Kirsti slung her axe over her shoulder as she walked out of the town hall. On her way out, she noticed Callum with his sword out in the middle of the field. She tensed, ready to fight if she needed to, but relaxed when she saw nothing was off.
She was eager to prove to herself that she could fight if it came to it, but there had been no opportunity. It was a sour moment when she had fled the goblins in her apartment building. What were these muscles she had spent so many hours at the gym for worth if she ran at the first sight of danger?
She shrugged. Nothing to do about it now but be ready for the next time. She had all the time in the world now, and it might be worth watching Callum to see if she could learn anything.
He stepped around and corrected his form a few times, and Kirsti was about to head off to go cut some trees when the show began.
Callum started moving with a grace and power she had not seen ever before. The featherweights in her gym had nothing on him. It was beautiful and deadly at the same time.
She watched as his speed slowly ratcheted up. Before long, she could hardly follow each individual movement, and could only see how it all strung together. She dashed back inside to gather whoever she could to come and see this.
Most of the people were still moping around, whining about their homes being gone, but they had to learn to move on. Nothing was permanent. At least, that was how she saw things.
A few people followed her outside. Not as many as she thought deserved to see this.
The crowd watched on for nearly an hour as Callum dodged, stabbed, and blocked. Kirsti loved every second of it. It also made her realize that he could have killed them all had they attacked him for destroying their homes. With that realization, she realized that he was truly just trying to help. Otherwise, why would someone with so much strength have offered that anyway.
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Callum felt his stamina running thin, and figured that was a good point to end his exercise.
[Rapier: Novice 2 → Novice 3]
[Rapier: Novice 3 → Novice 4]
[Rapier: Novice 4 → Novice 5]
He nodded his head as if this was what he expected, and it was. Slowly, he was figuring out how best to practice the sword. He found that pushing himself hard and visualizing what he was trying to accomplish helped a lot. However, he was curious what it would be like in a training ground.
That would have to wait, though. He still had to figure out what the Power Shard was.
With a thought, he dismissed the notifications and turned to see a small crowd watching him. That was odd, as he didn’t think anything he was doing warranted a crowd.
As the crowd dispersed, one person broke off and started walking in his direction. He waved politely, not sure what she might want. It took him a second, but he recognized her as one of the people that had taken one of the axes. He hadn’t asked her name, and now he was thinking that could have been a little rude.
The first thing Callum noticed as she approached was that she was a good bit taller than him, and incredibly muscular. A fact he had inadvertently glossed over when he had given them the axes.
“That was impressive,” she said. “How did you get so good with a sword?”
Callum was a little surprised by the straightforwardness, but took it in stride. “I don’t know how much of it is me, and how much of it is because of all of this is happening.” He shrugged. “I got a skill that helped me to learn to fight with a sword. It did most of the guiding and taught me how.”
“I guess I could learn the same way, I have a weapons skill, but no weapon.”
“What about that axe?” Callum asked. “It’s mostly meant for woodcutting, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for fighting.”
She hefted the axe off her shoulder. “I suppose this could work. I hadn’t thought about it that way.”
“Give it a few test swings. If it works with your skill, then you should feel some instinct on how to swing it.” He took a few steps back. If the axe happened to slip from her hand, he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it.
A look of determination settled over her face, and Callum watched as she took a few swings. Her eyes instantly lit up with understanding. Callum just smiled as he understood what was going on in her mind right now.
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He took a few more steps back as she started to get into a rhythm. It wasn’t anything impressive, but he could tell that it was working for her. He was curious what skill she had. His class had come with the One-Handed Weapons skill, but what would a basic warrior come with?
She only practiced for around fifteen minutes, and when she stopped, Callum spoke up.
“Why’d you stop?”
“I figured you probably had better things to do than watch me swing an axe around wildly. I didn’t want to take up any more of your time, and this has been a great help.”
“I’m probably learning just as much as you. I still don’t know how all of this works, and I wanted to know if you would be able to provide some insights into how all of this works.”
“I suppose that makes sense.” She said, leaning on her axe. “If you don’t mind me asking, do you have the same Weapons skill I have?”
“I don’t know. What weapons skill do you have?”
“Just that, Weapons.”
“That’s all it says?”
“Yeah. Why? What is yours?”
“Well, when I first selected the class, it was One-Handed Weapons, but when I hit Novice ten, it opened the option to specialize into Rapier.” Callum still felt a little unease revealing this, but she seemed trustworthy, and it seemed prudent to help the people in his community.
“That’s actually really helpful, but I am still curious, how do I level up my class?”
“The only way I have been able to is by killing things. In the dungeon that spawned where your apartment building was, and then the wolves that attacked last night.”
“Okay, then its settled. I need to take on a dungeon.” She seemed very confident in her abilities, but Callum knew how dangerous a dungeon could be.
“I would be careful taking on dungeons. The one I took on nearly killed me, multiple times. I’m not going to tell you that you can’t do it, but I would say bring some other people with you. Also, I’m still not completely sure where the other dungeons are.”
“I’ll gather a team then. These people have been moping around long enough. They need to start doing something about our situation.”
Callum was a little shocked at her callousness, but he didn’t disagree. The world had changed and people needed to change with it.
“If you can convince them, then I’m all for it. I have a general idea of where some dungeons are, but it would probably better if I show you. Follow me.”
He was a little worried about if someone else beat a dungeon and claimed it for themselves, it could create another faction or territory that wasn’t owned by him. He planned on taking her to the obelisk and while he was there, it might have some information on what would happen if someone who was a citizen under him claimed a dungeon.
As they walked, he finally got a chance to ask her name.
“I’m sorry, but I haven’t asked your name yet.”
“Don’t worry ‘bout it. I’m Kirsti,” she said, extending a hand.
“Callum,” he said, shaking her hand. “Though I think you already knew that.” Kirsti simply nodded.
In a moment, they approached the obelisk. Callum briefly explained how the territories worked, and how each territory had a dungeon associated with it. He couldn’t pinpoint the location of a dungeon, but he could narrow it down to somewhere near the center of the territory, which was where the initial dungeon had been.
His suggestion was to talk to Ryan to see if he felt ready to take on a dungeon, but it was unlikely. The final warning he made was to wait until he could procure some weapons, which could be as soon as that night. The axes would most likely work, but they weren't made for use in combat.
The conversation with Kirsti had forced him to somewhat change his plans. He wanted to be there for the first time they took on a dungeon. He was grateful someone wanted to grow stronger, but he doubted most people would be so willing to take on a dungeon. As he knew the dangers associated with a dungeon, he wanted to be there, more for safety than anything else.
He needed to grow stronger himself, though, and that meant taking on a dungeon sooner rather than later. Callum recognized that challenging another solo would be dangerous, but the returns in levels and skills had been worth it.
After grabbing a quick lunch, he set off towards the northern edge of his territory, where the trees where. As he walked, he noticed that the trees had been thinned quite a bit. There hadn’t been a lot to begin with, but the efforts of him and the other woodcutters had pushed back the wood line.
About a half a mile into the trees was the line for the next territory. He wasn’t exactly sure, as it was hard to tell from the map without any landmarks, but he had to be getting close.
His first sign was that the trees were more densely packed as he moved. That couldn’t be right, as he was still technically within city limits. As best he could recall, there was no forest within the city.
Another two hundred feet, and a notification answered some of his questions.
[Entering: The Savage Woods]
He had found the dungeon, though this time he hadn’t gone through any door like the first. He drew his sword and observed his surroundings. As he looked around, trying to get his bearings, he noticed that the trees seemed to have transformed.
They were much taller and thicker than the ones he had just been walking through. The canopy stretched high above his head, blotting out most of the light and making it hard to tell what time of day it was.
Pressing further into the forest, he noticed a striking similarity between where he was and the redwood forest. There was some small foliage, but it wasn’t incredibly dense, and he could navigate with ease.
Off in the distance, he spotted what appeared to be a building that was overgrown with vegetation. He trekked towards it, and as he got closer, realized it was a restaurant. The name was unreadable through the vegetation, but the shape was unmistakable. It was his favorite take-out spot.
It was a sad loss, but he hadn’t expected take-out to survive the apocalypse.
He moved on and made it another three hundred feet before a cry for help echoed through the tree. Callum strained his hears, and another cry came out shortly after, and he dashed off in that direction.