Zane and Shane stood outside of the warriors training ground. Everyone decided to go do the specific training ground for their class and meet up back, at the Inn they passed earlier when the Messenger guided them through the village. Going to the library would cause them to spend points and everyone was excited to learn new skills. They all agreed to learn two skills and save the 10,000 village points they started with. Of course, there were exceptions to this agreement.

“Ready Weapon Fanatic,” Shane asked.

“Please, just call me Zane,” Zane said. “I’m not at the stadium anymore so there no need to use the name I performed with.”

“That’s true but isn’t this place similar to the stadium. Plus, you will be challenged and challenging people just like in the stadium. I’m sure there are plenty of people here from Green Valley town. In a few days the name Weapon Fanatic will spread through the village.”

“If you say so.”

Zane and Shane walked into the training grounds and saw an olive-skinned woman with brown hair sitting at the elevated desk. She greeted them and gave them introduction for the training ground. They listened carefully before asking her about the champion and challenger quest.

“To participate in the champion and challenger quest you need to accept the quest from the Quest Hall. After obtaining the quest you can pay for a ranking orb. After binding your ranking orb your name will be displayed on the ranking list. The ranking orb tells you about people you can challenge and people that are challenging you. Will the two of you be purchasing a ranking orb?”

“How much?” Zane asked.

“The ranking orb cost 500 village points per day. If you want you can pay in advance.”

Zane and Shane paid the woman 1,000 village points each. After taking their money the woman told them to wait and walked away.

“It’s a good thing you shared the points we earned earlier,” Shane said. “I think the others will run into situations like this at their specific training ground.”

Zane nodded and smiled as he remembered what happened when he asked the others about the money they earned from the foreign humans. At first everyone wanted to insist that Zane should keep the money. After all he made the suggestion to charge them and everyone else felt like they wouldn’t have thought to ask for payment. Zane didn’t think that way. He insisted that they share the money and Sophie backed him up.

“Although we didn’t grow up together, we all share the same roots,” Sophie said. “Were family. There’s no need for us to be formal around each other or worry about who deserves what. An extra 2,000 village points would be very useful for each of us.”

“One person will only get 1,000 points,” Jason said. “I nominate Sophie after all she is the leader.”

Zane laughed as he remembered her stunned expression. He was glad he brought up the points they earned even if the main reason was because he didn’t want to look greedy by taking everything for himself. Sophie words helped him to feel less caution towards Shane, Lana, Luna and Shawn. Of course, having less caution didn’t mean he trusted them as much as Sophie and Jason. Teacher Isabelle didn’t teach him to trust others easily.

The wilderness is more dangerous than the Stadium. You must show even more caution and absolutely no trust to the people you meet in the wilderness. In the Stadium you fight for money in the wilderness you fight to survive.

“Here are your ranking orbs,” the woman said when she returned. “Since both of you are one of the first three people to enter the rankings, you only have to pay half of the initial cost of the ranking orbs every day.”

“Do we still pay the initial 500?” Shane asked. “What happens if we stop paying?”

“Yes, you still have to pay. If you stop paying, we will destroy the connection between your ranking orb and the ranking list. I’ve already made a connection between the ranking list and your ranking orb. The only thing left for you to do is bind it by injecting some of your mana into it.”

The ranking orbs that the woman handed them were spherical, made of glass and gave of a dim light blue glow. Zane and Shane followed her instructions and injected some mana into the orb. They felt a connection to the orb but nothing else happened.

“Now that you have established a connection try thinking about the ranking list.”

Zane did what the woman said and saw a window appear in front of him. Like his status window the window in front of him was see through. The ranking list that was displayed was for champions. It only had two names, adventurer number one and adventurer number two on a list with ten name slots. Zane flipped through pages of the list and saw ten more slots on each page.

Next to the name was the level, number of wins, number of loses and a winning streak. Based on their levels Zane knew that he was adventure number one at level three. Shane was adventurer number two at level two.

“The ranking list initially displays your name with a number. If you wish to change it send a mental command through your orb. Keep in mind that the orb can only track and make changes to the ranking list when you are at this training ground.”

Zane tried what she said and saw his name on the ranking list change to Zane. A moment later he saw adventurer number two change to Invincible Shield. He gave Shane a strange look and Shane gave him one in return.

“Why did you change your name from adventurer number one?” Shane asked with confusion. “It sounds great. It makes it seem like you’re the best adventurer. Even if you changed it, I thought you would change it to Weapon Fanatic.”

“I’m not interested in being the best adventurer.” Zane spoke while shaking his head. “I’m curious about why you changed your name to Invincible Shield.”

“We get rewarded after ten successful challenges. I thought the new name would make people want to challenge me more. Plus, I think it sounds cool.”

Zane had to agree that the name did sound cool. Hearing Shane’s reasoning made him rethink his decision about using his real name. He didn’t select Weapon Fanatic because he had mixed feelings toward this name. When people first started calling him by this name, they did it in a joking manner. After continuous victories they began shouting it with pride and enthusiasm.

“That’s not how things work,” the woman said. Her word woke Zane up from his thoughts. “For the champion quest, you receive one win each day as long as you spend a minimum of four hours at the training ground. After four hours if someone challenges you, declining to fight will not be considered a loss. Also, declining a fight after you defeated a challenger that day is acceptable. If you decline before four hours pass it will be considered a loss.”

“The challenger quest requires each challenger to fight ten people in each bracket. After ten wins a champion moves to the next bracket. After ten successful challenges the challenger must challenge someone in the next bracket.”

After the woman finished explaining the details about the two quest Zane asked her about learning skills from experts. She said that they could call them instructors and explained what the merchant had already told them. She also reminded them that the training ground was a part of the village and they would not be in danger of dying.

Zane and Shane thanked her before leaving. They decided to go to the battlegrounds to spar with each other. Although they could spar in a private room, they decided to choose the free option. Sparring would allow them to unlock, learn, and level up their skills quickly.

Walking on the black sand Zane saw a few people scattered throughout the battlegrounds. Some were sparring by themselves; some were sparing with adventurers and others were gathered around instructors. The instructor could teach in private or in public. The public option was cheaper and allowed anyone to approach them for advice. This meant that the instructor would never have his full attention on you.

“After seeing how many people are here, you would think there would be more people on the rankings,” Shane said.

“They may not know about the two quests,” Zane said. “Even if they did, they might not have the desire or courage to participate.”

Zane and Shane found an area where they could be alone. Zane used Meditation and began visualizing the weapons that he would use in his spar with Shane. Shane equipped a shield on his right arm and sword in his left. After doing this he began practicing different movements to warm himself up. After a few minutes Zane stood up and Shane turned to face him.

“Are you ready?” Zane asked.

“I should be asking you that.” Shane gave Zane a grin. “Did you enjoy your nap?”

Zane smiled and equipped a shield on his left arm and a sword in his right. Zane stood still and watched Shane who was more than ten feet away from him. Shane smile had disappeared, but his eyes were filled with excitement. Shane released a roar and charged toward Zane with his shield. Zane drew on the energy within himself and took a wide stance while holding up his shield. A second later Shane crashed into him forcing him to take a step back.

Zane recovered and angled his shield to block Shane’s sword. Zane’s sword pierced over his shield with the intentions of catching Shane by surprise. Shane calmly raised his shield to block the blow but ended up taking a step back because of the difference in strength. Seeing the opening Zane drew on his inner strength and delivered a slash toward Shane. The slash made Shane take a few steps back, but Zane didn’t pursue.

The spar continued and Zane slowly overpowered Shane. Zane could feel that he unlocked and learned the Basic Shield Mastery skill and Basic Sword Mastery skill. The two skills leveled up during the fight and Zane’s higher stats showed their advantage. Shane eventually became too tired to continue. While Shane rested Zane used Meditation and looked at his system messages.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill Basic Shield Mastery

Congratulations! You have learned the skill Basic Sword Mastery

Congratulations! You have learned the skill Block

Congratulations! You have learned the skill Slash

Congratulations! You have learned the skill Charge

Congratulations! You have reached Level 4

Skill: Basic Shield Mastery

Level: 10, 59%

Tier: 0

Effect: Improves physical defense when wielding a shield. Defense 5 + Str/10 + End/10

Cost: none

Skill: Basic Sword Mastery

Level: 12, 89%

Tier: 0

Effect: Increases physical attack damage when wielding a sword. Damage 6 + Str/10 + Dex/10

Cost: none

Skill: Block

Level: 7, 68%

Tier: 0

Effect: Allows the user to gather their internal energy to fend off powerful blows.

Defense increases by 7 – 11 points.

Cost: 30 stamina

Skill: Slash

Level: 8, 16%

Tier: 0

Effect: Allows the user to gather their energy to deliver a powerful slash. Damage 8 – 12 points.

Cost: 40 stamina

Skill: Charge

Level: 3, 77%

Tier: 0

Effect: Allows the user to gather energy to increase their speed and strength when moving in a straight path. Chance to stun opponents. Damage 3 – 6 points

Cost: 80

Zane saw that his passive skills like basic sword mastery and basic shield mastery increased every two levels. His active skills like slash, block and charge increased every level. Zane decided to assign two free stat points to each stat and keep two in reserve. Once that was done, he mentally reviewed his spar with Shane and prepared for the second spar they would have.

The next few spars were longer because Shane skills improved and Zane continued to switch weapons. Each battle would start with Shane having a slight advantage and end with Zane suppressing Shane. As Zane learned skills and increased their level, his superior stats and battle experience would make the spar easier for him. The strikes that landed on Shane or Zane’s body would be deflected. After seeing this happen the first time Zane and Shane became more ferocious during their spar. They could use lethal force without fear of causing severe injuries or killing each other.

Zane sparred while wielding an axe, mace, spear, knives and a whip. Zane also took time to practice his archery by firing arrows at Shane. Shane was able to increase his defensive skill and Zane leveled up his basic archery mastery.

Each time Zane sparred with a weapon he learned another skill. Each skill was based on a combination of initial skill damage, strength and dexterity. The only exception would be the mace and the whip. Basic mace mastery was based on a combination of initial damage and strength. Basic whip mastery was based on a combination of initial strength and dexterity.

In addition to learning passive skills Zane also learned multiple active skill. After learning so many skills Zane leveled up three more times. He placed two free stat points in will power and one free stat point in his other stats.

“We’ve done enough sparring for now,” Zane said. “We should go find an instructor now or we will be late for meeting with the others.”

“Alright,” Shane replied. “I still can’t believe you’re so strong. If this was a real fight my only chance to defeat you would be when you don’t have a weapon.”

“My stats are higher; I have more experience fighting and I evolved my race. Even if I didn’t have a weapon, you would still lose.”

“I disagree,” Shane said with a serious expression. “Don’t forget that skills can have a big effect on a fight. The boost from my weapon mastery skill would pose a serious threat to you.”

“You're right,” Zane said with a smile. “I would probably lose unless I managed to unlock and learn a skill like unarmed combat mastery” Zane watched as Shane eyes slowly widen in realization.

“Shit!” Shane shouted.

Zane laughed at his frustrated appearance.