Chapter 5 Basic Training

“Alright, everyone gather around. It’s time for me to tell you some things. First of all, most of what you guys just did was useless. Not because you did things wrong, but because we will change everything about you, including your class and fighting skills.” The trainer yelled half an hour later.

“But you just told us that we could change our weapons and stuff later on!” Exclaimed Erik.

“True, but I did not tell you when that would be. Right now all of you are lower than level ten. We will help you reach that level, and then the real work begins. You will then change your class to become a Legionary recruit. That class has some unique bonuses towards our training regime. It will probably take a while before everyone has the class, but once you do have them we can fast-track you to level ten again in no time. I know that this doesn’t mean much to you now, but we will have you leveling and resetting for quite some time. No use getting to high levels if you don’t have the statpoints to back them up, right.”

“But wouldn’t it be faster to train till level twenty five or even fifty? The additional points per level would give better rewards right?”

“It would, if we could use the training to get there. The [Legionary recruit] class will only be available until level ten. After that it will evolve into the legionary classes like [Legionary mage] or [Legionary archer], and those won’t receive the benefits of the training. Also, as you know the lower levels need way less experience than the higher ones. Thus making it faster to level a few times from one to ten than to go once from ten to twenty five.”

The instructor gave them a few minutes to think this over before he continued.

“Now I will hand each of you two skill stones. These will give you the [Physical training] and the [Practice makes perfect] skills. These will help you get experience for both practicing your weapons and magic, and the physical training that we will give you. Think hard about which skills you will exchange, because losing your skills leaves you with only the knowledge you have of using it. This makes it harder for the mages than the others, because it is easier to learn a weapon without a skill than learning magic without it.”

For Sam this was not such bad news, because she only had four skills. With only one skill to replace, she needed to think about which skill to let go. [Slash], [Stab] and [Knife] were skills that pretty much worked together, so the most obvious one would be to lose her [Grab] skill. But having that one would give her a backup if she lost her weapon.

In the end she decided to let go of her [Knife] skill. That one would be pretty useless if she got other weapons from the instructors, and eventually she would need something better than a knife.

Having made her decision she followed the instructor’s instructions and focused on the first skill stone.

Would you like to learn the skill [Physical training]? Y/N

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Skill update: [Physical training] learned.

After the first one, the second one wasn’t much harder.

Would you like to learn the skill [Practice makes perfect]? Y/N

Skill update: No skill slots detected. Select a skill to replace.

Skill update: [Knife] lost.

Skill update: [Practice makes perfect] learned.

Skill update: General skill [Knife] learned

“Okay, that happened.” Sam murmured to herself, but then she remembered her special skills. Wasn’t there something about combat skills that would become general skills?

“Sir, can I ask you a question about skills?”

“Of course, I’m here to help you all grow after all. Do you need help choosing a skill to replace?”

“Well, not exactly. What do you know about me and my special skills?”

“I know that you have several, but that’s about it.”

“Okay, then I need to explain a few things. First of all, I'm not exactly from this world. A few days ago I just woke up in a forest, together with my bed and wearing my pajama’s. I managed to survive the forest, and got my fighter class by killing the first goblin. I also got his knife, and after that the knife skill and three other skills. I also have three special skills, that are all focused on fighting. Right now the thing is, that one of those skills gives me the opportunity to make every ‘war related’ skill into a general skill, and without losing proficiency. This includes my [Knife] skill, which I just replaced. Since this is the first of my skills that has changed into a general skill, I was wondering what the difference is between a general skill and a class skill.”

“This is a difficult one. I’ve never heard of a class skill that has switched into a general skill. Normally it is possible to gain a skill as a general skill, but they are incredibly difficult to level. I’d say a class skill will grow about four times as fast as a general skill. If your skill is as good as your class skills, then you have a major advantage against just about every single opponent that you can find. For now your focus has to be on the training that we will provide, but I’d like you to find Kyla in the library tonight. She will help you experiment with your skill, to find out how good it actually is. If it is as good as it looks, then we will switch your training schedule to include every skill we know of that could give you an edge in battle. If we’re lucky then we could even try out some magical skills.”

After that explanation the trainer had the squad work out to get their first experience with the new skills. This was mostly by doing some intensive exercises like pushups and such.

Almost immediately after training Sam went to see the librarian. Since they didn’t know their fellow squad mates, it didn’t take long after the training before the group had split up.

When she entered the library she quickly found the librarian.

“Are you Kyla, by any chance?” she asked her.

“You are quite correct, miss. How can I help you?”

“I was sent to you by my trainer. He told me that you might be able to help me with my special skills.”

“Is that so, and who might this trainer be? We do have several, you know.”

“Uhh.. That’s actually a good question. I don’t remember him introducing himself. But maybe he did that to the others, as I was pretty late in joining the squad.”

“That’s okay, dear. I think it might be instructor Quincy. That man doesn’t like his name, so when possible he tries to forgo introducing himself. But now go on, you said something about your skills?”

“Yes ma’am, I have several. One of my skills makes class skills change to general skills when I replace them. According to the trainer this could be a great boon for me, but we don’t know yet if the skills can be trained as easily as class skills or only at the slower rate as general skills. He said you could help me experiment with my special skills to get the most out of them. Then he would change the training regime to take advantage of them.”

The librarian needed a moment to process the information that Sam just offered up so easily. Normally people were very secretive of their skills, let alone about special skills if they had them.

“Wow, that’s a lot to take in. I can think of several things to try. Would you mind leaving a written description of you skills? I know that’s a lot, but I promise that I will be the only one to read it. I’ll think of some experiments for us to try, and we’ll destroy the note together tomorrow.”

“That’s okay. You should know that I’m not even from this world, so I don’t really hold on to that secrecy stuff. Back home I was always pretty open to my friends, so it would be to much work to change my ways. I’ll see you tomorrow, ma’am.”

This once more took some time for the librarian to process, and by the time she got over it Sam was long gone. Too long for her to tell the girl to call her by her name.