Chapter 2

The village of Draklake was beautiful, a truly marvellous existence. For the young boy, the scenery around him was mind blowing.

The village lacked houses that were made of logs and the sort. Each and every building in the village was made of some kind of high quality stones. All the buildings had been decorated with great works of art. From the door to the windows panes had intricate designs carved on them.

‘Village of the dragon riders eh. No wonder the village has sculptures of dragon all around. Must be nice to live here.’

Shiv then moved forward in the search of his destination, the tall red building. On his way looking for it, he came across a fountain with a dragon sculpture in the middle. The sculpture of the dragon was so mesmerizing that Shiv almost forgot his mission. He was brought back from his thoughts by a now familiar sound.

“Trrrng”

‘Now what’, Shiv was slightly agitated. But the agitation was short lived. What the notification box in front of him showed was something incredible.

You have discovered a masterpiece: The Fountain of Elixir

Sculpted by the legendary sculpture Penkorth to honor the True God, Oberon!!!! The sculpture is made of high grade ivory and is regarded as one of the wonders of the world. The water flowing is believed to have mystical powers!

For enjoying one of the marvels of the world:

+20 to all stats for 5 hours

+5 to STR, STA, AGI, LUCK

+100 fame

‘Sweet Jesus! This village is a treasure trove! Guhuhuhu, the God truly favours me! Thank you Oberon, you are the best!’

Shiv then continued to search for his destination eagerly, he hoped that the red building would also give some sort of blessing or strong weapons.

“What is that creature?”

“He is so fair, not like us.”

“A monster?”

“It’s a human, a human has come to our village!”

Shiv could hear the whispers of the villagers. He did not mind them for he knew that it was a natural reaction after all. When Shiv had first met the guards, he too was cautious and surprised. So he let the villagers be and kept searching.

It did not take him much time to find the building he was looking for. The red building was a couple of blocks from the fountain. And it was just like the guard had said, a fiery red building that was at least five storeys tall, like all the other buildings in the village this too had dragon art all over.

‘Is this really a village? With these many tall and huge buildings shouldn’t it be a city?’ even though Shiv had his doubts he could not ask anyone.

Even if he wanted to, he was sure that none of the villagers would answer him. While walking through the village, he also noticed that the villagers did not have any tattoos. ‘So the common people have none eh.’ he made a mental note and the approached the red building.

The front door itself was huge, almost twice of Shiv’s height and had letters scribbled on it. Shiv tried to read the inscription but failed miserably. ‘What language is this?’ the letters were of an unknown language. Since he could not read it, Shiv then tried knocking on the door.

‘Knock Knock’

Like the huge size was nothing but like an illusion, the door opened on Shiv’s touch. Shiv panicked a bit, but gathered his courage and walked in to a small room. In front of him were a table and a chair. On the chair sat a person with his hands supporting his chin. The man was glaring at Shiv, his eyes bloodshot, even the darkness of the room could not hide those eyes. Shiv could feel the intensity of the glare, he felt being stripped naked by the pressure.

“You, what have you come here for, human?” the man asked, his voice was so commanding Shiv had cold sweats trickling all over him.

Shiv moved forward, slowly, not want to do anything reckless. He then extended his right hand which was holding the parchment that Barin had given.

The strange man looked at Shiv, and then at the parchment. And out of nowhere a hand grabbed Shiv’s wrist. The man was already by Shiv’s side, and the letter already taken. The movements of the unknown man were so fast that Shiv never even saw him getting off his seat, let alone see the man’s hand. Shiv felt fear for the first time in a long while, he knew that one wrong move and death would accompany him.

For a while the room remained silent. Shiv could feel the man’s gaze on his right hand. This feeling made him guess that his tattoo was being examined.

But in the next moment the strange man had a 180 degree change in his attitude. Laughing aloud, the man put his shoulder around Shiv as if the two were best buddies reunited after a long time. Shiv was startled, he couldn’t make head and tails of the situation and so he kept quiet, expecting the man to talk.

“You pass boy. We will start your training shortly.” The man merrily shouted at Shiv.

‘Eh!! Training? What just happened?’ Shiv was confused, he again extended the parchment.

“You no longer need that. Keep it or throw it. Trivial things aside, introduce yourself, boy”. The man was still smiling. He seemed like a different man.

‘I have a bad feeling about this guy. I wanna go home!’, even though his instincts warned him to leave, Shiv replied to the man.

“I am Shiv, a traveller. I was sent by Barin to tra…”, before Shiv could complete, he was interrupted.

“Shiv, from now on you will be under personal supervision, be honoured for I am Thorwin, battle guide and the grand master of the Academy of warfare.”

‘Wait wait wait! Battle guide? Academy of warfare? Is this not a simple training hall?’, Shiv felt his head splitting due to the speed at which events were unfolding before him. ‘Moments ago, he was glaring at me and now he wants to train me? Just what is this development.’

When Shiv hear Barin talk about a battle guide, Shiv had guessed the red building to be a training hall. Before the launch of the games, Shiv had tried to collect as much information as he could from the online forums and other game related sites. The forums had clearly mentioned about training halls that helped newbies pick up some fighting experience. Never once was there a talk about an Academy of warfare, not even in one of the forums. Shiv was not sure whether he should believe the guy or not, but he was sure that he had no other option but to accept the man’s offer.

“The academy has three branches. Each branch focuses on 3 entirely different aspects of warfare. I will be teaching you fighting techniques, that is the physical part of warfare. You will be taught about magic and strategies of warfare by those who excel in those fields. That is all for basic introduction. From now on, you shall address me as master. Any questions?”

“Yes master” Shiv was hesitant.

“What?”

“Master I only have 10 days for my training. The Naiads….” he trailed off.

“Do not worry, 10 days are more than enough. We will pound into your head everything we know with all our might in those six days. Look forward to it, young human” replied Thorwin with a gentle smile. But there was nothing gentle about the words that were spoken. Shiv could read ‘I am going to torture you to my heart’s content’ in those shinning eyes.

Gulp! ‘Curse you Oberon, curse you’. Shiv who had been wholeheartedly praising the dragon god was now cursing the same being. Little did he know that this was only the beginning! After all this place was Draklake, the village of hope or despair.

He followed Thorwin accepting his cursed faith. ‘Now I understand why everything here gave huge bonuses.’

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The duo had been walking for some time now. Shiv wanted to ask where he was being taken, but he then decided against it. The guy beside him seemed to occupied to notice Shiv’s worries.

Shiv looked around the corridor. It was too narrow, yet it was spacious enough to allow two persons to walk side by side. The corridor being badly lit caused Shiv to stumble once in a while, but the other guy paid no heed.

After what seemed like an eternity to the poor boy, the two stopped before a junction, with the path being separated in to two.

Taking the left one, Thorwin walked in front, with Shiv following behind. Once again the two stopped, but this time it was in front of a door.

Thorwin opened the door and gestured Shiv to get in.

Shiv nodded his head at his master and then walked in. Inside was a very spacious hall. Shiv’s eyes which had already adjusted to the dark, scouted the hall carefully. On the left was an armoury with all the weapons that existed in the world, to the right were dummies of different size and at the centre the, just a bed.

“You will be trained here for the next few days. Your body and mind will be disciplined. Only then can you truly be powerful. Do not leave this room until I say so. Food and water shall be provided to you here.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. Then let me tell you what you will be doing here. Starting from now, you will swing the wooden sword for 4 continuous hours. Once that is done, then hit the dummies bare handed for 3 hours followed with hitting the dummies for another 3 hours, this time with the sword. You will be given 2 hours of rest for eating and sleeping. Repeat this for the next two days. That’s all. Begin.”

Shiv’s jaws dropped. This was slavery. ‘That’s all my ass’ was what he wanted to say, but he replied with a nod.

“Great. Since you don’t have to worry about food and all, train to your heart’s content. If you complete this training you will be given a weapon of your choice. If you complete it, that is”. Thorwin gave the same cold smile that he gave earlier and then slowly walked out of the room and closed the door.

Shiv once again looked around the room which was going to be his home for 2 days, then picked up the sword and started his training.

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