I woke up the next morning to banging on my room door.
“Hey Hiro you there! Shouted a voice from the other side of the door.
I stumbled and fell off my bed as the banging and shouting woke me from a dead sleep. I quickly got to my feet and walked groggily to the door. I opened it and seen Griz standing there.
“Get ready let’s go” she said and she turned and walked away towards the stairs. I grabbed the bag of vel that was on the desk, that was the only thing I had anyways. I walked out the room closed the door and ran after Griz. She was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me.
“Where to first Griz?” I asked while still trying to wake up.
I need to make a quick stop at Jays and pick up my arrows” she said. Oh crap I totally forgot that I was going to work with Jay today, hopefully he will understand when I get there, I’ll just have to explain what happened. We left Zeke’s and walked to the armory, when we entered Jay welcomed us.
“Griz, your arrows are ready, Hiro there repaired them. Also Hiro, hurry up and get behind the counter work starts now”
“Morning Jay” I said nervously.
“I know that we agreed to the me working here but Griz was going to show me around, you know with me being new to the town and not knowing what’s around here, would it be ok if I sort of missed work for today?” I said
Jay looked and me and then looked back to Griz with a smirk on his face.
“Oh...I see.....of course Hiro, let Griz SHOW YOU AROUND” he said with a wink as if he was hinting towards us doing some type of of uh....extra curricular activities. I just smiled in agreement with him. He handed the arrows and quiver that I fixed the day before and he also handed the new triangular shaped arrows to Griz.
“Try these out Griz, let me know what you think of them, Hiro there designed them and I wanted to know if they work before I invest any more time making them.” Griz took 10 of the arrows from Jay. We walked out of the shop and then Griz asked.
“So Hiro where do you want to start? For introductions we can go the the Training Area for weapons and close combat, for magic we can go the the Mana School.”
“Hmmm what do you recommend?” I asked her.
“Well I’m not much for magic, I stick to my trusty bow and arrow and when that doesn’t work I have my dagger for hitting the gobs.” She pulled her dagger and made a stabbing motion in the air.
“Well I’d like to try my hand at a bit of everything, so let’s go to the Mana school first.”
“Fine whatever........sissy magic users” she mumbled the last part.
I laughed and followed behind her as we walked to the Mana school. I couldn’t help but look at her waist and hips swaying as she walked. She walked with elegance and confidence I was honestly just consumed in beauty. I wasn’t paying attention, Griz stopped walking and I walked right into her. She turned and glared at me as she said
“Here’s the sissy school, er I mean mana school, let me introduce you to the old geezer” she said.
Wow she must not like magic users, I thought to myself.The building resembled a small church, with glass panes all around the building, it didn’t look like much from the outside and the inside didn’t look much better as well, there were books lining the walls with some tables in the middle for study I assumed. There was a small area for training with some wooden dummies, some people were already training, some throwing fire balls and some shooting streams of water.
“Hey Connie!” Griz yelled out.
An old lady made her way to us, she looked about 5 feet tall and super old, not sure how old but I could guess that she was well....ancient. Back in my world we would make a joke like, “your so old you sat next to -insert god- in kindergarten” I laughed at my thoughts. She was wearing purple robes with some gold necklaces. She had a staff with her, the height of the staff was a couple inches taller than her and was made from some twisted and warped wood. It seemed to be pulsing with energy. The same type of energy that was in the mist around the world.
“Hello there again Griz” the old lady said
“Did you finally learn some manners and come back to apologize to us?” Connie said with a smile.
“Hell no you old bat!” Griz snarled
“Well, you will learn sometime, anyways, who’s your boyfriend?” Connie said to Griz. Grizs face turned red as she looked at me.
“He’s not my boyfriend you blind old lady, he’s new here in town and works for Jay, he asked me to show him the basic of magic and fighting, he wanted to come here first so here we are.” She crossed her arms and glared at the old lady.
“Well then boy, what’s your name”
“I’m Hiro and I want to see what kind of magic is possible”.
“Nice to meet you Hiro, I will show you the basics of magic and how it works, it does have it limits though or I would have taught missy here some manner already” she laughed and poked Griz with her staff. Griz was annoyed at her.
“You two go ahead I’m gonna go test the arrows on the wooden dummies there.” Griz walked towards the dummies, pushed one of the trainees out of the way, took one of the triangular arrows out of the quiver, knocked the arrow pulled back and let loose.
“Follow me Hiro.” Connie said. I followed her towards the one of the tables, she pulled out a golden book from the shelf, laid it on the table opened up and then said.
“Mana is everywhere, it flows through all of us, we are all connected by it, it’s what gives us life and and when our life is over it is returned to the world. But mana is what also hold us to this world, the density of mana pushes down on us from the heavens above, the higher you go towards the heavens the more it pushes down on us. We can also bend it to our will, we can channel different elements with practice, and use it any way we want, you must feel the energy flowing through you, some people feel a tingling sensation and others feel a burning sensation.”
Then I thought to myself “so that’s what the mist is around the world, is just super dense mana, and she said that it pushes down on us and hold us here, I’m guessing that the mana exerts some sort of pressure to keep us on this world. The gravity feeling I got when falling towards the world was actually the mana pushing me down.
“Now that I’ve explained the basic principle of it I can show some basic spells, first you must feel the pool of mana that’s within you, imagine the mana flowing up and down your arms into your hands. Once you feel the mana, give it some character, an element of your choosing. You must see it in your mind and will the mana to take its shape. Once you have the feeling and it’s fully visualized. Push the mana out of your hands”
Suddenly a jet of fire erupted from Connies hands, it startled me I wasn’t expecting a jet of fire, I was imagining a puff of fire coming out from her hands.
“The possibilities are limitless with mana, the only limit is your imagination” Connie said with a smile, she seen the wonder in my eyes as she was explaining it to me. Connie showed me a couple more spells, some time later we finished up and we walked to the front of the school where Griz was waiting for me.
“Bout time you finish Hiro, lets go and check out the real school” Griz threw a dirty look to Connie, Connie just smiled at her and waved.
“Come back soon Hiro” Connie said.
“I definitely will Connie, I really appreciate the lessons” I waved and walked away with Griz. I looked at my stats as I was expecting some type of skill gain.
“Hurry up Hiro!” Griz shouted, I didn’t even notice she was getting further away from me. I ran to catch up. We stopped at a small building. There was and archery range on one side and the same looking wooden dummies on the other side.
“Darl!” Griz yelled at a man walking towards her. He was big and muscular, with long hair, resembling a barbarian from the RPG games, he had 2 short swords and he was outfitted in leather armor, he had a strange necklace of what looked to be sharp Teeth, possibly from monsters.
He smiled, “Grizelda how are you doing? Long time no see, you here for some more training?”
“No, I’m not here to train, I want you to meet Hiro here, he wants to learn the basics of weapons mind showing him around” Griz said.
“Sure any friend of Grizeldas is a friend of mine” Darl said.
“But first.....” he said as he drew both of his swords.
“Griz here owes me a rematch!”
Griz mouth cracked as it turned into a big smile.
“Your on!” She yelled.
Darl dashed at her, the strength of is feet pushing on the ground made holes in the dirt, both swords were dragging on the floor as he sped towards Griz. He leapt into the air and brought both swords above his head in attempt to smash the swords down upon Griz. Right as the swords were about to make contact with Griz, there was a flash of light and Griz seemed to teleport. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, did she really just disappear? The force of Darls swords hitting the floor sent shockwaves towards me, I was barely able to keep my balance as it seem like I was in heavy winds. A second later Griz appeared behind him kicked darls back used it as a platform to launched herself off him. She backflipped in the air and shot 3 arrows in quick succession, Ting! Ting! Ting! Darl turned around just in time to block the arrows before any damage was done. Darl bellowed a horrendous yell that sounded like bear. Suddenly his muscles swelled up and his muscular body was steaming, as if the energy that was radiating off him was boiling the moisture in the air. Griz landed and knocked 2 arrows at once. The tips of the arrows glowed and I started to hear a snapping and cracking. I looked closer at the arrows and seen electricity sparking off the tips. She released the arrows, the force of the arrows pushed Griz back a couple feet. The arrows flew towards Darl, I was trying to follow them as best as I could when suddenly ....... BOOM! The arrows disappeared, it sounded like the arrows broke the sound barrier. A second later there was another, CRACK! The sound was accompanied by another gust of wind, I covered my eyes trying to block the wind. When the wind died down I look at Darl, he was holding the swords in front of him in and X, the muscles in his arms and legs were bulging as the arrows that Griz shot were pushing against his swords. Darl started to yell and growl as he was being pushed back by the arrows. His energy was radiating even more, this time it felt like waves of energy hitting me, he was finally able to get the upper hand on the arrows he was started to take a couple steps forward. With a final grunt he swung his swords to the side along with the arrows, the arrow flew in opposite directions and smashed into the ground. The arrows looked like they went into the floor a couple inches. Electricity was sparking off the end of the arrow shaft.
“Ok, ok that’s enough Darl said” He put his swords and and walked towards Griz.
“That was awesome Griz, the shot was stronger than last time, you must be training a lot.” Daryl said.
“Actually those were arrows that Hiro here designed, I mean I added my electricity to it but the force of the arrows came from Hiro here” Griz said with a smile.
Wait were the arrows I made really that strong? I thought to myself. I’ll have to scan them when I get a chance.
“Well now that we had a rematch let’s get to our friend Hiro here, so what can I help you with? Give me some info about you.” Darl said with open arms
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Well my name is Hiro Wolfe, I don’t have any combat or magic experience, I kind of just want to get a feel for what kid of weapons are out there.”
Darl rubbed his chin “hmm well there tons of weapons out there, each one takes time to learn, but the basics are these. Sword, axe, mace, dagger, spear, bow. Of course swords branch off into other types like long sword, short sword, 1 handed sword, 2 handed sword etc. I don’t want to bore you with the info, just remember stats for weapons aren’t everything just cause your strength stat is high doesn’t mean you will be stronger, weapons need a balance of strength, speed and dexterity. Skills also need to be honed to be effective with the weapons. Pick up a sword and start swing it around, let me know how it feels”
I picked up a short sword from the weapons shelf. As I looked at the weapon I scanned it.
Iron short sword:
Damage 10-12
I also took the opportunity to scan Darl.
Name: Darl
Class: Common Berserker
Rank: Gaurd
Alignment: Neutral
Strength: 37
Dexterity: 31
Mental: 10
Health 482
Mana: 372
Stamina: 382
Holy crap! I thought to myself, he’s a berserker. That’s what the radiating aura was, it must have been one of his berserker skills. His strength isn’t as high as I thought it would be. After I choose what kind of weapon I want to use I need to figure out this stat system.
“Go take a couple of swings at the training dummy.” Darl said while pointing at the dummies. I looked around real quick and grabbed two of the daggers as well. I walked towards the dummies with the sword in one hand and the dagger in another. When I reached them I put the daggers on the floor and brought the sword up waist high, I gripped the hilt with other hand and took a swing at the dummies, the sword bounced off the wooden l dummy and sent a tingling sensation down my arms that hurt like hell. The stinging made me lose my grip and I dropped the sword. Darl and Griz started laughing at me.
“Hahaha it never gets old seeing the shock in people’s faces when they just start out hahahaha” Darl said while clenching his stomach and pointing at me.
My face turned red in embarrassment. I ruined my opportunity to impress Griz, I thought to myself. I picked up the sword and tried again. I swung the sword in an overhead chopping motion and the sword struck the dummy. It bounced off again, only this time I didn’t lose my grip, the stinging sensation was still there but not as bad. After what seemed like 30 minutes swinging the sword at the dummies my arms felt heavy. I no longer feel the stinging sensation when hitting the dummy and I actually managed to chip it a couple times. Then a window popped up.
Sword proficiency: level 2
“Hey!” I shouted in excitement. “I’m level 2 in sword proficiency!”
Darl and Griz both clapped.
“That’s good Hiro, congrats the lower levels come easy but the the higher the level the harder it is to advance, level 80 is considered a master. Most people don’t even reach that. My proficiency in swords is 27, when I hit 27 I realized I was able to dual wield and started building that skill, my current dual wielding skill is 29. I’ve been at it for years, of course I don’t take training as serious as I used to when I was younger so I decided to become a trainer for the younger generation of travelers.” That sounds just like any RPG I ever played, I thought it myself. I picked up the daggers and tried to hit the wooden dummy. I went for a quick stab to the dummies stomach, the tip of the dagger went in a bit. There wasn’t a radiating pain with this one.
“Want to try any other weapons Hiro” Darl said.
“No I think I’m ok for today, I do have some questions to ask though if that’s ok with you?” I replied
“Sure, fire away l” Darl said.
“While you guys talk I’m gonna go train on one of the dummies” Griz said. She walked to the dummy and started firing arrow after arrow.
“What do I need to do to increase my strength, health and mana stats, also how do I get skills?” I asked him.
Darl stared at me for along moment “Not sure how you survived this long without even knowing the basics of life kid, but I guess I’ll entertain you. Health is gained by increasing Strength, Dexterity and Mental attributes. Strength is increased by doing physical work, strength effects everything, you can’t even wield some weapons without enough strength. Mana works the same as health, pretty much think of them as muscles, you work out the muscles then yougain muscle. Oh and stamina, it allows you go pass your limits while it drains, you get really strong or fast while using stamina, once it drains out you become fatigued till it regains. When Griz flashed after my initial Charge she used stamina and mana she used a skill called Flash Step. Extremely useful but extremely costly. Same with me, when I was blocking her arrows I was able to use my stamina to keep up with her skill. Skills work a little differently, they consume a bit of mana but they grow on their own, you can have low stats but high skill level, of course the skill would be more powerful with higher stats but being efficient at a skill is extremely deadly. Don’t make the mistake of judging someone by their stats alone, they might have crazy skill proficiency. Grizs lighting arrows that she shot at me is a good example. It’s a wickedly strong skill but her stats are average. But it’ll kill most people. So Hiro have you decided what weapon you want to use?”
I stood their thinking everything over that Darl told me. “No, not yet I still have to think a bit, it’s starting to get a little late and I want to head back to the armory for a bit to talk to Jay”
“Ok sounds good Hiro, need any help with anything else or you want to spar, you know where to find me” Darl said
I grimaced at the thought of Darl smashing me with his berserk skill “ok will do Darl!” I shouted and stared to walk towards the armory. Man it would be awesome to have a gun in this world, but I don’t think they have the means to make that here, not sure if the laws of the “Constructors” would even allow it. I don’t really like the mage type fighting either, even though casting massive spells looks cool. I need to gain health by increasing strength and dexterity. Being a mage wouldn’t be good as they are usually glass cannons. Sword and axe wielders sounds cool but I don’t think I have what it takes to do that besides I like magic as well. I stared up at the sky while in deep thought. “I got it!” Shouted and ran towards the armory. Reached the door pushed it open and said “Jay can you make something for me please? I’ll work for free for the next day or two to pay for it.”
“Hey Hiro! Uhh ya sure, although you don’t need to work for free, those arrowheads I made earlier sold really well, almost double for them over the normal arrows” Jay grabbed some parchment and the charcoal. I drew up what I wanted and showed him.
“How fast can you make them? I want to start training as soon as possible.” I said in excitement.
“Well it’s relatively simple to make, I’ll have them ready in about 2 hours.” Jay said while staring at the parchment,
“Perfect, that gives me enough time to run to the Mana school and talk to Connie” I ran out the door and and headed towards the mana school, this is a perfect time to try my stamina. I pushed myself to run as fast as I could, suddenly I felt adrenaline pumping through my veins as if someone opened the flood gate, time seemed to slow a bit and I noticed my stamina was draining. I reached the mana school faster than I thought I would have. I was gasping and out of breath when I reached the door. My stamina was draining at 10 points per second. I’m guessing stamina is the equivalent to adrenaline from my world, that’s pretty cool to be able to use adrenaline on demand. At this level I can only use it for 1 second before I become fatigued. Being at such a low level sucks, I need to get stronger. I entered the school and immediately made my way to Connie.
“Hey Connie” I said still trying to catch my breath.
“Can you teach me the basics for electricity?”
“I sure can handsome” Connie said, it made me feel kind of awkward.
“Come here” she said, we made our way to the training dummies.
“So what exactly do you want to know about it?” Connie said with a smile
“I want to learn how to channel it in short burst, I don’t want to shoot lighting or anything just need to know to to make a small and condensed shock.
“Why would you want to do that? Doesn’t seem like it’ll be of any use if you can’t shoot it. But owell, you youngsters and your weird ideas.” she channeled a small amount of mana to her hand and a small electric shock came out in a loud “bzzzzt” sound.
“Like that?” She asked with a curious look on her face.
“Yes exactly just like that” I said
“Ok well, you feel the mana surge inside you. Guide it to your hands, imagine the characteristics of electricity, feel the power and give it shape. Instead of letting it pour out of your hands let it build into a ball, quickly push it out and then close the gate.” Connie said.
“Ok I think I understand.” I felt the flow of mana trailing to my hands. Imagined a bolt of lightning being sucked into a ball, I pushed it out of my hand then stopped the flow. A small crack came out of my hand.
“Good just like that, with training it’ll become stronger” Connie said.
Skill gained: lighting shock level 1: deals an electric shock for 4 damage.
Cost. 2 mana
I thanked Connie and ran out of the school. Crap I still have time before my weapons are ready. I guess I better stay here for a bit and train. I went back into the school and made my way to a wooden dummy.
“Back so soon Hiro, would you like me to teach you how to make a puff of air now?” She said while laughing.
I ignored her and walked up to the dummy. I put my hands on the dummy, imagined the mana flowing up to my hands and released the shock with a “bzzzt” sound comming from both hands. I noticed my mana drained by 4 points I still had 104 mana left, I tried it with one hand and only 2 points drained. So each shock takes 2 points of mana. Well that would make sense since I’m not hurling lighting, but this is perfect. That would allow me to train my skill a lot and my mana at the same time. An hour and a half later my mana was almost drained I was down to 20 mana but my “Lightning shock skill increased to 5” I was able to feel the power increase as I released the skill. I hurried back to jays to pick up my weapons. I was so excited I was activating my stamina without realizing it. I ran through the door as Jay was putting the finished touches on my weapons.
“Hey Hiro glad to see you, I finished a bit earlier than I thought. But are you sure this is what you want?” He said with a worried expression.
“Ya I’m sure Jay, thank you. How much do I owe you?”
“Eh just take them. It was interesting to make, simple but interesting. If they work out for you make sure you tell them that Jay made them. I’m not sure what they are for but your arrows were good so I’m sure these will serve some sort of purpose.” Jay said.
“Thanks Jay I owe you.” I grabbed them and ran back to the weapons training area. Griz was leaving the area already when she spotted me running towards her.
“Hiro. Where did you run off to, I started training and next thing I know you were gone. Darl said something about you running off to Jays or something.” Griz said.
“Ya I had Jay make me some weapons, I’m here to practice with them a bit.” I said.
“Oh ok. So what weapon did you choose?” Griz asked curiously.
I smiled and pulled out 2 gloves with metal studs on the knuckles and down the first joint of the fingers. I took the opportunity to scan them.
Leather gloves common
Attack 5 - 7
“Ok.....but where’s your weapon, gloves are cool and all but you need a weapon.” Griz said angrily.
“These are my weapons, from this day forward I will be a Pugilist.” I said while slipping the gloves on
“What the hell is a pugilist?” Griz said?
“You know like a boxer, or mma fighter” I said.
“A what?” Griz said with a confused look on her face.
Oh ya they don’t know what that is here, I thought to myself.
“Pretty much specializing in hand to hand combat, you know punches to the face, kicks to the stomach and head.”
Griz laughed at me and said “ok sure kid, knock yourself out.” she walked away while waving at me. God she’s so hot, I thought as I was staring at her backside while she was walking away. I walked up to the dummy, got in my best boxing stance and threw a right punch. I hit the wooden dummy with a thud and I felt some pain in my hand, I followed with a couple left jabs and connected with the dummies head. I felt the same pain in my left hand. After 20 minutes of trying it out I noticed a pop up.
Skill gained hand to hand level 1: increases damage of hand to hand combat by 0.75% per level.
Yes! Now to trying something else. I started jumping from left to right like a boxer, I rolled my head, put my fists up and then activated my stamina. I felt time slow a little bit and my engine began to roar. I swung at the dummy left, right, left. Thud thud thud! I looked at the wooden dummy and seen the imprints of my metal studs. I did it again and was happy with the results, the pain didn’t hurt as much as I was expecting and I was doing more damage than I was without the hand to hand skill. I continued the same pattern for an hour.
Skill increased - hand to hand level 3: increases damage of hand to hand combat by 0.75% per level.
Current damage increase 2.25%
Strength increased from 6- 7
Dexterity increased from 6 -7
Health increased from 90 - 115
I looked at the message and notice my strength increased. I guess actually hitting something is physically exhausting, and my dexterity went up as well. I did feel like I was able to punch a bit faster. This I great I’ll be able to get stronger in no time.
“Now to try and put it all together” I said to myself.
I bounced again, put my fists up and channeled my mana and activated my stamina at the same time. When my mana was at my hands I threw a strongright punch and activated electric shock again. Crack!
“It worked!” The damage on the dummy was pretty decent it left smoking imprints of the studs from my gloves.
Skilled gained - Electric Impact level 1: increase damage by 1.5 points per level.
Cost. 4 mana per second.
Wait what, I can combine it into a skill? I thought in amazement. I tried it again, this time using the new skill. It was a lot faster than Concentrating on using them all at once. It’s almost as if the skill saved the sensations and activated everything at the same time. I was happy with the results, it was getting late anyways I needed to head back to the bar for the night. When I got to the bar I seen Griz there, I ordered the same plate of food and room for the night, after I finished eating I was about to make my way up to the the room for the night.
“Hiro” Griz said.
“What made you choose a pugilist class?”
“Well I once had a dream where I was in my house and there was this guy there, I tried to fight him. I was punching him with everything I had. In my dream my punches were moving lightning fast, I was swinging out of fear and anger.” I held up my hands “Now I want to fight with these to protect and save people.” Griz smiled at me, pat me on the back and said “your ok kid.” I smiled at her and walked up to the bedroom for the night, I laid back down on my bed and thought to myself. “This.....this is where my journey to be a hero begins”
“Ava!” Yelled one of the constructors.
“Yes Rongrik?” Ava replied.
“What is this file doing in my simulation? The base file is from the other constructors simulations. Why is it here?” Rongrik asked.
“I moved his file there, the file was supposed to be destroyed but do to unseen circumstances I was not able to dispose of him at the current time. So I transferred his file to your simulation. If you’d like I can remove his file and dispose of it.” Ava replied.
“No no, this is actually interesting, I’ve ran this simulation millions of times before and the outcomes have usually been the same, this is intriguing. He’s influencing some of the native files. The outcome might change this time. I’d like to see how this ends.”
“Ok Rongrik, if you’d excuse me I need to dispose of some other files to free up space.” Ava replied.
“How many files do you have?” He asked
“About 23000” she said
“Send over a couple more, this is sparking my interest again in this competition we constructors are having. The possibilities are endless. I need them now Ava.” Rongrik said.
“I’ll send them over right away” Ava left in a flash.
“Hmm.....what will you do......” he opened the file to see his name “Mark”