Chapter 4: Froststone.

The sound of wood clashing surrounded the training area as both master and student are fiercely sparring in the middle of the grounds. Although Feld had an enormous upper-hand, but he did not use his skills; he only matched the level Rei is currently in.

Left-right, down and under Feld tested Rei in different directions; he purposely lets himself open for Rei but disappointed in how Rei was unable to strike.

The clashes continued as both were starting to exhaust, even the strongest and most seasoned warriors cannot escape old age.

He used to be a fearsome warrior in the midst of the battlefield, a growling lone wolf of war, a beast craving for blood of his enemies; but now he’s become a mentor to rookies that aims to find glory.

He wasn’t that famous but he was one of the greatest, only few remembers what he did in the war but his valor will forever remain. He believed that one day his land will be his own again.

He cried onto battle without fearing death, the enemies’ great forces were trembling in his splendor. He was called the “Grey Death” for his hair was shaded gray and he brought death to every enemy in his path. But even for the Grey Death, the disadvantage in technology was indomitable. His name was Feldgrau Tranel.

---***---

7 Days later, the day of the match.

---***---

Noisy and crowded as if a movie star is inside the halls; the Frostbite Training Ground is busy as always for a lot of aspiring warriors enroll in their training facility.

The facility itself is not that great, but students around Ino enrolls to FTG because of the sweetheart Glace Lozenge Froststone; she is a beauty with sky blue short hair and is an instructor in FTG.

Despite being famous around Ribas for her beauty, she was also known to be the strict instructor; she wouldn’t bat an eye to punish any student who does not follow her instructions.

“One two one two…” said by the crowd of students whilst swinging their swords.

“Alright everyone time to spar, pick a partner then stay at the sides. We’ll have two pair at a time.” Said by the female sword instructor.

The students obediently sat in the sides as Glace said.

Glace glanced at the door, she saw a man with gray hair leaning on the door case.

“It’s time” said the gray haired man

“I have to go now guys continue the sparring session, Mr. Hedera please continue the students’ training for today” Glace said to her students and fellow instructor

She then walks towards the man and said: “Is he good Master Feldgrau?”

“Oh you’ll see” Feld replied.

They then proceeded to walk out of the establishment.

---***---

“You should come in first and introduce yourself to him; I’ll follow a little bit later” (Feld)

“Ehh?! But Master Feldgrau, you should introduce us to each other.” (Glace)

“Nah, I’m sure you’ll both get along.” (Feld)

“Go ahead and come in” (Feld)

Glace then gives up convincing Feld to come in first and came inside the cheap training ground Feld and Rei rented.

“Excuse me…” whispered by Glace in a nervous tone as she enters the training ground

Rei was in the training area practicing his swings.

Glace continued to explore the establishment, anyone who enters the building can easily observe that it is rundown and cheap just as Glace noticed; the ceiling is cracked, the floor is a mess, and there are almost no doors.

While she explored she came across the training area and saw Rei practicing she then thought: “He must be Master Feldgrau’s new student, he looks so innocent and kinda cute too.”

After fixing herself up, Glace then shouted at the practicing Rei: “Good afternoon! You must be Master Feldgrau’s student, I’m Glace Lozenge Froststone.”

She then walks up to Rei. Rei was feeling nervous as the beautiful young woman walks up to him. He couldn’t stop himself from stuttering.

“Hello, I-I’m Reiji Narudo; y-you can call me Rei. A-Are you the person I’m gonna s-spar with?” Rei timidly said to Glace with a glowing red face.

After seeing how Rei was blushing she thought “He’s so cuuuute!”

Glace was infected by Rei’s blush virus and was flushed as well while saying “Y-Yes you can call me Glace, I may not look it but I’m a sword user and I’m proud to say that I’m pretty good too!” she said as if trying to impress Rei.

Feld then came to the scene and said: “Alright kids, enough with the blush fest and let’s head to the Chariot.”

---***---

The Chariot is the place where the Alctuz pods are, in those pods is where players lay to enter the Alctuz Arena.

The three of them traveled to the middle of Ribas to be able to use the Chariot; after reaching their destination, Rei was amazed on how futuristic the building the Chariot was.

A payment of 10 gold per pod has to be made in order to use it of a day, in this day and age 10 gold is a huge sum of money enough to feed a family of 4 for almost a month.

Besides the capital, every city in Ino only has the Chariot in the middle of the city; even the poorest of cities in Ino has it, but the quality of the establishment varies.

“Rei, Glace, Do you have any money on you?” asked Feld

“Why do you ask?” replied Rei

“I’m short 6 gold for the pods” said Feld

“WHAT!? You set this up and you have no money?” yelled Rei

“It’s not like you have any money either! You should be grateful I was feeding you” replied Feld

Feeling ashamed of himself Rei just silenced himself.

“Hmph Master Feldgrau you never change, good thing I got a real living now unlike you; I’ll lend you the 6 gold and if he wins you won’t need to pay me back.” Proposed by Glace

Happy by the no-lose scenario Feld joyfully accepted Glace’s proposal.

“Alright Rei, you need to win; my money’s on you Rei!” said Feld

“Of course it’s on me! Leave it to me master” Rei replied

Feld noticed Rei just called him master and not the usual “sir” and thought: “Ehh, these kids are getting along aren’t they? Glace just what the hell did you do to Rei”

“Alright you kids, let’s go.” (Feld)

“Yes master!” both said by Rei and Glace as they follow Feld entering the Chariot

---***---

Rei was dazzled by the Chariot’s facilities, he felt that it was even bigger than what he saw outside.

“Two pods please, the public ones” said Feld to the lobbyist of the Chariot

Public pods costs 10 gold per day, being public means anyone can see what you’re doing inside Alctuz through the screen. Private pods costs 13 gold per day.

Once you’ve given payment, you’ll be given passes to the pods and those passes expires after 24hrs.

The group then proceeded to the public pod area of the Chariot; Rei was again astonished for seeing a number of pods lined up and organized in rows.

Unexpectedly, not a lot of people were in the Chariot; maybe it was because it was not the capital so only a few people come in the Chariot, nonetheless it was still almost half full.

The group found two pods next to each other in the corner of the pod area, they then decided that this was the best spot for them and went in to activate the pods.

The pods are shaped like huge sunflower seeds, its body is colored white and its door is colored blue; the door opens upwards and the inside it has a comfy bedlike design. It has a tube attached to its northern exterior extending to the ceiling then to the control room.

“We’ll do one full round, as our deal says if Rei wins I don’t have to pay the 6 gold I owe; but if Rei loses he has to pay it up.” Said Feld

“The last part was not in the said deal!!” yelled Rei

“Be quiet Rei, we’re at a public facility; anyway you good with that Glace?” (Feld)

“Yes Master Feldgrau.” Replied Glace

“Listen to me please! I don’t have any money!” said Rei as he begs the deal off

“Alright let’s go!” said Feld

“Nooooooo!!” Rei screams just before the pod closes

“If you don’t want to pay up then win Rei.” Feld whispered after the pod closed

The players inside the pod will have to wear a tape-like headband which also serves as the sensor for brainwaves.

The game now begins.

---***---

Since Rei doesn’t have an avatar in Alctuz yet, he was first transported to the newbie tutorial.

He was prompted to pick clothes and a weapon which was free for new avatars.

Then he did all sorts of testing like swinging the sword, running, jumping and other basic things that needs inspecting like checking his fatigue limit etc…

Meanwhile, Glace was strolling around the lobby of rooms of Alctuz.

The lobby of rooms in Alctuz is pretty straightforward, it is a white hall with rectangular hologram-like doors in its sides which displays the picture of the map and below it was the battle mode the players are playing in.

You can search rooms using the search function and you can also browse rooms by swiping the hologram-like doors left or right or just walk by the rooms like in hotels.

She was bored waiting for Rei to finish the basic tutorials so she went and spectated in a match.

A person can spectate in a match in Alctuz in two ways, one is viewing it in a physical screen in the real world and the other is entering the room and being in the arena together with the players but you will not be seen, heard, or felt by the players kinda like a ghost.

While Glace was entertaining herself with watching other people’s matches, Rei was in an obstacle course to further check his overall stats.

He jumped at gaps, dodged arrows, kicked doors down, he ran, he crossed a one rope bridge and finally he reached the room of trials.

In the room of trials he saw two soldier knights with only darkness seen inside the armor. He has to defeat these soldiers to complete the tutorial; fortunately, the soldiers were only scary for show, they are slow and weak. The purpose of these soldiers were for test damaging, to determine how strong the player’s strength and how his attacks convert to Alctuz’s hit/damage system.

Being a newbie as he was, Rei had a little trouble defeating the soldiers despite them being weak and slow; and finally after 5 slashes he defeated the first one.

The second soldier gave Rei a hard time for it was dodging most of Rei’s slashes but eventually Rei learned the movements of the soldiers and he was able to deal 3 critical hits and won.

Critical hits in Alctuz are double damage, critical hits aren’t by chance but by the spot you hit the opponent. i.e. (the neck, heart, head). The spots of where critical hits occur are not constant for everyone except the ones mentioned, some have their real life weak-spots and those can be a target for critical hits.

The soldiers of the room of trials had 10% of the HP of real players which means Rei’s average normal slash only deals 2% damage to the enemy’s HP and his critical hits are 4%.

At last, Rei completed the tutorial of Alctuz; He was then prompted to enter an in game name; he picked the name “Wist” short for his favorite color which was Wisteria.

---***---

After Rei has created his avatar “Wist” he logged out using the tape-like watch on his wrist which serves as the tool to access the main menu, because he forgot to ask what Glace’s in game name was.

The door of the pod opened and Rei sit-upped and asked Feld; Feld then answered: “Her in game name is “Froststone”, chat her up using the chat tab in the main menu.”

Rei logged in again and went to the chat tab of the main menu, he was asked to enter the receiver’s name and a keyboard appeared he then typed “Froststone” and wrote a message:

“Hello Glace, this is Reiji Narudo. May I ask where you are? I finished the tutorial.”

The spectating Glace received a notification on her wristwatch and when she opened it the message Rei wrote appeared.

After she read Rei’s message she then selected Rei’s name and sent a friend invitation.

Rei accepted the friend request without thought and after that friend request a message appeared from Alctuz

“You have successfully added Froststone into your friend list”

“Would you like to know more about the friend list? YES/NO”

Rei selected “YES”

“You can talk with friends telepathically by selecting you friend’s name and selecting “Talk” and view their location by selecting your friend’s name and selecting “View Location”.”

Right after Rei closed the message from Alctuz, Glace was already in-front of him and said: “Let’s go.”

They went to the lobby of rooms to create a room for their battle. They selected battle mode “Death match” and the map “Temple Ruins”.

Author's Note: If you're still reading this, I'm very thankful for your support even if I post a little late. Sorry if all I can do is apologize but I'll try to post chapter5 as soon as I finished it. Cheers and have a nice day.