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Chapter 6
J Man knew the training room for the Assassins
and Bandits was hidden, but he was also told where. He walked into the bathroom
and flicked a switch in the bathroom which caused the toilet to open up into a
hole that led deep into the basement of the tavern. He jumped down and landed in
a dark room. There was only a small light in the entire area which turned out to
be bigger than he expected. It was a large open room, with a door at the other
end that had a red button just next to the door.
He walked over to the door and opened it up to see a young teen throwing a
bunch of black objects at continuously reappearing monsters. The teen had short,
messy blonde hair and was a little shorter than himself. He himself was already
short, so this teen was quite short compared to the average Hunter. He looked
younger than an usual too, which explained his height.
The teen noticed J Man open the door. He immediately ran out and pressed the
red button on the wall outside of the room, making the monsters stop suddenly.
"Heya, you new here?" the teen asked.
"Yeah, came here to be a Bandit," J Man replied.
"I've already been here for a day. The Dark Lord gave me this cool Pao
equipment to wear," he said, showing off the black robes with Japanese symbols
written on them, "You should get some from him too when you start your
training."
"Where'd he run off to? Lunch break?" J Man laughed.
"I'm right behind you of course," answered a sudden deep voice.
"Woah!" J Man yelled in surprise, turning and drawing his dagger. He saw why
this guy was called the Dark Lord. He wore a brown ninja outfit. He had a red
bandana with a gold plate covering his forehead. The strangest thing about him
was that he had black wings.
"Put away your dagger for now, J Man, we need not use weapons at the moment.
I shall teach you, as a Bandit, to fight with more than just your dagger," he
said, then raised his hand, holding up the same clothes that the other teen was
wearing.
"Change into these clothes, they are designed to allow easier movement for
you during battle," the Dark Lord explained. J Man nodded and took the clothes
back up the ladder and into the bathroom to change.
A few minutes later, J Man dropped back down into the large, dark room. This
time, a new person was there. A female with pale skin who's dark hair fell down,
but stayed in a messy, spiked style.
"This girl here," the Dark Lord gestured to her, "is the best Assassin I have
ever taught. I would like to introduce you to these two, she is here training
this young boy. Their names are Koslow and Barbarius, with Koslow being the
girl."
"Nice to meet'cha," Barbarius said with a smile.
"Same here guys," J Man said to both of them, before Barbarius stepped back
into the training room. Koslow just nodded slightly and followed Barbarius into
the training room.
"Hm, Koslow is a bit more open-minded to those she knows well," the Dark Lord
explained, "However, you will not be training under her, as she is only trained
in the ways of the Assassin and not the Bandit. I shall train you to be a
powerful Bandit. Fluent in dagger and cutter combat. Take these, your weapons
that you will be training with."
J Man nodded, he held tightly the Field Dagger and Stinger the Dark Lord
handed him. The Field Dagger was a bit longer than the simple dagger he was
using up until now, as it was made for combat with small notches in the blade
that made it cut through things easier. Cutters were designed for stabbing, the
Stinger was a basic cutter that had a large hilt that he could use for blocking
attacks and a small, broad blade which made stabbing more effective than
slashing.
"Use the dagger for quick combination attacks. Use the cutter for strong
finishing attacks.," the Dark Lord explained, "I will teach you in here a while
before we train in the training room. I first want to teach you some things that
a Bandit can do besides killing monsters."
Nemorian was wandering aimlessly around Henesys while reading a book on
Archery. He wanted to at least know how to handle a bow before he went and
started training to become a Archer class Hunter. He couldn't practice any of
the techniques though, as only people who have trained with them under Athena
Pierce and became a Hunter were allowed to have one.
He was about to give up and go to see Athena when he tripped and landed on
the ground, getting his green hooded shirt and green pants padded with brown
armor full of dirt. His green hat that had one long feather strapped to it with
a yellow band fell off from the fall and landed a few feet away. He stood up,
brushed his shoulderlength brown hair out of his face, picked up his hat and put
it back on. He tossed the book on the bench and left it for someone else who was
interested in reading it. He thought it was too complicated to learn from a book
without even a bow to practice with, so he gave up on it and walked to Mushroom
Park, where Athena's treehouse was.
The treehouse wasn't clearly marked, so he walked into a few wrong places,
including citizen's houses, before he found the right place. He knew it was the
right place as soon as he walked in. There was a huge field with targets for
practicing accuracy with the bow. There was a middle aged woman there with long
brown robes that had a large white collar, long silver hair, a gold tiara and
very noticable green eyes. She was training a man with a crossbow. He had red
armor with white stripes around the waist and wrists.
"Excuse me," Nemo said, tripping over the slight rise at the entrance but
quickly regaining his balance.
"It seems we have a guest Mitso, please wait a minute. You may continue
practicing your accuracy here until I get back, then I will start you on
critical attacks," Athena politely instructed the man in the red and white armor
as he nodded and followed instructions.
Athena stepped toward Nemorian, "Hello, can I assume you have come here for
Archery training?"
"Uh-um, yeah," he said nervously. He was never any good at speaking formal.
"Very well then," she said, turning to a closet nearby. She pulled out a set
of clothing. A green colored chainmail top with yellow stripes and brown cotton
pants that were a bit puffy. She went in again and retrieved some more from her
stash of Archer's clothing, this time a hat which rims were shifted upwards and
also had a feather with a yellow band holding it in place, and some simple brown
shoes that looked comfy and easy to walk in.
"Put these on, basic Archer's clothing. There's a changing room right over
there. We can start as soon as you're ready," she explained, directing him to
the changing room.
"Uh... yeah, okay... I'll be right out..." he said as he shut the door
tightly behind him and made sure it was locked. He could hear what was happening
outside, Athena had started instructing Mitso on critical attacks.
All the way up in the mountains of Perion, the three Warriors were beginning
their training with the man named, strangely, Balrog. He said the Balrogs were
named after him, as they were the only monsters that ever matched his strength.
He could beat them, but they were very strong. He quickly proved he could beat
one when he showed an example of it in the training room. He set a Balrog to
appear and took ten minutes to defeat it. He said it was an example of what they
could eventually achieve down the path of a Warrior.
When the training began, the man with brown hair who was fighting in the
training room the day before introduced himself as Bryenn. From there, the three
recieved all new equipment from Balrog. They chose from a huge selection of
equipment.
Schimmel picked out a huge, steel broadsword. A huge transition from a small
wooden sword, Schimmel could hardly even pick this one up. Besides the sword, he
also wore new red colored plate armor. It was very durable armor, but also a bit
heavy. He also wore pants, grieves and gauntlets all made of silver steel.
Balrog told him that he, through training, would be able to handle the heavy
equipment with ease. He decided not to wear a helmet, but instead a red
headband.
Raquen chose a Gladius sword, a short broad sword light enough to be wielded
with one hand. For his other hand, he decided on a red shield that was shaped
like a triangle. It was small and easy to handle, yet durable. For armor, he
chose white chainmail that covered him from his shoulders to his ankles, and
also some steel grieves and gauntlets. He decided to stay with his black
headband, he liked it better than anything that Balrog had in his stash.
Bryenn found a slightly longer, but less wide, sword to use that he was told
by Balrog was called a Viking Sword. He also went with a bigger shield made of
strong steel. He wore the same red bandana as Schimmel, but wore blue armor
instead. He picked out the same steel pants as him too, but wore blue boots
instead of steel grieves, saying they would allow quicker movement. He decided
against wearing gauntlets, as it would hinder his swordplay, he was used to
wielding his sword with bare hands and a gauntlet would make it feel different.
The training immediately began after they changed into their equipment. He
showed them ways to take less damage from enemy blows, how to strike harder
without using any more strength by using weakness in enemy defence and taught
them each two techniques. The first one was Power Strike, a technique where they
focus energy into the blade to deal more damage than normal. The other was Slash
Blast, a technique where they focus energy into the blade, but this time
releasing the energy into a wave that cuts through all the monsters surrounding
them.
Balrog worked them hard, practicing their new skills and fighting in the
training room for hours and hours every day. Luckily it was only three days. On
the third day they had all improved significantly. Schimmel was able to use his
broadsword for hours without even breaking a sweat, he also managed to master
Power Strike as a bonus, which was a necessary skill for becoming a Fighter.
Raquen mastered the Slash Blast technique, which he would need for becoming a
Page, further into the Warrior class. Bryenn had become extremely fast with his
sword, slashing smoothly and accurately at almost twice the speed Raquen and
Schimmel could. Only, he hadn't quite mastered Slash Blast yet for becoming a
Page, but he said he could get that in time.
J Man quickly learned what the Dark Lord meant by fighting in ways other than
just his weapons. He learned how to use stealth to his advantage. He could even
disappear from sight for a time by using some energy on a technique the Dark
Lord taught him called Dark Sight. When it came to fighting, he learned
extremely efficient ways to find a monster's weakness and exploit it very
quickly. He learned how to make quick and accurate attacks with his dagger, and
also avoid attacks with ease.
By the third day, J Man was a completely different fighter than before. The
Dark Lord complimented him on his skill, he said he could be the Bandit version
of Koslow if he kept it up.
Over in Henesys, Nemorian had recieved a simple composite bow to practice
with, along with some arrows. Athena taught him and Mitso all about critical
hits, which involved striking the monsters with the arrow in the exact way so
that the tip of the arrow pierces it, making the blow much more powerful. She
also taught them how to shoot two arrows at once, and how to focus energy into
the arrow in order to create an energy field around the arrow which makes it
strike much stronger.
Once the third day had arrived, Nemorian had mastered critical hits and the
double arrow shot. Mitso had mastered the critical hits and the energy arrow
shot. It suited each one as Nemorian was using a normal bow, which focuses more
on accuracy and number of shots for damage while Mitso, using a crossbow,
focuses more on hitting stronger with each shot rather than shooting more.
In the deep forest of Henesys, Astreryl was training alone with the old man,
who introduced himself as Grendel after the sudden awakening from his sleep. He
immediately handed her new clothes suitable for a Mage: a blue top that covered
only the chest and arms, and a short blue skirt. Both were a bit revealing, but
she liked them anyway. She took a small red star that was pinned to the top, and
instead tied it into her hair. Grendel also handed her a brown staff topped with
the shape of a flower. He called it a Petal Staff, she loved it, she flung it
around a few times for a test and almost hit Grendel a few times.
There was no one else training to be a Mage at the time, so Astreryl was
stuck learning by herself. The positive side was that she recieved all the
attention, and he was a surprisingly good teacher. She learned extremely quick
how to cast the Heal, Energy Bolt and Magic Claw spells. She insisted that she
learn other support spells instead of offensive spells, but Grendel explained
that offensive spells were absolutely necessary. She would have to learn the
other support spells once she was more experienced he explained.
By the second day, she had made some progress with the Heal spell, but it was
a very hard spell to master. She had also practiced the other two spells a bit,
but not as much as Heal. Grendel seemed impressed though, he had said no one had
cast those spells as effectively as she did before. She was finished training by
the second day, not being able to learn any more from him until she was more
experienced because she had learned so quick. That day she went to sleep at the
Ellinia Inn early, in order to wake up early and head to Perion in order to meet
up with Raquen right as he finished his training. She was tired from using so
much magic in her training and fell asleep right as she hit the bed.
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