Swordplay (Part 2)

Many of the adventurers kept rooms permanently in the inn, most of them pitched tents or built crude shelters down in the camp, but the wealthiest or earliest to arrive in Irondale had claimed or purchased actual buildings.

The Seekers were one such group, and in a small shop that in years prior a vintner had occupied they had made their headquarters.

Idris had always wanted to see what it was like inside but asking Conrad felt a bit like asking your boss for a tour of his house, so he had never had the chance.

The building was two floors, with the first set up comfortably as a living and dining area and with four small rooms partitioning the second.

“I expect for now you won’t be able to move in here until we’ve reclaimed some of the space in the common area,” Troy said, “But your house isn’t so far off so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“We’re training here?” Idris said, skeptical. The furniture and overall comfortable appearance of the room didn’t seem well suited to the task.

“Nah, I just need to grab something. Then it’s off to the cellar.”

He moved over to a large, out of place cage made of heavy steel bars and stepped up to a blank plate on the front. His hand flashed with magic as he placed it on the plate and then the door swung up.

Inside were a number of chests, the results of successfully raiding the dungeon for nearly two years Idris guessed. Troy selected a chest and pulled a key from inside his jerkin, then opened it.

Inside, rather than piles of jewels and gold, Idris saw books. Troy grabbed a handle, lifted, and out from the chest a whole shelf of books extended, revealing dozens of tomes with shining and even, at times, glowing calligraphic text along the spines.

Troy looked them over, selected a book with a red tinged leather cover, then collapsed the shelf and locked the chest.

“What is all that?” Idris asked.

“Training manuals,” Troy said and motioned Idris to follow him into the back of the common area.

“I’m going to be reading?” Idris asked, disappointed.

“Not exactly,” Troy said. He pulled open a trap door in the back corner and started down a steep staircase into the cellar, “Mind your head.”

Down in the cellar Troy tapped on a darkened lamp against the wall. It lit suddenly with a magical soft orange glow, closer in quality to Radiance than to fire light. Each lamp had a small jewel set into it, about the size of the charoite he had given to his sister.

Mana imbuing stones used entirely to light a room? To somebody who had only ever possessed a single mana stone, the amount of wealth and power here in this room was beyond extravagant. It felt wasteful.

Troy seemed not to notice as he just moved casually around the room and illuminated the rest of the space.

What furniture there was - a couple of benches, a table, and a weapon rack stocked with what looked like training weapons - had all been pushed to the edges of the space to make room for an open training mat of a type and quality Idris had never seen sold in Irondale.

The space was large, larger even than the floor above. The natural coolness of the below ground space seemed like it would be a lot more comfortable to exercise and train in than out in the heat of summer above.

Looking closer at the mat Idris noticed it had dark stains here and there, giving the impression of having been well used but not dirty.

Idris just couldn’t help himself, “Couldn’t you use these stones to boost your mana pool instead of, you know, lights?”

“Huh?” Troy said, “Why?”

“Why?” Idris asked, incredulous, “So that you can use more spells?”

“I’m a Duelist. Spec’ing to be a Blade Master,” He said, as if no further explanation was needed.

Idris gestured around the room, “But with these stones, you could have as much mana as you need for any spells or magical class you wanted.”

“I don’t have a single ability that taps out my mana pool,” Troy said, “What’s more, I don’t intend to get one.”

“OK,” Idris said, “Why not though?”

Troy sighed, “‘Cause Order is rules, Idris, and rules mean limits.”

Seeing that Idris wasn’t taking his meaning, Troy continued, “You’re looking at your Warrior class with its 100 to 200 XP skills and abilities thinking it will always be that way. But it isn’t. More power requires more resources. The XP you gain for taking out some monster buys you less and less as you grow.

“XP cost isn’t the only limit. Mana stores limit use of magic and natural mana growth is small - most spells don’t even boost it when you invest in them. So you say to yourself, just carry around a backpack fulla mana stones, easy peasy, problem solved. And you look at nobody else doing it thinking you must be the only one who ever thought to try. But when you do, you learn there’s limits there too. Basic stones like these can only provide so much before they cap out - diminishing returns.

“But mana stones are also rare and expensive, so you spend all your money acquiring ‘em before you figure this out. And while you’re at it all your XP on a fancy magic class but to advance there’s a spell you gotta learn that needs mana or stones that a hundred charoite can’t provide.

“And you might be able to afford it someday! If only you spent all that XP on a class that could actually earn you some wealth.”

“Starting to sound like my father,” Idris said, scowling.

“Starting to sound like why you picked up that Warrior class?” Troy said.

“I guess a bit,” said Idris.

“Right,” Troy said, “Since you haven’t decided to go all in on that Light Mage class, if you want to know more about why changing your mind on that would be a bad idea,” he pointed at the ceiling, “you can read a book.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“You’re going to have me reading books anyway,” Idris said, giving a small smile.

“Not exactly, have a seat,” Troy gestured to a bench.

Idris sat down and took the red leather bound book Troy offered him. The cover said Strike - Move - Defend : Basic. Idris cast Identify to see if he could learn anything new. Two prompts appeared, one in front of the other:

Proficiency Level Up

Skill: Identify 2/5

Description: At level two, Identify costs 2 fewer mana for a total of 3 and reveals more information about items of Uncommon Rarity and below. Items of Rare rarity now reveal basic information.

Reward: 5XP

Skill Book

Type: Consumable / Uncommon

Charges: 1/3

Description: The first book in the Strike - Move - Defend series. These magical tomes impart understanding to the user that would otherwise take weeks or months of training to achieve. This skill book is prized among learners as it gives general ability applicable to a wide range of weapons.

“What Identify might not tell you is what I’m going to help you with,” Troy said, “After you use the book, you’ll have the knowledge it provides, but using it is going to feel unnatural. You’ll know what you’re doing is right but it will feel wrong. Today is about breaking you out of that feeling.”

“How do we do that?” Idris asked.

“Start by reading that book,” Troy replied.

Not sure how Troy intended him to read an entire book while standing watching him, Idris went ahead and opened it.

Surprisingly, he couldn’t understand any of the words on the first page. He flipped to the second and saw a drawing of a man holding a sword and swinging downward much the same way as Conrad had shown Idris just the other day. But he couldn’t understand any of the text.

He was about to tell Troy when the book began to glow and the pages started flicking by rapidly. Idris found he couldn’t move. He was literally spellbound by the book, staring as his mind filled with images of men swinging swords that transformed into hammers and, before he really grasped what was happening, the entire book vanished in a spray of sparks.

He looked up to see Troy had returned from picking up a training sword and a large, padded two handed mace off the rack.

“This should be a decent stand in for your hammer,” Troy said, handing him the mace.

“The book!” Idris said, not sure what to say about it having disintegrated in his hands.

“No worries. That was the final charge on that one. And we have others,” he said, “The cost of it will be added to your debt to the Band, though.”

“Debt?” Idris said.

Troy nodded. Apparently he wasn’t joking.

“Don’t think on it too much, you’ll be able to pay it back soon enough,” he said.

“But how much do I owe?” Idris asked, suddenly worried. He had never handled more than a few silvers, and in a town like Irondale pretty much anything could be bought for a handful of coppers.

Troy waved his hand casually, “Coupla gold. You’ll be fine.”

Idris began to lose himself to the thought of so much money. At one hundred coppers per silver, and one hundred silvers per gold… and it cost a couple gold? He had just consumed a magical artifact that was worth more money than he had ever handled.

He quickly returned to reality when Troy swung the training sword at his head.

He flinched, but did nothing. The blade stopped just before it hit him in cheek. Troy poked him and said, “You’re dead. What should you have done?”

And to Idris’ surprise, he knew the answer, “Slip outside the angle of attack.”

“Good. Now work through strike series one,” Troy commanded.

Part of Idris’ mind wanted to say he didn’t know what strike series one was, but then the knowledge of it popped in. Idris set his stance and began moving. It was awkward at first and Troy nudged his form here and there, but after a few minutes it began to feel natural - as if he had been practicing the form for weeks.

It continued like that for the next several hours. Troy would call out some form or movement, Idris would comply awkwardly, but soon after would be feeling completely at home in the motions. What was more, as the forms grew more natural his mind was freed to think of things other than getting the motions correct.

He thought over his fights with the forest imps and realized how sloppy it all had been. He saw a hundred places he could have gotten quicker kills with less energy, fewer strikes, less injury to himself and Eana.

They broke for lunch once Idris got through the awkwardness of the initial movements and forms, and when they returned Troy took up a fighting stance with a sword.

They began to spar, slowly at first, and gradually picked up the pace. Troy seemed to know exactly how much speed to apply, how much force and pressure to keep the sense that Idris knew what he was doing just slightly out of his reach.

And when he got it, he would change weapons and force Idris to apply what he had learned against a different type of threat.

And when Idris got that? He made Idris swap out the heavy training mace for a sword.

They worked that way until late afternoon, only taking short breaks for water, and Idris found that he was actually quite tired. The satisfaction he got from learning so much in so short a time, though? It eclipsed any good day he had in the mine.

He felt certain that he was on the right path. This was his calling.

“Beginning to feel dangerous yet?” Troy asked good naturedly as they put up their training weapons.

Idris laughed. Over the previous day he had begun to feel a kinship with Troy along with a growing sense of respect.

“Feel like I could take on the dungeon myself,” Idris said.

“Good! Enjoy it!” Troy said, “Because tomorrow is going to be a lot less fun.”

“What’s the plan?” Idris asked, certain he could handle whatever they threw at him.

“Let’s just say tomorrow is about humbling that newly minted sense of… efficacy,” Troy said, “You can meet Karno here.”

Idris thanked Troy profusely and checked his quest log:

Quest

The Shimmering Rocks Dungeon

The dungeon will open soon. Be among the first to explore its depths and discover what paths to mystery, to treasure, to glory - or to death - await!

Time until opening: 1 hour, 35 minutes, 01 second

He agreed to be there tomorrow morning and waved goodbye to Troy. Still time to grab something to eat and drag Eana out.

They wouldn’t be getting much sleep tonight.