Author Note - Hello again. It's been a while. I haven't updated in a long time. Chapter six is something I've been working on very sparingly since Chapter 5 was released. I got another job (a second one... I'm still also doing my other job), which kinda killed my creativity a bit, but helped my wallet significantly. Chapter six may be a bit weak compared to the other chapters. If so, let me know and tell me where. I'd like to get back into the groove and have started on chapter seven. I don't think it'll take too long for chapter seven to come out, but don't hold your breath.
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Brian stood before a small walled-in complex of buildings. These types of small complexs were common in Louyang, almost like the whole city was made up of mini-castles. Most of the time, such as with the one Brian was standing before, these complexs were owned by Kung Fu clubs or Armed Escort Agencies. Sometimes, they would be owned by single families to use as homes. In some rare cases, they were even used as brothels. The tall walls making them popular for those who wanted to maintain a sense of privacy.
The particular complex that Brian had come to was owned by the Broken Twig Spear club. There had been vague directions to the location on the forums, but they weren't accurate enough to take him directly to the club. After an hour or so of wandering, with none of the locals deciding they wanted to be helpful, Brian had caved in and called Jellybean.
Jellybean was ecstatic at being able to introduce Brian to the club and had told him to wait at a nearby bridge. Not fifteen minutes later, Brian saw the teenager sprinting towards him. After that, he had been lead to the small complex he now stood before. Jellybean had told him to wait a moment and had disappeared into the front gate. He had told Brian that he would get the Senior Club member and introduce him.
As Brian reflected on the events that brought him here, the gate opened. Out came Jellybean, followed closely by another man. He looked buff, but in a contained way. Although his muscles were well-defined, they didn't bulge the way a bodybuilders would. He was bald and looked to be about the same age as Brian, though the air around him made him seem much older. He gave the impression that life had dealt him a hard hand which required that he grow up much faster than he normally would have.
"Junjieming," Jellybean began, "This is Senior Member Cong Pao." Gesturing to the man.
Brian dipped his head in greeting.
"Senior Member Cong, this is Junjieming."
"Hello," Cong spoke.
Despite his appearances, his voice had an eager tone.
"I hear you are interested in joining the Club?" Cong inquired.
Brian nodded again.
"Yes, I'm very interested in learning how to wield the spear. Jellybean has said a lot about how good the Broken Twig Spear style is." Brian explained.
The man nodded as if he understood.
"Well," He began. "While I wish to stay humble, I personally have to agree with Jellybean here. There is no better spear technique in Louyang!" He said, clapping the young man on the shoulder, chuckling.
"Lets head inside and I can introduce you to Sifu Ma. I feel you would be a great addition to the Club, but Sifu Ma has the final say on everyone who enters."
Cong turned around and gestured for Brian to follow. He began to do so, but was stopped by Jellybean.
"Junjie, you'll need to impress Sifu Ma." Jellybean warned. "Really impress him. Unfortunately, he isn't drunk. If this doesn't work out, we'll try again tomorrow and I'll bring some alcohol to get him drunk beforehand."
Jellybean looked Brian from toe to head, appraising him.
"I think you'll definitely impress him though. You look like you could kick some serious ass. Remind me to ask you what your stats are later. I'm pretty sure your strength blows mind out of the water." He knocked his knuckles against Brian's bicep.
"Alright," Brian agreed.
"I've got to get going. Some errands to run before the Club meet tonight. Hopefully I'll see you there."
With that, Jellybean headed down the street. Brian turned and followed Cong into the gate.
The courtyard was fairly plain. It contained a couple of trees that had some severe damage to their trunks. Except for the center of the courtyard, there was a packed dirt floor. In the center was a slightly raised platform made up of large stone bricks. They were all flush with one another, creating a smooth surface.
There were also three buildings in the complex. A small hut-like building, and two slightly larger buildings. Each had a tile roof and sliding wooden doors, a typical design in Louyang. Cong lead Brian to one of the larger buildings, located on the Northern wall to the right of the entrance.
As they approached, Cong stopped and turned to Brian.
"It is traditional for potential members to display what they've already learned for Sifu Ma. Once I finish your introduction, go ahead and get to it and display whatever techniques you may have learned. If you have none, just throw some basic punches and kicks around. Maybe slam your foot on the ground as hard as you can to show off your strength."
Brian nodded, to let him know he understood.
Cong returned the nod and turned back around. He then slid the door open and gestured for Brain to enter.
After Brian had entered, Cong slid the door shut and then walked across the room to stand next to an old man, who sat on the ground on a plush pillow. Brian wasn't sure, as he wasn't the most knowledgeable about these sorts of things, but he thought the old man sat in a lotus position. Much like all the older NPCs Brian had come across in Louyang, Sifu Ma had a long grey beard that rested in a pool in his lap. This suggested that if he were to stand, his beard would potentially reach all the way to the ground. The man had bushy eyebrows and was partially bald, what little hair he had left forming a sort of crown on his head.
The old man had no mustache, which seemed odd to Brian. Because of the lack of a mustache, his wrinkly yet pudgy face was on full display. His cheeks had a slight rose tint suggesting that he had been drinking. Yet, he managed to have a severe gaze that penetrated Brian.
"Sifu Ma, this is Junjieming. He is a friend of one of our members, Jellybean."
The old man grunted in response.
There was a silence, which gave Brian ample opportunity to suddenly become nervous. To calm his nerves, took the time to take a closer look at Sifu Ma. His outfit had a dirty quality. It seemed to be made of high quality material, though it looked like there was a thin layer of grim covering it. The top portion was what Brian could best describe as a half-robe. The bottom portion was an average pair of pants, held up by a leather rope tied into a bow at the front. All along the outfit, which was a deep brown, were gourds. Each tired tightly onto the robe and belt of the old man. Brian counted about seven in all, but wasn't sure if he could see them all.
Brian snapped out of his appraisal of the old mans outfit by a sharp cough from Cong.
Remembering what Cong had told him before they entered the building, Brian slipped into his basic combat stance. From there, he went through a display of the various techniques he had learned. Basic Punch, Basic Kick, High Kick, Leg Sweep, and Basic Elbow Strike.
Once he had repeated each move twice, he stopped and turned to the two men. Cong had a satisfied smile spread across his face. Sifu Ma, on the other hand, had a deep frown.
Cong took notice of Sifu Ma's frown and his smile was replaced by panic.
"Sifu Ma, I'm sure you can see how strong this young man is." Cong stated.
The old man began to shake his head.
"Sifu," Cong begged. "Please. This man holds much potential."
But Sifu Ma continued to shake his head. Brian began to worry.
"Please. We could dearly use the tuition fees, Sifu Ma." Cong continued to beg, more disparate.
Brian watched the display for a moment before deciding to use his trump card. He had hoped he could get away without using it, as he didn't want to flaunt his owning of a Secret Technique. Plus, from what he had read, using a technique from a different style in front of a Club Sifu could get you on the fast track to rejection. Some took offense to the display of techniques other than their own. Well, worth a try.
"Crane Steps Forward to Strike With Beak!" Brian shouted, silencing both the men, who had delved into a quiet argument.
Brian executed each step of the technique flawlessly. He had practiced it many times since learning it and had already raised it to a respectable level. Each move resulted in a crisp, satisfying "snap." When it came time for the final stomp in the technique, he made sure to pour all his strength into it. The result was more surprising than even Brian had anticipated. Where once a solid stone tile had lay, now rested a cracked mess and a small crater.
There was a silence as all three men appreciated Brian's technique. Sifu Ma had the same stony gaze as before, though where there had once been none, a definite respect for Brian's technique emerged. Cong's face had adopted a look of horror, staring pointedly at the damage to the floor. Brian, for his part, stood gaping at the two men. I put way too much strength into that...
After a few moments had passed, Sifu Ma opened his mouth.
"Fine." Was all he said.
At his single word, the horror on Cong's face transformed into joy. He quickly stepped away from Sifu Ma's side and up to Brian.
"Alright, Sifu Ma has agreed to accept you as a Member." He explained.
"Tuition for the Club is five-hundred Wen per week."
Brian nodded and took out the coins from his inventory. As he did so, Cong seemed to avert his gaze from the odd action of Brian reaching into thin air and retrieving coins from nothing.
"But there is the matter of..." This he said this with a pointed gesture at the broken tile.
Sighing, Brian took out another five hundred Wen. To be honest, despite the sigh, he felt like he was getting a great bargain. Most clubs that he head read up on seemed to charge in the order of multiple Liang per week.
Cong seemed to notice his line of thought.
"Sifu Ma wont let me charge more than this for the tuition." He said with disappointment in his voice.
For a moment, Cong's did what could best be described as a "thousand mile stare" looking into the distance with his eyes unfocused. Most of the time, there were little things that gave NPCs away. Either they had the sense of a native around them - as if they had been born and raised in this world - or they had what Brian would call "dead" moments, such as what Cong had just displayed. He wasn't sure what caused it. Perhaps it was on purpose, some pre-programmed trait that the people in the Jianghu shared. But Brian's favorite theory was that the artifical Intelligence behind the NPCs required a moment to calculate what they would be doing.
"Todays club meet won't be for another hour." Cong said, recovering from his moment of silence. "Until then, let me give you a quick tour and teach you some of the basics of our style."
Cong turned and gestured over his shoulder for Brian to follow. As they reached the center of the complex, Cong gestured at the various buildings. One building acted as the storage facility for the club, with various tools for training inside. Cong told him that he was welcome to come at any time in the day to make use of the equipment to train as part of his membership. The second building acted as a kitchen, room for Cong, and an open area for training when the weather was bad. The third building was the small hut that Sifu Ma used.
"I'll grab a couple of spears so I can show you the basics. It'll be just enough to allow you to keep up with the Group Training portion of the meet."
It only took moment for Cong to head into the storage room and grab the spears and sprint back to where Brian stood. He handed one to Brian.
"Now, the club meets every day except for the third day of the week." Cong explained while Brian tested the weight of the spear, "You're expected to attend all of them unless you've got a decent reason not to. Sifu Ma is strict about attendance, even if he rarely makes an appearance at the meets.
"We meet two hours before Sun down and train until it's too dark to see well." He stopped for a moment and looked up into the sky. "We've got about an hour to go before the others arrive, so lets get started."
Cong walked up behind Brian and used his foot to spread Brian's feet to about shoulder length apart. He then held his spear with a downward grip so that the pole rested against the inside of his arm and let the end of the spear rest on the ground on the outside of his right foot. The training spears were only wood except for a metal bit at the end, which Brian guessed were to mimic the weight of an actual spear tip.
"Alright, this is our basic stance." Cong explained the position they were standing in as Brian did his best to copy it.
After a moment of fiddling, Brian got a new pop-up letting him know he had learned "Broken Twig Spear Stance." Huh, guess skill books aren't the only way to learn new things in this game.
"Good, now I'll be showing you the five basic movements of our style. With these, you'll be able to do most of what we'll be doing in todays meet."
With that, Cong broke into five different movements with his spear. By Brian's unexperienced eye, it seemed like only two or three of the movements were actually meant to attack. The rest seemed to be focused on defending. One of the movements confused him and he wasn't sure what it was for, exactly. He watched Cong as closely as he could while he went through the various movements a few more times before stopping.
"This is what we call, 'Nah'." He held the end of the spear high in his left hand, with the tip of the spear lower and pointed toward the ground. "It's meant as a low block." Brian nodded, to show he understood and mimiced the stance. As he did so, a new pop-up let him know he had learned the skill.
"And this is 'Pah'." He said, doing a move that looked similar to Nah but finished with a pull motion towards his lower right. "It's the most basic parry in our style."
"Kum," He did a circular motion with his spear in front of him. This was the movement that had confused Brian in the initial demonstration. "This is the third and final of the defensive movements we'll be using today. It's purpose is to press the opposing spear, or any long weapon in general, towards the ground." He gestured for Brian to put him his spear and demonstrated the technique. Brian found his spear almost ripped from his hands and pressed firmly against the ground.
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"We'll also be using two offensive movements, 'Cheung'," He said, doing a straight thrust forward. "Is self-explanatory."
"Chum-Tiu," He said, doing a downward strike with his spear. "Is also fairly obvious, but it's a downwards strike for hitting something at a distance. Be careful not to let the end of your spear hit the ground when doing Chum-Tiu."
As Cong had explained the movements, Brian had done his best to mimic and had learned all of the skills. With the skill systems help, he was able to execute each with some resemblance of success without much effort after having done them right for the first time manually.
"Go ahead and practice these movements until the others get here. Take your time, though. Don't want you tired for the actual meet." Cong chuckled. "I'll be in the Kitchen preparing Sifu Ma's dinner. If you have any questions, just let me know." With that, he turned and headed toward the building that contained the kitchen. Suppose that confirms both as NPCs.
Brian took his spear over to raised platform that sat in the middle of the courtyard and began practicing the movements Cong had taught him. For the first thirty minutes of his practice, he was happy to hear the ding that let him know one of his skills had risen. Now that the skills he had learned from the old bookseller had risen so high, that familiar ding was becoming less and less frequent. He couldn't remember the last time he had heard the deeper 'bong' noise that accompanied a stat increase.
Time flew by and before he knew it, a few people began to trickle into the Courtyard. One of them was Jellybean, who only gave him a quick thumbs-up as he went over to the storage shed and got himself his own spear and began practicing most of the same movements that Brian was doing. A few of the movements he was doing were obviously more advanced and he would even string a few of the movements together. The effect gave off the same impression as Brian's "Crane Steps Forward to Strike With Beak."
"Jellybean," Brian began, "Is that a a Special Technique?"
"Huh?" Jellybean replied, confused. But after a moment, "Oh! I suppose Cong didn't explain."
"Explain what?"
"Well, you see," Jellybean said as he shoulder his spear and walked closer to Brian. "I'm not sure if it's the same with every style but the Broken Twig Spear style uses a sort of combo system to string together the movements to create techniques. For example," He spread his feet, put his spear at the ready and broke into a short series of the various basic movements. The effect definitely felt similar to when Brian made use of his own Special Technique. The feeling was hard to place, but it was definitely different than when a single movement was done by itself.
"Ah, you notice." Jellybean smiled, seemingly understanding what Brian was thinking about.
"This is why I think Broken Twig is so awesome. None of the other style taught in the various clubs in Louyang give off that feeling. Most people probably won't notice it, but since we club members get to experience it so often, we can notice the distinct difference between a normal technique and the combos that Broken Twig can use. I'm surprised you noticed it, though." He knit his eyebrows, thinking.
"How do I do the combo?"
"Oh, it's easy. There's two ways. You can bring up the combo interface, which is pretty neat. You can use it to create and name your own combos to help you memorize what works and what doesn't. Cong will probably go over some of the more basic combos of the style since this is your first meet. Otherwise, you just have to sorta mentally think, 'Ok, do Kum, then Cheung, and then finish with Chum-Tiu.' and the game takes over from there." Jellybean executed the movements as he named them off.
As he listened to the explanation, Brian managed to open the combo interface with a simple mental command. At first he had tried simply thinking, "Combo interface" but nothing happened. So he specified, "Broken Twig Spear combo" and he got a small window before his face. On the left side was a list of the movements he had learned. In the middle was a column that appeared to allow him to drag and drop movements in sequence. He found that after he had dropped a couple of movements into the box and then concentrated on it, he got a vivid image in his head of himself executing the combo. And on the right seemed to be place to name the combo. Easy enough to figure out.
As he was fiddling with the interface, Cong had come out and began giving instructions for the club members to line up. There were only five, not counting Brian and Cong, people in the club. Of course there was Jellybean. Then there were four men and a single woman. The men seemed fairly generic, making them seem like NPCs. Brian hadn't thought about it, but he guessed it made sense that NPCs would be part of an NPC-ran club. The woman, who also looked generic but had the band on her arm signifying that she was a player and wanted people to know it, seemed to be about thirty years old. She was taller than everyone else, excluding Cong, too.
"Right," Cong intoned, looking over his disciples. "Lets get to work."
The next hour-and-a-half passed in a blur. The pace was set as fast from the beginning, apparently Brian's newness to the club had no affect on their usually training regiment. Brian didn't mind, as having to slow down every time a new member came would result in everyone being held back significantly. The training consisted of going through a number of different movements and combos, repeating them many times. By the end, they had only completed a handful of combos.
As the training continued, Brian noticed that every time he achieved a higher rank in his various spear skills, there was a mention of a "group training bonus." Apparently if you trained in a group setting, such as in a club, you learned things faster. That made sense, in a way. In reality, learning something with many people of varying abilities could definitely be beneficial. And the Jianghu was an MMO, so it made sense that there was an incentive to work with others.
"Alright, lets finish with half an hour of meditation."
Everyone stood from their ready stances and got to their knees, placing their spears to their right side. After a moments hesitation, Brian followed suit. He did his best to imitate the way Cong sat at the front of the club members. His back straight, hands resting palm down on his thighs, and eyes apparently shut.
Brian had never gotten much from meditation, so while it was a great opportunity to calm down and catch his breath, he didn't get much benefit. However, he kept his mouth shut and played along.
About half way through the thirty-minute meditation session, Brian was surprised by a skill window popping up and informing him that he had learned the Meditation skill. The flavor text was kind of bland, but it did explain that he would heal much quicker while meditating. While he couldn't see a benefit from meditation in the real world, he could definitely see a benefit in the Jianghul. With renewed vigor, he threw himself at the meditation.
"And we're done." Cong announced, standing up. "You are dismissed. Junji, return your training spear before you go."
Without another word, Cong turned and headed for the hut that held Sifu Ma.
Brian turned to the others and saw one of the men who he had through to be an NPC disappear after a brief exchange with the other man, who was now heading out the gate. The woman had already left almost immediately after Cong had said they were dismissed. Jellybean was the only one left in the courtyard, and he was still there after Brian had returned his training spear.
As Brian walked towards Jellybean, he arched his eyebrow.
"I still have a bit before I have to log off for the night." He explained.
"Ah," Brian thought for a moment. "Where can I get a spear?"
Jellybean brightened at the question. He seemed to really like being helpful.
"There's a couple of places you can go," He began as they walked out of the gate together.
"There's the woodcarvers district in the South of the city, near the gate that leads to the Louyang Forest. Then there's the Smiths district,"
Jellybean explained the various shops that sold good spears and they made their way to one of the his favorite shops. He mentioned that it was ran by an NPC who didn't like the haggle, but the quality of his weapons were undeniable. "On a level that players haven't yet achieved, at least in louyang." he explained.
As they entered the shop, located on the outskirts of the Woodcarvers District, the shop owner eyed them suspiciously.
"Closing soon," He stated, but otherwise left them alone.
Jellybean lead him to the back of the shop, which held a wall full of spears of various types and qualities. Brian noticed that as he concentrated on each, a small information box appeared that explained the basics of each. Some of the fields were simply filled with question marks, meaning that his character didn't know enough about the weapons to be able to fully understand them.
Some of the info boxes has small badges of varying colors in the upper right color. Brian asked about them.
"Ah, some of the weapons can't be fully utilized until you've reached certain points in your characters development. For example, a Tourist would have no badge and therefore would be completely rubbish with any weapon. You and I are, however, in the Wooden bracket because we've taken the first steps into the Jianghu and have some techniques under our belts."
As he explained, he pointed at a spear on the wall that had a simple pole and sharpened point at one end.
"This is a Wooden-tier weapon. We could make full use of its capabilities as we are. If you were to equip it, it would feel right in your hands. Almost like you had swung it a thousand times already." He pointed at another spear that was a bit more ornate, having a sharper and long spearhead and a short flag attached where the pole and head met.
"This is an Iron-tier weapon. After Wood, there is Copper and then Iron. If one of us were to pick up that spear - if we could somehow afford it, that is - we would be more likely to hurt ourselves on it. It's odd, because even if you were a spear master in the real world, you would still have a high chance of hurting yourself or at least being very ineffective with that spear as a Wood-tier player. Almost like the game sees that your character hasn't developed enough and makes it more likely for little accidents to happen if you try using it. Hands slipping, accidentally scraping the ground and dropping the spear, that sort of stuff."
Brian thought on this for a bit.
"So," Brian began. "If I were to equip a Copper weapon, I would do more harm than good?"
Jellybean shook his head.
"Not necessarily. When the tiers touch, the line blurs. Especially on the lower spectrum. You and I would actually benefit from making use of Copper weapons except in some rare cases. My spear," He pointed to the spear at his shoulder. "Is a Copper, for example."
Brian nodded at the explanation. The system kind of made sense.
"So I should buy a copper spear?"
Jellybean nodded, "Yeah, that's what I would suggest."
Brian took a step back and looked at the wracks of spears again. For the most part, it seemed that weapons were organized based on their tier. Oddly enough, or so Brian thought, there was a small number of Wood and Copper spears, with a bulk of those on display being Iron. There were a few Silver weapons on display above the rest of the spears. These were all fairly ornate. One in particular had a spearhead that was made of an odd material. It looked like a highly polished steel that had glass or perhaps diamond shards embedded in it that reflected light. When he examined on of these, the stat display was nothing but question marks.
He turned to the portion of the wall that held Copper-tier spears. There were five of these, all of which that looked almost exactly alike. They all had a rough quality to them, and a couple looked to be secondhand. One of them seemed to be of a decent quality, though. It looked similar to the training spear he used at the Club, but with a metal spearhead. A very blunt spearhead, but one nonetheless.
"Jelly, what do you think of this one?" Brian asked, picking up the better looking of the Copper-tier spears.
Jelly took the spear from him and looked it over with a critical eye. After a moment, he nodded and handed the spear back to Brian.
"That's about as good as you can get when it comes to Copper weapons. The spearhead is full of impurities though, so you'll probably have to replace it before too long. But it should be good enough for some basic hunting."
As he finished speaking, Jelly got that distant look in his eyes that was the sign they were interacting with some menu or another. After a moment, his eyes refocused.
Before disappearing he said, "Gotta go, moms knocking on the pod."
Brian shrugged to the air that Jellybean previously inhabited, then turned and took the spear to the shopkeeper. He was afraid the spear would set him back a great deal, but it was surprisingly cheap. After the money left his hand, a new window appeared letting him know about his new weapon. Apparently it was called a Pig Iron Spear. Most of the stats weren't comprehensible to him and were therefore represented by more question marks. The stat window wasn't the same as he was used to from the old style of MMOs. Instead of stuff like attack speed or damage, the stat window listed things like materials used in the different parts of the spear, enchantments (which was blank), the current owner, and who had crafted it. There was an icon that looked like a pen on paper next to the weapons name which he assumed could be used to rename it, but Brian didn't think the weapon needed a name other than the one it already had. He closed the window.
Brian wanted to take it out and try some hunting with it, but as he walked away from the shop he got a pop-up alerting him of several real world needs that needed attending. Sighing, he stowed his new weapon and logged out in a nearby alley.