I stared in shock and awe at the open doors. At first, I thought that the wererats had somehow forced the doors open. However, I didn’t hear any sound of fighting from inside the dojo. Apparently, Kalistro left the doors open in contempt and defiance of the wererats and dared them to come inside. I didn't know if I should feel pride at the bravery of the grandmaster, or fear at his foolishness. We still didn't know how many wererats were in Tregome and here Kalistro was practically inviting them to his home!

Kalistra's eyes lit up at the sight of the doors and her tail dangled in the air.

Likewise, Maisen stood taller and a slight smirk appeared on her face.

"I must have joined the asylum," I muttered under my breath as I walked through the opened doorway. When I walked across the courtyard, I saw students, young and old, busy practicing swordplay. However, the usual wooden swords were now replaced with real swords with shiny, silvery blades. I shook my head at the sight of some two dozen silver swords being waved around the courtyard. From my previous gaming experience, silver weapons were much more expensive than normal ones. Each of these blades should sell for enough to money to buy at least two weeks’ worth of room and board at The Noble Lady. To have that many in storage and then to put them in the hands of mere students, this spoke to the grandmaster’s implicit confidence in his students’ honesty and Honor.

"Welcome back, young pup," Gurgne said as he stood to my left. "Should I kneel and kiss your hand?" he grinned.

I rolled my eyes as I shook my head.

"The grandmaster has been informed of the events of the Public Square. He thinks Ebenthal's gang will come here to destroy our dojo. That's why every student here is now holding at least a silver blade. We will defend the school with our lives!" Gurgne's jaws widened at the thought of the upcoming battle with the wererats. "Kalistro is waiting for you in front of the tool shed. It's behind the dojo on the left side," he reminded me.

"Yes, I remember," I nodded; I went there to get the mop and broom to clean up the mess I had made near the pond on my first day of "conditioning." I quickly jogged around the side of the dojo and saw that the grandmaster was indeed waiting for me.

Kalistro was sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of the storage shed; he appeared to be meditating. "Please come and join me," the cat man said without opening his eyes.

I quickly obeyed and sat to his right.

When I was seated, the grandmaster opened his eyes and looked at me. Kalistro stared at my truth stone and sighed softly. "So you have met Bishop Canterbury already," he stated. Upon my confirming nod, he continued. "I was hoping to delay your meeting with him. Unfortunately, the unexpected appearance of the wererats has wrecked my plans to gradually prepare you to become a rightful pursuer of the crown. So instead, I guess you'll have to make a splash now. A very big splash." His ears and whiskers twitched.

Seeing an opening with the mention of the bishop, I decided to share my horrible vision in the study with Kalistro in hopes that he will have a better sense of what happened to the church official. "Um, sir, during my meeting with the bishop I had a vision," I began. "There was a young assistant in the study with the bishop. I saw a black flash and then the young man's human form changed. I saw a small, muscular creature with brown fur, hooves for feet, two horns protruding from his head, and bat-like black wings. And I felt an intense, evil aura emanating from him," I described.

The grandmaster's eyes glowered at my description. Slowly, he reached into his waist pouch and pulled out a small pocket-sized book bound by a leather cover, similar to a Moleskine notebook. However, the grandmaster’s book looked very old and the pages were yellowed. Kalistro slowly turned the pages until he found what he sought. He put the book down on the ground in between us.

I bent my head and peered at the page. It was a simple illustration, in black ink, of the same creature dueling a cat man! "Yes, that's the creature I saw," I nodded in confirmation.

Kalistro sighed again, but more loudly this time. "The creature is Lord Bane, a demi-god of Chaos. When Kallimon drove off the red dragon, Bane showed up at the dojo and challenged our founder to a ‘friendly’ duel," he said.

"What happened?" I asked in surprise.

The cat man's eyes glowed. "They fought to a draw," he smiled with pride. "Let me explain a bit of our history since you are not from our world. After Merlin drove off the foreign invaders from Britannia and formed the Kingdom of Merlin, he researched in his magical laboratory for a number of years. He saw a need for Lawful protectors of his new Order, the Kingdom of Merlin. Thus, he created the animal people, including the cat people. He charged us with protecting mankind from the forces of Chaos, and to aid his rightful successors whenever they appear. As light attracts darkness so does Order attracts Chaos,” he lectured.

“I do believe that you saw Lord Bane in the company of Bishop Canterbury,” the grandmaster admitted. “I urge you not to reveal this to anyone because the idea of a demon inside the church will cause massive panic among the clergy. Also, the bishop could be accused of blasphemy for associating with a creature of Chaos, even though no mortal can hope to defeat this demi-god. Zohan Canterbury is a good man and we need him to remain as Bishop of Tregome. For the sake of this town, you must not tell anyone of your vision."

"I won't, grandmaster," I agreed immediately. If Lord Bane was as powerful as Kalistro was suggesting, then surely Bishop Canterbury was being coerced into cooperation with this demon!

"If Lord Bane is here in Tregome, then he was the force that brought Ebenthal and his wererats to Tregome. I expect them to come here and attack this dojo," Kalistro said.

"Why?" I asked.

"When the town was infested with wererats twelve years ago, our school was instrumental in clearing them out. We are bitter enemies with the wererats and they will not ignore an opportunity for vengeance against us," he explained. "Also, my wife perished while protecting this dojo and its pupils, including Kalistra. My daughter's anger and hatred for the wererats have grown over the years. She harnessed this powerful emotion and channeled it into her training until she became the second best blade in this town. I fear that she will become afflicted with the Berserker Status during the upcoming fight with the wererats. If that were to happen, please use your truth stone to bring her back to her senses." The cat man bowed before me and his forehead touched the ground!

"Please get up, grandmaster! I will do everything I can to protect your daughter," I replied. I had no idea what the berserker form of Kalistra would do and I was uncertain that the trinket on my chest would snap her out of her condition. But I owed the cat girl my life and I was Honorbound to help her.

Satisfied with my response, Kalistro rose to his feet. "Please stand up. In the chaos of fighting with the wererats, we may not be able to protect you adequately. If Ebenthal is as ill-tempered and vengeful as a typical wererat, he will seek you out during the confusion. Therefore, I must teach you some skills now so that you can protect yourself."

I quickly got on my feet. It was about time that I learned to use a sword! I was so excited that I could barely contain myself.

The grandmaster picked up a white scabbard, adorned with golden butterflies, off the ground and pulled a sword out of the scabbard. The blade was thinner than a traditional long sword but just as long. However, the color of the blade was black as night. The sword handle was longer than normal and allowed for a two-hand grip. The handle was made of ivory, and there appeared to be a number of symbols on it.

I noticed a caption next to the sword and it read, “Kalo.” I whistled in appreciation. For a weapon to actually receive a name, it had to be unique. I tried my magic detection ability on Kalo but I saw nothing but gray hues. A pop-up appeared and it read, “Magic detection FAILED.” That was totally unexpected. Apparently, my ability wasn’t high enough to learn anything about the sword.

Kalistro smiled at the look of confusion on my face. He expected me to try magic detection on Kalo and fail. He decided to pull my attention back to the task at hand. “For native inhabitants of this world, we learn these sword skills by hard practice. Since you are not from our world, you learn new skills differently. That being said, your level of swordsman profession will limit the number of professional skills that you can have. Additionally, some sword techniques are far more complex than others and require you to have reached certain levels in swordsmanship in order to learn them. You can learn one sword technique for every two levels in swordsmanship. Your ability to actually learn sword skills and other skills, in general, will depend on an Intelligence check, with other Attributes modifying the check. I’m hoping that you will learn two sword techniques before you leave the dojo to join the Were-Hunt. The first technique is called ‘Charge.’ Now step back and watch closely,” my teacher ordered.

After I took a few steps back, Kalistro suddenly moved! He leaped forward with the sword held in both hands and raised over his head. He landed heavily on his right foot. In one smooth motion, he leaned his chest forward, his arms struck down in unison and the sword came crashing down! Whoosh!

The attack caused a shockwave and I felt an invisible wave slam against me and knock me back a few steps. Wow! This was the first time that I saw the grandmaster swing a sword and I was definitely in awe of Kalistro.

“Now you try it,” the grandmaster said as he returned Kalo to its scabbard. “Please use the wooden sword leaning against the door of the storage shed.”

I turned around to look at the shed and saw the aforementioned practice sword leaning against the door. I jogged over to retrieve it and then returned to stand next to the cat man. I closed my eyes for a moment to mentally replay Kalistro’s movements. When I was certain that I got it, I opened my eyes. I leaped forward and swung the blade as hard as I could.

“Did you get a pop-up?” my teacher asked.

I turned around. “I’m not sure. I had a few pop-ups from my meeting with the bishop that I didn’t have a chance to read yet,” I replied.

“Please read them now,” Kalistro replied. “If you learned the Charge skill, you would see a pop-up message indicating so.”

I saw that I had three pop-up messages. The first one read, “Magic detection SUCCESSFUL. +50XP.” The second message read, “JOINED: Church of Britannia (Initiate). +500 Reputation. +1,000XP.” Wow! I didn’t expect this boost to reputation and experience for joining the church! The third message read, “Relic ACQUIRED: Truth Stone of Law. +1,000 Reputation. +2,000XP.” Holy cow! I guessed that very few people in town possessed a truth stone.

“Ahem!” The grandmaster coughed impatiently.

“Sorry,” I smiled sheepishly. I shook my head. “No, I didn’t learn the skill,” I reported.

Kalistro nodded. “I expected as much. Here’s another limitation in acquiring professional skills. If you fail to learn the skill, you will have to wait until you reach the next level to try again. I’m sure that Kalistra already asked you to delay leveling up your character; this is the reason. So please advance to Level 2 and then try again,” the teacher instructed.

I called up my player status screen. How do I choose to advance my character level? On a hunch, I tapped on the experience points. Immediately, a pop-up appeared: “Advance to Level 2?” I hit “Yes.” Another pop-up appeared: “Advanced to Level 2. 5 Attribute points available.” I thought for a moment how I wanted to spread my points. My lowest two attributes were Wisdom and Charisma at 8 each. I would like to spend some points to shore up my weaknesses. Since I had started engaging in business transactions with Roen, I thought that it would be prudent to increase my Charisma. Thus, I decided to put two points on Charisma and bring it up to 10. As for the remaining three points, I put them in my Intelligence because this would help me acquire professional skills more easily; the additional points brought my Intelligence attribute to 20 now.

When I was finished distributing my points, I nodded to Kalistro and tried again. I leaped forward and struck with my practice sword. This time I received a pop-up, which read, “Professional skill ACQUIRED: Charge. +250XP.” I turned back to my teacher and smiled. I also did a small fist pump in the air, per my usual celebration.

“Very good, Lawrence. The Charge skill is deadly because it does critical damage on a successful hit. But the attack can drain a lot of stamina very quickly. Thus, it is often used as a finishing blow in a sword fight. Now let’s teach you the second technique. It’s called ‘Disarm,’” Kalistro continued. He pulled the scabbard free of his belt and held it. “Now attack me!”

I nodded. Steeling my nerves, I used Charge again. However, in mid-swing, I felt something hit the back of my right hand. Whack! The blow was so forceful, precise, and timed perfectly that I involuntarily softened my grip on my practice sword and it flew out of my hand! I also received a pop-up that read: “-10 Health.” Ouch. I noticed a purple bruise forming in the area struck by Kalistro’s scabbard.

The grandmaster quickly retrieved my wooden blade and returned it to me. "The Disarm skill is deceptively simple to learn but hard to master. The chance of a successful disarmament depends on your critical attack, with a modifier for your Dexterity. However, the beauty of this technique is that you don't need to hold a sword in order to use it. Any blunt object could be used to attack the hand holding the weapon. It could be a stick, a ball, or even your bare hand. Now, advance to Level 3 and then use the Disarm technique to knock the scabbard out of my hand," he ordered.

I recalled my player status screen and advanced to Level 3. I decided to put two attribute points in Wisdom, and one each in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. I now had 10 in Wisdom, and 16 in the other three Attributes. I closed my eyes to replay my teacher's movement. When I was confident that I learned the technique, I tried to whack the back of Kalistro's hand with my practice sword. Unfortunately, I whiffed and totally missed his hand!

"Please advance to Level 4 and try again," Kalistro ordered. While his voice remained even in tone, his eyes glowed in the merriment of my embarrassing miss!

I advanced my character to Level 4 and added two points to Charisma and one each in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. I had 12 in Charisma and 17 in the other three. I held my practice sword in front of my body and my eyes focused solely on my teacher's right hand. I took a swing against my target. Whack! I saw Kalistro's grip loosen from the hit, but he still managed to hold onto his sword. Apparently, our differences in levels were too great for me to successfully disarm the cat man. However, I received a pop-up that read: "Professional skill ACQUIRED: Disarm. +250XP."

"Congratulations, young one," Kalistro nodded.

I surmised that my reaction gave away the result of my attempt to learn the skill. Before I could reply, someone yelled out, "WERERATS!"

We looked at each other and quickly ran back to the courtyard.