I love the feed back I'm getting! You guys help to make my writing soooo much better! I do agree with one of the comments made. I will use the blue windows to highlight his status improvements but I will get rid of the dings. Continue reading and some of the things you feel are mistakes may be revealed in later chapters. Remember this is still very early in the story. I'm glad that you guys like my story. Remember to review and rate my story to help keep me inspired. Leave your comments too whether they are good bad or indifferent. Now on to chapter 8

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Chapter 8

The next morning began the same as usual calisthenics followed by practicing martial arts and with his weapons.

Due to your physical training you gained strength +2 speed +2 and vitality +2

"Why didn't I get any improvements to my skills? Have I gone past the point of improving with just simple basic practice? Either way I will keep up my practice to hone my skills even if I don't get any status upgrades"

Hiro decided to equip the shield he had. "Damn.. This thing is still heavy. At least now I can hold it though." Hiro stood holding the shield. The muscles in his arm screamed as the weight seemed to feel like it was going to rip his shoulder out of place. Hiro lifted the shield in a defensive position across his chest and placed his sword behind it. He gave a couple of thrusts of his sword and then as if to block an enemy's attack he lifted the shield.

New ability learned shield mastery.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Shield MasteryBeginner010%This ability grants the user with increased proficiency in using a shield. Higher levels of proficiency afford the user higher defensive capabilities as well as offensive and defensive techniques requiring a shield.

Hiro smiled and wiped his brow as he was sweating uncontrollably. His had to maintain all of his concentration just to hold the shield in place. Hiro thought to himself, "There was no doubt that I could defend against any attack that I've had faced so far with this shield (with the exception of the Rocodile) but can I actually attack and do any damage while holding it. Let me practice a little more." He took a deep breath and let it out and began a series of thrusts followed by a block. After about 10 thrusts and blocks ...

You gain 1 point in strength

Hiro dropped the shield and fell down in exhaustion. "I gained a point for to my strength just practicing with this thing. Wow this is awesome. Maybe if I practice some more I can gain enough strength to wield it properly." Hiro stood up and took a few deep breaths. He grabbed his shield and lifted it in place. "Still heavy. I guess one point in strength is not going to be enough." He continued with his thrusts and blocks. This time he was able to reach 25 consecutive thrusts and blocks before he dropped the shield and fell down in exhaustion.

Shield mastery improved to level 2.

strength increased by 1

His plan was working. Hiro stood up one more time and grabbed the shield. This time he began to feel a difference in weight. It was not easy to hold but his muscles were no longer screaming just to pick it up. "This will be good for now" he thought.

After gaining the shield mastery skill and enough strength to hold the shield  Hiro decided that he would try to wear it and use during battle for a while partly because its defensive capability would protect him but also by wearing it he would definitely grow in strength.

There was no sparing today. They both equipped their weapons. Then Hiro gave Foria the magic bag he obtained from the goblins this way they could carry more items that they might find in the woods. They left out and began hunting. Hiro was excited to see what kind of skill Foria had with a bow and he was partly relieved that she would no longer be in melee combat. Shortly after they left Hiro picked up the trail of forest panther using his tracking ability. He followed the trail until they found the beast.

Upon finding the forest panther Foria pulled back her bow and fired one of the arrows. It flew straight to her target with incredible speed. The arrow buried itself deep within the chest of the panther and it fell dead. "A 1 hit kill with that bow! What the hell!?? This will be great! With her firing arrows like this we should easily be able to take out anything. They tracked and killed 4 more forest panthers and 8 forest rats.

Your tracking skill improved to level 4

As they moved through the forest on their exploration, they were attacked by a black viper. It was the first time Hiro had seen one during the day. Immediately the black viper used its glare ability which caused Foria to miss her target as she was disoriented. However, Hiro was able to defend against the ability with his hero’s courage ability.

While observing the night viper you learned icy stare.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Icy StareBeginner010%This ability disorients your enemy causing their attacks to loose accuracy.

"I think I will give it a taste of its own medicine." Hiro used his own icy stare on the snake and it became disoriented before him. The snake begin to shake its head back and forth and it began to sway back and forth hissing at Hiro as if it was confused. Then it opened its mouth and spit poison at him. Luckily, Hiro’s predict ability let him see some of the possible trajectories of the poison. He moved out the way of 2 possibilities and raised his shield and blocked it the one that actually would hit him. "I knew that it was a good idea to keep this shield. It stopped the poison so I took no damage."

The night viper tried once again to bite Hiro but he countered its attack by swinging the iron shield at it. The shock from the collision sent the snake flying into a nearby tree.

 You learned the battle technique shield bash.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Shield BashBeginner010%This technique allows you to use the weight of the shield to become a destructive weapon and cause damage to any enemy.

After moving up to the night viper’s body, Hiro noticed that the head was completely smashed and it was apparently dead due to the violent impact with the shield. Hiro noticed that shield was feeling lighter than it did in the morning. It was still heavy but he was getting the hang of using it.

You gained +1 strength.

After killing the snake they gathered some wood and Hiro lit the fire with his fireball skill. "You hungry?"

"I could eat" answered Foria.

Hiro prepared the black viper and made some snake fillets. He added some of his mint and sunlion as it cooked. As they waited they talked more about Foria's home.

"My village is small. There are a little ove 200 people in our village and I no every one of them by name and face."

"So you are kind of like royalty?" Hiro said while turning the fillets to cook the other side.

"I wouldn't call my family royalty but we do get held in very high esteem. We make the laws in our town and govern the way the town runs economically and socially."

"Wow that seems like a lot of responsibility!"

"It is but my father loves the people in our village and would do anything to make sure that they are safe and cared for."

"He sounds like a great leader."

"He is. The people adore him. What is your family like Hiro?"

"Well my father works as a teacher and my mother stays home and takes care of the house. She is a great cook and very kind. My father is a bit distant at times but he loves me very much." Tears began to well up in his eyes.

"You miss them don't you?"

"Yes. Every day I wonder if I will ever see them again."

"Well when we get back to my village, we can ask my father and his chief advisor. I'm sure they will be able to help you."

"Really! Thank you."

"Stop it. It is I who should be thanking you"

"Let's call it even. Anyway the food is ready let's eat" Hiro handed Foria some of the snake fillets. She blew on it as the steam from it rose sending out a wonderful aroma. She bit into the meat.

"Oh my God!"

"What's wrong! Does it taste bad!?"

"No it is fantastic!! Where did you learn to cook like this?"

"My mom taught me."

"She did an excellent job." They finished their meal and then Hiro skinned all of the monsters that they had killed.

You gained 13 pieces of light leather

After skinning everything Hiro looked at Foria who was wearing some tattered clothes. "Hey, I think you could use some equipment meant more for battle than for being an ambassador."

Foria looked down at her clothes and said, " Yes I do look a little out of place here."

"I'm not great at it but I think I could make you something with a little more protective ability than the clothes you are wearing."

"Would you?"

"Sure. I'll give it a try." With that Hiro decide to try and make her some leather armor. He cut and poked holes in the pieces and finally he did it. Using all 13 of the pieces of leather he created a complete set of leather armor.

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You created a set of leather armor (pants, vest, and gloves)

He gave the pieces to Foria who smiled and took them graciously. Foria went off and changed into her new leather armor. When she returned Hiro was amazed his skill must have improved significantly because the leather he made fit her very well. His face turned a little red as he felt somewhat embarrassed because he was staring. She had an hour glass figure and the leather hugged her curves just right. While she was out she tied up her hair showing even more of the her ample bosom.

"Are you ok" asked Foria

"Umm.... Yes... uh.. no... um.. I'm fine it's just that.. well"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. I was just amazed at how beautiful you are." Embarrassed at his actually confessing what he thought to a girl Hiro stared at the ground. Foria moved closer and lifted his chin with her fingers. She gently caressed the side of his face and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you. You're not so bad looking yourself" she said with a smile. Hiro's heart began to race. He could not imagine in his wildest dreams that something like this could happen. His heart felt like it was about to burst.

"I'm a little tired so I think I'm going to lay down for awhile"

"OK. I'll keep watch while you rest"

While she rested, Hiro thought,"I'll do some meditation for a while to  improve my detection abilities and increase my overall mana." After meditating for a while he was able to see clearly all of the area surrounding him. He could see Foria’s ki. "Man she has a lot of ki, compared to me. Why though? She was not a mage so why did she have so much? I guess I will save that question for another time." He continued to meditate and slowly his detection area began to grow.

{window] sense presences has improved to level 4[/window]

It was now big enough that he could detect anyone within about 20 meter radius. This was definitely going to be useful if they were going to take on the orcs.

Due to meditation your wisdom has increased by 2.

After meditating he stood up and practiced his fighting technique with the sword and shield. He slashed and thrust his sword while protecting himself from attacks. The shield began to feel even lighter.  Foria woke up and the both got their equipment on to get ready to move to the area where they found the orcs the previous day.

They traveled for a while and just before they reached the area where the found the orcs, Hiro detected 3 orcs moving toward them. "Hide in the tree so that you can fire arrows without being attacked." She nodded and scaled a nearby tree.  Hiro hid himself and waited for the orcs to come close enough for him to strike.

As the orcs came closer He noticed that they were all wearing chainmail armor. "This is bad. The 3 of them alone would be tough. With their added protection this is going to be nearly impossible." He used his hide skill to remain hidden from them until they were almost upon him. When they were close enough, he sprang up behind the first one and swung his sword. The opponents were surprised by his attack and could not get their weapons out to defend themselves in time. He attacked the closest one and  chopped the head clean off.  Then he activated his icy stare ability. The orcs were confused and Foria rained down arrows on them. One of them was hit by an arrow that went right through his eye and he fell dead. The other had the arrow bounce off of his chest due to the protection of his chainmail armor."I guess we have to make some better arrows", he thought.

       Hiro immediately attacked. His prediction ability showed him the orc was about to swing at his head so he ducked under and cut the orc’s arm off. Then he spun around and sliced the leg of the orc off. While it was on the ground the orc began to speak words in a language that was unknown to Hiro but he knew what it wanted. It was pleading for its life.  Foria had no compassion for the monster so she shot and arrow that went right through his mouth killing him.

level increased to 11

You increased you sword mastery to level 8

After the ferocious battle the two victors stood over their victims in awe of their own strength.

"Hiro, how did you get so powerful. You actually overpowered  the orcs head on."

"What about you I mean you fired off  so many accurate and deadly shots with such a poorly constructed bow and arrows."

Hiro decided to upgrade his armor by taking the chainmail from the one of the orcs.  He removed his leather vest and placed the chainmail on his torso. It was surprisingly heavy but he knew its defensive power was top notch through observing its ability to deflect Foria’s arrows. "Do you think we are ready to take on the orc camp?"

"I think so. Let's loot their equipment and then i'll follow their tracks until we find where they were coming from.

After resting and regaining their strength they set out to find the orcs’ camp. They traveled about a half a day’s walk then they saw smoke coming.Then their was a familiar beat of drums that they heard previously when they were near the orc camp. Hiro used his detect presence ability to determine how many enemies were in the camp. From where he was, he could sense that there were numerous enemies in the camp. He also noticed 2 other bodies that housed ki.

"There are about 2 dozen enemies but I also sensed that there were two other presences in the camp. One was much larger than the other. I think one of them must be your brother.  Let's wait and observe the orcs from a closer distance in order to ascertain the strength of the force that they would be going into a battle against."

"That sounds good. We don't want to walk into a trap. A full frontal assault would be much too dangerous."

"Hide in the shadows of the trees and wait while  the orcs went along with their activities." As he continued to observe Hiro noticed that one orc had an animal with him. The animal had the appearance of a wolf. It had all silver fur with steely grayish blue eyes and large powerful legs. Hiro used inspect on both of them.

Orc BeastmasterType:Humanoid MonsterHealth:650/ 650Mana:0/0An orc with an affinity for animals. It is able to tame and train animals to do as it commands. The animals obey it until death.

Silver WolfType:BeastHealth:450 / 450Mana:0/0A wolf from the cold lands of the north. It’s fur is strong and warm protecting it from the elements. The animal possesses a keen sense of smell and hearing. It used primarily for its hunting abilities but it can also be used to track down prey or enemies.

Hiro thought to himself, "I should keep watching the beastmaster in order to learn his ability to train animals as that could come in very handy later." As they watched the camp they noticed there were two beings that looked like humans in a cage near the fire at the center of the orc camp. Both were wearing rags and covered in bruises. Foria whispered, “The smaller one is my brother. He is alive. I can’t believe it he’s alive.”

Hiro told her, “Stay calm. We’ll get him out safely”. Hiro continued to use his copy skill while observing the beastmaster giving commands to the wolf. After an hour or so watching him training the wolf,

After closely observing the beastmaster you have learned the ability beast tame.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Beast tameBeginner010%This skill allows you to implant yourself into the mind of a wild beast making it obey your every wish. As you improve your skill level you will no longer have to use gestures to communicate you will be able to speak to the beast using only your thoughts and it will understand and communicate back.

"This will be very useful" Hiro thought for a moment of him leading a pack of wolves like this or a pack of the forest panthers. Hiro let out a sinister smile. Then they continued to watch as a group of about 5 of the orcs broke away from the camp.

Foria exclaimed, “They must be going out searching for food. This will be a chance for us to thin out their numbers.” Hiro agreed. They did not look as powerful as the ones they had already killed plus they were not nearly as well equipped. They wore simple leather armor, not chainmail and their weapons were primarily clubs. However, one orc did have something of interest. It was a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

"What a stroke of luck as this would definitely help them capture the orc camp. If Foria could do as much damage as she was doing with the crude bow and poorly made arrows he created what could she do with a decent bow and some arrows?" He shuttered for a moment. He and Foria decided to follow the group until they were far enough away from the rest of the force at the camp that they could kill them with having the rest of the group of orcs attack them.

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