Ding!
[ The effect of your title: The One Who Overcomes Adversity is activated. All your stats temporarily increase by 40%. ]
"Damn it! Shut up," muttered Déon, annoyed by his system notifications.
For the umpteenth time today, the system had just sent Déon a notification.
After his fight against the demonic alpha, Déon had obtained a title. Even though its effects were quite powerful, it only activated under certain conditions. Unable to activate it before, Déon had forgotten about it—until the start of his training, when the title's effect activated on its own.
Indeed, for the title's effect to activate, the bearer had to find themselves in a position of extreme vulnerability. Once this condition was met, the title's effect would activate, boosting the bearer's stats by up to 40% until they were no longer in a state of vulnerability.
Such was the power granted by his title. In the world of Eridoria, everyone could obtain a title. The system awarded each user a title when they accomplished great feats. In Déon's case, the system had granted him his title because of his achievements. Killing a Rank D monster and even managing to close a portal of the same rank was not something anyone could do. The power difference between each rank was significant.
...
It had already been two days since Déon began his joint training with Alexia. And as he had expected, he could see that his efforts were paying off. His stats had gone up a bit, which meant he was on the right track.
The training Déon and Alexia were doing was very simple. Alexia used the blindness scroll on Déon, and then they would start a friendly sword duel where Déon was supposed to parry all of Alexia's blows and counterattack if possible.
The objective of this training was clear for both of them. Déon had to be able to defend himself blind against surprise attacks. And Alexia, for her part, had to become capable of ambushing without being easily detected.
"Haa... Haa... Let's try one last time."
"Okay, it's up to you."
Alexia took a blindness scroll and infused it with her mana to activate it. Then she stuck it on Déon's back. Within seconds, Déon had lost his sight.
Ding!
[ Your... ]
The system had just sent Déon a notification, but since he already knew what it said, he ignored it.
"Alexia, you ready?"
"Yes, I'm coming."
As soon as the signal was given, Alexia attacked Déon from behind, putting everything into the stealth of her strike.
Déon, who had been focusing on his hearing, faintly heard Alexia's footsteps coming from behind him, along with the sound of her wooden sword cutting through the air.
Unfortunately, he couldn't block the attack he found too fast. They repeated the same scenario for about ten minutes, with neither of them managing to reach their goal.
"Damn it, even when I sense your attacks coming, they hit me before I can react."
"Don't worry. It's only been two days since we started. We'll have time to improve by then. I really hope I can land a hit without you sensing it before the end of this training."
"Haha, that's not happening anytime soon."
"Oh yeah? You'd better give up on the idea of reacting to my attacks in time, too."
"We'll see... Oh! Has it already been fifteen minutes?"
Each blindness scroll only worked for fifteen minutes.
"The blindness effect just wore off. Let's stop here. Looks like I didn't make much progress today."
"Don't say that. Yesterday, you couldn't even tell where the attacks were coming from, but today you did well. Unlike me, who..."
"Don't beat yourself up. I think you're improving too. Well, see you tomorrow. Same time."
And so, Déon left Alexia and headed home.
The progress he had made since the first day of training, which Alexia had pointed out, wasn't because he was a genius. It was the result of hard work.
From the very first day, as soon as Déon got home, after taking a short break, he had resumed training. This time, he used his mother's potion.
The effect was uncommon...
And today, contrary to what one might think, he wasn't going home to rest—quite the opposite. It was to start yet another training session. Déon was a workhorse, and he was going to achieve his goals.
...
Once Nox and Tilda returned home in the evening, unlike usual, they didn't see Déon training in the backyard.
"Déon!"
Bad memories resurfaced in Tilda's mind before Nox stepped in to reassure his wife.
"Don't panic. He's not a child anymore. He's in his room—I can sense him from here."
"What do you mean? He'll always be a child to me no matter how old he gets."
Nox nodded to acknowledge his wife's words. He knew that on topics like these, it was better to stay quiet.
It was only once inside the house that she called Déon again. This time, he heard and answered his mother as best he could in his state.
"Father... Mother... You're... already... here."
Tilda felt bad when she saw all the effort Déon was putting in to improve.
"Go rest. I didn't know you were in the middle of training," she said, seeing his condition.
"Oh! That's very impressive. You can even articulate words. You never cease to amaze me," commented Nox, impressed by Déon.
"... You have to work hard if you want to get results," he continued, signaling him to leave.
Ding!
[ Your Sense Enhancement skill increased by 2% ]
[ Your Sense Enhancement skill increased by 1% ]
Even though his head was in chaos, Déon could faintly hear the system notifications. It was proof he was making progress in his training.