Lightning flashed, splitting across the sky, a burning spear of wrathful purple light, illuminating a massive, slumbering form. I floated, far above, on a current of wind, drifting across the dark, ash strewn sky. Time had seemingly lost its hold on me, as I hovered for years, rotating around the being.
Suddenly, my eyes locked on it. With a great rumbling sound, it slowly started to shift. Rolling over, ever so slightly, causing tremors in the earth, radiating out for miles. It’s head faced up, a single eye half open. A great pain struck my head, as my ethereal mouth opened in a scream of silent agony, the eye dominating my vision, everything else seeming to fade away. A panicked, terrified feeling swept through my body, the fear of a being so much greater than I, knowing of my existence. I continued to writhe, floating in the sky, as my vision blurred, face contorting.
WIth a gasp, I sat up, covers flying off of me, as sweat dripped down my forehead. The morning sun slipped through the shutters, casting a pale glow around the room. Getting up, I ambled over to the window, sliding open the ornate, wood paneled blinders, sliding them aside to see the light of the day. I saw the peak of the sun, barely rising above the horizon, casting a warm glow on the worn down town. I took a deep breath, before heading downstairs.
Heading down the stairs, I noticed faded oil paintings on the wall. I had been too tired last night to realize they were there. They depicted a large, sprawling city, with colorful houses and clay roofs. Little puffs of smoke floated over cottages in the distance. It painted a far more idyllic picture than I had experienced so far. Perhaps I was simply on the edge of whatever country I was currently in.
As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I surveyed the common room. There were a few people sitting around, eating a small breakfast. It seemed to be a mix of bread and gruel. Despite its unappealing appearance, my stomach involuntarily growled. It seems all the walking in the past few days had greatly increased my appetite. I spotted Devinda on the way down. She looked me in the eyes, before turning and bustling back into the kitchen.
I approached the counter, taking a moment to stretch my sore legs. Devinda returned to the counter, a plate in her hands, with a seemingly extra large helping of breakfast. I thanked her, gratefully taking the plate, before turning to resurvey the dining area. There were three people sitting in the common area. A young woman with blonde hair, reading from a faded leather book, a boy, who couldn’t have been more than 15, happily finishing off his plate, and an older man, with a scar across his cheek.
Not feeling up for any prolonged social interaction, I headed over to an empty table and sat down. As I dug in, I realized that, despite looking like slop, the food was surprisingly good. The bread was a little stale, but still edible, and the soup softened it up. It didn’t have a crazy amount of flavor, but it was, all things considered, pretty good.
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As I finished up, Davinda approached my table. It was time to see what in way of work I could get.
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A dull brown blur streaked towards my core. Raising up the wooden sword in my hands, I tried to leverage the faux blade over to defend. However, my opponent’s arms twisted, causing his weapon to streak around mine, over to my right arm, striking me on the bicep. I yelped in pain, my right arm spasming, causing me to drop my sword to the dust at my feet.
“You’re too quick to react. You need to wait until I commit to strike to block, or you’ll end up getting feinted again and again.”
My instructor was a stern looking man, in his mid 20’s. He wore his hair short, and it looked like it had been roughly hacked when it reached past a certain length, with random, shorter patches interspersed with the rest, which I assumed was the result of him narrowly dodging stray blades. He was tall, over 6 feet, one of the tallest people I’ve seen since my arrival. He stood there, wound up like a spring, knees bent, as if he was ready to lunge for me at any moment. After the last half hour, I believed that to be true.
As it turned out, getting a job meant trying out for everything. I hadn’t planned to start with my combat skills, but Davinda insisted it was essential that I be able to protect myself. Plus, the job of guard was decently well paying. Unfortunately, I didn’t see myself going down that path. I doubt that I would even be allowed to join had if I wanted to. My sword skills, as it turned out, were poor. Very poor. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Not only had I never used a sword in my life before this point, but I didn’t know anyone else who had. Guns had simply caused them to become obsolete. That meant, as far as my abilities went, I was fucked.
I refocused on the man standing in front of me. He had introduced himself as Kai. The welts dotting my body throbbed with pain. I thought about how surprised he would be if I had a gun. His sword skills would be so useful then, huh? Try blocking a bullet, buddy.
Realistically, I would probably still fail. I think he could separate my hand from my body before I even drew any sort of weapon. Plus, I didn’t know how to fire a gun. Hey, I wasn’t much for combat. I was busy doing life stuff before this. I had no need to own a weapon, of any sort. I didn’t even have my pocket knife from that year I was in boy scouts.
Kai let out a sigh. “Have you even formed your core?”
What? What core? Was he talking about my abs? I hadn’t ever trained any part of my body a significant amount before. Was that part of my poor performance? I wouldn’t think strong core muscles would make that much of a difference.
“I do a few sit-ups every month, but I haven’t made much progress yet”.
A puzzled look crossed Kai’s face, briefly distorting his serious visage.
“For the love of the Saint, what are you talking about?”
How did I confuse him? Did he expect more from me? I’m sorry, not everyone has time in their busy schedules to rep out crunches every day. I think I got by just fine with what I had.
As I was mentally grumbling, Kai nodded in understanding.
“So you don’t know anything about mana cores, then. I guess I’ll have to start from the beginning”.
I mean, really, who needed visible abs anyways? They were just a sign of being underfed. I mean, I’m not fat, but -- wait. Mana whats?