“Keep a looser grip on the handle of the knife, you don’t need to grip it that tightly. Ok, now move your left foot back a little more. Good, that will let you throw with a little more force. Keep a relaxed stance, and…throw.” Bertrand stood behind and to the left of Richard as he gave him direction.

Richard gave the knife an overhand throw. It rotated three times, and stuck close to the center of the target, which was an old strip of cloth they’d hung in front of a bale of hay.

Bertrand nodded. “Better. Ok, now keep practicing that stance, you want these movements to become a habit.”

Richard nodded, and drew the next knife out of the baldric hanging around his chest. This time he didn’t get the timing quite right, and the side of the throwing knife hit the target instead of the point. The third time was another solid hit, though. Richard walked across the field, picked up his knives, and then went back to practice some more.

Bertrand stepped back a little and watched Richard practicing, when he suddenly had a tingling feeling on the back of his neck that warned him someone was suddenly right behind him. He put his right hand on his sword hilt and spun, and had his sword halfway drawn when he realized it was Harry standing behind him.

Bertrand relaxed and slid his sword back down into his scabbard. “Shouldn’t sneak up on a man like that.”

Harry grinned. “Sorry, force of habit. Get so used to walking quietly, you don’t even think about it anymore. Wife is always yelling at me for that.”

They stood quietly and watched Richard practice for a few minutes.

“I was wondering, any specific reason you wanted him to work on throwing knives first? I figured you were going to work on his swordsmanship.” Harry asked.

“If we can get a few weeks of training in before we have to travel, then we can probably get his knife throwing skill up to level 2, maybe even level 3 if Evelyn is right about how smart this guy is. At that point, he would have least have one skill I’d trust him to use while standing next to me in a fight, and that might help.” He paused. “On the other hand, even if he got swordfighting up to level 3…”

Richard had heard the conversation and stopped throwing for a minute, and he walked over. Bertrand went quiet, but Richard gestured him to continue. “It’s ok, keep going, you can be honest with me.”

Bertrand looked at him. “Lad, you used your sword against those abominations, but I bet you didn’t actually do much damage to them with it, right?”

Richard thought back to the battle. “I guess not.”

“With your strength, you just won’t do that much damage hitting someone with a melee weapon, not unless you get your skill level really high. Even then, you’ll be at a big disadvantage against any stronger swordsman. You have to be able to block and parry, and it’s pretty hard to win a swordfight against someone who can break through your guard, unless you’re a lot faster than they are.” Bertrand paused for a minute. “There’s nothing wrong with you learning how to use the sword, but it should be a last resort for you.”

Richard shrugged and nodded. “But what if I got a combat class that increased my strength?”

“It wouldn’t be enough. Even if you got to a level 10 in a melee class, and even if that gave you another 4 or 5 strength, you’d still be below the average strength of the average farmer’s son with no combat class. Stick to what you’re good at.”

“Hmm…ok, thanks for the advice, I’ll think about it.” Richard went back to practice some more with the throwing knives.

Bertrand watched him for a few minutes, and then walked back over to him. “Ok, let me show you one more thing to practice. The overhead throw you’re doing is good, it has more force behind it and travels farther, but it is kind of obvious what you’re about to do, gives people a chance to dodge or react. If you want to catch people off guard, this underhand throw is useful.” Bertrand pulled out a dagger from his belt. “So, hold it like this; put your middle finger in the center of the handle, and put your thumb on one side and your other two fingers on the other. Lower your hand like this, and lift your arm up and forwards like this, as if you were trying to punch someone with an uppercut.” Bertrand demonstrated, and the knife flew up into the center of the target without spinning. “You can do this in the middle of a knife fight and people won’t have time to react.”

It took Richard a few tries to get a solid hit with the underhanded throw, but once he got a feel for it he was able to do it more smoothly.

“Ok, I’m going to go back inside. Don’t stay out past dark, or you’ll lose your knives.”

Richard nodded, and went back to throwing. He fell into a pattern; throw the knives, walk down and get them, find the one or two that missed or overshot the target, and then throw again. It was pretty relaxing, and he spent the next few hours practicing his throw.

Skill earned: Thrown weapon (daggers) (2)

Level up, human level 5. +1 CON, +3 additional max HP, +2 max SP. HP, SP, and MP restored

New major racial trait available! Choose human trait from among those you currently have the prerequisites for:

Hardy: Increased HP, increased HP regeneration, slight increase to damage resistance. (Prerequisites met: More than 80 max HP)

Living Mana Battery: Increased MP, increased MP regeneration. (Prerequisites met: More than 80 max MP)

Curious: Increased ability to learn new skills and spells, bonus to experience if you have 3 or more classes. (Prerequisites met: 10 or more skills, 16+ INT)

Wanderer: Increased movement speed, decreased SP cost. (Prerequisites met: 2 movement related skills, Explorer)

Cripple: Increased effective charisma when begging for money or help, possible morale penalty for anyone attacking you (Prerequisites met: Physical stat less than 3)

Cripple? Now this is just getting embarrassing.

Hardy and Living Mana Battery both sounded tempting, but Richard knew which one he wanted. I wonder how to make a choice…let’s see, Evelyn said that the System would interact with me the way I expected it too, so I wonder if I just… Richard reached forward, and touched the spot in front of him where the word “curious” was floating.

Are you sure? (Y/N)

Damn thing really does act like I would expect a computer interface to. He reached out and touched “Y”, and it vanished.

By this point it was starting to get dark out, so he walked out to the target one more time, took the knives out of it, and walked back inside.

“So, how did it go?”

“Oh, I got the throwing knives skill up to level 2. Hopefully I can get it to level 3 tomorrow”. Richard said, nonchalantly.

Bertrand’s eyes opened wide. “You got it to level 2 already?”

Richard grinned. “I did use it in battle a few hours ago against the abominations, so maybe that helped, but yeah.”

“Still…” Bertrand tilted his head in thought. “Hmm, maybe we’ll be able to step up the training tomorrow.”

They sat around the table for a while, eating and talking. Evelyn read by the light of a flickering candle-sized flame that hovered in the air about 9 inches over her book. A warm fire burned in the fireplace. Richard mostly sat at the table quietly, most of the conversation passing over him in waves without him really being able to focus on any of it. He felt tired in a deep way, down to his bones; he’d been able to keep going for much longer than normal because the level ups had restored his SP, but some part of him still felt exhausted. After a few minutes, he had dozed off, nodding off in the wooden chair.

A little while later, Jehan gently nudged Richard’s chair, waking him up. “I think it’s probably time for us to get back to town, and get some sleep.”

Bertrand shook his head. “Not a good idea, Padre.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been in situations like this before, and once the things start going to hell and the monsters start attacking in broad daylight, it’s a bad idea to go and sleep in separate places. If you go back to your place and Richard gets a room in some inn in town, I have a feeling that one of you will wake up to someone or something climbing in your window or clawing at your door.” Bertrand turned to Harry. “Do you mind if we sleep on your floor here? I really think we should all stay together, and this seems like the best place.”

Harry nodded slowly. “I suppose that’s a good idea. You really think there’s a danger we’ll get attacked if we split up?”

Bertrand nodded. “I do. In fact, I think we should keep watch tonight. I’ll take the first watch. Richard and Jehan had a hard fight earlier today it sounds like, so I think we should let them sleep. Harry, you want to take the second watch?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be glad to do that.”

Evelyn spoke up. “I’ll take the third watch; I usually get up early anyway.”

Richard yawned. “I appreciate it, but I probably could…”

Bertrand laughed. “Not tonight. You look like you’d fall asleep on watch. Next time.”

Richard couldn’t argue with that, so he nodded.

Kateryn brought them some blankets, and Richard, Bertrand, and Jehan set up spots off in the corner of the room to sleep.

At least this is warmer than trying to sleep in a tree Richard thought, before drifting off to sleep.

Spoiler: Character sheet

Name: Richard

Race: Human (5)

Class: None

Age: 26

Strength: 3 (2.4)

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 11

Endurance: 8

Intelligence: 24 (28.8)

Wisdom: 4 (3.6)

Perception: 7

Charisma: 11 (13.2)

HP: 80 (Max: 80)

SP: 38 (Max 38)

MP: 144 (144)

MP regeneration: 3.4%/hour

Divine Class: Champion of Ikar (1)

Humor: 41

Cunning: 22

High Stakes: 20

Glory: -911

Divine favors:

Gift of Tongues: May speak, understand, read, or write in any mortal language (may only speak languages you have heard and only write in languages you have seen).

Special traits:

Offworld Education (Legendary): +20% to effective intelligence, -10% to effective wisdom. Learns skills 50% more quickly than someone with an equivalent intelligence, gains experience 25% more quickly. More likely to learn unusual skills.

Pampered: Compared to most humans, this person has spent his whole life eating the best food, doing minimal physical labor, and generally living what most would call a life of luxury. -20% to strength, -20% to stamina points, +20% to hit points, +20% to charisma.

Without Glory: This person is extremely lacking in Glory, one of the 3 virtues of Toran, and as such may be instinctively distrusted or even hated by followers of Toran. -10 to reaction from followers of Toran.

Explorer (Human racial trait): Humans are known for wanting to explore the world, and for wanting to discover what's over the next hill. Gains a small amount of experience gained for discovering and exploring new locations.

Curious (Human racial trait): Some humans have a high degree of curiosity, and a desire to learn many new things and try many different possible paths. Many consider this curiosity to be one of the great assets of the species, even if it frequently gets them into trouble. Learns skills and spells 10% more quickly (scales with human level). Experience bonus for more than 3 classes (currently 0% bonus). Can earn human experience for making discoveries.

Skills:

Pratfall (2): You have the ability to fall in a hilarious fashion. Likely to make people laugh if executed well. All falling damage reduced by 20%.

Mathematics (14): You are extremely skilled at mathematics. +140% to calculation speed and accuracy. +70% to learning speed of other skills with a mathematical component. Small bonus to other math related skills and spells.

Pathfinder (forest) (2): You have a basic level of skill at moving through a forest quickly. You have learned the basics of how to travel through a forest, can see where to step and where to avoid, and can identify good paths to take while traveling. +20% to movement speed through a forest. -20% to SP cost for moving through forest. Increased chance to see and avoid natural hazards.

Jogging (3): An unusual running practice, primarily designed to improve the health and endurance of the human or for recreation rather then for practical gain. -30% SP cost while running slowly on roads or even ground, -15% SP cost for other running. +15% endurance and constitution training gains while running.

Stealth (1): You have a basic level of skill at moving quietly and in a stealthy manner. Decreased chance of being detected while trying to move quietly and stealthily.

Climbing (1): You have a basic level of skill at climbing.

Thrown weapon (rocks) (2): You have a basic level of skill at throwing rocks. +2 to-hit bonus with thrown rocks, +2 damage. 5% chance for a thrown rock to stun an opponent.

Thrown weapon (daggers and knives) (2): You have a basic level of skill at throwing daggers and knives. +2 to-hit bonus with thrown daggers and knives, +2 damage. 5% increased chance for a thrown dagger or knife to inflict the bleed status on an opponent.

Parting shot (2): You have a moderate level of skill at using thrown or ranged weapons while moving. -30% to ranged penalty for using ranged weapons while running or riding.

Writing (5): You know how to write clearly. Higher levels of this skill improve writing speed and accuracy.

Taunt (1): You have a basic level of skill at taunting an enemy to cause them to attack you. Most effective on enemies with low wisdom scores.

Acrobatics (1): You have a basic level ability at acrobatics. Improves jumping, tumbling, rolling, and balance.

Melee weapon (sword) (general) (1): You have a basic level of skill at sword fighting. +1 to-hit bonus with any sword, +1 damage with any sword.