I used only one practice per skill to learn them. At level 33 though I had converted all my extra practices and used all my extra trains to replace lost con and my con was still only 12. I don't remember exactly how many times I trained it, but it was several times. I could have kept going and converted more practices I suppose, I just didn't want to. I had died a lot and not just to PK's. Most of the PK deaths were defending the fortress or attacks that occured while ranking. Many of my deaths were mob deaths. I had done a lot of exploring with her early on and taken her places where she died.

Staying camo'd and in the wilderness is something I was told to do, if I wanted to avoid pk deaths and increase my wilderness familiarity if/when I learned it, so that's what I did much of the time and it was boring as all get out. There were many times that I would even stay camo'd while in the Fortress because there were Imperial summoners who could slay her. Anyway it just wasn't fun for me to be camo'd all the time.

As far as finding a group to travel with, that was harder than you might think. Yes she was a goodie and in the Fort, and there were heros that offered to help, but getting people in my group range that weren't enemies, that I could trust, and that would rank in wilderness areas was the hard part. I ranked a lot with Kasender, but he was often busy with Sylvan cabal business. I suppose I could have held out longer until some more goodly types ranked up from below me, but I started a new character instead. And since I started really having a lot more fun with the new one, I decided to let Ardyana go.