"Hmmm... From what I've seen earlier, and your stance right now, I can tell that you are pretty good, but you shouldn't underestimate me. I'm still a level four Cityguard. And my Skill levels aren't bad either!", Garry said.

At first, that didn't sound very impressive, but that was just because Victoria was already thinking on a much grander scale. But for now, even with her talent, Victoria had eleven points in all stats. Garry on the other hand had already been in the new World for some time. If he had been here for three to six months, his Wave level alone gave him twelve points in all stats. In addition, he also had four levels worth of stat points, probably in his physical stats.

Since only those would matter in this spar, he had almost fifty percent higher stats than her. Just in terms of stats, he was vastly superior, and the same definitely went for his Skills, giving him the advantage in both.

But that didn't mean Victoria would just accept losing. It totally wasn't because she was a bad loser, she just liked winning.

It was rather simple, while she was fairly familiar with her opponent weapon, the same couldn't be said the other way around. Rather, Garry was probably thinking they were fighting spear versus spear. But to Victoria, the two-and-a-half meter long staff, was a lot more than just a spear.

Garry charged in. His long spear securely in his hands and aimed directly for Victoria's chest.

Victoria stepped forward, the tip of her spear drawing a tight circle in the air to catch and fling away her opponent's weapon.

With Garry's weapon out of the way, all Victoria had to do was to stab forward, 'impaling' Garry through his stomach.

"Guh!", Garry groaned: "How the hell are you so good? All my spear Skills are around level forty damn it!"

Victoria had been surprised herself, but she had already an idea: "I guess it's because I was taught in the old world by a good teacher. While you trained by yourself as a hunter in the new world."

"What do you mean? A level forty Skill is supposedly on the same level as someone who trained since a young age!"

"Well, first of all, I have actually been training since I was young.", she didn't need to mention that she was going to official training only once a month for a few years already. The second reason was probably the more important one anyway: "Secondly, I was trained for anti-personnel combat, while your spearmanship is meant to be used against demons."

It was what Andrew had mentioned when he explained Skills. That the intent behind learning a Skill was what decided in which direction the Skill would go. It was something good to know, else she might have just trained like normal and ended up being weak against certain types of enemies because her Skills were too specialized.

"Isn't it good that we both can still learn something from each other?"

Well, she would still win though. Victoria was definitely not bad at losing, nope, definitely not.

Again, both of them took their stances. Slowly, they walked closer to each other, closing the distance between them until they were only a single step out of the other's reach, the shafts of their spears crossing in the middle, pressing against each other, fighting to push each other out of the way.

To the people around them, it probably looked like they were just standing still, looking into each other's eyes, but their spears were fighting for dominance.

In this kind of situation, the spears acted as very long levers, almost entirely nullifying Garrys strength advantage. At the same time, Victoria knew how to deal with this.

With practiced ease, she lowered her spear. Garry, now no longer encountering a counterforce on his speartip, completely overshot his aim. Not wasting the opportunity, Victoria stepped forward, her spear aiming straight at Garry's chest.

Unlike what she had expected, she didn't hit. Just before the hit connected, Garry let go of his weapon with one hand, using it to push aside Victoria's spear, causing it to go wide.

At the same time, his spear came in from the right in a onehanded sideways sweep. Not a move that would have been viable in the old world. In this place though, Victoria had to consider it as a danger.

Luckily, the sweep was a wide one as it needed some space to build up momentum, giving Victoria enough time, to step forward, let the speartip drop to the ground and lift the backend up, intersecting with the sweep with the loud *Clack* of wood on wood.

Both of them pulled their weapons back, now gripping them a lot shorter than before since both were in each other's range.

Garry went for another stab, this time, feinting for a stab to the head, before changing his target to her legs.

Victoria recognized the feint for what it was, only reacting to the real attack. She used the butt-end of the spear to make a sweeping motion in front of her legs, simultaneously preparing to smash the other end of her staff on his head.

With the spear out of the way, she took a step forward, bringing the tip of her weapon down on her opponent's head, stopping just so that she didn't hit him.

"Urgh. One last time. We are distracting the others and I also have my duties.", Garry said.

Both of them went back to their positions. Victoria threw the longer staff down, picking up the shorter one instead and gripping it with both hands on one end, holding it like a sword.

At about one and a half meters, it had about the proportions of a greatsword, putting her at a disadvantage in terms of reach. But there wasn't much she could do if she wanted to get as many weapon Skills as possible.

She got into her stance and lifted the hilt a bit over her head, letting the sword tip fall down to the height of her hips. A hanging guard.

Garry starts walking to the left, slowly circling around Victoria, forcing her to turn in his direction. At the same time, he starts harassing her with quick stabs, constantly switching between high and low while also changing the angle, preventing her from stepping forward.

For now, Victoria couldn't do much but wait. Because of her shorter weapon, she would have to take two steps to get into striking range, meanwhile, Garry would only need to take one.

After a while, Garry had finally enough of the stalemate, took a decisive step forward, stabbing at her legs, the least guarded part of her body.

With some help of her Dancing Skill, she stabbed down, spun around to push the spear aside, and completed the rotation in one smooth movement, swinging her weapon with the momentum of her entire body at Garry.

Only in the last moment did she redirect her weapon, making it swing just over Garry's head.

"Tsk, lost again. Let's spar again once the Wave is over. I have to get back to work now.", Garry said his goodbyes.

"Of course, thanks for the spar.", Victoria agrees.

One-and-a-half hour, and several brave souls later, Garry and another guard Victoria hadn't seen yet went around and gathered the people.

A few minutes later, the crowd had gathered in front of a small podium guarded by Garry and his colleague. On top of it, stood an imposing woman, completely covered in full-plate armor and with a large, twohanded, dual-bladed war-ax on her back.

For about a minute, she waited. But when the crowd didn't look like it would calm down any time soon, she quickly lost her patience.

"SILENCE!!", her voice boomed. It was so loud that Victoria's ears were almost ringing. Had she amplified it with Aura? It was an idea she should keep in mind.

"My name is Sophia Klein. It's Commander Klein for all of you! As all of you should have heard already, the fort will get attacked by a horde of demons in two days' time. I can tell that half of you don't believe this, and another half thinks we will protect you. But let me tell you this, you are wrong. The demons will come, and the only protection you have, are your own abilities."

A few voices spoke up, complaining about various things, but the Commander simply drowned them out by increasing the volume of her voice once more: "Let me be honest with you. You have a lot of opinions right now, I'm sure about that. But I don't care.

If I listen to all of your complaints, we will all be dead before we are even halfway through.

There are still two days left, but tomorrow, we will need all hands on deck to prepare the fort. That's why today is the last day to prepare you! And for that, you have to risk your lives, and at least one out of ten won't survive the day!"

Even more people spoke up at that. But Commander Klein just talked over them again.

"What? You thought this is all fun and games? That's nothing against the casualties we will have in two days. Oh, and don't even try to run away, you won't survive a single day out in the wild.

Once I'm done here, you will be put into teams of three people each, be given proper weapons, and then go out and kill a demon. Once you are back, I want every single person to be level one.

Shawn here,", she points at Garry's partner, "will organize the rest. Listen to him.

That's all I have to say!", the Commander finishes her speech as she steps down from the platform.

Only a few seconds later, the first people start to speak up again, loudly complaining, asking questions, or making demands from the guard that was stepping up now.

"I TOLD YOU LISTEN!", the Commander's voice sounds out one more time, louder than ever before.

Silence reigns for a few seconds.

"Ahem. There are still a few things that need explaining.", Shawn finally broke the silence. "First of all, the reason we want you to be at level one is so that your stats are higher for the Wave. Especially, we want you to increase your endurance. Those few who have unlocked their Aura won't need that, but for everyone else, it's most important that you can keep going as long as possible. And having more endurance will go a long way for that.

Secondly, how and what you should hunt. As you are in groups of three, you will have to hunt demons on level three at least. When one or more people kill a demon, its levels will be distributed to everyone who contributed to the kill and you earn experience worth the level squared. That's why it has to be at least level three. Also, try to find an opponent under level six. You might be able to kill them, but the risk isn't worth it and you won't have anything to show for it.

The reason is simple, the people who made your weapons are also considered contributors. While everyone who directly participated in the battle gets at least one level worth of exp, all of you have low Skill levels and you can't strengthen your weapon with Aura, so most of the levels will go to the blacksmiths who made your weapons.

Now then! Let's get you sorted into groups!"