“That I get,” Jason said. “I’m just not sure about the methodology. Maybe I should try somewhere less crowded until I’m better?”

“The ability to move with speed and confidence, always aware of your surroundings is essential to an adventurer,” Gary said. “Sometimes you have to run, sometimes you have to chase. You rarely get to choose when or where. You must always be ready, always aware. Whatever you’re doing, wherever you’re doing it.”

Once Gary was done with him, Jason would replenish himself again with clinic patients. On the first day, Jason noticed Jory giving him a wary look.

“What?” Jason asked.

“I know you’re helping people and all,” Jory said, “but you’re literally feeding on the misery of others.”

“You want me to stop coming in?”

“Gods, no.”

“Alright then,” Jason said. “I don’t suppose you want to help me stich a body together from dismembered corpses and animate it with lightning?”

“That would be disturbing,” Jory said, “if you didn’t so obviously know nothing about actual necromancy.”

Word of Jason’s free healing started getting around, so there were always people waiting each time he arrived. By the time he cleared out the patients, Rufus would arrive for more training.

The training with Rufus was the most tedious part of Jason’s day. Footwork and balance, footwork and balance. Sometimes it was moving around with a forced gait, feeling awkward and inefficient. Other times it was balancing in strange stances on pegs Jory let Rufus hammer into the dirt yard. Whenever Jason’s form was wrong, Rufus would sweep his legs out from under him, or kick him from what he was balancing on.

“You’re breaking your body line. Anyone with even rudimentary skills would put you on the ground in a moment.”

“It feels awkward to move like that,” Jason said.

“That is because you don’t walk, run, stand, lean or sit properly. When it stops feeling awkward, you will be ready to use a skill book.”

“So, I could just lie and we move onto the skill book?”

Rufus’s leg swept Jason’s out from under him with such force that Jason went horizontal in the air, followed by a savage downward chop smashing him into the ground. Rufus stood over him as Jason curled up in the dirt, choking and coughing.

“There will be a test,” Rufus said.

In the afternoons, Farrah would take over. This was the part of his training regimen Jason enjoyed the most. Gary and Rufus’s instruction was classic montage material, while Farrah’s training was something altogether different.

The spirit attribute, Jason learned, governed not just magic strength, but also perception. Farrah subjected Jason to an array of unusual but often interesting and fun exercises. They would play memory games with cards, or she would make him taste-test things while blindfolded.