Zortex increased his pace trying to find Jake and Tobi. The building had plenty of corridors and rooms, so it was difficult to follow someone after losing visual contact. His hearing also was of no help because there were plenty of people talking in many of rooms. Even in the middle of the night it was a busy center.

After a while he gave up with the chase. It was not worth the trouble and there were plenty of other people he could spy on. He had crossed a few NPC and even more ‘travelers’ while roaming. They just gave him a weird look after noticing his appearance, but he had passed by them before they could ask any questions. Often to avoid a conversation you just had to look too busy.

“Come, the common lesson about spears is about to start. I don’t want to lose the beginning like the one for swords.” Zortex heard a girl say to her friend at the end of the corridor. This is interesting. I was thinking about swords, but it could be useful for now to check how any training begins. I don’t have money to find a personal instructor, so I have to rely on the common ones for now. Zortex started to follow the pair to see what happened.

Two minutes later he reached a big hall where there were many people talking and the sounds of fighting, thus he had to use one more layer of cloth on his ears to smudge the noise. He decided to enter despite the crowd, otherwise if he just kept going around the more silent zones he would accomplish nothing all night. The room was well lighted with plenty of crystals, so he added one more layer of cloth also to his eyes. He could feel his surroundings well enough even subduing his senses so much. His head was starting to ache again, so he needed to keep himself comfortable for a while. From what he could understand from his first impression, this could be one of those facilities open to anyone. On the sides there were plenty of dummies with people hitting them and trying some moves. In the central part there were three large platforms where people were having duels. At first sight, everyone in there was a traveler like himself.

Probably most of these people are on their trial training to get a class. Probably some haven’t decided which style of fighting they would specialize in, so they are following general lessons to get a feeling. Some others had some lesson for free from the trainers and then came here to continue the practice and challenge each other to improve their moves.

Zortex felt a lot of regret at the moment. If everything had gone as he had planned he would have been here at the beginning of his trial, bonding with the people around him and having fun. Or maybe his competitive nature would have resulted in him being hated. Both cases were preferable to what he went through. He had been alone for eight months and now that he has arrived he was not even able to hold a conversation. Again he opened his mouth trying to say something, but the sense of dread urged him to shut up and hide himself somewhere quiet.

Jake and Tobi were not around. Probably still looking for a coach or starting their first lesson somewhere else. Zortex had no money yet, so he had to do with what he had around. Anyway everything he had built up until now was done without help. Maybe he could start getting familiar with the weapons just by looking at the others and copying them, without the need of a teacher. The thought of talking to an NPC was almost as scary as talking to a real person.

Everybody else was using the wooden weapons which were stacked on the walls. At the beginning of AoL the only useful item for attack is the knife, so to train, people have to borrow the weapons around here. To make it safer the items are made of wood instead of metal, even though for noobs during their trial it doesn’t matter because they cannot be killed. Also wood was cheaper.

Zortex walked to the wall and found himself in a dilemma. What kind of spear should he use? There were many of different lengths and some different shapes. He always wanted to be a swordsman, but this was a spear course, so he had to adapt for now. He was a Shadow Slime Warrior, but he still didn’t know exactly the fighting style of such class. 'Warrior' was a general term, which did not imply any particular weapon. Maybe spears were more useful to him than a sword. Later he would need to analyze all options after trying many different weapons. His Spirit Stat was the highest he had, showing a propensity for magic, but it was obvious he was not focused only in that direction. Truth be told, in his last level ups his other stats increased the most, meaning that while fighting he was using more a physical warrior style. But the truth was that he hadn’t really fought as in an RPG game. Throwing rocks and kicks are things from the real World.

What kind of warrior should I be? My body is quite resistant to physical attacks thanks to my slime constitution, so a tank type would be counterproductive. Wearing heavy armor would nullify the advantage of my slime body, especially if my propensity into using slimification keeps improving. Choosing archery is out of question. I hate it and I don’t think it would match me. I need some experience in different branches and from there I will have to develop a fighting style all of my own.

Zortex started walking up and down across the walls. There were weapons of all kinds and dimensions. Sometime he would stop to pick one up, move it around, and then put it back.

Zortex picked up a wooden spear which fit nicely in his hand and sat down in a corner of the hall, as far away as possible from the others. Many people had started looking at him and he was feeling the anxiety rising up from all that attention. He tried to hide his head as much as possible within the hood of his cloak. Most of them were wearing the noobish brown clothes, so he was really peculiar with his attire and the metal sword at his side. People could suspect that these were not his first days, so they would grow curious as to why he had just arrived here. Even though the hood was up covering a bit his face, some people still noticed the bandages covering his head. There was some whispering, but luckily for now nobody came to him trying to have a conversation. Zortex was really glad about it and he started to look around himself to observe the ones present in the room. There were around 30 persons mostly divided in groups of two or three, probably friends from other virtual Worlds which had decided to try this one together. Most people had just arrived here in the last few days, so they didn’t have time to bond with other new groups. His attention was caught by a group of guys looking at him and talking to each other. His blood froze when he saw them moving in his direction, but tonight he was in luck. Just in that moment the instructor entered and everyone looked at her. She was a tall middle-age woman wearing a leather armor, black pants and black boots. She had a plain face and the color of her short hair was black. On her back she was carrying 2 spears crossing each other. She stepped on a platform and started speaking to the audience.

“Tonight is my turn to train you guys. I see quite a few new faces, so it will be more productive than usual. I am Judith and in my experience you travelers are idiots. You have been sent by the Gods to aid us, so you think you can conquer the World with a sweep of your hands. The truth is that you suck. Maybe a couple of you in this room will be able to hold a spear by the end of the month, but most of you will get out of this building thinking to have learned everything you need, however you will just to die right after leaving the city. Luckily for you the Gods always bring you back to life”

At least she sounds like one of those military instructors that show up in the movies. There are some people grinning as if they expected the speech. Probably they are the one that have been here before or the ones arrogant enough to not believe her. Luckily I have lost all my arrogance, otherwise If I had listened this talk right after entering AoL I would have also laughed at her.

“If you listen to me and train as I say, some of you will become at least useful in the fight to defend humankind, fulfilling the job given to you by the Gods. If not, I suggest you to move to those weaklings in the Wizard’s tower. At least all of you travellers have the gift to learn spells.”

Does this means that there are NPC unable to use magic? Maybe that’s why normal people use magic crystals. I thought it was just because not everyone had the time or money to learn spells. This is something useful to know.

“Today, like last time, you will learn about balance. Most of you expected to learn how to stab things and use special skills, but to a spearman the most important thing is balance. Everything else will come later. Now I will pair you and you will try to trip your adversary. I will show you the stances to avoid that. When you will learn how not to fall on your asses you will be allowed to hold a weapon.”

Fuck it! She wants to pair us. I have nobody to pair with and apparently I cannot just skip this session and get to the next one. Better if I leave now and try to find the sword training. Fuck! I took the farthest corner from the entrance. What an idiot I was, I cut myself from the only way out. Now everyone is in between, and my exit would not go unnoticed.

While Zortex was panicking the instructor moved through the room choosing couples based on gender and body shape. Zortex valued the possibility to slimify himself to get out, but it was too late also for that. Judith arrived in front of him and looked at his face. Contrary to his expectations she just raised an eyebrow and told him to follow her. She brought him in front another guy and then she moved on to make another pair.

Zortex looked at the person in front of him. They were the same height and same body structure….average and average. He had white skin, short brown hair and a short beard. His eyes were a dark brown and looked back at him, slightly widened from Zortex's look. Not much different than how he looked like when he entered Endless.

For sure I make quite a scene now. I probably look like a mummy with all this bandages. If people were to find me in a crypt they would attack me thinking that I am an undead. Should I say something? Can I actually say something? I haven’t prepared any line for a situation like this, so I will just shut up and do my part. I’m not here to make friends anyway. Not anymore.

“Ehm…Hi, I’m Jake. I entered AoL two days ago. Nice to meet you” his companion presented himself after the initial shock faded. He was holding out an hand for him to shake. Zortex said nothing and did nothing.

His name is Jake. If I see again one of the previous two guys I will have to change his fake name.

“Can you hear me?” Jake said.

Zortex gave him a small nod without emitting a sound.

“Why are you wearing that weird stuff?”

Again silence from Zortex’s side.

“Oh. So you have to cover yourself and you are not allowed to speak. Looking at your attire you don’t seem to have just arrived in this World. Are you doing a quest?”

Zortex nodded again, even though it was not true. The best solution was to make others believe that he was doing something special which required him to hide his face and not talk. They would leave him alone hopefully.

“But why are you here if you cannot see anything? We are supposed to work in pairs, but you cannot do anything with your eyes all covered like that.”

…

“Right….you cannot speak. Well, sorry pal but I want someone I can train seriously with. I have to put effort in my trial month if I want to get a nice class. After that I can relax, but right now I need a serious partner.”

Zortex watched him go away to meet Judith who meanwhile had almost finished matching people. They talked for 30 seconds before coming back. He could not hear their conversation over the volume of the other people speaking, but he didn’t need to. It was quite obvious what went on. They both looked at him and walked back his way.

When Judith was three meters from him she picked a small dagger from a belt around her hips and tossed it where he was standing. Zortex had been tense since getting out from the old abandoned building, paranoid in being under attack at every corner. The moment he saw her hand moving to the belt, his sense of alarm increased and he prepared himself to dodge and run away as fast as possible. When the attack actually happened he threw himself to the side and rolled a couple of times. Right afterwards he looked up to analyze the best way to escape as fast as possible and to avoid any other attack, but nothing happened. The coach slowly walked to pick up the dagger which had stuck to the wall behind the previous position of Zortex.

“See. I told you he could see us. He has been keeping an eye on me since I entered. He was actually the only one prepared to fight me. All of you guys just accepted my presence as if obvious and unthreatening, but that’s not how things work around here. You may be immortal during the Gods’ trial, but get used to fact that here people fight and die” Judith said.

Zortex stayed silent and was still ready to bolt for the exit at the first trace of hostility to him. He understood what happened, but he was not sure yet how this was going to end. Judith slowly raised a hand making the number two.

“How many fingers?” She asked and Zortex replied showing the same amount of fingers. She repeated the gesture three more times with different numbers and then she was done after Zortex replied successfully.

“Don’t make me lose any more time” she said to Jake punching him on the shoulder, and then moved on to finish the pairing.

Zortex felt awful. Now all the attention was on him after the show between him and the trainer. Every person in the room was looking at him and whispering. The pressure on his mind was overwhelming and he was on the verge of running away and hide alone somewhere silent. Luckily for him coach Judith once again called everyone’s attention back to herself now that the pairing was done.

“Ok, now everyone look at me! Assume this stance and try to push or pull the other person to the ground. Get a good look at my feet, how opened are my legs and how bent are my knees. Try to move forward and backward without losing the stance and after that you can start the competition between the two of you. I will move around correcting the dumbest of you guys.”

Zortex paid particular attention to the positions and movement of the coach. His bandages worked as really strong sunglasses, but of course their quality was not the same. There were imperfections in the texture of the cloth, so even though he could still see around, he would have preferred to do it with free eyes. Of course that would be impossible, so he focused on his eyes and moved a few steps to get the best view he could.

Maybe if I get the money I can hire a personal instructor who can teach me in the dark. That would be useful. Zortex thought. He tried to imitate the instructor and noticed that it was not as simple as it looked. The position felt weird and moving was troublesome and he was uncoordinated. At least he could see that other people were having the same troubles as him, so he didn’t get dispirited. After a few minutes Judith called a stop to the practicing and started the competition between the pairs.

Jake came in front of him and looked embarrassed. “Sorry about before, but how could I know that you can see around? You cannot talk and how is it even possible to see under all those layers of cloth? Are they a special item?”

Zortex slightly shook his head. “Is it a spell or…a special ability?” Jake asked.

Zortex nodded, even though it was not a skill you could get from the game unless you were stupid enough to torture yourself for months.

“Nice. Can you help me get the same ability?”

Zortex shook his head. Maybe I can throw him in that dark room if he doesn’t stop talking. If he is stupid enough to emulate me he could get the same ability. Too bad that the spot as first ‘Shadow Slime Warrior’ is already taken by me.

“Well, maybe sometime in the future you will change your mind and share it with me. You know that the best way to success is to get nice connections. You help me with that and I will help you with something else. By the way, what is your name? I know you cannot speak, but I bet that you can write it on the floor.”

My name. It has been so long since I said it out loud, that even in my mind it has become irrelevant. Matthew still remembers me as Zortex and so does my family. Khira too, but who knows where did she go after entering Endless. She never told us, but for sure she was not interested in RPG lifestyle. Anyone else is irrelevant and probably I have already been forgotten anyway. I am not the same person as before….so much changed. I am but the shadow of what I once was. It is even the first word of my class title.

Zortex was silent for a while before coming to a decision.

Yes, from now on I will be a Shadow looming behind the ones who wronged me or will wrong me. I have to live in the shadows due to my arrogance and in the shadows I will thrive and get back tenfold what I had to suffer, until I get my redemption or I go crazy.

Zortex kneeled and with his finger spelled the word ‘SHAD’ on the ground.