The next day dawned, and this time he was actually looking forward to classes when he pulled himself out of bed. The rumour was that today was going to be the first of the new regime with physical training sandwiched between learning. Their two-hour morning block was being extended to a three-hour one.

He suffered through an hour of reading and mathematics, which he reduced to only a couple of handfuls of minutes as he spent the whole time in his pseudo system room. Then Dimitri led them to a secondary gymnasium. It was one he hadn’t seen before. It had a spongy floor and was filled with training dummies.

A young-looking woman who walked like a warrior greeted them. She wore casual clothes, but Tom could feel both her massive fate pool and the magic she possessed. She was not a Dimitri, who was only moderately powerful - this was someone who you would expect to see on the front lines. A genuine powerhouse.

“You can call me Instructor Susan,” she said when they had all entered the room. There was a long silence as she assessed them.

Dimitri cleared his throat:

“Instructor Susan is a weapon master.”

“Nope. I’m a Fighter.”

“She’s as good with weapons as you can get and not be recognised by the system as trainer. Listen to everything she has to say or show. She’s here for a week and she’ll set you on the path to master the weapon yourself. Now, go and grab one.” He waved at the barrels filled with weaponry, and Tom grabbed a spear.

“Where swords?”

“No swords, girl.” the woman snapped, sounding disgusted, then looked accusingly at Dimitri.

“Half of them are still four.” He said defensively. “They don’t know better yet. However, Instructor Susan is right. We almost never fight humanoids, or at least ones our size, where swords would be a superior choice. Against the opponents we normally fight, spears, axes or hammers are better.”

“I want a sword.”

“No.” The instructor grabbed an axe and shoved it at the girl, then glared at her with her hands on her hips in a very threatening manner. The kid wilted under the pressure.

Dimitri frowned, but did not interfere:

Once you’ve learned your primary weapon, you can train secondary ones. These can be as exotic as you like – it can even be a sword. For now, use one of these.”

Tom smiled at the barely restrained patience.

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Instructor Susan was obviously bored, grabbed a hammer and struck one of the dummies.

Thump.

It rocked violently backward and didn’t break, because, and Tom was almost certain about this, because she was moderating her strength. She glanced back at them:

“Start hitting.”

He looked down at his spear, and then frowned when he realised the trap it represented. Very reluctantly, he switched it over with a hammer. It wouldn’t hurt to possess expertise in multiple weapons. There were lots of monsters who were armoured in such a way that poking them with a stick was ineffective. A hammer was the logical instrument to crack them open, and him using the next ten years to gain proficiency and skills was sensible.

Tom walked over to his own target, planted his feet and swung hard. There were the sounds of other people hitting dummies all around him. He ignored them and focused on his own actions. He practiced different feet positions and body movements as he strove to deliver the loudest bang possible. His hammer, of course, didn’t accomplish anything close to what the instructor’s casual blow had done, but he was beating everyone else in his year level - apart from Pa, who was using an axe and almost leaving cuts in the dummies’ wood.

There was a grunt behind him, which might have been that of approval.

He stopped, glanced back, and saw the instructor standing there. Silently, she knelt to get on the level with him, and her hands forced his feet further apart and pushed his leading foot forward. Then she guided his swing.

“Twist more,” she snapped, poking him in the side.

He swung again.

She punched his left foot to force it to move to the right spot, and then grabbed and pulled the war hammer back so his forearm was pressed against his mouth. When she released the weapons shaft, he attempted to obliterate the dummy. The sound of wood on wood was more substantial than before.

He kept going.

Instructor Susan said nothing, but she continuously corrected his form by tugging and prodding him both before, after, and during the swing.

Then, with a grunt, she stood and pressed a ring into his surprised hand, then walked over to the next person to train.

“What is this?” he asked, but she had already stalked away.

Dimitri hurried over and held out a hand. “Give it here.”

Perplexed, Tom handed it across.

“Adults are allowed and encouraged to give gifts to the students. Usually instructor Susan doesn’t, but this morning she went to the orphanage store and spent a chunk of credits to grab a few random age-appropriate items.”

He handed the ring back to Tom.

“That’s yours. Unfortunately, I don’t think she checked the descriptions. I’m not sure you’re going to find it useful. It’s a restraint ring that’s designed to help physical training. It’s got a couple of modes to help with strength and vitality. However, I don’t see how it’ll help children. Young adults, certainly, but children? No..” He frowned. “Maybe the store will let you exchange it.” He looked over at Susan who was correcting the stance of her latest victim with visible frustration. Pa seemed to be enjoying the instruction. Dimitri grimaced again. “But it’s not worth pissing Susan off. My recommendation is to play with it first for a few months. Susan’s not an idiot. Maybe she reviewed it after all and she thinks you’ll find a use for it.” The big man shrugged. “She only bought ten items, so she probably did.” He started to walk away.

“Wait! Why would she give it to me?”

“She’s an adventurer, so who the hell knows. Maybe she was impressed with your hammer skills.” The way Dimitri looked at him made it clear how unlikely he thought that was. “Maybe you look like her son from earth, or a nephew, or maybe someone she couldn’t save.” The big man shrugged. “Just play with it - maybe it’s better than I think.”