Chapter 16: Goals

“That was very romantic.” Arthur smiles as we walk towards the training grounds.

“Shut up.” I sigh as I look up at the sky, “The situation was just so messed up. Arthur, I almost died.”

“Yes. It was because you were negligent. If you would have focused, you wouldn’t have lunged and you wouldn’t have been unprepared even if you did fall.”

“You’re right.” I lower my head and ball my hands in to fists, “That’s why I need to become stronger, so nothing like that ever happens again.”

“Well, it’s good that you are motivated to become stronger… but there’s a limit that you will hit if you go in to it with motivation that weak.”

“Weak? I want to be strong enough to protect everything close to me.”

“That’s average level motivation. You will hit a peak if you think of it like that, but it isn’t a bad way to get a little push in the right direction. You need an end goal.”

“End goal? Hm.” I keep my head down and Arthur hits my back with his hand, I nearly stumble forwards.

“Don’t think too hard! It’ll only hurt you in the end, just keep it in mind later when things get rough again.” Arthur opens the door to the training area and we walk in. “Today, I want you to try and master Accelerate”

“I thought you said that was still a ways off?” I tilt my head as I pick up a familiar training spear, it feels lighter than normal.

“You had a fortunate encounter… or should I say unfortunate? Either way, you had a small insight in to what your view on magic is. If we can solidify that today, you will breeze through your travels to the Capital. By the way, the only reason I had issues was because I was forced to travel during monster mating season.” Arthur sighs as he puts on a helmet for training.

“Why are you suiting up so much?” I swing my spear around to get the feel for it back.

“Because of the nature of your magic, I don’t have much time to react, and as you aren’t quite sure how to control it I have to be careful.” Arthur tightens a strap on his chest plate, “I may be a member of the Royal Guard, but if I’m standing still and just taking full power blows with magic, my life is in danger too you know?”

“I guess that makes sense. You are still human… I think.” I move away from Arthur and get in to stance, “How should I do this? You know… use magic?”

“Use it. It is simple, if you know how. Remember what you learned last night when you felt the healing magic repairing you. Forget the pain that went with it, if you can.” Arthur moves back and gets in to a fighting stance.

I close my eyes and remember the feeling of magic. The flowing through my body. My blood mixing with the magic, letting it function.

I feel the magic flow through me and I open my eyes, holding on to the feeling of magic in and around me. I lunge towards Arthur with my mind focusing on speeding up.

I feel the same sensation of Accelerate as Arthur moves out of the way.

“Good job.” Arthur claps his hands. “On your first try after a long time of rest. If I wasn’t prepared, I may have been stabbed through the heart, your aim was precise and you were focused… however.”

“However?” I tilt my head as I let the spear’s tip rest on the ground, my breathing a little heavy.

“You focused your magic for too long. If you focus your magic for that long, you should have moved much faster. You are inefficient with your use of magic. Try to just use it instantly.” Arthur readies up once more, “Try again and remember: there is no such thing as casting time. If your mind can handle it, Accelerate can be used instantly and forever.”

I nod my head and try again, the time it took me to prepare myself for Accelerate getting shorter and shorter.

The day passed, many breaks later, and some food, I was able to instantly use Accelerate.

“Ha!” Arthur laughs loudly as I continue to move faster than I would normally be able to. “You should now be careful you don’t get stuck in Accelerate, because it is really hard to talk normally and people will know something is off. Everyone will use the magic at a different proficiency, so don’t be over confident.”

“Thank you for your teachings, Arthur.” I bow my head slightly, “I’m only taking from you and I’ve yet to give back. I’ll be sure to repay you some day.”

“No worries. No worries. With how much time you’ve spent here, treating me without respect, I almost see you as a friend.” Arthur smiles, pointing at a group of people in a spar. “Go join the group, knock all of them to the ground. It will be your true final test. Use Accelerate as much as you need. Remember, you will feel exhaustion at an accelerated pace as well, so be careful.” Arthur takes off his helmet, his hair slightly damp from sweating, “Oh yeah, try not to kill them, we need them for guard duty.”

As the red colored sky loomed above me, I slowly moved my body close to the group of guards. As someone notices me approach them, all of them stop sparring and bow slightly to me.

“Greetings Sir Phillip, what brings you to this side of the training field?” One of the guards stands up straight and respectfully asks.

“Please don’t call me ‘Sir’. I’m not a guard, nor am I someone with any sort of title. I just came over to see if I could spar with you guys.” I smile and look towards Arthur who had started to move back in to the building. “He told me my final test was to spar all of you at the same time and knock all of you to the ground.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“With all due respect Mr. Phillip… I have a wife I’d like to go back home to.” The guard lowers his head. “I am not confident that we can even come close to hurting you, even in a large group.”

“Well, this is probably as much as a test for you guys as it is for me. I was also given the instruction to not kill any of you. You guys should have faith in yourselves.” I smile as I move my spear in front of me. “You guys should get ready.”

Everyone nods as they start to surround me. Am I in over my head? I’ve just lunged at Arthur over and over… how am I even going to do this. If I lunge at them, they might die.

“Start!” One of the people behind me shouts and lunges towards me.

I use Accelerate and he suddenly moves at a snail’s pace. I grab his wooden training sword, discarding my spear. I can break their hands… right? Is that okay?

I tear the wooden sword from his hand and Accelerate cancels itself due to my lack of focus. The guard in training falls to the ground as he was off balance from me removing his sword suddenly.

Another person training with a spear rushes towards me and I activate Accelerate after taking a deep breath. I move towards him and disarm the spear using my sword. This is too easy.

Or so I thought before the rest of them rush me all at the same time. I guess I shouldn’t expect to just be able to one on one them the entire time. Four large guards in training rush at me with spears and swords.

With Accelerate still active, I wait for them to get close to me. I crouch under one of the spears and grab his arm with my free hand while I block another sword using mine. I turn and put the man’s arm on my shoulder, then lean forwards, tossing him over my head with a bit of effort.

He hits the other sword user and now one spear and one sword remains. I disarm the sword carefully with a quick flick of my wrist. The sword flies at the spear user and he raises his spear to block it. I throw my sword at the man’s feet, making him jump up in the air to dodge.

I move in front of him, put my hand on his chest and pin him to the ground as Accelerate cancels itself. I take heavy breaths as I feel the fatigue hit me.

I stand up straight and breathe heavily, nearly panting. It seems I have hit my limit for today… using magic so much. I’m really exhausted.

“Thank you for not… killing me…” One of the guards I disarmed shakes his wrist and stretches his hand. I think I was able to not injure them. That was really… really hard work.

I wave goodbye to the guards as they stand up slowly. They looked almost mortified. I quickly leave the scene and go towards Arthur’s office, only to find him standing outside.

“Good work. Now I have truly taught you everything I can right now. I was not expecting to be able to train you in magic so soon. I was expecting to have to wait until you returned from the Capital, and if you never returned, I’d assume you’d have found a better teacher.”

“Thank you Arthur. I will return eventually, I am unsure if I will be able to find a teacher better than you quickly.” I bow to ninety degrees. “I have no way to repay you. You have given me money, you have healed me. There’s nothing I have done for you.”

“I see.” Arthur nods his head, “If you want to repay me… don’t disappoint me. Here.” Arthur hands me a piece of paper when I stand back up. “This is the letter I would like delivered to my family. Their address is written on it and there is a stamp marking that I am a member of the Royal Guard. Show this to the guards at the gate and they will let you in without a single complaint.”

“Yes sir!” I salute to Arthur and smile, “I will deliver this letter as soon as possible and return to you with their response… whatever it is.”

“Yes, yes.” Arthur nods, “Now go get some rest and prepare for your journey to the Capital. I have a feeling you will like it more there. The people are nicer and the food there is more delicious. However, the criminals are stronger and the groups are larger. Be careful not to offend anyone. Whatever you do, do NOT offend the prince. You will die so many times you would wish you could escape.”

“You know how I was when I met you. I can pull a respectful façade if I need to.” I sigh as I look around, “I will miss training here though. I am proud of the strength I have gotten here.”

“Oh yeah. Don’t think you are all that because you have learned a bit of magic. You have learned the most basic of basics at a relatively normal speed considering the circumstances. I can see your potential, but you are average right now. Do not grow cocky from a false sense of security. You are weak, let your near death experience remind you that you are not invincible and if you forget,” Arthur looks at me seriously, “You won’t end with just a near death experience.”

“I know. My level has only risen to ninety-five. I don’t know what the max level might be, but I have a feeling that I am at the bottom still.”

“Max level?” Arthur furrows his brows, “I can’t say for sure if there is one. What I do know is that, yes, you are at the bottom. I myself am very far from the top. The top is something that only those born with luck and privilege can experience. I was not lucky enough. I will show you something I have figured out.” Arthur takes off the armor on his arm and shows me a gold colored assistant.

“Gold?” I look at it with narrowed eyes, wouldn’t that be super heavy if it was made from pure gold? I doubt it is… but still.

“Of course it isn’t made of gold, only colored that way, it weighs less than yours. No, that’s not what matters. Look at this:”

Name: Arthur Cunningham

Age: 48

Race: Human

Height: 6 feet 9 inches (206 cm)

Current Occupation: Royal Guard

Level: 0 (BLUE)

“See, my level is zero, but it is a different color, it has been this way for a couple years, no matter what I do, I cannot seem to get it to change to a one.”

“It’s blue.” I close my eyes and take a deep breath, “Mine is white still, but it doesn’t say (WHITE) beside it like how yours says (BLUE).”

“I thought the same thing when it changed over, back to zero. I panicked a little at first, because there is supposedly a curse where your level is actually reset to zero and you will lose all your strength, but that doesn’t matter.” Arthur sighs, “When I hit what I thought was the max level I decided to continue hunting, to continue training. It suddenly rolled over to blue. Why? I don’t know, but this means there is more. There is a higher ‘Top’.”

“So…” I lean against the wall, “You have no idea how high a person can go?”

“I’ve never seen any other person around here with a blue number… but I have also been here in Innisgrale for a long time as well. Phillip, just because you don’t know how high you can go, doesn’t mean you should stop reaching for the top.”

“Stop reaching?” I start to laugh loudly, “If you tell me there is no end to this, I will go on forever! I will reach the peak even if it kills me! I will reach and reach until I can see the top! Then I will climb over the top!”

“You sound like you have a screw loose, laughing like that.” Arthur looks at me with concerned eyes.

“I might… I just might. A game where the goal is unknown, but it appeals to the explorer in everyone. An unknown peak, a massive world that we don’t know the end of.” I start to walk towards the exit, “Arthur! Next time you see me, I want to try actually fighting you!”

Arthur starts to laugh as I walk away. As I am about to walk out the final door, I hear a shout from far away.

“I accept your challenge Phillip Tethers! I hope you can prepare yourself enough so that I don’t have to hold back!”

I smile as I leave the guard tower for what might be a long amount of time.  It seems my next goal has been set.

Become stronger than Arthur Cunningham of the Royal Guard.