Darius groans as he wakes up, he looks out the window to see the sun starting to rise. He stands from his bed and stretches, yawning as his back cracks a few times. He picks up his book from the desk, putting on his sword belt, before he heads out of the room and downstairs to the main room of the inn.

Darius gets a quick breakfast to go, before he heads out and goes towards the market, planning on getting a backpack and some supplies he could use. He gets to the market square, finding that there are a few stalls set up here and there. He walks over to one that has backpacks and buys the cheapest for 2 coppers. Darius then goes and gets a tinderbox as well as a waterskin, using his final 3 coppers.

After putting everything into his new backpack, Darius walks over to the training grounds, seeing he is the first from the group there, he starts to practice his magic on the dummies, mostly using [Ice Shard], or [Air Blade]. He finds that Ice shard uses 5 mana and makes a 2 inch long shard of ice that fires at the dummy, and that air blade uses 1.5 mana per second but is essentially another sword he can use to attack with.

Once he runs out of mana he practices with his sword normally, not even realizing that Ashera has shown up and is practicing next to him, having seen him practicing his spells. They spend the next two hours practicing, Darius keeping a somewhat calm pace, with some frantic bursts of energy, to allow himself to regen stamina. He gains another level in [Basic Sword Use] getting him up to level 4.

Once Darius sees his mana has regenerated, he finally looks around and is startled by Ashera standing next to him. “Okay, I wasn’t expecting to see you there, I’m guessing you didn’t want to interrupt my practice?” Darius asks.

“That’s right, I didn’t feel a need to, since you made very few mistakes, and now looks like a good time to have our spar.” Ashera says before she walks over towards one of the sparing circles. Darius follows her, looking around a little, but is relieved when he sees that the others aren’t here. “Isn’t it a bit dangerous to spar with everything? Especially if I use my magic?”

“Well, due to your level and only just having gained access to magic you won’t be doing too much damage with it yet, I just have to be careful not to hurt you too much.” Ashera says with a shrug as she grabs the sword at her side, unsheathing it. Darius unsheathes his own sword before he gets into a proper stance. “Right, well, let’s get started, shall we?”

Ashera nods “I’ll let you have the first blow.” He nods as he looks at her, squinting before he points a finger at her whispering “Ice Shard” A shard of ice forms in front of his finger at first slowly but growing quicker. He points it at her, before it blasts towards Ashera, it hits her shoulder shattering completely and seeming to have done nothing. “Well shit.” Darius says as Ashera suddenly runs towards him.

Darius raises his sword to block casting [Arcane Shield]. The shimmering golden shield appears in front of his sword while Ashera brings her sword down to hit him. It crashes against the Arcane Shield, quickly draining another 10 from his mana before shattering the shield. He deflects the blow away from him, finding it easier than it would have been otherwise.

Darius goes for a stab, but Ashera quickly dodges to the side and in return slashes at Darius with her sword. He is unable to get his sword in position to block, trying to dodge out of the way but only managing to fall to the ground while getting a cut across his arm. He winces as he glances at his arm, but he raises his other hand to point at Ashera “Fire Bolt.” The bolt of fire blasts from his hand, hitting Ashera’s chest. It lightly singes her armor, otherwise doing nothing to her. She puts her sword to his neck with a smirk. “Looks like you need some more work.” She says with a nod before she pulls her sword back and helps him up.

“I could have told you that, I’m still only level 1, and you are level 20.” Darius says shaking his head. “That’s true, but levels aren’t everything, you did get a few hits in, though they would have done more if they had been with your sword.”

“That’s true, I’ll have to work on both my magic and my swordplay, especially if I want to use both.” Darius says with a shrug. “We can keep working at it, I have time before I have to go back out.” Ashera says with a nod.

They spend until noon sparing and having Darius practice his swordplay and magic. After they finish their last match Darius says “I should probably go if I want to make it back to my camp before nightfall. It’s been nice meeting you Ashera, thank you for all of your help.” “It’s been a pleasure Darius, I’m sure we’ll meet again.” Ashera says with a nod, smiling. “I’m sure we will.” Darius says as he puts his sword back in its sheath, leaving the training field.

Darius makes his way out of the city, looking around a little as he heads back towards the forest. It takes him a few hours, but soon he gets to a point that he has to use his map to guide him back to his camp.