The mining was successful. No one died and we returned safely. Although Dorus seemed a little bit disappointed that the recruit only gained 4 or 5 levels, Stella just flushed it out saying that the mines was too dangerous for greenhorns. I was amazed by her resolution. If it was me, I would never be able to oppose someone like that. After I got my meager exp and gold, which also contributed to my 3 level up last time, I went back to my house to get another book.

“Hmm, although you can actually began for another spell training, isn’t it time to improve your swordsmanship?” Stella said while handing me book about weapons and skills

“But I still got my 90% penalty. My repair skill is still at beginner lvl 5” once I got it into intermediate, I will be able to get blacksmith ability. Hendrick at blacksmith shop is more than willing to teach me as soon as I got to that point. But raising repair skill is harder than I thought. I can only return half of the durability with this. If I do any more than this, the max durability might be reduced instead. Unless I got to intermediate this will always happened.

“You will get it soon enough. Although not instant, I can teach you how to accelerate your skill. If you repair something, don’t use a skill. But use your hand instead. This way, your skill will raise a bit faster.”

“Ahh, I see.”

“Crafter is a difficult job isn’t?” Stella said while giggling

“Yeah. It really is. I don’t like it at all. Why performer need blacksmith anyway?” I asked while looking at my class requirement

“We don’t really made stuff. But we still need blacksmith ability? From my personal opinion which I have experienced. We need them in order to understand our props, our tools. For example, this is a sword, but this Elkami sword has different weight than wooden sword which you have noticed right? So we need to have at least a minimum understanding about what are we going to use, what is the difference between metal and wood. Which sword is for decoration and which is for killing. I think it was like that.”

“Knights don’t need them.” I said while scoffing a little

“That is the point I can’t refute. Hahaha. They are taught I guess. Everyone has different way to understand things. You will see them when you learned the skills and weapon styles I think.”

“Okay. Let’s learn. For this one, let’s have 8 hours for studying and 4 hours helping in Hendrick. By fixing other’s weapon, I think you will gained the skill faster.”

“Okay.”

“Sorry but, all the weapons and armors that I brought here have 200 level cap so you can’t wear it yet. But we can still learn the skill from the book here regardless. Just pick some random wooden sword and spear and bow and we can practice. The village has a lot of those right?”

“Okay.”

“Now I will introduce you to swordsmanship. Learning sword mastery and swordsmanship is a different thing. Sorry that you have to learn it manually, rather than wasting money making a skill book, normal books like these are easy to pass on.” Stella apologized over and over again at the same thing. Please Stella, I already forgive you. It was a blunder on my part so would you please stop it.

“Now. We have around 40 books here. Spear, 2 handed sword, one handed sword, mace, shield, bow, dagger, martial arts, axe, and lastly, throwing weapon. Each have 4 sets of book and each book have several skills”

“That’s..... a lot.”

“I already said it. We performers is an all-rounder, we can do everything but we can’t master it. Our strong point is having no weakness but our weakness is having no strong point. We can even learn magic. ”

I just tilted my head at Stella’s remark. But quickly stood straight after understanding her words. She is just playing with words. Why don’t you just call us jack of all trades?

“Now, let’s learn. First of all. Let’s open a one handed sword book. A sword skill contain one or more certain strike pattern.”

“Ahh, I wondered why I never had it.” I said while remembering Eiden Manual book. In manual, it explained in a battle section, it explained about styles and sword skills. The manual only explained about swords, but it can also applied to other weapons such as spear and axe. A sword skill is a certain pattern of sword strikes which has an increased damage than normal attack. Sometimes defying the law of the world such as the skill Marissa was using which is too fast to follow. After acquiring a certain set of skills, we could gained a combat style which further improves that certain set of skills efficiency. I have a class but I never got a skill never mind styles. I was starting to wonder if my class doesn’t even has a skill and styles. But a class that wields weapon must have at least one skill for that weapon so I was wondering when will I got it. I wonder if this is intentional.

“Huh?”

“Oh, sorry. I was just wondering if performer has weapon offensive skills or not. I have never got it before.”

“Well, sorry. You should learn this when you are around lvl 40 or 60. But various circumstances hindered me from teaching you.” Argh!, I stepped on another landmine. I should stop criticizing her teaching method from now on.

“Okay. Let’s learn”

3 weeks later

you have learned all weapon masteries.

Your sword, spear, and staff masteries will be embedded on this skill

you have learned dashing slash

you have learned piercing stab

you have learned side stepping

........

After reading all the messages, I summarized the skills I got based on its styles. All of performer’s weapon skills were inside of certain styles. This class has the most skills of any class I have ever read on forums by dozen folds

Fencing Style.

A style which mainly consist of stabbing and quick movement of a one handed sword category

Increase damage of quick stab and piercing stab

Increase movement speed by 10%

Decrease cooldown by 20% for quick stab. Piercing stab, side step and flash slash

swordmaster style

A style which mainly consist of slashing at joints of a one handed sword category

Increase damage of crippling slash, meteor slash, Vertical Square, tornado slash, severen slash

Increase damage against armored enemies

Increase resistance to fear status.

Increase critical hit when using all related skill causing double damage

Increase chance of counter parry when using parry.

Decrease cooldown for all related skills

Ranger assassin style

A style which mainly consist of using bows, dagger, and throwing weapons

Increase damage of double shot. Triple shot, precision shot, knife throwing, backstab, double stab

Increase range for throwing javelins, shurikens, and knives

Increase the effect of stealth

Critical hit chance when making an ambush

knightsword defender

A style which mainly uses a shield along with one other one handed weapon or spear

Increased defense when using shield stroke, fortress stance, defensive stance, defensive form, shield bash, shield parry, parry

Increase resistance to fear. Morale will be harder to drop

Reduce cooldown of related skill

Jujitsu

A style which consist of barehanded skills.

Increase damage and remove cooldown of flash punch, triple kick, shadow punch, wyvern kick, keen edge, master punch, martial combo, somersault, sea attack.

Decrease cooldown for side step, shadow step, quick step, air walk, wall run, inertia change

knightsaint swordmaster

A style which consist of using a two handed sword skills.

Increase the damage of hurricane, vorpal strike, avalanche, vertical slash

Increase defense when parry

Chance of knockback or knockdown when using parry

Increase resistance to fear. Morale will be harder to drop

Decrease the cooldown of related skills

kung fu

A style which focus on using spear and kick attack.

Increase damage of triple kick, wyvern kick, shadow kick, spear stab, quadruple stab, Tsunami barrage, whirlwind attack,

Decrease cooldown of all related skill.

Increase movement speed by 10%

Chance of stun when the skill hit.

heavy knight

A style consist of using axes or maces

Increase damage of related skill

Chance to stun

Chance to knockback

Chance to knock down

Increase damage to armor durability

Axe mace

- Whirlwind smash - megaton smash

- Skull splitter - meteor smash

- Horizontal slash - skull smash

- Avalanche - avalanche

That is all the skills and styles I learned. I also learned that different styles bonuses do not stack together. And to use a style, I need to perform an initial pose. After the style activated, I can use the related skills in that style. If I use anything outside of that style, the style is cancelled. I knew that some classes have 1 or 2 styles, but this is kind of ridiculous. I have 8 styles and most of them use different skills. How do I train all of this?

“She is really a fast learner huh?” Elkami whispered to Stella

“Fast? That’s not fast. That’s terrifying. She learned all of those skills in 3 weeks. In addition, she gained 10 levels when raiding some mines to train her styles and skills. Sometimes she even skipped a chapter in a book saying she already understood it. How can she gained a skill without reading it first?”

“That’s one logic. But I need more than twice of her time to learn that. It is depressing you know. I will run out of material to teach her in no time if these keeps up.”

“Haha, I know how that feels.” El giggled a bit

“Well, I am happy. She can become a great performer in no time if this keeps up. She just need to get rid of her shyness and she will be perfect. I will became a mere pet when that happened”

“I don’t feel like I am her pet though. Don’t think too much about it.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Umm.. Stella, I am done. So, what’s next?”

“Sorry Riri, but we have to force you a bit. You need to reach 200 to use the equipment I brought after all.” Stella winked

After that I went to the upper level of the caves that are filled with snakes. Apart from my Elkami sword, I take some other weapons such as wooden bow, iron axe, wooden spear, throwing weapons, and leather gloves. This is what the villages are willing to give me for free, they have steel now but they seemed unwilling to give it away except to their soldiers, I don’t need these weapons for long anyway. I already have Elkami and Tensaiga for swords although Tensaiga can’t damage anything it doesn’t mean I can’t train my skill with it.

My skill is currently beginner. Although this class is very flexible, Stella said that I need to use proper skill against proper enemies. For example, snakes have soft skins thus they are for vulnerable against sharp weapons such as swords and spears. However bugs that have exoskeletons such as spiders or scorpions are more vulnerable against heavy weapons such as axes or maces. The same applied to humans. If the enemy is a shield user like Hasega, axe or maces can knock them down. But against fast and thin armor such as thieves, it is better to use swords.

“Hmm, there is going to be a guild war right? Your friends? Are you going to go there?” Stella asked. The truth is, 2 days ago when I trained at the caves, I asked Hasega and co and thus we manage to clear the caves. The loot was quite good, but I choose cash instead and gave every equipment to others. They didn’t accept either as their equipment was better so we decided to sell and split the money. Sometime during that time, Anya mentioned about that guild war. Everyone participated and thus we are also invited. I dodged the invitation by saying I want to train with Stella.

“Hmm, currently I am lvl 170. The war is 2 days away. I can’t make it to lvl 200 in 2 days, the exp these snakes gives are getting fewer and fewer. Although I already have blacksmithing skill. Not to mention the journey to the castle itself. I heard it is extremely far away”

“If you ride that griffin Hasega was using, it might only took a day to get there. How about whispering him?” El said

“Hmm....“I pondered at El suggestions. Truth be told, I really want to go. But I don’t have anything to show them. And looking at Anya and others. I feel inferior. They have such a high rank in Trisia and moreover, their equipment looked rare. “So, does all of you want to go?” I asked. If Stella and El said we should go I guess I should tag along.

“That’s no good Riri, it looks like we force you to.” El said while pouting.

“Well, I do want to go. But, if it means forcing you, I guess we can skip it.”

“Hmm, well, let’s go then. I will contact Hasega. But don’t think highly of my performance later ok? I haven’t improved at all except for the past week.” I said while contacting Hasega. Maybe the truth is I just don’t want to let them down. Those guys have high levels and positions and they trained regularly unlike me who is goofing off in a place like this. Anya has invited me numerous times, but Shella didn’t. I guess she didn’t have high hopes from jack of all trades.

Hasega was very glad that I could come to guild war. He rushed out his griffin to pick me up and we left just like that. The place for the guild war was indeed very far. While from Trisia to Acolyte was just a few hours, the journey to the Silphia castle took more than 24 hours. Now that I think about it, I didn’t even know where the guild war took place. If not for Hasega, I think I would have gotten lost somewhere. I could read maps, but if flying by griffin took more than 24 hours, journey by foot would take weeks. I suppose it is understandable now that Shella was recruiting from a week before where in here it would be 1 month.

“Here we are.” Hasega said proudly while landing. The castle was very well fortified. A moat and a drawbridge surround the castle. The castle itself was backed by a cliff so any army that wanted to attack it would have to go from the front, unless there was some secret passage somewhere.

“Hello Riri. You came. Have you finished your training?” Anya said while greeting me

“Umm, no. I can’t make it”

“Don’t worry, the training has finished. It is just that she doesn’t have sufficient levels yet to use the special equipment for that. So, you have to be content with the usual sword. Ahh, if I remember, she will be participated as a healer right? You don’t have to worry about a thing then.” Stella reassured Hasega. Stella, please don’t make such a demand from me okay.

“Hahaha, okay, I will speak to Shella, umm, she is Audine here. “ Hasega said while walking toward the inner castle.

“Don’t looked so down. The level requirement is 70 here. You are already way past that. no need to worry.” Anya reassured me “and you have El and Stella too”

“Umm, okay.”

“Ahh, who is she?” Some random swordsman

“Well, this is Lily. It is Riri here. Not very different isn’t?”

“Although the face is different, you can tell them straight away. Hahaha.” He laughed

“No kidding.” Anya giggled “Ahh, but when it is battle time, you might not recognized her, and she has this different personality when fighting.”

“Alter Ego? Hahah, I would like to see that.”

‘Please don’t spread some rumors about meee!!’

“Ahh, my name is Rund. It is Mario in real world level 100 mercenary although I am not really strong, I am free spirit so I am looking for a class that is not bound to any places and here I am. Recognize me? I am in class B next to you. And this one is Sam, Dune, Howard. No need to mention their real names okay, they are from different school just like Hasega.” He said while pointing at his member

“Now,i heard from Anya that you are new? Should I teach you some basics?”

“Yes, I would love too.” In order not to look ridiculous, at least I have to memorize some basics

“Alright, so, as you may already know, for this battle there are 1 commander, 6 captains which each have 5 legions each legions have 10 squad leaders. And lastly each squad has 6 groups, for me the commander is Audine. The captain is Hasega. Our battalion leader is Victor, our squad leader is Anya, and under her is my group. That’s the gist of it, there are some free spots left in my group, I do not socialize much so our group is basically leftovers hahah. I think Hasega is trying to place you into my group if you were put in, we will have a solid 6 group members and will not be treated as reserves anymore. Our army here is around 10 thousands. It is quite big especially for castle defense. ”

“umm, so, where are Dem and Iris?” I asked

“Dem is a battalion leader under Hasega while Iris is another captain. “ Anya said. Since the everlasting group has their own group to lead, I guess I won’t be seeing they worked together again.

“Hello, tired of waiting? So, I have talked toward our commander. She said it is okay to let you joined. Since you came so late, she just threw you to my group. So, Riri, the positions for battalion and squad leader has been filled. Although it is a shame that someone of your talent is an ordinary group member and reserve troops. But please hold on for a while. You might get into action the day after tomorrow” Hasega said while playing something in front of him. His status window is big. Is that for a captain?

“Hmm, Rund has 5 members although their average is just 100. The others already have their own hired NPC priest. Sorry, but I guess you have to put up with it. You came late anyway.”

you have been invited by Hasega to guild war. You will be placed in Rund’s group. Do you accept?

“Umm, okay.” Why do I feel left out? Hasega seemed reluctant but his decision gave no space for opposition.

you have joined a guild war as Defender

You are tasked with defending Silphia castle which is under guild Odin rule.

You will be rewarded with 10 silver for each contribution point you got

Upon death, you will not be revived until the war is over.

Contribution points will be earned based on your performance

Exp will be rewarded based on the performance of your group

The defender is not allowed for reinforcement

The attacker is allowed for reinforcement

The defender is allowed for castle weapons

The attacker is allowed for siege weapons

Condition for losing :

- Attacker has conquered throne room

- Commander Audine dies

- The castle is damaged more than 90%

Conditions for winning

- Commander Qirin dies

- Attacker has less than 10% of defender’s army

- No attack for 24 hour consist of at least 300 troops

The war will begin in 23 minutes

“Well, the other group have paladins or NPC hired priests. It is only natural that you fall into my group Riri. Let’s work well together.” Rund said happily

“Just 20 more minutes and the battle will start.” Hasega said. “Any question anyone?”

“Umm. How many is our enemy and what do you mean the day after tomorrow? Is this going to be a long battle?”

“Well, basically, we fight until no one is left so, it might took weeks if there is a big siege like this. However, unlike us, the enemy is allowed for reinforcements so we don’t know their total number. From our scouts, the enemy is currently 12 thousand but it might increase later. For the detail you might ask Anya.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, everyone, head to your post.” Hasega said and alarm sounded which marks the siege has begun

chapter 38

chapter 40

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Author note

- i feel like ending this series soon so, i skipped how she trained. i know it would feel horrible if a fiction stopped midway so i tried to accelerate the pace and finish it. it is better if the ending is a bit crappy than not finishing at all right? i hope this chapter isn't to crappy for you to read

- any comment and questions will be answered. you can even ask what is going to happen after this. beware of spoilers though. i will try to answer your questions to the best of my capabilities

- enjoy reading.