"I woke up early in the morning, around 8 am. For someone, he would say that I don't know the word 'early.' But I believe that it's essential to live on a schedule that is convenient for you rather than one that meets the standards of others. So, after waking up, I quickly completed my morning routine and headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Alice was already there, dressed in her usual everyday clothes. We quickly had breakfast together and headed to the company. In the usual way, we exchanged greetings with the security guard, Max.
'Hello, Professor Ho.'
'Hello, Aaron. While you were resting, I finished the program. Now we can directly see what you see. Also, I can communicate with you through messages. And we can learn your response based on your choice; you can write it or say it aloud. But before we start, let's discuss what you're going to do in the game.'
'I'm going to start by going to the training ground. There, they will teach me the basics of sword handling and magic. Then I'll look for a teacher for the musket. If everything goes well, I can quickly learn the basics. And then I'll act according to circumstances. As per the standards, after training, I should receive a task to clear weak monsters, but I don't know if this game follows the standards.' I said, walking towards Babylon.
'Understood. I hope you can quickly finish this location.'
I got into the car the same way I did yesterday. As soon as I calmed down, the car completely shut me off. Like yesterday, after the darkness, Babylon's welcome message greeted me. Opening my eyes, I saw a room familiar to me in the tavern. Thinking, I saw the game interface in front of me, which shows all the information about me. Thinking about the time, Babylon informed me that for the player's convenience, the time for NPCs is frozen on training platforms, and when connecting the next day, I begin my session at approximately 7 am in-game time. So, I stopped worrying about the time and went into the inventory, where all my belongings are currently stored, separated by columns, namely:"
Money. Which is in the bag. Apparently for convenience, I can see their amount in the top right corner, which even shows the number of copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins. By the way, I don't have any platinum coins. So it says 0 there. And I have 15 gold coins, 20 silver coins, and 85 copper coins. If you count in copper coins, I have 1785 copper coins now.
Weapons. Currently, I don't have anything equipped, so the equipment column is empty, but yesterday's purchases are present in the weapons column in the inventory, although they don't have much damage. This can be seen on the right side of the weapons column.
Clothes. Mostly all of my clothes are on me, so only the wizard cloak and the beginner-level armor are visible in the column. It's amazing that this armor includes a full set, namely a helmet, bracers, torso, and even leg armor. But I don't understand why it is shown as one item in the inventory. Just as I was thinking about this, I heard Babylon's voice.
"This armor set can be divided into component parts, but since you only have this set at the moment, it is displayed as one item for convenience. However, when you receive other pieces of armor, you can choose to separate them into component parts and wear individual parts from different sets."
So, it seems that I can wear a full set of items at once, or combine individual items with items from sets. So, I thought, "Can I create a universal set with quick replacement?" To which I received an affirmative answer from Babylon. It is necessary to remember this feature, as it can save an incredible amount of time during a fight with a monster or opponent.
After leaving my room, I walked towards the tavern pub, where I had breakfast. Just like in real life, I am obliged to eat in the game as well. So, quickly finishing my meal, I headed towards the training ground. When I arrived, it was close to 8 am. My trainers were already waiting for me there, namely Knight Cornelius and Mage Castor.
"Hello, Aaron," said the lioness Cornelia to me, then continued, "As we said last time, it's best to start with physical training before moving on to magical education. So what did you ultimately decide?" she asked me.
"I am completely at your disposal, but I would like to consult with you again about my education. How will I know what profession I possess?" I asked.
"Hello, Aaron," greeted me the mage Castor, and then began to explain. "First of all, you will need to learn the basics before we can accurately determine where your strengths lie. Let me tell you why I became a mage. In those days, when I was still very young, I tried to become a knight, but unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't wield a sword. I was very unskilled in this. And after learning the basics of war, I went to study the basics of magic. That's where my talent for magic was discovered. Although I have the basics of a warrior, I couldn't use them in battle. But even if you don't benefit from your education, it's worth pursuing it because you never know where it might come in handy. And if you take my colleague Cornelia, her talent manifested in both magic and warfare, making her a magical knight who can fight equally with both mages and warriors. But unfortunately, there are few like her, so be grateful for such a mentor. Not every mentor has such experience in magic and sword techniques."
"Ahem, ahem," cleared her throat Cornelia. "No need for unnecessary words. Let's start already," she said, turning away from Castor. "Did you prepare the necessary equipment?" she asked me.
"Yes, of course. I have the equipment for training. As you advised, I bought it at Maurice's shop. What do I need to do?" I asked her.
"All the exercises are simple, but they will also show whether you can become a warrior or not. Fully equip yourself and go to the training dummy."
"While she was talking, I mentally imagined my equipment, which magically appeared on me. Then I pictured a sword in my right hand, which also appeared inexplicably. I realized they didn't notice such obvious incidents, perhaps they were programmed to perceive it as normal or they couldn't see it, instead, they saw the end result without remembering the moment of equipment change. As an ordinary player or even a gaming expert, I couldn't give a definite answer, but I couldn't ignore it. I'll have to clarify this with the professor. But for now, let's get back to the current situation, namely the training dummy. It was colored like golden sand, not just resembling it, but looking as if it was made of sand.
Approaching it, I looked at instructor Cornelia, who had also approached a similar dummy with a sword in her right hand, assuming an perfectly executed stance with the sword diagonally drawn. The strike had an afterglow, and the point of contact between the sword and dummy suddenly lit up with a bluish-white light, collected in a diagonal line, the light of which passed beyond the dummy for several meters, as if leaving a divided space behind it. The dummy itself was split into two parts, which was not surprising, but it returned to its original state just as quickly as it was split. The feeling of the strike was incredible for me, a palette of emotions of surprise, admiration, awe, and even fear.
Finishing with this strike, she turned to me.
"Today you will practice this strike, I don't expect the same execution from you, but try to bring the strike to a similar level. While you train this strike, I'll be correcting you. You'll need more than a thousand strikes for the first exercise alone, only by completing them will we be able to understand if you can walk the path of the sword. So, begin.
Uncertainly, I assumed a posture similar to what I had seen. I was far from executing the pose correctly, but I was confident that my strikes, although weak, would land at the right angle, I told myself. Reality dealt a cruel blow to my confidence. My strikes were so far from the example, lacking both strength and the semblance of a proper strike. I tried to replicate it, and with each strike, I seemed to find the right angle, but this apparently simple strike just wouldn't work. So, tirelessly wielding my sword, as that was the only way to describe my efforts, I made a thousand strikes, listening to the errors I made with each one. Every time I pondered, I thought of her words, namely, "Imagine a line in your mind before the strike, a line that goes through the dummy, like a cut that divides your gaze in two." Those were the words she used to accompany every one of my strikes. Only after almost a thousand strikes did I begin to understand what she was talking about: she was talking about the Babylon system. Every interaction I had with the system was accompanied by thoughts of something else, whether it was an exit or equipping something. All I had to do was imagine it, and Babylon would execute my command. That's how I got what I wanted so badly: the correct execution on the 998th attempt, just two steps away from the coveted thousand strikes. I imagined a line in my mind, like a thin piece of paper that cut the dummy in half. And just before the strike, Babylon showed me the full trajectory of the strike, and my hand flew down diagonally, fully coinciding with the trajectory created by Babylon. At the moment of impact, I expected the dummy to split or at least suffer from it, but instead of my illusion, I felt resistance to the strike when it made contact with the dummy. The strike that I thought could at least leave a cut only left a small line, and the hand that made the move met with intense pain from hitting a hard object, as if returning the damage I had caused through vibration.
"I understood our difference with her exactly like this. Even if I hit correctly, without strength and skill, I won't be able to even hurt the opponent. If it were an actual opponent, I would already be lying at their feet. Fortunately, this training brought me back down to earth. This is not a game where only the characters feel the pain, I will have to endure all the pain myself. Knowing that after training, as expected in such games, I'll have to go and kill monsters, I was very disappointed. Can I do anything now? I'm sure I can't. I will need to train regardless of the fact that it's a game. This is just the beginning of the work I need to put in to fully immerse myself in this amazing world.
"That was the strike I was waiting for from you. Now I can fully teach you. If you couldn't handle this strike even after a thousand repetitions, your chances of becoming a warrior, and in the future, a knight, would be small. Now repeat this strike and pay special attention to my stance," she said, preparing her stance. After that, she demonstrated a simple downward chopping strike, a strike that contained one movement like the first, but made with incredible strength and skill. After making this simple movement, she looked at me and said, "If you can make that strike, you can fully repeat after me. Today I will show you the basic strikes that every warrior should know. We will study each strike separately, so you can memorize the basic strikes in a short period of time. The rest of the time, you will repeat each strike a thousand times. In one morning, you will be able to perform more than 3 repetitions of the basic moves. Today you must learn all the strikes and correct mistakes. And now, start with a thousand strikes," she said with a smile.
As if not noticing the time, I learned strikes. During this fencing lesson, I learned a lot, for example, that there are only two types of sword strikes in fencing, namely chopping and thrusting, and chopping strikes are also divided into front and back edge strikes. Front edge chopping strikes can be made from top to bottom diagonally from the shoulder to the side from both the right and left sides, as well as horizontal strikes and diagonal strikes starting from the side to the opposite shoulder. The back edge of the sword has a similar combination of strikes, but there are fewer of them, namely a strike starting from the left side and ending at the right shoulder, and a similar strike is made already in the right side and ends in the left shoulder. If you look at a vertical strike, it is already made from bottom to top. Then there are thrusting strikes, in which strikes are made to a single point, such as the head, arms, and torso. Although the fencing stance was simple, it was difficult to get used to holding it for the correct execution of strikes. It was necessary to stand with slightly bent legs, a straight back, and the weapon bent in the hand at waist level, the blade of the weapon at this moment should be directed at the opponent's face, in my case, the face of the mannequin. I was able to learn strikes in a few hours and then repeated each movement a thousand times, making more than 20,000 strikes in total. I can't believe that I was able to make so many strikes in just over 5 hours. Now I have to study magic with Mage Castor.