I wake up early the next morning all refreshed. It’s amazing that I get a good sleep every night. I hop out of bed and go down to the Tavern room.

“Good Morning.” I say to John as I take a seat.

“Let me get you some breakfast, one minute.” John says as he walks back to the kitchen.

John puts a large plate of eggs, sausage, and toast in front of me with a large mug of ale.

I dig while I ask John something that’s been on my mind. “John how come I am the only one here. Cal told me you only get one group a month, but I would of thought that with a large Empire that the starter area would have more people.”

John looked embarrassed as he replied. “All of the six domains have a starter area and they are all laid out the same way. So, there is no reason to go to one in a different domain. Also, each of the areas in a remote area of the domain. There are not gates setup in the outpost by the starter area, so you have to walk, take a mount, or teleport here.”

John trails off after that as I chew thoughtfully I think I know why he is embarrassed. “That means only the rich can get here.”

“Well not just the rich, but you have to either have someone of high enough level take you through the wilderness to get here, which means around level twenty, or be able to afford a teleport, which can be ten to fifty gold.”

“Hmmm, so what does that mean for me when I get out. I would guess someone is probably waiting for those that go into the Starter Area?”

“Sometimes, but many may be third or fourth sons and daughters that are given entrance to the Starter Area as a send off gift and then they are expected to make it on their own. There are exceptions of course where someone will be waiting for them. I expect you will be treated just like any of these others and asked to join a guild based on your stats, abilities, and achievements. I would say based on your progress so far your will have several offers to choose from.”

“Thanks John.” I say as I dig back into my meal and we turn to just some small talk, while I finish my breakfast.

I ask for some sandwiches for lunch and dinner. I then go to the barrack for more training. On the way, I see Cal on his porch, so I stop and say hi. We chat for a bit as I fill him in on my last few days. I thank him again for the rings and necklace as I depart.

The Captain nods at me when I arrive at the barracks. I jog around to the back of the building and take a seat. I am going to practice Light and Ignite today. Hopefully I can also cast Minor Heal a few more times to get it to Novice 1. I start out with Light, which requires nine mana with the mana manipulation cost reduction. I will be able to cast twelve times before passing out with twenty minutes to wake up, then rinse and repeat. It should take two hours to hit Novice 1. I focus and start casting. After I hit Novice 1 I switch to Ignite, which has the same cost and regeneration time. While useful it is utterly boring. I amuse myself by casting the light and ignite different parts of the dummies’ limbs. After four hours I take a break to eat a sandwich and let the mana headache slowly fade. Ok only Minor Healing and Mend still need to get to Novice 1. I am not sure what I can do about Mend. I will ask John tonight if he has any ideas.

Next, I will cast Minor Heal for twenty-seven mana, so I can cast five time before passing out, which will get me fifteen in one hour. I will need two hours to make it to Novice 1. I start casting on different parts of my body. It’s the only thing I can think of to keep me interested for the next two hours. It looks like even my pinky or little toe is enough to get me healed. After two hours I now have everything at Novice 1 except for Mend. I get another 50XP for getting Novice in two more spells. Well, now what? I am not feeling motivated. I am probably going to regret this, but I circle around to the front of the barrack and wait for the Captain to be free.

I say, “I have completed getting to Novice 1 on all spells except Mend. Do you have a suggestion on what would be the most useful to level next?”

He looks at me and I am guessing he is using Inspect to check out my skills.

The Captain says, “I can think of something that would help you a lot, but you need to be able to endure the pain. Based on your endurance, you have what it takes, so how about it?”

“After that rousing speech I am afraid to ask. Ok, let’s do it.”

The Captain laughs and leads me to the back of the barracks after telling a Lieutenant to take over. When we get there, the Captain has me change back into my Starter clothes.

He then describes what he is going to do as I break out into a cold sweat. “As you know Endurance increases separately based on loss of mana and hit points. However, you can level both at once if you work with a teacher who can injure you enough to put you under 25% at the same time you deplete your mana. Of course, you need to trust your instructor not to kill you.” He says with an evil grin. "Now, draw your sword and start casting one of your second level spells, which should deplete your mana the quickest.”

“Cast at the dummy?”

“No, cast it at me.”

“All right, I will cast fire dart.”

“Good, you need to practice using spells and your sword at the same time in combat. Draw your sword and come at me while casting.”

I draw my sword, take a firm stance on the balls of my feet, and cast with my left hand. I must think about it because I have been using my right hand up until now to cast. As I release my spell I lunge at the Captain’s right leg. The Captain flicks his wrist and deflects my spell into the sand about ten feet to my left. He neatly parries my blade and then trips me as I over extend.

“Again.” he says with a serious and focused look on his face.

I take a stance again and cast with a feint this time. He deflects my spell with ease and then ignores my feint to lunge at my left shoulder. I barely manage to get my sword up to ward the blow off in time. We then start to trade blows back and forth in a measured cadence like he did yesterday.

“What are you doing? Cast another spell.” He says.

I blush as I hurry to start casting again while we trade blows. I lose track of the spell formation and must start again. Once again, he deflects it and start to trade blows faster.

“Again.”

Sweat dots my brows as I concentrate on both casting and parrying the blows that are getting ever closer. As I cast he parries the spell with his blade this time.

I immediately cast again as a mana headache starts to throb in time to the clashing of our blades. When I release the spell, he parries and then starts to hit me, leaving small cuts that do one to two hit points of damage.

“Again!”

I cast again knowing this will be the one that knocks me out. I think about using Numbness, but he must know I have that skill and has not said to use it. With a twist of the left wrist, he evades my feeble defense, and drives the blade deep into my right chest. I feel a sharp shearing pain right before I pass out.

As I wake up I feel a pulse of healing and mana regeneration course through my body. My stats indicate I am back at full health and mana, and the two spells of Lesser Mana and Health Regeneration restored my body. I open my eyes and see the Captain patiently standing by the barrack wall waiting for me to recover.

“Excellent.” He says, and with a gesture he discontinues the spells. Looking at my clock I see only five minutes have passed since the start of our fight.

“Get up and let’s get started again.” He says as he draws his sword.

I sigh and sit up. I feel a little stiff and shudder as I recall the sensation of cold metal entering my chest. I pick up my sword from the ground and took a stance to prepare for the next round of fighting. The Captain wants me to be acclimated to strikes in different areas of my body, so he skewers me eleven more times over the next hour. He is always careful when he hits me though. I am sure he could have killed me with one blow.

“Ok, that is enough of that.” He says much to my relief. “Sheath your sword, draw your dagger and we will practice that for the next few hours.”

The Captain spends the first hour instructing me how to grip the dagger for overhanded or underhanded blows. Then he demonstrates some maneuvers to strike people from behind with a dagger. We spend the next two hours practicing. Before taking a break to eat. I gorge on my sandwich with some weak ale in a water skin John gave me for dinner, and the Captain drinks from a bottle while ripping off pieces of some type of jerky. After the meal, he has me use my dagger while casting spells, and he stabs me in what I am sure is supposed to be very educational ways. After an hour of that he stops for the day and walks off, just saying to see him first thing in the morning.

I lay there both mentally and physically exhausted on the sand. He leaves the last casting of the mana and health regeneration spells going. Although it feels good I still couldn’t shake the stupor I seem to fall into. I see I have a few notifications about increasing my endurance, but I just dismiss them, it’s not that important, until I reach fifty. After what seems like a long time laying there a look at my clock informs me it was only thirty minutes. I get up and walk back to the Tavern. I wave feebly to John as I walked up to my room and collapse on the bed. I don’t remember anything after that until morning.