Beran strode right past Mirio towards the bar. Each of the hunters wore what looked like leather armor, but Mirio’s eagle vision revealed plate metal riveted underneath like brigandine. Beran, the largest of them, had yellow eyes and dark hair, with claw marks down his neck. Of the other three the next most noticeable was a woman with bright red hair and a scar across her eye, wielding an enormous crossbow and spear. To her right blue haired elf with tattoos covering his face, neck, and hands; he wielded two elven blades. The monster hunter to the left was stocky like a dwarf but taller than a normal man and carried an axe.

*Is that guy a half orc, half dwarf?* Mirio thought to himself *Gah, screw this I have to get out of here*

Mirio swiftly made his way past Jahad through to the staff quarters, and then out the back door. Jahad turned around “Hey, where are you going?”.

“I’ll get the Cap to send to someone else,” Mirio replied. “I’m not getting dragged into this”

Beran lifted his chin and looked at Mirio as he passed by, “You should keep your staff on a tighter leash” he grumped.

Jahad looked back for a moment *I guess Mirio wants to avoid these guys, I’ll let him be*.

“Is Mirio here tonight? We all talked it over and we’d like to test the boy, see if he has what it takes” Beran asked.

Jahad “Mirio won’t be working here tonight, I’m sorry”

The huntress with the red hair walked up to the bar. “Who was the boy who left, he was carrying a sword, and was using an arcane spell of some kind”.

Jahad was deft at the art of persuasion and knew how to avoid tension in a situation like he found himself in. “Well, since I can’t help you with that tonight, let me pour you all some drinks on the house”.

Beran nodded in agreement and picked up the ale to chug it down. The elf, half orc, and redhead all followed suit. “Another!” Beran said, slapping his meaty fist on the bar.

Jahad smiled. “Of course”.

…

The furnishings of Yuta’s room were as modest as one would expect for a grade G adventurer. A simple cot; made of a slender mat placed within a wooden frame. A bedside table; made out of cheap wood and splinters. And a small trunk at the base of the bed. The room was about two paces wide and four paces long. A grey sheet was all Yuta had to cover himself with. The light of the breaking dawn creeped in through the window as it rose over the eastern mountains. Yuta’s eyes opened, and he smoothed his fingertips over the gel that had now hardened on his arm.

“Ouch”

He slipped his feet out from the covers and placed them onto the deck. He leaned over and grabbed his things. After slipping them on he paused for a moment at the door, “today is a new day. Let’s do this”. He raised his chin and stepped out into the streets. He rushed to the adventuring guild and ran up to the reception desk.

“Did you find a teacher for me?”

Alicia nodded “Mhm, let me see who took the job… Ah it was Mida”.

“Are they in yet, I would like to get started early” Yuta replied.

“Yes he is in the courtyard now”

Yuta rushed off to the courtyard without another word, perhaps a little sullen from his ordeal the night before.

Mida arranged stacks of training swords, and wrote notes on a sheet of parchment. “Oh, hello there” he said as he turned around.

“Hi I’m Yuta, I was told you took up the job of teaching me the fundamentals”

Mida nodded and picked two training swords from the rack. “Here” he said, tossing one to Yuta. “Have you ever done swordwork before?”

“No... Never…”

“That is okay, I am going to take you through the basics, just so you know how to handle yourself”

“Good, I’m ready” Yuta replied

“There are about a dozen basics you really need to know; first is the grip. Show me the grip you have there” Mida said as approaching closer to inspect what Yuta was doing. “Okay, so you have your hands too close together, put the lead hand right up flush with the guard, and the trail hand right down at the end of the hilt. This gives you more leverage to control the blade. You also want to make sure you are not strangling the grip, keep your hands relaxed enough that you can adjust which part of your hand is putting force into the blade’s motion. And if you can don’t hold it in the flat of your palms but more like you are shaking someone’s hand”

“Like this?” Yuta replied.

“Yes, that looks better”, Mida then kicked at Yuta’s feet “Your stance should match your grip, so if you are holding it with the right hand forward, you want to have your right foot forward. At the same time, you want that lead hand to be your dominant arm, so if you use the sword one handed you have good control of the sword. If your lead hand is at the back of the sword it will more easily fall or be knocked out of your grip”.

Yuta nodded and adjusted his feet. “From what little I know about stances, you want it like a triangle like this right? The back foot not directly behind you but just a little out to the side. With knees bent”

“Yes, and you want to put the weight on the front half of your foot, like you are crushing a bug, this is important so you can move back and forth. And in swordplay controlling distance is extremely important, because if I step in and hit you, then pull away and you miss me, I am at the advantage, and vice versa” Mida said.

“Do you always want to move in and out?” Yuta asked.

“You always want to be able to move in and out, and typically you never want to stay inside the zone where another person can strike you unless you are purposely baiting their attack. Because as soon as you are in striking distance you can be hit” Mida replied.

“Okay, so the grip, the stance, and moving back and forth to control the range”

“Yes, also you want to hold the tip of your blade pointed towards my centerline. Just imagine that if a line was cut down half of my body that your blade points to it” Mida replied.

“What is the point of holding it at the centerline?” Yuta asked.

“Well in order to hit you I have to approach you, if your sword tip is there I will run into it, so it forces me to either go around or knock your sword to the side” Mida replied. “Lets try an exercise actually, I will circle you, and you follow me with your blade tip, adjusting your feet as I move from side to side”

Yuta nodded and focused on pointing his sword tip at Mida. Mida hopped onto his toes and shuffled with his feet three steps to Yuta’s left “Whoa you moved fast”. Yuta quickly flinched towards the direction Mida was heading, and then back in the other direction when Mida shuffled off to his right side. Mida clashed his sword against Yuta’s, testing for weakness.

Mida stood still and stroked his chin, “You are flinching a bit too much as you turn. Don’t turn with your upper torso, sit into the turn with your waist. You are flinching because you are following me with your arms and shoulders rather than your entire stance. Try again, and when I test your sword, don’t overreact, just stay calm and respond as smoothly as you can”.

Mida shuffled off to the left and then jostled his sword against Yuta’s “Good, stay calm, just like that”. He then shuffled off to the right side and slapped his sword hard against Yuta’s. Yuta quickly snapped the blade back towards Mida’s centerline and stepped back to give himself more time. “Yes, excellent. Also since I am coming from your right, you can step out a little to your left to give yourself even more time to respond, but be careful, because people may feint out one way and come around from another”

Yuta dropped his sword tip. “Should I also circle you?”

Mida shrugged “Sure we can do that for a bit. Normally in a sword fight you won’t circle too much, but when using your fists you will want to, and when fighting monsters of course. Though in more advanced sword battles it isn’t uncommon to see each duelist move to a side to get a better position than their opponent, especially if there is a natural advantage to the terrain. But let’s not get too deep into that today, and stick with the basics”

Mida stepped off to Yuta’s left and Yuta tracked off to the right, making sure to keep his blade at Mida’s centerline. Then Mida stepped off to Yuta’s right and Yuta responded by circling out to the left.

“That was good but you are crossing your feet when you circle”

“Crossing my feet?” Yuta exclaimed “What does that mean?”

“When people walk normally they cross their feet, one foot forward, the other back. In swordplay you want to maintain the orientation of your feet. So the forward foot stays forward, the back foot stays back, the left foot stays to the left of centerline, and the right foot stays to the right of centerline”

“Oh, so is that why you shuffle your feet like that rather than walk?” Yuta asked.

“Yes, basically you want to pinch your feet together and spring out, but in a way that is so fast that it is hard to see with the eye. It will take a lot of practice to get it right, but when you get it, it should feel very springy and like you are able to shoot in any direction at any time. Don’t worry about that for now, but just remember, don’t cross your feet” Mida instructed.

“Okay, is that one of the fundamentals?” Yuta asked.

“Yes”

“So I need to remember; grip, stance, controlling the distance, centerline, and not to cross my feet. Right?”

“That is right Yuta, those are all really key basics to keep in mind” Mida replied.

“So what else do I need to keep in mind?” Yuta asked.

Mida pointed his sword towards Yuta. “Sword strikes, parries, where to target, and what strikes do what. Copy me as I show you each”

Mida lifted his sword above his head and brought it down. “A downward cut, often aimed at the head or the wrists”

Mida then lifted his sword above his head and brought it around diagonally and down. “A diagonal slash, this is often aimed at the neck or head. And if you lean further out to the side and strike along the horizon it might be aimed at the ribs, belly, or back of the knee”

Mida then lifted his sword above his head and swung the sword down diagonally on the other side. “Another diagonal cut but to the other side”

Mida then pointed his tip forward, extended his arms out straight, and lunged his front foot forwards. “And this is a piercing thrust. It is the most lethal of all the blows, but also versatile. It can be used to establish distance because of its long range, but also a pierce to the face, neck, chest, or even a leg can end the fight. The only issue is it is easier to deflect and slip out of the way of. There are two kinds of thrust, the short thrust to set up another attack, and the long thrust to attempt a finishing blow”

Mida turned towards Yuta and lowered his sword. “What a lot of beginners don’t think of is that a slash to the wrists is actually quite devastating. If you successfully attack their grip they can’t hold the sword, and they are then easily finished, and since they are the target closest to the opponent they are also vulnerable. So most swordplay teases the opponent with attacks around the side, but then strikes up through the middle at the hands, or a pierce to the throat”

Yuta hadn’t thought there was this much depth to swordplay. “And you are telling me this is just the basics?”

“More or less. I am just trying to give you a bit of an idea of how this all comes together. Obviously there are more techniques like counters which have you dodge an attack and follow up immediately with your own. Or combinations, which are designed to put pressure on an opponent to make a mistake. Or feints, which aim to confuse a person’s defence to set up a later attack. Anyone who is intermediate will be using counters, combinations, and feints, along with more complicated footwork, and learning to use inside fighting strategies to complement their outside fighting tactics”.

Yuta scratched his head “this sounds complicated, do you mind if I write it down”. Yuta muttered and repeated everything as he scribbled down the notes, he also drew little stick men drawings of each of the attacks.

Mida chuckled. “I am glad to see you are so motivated to learn, I have an old book with basic sword forms that you can copy into your notes after the lesson if you like?”

“Thanks Mida, that would be great. So you were saying that feints, and counters, and inside and outside strategies were beyond me. But I am just wondering what an inside strategy is”

“If I have armor on, it will be very difficult to slash me with your blade, so sometimes it is more effective to get inside of the range of my sword, and to wrestle with my arms and body, in order to throw me to the ground, or slip a dagger between the cracks in my armor. The outside strategy is the opposite, you stay further out so that a person cannot enter inside to take you down, forcing the opponent to remain in swordplay”

“Interesting… So the different ranges and distances impact how you fight?” Yuta asked.

“Yes, this is all part of a larger concept called positioning. It also includes stepping to an angle, because if your sword doesn’t follow me fast enough, and I step out to the side, you will be left without a defence, or even worse, I might get to your blindspot where I can attack you but you can’t attack me. And with monsters you want to exploit this, unless they are heavily armored on the back”

*So I was right to step out to the back of those bullfrogs, but I just didn’t pay attention to what part of their body was armored* Yuta thought.

A wind swept in through the courtyard as more adventurers entered the guildhall searching for morning quests. Yuta eye’d the door nervously for a moment before turning back to his instructor.

Mida looked towards the door with Yuta, and then noticed the look of worry on his face. “Are you trying to avoid someone?”.

“No, I’m just anxious to get to work is all, but first I have to master this, let’s continue,” Yuta replied.

“So as I was saying, look for the weak points in your opponent, but just as important is managing your fatigue. A lot of beginners just swing away at monsters or in a fight, without realising that you need stamina to maintain your defense as well. You might think you are winning the fight, but suddenly get out of breath and lose because of it”

Yuta’s jaw dropped, “Are you saying that I have to run everyday, and train until I’m sweaty, or I won’t be able to keep my guard up, and that will lead to me getting beaten?”

Mida scratched his chin nervously. “Well, maybe not every day, but every second day at minimum. Ninety percent of your energy in a fight should be about survival, avoiding attacks, and making intelligent tactical adjustments. And the other ten percent you use to mentally imbalance the other opponent, so they lose their cool and fight past their stamina reserves before you do. I have heard some fighters call this ‘drowning your opponent’ or ‘dragging them into deep waters’. And it means provoking a less experienced fighter to overreact during the fight so that as the battle wears on, their defences weaken”

Yuta picked up his notebook and wrote down the tactical ideas about stamina in detail. “This is great. So what should I focus on most if I just want to survive and not use up a lot of energy”

“Well, personally I follow what Mirio once told me. He said that footwork is the key to surviving a fight. That everyone focuses too much on striking, when in reality, a strike and a defence only matters if a person can get in range. Superior footwork means you don’t even have to fight the person if you don’t want to, unless they are incredibly good themselves”

“I see… So is moving in and out enough footwork to practice? And not crossing my feet”

“Actually, as silly as it might seem, it really is. Keep in mind that your front foot determines the range, so control that the most. And pay attention to if someone attempts to step outside your lead foot, this is a well known tactic to get advantage over you. Try to prevent it”

Yuta scratched his head. “So do I look at their hands, feet, sword, eyes… Where do I look to spot all this?”

“You will learn to feel what your opponent is doing, hear indications from their breathing, the shuffles of their feet, and cues from your peripheral vision. Moving back and away will give you a clear view, and when in close, or when blades are touching you will want to feel what they are doing, as well as anticipate it” Mida replied.

“So is it possible to train this by myself or do I need a partner?”

“You want to get a partner, and just train lightly without trying to hurt each other, then slowly increase the intensity. Ah, one more thing, the different guard stances; there is a high guard for strikes coming from up high, a mid guard for deflecting strikes through the center, an extended mid guard and a low guard to help you bait your opponent and set up counter attacks. Though sometimes the low guard is used to save on stamina, but this is a bad habit to do as a beginner”

Yuta noted the details of each of the guards in his notebook *The high guard looks a bit like a K with the sword pointing forwards. The mid guard is the guard is the point at about a person’s neck. The extended guard is with the point of the sword horizontal to the ground and arms fully extended to maximise reach. And the low guard is holding the point anywhere below the mid guard or out to the side*

Mida then took Yuta through drills one after the other for a further hour, showing him how to use his wrists, how to use his body to swing the sword rather than just his arms, and how to maintain a lively stance. He also taught him the basics of throwing a punch; the rotation of the hips, the correct way to ball the fist, to keep the back of the hand and wrist straight, and to strike with the front two knuckles.

“Okay, and one last thing before we go, it is important to learn wrestling at some point, along with dagger work, because you won’t always remain on your feet”

Yuta nodded and then shook Mida’s hand “Thankyou for the lesson, it was worth the money, I really appreciate it”

Mida stepped off to the side “I’ll get that book for you, just let me know when you are done copying the forms from it, I’ll be in the main hall”

Yuta followed him to get the book and then sat down in the courtyard to read it. His mind was tired from everything he had learned so far, but it was a good kind of tired. He felt good actually and began to think that maybe learning swordplay wasn’t so bad after all.

Yuta buried his head down and scribbled all the notes he could from the book.

BLING

A notice popped up on his status screen, followed by a soothing woman’s voice to narrate them.

Level One has been reached. Three of your main attributes and four components of the swordplay skill have been unlocked.

“You have got to be shitting me?!” Yuta’s mouth dropped open wide.

Attributes: (5 is pathetic, 10 is weak, 15 is strong, 20 is incredible)

Strength - 8

Dexterity - 7

Constitution - 8

Yuta tapped on the attribute labels to reveal extra information

Strength - A task that requires strength will injure and strain your body unless you pass the requisite threshold. As strength increases, tasks that involve labor will feel easier, and require less of your stamina to maintain.

Dexterity - A task that requires coordination will cause you to flinch, stumble, or pause unnecessarily unless you pass the requisite threshold. As dexterity increases, tasks that involve coordination will feel easier, and require less of your stamina to maintain.

Constitution - A task that requires a force of mental effort, emotional stability, or general fitness will strain your body and mind unless you pass the requisite threshold. As constitution increases, tasks that involve mental effort, emotional stability, and general fitness will feel easier, and require less of your stamina to maintain.

*So it seems as though stamina is a constant theme through all of the attributes. I wonder if that means that once a person’s stamina decreases they can no longer perform tasks of strength, coordination, or applying effort. I suppose that makes sense though, just like not being able to lift more after you are tired, no longer being able to run when you are worn out, and not being able to put effort into anything after a day of work*

Yuta looked closely at the attribute descriptions again *The other theme is that things become easier to do, and to maintain. So I guess it means a low stat is like a game that is on hard mode, and a high stat is like a game that is on easy. I guess with my stats below weak means I am currently in hard mode. I guess that makes sense*

“I wonder if I can click on the numbers themselves and get more info?”. As Yuta clicked the numbers, a large screen popped up with hundreds of moving glyphs and bizarre graphs. “Some of this looks like math? Is this perhaps some sort of source code that underlies how the numbers are calculated? Unfortunately I can’t read this yet so it will have to wait for now, hopefully it unlocks as I train further”.

Yuta then swiped right on the screen and arrived at a screen for swordplay, which was a circle divided into four equal sections.

Swordplay:

Striking - All forms of attack, combination, and tactical melee

Guarding - All forms of defensive obstruction, including shields, parries, and stances

Evading - All forms of dodging an attack sequence, ducking, weaving, spinning, and slipping

Positioning - All forms of limiting the opponent, distancing, angles, rhythm, and pressure

Yuta swallowed hard and sketched them into his notepad, assigning each of the tags to the things he had just learned and to what he found in Mida’s instructional book.

“The organisations in my status screen seem to be optimised, while the general knowledge in this world about swordplay is more scattered. Does that mean there is always a way to optimise a skill, so that it is presented cleanly and clearly like this? Hrmm”

Yuta clicked on each of the tags one by one and saw screens full of bizarre glyphs that were undecipherable.

*Well, it doesn’t tell me much about how to improve myself. But I guess I have to learn how to improve on my own first, and then it will unlock and show me an optimum way to view everything?*

Yuta scratched his head in frustration. “I guess that means my power in this world is that if I understand something well enough, I can figure out how to optimise it? Which means I’m on my own for the start of it, or I need a teacher who can get me far enough that I understand something. Then afterwards I can improve on it”

Yuta finished copying Mida’s book and headed to the front to hand it to him. “Thanks for today Mida, I was wondering if I could buy a lesson on the basics of Magic too? How much would that be?”

Mida smiled wide. “That will be twenty gold pieces!”

Yuta’s heart sank, he only had 50 silvers which equaled 5 gold, and most of that was the money from his father. “Is there any way I can get a loan to cover it, because I think having done the class will allow me to accomplish more tasks for the guild”

“Of course, but there is a fifty percent surcharge, so you would need to pay the guild thirty gold”

*Damn, that is so steep, but I am sure it will unlock my other attributes, I have to do it*

“Okay, where do I sign?” Yuta replied.

“I will go get the form, and do you want to do it now? I think Madeleine is free”

Yuta thought back to how the status screen had emphasized stamina *I guess I am getting kind of tired, so I should wait until I am fresh*

“Can I come back in the afternoon?” Yuta asked.

“Of course, just sign here and I will get your voucher”

“Thanks”

*Damn, I am really digging myself into a hole here, but it will be worth it* he thought as he flicked the final stroke of the quill.