By limiting our understanding of ‘strength’ to [Levels]

we can better understand our own measure.

The problem with that,

is true strength breaks beyond levels.

-Taken from a treatise on Classes and Skills

Crimson dropped to one knee panting, his SP was shot, and looked at the man standing across from him; his sword instructor: Mars.

Mars was a bear of a man, literally. He was a Bear-Kin with an absolutely massive frame wielding an equally massive spear. When he’d first started training Mars had used a sword as well, before switching between a variety of weapons, all in an effort to get Crimson used to fighting against various weapons.

He’d learned quickly that a spear was one of the worst match-ups for his sword. It had a range that was able to keep him at bay and he had to fight for every inch closer to Mars, after a long practice bout he was able to slip in close and harass him, but that didn’t last long after he jumped back. By that time Crimson was already too low on SP to keep up with him and had to take a breather. It didn’t help that he was a speed type fighter. If he was stronger he could have focused on breaking through Mars’ reach instead of slipping in.

That was the first bout after he got his [Blessing]. He didn’t get to have a questioning session with Verity, she’d peaced out after leaving him alone in a desperate attempt to avoid the librarian AND Sherry or, more specifically, Sherry’s guard: Scot. Scot’s real name was Scotch -what are the odds?- but his nickname was Scot.

From what he could tell neither Sherry, nor the librarian, actually HATED Verity, if anything the relationship felt more like they were disciplining a mischievous child. A mischievous child in her early thirties if the lecture he’d heard Sherry giving her was accurate. She fulfilled one of the Elf stereotypes at the very least: being older than she looks. At a glance she could easily pass for just a year or two older than Crimson.

He’d quickly given up his search for her after hearing that she’d run off from Sherry and headed in for training instead, and it so happened that Mars was there too. Quickly taking advantage of his presence he requested a spar against the grizzled bear-kin, which quickly turned into six sparring matches, all ending in defeat.

It wasn’t really a surprise that he’d lost, Mars was a Mythril rank adventurer after all, the only reason Crimson wasn’t dead was because he was holding back. There were ten ranks with the guild -eleven if you counted Brass, and nobody does- and Mythril was the second highest rank. The only reason Crimson was lucky enough to have Mars as a teacher was that he had accepted a request from the guild to teach the Brass class for two weeks.

Crimson was particularly lucky because [The Crushing Spear] Mars was still willing to help him out on occasion, and considering the fact that he’d just got his [Blessing] that day, it was a huge pay off.

Skill: Level Up!

[Sword Mastery I] > [Sword Mastery IX]

Bonus Sword Damage increases to 9%

A part of him wanted to do a little dance…but that would rob him of precious SP for his next bout with Mars, if he was willing of course. After a two minute wait -about a hundred and eighteen seconds to be more accurate- his SP was back to full and he stood up.

“Mars, are you willing to accompany me for another bout?”

Mars glanced over at his training party members for a long moment before turning back to Crimson,

“Sure kid, helping you is doing wonders for my [Teaching] skill.”

“[Teaching] skill?” Crimson felt a grimace cross his face, “That explains why my [Sword Mastery] shot up so much.”

“It’s part of it, but the other part is that you already have some experience with that dinky little training katana you’ve got there.”

“My ‘dinky little katana’ as you put it is what’ll let me beat you one day old man!”

“Hah! You? Throwing out trash talk? Don’t make me laugh kid. That barely qualifies!”

“It’s a challenge.”

“Call it trash talk, you’ll be laughed at if you call that a challenge.”

Crimson quietly gritted his teeth; he had let his emotions get the better of him and had said some things that he normally wouldn’t. ‘Trash talk?’ ‘Challenge?’ It was his belief that stuff like that was nothing but words. Actions speak louder than words, and he couldn’t banter with anyone. His inter-person communication skill was far too low.

“Very well O Greatest of Teachers! I shall take your advice, but waiting for you to come to me would be far too troubling for you, I shall come over there!”

“What’s with the fancy talk ki-“

With a look of intense concentration Crimson threw himself at Mars, interrupting what he was saying. He quickly slashed at Mars’ wide open chest, but found himself quickly intercepted by the spear. It was more or less what he’d expected, so he quickly angled his sword to slide down the shaft in an attempt to rid Mars of a few of his fingers, but with a quick flick Mars sent him flying.

This was also something he expected, Mars wasn’t Mythril for nothing, and he’d been sent flying like this before. Honestly, even if the guy stood still and let Crimson wail on him he wouldn’t be able to hurt him. His Constitution was much higher than Crimson’s attack, and the wooden training katana didn’t add much to his overall attack value.

He noted that his HP had dropped by a few points, shook his right hand, stinging from the impact, and moved his sword to his left hand. Being ambidextrous had it’s perks.

Mars crossed the distance almost faster than he could follow before slowing down and sending a strike Crimson’s way. He crouched low and did his best to deflect the monstrous -wooden- spear that was rushing toward his chest, but he full understood that he wouldn’t be able to negate this attack, just a little would do.

It was enough! He had been able to move the spear off to the side where Mars was no long pushing him back, but to the side, trying to send him flying. Crimson went with the force, controlled it, and went into a Mars assisted spin that ended in a slash towards his neck.

With a flick of the wrist Mars moved the butt of his spear in a circle, intercepted Crimson’s slash, and slammed his katana onto the ground-pinning it there, before drawing his leg back and sending a roundhouse kick towards Crimson.

He made a quick decision and dropped to the ground. Fortunately, the force of his own kick was able to throw Mars off balance enough for Crimson to be able to retrieve his katana from it’s spear prison, and roll to the side and onto his feet. If Dirk Souls has taught him anything, you always smack the boss’ booty! Well, not that that strategy was accurate in real life, more a joke trying to ignore his impending doom as Mars brought his leg back around and sent Crimson flying, again.

It felt like he’d been hit by a truck, and his HP had decreased by half. He just had 22 HP left! The other spars that day hadn’t been this tough, at most he’d been pushed back a few feet or let with a bruise that had robbed him of a few HP. That was the most damage he’d taken in this life ever!

The level of pain was quite manageable, but he was completely winded, forget hit by a truck, more like a belly flop from a hundred feet up!

As he was on all fours, with his body trying to remember what ‘breathing’ was and trying to suppress the panicked desperation he felt from the sensation when Mars stepped on his back.

“Kid, I don’t know if you’ve even realized it, but you’ve gotten cocky, when we first met you’d never have done anything like smack talk or challenging. That’s no good, I have to beat this lesson into your body, the same lesson my master beat into me: ‘Don’t get cocky, there will always be someone stronger. The second you think ‘I am strong’ is the second you will die.’ Always accurately measure your strength, don’t overestimate your opponent, don’t underestimate.

“Always push yourself to be stronger, never stop, not even for a second. You’ll be able to surpass me one day if you do that.”

Mars removed the boot from Crimson’s back,

“I don’t have anything else to teach you, learn the rest on your own. Good luck, kid.”

Crimson had long since gotten his breath back and slowly stood up watching Mars’ back as he walked over to his party members.

That lesson…it was an obvious one. He’d already known that. It had been clear to him every moment of training. Mars was Mythril rank, that meant he was at least Lv.81, being so close to someone so much stronger than him had always made that clear. Crimson was aware and yet…when did he stop believing it?

He rubbed the giant boot print shaped bruise on his chest and bitterly chuckled. He felt like a child proudly showing scribbles to a master painter and calling it ‘art’. Well, at least something good came of this little ‘lesson’ (see: ‘abuse’).

Skill Level Up!

[Sword Mastery IX] > [Sword Mastery X]

Bonus Sword Damage increases to 10%

Pick from the following sub skills:

|Power| |Impact| |Speed| |Skill| |Footwork| |Focus|

He’d gotten quite a bit out of the lesson Mars had taught him…’don’t be cocky’ huh…

All six quite beneficial, and he really liked the and ones, but it didn’t take him long to pick the one he needed.

Sub Skill Applied!

Sub Skill [Focus] is added to [Sword Mastery X]

[Sword Mastery X]: A Skill for those who walk the road of swords, seeking mastery over them.

Lore: When Justice gave man a means to Judge one another he also gave them a means to protect themselves from unjust judgements. The Sword was his gift.

Bonus: 10% Damage Bonus

Sub-Skill:

: Ability to think clearly in a fight. Natural emotions won’t have any effect on thinking during battle.

No surprise there. It did what he thought it did. It was definitely the most unimpressive of his six choices, but if he’d picked any of the other five he wouldn’t have learned anything from Mars’ last lesson. ‘To be able to think clearly in a fight.’ Yeah, this would work for him.

He glanced at his [Blessing] noted that his HP and SP had finished refilling, and stood up stretching. It had gotten quite late in the afternoon, and he’d missed lunch. Might as well see if he could find Verity and dinner in one go. Well, after sniffing his shirt he decided a bath would be first priority.

He strolled out of the training room and waved to Sherry as he walked out of the front door. There was a bath house, an inn, a stable, and a weapon shop within direct sightline from the guild’s front porch. The bath, inn, and stables all had discount for guild members, with higher rank members being able to get higher discountsss….Crimson flipped around and walked back into the guild.

“Whas da probem’? I jus’ saw you walk out!”

The pipe was languidly put out.

“Yeah, I forgot to update my membership, I got a [Blessing] today. If I’m not mistaken that means I can rank up to Bronze?”

A blindingly bright smile crossed her dark face, so unlike her usual look.

“Congratulations Crimson!”

“Where did your accent go???”

“I’m intentionally not using it.” She waved it off as nothing, “I’m really happy for you!”

“Thank you, and if you could turn off your accent why didn’t you do that earlier?!”

Sherry completely ignored everything after his ‘thank you’ and said, “You do qualify for Bronze rank! I’ve actually had the paper work filled out and ready to go for a few hours now!”

“Since when?!”

“Sign here and here. Initial here, and here.”

“Completely ignored, again…*sigh*”

Crimson complied with Sherry’s instructions. The sheet looked something like a job application form, and he’d filled out something similar when he became Brass rank.

As a side note the rankings are as follows: Brass, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Black Gold, Adamantite, Orichalcum, Legendarium, Mythril, and Eternium. Bronze covers people from Lv.1 to 10, Silver from Lv. 11 to 20 and so on.

Ranking up was kinda an ordeal. Say he wanted to go from ‘Bronze’ to ‘Silver’ he would need to be at least Lv.11, and have completed several missions for the guild. It didn’t matter if he was Lv.100, he wouldn’t be able to rank up until he’d completed some missions. Not that it was a big deal.

After finishing up the paperwork he brought out his guild card and passed it over to Sherry. She went through a door in the back and came back with a stamp that she pressed down on his card. The only noticeable difference was that his information was now laid out in a ‘landscape’ format instead of a vertical one.

Sherry passed the card back.

“Lookin’ fore'rd to seein’ yuh here fur some rea’ quests soon.”

“It’s back!”

“O’corse mah speakn’ is back. Talkn’ all norma’ is ‘ard.”

“*sigh* Before I go, have you seen Verity in the last hour?”

“Nah, not since dat girlie ran from mah Scot.”

“Too bad, well, thanks Sherry, see you later.”

Sherry busied herself relighting her pipe as Crimson left. Considering how much she smoked he couldn’t fathom how she didn’t have a voice like grinding rocks.

Crimson headed out of the guild and decided to take one of the many ‘long ways’ home. He walked along the lane to a secret passage that was so well hidden he’d actually found it by accident instead of on purpose like most of them.

As he walked to the building that housed it, he passed by some guards who were dragging a screaming young man down the street. Crimson didn’t feel any need to help the guy, the guards in Falst were actually pretty competent. Also, Crimson couldn’t understand a single word of what the guy was screaming, it certainly sounded like English, but not a word could be understood.

Well, him aside Crimson walked around the side of the massive two story building to the side door, stepped on a specific brick, pushed on a specific design on the door frame, and pushed the door open. Instead of the interior of the building what greeted him was stairs down into the passage.

He’d found this one while delivering a particularly heavy package, and had leaned up against the door to brace himself to open the door with his free hand. After that it had taken a few tries to recreate the exact combination of things to be able to use this passage again.

After walking through the passage, but before he exited he got an alert from his [Blessing].

Skill Level Up!

[Mental Mapping I] > [Mental Mapping II]

Ability to remember paths taken and building’s layouts increased. Increased sense of direction.

It seemed like a useful skill, but Crimson didn’t think that he’d need to grind this one. The ‘free’ level up put a pep in his step all the way back to the inn. The front room was empty so he slipped up to his room quickly…wait a sec. He forgot to take a bath…and he was still hungry…

An hour and a half later he walked back into his room gnawing on a hunk of bread. The cost of the bath house had decreased from 80 bronze coins to 70, the discount was worth it! He was also reaping the benefits of his own forgetfulness.

Skill Level Up!

[Mental Mapping II] > [Mental Mapping IV]

Ability to remember paths taken and building’s layouts increased. Increased sense of direction. Speed of memorization increased. Accuracy of mental maps increased.

He had purposely taken an extremely complicated path. These two leveled up too!

Skill Level Up!

[Memorization I] > [Memorization II]

Increased memorization speed to 20%

Total Memorization Speed: 120%

Skill Level Up!

[Secret Sensing I] > [Secret Sensing II]

Ability to detect secrets enhanced.

The second one went up when he noticed that there was a secret door in the scribe shop he went to to pick up writing implements. 8G for what he picked up! The amount practically tore apart his soul! Shopping for weapons and armor tomorrow…would probably kill him. The market price for a decent Lv.1 Sword was 600+ gold, and the armor…better not to think about it too much. He’d already prepared himself for it, a little.

He’d bought the paper and writing implements to work on his [Calligraphy] skill, did he have a use for it? Not yet, but he doesn’t feel like he can leave any of his skills alone. Well, first things first, before grinding out his [Calligraphy] he’d need to pick up his Class.

He’d been waiting till he was alone in his room on purpose, while there aren’t many Classes that can see other people’s [Blessing]s when they have it open, he knew for certain that there was at least one person in the guild who could: Sherry. She had the [Truthseeker] Primary Class. While he knew exactly where she was, it was better not to risk someone seeing something they shouldn’t, even if the library SEEMED safe there was always the possibility that there was someone else who could see it.

Honestly, opening his [Blessing] for the first time in the guild's library had been dangerous before he knew what was on it. It was unfortunate that none of this really occurred to him until after he’d decided to call Verity back for questioning. Because of that he’d decided to wait until he got back to his room before picking his Class. It just seemed like the sensible thing to do, all things considered.

He opened up his [Blessing] and selected the [WorldWanderer] Class. Raften’s letter had told him to treat it like an empty slot, and when he’d tried to inspect it earlier he’d been given an ‘error’. After selecting it a list of Classes he could pick popped up.

Primary Class Selection:

|Scribe| |Farmer| |Alchemist| |Cartographer| |Scout| |Pyromancer| |Mage| |Cryomancer| |Swordsman| |Guardian| |Defender| |Executioner| |Samurai| |Knight| |Worker| |Builder| |Tamer| |Teacher| |Negotiator| |Shop Keeper| |Mana King| |Ruminator| |Strategist| |Appraiser|

To say the least it was an interesting selection. Some of the Classes like [Mana King] were actually tempting. Amusingly enough if he'd been given this page without doing any prior research he'd probably would have picked [Samurai], but he had done research, and knew that the Class didn't match his fighting style. Well, he’d made his decision already, might as well stick to it.

Class Selected.

Downloading…

Installing…

WorldWanderer Applied…

Loading…

Class [Swordsman] is functional.

Swordsman Class:

Description: A class for those who tread upon the path of true Sword Mastery.

Gives: 200HP, 2 STR, 2 AGI, 1 CON, 1 VIT per level.

Stages: ?

WorldWanderer Bonus: 50HP, 1STR, 1AGI, 1CON, 1VIT, 1INT, 1WIS, 1PER, 1WIL, 1CHA per level.

What was this overpowered Class? Well, it wasn’t overpowered originally a regular Class gives 6 stats per level up, but now…what the heck Raften? He was going to get strong on his own and you went and meddled. What the heck man? Well, no point in looking the gift horse in the mouth, and even if he complained it wouldn’t fix anything. Better to work on grinding [Calligraphy] instead.