Varocia : From Gamer to Mentor

"Lenna, I need your cooperation!" he declared.

Lenna glanced warily at Olgan, who exuded an unfamiliar confidence, as if he had transformed into a different person. She nodded cautiously. "What do you need help with?"

"Can you capped her HP at 49.99%?"

"Can I what?"

"Capped Princess Edith's HP at 49.99%!"

A puzzled look crossed her face. "What does 'capped' mean?"

"Oh, you're all familiar with a lot of gaming terms but not 'capped'?" he said, his tone stern, like a teacher disappointed in his students.

Even Lenna felt the suffocated by Olgan's imposing 'Aura' at the moment. "S-sorry…"

"Simply put, please don't let Edith's HP fall below 49.99%. Can you do that?"

Finally grasping his meaning, Lenna nodded slightly before shaking her head. "I can do that, but my skill can't… uh, 'capped' at 49.99%. I can manage 49%."

Olgan's spirits dipped momentarily, but then he smiled. "Well, we can't ask for the impossible. 49% is good enough.

"Hmmm, what about your damage control? Can you deal exactly 0.01% HP damage to Edith consistently?"

Lenna frowned, deep in thought, before shaking her head. "Such precision is impossible for me right now. The best I can manage is 0.50% HP damage."

"Then that's good enough!" Olgan's face lit up with enthusiasm.

"Alright, let's start! Lenna, your task is to deal 0.50% HP damage to Edith consistently. As for you, Princess Edith, please drink a Recovery Potion and then tell Lenna how long it takes for you to recover 0.50% HP. Ideally, we wouldn't use a Recovery Potion, but the degenerating HP negative effect of the [Rage] skill is quite a hassle.

"This will be a test round to help Lenna familiarize herself with the rhythm, creating a perfect routine of attacking and recovering, keeping Princess Edith's HP swinging back and forth between 49.5% and 50%. That way, in the next round, Princess Edith won't need to inform Lenna when her HP recovers to 50%."

Both listened intently to Olgan's instructions, confusion mingling with curiosity about his intentions. Olgan had proven his expertise in Skills and Classes, so perhaps he would surprise them again.

Recognizing the need for precise control, they paused their approach to Ascension Tower, setting up a temporary camp to prepare lunch and test Olgan's theory regarding the [Rage] skill.

After chipping away at Edith's HP until it reached 50%, they prepared for the actual test. Edith downed the Recovery Potion. Lenna, her beautiful face glistening with sweat, heightened her concentration, gently slashing at Edith immediately after she drank the potion, dealing exactly 0.50% HP damage.

Edith, already accessing her Status Interface, called out, "One!"

While not a code word, "One" was their agreed signal for when Edith's HP recovered to 50%—short and precise.

As soon as Lenna heard "One," she delivered another gentle slash.

"One!"

Slash.

"One!"

Slash.

"One!"

"….."

What precise control… Olgan marveled at Lenna's current form.

It was like a dance. Her poised stance, meticulous control, and captivating beauty mesmerized him as she fell into a rhythm. Her furrowed brows gradually relaxed, confidence blooming with each gentle slash at Edith, performing a captivating dance.

But when Edith was gently slashed for the sixteenth time, her eyes widened in surprise, causing Lenna to lose her composure, breaking the rhythm and diminishing Olgan's admiration for her mesmerizing and captivating dance. The stark reminder of their over-the-top asymmetrical clothing pulled him back to reality.

"What's wrong, Princess Edith?" Lenna asked, concern lacing her voice. With her focus lost, continuing was futile; they would need to wait for a new round.

Edith's voice trembled, disbelief painting her words: "The [Rage] skill… it's now Level 2!"

"What?" Lenna, usually calm, sounded genuinely shocked for the first time.

Knowing his plan had worked as intended, Olgan couldn't help but smirk, stifling a laugh but maintaining his composure.

Yes, the so-called 'Exploit' was the EXP gained from skill activation!

He had noticed that activating the [Rage] passive skill seemed to increase the EXP by 5% each time, leading him to devise a plan to exploit this by having Edith alternate between her enraged state and normal state.

The most effective way to farm EXP for this skill was to turn it on and off repeatedly!

Truthfully speaking, his idea could also work with 0.01% HP damage, but that would be inefficient since Edith would need to report her HP to Lenna constantly while Lenna's attack remained inconsistent. Inconsistency could delay or hasten Lenna's next attack; his goal was to keep Edith's HP hovering at 50% for optimal EXP farming, but it could be easily ruined if the damage from Lenna was out of her control.

"How?" both of them asked Olgan in unison.

It seemed they had never considered exploiting the game system before. Perhaps a passive skill activating at a specific HP threshold was rare for them, and they hadn't had much opportunity to experiment?

Olgan smiled as he explained, "I noticed that your EXP seems to increase by at least 5% each time you enter [Rage], so I speculated we could quickly boost your EXP gains by repeatedly making you enter and exit the [Rage] state."

Understanding dawned on Lenna as she regarded him calmly, while Edith's eyes sparkled with excitement.

"I think you should pursue the path of Mentor," Edith suggested earnestly. "It's a relatively unexplored route since a Mentor serves as a well-rounded teacher for every Class. However, many believe a teacher specialized in the same Class yields better results. Of course, that's just my recommendation."

Olgan responded thoughtfully, "I'll consider it."

As he watched Edith excitedly discuss her small cut wounds with Lenna, he couldn't help but wonder if he had led a princess astray with this training method.

Hopefully, the duke won't kill me later when he finds out his eldest daughter seems to enjoy getting cut now… maybe I'm just overthinking it. It's only for the sake of training! Olgan reassured himself, though he couldn't shake the reality that many Berserkers tended toward masochism.

He clapped his hands to regain their attention. "Alright, when the effect of your Recovery Potion wears off, we'll have Lenna decrease your HP back to 50% and repeat the previous process."

"You're confident in making more precise and controlled slashes now, right?" he asked Lenna, who nodded in affirmation.

With that, Olgan returned to the campsite with lunch, taken from Lenna's Inventory.

Both Edith and Lenna were eager to continue with the EXP grinding, so Olgan ate alone while watching them train tirelessly. Lenna wore a calm smile, while Edith seemed ready to leap for joy.

This feeling of being a game teacher isn't too bad, Olgan thought, savoring the gentle forest breeze and the rhythmic yet mesmerizing training unfolding before him with lunch in hands.