"Where are we going, Darius?" X was dragged around for a few mins before they finally came to a stop.

"I was thinking about what's going on with your system. Like how we have abilities and stats. What happens when we learn a new skill without it being tied to the system? I wanted to do a bit of experimenting before we get in over our heads." Darius picks up two large sticks and tosses one to X.

"What are these for?" X twirls it around a few times before dropping the stick.

"Well, I wanna see what happens if you learn a few basic sword skills. For now, let's warm-up." Darius leads X through a light warm-up before they begin the basic sword training. "The importance of not doing things before you warm-up can't be stressed enough. I have seen so many people injure themselves because they don't take the time to warm up properly. End rant. So I'm gonna show you the basic attack angles." Darius demonstrates 6 different attacks, two were downward diagonals, two were upward diagonals, and the last two were horizontal slashes from both sides.

After watching Darius demonstrate the movement's a few times X followed his movements with his own stick. "This isn't too difficult! My father made this seem like it would be much harder than it actually is."

"That's because these are the absolute basics. When you get to things like timing, parries, counters, and so on the difficulty level increases. Here you try to hit me with one of the basic attacks." Darius raises the tip of his stick in anticipation.

A sturdy strike flies from his left. With finesse and poise, he redirects it causing the stick to fall out of X's hand. With a quick lunging motion, Darius's stick was pointed at the base of X's throat.

"See, not so easy when you add layers to it." He lowers the stick. "Now let's see if you can get the hang of these basics."

The two practiced for what felt like an hour before a notification came up on the screen.

*System Alert*

New skill unlocked

Understanding of the Blade (Basic)

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Understanding of the Blade (Basic): This skill is the understanding of sword techniques. This allows the user to grant a bonus to individuals in their party using a sword in combat. Every time this skill changes form, it grants a larger bonus to the sword skill. (passive)

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"A buff skill? I was kinda hoping I would get an active skill, but I think this will also be really helpful going forward." X took a swig of water. He then noticed that his stamina bar began to replenish at a much faster rate.

"I think this was a productive night. I'm going to go ahead and get some rest. Good night X." Darius walks over to the sleeping area.

X sat for a while longer watching his stamina recover before getting up and following Darius' lead.

When the first rays of golden daybreak rolled over the horizon, the guards changed shifts. One could hear the members of the Patrol Team training off to the side of the fortifications made to the camp. Some of the crafters were hard at work making equipment for the Patrol team.

"I need two more stone spear tips, and that should be enough for the first batch of spears." Adriana adeptly tied the wood and the stone spear tip together. She would infuse mana into the process of tying the knots in order to make the joints a solid piece. Adding mana into the construction process to increase the object's durability was something she figured out over the course of the night.

Shortly after she finished two people walked up to her work station.

"The spears you guys made have worked really well. So far we were able to catch a few deer looking creatures." The two picked up the stack of spears from the ground. "I don't know if we will need more after this set. Right now each member has two spears to use."

"Bien, I will send one of the crafting workers to bring the last few of them we are finishing up." She continued to set up her workstation for the next few spears to be made.

With that, the two Patrol Team members left and Adriana went back to working on finishing up. As she began working away on another spear, a thought crossed her mind. Her team needed gear that was specific to their talents, but for now, she was unsure of what they were.

"I need to just go and ask everyone what they would like to use for the mission!" She stopped what she was in the middle of doing and left her work station. In the process, she almost runs into one of the other crafters. "Do you mind taking over? I have everything set up for the last few spears."

"No problem, you have been doing most of the work since yesterday anyway. I think I have seen you do it enough to make it work myself." The man nods.

"Good, I will be back." She continues running off to find her party.

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"Darius, Zack, and Norman, I need you to gather some more Mushrooms, nuts, and berries. Our supply seems to be running low." The professor asked as he stopped his route around camp to give out tasks for the day. It was still pretty early so they were not quite ready for the day. "Collect three more people to go with you. There is safety in numbers after all." With that, he continued on his route.

"Great, I have to go out with you losers again. Couldn't he have given me someone useful?" Norman aggressively puts his shirt on and walks toward the dining area.

"I guess we should bring the others since we already all know the route." Darius picks up his backpack and moves a few things around to make space for the supplies they are going to get.

"That's a good idea, if anything happens it would be nice to have the rest of the party around." Zack grabs a few of the makeshift bags the crafting team created for everyone in the scouting party to use.

They both follow Norman to the dining area. Once they arrived they found the rest of the group sitting in a circle. From where they were standing it seemed as if Adriana was having a very animated discussion. They grabbed some food and sat next to the rest of the crew, leaving Norman to sit elsewhere.

"Hey guys, I was just trying to get a grip on what equipment everyone wanted for our big mission. So far we have a sword for X, a bow for Elana, A spear for myself, and what about you guys?" The expecting look Adriana gave off was very reminiscent of a child wanting you to play with them.

"I did martial arts classes when I was younger, but I never got to learn any of the weapons. I wouldn't even know what to use as a weapon." Zach paused for a moment. "I want to be a doctor, and because of that, my oath is to do no harm. I will leave the fighting up to you guys, except for when it is absolutely necessary."

"Do you even have the things you need to make metal weapons?" Darius asked, attempting to ground the excited woman.

"It's most definitely in the works!" Her excitement appeared to be unbreakable. This was rightfully so due to her being able to put to use her engineering knowledge.

"Then I will take a saber or a rapier." Darius pantomimed a dramatic sword lunge.

"Consider it on the list." She wrote it down on the paper she was scribbling away on earlier.

"Before we get too carried away, we were tasked to forage for some fruits and veggies by the professor." Darius paused before delivering the bad news. "We also have to take the big idiot with us."

There was a collective sigh. The disdain for Norman was high amongst the party.

"I know dealing with him sucks, let's just get this over with so we can work towards actually getting home." He took a bite of his roasted mushroom.

"Hopefully he knows how to behave himself." Elana chimed in.

The group finished eating and got prepared for the foraging assignment. They met up again at the edge of the camp. Adriana distributed a spear to Darius and Norman. With that, the party was ready to go on their first excursion together. The sun was still high in the sky, it was just past 10 o'clock. There was plenty of time to gather the materials they needed to help feed the camp for another few days.

"I'm not sure why I have to be paired up with you trash again, but there better not be anything strange happening this time." He walked off in the direction they marked on their map.

"What a prick," X muttered under his breath.

As the group continued to travel their path led them to the sound of a rushing ravine. This was the location marked on the map for them to find the first thing on their list. There were several bushes of blackberries lining a fallen tree near the edge of the ravine. Using the directions one of the other scouting members gave them they found the leveled area with the fallen tree.

"Let's do this quickly so we still have the light to see the mushrooms when we get to them. The tree coverage makes it hard to see in that area when the sun starts to set." Darius said plucking the blackberries from their stems.

An hour later the party had a large haul of juicy blackberries.

"They're going to love them. These berries are so delicious." Adriana picked another one from the handful she was eating and popped in her mouth.

"Stop slacking and get moving to the next spot!" Norman commanded. "I don't want to run into anything out here."

The party moved to the next spot marked on the map. It was a forest dotted with pecan trees. Upon arriving the party realized that it was really close to the clearing they found when X took off with the large crow.

"No funny business. Get the nuts and get out." Norman said as he started to collect pecans.

"I wonder if there are a lot more fruit-bearing plants here. There are berries, nuts, and mushrooms. Where even is this place? It has to be earth if there are earth-based plants and stuff here. Right?" Zack stood up and stretched his back.

"Who knows, maybe we can ask the crow when we bring him the fruit he is looking for," Elana responded.

In a similar fashion to before, the group finished collecting the food and began to traverse to the next location marked on their map. When the group made it to the area with the mushrooms it was 4 pm. The party didn't have much good sunlight left, and they had a lot of ground to cover in order to make it back to base.

When the party arrived at the mushroom patch, they took a short break and got to work picking the mushrooms they needed. It was hard and dirty work, but once it was over they all felt relieved they could go back and rest at the base.

In one of the bushes near the party, rustling could be heard.

"Guys I think there is something in that bush," X whispered.

"Weapons ready." Adriana prepared her spear, pointing it at the bush.

The other two with spears followed suit.

X picked up a sturdy branch and focused on the basics that Darius taught him the other day. Then he remembered that he unlocked some skills earlier that may be useful now. He opened his skill window and found the Messenger skill.

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Messenger: the user gains the ability to communicate with one party member via telepathy for 1 second per Int stat point.

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He pictured an image of Elana in his mind and then he started to think to her {"Elana this is X speaking to you in your head."}

Elana whipped her head around and her eyes snapped to X. "Excuse me? Did that really happen?"

X nods. {"This should be a two-way thing. Just focus on me in your head after I contact you and think of the message you want to send. Now I think your sneak skill might be useful here. If you get-} the message got interrupted so he fired off another one. {get ready and hit whatever that thing is from behind after it comes out we may be able to get out of this unscathed."}

{"I hope this works!"} With that Elana was no longer able to be seen.