INTERLUDE 1.

The last week had been uneventful. Atlan, who had recently come of age; had begun training and had reached level ten with surprising speed.

He had been sent to train with the sergeant at the fort on the hill, for the past month. At around the same time, a new person moved into town, he was a tall man named Nelson.

Nelson was a traveller, someone who had once fought monsters, or so he claimed. He certainly had tales to back up those claims, so most in town believed him, despite his reluctance to fight now.

Atlan had taken a liking to the stranger. Hanging out at Nelson workshop. Nelson had bought out the building with a large quantity of gold coins. Then, converted the building into a smithy by hiring the townsfolk to help him assemble the required space into a place of work.

In fact, that was Atlan’s first job on his own. He was there listening to the -often strange- instructions of the man. Nelson had a soft spot for the youths in the town, revealing that he had once been a teacher.

In his off time from working and training, Nelson would gather Atlan and a few other younger folk and teach them all sorts of strange things. The ideas were often true, and soon the people of Torono were sending kids to his place at least once a week to learn.

Atlan had wanted to speak to Nelson about his reaching level ten, so had made his way towards his place the next morning. But stopped when he saw someone new.

Newcomers were an odd sight to town, but this one more than the others. She was huge, over seven feet tall, and really scary. Her hair was stark white and rather than arms, she had these huge wings that she held folded up next to her. Surprisingly normal clothes for someone so weird, and she had a small cut on her leg which had bled down to her foot. Her feet, which were clawed things with talons longer than a person's hand, were attached to long legs.

Her eyes were red where a normal person's were white, with black pupils glaring out from yellow centers. If you put this together with the way she was staring at everyone as if she wanted to eat them, you got one scary bird person.

The people of Torono were friendly folk though, and most were just curious rather than afraid.

She walked quickly as if she had somewhere important to be. And quickly outpaced the slower Altan as they headed in the same direction. But, it wasn't long before he caught up to her. She was speaking to Nelson.

Atlan was quite far away so he couldn't hear. Nelson cast healing magic on her leg, then tried to hand her something. Realizing that she could take whatever it was he placed it in a pouch and hooking a cord around her neck.

As Atlan was still approaching she began to walk off. Heading in the direction of the town's center, perhaps the church or the market.

"Hey Nelson!" Atlan called out once he was close enough to not have to shout.

"Atlan, good te see you."

"Who was that?"

The conversation was one they've had before.

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Nelson had many friends who came to town to visit, often strangely dressed, or with powerful classes or gear.

He explained that he didn't know her personally, but rather they "ran in the same circles" whatever that meant.

The rest of the meeting was a normal one, and Altan put the woman out of his mind.

At least until that afternoon.

The weather was great, allowing the trainees at the fort a greater allowance of space to use.

There was more training than ever before. With how the church had declared a crisis six months ago and monsters were appearing everywhere. Negotiations with Lorium were also shaky at the moment. Rumor was that the Grand Duke of Resiland had insulted the King of Lorium last time they met.

Whatever the reason, people wanted to be stronger. And despite the small size of the town, and it's lack of strategic value, the fort was well built and the staff there competent.

There were over two dozen people in the courtyard of the fort. Each one was here to improve themselves, and they worked together for that goal. Sparring with one another and training to improve their bodies.

Some were even 'lifting' a new form of exercise that Nelson had taught people about. He had crafted bars and weights, and strange contraptions that use pulleys to lift plates of metal.

Some of the traditionalists refused, but many embraced the easy to learn methods, and after a month were already showing results.

The effect on targeted muscles was incredible and the person using them could feel it easier.

That wasn't Alan's place today though, Atlan was getting used to armour. He had been given a handed down, but well kept up, suit of mail from his father. Lightly enchanted for stronger resistance it was still fairly heavy for him to move in.

He wore it and ran, doing jogs and sprints, tiring himself out and getting used to the movements. If he kept up, soon enough he would be sparring while wearing it.

It was on his return jog that he saw the woman from before. She entered the fort and watched the people. She was glaring at the people in the square, as if judging them, perhaps harshly.

She may have been Nelson's friend,but she was acting as if everyone was beneath her. Which they kind of were if you meant literal height. But aside from that, she didn’t look like she wanted to make friends.

Not to say she wasn't interesting. Atlan could see many people that wanted to go up to talk to her, it was rare that newcomers came to town in the first place, ones that looked so striking and unique were doubly rare.

She was speaking to the sergeant. Her face changed into a mockery of a warm smile and she apparently challenged Teroldus to a sparring match. An act that, by anyone else, would probably be a joke. Everyone here knew that Teroldus was well over level 30, making him one of the highest leveled people in the town.

She seemed entirely honest in her desire to fight, but those of us who could see, were glad when Teroldus swapped in Reodrich.

Reodrich, who was a few years older than Atlan, was a good fighter, if lower leveled than his skill and experience implied.

Seeing him, someone who Atlan had no chance of beating in a spar; having to face an outsider who may be quite strong, was a chance to see a prodigy struggle.

This was not to be, however. Their spar was fast, over in a few exchanges.

A brutal affair really. The woman struck with a powerful blow, but underestimated her opponent.

It was an interesting match to see, but the girl -Sairya he heard- was clearly upset, and didn’t even stay around to be healed.

If Atlan had to be fully honest, he couldn’t have done what Reodrich did, first of all, Atlan just leveled up in the Spearman class, while Reodrich was, in actuality, some higher level variant of the rogue class, at least level 15.

Atlan went back to training, trying to ignore the crowds, something like this was odd for sure, but he couldn't’ be hung up on every strange thing to happen in town. After all, next month was sure to be important for everyone here. And he needed to level up as much as possible.