It was as if a bomb had struck Noah, a crossroad appeared on his route: follow Dominik, apparently an important character that was keeping a low profile, or staying in the military training camp and going through with the training.

While joining the military was a sure route to lead an army, getting higher in ranks and ultimately, gaining power, what Noah really craved was an adventure; exploring this fascinating alternative world that was Vesper.

Since his first day here, he got fascinated by the degree of realism, by the freedom of choice, by the infinite possibility that this game promised. Noah wanted to explore and enjoy himself, probably this was a stronger desire that his childlike dream of owning and leading an army.

Ultimately by following Dominik, he was bound to achieve a lot of gainings and learn a lot more about the game.

Noah train of thoughts was interrupted by his teacher loud and powerful voice: “ Pestilence, now you have to focus only on the moves that I’m going to show you! Remember the feeling you got by watching my full sword dance the first time? You have to constantly flow like the water in a river, never stop. Keep the momentum going and be ready to crush your opponent at a moment notice, when he shows a gap or when he messes up. Until that moment, you have to constantly strike while avoiding each of his blow, it would be like you are a tornado spiraling around him, never giving any rest. This is a swordsmanship that require a high amount of agility, stamina and strength. Fast, gracious, never ending and powerful! “.

After this enlightening speech Dominik got in stance with a solemn posture and started to show the dance at full force and speed, he really looked like a tornado. When the last 3 moves came, he slowed down to let Noah have a good look at them, they were like the other 7 he already knew.

A series of circular swings alternating from the bottom or from the top, sometimes hitting after a spin, some other time slashing by the side; spinning without stop, each spin a transition to next strike and a possible way to dodge the opponent. This was Dominik’s sword style. A dance meant to engrave in the body a feeling for movement, a way to learn how to fight.

More than an hour passed while Noah focused only on his movements trying to immerse himself in Dominik’s style. After a while he got surprised, subsequently a successful execution, by a blue panel; a panel that was going to determine his choice on the matter of following Dominik or staying here, he could feel the importance of this notification even before reading its content.

Congratulations on learning a Sword Style!

* Unending Maelstrom(passive) lv.1

After a lot of effort to memorize each move, you understood their purpose. Your combat style will be influenced by these moves that you trained in if you keep practicing them.

Each level in unending maelstrom will grant you a point in agility and strength. Constant reproduction will grant some stamina points and increased proficiency in this skill.

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Albeit feeling a bit down, since he didn’t receive an active skill nor a powerful finishing blow, this message was a well-received one, Unending Maelstrom was a powerful passive to have. Giving a full point in both strength and agility could enhance him a lot in the long run. Noah vowed to constantly practice in order to increase his stats, this way he could invest those unallocated ones from the level ups in other places, more suitable for a tamer.

There was another hour before Dominik pretended to hear a response and Noah fully utilized it to get a level in his new passive.

“you improved a lot in this two hours, I wonder if you also found a resolution to choose. While it may sound like an interesting adventure, remember that there will be dangers! A lot of them actually”.

The instructor continuously reminded Noah about his possibility to stay here and continue the training with the battalion like he was doing. After all, Dominik was thinking about his new and young student safeness, he was going to participate in a delicate matter and there was real danger awaiting them if he chooses to come; between worried thoughts, a sort of anticipation and excitement to see a young adventurer join him in this travel born inside him. It was too much time that he stopped going out in adventures, his age already well past the young years, even if it didn’t show on the outside, his strength wasn’t any more like the days long passed that gave him his fame. Thinking of going out again with fresh blood reinvigorated him.

“Teacher, if you are still willing, I’m going to follow you out there in this travel. I’m ready to discard my place here in Divel’s army!”.

Dominik gave only a nod, he kept a calm appearance in order to respect the solemn resolution that this young boy showed.

“See you tomorrow morning in front of the city gates, I think that the departure will be after lunch in order to arrive at the location in the morning after having rested for a full night in the forest. I’m going to let you experience some real fight in the forest, at least I hope you will be able to defend yourself during the travel!”.

Saying goodbye and deciding on the 6 am as appointment time, Dominik who was going to leave suddenly turned around and added that he will bring some equipment that he had kept from a long time ago for Noah to use.

Feeling anxious for the next morning, he runs to the city gates and logged off there. Noah didn’t want to be late for the appointment.

Getting up from the bed and turning on the lights, he checked the time and went straight for his telescreen. It wasn’t yet dinner hour and he decided to see what the other tamers were up to.

Inside the forum, almost every post related to taming had a common point. A common problem thought Noah: tamed pets needed food!

It was a setback on the whole Path. A proper support structure and enough resources were needed in order to run a large army of pets. Some interesting posts noted that a way to deal with this issue was to have a skinner in the party so that it was possible to collect the meat from the slain monster and then a cook to prepare it.

Apart from this, Noah looked for news on how to tame and regarding the companion skill too. Taming wasn’t all that hard, an active use of the skill on a monster with low life was enough to tame it, a variable percentage success rate was then applied; the amount of health remaining, total strength and charisma were the factors that determined the number. An important notion was that if a monster was dealt with by a party, taming resulted a lot more difficult.

Companion was an entirely different matter, it was way harder to get a companion than taming a beast and it was limited to one. A companion got his potential unlocked to the fullest and evolution was possible for it, while tamed beasts couldn’t gain experience, companions instead shared half of the user gained experience, differently than tamed beasts, they respawned with the user after death.

Noah got the feeling that taming was a sort of short time solution to hunting, not an easy way to build an army if dying meant to lose all the tamed beasts that didn’t recognize you as an owner anymore after respawning. Still, there was a lot of potential within this skill if used correctly.

He decided to try out his taming skill tomorrow and ask Dominik if he knew a solution to the food problem since Noah was alone right now with no party member.

He got ready to eat dinner and rest a bit before tomorrow new adventure.