Chapter 3 Training
I awoke with the predawn light slowly brightening my window. Walking over to the open window I looked out at the yard where the man had worked so hard to remove the large boulder. It was still there. I could tell that this might turn into a quest. Leaving my armor and weapons I left my room and went outside. While I probably did not need to stretch I still spent a few minutes loosening up, then I began my jog. I ran through the streets at a steady pace and after 20 minutes I began to sprint then jog alternating every few minutes. After a couple of hours, I noted that my endurance had increased by plus 1. Cool.
I was not the type of gamer that worried about leveling and trying to get every last point out of my character build. Plus, Tarsas was built a little differently, the AI running the show would decide when you had earned enough XP to level up or gain more points in the various attributes that comprised a character. I had the standard points put into the standard spots thinking that when my trainer Philoe suggests I beef up something I will in the meantime I planned on living a real life within the game and that included real-life training.
Making my way back to the Inn I gladly accepted a cup of coffee, rich with cream and sweet with honey. After several minutes I received a plate full of hot sausage links and eggs with fried potatoes and fresh toast on the side. I love breakfast and being able to eat like this in the game was pretty special. Once I finished it off including the second cup of coffee I made my way to the water room where I stripped down and had a cold shower. Shivering but clean I gathered my gear from my room and went to the training hall.
Opening the door, I entered and saw that I was early. I grabbed a broom and some rags and spent the next half hour cleaning and washing the floor. Once that was done I grabbed three target dummies and placed them on their stands, then seeing that I could do no more I sat cross-legged on the floor and began to meditate. After quite some time had passed I opened my eyes to see Philoe sitting beside me in the Lotus position. Once he observed I was alert he said, “Good job on cleaning the hall, that will be your first training activity every morning. Once that is done you may wait for me like this or practice the forms I will teach you.”
Philoe continued, “Today I will be showing you five forms, two are defensive and two are offensive and one which is a ready form. Stand here with me, yes like that, now hold your weapon up and out, perfect. Have your left hand ready at a 45-degree angle like so. Good, now step forward and push your weapon forward extending it about 90 percent. Now as you do that step forward, yes good. Now step back and pull your weapon back. Excellent, now as you do that I want you to cast lightning with your left hand.”
Standing up I stared at Philoe and then asked, “How am I supposed to cast the spell, do I shout it out or make a funny hand movement?” I noticed he looked at me like he just saw something that perhaps should have been flushed the night before.
I was expecting him to tear me a new orifice but was surprised when he softly said, “Sorry lad I forgot, most of the trainers will have you do some idiotic mumble jumble hand waving while shouting out nonsensical mystical sounding words. The reality is none of that is needed. Think of walking, do you say walk with every step that you take. I hope not or you will look like an idiot and believe me most people don’t need any help in that regard. You decide to walk and you walk. With the things I am teaching you, you decide to use them and you do. It may take a while but practice the forms and try to cast the lightning spell. I will be back around lunch.”
With that, he left and I started to practice ready position, step forward thrust weapon and then cast a spell as I began to step back. It took about half an hour when suddenly lightning flickered from my hand and hit the target spinning it around and causing a small fire. I could not stop grinning, it felt pretty good to be able to spell cast while doing weapon combat damage. I continued to practice my attacks, all the while keeping my eye on the circle HUD that had appeared.
It had four half circles around the core green and blue on one side which represented my health and mana and red and black which represented the physical damage I was receiving and the magical damage that I was dealing with. Across the top was a red line that would grow as I received agro from and mobs. It also displayed a percentage. On the bottom were two lines that showed the life and mana of the enemy. The whole HUD faded away unless I was in combat. It was very cool and I knew that it would be super helpful.
After about ten minutes I was out of mana and by highlighting my mana bar I saw that it would take 5 minutes to recharge. I needed to find some man cookies or something that could help. Putting away my two-handed mace that I had been swinging around like a roofing hammer I walked up to the target and began to lightly punch it. I was not surprised when I received a text,
Do you wish to learn unarmed combat?
Accepting I continued to punch and slap at the target dummies, I had taken Karate one year and while I had only managed to receive a yellow belt I remembered enough to try to punch, hit and slap like I had been trained to do so long ago. Once my mana was recharged I decided to continue with the unarmed combat but start throwing in some lightning punches. It was effective and once I hit the target the release of the lightning caused the whole target to erupt in a shower of miniature lightning bolts flying around. I had never seen an attack like it on the videos posted to the forums. If nothing else if I decided to stream it would look wild.
Soon Philoe returned with a couple of hot sausage rolls and a jug of cold cider. We ate outside as he asked me about my morning. When I mentioned the unarmed combat combined with the lightning he laughed and said, “Effective and somewhat surprising, you will never really be unarmed if you level up your hand to hand combat in conjunction with using spells. Tomorrow we will work on the first defensive move, for the rest of the day I want you to go around Morro and find some things to do. Help people out, some may even give you a reward. It is part of what a real Paladin does.”
I nodded and thanked him for the meal as I gathered my gear to go, Philoe had just basically told me to go find some quests. I was sure going to try to find them. Questing gave several bonuses to players, the XP which helped to level, the money or items which helped overall and the 4reputation gains which helped with getting discounts and greater quests.
Walking back towards the Inn I spotted a patrol of Three Guardsmen, well two men and a woman. Walking up to them I asked if the town had a place where people could place help wanted adds. I was directed towards the town's square, a colorful area with a fountain in the center and several tables and benches scattered around, one of the brooks meandered across the open space with three small footbridges joining the area together. A number of small shops were in the area along with several food vendors.
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I stopped and grabbed a hot apple cider from a vendor and made my way to the center where there were four poles situated, on each pole were flyers which listed the jobs to be done and where to go to meet the person and discuss the details. I read the flyers on the poles and quickly choose three to go after. The first one I selected just for fun and because it reminded me of a series of books I had once read. The task was to go to the stables and clear out a rat infestation.
Rewards were XP and a bit of silver. The second quest was a simple run around the city to drop off some goods at a few different shops for some XP and reputation. The last quest was to head out to a nearby mine and find out what had become of the 20 miners. They had not returned from their week-long work rotation and the new crew hand not sent back word of what happened.
I would guess that there were now 40 dead miners, or perhaps undead. These things happened in games. At any rate, I would investigate and find out what had occurred. Looking around I could see that I would have time to start the first quest. When I had accepted the quest, my map had been updated and I now made my way to the stables. I could see an open set of stables inside a corral with a large barn in the back. I was just in time to see a young man come running out of the barn with three rats chasing him, they were the size of a Pitbull and from what I could gather all teeth. This was going to be a little harder than I had thought.
Walking over to the man leaning on a pitchfork I said, “Looks like you have a bit of a problem here, those rats are the largest I have ever seen. When did they show up and how much damage do they do to a person?”
The man looked at me and squinted than spat out something, then with a sigh, he said, “People call me Bagger, and I guess those rats showed up about the same time we started storing the ore from the mine for the Blacksmith Guild. Those things are mean, and their bite while not poisonous per say, well make a person sick for days, until a healer can cure them. They do a lot of damage but once you run away from the barn they retreat. You going to have a go at clearing them out of my barn?”
I nodded as I thought of what the man had said, they showed up when the ore from the mine arrived. Strange, something was happening at the mine. I asked Bagger, “Where is this ore stored, on the ground floor or in the loft?”
With a grunt and another spit of something Bagger said, “It is all on the ground in sealed chests. They are pretty darn heavy, too heavy to lift to the loft.”
“Is there any way to get into the loft without going through the bottom of the barn,” I asked? “I would like to have a look inside to see what is happening with those rats, and I would rather be up if they are down.”
Bagger thought for a moment and then replied, “Yep, if you go to the back of the barn there is a ladder built into the barn, it goes up to the big doorway. That is shut but the smaller side door will not be locked, just push it open and then step in. Hopefully, the rats are not up there.” With those words of wisdom, he spat again. Clearly, he would not win a puzzle test but I would put money on him if it were a spitting test. I made my way to the back of the barn and began to climb the ladder, just as Bagger had said the small door was unlatched and I pushed it open.
Walking into the loft I was amazed at the motes of dust and the smell of hay. The sun shone in through a couple of open windows lighting up the barn well enough to see. The loft was full of stacked bales of hay against the back wall with a carpet of loose hay underfoot. I walked to the edge of the loft and looked down, there in the center of the barn was a pile of chests each one had a hook set in the lid that was how they were unloaded from the wagon. They looked heavy and I noted the block and tackle that was positioned above them.
The barn was crisscrossed with several walkways that helped to support the structure, all a person would have to do was walk out till he could grab the chin for the block and tackle and then lower it, try to snag the hook of the chest and raise it then using brute strength pull the whole thing back to the loft area. The block and tackle were designed to roll over to the loft so it should not be that hard.
But that did not take into consideration the ten rats that were milling around. I had a funny feeling that they would be joining me as soon as I began to lift the chest. The walkway was narrow and they would only be able to approach me one at a time. I think this might work, so carefully grabbing the chain, I lowered the hook end and began to gentle swing it around. The rats paid no attention to what I was doing until I managed to hook the chest. The began to get excited as I began to lift the chest and then the whole group jumped on the ladder and scramble up to the loft. Once there the hesitated until I manage to get the chest up to my level.
At this point they attacked, they were in a long line front to back almost scrambling over each other in their eagerness to bite me. I waited until they were within five feet of me and then cast my lightning spell. I used both hands to double the power and was reminded for a moment of the evil emperor casting lightning at Darth Vader in those old movies. It was pretty intense with the rats all seizing up and then falling the twenty-five feet to the floor. I observed a steady trickle of XP numbers flash by off in the corner of my vision.
Tarsas may be a game with magic but it still used real-world physics and any animal falling from that high would die or be severely injured. I pushed the trunk over to the loft and then scrambled down to the floor. Waving my hand over the pile of rats I looted everything. Here the magic of the game shone through as I received ten rat tails and a handful of silver. Climbing back up to the loft I noted the rat bodies had disappeared and it occurred to me that things were just cleaner in the game.
Walking up to the chest I saw that it was unlocked, so with one hand ready to cast lightning I opened it expecting anything but seeing nothing. It was full of ore. If this one was full of the raw mineral ore than there must be something in one of the other 9 chests that had the rats here. I made my way down to the barn floor and began to open the chests. I found nothing but the ore.
Taking a deep breath, I went back up to the loft and dumped the ore from the chest onto the barn floor. Still nothing. I did the same thing with all the chests and in the last chest as it spilled onto the floor I caught a glimpse of something shiny stuck within a broken-up chunk of ore. I lifted the ore and examined it but all I could tell was that a golden piece of metal was buried in the rock. Grabbing my Mace with my right hand I placed the ore on the ground and swung. The ore broke into over a dozen smaller pieces and the metal ring rolled free.
I scooped up the ring and examined it, it was a metal ring, made of gold and engraved with small be detailed pictures. The ring also had three words engraved on it and I struggled to read what they said. Vade Mecum Rattus. As I read the words I felt a change come over me and suddenly a new icon became visible at the top of my vision. As I looked at it a definition of what it would do brightened into view in front of me and I read, The Ring of Willard, a soul bound item that is capable of summoning a mischief of rats to do your bidding. They can spy, steal and kill. They have absolute loyalty to the ring bearer and can be summoned any time and as frequently as needed.
Wow, unbelievable I thought as I slipped the ring on my baby finger. It magically sized itself down and I knew that the ring would not be coming off, at least in this lifetime. I was now piqued about exploring the mine. I had a feeling that there might be other things of interest down in the dark depths. Walking outside I grinned at Bagger and said, “The job is done I am sure that your rat infestation is gone. I took care of 10 of the rats. Sorry I made a bit of a mess in there with the ore.”
Bagger stared at me and then spit off to the side. Then reaching into his pockets he pulled out a handful of silver and said, “Thanks they were sure a nuisance to me and my stables here. I appreciate what you did. Good luck in your adventures Paladin.”
With that, I headed back to the Inn I wanted to get a good sleep and then start training before my Paladin training began. Then do some running around town and off to the mine.