My alarm startles me and I fall out of bed onto the hard wood floor. Well, that was graceful. I am glad no one was here to see that. I guess I should have tried my alarm before using it. The description made it sound like a regular alarm clock. It doesn’t so much make a sound as vibrate my bones. Not something you can sleep through. I saw the alarm feature in my menus, but never tried it before. Sunlight has yet to start showing around the shutters on the window when I make my way downstairs. I want to get a bath before anything else to wake me up and loosen some of my stiff muscles from yesterday’s training. After a quick hot shower, I walk back to the Tavern. John puts a big plate of sausage, eggs, and toast in front of me, and hands me two sandwich packages for lunch and dinner. I give him another twenty-five coppers for the food and lodging. We chat a little then I jog to the barracks.

The sun starts to lighten the sky when I arrive. I see the Captain drinking from a steaming mug. The aroma smells just like a French Vanilla coffee from back on Earth. The Captain finishes his coffee and we head to the back of the barracks.

“Today we will focus on spells.” He says staring at me. “I see you picked up a few more spells last night, which will help. Let’s start with Fire Dart, since that has your highest skill progression. I will cast a single fire dart and you will parry it with mana. Then you will use your sword to parry it with stamina. We will continue to alternate those two methods.”

He casts a Haste, Mana Regeneration, and Stamina Regeneration spells on me before hitting me with a fire dart. After he gets me down to half health he heals me. We continue until we take a break for lunch. He averages two fire darts per minute, with the time lost to rebuff and heal me. I take this opportunity to ask him, “I am Novice 1 now with Parry. It looks like I have been making about ten percent of the parries, which is the max I could make at Basic level. Your skill is much higher than mine, so shouldn’t I be failing more?”

“That is correct, but as your instructor I can fight at a lower level to allow you to learn faster. Otherwise, I could strike you down in an instant, and you would not learn much from that.”

“Ok, that makes sense.”

After lunch, the Captain renews the spells on me, and continues to strike me repeatedly with a fire dart, deep into the evening hours. The Captain suddenly stops casting and says “That is enough for tonight.” I collapse to my knees, shaking and shivering uncontrollably. The Captain dispassionately watches me and asks if I want to stop training. I try to get a grip on myself, force myself to look at him, and practically spit out a “No!”.

The Captain smiles faintly and says to meet him at the same time tomorrow. I pull myself together after the Captain leaves and walk slowly toward the bath house. Hopefully a long hot shower will help. As I am walking not really paying much attention, someone grabs my shoulder and start to whip around. A dagger immediately materializes in my hand from the inventory. I recognize Cal as I pull up short and start apologizing profusely. Cal drags me back to his place, pushes me down in a chair in this study, and runs inside. He is back in a minute with a steaming mug, which has an unusual aroma. It smells like vanilla, roses, green tea, and lemons. He tells me drink it all. I take a sip and then a bigger one. It is strange, but the liquid seems to disappear before it reaches the back of my throat. As I finish the mug, I see a notification indicating I am under the effect of Iron Will, and I immediately feel better.

“Thanks.” I quietly say while handing the mug back to Cal.

“No problem, but you should be taking one of these potions before each training session. That bastard didn’t even offer one, did he?”

“Who? The Captain? No.”

“He is over level hundred and is a legend for his brutal training regimen. It’s one the reasons his son went off to learn on his own.”

“The Captain said his son wanted to train on his own.”

“Well sure he did. Just imagine the Captain is your father and wants you to train from dawn to dusk without any potions, with the minimum of healing.”

I shudder just remembering the last few days with him. “I see what you mean.”

“You need to ask John to brew you up a potion each morning. The price of the potion will be more than worth it. Now what in the world are you training in and how did you convince the Captain to do it?”

“I am sorry, but I can’t say anything other than that I am paying him to train me.”

“He would cost a fortune to train you.”

“Like I said I can’t discuss it.”

Cal sighs, “Alright. How are you doing now?”

“A lot better, thanks.”

“I knew something was up as I watched you drag your sorry ass down the street. When I called out, you didn’t even hear me. Also, it was exciting when I gripped your shoulder. I thought you were going to skewer me.”

“Yes, sorry about that.” Blushing in embarrassment.

“No problem. Well, it looks like you need to get a shower. As your friend I have to say you need one.”

I feel myself blushing even deeper. “Great, you’re such a good friend.”

Cal laughs and pats me on the back. He takes a seat on the porch, and I left for the bath house. A long hot shower helps me feel a lot better. As I enter the Tavern, I greet John and look around. The other group is not present. I ask John if they have come back yet. John indicates they are still out hunting wolves. “This is a good time to ask you to start brewing up an Iron Will potion for me each morning.” I say.

John leans on the bar and says. “I can do that, but it’s going to cost four silvers, since you wiped out the ones I had on hand. Now I will have to brew up more.”

“Alright. Can you have one for me tomorrow morning?” Holding out four silvers.

“Sure, that won’t be a problem.” He says making the silver disappears.

“How about a wolf steak tonight if you still have some?”

“I can do that. Be right back.” He pulls a cold foaming mug from under the bar before entering the kitchen. It is so tempting to peek under the bar to see where he gets these ales from. John returns in a minute with a beautifully seared steak with roasted potatoes and greens. It is so good. Every now and then I still think about home, but the food here is so much better. Maybe it’s the magic. In between bites, I ask John if there is any other way to increase my Stealth while I am training. I don’t see myself getting free to try his other suggestion with the Gnoll.

He looks at me considering, “You could spend money on the problem.”

“Oh? How would I do that and would you be the recipient of the money?”

John laughs, “Not in this case. You can increase your Stealth while training with the Captain.”

I raise an eyebrow, “How is that possible?”

“Well, I admit is looks funny when you are watching it. If he turns away, you can enter Stealth. He would face away, then you would stealth. When he turns back, he will penetrate your stealth. It sounds easy, but you will of course be in a lot of pain. Trying to focus on parrying and entering stealth is a mental strain. It is also harder on the teacher, timing everything and maximizing your time in stealth. The Captain will charge you more, but I am not sure how much. It will also slow down your skill progression in Parry some.”

“Hmmm, sounds like it is worth discussing with the Captain.”

We both turn to the door when the other group enters the Tavern. They halt upon seeing us. They are all at level three now and look a little worse for wear. I turn to John and wish him good night. The group slowly heads to a table, calling for food and ale. John has given me a lot of things to consider as I settle for the night. I need to get to bed early tonight. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be even harder.

I slowly open my eyes and check my internal clock. Still a few minutes until my alarm time. I get up and go to the bath house for a hot shower. I wave to John on my way down. I wonder if he ever sleeps. For a mere five coppers, a hot shower and laundered clothes make me feel like a new person. I get some breakfast with John. After that he hands me a potion of Iron Will. I drink the nasty concoction and ask. “Why is your potion so disgusting, but Cal’s was much better?”

“Probably a different recipe. I am guessing he did not offer more either because he did not have more ingredients or it is too expensive for you to purchase.”

I grunt as my stomach settles and I see the timer on Iron Will reset to twelve hours as it was still in effect from last night. I wish John a good morning and make my way over to the barrack enjoying the cool morning air. The sun begins to light the sky to the east. I pause for a moment realizing I have just been assuming the sun is rising in the east. I check my map quickly and the compass does indicate the sun is rising in the east. I am going to have to be more careful not to make assumptions. This one turns out to not be bad, but there is no telling what may get me killed. At the barracks, I find the Captain slipping another steaming mug. I talk to him about the suggestion John had on increasing my stealth. The Captain listened impassively as I described the idea. Then he surprises me by a deep belly laugh, nearly spilling his drink before he recovers.

“What, it’s not possible?” I ask.

As his laughter subsides, he chuckles. “Not at all. I was just laughing about finally meeting someone even more crazy about training than I was at your age.”

“Oh.”

“We can do that, but it will cost you fifteen gold a day, so forty more gold for the rest of the week.”

I hand the gold over and he leads me to the back of the barrack to begin our practice. There are five swords staked into the sand. He gestures for me to pick one up. We discuss the sequence, which will be stealth, parry fire dart as a spell, stealth, and parry fire dart with a sword. We proceed with that until lunch. I check my stats while we eat lunch in companionable silence. My Parry is now in Beginner and my Stealth has jumped several levels.

We get up and dust ourselves off. I pick up my third sword. These swords have high durability, but low damage to make them last longer. We continue until dinner. I must admit it does look funny watching the Captain turn in place to allow me time to enter stealth in between fire darts. I hit the showers at the bath house before entering the Tavern for an early dinner. I finish before the group returns from their hunting for the day. I settle into bed and I try to relax before falling into a dreamless sleep.