Chapter 4: A godsent item.

"One training room please." Alex said to the employee sitting at the counter.

They were currently at the Ranker's Arena building. The Ranker's Arena was where all of Ashitoria's finest fighters gather to spar with each other. Fights all the way from Beginner-rank to God-rank took place at the Arena, though the high rank fights were not available to the public eyes.

'I haven't been in a Ranker's Arena building since Kane fought the Peak-Tier Master-rank Assassin, Bakura.' Nash smirked to himself as he reminisced. 'I still can't believe that he got destroyed that fast. It was a real eyeopener for us back then.'

"That'll be 1 Silver Coin." the employee smiled.

"Pay up, rich boy." Alex turned to Nash.

"Excuse you?" Nash raised an eyebrow. "We're trading Master-rank guidance for Advanced-rank guidance. Have some shame and pay up, Darkie."

"Okay, tone down the slurs." Alex scoffed at Nash's blatant racism. 'Most Humans hate Dark Humans, but does he hate us so much that he disregards his own safety just to insult us?'

"Here you, go." the employee handed a card to Alex. "Please head to training room number 523."

The two walked into the training room numbered 523. The inside was a giant empty white void.

"Put us in a forest with a Novice-rank Swordsman with dual swords." Alex said as he stretched.

The scenery changed from the white void into a large forest. A hyper-realistic doll appeared in front of them while holding two swords.

"Stay on the defensive. Don't attack no matter what." Alex said to the doll as he backed away. He then turned to Nash. "Show us what you got, hotshot."

"You're supposed to teach me." Nash said coldly.

"What if what I'm teaching you is below your skill level without me knowing?" Alex said as he sat on a rock to observe. "Wouldn't that just waste your time? I need to know your current level."

"Tsk. Fine!" Nash said as he turned to the doll.

"Alright, listen here, you little shit!" Alex snapped. "I've had it with your attitude. You can curse at me, yell at me, talk back to me or even insult me to my face, but stop trying to get in the way of my work! If you want me to teach you, then fucking learn!"

"...Fine." Nash sighed as he walked to the doll.

Once he was in front of it, he swung his left sword weakly at the doll's right flank. The doll easily dodged by taking a single step back. Nash then stood straight and raised his right sword in the air then let it fall on the doll.

Peng!

Whoosh!

Nash's right sword zoomed through the air as the doll parried the attack easily. Nash immediately retreated more than 10 meters as he readied his hand to Cast a spell.

"Stop. Stop. STOP!! What are you doing?!" Alex's jaw dropped. 'I expected him to be a damn High-Tier at least!! I've seen Novice-rank Assassins handle longswords better than him!!'

"What? I'm retreating. My job is to hit from the back while the melees hold the opponent. It's basic combat tactics for a Ma-" Nash's face froze as he realized...he wasn't a Mage anymore.

'Did this moron really just forget his own Class??' Alex was flabbergasted. "You think you're a damn Ranger?! You're a Swordsman, boy!! Rush him!"

Nash grit his teeth as he rushed towards the doll. Alex yelled, "Attack nonlethally!"

Whoosh!!

Slash!!

The doll quickly hit Nash's other sword out of his hand, throwing him off balance. It quickly slashed at his neck, only stopping a little before hitting him, drawing a tiny bit of blood from his neck.

"Holy shit..." Alex sighed. "Alright, listen up. I noticed four things from this display. First, someone had obviously taught you to be a Mage, but it looks like fate had decided otherwise. Second, you're too scared. Even high rank Mages don't run that far when retreating. They usually maintain a 7 or 8 meters distance. You were going to go further than 10 meters, correct? Third, you have no form whatsoever. Whoever taught you to be a Mage gave up on you after you awakened as a Swordsman, correct? Your forms are horrible and do more harm than good. Remember, if you lose your footing in a battle, you lose your life. Lastly, your body is too weak right now. You can't handle two longswords. Try two shortswords or one longsword."

"..." Nash was silent. He hated to admit it, but the man was a professional after all. He saw that he was using Mage tactics. He was only wrong about one thing in his explanation. The distance needed to be maintained in a 1v1 between high rankers increased at the Master-rank. After all, it took Master-rank melee fighters less than a second to move a distance of 10 meters. For Master-rank Mages to survive in a 1v1 with a melee Master, they needed to maintain a distance of at least 100 meters. If not for his low speed, he would've crossed over 130 meters in those two seconds he crossed the 10 meters in.

"For now, we'll work on forms. I'll teach you a few basic forms and combos." Alex said as he pulled out a notebook from his bag. He wrote something down and handed the paper to Nash. "Practice these forms. No fighting the doll until then."

Saying so, Alex started to direct Nash to preform the combos and forms he had given him. The two spent close to 15 hours training. "Look, kid. You have some talent, but you'll never be able raid a Boss without at least a few days of training. Let's just end this for today, so how about you give me the training?"

"Haaaaah...haaaah...fine." Nash said after a few breaths. "Where's the student?"

"...Just teach me, and I'll teach the student." Alex said after waiting for a bit.

"It doesn't work like that, genius." Nash smirked. Alex was in HIS domain right now. "I need the student to be personally here to check their magical knowledge, Casting speed, Casting accuracy, Chanting speed, Chanting accuracy, Mana core quality, elemental affinity, Mana nullification potential, as well as the student's race for race potential."

Alex grit his teeth. "Fine. I'll talk to her and see if she agrees. Meet me at the Adventurer's Association tomorrow at 9 am."

"Alright." Nash said as he sheathed his longsword. "I'll leave now. You have fun training in the room."

'I guess I should go to an Appraisal shop to appraise this thing.' Nash thought as he looked to the purple ring he had.

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"Sup." a blue-haired young Elf that sat on the counter said as she heard the bell of the door.

"Good evening." Nash greeted as he entered the Appraisal shop.

"What do you want, boy?" the Elf asked lazily.

"Is that any way to talk to a customer?" Nash asked. "I want to speak to your manager."

"I'll do you one better." she said before going into the back. She came back with a fake and lazy smile. "Hello, I am the owner. How can I help you?"

Nash sighed in reluctance. "Fine. I need you to appraise this item. The man I got it from said it dropped from a Tier-2 Special Boss."

A magic array appeared over the owner's right eye as she looked at the item. "Wow. Not bad."

"What is it?" Nash asked.

"You'll have to pay first." the Elf chuckled when she saw Nash's excited expression. Now that he was stuck with the Swordsman Class, he could use any help he can get. She gave the ring to him and said, "It will be 8 Silver Coins."

"Why is it so expensive?!" Nash was taken aback. Appraising Tier-3 items didn't cost more than 10 Silver Coins.

"It's a Special Tier-2 item. Will you pay or not?" the young Elf said as she returned to her counter, sitting in comfort.

"...Fine." Nash reluctantly pulled out 8 Silver Coins. "This better be good."

"It's a Special Tier-2 item used to store a Novice-rank Mage's Mana capacity's amount of Mana." the Elf explained. "It's a Special item so it can be upgraded, but upgrading an item is no easy job, especially if you got it from a Boss monster."

Nash was stunned. Didn't this solve his Mana problem? With this, he could execute a few spells before the headache starts affecting his combat ability! He was now a pseudo-Multi Classer!!