David kept his hands close to his face, his shoulders hunched and his chin tucked. He stepped forward with his left foot and launched a left jab and then a right cross, followed by a right kick that lashed out at Temir’s lead leg, hitting him hard in the upper thigh and deadening the nerves that allowed him to stand properly.

Before he came to Ezuno, David had never been in a fight. Why would he? He had put in a lot of effort to make sure no one ever had any reason to interact with him in any way. He handled almost all of his communications through email or carefully planned phone calls.

That’s why he marveled at his own ability as he smoothly ducked underneath Temir’s right hook, leaning his body back quickly to avoid the follow up left uppercut to his chin. This was only their third sparring session, but already David thought he might have figured out Temir’s style. The quiet and seemingly peaceful man was like a puzzle with only a few pieces, or a simple program that only needed a few lines of code to run well.

Without his Hand-to-Hand Combat skill reaching level 1 he never would have stood a chance at Temir and Cassandra, but now he could fight on relatively even terms with both of them. The difference in stat points was still there, but he was slowly learning how to use his heightened agility and dexterity to his advantage.

The skill didn’t cover everything, and the other students still had months of learning little tricks, small tidbits of knowledge that could prove telling in a fight, knowledge that he didn’t have.

He knew that.

Still, he was surprised at his own willingness to spar with the others. He had found that instead of hating it, instead of feeling muted disgust from the physical contact, he enjoyed it. He still couldn’t spar with Rolland, who had the skill at level 2 and seemed to still feel some kind of dislike for David, resulting in him being injured ‘accidentally’ in almost every match. Strangely enough, he didn’t even hate that.

If he was being honest with himself, it was strangely freeing. He might be ‘cheating’ by instantly acquiring the skill using the system, but testing himself in this manner was an entirely new experience for him. His mind, normally so burdened by the urge to remain unnoticed, was entirely focused on the spar, on planning his next few moves, his reactions and counter attacks. He didn’t have the time to feel self conscious, and even when he was superficially hurt he quickly healed with his 10 points in CON, meaning he needed only a few breaks.

If he thought about it, it was a little mind boggling that he, a complete and utter novice, could gain so much from a simple skill, allowing him to compete and train with NPC’s who had been learning for months.

There was no doubt that the system was a powerful tool. If he only put in the work, he would gain everything he needed to become a dependable person.

He was sure of it.

A looping left hook from Temir bypassed his defenses, catching him in the chin, stunning him while he was distracted by his thoughts. He stumbled, his hands still up as he struggled to reacquire his sight of the bald headed warrior. A split second later a kick crashed into the inside of knee, collapsing it, followed by a forceful shove that sent him collapsing onto his back.

Instead of chasing him while he was down, Temir stood up to his full, not-so-tall height, releasing his fighting posture. He held his hands together in a strange type of salute in front of his chest, one hand open, fingers pointed up, while the other made a fist. He then bowed to the sprawling David, his face a mask of peacefulness and tranquility.

That was the strange thing about Tamir, in contrast with the loud and bubbly Cassandra, he was almost monk-like in his bearing, able to easily flip a switch from combat mode to sudden stillness, his face giving away none of his inner thoughts. The man had never once gotten angry during any of their training sessions, even when he lost against Rolland.

David carefully pulled himself up from the dusty courtyard floor, suddenly self conscious again as he left his ‘fight mode’ behind, allowing his usual self conscious mindset to once again take control. He stood and copied the bow performed by Temir, awkwardly following the movements and hoping that he was doing it correctly.

He felt an insane urge to smile. The emotion felt alien to him, like it belonged to someone else.

He had lost once again, but he’d had fun.

He had enjoyed himself.

It was an almost alien concept to him, after residing so long within the fog.

“Your previous teacher deserves more credit than you initially led us to believe.” Blane said as he approached with a slight smile, his hands casually clasped behind his back. ‘My previous teacher? What is he- oh’ He had forgotten that he had lied to explain his system gained skills. He would have to pay attention. It wouldn’t do for him to slip up here.

He nodded awkwardly to the muscular man, hoping he had seen no hint of the emotions that flashed through his mind. “I owe my teacher a lot, without him I doubt I would be here now.”

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‘There, if the system counts as my ‘teacher’ then technically I’m not lying. After all, if it wasn’t for the game I would have died…’

Blane nodded seriously, his face like stone. “We must always remember the lessons passed on to us by those who have previously walked the path.” Blane turned to walk away and made a small motion at his side, indicating he wanted David to follow him. The two set off at a slow pace, circling the courtyard at a polite distance to avoid bumping into others as they practiced.

“I have noticed as I watched your training that you seem ready to progress further with your skills.” Blane said as they walked, leaving David feeling stunned. ‘Is this the effect of this system? Or is he advancing me simply because it is the prerogative of the NPCs? Do they even have that inclination?’

He didn’t know how to respond, so he continued to walk silently beside the bigger man for a few moments, while Blane seemed content with letting him think. Eventually, David decided to answer the man with a question. “Does this mean I will train to fight with abilities?” He took special care not to say ‘with my abilities’ because he wanted to see if it was possible for him to gain any from Blane, who was a skills trainer.

It wasn’t a stretch for David to guess this, as he had repeatedly witnessed the other students using abilities such as the warriors Parry, Bulwark, and Rapid Counter.

Blane nodded his head gently, looking straight ahead as he walked calmly around the courtyard. “Yes. You are ready to take this step along the path, and I will teach you to use the abilities of a warrior. I must warn you, however, that you have not yet broken through the limits of the human body and become a superhuman. You will strain your body and become permanently ill if you learn more than three abilities at your level of strength.”

David felt his mood sour almost instantly as he heard those words and remembered the restrictions placed on both players and NPCs alike. ‘Three new abilities per tier, how could I have forgotten…?’ Part of him wondered if Blane’s warning was a subtle reminder from the game's AI, or if it was just part of how Blane was programmed as an NPC, to care for the wellbeing of his students.

That line of thinking was a trap. It would lead him down the path of always wondering what was ‘real.’ If he spent too long thinking about that particular problem, he would never escape the clutches of the fog. He knew that.

David suddenly felt very fortunate that Blane was so stoic, allowing him time to gather his thoughts, as he realized that he had continued walking alongside the man in silence for over a minute now.

“My previous…teacher, has already taught me three abilities.” He felt his best option was to come clean, he had already selected his own starter abilities from a list of nearly all of the starter abilities, and he’d chosen the ones he had for a reason. For his purposes, they were just better than any of the low level abilities that Blane could teach him. It would have been a massive bonus if he could get more abilities, but in the end, he had what he needed.

Blane smiled peacefully, the corners of his lips rising only slightly. “This is good, you shall have something to remember them by, to follow in their footsteps with.” David nodded slightly, though he wasn’t entirely sure what Blane meant when he talked about a ‘path.’

David noticed that all of the other students were gathering their gear, collapsing their ordered training groups to congregate towards the locker rooms, talking about their experiences and preparing to head home for the day. He looked over at Blane, who nodded and waved a hand at him. “Go home for the day, we shall see what you can make of these abilities you have tomorrow.”

—-----------

David walked through the buzzing square, making his way past crowds of people walking from one business to another. The Adventurers Corner was just as crowded as ever, but David felt it was just a little bit easier for him to make his way through the crowd. He still took frequent stops, but he had his mind set on his destination before he made his way to the hotel.

He would go to Titan Arms & Armor and try to meet the proprietor, Dante Portman. Dante was in the upper echelons when it came to strength and power within the city at level 54. From David’s previous studies of the game, Dante Portman was a warrior based crafter - a rarity in a world now predominantly focused on technology.

He was also one of the easiest connections to make that could lead him to meeting Charles Eadwhin, the strongest power in the city.

It wasn’t imperative that he meet Charles in the near future, but the longer he knew the important people in the city the easier it would be for him to gain valuable intel and contribution points towards gaining knowledge and equipment, two things he would desperately need as he grew stronger. He also had some information he could sell to Charles if he ever got close enough for the man to take the time to hear him out.

That information would likely net him a huge profit, and increase the cities trust in him tenfold. It was an advantage he had to gain if he was to realize his future goals.

He made his way past Mo’el’s, the weapon shop with a broken neon sign overhead. He was sure that Mo’el hadn’t finished his commission yet, and he didn’t want to be distracted from his goal. The city remained bustling despite the sun setting, but he didn’t want to arrive only to learn that Dante’s store was closed for the day.

After about ten minutes of walking through the busy streets he arrived in front of a rather imposing store, made almost entirely out of a material resembling marble. It had high crested columns above a set of stairs leading up to the entrance, an artistically placed sign made of metal depicting a large hammer and anvil displayed the store’s name in deeply emblazoned letters. ‘Titan Arms & Armor. An imposing name for an imposing store.’

He climbed the steps, took a deep breath, checked his training clothes over to ensure his outfit was straight, then pulled open the heavy glass door leading to the interior.