Bro, I'm not an Undead!

FWOOSH! BAM!

These were the sounds that anyone watching would hear over the next six hours as a certain Discount Human was flung this way and that, tumbling and rolling after eating solid punches from Oliviana who wasn’t getting quite the kick out of it as she had imagined.

She gave snippets of instruction for Skullius every once in a while, smacking him at different parts of his body that she saw her student’s defence to be weak!

Naturally, the coating of mana around Skullius guaranteed that he wasn’t taking much damage but what Oliviana didn’t know was that the man before her felt no pain!

He was slowly grasping the technique, even making attempts at slugging her every so often.

‘Such terrifying tenacity. I’m half anticipating to see this man get turned on at this point. Is he learning or is he trying to get me to hit him harder?’ Oliviana shuddered while taking a quick glance at Skullius’ crotch and breathing a sigh of relief when she did not see a bulge.

On the other hand, Skullius had been making his own inferences.

‘I thought [Advanced Mana Manipulation] would help me with this stuff but I guess manipulation and application are two different things. Now that I think about it, I never focused on using mana to protect and enhance my attacks since the goblin village. I’ve only been relying on skills…’

Skullius dodged a punch.

At this current point, Oliviana had told him to try to enhance his physical attributes by applying mana.

He was able to do this casually, but it was unstable._.

Little by little, Skullius began to understand that skills were a form of mana application that he had been taking lightly.

The Voice of Worlds gave him an advantage.

He could understand what a skill was and what it could do, along with acquiring powerful skills from repeating the same simple actions like running away or condensing mana but reality was different for those that did not  have the Voice of Worlds.

All other living things had to repeat specific complicated motions to comprehend a skill which took quite a long time but for Skullius, it was simpler.

He had an array of choices. To depend on the guidance field or to simply learn like the others.

He couldn’t forget the boost to strength he had gotten after reaching level 2 with five additional stat points to all his stats except luck.

Each point was extremely significant and Skullius appreciated how great he had it.

But then again, he didn’t even know much about the Voice of Worlds, but that was something to ponder another time.

‘Heh… how easily I have forgotten the struggle to gain [Boneman of Steel] back in Deadmanland.’

As if to emphasis the scope of how he had it easy, Skullius received a notification that made him grin.

[Due to the repetition of the action ‘mana coating’, you have learned the skill ‘Mana Shroud’]

After reading the description of the skill, Skullius couldn’t help but kek inwardly.

‘Yes! Now I don’t have to suffer all day like this!’ Skullius thought.

However, he didn’t activate the skill and remained actively trying to coat his body in mana on his own. Raising suspicion wasn’t wise.

The training exercise went on for another hour over the other six prior, Oliviana stopping the exercise thereafter.

Skullius was drenched in sweat (water) after this. Besides the issue of being pummelled, he also had the scorching sun to deal with but fortunately, the boons of civilization came in clutch.

Water was afforded for him to drink for the whole day along with short breaks.

Apparently, the thirty gold he had paid covered a full month of lessons, with seven hours of daily training from the mentor that had found him.

“We’ll have a few more days of this to fine tune your ability to protect yourself with mana and move on to actual combat techniques. Any problems with that?” Oliviana asked.

“No, but I won’t be coming tomorrow. I have some things to deal with,” Skullius replied nonchalantly

“…sure.”

Oliviana watched as Skullius rushed to the administration building with a thoughtful look on her face.

The Discount Human was instructed on the privilege of baths that could be provided after training sessions and led to get himself washed even though he only leaked water from his body.

After cleaning himself, which was a rather strange experience, Skullius exited the College, going towards another destination that he wanted to reach before the day was done.

The College of the Esteemed.

Due to the time of day it was, Skullius was greeted by multitudes of people going in and out of the massive compound of the College.

While he could definitely attest to the College of Battle Arts being larger in size, this College of the Esteemed was much more refined.

The smoothly cut lawn and strategic arrangement of building that oozed of class along with the masterful statues of thoughtful experts of the past that were erected about to depict great men who lead the movement for collecting knowledge, as was the purpose of this College, were riveting!

It wasn’t that hard to find out what the niche of each College was as when Skullius had heard about it, he had become interested immediately.

The College was a monopoly for information as even the most prominent book shops were under the College, projecting steep prices for buying books (of low value) as well as enrolling.

Skullius’ purpose here wasn’t to enrol as he wanted to find out how much he could gain from this visit.

His mission to gather information wasn’t limited to combat as he also wanted to know more about other aspects of Aigas.

Who best could offer this information? Or rather who could offer him this information without melting into a puddle?

Paid service of course!

Skullius hadn’t missed Frock’s remark about him being scammed even with his lack of reaction to it.

This was a very essential clue as now, he didn’t need to continue to talk to Frock for knowledge.

Upon entering, Skullius saw many entrants going to specific areas from the intersection that split in four ways.

Naturally, a fee for entry was required if one hadn’t enrolled, Skullius finding this place to be far more strict than the College of Battle Arts.

Furthermore, it looked more like a College, though Skullius wouldn’t know.

With closer observation to his surroundings, Skullius found a reception from where he was directed towards a specific section of College that was away from the larger structures that were classes.

What appeared before Skullius upon entering the building was a smaller than normal library with an immense amount of books.

Numerous people were walking about or sitting down as they read the books while several organised stall were fitted to the corners, this evidently being where one could buy books.

Most people in this place had whether they were entering or leaving had a scholarly air about them.

Skullius looked in marvel at all the things around before being approached by a well dressed man who gave him a gaze that implied that he was not happy with Skullius’ presence at all.

Perhaps he did not seem cultured enough, like a random bum who had waltzed into a castle.

“How can I help you, sir?” the man inquired sternly.

As Skullius was about to answer, something he didn’t expected greeted him after a rather long hiatus.

[The Doom Factor ‘Disowned’ has caught up]

[You have failed to-]

“NOOOOO!” Skullius screamed.