Ryan shut the door and sat down in a chair he had brought from his own house. Callum took a seat opposite him, and Ryan drew a breath as he prepared his words.
“So, I said our conversation wasn’t done, and it wasn’t. There’s just so much to process and nothing makes sense any more. Why is all of this happening? Why can buildings just appear from wood that we cut down? Are we safe?”
Callum realized that all of these were rhetorical, but the safety one was a small stab to his ego, warranted as it might be.
“I can’t answer your first two, but as far as safety goes, I want people to feel safe here. I know that’s hard to do with the apocalyptic messaging, and monsters that most of these people have seen. I think we aren’t going to feel safe for a while yet. There’s too many dangerous things out there, and we have so few resources.”
“Then what’s your plan? How do we get to a point of safety?”
“For starters, more people need to get comfortable with fighting. Clearing a dungeon would probably be helpful, but there’s these training grounds that I want to build. I think it will help people to have somewhere to train.”
“When were you going to tell me this?” Ryan jumped to his feet throwing the chair backward. Callum couldn’t tell from anger or excitement. “Why haven’t you built it yet? Is it resources? What do we need?” From the pitch of his voice, it sounded to be a little of both.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I haven’t exactly been the most honest with all of the town related information. As far as why I haven’t built it yet, it’s mainly been because of resources. First, I needed something called a Power Shard, and then after that I needed a lot of wood. Most of which was used for building the houses.”
Ryan righted the chair and sat back down, but was now leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees. “Okay, that makes sense. Why did you build the houses first? And more than we needed for that matter. What does the Power Shard do? How did you get it?”
“The houses came first because I wanted somewhere for people to sleep and since I was at it, I wanted to make sure that we had enough houses for everyone. The extra houses were to prove that we value people that work hard, though I might have shot myself in the foot a little with who I gave them to.” Callum’s eyes glanced up as he recalled the series of questions Ryan had asked. “As far as what the Power Shard does, it gives you five free attribute points and I got it from the dungeon that’s now the forest.” Callum
“Okay. Last question, do we have enough resources to build the training grounds now?”
“Yes, we do.” Callum had been planning to build it before Ryan had pulled him aside.
Ryan hopped up again, with less chair clattering this time. “Then let’s go.”
Callum nodded his agreement and led Ryan towards the obelisk. Ryan likely had more questions, but Callum had things he wished to get done. The questions were understandable as it was many things that Callum had already asked himself, except now he had some answers.
He flipped through the town menus with ease, as he had quite a bit of experience navigating them at this point. He purchased the training grounds and that’s when he realized that his method of city planning was a bit off. The training grounds didn’t fit in with his predetermined locations. He had sectioned off east for recreation but realized that didn’t make any sense.
They were not at a point where recreation mattered, and he had accidentally slipped into thinking he was playing a game. He was not. With that, he determined that the east would be for training and combat-related things. Maybe barracks if, at some point, he had a standing army. That was an unlikely thing, though.
With his new method for planning in place, he selected a location roughly fifty feet away. The construction started with wooden logs creating walls outlining the space the training grounds would occupy. The walls reached roughly four feet high before the interior began taking shape. A few smaller sections were demarcated by simple wooden fences, and training dummies were constructed. Weapon racks appeared with wooden facsimiles of various weapons filling them.
Callum grinned in satisfaction. This would certainly be a great boon to helping people defend themselves, and maybe with a little training, they would certainly survive going through a dungeon.
“Oh, wow,” was all Ryan could muster after seeing the training yard.
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“Wow indeed. This is going to be great.” The melee training grounds lived up to its name. He was a bit disappointed that he only had enough resources to cover one of the four basic training grounds, but it would have to do for now. If people were able to clear dungeons then there was the possibility of more Power Shards, and finishing the set.
He checked back on the menu in the obelisk and saw that the training grounds had a level associated with it and that it could be upgraded, but the upgrade was locked behind the next upgrade for the town. He also noticed something that he had missed in his initial survey which was that the bonus to skill proficiency progress was only applicable to Novice ranked skills. It unfortunately wouldn’t do him much good, but it would be great for those who wanted to learn the skills.
Now that he had seen the training grounds, he decided to deviate his plans for the day a little. He turned around to see if anyone was in the town hall and found that several people were staring at the new addition.
“Anyone here choose the warrior class?” he asked. A few people raised their hands, but most went back to whatever they were doing. “Alright. Follow me, then.” The four people who had responded sheepishly followed.
“Hey, wait for me,” Kirsti yelled. Callum turned and she seemed to be panting a little from running.
“We’re not going far, just to the new training grounds.”
She joined up with them as they made their way over to the training grounds. Most of the people stood at the entrance, not sure what to do. However, Kirsti, and another man who looked to be roughly Callum’s age, were looking through all of the weapon racks, testing out each weapon to see how it felt. The weapons were wooden, so they didn’t give a huge sense of weight, but it was a step in the right direction.
“You should do the same. Look through the weapons and see if there is one that feels right for you.” He addressed the people still standing at the entrance.
They nodded and stepped over to the weapons racks, but were much less enthusiastic about selecting a weapon. Callum waited as they all selected weapons. Unsurprisingly, Kirsti was the first to select a weapon. She had gone for a simple one-handed axe and had even picked up a wooden shield.
“It’s what I’ve gotten used to,” she said, preempting his question.
Callum nodded. “How about a friendly spar then?” He was a bit eager to show people what he could do, but Kirsti’s response was not unexpected.
“Oh no. Not after what I’ve seen,” she said with a laugh.
“I’ll take you on,” said the man who had been eager to select a weapon. “But you have to pick a wooden sword as well. I’m not fighting where I’m at the risk of getting stabbed.” Callum noticed he had selected a two-handed great sword.
“Of course. I wouldn’t do it wooden sword versus metal sword.” Callum strolled over to the weapon racks and picked up a few swords until he found something that would work with his skill.
“What’s the win condition?” he asked. “How do I know I’ve beaten you?”
“Let’s say three hits. Everyone not participating can judge. How does that sound?”
“Works for me.”
They made their way over to a section made for sparring. It did not provide a lot of room, but fifteen by fifteen feet would be enough for now. Callum settled into a relaxed stance, a wooden sword held out in front of him. The man across from him was holding his sword in an idle stance he had most likely picked up from a game.
“Ready?” Kirsty asked, glancing at each of them for confirmation. “Begin.”
The man immediately rushed Callum, but it was like he was in slow motion. Callum easily side-stepped the downward chop and easily landed a jab to the side. Not enough to hurt, but enough for him to know he had been hit.
That seemed only to make him mad, as the man swung wildly at Callum’s head. Callum easily deflected the blow and took the opportunity to land a second tap while he was off-balance. Not wanting to end the fight too quickly, he gave the man the opportunity to throw a series of attacks, nimbly dodging or deflecting each one. When the man seemed to be running out of stamina, Callum ended the fight with a final tap.
“Callum wins,” Kirsti declared.
The man stared angrily at Callum for a moment before his eyes unfocused, reading some notification, Callum assumed.
“My Weapons Skill leveled up,” he said, half as a question, half as a statement.
“Really?” Callum asked. “It took me much longer to get my first level in a weapons skill. That must be the benefit of the training ground. It’s supposed to help with levelling melee focused skills.”
The questions then came rapid-fire from everyone gathered there. He did his best to explain what he knew about how skill ranks worked and what specialization did, without revealing too much of what he knew. The man, Mike as he introduced himself, seemed to overcome the initial anger of being bested so easily. The fight was most likely an outlet for him to get rid of some hard feelings he still had about the loss of his apartment, but Callum thought there was more to it. He would ask later when there wasn’t anyone else around.
The next hour was spent with everyone familiarizing themselves with their weapons, and Callum providing pointers here and there. Only one person had chosen a one-handed weapon that he could provide any insight for. It seemed the knowledge was still there from when he had the One-Handed Weapons skill, but his understanding stopped at the adept level.
It turned into a very productive first lesson with everyone reaching at least Novice 3 in their Weapons skill. He hoped that the word would spread and more people would come to use the area to train. Then, at least, he could feel good about sending them off into a dungeon or going himself. They could at least rely on their own skills, and he wouldn’t be the sole protector.
He leaned back against the low wall of the training grounds to watch another group practice when he spotted something coming from the south. He squinted his eyes and could make out the figures of close to thirty people walking towards the town.