Thank you everyone for cheering for me. :-)

That and for helping me improve my English.

I hope you will have fun reading! [34.gif]

I have made some changes with the dialoges to separate thoughts from speaking out aloud:

- [text] - is for speaking

- '[text]' - is for thoughts

From the next chapter onwards, I will refrain from using too many tables as it seems to break them up somehow. Sorry for the inconvenience!

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Chapter 4: Training, weapon of choice and the Duel

Whack!

Whack!

- Faster, you slowpokes! - shouted Instructor at trainees. After that he heard the sound of doors opening. He looked at the entrance to find a person with torn clothes and grey-blue scarf covering hisface. It looked really worn out. Then he noticed that the person had matching scales over his body in place of human skin.

-'An Asyrian? Now, that's a rare sight' – he thought. After newcomer came closer he asked. - What do you want?

- I want to train.

- There's a lot of scarecrows here, weapons are in barrels. The thing's for free, so suit yourself. Also I can coach you for...

- Not needed, thank you – the newcomer cut in mid-sentence and went to the corner. This caused Instructor's vein to bulge on his forehead, but didn't say anything.

-'That bastard... I'm not going to train you even if you come and beg me to let you for triple the usual price.'

Neriehem suddenly felt a chill on his back as he was coming closer to the scarecrow. -'Must be my imagination...' - he thought to himself. Soon enough he stopped at the weapon barrel. -'Right, now that I'm here let's check them all out.'

After that he pulled out all weapons and started trying out each and every one.

Whack!

Whack!

Whack!

Whack!...

* * *

-'Is there really nothing that suits me?' - thought Neriehem with dissapointment putting another weapon in the barrel. This time it was a double-edged tw-handed greataxe, which was too slow for him. -'I want to have some kind of sword, one-and-a-half handed would be the best, but when I tried one out it turned out terrible. I couldn't grasp the right feeling even after an hour of swinging. There must be something for me...' - he thought and then he looked at the – much smaller now - pile of weapons. He already tried out so many of them by now that he had enough. After a sigh he picked up another weapon. -'Didn't I try out this one before...? Yeah, I did' – after that he put it into the barrel. Then he picked up another one. -'Oh, a katana. First time seeing it. All right, let's give it a try.'

After that he started attacking the scarecrow, trying out all the moves he thought up on-spot. This time he felt some kind of unity with the sword. It went perfectly where he wanted it to strike at. He grinned broadly. -'Finally, time for some real training' – he thought and laid down the katana next to the scarecrow, then put the rest of the pile back to the barrel. After that he picked up katana once more and started what he called 'the real thing'.

After ten hours Instructor came over to where Neriehem was training.

- It's time to leave now, otherworlder. Maybe you don't know, but over here nights are dangerous. The streets...

- Are crowded with bloodthirsty monsters yearning for every ounce of residents' blood and because of that it's banned to even open doors at night. That's why you won't be able to go to an inn for sleep. Is that about right?

- Right, seems like you know what's up. So get out now, we're closing.

- Do I have to?

After the question Neriehem left Instructor stunned. After a brief moment he expained.

- I mean, I would like to stay over here and train overnight. It should be all right for as long as I don't open the doors, right?

- Technically, yes. All right, but before I go, tell me your name.

- Neriehem.

- All right, Neriehem. I must say at first you seemed like an arrogant idiot, but now I have changed my opinion about you. I have watched as you tried out every weapon we have and after chosing that katana – he pointed at the wooden sword Neriehem was holding – training for ten hours straight. Instead of rude and arrogant, you're straight and hardworking person. If you need anything, just ask me. I'll try to help – after he told all that he turned around and went out of the hall, closing doors behind him.

There was a dim light seeping trought the little shaft at the roof, but Neriehem closed it shut. He didn't know if monsters could get trought it inside, but he didn't want to be the one to try out. After that he went to the nearest scarecrow and was about to start attacking it, when the thought came to his mind. -'Damn, what if this katana breaks? It looks quite worn out by now from all the attacks I've made. Better find some extras in case it really breaks.' - After that he swept trought the room and found about ten wooden katanas for emergency use.

Then he started attacking the scarecrow once again...

Whack!

Whack!

Whack!

…

* * *

- GROOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR

- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! HELP ME! HELP! PLEASE, ANYBODY OPEN UP!

The screams could be heard from time to time, but Neriehem had kept in mind what he was told by the veteran at the barracks. Instead he concentrated on training.

Whack!

Whack!

Whack!

…

…

…

- The training's fine, but now that I think about it, I should train my skills as well. They saved my life once, guess they really will be useful. Especially later on. - Neriehem was fine with saying things to himself. After all, there weren't any people who could hear him. And it helped him organize his thoughts.

- Stealth – he said. After a moment he felt his MP draining. After a while he could tell bu the bar that his mana was empty.

- Blitz – he said next, while moving towards the wall. Suddenly he felt much lighter and faster. Feeling the urge to run, he accelerated. And crashed into the wall, which left him dizzy, cancelling the skill. - 'Goddamnit, I really need to learn to control it. It's going to be fatal if I did something like that during the battle... or escape for my life' – he thought and continued to train his skills during the night, making breaks to recover his MP and SP, during which he ate a little bit of the bread he found in his inventory to fill his stomach.

Actually here you didn't have the satiety bar. Instead, you had to feel when to eat. If you starved, you would suffer decrease in stats and max HP. After a few days the amount would go down to 0 and you would die, resulting in a 1-day ban from the game. It was a really realistic system.

Neriehem then continued the training and near the point he was dead tired he got a new skill.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Night VisionBegginer10%A passive skill which enables the user to see better in the dark. At first you can only make out the outlines of all objects, however as the proficiency with the skill grows, you will be able to see better.

Begginer level increases the clarity of the outlines.

Intermidiate level enables seeing in shades of grey.

Advanced level shows blurred colours.

Master level lets see as clear as in the day.

As a Passive skill, the effect kicks in immediately whenever in dark places.

After a while the screams increased in number.

- Must be the players who thought the night's over by now – thought Neriehem, lying down in a deepest corner of the training hall. He decided to sleep there until Instructor came in. With that in mind he decided that it would be a waste of time so he decided to sleep.

* * *

The routline continued for three days after that. Neriehem increased his stats by a great deal, thanks to staying overnight every time. His stats were as follows:

Status WindowName:NeriehemAlignment:NeutralLevel:---Class:NoneRace:AsyrianGender:MaleTitlesNoneFame:0Infamy:0-Health:100% / 100%Health Regen:0.8% / SecMana:100% / 100%Mana Regen:1% / SecStamina:100% / 100%Stamina Regen:1.6% / Sec-Strenght:65Agility:80Vitality:50Perseverance35Intelligence:10Wisdom:10Leadership:10-Attack:100%Defense:100%Physical ResistancesSlashing:5%Piercing:5%Crushing:0%Elemental ResistancesFire:50%Water:-50%Wind:0%Earth:0%Light:0%Darkness:0%As Asyrian you have:

- increased starting strength, agility and stamina at the cost of losing Luck stat;

- increased rate of gaining increase to existing statistics;

- increased slashing and piercing resistance trought the natural scales on your body;

- increased fire resistance at the cost of having lower water resistance.

By training you can nullify the effect of negative water resistance. Once water resistance reaches at least neutral level this message will dissapear.

His tremendous increase in stats was only thanks to his idea of training with weights on. The idea came to him on his second day of training. When he asked Instructor whether there are some in the hall, he was told that they are on the shelf in the storage. They went to get them.

They were wrist-bands and ankle-bands with long holes for lead bars to put into. Neriehem then kept on adding weight until he felt it was really hard to mvoe. Then he asked if he can borrow the rest. After Instructor agreed, he put the most he could fit into bands to his inventory. After that he thanked Instructor and went to train, fighting with the massive weight that he put upon himself.

Over the course of the same day he received information that he received Perseverance stat. After he read information about it, it seemed to lessen the costs of SP usage. He was happy since it meant that he could use Blitz for longer time and it lenghtened the time for training as well. It also lessened the feeling of tiredness he had accumulated over the course of four days of training.

Of course his Agility increased mostly thanks to the usage of Blitz skill over the nighttime while wearing the weights.

Neriehem continued to train for six days after that, when he felt that it was enough.

- I have played for far too long, got to keep my body in check. I wouldn't want to be a cripple or die from something because I have played for too long. Okay, from now on I'll make breaks every two days.

After that he was about to leave, but Instructor stopped him.

- Hey, are you leaving then?

- Not for long, but I need to earn some money now that I'm out of food.

- In that case wait a minute, all right? I have little present for you.

- Really? What's that?

- A set of katana and an arm shield like the one you used for training. They're made from good quality steel, so they should come in handy when you go out in the arena to make some good money. Because you didn't think about doing some errands for those greedy shopkeepers, right?

- Of course not. Well, not later. I planned to do some to make enough money for a weapon, and then go to the arena. Thanks to you I will have to skip that part. - Neriehem really appreciated the gift.

* * *

Let's go back to the fifth day of training.

- Not bad, altrought there are still openings. Hmm... he could use a shield. I think there should be one somewhere... - thought Instructor as he watched. Of course he appreciated the effort Neriehem put into training.

And it was starting to show itself. His attacks were really powerfu. Every hit could be heard clearly. By now Instructor was using Neriehem as a prime example as to how his trainees should take their training.

After a while of brainstorming Instructor went to the storage. He decided to look for a shield, but then recalled that Neriehem tried a lot of weapons before finding katana.

- Right, I should bring as many diffrent shields as I can, with this guy here nothing's impossible – he thought as he searched trought the room.

Stolen novel; please report.

After a few minutes Neriehem decided to rest a bit when Instructor came to him. He asked to come with him to the storage. Knowing that he person wouldn't call him for nothing, he went after him. When they stopped, Neriehem was puzzled. Before him were diffrent kinds of shields.

- I watched how you fight. While you fight using the katana – hand-and-a-half sword – you keep on doing it with only your right hand. That's not entirely wrong, but you picked a bad habbit of leaving your left side open. So I suggest you should pick a shield to cover that weakness. When you find the one that suits you, put the rest over there – Instructor said, pointing at the corner. - Anyway, you're free to do what you want.

- Thank you. - That was the only thing Neriehem had said, and immidiately proceeded to chose a shield for himself. He also was aware of the fact, but no matter what he did he couldn't find the right moves to cover that. So he was happy with the fact that he could train fighting with the shield now.

An hour passed and Neriehem was frustated yet again. At first he thought that all shield are the same and he will be all right with any of them. However he quickly learned of the diffrences between them. After that he got immersed in chosing the perfect one for himself.

Another hour passed before he abandoned the idea of having a shield on him. By now he gave a try to all of the big ones and was halfway trought small ones. Compared to the bigger equivalents, they gave less defence but he wasn't slowed down by much. He found out that they empathised more on deflecting attacks instead of taking them head-on – which was pretty important for him, as he didn't plan to take full force of attacks during every fight.

However as he was giving up he looked over them again and a thought formed. - 'What if I use the shield for attacking as well as defence? That won't leave me completely defenceless, but that would give me more freedom during the battle. And it will be an element of suprise...'

After that he dismissed all the big shields and focused solely on small ones. He spent half an hour before finding the right form.

It was covering entire lenght of his forearm and extending over his palm, narrowing to finish with a sharp end. The whole thing resembled a V letter with little curving.

- 'Okay, I like this one. Time to clean up.'

After cleaning he went to Instructor, who nodded at his choice and told him to keep on training. Neriehem did as asked, and Instructor went to close the storage.

Then Neriehem continued to train for another five days.

* * *

Right now Neriehem came out to the open street. During the time in the hall he kept on wearing the scarf, so he had got used to it by now. With katana at his waist and shield on his arm (it's strapped to the forearm and there's a grip for the hand as well for better stability) as well as torn begginer clothes and covered face he caused people to look at him strangely.

He quickly made his way towards arena, asking for the directions when he felt he got lost. After an hour of walking he arrived at the place.

It was the only structure in the city which didn't have any doors and was open to air. The arena had a pit which was flat, big, round hole in the ground which was surrounded by a lot of steats placed between giant columns. The public zone was white, while the pit's floor was covered with hard sand. The walls were made of dark stone bricks and had torches hanging from handles.

As he looked over the place from the stands, he was amazed with the magnitude of the thing. It carried the feelings of hundreds, if not thousands. Neriehem was amazed.

Then someone came to him.

- Hey, the weekly tournament starts three days from now on! Right now, there's... - the speaker turned silent as he came closer. Neriehem turned to him and saw a big muscle-man looking at him stunned. After a second he his face showed an evil smile. - So I have finally found you, little rat. Time for me to show you the price for toying around with women! Come on the arena, let me have the pleasure of bashing your head around the place! - he shouted as he grabbed Neriehem and dragged him to the counter.

Right now Neriehem didn't weight much. As he was leaving the training hall, he gave back the weights and equipment he was using. To his suprise wooden katana was sturdier then he thought and held out for all ten days of training. Of course he thought that the man was much stronger then him from this fact, andtried to find a way out.

- I wasn't toying with them, you know. They came to me for god-knows-what and I get into the trouble for that?

- Shut your trap, don't lie to me. Or keep on speaking, I'll have more pleasure killing you after we get to the business – said the man. He was confident to begin with, and now that Neriehem showed fear his confidence puped up even higher.

And so Neriehem was dragged to the counter, where the muscle-man registered their fight. As there was nothing happening, they were put into the fight five minutes from now on. And that was only to let announcer prepare and gather public.

After five minutes passed Neriehem emerged from the pit, still cursing his luck. Or rather, his lack of luck he was bestowed with upon chosing the race of Asyrian.

- LADIES AND GENTELMEN, HERE YOU ARE TO WITNESS THE SHOW OF BRUTE FORCE! ON THE RIGHT SIDE WE HAVE THE VICTIM OF TODAY'S DRAGON HUNT: ASYRIAN NERIEHEM! LET'S GIVE HIM 'WARM' WELCOME!

Immediately from the audience came laugh. Neriehem blushed with anger, but he understood them. He would laugh as well if someone else was announced that way.

- AND NOOOOOOW, FROM THE LEEEFT SIDEEE! THE SECOND STRONGEST PERSON OF THE ARENA WITH A VICTORY STREAK OF 14 VICTORIES EMERGES!

- 'Holy shit, the second strongest? No wonder he's strong' – thought Neriehem.

- HIS STRENGTH IS WIDELY KNOWN, JUST AS MUCH AS THE FACT THAT HE FIGHTS FOR THE WEMEN'S FAVOUR! THIS TIME HE LETS US SEE HIS FIRST DRAGON HUNT! LET US WELCOME... THE ONE AND THE ONLY... RANTAROX!!!

This turn instead of mocking laught the audience exploded with cheers.

- SHOW US YOU STRENGHT!

- WE LOVE YOU RANTAROX!

- KILL HIM!

- SET A NEW RECORD MAN!

Similar shouts were heard all over the place. It seems that Rantarox's fans came at once knowing that their idol was going to up on a show.

Neriehem kept watching the man in question coming out of the opposite side. He held his hands high, showing off to the audience before the fight. After he noticed Neriehem his face showed an evil grin once again and he eqipped a great battle axe.

- All right pretty boy, time to pay!

- Not in your wildest dreams, musle-head.

- Hahaha, I'm going to take a real pleasure slaughtering you up into little pieces... - he said licking the blade of the axe.

- AAAAAND NOW, LET THE SLAUGHTER BEGIN! FIGHT! - the announcer said.

Right off the bat Rantarox sprinted towards Neriehem keeping his axe low. When he got close enough he swung it horizontally, wanting to cripple Neriehem as fast as he could to torture him later.

However from Neriehem's perspective he was moving like a snail. With his increased stats from ten days of murderous training, he could face any enemy he encountered on his level – however he had no idea about that. That's the reason behind his submissive behaviour when he was being dragged to the arena. If he knew that he was really much stronger then Rantarox, he would have beat him on the place and leave to register for the tournament only to log off after that. However now he had to fight.

After announcer started the battle, Neriehem felt something was off. Rantarox was moving strangely slow for being second strongest. While he was thinking what that meant, his opponent go close enough to attack, which he immediately did. However Neriehem dodged at the last second to make it seem like an accident.

He came to a conclusion that he didn't want his strenght to be made public, or he would be asked a lot of troublesome questions. After the dodge, he pulled out his katana and took a battle stance, observing his opponent who seemed suprised that Neriehem managed to dodge his attack. He regained his composture right away and on his face creeped out a savage grin as he charged again. This time he performed an overhead attack.

However this time Neriehem redirected the force to the side with the use of his shield and cut trought the Rantarox's chest. His blade left a deep wound, which made Rantarox retreat in shock.

- 'Bastard got himself a lucky hit, that's all. And he somehow got a good sword. I'm soo going to take it from him after I kill him!' - he thought to himself and let out a roar.

However Neriehem wasn't fazed with it. During the quick exchange he built up confidence in his strenght and speed. He felt that ten days of that murderous training paid him back tenfold now. However he had no time to appreciate himself. As he focused on battle again, he saw that Rantarox charging again. Neriehem felt the need to end it quickly so he decided to do it spectacularly.

During his training he discovered that if he wanted to use the spell strong enough, he didn't need to say them out aloud. After that, as he had got used to the skills' effects, he focused on training to use them nonverbally. And that's what he did now.

- 'Blitz!' - thought Neriehem as he charged towards Rantarox. As he was passing him, he sliced his opponent in half and stopped, cancelling the skill effect.

His Blitz skill was now begginer level 5, which increased his speed even more compared to first level. Right now what could be seen was only a blurred form and a red line of hair.

The arena fell silent. Nobody could believe their eyes, when they saw Neriehem partially vanishing and then a blue-red comet shooting out of the place he was at. Only to add the icing on the cake, their idol was split in half and everyone could hear the dull sound of his body falling on the ground. Nobody could speak a word and Neriehem cleaned his sword in his scarf, sheathed it and came out of the arena, leaving stunned people speachless. Quickly before they regained their senses, he registered for the tournament and decided to log out. But before that he wanted to check his stats once again.

[tr]

Status WindowName:NeriehemAlignment:NeutralLevel:---Class:NoneRace:AsyrianGender:MaleTitlesNoneFame:0Infamy:0-Health:100% / 100%Health Regen:0.8% / SecMana:100% / 100%Mana Regen:1% / SecStamina:100% / 100%Stamina Regen:1.6% / Sec-Strenght:200Agility:250Vitality:140Perseverance100Intelligence:10Wisdom:10Leadership:10-Attack:100%Defense:100%Physical ResistancesSlashing:5%Piercing:5%Crushing:0%Elemental ResistancesFire:50%Water:-50%Wind:0%Earth:0%Light:0%Darkness:0%As Asyrian you have:

- increased starting strength, agility and stamina at the cost of losing Luck stat;

- increased rate of gaining increase to existing statistics;

- increased slashing and piercing resistance trought the natural scales on your body;

- increased fire resistance at the cost of having lower water resistance.

By training you can nullify the effect of negative water resistance. Once water resistance reaches at least neutral level this message will dissapear.

Right now he had the general idea of how strong he was. He was certain that his strenght was greater than anyone's in the city.

And it felt good...

[tr]

The EndPrevious ChapterNext Chapter

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All right, I must have suprised quite a lot of you with his weaponary. ^_^

I started writing this with an assassin in mind, but then I remembered some other stuff I was in love with and, well, mixed up the ideas. I will emphasize more on the assassin side of his character in the next chapter, so fear not!

Also, I have made a broken MC ._. But luckily I have an idea how to balance that out later in the game. Fear not!