I smiled at her goodbye and gave her one of my own before turning around to walk up the stone stairs to my left. As I walked I thought about how interesting an organization like this was. Orderly, thought out, and structured. When I first thought about the adventure’s guild, I thought of a group of rough and rowdy men in a bar picking up requests of others to do dangerous things. But now that I was here, I realized that my perceptions were really off.

I made my way to the top of the stairs and then down the hallway. After a few minutes, another staircase and opening appeared. It was a large room, almost the size of the one that was the reception for the adventures. The only difference was that there was a rack on one wall with wooden weapons, some wooden dummies standing up in one of the corners, and a ring of stone about a foot tall in the center about 30 feet wide.

As I climbed down the stairs, I heard the gruff voice behind me.

“So it was you. I thought you were just someone’s kid that was sent to do an errand or something. Seems you’re trying to grow the stones to actually pick up a blade and swing it at someone. Haaaaa~ What are parents teaching their kids these days.”

I turned around while keeping myself from jumping at this unexpected arrival.

“You’re the trainer??”

Standing in front of me was the dwarf man that I had met at the doorway. He still had his armor and cap on too.

He rolled his eyes at me.

“Who else in this place would spend their days waken kids with delusions of riches and power to their senses? I have enough work to do as it is today, and now I have to deal with you. Great~.”

He then looked down at me from the stairs above me.

“Rule one kid, stop gawking. I swear, all you do is stand in people’s way and stare at them. Are you some kind of weirdo? Because you paid for a spar, so get your butt down there instead of on the stairs looking at my ugly mug.”

I coughed in embarrassment and turned around before walking down the stairs quickly.

Once on the ground, the dwarf man pointed at the wooden daggers on the rack and told me to put my weapons outside the ring. After grabbing some wooden daggers, I re-entered the ring where he waited.

“Name’s Raff. I’m an old fart with more experience in my little toe than in your body. So if you want to live, listen to my words. Got it?”

I nodded my head and looked at him expectantly. For some reason, I thought back to my army days when my commander kept yelling at all of us to whip us into shape. I guess this could be just like that, only more prevalent since I didn’t know how people of this world fought without guns and with magic and skills. After all, every new experience here could save me after the end.

Raff apparently didn’t wait for my introspection to finish before he continued his speech.

“You said you had dagger arts and bow arts. I will test your dagger arts here in the ring, then you can grab your bow and move over to the archery range and shoot a few at the dummies. I will be evaluating your performance and ability. This does not mean you have to impress me, beat me, or even do anything right. It is solely an evaluation of your abilities as I see them and how you can improve. Understood?”

I nodded my head. This was exactly like in the army. You don’t have to do anything right, because even if you did, you would still get yelled at to do better. That, at least, I was used to. It was almost a comfort.

He then gestured to me.

“Come at me then. I don’t have a shield, nor will I be using my hammer. I will be focusing on defense. Don’t worry about useless thoughts about if you can hurt me, you can’t. My armor will take any hit you give it. If you are even able to hit my body, my thick skin can block your attacks easily. So come at me with everything you got. Now go!”

After he said go, I immediately rushed towards him with my daggers in hand. I hadn’t ever used my daggers in this world for anything, but I remember my training at the military base back on my world. My younger body may have never done those moves before, but my brain still remembered them. Hours and hours of repetition can train the mind to do anything. The body will eventually follow.

As I came upon him, I dashed to his left, away from his hammer swinging arm, and stabbed at the part between his armguard and his backplate. When I was inches from hitting him, he was gone.

The entire time I attacked, he didn’t move. He didn’t even move his head. But in an instant, he was gone.

I panicked and looked left and right for him, but I couldn’t find him. Just when I was wondering how someone could disappear, a cough came from behind me. I almost jumped from the sound, quickly spinning to see what was there.

Standing perfectly still behind me was the dwarf Raff. It was like he was always there. I didn’t sense any magic, he just appeared there.

“You going to keep gawking at me? Am I really that pretty? You may make me blush. I’ve never had a man attracted to me before, well, boy really.”

Undeterred by his words, I began to move again. This time I tried a frontal assault at his neck. Again, he didn’t move. It wasn’t until the blades were close to touching his beard hairs that he disappeared again. I couldn’t follow what was going on. Even with my increased eyesight, I couldn’t follow what happened.

Cough, Cough.

I turned around again and there he was.

“You know, it’s not good to let an enemy get behind you. Just a tip.”

I didn’t let his comments affect me as I rushed at him again and again. I tried his left side, right side, I tried running behind him, I tried throwing one of my daggers while I was charging him, but I never landed a blow. He kept disappearing and reappearing behind me and I couldn’t understand how.

I didn’t let that deter me though. Instead, I was glad. If this is how people fought in this world, then I had a lot of catching up to do. At least I found this out here in a controlled environment. I couldn’t imagine having to deal with this out in the wild.

I racked my brain on how to deal with this problem. Thinking of something new, I tried attacking again. This time though, after he moved, I immediately twisted around and tried to stab at where I thought he would be, behind me. He was there! But he just moved again when my blade got closer.

[Congratulations! Dagger Arts has leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

I paused for a moment to catch my breath and check the screens. When I did Raff clapped his hands and congratulated me.

“Congratulations on leveling up dagger arts kid. We will stop here.”

I could only nod my head and continue to catch my breath. This was a workout. Not super strenuous, but still, the sweat on my body counted for something.

“How did you know that I leveled up dagger arts?”

Raff just shrugged.

“Your body’s position changed slightly and the way you held your daggers was better than how you held them before. It was clear something happened when you paused too.”

He then looked at me sternly.

“Never freeze like that in battle. The screens are an annoyance at best when your life is on the line. I have seen and heard many that have fallen due to them being unable to continue when they see it pop up.

Now I’m going to tell you what you did right, wrong, and just plain poorly. Do you want to tell me what you did bad?”

I shook my head and wisely shut up. This was always the time in the army that they asked someone to explain and then berated them when they dared speak up. Most of the time it would be yells of, ‘If you know what you did bad, why didn’t you fix it when you were doing it?!’

That wasn’t something I wanted to relive through, so I kept my mouth shut.

“Alright, then I’ll start. You did not think ahead of your enemy. You were chasing me and following my lead like a puppy. In battle, you have to try and take control of the flow. If you can’t, then you must know that you are at the mercy of your enemy. You finally thought ahead when you tried to attack me when I appeared behind you. That was good, but you need to do so much better.

Next was the fact that you didn’t analyze your opponent’s weaknesses or his strengths. You just thought of the best way to attack me and strike me. That’s good if you were in the army. Those idiots just do what they are told and fight their enemy until the enemy is dead. Now don’t get me wrong, the army is a great profession, but the way they fight is different than the way we fight.

They can fight the way they fight because they are usually in an army fighting together. Others would have their backs when they leave themselves open after an attack, but you are different. Adventures are different. We need to be aware of the entire battlefield and how we will be attacked. We have to know how much damage we have accumulated, if we are willing to give up a few more wounds to give them more wounds, and do we have enough energy in case something goes wrong. We also have to worry about whether we have any health potions left, mana potions, etc.

You as an adventurer need to realize that you may be alone, you may be singled out by the enemy, or you may be given a task from your group to do with no backup or support.

Did you even once wonder what would happen if I pulled out my hammer? Did you wonder what my angle of swing would be? How about the force behind my swing? Did you wonder if I would let you attack someplace if it meant that I could hit you? I’ll answer that for you, no you didn’t.”

He took a breath and then continued.

“Now onto the good. You have decent speed. That’s good, but if you face an enemy with faster agility like myself, what are your strengths? You need to be aware of what you can do in that kind of situation. For example, your daggers are only part of what you can do. Just because you have dagger arts doesn’t mean your legs don’t work or your fists. Hell, you could even try elbowing me or body slamming me.

So many believe that the arts are the answers. They aren’t. They only allow you to get better at it easier and reward you when you do. I have hammer arts, but it’s not an arts like the others. It’s a plan old skill. Why is that? Because it can be used for more than just fighting. It’s a part of your life. You have to remember, you are the weapon, arts just point the way to improvement.”

He took a swig of his canteen and then passed it over to me. I thanked him and took a swig before I almost coughed it back up. It was notwater.

“Next is what you just did so bad that it hurt my eyes to even watch. For starters, do you always look at your enemy before attacking? Do you point your eyes at wherever you’re going and what you’re going to do?

What you did was just telegraph to your enemy what exactly you were going to do. That’s why I never bothered turning around or following you with my head, your eyes gave you away! Then it took me coughing to get you to look behind you the first time.

Do your other senses just sit on your face to make you look pretty? Don’t bother answering that because I don’t want to have to think up more insults.

Why didn’t you listen for my breathing? Feel the heat that may be coming off my body? What about smelling me? I don’t bathe as much as I should thanks to the cleaning enchantment on the door, but I still smell like something. Do I need to lift up my arms and flap them about for you to be able to smell me?”

I took his words to heart as I thought about what he said and how I fought. Everything he said was helpful information. Especially in the long term. I didn’t plan on being a front-line fighter, but knowing how to fight was incredibly important. I would have to think on his words more later because he wasn’t done.

With a quick sigh, he continued.

“The only thing you have going for you is the fact that you have a good head on your shoulders. You didn’t get upset when I taunted you in the ring. You didn’t lose your cool and rage after me, and right now you are actually thinking about how you can take my advice and improve yourself, aren’t you?

If half of the people that want to be adventures thought about things like you do, we would have fewer dead adventures every year.”

He finished his rant and looked at me quizzically. It was almost like he was studying me, and I wasn’t expecting such a change in his tone or his words when he opened his mouth next.

“Why do you want to be an adventurer kid? You’re 18 and have a decent head on your shoulders. Why not pick up a trade or do anything else? Why adventuring?”

He was looking at me seriously as he asked those questions. I knew a half-assed answer wasn’t going to cut it for him. I needed to be truthful, at least a little bit.

With a sigh of my own, I looked him in the eyes and answered him.

“Because I need to become an adventurer to accomplish my goals.”

He stared me in the eyes for a moment, neither of us flinching away. It wasn’t a few seconds later he closed his eyes and nodded.

“Alright. At least you’re serious about it. Now get your bow. We aren’t done.”