n

n

nA tired Eldrian rested against an almost destroyed dummy. A few broken training weapons, scattered around his resting figure.

n'I can't anymore.' Eldrian, exhausted thought to himself, as he called to the system for the time.

nIG: 18:13

/ IRL 06:13

n'Seems like the night is over. I guess this is a good time to stop today's training. I should be able to explore the city a bit and hopefully find a place to rest.' As Eldrian thought this he started standing up.

nThis time he found this simple act quite demanding.

n'I guess the ramping of fatigue isn't linear.' Eldrian complained as he looked over his stats. His stamina now only recovered to 25 points. The culprit of this was his fatigue of level 5.

n'I wonder how we reset or recover from fatigue. But it seems to come faster if you don't rest appropriately.' Eldrian analyzed as he mentally went over his training. At the start, he would only gain fatigue after 10 sets or more. But as he continued to practice, at a constant pace of just waiting for his stamina to refill. He soon found that his fatigue level increased faster and faster. Up to the point where it went to level 5 after just 3 sets.

n'I'll play with that tomorrow.' Eldrian decided after he made some speculations on what fatigue really means in-game.

n

"Good job kid. You might have pushed yourself too far, but you certainly convinced me of your determination.

" Old Sword praised, as Eldrian placed a double-headed spear back into the weapon rack.

nThis weapon was his favorite from all those he had tried so far. Like all polearms using it indoors wouldn't be smart. Nevertheless, Eldrian really liked it. The reason for this is because of the versatility and range it offers in normal combat. Since he wasn't planning on only using it, Eldrian felt it was fine if he specialized more into it for normal situations.

n

"Thank you, Old Sword. I need to find a place to go rest now, I feel so tired.

"

n

"Haha, naturally you feel tired. You did how many exercises today? Gosh, you almost tried every weapon you could choose, or at least their over-arching branch

" Old Sword said as he looked strangely at Eldrian.

n'This kid is a monster if he expects himself to feel normal after such a massive amount of training.' Were Old Swords thoughts.

n

"Well, that makes me feel a bit better. Do you have any recommendations on where I should go to spend the night?

"

n

"Why don't you come to stay at my place. But only until you have completed the challenge I gave you. With how hard you trained you should be able to succeed easily.

"

n

"That would be really helpful. Thank you for saving me the trouble of having to look for a hotel or inn.

"

n

"Then it is settled. Follow me, I first have to go to my barracks to report in for today. Tomorrow you will have to train alone since I have to check up on the new recruits and their trainers. But I believe that with all the weapons you tried you should find that suitable.

" Old Sword said as he started walking home.

n…

nAs they walked away from the starting point Eldrian observed that the city grew livelier. Almost as if the NPCs had avoided them. Curious he raised this to Old Sword.

n

"Oh that. We thought a lot more of you Chosen would decide to train, so to accommodate you guys, we asked people to avoid the temple for a few days. Seems it was unnecessary since no one else trained seriously. And I don't mean your level of seriousness. Rather just no other Chosen trained with the aim of learning. Rather they just tried executing a few skills and then ran off into the wilderness.

" Old Sword complained as he answered Eldrian's query.

n

"Old Sword, do you know how many Chosen started here?

"

n

"More than a thousand I believe. I am not too sure, since I have been with you for most of the later part of the day.

"

nAfter this short discussion, they walked on in silence again. This didn't bother Eldrian as he was absorbed in his surroundings. The buildings looked to be of medieval archetypes, but strangely they were almost all made out of stone.

nSometimes wood or clay was used for the roofs and windows, but other than this they were entirely made out of stone. These stones also weren't bulky, rather they looked almost like bricks, if bricks were chiseled and not cast.

nAdding to this was also the fact that Eldrian had yet to see a single-story building. All the buildings they passed were two stories, with a few even being three stories tall. Eldrian was far too fascinated with the buildings around him to even look past the far more bizarre structures.

nGrumble...

n

"So, you are hungry. I was starting to wonder if you Chosen, even needed to eat. Seems like this concern of mine was quickly answered. Still, it seems you guys can last longer than normal people before needing food.

" Old Sword commented as he heard Eldrian's belly growl.

nEmbarrassed Eldrian wanted to defend himself, but ultimately he couldn't lie. His stomach already told the truth.

n

"Don't beat yourself up. Seriously why do people feel it is bad if their stomachs growl? It just indicates you are hungry. And you don't have to worry about that. You see my wife is an excellent cook.

" Old Sword said, smiling like an idiot when he mentioned his wife.

nAs they continued to walk, Eldrian was constantly reminded of his hunger, when he received a whiff of a well-cooked meal in the air through some windows. Trying to control his hunger, he didn't realize that Old Sword had stopped until Old Sword spoke.

n

"Kid I am going inside to do my report. You just wait here for me. Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.

" He said as he walked into a rough-looking building.

nHearing this Eldrian was brought back to reality. He looked on as the door was being closed. This left Eldrian standing uncomfortably just outside the barrack's lawn. Eldrian decided to just stay there as he didn't want to bother the soldiers who were training.

nThe barracks was a four-story building set in the middle of a training field. On the left were soldiers training their basic attacks, on the right were some training their shooting. In front, a few soldiers were sparring, with others looking at them and cheering every now and then.

nAs Eldrian just stood there he started looking at those sparing in more detail. Their movements didn't seem all that fast. They even made a few basic mistakes which Eldrian quickly noticed. Importantly Eldrian knew that while he could spot a mistake it didn't mean he wouldn't make them himself if he were to spar against someone.

nAs he realized this, he tried to memorize all the mistakes these soldiers often did. Some made massive mistakes like spinning around to try and gain momentum when they haven't ensured the opponent wouldn't be able to strike their back. Others made small mistakes like losing their edge alignment when their attacks landed, causing glancing blows instead of death strike.

nCertainly, their training weapons wouldn't be able to deliver killing blows, but the idea was an important one.

n'I have to remember to fix these mistakes when I do them.' Eldrian commented mentally as he saw Old Sword walking out of the building.

nWhen Old Sword looked at the soldiers, he couldn't help but shake his head. Seeing this Eldrian grew curious why he would do that.

n

"You seem curious about their sparring. Don't worry you won't be long off from also sparring with someone. Everyone has to do it to rank up their weapon proficiency. Or the alternative is to experience real-life combat.

"

n

"Most prefer to rather spar with someone since it is far less dangerous. Also, don't look at these guys for help, they are all just like you. Newbies.

" Old Sword said as he shook his head again.

n

"Truly I don't understand why they want to spar so badly against others when they still haven't mastered the basics. They only started training a few days ago, yet they want to find out who is the strongest. Like it would show so early, they first need to see who is more determined and disciplined.

" As Old Sword was saying this he started walking again. Eldrian naturally followed since he was going to stay with him.

n

"I see, that is why they didn't look to be fighting as fast as I expected,

" Eldrian commented.

n

"No, they are fighting at a decent level for their amount of training. You are just a weird case.

" Old Sword laughed as he said this.

nThis confused Eldrian as he didn't understand why he would be considered a weird case. 'Maybe they think all Chosen are weird cases?' He rationalized.

n…

n

"Tell me the biggest mistake you saw from them?

" Suddenly Old Sword broke the silence again.

n

"Well, I certainly can't critique them as I feel I will also do many of those mistakes if I were to spar someone now.

" Hearing this Old Sword nodded his head subtly.

n

"Good of you to recognize that. Still what flaws did you notice?

"

n

"Basic flaws, like leaving yourself open to an attack due to over-swinging. Or trying to add a spin that just makes you vulnerable. The most common would be telegraphing their attacks and losing their edge alignment as they finally strike their target. In the 2 or 3 minutes I observed them I saw about 8 telegraphs and 6 cases of glancing blows.

" Eldrian tried to construct his critique as best he could, trying to focus on the what and why, rather than on the who's.

n

"Not bad. Certainly, those are the biggest mistakes. But you missed a lot of others.

" This confused Eldrian, 'What else did I miss?' he asked himself.

n

"I see you are not convinced. What you missed is the more advanced, smaller, but just as important stuff. Many lost their center of balance when attacking or defending. This didn't show because everyone sparring there was of the same level.

"

n

"If a veteran soldier were against them, then just a few simple moves would result in a victory. Unlike what you saw, them fighting for minutes without a victor.

"

n

"Another thing they often did wrong was always attacking.

" This sentence again confused Eldrian until Old Sword continued,

"They never made feints, or tried to use the rest of their body to attack. All of them had one hand empty. Why did no one just throw a punch after locking swords?

" Old Sword said this in a questioning manner.

nWhen Eldrian heard this something clicked. 'Of course, why did I also miss it. I was so focused on the swords or spears that I totally missed the usage of them as tools. Used to make it easier to win, not as the only way to win.'

nAs he thought of this, he felt the desire to slap himself due to how narrow he was thinking about combat. 'This is really different from the classic type games.'

n