Secrets and lies V

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, and his arms felt like they weighed a ton. Breathing rapid, and muscles aching. His mouth was dry as a desert but as he blinked his eyes staring at the tall, thick tree in front of him he lifted the dull short axe that he gripped once more.

How many times did he swing the axe at the tree? A hundred? Two hundred? He lost count after fifty.

Gritting his teeth, he swung the axe in one swift but powerful motion. As the dull blade on the axe hit the tree, a vibration ran down its poll rattling his hands.

Frankly, this was torture and he could not envision him swinging this axe as training. All he was told was to grab the axe, and swing at the tree until he was told to stop. Seeing as no one came to get him, he had to keep swinging.

No matter how much it hurt, how much his body wanted to rest. He had to keep going, even if it killed him. Ok, maybe not that far, but at least until his body could not stand anymore.

Jacob licked his dry lips as he pulled the axe out of the tree.

This was the hardest he's ever worked his body in this life and his previous. He has worked out before, but he usually stopped after ten minutes. Call him a quitter if you must, but his schedule was packed.

From sunup to sundown, Jacob was always on the move.

Working towards something and seeing it achieved was the greatest feeling one could ever have. There was nothing else like it.

Jacob could count the times he has accomplished what he has set out to do on one hand. Graduating from college was one. Get into a company while doing something he loved was two. The last thing he accomplished was establishing his own characters in a video game - which happened to be Pathfinder.

He wrote up quite a few characters in the game, their history, their ambitions and even helped design how they looked. If he could speak honestly, he loved that part of creating the game. Coming up with the characters, and seeing them finally come to life.

It was sad that he would not see most of the NPCs he has created. Not that he didn't want to, but they were spread out all over the land and Jacob was beginning to see how small of a character he was right now.

Even the guards had a history, a real story to tell. They had their strengths and weakness' clearly different from the game. Each one had their own personality, something that they as developers never accomplished.

Take Rolf for an example, in the game he would be a nameless cook with set attributes and stats. However, here he was a person who could do more than just cook - at least Jacob assumed so due to the pieces he put together. Rolf more than likely had stats similar to that of a cook in-game, but it changed now.

Or, you could take all the guards here. In-game, guards could be hired or trained, and all of them had a fixed level of ten. No guard had his or her own name, the training they did in game was nil. They were there to guard whatever they were told to.

Yet, in this world, all the guards had their own names. They trained with each other and felt a sense of brotherhood.

Currently, Jacob could not even compare to either of them. In-game, he was sure not only his stats but gear could compare to theirs. None of the basic clothing that he was wearing gave him any protection. Real armor, real weapons, and even a horse. That is what he wanted.

It was a pity that he could not even afford any of that as of yet.

Still, he took it one step at a time.

Nothing great was built in a day, and his story was just beginning.

Jacob grunted as he swung the short axe once more.

"Hey kid, Oswald said you can stop now."

A voice yelled over to him just as his axe made contact with the tree.

Hearing those glorious words caused Jacob to fall to the ground. He stretched out his arms and legs as if he just finished completing a ten-mile run.

[Training complete: 2 hours 36 minutes 45 seconds.]

[One-Handed Proficiency increased by 30.]

[Experience gained: 150.]

Jacob was surprised by the notification he received. He was wondering why his proficiency was not going up as he was striking the tree but turns out he received it at the end.

Not only that, but he also managed to gain one hundred and fifty experience points. There were four ways a person could gain experience in Pathfinder. One, your normal hunting methods. Such as killing an animal, or a person would net you a certain amount of experience. The other one was the generic quest, but those were hard to come by as Pathfinder was a sandbox game. It did not give quests to every player, you could only gain them through special means or during certain times - such as war.

The other two were more special and is what made Pathfinder different. You could train under someone who had the skill trainer, which would give you a certain amount of experience after you completed a stage of training. The other were for the players who wanted to become merchants. You could complete trading orders, the higher the profit the more experience you gained.

He should have figured the long black-bearded man had the skill trainer. However, that was his fault for believing Renold was in charge.

After learning a bit of information he learned that Renold passed over his duties to someone else.

While Renold does have it - every head guard has the skill trainer. Jacob did not count on the other guard to have it.

'Wait… Oswald?'

Tired as he was, he was sure that he was not hearing things.

'That big guy is Oswald? I should have figured as much given how much authority he has with the other guards.'

Jacob thought to himself as he kept taking large breaths.

"How long did you swing for? I remember my first time swinging that stupid axe at that exact same tree. My muscles ached for days, but Oswald still worked me like a dog."

The voice said in a sympathetic tone.

Jacob could see that it was Jack who was speaking to him. What caught his attention the most was what Jack said, the exact same tree. Just how sturdy was this tree for it to survive Jack's swings?

His own hits he could understand as he was not really strong due to his body condition. Jack, on the other hand, was different, his swings should have caused some damage but it did not seem like it from the way the tree looked.

"I don't know, maybe two hundred times. I lost count after fifty."

Jack was surprised. Two hundred times? How was that even possible? Especially with Jacob's small body. Even he only managed to do it a little over a hundred times before his body could take no more.

He heard from the guards that Renold managed three hundred swings when he was a recruit. That was impressive, as Oswald only hit it around two hundred times. He always said it was higher than that, but the older guards who were around when Oswald was a recruit could attest to that.

"How in Nessa's name did you manage that? Did you not take a break?"

Jack looked down at Jacob's sweaty body. His loose white shirt was drenched in sweat along with dirt stains. His body was emitting that bone-dry aura as if it could not move one inch.

It was no secret that you would take a break while whacking the tree with the axe over and over. Oswald might have said hit it until told otherwise, but no one ever did. Some of them took five-minute breaks every few swings, some others took thirty minutes.

However, the one thing that stayed the same was the integrity they had. Each admitted to taking breaks while training, and they may exaggerate on the number of swings a bit but nothing outrageous.

Jacob shook his head.

"What break? He said swing until someone came and that is exactly what I did. How I did it? I just pictured my most hated person as the tree and continued to swing."

Jacob tried to laugh but it hurt too much so he stopped.

"Unbelievable! Your stamina is insane to continue on for so long."

Jack did not know Jacob had twenty points of agility which made him use less energy than the average person. If a person used one percent of their stamina every swing, Jacob used half of that.

His body was still lacking in proper nutrients to take full advantage of it, but the effects still showed. Granted, the effects were less than what they would be if he had a body like the others.

Still, with the nourishment, he has obtained from those hearty meals yesterday his body was starting to put it to use.

"Guess I'm special."

That was Jacob's only response.