Quote:-“Wouldn’t it be better for you to teach me? Or someone you know is strong?”

-“No. My style doesn’t match you and learning from a teacher is kinda….let’s just say that it could do you more harm than good. So you don’t need to find a teacher ruin your potential. This method i’m talking about is more….flexible. You will develop your own moves and also get some experience fighting.”

-“I hope it isn’t another situation like yesterday”

Nori laughed softly and reassured him that this is something that very few have the opportunity to do.

-“If it’s that good why isn’t it more popular”

-“Well people in you situation are quite rare.”

-“My situation?”

-“Being a ranked guild member who hasn’t learned how to fight yet. Many are training since kids from different teachers so that they can join a guild.”

-“I see…”

Just as they walked in they greeted the old lady and asked her if the fighting test facility is free. With a suspicious look she nodded in agreement. Nori smiled and lead Paul further back trough some doors. They arrived in the back of the facility and in front of Paul there was a cube. A huge cube. With a small door and a small crystal next to it. Nori liked shocking Paul. She chuckled and said

-“This is your new teacher.This is where you will be learning how to fight for the next period of time.”

-“It’s a big cube with a door. It looks like a prison.”

-“Appearances can be deceiving. This is a magical building that…..i won’t ruin the surprise.”

-“Nori?!”

-“Calm down…don’t worry.”

-“I can’t calm down seeing you smile like that”

-“There are a few things you need to know before entering.”

-“What?”

Paul was looking with suspicious eyes at Nori who was chuckling.

-“don’t look at me like that. You will like this. I promise”

-“sigh…..I understand”

-“To enter through the door you need guild points. The more guild points you put in the more you are allowed to stay inside. You need 1 guid point per hour. When you touch the crystal you chose the type of weapon you want. Then the door opens.”

-“I understand”

Paul headed to the crystal and as Nori left she yelled at him

-“And remember you can’t get hurt inside, or die!”

Paul looked back and yelled “What is that supposed to mean?!” But Nori was already gone. Paul gathered up courage and went to the crystal. The crystal scanned his stats and then a large amount of weapons to chose from appeared in front of him. All type of swords, knives, daggers, bows, weapons he didn’t recognize, even weapons that looked just plain weird. He liked the idea of swords but they would attract a lot of attention. Then he remembered that Rocka also uses a sword, so he instantly removed the swords from the equation. Then he saw the dagger. He quite liked it. He decided on the dagger. He then noticed that he could dual-wield daggers so he chose that. He chose that because he though he would look cooler. One is good, two is better. As soon as he chose to dual-wielding daggers the door opened and the guild points were removed.

He put his head in and looked carefully inside and saw that inside the box was bigger than the outside. It was a straight terrain and nothing else. At the entrance on the ground were two daggers. Seeing that no on is inside he went in and the door closed behind him. He looked at the daggers suspiciously before deciding to pick them up. As soon as he did something started forming in front of him.

In 30 seconds, from a pile of dirt appeared a replica of himself from earth with 2 daggers like his. It looked like him. Paul was shocked at this. What shocked him wasn’t the earth doll, but the fact that the earth doll was naked and looked like a ken doll. All smooth.

Both of them didn’t move staring at each other.Then Paul relaxed and thinking this was easy he left out a small “heh”.

The doll like it knew what was in Paul’s mind started attacking him. Paul froze and didn’t know how to react. His mind went blank. That is until the knife cut deep into his arm. Paul screamed out lout and when he looked at the wound there was nothing there. Meanwhile the doll kept attacking him. The doll didn’t have any skills. It was just like Paul, thinking like him, even moving like him. The only thing that was removed from the doll, was hesitation and fear.

While the doll kept attacking him, and he was hit multiple times. The pain was real. Paul feeling annoyed of dodging all the time, wanted to attack as well. When Paul started attacking the doll dodged by a hair’s breath all the attacks. Paul didn’t even scratch the doll.

After a few hours of getting hit by attack that would have killed him multiple times, he started scratching the doll more often and evading more attacks. He started getting better and better. After 14 hours the door opened and Paul walked out. The only reason he came out was because he was exhausted and the doll was not.At the end Paul kept getting slower and slower and what happened at the beginning started happening again. He kept getting “killed” more and more often so frustrated he came out.

He dropped on the floor and looked to the cube. He noticed that the door closed and the daggers disappeared from his hands. On the door there was a number 232-0. Paul instinctively knew what the number was before it disappeared. It was the number of his death vs the dolls. Paul was embarrassed at the number and felt shame.

Then he locked at his updates and felt a little better.

Stats updateBecause of your actions since the last time you checked you increased your following stats:

+10 agility points

+20 endurance points

+10 stamina points

+20 Fighting Spirit

Skills updateBecause of your actions since last time you checked you got the following skills:

-Dual Wielding Daggers

He went to the inn to eat since he was starving. After eating he went to talk to Nori at the brothel. Nori saw him approaching and chuckled.

-“So how did it go?Did it hurt?”

-“I died….a lot”

-“Don’t worry, everybody is like that at first. Even those that know how to fight after 10 hours of that died about 20 times ”

-“…..i died 200 times”

When he said that she looked at him and started to shake. She was trying to stop herself from laughing. Paul seeing her to at least try not to laugh started to feel better and decided that “I will definitely kill that stupid doll “. After stoping she tried to comfort Paul and said

-“That doll, is you without fear or hesitation. What that doll can do, you can do it as well. The doll get’s your stats each time you enter and stays at that way until you enter again.”

-“How long can i stay inside it?”

-“So far, as the official record goes, it’s 20 hours. But either way after 24 hours the door opens and your copy disappears. One of the other advantages this method has is that no one can enter, hear or see inside the cube while there is someone inside”

-“That’s good…..that’s really good….”

-“So will you continue or give up?”

-“Never! I will definitely get strong”

-“Good.”

-“From tomorrow for the next week i will be busy with my training, so i won’t be able to talk or meet. But please bring some food to the shack after 8 days. I will be starving”

-“I know you can do something for 7 days and then you need to sleep. I won’t ask more since everybody has secrets. I will wait until you will tell me”

-“Thank you….I really mean it. You are my only true friend in this village”

She looked down and turned her back.Her face was a sad for a second and then went back to happy. He then left since she had work to do. Paul arrived at the shack, lied down the bed and used Memo to relive the experience from the cube. And then went to sleep.

In the morning, as soon as the two suns were up in the sky Paul went to the inn to eat. He ordered some food and started eating. He then using his listening skill heard Rocka talk to the mage.

-“The advent hasn’t been found yet commander”

-“Don’t worry, there is still time. After all the seer is newer wrong. There will definitely be one”

-“I understand”

-“And after i find him, that weakling will suffer. I will destroy his mind. hehehehehe” Rocka laughed imagining the things he would do to Paul.

Paul hearing this decided that he must try harder at the testing facility. He headed there and entered the building. He went past the old lady and just as he passed her he heard “232-0 hehehehe”. He then realized that she can see the score. He also figured that she couldn’t see his stats since she didn’t say anything. Paul wasn’t angry anymore. He knew he was weak, but that only meant he could get stronger.

He arrived at the box and before entering he took out a Limit Pill. He took it and then he went to the crystal. He repeated the process from before and entered. This time he was ready.

As he entered everything was exactly the same as before. Daggers on the floor, nothing else around. He took the daggers and agin the doll appeared on front of him.

This time he didn’t wait and attacked first. The doll was evading most of his attacks but he still cut it a few times.

The doll and Paul were now moving a lot more skillfully. It’s like they were dancing. The doll was using all sorts of attacks, stabbing, slashing, even sometimes trowing one of the daggers at Paul. He was even using kicks. Paul seeing the moves the doll does was surprised but then realized he could do them too. Paul was copying the moves, but he still couldn’t move as precisely as the doll.

After 24 hours the doors opened just like Nori said and the doll disappeared. Paul went out and looked at the door. “100-0”

He still died 100 times but he only succeed in scratching the doll. Paul’s mind was tired from all the pain he felt in the last 24 hours. He sat in the ground to meditate for an hour then checked his stats.. After that he got up he went inside again. He repeated this process for a whole week. A normal man would have gone crazy from all the constant pain. On the last day he looked at the door smiling. He finally managed to kill the doll a few times. On the door it wrote “40-20” He successfully gave 20 killing attacks and he only died 40 times.

He checked his updates just like every night after coming out.

He went to the shack and satisfied fell asleep. And for 24 hours he didn’t move at all. Nori brought him food just like she promised and waited for Paul to wake up. As she waited for Paul to wake up she started humming a song.

Paul woke up and hears singing.He went to the source and saw Nori, who was outside at the door. As soon as he opened the door Nori didn’t say anything and just stared at him with her mouth open. Paul was now worried. She didn’t make a joke or anything like that and just stared.

-“You… your hair..”

-“Yeah i know it got a bit big. I need to cut it”

-“No no that, i mean yes. But that’s not the problem.”

-“Huh? Then what?”

-“The problem is........WHY IS YOUR HAIR WHITE ?!”

-“Ahhh....that....”Paul then grinned at Nori. Paul went to the table and started eating. Nori sat next to him and stared while Paul was eating. After Paul eat, Nori saw Paul grinning at her, and although she knew Paul for a while know she was surprised to see someone change so much in such a short time. Besides his hair, he had a different air about him. And the most change that was as powerful as it was subtle were his eyes. Paul`s purple eyes were now no longer as gentle, they were a bit wild and it was like like they could see into her very soul. Then Paul said something and a window appeared in front of Nori, that explained everything.

Mind of a warriorBcause you felt excruciating pain multiple times and endured it you achieved the mind of a warrior. From now on you will instinctivly know how much health and mana you have. You can continue to rise these stats but these two stats will now dissapear from you stat window.

Side effects:

You can now see 30% better

Your hair is now white.

She kept staring at the window not believing her eyes. She was seeing something that she only heard. From what she knew only veteran AA rank adventurers, that fought for years have achieved something similar. She was impressed but she didn`t show it.

When she finally realized that she was staring too much she finally spoke