Back to the moment the friends went separate paths after visiting the intelligence guild.
-------------------------------------
Alexander carefully followed the same way he and his friends had walked to reach the intelligence guild, but since he had forgotten the short excurse to the merchant he ended up getting lost again only to notice it long after he was supposed to have arrived.
Gathering enough courage to once again ask someone for directions he eventually ended up back at the shooting range.
When he walked inside he saw that quite a few users had joined the once almost empty practice area. He would have stood with a mouth wide agape if he had seen the amount of users flooding the mage guilds this early in the game, ignorant of the fact that mages had to read and read and study all day long.
Picking up where he left off, he was soon once again immersed in training and the instructor, who now had quite a few people to look after still managed to train and watch Alexander the same way he had before.
Shooting arrow after arrow into each day increasingly farther away targets, which then also started moving by the usage of magic, which mages had installed at the request of the instructor. The last two days of training he was taught to shoot at the weak points of dozens of different monsters, whether they were animal-like or humanoid monsters.
After fourteen days of practice, which didn’t include the half-day he met his friends he finished the training of Thomas and improved his relationship with Thomas to friends. He had again increased his Agility by 3 and Stamina by 1 in the last five days of training.
After thanking Thomas, the archery instructor for his guidance he left for the training hall, naturally having asked for the direction.
After a short fifteen-minute walk he reached the training hall and looked quite plain from the outside.
Walking inside he was met by an impressive sight of hundreds of scarecrows standing neatly row after row. Alexander could see a few users hitting the scarecrows with wooden swords.
Considering that the new users had only been on the Versailles Continent for a few days he hadn’t expected many players here to begin with. Most players didn’t know that it is possible to raise ones stats by simply working hard and even if they knew, there aren’t that many people willing to spend many hours training to increase a single stat point.
These users rather did quests and worked to earn money. They would later on use their level-ups to increase their stat points. Alexander was different from other people in this regard. He enjoyed working hard and didn’t find it particularly boring.
He often lost himself in what he was doing and sometimes was so immersed in a task that he didn’t notice his surroundings, especially when he was training his martial arts.
Seeing a huge man sitting near the door on the floor eating a meal, Alexander approached him.
“Hello, do you know if I can use any of the swords on the walls?”
The man looked up from his growl and told him:
“Yes you may take them to train yourself.”
After thanking him, Alexander went to the nearest wall and started looking at the swords, identifying more than two hundred of them before stopping since identifying one of these similar swords didn’t give him any experience increase in the skill proficiency anymore.
The training hall had five different swords one could choose from.
Wooden short sword
Durability: 10/10, Damage: 2-3
A simple wooden short sword
Wooden sword
Durability: 10/10, Damage: 3
A simple training sword
Wooden bastard sword
Durability: 10/10, Damage: 3-4
A simple wooden bastard sword
Wooden long sword
Durability: 10/10, Damage: 3
A simple training long sword
Wooden claymore
Durability: 10/10, Damage: 4
A simple wooden claymore
He didn’t really know, which type he should pick, so on a whim he took the huge wooden claymore, since he figured that it would increase his strength the fastest.
After taking it up and due to his real strength coupled with his already increased strength stats, he was able to carry the wooden claymore with one hand with ease. Walking to the corner of the training hall, which was located furthest away from the other users, Alexander picked a scarecrow as his victim and proceeded to slash it with his full strength.
After half an hour of this exercise he was already sweating profusely and was beginning to get lost in his task.
*Wham*
*Wham*
Together with his steady breathing were the only sounds that could be heard from him.
The instructor had been watching this new trainee with interest since he was the first one coming into the training hall who was able to wield the claymore. The instructor had seen many other travellers trying to swing it, since it was the biggest training sword in the training hall and thus would be impressive, but all of them had only been able to swing the five-kilogram weighing sword only a few times at best.
This traveller however held promise. He had been swinging the sword without pause for the last four hours and he didn’t seem to stop anytime soon. Leaning back the instructor was delighted to see someone like him here. Now he just wished that this user will persist in learning the way of sword-fighting.
You have learned the skill Sword Mastery
Sword Mastery (Lvl. 1: 0%)
Increases Attack Power with a sword depending on skill level
Increases Attack Speed with a sword depending on skill level
Effect: +10% Attack Power, +3% Attack Speed
Strength increased by one point (+1 STR)
Alexander finally stopped swinging his sword and took a small break to eat and drink. Luckily he had stashed enough food, which he had taken from the wizard tower, to last for another few weeks. Taking out one of the failed shirts he had made he used it as a towel to wipe the sweat from his face.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Standing up Alexander started to attack the scarecrow once again.
For the next 2 weeks Alexander continued to relentlessly attack the scarecrow training almost the entire day and the entire night, only logging out for a few hours of necessary sleep and other necessities in real life once in a while, even though the capsule was designed to be used for one whole week without having to leave it, Alexander felt it was too unnatural to stay inside it for too long. He didn’t neglect training his body even though the capsule regulated it by massaging the muscles in a way to stay fit.
Alexander had managed to increase his strength by eighteen, his stamina by fourteen, his agility by three and his health by 340 points.
Additionally he managed to generate two new stats, which were sometimes generated besides the original stats for doing special actions.
New stat: Fighting spiritNew stat: Sustenance
Fighting Spirit
You can call on superhuman strength temporarily, or bring weaker monsters to their knees with a force in your eyes alone. You are prohibited from distributing stat bonus points to this stat, and it rises spontaneously, depending on the avatar’s action, especially if you fight monsters for a long time, or often confront monsters stronger than your current level.
Sustenance
You are likely to use less stamina in action. You are prohibited from distributing stat bonus points to this stat.
After the two weeks had passed, Alexander switched his sword for two of the wooden short swords. By dual-wielding the swords he proceeded to slash and stab the scarecrow. When he was using the claymore he always hit the scarecrow with his full strength, this time however he didn’t use his full strength, but instead started to attack the scare crow as often and quickly as possible.
Hitting with this different style produced an increase in the agility stat as well as the sword mastery skill, since he was always careful to use the correct form that he was taught by the Geomchi dojang.
Two weeks later the instructor watched how this prodigy of a student attacked four different scarecrows in his vicinity. Alexander had adapted this style after three days of hitting only one scarecrow, since he thought that it would teach him better of how to fight mobs of monsters surrounding him.
What he had failed to notice was that the scarecrows didn’t remotely resemble monsters since they were immobile. Nonetheless this action of him had the pleasant side effect of increasing stamina, agility and health quicker than before. Even the stat Sustenance increased slightly.
At the time he switched to dual-wielding the short swords, Sabrina joined him in the training center but didn’t train nearly as much as him, but still managed to gain a few extra stats for working hard.
Three weeks after he had started out at the training hall, the rest of his friends, or at least the ones that had also started in the Citadel of Serabourg, visited him at the training center and told him that they would now go outside the city walls to start adventuring.
They had built a party, in which Sabrina would be the main tanker as a knight, Jonathan would draw the mobs due to his high agility and deal surprise attacks, Frederic would aid with his earth magic by providing additional defensive shields and trapping the opponents and Krystin would curse the monsters.
But since they didn’t have any priest in their party they would have to be very careful and have good teamwork. Since they were friends in real life and have already played as parties in other games they wouldn’t have to establish the cooperation and other factors of a newly formed party.
Alexander never wanted to play in a group, he always played solo and his friends knew that fact, but still invited him, since sometimes he would temporarily join their party to hunt together. This time however Alexander hasn’t achieved the stat points he wanted or the skills he wanted to have even since before he had started the game.
Staying in the training hall he continued to train with the swords changing a couple more times between the two short swords and the claymore.
All the while many different people had come to the training hall. Some people staying to train for a while, players going in, players going out but not a single one staying as long or training as hard as Alexander.
Some players coming in day after day started recognizing him and they realized that Alexander was training at an inhuman pace.
More users came to the training hall at night, since the jobs they had in the city were closed at night and they wanted to train a bit, especially the ones having learned Sword mastery due to their classes.
Since Alexander had chosen to train in a corner, which the magical light of the hall didn’t fully reach, he was mostly in a place darker than the rest of the hall thus hiding his special skin during night.
Alexander managed to raise his Sword mastery to Beginner Lvl. 7:0%. He then finally left the training hall, which had more than served its purpose. About to walk out for the first time in the last two weeks, the Instructor stopped him and told him:
“Good job, Someone.”
“Thank you sir, but what are you congratulating me for?”
Alexander was extremely confused to be stopped by the instructor, who had until now only watched him from the distance and never approached him before.
“You have completed the basic training program, so you have earned the right of a sword, but since you have actually managed to complete the program for both the claymore and the short-sword, you may choose which one you will be awarded with.”
Listening to what the instructor said, Alexander didn’t hesitate to choose the claymore, since otherwise he would only get one short sword even though he dual-wielded them in the training hall.
Taking the Claymore, which was even bigger than the wooden claymore and also a bit heavier, from the instructor, Alexander received the message
You have received a Hard Iron Claymore
Identifying the claymore he received, he saw that he was given a very good sword. It was in fact much better than other swords, which were provided to new adventurers by merchants and blacksmiths.
Hard Iron Claymore
Durability: 65/65, Damage: 18-22
Awarded to those, who completed the basic training program, this claymore is much better than the basic type weapons available in a blacksmith’s workshop.
Equip: +20 STR, - 10 AGI
Limits: STR. 50+, Health: 500+