"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

Mahatma Gandhi

****

"Are you sure you want to do this? It's not going to be easy." Rob asked Nero while frowning in thought.

It was the evening of the day after the group had returned from the expedition. Nero had arrived at the training hall a bit early to talk to one of the trainers.

"I'm sure. I just don't think that I will get better by continuing the way we have. When I fight you, I don't last long enough to grow really, and when I train on the posts, I don't face any challenges. Even if they are better than me, the other trainees are closer to my level and can fight back." Rob continued to frown.

"It is not like I do not agree with you, I just think you are underestimating how difficult it will be. What level are you?"

"Six after the expedition."

"Most reached level ten or eleven, some died, but they were still level nine. We have two who even reached level twelve. While levels do not entirely represent strength, in the early stages of growth a difference in a few levels can be crippling. Each time you increase, you get new stat points to allocate. Somebody at level twelve has twice as many stat points as you. It's not only that, you must have realized that training gives points as well. The others train every night and have been for longer than you, they have more base points than you do. Again, this doesn't necessarily mean they are strong, but if your skills are equal, which you admitted they aren't, then they will still have a significant advantage." Rob explained

"I wanted to talk to you about my schedule as well. I was thinking that instead of giving me the money for the hides, you keep it as payment for a full course. If it is not enough, then we can do the same with the final expedition. That way I don't miss out on training time."

"We never know what expeditions are available so I can't tell you if you'll get the opportunity to make some money." After he said that the instructor was silent for a few moments before he came to a decision. "All right, from now on you'll be part of the regular program and train with the rest every night. As for the money, we'll keep what you would have made with the ratman hides. We'll sign a contract that you'll pay off the rest in the traditional way through the guild. If we have an opportunity in the next expedition, then you can work part of it off. Does that sound right to you?"

While Nero would rather not have debts, now that he knew the general path he wanted to take in Gods' Nature, he wasn't as opposed to working for the guild. Besides, if he was lucky, he might have the opportunity to pay it off before he finished the training course. It was worth it if it got him more experience fighting those closer to his level.

"That sounds fine. Can we start tonight?"

"Now is as good a time as any. Do you still plan on fighting barehanded? If so you are going to have even more problems than usual. You will be facing trainees who use weapons and shields. If you are serious about this, then I recommend you do some training outside standard practice time. Stats increase faster in real combat, somewhat slower during sparring and much slower if you only do routine exercise. If you can't find real enemies to fight or a sparring partner, then I recommend you do some weight lifting, running or other such practices. It won't give as many points, but every little bit helps if you want to improve."

That was actually a bit of a problem for Nero. Not because he wasn't willing to put in the effort but because it would cut down on his reading time. Even when he had been working two jobs, he had made time for expanding his knowledge. Once his sisters graduated from university and moved out, he had a hope of returning to school himself and did not want to be behind his classmates when he did.

As it was, Nero was still learning about games in general and Gods' Nature in particular. He had gotten the basics down, but there was still a lot he was interested in, not to mention how he had become curious about how premodern cultures and legends had influenced games. Culture and history had always been his primary focus, and he wasn't willing to sacrifice long-term gain (knowledge) for short-term benefits (stat points).

Suddenly Nero had an idea and could have smacked himself for not thinking of it sooner. Audiobooks. Since the network functions allowed access to the internet, he would have access to the vast library of audiobooks he could listen to while exercising. It would slightly limit his choices to published works, and he would have to search through forums and such on his own time but that was fine, he wasn't planning on training all the time.

"We should get that contract out of the way before training starts up," Rob said, leading Nero up to Ken's office.

What followed was a brief discussion on exactly how much money the average trainee paid, how much Nero would be paid per ratman hide and how he was going to pay for the rest. It was a relatively painless process, and it did not take fifteen minutes before he was back in the training yard, this time in a group with the other trainees.

"You all got your first taste of real combat yesterday," Dode said, addressing the group. "A few of you did better than others. Those who died follow me. You too snake boy. The rest of you are with Rob."

The group that followed the instructor to one side of the yard, only nine people including Nero, was a little less than half the total number trainees. The only one he was familiar with was Paul who hadn't been in the carriages on the ride home. Once they were far enough away from the leading group, the instructor addressed them once more.

"Most of you died because of stupid reasons. You either did not pay attention to your environment, or you allowed the enemy to call for backup. So here is what we are going to do, one by one you will take turns facing the rest of the group who will try to knock you down. You are free to use any method. Once someone's knees or back touch the ground they are out. Once we finish, you will run laps for each time you hit the ground and three times if you fell while facing the group. If you knock someone down, I will take a lap off. If a round does not finish is five minutes all of you will run two laps. Go get your weapons."

Nero narrowed his eyes in thought as he put Jorry down on one of the benches to the side while the other trainees grabbed wooden weapons of choice. Something was a bit off here, this exercise would be helpful in training against groups, but it was a bit limited in training people to keep an eye on their environment.

Strictly speaking, the laps were merely motivation for the training. The trainee's goal is to come away with a few laps to do as possible. The best method would be for all the people on the attacking side to work together to knock down the defender, but because whoever did it would have a lap taken off they would all attack but with no cohesiveness. On the other had the defender was almost guaranteed to fall at some point and thus incur three more laps, there was very little chance of facing off against eight others and taking them down within five minutes. The easiest way to not have to run laps would be to stay up for five minutes when it was your turn and take down two of the other trainees. Easier said than done.

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"Bert, since you died trying to face two ratmen by yourself like a moron, you'll start us off." The first defender was a stocky man in his early twenties with a sword and shield combo. He separated himself from the group and walked to where the instructor indicated. "Begin."

There was a bit of hesitation on both sides as they thought about what to do. The action started off after a few seconds by a man wielding a spear charging at the defender. He aimed a blow at the man's chest and was deflected by the shield. A sword blow from the defender aimed at the shoulder was avoided by tilting his body forward and using his spear as a polearm to try and take out Bert's legs. Likely knowing that his legs would be a target, the defender quickly stepped back to avoid the swipe and moved to back the attacker with his shield to destabilize him, but he was prevented from doing so by the other trainees.

By this point, hesitation had long since vanished and, following the spearman's example, the other trainees had charged in an attempt to be the one to knock down the defender. Nero stayed back a bit as he tried to keep watch of the situation. A trainee dual wielding a sword and curved dagger tried to hamstring Bert and would have likely succeeded had she not staggered back at the last second with a grunt. She shot a look at the instructor before pressing the attack once more, though the defender was now aware of her position.

Nero too looked towards Dode and noticed in his hands some small metallic balls. After a few more moments Nero watched as the instructor's fingers moved briefly and another of the attacking trainees grunted in pain. That one had been about to take out Bert's knee with a strike from his wooden club. It continued in this vein for another two minutes or so, the defender holding out admirably and remaining standing thanks to the instructor's help in stopping any blows that sneaked through his defenses that would have knocked him down. Unfortunately, he still accumulated a lot of damage from a variety of hits and eventually fell to his knees from a sharp blow to his shield from the same man with a club from earlier.

The round ended with the club wielder looking triumphant and Bert gasping for breath and wincing in pain with every movement. Nero had only attacked a few times and had mostly stayed on the periphery of the fight, so he was still in good shape.

"Bert can come rest up during the next round. Farus, I heard you died because you were showboating, so you are next." This set up clearly favored those who came later as they would be in better shape to take down defenders. Bert looked beat up, which he was, and would probably be bruised to hell in the morning.

The next round did not last as long. Farus turned out to be the woman with the sword and dagger combo. Without a shield, she had a lot more trouble blocking blows, and it was clear she was much more used to being on the offensive than the defensive. She only held out for a minute and a half before falling prey to a trip from the spear wielder. Despite that, she was even more battered than Bert had been.

Once the first defender joined the attackers the third round started, this time facing the club wielder that had taken down Bert. Despite only having his club, he managed to last almost four minutes. He was still battered but had managed to take less damage than the two before him. He might have even endured the entire five minutes had Dode, around the four-minute mark, stopped helping the defender and instead started to hamper his moves enough for more blows to land on him.

It was at that point that Nero realized precisely what the instructor was doing. As he had known, the laps were merely motivation, the real training was getting beaten up. Dode would keep them up long enough to take enough damage to turn them into a walking bruise and then let them fall to make sure they had to run laps anyway. Nero also noticed he interfered much more with those who had scored a point already. If this kept up, then everybody would have taken down the defender once and been downed once themselves, everybody would run two laps after being injured meaning those who were defenders early would have recovered more by the time to run came.

Knowing this now, Nero had an idea. He started to become more aggressive in pushing the defender and trying to take them down. He made sure to not go for a knockdown blow early, even when presented an opportunity, lest he gets struck by the instructor's iron balls. Unfortunately, Nero played it too safe during the fourth round, and somebody else managed to get the point after three or so minutes.

During the fifth round, Nero tried to take down the defender and ended up getting an iron ball in his solar plexus for the trouble. The sixth round he had no opportunity to take down his opponent as the defender, a staff user, seemed quite used to playing defense against a group. He managed to hold out almost five minutes before a strike from the instructor his ankle, destabilizing him enough for another trainee to trip him.

If the look of resignation on the seventh defender's face was anything to go by, the other trainees had likely guessed the purpose of this training as well. Another thing Nero noticed was for every defender Dode would give the reason for their death before the start of the round. As time progressed, the reasons got more severe, giving an advantage to those who had performed better during the expedition.

It was during the seventh round that Nero finally got the point. The defender, a late teenage girl with a sword and shield, had overextended a swing after two and a half minutes and Nero managed to get a leg behind her knee and push, sending her to the ground.

The eighth round's defender was Paul, who used an odd combination of two long and short spears. Nero did not go in for any knockdown blow, knowing the Dode would prevent it. Even so, he did not go easy on the aspiring merchant despite their acquaintanceship. Perhaps because Paul knew he should focus on the two trainees without a point, he managed to avoid a takedown for four minutes and eventually fell once the instructor interfered.

Finally, it was Nero's turn to be the defender. He was last despite not having died during the expedition at all. If things progressed as they had up till now, he would last perhaps two minutes and get severely beat up in the process. There was no way he would be able to survive the five minutes, Dode would make sure of that.

So he didn't try to survive.

Once the round started, Nero immediately started running towards the group of attackers. Up until this point, none of the defenders managed to get the point while facing the group. It was merely too difficult to focus on one person long enough to knock them down. Perhaps the group thought Nero was just aggressive, or maybe he was trying to take somebody down quickly, either way, they were not prepared for what he did.

Because he was barehanded, he did not have to toss anything to the side as he jumped at the group, his arms wide as if to give them a hug. Despite the attackers being relatively clumped together, most managed to avoid the tackle. Two unfortunates did not, however. They fell down in a tangle of limbs and curse words.

Nero had undoubtedly lost the round but, by taking down two other trainees, he did not have to run any laps. On top of that, he had avoided turning into a walking bruise by trying to fight the group. On the other hand, the two he had taken down plus the trainee who had not gotten the chance to knock Nero to the ground would have to run three laps.

A fact they likely realized if the dark looks they shot his way was any indication.

"Alright," the instructor yelled to the group. "Everybody run your laps around the yard, and then you can rejoin the main group." More than one trainee release a resigned sigh as they started their laps, looking more like a hobble than a run.

After a moment of thought, Nero joined them.

Despite not being forced to run, he did so anyway. He had realized that despite getting one over on the others, they would probably benefit more in the long haul than him. He had gotten a bit more experience fighting but had not taken the chance to try and fight a group and had missed out on a golden opportunity. If he was going to be serious about learning to fight, he could no longer use these tricks to get out of troubling situations. In real life, they would be useful, but during this was training, not real life.

So he ran all three laps with the two trainees he had knocked down and the girl with a sword an shield who had not got the point. His actions got him looks of grudging acceptance from the group after the laps were done and they went to join the larger group.

Nero saw no point in notifying them of the fact that, because he hadn't been beaten up, he was still much better off than they were.