"Huh!? You killed wolves!? That party must be really strong!" Exclaimed Nicolas… now that he said it, it's quite true, a single wolf would massacre a mob of newbie players.
"Well, one of them knows curses, so she weakened the wolf by a great deal" I said, remembering Peko.
"So that's how you were able to do it…" Said Nicolas with a thoughtful voice
"So, you can think, huh" I said making fun of him
"Hey! Well, yeah, I was thinking that I might add someone who knows curses to my party later"
"Do it, well, good bye. I'll log in, I found a master to teach me some stuff"
"Oh, nice! I found one too, but weird things are happening… well see ya~!" Said Nicolas hanging up
'Time to start the training' I thought and logged on.
As I went down the stairs, I saw my Master waiting at the desk. Seeing me he got up and signaled me to follow him.
We went to the central stairs and upstairs there was a huge hall.
"Here I will be training you; we'll start with Hand-to-hand first for now. When I deem right, we will start with Dual sword mastery. Now, ready yourself, as you are the only student, we will spar most of the time. I will be teaching you the basics until you get the skills, then I will use them during a spar, then you will get a 15 second rest and after it you'll have to attack me, so open your eyes and sharpen your senses, I'll show them to you once per try" Said Plate with a serious look
I gulped down and nodded, 15 seconds rest… this will be tough.
As the training started, when he began attacking me, his moves were so fast that evading was almost impossible without concentrating really hard.
At first it wasn't that tough, but as time grew more, my 15 seconds rest seemed as if they were nonexistent, my mind became hazy and I was almost acting in pure instinct, I couldn't even hear my master anymore as I just paid attention to his movements.
I got some notifications about my stats rising, I saw some, but after a while I couldn't even think about that, the only thing in my mind was about recovering my breath and move the least possible and doing optimum performance with my duller movements. After 8 hours of torture my master finally said.
"Rest drink some water and eat, we will start again later for another 4 hours" And he walked off as if it was nothing.
*huff*huff* I was breathing hard, I couldn't even control it, I was in the ground with my stamina in the red and exhaustion to a high level. Hell, even my health had gone down because of severe overexertion.
After resting for a bit, I went to the fountain to get some water and I saw Zenith and Peko there too. By the looks of it, they were having a rough time too…
"Yo" I said to them in a tired voice going for the elixir of life…
"Hiya~" said Peko in a tired voice.
"How is it going?" asked Zenith to me
"After seeing you two, I think pretty normal…" I said with my fatigue and hunger
"Seems so, well, Plate did say he would make your training more intense as you can't come everyday" Said Zenith with a pitying look on his face…
"So that's why… and what happened to you after getting kidnapped?" I asked and saw that Peko was smirking trying to contain her laughter.
"I got chased by a giant with a broadsword till the end of the world, forced to run with a Two-Handed heavy sword and then got sandbagged by said giant… after a while, from hellish spars and evading destruction, I never felt more alive after escaping the clutches of someone… for an hour or so…" Said Zenith shuddering thinking he would go through it again in little time from now…
"Pffffft, Hahahahahhahahhahhaha" started laughing Peko and I couldn't hold it in either and started laughing too.
"Hahahahahahaha, so that's why it's called Hellish Village, huh" I said while moving my hand to my eye to shake off some tears by laughing, it was a really comical picture in my head.
"Yup, even more so, my grudge against Peko was resolved by Vermillion" Said Zenith with a smirk on his face with a satisfied look.
"Huh, what happened?" I asked Peko, who shrugged at it.
"Well, I had to meditate first, making spells and then control them, if I couldn't, Master Vermillion would send Lightning through my body or he activated some trap that until I controlled the spells at some degree it would go off…" she said reminiscing as if she was telling a nightmare
"He put her once under an illusion with caged skeletons and beasts with corroding parts" Said Zenith satisfied.
"Ugh… that smell was horrible, and he even forced me to go further my limits and made me run a path of automatics traps with one of my speed spells to run for my life…"
I laughed and said, "I trained Hand-to-hand combat with only sparring and 15 seconds rest, my muscles are still screaming…" I said while grimacing my recent training.
The other two looked at me thinking how I can even move with just 15 seconds rest per sparring…
'Oh, right, the notifications, there was two that were eye-catchy.
- You have created a new Stat! Perseverance. +10 Perseverance.
- You have learnt a new Skill! Fast recovery. +10 stamina +5 Vitality. Do you want to see the skill description?
- Skill: Fast recovery (Passive) Beginner Level 2: 46%
This skill was created by the user shorts periods of rest and high straining on his body. It allows faster recovery of stamina in beginner levels.
20% Increase in Stamina recovery rate.
+2 Stamina per level.
+1 Vitality per level.
Perseverance stat
This stat allows the user to go further his limits, be it physically or mentally. It also helps in slowing the stamina consumption slightly.
You cannot distribute points to this stat. This stat will increase accordingly.
'Seems I still haven't created the skill' I thought to myself.
Then we went to eat in a place that Peko and Zenith got recommended on their first day. As we ate, we talked a bit and after a little while, we went our different ways.
… and after 4 more hours of hell training, I finally obtained the skill.
- You have learnt a new Skill! Hand-to-hand combat mastery. +5 Strength +10 Agility. Do you want to see the skill description?
*Huff**huff* "Yes" I said while taking heavy breaths…
-Skill: Hand-to-hand Mastery (Passive) Beginner Level 1: 0%
This skill allows the user to make a weapon from his body, with elasticity and versatility, this skill can be proven to be very lethal. It makes easier body movements and to learn basics of combat faster.
10% Increase damage with hand to hand combat and martial arts.
5% Increase in body speed.
"Did you generate the skill?" Asked Master with a surprised look that I couldn't see and didn't really pay much attention as I was in joy of receiving the skill.
"Yes…" I said trying to control my breath.
"Hmm, well, this ends today's training, do you have anything more to ask?" Asked Plate, waiting for a sound from me.
And there was something I wanted to ask, "Who can teach me tailoring skill?" I asked
Plate, surprised, said "Didn't expect you would want to learn tailoring as well. In the central part of the village there is a tailoring shop, ask to the man in the shop called Thane if he can teach you tailoring, and tell him you were sent by me. I am off" and the general went out.
Well I did really need tailoring, armors are too much for now, because many of the armors that doesn't hinder movements normally have high level restriction or are really expensive, and we don't really have money, as we are freeloading here… well, I will learn blacksmith after the tailoring skill and I might get the handicraft skill that will come in handy… no pun intended.
As I was going out, I spotted Zenith and Peko going to the fountain the same as me.
"How was the afternoon training" I asked them with my shoulders down…
"" More Intense"" Both answered at the same time
"Bahahaha, same here… what are you going to do now?" I asked the pair
"I will rest a bit and pick a spell book around; this city really is nice at giving them away…" Said Zenith
"I will go to the library, it has many ancient books and lots of history, it might contain information about places to explore!" said Peko regaining a bit of her energy.
"And what will you do, Ardha?" Asked Zenith to me
"I'll go learn tailoring" I said as I finished refilling my canteen.
"Already thinking ahead" Said Zenith amused.
"Let's go eat! I'm hungry!!!" Said Peko with drool on her mouth
At this Zenith and me chuckled "Okay, let's go, I'm hungry too" I said
After eating and saying thanks to the cook, Ms. Jacy, we separated.
As I went to the tailor shop, I found a man on the counter that was working on a leather armor, really focused. I didn't want to disturb his concentration, so I waited outside of the shop.
When he finished it, he spotted me and told me to come in. He asked, "Did you wait around the whole time, kiddo?" with a curious expression.
"Yes" I nodded politely, his tailoring skill was overwhelming. Even if I just sat around watching him work all day, I was confident that I would learn it eventually, it would just take more time.
Thane gave a warm smile and said, "Thanks, kiddo. What has brought you to my humble place?"
"It is no problem at all, Elder. I came here to ask you if you could teach me the Tailoring skill"
"Well, well! Yes, for sure" The dwarf smiled brightly, sporting an excited look as if he was a child that had a new toy to play with.
'Seems they really don't have much to do here' I mused bitterly, without showing it on my face.
"Do you have any leather on you, kiddo? And what's your name?"
"Yes! I have some leather I got by killing wolves outside the village" I said as I brought out the leather, giving it to his hand. He was going to teach me the skill, after all. This wouldn't come close to paying for everything.
When he saw the wolf leather he nodded and told me to pick them and come inside his house as he closed the shop. Inside he explained me about the basics of tailoring in details and he changed drastically. He exuded a threatening aura when I made mistakes and used his killing intent and fighting spirit to pressure me.
Every word he said sank into my head like a 1-ton boulder…
After finishing up for the day as it was getting late, I went to the mayor's house, going for my bedroom.
It seemed that Peko and Zenith were already there and sleeping. So, I entered the room and logged off as my character went to sleep.