The tomahawk flipped through the air and thunked satisfyingly into the post a dozen feet away.

“Now think about calling it back to you,” Kendell instructed from behind him. Joe had borrowed a pair of her old enchanted axes. He had been training with them non-stop for the past couple of hours. Normally a person’s arm would fall off if they stood throwing the large tomahawks for that long, but Joe could cheat. By burning [Heart Fire] at his feet and using [Effereous Endurance], his shoulder was only a little bit sore.

Her plan was to evolve Joe’s staff mastery into a wider weapon expertise. Kendell, or Kenda as she had asked Joe to call her, had [Thrown Weapon Mastery], an upgraded form of [Thrown Weapon Expertise]. She had started with [Javelin Expertise] but by working with thrown blades, darts, and handaxes, she had evolved it; just as Joe had evolved his [Parry] into [Melee Defense] during his training with Hah’roo and Count Valloc.

He had to remind himself about the difference between upgrading a skill and evolving it. Hawking had told him that upgrading a skill moved it to a higher rarity. Making an uncommon skill into a rare one, for example. This made the skill more efficient. Evolving one, on the other hand, added features to the skill. Joe’s favorite skill evolution so far had been when his [Coin Catcher] had become [Helpful Hand]. The skill went from just grabbing loot for him, to being a fully functional telekinetic third hand.

Kenda was trying to train him in a skill called [Versatile Weapon Expertise]. This was a bucket skill for weapons that served multiple functions. His staff, being a primarily defensive weapon, fit that bill. So would parrying daggers and conversely spiked shields, as they were defense tools that were designed to also be weapons. Hah’roo’s rope dart would fit into this category as it was both a weapon and control implement. The last big set of weapons in the group were melee weapons that could also be ranged weapons, aka, thrown weapons.

If Joe could bring about the evolution, it would allow him to use a far wider array of weapons than just the staff. Kendell had gotten the idea from what Joe had told her about using the belaying pins on the ship. She asked him if the staff skill supported the short clubs. When he said yes, the young trainer was positive Joe was on the cusp of the staff skill evolving on its own, but she wanted to guide the transition. If Joe was not careful he could end up with [Bludgeon Expertise] which was still better than just [Staff Expertise] but not nearly as good as she thought the versatile weapons skill would be for him.

Evolutions usually were offered by Hawking when a skill was at least 20, with 25 ranks being the most common evolution point. Joe was just under that with his staff. So before Joe ranked from 19 to 20, Kendell wanted him to spend some serious time with thrown weapons.

They had started only a few feet away from the target. Kendell had lent him her good axes. The weapons had an enchantment on them called [Returning]. This meant that the hatchets automatically flew back to your hand. If your hand was full, they would land on the ground at your feet.

She explained there were four levels of what was known as the [Recall] enchantments. The lowest level was called [Arming] and it would draw the weapon from a sheath or a close range and place it into your hand. You had to actively project your command at the weapon to have the enchantment activate. The next level was [Calling]. It did basically the same thing as [Arming] but it would summon the weapon from much further away. This meant you could throw the weapon and then call it back to you with a thought. [Returning] required no thought. Once the enchanted weapon hit something, it would pull free and fly back to you a moment later. The last version of the enchantment was called [Recall] itself. It worked like [Returning] but it had basically no range and the weapon teleported to you. You could throw the weapon overboard from a ship and still get it back no matter how far away you were from it.

When Joe reached the point where he was comfortable sticking the hatchets at six feet they moved back a bit and Joe learned how to hit his target from eight feet. Then ten feet. At twelve feet, Kendell informed him that this was about as far as he could be expected to easily hit a target until he had a thrown weapon compatible skill. After a while, they switched from her expensive returning handaxes to an older pair of tomahawks with [Calling] on them. Since Joe was not going to be able to afford [Returning] weapons, she thought he might as well get used to the rhythm of calling his weapons back to him.

Joe sent his thought out to the axe embedded into the post. Yet again, as he did so his [Helpful Hand] manifested and grabbed the tomahawk’s handle. Even though this was the fifth time it happened, it still startled Joe enough that he lost focus both on the hand and the call.

“You gotta learn to focus just on the one thing you want to happen,” Kenda said with a giggle in her voice. “Though I have to admit I can see why it keeps happening. Your hand spell and the calling probably use the same thought processes.”

“Can I just use [Helpful Hand] then? It is the first thing that my mind tries when I attempt to recall the weapon. I could save myself some money if I could recall on my own.”

“You could but I worry that the hand spell is not a combat spell. Relying on utility spells for combat is a dangerous habit. They don’t always function the way they do in training when there are monsters attacking or spells exploding around you.”

“How about this? You said that trainers could use force armor suits in here? Why don’t we spar? I think I have chopped enough posts to be good enough with these. Maybe we need actual combat for this to work.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Kenda beamed. “Let’s go a couple of rounds and then try to get that last level you need in staff for the evolution.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Joe replied. He wondered how one-sided this battle was going to be. Joe suddenly realized that he had never assessed Kendell. He was still not sure what the etiquette was for assessing people. It was a common skill so it couldn’t be that rude. Joe had come to think of it like staring. You could glance at folks but not glare at them. He gave the trainer as light of an assessment as he could.

Kendell Bracey: Human: Seeker/Savant 17

‘This might not be too bad’ Kenda was only a few levels higher than he was. She sure had more training but, in terms of raw stats, they should be pretty close. Additionally, Seeker and Savant might not be full combat classes. They sounded more like researcher classes. Granted in this world and given Kendell’s combat readiness, he was pretty sure that, regardless of her classes, she knew how to fight better than he did.

“Are you going to armor up?” she asked him worriedly as she buckled on a belt she had taken from a cabinet in the room.

“Nah. If the danger is not real, it is going to take ten times longer to level up.”

“True. Ok, but if you take a bigger hit than I intended, tell me and we’ll stop.” Kendell had one of her enchanted hatchets in each hand.

Joe shrugged his shoulders and stepped next to one of the posts to use as cover. “As long as you don’t actively try and kill me, I should be fine no matter what you throw at me.”

“Pretty big words there for a newcomer.” A faint azure field sprung up around her. Joe could barely see it but it made her look like someone was shining a blue light at her. As soon as that field snapped into place, Joe dove all the way around the post and threw one of the tomahawks as quickly as he could.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Kendell was not surprised. She batted it away and threw both of hers, one a second behind the other. Joe could tell the best angle to dodge away from the first would put him straight in the path of the second, so he tried to do the same thing she did, knock one away. He was not nearly as successful. Smacking a heavy spinning blade out of the air was harder than she made it look. The hatchet blade hit him right on his knuckles, causing him to drop the tomahawk he had tried to block with. Pain shot through his hand. Joe saw that the axe had actually broken his reinforced skin. Thankfully his major resistance turned what would have been an amputation into just a painful cut.

[Helpful Hand] recovered the axe at his feet but, since he did not see where Kenda had smacked the other one to, he did not know where to send his magical digit. He sent a mental command toward the lost tomahawk and felt a connection. A second later the weapon spun around a post, arcing its way back to him.

‘There’s the difference. Both take the same mental focus but, because [Calling] is combat focused, it works without me actively targeting the weapon’s location.’

Joe wanted to try something else he had thought of. The next time Kenda sent her axes at him, Joe manifested his spectral hand and tried to grab one of them out of the air. While he missed grabbing the handle, the ghost hand still connected enough to foil the weapon attack. Joe used the opening and [Hunter’s Pursuit] to make an unexpected pounce on the trainer. Kendell’s squeak of surprise was very rewarding.

Whenever Joe’s thrown axe was within sight, [Helpful Hand] always activated faster than the [Calling] enchantment. Soon Joe stopped trying to call those he could see.

Your skill [Helpful Hand] has increased to rank 19.

He and Kendell were dashing around the obstacle course, hurling weapons at each other non-stop. When he saw her starting to lag, Joe hit her with [Effereous Endurance].

“Oh wow! I was wondering how you were keeping going. So, this is your secret. I couldn’t figure out how you had been practicing for hours and then skirmishing and not passing out. This is a great spell! HA!” she ended with a shout and launched an axe at him far harder than she had been throwing a second ago.

The throw was a strong one but she was so excited she telegraphed the attack. Joe tried again to bat it away with his telekinetic hand and it worked. The force of the throw chopped through the translucent hand but suddenly windows started appearing in the corner of his eye.

Your skill [Helpful Hand] has increased to rank 20.

Skill Evolution/Upgrade: You have successfully incorporated the utility spell [Helpful Hand] into your combat style. Do you wish to evolve and upgrade your common [Helpful Hand] skill to the uncommon [Fetching Fist] skill?

“Kenda, if I evolve and upgrade [Helpful Hand] now, will it screw up my staff evolution? I’ll need my extra skill point to upgrade my hand.”

“No! Do it!” she shouted, excitedly. “I have found that skills often go through upgrades together but passing on one can sometimes put off the others that are on the verge of changing. [Versatile Weapon Expertise] is a common skill too so you won’t need your free point for it.”

“Great! One sec.” Joe assigned his open point to Perception and assented to the screen.

You have learned the uncommon skill: [Fetching Fist]. This skill will allow your manifested hand to retrieve items for you on command. You must be familiar with the item and there must be an unobstructed path between you and the item. Additionally, the fist can deliver a bludgeoning attack doing moderate damage based on the rank of the skill. The hand can lift up to 25 pounds of material plus an additional 1.0 pounds for each skill rank you have with this skill. The hand is agile enough to make simple manipulations of objects or creatures. The evolved skill retains all prior fuctions. Cost: Moderate Mana.

“That was worth it,” Joe called out. “Not only is the hand twice as strong as it was, it can now mimic the [Calling] enchantment and make attacks too.”

“Perfect. Let’s go grab your staff and try to get that one evolved as well.”

Joe placed the borrowed tomahawks on a table by the beginning of the obstacle course and grabbed a quarterstaff from the rack, having left his quarterstaff back in the woods with the badboons. Kendell deactivated the shielding belt and the two started sparing again. Joe placed a [Heart Fire] beside them and hit them both with [Effereous Endurance] once more.

“This is the weirdest thing,” Kendell professed, smiling. “I actually feel better brawling non-stop with you than I do standing behind my desk.”

It did not take long before the staff skill ranked up enough for Joe to receive the evolution they had been training for.

Skill Evolution: You have successfully incorporated multiple weapons into an adaptive fighting style. Do you wish to evolve your [Staff Expertise] skill to the [Versatile Weapon Expertise] skill?

“We did it!” Joe announced as he consented to the evolution.

You have learned the common skill: [Versatile Weapon Expertise]. You are proficient with multi-functioning weapons. Versatile weapons are weapons that are designed to be equally useful for defense as they are for offense or ranged melee weapons. Parrying daggers and throwing axes are two such examples.

“Sweet!” she chirped before sighing deeply. “Ok, I’m done.”

The trainer tossed her hatchets into the air and they both vanished. The [Arming] enchantment could put the weapons away too. Joe guessed in this case she must have tossed them into her dimensional bag since they disappeared instead of jumping back into their sheaths.

Kendell headed to the cabinet where she had taken the belt from and returned it. She also grabbed a pair of towels and tossed one to Joe. Wiping off the sweat, she turned and looked at him. “What do you say we clean up and go get food and lots of drinks to celebrate?”

“Definitely. I’ll even regale you with Count Valloc stories.”

Kendell beamed a bright grin at him and led him back into the Guildhouse. “I think I want to hear more about the werewolf this time.”

The Guildhouse had locker rooms. They were not nearly as fancy as the one at Count Valloc’s monster hunters club but they had many of the same amenities. Joe used wands to clean his outfit and took a wonderfully hot shower.

He finished first and so spent a few minutes walking around the lobby of the Adventurers Guild. The walls were adorned with pictures and plaques, detailing the long history of Fort Coral. He was halfway through one of the oldest plaques that spoke of the founding of the fortress town by a team of adventurers when Kenda stepped up to him.

“The Founding of Fort Coral,” she recited over his shoulder. “That’s a good one. Founders Day is coming up soon. That is one of the best holidays of the year. Oooh, you are going to have to pick a founder. The whole town dresses in their founder's colors and there are games.”

“Do you stick to one founder or change year to year?” Joe asked, looking at the picture of the four heroes from a century ago. The founders’ names were Mira Starseer, a diviner, a mage known as Jequa the Red, Margen, a warrior, and Tintze the Trader, who sounded more like a rogue than a merchant from what Joe had read so far.

“Most tend to pick a founder and stay with it but there is no rule about it. People switch all the time. There are some who never settle on one but, as you said, switch from year to year.”

“Sounds like fun,” Joe admitted.

“It is. Now come on. I’m starving.”

Kendell looped an arm through his and steered him towards the door. Joe was surprised by the gesture. He was used to being touched in a ‘caring for him’ manner by his nurses. This was something completely different. It was also much better. He could not help but crack a wide smile as they stepped out onto the sunny afternoon streets of Fort Coral.