The next month was a blur. Constant training and searching the forest and learning. I didn’t kill any more large beasts, but I did several smaller jobs to slowly earn some more cash without also reducing my age. I learned the sword, axe and bow from Marybell as well as some basic wood craft that was easy to learn as it was just a variation of what I did. What I couldn’t mimic was her grace in the woods. I spent three skill points on my main weapons and then they leveled up relatively quickly.
Twice I met up with Hert and Finny to eat and chat. They would tell me things Marybell wouldn’t. Like what weapons actually worked on an Orc (Bow and Axe. Lots of power.) Sword for Pelur. Had to be able to move it quickly and that wasn’t an axe or bow) or why there seemed to be so much activity in the squares. Apparently, people had gotten word of the Orc issue and some merchants were leaving in case the Silver Teams couldn’t handle it. This irritated Hert to no end. Said there was no way they couldn’t take care of them. Even if they couldn’t merchants would be safe in the walls. It was the farmers outside of the walls that would be in trouble.
This caused some tension in my class as well. One of the girls named Selfy in my class that I was on good terms with after I had healed her had a brother on one of the teams. She was talking about what they were doing when Mr. Pompous butted and said “Those silver teams better do their job. A small bunch of Orcs like that, if they can’t handle them, they should be Iron. It is a silver team, but isn’t your brother just Iron?” He said sneering as only he could do.
I was so over this guy, but like I said his type is my kryptonite so I said “remind me what rank you are again? What your accomplishments are Mr. Pompous?” I turned to Selfy and said “You brother is Iron rank and on a silver team? He must be really good.”
Selfy beamed at that. “Yes! He is one of the best iron rank scouts in the area. Not just our town. He is right up there with Hert.”
Marbell called out at this point “Alright if you are rested enough from break to be talking you are ready to fight. Today we are going to have you fight in pairs.”
One of the students who was the son of a farmer raised a hand and asked “Ms. Marybell aren’t we going to be fighting monsters. What will fighting other humans help us learn?”
Marybell looked at him for a moment. “What is the biggest problem on a farm Jaral?” She asked him.
“If I would have to pick it would be Gralfs. They aren’t really big, but bigger than a regular farmer can handle and they can destroy a crop in a week.”
“Very good, and I’m sure you can handle them now can’t you?” She asked.
“Yes Ms. Marybell you made sure of that when you helped me get rid of some for my dad the other day.”
“Now…” said Marybell. “What is the biggest threat on patrolled roads with Magic Monster repellant bound to the roads?”
“I don’t know. Maybe monsters strong enough to ignore the repellant?” Jaral said not sounding to sure of himself.
“Nope. Anyone else want to guess?”
Selfy raised her hand. “Bandits Ms. Marybell. That’s who I lost my Aunt and Uncle to. They attacked them when they were on the way back from selling their wares in town. Its why I want to be an adventurer. To make sure that kind of thing doesn’t happen.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your family Selfy.” Said Marbell. “That is a great reason to join us.” She turned to Jaral. “Does it make sense now Jaral?” She asked without a hint of condescension in her voice.
“Yes Ms. Marybell. I think I’ve been too focused on my perception of an adventurer and need to look into more of what we do.”
“Excellent answer Jarel. Now no more questions I want to see some swords clashing. I need to figure out where your weakness are.”
She started pairing us up. She had a smirk on her face when she paired up Mr. P and I. That made me rather unhappy. I had resolved not to use any of my tricks in class so I could get the most out of Marybell’s instruction. That said I wasn’t sure I would do well against Mr. Pompous. He grew up in a rich household and even though I was want to admit it… his sword lessons had obviously paid off. All I had going for me was my slightly elevated strength.
“Begin!” She called out and I watched my opponent trying to guess his first move from his posture. We had never spared other students. My Sword Mastery Skill was only level 2 at this point from constant swinging. I wasn’t sure what it did for me other than helping me move more fluidly. The description left a lot to be desired.
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YOU HAVE LEARNED THE SKILL SWORD MASTERY
Few romantic tales don’t have exciting tales of daring do with a sword facing off against a mighty foe. This skill will help you learn proper form and prevent you from picking up bad habbits. You just can’t learn them. Only through hard work can you learn the sword, but this way you will make sure that what you work for will lead you down the path to true mastery. Levels will increase as you learn and train proper technique and form.
Axe and Bow were almost carbon copies of this. Essentially it was on me to find teachers and learn, but I would be guided to what was best. I decided to keep to myself honest and stick to my guns not using my extra tools. I really wanted instruction on sword fighting. That it turns out was a bit of a mistake.
“You really are a weakling aren’t you. All those muscles and not a bit of finesse.” Said Mr. Pompous… living up to his name.
I was on my back for the 3rd time. I really didn’t stand a chance against him straight up. It was pretty much like reliving my time with Jared. In fact, I decided right there to start calling him Jared.
Marybell was shaking her head. “He is right you know. You fall for all of his feints and you don’t move from strike to perry quick enough. Here’s what I want you to do. We will call it a two-step. I want you to strike and then put all of your focus on blocking his follow up strike. Jared I give you permission to hit hard everywhere except the head. We don’t want him any worse at this because you rang his bell.”
Jared looked like the cat that ate the canary. “With pleasure Ms. Marybell!”
I got up and proceeded to gain a fair amount of practice cycling mana while I fought. At first I only blocked one hit in 5 until
YOU HAVE LEVELED UP SWORD MASTERY!
Then it went to blocking about half. It seemed I might be learning something after all. I seriously considered dumping all four saved skill points into sword mastery due to my frustration, but I held firm. I would do this the right way.
From then on, every other day we practiced with the sword, bow and axe. Swords against each other and Axe and bow against targets. Axe it turned out was just about making sure not to over commit to a strike and get bitten. It was a power weapon after all and easy to do that. Most of the time you choked up on the handle and used it like slicing with a knife until the right moment when you could use it for its full power. Aparently only Dwarves used it in war. Everyone else used it against monsters only. Archery was just pure fun. I leveled in that the fastest by far. I guess Marybell was known for her Archery and it showed in her teaching.
After about three weeks the silver teams came back having wiped out the Orcs. As it was my last week, I asked Finny to take me to a blacksmith shop. She took me to a good one who worked with the guild. I had saved up 57 silvers even without hunting large game and occasionally eating out with either Kattie, Hert or Finny.
We entered the blacksmith shop and I was in heaven. All the weapons I could want. Armor too, but I couldn’t afford most of it. A 12 year old blond boy covered in soot came out and said “Can I help you? Oh, hi Finny”
Finny obviously knew him and said “Hi Archer we’re here to get this guy his first set of armor. Bronze adventurer.”
“He’s a little old to be starting that isn’t he?” He said and an older man in a blacksmith smock came out and bopped him on the head. “How many times I gatta tell you to be polite to the customers. I’m gonna send you back to your dad and tell him I’ll apprentice you again when he beats some manners into you!” The boy looked chagrined and bowed saying “I apologies. I spoke without thinking.” He turned to us “Sorry Finny and…”
“Jake” I said “I am here to get a few things, but I would love to look around. I’ll be saving up for better gear later and would like to see what things cost. Is that ok?”
“Of course. Archer will help you. I’m going back to work. If you need something modified, I can get it done in a few days. We are a little busy fixing the silver team’s gear now that they are back.”
With Finny’s help I picked up a bow and arrows as well as a large skinning knife. I eyed the axes, but I didn’t want to spend all my money and I still needed a good set of leather armor. At first I balked at the idea of leather armor. What was that going to do against a Pelur? This leather wasn’t from a cow. Did they even have cows here? It was from some kind of animal that was able to prevent sharp teeth from piercing it. It moved like leather, but as soon as something sharp hit it, it was hard as a rock. Not quite up to metal armor level, but very light. I was told that because humans were usually considered fast, but not strong and took more of a scouting role this was most common for us to wear. A set of this and my wallet was looking pretty empty. I dressed in my new outfit before I left the leather worker so that she could make sure I put it on correctly.
Finny took a long look and said “You look like a real adventurer now! Not at all like the ragged helpless man we found laid out by a Pelur.” We both laughed at that.
Just like that my month of training was up. I thanked Marybell, by getting her a healing potion which shocked her.
“You know the guild pays me to teach this class, right?”
“I know” I said. “but they don’t pay you to care about us learning and surviving as much as you do. So, take this as my way of saying I’m going to survive thanks to you.”
She looked down at the potion and then back at me and said “You better… and if you ever get in trouble and bite off more than you can chew,”
“I will run!” I said and we both laughed.
With that the next morning I geared up and left notes to everyone saying I was going on a trip and thank you for everything. I wasn’t sure I would see them again and it was probably best that I didn’t as I would look younger not older, but I wouldn’t forget any of these people. Everything they taught me was written in my notes and I was grateful for the ability to take pictures of them. It hit me hard as I was leaving the gates and I wasn’t sure why and then it hit me. I had already left my world behind once. Leaving these people even though I had only known them for a month was like ripping off a scab that was still healing.