Chapter 7: Practical Practice
"If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in.
- Sun Tzu
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It was late afternoon by the time Duncan allowed us to stop for the night. We'd had a short lunch of bread and dried meat, but we had eaten it as we rode. The Archbishop was something of a stickler for keeping on the road at all times, so I was sore despite my improved [Pain Tolerance] skill. Disembarking Dawn, we scouted the area between the road and the woods for a place to camp.
"Over here!" I called, looking at a large patch of flat dirt that'd be perfect for our needs.
"Nicely done, Daniel!" Duncan praised, "This is perfect."
We then split up to find sticks from the nearby forest in order to build a proper fire. The place was a treasure trove of dry kindling thanks to the thick foliage keeping everything dry, even though we were still technically in summer. With a steadily growing pile of wood in my arms, I decided to take a look at my new and improved stats:
Name: Daniel Lightbringer
Age: 10
Class: Saint
Health: 100/100 | Mana: ?/? | Stamina: 124/135
Free Points: 10
Skills: [Calm] Lv2, [Pain Tolerance] Lv3, [Observe] Lv4, [Memory] Lv11, [True Sight] Lv2, [Deceive] Lv1, [Translate] Lv1, [Daggers] Lv1
Spells: ?
Strength: 15
Agility: 15
Dexterity: 13
Intelligence: 25
Charisma: 12
Wisdom: 12
I was feeling quite proud of myself at the moment. Considering it hadn't even been 2 days since I'd unlocked my System, my rate of growth was way above average. My skills were steadily growing, raising my attributes in accordance and gradually making me more powerful. The 7 points that I'd put into agility earlier had also managed to raise my stamina by 35 points - almost half of what I'd originally had! That would mean I could endure physical activity for longer and would get fatigued less easily.
Furthermore, my [Memory] was making leaps and bounds, which would be great for when I began my new life at the Academy of Wizardry. Duncan stressed the importance of presenting myself as strong and not to be stepped on by others. Everyone except the other saints would be at least 6 years older than me! My [Pain Tolerance] skill had also increased marginally, but I wasn't too sure why that'd happened. The mindscape blocked out most pains, but it was likely to be from the soreness when I'd gotten out of my mind. [Pain Tolerance] was a skill that was harder to level the higher it got because you had to feed it more and more pain. I was not looking forward to levelling that one.
Walking back to our new camp, I listened to the birds singing in the trees as the branches rustled back and forth, creating their very own symphony. Those sounds always reminded me of home, with the forest and river always creating their very own music. They were sounds that seemed to intrinsically relax you without realising. Until I heard a ding:
[Calm] has levelled up - Lv3 (+1)
From my understanding and what I'd read in my mindscape, some skills require you to just get better at something. Others need understanding and experience until you can use them on others. In this case, it seemed that relaxing myself could level my [Calm] skill really easily! This boded well for the next part of my evening - I'd get to learn how to fight!
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
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"So, Daniel, what do you want to start with? You're lucky I keep most of my weapons in a spatial ring."
"A spatial ring?" I asked.
"You'll learn more when you get one of your own. It's basically a ring that's enchanted so it can store stuff inside it without it obeying the laws of time or weighing you down. They're very handy for any number of things, even that poor noble I scared this morning had one on him!"
They really did sound useful. We didn't have a jeweller or enchanter in Pendale, so we had to buy everything from Derban. However, people didn't go if they could help it because most people in Derban worshipped Umbrael. They were seen as wrong and in some ways evil, even though I knew this wasn't the case now. There would often be a lot of prejudice among the followers of the different churches.
"Do you have baselards on you then?" I asked eagerly, perhaps a little too quickly. I'd have to work on my deception skills at some point, because I saw Duncan squinting at me out of the corner of my eye. It did confuse me that he'd be so suspicious over a little childish excitement unless he knew something more
[Observe] has levelled up - Lv5 (+1)
'I'll ignore Duncan for now. I can't let him ruin my fighting extravaganza, I've been waiting for this for so long!' It had been less than 12 hours, and I was chronically impatient.
"I do in fact have baselards," Mordecai said, smirking. At that moment, he held out his hands and two daggers sliced their way into reality. That spatial ring must've been very expensive to produce an effect like that.
The daggers were beautiful, to say the least. They were longer than the average dagger, closer in length to a shortsword. But that's where the similarities ended. The crossguard was short and curved upwards, much like the pommel, while the blade was triangular. The blade was white and felt like it had been chiselled from the finest marble, making it razor sharp, and the whole handle was gold. Whether gold colour or solid gold, we'd never know. There were small engravings along the handle, but they weren't in a language I'd ever seen before.
"How're those for baselards, oh Holy Saint?" He asked in mock seriousness. I'd been gawking at the beauties before me, and Mordecai knew I loved them. Handing me some inconspicuous leather sheaths that'd hide the masterpieces, I strapped them to my waist and tested sliding the blades in and out in succession. The time to draw a blade could be the difference between life and death when facing someone as powerful as Mordecai.
They were perfect.
"Yes. These'll do nicely." I said, returning his tone and producing a chuckle from both of us. Duncan had been strangely silent during this whole conversation. He seemed almost wistful, though I didn't know why. As an archbishop, he must've had all manner of juicy secrets. Perhaps secrets about those blades in particular. They looked like they came from the church. I had to collect them.
"Okay then, I want you to draw your new blades and come at me. Don't hold back!" Mordecai said excitedly. The man really was addicted to the thrill of any kind of battle.
I pounced without hesitation. I didn't want to let him get into any sort of fighting stance. Of course, my plan had absolutely no effect. As I spun the blades and tried to thrust, slash and cut with every movement, it did little to the giant before me. Despite my new agility and stamina, he was still a lot faster than I was and dodged everything with complete ease. I was a little disappointed in myself; he'd found even the Baron's guards harder than me! I couldn't blame myself though - I was 10, after all.
Though I wished that would've been a turning point - that the anger had spurred me on to defeat him - it wasn't the case. He stepped into my guard and lightly thumped my head. He didn't do it hard enough to hurt anything but my pride.
"You're dead," he said with an air of finality. "You need to be moving like light if you want to represent the church of Luminaris."
"And how does one 'move like light'?" I asked sarcastically.
"You need to be swift, graceful, but most importantly - relentless. Light moves almost instantly and is ceaseless when it tries to travel somewhere. Light might not touch a shadow, but it sure as hell will bombard the object that got in its way. Long story short, your strikes have to be fast and hard but flow into one another. You cannot let your opponent prepare for your next attack. Here, I'll teach you some appropriate techniques..."
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Mordecai had continued to teach me until the sun had fully disappeared from the horizon. I begged him to continue our lesson, but he said that eating would help consolidate what I'd learned and give me energy, which was falling dangerously low:
Name: Daniel Lightbringer
Age: 10
Class: Saint
Health: 96/100 | Mana: ?/? | Stamina: 38/135
Free Points: 23
Skills: [Calm] Lv3, [Pain Tolerance] Lv5 (+2), [Observe] Lv6 (+1), [Memory] Lv13 (+2), [True Sight] Lv2, [Deceive] Lv1, [Translate] Lv1, [Daggers] Lv7 (+6)
Spells: ?
Strength: 15
Agility: 15
Dexterity: 13
Intelligence: 25
Charisma: 12
Wisdom: 12
My gains from these few hours had been the greatest I'd received so far. Half of my skills had levelled up, granting me even more free points to assign. I never knew that weapons training could be that demanding. Fortunately, I'd had that stamina increase, allowing me to last longer against the beast that called himself Mordecai. He truly was worthy of the title 'Paladin', which meant that he was a warrior for the church, protecting it with sword and shield alike.
Darkness had fallen and we sat around the campfire. Cicadas buzzed nearby as Duncan cooked us a few rabbits he'd caught during my psychological beating. How a rabbit would feed the brute that had so thoroughly thrashed me I'd never know, but my dinner felt earned that night. Dawn looked like she was loving her dinner too; she was hogging all the hay while her much larger, chestnut-coloured companion, tried to push her off. We tucked into our food in companionable silence and when finished, sat back, looking up at the stars illuminating the night sky. It felt comforting that Luminaris held dominion over even the night; light would find us wherever we were.
Until I managed to jinx it. Light would not find us here anymore.
Dozens of warriors came charging into the clearing, bearing swords and going for the kill before I could even stand.