Twenty-one days until the Duel with Edbert

Late afternoon

When I had first laid out my plan to Alec, Moriah, and Calvin, the trio had each given me feedback and contributed to my shopping list. For the most part in the initial steps, Moriah and Calvin were meant to make sure my plans and our initial sketches of several modified reliquaries, would come to fruition. Later, they would help me in the Dragon’s Fang Bog dungeon.

Alec’s main purpose was to help me get into fighting shape. As a shepherd and someone who had the guard class but was not directly beholden to Lord Charles Darville, there was no one better for the task that I could think of.

So Alec had explained to me where to find him after the challenge. On the eighth days and the fourth days of the eight-day week that they observed here in Hekatondrona, the shepherds grazed their herds on the edges of the Million Potato Marsh and Strongbridge. So that’s where I was headed after finishing my shopping.

I did not have any of my monster partners out with me on these errands because while I normally would enjoy doing so, I had found out that the pair of monsters made me somewhat conspicuous in appearance. It was rare for someone my age to have two monsters at all. Because the “Ten-Year-Old” tournament I had been told all about by Charles that was supposed to be a requirement for all ten-year-olds was a rite of passage? It was real but its requirement to have four monsters was specifically for the nobility and those they sponsored, who participated in the highest and most dangerous tier in the tournament. Entrants in other tiers of the competition had more relaxed rules, and many only had to have two monster partners by the time the tournament rolled around. It also wasn’t restricted strictly to ten-year-olds, but only those who would be ten or had turned ten in the last Mooncrawl.

***

I made my way over to the western gate of Strongbridge and through it. I expected to see Alec with the herds of livestock I had seen with the shepherds before. Instead, he was not tending the herds at all. He and craytipult were standing in front of a gaggle of children from ages ten down to four. Each of the children was holding a wooden staff and dressed in clothes that reminded me somewhat of martial arts uniforms but with button-up outer robes.

As soon as I approached, Alec turned and threw me a staff of my own.

“So if we’re going to teach you how to fight better, we’re going to begin with the basics. A staff is a weapon for anyone, Wade.”

Then he turned to the assembled children. “What is the staff, class?”

In a discordant chorus soon came forward. It was so similar to memories of Gwendolyn and Osbert’s early elementary school plays that I was left with my heart wrenched.

“A staff is a part of me. It can be a tool, it can be a weapon, it can be an aide. The staff is my friend. It can be your friend too.”

Alec flashed them a grin. “Excellent. Craytipult, what do you think of their answer?”

The blue crab let out a series of bubbles from its mouth and they flew in the air and popped, sending the children into giggles and shouts of excitement.

I didn’t laugh or get excited, simply standing there like a grump. I still didn’t understand how or why this world’s system chose to lower the physical age of people who arrived in it; but obviously, it was mostly a physical thing.

“Take a spot so we can begin practicing stance and exercises.”

I strode over with the staff in my hands. We began this class I had not originally expected to do and I began the process of learning the basics.

***

We continued for hours, and by the time we took a meal break, I had gained three levels of the blunt weapon skill, which governed staffs, hammers, clubs, maces and more. I had also had to fight several members of the class and despite being children I was quickly made to realize that the people of Hekatondrona took personal defense far more seriously. They hit hard, and while I did not lose any health points in the process of the class I suffered. I had bruises and embarrassment to contend with, despite having picked up three levels of a skill so quickly.

Our meal at the break was bread loaves, butter, and cold sausages. As we were eating it, and the kids chattered with one another I sat across from Alec in a crossed-leg position, and he sat the same way as he ate.

“So, Alec, why exactly are you so concerned with me training in the blunt weapon skill before I grab the guard class?”

Alec was silent as he chewed through a chunk of buttered bread and did not answer until he had washed it down with a pull from his canteen of water.

“You have your plans, I have mine. You don’t need to just be able to grab Guard, Wade. You need to be ready to grab Shepherd if you want your plan to succeed because while Guard grants a trait allowing you to see details about monsters and opponents at a glance, the Shepherd class has an advanced version of the trait that guards have. It’ll be useful for your plan.”

I couldn’t argue with that, but it also didn’t make sense. Every class other than the orphan class had an unlock requirement. Either you had to be born from someone with that class or you had to perform the unlock requirements. And they weren’t always simple. For instance, the guard class had the requirements of a weapon skill of ten or two weapon skills of five or winning six legitimate battles with others. Some I did not even understand the unlocks for; such as the generic mage class or priest class that I had been told existed.

Shepherd, however, I did know the unlock thanks to Alec’s commentary. I knew the unlocks for Swordsman as well.

“I might be able to get my blunt weapon fighting skill up to level five but there’s no way that I’ll be able to get Analysis up to ten or staff up to ten so I have one of the two at ten and one at five; so I’m not sure how you plan for me to get to the point I can unlock it.”

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Alec didn’t respond, he just did as he had done before and tore into some bread wrapped around the cold sausage. He took his time, leaving me hanging as he did. Only when he was finished and had taken a sip he spoke up.

“I suppose then that no one ever told you about the other method to increase a skill, did they?” The shepherd then took another bite of sausage and waited until he was done chewing before he spoke up. “The reason why experience points are important is they are not just a way to increase your level or make reliquaries and other artifacts. They are also allowed to pay for skill rating increases. I’m training you to get the basics in your head. That and I’m trying to let you save whatever I can on skill costs because purchasing skill points with experience points is always multiplicate. I think the basics alone saved you like thirty-five experience points, now that we’ve got you to level three. If I can get you to level five it’ll be more like having saved you a hundred experience points.”

For as much as I felt like I was in a glorified tutorial in my first, I realized that I wasn’t. A tutorial would have given me all the information it could quickly. The nobility here had a decided interest in not educating its outworlders though, so it made sense they would purposefully leave information out.

“No one ever told me that before,” I admitted, before tearing into the rest of the food. It made far more sense now how and why something that could be utilized to generally only unlock a higher class level for someone was instead considered such a currency commodity.

To that, Alec gave me one of his stupidly wide grins. The sometimes “Zen Martial Artist” effect he naturally took was instantly dispelled and he seemed like the stereotypical farm boy that he more or less was. “Well, the way we shepherds believe is you shouldn’t lie to a friend if you can help it. Deciding if it’s good for them or not is ignoring their ability to make a judgment call, and you aren’t a kid, Wade. Well, not beyond the physical bit.”

He then nodded to my food, mostly untouched. “At least most of the time. You need to eat if you’re going to be ready for our next training session.”

***

In the next training session, I continued the forms that made up the staff fighting martial art and the skill that took its name from the tool used in the martial art favored by the shepherds. I one-handed practiced blocks, one-handed deflections, one-handed swings, one-handed swipes, and one-handed smashes. I practiced two-handed versions of them as well.

I practiced them over six hundred times, and by the time the day was over I had gained a greater understanding of staff fighting and the blunt weapons skill as well as a feeling of soreness throughout my body. However, as the sunset, I was treated to my first step by the shepherds.

With their herds brought into the town, Alec called one of his cousins over, and most of the kids around his age down to my physical age. When they were assembled he gestured to one of them my age.

“Alfric, you’re going to spar with Wade. If he can win against you, then we’ll move to the next opponent. Do not take it easy on him, yeah?”

Alfric gave me a grin that reminded me of all the unintended menace a kid could muster. It was something I had forgotten as a parent.

No one ever said that training was supposed to be easy. So Alfric prepared, I took my jacket off folded it up gently, and put it into my satchel. The satchel remained slung against my body and the ancestor’s grasp saber remained slung over my shoulder.

“So are you both ready?” Alec asked. Before I could mention anything about soreness he gestured for us to bow to one another and begin.

Alfric was my age but he did not have any compulsions against or lack of instinct to use violence. I had gotten in a few fights in my original life, but here battles were a way of life, especially for shepherds. So he had an advantage over me in both experience and instinct. The way he slowly snaked from side to side while closing the distance between us made that clear.

So I took several hits before I was willing to try to go all out against someone who was the age of my youngest son back before I was brought to Hekatondrona. Fresh welts stung but I was proud to have used the two-handed blocks I had practiced to my advantage. It saved me from a bruised rib which I would have had from his staff swung like a baseball bat.

Which is when I realized there were very strong similarities between the two. I didn’t have experience with staff fighting but I did with baseball. I was an assistant coach on both of my son’s little league baseball teams. I had to stop thinking of it as exotic and let hours of practice kick in.

I got smacked a few times for my thoughts, but I didn’t give in either. Edbert was not going to be gentle in our battle if he wasn’t forced to be. It was a given that the denizens of the Dragon’s Fang Bog would not likely be gentle either.

So I stopped trying to fight gently. He was a kid and I was one physically. So after throwing him backward with the same block to a strike to my ribs, I followed him in a charge. I aimed at his knees, and thwack. I got my first actual hit in the fight.

There was a murmur behind us, both in disapproval and approval. I didn’t charge further though. I took my time to catch my breath as Alfric crouched and took a moment to steady himself from the hit.

“You’re a right mean bastard.” the boy said as he stood back up. “Were you raised by wolves?”

They might as well have been, but I didn’t bother to say that to him. I might think about my wife and kids often, but I did not like to think about my childhood if I could help it.

“Something like that. Are you ready to begin again?”

“Yeah, let’s go!”

As we went back into combat we both went faster, and he took cheap shots too. While I didn’t get hit in the knees he did get my knuckles, stung in my ear tip ith a swipe of the staff that came too close to my ear, and hit in the soft part of my stomach.

He meanwhile had been hit in an elbow, had his foot stomped on and been bowled over by me doing a spinning block that Little John as played by many actions had taught me. My move had been lumbering and predictable but it was also hard to block for someone my age and size.

After our series of strikes finished we were once again called apart to catch our breath and prepare for the next round of the bout but that was not it.

"The next strike to land ends the match." Declared Alec in his role as judge and organizer.

This meant I had to pull out all the stops. Id I couldn't win a match against someone my age and likely level, how would I ever expect to win against Edbert or other bullies that might exist in the world?

As soon as the cal to begin came I ran forward and just as I got seven feet, and thus one staff blow away I threw myself to the ground in a roll. Alfric kept barreling forward and was practically on me as I held both hands on the shaft of my practice staff and shoved it up and into his chest. Before he could realize it the momentum of my slide and movement collided with his and he was sent flying backward a few feet. After a few seconds as blood dripped from his mouth he flopped to the ground.

Again there was murmuring but no one said anything aside from Alec. "It seems our winner is Wade Calhoun. Very nice technique to have there."

Nothing of his tone implied it was sarcasm. "You don't look down on dirty fighting?"

"Why would we? Honor and chivalry are for nobles, not people who work for a living." Answered several of Alec's distant cousins.

Alfric slapped me on the shoulder as he walked up. "In fact you have to show me how you did that move. How about you tell me and everyone else while we eat supper?"

I almost didn't even notice the flashing lcd green prompt of my having gained a level in the blunt weapons skill once again.

Four ranks in one day, without even a single one of them. If Alec's remark on the scaling cost of skills was right that means I had just saved almost a hundred experience points in gaining those skill ratings.