In the spirit of what Dave had told him, Nebel was trying out various weapons. He had already used a short sword in other Virtual realities so he skipped it, instead of using a short sword to practice, he was using a rapier, a spear and a war hammer, which is actually a pole weapon with a large hammer head attached to the end.
Like Dave had said the rapier was extremely little, in a normal game where high levels of dexterity fix attack direction without conscious input it would be the perfect weapon for a AGI, Dex, type. But in this game the system was a little different, the first thing that Nebel noticed was that the system was neither helping him nor impeding him, he thought that maybe after generating a skill that would change until a screen appeared in front of him.
His display had activated and was showing him a line frame person, like in old 3D games standing with one hand on his hip and the other holding a slim rod. The figure was standing at a forty-five degree angle to the direction of the rod and seemed to be standing with his weight balanced mostly on his back leg.
Nebel after looking at this image decided to copy it. Just like the video, from standing straight Nebel puts his right leg forward, raises his right hand holding the rapier and places his right hand on his hip. When he had nearly completely copied the image the figure started to move.
The figure extends his right leg and moves his whole body forward as he pushes the rapier as far forward as possible in a perfect thrust. The right hand was used to keep balanced while the right leg took most of the weight from the left leg. Nebel tries to duplicate the feat but as was fairly obvious he fails nine times out of ten and even when he manages to do it his aim wasn’t very good.
Nebel had been practicing against a paper with a man drawn on, kind of like the ones seen at firing ranges but in a fighting stance and with a lot more details. He had been aiming at the upper left chest, to hit heart or lungs but in the three times he hadn’t lost his balance he had hit the belly and left shoulder instead only once he had hit the heart. The figure in the video gave him a thumbs up and the word practice flashed across the display before it shut off.
Abilities WindowVectors :The BasicsRapier:Thrust:20% accuracy, 10% power
The Abilities panel appears before Nebel for a second before disappearing on its own once more.
“Ok, now I’ve got the ability.” Nebel says out loud. He tries to do the movement once more but this time he tries to just wing it by just doing the movement without trying to hard if the system affects his abilities he should see a twenty percent hit rate without even trying.
Nebel roughly performs the movement and… doesn’t hit. He tries again… and again. After a good sampling of fifty tries Nebel gives up and does the math… with a calculator function of his display… out of the fifty times he had hit only five times which was… only ten percent of the time…
A minute after he had stopped trying the abilities screen appears in front of him once more.
Abilities WindowVectors :The BasicsRapier:Thrust:15% accuracy, 2% power
His accuracy had dropped down to 15% and his power was down to 2%!!!
“Hmm, it seems those numbers are only a reflection of current ability not a system skill.” Nebel puts the rapier back and walks over to a spear, the spear was sitting vertically in a stand much like an umbrella holder. Nebel lifts the spear out of its stand and spins it slightly while walking back to the paper person, Strangely the paper was once again whole, none of the holes left by the rapier were visible.
“Maybe something changed it when I went for the spear.” Nebel thinks to himself.
As he stands before the paper man a video once more appears in front of him. This time the image is standing with a spear in both hands, its right arm and leg are forward much like the previous video but this time the left arm his holding the spear a distance behind the right. Nebel swiftly copies the stance and the video continues with its demonstration.
The figure lifts its right arm over its shoulder and its left arm in front of its chest before making a slashing motion from the upper left to the lower left. Nebel tries the motion out and after about a dozen tries the figure starts moving again. Its left hand moves farther forwards while its right moves upwards and to its left above its left shoulder, the figure makes the same slashing movement but this time does it from the top left to the bottom right.
Nebel tries it out twenty-three times before the figure continues it lifts its right hand above its head and its left infront of its face and makes a slash straight down, in the video infront of the figure is also a target and on the target is a perfect six pointed lazy mans star just like the twinkle when you look at a light with your eyes nearly closed. The star is centered on the center of the targets chest going from both shoulders to hips and from head to crotch.
After only a few tries Nebel gets it this time and the figure gives him the thumbs up, but this time more words appear on the display and it centers on the target. TRY IT IN ONE!! Nebel looks at his thoroughly slashed up target. “Looks like I need a new target.” He muses aloud. He is shocked just a moment later as the target starts to regenerate before his eyes.
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After it finishes he stares in shock for a moment “Well that’s convenient.” Nebel shrugs his shoulders and tries out the movements all at once. After just about thirty attempts and regenerations of the target Nebel gives up trying to make a perfect star, instead he looks over at the video that while he was practicing had moved over to his left. The display instantly moves back in front of him and the word practice greets him just before the display disappears. Once more the abilities screen appears when he stands in a relaxed stance.
Abilities WindowVectors :The BasicsRapier:Thrust:15% accuracy, 2% powerSpear:Basic Slashes:30% accuracy, 15% power
Nebel replaces the spear into its stand and grabs a war hammer off of a diagonal holder connect to the wall. This time the video is very basic and just like with the rapier it only shows him a single attack, the figure steps forwards onto its right leg while moving both of its arms that are holding the war hammer, the head of which is laying on the ground, and then the figure rotates its upper body bringing the war hammer into a sweep from right to left and from the ground slowly up to the level of the waist before letting it settle onto the ground once more after its stops the swing on its left side.
Nebel tries it out for a while but just keeps accidentally losing to the momentum and making a fully spin. TRY SWING WITH LESS STRENGTH! Appears on the display and the figure does the movement with both a 50% in the top left corner and a 100% in the same corner.
At 50% it makes the same movement as the first time but in the 100% video it spins all the way around just like Nebel. “Ahh, I can’t stop it if I use to much strength!” Nebel says to no one. Nebel tries a few times more and after a while finally finds an amount of strength that he can stop. The Video just like the other times flashes: PRACTICE! Before disappearing and his ability screen appears as if on cue.
Abilities WindowVectors :The BasicsRapier:Thrust:15% accuracy, 2% powerSpear:Basic Slashes:30% accuracy, 15% powerWar Hammer:Right Sweep:50% accuracy, 30% power
Nebel replaces the war hammer to its cradle on the wall and practices a bit more with the rapier and the spear. After about ten more minutes of practice, a total of an hour and a half has passed and Nebel notices Dave coming his way so he leans on the spear he had just been practicing with and waits for Dave to reach him.
“Hey how has the practice gone?” Dave asks “Pretty good” Nebel says and after calling out the abilities screen with the proper movements gives it a flick to turn it around and shows it to Dave. “I see the videos started alright, good, good.” Dave says as he looks at Nebel’s abilities screen.
Abilities WindowVectors :The BasicsRapier:Thrust:25% accuracy, 22% powerSpear:Basic Slashes:35% accuracy, 28% powerWar Hammer:Right Sweep:50% accuracy, 30% power
“Ok.” Dave points at the screen while talking “Now you can train pretty much by yourself at least for the rest of the basics, and that goes for any weapon. Your display has the basic movements recorded in videos along with an analysis program to tell you how well you did, that’s what the abilities screen shows. Now if you get the accuracy and power up to at least 50% your display will show you the another training video the next time you’re in any of the human lands gymnasiums…
the downside is from now on I have to make you pay to use my facilities.” Dave smiles and holds out three weapons two of his other students had brought over just a moment ago.
An iron rapier, a wooden iron tipped spear and an iron war hammer with a wooden pole. “Which do you want?”
In reality the war hammer was leaning against him while the spear had its butt on the ground with dave only holding part way up and only the rapier was actually fully held up. “I would like the spear, Dave.” Nebel says and Dave hands him the spear and a strap for carrying it on his back.
Nebel puts the spear sees three holes going throughout the spear and that the strap has three cords attached so he threads them through the spear and slings it over his shoulder.
Dave smiles “Most people look at me funny when I hand them that strap, you’re pretty quick, come back soon… when you have cash…”
as he finishes saying this line the two students that brought over the weapons pick Nebel up and only put him back on his feet outside the gymnasiums doors.