Once Chun Yong walked into the Beginner Training Arena, he saw a large interior with numerous amount of people. Some people were training diligently by slashing at a dummy in the middle of the room while others grouped together and spoke. While looking around with interest, he noticed a burly male in leather clothing with a broadsword strapped to his back. The male was standing just outside the area where all the dummies were and seemed to be looking into the distance at nothing.

’Is that person the NPC in charge of this building?’

Curious, Chun Yong walked forward and approached the burly man. When he was only a few steps away, the man finally turned toward his direction. From a closer view, the man had a grizzled face with a thick beard, which reached down to his Adam’s apple. On his left cheek, there was a long scar that went from the bottom of his eye to the tip of his lip.

“Warrior, have you come here to strengthen yourself?”

The man’s voice was clear yet had a baritone tone. Chun Yong truthfully thought it sounded more like a growl than a normal person’s voice. Still, he didn’t say that and spoke.

“Yes, sir. I have come to hone my skills.”

Hearing what he said, the man nodded his head in approval. Pointing toward the area with the dummies, he once again spoke.

“Very well, then. To increase your strength, you need to attack one of the dummies five thousand times. Once you do, I guarantee you that your strength will have improved.”

Chun Yong’s face paled when he heard what the man said. Hit the dummy five thousand times? Just how long would that take? In an hour he would most likely be able to hit the dummy at most two hundred times. Still, he was somewhat used to repetitive training like this. Ever since he started training in Tae Kwon Do, his father had made him do this type of training numerous times, after all.

With determination in his eyes, he walked up to a dummy. Taking a large breath in and releasing it, he gripped the halberd he was carrying with both arms and swung it down toward the dummy’s right shoulder. When the weapon made contact with the dummy, a muffled sound rang out.

For two hours straight, Chun Yong focused only on the dummy in front of him. With every strike, Chun Yong would focus on hitting a different area. If the halberd didn’t hit the area he desired, his eyebrows would scrunch and he would then aim just at that specific area until he could constantly hit the same place ten times in a row. This way, he was confident in his control and that the halberd would hit the desired area.

Once two hours passed, Chun Yong stopped finally and stepped back to take a short rest. Even though in those two hours he had hit the dummy only five hundred times, he was quite content with the results. Even though his control wasn’t perfect, he saw a vast improvement in his accuracy. Also, he was quite satisfied that he was able to constantly hit the dummy for that long.

In the real world, even if he wanted to train for two hours with no breaks, there was no way he would be able to. The reason was that there was no way his body would be able to handle the constant strain. Sooner or later his body would feel fatigued and he would have to stop to recover his strength.

In the game though, he found out to his pleasant surprise that even after that long of a session of training, his body felt no fatigue. The only reason he stopped was because of mental exhaustion. In his mind, he made the determination that he would train longer to increase his mental fortitude. After resting for a few more minutes, he once again stepped forward and started to hit the dummy even more fiercely.

With each session, the time he trained became longer. After his first attempt, the next time he trained for three hours. Unfortunately after that though, he had to log off since he had to go to his dad’s dojo to train. With a reluctant heart, he got off and rushed over. After three hours, he finally reappeared in his room and without any hesitation put the Neuro gear on to get in the game.

When his eyes opened once more, his eyes caught sight of the familiar dummy in front of him. So far, he had hit the dummy over a thousand times. In his mind, he firmly made the determination to finish the training by today. With that, he gripped his halberd and firmly slashed forth.

For five hours straight, all Chun Yong did was hit the dummy in front of him. By the end of the session, he had hit the dummy over two thousand eight hundred times. Also, he felt as though his control of the halberd vastly improved. With the improvement in control, he was able to get rid of a lot of the useless movements and was able to attack faster.

Ecstatic over his improvements, he took a short break and then focused his mind. With a fire burning in his pit, he once again stood right in front of the dummy. With a loud shout, he thrusted the halberd forth to where the heart would usually be.

In the surrounding area, many people were quietly mumbling to each other as they looked at Chun Yong practice. Unknowingly to Chun Yong, his actions had caused many people to turn and look at him. On many of the spectators’ face, were various expressions such as disbelief, shock, horror, and even admiration.

Since Chun Yong started to practice earlier on, many people had noticed him since there were not a lot of people practicing. At first, people didn’t pay much heed to him as there were others who trained too. As time went on though, many people came or left the dummy area but Chun Yong continued to stay focused and train.  The players started to gossip about him as they talked about how he had already been hitting the dummy for hours on end. Even when he logged off, people continued to talk about it with surprised voices.

When Chun Yong came back a couple hours later, some people even exclaimed out in shock. Even though most of the people who were there when he first arrived left already, some returned to practice and couldn’t hide their surprise when they still saw him there.

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“Is that guy even human? Just how long has he been practicing?”

“Are you sure he’s even a player? That has to be an NPC. No one would be able to persist for that long.”

“He’s a player, for sure. I heard some people say that they saw him log off for a couple hours before getting back on and continue to practice.”

“No fucking way. That guy’s not human. He’s a monster.”

As some people gossiped, others became motivated by him and rushed toward the dummies to practice. As time went on though, they weren’t able to keep up with Chun Yong and they had to stop to rest and looked on in awe towards him as he continued to swing down the halberd.

Chun Yong, who wasn’t aware of the commotion he was causing, continued to hit the dummy. Soon, he passed the five hours mark and with no sign of stopping continued to hit the dummy. After eight hours, he finally stopped and took a step back. Even though his face looked exhausted, his eyes radiated excitement as he had finally finished the task of hitting the dummy five thousand times! With light steps, he finally left the dummy area and headed toward the NPC.

When the surrounding players saw him finally leave, many let out a gasp of surprise. Chun Yong had spent eighteen hours hitting the dummy. In total, including the time he spent logged off and resting, twenty two hours passed since he first arrived.

Although everyone knew about the quest the NPC gave out, no one thought to spend so much time in one period to complete it. The majority of people would hit the dummy a hundred times or so before they grew bored and left. They would then go around to look for and do another quest before coming back to hit the dummy more. The more serious ones would hit the dummy several hundreds of time, but they were nowhere near as tenacious as Chun Yong.

The NPC, seeing Chun Yong approach, looked at him in approval. When he spoke to Chun Yong, his tones had clearly changed from being rough to one of speaking to an equal.

“I truly admire your persistence, warrior. I have rarely seen any person so persistent and focused as you. For your effort, you have now earned this specialty.”

As the NPC said that, a sound rang out.

Ding!

For completing the Beginner Training Area quest, you have now earned the specialty pole arm mastery.

Seeing the notification, Chun Yong immediately viewed the specialty.

[tr][td4] POLEARM MASTERY (APPRENTICE I)

All attacks with a pole arm weapon will have a 1% increase in damage. Attack speed will increase by .5%.

When he saw the effects of the polearm mastery, Chun Yong was very satisfied. Even though it only increased his damage by one percent and his attack speed by point five percent, it was only at apprentice one. There were three different levels for each specialty: Apprentice, Expert, and Master. In those three levels, there were also ten stages. As the stages and levels increased, so did the effects of those specialties. Even though it was so low now, as he increased the specialty it would rise also and become even more formidable.

As Chung Yong was inwardly excited, the NPC continued on.

“Not only that, since you were the first person to complete my task, I will give you an extra gift. Take these with you.”

When he looked at what the NPC held out, Chun Yong saw a halberd and a token. Immediately, he used identify on the halberd and found out to his delight that it was an upgrade to his current one as it dealt twelve to fifteen damage, which was a lot higher than his current one which dealt eight to ten damage.

The token, on the other hand, was made into the shape of lion’s head. This was the official symbol of the city. Even though he didn’t know what it was used for now, he could always find out later. With a smiling face, he took both of the items and placed them in his inventory. When the NPC saw that, he spoke once more.

“If you show that token to the captain of city guards, he will know that you came with my recognition, and will give you a mission. As to whether or not you accept it, it is up to you. I have said all that I need to now, you may leave.”

Once the NPC said that, he turned to the side and ignored Chun Yong. After scratching his hair for a moment, Chun Yong finally turned around and was going to leave when he finally noticed a large group of people behind him. As the people saw him turn around, they pushed forward to speak with him.

“Hey man, you haven’t joined a guild yet, have you? Why don’t you join our Fearless Lion guild? With your talent, I’m sure you will rise in rank quickly!”

“Hey, you want to go out and hunt monsters with my group, we need a melee person.”

“Hey ….”

“Hey ….”

As numerous people spoke and centered around him, Chun Yong became baffled. After taking a few steps backward, he immediately turned around and fled. As some people followed him, he soon reached the entrance and flew out the door, escaping into the night.