Chapter 18 – New Training Style III
Daniel and Bryn went to the parkour training ground again. It was far enough, so nobody would bother them, but close enough for them to come back should the need arise.
"Bryn, first things first. I need to see what you know about handling your weapon. Please, attack me with all you have."
Without hesitation, Bryn answered.
"Sir."
Taking the short sword out of the sheath, he stored the sheath near a tree and faced his teacher.
"Come on, with everything you have…"
Bryn analyzed his teacher before attacking, he tried to find the best way to go about it, but the relaxed expression on Daniel's face was uninspiring.
He decided to go for it. The short sword, a bit bigger than his forearm, was held backward in his right hand. One step at a time, he approached his enemy. Remembering everything from Earth, he threw a jab to measure their distance. His reach was much shorter than Daniel's, so by the time his jab landed, Daniel counter-slapped him.
"I won't hurt you… Go on."
Trusting his teacher, he went all out. Trying to use the taekwondo moves combined with some slashing from the new sword, he delivered a combo in Daniel's direction.
The difference in experience and agility was noticeable. Daniel only needed a few precise movements to evade every attack.
After the fifth strike missed his target, Daniel complimented.
"Nice and fierce movements. No one would believe you are a level one if they saw you fighting. Be careful not to exhaust yourself, fighting isn't like training, the objective is not to reach and supersede a previous limit. You are here to outlast your enemy."
"Yes, sensei!", he yelled and his face flushed red. He felt like he was inside an anime and yelled Sensei.
Each strike, a new miss. While trying his best, he remembered famous breathing from the earth, one inward and one outward with every movement. He also started to stutter step constantly.
Little by little his moves got sharper. Daniel was impressed by the rate of improvement. There was a long time since he had taught anyone, but Bryn had a future.
"Remember, you are a faun. You can't simply copy moves you saw other people doing. The stronger you get; you will distance yourself from humans and other species at the same level. You only have 8 status points per level, so save every stamina you have, every strength, everything. If your opponent is stronger but gets tired before you, you can take people or creatures of much higher level."
"Yes sir."
After a few more minutes of the experience, Daniel told Bryn to stop. The faun was dripping in sweat all over. The fur in his legs was heavy.
"You take a few minutes and drink a bit of water to recover. Meanwhile, I'll take questions, do you have any?"
"I do, is there a better way to fight stronger opponents?"
"Each person has their style of fighting Bryn. In the future, you might face similar fighters from the army of some schools, but even then, they will have their twist to the teachings. Some styles focus on defense more than others. I don't know any of those. I learned in the army and perfected what I knew towards attacking." Said Daniel, handing him the canteen.
"How do I level up?"
"You level up by experience. You gain experience the most by killing things, animals, people, beasts, demi-humans, magical creatures… The only things that don't give you experience are plants…"
"How were my movements, do I need to focus on anything specific?"
"Hahahah, you must focus on your fundamentals. Footwork, simple attack moves, and breathing. But it was your first day, you'll get the hang of it. Now come, time for another round."
While the two went on, round after round with no end, Kwame, Zara and Amelia came back to the camp.
"I can't believe you made me work so much, Kwame. You even had me, and Amelia, chase those damn goblins to guarantee the entire reward."
"Of course, my dear, you are much faster than I am. How were we supposed to get them without your speed?"
"Stop complaining Zara, you only had to deal with the ones that ran away, what about me who had to kill all of those who got near us? I hate goblins the most, what I hate is the look in their eyes. They go crazy every time there is a woman present."
"Calm down, girls, it was a good and honest job."
As they approached the campsite, Kwame realized that the main camp's fire was still up, even though the sun had set a few hours ago already.
"Prepare for combat, do not let your guard down."
Both ladies readied their weapons, awaiting an ambush or an incoming strike.
Upon raiding the tent, Thrain almost got scared to death.
"What are you three doing? You are planning to kill me?"
"WE ASK YOU THE SAME THING, LITTLE MAN." Screamed the cat lady.
"It is late, what is your fire doing on?" said Kwame.
"Late? The sun is out, and Daniel has not returned to have dinner yet…"
"Thrain, the sunset a long time ago. Are you sure you are, ok?"
"Ahh, how much time did I spend on the forge then? I just can't get the materials to behave the way I need them to."
"You are a dwarf. You forgot camp rules because you were using your forge? Miau, hahaha"
"Stop bothering me and go find Daniel and the faun. I need the kid to check a few things…"
"I'll go find them, Zara, you relax and enjoy our tent."
"I'll join you, Amelia," said Kwame.
Both followed Thrain directions and in a few moments could see Daniel walking slowly to the camp.
"Hello guys, how was the goblin quest?"
"It was fine, you should have seen Zara's face as she hunted the runners. And you, what are you doing away with the faun child?" asked Amelia while she caressed Bryn's hair in the middle of his horns.
Tilting his head sideways, Daniel replied, "We were training, and he went out after a few hours."
"Let me guess, you are starting to realize the kid has potential?"
"Kwame, you should have seen us today. His way of training allowed me to improve two of my skills and unlock a new one without that much effort. I can only wonder what would be like if I increased the intensity to match my reality. You guys should train with us tomorrow."
"Wait a moment, you are telling me that YOU improved and not that his rate of improvement was unusual?"
"Why would his rate of improvement be strange? He has a low level on every skill still…" Amelia asked, looking at the sleeping faun's face as he snored.
"Anyway, explain, Daniel."
"I don't have much to explain, he just used different methodologies than I have ever seen. He tried to combine all physical and mobility training in sets of moves, that way you can train it all in one go and gain time. But he had a ritual at the beginning that was horrible for us, Zara might be the only one able to do it easily. Something called stretching, I hated it."
"I would love to join this cute thing tomorrow!"
"Amelia, we are talking about training and not about petting him…" As he finished, Amelia touched her index fingers together repeatedly and answered. "I know that…"
"Tomorrow we'll receive the grain's delivery at the camp, so we can all join you two in the morning. But it still doesn't explain why he is asleep at your back so late in the evening…"
"In the afternoon I decided to teach him sword mastery and may have gotten a little carried away…"
"He is still a kid, Daniel."
"I know that, Kwame, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
"Good, now let's go back."
The three of them went back to the camp, while Daniel put Bryn to bed, the others joined for dinner. Kwame told everyone how the quest went and reminded them that tomorrow was their last day here. They would have to cross the valley before winter, and so the calendar was a little tight.
Morning came and Bryn's body was sore. He had never exhausted his strength in that way. At the end of the day, now hit every came close to touching his newfound teacher.
Leaving his tent for breakfast, he greeted the cooks and the others outside the main tent. When Kwame heard his voice, he went to the outside to meet the young faun.
"Good morning, everyone. Hello Bryn, how are you?"
"Mr. Kwame, I'm fine, thank you for asking. How are you?"
"Great as well. I was told you and Daniel are getting along…"
"We are! He is helping me become stronger and is interested in the mobility training I do every day, sir."
"You don't have to call me sir, child. But I would like to join you today, it's been a long time since I last had a training session, do you mind?"
"The more, the merrier." Said Bryn, but as he smiled, he thought ["wtf is happening, I'm a level one and these people want to join me for training… That is not how I imagined things."]
After a piece of bread and a few berries, Bryn was ready to start his routine. Looking back, he saw Kwame, Amelia, and Daniel all staring in the eyes.
"Okay everyone… The first step of the training is stretching. Daniel tried it yesterday, so I'll focus on you two. The first step is…"
As the class went on, Amelia proved to have a much more flexible body when compared to Kwame or Daniel. The man had their difficulties but were able to follow along. At the end of the session, Bryn received three notifications, that completely froze him in place.
– Skill Acquired –
Streching LVL. 1 (90%)
– Title Acquired –
Grasshopper
– Title Acquired –
The First of Many
["Appraisal"]
– Skill Description –
Streching LVL. 1 (90%)
Fluidity is the basis of mobility. A person in perfect control of their body can achieve anything. – Bonus for learning physical and mobility skills +5%. Every 3 levels +1 dexterity.
– Title Description –
Grasshopper
Title reserved for those who can teach others stronger than him.
People say the best way to improve your skill is by teaching it to others.
Bonus for learning ability while teaching +5% for yourself and +5% for your students.
– Title Description –
The First of Many
Title reserved for the first of any race to acquire a new title to their race.
As a reward for going further than your race had gone, you have extra chances to develop individual skills.
Looking at the spacing out faun in front of them, Amelia asked, "Bryn, are you ok?"
"I'm ok, thank you… I just never thought you guys were seriously learning anything from this…"
"I told you I was interested in your training yesterday; do you take me as someone who wastes time?" Asked Daniel.
"No, Mr. Daniel, but I also didn't expect to get a title out of it…"
The three looked at each other and appraised the faun. They had never seen either of those titles before. Nor had they heard about them.
Humans were the species with the biggest number of representatives, it might be impossible for a human to achieve The First of Many. The other one, was because they only considered strength from the status of high skill levels, but the second group was usually part of the first. Also, in other skills like artesian jobs, the one teaching was usually stronger than the learned, so it made sense for them not to know anyone with it.
Still, like blessings, one could not read the title's Descriptions.
"Congratulations, Bryn, you are taking more steps to achieving whatever it is you desire. We shall postpone our leave to tomorrow at sunrise and have a feast in your name." Said Kwame while raising the young faun in the air.
"Congratulation's Bryn! Are those good titles?" Asked Daniel.
"Yes, they are, one of them could help us all."
"What do you mean?"
"I now offer an additional bonus for your learning abilities when I'm the one explaining the method. At least that is what I understood from it."
"I'll never leave your side!" Screamed Amelia while hugging the faun, squeezing him in her chest.
Daniel was fast at separating the two of them while complementing. "Kwame, if you get benefits from today's training, I would like to propose we all join Bryn's routine daily."
"Let's see what you can offer our party, young Bryn…" said Kwame in a challenging manner.