Chereads / The Big Game. / Chapter 12 - Training #1

Chapter 12 - Training #1

ANDRÉ.

A weird cacophony of ringing noises started filling up my mind, driving me crazy.

My lungs were heavy, as if they were full of stones.

My vision flickered, yet everything around me seemed brighter than the sun.

but the noise filling my brain dimmed; it was dampened due to the sound of laughter.

I tried looking around to see where the sound was coming from, but I couldn't; everything was unbelievably bright.

Suddenly everything became normal again—my eyesight, the colours, and the unbelievable numbness in my brain.

I heard a laugh and raised my head to see who would dare laugh at my miserable state!

My ego was hurt yet again.

"Haha, it seems that you two are extremely weak! This was the least oppressive aura I could use! exactly three hours!" The man laughing was the burly brute leader, Garland.

Although he was the same height as Samuel, he towered over him. I would swear that if I didn't see them side by side beforehand, I would think that Garland was at least three times Samuel's height.

That dreamlike effect of towering might stem not only from his incredible brawn but also from his jaded character!

That was fabulous!

Wait, fuck, I got sidetracked by my own thoughts.

"Ok, come up now." He helped Samuel get on his legs and then headed towards me.

He offered his muscular hand.

He dares to try to help me after what he did! What a bastard!

I winced at him and slapped his hand away—well, at least I tried with my skeletal arms.

"Heh, a bit salty, ain't ya, André?" He carried me up and stationed me on my legs, nonetheless.

"Listen, boy, I realize that you may take what I did as an insult, but it was a must in order to gauge your current prowess; nonetheless, my apologies for shocking you like that." He apologized, smiling.

I only gave a grunt in reply.

He went to the center of the place we were in, which contained a great number of people.

"Now everyone, please welcome our newest recruits, Samuel and André!" he announced.

A collective cheer started in the whole hall.

"Samuel! hay!"

"Andre! hay!"

and they chanted this three times before stopping.

"You two look like you had a bad cut!" one of the gang members in the hall noted.

I looked at Samuel, and he seemed embarrassed; it was as if he wanted the ground to split and hide him from talking about this topic.

"So that is why you told me that we should wrap our scalps in cloth, isn't it, Samuel?" I remarked loud enough for everyone to hear.

The hall fell into hysterical laughter, and Samuel could not even look at me; he was shocked that this embarrassment happened on our first day— no hour in the gang.

I couldn't hold back my laughter. I laughed more than I have ever laughed in my life.

Soon Samuel couldn't hold himself back and joined the laughter.

and we continued laughing hysterically for some time.

*****

SAMUEL.

"You have some real skills, Rofan!" I complimented Rofan while enthusiastically checking out my new haircut.

"I have been the barber here ever since this gang was established," he chuckled.

"How long is that?" I asked with curiosity, but curiosity wasn't enough to make me look at anything other than my recently shaven scalp.

I went from blond to bald, and I'd bet my boot that no one would even think that I was bald before.

"Around 10 to 12 years as of now," he said while shaving André's head.

"And did the gang do big missions and such during those 10 years?" asked André.

Rofan took a step back before answering to evaluate any possible mistakes in the shave, or at least that is what I thought.

"We have done well enough to be named and to be listed among Arnshwald's dangerous entities." He started talking with a calculating look on his face while looking at André's head.

I took a seat in the barbershop and listened to the conversation.

"There are many organizations, individuals, and creatures who basically cause chaos in Arnshwald and the whole world."

"We, Sol Oscuro, are more like fledglings in comparison to some other top beings in this world; we can't do much damage, but we can do enough, and remember, all we do is just to earn our keep."

"Most of our work involves highway robbery, brigandry, usury, and banditry, and we are trying to establish a name for ourselves in the gambling industry."

"Brigandry? " Don't that involve being in the mountains and attacking villages?" I asked.

He looked at me and said, "Yes, it does, and we have two outposts operating in the mountains currently; one of them, I believe, collects protection taxes from two nearby villages, and the other one is currently being tracked by the Taovii followers, so they are on the run."

taovii followers? Oh, like people who worship Taovii, I think.

"This seems like a huge organization to me," said André.

"That is just because you are not well versed in our world yet," said a man while entering.

"Mr. Gamry, it is a pleasure seeing you here." The barber gave a little bow.

The man named Gamry looked in his thirties, and he was wearing a white battle robe with golden words sewn onto it.

His hair was black, and his eyes were brown; he looked normal enough other than the suffocating force that he was constantly emitting.

"I presume you are Samuel Maelstrom, right? "You and your brother are going to be trained by me for the next month and a half."

what????

********

NARRATOR.

Samuel and André stood straight in the middle of a training arena. There were around 20 other bandits that were training with them, but due to our duo's unnaturally feeble bodies, they were already sweating from the prior running set.

The trainer —Mr. Gamry— sat on a table with a wooden crate in front of him; he used the wooden crate to set the score of each trainee.

"Hey, Samuel and Andre, I think you two really should lift some weight and eat a whole lot more, currently you are basically walking twigs." He wasn't mocking them; he was telling the truth.

They looked down and their mood worsened, they didn't expect their score to be this shitty.

"Don't start losing your hope like that!" he mocked "you can sit by the side while the others are doing the physical training when it comes to Ru levels everyone here is just like you two...shit"

Unexpectedly the 20 trainees' mood worsened even more.

Samuel and Andre went back to their respective benches and sat down to have a breather.

"So... we weren't even average Samuel." sighed Andre "Fuck man, why are we not as good as them!" he was annoyed.

"It is to be expected Andre we were slaves, we weren't even used for protection or anything we were given the bare minimum to merely stay alive, we weren't trained on anything before, but I am telling you we may have flimsy muscles, but we have tough bones." Samuel looked at Andre smirking.

"Shut up," Andre rebuked "we couldn't even keep up with them they supposedly finished the track a minute earlier than and they were in better shapes"

"don't be sad about this this is our first day here and I am quite sure that after a month and a half training here we will be...average" Samuel guessed.

"That is better than nothing" sighed Andre.

They proceeded to wait until the end of the physical training.

******

SAMUEL.

After around an hour they were done the other trainees returned to the benches drenched in sweat and barely able to walk.

I wonder what would happen to us if we continued with them, I guess we would have been as dry as an old tree trunk.

Mr. Gamry walked up to the benches, scrolls in hand, and then started handing them to us.

"These here are Ru understanding methods." he started his lecture.

"As you all know, knowledge of Ru can be taken from anything and everything, the way the Ru dense air flows and the way the trees sway in response." He moved his hands trying to better explain the idea.

"Without Ru no being can live and with Ru a being can reach higher heights, and there are a group of methods that would allow one to utilize the Ru better and there are methods that would also allow him to accumulate more Ru."

"From the methods of accumulating Ru are digestion, dissipation, blessing, cursing, direct impact, teaching, understanding, prayers and etc., as for better utilization there exists methods such as comprehending techniques, training the techniques in combat and teaching the technique. "

"Note that there may be other methods for better utilization and accumulation, but we don't know them here in our world they are only known to the outer cosmos."

One of the trainees raised their hand and Mr. Gamry told them to put it down.

"You are going to ask about the 'cosmos', right?" the trainee nodded.

"If you read ancient documents, you often hear about other worlds that we know nothing about places uncharted by us, but there may be other beings there, far mightier and stronger than us."

"Some of the highest royal families in our world are mere weak descendants of those outer beings' lineages and their weakness made them stay here in our world."

"The gods that you hear a lot about and that a lot of the commoners praise the goodwill of are not as good as you think, they are using the belief of the commoners to enhance their Ru levels by leaps and bounds."

We were all collectively surprised.

"How do you know that?!" one of the trainees shouted.

"I have been praying for god Argon my whole life!" Another one joined him.

"Lord Argon is certainly an expert like no other, he has knowledge of the Ru that is wider than our knowledge, but he doesn't give you power nor Knowledge," Mr. Gamry sighed "every prayer you say to him has a connection to him and that connection takes around 0.05 uor from your current Ru reserve and grants it to him."

We all seemed confused.

"When you reach his power, you will understand this more clearly."

"Anyways before I continue explaining the power levels, does any of you know about triangulation?"

Triangulation??...