Day 5, 3:20 PM
“We can start off with light combat training.” While I want to help the kids, there’s no reason not to do it in a way that benefits me the most. “What are your favored weapons?”
All three of them have clubs, so the question is a moot point. Still, the kids are polite enough to answer and to show me their clubs.
“All right, let’s see how you swing them.”
Fred is decent, he might not have the proficiency, but he definitely knows how to hit someone with a club. I never thought there was anything worth knowing when it comes to hitting a man with a thick stick, but the girls handily convince me otherwise.
“Wait, wait, stop. You’re holding it wrong. You might hurt your wrist more than you hurt whatever you’re hitting.” I have to correct everything, the girls’ bearing, stances, how much they stretch their arms when striking, everything.
A quarter of an hour later, we’re getting somewhere. Gila trains with me, and Lucy is with Fred. For starters, they are trying to smack our clubs away without hitting our fingers. I manage to keep mine safe, but Fred yelps from time to time.
“How’d you guys band together?” I ask between Gila’s whacks.
“We’re cousins. Fred was looking for someone to go with him to the dungeon, but his friends already had jobs, and none of them wanted to take the risk. They said it wasn’t worth it, and I agree. If I had my own little shop, I wouldn’t have left the safety of the walls, regardless of how safe the guards say it is.”
I weave my club while listening to her talk about life in Tallrock. Her movements are fast, but there’s hardly any force behind her blows.
“Did you put all your points into agility?” She nods at my question.
“Seventeen,” she squeals in excitement. “Agility and physique are important for artisans. One makes you precise, the other improves your eyesight and allows you to work longer hours with less rest.”
Physique impacts eyesight? I did not know that. And to think the information would come as a passing comment from a young woman barely old enough to be called that. Why didn’t Edna tell me that? Did she think everyone knows it?
“You’ll need strength as well, your hits lack the punch. What’s your strength? Eight?”
“Nine!” She thwacks my club extra hard, with no visible result, save for the slightly louder clap of wood against wood. “And what’s your strength? Twenty?”
I smirk. “Sixteen, but I think anything beyond twelve is too much for you. You need to improve your strength a bit, or switch to a weapon that favors agility. Probably both.”
She stops swinging and looks at me. “Griff, I don’t want to be a hunter, I want to be a tailor. Tailors don’t need strength.”
The funny thing is, she’s right. I always had that quirk, to judge what others can and want to do using myself as the benchmark. Unfortunately for her, she’s in a dungeon now, not in her shop, and she is preparing to fight dangerous creatures, not sew suits or dresses.
“You know, getting a class related to hunting will increase your safety while we’re in the dungeon. And if you use those levels to increase your strength, they aren’t really wasted. Those hunter class levels are something you never would have had, so you can pretend your natural strength was always higher.”
She stares at me blankly, apparently my advice did more to confuse her than it did to help. A part of me wants to keep talking her into picking the smarter option, but ultimately what she chooses to do with her life, her class, and her ability points is her own affair. It has nothing to do with me.
“It’s time to change partners,” I call out.
I’m wasting my time on her. Gila doesn’t want to be a warrior, she wants to be an artisan working inside the safety of the walls. Edna said those walls aren’t worth a damn if a wormlord strikes, but if the walls fall, I doubt three points in strength will save Gila. Or thirteen for that matter.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Lucy, on the other hand, wants to be a wanderer, a traveler capable enough to survive on her own, and sure enough, her attacks are fiercer, faster, and pack a greater punch.
“Twelve strength?” I ask, and she nods.
“Do you mind if I up the challenge?” She doesn’t and I start moving faster, my club whistles through the air, and hers follows, filling the first floor forest with a steady stream of wooden thwacks.
“What did you do with your three points, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“I haven’t assigned them yet. I wanted to see how things were going and shore up my weakness.”
This one has potential.
An old habit of mine pops up. When I was a king, evaluating people and estimating their potential and the best way to utilize them was a fact of life, and Lucy would make a good follower.
“Your agility is sixteen, right?”
“Fifteen.”
Another surprise, she’s just a tad slower than Gila, and her strikes are well aimed.
“Don’t invest your points into agility just yet. If you keep training, you might get it up a point really soon. Twelve strength also isn’t bad, you can keep exercising to increase it. I think you can increase it by a point or two naturally. Do you mind if I push your limit?”
She blushes, and lowers her gaze, her onslaught of attacks coming to a halt.
“I mean the training, the training! You have potential, and I want to help you.”
“All right.” She nods, still staring at the ground.
“Fred, Gila, do you mind coming over here for a moment? I have a new idea. I want all three of you to fight me with all you’ve got. We’re not in a hurry to fight the monsters, and getting a bit of a workout and seeing where you are before we get started should benefit all of us.”
The kids agree, and stand in front of me with their clubs raised.
“You give me your best shot, I promise not to incapacitate you. If you win, I’ll make dinner tonight.”
The offer doesn’t seem like much of an incentive to them, but they do fan out. As expected, the first one to attack is Gila. The girl screams, swiping her club at me. I hit the club close to her hand, and she yelps as it flies out of her hand.
“You’re out.”
The other two jump me together. Fred is much more conservative than he was outside, he gives himself space to retreat and doesn’t commit all his strength to the attack. I deflect his blow, but Lucy’s club is whistling for my skull. The strike is too serious for a practice match, she wouldn’t brain me if her hit landed, but a concussion seems likely.
I duck under the blow, and my arm twitches, my elbow going for her gut. I stop myself in time. The purpose of the training is to defeat them with a club, not with any other weapons, including unarmed combat.
I step back, ready to strike her club and disarm her, but Fred’s already there, covering her weakness. The teamwork is accidental, but it can be made into a good habit. Fred brings his club down in an overhead strike, which I sidestep.
My club strikes his, but his grip is firm enough, and he keeps control of his weapon. Lucy stands behind Fred, in real combat I would use him as a shield, but since it’s training, I do something nobody expects. I jump over him, knocking the club out of the surprised young woman’s hand.
“You’re out.”
With only Fred in the game, I swarm him with a flurry of club strikes, my hand moving like a whirlwind. The clacks and thuds overlap, and after two dozen strikes, the club flies out of his hand.
“Great effort!” I beam a smile at the young man and slap him on the shoulder, he really gave it his all to keep his club in his hand.
[You have leveled up.
Select a skill within sixty seconds or a random one will be assigned to you.
Advanced Clubmanship - Your skill with clubs improves.
Advanced Staffmanship - Your skill with staves improves.]
I read my options, both are decent, and I’m going to pick the staff, but not yet. When Edna first explained how the Guide level up functions, there were several ideas on how to exploit it in my mind already.
If it’s slower to respond, what would happen if I chose one option with BSD and the other with the Guide? Would it work? Would I get both skills?
An interesting exploit, if Guide was as powerful as Edna thought it was. If it’s just an added layer atop BSD, nothing will happen, except I hope it compensates me somehow for failing to comply with my request.
[You have leveled up.
Select a skill within twenty seconds or a random one will be assigned to you.
Advanced Clubmanship - Your skill with clubs improves.
Advanced Staffmanship - Your skill with staves improves.]
A golden plaque with black writing appears before me, the text identical to the still visible blue frame. I choose the staff with BSD, and the notification disappears, then I focus on the Guide and pick the club.
[Fault - the time has expired. You were assigned a random skill - Advanced Staffmanship]
Dammit!