Gary followed the weapon shop owner into a backroom with a forge and some other interesting things, then down a staircase into a circular white tiled room with white tiled walls and while tile ceiling along with white pillers. Gary had started to take note of lights and shadows when entering a new area, but there was nothing here.
'Weapon Shop Owner', the A.I. was inexplicably a little stunned by the rock knives that Gary laid out. Gary checked his messages while Weapon Shop Owner inspected them.
External Message from Cassandra_Neuroscience
Oh. I'm so sorry. I don't play all that many games. I called off the repair team, but I'm still going to check you over to make sure the class you picked isn't hiding or exacerbating something.
About logging out. You should understand things have changed a lot while you have been sleeping. A lot of people actually choose a life not to different from yours and never return to the real world. It's normal to never physically be at most jobs and many people these days sometimes choose to put their bodies in indefinite stasis because they don't need a real body. You should understand what you really want might be something you can get online in better quality these days. The world has changed a lot.
Now, I need to tell you at some point. You aren't ever going to logg out. I'm so sorry. I wish I had better news. Your body was very very old and weak. These was an operation about 14 years ago that saved you life, but it's left your physical brain in a delicate position and there really isn't much left of your body. It can sometimes be traumatic for people to learn about dangerous events that have already passed, but it is important to focus on what is here and now and what is real.
Gary, please take a moment and look down at your body. That is your body. It exists in a game, but it still exists and you have control over it. It has a heart that will never fail and you will never need to sleep and miss out on anything again. If you are feeling stressed or anything, please let me know. Part of my job is to help you adjust.
Also a quick heads up. You should soon get a message from a friend of mine. He does some antique cataloging and might want your help. This could be really good for you.
I'll talk to you again soon Gary. Hope you are doing well.
"Everything alright, Gary?" Weapon Shop Owner broke Gary from his thoughts. "You look sad."
Gary did as the message said. He looked down at his body. It looked exactly like he remembered his body looking. He didn't feel traumatized or anything. Gary couldn't feel anything about it, but he did realize that he hadn't looked in a mirror. He didn't know if his face looked right.
"It's alright. What do you think of the knives?" Gary asked Weapon Shop Owner.
"I didn't know it was possible. I knew you could get accuracy one, but I thought zero would be something outside of normal game rules. I did considered getting some especially lower quality metal and made a few designs that would push the game to the limit to see if it could be done, but it just isn't worth the time and money to play around with it for fun or to have an interesting training tool for a quest that few people might ever take. Can I buy a few of these?"
Gary was going to chuck them at monsters for the hope of getting 3 or 4 copper. "Sure. I can make more if you want."
"Four will do. I don't think I will ever get four people after you to take this training quest, so it might be a waste, but this could be a big step for me. Especially if you pass. So I can offer you one silver coin each for these three," Weapon Shop Owner pointed unnaturally with two fingers on one hand and one from the other. "and also whatever dagger you pick and eventually finish my training with."
"You can just take them. It only took me a few minutes and a rock and we are friends," Gary picked up his dagger. Just the closest one. They all looked equally terrible to him.
"No way. Gary, you need to understand that for me this would cost much more and I still don't know if I could get one. Also you should know that trade generates wealth. I will be richer with four less coins because I need the rock daggers. You will be richer with four coins because you don't need the daggers. So overall the whole world is a little better if you make good deals regularly. You can't do that if you are giving things away."
Weapon Shop Owner took the knives and tossed the coins at Gary while he struggled to figure out where the extra wealth would come from. He took the coins.
"This quest is 15 hours, right?" Gary asked. He wasn't sure if he would put in that much time. He wasn't even sure he would keep the knife related class.
"Ha! Is that what they are saying about me. I'm a better trainer than they think, I should be able to do an average of 9 hours, but it depends on you. Maybe you can get done in a shorter time if you are really determined. Now stand like me."
Gary did his best to do the same pose.
"Wrong. You can't copy my leg distance that way. I have longer legs. Look at my feet, not the stone between them. The center of my foot is here not in the middle," He pointed with his dagger. "Yes. No. Yes. Look here. Left foot harder. Yes. Better. Don't flex. I am not flexing, I just have more mussels."
Somehow he was tracking Gary's eyes and when Gary would start looking at something, he would shout and move. Gary lost track of exactly what he was doing and stopped thinking so hard about what he had seen in movies or what he expected and even what was going on around him.
"Great job! This pose should always be your first, it's defensive and will allow you to jump away. You might be temped to go offensive, but please don't for now. It will slow your training. Now take a moment and remember this pose."
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Alright... My left leg is a little-
"Stop," Weapon Shop Owner was staring intently at Gary's face. It made him uncomfortable how deeply he looked. "You are subvocalizing. Don't use words. You won't have time to remember what name you give this pose and even worse if you describe it in your head in words. How long will that take? Close your eyes and focus on how your muscles feels right now in this moment."
Gary tried to quiet his own head and do as he was told, but it was hard.
"Don't punish yourself for random thoughts. They will come and go. Just try to focus on the task as long as you can."
Time seemed to fall away as Gary did his best to remember the pose. When he felt it had surely been long enough he opened his eyes to find Weapon Shop Owner hovering right in front of Gary's face just as still as a mushroom as if he had popped up after the rain.
What shocked Gary the most was the way his eyes didn't look in just one direction. One eye was looking at his chest and other other at his face.
"AAAAAH!" Gary swiped with his knife.
Weapon Shop Owner causally pushed the knife harmlessly away and backed up while his eyes returned to looking the same way. "Sorry! I just wanted to get a good look. I didn't mean to let you see that. Sorry! Do you hate me?"
"No. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to attack you. Something primal took over when I saw that. Human eyes don't work that way you know!" Gary patted himself down and settled back into the same pose as best as possible.
"Good. You didn't perfectly fall back into the pose, but that's a good start. Now even though I didn't mean to frighten you, that is essentially the next step. I will attack you, hitting you for -10 HP or if I score a critical it will be -40 HP. Your real HP will not be effected because this is just training so don't worry, but pretend it is real. You should also know that a normal critical is between two to three times the normal damage so this can be considered a special boss type battle," Weapon Shop Owner fell into a different pose with his knife.
The pose Weapon Shop Owner used was odd. One of his legs was twisted in a weird way, but Gary didn't get to look long before a blade came flying at him. Gary slashed at it as he stepped back, but there another slash came at him. This time he wasn't in a good position because he moved so he couldn't fight back and simply tried to bend out of the way.
When the third slash came, Gary realized how much better it was to be in the pose he started in. Now he was off balance and unable to make a single move to avoid getting stabbed, and it looked like the stab would go right in his neck. -40 HP.
"If you took a smaller hit and got your balance, you might be only 10 HP down and not 40, but the bigger issue is that you slashed to harm me and not to get me to back up. You are fighting someone stronger and you need to first consider the least you can do to get out of the slash. Dodge, put a knife in the way or my arm, jump, deflect, roll or whatever else you can think of. If you do a big attack and throw yourself off balance while giving your enemy a scratch, you can expect them to return it with a critical while you recover," Weapon Shop Owner said and slashed again.
Gary wasn't in his pose, he expected for them to chat and get ready, but apparently the point was to always be in the pose. Gary jumped back and managed to get back into the pose in time for another attack.
"Faster," Weapon Shop Owner simply said.
Duck. Jump. Slash. Bend. Roll. -10 HP
Slash and jump. Dodge. Jump. Deflect. -10 HP
Things started to blur together as Gary struggled to avoid getting stabbed.
Slash. Roll. Jump. Deflect. Slash. Jump. Sidestep. Duck. Slash. -10 HP
"Faster."
Gary's body seemed to take over, he slashed and rolled and jumped around the room without any plan, but to avoid letting his HP drop for another second.
-10 HP
"Don't panic. Just calm down and move as fast as you can."
-10 HP
-40 HP
"Try to go a little bit faster."
-10 HP
-10 HP
"I think you can go faster."
-10 HP
Gary felt just as sluggish as he did at the start, but he was sure he was learning something. Finally his back hit the wall as he tried to move other of the way of a slash to his face. -40 HP
"Pay attention to your surroundings. That said, this is a good point for a break, I don't think you noticed, but each time I attacked, I came from the nearest wall. This is the first time you made it to the far wall. Congratulations. When you are ready, we can move on to attacking or you can continue defending."
That was harsh. How long have I been at this? I guess I can test my skills on a goblin or two and finish this quest later, but I don't feel like it's really clicked for me. There's still some moves I want to try out, when he comes at me from the side, I don't know what best to do. So far I think I am passing on luck.
"Let's continue a bit longer, if that's alright," Gary told him.
"Great," Weapon Shop Owner came at him again.
Gary's mind settled totally into avoiding the blade. Every time he started to get close to his limit, he saw another way he could improve. A way to move a little faster or move more smoothly and avoid an otherwise deadly strike. After a bit he touched the wall lightly and pushed off to try to get back to the other side. How many times could he make it across the room?
"Stop."
At this point Gary wasn't sure he knew how. His body and mind came together to make a pure knife avoiding tool.
"How many times did you make it across the room, Gary?"
Words feel a little alien at this point. I'm almost not sure how to respond without slashing my knife.
"I'm not sure. I think I'm starting to get it though, don't give up on me," Gary finally said.
"That was five times in a row. I think you don't have so much to learn from this anymore. Let's move on to attacking. Can you land a blow on me?"
Gary couldn't believe he made it so far, he knew he used a lot of time on defense, but he still didn't want to waist more time than needed. Part of him was hoping to be a good student and pass this test quickly.
Gary still took a moment to plan. The best attack would not be one made in panic, but a carefully thought out attack executes as fast as he could. He had made a lot of close attacks in the past, but now Weapon Shop Owner was not coming at him, the atmosphere had changed and Gary felt like he was looking at himself. What movies would be the most difficult to avoid.
The knife flipped around in Gary's hand. He almost wasn't sure if it was him or the knife that flipped and who grabbed what. There was a plan, as if he could see the future in his head, but how it got there, Gary didn't know. Maybe the knife was just throwing his body around somehow.
With a wild slash Weapon Shop Owner leaned back. Gary dropped down for another slash at the mid section. Briefly part of Gary's mind recognized something, but it wasn't important now so Gary filed the information away.
Weapon Shop Owner was forced to jump back, Gary doubled down and leaned into another attack. At this point he was falling down and the third attack had only forced Weapon Shop Owner to twist in air, but it was all in the plan. Gary saw no other way it could go if Weapon Shop Owner had made any other moves, he would be cut already.
Finally Gary jumped forward with all he had left and slid under Weapon Shop Owner with the knife. There was no moves left to make, the knife was unavailable and with that realization, Gary dug up that information he put away in his mind.
"I really hate it when you do that weird thing with your eyes and look two different ways!" Gary shouted while the knife scrapped across his body.
Weapon Shop Owner carefully and silently got off Gary and inspected the scrape.
"You really did it. I'm sorry I was so surprised when you made that weird stance. I just had to analyze it carefully. Congratulations, you can now complete the final and most easy step and finish this quest. Right now it's fresh in your mind, but we want to make sure you remember everything. So you should write everything down or draw a picture or something as a memento. I'll be upstairs."