My training must be total: mind, body, spirit. --87.4 Seconds Post-Integration

  The next two groups of recruits took about ninety minutes total to complete their training. Clark and Hera sat in silence as they tried to think on their test and see if there was anything they could learn from their experience.

  "You know," Hera said after a while. "All I can think of is to not let that Enhancement Dandy loose too soon! Otherwise, wham-bam, I will end up like you! Face first into the wall."

  Clark grimaced, then smiled. "Same. Harder than it seemed."

  "Oh! for sure! At first, it was like, one step, and the wall and I were the best of friends. Now... well, it's still like that, but it's a little easier to control."

  Another whistle blow. "Session one is finished. And only a couple of failures. Not bad."

  The recruits sitting in the stadium seating shuffled their way back to the arena for the next training. Salsa continued: "We have another training before our lunch. Don't become complacent. Now that you understand enhanced speed, I will teach you about enhancing your defense. This is the easiest of the three enhancer techniques but unlike speed, which is hit or miss, enhancing your defense either works or it doesn't work."

  Salsa had a couple of volunteers from the recruits help him demonstrate. Next to him were large granite bricks. "On my mark, you will throw those bricks at me face-first. Understand? Fling them with everything you have -- and I do mean everything!" Although the two recruits looked at Salsa confused, they nodded affirmingly. "With enhanced defense, even the strongest of physical assaults will bounce off your skin like water on a duck's back. Recruits! Throw the bricks!"

  The recruits tossed at Salsa the bricks. True to Salsa's command, they hurled the bricks with mighty force at Salsa's face. No matter how many they threw at the trainer, they smashed and fell apart without leaving a scratch on Salsa. Salsa took the assault unphased, not even flinching once as the heavy bricks destroyed themselves against his face.

  Once all the bricks were gone, and the dust cleared, Salsa addressed the recruits stunned awed. "With enhanced defense, this unwavering wall can be yours but only if you understand the technique. All of you should still have at least part of your dandy left by now. to enhance your defense after partaking of an Enhancement dandy, move the effects of the dandy to your entire body. Don't overthink it! Let the dandy's mana spread everywhere and sink into every nook and cranny of your muscles and limbs. Questions?"

  Clark's hand shot up. Salsa called upon him: "How do Enhancement Dandies work with defensive dandies?"

  "Good question, Clark. I am sure everyone here knows Defense enhancement dandies already exist. With those dandies, all you have to do is drink the potion and wham-bam, you have better defense. The catch is that Defense Dandies work only for a short time and can have iffy coverage throughout your body. Obviously, the quality of an Enhancement Dandy which is used to reinforce defense, will be of much better use to a Leage fighter than the common Defense dandy. To answer your question, feel free to use Defense dandies as a boost to an enhancement dandy, for those battles where you need all the defense you can get, but never make the mistake of believing a defense dandy will be a substitute for an Enhancement dandy used on defense. Understand?"

  "Got it!" Clark had used normal defensive dandies before in his fights with the Noir Slimes but now that he thought about it, none of the Noir Slimes hit hard. That or the battle ended before the defensive dandy could show its limits. Perhaps he shouldn't consider buying the regular defensive dandies anymore?

  The exercise began once Salsa split the recruits into duos. He and Hera were a duo, of course. Of the duo, one was to take a bamboo stick and whack it against the other for the duration of a minute. Clark was happy they weren't using granite bricks like Salsa.

  "I can go first," Clark said to Hera. He closed his eyes and focused on finding the Enhancement dandy's mana still inside of him. He found it and directed it, as Salsa said, toward all parts of his body. "Ready!"

  He opened his eyes expecting Hera to start whacking him, but found she had already started whacking him before he even opened.

  "Sorry. I just had to test it," Hera explained. "Your aura's intensity shifted and figured that was when the dandy activated, so I gave it the old college try, you know? And it paid off -- your body was ready for my thrashing before your mind thanks to your aura. Neat."

  Was it neat? He would've liked it if Hera waited on him... all that said, there was value in experimenting. In troubleshooting. Because of Hera's proactivity, the activation of a dandy could happen before even the host was aware of its activation. Which was... something?

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  Hera continued to hit him nonstop with the bamboo stick for a full minute. At the minute's end, Salsa's whistle shilled through the air, demanding the change-off. Before they switched, Hera asked him if he hadn't felt anything while she was hitting him. He said he hadn't felt a thing!

  With the bamboo stick in hand, Clark's grip on it tight, he readied himself to give a (friendly) beatdown to his co-worker. They would need to hit hard if he wanted to have any chance of his blows piercing Hera's naturally defense-prone body.

  Clark kept careful watch on Hera's aura. Once it changed color, Clark began his assault, not even knowing if she was ready. But she had done as much with him, so the least he could do was return the favor.

  A barrage of blows later and his assault remained ineffective. Salsa, walking up and down the aisles, watching the duos face off, stopped by him and said, "Clark. You're a skinny fellow. I would recommend drinking an Offensive dandy to help with your attack. I don't think your blows are an effective test of Hera's defenses."

  "But... I don't have an offensive dandy. I didn't think they existed?" he said.

  "Oh... well, I thought you did. They can be bought. But they are on the expensive side. Take a sip of this one for the sake of the exercise."

  Clark took a sip of the proffered dandy and felt the boon right away.

  "Feel stronger, do you? Your face looks bright and ready for carnage!" Salsa said with a laugh.

  "I don't know about the carnage bit, but I feel like a strongman at the circus!"

  Clark redoubled his hitting. He saw Hera's eyes go wide at the ferocity of his blows. "You doing good?" he asked.

  "Yup! I only feel the reverberations of your blows. It's so weird, seeing the stick hit me for all it's worth yet feeling the impact as little more than an ineffectual push."

  "That means it's working," Salsa said. "You both pass! Go and rest."

  Lunch came and went. Hera and he had some chicken and sausage gumbo rich in spice and rice. With cornbread and iced tea as a side, it was a scrumptious meal to balance their dandy heavy usage. Speaking of dandies, Hera spent most of her break in the bathroom, their effects on her system still prevalent after months of acclimation. He, too, had to use a restroom, but Clark wasn't sure if it was because of the dandies or because the gumbo didn't agree with his tummy.

  Whatever the case, lunch ended, and they were back in the stadium before they knew it.

  "Your final assessment today will be centered on tracking. Enhanced tracking can be one of the most useful talents a Leaguer has in their arsenal. What is Enhanced Tracking? It is its namesake. It will allow you to track targets, which includes items, across vast distances. In the hands of an expert tracker, it can even be used to help find your way back onto the Line-Path if you're Climbing and are confronted with a Block." Salsa motioned toward the mock shelving units which made aisles within the arena. "Your task for this exam will be to locate an item I have hidden on the shelves. This item looks like the items next to it, down to the barcode. You will only know it is the item you seek because, if you're using an Enhanced Tracking properly, you will see the special tag I have implanted on the item. If you're using Enhanced Tracking improperly, you will not see this tag."

  A shiver went through Clark's spine and radiated throughout his body. This was make or break. If he didn't find that tag, if he didn't use his Enhanced Tracking as he should, then he wouldn't pass and the whole day would've been a waste.

  He wasn't about to let that happen!

  Salsa explained how to marshal the mana of an Enhancement dandy for Tracking purposes: "It isn't hard. Direct the mana to your eyes, to your ears, or to your nose. All three depending on the mark you're hunting. For our purposes today, however, you will only need to direct the mana to your eyes. If you can do this, then directing the mana to any one of your other senses will be the same process. Being able to do several senses at once will require training, however."

  The training started but to Clark's chagrin, his group was the last group to take the test.

  What was worst was that because of the nature of the test, Clark learned nothing as he watched recruit after recruit channel the dandy mana; their breathing, their direction once they were on the hunt, none of it told him anything about how to channel the mana himself or how to hunt for the item. A recruit either found the item and passed, guessed on the item and failed, or ran out of time, which was another failure.

  "Clark! You're up!" Salsa shouted.

  At the starting line, Clark heard the whistle, then channeled his dandy's little remaining mana toward his eyes. He knew the channeling worked when his eyes felt puffy, big -- bigger than usual, like marshmallows -- and a little dry.

  Clark started his exam by walking down the aisle which was in front of him. He focused on keeping his mana on his eyes and scanning the shelving. When he got to the end of one aisle, he swerved into the next and scanned his way down that aisle.

  He was almost out of time when he came to the end of the final aisle and hadn't seen the marked item. Did I miss it? Did my Dandy wear off?

  Out of desperation, he pushed whatever mana and aura energy he had remaining toward his eyes. There were so many items on the shelves he must've missed the marked item. He wouldn't give up -- not while he had come so far!

  Clark now walked at a fast pace. Up and down, he went searching the aisles he had scanned once already for the elusive product.

  "Twenty seconds left, Clark!" Salsa shouted.

  He couldn't pay Salsa's words any heed. He was too focused on his search. "Crap! Not here, either! Then where?!" he cussed to himself.

  On his way to the next aisle over, an aisle he had already searched twice, was when his heart skipped a beat. That was when he spotted an unusual item: cloaked in a purple-tinted haze, an item on an endcap display between shelving units, stood out to him. Instinctively, Clark grabbed the item, as he hadn't the time to overthink if this was the tagged item.

  Salsa's whistle blew -- "That's it. Clark, pass!"