"Time for a training montage!"

Jack declared, no fox realizing just how scary of a concept it was. After all, Jack's version of a "Training Montage" meant pushing himself to the utmost limit!

He had a small Mana Capacity, but that wouldn't bloody stop him. Every minute of his waking time was spent training this new Arcane Magic.

Bluish lights would erupt from him, only to dissipate in mid-air. Then some more would appear, and more, and more, until he eventually collapsed out of exhaustion.

But as soon as he woke up, he'd start all over again!

His zeal was so intense that the Old Ghost started doubting his sanity. Why did he need power so much that he was ready to suffer so much for it?

"Kid, are you trying to kill yourself?!"

"I can handle this much!"

Yet, it was paying off. After every collapse, the bluish lights' size, definition, and sharpness kept increasing. What started as indistinguishable blurs soon took shape.

[Congratulations! Unlocked Floating Arcane.. Daggers!?]

[ERROR ERROR! This Isn't a Beginner Spell?!]

Who cared if it was a beginner spell or not? This is what he wanted: Flying Spectral daggers, small and deadly, just like him!

From that point onward, no matter the time or place, Jack would have spectral daggers hovering above his palm, head, or even his D—!

Eating? Spectral Daggers!

Peeing? Spectral Daggers!

Sleeping? Spectral Daggers!

Anything.. Spectral Fucking Daggers!

He even asked the Ghost to wake him up whenever he stopped the spell by mistake in his sleep! Training? This was bloody torture! Yet, he kept going..

"Kid, how haven't you gone insane yet?!"

"Old Ghost, repetition is the mother of learning... And I your Daddy! Hehehe!"

By now, the lack of sleep was definitely affecting him. Daddy? This was a 500-year-old ghost he was talking to! The Ghost sighed.. was it actually possible to be too diligent?!

By now, Jack was a sore sight.

Bags under bloodshot eyes, self-inflicted cuts all over, a perpetual crazy grin on his face, and the craziest of laughter erupting out of him 24/7.

But just as everyone thought he had already reached peak insanity.. he brought the foxes into it! He gathered them all up and..

"Everyone, I can't be the only one training! It's time for you all to join too. Are you all ready?" He theatrically thundered, the latter showing puzzled expressions.

Train? They couldn't use Arcane in the first place! Or did he mean creating daggers? A few instantly generated Spectral Daggers made out of flames.

"Woo!" (Success!)

"Hehehe, that's not what I'm talking about!"

He hurriedly directed them to draw a large circle of flames. This thing was the wet dream of a metal band! It wasn't just eye-catching; it was hot as hell!

Hadn't it been for the Flame Lord repairing the Flame Barrier, the entirety of Dawn City would have seen its blaze!

Jack planted himself in the middle.

"Rules are simple: you can't leave this circle. RUN!"

Run? What did they have to run from?! But suddenly, Jack's Spectral Daggers flew toward them! With a yelp, a fox barely dodged it.. WHAT?!

"I cut, you run, and whoever gets caught loses its fur!" He evilly grinned. From this point onward, he wouldn't be the only one suffering!

Nooo! Was he using the same trick as the Ghost?! This was bad, real bad! Without their fur, they'd look like stray dogs, UNACCEPTABLE!

— Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! —

But as they dodged, fearful, they suddenly realized something. Weren't those daggers.. really slow? A single sidestep and they'd be out of their range too.

Relief overflowed from them as they remembered.. they were FAST! A few even started chuckling, going as far as to taunt Jack: "Woo!" (Bring it on, Master!)

Many pulled cheeky tongues, some even shaking their butts in ridicule. 'You won't ever catch us! We're too good!', they kept snickering. As for the effects of their taunts..

"Hehe, you guys are as good as expected! I chose the right training partners! Let's get serious, you all!" He enthusiastically replied.

So what if they were quick? He simply had to improve until they couldn't escape him anymore! If other mages could do it, so could he!

By the side, the Old Ghost wasn't sure whether to say something or not. The gap between the foxes' specs and his pupil's Magic Stat was way too vast.

Training to hit them? He might as well give up now! Yet he remained mum, wanting to see how much he'd progress anyway. Besides, his failed attempts were so entertaining!

It kept going and going, and going some more.. until everything changed!

— Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! —

"Woo?!" (Noooooo!)

A fox suddenly sorrowfully yelped, its tiny heart beating with shock. H-how?! On its beautiful back, a large patch of fur was missing!

"Hehe, never underestimate your opponent!" Jack reminded.. but even as he did, he was already going back on the offensive! — Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! —

The Old Ghost froze.. HOW?! All his experienced as an Archmage was telling him that this was impossible! But as he looked more closely, he understood.. feeling dread!

Jack had closed the gap with sheer skill and insight. His daggers weren't that fast, but they were deadly accurate! He'd freaking predict all his targets' movements!

It was like he had an aim-bot activated! His previous life hadn't been for nothing after all. With this, he had turned into a fox nightmare.

"Muhahaha, you can run, but you can't hide!"

"Wooo! Wooo!" (Make it stop! I surrender!)

"DENIED, we training!"

As Jack snapped his fingers, the hapless fox nearest him lost most of his fur! The poor thing had become a living offense to barbers; It looked so pitiful and ridiculous!

It was a scene of carnage.

Jack kept spamming Arcane Magic, the foxes trying their best to dodge, but to no avail. His precision really was godlike! It almost seemed like he was trying to bully them!

But little did the foxes realize that they were also improving.. just not as quickly as he was! Their initial straight-lined dodges were slowly but surely becoming less predictable.

It was just that it didn't matter against a monster like Jack, who had been dodging bullets in his previous life. Still, they'd definitely see the benefits against regular people!historical

Thus they kept training, totally for all their sakes, not because Jack was teaching them a lesson for the earlier taunts... definitely not!

— Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! —

"Wooo!?" (AH! Another one shaved?!)

Jack ignored their pleas for surrender and kept training until he felt his limits. He had finally attained initial mastery of the spell, pride swelling inside him.

"K-kid, you know you're crazy, right?"

"Hehe, of course! But as they say, the future belongs to the insane!"

"Insane? You're even farther than that! You crossed insanity and reached an entirely new realm! Training just like you've done for a week is batshit—"

"Wait.. a WEEK?!" Jack jolted, panicked.

He had trained for so long?! What about the Fate Temple thing?! He hurriedly opened his status. [Accept Fate Title? 14 hours 17 minutes left!] There was still some time!

"We have to get our asses to Fortuna Mountain, NOW!"

It was time to put this newfound power to the test...

.

.

.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Jack Bright (Classless)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

BODY 18 (STR 6/ AGI 6 / RES 6)

SOUL 46 ( MAGIC 9 / SENSE 18 / WILL 19)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

(NEW!)

- Arcane Spectral Daggers (F) ??

- Fox-Shaving God! (+ Shaving Efficiency!) ??

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━