They were in the Trentree Sanctuary. The peaceful garden. Their first training session had been a failure. A brutal, agonizing failure.
A calm, resonant voice echoed through the clearing. "You failed. But you gained plenty to learn. That is the purpose of the training."
It was Bonebrother. His holographic, bone-armored form coalesced from the dappled light. His voice was devoid of judgment.
"You have nine more chances." He said. "One teleportation chance into the battle zone per day. Use them wisely. Or not at all. The choice is yours."
He didn't wait for a response. The projection shimmered. Then vanished.
Silence settled. Broken only by the chirping of unseen insects and the whispering of leaves in the gentle breeze.
Jack looked at Reina. Her face was pale. A thin sheen of sweat on her forehead despite the cool air. Her eyes held the lingering terror of death.
He knew the feeling. It was fresh, vivid feeling of death. He had experienced it too after all. The tearing of flesh... The crushing of bones... The finality of it all...
"Love!" Jack said in a low rasp. He reached out. Hugging her. "We need to talk and make a better battle plan."
Reina nodded. Her gaze was distant. She didn't pull away. "Yes, Dear. We do."
...
They decided to rest for that day. The phantom pains were too distracting. The trauma was too raw. They found a secluded spot under a giant, moss-draped tree.
Rune, the mechanical fairy, hovered silently nearby. She was glowing a soft, contemplative blue.
Jack and Reina spent the day dissecting, evaluating their performance. The battle had been a chaotic, overwhelming mess. Their trained and usually seamless teamwork had fractured under the sheer pressure of endless enemies. Enemies that got stronger and stronger with the passing of time.
Their individual tactics were also problematic. They had fought hard. Yes. But without a clear, effective strategy.
"My grimoire spells..." Reina said with strained voice. "They take too long to cast. Expending too much mana. I can't afford that drain in long, extended combat."
She gestured with a hand, illustrating a point. "The fog magic, the illusions... they bought time, cost efficient, and great for survival. But I waste too much time and energy by using them simultaneously in battle. Unnecessary expenditure."
Jack agreed. They made a lot of unnecessary efforts. "In my case, my shape-shifts were clumsy. I should now be able to transform while moving. But I didn't. And I got stuck to one form too long..."
"The human form's shotgun was good for early, weaker monsters." He continued. "But they were not as effective against bigger, stronger targets. The rakshasa form was strong and fast. But not fast enough to get into necessary position. The kamaitachi was the other way around. It was fast, but not strong enough..."
Jack contemplated. Evaluating his strength and weakness. He could be better. More adaptable. He knew that.
"And Rune..." Reina added. Glancing at the fairy. "She did her best, Dear. But she's not built as a combatant."
Rune glowed blue and grey. A subtle hint of disappointment and helplessness.
"She's not designed to be combatant." Jack confirmed. "She's a guide. But her evasion is good. You should be able to leverage that, shouldn't you Rune? Use the movement for distraction. It will keep the pressure around us lower."
Rune glowed green in agreement.
...
They talked for hours. Covering every mistake. Every misstep. The weight of their deaths hung heavy over the discussion. A constant reminder of the cost of failure. They needed to improve, and fast. Nine more chances. Those were their limited opportunity to get stronger.
The next days were a blur of training, combat, and death.
Each morning, after a brief breakfast, they would stand before Bonebrother's projection in the center of the sanctuary. Bonebrother would send them to the training battle zone. And the world would twist.
Then... they were back in the battle zone. Back to where the ancient Trentree Warriors were fighting against tree monsters. The war was a constant chaos they willingly dived into.
They died. Again and again. The first few days, the deaths were the quick, brutal repetitions of their initial failure. An illuminated monster would appear. And they would be overwhelmed.
The after-death phantom pains became a familiar ache. Proving their persistence and adaptability. But with each death, they learned.
They didn't acquire new abilities. Their raw power remained static. But their efficiency and survivability gradually increased. Their mastery sharpened. Their existing skills, once merely convenient tools, became extensions of their will.
Reina was the first to implement drastic changes. Her grimoire was retired from active combat use. It was a powerful source of mystic spells. But, it didn't really fit her combat style.
"Too slow. Too costly." She declared after her third death. She told Jack that she would use it only outside the battle zone. For preparation. Or investigation. Or in very specific, calculated scenarios.
Instead, her focus shifted. Cost efficiency was her priority.
She tweaked her fog manipulation power. It was once a broad deterrent. But it now became precise, targeted obscuration.
Her illusions were no longer about creating many false illusionary constructs. But about slightly distorting movement trajectories. Or slightly altering opponent's perception of environment. Enough for causing momentary confusion for her foes. Or concealing her own actions.
Short-range teleportation became her primary mode of movement. A flicker of her shadow disappearing and reappearing. Dodging attacks with minimal range of displacement when possible.
Her offense became purely her twin steam guns. She controlled her urge to spam bullets. Taking time to aim. And her aim had now become preternaturally accurate. Bullets flew with surgical precision. Finding weak points. Tearing through the weakest bark and sinew.
Fortunately, like their health, mana, and stamina; bullets used in the training battle zone were also recovered whenever they returned back to the sanctuary.
In short, Reina started to develop her most efficient fighting style. She dodged. She weaved subtle fog and illusion. And, she shot. She was starting to become an illusionary dancer of deadly grace.
Rune was not built for combat. However, she found her niche. She darted amongst the chaos. Her tiny form was barely visible. But she managed to distract enemies with her sudden bursts of light.
Her evasion, already great in the beginning, had become peerless now. She was a ghost amongst the trees. Invisible most of the time. But capable of drawing attention and creating openings when required. Ensuring the monsters lost their focus from Jack or Reina when they were in trouble. It was a risky job. But she executed it flawlessly.
Jack's changes were more complex. It was a complete overhaul of his fighting style. He had three forms he could rely on in this environment... human, rakshasa, and kamaitachi.
The specter form was instantly ruled out. He tried it once. Using [Incarnation Shift] to transform into Jack Mystery. The battle zone world shimmered. He was instantly back in the Sanctuary.
Bonebrother simply told him. "The training system setting cannot be changed. The dead cannot participate in the struggle of the living."
Apparently, being a mysterious specter meant being 'dead' once more. So, this incarnation wasn't enhanced by training this time.
He also didn't use his latest incarnation, the puppeteering devil puppet form. With only three bizarre puppets, and two of them were technically non-combatant, it would also be useless. He needed an army of combat bizarre puppets to join the battle in that incarnation.
So, the battle zone training for Jack was about optimizing three of his incarnations... the human, the rakshasa, and the kamaitachi.
Jack actually developed a new combat mode he called... Incarnation Flow. In this mode, he didn't stay in one incarnation for long. He transformed on the move, rapidly, and in high frequency.
His human form, armed with a steamrune shotgun, became his mid-range demolisher. The opener. He would blast apart weaker opponents, thin out swarms, or soften up tougher targets from a distance.
Then, he would transform into his kamaitachi form. A blur of motion that either moved to the weakened monster or save an ally in danger. The small, agile weasel-like creature's speed was invaluable for battlefield control, support, and mobility. In this form he would cut and slice weak monsters. But when he faced stronger ones...
Then Jack would shift into the rakshasa form. The main damage dealer. A hulking, black fiend with immense strength and regenerative abilities. He would swing his [Judgement Warhammer], reinforced by Rakshasa might. Pulverizing even the durable bark of illuminated level tree monsters.
The key of the combat mode was rapid, almost instantaneous, adaptive switching. He no longer spent precious seconds adapting between forms. The constant practice in these death-defying trials made his [Incarnation Shift] more fluid and instant.
One moment, he was a human. Blasting an enemy with a shotgun. The next, he was a kamaitachi. Sprinting like lightning and rapidly flanking another enemy. The next, he was a Rakshasa. Breaking it apart with his hammer. The changes flowed seamlessly. A deadly dance of forms and tactics.
Despite the improvement, the first six training chances ended largely the same way. Jack, Reina, and Rune would fight with newfound efficiency. Taking down more monsters. Surviving against the regular hordes.
But then, illuminated level monsters, the particularly powerful tree-beast, would appear. They would struggle. Perhaps even damage or kill a few. But eventually, they would be overwhelmed by more similar level monsters. And they would die.
The pain was real. Even if temporary. The frustrations mounted. But so did their resolve. Each death reinforced their commitment to improvement.
On the seventh chance, something changed. They had honed their skills to a razor's edge.
Reina's steam guns spat death with unparalleled precision. Her teleports made her practically unhittable.
Jack flowed through his forms. A one-man army. Shifting from shotgun blasts to kamaitachi sprint to rakshasa pulverization in a flowing manner.
Rune was a dazzling, elusive distraction. Keeping the heat not just off them, but also off their allies. The Trentree Warriors.
This time, they had made sure that more of Trentree Warriors survived. When the illuminated monsters appeared, they didn't just try to survive. They fought them. Assisted by many surviving allies.
The illuminated level monsters were strong. But they were not that many. After fighting bitterly for quite a long time, they managed to kill them all.
...
But their triumph was short-lived. Following the illuminated monster's demise, the ground trembled. A roar echoed across the battlefield. It was so loud that it sounded like it could tear down mountains.
The Monster King appeared. A gigantic hill-sized treant. Its ancient bark gnarled and thick. Hundreds of thorny vines and massive roots writhing from its colossal body. It was an apocalyptic sight.
The survivors frantically fought back. Unleashing all their powers. But it was like striking a mountain with a toy hammer. Pointless.
Jack and Reina managed to evade the abomination's world-shattering attacks a few times. Their improved skill mastery pushed them to the edge of what was possible.
But in the end, the sheer scale of the beast overwhelmed them. They died under a rain of crushing roots...
They failed again.