Kingdom Building: Civilization Starts with Divinity-Chapter 53: Training location Secured

Bending inward, Alchemy was forced to dodge awkwardly and nearly lost her balance. Before she could retaliate, a large fist came flying at her, causing her to lift her arm in a panic to block. Instead of taking the brunt of the force, however, she sacrificed her arm to deflect the strike away from her.

At that moment, she moved in, using her petite size to sneak past Gravana’s guard and attack. At the same time, however, he swept at her with his tail, forcing her to jump over it, dissipating its force, but that didn’t matter. From this angle, Gravana couldn’t dodge her.

Or rather, if Alchemy had any chance of keeping up with Gravana’s movement, he wouldn’t have been able to.

He quickly moved out of the way and slammed his fist into Alchemy’s stomach, sending her flying upward and landing on the ground with a loud CRACK! Sound.

"Hahahaha! Not bad! It only took you a day, and you forced me to dodge! But don’t celebrate yet. Even if your attack landed, you lacked any momentum. Not to mention that you weren’t grounded at all." He explained, crossing his arms.

"You shouldn’t even leave the ground if you can avoid it. If you’re absolutely sure about doing it, you at least need to ensure you can keep your momentum!"

"Mgnnn." Alchemy groaned.

At this point, Alchemy had long confirmed that she couldn’t break any bones, a benefit of not being human anymore, no doubt, but despite knowing that her body was completely fine, it refused to move.

The ground was nice. She wouldn’t get hit again if she stayed on the ground.

"While you did a good job, this is the bare minimum! Reduce your movements as much as you can. You won’t be ready for the next step until the amount of redundant moves I see is reduced to the single digits." Gravana continued, making sure Alchemy had no chance of letting the momentary success get to her head.

"From this point forward, I’ll speed up a little bit. Every time you can make me dodge, I’ll speed up until you can’t possibly handle it anymore! Then, we’ll move on to the next step! Do you understand?"

Weakly, Alchemy gave a thumbs up.

"Now, get up! We’re going again!"

’NOOO! PLEASE! LET IT END!’ She screamed inwardly.

As best she could, Alchemy slowly forced herself up with the assistance of a nearby tree. Deep exhales left her nostrils as she wiped away blood leaking from her mouth—a wound from an earlier punch.

She wasn’t sure which was worse, the most recent one that broke ALL of her metaphorical ribs or the one that probably dislocated her skull.

Despite the serious injuries, her health was still pretty good. It was roughly 25% right now, but Gravana seemed to know exactly how durable Alchemy was.

It was like he could see her health bar.

{Mother Goddess. Old man Rio has arrived.}

’NERA?! OH, THANK ME, AN EXCUSE!’

"C-could we end this for today?" She asked as she coughed to clear her throat.

"Oh? Why should we stop? The sun is barely up!"

That was undoubtedly true. Compared to yesterday, they’ve only been going for a few hours. As far as Alchemy could tell, it was a little after noon, maybe around 1 pm at the latest.

"I got a message from Nera. It seems that the old Monkey King has arrived for today’s appointment." Alchemy said blankly, secretly cheering under her breath.

Gravana caressed his fur in thought before letting out a sigh.

"Fine. Meet that fogey. But your training will be harsher tomorrow!" He said, turning away and begging to leave.

Simultaneously, Alchemy felt a shiver run up her spine, and she nearly choked on her saliva.

’No, no, no. Find a way to change his mind. Distract him. Something. Oh god, oh lord, oh me. Wait! That’s right!’

"A-Actually, would you like to come? I think you’ll find the toy we’re showing the old monkey fun. Plus, I have some things I want to ask you about."

She needed help from a strong man for the showcase anyway.

Gravana’s steps paused as he dramatically turned around.

"Oh? You think I’d ever be interested in something that the monkeys are fond of?"

His intent covered the entire area, making Alchemy’s shiver intensify.

"Yes. Actually, quite." Alchemy stood firm.

This was, of course, a guess. An educated one, but a guess nonetheless. No matter how good of a judge of character Alchemy was, which she wasn’t particularly, at least she wouldn’t consider herself so; she’s only known Gravana for a couple of days.

"Alright, you’ve piqued my interest, disciple. Let’s walk."

Gravana rescinded his killing intent and changed his direction to Alchemy’s settlement.

"Right."

Rushing to catch up to him, Alchemy nearly fell over due to the pain but worked through it. It didn’t stop her from making an ugly face, however, which Gravana noticed and chuckled.

"So, what did you want to ask?"

"About that. I hoped you’d know a place in the forest with strong monsters. I wanted to take Nera and Sapphire out for some practical training. You see, Nera was born a fighter, but Sapphire and I guess me are both quite inept comparatively."

"Sapphire? That little deer?"

Alchemy nodded.

"You can’t expect much from a prey animal, but I get the feeling of wanting your boys to be strong enough to protect themselves."

Going silent, Gravana pondered the question for several minutes before nodding.

"Alright, I know of a good place, but it’s pretty far. You can’t leave a designated area, right?"

"I can, just not for long periods. I used up most of my Divine Power in our battle the other day, but I don’t have a lot anyway. Regardless, A day should be doable as long as I don’t leave for a while after. Maybe even a little more. I don’t know the exact numbers."

Alchemy wasn’t honest about the time she could be outside. With her current Divine Power Generation, she was already close to being able to leave her land indefinitely. It’d stunt any further Divine Power gain if she did as such, but she only needed 2400 Divine Power a day to make it possible.

That being said, she didn’t want Gravana to know that she could leave freely. Who knew where this big guy would try to drag her? If she wasn’t careful, he might take her to fight giant sea monsters in that ocean by his base.

"A day, huh? It shouldn’t take that long, but it might cut it close depending on how bad it is. What exactly happens if you’re gone for too long?"

"I... Have no idea, to be honest with you. But I’m kind of willing to find out. It shouldn’t lead me to dying instantly." Alchemy joked.

In A.O.A, running out of Divine Power while outside of your holy ground would decrease your stats by 90%, disable buffs from all sources, and slowly drain your HP.

Emphasis on slowly. It was more likely she’d get mauled by one of those Horn Tooths than perish from the damage over time.

The system could have changed how it worked for better or worse, but surely it’d tell her of such changes. Right?

Right?

"Grahaha! That’s the spirit! Alright, when do you want to go?"

"Whenever. We’re not in any hurry, but If you’re free, we could go tomorrow." Alchemy shrugged.

"Very well! I’ll come pick you up at noon!"

’That was a quick answer...’