Ch 8
“Oh, and before I give you all the information I have, can we make that shop oath?” I asked.
“How do you even know about the oath in the first place? You know it fucks up your soul and damages both your abilities and attributes? The shop literally rips out a part of your soul for breaking an oath.” Tywin said roughly.
“I would rather not talk about how I got my information, but I do know the risks regarding the oath. The fact I would be willing to swear one that to the best of my knowledge, everything I have told you and will tell you about the Golden Tiger company during this conversation is true. All that this information will cost you is involving me in the takedown. If we put our minds together, this should be planned easily. Additionally, I’d swear that this something that I believe is beneficial for your organization if that would ease your concerns.”
“Very well... If you are willing to follow through with that oath, then I will hold up to my side. As long as the locations and some of the other pieces of information can be corroborated.”
“Ah, I also may need a weapon, at least temporarily, until the fighting is done. Some sort of polearm, a bec de corbin, is preferred if available. I’m having one made right now, but it won’t be done until after this whole thing should be wrapped up.”
“Fine. That should be doable. I’m sure we have a polearm in one of the training centers. Probably only spears and halberd with standard durability enchantments on them. That will have to do. I will be giving nothing else on my end. What do you go by?”
“Call me Leonidas, initiate the oath.” giving him an alias to pair with my white and grey masked appearance.
Three hours and a healthy dose of planning later, I was headed to their training center to pick up my temporary halberd.
Winding down the few blocks to the arena that was oh-so-familiar to me in my past life. At this point in time, I would have just begun to train my ass off in that large domed structure carved into the sidewall of the cavern in preparation to learn the basics of fighting in this new world. So, when I saw all of the familiar faces of people I knew and spent months or years around, I had to deal with the pain of loss once again.
For onlookers in the training center, I wound my way through the building with an unexpected familiarity. Heading directly to the place where the armory was located, trying not to stop and focus on those people I had seen day in and day out but had been lost to me all those decades ago. Knowing that, in a way, these people were not the same people that I had greeted daily or trained and fought with blood, sweat, and tears even though they shared so many aspects with them. I knew I now had bigger things to do than train alongside those I had before and that if I went to them, it just wouldn’t be right to burden them with what I had to face. Especially those that just arrived on this layer out of the blue not more than weeks ago. However, I should give at least some of my old friends and acquaintances advice before I leave for the main region.
Walking up to the desk near the weapons rack, I steeled myself. I set down the token given to me by Tywin, greeting the familiar face of the middle-aged Cao Yu, “Hey, Cao Yu, I’ve got a token and this here letter from boss man Tywin to get a polearm from your armory.” I told him while taking the letter out of my storage ring and placing it down next to the authentication token.
Picking up the letter, the man gave it a quick glance before gesturing over towards the weapon rack housing a plethora of basic polearms without another word. Taking both the note I had given him and the authentication token from Tywin.
I had been given free rein on any polearms with the equivalent of a basic enchantment like the durability rune. Looking over the selection of polearms that fit the criteria, a relatively wide variety was available. Halberds, bardiches, billhooks, spears, poleaxes, and partizans. ‘Well, maybe not a terribly wide variety considering how many different types of polearms there are out there.’
While walking up, I’d already narrowed it down to either a halberd or a poleaxe. Both are very similar weapons; both share the fact they have an axe head, a long spike at the tip, and are fixed atop a long shaft. Poleaxes have hammers opposite the axe, whereas halberds have hooked spikes.
Cushing and piercing are ways to get through armor, but ever since I have been reborn, I’ve had more than a little desire to simply waylay something. So, for now, I went with the one poleaxe they had with only a durability enchantment.
Instead of a curved ax head like a typical axe, the poleaxe had a long and flat face, which was paired with a square hammer with little pyramids covering its surface like a meat tenderizer. Two-thirds up the haft was a ring to prevent other weapons from sliding down to hit the hands of the wielder.
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“Hey, I’ve found what I’m looking for; now I’ll be out of your hair,” I said, which got a nod from the ever-silent Cao Yu. Sparing him one last glance, I quickly walked out of the building.
I had decided to return to the collapsed ‘A’ shaped skyscraper to see if I could quickly regain mastery in another polearm. The only reason I have any downstairs is because I have not actually used my basic polearm mastery that I had purchased for the the bec de corbin. I think that it should work fine for the basis of working with this new poleaxe, but I will just have to try it and see.
——-
Halfway between the city and the broken-down skyscraper husk, I experienced my first sand storm that the whole of the first layers experience all too often. Thankfully, this time, I could purchase the limited item, the facial seal mask, so I didn’t have to deal with the sand getting in my eyes or having any difficulties breathing it. So now, it was no more than a nuisance that beat against my uncovered skin and filled the folds of my clothes while drastically reducing my vision. It went from completely debilitating to just a pain in the ass to deal with
Despite the distance, I made it to my desired location and took refuge in the husk of the skyscraper. The only issue now was that the skyscraper and the storm had blocked all the light into the building. I gave the building a quick once over and discovered a chimera, though I decided to leave it, sneaking back to another part of the building, planning on using the chimera as a testing dummy once I got my mastery ability up to par.
Kneeling down, I calmed my mind, seeking a similar inner peace I called upon when I cultivated. Preparing myself to bridge the gap to learn the skill. I sent my senses into the weapon, focusing purely on the weapon.
‘This weapon is no less a part of me than any limb. A body part that I wield with the upmost precision
Jumping up from my knees, I stood calmly feet, feet shoulder-width apart, eyes closed, focusing on my next actions.
I began with a familiar straight stab forward with the spike at the end of the shaft as you would with a spear. Drawing back, I dropped the tip low end to the left, preparing for the axe blade to slice through the air in a devastating upward chop. I followed through the chop fully, using what I knew was an unexpected motion, raising the butt of the weapon to make a short jab forward toward my imaginary enemy’s face. Followed by a devastating blow from the weapon hoisted over my shoulder, where the hammer’s head would crush anything in its path.
I danced a rhythm with a weapon that I had practiced with for years in my past life on the higher levels, as a grandmaster with polearms, looking to become a sage.
Feeling something slowly building, I felt an ability click into place. I opened my eyes following that feeling to see that the clicking sensation preceded an ephemeral glow surrounding the axe blade as I brought it down in a diagonal chop. An ephemeral glowing blade much larger than the axe head itself flowed through the air so fast it left after images.
‘That is much, much more than basic poleaxe mastery.”
Looking towards the notifications, I had been too focused to acknowledge.
- ability gained: (basic mortal polearm mastery) poleaxe
- ability gained: (novice polearm mastery)
- ability gained: (apprentice polearm mastery
- ability gained: (journeyman polearm mastery)
- ability gained: (master polearm mastery)
After seeing the ephemeral glow surrounding my weapon, followed by the notifications, I realized what the clicking sensation was; I was breaking through the bottleneck that separated the journeyman and the master tiers of polearm mastery. Looking around, I realized that I must have been in that trance much longer than I had initially planned; there was a ring of sand surrounding the area where I was training, pushed out of the way by my motions, clearing the surface in my immediate vicinity. Though I couldn’t say I was disappointed, my initial goal was just to establish any polearm mastery with my new weapon. I definitely didn’t expect to break into the master tier; breaking through that bottleneck the first time had taken me 15 years of training with a single weapon; this time, I achieved it in the first week. The sandstorm had now stopped who knows how long ago, but typically, they last a minimum of several hours; I walked to the edge of the building, looking out to a setting sun. The day was now spent, and although I didn’t gain any points, it definitely was not a waste.
‘Ah, wasn’t there a big ole chimera in the other section of the building? Weird it didn’t come and investigate; maybe that sandstorm just ended. Well, I can go take that thing down and use some of those points to buy myself a big celebratory meal.’
Jumping off the side of the massive skyscraper, I used my sigils to bound through the air to land on the floor where I last saw the goat-headed chimera.
Quickly finding it, I was able to end the poor basic chimera with a single massive slam of the poleaxe’s hammer, an ephemeral glow proceeding the square hammer, quadrupling the size of the hammer head bringing it to twelve inches wide, the force from my lightning qui infused limbs with the new polearm mastery ability disintegrated the head and shoulder of the basic beast.
-points gained: 11
After the grizzly work was done, I cleaned myself off with wipes from the shop and set up a massive meal on the side of the tower with all of my favorites from Old Earth, going crazy and spending almost all of the points from the chimera I had just killed on a single meal.
I looked over my status screen after wrapping up my meal.
Status Screen:
Name: Adonis Newman
Points: 7,278
Race: Human
Age:24
Title: None
Attributes:
Strength: 89
Agility: 131
Constitution: 70
Wisdom: 21
Intelligence: 57
Endurance: 54
Charisma: 15
Luck: 8
Abilities: 4/9
Inert RESTART [gifted]
Sigil: (Stationary Surface)
Cultivation: (Lightning Aspect)
(Master Polearm Mastery)
Since arriving on the First Layer just a few days ago, I have seen massive improvements in my skills and attributes.
I gained five points in strength, six to both my primary stat agility and endurance, two to constitution and intelligence, five to wisdom, and three to charisma. Luck, being the bastard that it was, refused to move, but that was expected.