Martial Training

Once he was done with his work, that is when he could not raise his arms anymore, Felix left the forge, although not before he was handed ten coppers for his work.

Also, Chris told Felix to come back in a couple of hours, although Felix wasn't sure why. But for now, he didn't care.

Felix gently woke up in the real world, still laying in his bed, in the same position he had entered the game in.

As he reached for his ear to take off the chip though, he was surprised to find his arm sore. It wasn't to the extent of what he felt in the game, but it still felt like he had been lifting weights.

At first, he thought it was because he hadn't moved for several hours, but as he got on his feet, although he did feel a little stiff, the soreness only came from his arms.

Felix wasn't sure why he felt the way he did, but his main theory was that his brain was having a hard time catching up between the two bodies.

So he decided to ignore the soreness and got out of his room, smelling food.

Walking to the kitchen, Felix did not spot Yasue, but the pans had been used quite recently. And taking a look around, he found a plate in the microwave. It was lukewarm.

Felix smiled at that, he had barely missed Yasue. Well, good for him, like this he didn't have to actually microwave the food, although he wouldn't have said no to talking about the game with Yasue.

As he ate, Felix checked for news online, and unsurprisingly, everyone was speaking of Epoch. A lot of it was idle talk, some was about the power dynamics between the player guilds that promised to be spicy, and some were about actual information.

Only the last one interested Felix. He learned some things from his research, one of which was that several players had found that players would recover faster while disconnected.

When a player wasn't in the game, their avatar would disappear, but wherever it went, it didn't simply disappear as it would continue regenerating its health and Mana normally. However, stamina, the stat that wasn't shown on the Status Page, actually regenerated faster than normal.

This was good news to Felix, as it meant he should be able to train after waiting for a while outside the game. Since Chris had told him to meet him in a couple of hours, and Felix had disconnected right in front of his shop, Felix figured he might as well rest until then.

His research also showed him that not directly heading to the surrounding areas had been a good idea. Countless clips, either coming from streamers, or simply people who happened to be filming for whatever reason, showed players fighting against monsters.

Pretty much anyone could figure out how to fight instinctively, waving a sword around didn't require years of practice. However, the difference still showed.

While most players were capable of attacking and defending, the game held nothing back with its monsters. Any sign of weakness, the monsters would exploit them, and the players showed plenty.

Again, it wasn't hard to swing a sword, but rarely did a beast fall under a single strike. And that would be when trouble would come.

Felix, like any user of the Internet, knew of some content creators who were actually experts at fighting, and he was looking at the video of one such fighter. Her name was Mulan, and while she wasn't the most famous, she had been creating content associated with fighting in general for a while.

A video of a player holding a sword played out, and he was facing a goblin, generally believed to be one of the weakest monsters, and for a good reason. It was as short as a child, its spindly limbs thinner than an elf's while its belly was rotund.

It had no armor, the only items on it being a loincloth that did not seem to offer any protection, and a shortsword. The only thing it had for itself was its level, which was 3, but it was obviously weaker than the player in every way possible.

But as the video played out, the player rushed at the goblin, and with a mighty cry, swung down his longsword at the goblin.

The goblin, who was about to attack, showed open fear at the incoming sword, and instantly stopped its attack, ducking down. The longsword cut through the air, and only the air, as the attack had been successfully dodged, and the goblin went for the attack.

It went for a simple stab at the player's midsection, a telegraphed move that looked easy to dodge. Yet the shortsword hit the player in the gut, and although the blade did not go all the way through, a long cut was made on his side.

Following that, the player kicked the goblin in the head, making it fall down, and brought his sword down on it, again and again until it stopped moving.

Then, the video stopped as a new scene appeared, and Mulan appeared on the screen. Her face was covered with a mask, and she wore armor. This was quite impressive, as this was her in game avatar. It meant she had already managed to get so much equipment.

"As you may have seen, while this player managed to kill the goblin, he took unnecessary damage, because of his lack of experience. Swinging a sword is easy, anyone can do it, but fighting isn't all about swinging your weapon around."

The video wound back to the first strike, and she continued her explanation.

"I'm not going to teach you everything there is to know about fighting here, because this is not what this video is for. I am here to show the obvious that eludes the neophyte. The biggest mistake here is the attack itself."

The video slowed down as the sword started moving like a snail as it swiped past the goblin.

"Skill with the sword, or any other weapon for that matters, only comes after months of grueling hard work, so missing your attack is fine. What is not, is attempting to reciprocate your betters without any idea of what you are doing. For the more experienced of you, you may have recognized this attack as Crippleman's attack."

Crippleman was another, more famous content creator, who also happened to be an expert sword fighter.

"The problem with this particular strike is that it requires the user to put all their strength into their attack, meaning that if they hit, the damage will be increased, but missing means leaving yourself open. This does not make it a bad technique, but to use it well, battle awareness is required, to understand when to use it, and when not to."

The video moved to the stab the player received.

"Otherwise, this happens. You can see that he has tried to dodge the stab, but his body was dragged by his sword, making him unable to. Had he restrained himself, he could have retreated, or used his sword to block."

The footage sped to the last part, when the player kicked the goblin.

"This second part is much better than the first. While the ability to revive and tank damage that would cripple any human on Earth is a wondrous opportunity to learn fighting, you still should learn to use your strengths against your enemy's weaknesses. The goblin is short, has even shorter arms, and is slow. Keeping your distances would be a fine strategy, but kicking the shit out of it is fine too."

That part got a smile from Felix.

"Seriously, it is at your waist level, it is easier to kick it down than to use your sword. You won't one shot it like that, unless there is a good stat difference, or you are a Taekwondo expert, but it is a great way to kill a monster like the goblin."

After that, she went onto slightly higher level stuff, such as movement, and while Felix kept watching, it started encroaching on the experience territory.

He could watch a thousand tutorials, without any experience, he would never really learn to fight. Still, it wouldn't do him any harm, so for the rest of his rest, Felix continued watching similar videos, mostly those of Mulan as he liked her videos.

--

As he materialized in front of Chris' shop, the first thing Felix felt, or rather didn't, was that the soreness previously in his arms had now disappeared.

"Fuck that's weird."

Felix turned around at the voice, and saw Chris, along with another man who bore some resemblance to him.

[Caleb, Level 13, Elite]

[Chris, Level 12, Elite]

Chris had his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed as he commented, "That's a scary thing, being able to teleport. Even more so when it's done by a Level 1."

Felix looked back and forth between the two, and said cautiously, "Not as scary as it looks… This may be a misunderstanding."

Caleb, the younger of the two, had an indifferent mask crack as a smile took place, "We're messing with you kid, we know you Otherworlders do this weird shite in Intermundia."

Felix decided not to comment on it, and Chris said, "This here, as you can see, is Caleb. He is my little brother, and happens to be a member of the guard. Moreover, he knows a thing or two about the spear."

Felix looked at Caleb, and warned, "I don't have much to pay you with."

Caleb dismissed his worries with a wave though, "I'm not shameless enough to make you pay, I'm only a low level guard. I don't have much to teach you other than the basics."

Felix sent a glance at Chris, who simply threw a spear that had been laying against the shop's front.

[Iron Spear, Common, Level 1]

[Attack: +10]

It was about as basic, or maybe common was a more appropriate term, as it could come, but it would do the job. He only was going to use it for training after all.

"Your arms are fine now?"

Chris, seeing the ease with which Felix caught the spear and lifted it, felt there was something amiss.

Not seeing any reason to hide it, Felix told them about the increased recovery in between the two worlds, the Intermundia, which seemed to be where his avatar went while he was offline.

That got him scoffs from the two brothers, but that was it.

And so, before long, Felix left with Caleb to the training grounds.

There, Felix was surprised to see quite a few players, along with some NPCs. The grounds were quite large though, so Caleb and Felix did not find it hard to find a space for themselves, and Felix's training started.

"Hit me."

Felix did not even hesitate as he lunged for Caleb, bringing his spear down on him. This was a faint however, as Felix was ready to change the trajectory of his strike at any moment, Mulan's video fresh in his mind.

Of course, things did not go according to plan.

Caleb did not dodge. Instead, he parried Felix's blow, forcing him to take a step back as his defense was blown wide open, and before Felix could do anything, Caleb's own spear was at his throat.

"Again."

Caleb got back in position, and Felix went for a stab this time. Caleb sidestepped it, while Felix quickly pulled his weapon back… and something went wrong again.

As Felix's spear passed next to him, Caleb used one hand to grab it, and as Felix was pulling it back towards him, Caleb was brought to Felix with a single step, sending his elbow at Felix's throat.

"Again."