So…yeah. Procrastination produces another DWO chapter. Woo. Why am I still awake anyway…
I’m trying to make my writing interesting but I kind of have this thing where I have good starts and good story ideas, and then my writing gets worse. I feel like maybe I'm rushing things to get to the more exciting bits.
I don’t know. My writing also depends on my mood, I guess. I could use some more feedback. I’m trying to make my chapters more interesting which makes me feel better and you get a better read.
Insult my writing. Criticize it. Dooooo it.
Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.
Chapter 4: Dummy
Frost struck a silvery ingot with an iron hammer. He was bored and frustrated. Everything was exactly as he had planned and some things were even better, but it all felt so pointless. Even the feeling of raising stats and learning new skills didn’t improve his mood as much as it used to. He always did everything he was supposed to and everything was perfect. Everything he did was done just how it was supposed to be done. Then why? Why? Why? WHY!? “Why did he feel so…empty?”
“Fuck!” he struck the ingot with all his strength, not flinching as the head of the hammer went flying past his head. He had learned blacksmithing from the city’s blacksmith, Ger, within the past few days. Anyone could learn as long as the blacksmith was satisfied with their strength and stamina. Once he taught you, you had to work of your debt for a bit or risk his wrath if you dared to skip out on him. He stood there glaring at the ingot. He hadn’t been trying to make anything; he had just been striking the metal as he gathered his thoughts.
“Frost!” he turned to see Ger frowning at him. “Come with me.” He walked out of the shop and Frost followed. “I don’t know what’s happening but it seems like you need to work off some stress. I know a place. You can always talk to me. I’ve come to see you as a friend as well as an apprentice.” Ger was usually very rough and strict with people so Frost was surprised by the words he spoke.
“Thanks.” He didn’t have anything else to say, so they walked in silence until they came to a training center.
Ger pointed. “Go in,” he said and walked back the way they had come.
Frost hesitated for a moment. He hadn’t planned to bother with the training centers because they would take up valuable time and he might not be able to find them even though they were thought to give stats and skills. He walked in anyway, sighing as he did. He didn’t see anyone as he walked around the inside, but he did see a training center with practice dummies for strikes. He grabbed a wooden sword and tested a single strike against the dummy. It seemed to be made of wood and leather.
Frost began to strike the dummy, starting slowly and speeding up a little until he was continually striking at a steady pace. He cleared his mind and added footwork, moving around the target, stabbing and striking at what would be vital points on a real person. When he was training like this was the only time when he felt calm and could relax. Martial arts was his way of escape from the world, bringing him back to the days when he could believe in anything and thought he could do anything.
He sought that feeling he had once, when he felt his body flow, and everything was so clear, so focused. In that state of mind, everything felt right and there wasn’t a problem in the world. It was a feeling that let him fly, let him be the superhero he had wanted to be for so long. That state was like a oneness with the everything, giving him the feeling that he could move the world. Falling into a trance, he struck the dummy until the sword fell out of his hands, which were numb. His arms felt like jelly and he was exhausted. He collapsed onto the floor, unable to muster the strength to move, so he fell asleep in the courtyard full of lifeless scarecrows.
Frost awoke to the sound of someone striking one of the practice dummies. He stood up, hungry and thirsty only to find food and water next to him. He greedily sucked down the food and water, feeling his body return to normal. In the game, people recovered faster than they did in the real world. After all, muscle soreness and being tired weren't usually considered as fun.
He turned to see a woman striking with intent, putting her whole body into each swing of the sword. She was a short woman wearing leather armor decorated with fur for both warmth and style. Her hair only reached her chin, colored brown with a black stripe of bangs while her eyes were green. She had pale white skin and a pair of short swords sheathed on her waist. She was beautiful. “I was watching you yesterday” she said. “Your form is good, but you need to work on the power and preciseness of your strikes. Practice switching up where you aim since your movements are a bit predictable and keep working on your sword skills. In a few years, you might even be really good.”
“I don’t have that much time,” Frost sighed as he stood up. “Are you the trainer here?”
“Hmm. I guess I am for now. I took over since the actual trainer is worthless and barely ever shows up here.”
“Can I ask you to fight with me?”
She stopped hitting the scarecrow, surprised. “How polite. Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
She replaced her single wooden sword with a pair of shorter ones and took a ready stance. Reid picked up his own sword and took a ready stance. They circled each other and then began to attack, testing each other out. The woman rushed at him swinging her swords in a flurry of strikes and Reid was unable to defend for long, finally being struck multiple times with the wooden sword. He had been defeated so easily. The wooden swords hurt but it didn’t cause any damage. Reid knew he wasn’t strong enough.
His skills in swordsmanship were weak, but swords made the most sense for the game. They were the most common weapons so he needed to be able to use swords. Reid was convinced that he had to use a sword or else he would never be the best. The two continued to spar and Reid became better with the sword. He still couldn’t compete with her, but he continued to learn and he enjoyed their sparring. He learned her name was Rose as they continued that way until the end of the second week and into the third week. Reid now looked like a somewhat scaly version of himself, though his head was mostly unchanged other than the few decorative scales bordering his face and clearly showing off his character's heritage.
Both of them enjoyed sparring, and Reid was able to forget his frustrations as he focused on training. She used different weapons while he only used a two handed sword. She gave him advice and he continued to get better. He began to secretly wish the end of the current week wouldn’t come. If he could train with her more, he could become even better, but he had to level up, had to get stronger. He couldn’t afford to play around when winning was so important, even if the stat gains from sparring were so good. He had even gained a point or two in wisdom. It was important wasn’t it? He had to hurry to catch up to the high level players before they were out of his reach.
They were having lunch one day when she finally confronted him on something that had been bothering her. “Frost. You have so much drive for someone so young but…why don’t you have any passion when you swing the sword. You treat it like work, as if you have no other choice but to wield the sword.”
Frost was startled but recovered quickly. “I need to learn the sword. It’s the most common weapon and most widely used. It should be easier to learn and become skilled in the sword. It’s the best option.”
Rose gave him a look of disgust and began to walk off. She stopped before getting too far. “I see. You’ll never be good enough, then. I’m sorry I wasted my time training you.”
“I just want to be strong. I’m so scared of losing that I don’t know what to do.” Tears of frustration began to leak from his eyes. “Nothing I do is good enough no matter how hard I try, no matter how much effort I put in. I know I’m not good enough but I don’t know what to do. Everything has to be done right if I want to come out on top. What do you know? How can you understand what this game means to me?”
“Frost. This game is so real that it’s amazing. You can feel the wind on your face, taste the food you eat, and the sweat on your skin.” She turned around and put a hand on one of the practice dummies. “But you know, it’s still just a game with textures on top of shapes, massive amounts of data, whatever. No matter how important the game is or how necessary it is for you to win, the purpose of a game is still just to have fun. Do you think you can keep going like this, pushing yourself to the limits? You’re driving yourself into a wall and you’re gonna burn out.”
“Have fun, kid. Stop trying so hard.” She smiled at him. “I'm sure that if you could learn to find joy in the things you do, then you can be the best. I think… I’m going to leave now and go explore this world. Perhaps I’ll see you around one day, when you’ve become king of the world.
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Frost didn’t know what to say. He stood up, wiping the tears off his face and walked over to the wall covered with weapons. Was that his problem? Was it such a small thing that was holding him back, and if it was, could he change that easily? Rose watched him curiously as his hands closed around a wooden staff. He took it out of its holder and ran his hand down the length of it reverently.
“I tried a lot of different weapons when I first started training with weapons a few years ago. I was never that great with a sword or most other weapons for that matter. The only thing I was really good with was a staff. I trained with the staff for fun after I was finished with sword training. I learned from teachings, books, Internet, and self-teaching. I love the staff, but it’s too impractical. Good staves are practically impossible to get your hands on, they aren’t useful against a lot of enemies and they aren’t as good as other weapons.” Reid squeezed the staff, wishing he was skilled with a sword more than he was a dumb stick.
“Are you any good with a staff?”
“With a staff in my hand, I’ve never lost to anyone but my master.”
“Have one last match with me.” Rose smirked confidently. “Use the staff. Show me your true strength.” She picked two wooden short swords from the rack and took up a stance.
Frost moved closer and slid his feet slowly into position. The weight of the staff was just right, the smoothness of the wood comforting. He breathed in deeply, exhaled slowly as he focused. He cleared his mind and relaxed, letting himself enjoy the moment. He let the pressure of everything dissipate, let the weight of the world off his shoulders and he was at peace. He thought about Rose’s words and realized that he was being a fool this whole time. His parents didn’t care what happened in the game because they loved and supported him no matter what he did.
Frost whipped the staff at Rose with a smile on his face, becoming a whirlwind as he struck at her constantly, with lightning fast movements. He was free. He had put all these rules and regulations on himself, pressured himself, wouldn’t allow himself to fail. It was okay to lose, to have fun, to play the game. His parents had their reasons for him to play, but it wasn’t just to win, he knew that. There was no one who needed him to win and he wouldn't let anyone down if he wasn't number one. So why was he trying so hard? He cleared his mind and relaxed. He resolved that from then on, he would let the pressure dissipate and he would enjoy the game to the fullest. Staff in hand and his imagined restrictions lifted, he felt so good, so light, and he moved like the wind.
Rose could only defend against the staff that flowed, one motion into the next. She was in awe of his staff skills as he began to lands strikes against her. It wasn't just that he was skilled, it was that he was so amazingly graceful as he flowed from one move to the next. Offense or defense, he was flawless and mesmerizing. She fell to one knee in pain and admitted defeat.
No one had ever told him before, but Reid was prodigy with the staff. He had a small amount of training with the staff but most things he had learned on his own. He easily learned the motions and techniques of different styles and incorporated them into his own fighting methods. Reid hadn’t ever been able to beat Rose when she dual wielded swords, but when he used the staff, he had beaten her so completely.
Rose lay on her back and laughed, harder than she had in a long time as she stared up at the sky. “It’s been so long since I’ve been beaten so thoroughly. You really are amazing.” She closed her eyes and smiled. In reality, Rose was old. Too old to fight any longer, she was once a master of sword fighting who occasionally won championships. Now, she had lost a fight against a kid. It was a good feeling though. There was always more to learn, always more room for improvement. Now that she had a younger body again, she could live like she used to, traveling the world and learning the way of the sword. This world was where she belonged.
After a while, Rose stood up and dusted herself off. “You’re full of surprises, kid. I might be a bit rusty, but that was impressive technique. Keep working on those skills and face me again when I’ve polished off this rust” She turned to leave and gave him a smile.
“Thanks for everything” he said, receiving a simple wave in reply. Reid frowned after her then turned back to the practice dummies, staff in hand. It wouldn’t hurt to practice with it for a bit, would it?
The next day, he headed straight for Ger’s shop first thing in the morning. “Ger,” he grimaced, “Can we talk?”
Ger immediately noticed how serious he was, so he brought him to the back room, his private office. The two sat down and stared blankly at each other for an entire minute.
“Are you planning to tell me what you want or are you gonna stare at my face all day?”
“Actually, I was staring past you. If I had to look directly at your face, I’d be sick for a week.”
They both paused and then started laughing. Ger noticed there was a change in Reid. He was much more relaxed now. Ger laughed even harder when his mind went back to the joke Frost made. He knew he was ugly and often joked about it himself. He had a wife and kids so he had nothing to worry about, and no one would mess with a guy who looked like he could literally punch your head clean off your shoulders.
“In all seriousness Ger, I need your help. I need weapons, but I don’t have the money to pay you right now. I’m heading out into the world to be an adventurer and find the lake of tears. You’ve already helped me by teaching me how to make and repair weapons and armor, but I can’t go out there empty handed.”
“I too used to be an adventurer.” Ger looked at him. Frost’s eyebrows rose. ‘Do I hear a secret quest coming?’ I was searching for something that many say doesn’t exist, but I believe.” He clenched his fist in frustration and Frost could see how emotional this subject was for him. “I simply wasn’t strong enough and I chose to settle down instead of getting stronger and continuing the search. He pulled a small stack of papers out of his drawer set them on the table, pushing them towards Frost.
He kept his hand on the stack and looked into Frost’s eyes.” This is everything I learned. This map and these papers detail where I’ve been and what I’ve discovered. Years of my life that I don’t want to go to waste. The thing I have been searching for is known as the God’s Ore. It is a priceless ore that is more difficult to smelt than any other ore and harder than any substance. I have no one else to ask. I won’t force you though. A single weapon for such an enormous undertaking is not a fair trade. I…” he looked down, unsure of himself.
Would you like to accept the sub-class "Legend Seeker"?A legend seeker will go to the greatest lengths if it means finding the world's secrets.
Rewards:
+10 Vitality
+10 Luck
+10 Intelligence
Lore Master
Accept/Decline
Quest "God's Ore"The Blacksmith Ger wants you to find God's Ore and bring it to him
Difficulty: S
Rewards:
Maximum intimacy with Ger and greatly increased intimacy with miners and blacksmiths around the continent.
Unknown rewards.
Accept/Decline
Reid hadn’t known about subclasses until then. It wasn’t anywhere in the game information or forums. From what he could tell, subclasses were rare, secrets like a normal class, but taking up its own slot. In any case, he might not get a second chance at a sub-class. He pressed accept on both of the windows, one right after the other.
“You’re right, that isn’t a fair trade, which is why you’re going to make me two weapons.”
Ger smiled and looked up, “Bastard.”
Reid smirked, “You can compliment me later. For now, tell me how to recognize god’s ore, then, we’ll go over this stack of papers." The two talked excitedly, long into the night and into morning.