Jake looked to the ground and nodded. “So your name is Shad” he said holding out an hand once again for him to shake. Zortex made no move with his body. Nothing had changed since before, he wasn’t here to make friends and he would not accept any attempt from other people. Friends are only good for betrayals, so he would not accept any of them until he was sure that he could defend himself. For now Pravin was enough. Speaking of his pet reminded him that he could now summon him again. After a little bit of consideration he determined that it wasn’t yet the time to call him back. Although in the city there were other people with pets of their own, it was not that common to bring them around. A slime would look weird going around, and most importantly, he would attract attention on him. That made him feel guilty, considering how much he owed Pravin for saving his life, but he decided that was for the best, and he would make up for him with a lot of food next time they would be together

“Not that social eh?” Jake said retracting his hand and then having face full of inspiration. “Is this also part of your Quest?” he asked expectantly. Shad nodded even though it was bullshit.

“So you cannot show your face, or talk, or interact with other people in any social way….I wonder what kind of reward you will get if you succeed. I wouldn’t go that far just for money, so it must be a special skill that you will get at the end. Maybe the ability to communicate with telepathy or the ability to disappear in the middle of a crowd. Will you tell me when you will be done?”

Zortex nodded again just to make him shut up. Anyway he would not see the guy anymore when he would be done here, and he had no intention to socialize before then.

Jake and Zortex started this kind of weird sparring of pushing and pulling. At the beginning he was scared of touching another human being, but soon he got over it. Fighting was a much more familiar thing than talking. Of course it was different than catching slimes, but still it was a struggle between two contestants trying to beat each other. At the start they were equally bad in what they were doing, but after some time Zortex got the upper hand dropping Jake eight out of ten times. To be honest he had also better stats compared to his adversary since he had the opportunity to reach level eight and most of the others were level one. Having more than thrice the amount of Strength didn’t mean he was three times as strong as them, however it still gave him an edge he could make use of. Judith passed by them a couple of times, but she said nothing to him, just correcting Jake’s posture a little. During the sparring a few new travelers arrived, but they were told to wait for the next session of the lesson or just watch and train without disturbing.

After an hour she called a stop to the practice and switched pairs to balance the ability of the matches. This time Zortex found himself in front of a small guy more than ten centimeters shorter than him. Luckily before leaving, Jake told the new adversary that Zortex’s name was Shad and that he could not talk due to a quest, so the new guy just presented himself as Zack and then said nothing else. The new bout started and Zortex found himself in trouble. After getting used to contending with someone the same height as himself the stature of Zack was giving him problems. For the first 15 minutes he found himself losing seventy percent of times. It was infuriating, but he didn’t give up and by the end of the one hour practice he was back to a solid draw.

His next opponent was a big dude two meters tall, probably chosen to train him to get used to larger adversaries. Zortex was extremely thankful that he didn’t have to contend with any female. Although the majority of people here were men, there was still some risk. He would have probably fainted or vomited because of the tension if he had to touch a girl. Or maybe he would have embarrassed himself in some other way. Zortex remembered the moment he came out of the sewers and heard a couple having sex in their house. Just the sounds had raised his animal instincts in a way he had never experienced before. Even just this fleeting thought was starting to get him aroused, so he decided to focus on the face of the guy in front of him, who didn’t look feminine at all. This time he was the one holding a slight advantage, and he kept it to the end even though he was not able to best his adversary easily. Also he noticed that the duration of a spar was steadily increasing compared to the beginning. Everyone was adjusting the stance and the body movements necessary to stay standing as long as possible, and it took longer and longer to drop the enemy to the ground.

When Judith called a stop she made a new selection, but she didn’t choose a new partner for everyone. Instead she picked up five people from the mix and told them to follow her on the other side of the hall. Zortex was one of them, and the others were three guys and a girl. Zack was one of them and the girl looked really cute with her round face and long brown hair.

“You five are the best ones out of this sorry batch, meaning that you don’t suck too much. Now go pick up the wooden spear that you prefer”

Finally some action with the spear. I was afraid that this training would end up like a Judo lesson.

“Ok, now that you are ready I will show you the first three katas. They are a series of movements that will help your coordination with the spear later on. The more you exercise the more they will be memorized by your muscles and the easier it will be to control your spears.”

Zortex watched her perform a series of weird movement with her feet and her torso holding a spear in a weird pattern. He could not understand how this would teach him to use the spear, but he kept watching. It lasted a whole minute and obviously he had forgotten all about it the moment she finished. She then started the second kata which looked even weirder than the first one. The movements were more elegant and sweeps of the spear were wider, it looked more like graceful dance rather than a fighting style. Zortex decided right away that he didn’t like it. Dancing had never attracted his attention and it would not start now. He knew that in the movies of old, the deadliest moves were portrayed as the most innocuous ones, but if there was any other option he would always choose the meanest looking one. For last, Judith made a kata which at first looked like the first one, but after looking at it for a bit Zortex noticed had a big difference. Judith was barely moving her feet, holding her position and focusing everything on the upper body movements.

“Well, you had your show. The first is the kata of Fire, for it will ignite your strength to hurt your enemies. The second is the kata of the Wind, for it will make you sweep the battle with speed and dexterity. The third is the kata of the Rock, for it will offer protection to those behind you.” Judith said.

They could have invented some better names instead of naming the styles after elements. For example they could have used names of animals or something else. The elements are already present in the spells. Zortex thoughts.

“The names are bullshit, but I didn’t invent them. The important part is that you understand the utility of each kata. Right now you may be wondering how those movements could be helpful during a fight, but you will see after you master them and try to fight each other. If you want something more sophisticated, then you must go to the personal tutors or even better if you find a great mentor. It is all on you. Just understand that no one worth mentioning would take you under his wing if you are not even able to perform these small katas perfectly.” Judith explained.

“Now everyone one peak up your spear and repeat what I have just shown you synchronizing with my movements”

For the next 45 minutes the trainer kept coaching the five of them in the kata of Fire. They were still far from mastering it, but by now they were almost remembering the whole sequence of motions. Zack in particular was excelling compared to the other four. Zortex was not the best, but not even the worst of the batch. At least now he had a way to focus his training on something which was not based on his suppositions. It had just become a way to put his efforts on something with a solid base, which would give nice results.

Judith had left them to practice by themselves to go check on the other travelers who were still training their balance position. The other four guys started talking between each other trying to make conversation, but when they tried to include him he just stayed silent. They were more than happy to leave him alone considering his looks. They had felt the need to speak with him because they had been grouped together and they wanted to be polite, but it was pretty clear what was actually going on. Each one of three guys wanted to hook up with the girl considering her pretty looks and she was trying to deflect their advances without looking rude. Zortex caught her looking back a few times to the crowd of people still training, probably looking for her boyfriend or friends to save her from the situation. Zortex thought it weird how they could not notice it, but he admitted that he had never been good at interacting with others, so he might be completely wrong.

Judith came back bringing three more guys and showed again the kata of Fire to the new arrivals. Then she kept going up and down correcting stances for the people training. The lesson went on for a while longer, with more and more people joining to train their katas, until Judith simply said stop.

“Ok newbies. For today I am done with you idiots. Some other trainer will take over now. Keep training with your katas and when you will be good enough maybe you will be able to hold a real spear without hurting yourselves.”

Zortex decided that it was also his time to leave, while everyone looked busy deciding what to do next. So much time in the spotlight had given him a bad headache and he was also super hungry. His stomach was growling and he would need to find a place where to cook and rest. If possible he would have liked a new abandoned building. The previous one was a bit too far from the center and he didn’t like the idea of walking through crowds for a long period of time. He also needed to look for new places to rob as he could not continue to be penniless forever. Still he felt good. Now he had clear objectives in mind, not far away conjectures. Today was good.