Chapter 5:
After only getting three hours of sleep and kina regreting the study rampage a little bit Kris is now training in the morning. To make matters worse today Instructor Larry decided that it is a day for sparring training.
"Hey you ever d'ere. Come 'ere and get urself a sword. U're gonna spar with dis guy 'ere" (Instructor Larry)
After that a random guy moves over and we start the fight slowly where both people can attack and parry easily.
"Ok enough of dis. U're better gonna do this right now or face the consequences later" (Instructor Larry)
So after the warm-up the real sparring fight begins. Because Kris still does not feel really comfortable with a sword most of his style still consists of the bit martial arts he learned and trying to dodge and get an opening to strike with a wooden sword. Since that tactic does not allow him to start the attack he waits for his opponent to make the first move.
What he did not expect was their acceleration. With just one fast step towards Kris he is already within range and Kris already has to dodge sideways with a roll just to avoid the first overhead strike. But the opponent is not so nice to do nothing and follows immediatly with a low strike after his follow-up step.
After seeing him follow and expecting such a strike because Kris is still at the ground he follows the roll with a summersault immediatly until his feet are lined up to strike him and try to kick him into his chest midair. It does not connect because he finishes his strike fast enough and is able to block the kick with his sword.
And here's another fact Kris forgot of the game. He is a Kera and so his strength is not the best and because his opponent is Human he only slides back a bit while being able to catapult Kris a meter back and that makes his landing really hard and forced another roll further backwards that gives him enough time to follow up again and strike low again.
Kris tries to dodge with his same tactic as before but this time the opponent expected it and instead of trying to kick his opponent Kris is met with a fist midair and an overhead swordhit that slams him to the ground again
With that the fight is over.
"Lad that was horrible. U should fight an' not jump arond like a Pluffy. Go out to d'em and try to fight with ur sword. Dodge as much as u want but involve ur sword in d'at. Come back tomorow and I wanna see atleast 10 Pluffy's defeated."(Instructor Larry)
"Ok. Im off then..."(Kris)
Fight with a sword, not without!Type:QuestDifficulty:GInstructor Larry is not satisfied with the way you fight using your sword. He wants you to defeat 10 Pluffys while fighting with a sword and not only dodging to finish them with your sword once you have a chance.Rewards:Further training with Instructor Larry, ???
So on the second day the daily structure is broken already and he walks to the Adventurers Guild to check if there are any missions that could be done while being out in the plains. He quickly accept a quest to hunt 20 Pluffys and another one to gather some herbs and walks out of town to start the hunt.
To start of with a single one at first Kris throws a pebble at a single Pluffy to taunt it and moves to a secluded spot. The moment they arrive the Pluffy is already midair making a fast low jump and Kris instinctly dodges sideways just to remember that its not what he is supposed to do. So before the Pluffy gets another chance to attack Kris already moved into a defensive stance to prepare for the next attack.
That attack comes as a headbutt aimed at his knee. Since the sword was in a defensive stance with the flat side diagonally in front of his body Kris moves it to his knee and try to lead the Pluffy away from it to block the attack. Just imagine something jumping to you and you try to move it out of the way using your wrist alone because you think that it should work that way. Sadly everything this did was kicking a sword to his knee and a slightly aching wrist on Kris side.
-7 (88/95)
Now that it is obvious he should take this serious he tries to remember parts of what he was taught. Although it has only been 2 days the Instructor tried to involve a bit of everything in the little training.
It was something akin to 'you have to use your body just as much as the sword instead of trying to do everything with the sword alone'. So instead of trying to parry the Pluffy with the sword alone he should try to fall back a bit to soften the impact and then move circular with his whole body to try lettin the Pluffy move past him.
And like this the next dozens of minutes are spent with letting a Pluffy jump towards Kris and him guiding it to his side or trying to use its force against it depending on the situation. After the time spent training to get the movements right and get a feeling which action would be the most useful in a situation he start the mission to kill them.
All in all the fights were not very interesting since the Pluffy's death came very fast most of the time. They could only stand 2 or 3 combinations. These combinations consist of blocking the incoming monster to the side through sidestepping and then guiding it there with the sword and then follow up with a quick strike because they need to reorrient themselves after being blocked to the side.
It took only half an hour to kill the 10 Pluffys the Instructor wanted him to slay so only the other missions to kill them from the Adventurers Guild remain and he still has some more hours until the routine is to go to the Library.
During the time spent fighting he tries to not always do the same thing but use some other tactics because the decision which weapon to use is still not done and the way of fighting Instructor Larry wants him to practice has various advantages but it just is not a style he wants to stick with.
It is perfect for paying attention to an opponents movements right now and Kris will definitely keep on doing that but it does not allow enough evasive movements for his jumpy rolls and dodges. He would rather be able to have a weapon that is equally good in dodging and parrying but does not take as much space as a sword does. For example he tried to dodge using a backflip while holding the sword. That did not go well and ended up with the pummel hitting his knees and a free hit for the Pluffy.
And thus the evening approached relatively fast, he gathers the 2 silver coins for missions from the Adventurers Guild and will complete Instructor Larry's mission on the next day. The evening is spent in the library again and another day spent on trying to get as much information as possible before going to sleep this time to give Armand some well deserved sleep.
The next week had no real diversity in the routine. The days were spent training swords and running around town to complete some simple quests. After 3 days he finally got a sword wielding skill but not something like parrying or dodging.
Sword WieldingRank:EBeginner 332%After days of training you managed to become a decent fighter while wielding the sword.
-Damage while wielding a sword improved by 1,3%
-Reducing the negative impact on movement speed while wielding a sword.
He also managed to improve his stats and levels a bit. After this week of training and going to the library he got 1 more strength, 1 endurance, 2 agility, 2 wisdom and 2 intelligence. Although Krisalso leveled up 2 times he had no chance to improve any stats or something else. The only thing that is noticeable after reacheing level 3 at the end of the week is that some people who have ignored him all the time seem to start answering and speaking with him and thus Kris added a new theory to his notebook in a brand new category: Ingame Mechanics
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Ingame Mechanics:
(People native to Acros will be referred as NPC although I have not prooven yet that they are behaving like those)
NPC Theories:
- They seem to behave rather 'normal' and not like typical NPC's but there are some characteristics that resemble a typical NPC programm.
1)Every interaction that has to do with a quest seems to be a bit too mechanical.
2)Trying to be nice when completing a quest can trigger some special rewards like being asked to stay for dinner for example.
- Some NPC's seem to only start interacting or staring to act in a different way once some limitations are reached.
1)Once a certain level is reached people start behaving different.
2)Theory that the same applies to skill level.
After researching in the library in regards to Mana he found out that 'The Way of Acros' by Grandmaster Bartlmes Lienhart is the most advanced theory in this library and so after the second day his eyes are set on books that explain the history of Acros.
Acros is surrounded by water on all sides and roughly circular. On an peninsula at the nothernmost part of Acros on the eastern side is the Independant City Furas which is the city where most merchants are situated. It is also the place where the biggest library of Acros can be found. The City is governed by the most influental merchants which are around 60% Keras and 30% Rapider.
If you walk further along the nothern border of Acros there are the Icy Mountains where many tribes of Nordic People are situated. Nobody really knows if there is a government or something similar for those people but it seems for outsiders that most tribes have a chief that has absolute power and he or she can be challenged to a duel and the stronger one will be the new chief.
On the north-eastern part of Acros is the Kingdom of Drugas, the Dwarfen Kingdom. As expected of Dwarfes they are knows as the best smiths throughout Acros and the whole area has many mountains and ravines in it.
The largest part of the continent is taken by the Empire Strutum, a Human Empire. There are several major noble families and depending on the families wealth their influence will rise. The 10 most influental noble families take part in governing the Empire and once one family has more than 50% of all influence which is rated by military and trade they can decide to govern alone and their leader will become the Emperor. Currently the Emperor of Strutum is part of the so called 'Golden Family'. They became rich because they are the major force trading with the Dwarfes.
The south-eastern part of Acros is similar to one big forest and is all part of the Elven Kingdom Loria. Although it is the second biggest country on Acros most of the forest is not inhabited and there are only 2 major cities and many towns in it.
In the middle of the Empire Strutum is the so called 'Desert of Death'. There are rumours that if someone that does not belong to the Dersirs would try to walk through it they would die on their second day but somehow the major part of the Dersirs live in this desert and if someone asks them how they do it they would not get a definite answer at all.
Lastly there are the Southern Wildlands which are very hard to conquer becaue the land is not very inhabitable. The Town of Groun is situated in the outskirts of these Wildlands. So it is a kind of frontier town that is situated to support other soon to be towns in the Wildlands.
Technically they are under the jurisdinction of the Empire but most things have to be handled very fast here so Governors of Frontier Towns have more power than those of normal towns to handle unforeseen situations more smoothly.
After this week and all the missions made at the Adventurers Guild Kris gathered 15 silver total and now has a decent sword and a bad leather armor. But all in all fighting with a sword will probably only be the main fighting style until he finds one more suited for him. The blade denies too many dodges he want to do because the only strong physical stat is Agility.
With those 15 silver he can easily go on for 2 weeks ingame without having to work for anything so this time will be used to go to the Magical Institute instead to try learning some magic. It is situated at the northern border of town.
The Magical Institute is the biggest building in the town together with the Governors place and looks like a wide tower. Once Kris steps inside he can see a huge hall with stairs leading up and down and a gate in the middle. Behind the gate are some open fields where people can use their magic in the open freely.
Between those things are receptions at both sides. The left side deals with new people and the right side with more experienced members of the institute. Naturally Kris moves to the left side's receptionist, a lady seemingly around 30 years old with blond hairs. She is elven and definitely has the looks to match up to predicaments about elves. A very smooth face and a rather small but elegant sized chest area.
"Hello, how can I help you sir?"(Receptionist)
"I would like to join the Institute to start learning magic if that is possible."(Kris)
"That is definitely possible. Have you already registered at the Adventurers Guild or the Merchants Organization?"(Receptionist)
"Yes, I am part of the Adventurers Guild already."(Kris)
"If you want me to register you immediately I can update your identification stone so that you can also use it in the Magical Institute."(Receptionist)
So I hand my identification stone over to the receptionist who moves back into a small room behind the counter for a moment. Then after she comes out again she hands it back to me and that was all there is to it. It seems that the money for the identification stone only had to be paid once.
"Is there a trainer or a schedule for learning magic?"(Kris)
"Just head over to the second floor and then sign up for the classes. They are usually in the afternoon so if you are fast you may already join them today"(Receptionist)
The second floor is not that different compared to the first one. The hall is only smaller and all around it are several doors that probably lead to the rooms where classes are hold. At the counter there is again an elven receptionist that greets me.
"Are you possibly a related to the receptionist one floor down? You 2 seems to have very matching looks"(Kris)
"Yeah we get that often although we are not related in any way. So how can I help you sir?"(Receptionist)
Kris can't help but thing about the typical NPC behavious again, short answer with the same question like before afterwards.
"I would like to sign up for some magical classes today."(Kris)
"There are several different classes. Do you already have some understanding or knowledge about the 'Way of Acros'? Our lessons are usually based on this book."(Receptionist)
"Yeah I have already read it and understand it but have not started practicing magic yet."(Kris)
"Ok then the best course of action would be to go to several lessons of the Beginner Class at first to get a feel for mana and how to cast spells and then move on to more advanced classes once the basics are understood."(Receptionist)
And thus the first day in the Magical Institute was spent listening to a teacher who explains the 'Way of Acros' in basics for half the day. Afterwards the more important part for Kris begins.
"Now moving on. How to cast a spell? It is a simple question but it is important to understand that you have to start feeling the mana around you before trying to do anything more advanced.
To do exactly that try to meditate where you are and feel the power around you. It may be hard at first because sensing something that is everywhere is hard in general. Therefor we have a big mana stone in the middle of this class. It contains a huge amount of mana so you should try to sense a feeling of power coming from this stone. Once you can feel it try to find the same feeling within yourself and you discovered your own mana pool."(Teacher)
Trying to feel Mana for the first time is definitely hard. The mana stone is supposed to be a help for new people but at first Kris does not notice anything at all.
"And if you cannot feel the mana yet do not try to force it, just relax and wih time it will definitely come"(Teacher)
Sadly the first time he is able to sense anything at all from the mana stone is after 3 days of sitting in there the whole afternoon long. Another 2 days later trying to sense anything similar in his body and now he is slowly being able to sense the mana if he concentrates enough.
The teacher also showcases the most basic spells like Fireball, Wind Arrow and similar ones. Probably just to motivate people to work harder on the lessons because these spells are part of another class. After one can sense their own mana and is able to use it outwards in a little ball they can go and join the next class. Kris reached this point after 3 days.
Although it took this much time to be able to sense mana once that was done the other classes are very simple and a spell can easily be learned during one day. If Kris suspects it right thats just to prevent the impatient ones from going the mage route but still letting mages start to go out pretty fast. For those spells one does not need to learn a special kind of mana as it almost comes naturally after being teached by someone about it. For him this kind of logic is a bit sad though.
During this week the main focus was on magic so the other parts of his daily routines became shorter and more simple.
The Adventurers Guild is more active today. Some bigshot just came back with a big hunting party. Apparently they slained a Small Wyvern in the mountains to the West and earned a huge reward for it. Usually Kris does not mind those things but because there are soo many people around now who are tired of big jobs and just want to do some simple relaxing ones most basic jobs are taken and only harder ones remain.
Deliver a packetType:QuestDifficulty:EIn the Forest near a lake a Moonlight Flower was sighted. Gather it and deliver it to the Adventurers Guild.Rewards:2 Silver, ???
This seems to be an easy job although the difficulty is higher than other fetching jobs. With the little money he have Kris buys a simple leather armor and a shortsword because the ones he has don't suit his preferances. The sword is too long and with his backflips and rolls to get out of the way it hinders the movements although every time Kris does those Instructor Larry becomes kinda angry with him.
For today Kris goes into the Inn and tomorow will be the day where of going out to fetch the Moonlight Flower. When thinking about the quest Kris can kinda sense where the quest location is. It would be hard to go around trying to find a lake in the forest otherwise. Although once again it would be more realistic if he had to go ask around for the people who have seen this flower and then ask them for guidance but he already understands that the game logics in Sui Generis sometimes overshadow real logic.