"...fufufu. I'm a martial arts master that's what."
"Shut up! You can't suddenly become that good in 2 seconds. Let's go again."
She started back up the fight. But just like last time, everything was blocked. She couldn't get through his strength and now apparently her speed was lesser too! What the hell!
They both stopped after several more rounds. Iris looked liked she had eaten shit and Dream had a brilliant smile on his face.
That was because of the notifications.
<[Savant] has leveled up!>
<[Visualization] has leveled up!>
<[Awareness] has leveled up!>
<[Copycat] has leveled up!>
<You have earned a skill! Passive skill [Mixed Martial Arts Mastery] has been acquired!>
All his passive skills leveled up and he got a new skill!
'Status!'
|Profile|
Name: Dream
Species: Human Male
Class: (unassigned)
Titles: [Origin Seeker]
Level: 38
Stats: Strength- F Agility- F
Stamina- F Magic- E-
Passive Skills: [Visualization]Lvl. 25->37, [Savant] Lvl. 50->73,
[Copycat] Lvl. 8->18, [Awareness]Lvl. 28->37, [MMA Mastery] lvl. 2
Active Skills: [Summons From Another World], [Shooting] Lvl. 43,
[Erase Prescence] Lvl. 17
'Oh I like that'
Dream got a big jump in mana. He was pleased.
"Ok let's keep going."
Dream spoke to Iris after drooling over his stats. They fought for 3 hours after that.
............
Dream kept training with the girls and his proficiancies kept going up.
But combat training wasn't all they did.
After lunch, Dream would take the girls into the forest to practice with weapons.
He taught them everything there was to know about how guns worked, and then began target shooting.
First he had them handle pistols. This was to help them with their accuracy. It was very basic and repetitive but they learned fast.
After 5 days they went from pistols to semi-auto rifles. Another 5 days and they switched to automatic assault rifles and machine guns. After 8 days with those, they finally went to snipers.
When they practiced with rifles, they never shot past 200 meters. But now they were starting with 500 meters. A little farther than the bull shooting.
Things got complicated when they got to this point though. Dream taught them all about bullet trajectory and how to adjust their aims to compensate for distance, wind, and any other factors. He taught them the different calibers, the scopes and their mil-dots, and then proper form when shooting a sniper. He eventually summoned range equipment to give proper data.
Dream had a lot of experience with this stuff because his uncle was a sniper. He taught Dream everything about what they did. And Dream got rather good at long-range shooting.
He always used a.308 rifle however. It was the most standard so Dream also had the girls use it first.
It took 4 days for the girls to finally get a hang of the basics. They started shooting targets farther and farther away. A week later, once they hit 750 yards, they switched guns to the.338 Lapua magnum as the.308 couldn't handle the distance. By this time, the girls were capable of taking in all the factors of their environment and adjusting their aim. They couldn't quite totally control their bodies, but were getting close.
A week later, after going through multiple snipers and thousands of rounds, Dream considered them perfect.
One thing dream was proud of however, was how they both got the shooting skill. They may not use it much but it was good to have and showed their effort.
Just to clarify something though, Dream was by no means idle while teaching. He was always shooting alongside them. He would encourage them by giving little competitions here and there. He constantly practiced and soon discovered something.
"I can infuse mana into my bullets! I thought I noticed I would lose mana but I thought it was from summoning. So I can actively pump in mana!"
Dream figured this out and started testing. He would put in a little, then more, then he tried dumping in all he could. That was until the bullet couldn't handle it and exploded. This intrigued Dream because the majority of the bullet decomposed when that happened. This taught him some things about how mana worked.
Savant also mustve thought it was interesting and leveled up.
Either way, Dream had maxed out his shooting skill by the end of training. Even with his crazy proficiency gain, it took a whole month of practicing something he was already pretty good at to max out the skill.
...............
Besides both combat training and weapons training, Dream was either experimenting or renovating the house.
The first thing he needed before putting in modern technology, however, was electricity.
Luckily Dream was able to get solar panels and put them in a sunny area by the house. He then summoned Tesla PowerWalls for energy storage. Each power wall could store a lot of energy, and he bought 10. Once he set those up, He started wiring the house for lights. It took almost 2 weeks for Dream to finish cutting walls, running wiring, setting the breakers, and leaving space for future projects. But when he was done, The house could be lit up in every room and corner.
The family of 3 were baffled by how it worked. Dream told them that it harnessed lightning mana and burned stuff inside the bulb to make light. Either way, they accepted it and enjoyed being able to see things at night.
Dream then set up the kitchen. He plugged in a massive refrigerator and put down an electric stovetop. Now plenty of food could be stored and cooked. Though Iris scoffed at the stovetop since her fire was better.
Lastly, one of the most important things was the bathroom. Dream actually employed Riddick to help with this.
Basically what they did for sewage was dig out a massive hole far from the house, ran piping to it, and hooked it up to a fancy toilet. An air compressor was used to push things through the pipes and into the underground pit.
They also built a water reservoir and Luna filled it up with water. Dream then ran that water source to the toilet to make it complete.
Let's just say that both Riddick and the girls were crying tears of joy over how amazing proper sewage was. That and toilet paper.
Dream also built a bathtub and shower, both super luxurious cause why not. He brought out soap, shampoo, and conditioner. After the girls started using that stuff to wash their hair, Dream could swear that no other hair in the universe was as good as theirs
A really big and comfortable couch was put into the living room. Along with many pillows that the girls loved to cuddle with.
Their rooms were furnished, A pool was put outside the house, windows were set up, air conditioning was put in.
Dream truly turned the cabin into a modern house. He even expanded it, making all the rooms bigger. Especially his.
Dream had initially wanted to expand his room to make a workshop but decided to build a secondary shed to do that. So he chose a spot next to the house to make a really big workshop that could accommodate all his needs.
He summoned every type of tool there was, summoned many different electronics, and set things up.
By this time, it had been nearly a month and a half since Dream got the lights up. Two whole months had passed since the beginning.
Dream started his experiments with his summoning ability and connecting to the internet in his world. The basis for his experiments was that the Summoning ability was a connection from himself to his world. If he could use that connection as a two-way road instead of a one way, he could send signals through and connect himself.
So Dream experimented with his ability. He tried to find the signature in his soul like Savant told him about and find the connection. He would summon items and watch the changes to his energy. This was a great power leveler for [Awareness] and [Visualization], But even after a week, he had no progress.
One of the reasons was actually the girls.
It was partly his fault too though. You see, over the weeks Dream would call over Luna so he could pet her while pondering things. It was kinda like a de-stressor.
At first, though, she felt weird about Dream treating her like a pet and didn't like it. 'That time after the wolf battle was a one-time thing!' She told herself. But after a while she totally loved it. She started to go and seek Dream out and lay on his lap or table so he could pet her. Just like a cat!
He would be in his workshop and she would just walk in and jump onto his workbench. And Dream loved it! He pet her all the time and sometimes Luna would even go into his room at night to fall asleep under the masterful petting techniques.
This was fine and all, until the other fox started noticing.
When Iris first found them and saw what Dream was doing, she was dumbfounded. Why is Dream petting Luna like an animal?! And why does she like it?!
She totally couldn't understand. And would just scoff whenever she saw them. But she soon started getting jealous. Luna looked so relaxed and would always be in a good mood after the pets. Was Dream using some kind of magic?
Dream noticed the change in Iris and took charge. A man had to be bold in situations like these! So he started telling her.
"Change into fox form!"
"No! I'm not an animal!"
"I know you're not an animal. You're a magical fox girl! So let me pet you!"
"NO! Why do you want to pet me so badly?!"
"Because you use my conditioner and your fur is definitely the silkiest under the heavens!"
"Ughh! Go away!"
It didn't work so well in the beginning. But on the 5th day of badgering her over it...
"FINE! Just shut up! Just this once!"
"Yesssss. We're going to the couch!"
"Ughh..."
She grunted and gave in. When they got to the couch, she transformed and Dream put her on his lap. They lay back and he went to work.
Sure enough, Iris loved it. As evidenced by how she fell asleep in 30 minutes. And when she woke up, she was ashamed for enjoying it so much and ran away.
So Dream kept pestering until he didn't have to anymore. Now both the girls were coming to him for pets. And in exchange for him giving them pets, they would listen to him thinking out loud while working.
But this would also mean he got distracted way more often. His work slowed down. Although not by much since it was mostly thinking and writing down theories. But still.
Dream kept going over different possibilities but ultimately came to a conclusion.
"I either need to max out Savant's level or evolve him. He needs to be more aware, attain some more intelligence. But that's difficult to do because he doesn't give anything other than what I ask him for. Luckily i've almost maxed him out, and I think I know what can put him over the edge.....that sounds weird."