It's way less impressive on the inside. Looks far cozier than the walls would imply. Those things have to be at least a meter thick. Like, really big. Entering the city, I could physically feel the magic that protects this place. I wanted to go everywhere and touch everything, this is it! The fantasy city! It might not be as majestuous but it's still a major place! And I'm standing in it!

I can't spend all my time sightseeing like this, though. I have to do stuff, like explore and find out if there's a training center of some kind. I mean, this might be the first VRMMORPG but the internet has already established a million tropes and cliches for the genre anyway. You can't just make a game and not include a cool gym.

I went down the street from the entrance and after going in a straight line, I found a plaza. Loads of places with names and adresses, none of which matter to me. I just wanna punch the scarecrow. Eventually, I find, just a little ways off, a big building mostly made of stone. There are at least three signs that I can see that say "Training Center". Well, looks fairly obvious.

As I step inside, the sound changes very abruptly, from hustle and bustle to what I could only describe as a chaotic series of bashing noises, grunts and groans of all pitches, and one very enthusiastic (and tall) woman shouting various... words? at the dozens of players and few NPCs I can see. That's only most of the place, though. A bit to my right is a different section, a lot quieter, that doesn't involve hitting things. The difference in volume almost made my ears pop.

I head over to the frenetic two-thirds and am suddenly greeted by the same tall woman from earlier. Wasn't she at the other end? When did she show up in front of me and why am I not surprised?

"Another newcomer. Are you here for some 'hands-on' training as well?"

Her expression was difficult, it was like a perfectly homogenous mix of disgust and hope, of effort and talent. Oh and did I mention her enormous frame was very communicative? The body language was more of a "do I beat you now or later" kind of deal.

"Um... Well, I was told this place offered great training in combat. In theory, I do need hands-on training. In practice, it's more like fist-on training though."

"O-oh. You're actually here to train your fists? You're not gonna get an erection like the rest of those masochists, right?"

"No. Fuck that. I'm not here for pain, that's nasty." I said with a subtle glance to the men behind her's expressions. They looked like they were having way too much fun.

"Oh, this is great. You have no idea how badly I want to beat those bastards up for ogling me like that, but I know for a fact they'd love it and come back for more. Okay then, let's start with the basics," she said, moving to an empty space with a dummy in it and signaling for me to follow.

"I want you to show me your punching, kicking, elbows, knees, headbutts, whatever you can throw at it that involves neither weapons nor grappling. I'll be walking all over, but I will keep an eye on you so you'd better not mess around."

"Yes, miss. I'm gonna try my best."

"Also, you might wanna get that bird away from the trajectory of your swings. Bringing pets like these here is fine, but I don't want to see you deck the feathers off that thing, okay?"

"Huh? Oh, you actually followed me into town?" I said, taking it off of me. "At this rate, you're going to build a nest on my head."

It let out a cheerful little tune and zoomed all over the place, weaving in between the combat practitioners like nothing and settling on the rafters, next to three other little balls of feathers. These were all uniformly red though.

"Ok, time to beat this thing up."

I delivered a few test jabs and hooks, to test my range and speed. My fists went pretty far, but they were kinda slow. Low Dexterity was to blame for this. They were inaccurate too. I have no idea how to throw a proper kick, but I guess you have to put your hips into it. Like.. this! Bam!

That felt really wrong. This is gonna take a while. At least I've got punching down pretty good, the impacts feel pretty damn good. The noise, too. Let's try to kick from a different distance. I'll stand back a bit, wind up a bit, kick at waist height... No, that's not it either. The distance felt good, but there was no oomph to it. Maybe turn my whole upper body with the kick?

I'll put my whole body into it, I mean the worst that can happen is I'll fall on my ass. That's nothing! I wind up and spin my whole body as a counterweight to my foot and... I hit it pretty hard, then fall. There was more impact to that one, I felt it more but I overcompensated by a lot.

After a few more attempts, I switched to punching, irritated that I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to kick. I must've been more frustrated at that than I thought I was, because I threw a punch at maximum power just to figure out how hard I could hit it but ended up mixing in a shout. It sounded deep, like I'd punched it from both directions at once.

Punching has leveled up!

You took 2 points of damage!

"Oh, yeah. That was a fucking haymaker. That hurt me too, though."

I took a twenty-second breather to recover any lost stamina, then got back to punching, trying to recreate the feeling of that punch, over and over. The dummy made loud slamming noises, like a wooden bell, but only once did I manage to recreate that punch's impact. I did get a nice little something as compensation for all that punching, though.

Dexterity has increased by 1!

Punching has leveled up!

Punching has leveled up!

When I got that point of Dexterity, it felt like I was a different person. I was so much more accurate! My swings made different noises, I could physically feel the increased speed's effect on the force of my punches. Beating this thing feels great! Wait, what's my stamina? 5? One last big swing and I'll be good!

"HAAA!"

CRACK!

...Wow, that was amazing. I either broke a finger or I broke the dummy's head. I can't tell, my hands hurt a lot. I'm coming down from the high I never realized I had.

"Ah, my hands..."

I was down all the way to 23 HP, from 70. Just how hard was I hitting that scarecrow?

"Was that last punch the Mighty Blow? It sounded great." The trainer snuck up on me again, and I didn't care this time either.

"The what, sorry?"

"The Mighty Blow. Usually, it doesn't need a martial arts technique, anyone with enough strength can use it. Apparently, when you're strong enough, some sort of force similar to mana starts developing in your body. If you get strong enough, you can learn to use it. The Mighty Blow is usually the first to be manifested, from strong emotions."

"Yeah, I got really pumped. What cracked though? Did I break my finger? My hands hurt like hell..."

"The crack was the sound of a big punch. You don't have to worry about breaking these things right now, you know, and you won't for a while. They're all reinforced Steelbark."

"I don't know what that is but it sounds strong."

"Oh, it is. It absolutely is. Even I can hardly even put a dent in these things, and I'm far past the level of the Mighty Blow. I'd sooner blast this building to shreds by kissing it than snap one of these bad boys in two."

"Sounds exotic. Um, actually, do you know a place here where I can fight people without having to start a street fight? I need some actual combat experience."

"Sure I do. The laws in this city forbid all forms of combat during the day, even the ones that would be legally sanctioned. As such, we developed a workaround. Since it is completely legal to spar at night, we of the Fighters' Union set up an official Fight Club right here, in this establishment. You do have to be a member or at least invited by a member to enter the club though."

"That sounds nice. How do I become a member of the Fighters' Union?"

"You have to go to the Headquarters, over in the Guild District, and apply there. You will be put through some tests and if you pass, issued identification. However, don't be so hasty to fight; as you are, the Union will turn you away. I've noticed some very glaring flaws about your body and movement."

She cleared her throat, this was the serious part.

"You are slow, and have the hand-eye coordination of a very drunk average man. Furthermore, while your strength is impressive, it feels like your body isn't built to handle its own strength. I can almost feel your muscles tearing themselves to shreds every time you move. Until you fix these two major issues, for you to become a member of the Fighters' Union is nary more than a pipe dream."

"...Wow, that's way harsher than it sounded."

"I can help you fix those problems, though. I've got just the thing behind this door," she said, leading me to the back of the Training Center, where she opened the door to a large courtyard with an oval-shaped track and various bits of gear, most of which I had no idea what they did. There were a few people out here, but the place really wasn't packed.

"I'm mostly going to have you pull, push and run your way to bodily balance in here. Of course, strength training would be great, but it's pretty much just legwork from here."

"I've got a lot ahead of me, don't I?" *chirp* "And there we go."

After telling two other people to relieve her, she pushed me to work for two hours. I ran, I ran some more, I did abdominal exercises of some kind, a weird not-really-crunch, I was made to pull a sled around the track with her on it, and every so often I would feel the unfortunately all-too-familiar sensation of zero Stamina.

It was worth it though.

Constitution has increased by 2!

Dexterity has increased by 2!

Max Stamina has increased by 8!

Willpower has increased by 1!

You have gained the Rest skill!

"Okay, that's enough. You did great, Chad. Good job."

"T-that's not enough though, right?"

"No, it's not. You'll have to work more in the future. For now, though, you did great. Take a break, you earned it."

Yeah, I did. Let's go mess with some Slimes, let my mind recover from all that serious work.