As the days passed by, Max wasn’t sure what to focus on with his training next. Even though his mana affinity would allow it, the student climbers weren’t allowed to go beyond the floor above them. The endless forest was, well, endless after all so there was the possibility to mine it for more secrets, but after the event with the Reckless Brothers, he had a bit of a sour taste in his mouth.

He ended up returning to his training routine, the one he’d done in the build-up to his clash with the shadow monster.

Without the earthquake trait, killing multiple monsters in the endless forest became a much bigger pain in the bum. That said, one cool thing about having reached E-rank was that his daily limit of his trait had increased. Before ranking up, he could use his trait three time consecutively with a daily limit of six times per day. Now, however, his daily limit had grown from six times per day to ten times per day. It was awesome. Even still though, without an ability that had a large area of effect, destroying multiple monsters now felt horribly inefficient. So Max stuck to just doing laps between the two teleporter locations and more push-ups and sit-ups within the mana-dense forest.

By the end of the two weeks, he looked over his stats with satisfaction.

Name: Max Rainhart

Rank: E

Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.

You may choose to retain one ability you’re hit with, adding it to your arsenal of attacks at double the power.

Ability Slot: Shadow Blink (Rare)

Strength: 13

Agility: 13

Endurance: 11

Mana Affinity: 11

Passive Skills:

Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)

Look at all those stats increasing, thought Max with satisfaction.

A lot of the other student climbers who were also training in the forest in preparation for the midterms thought he was crazy. He was always the first one there in the morning and the last one to leave. Now that he wasn’t even fighting monsters and just training, they thought his level of determination bordered on insane. They’d never seen anything like it. Max could see their astonishment every time he jogged past them or they came by him doing push-ups in the forest.

But it was all worth it, he thought.

When there was only about a week and a half until the midterms, Max woke up to a text message from Casey.

“Hey! How goes midterm training? Want to meet up for coffee?”