Lucas wasn’t sure what to think upon hearing Aysha’s… compliment? It was weird having someone trust him like that, but he decided not to dwell on it too much. The most important part of the plan was yet to be done. If they didn’t succeed, their shares of the business would be irrelevant, as they would never thrive under the watch of George Hastings.

Agreeing with Aysha’s request, Lucas pondered about the next part of the plan, which was the most uncertain. He needed to get a hold of this fungus, but it would be an enormous waste of time to go out of his way looking for it. For someone as inexperienced as he was, it would probably take years. Fortunately, that wasn’t the only way. However, there lies the uncertainty; he would place a quest asking for the Saxispiralis animi, offering many coins as a reward. He still had half of the necromancer’s money after buying Hilda’s new place, and he planned on increasing the reward each day until someone found what he was looking for. Even so, it was a long shot, he had no idea how long it would take, but it was the best he had.

He explained the rest of the plan to Aysha and left with her. Afterwards, they split up, she still wanted to do quests for the city hall and warned him that he should do the same. Many people were talking about how those points would be very useful later on, and Lucas took her advice seriously. She also mentioned that they should tackle the challenge from the tower soon; a few people had already done it and received great rewards from it even if their performances weren’t great.

That raised his attention once again to the fact that he might be left behind if he let this affair with the Alchemy Emporium take up most of his time. After he left Aysha he went to place the quest on one of the notice boards, and under the requester’s name, he wrote Kairos, along with the address of the hotel he stayed in. That was nothing but a small precaution; in case anyone went snooping around afterwards he was covered. All he needed to do now was wait for the quest to be completed and proceed with his plan.

After doing that, he went to take care of a thing he had neglected a lot lately: training. He wanted to get around to collecting merit points too, but he still believed that familiarizing himself with his new skill was the most important at the moment.

Once he arrived at the Training Center, he considered the options he had ignored previously. The Training Center offered a few teachers who could assist in one’s training for an extra fee. Lucas still wasn’t ready to show his new skill to the world, but he thought of a way to work around that. After making his selection, he took his card and went to the elevator.

Waiting for him in a coliseum-like space were two small light swords placed on the ground in front of him; a man standing on one side with a sword in his hand, immobile, and on the other side, another man with his hands behind his back and his back set up straight, looking at him.

Lucas had a small hope of seeing that old man from the tutorial again in the Training Center, so he was a little disappointed to see it wasn’t him. Instead, what he saw in front of him was a man in his mid-thirties, built like a warrior, with icy blue eyes. Before taking the swords, Lucas addressed the man.

“Hi, are you my instructor?” Lucas asked, and the man nodded.

“My name is Harald,” he said, then turned to look at the swords on the ground. “I see you have chosen to learn a double-sword style of combat. Not a very usual one.”

He waited, as if expecting a reply from Lucas but he had nothing to say. He chose those swords because they were about the same size as his blades and because they were light too. That was Lucas’ solution to his problem of not wanting to disclose his new skill with others; he would learn how to properly wield a sword with a blade similar to his, and then apply the same concepts he learned with his glass blade later on. That way, he didn’t have to share anything and would still learn what he needed.

“Very well then; grab your swords; let’s begin,” His teacher said, and he did as told.

Two hours later, Lucas was sweating profusely, and his hands bled from the impact every time he clashed swords with his opponent. He had chosen a human as his opponent this time around, because it would be easier to see how he held up in a real fight and because the wooden dolls didn’t present much challenge to him anymore.

Despite having the form of a human at level 15, Lucas was pretty sure that it was an NPC programmed only to fight, and didn’t have any other cognitive activity beyond that. That was probably for the best, as he didn’t want to feel guilty when he eventually killed or maimed him.

So far, every time Lucas took the upper hand in the fight, which happened many times, his teacher asked him to stop, and so Lucas yelled for the NPC to stop as well. He didn’t want Lucas to kill his sparring partner, because then it would be harder for him to correct his movements.

One thing Lucas realized early on, however, was that wielding swords wasn’t the best way for him to learn how to use his bone blades. The problem began in the way he held them: when he was holding the sword, the blade was usually pointed upwards, but his bone-blade pointed whatever way his fist was pointing at. Usually downwards or to the front if he went to attack someone.

That led to the next problem: the movements were a little wider when attacking with the sword than with his bone blade, not just because of the difference in weight, but also their position when he was wielding them.

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He knew now that he had picked the wrong teacher for what he intended, but he still persisted because even if swordsmanship wasn’t the best for him, he still found his teacher’s pointers on how to best utilize his blade and what angles were the most effective very useful.

The footwork was another aspect that he found very useful during his training. During fights, he probably would try to stay at the same distance, whether he was using a sword or his glass blade, so knowing how to properly move was pretty good.

He continued his training for the rest of the day until the hours he had booked ended and his lesson was over. This training gave him a lot to think about, but he was exhausted when he finally arrived at the hotel and, not long after, fell asleep.

There was no package waiting for him that day when he woke up, so after he left his hotel room, he went to the notice board where he had posted the quest and upped the reward by two thousand coins. Then he set off with the same destination from yesterday in mind. It had been good to train using two swords and he felt like he had gained a lot from it, but he still wasn’t satisfied.

He began to think about his other blades, the ones that came out of his elbow, knees and feet. He still hadn’t even seen them, because the blades from the fists alone would require a lot of work to be good at. But there seemed to be a pattern there that pointed not to swordsmanship but towards martial arts. Lucas knew that there were martial arts that focused on many aspects of the body, such as legs, feet, elbows, and knees. And even though it is not exactly a martial art, pugilism focuses mainly on the fists. That was more likely to be the direction he should follow if he wanted to be more proficient with his new skill.

With his new resolution, Lucas didn’t hesitate when selecting his options, and soon he faced a very bulky man with a bald head and a face tattoo—definitely not someone you wanted to mess with—and his sparring partner on the other side; because today he was going to learn some boxing.

Despite his intimidating appearance, Lucas’ coach, Drake, came across as surprisingly friendly and even funny at times. He even shared his life story during their training sessions. According to him, he faced a lot of loneliness and bullying growing up because of his large size. But he found on boxing a form of comfort and also a way to beat the crap out of his bullies later on. A very heartwarming story indeed.

For the first two hours, Lucas learned just basic footwork, and for the following three hours, he did a few jabs while moving, his sparring partner never fighting back for this first session, and then for the final two hours, Lucas practiced his dodges, which he found out he was pretty good at.

It was all pretty basic concepts but his first boxing class opened his eyes to the world; he absolutely loved it. He remembered a time when he was little and always wanted to practice boxing or a martial art, but was never able to do it, and now that he finally could, he didn’t want to stop.

The wonders of the world after the system allowed Lucas to do a seven-hour training, with only a few breaks in between to chug down a potion of stamina, courtesy of Hilda. Her potions were the only way he could go on this insane training schedule, and he planned to keep on doing that until his fungus arrived.

Saying goodbye to his NPC coach, he left the Training Center building and, after a quick shower, went straight to the Library, another part of his new routine. He wanted to know more; he still felt like he knew too little, and many things remained a mystery to him. He couldn’t keep being so ignorant about everything, so he decided that he would pay the library a visit every day. Even if he couldn’t read many books, over time he would gain some knowledge of how things worked.

Hilda had also offered to teach him the rest of the “recipes” she had during this period. Since they were going to be business partners soon, there was no point in keeping it a secret anymore. “You are now a part of the family,” was what she said, and Lucas felt very honored hearing that.

Even if they were short on ingredients, he would learn whatever he could with the things they still had, and that was what he did for that entire week, awarding him with a nice ability:

Beginner Alchemist

You have started your journey on the pursue of the alchemic mysteries. Grants you the ability to produce simple potions with a higher overall effect.

With this busy schedule, time flew past him, and soon a week had passed. Lucas was doing his first real sparring against a level 15 pugilist. One thing he learned was that, while stats were great, technique was still the most important thing in boxing; a second of distraction or an opening could mean a knockout. He dodged, dodged and then threw a punch but his opponent had his guard up, so he kept moving. He couldn’t stay still; that was one of the first things he learned.

In a sense, it was pretty weird to be there practicing a sport while in the real world people were killing each other. But Lucas knew very well what his main goal was; his real fight would be completely different from this one, and a lot bloodier too. In a real fight, every hook, jab or uppercut would mean a limb pierced or mutilated; the fight surely wouldn’t last this long either because the first one to get hit would get pretty close to dying. Lucas smiled, and adrenaline ran through his body as he began to make very powerful movements, never stopping to catch a breath, finally throwing his opponent off balance and making him fall down.

Lucas improved bones were the only reason he was able to fight like this; they were still relatively weak, but they could hold up a few punches now. Fighting so close, it was hard to avoid getting hit sometimes; that was another aspect that was different from his bone-blade fighting style. With a blade between him and his opponent it would leave some leeway for him to dodge more effectively, and he would put his newly acquired boxing reflexes to good use when it happened. His agility even went up two points with his crazy training.

Lucas got ready when the man raised again; the fight still wasn’t over as the countdown hadn’t finished before he raised again. This time, however, Lucas would make sure the fight was truly over. With even more energy, he went wild against the NPC, every movement making a fluid motion through his body, every punch fully in synchrony with his torso’s movement and foot stance. Dodging every single attack, he entered his battle mode; he felt confident that nothing could hit him when he became serious, and a few seconds later, the man was knocked out cold on the ground. Lucas smiled wide looking at his new notification.

New skill acquired!

Skill: Beginner Pugilist (Common)

You have started your path on the long road that is pugilism. May your fists carry you far and bring glory to your name! Gives you a boost of 25% in Strength and Agility, every time you fight using pugilist skills.