[p=center]The Winged Knight[/p]
[p=center]Volume 1 - Chapter 1 - The Blood Knight[/p]
A bright light enveloped me.
Suddenly I found myself floating in an endless darkness. This again? Well, this time it'll hopefully be different.
"The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account?" a female voice resounded from out of nowhere.
Whoa! Where did that come from? She sounds beautiful... I wonder what her name is?
"Yes please, and may I have your name O'Nameless lady?"
The voice was quiet for a while, making me unsure of whether i should have asked her. Until, finally, I got an answer.
"I am the Goddess of Versailles, I do not have a name." the voice almost sounded sad.
She doesn't have a name? That's sad, maybe I should give her one?
"Then may I please have the honor of giving you one?" I asked slightly unsure of how she would react.
Again, the voice was quiet for a while.
"Please do." the goddess sounded slightly excited at the prospect of getting a name which made me relieved that she wasn't upset.
A name worthy of a goddess, hmm... It can't be a name some other god or goddess have in the continent so... I've got it! Let's just hope she likes it.
"Then, from now on you will be known as Orianna, the goddess of Versailles. The name Orianna means sunrise, which i think is very fitting for a goddess." I said in a kind voice.
This time there was a long, thoughtful silence. Until Orianna finally responded with:
"Thank you, I've always wanted a name. And now, I finally have one. Orianna is a beautiful name and I will treasure it." she said in a happy voice which made me smile.
"No problem my lady, a man should always endeavour to please a lady." I said with a happy smile.
"Then, let's continue with the activation process shall we?" she said in a slightly embarrassed voice.
"After you, my lady." I said with a gracious smile.
"Ahem, then... Please select the name of your avatar."
I had given this some thought. I couldn't simply name myself "Marcus" so i decided to choose the name of Aurelius, after the roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus.
"I will take the name of Aurelius." I said in a firm voice.
"Please select your gender from male, female or neutral." she said in an amused voice.
"Do you even need to ask? Well, I suppose you do. Male of course!" I said in a strong tone of voice that made it seem like the face that I would be a man was a fundamental truth of the universe.
"Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine..." I could almost hear her smile.
"Human of course!" again, said like the most obvious thing in the universe.
"You may alter your appearance or stay the way you are." she said in an interested voice.
"Stay the way I am! How could I possibly change this majestic appearance? Think of how all the women in the world would weep bitter tears." I told her in a supremely dignified voice.
This time there was quite a long pause, I could almost imagine her sitting somewhere trying to keep herself from laughing. The thought made me smile.
"Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road, would you like to enter the tutorial?" she said in a voice that could barely hide the laughter hiding inside it.
"No thank you, I will skip the tutorial."
Seriously, how many go through the tutorial? I can barely keep myself from bursting into spontaneous fire due to the excitement of finally being able to play Royal Road.
"Please select a city and kingdom you want to start in." she had finally regained her composure.
"Would my lady please give me a recommendation? By the way, for your information I'm going to be playing as a knight, and I would rather start in a kingdom that is not filled with other knights. I would like a city which has a good and strong knight that can teach me, I am aiming to become the strongest knight in the world after all." I said in a voice of steely determination.
"The Kingdom of Dale is famous for it's bowmen, but in the capital of Jinari there's a famous knight by the name of Katherina. She's also known as "The Blood Knight" which is said to have lost only one duel in her life, and that was against the famous Koldeurim, strongest knight of Kallamore Kingdom." she said, but there was something else in her voice... something hidden.
What is she hiding? I can feel that there is more to know about Katherina... oh, well, I asked for her advice and here it is.
"Alright, I trust you Orianna. Send me to Jinari then and let's hope we can meet again someday." I said seriously.
"Yes, let's meet again someday Aurelius..." A blinding light was again starting to envelop me. "and please forgive me, but you said you wanted to become the strongest." she said with a laughing voice, but Aurelius had already disappeared by then.
[p=center]***[/p]
Suddenly Aurelius found himself standing in a big square, with a fountain behind him.
The stone cobbled street, the shops around the square, the wooden stalls filled with everything from food and spices, to weapons and armors made me really excited to be visiting another world.
Wow... this really looks medieval.
I can smell some meat roasting from a vendor's stall. God, it smells delicious.
I turned, looking around admiring everything from NPC's going about their day, guards standing ready to intervene at any sign of trouble, at Players walking around talking excitedly with each other.
Is this truly a game? It's more like another world. I can feel the wind blowing in my hair, the touch of my skin feels just like it should. But what did i expect? Didn't I already experience virtual reality? Isn't my palace also VR? Yeah it is, stupid of me I guess... But this is so much more. It feels so alive, so real. What's the difference between this and the real world? The only way I can tell them apart is that there are some elves standing here and there with their pointed ears, also I guess if I use the command to bring up the status window I'll really know.
"Status window."
[quart=Character name,Alignment]Aurelius,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
Title
None
Fame
0
[quart=Health,Mana]100,100[/quart]
[quart=Strength,Agility]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Vitality,Charisma]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Wisdom,Intellect]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Luck,Leadership]0,0[/quart]
Attack
2
Defense
0
Magic Resistance
None
Charisma? Is that a starting stat? I don't think so... but in that case where did I get it? Did Orianna give it to me as a gift?
"Stat info; Charisma."
Charisma
[p=left]Increases your attractiveness and makes NPC's and Players more likely to heed your commands, this also stacks with Leadership and Fame, and makes vendors likely to offer a discount if stat is high enough. Also makes it easier to tame pets, and allows one to charm both enemies and allies rendering them unable to oppose you, either by combat or speech.
Stat points distribution is possible, but depending on the character’s actions it can be increased by itself.[/p]
Haha that's great. I'm going to have a lot of fun with that stat. I thought satisfied.
Let's see, I should probably ask one of the guards for the way to the Knight's guild. I could see a bored looking man standing guard on the other side of the fountain, so I quickly made my way over.
"Excuse me my good man, I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of the Knight's Guild?" I said with my most gracious smile.
For a moment he looked startled. I guess not a lot of people try to speak with them, it must be terribly boring standing around all day.
"The Knight's Guild, eh? That old ramshackle place still stands? Well, if it does I guess it should be down this street" he pointed at one of the exits out of the square. "follow it to the intersection, turn right and follow that road till it's end. And I guess if it does still stand, that's the place to find it." he said with an amused smile.
What's with this guy's attitude? He seems to find it amusing that the Knight's Guild still stands. Well I guess this is the Kingdom of the Bow, so maybe knights aren't that respected here?
"Why are you going there anyway? You should avoid it unless you have some business with Katherina, and even then you should probably avoid it. She is not known for her kind and thoughtful nature." he continued with a serious expression.
"I was going there to train, so I could become a great knight. Isn't Katherina famous as "The Blood Knight"? Shouldn't a strong knight like her, be great as a teacher?" I asked in a slightly irritated tone.
Why is he speaking badly about her? Isn't she a great knight?
The guard just looked at me strangely, then he abruptly laughed. He laughed so hard his laughter shook the square, people everywhere were turning to stare at us. I could feel my face going red with humiliation. Is he laughing at me?
I was trying to calm myself, when he finally stopped laughing with tears in his eyes, and looked at me again.
"I'm sorry lad, I wasn't laughing at you, it's just that someone has played a cruel joke on you." he said with a sad smile.
"What do you mean?" I asked, dread apparent in my voice.
"Sure, Katherina is known as "The Blood Knight" but do you know why? You probably assumed it was because she bathed in the blood of her enemies on the battlefield or something like that, didn't you?" I nodded with a perplexed face.
"I thought so. Listen, lad, Katherina is known as "The Blood Knight" because she almost bathes in her trainees blood. She's incredibly hard in her training, and more trainees than I can count has been found sobbing in the street, beaten bloody purple and refusing to ever go back to her. It's true that those that survive her training emerges incredibly strong, but the number of people who has completed it is probably less than the fingers on my hand. And the training itself is probably the closest you could ever come to hell-on-earth." he said in a voice filled with pity for me.
Orianna! How could you do this to me?! Well, I guess I did say I wanted to become the strongest. Anyway, now that I'm here, I'll be stuck in this city for at least a month. And even if I did wait a whole month, I would still have to travel for weeks, probably months until I could reach Kallamore. That, or I would have to delete my character and remake it. But I refuse giving Orianna the satisfaction of seeing me there again, with my tail between my legs admitting defeat. I must complete the hell-training! With newfound determination I again sworeto myself that I would survive this training.
"Alright, I guess hell is waiting on me. Thanks for the information." I said in a surprisingly firm voice as I turned to leave.
"Lad! You're not really going there are you?!" the guard shouted after me.
I turned and said: "I came here to be a knight, and even if this will be hell, what doesn't kill you simply makes you stronger."
At least I hope that saying is true. I thought to myself as I started walking out of the square, while the guard watched me leave.
[p=center]***[/p]
I arrived at the Knight's Guild, and it was just as the guard had told me. It really does look ramshackle.
It was a large building with at least three floors, and it looked like it had a huge backyard as well. The problem was that the house was almost falling apart. You could see some windows where the glass was all cracked, and the paint of the building itself was stripping of in alarming bits. It had clearly once been a white building, but now it simply looked a sort of, dirty gray. The roof looked ready to collapse any moment now. And the whole building looked slightly slanted.
How is this place still standing? I thought with a touch of dread, anybody that lived here has to be bad business. My newfound determination was quickly crumbling in the face of this building.
I shook myself off, and walked determinedly to the front door and opened it. What greeted me was emptiness.
Where is everybody? Shouldn't there be someone here to greet new arrivals? Whatever, I'll try shouting my business.
"Hello?! I'm here for the Knight training!" my voice boomed through the building.
For a while there was only silence, then I started to hear the creaking of floorboards from the second floor. Someone was moving here. This place feels like a haunted house, it fills you with an indescribable dread. I thought shuddering.
Finally a beautiful woman emerged from some stairs on the left side of the room. She was at least 2m(6'6) tall, and had fierce red hair. She had a beautiful and delicate face that looked oddly out of place on someone so big and muscular. Her clothes were too tight. They accentuated her assets but also made it look like the sleeves were about to rip from her muscles being too tightly confined.
"A new student is it?" she asked in a bitter voice. I answered with a nod.
"Welcome to the Knight's Guild, and if you want me to train you, you must do everything I tell you to." the woman I presume is Katherina said with a steely smile.
*TING
Katherinas Knight Training
[p=left]Katherina has offered to train you, so you can become a knight.
Difficulty: Unknown
Quest requirement: Must complete a month of training.[/p]
"I-I'm Aurelius and I would like you to train me, I swear I will do whatever it takes to complete your training." I tried to sound brave, but failed miserably with my stutter in the beginning.
*TING
You have accepted the quest.
"Haha, this is going to be fun," she said with a frightening smile "I'm Katherina, and I haven't had a student since my last one ran away." she said with a hearty laugh.
Keep calm, it can't be that bad, can it? It was. It was worse than that.
"To start with, this training will combine the basic training program with knight training. From here on out, you will always wear this." she gestured to a huge, monster of an armor. It was a full body armor, covering everything in coal black, and looked like it would hurt immensely to wear.
"That's iron!" I blurted out upon the realization.
"That it is my little swan," I looked at her strangely. Swan? "what? You look like a little baby swan, beautiful and innocent, but also immature and frightened." she said with a mocking smile that made me flush with humiliation.
I tried to ignore my humiliation and her nickname for me asked questioningly: "Isn't steel armor the most commonly used?"
"That it is my little swan, but this armor was made to be heavy and hard to move in, so that when you finally get your first steel armor you will really feel the difference. You'll feel like you can fly with it, that's how big a difference it'll make. The iron armor will also make you incredibly strong, though you'll feel like dying being forced to wear it all the time. I won't permit you to take it off until the training is complete, except of course, to sleep."
Well thank god for for small favors!
"If, however, you take it off in any other case, you will immediately get expelled from this Knight's Guild. And I will send out letters to all my colleagues warning them not to train you." she said with a smile.
God, screw my pride. I should have ran away when I first saw this place and her.
She grabbed my arm and half dragged me towards the armor, I tried to struggle against her but it was completely useless. She was so much stronger than me that it was a joke.
Fifteen minutes later I was in the armor panting just from the sheer effort of standing up.
How heavy is this thing?! It's got to weigh at least 60kg(132lbs)!
"Now my little swan, it's time to start the training. Follow me out into the yard." she said turning around and walking deeper inside the house. Well, I've come this far let's just do it.
Five minutes later we were in the yard. Why five minutes you ask? That's because I needed several breaks on my way there. But every time I tried to slow down, the red demon would turn around and look at me contemptuously. My humiliation fueled my strength and I finally made it out into the yard.
I was standing there panting when she interrupted my first moment of rest.
"Well well, the little weakling is tired already? Can't he even handle this little? Is he even worthy to be a swan? Maybe not, maybe from now on he should be my little cockroach." I gave her a furious look but kept my silence.
"That's better, be quiet and just do what I say and we should get along swimmingly." she almost purred.
"Now's the time for the training to begin. You will run around the garden until you collapse. Yes, that's right until you collapse out of exhaustion. And don't think for a moment you can fake it. I'm going to be running alongside you giving you some proper motivational words. And if I think for even a moment, that you're faking it. I will beat you so hard you'll have bruises till next summer." she whispered with an almost loving voice.
And so they started to run.
I thought I knew what exhaustion was, being forced to run for hours continuously at football training. What a joke. I thought derisively. That was warm-up compared to this.
We had been running for thirty minutes now. Thirty minutes of running with that armor, having Katherina right next to me screaming insults. I've seen several messages pop-ups but decided to ignore them, they were too distracting. I barely have the mental fortitude right now to be able to tell where I'm going.
And when I somehow manage to recover enough to actually think using the exhaustion-hazed fog that is my mind. What happens then? Of course it's time for one of the red demon's insults:
"What you're tired already? God you're a pathetic excuse for a man. Are you sure you're a man? Have you actually looked? I'm sure if I checked we'd discover that you're completely smooth down there."
And that was almost tame in comparison to the rest of the insults she'd given me.
[p=center]***[/p]
Three hours later.
Where am I? What am I doing? I can barely see anymore. The sweat had drenched my eyes and everything i saw was hazy and indistinguishable.
And now my mind finally decided to shut itself down to prevent damage.
Ah, the darkness descends, how grateful I am to you. I thought before fainting.
The little swan hit the ground with a loud crash, and Katherina watched.
Three and a half hours? The boy did good. My previous student's record was only two hours after all. I might be able to make something out of this one. she thought with a surprisingly kind smile.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
[p=center]***[/p]
Five hours later I woke to find myself on the floor inside the guild. God, I didn't know pain like this existed! My whole body ached from overuse of it's muscles, and it didn't help that i'd been sleeping wearing an extremely uncomfortable iron armor on the floor.
I used all the strength I had and was finally able to sit up. It took an humiliatingly long time. I'm just glad the red demon didn't see me struggling to even be able to sit! After some more time i finally managed to stand up. To find the red demon watching me with a huge smile.
"So, the little swan has finally woken up? Any more time and I would gladly have started beating on the armor with an iron rod." she said with a sweet smile.
"I'm ready for whatever training you have in store for me." I said with a smile that contained huge amounts of bravado. She answered with a delighted laugh.
"I'm sure you are, now It's time for some more running." my smile vanished, and when she saw that she gave me a bright smile.
"Now let's go!" I dejectedly followed her back into the yard that had become my hell.
Five hours of running later I collapsed again.
[p=center]***[/p]
This time when I awoke I had been sleeping for three hours. I apparently awoke because I was about to die from satiety dropping too low.
I asked her during our run how I had not died from lack of satiety during the night. She answered me with: "Because i force-fed your worthless face while you slept. Forcing a special porridge of mine packed with herbs and medicine to allow you to run more, and sleep less." she said while laughing hysterically.
I guess I never noticed the remaining porridge sticking to my face since I've not really been allowed to look myself in a mirror. But I'm sure my face looks horrible after I remove the helmet.
I got up and decided to look for the kitchen. I'd eat anything right now, I don't think I've been this hungry in my entire life.
I finally found the dining room, and inside it was, of course, Katherina.
"Good morning." she said with a small smile. Huh? That smile looks almost normal, no it can't be! She must be trying to trick me with it! I thought resentfully.
"Good morning, is there anything I can eat for breakfast? My satiety is so low I'm about to die any minute now." I said in a truly exhausted voice.
"Sure, come and sit down. I'll bring you some of my special porridge." she said while rising and walking into the kitchen.
I was honestly too tired right now to mistrust her, so I just sat down and waited while my satiety bar started to flash red faster and faster. Death will be a nice break from this. But, alas, she returned with a huge bowl of porridge. It isn't really a bowl, it's more like a pot of porridge.
The moment she put it down in front of me I threw myself at it as if it was an enemy I had to conquer.
This is surprisingly good! I shot a look full of gratitude at Katherina who had sat down opposite from me watching as I devoured the porridge with a small smile.
"This is delicious! Feels like the best thing I've ever eaten." I said with a huge smile that contained a great deal of porridge stuck to my face.
Oh my, the little swan even looks handsome with porridge stuck all-over his face. I really want him to complete the training, he could become something. He has the will and the looks for that class. she thought with a smile.
"Alright, today we'll start some weapon training. Do you have some weapons in mind that you want to use? The most important thing for any melee warrior is to choose a weapon he is truly comfortable with. Don't just obey me and take what I want you to take, you have to choose the weapon you'll truly love." she said with a serious expression.
"I thought about it a lot before I came here, and during the run. I almost want to use the standard, a sword and shield as main weapons, and a spear as secondary and for on horseback. It fits me the best, and just so you know, I want to become the greatest knight in the world." I said with complete seriousness.
Sword is a good weapon, easy to learn but hard to master. And spear eh, that's good. I've always thought using a lance was pretty much useless, since it's almost always a one-time use only. And spear can be used on the ground as well. And greatest knight in the world? Ha! The kid's not lacking ambition that's for sure. she thought highly amused.
"Yes, that sounds good. There's a reason why sword and shield are the most used for knights. Spear is used by many, but not all. It's a good weapon and will serve you well if you have the patience and skill to master it." she answered me seriously.
She doesn't look like she minded my choice of weaponry, that's great. I was afraid she was going to force me to use some strange weapons. I thought relieved.
"You're finished with the breakfast now right? Let's go outside and start our practice." she said walking for the door. I obediently followed her though my muscles still screamed in protest at the prospect of more training.
Huh, even though I'm completely exhausted I can still walk a lot easier than I did yesterday. I wonder what my stats are right now? No, forget about that for now. I will only focus on training.
We arrived in the yard and I could see that she had prepared some wooden weapons, some shields, a lot of different swords and spears.
She turned towards me and said with a serious face:
"From now on, after breakfast we will run for three hours. Then take a break for one hour, then spar with sword and shield for three hours. After that we'll eat dinner. When dinner is finished we will run two more hours, and after that we'll finally spar for two hours before going to bed."
"This is what your schedule will be like here. You will be exhausted, you'll think your body will break, and it might. But what will also happen is that you will notice that everyday will become easier. Your stamina, strength and agility will increase at an incredibly fast rate."
"The sparring however, will only become harder. I know some people like to make their trainees hit scarecrows or something like that, but to me that's useless. What I want you to develop is a flowing combat style. Ever-changing like water. Other schools or teachers teach different styles for different situations, an example is one for attacking and one for defending. Then there's all sorts of styles for different weapons etc." she said sounding like she found that school of thought ridiculous.
"I will only teach you one style. The Flowing Water Style. It's a style that can use any weapon, and is built upon always changing depending on the enemy and how it moves. For a fast enemy that can quickly evade, it focuses on attacking at just the right moment when the enemy can't evade. For a strong and slow enemy it focuses on death by a thousand cuts. Basically, trying to hit vital points of the enemy while dodging or blocking." she finished in a voice filled with pride for her combat-style.
Wow, she sounds like she really knows her stuff. This is after all what I came here for. I thought admiringly.
"That sounds great Kat, can I call you Kat? And I know I'll probably die of exhaustion and curse your name but know that at least at this moment, I am truly grateful for your training." I said sincerely.
She looked surprised, and maybe even happy. No, that can't be right? I'm deluding myself.
"Alright my little swan, you can call me Kat. Just don't let it stray into impudence or I'll smash your face." she said with a vicious smile.
Yes, definitely deluding myself.
[p=center]***[/p]
Five hours later with three of those being running. We had now been sparring for an hour, and I've already forgotten my thankfulness.
Oh how I must look under this godforsaken armor, my skin has probably become permanently purple thanks to all the bruises. I thought resentfully.
"No no no! Goddammit listen to me, you must stand with your balance completely centered and relax yourself. Try to let your shield be kept up with as little muscle as possible. Keep your sword pointed loosely downwards ready for anything. And you must always be ready to move in any direction!" she snarled at me.
"Yes Kat, I'll try again." I relaxed as much as wearing a 60kg(132lbs) armor allowed, tried to center myself so I could move fast in any direction that was required.
I can do this, I have to do this. I will succeed. I thought with unyielding determination.
"Yes that's better, now try dodging or blocking my attack." she said a second before attacking.
She attacked fast as lightning, it's hard for me to even see her move because she's so fast. But because of all the bruises I've taken thus far, my body seems to respond by itself when it senses danger. This time I actually did pretty decent, I managed to barely dodge her thrust. And try to respond with a shield bash after which I was planning to slice at her with my wooden sword.
Except it didn't really work out that way.
She looked mildly surprised by my dodge, but swiftly recovered and when I came forward for my shield bash she easily dodged to the left and brought down a hard blow on my shoulder which made me grunt in pain and go down on one knee.
*TING
Skill: You have learned The Flowing Water Style
"Kat, I've finally learned the skill! Let me check it out, Skill info: The Flowing Water Style!" I said excitedly after finally getting the skill after over one and a half hours of merciless "training".
The Flowing Water Style: Beginner Level 1 (0%)
[p=left]A combat style heavily focused on an ever-changing pattern of attack and defense. Making it very hard for the enemy to know what will happen next.[/p]
"That's great my little swan," something in her voice made me immediately look at her. "because now we can finally start the real training." she said with a gleeful smile.
Oh god, I refuse to believe that this was just her doing it leisurely! I thought in despair.
[p=center]***[/p]
One and a half hour later my Flowing Water Style managed to hit beginner level two under her merciless tutelage.
We finally finished and went inside into the dining room, I sat down with a loud thunk and almost fell asleep right there. Fortunately Kat arrived with another batch of wonderful porridge before I could fall asleep. The porridge made my mouth water just thinking about it.
I immediately wolfed down the porridge and leaned back against wall with a sigh of pleasure. (I was sitting on a sturdy bench that was mounted directly into the wall, I was unsure otherwise if it would have held me.)
"Your porridge is truly the greatest Kat. I know we've only been training for two days but I feel deep down in my heart that I'll never tire of your porridge. You have to be careful, if you keep making this for me I might just end up coming back often for some of your lovely porridge." I said in a satisfied voice.
She looked happy from the praise, almost like normal person. She looks very cute when she's like this, but I won't let it trick me. Whenever we enter training mode she changes completely.
*TING
Charisma has increased by 1
Whoa, this is how I raise Charisma?
"Yes well, if you manage to finish the training you can come back anytime for a visit." she said in a tone I'd never heard before. She sounded almost, shy? Shy, her? Now I must be imagining things.
"Yes, i will certainly come back after I've finished and tell you about some of my exploits. Perhaps then I might be allowed to stay in your bedchamber instead?" I said with my most gracious smile. It probably looked pretty flawed with me still having porridge on my face, and several nasty bruises developing.
For just a split second I could see something that looked suspiciously like a fist. Then felt a roaring pain and realized I was on the floor. That was pretty stupid of me. I thought trough the haze of pain. I looked over at Kat and she seemed torn between anger and amusement.
*TING
Charisma has increased by 1
Haha, I guess it did work, it's just that her reaction was kind of violent. Well if I gained a stat for it, then the pain was worth it. But I shouldn't overdo it.
I slowly got up, and when I was finally up she looked like she had calmed down some.
"I'm off to bed, thank you for the food. And see you tomorrow for some more fun." I said with a smile before leaving the room. Just before I exited I heard a "Good night Aurelius."
[p=center]***[/p]
It's been sixteen days since I started now.
My parents messaged me, they'd been worried about me. At least Allie had explained to them that I was in the middle of training, and so they logged on to Royal Road instead so they could message me. (Allie helped them add Aurelius to their friends list without having to manually search through all the players named Aurelius.)
It was nice to get an update from them, I had honestly been too exhausted to even realize how much I was missing them. They had spoken with all the relatives and friends. Told them that I was still in an artificial coma, but if anyone wanted to see me they could log onto Royal Road and find me, or they could borrow my parents special capsules so they could enter my Palace when I was there.
(Their special capsules allowed them to enter the Palace, but since it was supposed to be his home, the research team had made it non-accessible if he's not already there or had given them permission beforehand.)
And Kat had been right, the running was definitely getting easier. But it's still all relative, I mean how much easier can running five hours a day in a 60kg(132lbs) armor get? The answer is not all that much easier. I'm still completely exhausted and almost always collapse like a dying man at the end of the day.
My Flowing Water Style however has leveled up a lot. From that day when I first received the skill, it's now reached Beginner level 7 and I managed to get the sword mastery skill, which has reached beginner level 5.
The sparring has definitely gotten harder. Even though I've reached Beginner level 7 i still have almost 0% chance of getting a hit/dodging one of hers. It's become quite clear over these two weeks that her Flowing Water Style has to be incredibly high. Advanced? Maybe even master? I'm not sure but she's incredibly strong. Her choice of sparring method is as follows:
1. She fights me on a level where I can see her movements, but that doesn't necessarily mean I can dodge them.
2. When she sees that I'm almost able to dodge and counter-attack her, she raises her level of skill.
3. She hurts me until I can manage to see her movements again and then she starts the whole cycle all over again.
Which basically guarantees a lot of pain for me. And it is true, the training so far has been hell. And I can see why most of her trainees didn't last and ran away. But she really isn't all that bad. She's vicious as hell when she's in training mode, but actually kind of cute outside of it. She lashes out a lot of the time, especially if you're trying to flirt with her then you have to expect a punch, kick or flying object striking you. But other than that she's pretty nice.
(Though most people would probably qualify that as pretty bad.)
We were now standing in the yard, preparing to start sparring. We had just finished our customary one hour break after the three hour morning run.
"Aurelius, It's finally time to start some spear-training. You've come a long way since you started. And I can honestly say that you're the best student I've ever had. Don't let that get to your head though, there's still much left." Kat said with serious and slightly proud expression.
Is she proud over me? I hope so, makes my heart all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.
"Kat, before we started I'd heard that your training was hell, and that many of your students had ran away. I have to admit that freaked me out, but now that we've gotten this far I want to tell you that I've never had a better combat teacher then you. And even if you would extend my training for another month I would gladly accept it." I said with quiet sincerity. And, I had been startled when I realized that it was actually true.
Even if she did extend my training for another month, my stats and skills increase lightning-fast and I enjoy her company.
She looked highly pleased and more than a little embarrassed by my comment.
*TING
Charisma has increased by 1
"So we'll start my spear-training now? I'm looking forward to it. And I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but how am I going to be able to practice using it on a horse without a horse?" I asked with a curious expression.
"You can't. For practicing with the spear on horseback you obviously need a horse. Since you don't own one, and the only one I have is my partner Marengo. I was thinking of making you practice on her, except that could be a problem. She's not exactly... kind to strangers. In fact it's always seemed to me that I'm basically the only human being she likes." she said with an amused smile.
"But if that's the case, how am I going to practice?" I asked with some trepidation.
"You're going to have to try and make friends with her. And if you can't succeed then I guess I'm just going to have to tie you onto her and make you try to hold on for as long as you can, and then maybe if you can manage to hold on till she capitulates, she might allow you to ride her. Though I wouldn't count on that method working... It never has before anyway." she said with a big smile.
[p=center]***[/p]
Meanwhile in the Unicorn Corp medical research facility, Dr. Allison was watching the screen showing Marcus playing Royal Road.
Is he crazy? And what's with this quest? The person who created it has to be a sadist, or did someone create it? No, I suppose the goddess of Versailles created it. Though her name is Orianna now. she thought amused.
He's certainly unique. Giving a name to the goddess AI that controls the game. she thought fondly.
I wonder what he'll do next? But I guess he has to survive this "training" first.
"Seriously, how is he still doing this?" she heard a deep voice from behind her turning around she saw Dr. Matthew Johnson standing watching the screen.
Dr. Matthew was a short, but muscular man. He seemed to be built more for width than height. He has to be only around 1,65m(5'4), but weigh at least 95kg(209lbs) and I don't think any of it's fat. she had often thought that he seemed to have made it his life's mission to disprove the stereotype of a skinny nonathletic scientist. But for all of his looks, he had an extremely sharp mind, which was why she had handpicked him for her team.
"I mean, I've gone through some harsh training" which she could definitely believe. "but what he's doing is absurd. I know it's only a game, but it feels completely real. He's gotta be hovering on the edge of a breakdown!" he said angrily.
So Marcus managed to charm him too, huh. Even though we only talked with him for a couple of hours, he still managed to make a big enough impression to make us all care for him. she thought perplexed as to how that happened.
"I agree, but at the same time I'm very curious what stats and reward he'll get at the end." she said with in a curious tone.
"Yeah me too. It's gotta be something special right? At the very least he'll have some incredible stats at the end of this. But he's got some incredible willpower to keep doing the training while wearing that block of iron Katherina calls an armor." he said in a slightly admiring tone of voice.
"Indeed. It's strange, I barely talked with him for a day and I still miss him. He's got some charisma." she said with a serious face.
"Yeah, I agree. I didn't even talk to him directly, didn't introduce myself."
You know why we did that though, to let him take it a bit easy in the beginning. We certainly didn't expect him to stay in the game for two weeks in a row! she thought.
"But I feel like I want to get to know him. I guess that's what you call charisma." he said with a slightly bemused expression.
"Yes I suppose it is. I wonder how he'll do with the horse-riding? And just imagining the pain of being thrown of a horse in that armor makes me shudder." she said while shuddering exaggeratedly.
"Haha true, I guess we'll just have to wait and see." he said looking back at the screen.
[p=center]***[/p]
"So, are you ready then?" Katherina asked with a big smile.
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