To Choose A Weapon

As planned, after eating Mark brought Jien through some basic stretches to limber up before he started the day's routine. Mark made it clear that for the first few days he would perform all the motions alongside Jien so that it would seem like less of a hassle. Mark had always found that it was easier to get through these types of efforts along with at least one other person.

After stretching out thoroughly Mark started at a brisk walk, keeping pace with Jien as they started their way towards the main gate of the manor. Their first task was to jog around the manor once, being roughly a three-mile jog. This may not seem like much, especially to a trained soldier and mercenary like Mark, but it had to be remembered that despite his strong mentality that Jien was only seven years old, not to mention that he wasn't an athletically active child, preferring to keep to his room or the manor's library to read. Mark felt that this jog may not exhaust the young lord but would definitely put a dent in his energy reserves prior to the rest of the workout.

They soon reached the large wrought iron gate at the front of the manor surrounded on either side by ten-foot-high stone walls. The gates themselves were open and a pair of guards were present on either side. Upon seeing Jien, they saluted with their fist over their heart and greeted him formally. They then turned to Mark and asked him if he would be drinking with them again that night, to which he responded by saying that he would if he had the time.

After exiting the gate, they turned to the left and began to jog along the wall. On the other side of the manor wall were open fields filled periodically with various gardens containing different fruit and vegetables. These were gardens that both supplied the manor and provided for some of the less fortunate in Afrem City. The city itself was not very large, though too large to be considered a town or village it was barely on the scale of a true city, let alone the capital. This led to Lord Losler deciding to create gardens to both supply work and food not only for his manor but also to those who were having a tough go of life. This in turn allowed for their small city to become both tight knit and ultimately more productive, not having to rely solely on buying food supplies from other territories.

Jien and Mark jogged silently for the full three miles. Jien was still trying his best to grasp how to cast at least the first of the two spells he had received. He had made little headway in this endeavor, having only just had his mana unsealed a few short days ago and not having any actual instruction on how to use it as of yet beyond what he had read in various texts such as Grafler's Theorem. The trouble is that while those books could give a basic description of how to approach the topic, each book had its own viewpoint, and each author would suggest something slightly different. Not to mention that most users of the arcane arts at least started off with more verbal spells. However, Jien had been provided his in the form of vague feelings, not text or sounds. From Jien's understanding this type of spell craft was one of the hardest to put into practice.

Mark didn't mind the silence and could see that Jien was thinking about something rather seriously. Jien was doing as he was asked in jogging around the manor, and they didn't make more than a few stops for a minute or two so that Jien could take a drink from the bottle of water he carried. Ultimately this led them back into the gate and to the practice field they had started from. At this point Jien was sweating fairly profusely. He wasn't a very athletic person on the best of days, but he had also not slept the prior night leading to him breathing a bit harder than he might have.

Once they arrived back at the practice field Mark allowed Jien to rest for a few minutes after another round of light stretching to make sure that he remained loose for the next part of the training festivities. After a few minutes of rest Mark requested Jien to start doing some basic exercises such as pushups, sit-ups, lunges and a few others. He did not request a particular number, simply requesting Jien to do as many as he could to see where he stood currently to help structure the coming days and weeks. Jien did as he was requested without complaints. Though he was not a fan of this type of activity he knew that once he got through this part of the day, they would eventually get to the part of the day he was truly looking forward to, the training on the use of mana and the arcane arts.

It was after Jien had finished the last of his routine exercises that lunch time had finally arrived. To Mark's pleasant surprise they did not end up having to go back to the manor to grab lunch. Runa, Jien's personal attendant walked onto the training field with a larger basket than what they had carried their breakfast in. Once she had set out a picnic blanket, she opened the basket and started to serve out a slightly more substantial lunch. She figured that by now the two would have worked up a bit of an appetite. She knew that they still had a long afternoon ahead of them and that they would need all the energy they could get, especially Jien.

Their lunch consisted of simple sandwiches, a side salad, some fresh fruit and a fruit tea that had been chilled. Jien didn't hold back in the slightest in digging into the meal. Though he still kept a certain level of etiquette in how he ate he still seemed to finish his meal in what seemed to be less time than it took Mark to make it through his sandwich. Mark saw this as a good thing. It meant that Jien was pushing himself and his body needed the energy from the meal to keep him going. He hoped that this trend would continue in the afternoon and in the days to come.

After Mark finished his meal and Runa packed up the dishes and blanket Mark stood up and thanked her before turning to Jien. "Now comes an important piece," he stated seriously. "The choice of a weapon is crucial to anyone who takes the martial path, even if only in part. While there are some that use more than a single or pair of weapons, they tend to be jacks of all trades without actually mastering any." At this Mark gestured to the dagger and longsword on his hips. "I commonly use the longsword, but I specialize in the use of daggers. This is mostly due to issues regarding reach. A long sword allows me to match an opponent's reach in most cases and allows for decent leverage. A dagger is an excellent weapon and is where most of my skill lies but it is better for moments that I am able to get inside an opponent's area of control."

Mark paused here to ensure that Jien was keeping up with what he was saying. He noticed that Jien was paying more attention to what he was saying now then he had been for the entire day. This could only lead Mark to smile at the fact that Jien took this topic seemingly as seriously as he did topics relating to the arcane arts. "While I intend you to try various weapons to try and get a feel from which one suits you best, I will have you come with me into the supply shed to choose a training weapon that interests you as a start." Mark stated as he began to walk towards the medium sized stone building on the edge of the training field. This is where various training equipment was stored, everything from training dummies and weighted pieces of armor to dulled training weapons of varying sizes and different materials for different weight.

As they entered the building the side walls were lined with well-organized equipment, while the back wall was lined with weapons racks packed with different types of weapons, all of which were a dull grey metallic color. Each of these weapons was made of simple iron but some were filled with heavier metal to increase their weight. Mark approached a rack at the far left and pointed at the weapons that were sitting within it. "We will be using these for training for the foreseeable future. They are the lightest of those available here and will allow us to focus on the basics of the weapon you choose before slowly increasing the weight to allow for building up the proper muscle groups to support your chosen weapon and ultimately assist in your weapon control." He turned from the rack of grey weapons to face Jien. "I would like you to choose a weapon from these and we will go over some basic stances and movements to test how you feel about it. I don't suspect that your first choice will be your ultimate choice, but you never know."

With that said, Jien stepped forward and after looking though the options made his decision.