Once noon arrived, it was time for Zane to leave. He gathered all the items he was reading from and returned them to Gladys. Zane absorbed all the information that the texts contained. Some of the information could be applied immediately, while the rest could only be applied after additional studying.

When Zane returned the items to Gladys, he thanked her for her help and asked her to look for more information. He wanted information related to anything dealing with weapon mastery. She happily agreed and said she would have something for him by tomorrow.

After leaving the library Zane headed to the warrior training ground. Zane planned to put to practice what he had recently read. Also, he planned to issue a few challenges and accept any challenges that were issued to him.

The library, training grounds and other buildings that were created before the arrival of the adventurers still had the system protection. Zane was able to focus on reading without the fear of being disturbed while he was in the library. Once he entered the training ground Zane would be able to immerse himself in battle.

Zane received a challenge shortly after entering the training ground. Everyone at the warrior training ground had become far more active when it came to issuing and receiving challenges. There were many reasons why there would be an increase in challenges. Three of them were the desire for more village points, the desire to quickly increase the level of skills through combat and the ability for other classes to issue or receive challenges at the warrior training grounds.

Village points were easy to earn, but they were also easy to spend. Everyone wanted village points before the Upheaval and the desire for village points only increased after the Upheaval began. Most people didn’t want village points to buy more potions, better equipment or skills. They wanted village points to buy lifesaving items.

Lifesaving item was a term used to describe items that could save a person’s life in a dangerous situation. A lifesaving item could create a barrier, move the user to a safe place, make the user intangible or completely restore their energy. Lifesaving items sold at the market could only be used once and they were very expensive.

One million village points was the minimum number of points that a lifesaving item could be purchased for. It was still possible to earn experience from mana creatures, resources found in the forest and other activities that could be done in the starting village. However, it was easier and faster to obtain experience by battling in the warrior training ground.

Walking on to the black sand Zane saw numerous fights taking place. He only spent a few minutes taking in the view before moving to where he was supposed to have his fight. His opponent was already waiting for him. From the staff and robes that were emitting a large amount of mana, Zane could tell his first opponent was a mage. He politely introduced himself with a smile and prepared for what he thought would be the first of many great battles.

Zane was wrong. While his opponent wasn’t weak, it was clear to see he lacked experience in magic and combat. His opponent started the battle by speaking the words for a tier zero spell. Zane’s sword was by his opponent’s neck before he could finish.

Victory should have gone to Zane, but he graciously stepped back and allowed the battle to continue. He suggested his opponent put some distance between them and to not waste time saying the words for his spell. Instead, he should only use his mind to cast his spell.

Zane’s opponent took his advice while wearing an embarrassed expression. Zane wasn’t surprised by the mistakes that his opponent made. Most mages had someone to protect them when they fought. Thus, they would have ample time to use speak the words to cast their spells. When they didn’t have someone to protect them it was because they were fighting against another mage.

Originally Zane and his opponent were less than ten meters apart, but that distance more than doubled as Zane’s opponent backed up as far as he could within the barrier for their fight. After taking a few deep breaths Zane’s opponent announced that he was ready to continue. He managed to cast three spells before Zane’s sword appeared by his neck again.

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Without Zane saying anything his opponent voluntarily admitted defeat and walked away. Zane continued to accept challenges after his opponent left and he challenged a few people that he thought would give him a good fight. Zane was disappointed to find that none of the people he fought were able to give him a satisfying battle.

Mages casted spells that lacked speed and power. Zane easily dodged or blocked any spells that came his way. The same thing happened when he fought against people with the mystic class.

During his battles against mystics, Zane would allow them to apply buffs to themselves and debuffs to him. Once the battle, began mystics would cast destructive and restrictive spells while Zane was far away. They were able to use more spells than the average mage, but Zane would inevitably close the distance between them. When he got close, most mystics tried to attack him physically. However, their lack of physical combat experience guaranteed Zane’s victory.

Zane fought walkers and warriors that either lacked combat experience or a good foundation. The result of his battles with them were a quick and easy victory. The people lacking in combat experience made poor decisions during the battle. Within a few moves they would put themselves in a trap that would lead to their defeat.

The people lacking in foundation would struggle to withstand the strength, speed or power behind Zane’s attacks. Zane’s strength was greater than some of his opponents and he would force them back when they tried to block his attacks. His speed was faster than some of his other opponents and he was able to land his attack before they could block. His power would destroy the defenses of his opponents regardless of whether they blocked or not.

In other words, all of the opponents that Zane faced were weak. However, he could still benefit from fighting weak opponents. In fact, Zane learned that he lacked control over his power after fighting multiple battles.

After obtaining a few victories, Zane decided that he should hold back a little. It would make the fights more interesting and beneficial for him. When Zane actually attempted to withhold some of his power, he found the task a lot more difficult than he thought it would be. He would start the battle with his power restrained. However, a few second into every battle Zane would find himself exerting far more power than he intended to. After he lost control, his opponents would be quickly defeated.

Eventually, Zane decided to stop issuing and accepting challenges. Instead, he planned to purchase a private room and practice on his own. After fighting against several weak opponents Zane felt that he would see greater improvements while training on his own.

Zane knew there were many powerful opponents he could fight against. However, wanting to fight them and being able to fight them were two different things. Sometimes when Zane wanted to fight someone, he knew was powerful that person would already be in another fight. Other times the people Zane chose weren’t at the training ground or outright refused his challenge.

Zane was unable to be upset with the people who were absent from the training ground, but he did look down on the people that refused his challenge. It seemed cowardly to avoid a battle from a powerful opponent in his eyes. However, after he spent some time thinking it through, Zane realized he had judged these people two quickly.

The people he challenged might have refused his challenge because they had something else to do. For example, Zane refused a few challenges as he made his way to the private room for training. The people he challenged could be focusing on their personal training like himself. Of course, this was a positive reason for their refusal. Zane came up with plenty of negative reasons for their refusal, but he decided not to focus on them.

Once Zane arrived at the private room, he sat and went over the battles he recently experienced. In addition to going over his recent battles, Zane visualized how he would conduct his training. He would be focusing on his spells and becoming more familiar with magic weapons.

Before going to the library, he had already learned multiple spells and learned two magic weapon skills. The Basic Magic Wand Mastery skill and the Basic Magic Staff Mastery skill. Zane needed to learn and reach the max level for three magic weapon mastery skills before he upgraded his mage class. Only then would he be qualified to obtain the magic weapon expert class.

Zane reviewed the information he received from the library while visualizing his training. He would not blindly move forward based on the information he read. Instead, he would use the information to continue on the path he already started. He would focus on the will of the magical weapons he used similar to how he would focus on the will of the martial weapons that he used. With a clear goal in mind Zane opened his eyes and began his training.