Cooking so much food at once was interesting. I wasn't really reliant on getting everything out at the same time, as I was just going to stuff it into my inventory where it stays at whatever temperature it went in at. I did a lot of baking. There were pastries, loaves of bread in different styles and mixtures, even some meat buns near the end. I had cooked fish, cooked ham, and cooked steak. A little bit of everything and a lot of bread. One thing I did not have was drinks. I would need more supplies and different facilities for anything more complicated than water. I did have a package of bottled waters, which seemed to be enough for now. I was a veritable walking cornucopia.

The time cooking wasn't wasted. I was able to ask Valarie about all kinds of things. Gods didn't exist on this plane, and she had lived in places where they did, and we should be thankful they don't. Chakra is a great body enhancer, but lacks easy to learn spells. Life magic is great for healing, growing, and controlling, but is lacking in direct offense. Death magic is great for necromancy, draining of all types, causing direct non-elemental damage, and countering life magic. Mana is versatile without being quite as strong in any one area. Chi, or Ki, or Qi, is great for cultivation of all sorts, but without dedication it is extremely lacking. There were others, but nothing that appealed to me. I wasn't very interested in cultivation, as it seemed like it was already part of my ability. I was already able to merge two systems together if I had about an hour to focus on it, but three was out of my reach for now. If I could merge Life, Death, Mana and Chakra, I would be ecstatic. It would take a lot of practice.

Then came direct mental energy applications. If mana was versatile, direct mental energy was infinite in possibility. My 'Mathemagics' skill fell under the category of direct mental energy. Any mathemagics I learned I would be able to use regardless of how I was attuned at the time. I would want to learn emergency spells like healing and escape in that manner. The more I thought about it, the more important school had become. I needed those STEM courses with a side of medical education. Not that I needed the graduation certificates, but the knowledge would come in handy.

One of the other things I did while I was cooking was to take a complete magical template of my body, hair and all. If I lost something, like a hand, I should be able to regrow it in time. I asked Valerie if this made me immortal, and she said nothing is immortal, which brought the mood down a bit.

“You know, if I had better cooking facilities, I could put out a lot more food. Perhaps enough to feed your guild. It wouldn't cut into my training time either, as I could use that time for reading.”

“I'll think about it.” I didn't know if they had a dedicated building for a guild hall, or if they just used the Adventurers Guild as a meeting point, but if it got them the kind of food I was putting out, I think the group might be willing to pay up. I wasn't averse to higher quality facilities and thus higher quality food myself.

It felt weird how less than 5 hours had passed on the outside while we had been in the game for three-quarters of a day. Assuming we 'slept' 8 hours, we would be in the game another half day. I wondered what we would do during the coming night.

“Training.”

“Is there anything else to do at night?”

“Drinking, fighting, even hunting if you have the skills for it, which you don't. If you are underground it hardly matters if it's day or night.”

“Alright. Can I at least start with the sword?”

“Yes. But we won't be hunting until dawn, and you'll have to show more than just basic proficiency.”

I think part of this was my fault. I wanted to be a Jack of all Trades, and it was slowing me from getting out of town to the more interesting things. Still, I wanted to pick up fighting skills and maybe then switch to training artisan skills at night. Cooking is only the first of what I wanted to do.

When the last of the buns were out of the oven, and we were both full, we went back to the training grounds. I had about 6 hours until dawn, which I felt was more than enough to learn the basics of the sword. Especially with the Melee Combat skill filling in the gaps.

Near the training dummies were supplies to make more. Valarie took out a long stick, sharpened the end with her sword, and drove it into the ground. It went quite a ways down.

“Alright, by the end I want you to be able to cut the pole down to size, less than an inch at a time, at full speed. Watch closely.”

She was amazing. Tiny chips of wood went flying with every swing. The sword flew in figure eights, full speed horizontal slashes followed by spins, even thrusts mixed in, chopping a bit of wood off the top each time. There was just enough power behind the sword to chop the stick every time. No more, no less, despite the flashy moves.

After a while, the stick, which had gone through something of a wood chipper, was at about ankle height, and she split it in two with a vertical slash.

She sharpened another stick and drove it into the ground. “Your turn.”

I took my beginner sword out of my inventory, and tried to imitate the grip I had seen her use. It was close, but not quite correct. Apparently I was holding the sword too tightly, which didn't make sense to me. I slowly swung the sword, making sure of my reach, and brought my sword back to ready. I swung for the top of the pole with all my strength. The top inch seperated from the bottom and I went spinning around.

“Too much power. Try again using much less, only enough to score the wood, and increase power until it chips, then servers.”

I did. My first few attempts were like an inept lumberjack hacking away at a tree. Eventually, I figured the right amount of power to chip away at the tree, twisting the sword slightly to free it after getting it stuck in the wood. Finally, I lopped off another inch, with the sword moving into a ready state for a reverse slash. I pulled and another inch came off. At least I was accurate even if I wasn't fast.

I spent some time experimenting, going back and forth with the sword, taking about an inch off each time. Occasionally Valarie would stop me and show me how to put in more power with less effort, or how to be more accurate with my stance. Mostly she showed me how one stroke flowed into the next. The sword was a cutting weapon. Stabbing was possible, but I was using a double edged long sword. I was supposed to slice my enemies. A thrust into bone could result in losing your weapon, so it was not advised most of the time. Sometimes a cut just wouldn't be enough, and you really needed to stab someone.

As time went on, my slices took thinner and thinner bits of the stick off, hitting closer to the tip of the blade. Imagine swinging a broom around at full extension and trying to flick off a light switch. It was beyond just difficult, and felt something like art. I had one partition planning on what to do next, one subtly advising me on how the current slice was going to hit, and finally, I was swinging around the sword. This was clearly cheating, as I would need those partitions to cast spells, but my skill was going up quickly.

I had only gotten the sword skill when I was flailing around at the rabbits, but it was already up to 9. I noticed sub skills, such as those that fell under the general category of Melee Combat, caught up to the main skill quickly, and slowed down after. Raising my Hand To Hand and Melee Combat skills earlier was making my Sword skill raise faster now.

I was actually feeling confident now. I was showing this damn stick who was boss. An inch. Backswing. An inch. From low to high. An inch. And back down. An inch. I wasn't doing the fancy spinning or thrusting, but if anyone ever needed a stick cut down to size, I would be the one to call. After Valerie of course.

“Enough. Now we spar with swords.” Oh shit.

Throughout this whole time, Valerie has been wearing plate mail as if it were a cotton shirt, not bothering her at all. Now I was going up against an armored knight with nothing but my beginner's sword. Not that I expected to land a blow, but there was a principle involved.

“Please don't skewer me.”

“Just call out when your HP gets below half.”

This training ring was made with hard-packed dirt. No shifting footing here. Valerie made the first move, a slow straightforward swing that would probably cut my arm off. I stepped back and she stepped forward scoring my chest. I responded with a cut to her leg, and she kicked my blade! I was lucky to hold onto it. Meanwhile, another cut was incoming, and there was no stepping back this time. I aimed to deflect up, and followed with a short stab at her shoulder.

Surprisingly, she allowed the sword to deflect, but twisted away from the stab. As I drew my back I tried to cut her chest, but she had stepped to the side leaving me dangling there. A downward slice was heading for my neck and I had to bring up the blade to block, just above the hilt. Damn! The blow reverberated throughout my whole body and I almost dropped the sword again. I was bleeding, my hand was partially numb, and we hadn't been going at it for more than 15 seconds. And she was going easy on me.

Well, if traditional methods weren't going to work... I dropped to a crouch, reinforcing my sword hand with my off hand, and pushed her sword up, off me, and to the side. Then I converted my push into forward momentum and rushed her, her sword still off to the side and not a threat. I just wanted to get in close and hopefully knock her down. She stepped to the side, tripped me, and hit the back of my head with the flat of her blade.

“Good.”

“What part of that was good!”

“Improvisation mostly. You are at a talented beginner's level. I was worried all that chopping had you thinking you were using an axe. I can't teach you much from sparring right now though. It would be much easier with a sparring partner. I'll see if Havlar can join us tomorrow evening. For now, we'll go stir up some wolves.”

* * *

We were out far past the rabbits this time, though we had gathered up some carcasses while we passed through. I had to turn my Loot System off so they didn't disappear. We came upon a brook and placed the carcasses nearby. I don't know if this would normally work, but a mangy looking wolf came along eventually. I was in clear view by the carcasses, and if it wanted them, it would have to go through me, which wasn't entirely impossible. Valarie was closer to the brook splashing in the shallow stream, ostensibly acting as backup should things go wrong.

The wolf circled slowly and we just watched each other. This would be my first test with the sword. I wanted to take off a leg, and avoid the teeth if possible. Finally, after putting me directly between himself and Valarie, he came at me. He came to my left, which was good and bad. I could put more power in my swing, but the position was wrong for a lower cut. I imagined the stick again. Just take an inch. I stepped right, swung, and opened his throat. He still managed to graze me with his teeth and I scampered away as he lay dying.

Victory. I could not wait until we were done hunting animals and moved onto monsters. I didn't think I would feel bad for killing monsters. Even if this was all a game.

“Good job. If you had armor the bite wouldn't have even broken through. Did it even touch your Hit Points?”

“No. Just scraped the skin.” I use healing magic to smooth away the surface of my skin, though it does nothing for my ripped pant leg.

“A few more of these and then, if there's time, you can show me what you've learned with magic.”

I moved the corpse to the area with the dead rabbits, and we waited for the next beast to arrive. Three wolves later, my skill with the sword had gone up by two. The encounters themselves were short, but the danger involved must affect skill growth. I would have to hunt if I wanted quick gains.

There was about an hour left until it would be time to log out to the real world. I showed Valarie my new ability at Ranged Construction, creating a concept bubble and stunning a wolf before it was close enough to bite. I was wary of trying anything else without help, as I could easily imagine a fireball burning the flesh from my hands as she warned me so long ago. She walked me through the process. The trick seemed to be keeping some fire natured mana in my hands as I put most of it into the fireball and launched it. Once you knew the trick, it was easy to do. I practiced with fire on the brook, lightning on the ground, and water against the trees. I wasn't up to ice yet, but that would come in time. Water wasn't very useful except to give things a hard knock. Water doesn't compress, so anything you hit with it gets the full impact, and it moved very fast. If you could follow up with lightning quickly enough, it was a great combo. Which is exactly what I did when a bear showed up.

We were fooling around with magic when the bear appeared. Valerie seemed to think I could handle it, so the first volley was the water and lightning combo. The bear wasn't moving very fast in the first place, so the water stopped it in its tracks, while the lightning dazed it and scorched part of its face. Now it was angry. It didn't stand up and roar, it just moved forward quickly. I didn't know if a second lightning bolt would daze it again, and I didn't know how to actually put a static electricity shock inside something's brain. I settled for setting it on fire, because if there's something more awesome than a huge bear barreling at you, it's a bear that's on fire doing the same.

The fireball worked as advertised, the bear was still coming fast but I had been accurate and its sight and sense of smell were gone, along with a good portion of its nose. Its sense of hearing was clearly intact though, as when I stepped to the side it corrected its path directly towards me. I tried to be stealthy and step back, but the bear's course changed again. There was no more time for spells, and the bear's face was already ruined. It would likely try to bite and claw. I would need space, but if I could open the bottom of its foot, I could gain an advantage. Just before it got to me and reared up, I leaped back, and swung forward. I took off half the top of his left paw, slicing through the joints. An inch. When he came down on that paw, that leg collapsed. I drove the blade into its brain and it was over.

Level Up! You Have Reached Level 2!

5 Stat Points Unallocated

Jack Ambrose Webb's Statistics

Strength

36 (+2)

Wisdom

24

Agility

43 (+1)

Charisma

33

Dexterity

45 (+3)

Luck

8 (+1)

Vitality

37 (+1)

Transcend

2

Intelligence

59

Unallocated

5