Edwin looked between the wooden weapons on the ground, still awkwardly holding the practice spear.

“Can I…?” He pointed at the clustered sticks, glancing questioningly at Mennick. The old instructor shrugged.

“Sure, go ahead. I’ll be over there.” He walked back to his resting spot by the wall and pulled out his pipe. Edwin considered his options, deciding to try out the spear first. He knew he needed one anyway, but he wanted to see how it felt. He approached the practice dummy, trying to remember the way Mennick had held it when he demonstrated how to use it. Edwin tried stabbing at the dummy, first gingerly, then with a little more force.

Yep, it’s a long stick that I can stab things with.

He dropped it on the floor, picking up the wooden sword instead. Turning back to the dummy, he glanced at Mennick. The instructor was sitting against the wall, the pipe between his teeth, watching Edwin with an unreadable expression. Shrugging, Edwin tried swinging the sword. It was heavier than it looked, but he could move the blade around swiftly. He tried a few slashes and stabs, but that only strengthened his belief that he had no idea what he was doing.

Next, he picked up the axe, quickly noticing a difference between it and the sword. While the axe was lighter overall, the weight was almost entirely in the head, where the sword was heaviest at the hilt. Edwin slashed the axe through the air and felt the difference it made. The axe was harder to move quickly, but his strikes felt heavier, more substantial. He hit the dummy a few times, his heavy strikes slightly jarring his hand.

This is more like it.

Finally, he grabbed the mace. It looked almost the same as the axe, what with both of them being made of thick wood to keep them from breaking. If felt very similar when he swung it around, the weight distribution being the same. Edwin smacked the dummy a few times, causing loud thuds to echo between the walls. The strikes felt heavy and satisfying.

Done with his tests, Edwin tried to decide which weapon to choose. He hadn’t cared much for the sword, but axe and mace had felt basically identical to him, making his choice difficult.

If I can’t decide for myself, I suppose there’s no reason not to go with Mennick’s recommendation. If it’s the cheapest weapon to start with, that will also help me to sell my poor farm boy persona.

Decision made, he walked over to Mennick.

“I think I’ll go with the mace.” He told him.

“Good on ye. Why?”

Edwin paused for a moment, then decided to go with honesty.

“Because I realized that I have no idea what I’m doing, mace and axe felt the same, and you recommended the mace.”

Mennick laughed loudly, standing up.

“Very good, boy. Knowing yer limitations and when to follow advice are two very important skills for an adventurer to have. Keep doing that, and ye will grow old and handsome like me.” He took the wooden mace from Edwin, walking back to the dummy.

“Now, training here is in several parts. The first thing, and arguably the most important, is to get ye in shape. Adventuring is hard work, and if ye run out of breath in the middle of a fight, the monsters won’t let ye take a break.” He stopped, glancing back at Edwin. “Looks like that’s not a problem fer ye. Next is weapon handling. Yer weapons are yer tools, like a blacksmith’s hammer or a carpenter’s knife. If ye don’t know how to use ‘em yer work’s gonna be lousy. “

He stopped next to the dummy, turning back to face Edwin. “That’s what we’re gonna do now. Finally, when ye stop being a danger to yer surroundings, we’ll work on group tactics. Adventurers work in teams, usually of five or six. In a fight, every member of the party needs to understand what to do, when to do it, when not to do it, what their teammates are doing and why they’re doing it. Most of that ye’ll need to work out once ye have a team, but some can be trained before. Ye don’t want to catch an arrow in the back while fighting, just because ye zigged when ye should have zagged. Or run off and leave yer marksmen uncovered. There’s a lot more going on than just clubbing monsters to a pulp, boyo, mark my words.”

He stared at Edwin, as if threatening him to contradict his words. Edwin nodded, hoping that it would placate the man. It seemed to do the trick, as Mennick nodded as well.

“All that’s for later though. I just wanted ye to understand that it’s not a quick process. We don’t hand ye a stick and send ye out to fight goblins. Ye’ll be here a while, and I decide when ye’re ready, so don’t nag me about it or ye’ll regret it. Now, I’m gonna demonstrate how to use the weapon ye picked, so pay attention. And if ye don’t understand somethin’, ask.”

Mennick demonstrated several different strikes, although they were really just the same strike from different angles as far as Edwin was concerned. Then the instructor handed Edwin back the stick and ordered him to practice. And practice. And then practice some more. He had done the same strike again and again, Mennick giving him a slap and correcting him every time he didn’t do it perfectly. Which at the beginning was every time.

After a while Mennick had asked him if he wasn’t getting tired yet. Edwin, concentrating on beating up the dummy, hadn’t realized the trap and answered truthfully. While the old instructor had been taken aback at first, he quickly seemed to relish the opportunity to torment a poor victim for much longer than he had ever been able to before.

Edwin kept going for hours, the wooden thuds of his stick echoing loudly in the walled yard. When his right arm eventually started to hurt, the old instructor made him switch sides and swing with his left. Finally, with the sun high in the sky, Mennick stopped him.

“Alright, that’s enough.”

Edwin lowered the mace, his arms throbbing. The old instructor was staring at him in wonder.

“Ye’re a real beast, ye know that? Got any trolls in yer family? A dragon maybe?”

“Not as far as I know.” Edwin answered. “I was always kind of strong, and then I helped out a lot when I grew up. You know, carrying heavy things. Stuff like that.”

While his arms were definitely aching, he was barely breathing hard. This was not good.

While Walter had intended Edwin’s body to be physically superior, it was supposed to be subtle. Believable. Edwin was starting to think that somewhere along the way Walter had made a mistake. The problem was that there was absolutely nothing Edwin could do short of walking back to the lab and starting over on a new body. He really didn’t want to do that now that he had already started to live his life. On top of that, if Edwin mysteriously disappeared now that would be much more suspicious than a freakishly strong young man becoming an adventurer.

While people might be puzzled by his capabilities, they really had no reason to conclude that he was anything but a man. Even if a mage examined him, they would find nothing out of the ordinary. His body was completely natural, it was simply better designed than a normal human’s. And his magical core was locked away in the crystal next to his heart, shielding it from scrutiny. Only cutting open his chest and physically finding the crystal would expose him, and nobody knew to even try to look for something abnormal there. He was safe.

“So, what now?” Edwin asked.

“Lunch. Can’t train on an empty stomach. Go fetch the other two from the range.”

The thought of food caused Edwin’s stomach to rumble. He didn’t feel hungry, but his body clearly disagreed. He put down the mace and jogged towards the archery range. Bordan and Leodin were still there, and at some point, the older man had gotten out a bow to add to the bolts that Leodin’s crossbow sent downrange.

“Mennick told me to get you. Apparently, it’s Lunchtime.”

“Finally!” Leodin exclaimed, rising from where he had been lying on his stomach, awkwardly reloading his crossbow. “I’m starving.”

Leodin had a surprisingly high-pitched voice, and for a moment Edwin thought he might be a particularly boyish girl. But no, he was definitely male. Leodin wasn’t a girl’s name either.

“Can I help you with anything?” Edwin offered.

“Want to do another arrow run?” Bordan asked while bending his bow to unstring it. “We just need to collect the arrows and bolts, then store the bows and targets.”

“Be right back.” Edwin called, already leaving. Strangely he still didn’t feel hungry, but the thought of food made him salivate and put a spring in his step.

Side effects of tinkering with my pain tolerance maybe? I’m starting to feel like maybe Walter should have done a few more tests.

A short while later the range was tidied up and Edwin, Bordan and Leodin met Mennick at the entrance into the guild house.

“Ye finally ready? Let’s go then. Training this big oaf is a chore, and I’ll need a full stomach if I want to make it through the afternoon.”

“That bad?” Bordan chuckled. Mennick looked at him sideways.

“Sounds like ye wanna do some practice fights against him later. Might do him some good to see how it’s done. Let’s see how long ye last.”

“Do you mean how long he lasts?” Bordan asked, amused.

“No. No, I don’t.”