"A misunderstanding."
"It is a shame how many conflicts emerge from them."
"Though if you can solve a misunderstanding, then a bridge can be formed."
"One that leads to paths you may not have even suspected."
Bron Metsk, the future leader of the Mesk Merchant Group.
….
[C ranked Quest Received 'A Tournament For Improvement.']
….
A Tournament For Improvement: (Training side quest)
Difficulty: C rank.
Description: Despite having been given more training than Master Zhou's other students, you still have not gained a 'move' or active skill like many others have, leading to many students looking down on you. To help boost your reputation and prepare you for the cruel outside world, Master Zhou has arranged for you to participate in a friendly tournament at his dojo to improve and show off your skills.
Quest Clear Conditions: Gain an active skill during the tournament.
Quest Clear Reward: Depends on your performance in the tournament.
Quest Failure Penalty: Depends on your performance in the tournament.
….
After gaining the quest from Leon, he was told to do some specialised training with Jordis to help him prepare for the tournament, and the two quickly left the office to do training in the forest.
Ting, Ting, Ting!
The next day, the ringing of metal striking metal resounded constantly throughout the dojo that dominated the town. Even the town guard captain asked about the occasion and, hearing that it was nothing but an informal tournament, quickly went about his business as the dojo seemed packed with people as commoners came to spectate to get relief from their mundane lives of tilling soil over and over again.
In the centre of a large circle of people was Railius, who was defending himself from a constant barrage of attacks, somehow managing to parry or avoid each one, but it was clear that the young lord of Aurellion was struggling and constantly on the defensive.
Sitting at a table looking on with a cold interest was the dojo master, Master Zhou, a figure many had come to respect over the years. No matter how many people tried to recruit this ex-soldier, he turned each offer down. Even the one sent by the Duke of Detarnor was turned down as this old master was seemingly content with spending the remainder of his days sharing his skills with the next generation.
Seeing that anyone could get guidance for the right price instead of trying to find ways to suppress this new dojo, Duke Ridorfin and the other landed nobles decided to use it, sending a few people to be trained for a bit by Master Zhou after these people gained much from the training the ageing master became a rather respected figure in the duchy capitals.
5 rounds of the tournament had passed, and Railius lost all 5. His results even surprised Leon as it seemed like his young lord's sword skills had suddenly dipped! This is because Railius, like most players who started DO, had little fighting experience, so even if these players got an intermediate or even an adept skill, their actual skill was far lower than that, so each time Railius was beaten down in a pitiful manner like he was a bloody beginner.
And the problem is he was!
How could Railius, who had spent only a few days in game training, be a match to these youths who had been training for their entire childhoods? Don't look down on NPCs in Dynasties Online! These are not some stupid State Conflict Three Kingdoms AI that you can trick and abuse in all sorts of tactical ways. They were similar to humans as if the neural network of a human was recreated.
Even the day of special training before the tournament from Jordis was of little help because Railius was not a genius at one-on-one combat; instead, his strength lay in strategy, leadership, and tactics, and even Jordis frowned, knowing that his lord had no chance in the tournament at his current level.
'Was Railius maybe tired or something? He was not this bad before!'
Jordis thought to himself, not knowing that most of his interactions with Railius had been with an AI, not a player. As to the NPC, the world of DO was real, as real as our own, so they would not think a player could replace an AI, which led to this confusion.
For most of the time that the character of Railius was learning how to fight, it was an AI doing it, so, of course, Railius would be more skilled under an AI than a human whose closest thing to being in an actual sword fight was fighting with sticks on his way back from school with his friends, but it was not comparable to the proper martial arts training that the NPCs had gotten from Leon over the years which led to Railius' current unfortunate predicament.
It also did not help that almost all of the intermediate and above fighters had at least one or two active skills that they could use, so even if Railius got lucky and somehow managed to take an opportunity to give himself a momentary advantage, it was quickly lost when his opponent used an active skill to defeat him or bring the fight back to even.
With sweat streaking down his face and dripping onto the planked wooden floor, Railius rolled across the ground until he kneeled and deftly blocked an overhead swing that threatened to hit his chest.
Raising to his feet, an unknown anger and concentration took over the young player. His frustration of being beaten down like a little kid by those younger than him boiled the young player's blood. The constant public humiliation of his losses, even managing to grind down the patient Railius, who suddenly glared at his opponent with a raging killing intent that momentarily froze the youth who was not experienced at resisting killing intent, giving Railius the opening he needed to cut into the boy's chest. The thick training gambeson resisted the strike well, ensuring that no blood was shed, but any damage from the impact would not be stopped, as well as the 16-year-old youth crumpled to the ground, groaning in pain.
"The winner is Quinten Amberguard!"
Aldorus, disguised as Master Ral, who acted as the referee for the tournament, shouted. Up until now, both his and Leon's expressions were dark, as they were not expecting Railius to have such a poor showing. Even if he lost, he should not have lost in such a humiliating way, making the two rather worried that this tournament, which was intended to help their young lord grow, would instead hinder him.
Breathing heavily, Railius shakily left the circle and headed towards Jordis and the other youths in the Pelican Protectors who had become his close friends.
"Good job, nice to you finally getting into your groove!"
"Now watch me dismantle one of these arrogant bastards!"
Jordis said sincerely, congratulating his friend and picking up a blunted halberd as he headed for the centre of the human circle, waiting for his next unfortunate victim to appear.
Seeing that it was the son of a wealthy merchant who had bullied Railius during his five-match losing streak, a vicious glint appeared in the youth's eyes as he planned to avenge his friend during his match, damning the lad to a grizzly fate.
The match started, though it should not be called a match at all; instead, it should be called a bullying session. As Jordis slowly tortured his opponent until he dropped to the ground in defeat with wide eyes as Jordis' final strike hit the arrogant young merchant's son right in the centre of his private parts with the butt of his halberd as many people let out grunts of sympathy as the scene.
"Oooof, that's got to hurt. I don't know if he will be able to have kids anymore. A bit far, don't you think Vegrif?"
One of Railius' friends said his ears were elf-like, and his skin was smooth and soft while also being muscled like a bodybuilder towering over his friends at 6 ft 2 despite only being 16 years old, somehow defying all logic in his race's supposed generics looking more like a half-giant or orc than what he actually was.
Those who noticed these differences would know that this being was a half-elf, if a bit stronger than what was traditionally envisioned by people when they think of that graceful race.
Like everyone else who was participating in the tournament, he wore a gambeson, though much larger than the rest to match his large frame and his face was scrunched up in sympathy alongside everyone else's for his fellow man who had ended up on the wrong side of Jordis' venge-filled wrath.
It was well known that Jordis was very protective of Railius, something he appeared to have inherited from his father, but those who hated Railius had a rare opportunity to teach the skilled strategist a lesson so much that they seemed to forget that anyone who humiliated Railius would face Jordis' wrath one way or another.
"You know that Quinten is always the one who is good at holding himself back. Jordis, well…. Even when he does not hold a grudge, he still crushes his opponents in a most depressing manner and when he does …."
The human sighed while taking a big breath in. His slick black hair had a slight fringe that covered part of his eye, and he was much more relaxed than his comrades, with only Railius beating him out when it came to being calm and relaxed. Behind this exterior, though, was a sharp mind that rarely made mistakes, but something being a rarity does not make it an impossibility.
"You know as well as I do that boy got off easy! If the Grand Commander were not here, he wouldn't have used the butt of the halberd but the blade."
"Not to mention it would only be once…."
Vegrif the human said, but before he could continue, he was interrupted by Railius, who was alarmed by the conversation's content.
"Who is a Grand Commander? Watch your mouths!"
Railius said quietly, not wanting anyone to overhear their conversation and begin questioning them, looking around vigilantly as the two young Pelican Protectors did likewise. Luckily, there were no outsiders too near them, so no one overheard, but unlike Jordis, who was similar to Railius and very mature for his age, these two were your typical teenagers. So, a slip of the tongue here and there is to be expected.
"Jordis Zhou wins!"
Aldorus said as a blade came between Jordis and the youth lying defenceless on the floor. Only Leon saw when Master Ral drew the weapon, as he seemed to magically appear between the duelling pair to the eyes of the crowd, stopping Jordis from attacking the downed boy once more, making them aware of the strength of master fighters and the reason why they were respected and feared.
"Oh, looks, I'm up next."
The half-elf said, grabbing a large two-handed morningstar and going up to duel, quickly defeating his opponent with a mighty swing that cracked one of the poor boy's ribs and returned to his friends. By now, Jordis had taken his place beside Railius as his loyal protector and friend.
"Norfaelor, you complained at Jordis for going too far, but you seemed to just club that lad with no regard for his safety whatsoever! In some ways, fighting you is worse than Jordis! Did you even hold back a tiny bit of your strength? You do know that if anything happens to these rich young masters, it will stir up a shitstorm that will be hard to put down, right?"
Vegrif commented when the half-elf returned to Railius' group with a large grin as his opponent was taken away on a stretcher, having been knocked out cold during the battle and acting like this was a normal state of affairs.
"Unlike you guys, the words 'hold back' are not in my dictionary. It's not my fault that even though he blocked my strike with his sword, he was still so weak that he got injured."
Norfaelor said his muscles were still bulging when he returned, showing a vast amount of toned muscle that could even send a bull flying.
"You sure you're not part orc or giant?"
Vegrif asked in jest when he looked at the man's seemingly unnatural muscles, knowing that he was no match to the abnormal half-elf before him when it came to a battle of pure strength. It was said that elves and half-elves were meant to be one of the less physically dominant races, yet this giant monster of a man was somehow created from such a bloodline.
'Did the gods want to play a joke or something when he was born or just want to prove that there will always be exceptions to the rules?'
Vegrif thought as he walked up to the stand to grab a spear. Unlike his two other brothers in arms who decided to train in rather unique weapons, Vegrif decided to specialise in the traditional weaponry of the Pelican Guard, which would allow him to integrate better when they set up army formations when compared to his more eccentric friends.
The tournament continued on as one would have expected, with each of the youths who were training as Pelican Guards and Protectors taking top spots with only the most talented of the wealthy young masters could match up with them due to their incredible skill that had been honed by training that was only available to those who sought to serve as House Aurellions loyal protectors.
This was until a match appeared that shouldn't have emerged, which surprised many of the viewers.
Quinten Amberguard, a man who was near the bottom of the rankings and well-known for his mediocrity when it came to fighting ability, was going to face off against one of the dojo's most skilled young masters, Bron Metsk.
Everyone wondered why Bron gave up some of his fights; many thought it was to allow others to get some of the spotlight, as Bron was someone who would do that for his friends, but seeing this matchup now and the smiling expression of the 18-year-old as he entered the little arena.
Bron was a relatively tolerant person. He even admires Jordis and his other friends for their skill, but Railius is another matter entirely as this person; despite all the attention and special training he got from the dojo master, Zhou was still near the bottom of the rankings!
What was worse was that instead of getting disheartened and leaving like many of the low-potential students, he stuck around, keeping all the training to himself! It was okay if he wanted to stay and learn despite his low potential, but why did he also have to take opportunities away from others?
How many people could excel if this attention was put on them instead?
If Railius were near the top, then Bron would not have minded, but he wasn't! He was one of the worst!
This was the reason why Bron had given up fights, wanting to fight and humiliate Railius so he would leave and allow those with potential to receive guidance from the master of the dojo instead.
Railius sighed as he went up to fight. The tournament was close to coming to an end, and Railius still had no active skills and now had to fight against this troublesome person. At this point, the young player had almost given up on completing the quest as he had lost a lot of motivation from being bulldozed time after time, only winning a few times out of the tens of matches he had to compete in.
Jordis, as usual, took first place in the tournament, crushing all his competition underfoot tyrannically, being the only person to remain undefeated in the entire competition. Even Norfaelor's great strength could only bow when faced with the skill of the first son of the Grandmaster of Loyalty as Jordis ruthlessly beat down the giant 16-year-old who was still growing as he did to all his other opponents, but Norfaelor's unnatural strength did allow the hulking half-elf to secure a solid second place.
If there was one thing that Jordis was, it was fair. He treated everyone the same: friend or foe, man, woman or other. It did not matter. All were similarly crushed by this indifferent man.
The only person who seemed to get a pass was Quinten, as he only got normal bruises when they fought instead of the large purple ones that everyone else ended up with, though no one knew why he held back.
Some thought maybe he fancied Quinten or something, but when they asked, instead of getting embarrassed or turning red as someone usually would when talking about a crush, Jordis coldly replied he was straight, and that was it. Nothing more came out from the man who liked not to talk too much.
No matter what the answer to this mystery was, it didn't matter as people constantly gossiped about this reason or that reason but never came to a definitive answer; eventually, it just became an eccentric aspect of the young genius' character.