Joe waved off Garnedell’s excited nonstop verbiage and calmed him down as he began to see several people looking at them curiously, “OK! I get it. That seems unusual, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. I’m not much for parkour. There are others who are much better. Like Kilniara!”
“But that is only the norm, Master! Acokzau are excellent climbers and movers in dense close spaces. Base… not so much,” Garendell rejected.
“Hmm… so … well… then if Kilinara and Zilnek trained, they would likely be even better! Maybe… ooh! Kilniara. Zilnek. Would you be willing to train us lowly and weak base humans to do better in parkour?” Joe asked with some excitement, “You would be able to train us well, just like I can train you with what I know. We can help each other!”
Kilniara answered, “We could try, but it would unlikely be very… useful. It is just a skill we have as Acokzau. I do not believe we can share it.”
“Maybe not the ability, but the skill to read the crowd and how to use the environment, most definitely.”
Both Kilniara and Zilnek looked to each other with serious expressions before nodding at Joe, “We can try, Master, but please do not become angry if it is not something base humans can learn.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s fine, but … your agility… there’s something definitely fishy going on. Zilnek. Could I look at your sta… uh… nah… Kilniara. Could I look at your status?
Kilniara brought up her status and Joe looked through all her status pages but could not find anything to explain how their twenty agility so easily out matched his near one hundred. From what he understood, the stats system should really be pretty defining. It seem to be the case for intelligence and several other things which also bothered him to some extent. This thing is broken if there are hidden things like this. Why isn’t it shown. That doesn’t make any sense. Joe felt a headache coming on and sighed, dismissing the problem and ending the discussion.
“Well, I guess I didn’t know that. It’s good to know, but it will be good training for us anyway, so… Ok?”
All other three nodded, although only Garnedell seemed excited, while Zilnek and Kilniara seemed a bit concerned.
“Hey. Don’t worry. If you can’t teach us, that’s fine. I’m not going to be angry or frustrated, alright? It’s OK.”
Kilniara smiled at this, relief evident in the curve of her lips and nodded thankfully back to Joe, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Besides, it’s about time for us to go in,” Joe said as they came up on their turn into the dungeon. All three interacted with the entrance guardian before heading down into the dungeon and prepared for another long day.
The settled in their usual corner and prepared for the day. Joe had them split into pairs once again and spent a half the morning fighting in alternating pairs as he swapped with each of his apprentices once. After he’d done so, he had noticed that Zilnek and Kilniara had struggled while they’d fought as a pair. He’d first thought it was because of their lack of combat ability or job, or possibility even lack of combat experience, but he’d ended his time with Garnedell a bit early and focused on the two, watching their fight. It took most of the fight for Joe to realize that they just had poor weapons, the half staves too awkward to use decently.
He grimaced at this and always knew this was a problem, but was unhappy with trying to train them with weaponry they didn’t know. It would have left him delayed on growing his base stats before the year was up and having them fight with unknown weaponry would be unwise. On top that, the time he would need to actually train them would take away from any of his own job growth. It was a… poor situation to be in, but he also didn’t want to leave them sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, as that wouldn’t accomplish much for them, either. The insane craziness of the past week didn’t help, either, as he’d cleared a dungeon, found out Zilnek was a thief, turned Zilnek into a thief, almost lost Kilniara as she was disemboweled, then realized he was working his apprentices to exhaustion as they needed a full sixteen hour sleep in counter to what he was used to growing up in a modern world with light twenty four seven. Not only that, he’d gone dungeon mad, escaped it, and still had to figure out what to do with a fourteen year old going to a whorehouse with a twenty some odd year old. Joe sighed and decided he couldn’t put it off.
Joe called off the fights and pulled everyone back to the corner. He settled into the corner and called them to sit beside him.
“Let’s take an early break. We need to change some things as Kilniara and Zilnek are not really fighting very well. I’m not saying this because I’m upset, or annoyed that you are not,” Joe added with a quick caution, raising his hand to cut off their concerns. “I’m not! I’m not upset at all. I’m actually worried because I do not want anyone to be hurt again. So… we need to change some things.
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“I wasn’t going to do this until later, because I wanted to train you and prepare you appropriately, but I don’t have time. I only have a little more time left until … well… that’s neither here nor there. But, we only have two choices. One, I can let you guys sit out and just watch me fight, and sometimes Garnedell. Or, we can take some time and you spend part of the time practicing a better weapon. You three will spend maybe a third or so of the day practicing some forms with the staff while I fight alone in the dungeon. Until I think Kilniara or Zilnek are able to wield a staff well enough to fight, neither one will fight except with Garnedell or me. With our help, we can make sure you’re safe. Also, you won’t fight with a staff until I think you are ready to use them, either. It may take a couple weeks before you can start fighting with a staff and maybe another couple months before you will be strong enough to fight well. I will be able to train you better and quicker if you wait for a year, but you will have to wait. Or I can train you more slowly and carefully starting now. Which would you like?”
Kilniara seemed to think carefully but after Zilnek had the time to hear Joe’s question, he answered quickly without thought, “Train us now!”
Joe chuckled at Zilnek’s quick and excited response and noticed Kilniara roll her eyes as she shook her head. Really? Why are aliens rolling their eyes? Kilniara’s response distracted his thoughts.
“I agree with Zilnek. Even if it is slower, I would rather learn now than wait later.”
Joe watched Kilniara, eyes narrowed in consideration. Several moments later, Zilnek finally offered his belated response to his sister’s statement.
“Please. I wish to learn now, even if it is a bit slower. I do not want to only sit and watch.”
Joe nodded then turned and rummaged through his bag, pulling out the two goblin rings when he found them before handing one each to Zilnek and Kilniara.
“You know how these work. Take them and say ‘staff.’ Don’t try to use other weapons, no matter how cool… especially if you think they’re cool! That usually means incredibly dangerous! Besides, most other weapons don’t offer instinctual and natural defense as a staff does. This does NOT mean you guys are ready to be using them either! Got it! And Garnedell, you don’t need one. You still need a lot of practice with a staff.
“So, I’ll buy a new staff for each of you after our run today, OK? Then we'll head back into the dungeon. We’ll fight for a part of the day while you use your half staves. For the rest of the day, you will practice some forms for the staff and you will practice them until I’m happy.
“While you are practicing, I will still be killing goblins, OK?”
The other three began nodding excitedly and Joe smiled before handing the two rings to the Acokzau. Both of them mumbled ‘staff’ under their breaths and then Joe considered, looking at his bag and what was around when he suddenly came to an idea. He pulled the spearhead off its shaft and handed it to Zilnek. He then took Garnedell’s staff and gave it to Kilniara before taking a spoon spear and giving it to Garnedell.
“Garnedell, let them use your staff just for today so they get used to the real thing. You know what it’s like already, so don’t need to learn that. You can use the spoon spear but pretend it’s a staff and use it as such as you practice. It’s going to be a bit off center because of the extra weight from the spearhead, but you already know about the staff so should be able to use it well enough today without messing up your movements.
“Kilniara. Zilnek. These are two different kind of staves. One is made of metal and the other is wood. The metal will be heavier and more difficult to use because of its weight. The wooden staff is lighter, but much thicker, so will be more difficult to use because it is harder to grasp. You will practice with both, splitting the time between each. When you get tired and need to rest, you will swap and then practice some more after you have rested. Swap for each rest, OK?”
All three nodded their heads and Joe then leaned back a bit, “Then take this time to rest for a little before we start. Today, will go at least to lunch. If you still feel fine after lunch, we’ll practice after lunch as well while I kill goblins. I will stop every once and a while and come and watch how you are doing, so don’t slack or play around. I’m a relaxed person about … relaxation and life, but you will take my teaching when it comes to the martial arts. Understand?”
Joe’s serious turn at the end of his statement caught the three by surprise and their easy posture and interactions stiffened as they took on a serious mien, proper students to his proper instruction. Joe held his stern face for a few moments before smiling and leaning back in an overly relaxed fashion to get his point across.
“I kind of have a strange motto, or saying, that I follow. Work hard. Play hard. When it’s time to relax and have fun. Go. Do it with abandon, as long as it is with respect and concern for those around you. When it is time to work, practice, or study. Then, again, Do it with abandon and deep effort. OK?”
The three nodded quickly and Joe smiled before dropping his head back, “Well, it’s relaxing time. So relax well!”
The other three sat stiffly, although Garnedell relaxed quickest and first before turning the other two and pestering them to show him the ring and have them swing the staff around the room, excited to be able to even hold it.
Joe shook his head, laughing a bit at their shenanigans. He rolled over onto his knees and reached out for the shield to shift it out of the way to grab the sword. I’ll have to swap from a spear now that they’re practicing with my spear shaft. The sword snapped into his hand with the typical vibration and he clenched his hand hard to force it into his grasp then froze, as he realized he’d been an idiot. Seriously! This… Joe sighed and took one of the rings from his grasp, slipping it on his hand. Why didn’t I think of this?! Just cause I found a way to counter it…