Captain Iron approached from behind.
"Commander."
Logan turned his head.
"I’ve gathered the heroes you requested."
A small group of fifteen people stood waiting nearby. Iron, Robin, Althea, Kiran, Maeve, and Giles, along with several other heroes Logan had selected from the settlement.
None of them were particularly remarkable by conventional standards, but each had shown enough courage and competence during the goblin attack to catch his attention.
The moment Logan stepped across the entrance, he stopped walking. The others nearly bumped into him before realizing why he had frozen.
An enormous training hall stretched before them. Multiple practice arenas occupied the vast interior, each separated by stone dividers. Weapon racks lined the walls, while dozens of armored training dummies stood motionless across the room.
From the outside, the building should have been no larger than an ordinary warehouse.
"This doesn’t make any sense..." Maeve slowly looked back toward the entrance. Her peers silently agreed as they marveled at the construct.
"Spatial expansion..." It was the only explanation Logan could think of.
Before anyone could investigate further, a soft mechanical chime echoed throughout the hall. Every training dummy slowly came to life, and one by one, the dummies raised their weapons into ready stances.
"They’re alive?" Giles blurted and instinctively raised his weapons.
"No." Logan narrowed his eyes.
"They’re constructs."
As if responding to his words, a translucent blue panel materialized before him.
Potential Training Facility - Level 1
Training Mode Selected: Adaptive Combat Simulation.
Opponents will automatically adjust their combat capabilities to match the trainee’s current level.
Training opponents cannot inflict fatal injuries.
"So that’s how it works." A small smile crept onto Logan’s face.
This wasn’t simply a room filled with basic training dummies. It was an automated training ground capable of simulating opponents perfectly suited to each individual hero.
"I want each of you to choose a weapon station. These dummies will be your opponent."
The heroes exchanged uncertain glances before spreading throughout the hall.
Iron approached one of the armored dummies; the dummy was a full head shorter than the bulky veteran.
"This thing right here will be our opponent? I’m sorry, Commander, but you might need to find me a bigger dummy." He chuckled and gave it an experimental slash.
Clang!
The dummy raised its shield with surprising speed, deflecting the blow before immediately retaliating with a horizontal strike.
Iron’s eyes widened as he narrowly leaned backward.
The blade missed his chest by inches.
Before he could recover, the dummy stepped forward with another attack. The strike was crisp and precise, almost human-like.
Iron’s expression changed completely.
"This thing knows how to fight." He laughed before charging at the dummy again.
Across the room, Maeve had already entered the archery range.
Wooden targets suddenly emerged from the walls.
Just when she drew her bow, the targets began moving.
They zigzagged unpredictably across the field, occasionally ducking behind stone barriers before reappearing from completely different angles.
Maeve released an arrow and barely missed the nimble target.
"...You’ve got to be kidding."
Looking around the hall, Logan finally understood why the system had awarded this blueprint six stars.
It wasn’t merely a building. Every station had been perfectly designed to expose weaknesses while providing just enough challenge for improvement.
The training continued into the late evening.
The clang of steel echoed relentlessly throughout the hall. Every time Captain Iron managed to land a clean strike, the training dummy immediately adjusted, changing its stance and introducing a new pattern of attacks.
Across the room, Maeve’s frustration was becoming increasingly obvious.
"I swear these targets are moving faster."
Logan couldn’t help but smile.
The facility wasn’t making the exercises easier as they improved—it was making them harder.
Every hero was being pushed to the edge of their current abilities.
Even Giles, who had been flattened by his opponent more times than Logan could count, refused to stop.
"I’ll get you eventually!" he shouted before charging once more.
The dummy sidestepped effortlessly and planted him face-first into the floor.
"Again!" Giles mumbled as he climbed back to his feet.
By the time night fell, every hero was exhausted.
Sweat soaked through their clothes, their muscles ached, and even Captain Iron was breathing heavily. Yet despite their fatigue, there was an unmistakable excitement in their eyes.
"Get some rest. We’ll continue tomorrow." Logan dismissed everyone for the evening.
The moment the last person stepped outside, he opened the status windows one by one. A blue screen appeared before him.
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Iron
Level 10 → Level 11
Overall Physical Growth:Excellent
Strength: Excellent
Vitality: Good
Agility: Poor
Endurance: Excellent
Total Stat Growth: 15
"...Fifteen?" Logan’s eyebrows rose.
He immediately opened another profile.
Robin
Level 8 → Level 9
Strength: Poor
Vitality: Average
Agility: Exceptional
Endurance: Good
Total Stat Growth: 18
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
"...Eighteen?"
Robin’s growth was bordering on that of a four-star hero.
"So that’s it..." A slow smile spread across his face.
His fingers tapped lightly against his arm as his mind raced.
Kiran gained eleven.
Maeve gained eleven.
Althea gained ten.
Giles gained nine.
The remaining heroes all fell somewhere within the same range, none of them coming close to Iron and Robin’s level
"Star ratings aren’t the entire story." Logan slowly pieced the puzzle together
"They determine a hero’s foundation...but not their ceiling."
Logan leaned back against the wall, deep in thought.
"Still...a real three-star hero would probably beat Iron."
Raw stats weren’t everything.
A hero’s strength wasn’t determined solely by numbers. Higher-star heroes possessed superior active skills, stronger passive abilities, and far greater synergy between them.
They also had a higher chance to acquire these skills. Those advantages couldn’t simply be trained away.
His gaze wandered across the rows of training dummies. Though they had sparred with fifteen heroes throughout the day, not a single scratch remained on their polished surfaces. Whatever magic powered the facility had already restored them to perfect condition.
"What about me?"
The thought had lingered in the back of his mind ever since everyone leveled up.
Players didn’t grow stronger through training.
In The Last Bastion, players gained levels by surviving waves, completing objectives, and clearing special events. No amount of swinging a sword or running laps would ever increase a player’s level.
That was simply how the game worked.
"Still... doesn’t hurt to give it a try." He shrugged and reached for a wooden practice sword resting on the nearby weapon rack.
The weight settled comfortably in his hand, familiar yet foreign at the same time.
Logan wasn’t inexperienced in combat. He knew how to throw a punch, how to read an opponent’s movements, and how to keep a level head in the middle of a fight. Those instincts had carried him through the goblin attack.
But a sword...
That was a different matter entirely.
His grip wasn’t wrong, but it lacked the confidence of someone who had spent years training. His stance was functional rather than refined, built on instinct instead of technique.
"Come at me, you hunk of metal!" He yells out, taunting the construct.
The dummy advanced without hesitation.
Logan met the first strike instinctively, redirecting it just enough to avoid a direct hit before retreating a step.
He could follow its movements, but his own attacks lacked precision. Every swing contained unnecessary motion, every transition between strikes just a little too slow. The dummy punished each mistake immediately, forcing him to adjust again and again.
"Again!"
The dummy effortlessly blocked, countered, and forced Logan backward. Every exchange exposed another flaw in his movements.
"Again!"
Hours passed.
His arms felt heavy, his breathing became ragged, and he felt every strand of his muscle fiber crying for him to stop.
But not once did a familiar notification appear.
Logan lowered the wooden sword with a tired laugh.
"I figured..."
Just as he turned toward the exit.
A faint chime echoed inside his mind.
[Strength has increased slightly.]
"...What?" Logan stopped dead in his tracks.
Before he could process the notification, another appeared.
[Vitality has increased slightly.]
[Agility has increased slightly.]
[Endurance has increased slightly.]
He stared at the messages in complete silence.
"No..." His heartbeat quickened.
Without another thought, he tightened his grip around the wooden practice sword.
"So it wasn’t just the heroes..." A grin slowly spread across his face.
"As expected of a six-star facility."
If it could draw out the hidden potential of one-star heroes, perhaps it wasn’t so strange that it could improve the body of its commander as well.
Logan dismissed the thought, accepting the explanation almost immediately.
There would be time to investigate the exact mechanics later.
For now...
If swinging a sword made him stronger, he would keep swinging it until his hands give out.
Outside, Evergarden had long since fallen asleep.
A familiar blue notification silently appeared before him.
[Player Synchronization Rate: 2%]
Logan didn’t even notice it.
The translucent window lingered for only a brief moment before quietly fading back into the darkness.