Return of the Woodcutter

"This… is more… torture than training," Aito said, sitting by Gwen.

"Nay, it's training alright. Don't be a sissy little man." She said, "True warriors get that kind of training when they are not waging war. Sometimes, without healing means. Even some cowardly beast hunters do. You can't make tasty omelets without breaking eggs. The same goes for your body. It does give some warriors a weird reputation, but well… things are what they are."

Too injured to ask what she meant, he simply grunted.

Noticing his predicament, Gwen took out two beads filled with tiny green particles from her inventory and handed it to him.

"Take them." She said, "Don't absorb them, just break the beads. The diluted divine blessing inside will speed up your body's recovery rate. In two or three hours, your few broken bones would have mended back and bruises disappeared. Mostly. Three would be ideal, but those aren't cheap for challengers."

"No… kidding, urg." He said, breaking the beads. A green glow spread from his fist to his entire body accompanied by a wave of warm, soothing feeling. He could sense the pain lessening bit by bit as the divine blessing worked its magic. "Worth 800 TPs each, I suppose."

"Aye." She said, smiling. "Deserving of the name recovery bead. Although those don't compare to healing or miracle beads, they are practical and easier to get your hands on."

Intrigued, Aito sent her a quizzical gaze.

"Time for another theory class I guess." She said while refurbishing her pipe. "There are a few ways to heal yourself in Iris, that I know of. Concoctions, herbs, surgery by a battle surgeon. But recovery beads are the most common for treating injuries and can also vary in effectiveness according to their purity. Yours look good though. The greener it is, the better."

Aito nodded, glad he hadn't been tricked by the shop owner.

"You're lucky, you usually get lower or intermediate qualities because the process to craft them is complex." She said, lighting her pipe. "Recovery beads are made by a delicate process involving diluting a divine blessing contained inside a healing bead, which is diluted from miracle beads. And miracle beads are gods damn expensive. Only available by using glory points with the gods. With just one, you can create around a thousand recovery beads of good quality. More if bad ones."

The giantess took a puff, blew smoke, forming a circle and another smaller one that passed through the first. Her complicated gaze fixed on the grassy area, she said, "We developed that technique for economic reasons, lack of personal, and also because mortals simply don't have the power to heal wounds instantly as divine beings do. Battle surgeons can mend broken bones, sew wounds, organs, even reattach limbs. The best can do it in a matter of minutes. But it still takes people and time. Time we don't necessarily have to save lives."

Aito found it weird. He had thought the gods would grant mortals instantaneous healing skills, spells of sorts, to help reduce casualties during their war that has been waged for who knew how long. Even if they only considered mortals as resources, it was the least they could do.

Battle surgeons apparently were indeed equipped with skills to heal, but it seemed dumb since it could take time better spent elsewhere. Also, minutes, seconds even, could mean the difference between life and death.

A difference recovery bead couldn't necessarily cover every time. He didn't know about healing and miracle beads, though. But he sure could guess those weren't found lying on the streets. Following that train of thought, he wondered…

"'Just why are they keeping the secret of instantaneous healing to themselves?' If that's what you think, I'd advise you to give up the thought." She said, waving her free hand. "Even if you know the real reason, there is nothing you can do about it."

"So there… is a reason."

"Of course," she said, her face darkening. "There is a reason for most, if not all, of the gods' actions. I suspect that most of the time it's always the same one."

"Control…" He said, furrowing his black brows. It was predictable. For him, at least since he considered the gods a pain in the ass and had already come to that conclusion before when thinking about the System.

"Correct, yet incorrect," she said. "But, if I were you, I'd avoid uttering such profanity in front of the common folks. You can get into trouble for much less. After all, the gods are revered by most, little man."

That was also predictable. Aito had already guessed it would do him no good to insult them in front of others. That much he could do. When faced with one of those bastards, that would be harder. However, he had already seen the consequences of his own thoughtlessness and wasn't about to do it again. Purposely, at least.

"Why didn't you… make 'trouble' for me then?" He asked, already feeling better to the point of making longer sentences and being suspicious of the moderator.

This time, it was the giantess' turn to frown. "Don't ask unnecessary questions."

At those words, Aito knew he had stepped on a cat's tail and stopped his questioning. She probably had her own reasons she was unwilling to talk about. Certainly something upsetting.

They spent the next few minutes in uncomfortable silence until Gwen broke it. "Anyway, just grab your lunch. Get some rest. Since you have no partner, you'll be training against a dullahan again this afternoon."

"Ag—" Aito started.

"With weapons, this time." She interrupted, "I'll provide wooden ones so that you don't have to use yours. But you won't wear armor, for this week at least."

That last part told him he would be in a world of pain again, but also felt relieved. His full plated armor had been challenging to equip. He had walked out of his room later than the others because of it.

He had had to first wear a special jacket and pants on top of his linen ones, then use the laces fixed to these special clothes to attach armor parts to his body.

Figuring how and where to attach those laces had been harder than he initially thought, even more alone. Fortunately, he had Ogoro's memories, but they were a bit blurry about how to wear medieval armors. It had taken him almost an hour, if not more, to figure it out alone.

"If it's not forbidden to ask, how does all your summoning thing work?" He asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"Nah, it's no secret, considering where we are it could even be considered common knowledge," Gwen said. Noticing Aito's interrogative gaze, she added, "You don't know where we are, ey?"

"Obviously the Tower." He replied.

"We're inside a god's soul, little man." She said, tapping her pipe to force out the ashes. "The tutorial is held inside a god's soul. White, blue, red, and black trials included. To my knowledge, in a god's soul, anything is possible. I have been temporarily granted rights to summon certain nonliving matter and items, not living beings, but it is possible. However, the third floor isn't meant for that purpose."

Aito stared at his bloody knuckles, having mixed feelings about this news. On one hand, it made sense, since the moderator could summon... training items using whatever power she had been given.

On the other hand, this went against Belmand's words. The god of sloth had talked about the black trial taking place on a floating island, with a large-scale illusion covering the entire area. And if the gods could create literally anything inside their souls, why did an illusion had to be cast on the island by another god?

It didn't make sense to him since they could have just created it with a mere thought, apparently. Unless Gwen was wrong about the black trial. If she was right, however, it meant the god of sloth had lied to him.

Aito sighed, thinking that reliable information was truly hard to come by these days.

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IMPORTANT Announcement in the Creator's Thoughts.