'A map function?'
'Then what about the map I purchased? Is that redundant? Or for display?'
A big gray panel had appeared in front of him, with a red mark in the middle surrounded by green, but as he watched, some of the grey surrounding the green faded, and the green spread further, but a spot of grey remained.
'This is the surrounding area? Makes sense, I am in a forest now, and I guess that grey is either a boulder or stone. Handy, this thing. So how far did it clear?'
He started looking around, but as he could not see the rock, he could not judge the distance.
'Eh? What's this?' Verum had found a little '+' icon, next to a '-' icon, so he started to fiddle with it, and it started zooming in and out.
Out, till he could not see the green, and in, till he could barely make out the outline of the castle. Using this tool, he gauged the distance to be approximately 4 and a 1/2 kilometers. Not much, but using the same thing the grey patch became 70 meters wide, And small flecks of black became visible, exciting him.
'Coal? or is it iron? Doesn't matter, it's still good enough for me. The problem here is that it's too far, never mind, we'll just need to be more powerful than the monsters, not too hard a feat, is it now? I'll think about it in the morning.' And he headed down.
*****
The next day.
Verum had a habit of getting up early, which was why he was swinging a sword around at 5 in the morning, That, and the nice effect of increasing proficiency and getting a skill or two.
After training for half an hour. he decided to make a schedule for he his troops to make the most out of the starting time. Since there was a shield, there was no need for night-guards, but that would change once it went down after 6 days.
Before going to sleep, he had taken a look at the books inside the library, and he had gotten a nice little surprise from one of them.
The book was titled 'Introduction' and had contained a lot of information. It had information on elemental weaknesses and strengths, loyalty measurement, war function, dungeons, etc.
The other book was the guidebook that he had purchased from the shop.
'Huff, that's enough for now.' He thought as he got up after his 100th pushup, and looked at the people gaping at him from the side. "What? Never seen someone do pushups before?" Hearing him, they did not know how to respond, so they kept standing, and staring.
"Never mind that, can someone get me some food? I'm hungry." 'And so the day begins.'
After eating his fill, he rested for a bit before heading to the training hall and starting the training his troops. "Alright, I assume that all of you know what I taught yesterday. So 5 of you stand aside, the rest, come at me."
The five he had trained yesterday decided to sit this out, and the other ten surrounded him, "Good, More places of attack means less places for evasion." 'However, that won't be enough.'
He started focusing, and 'True observance' activated. The punch that had been heading towards him seemed to slow down a bit, and his hand was already on it's way to intercept it. He kept parrying with his hands as he attacked with his legs, but he was being suppressed, even though he had much more experience, his opponents were learning quickly, and they were starting to block his attacks as well.
'A stalemate, I will lose if I prolong this fight, my stamina cannot compare to ten people.' A thought occurred to him 'Lucky me, I guess to have an escape skill.' He thought with a smirk. 'Now then, I just need an opportunity.'
And he soon got it as he ducked under a high kick and disappeared from the encirclement, stunning his soldiers as he appeared behind them and started his counter-attack.
Because of their panic he managed to take them down in about 15 seconds. And as they lay on the ground, heaving and bruised, began to lecture them.
"Why was your formation broken? Why did you panic? I would not have been able to take you down that easily if you had not panicked. Did you think I could not escape? Did you think that just because you were suppressing me, you were sure to win? You have to remember that even a cornered rat will fight back, so you should never let you guard down. If you do..."
He lectured them for two to three minutes, all the while casting heal on them to help them recover, and when they were done, he told them to spar with each other in groups to improve teamwork and combat capability.
During his fight he noticed something and wanted to confirm it. So he stood at the side and watched them spar in groups of 2, with one of them waiting for his chance to fight.
'Here goes.' He activated 'True observance' and immediately their movements slowed down. 'Heh, increase in perception and reaction speed, awesome.' With this new knowledge in mind he headed out of the hall, and to the warehouse.
[7 slots occupied]
[Wood: 437/500]
[Bow and arrows: 10/1000]
[Stone: 200/500]
[Meat: 64/750]
[Hide: 65/1000]
[Animal claws and fangs: 45/5000]
[Lesser mana herb: 30/5000]
'Huh? I thought they found just one herb, but 6? Man, without that multiplier, I wouldn't be this rich.'
'And capacity is proportional to size, good to know.'
'Anyway, I should check the skills I got this morning.'
[Blade master] [S]
[Can be acquired only by the one's who have mastered the blade]
[All bladed weapons cause 33% more damage]
[Can be evolved into the skill 'One with the blade']
[Cleave]
[Attack with a powerful swing of your sword, causing 200% damage]
[Has a 40% chance to cause 'Bleed']
[Cooldown: 2 seconds]
[Thrust]
[Perform a forward thrust, causing 75% damage]
[Has a 90% chance to cause bleed]
'Awesome.'
'However I need more than just this. I have a feeling that more enemies with resistances or immunities will appear after some time, and I need to prepare for that.'
After his internal monologue, he went to the 'Library' to continue reading 'Introduction'.