Sam entered the library and headed towards the familiar reception counter. “Good morning” he said expecting to see the same receptionist as always but was greeted by another elderly looking woman. “Good morning. How can I help you today?” she asked him in a dry croaky tone. “I was wanting to have a look at a skill compendium for a skill I gained yesterday” he replied. “I see, please take a seat and I will get one of the library assistants to come and give you a hand” she said.
Sam took a seat where he had the last couple of times he had visited the library and waited for about 15 minutes before someone finally came by to assist him. “Good morning, my name is Graham, how may I assist you today?” a middle-aged looking man with black hair streaked by specks of silver running through it asked. “I’m looking for a skill compendium to look up a skill I gained yesterday” Sam explained again to the library assistant. “Okay, what type of skill is it?” he replied. “I’m not quite sure. Combat I think” Sam replied. “I see, in that case please follow me” Graham replied signaling for him to follow him. He headed through the reception gate this time on the left-hand side rather than the right where Sam had previously been led and got up from his seat and followed after him.
Sam followed Graham to the other side of the first floor of the library. “This shelf is where the compendiums of skills are kept” Graham said gesturing to a huge bookshelf full of huge books. “Do all these books contain different skills?” Sam asked in awe. “Maybe a fourth would be in individual skills. There are duplicate copies and some books have the same skills in them” he answered. Still, that’s a huge number of skills Sam thought to himself as he took in the sight. “Does that also include True and Blood skills?” Sam asked the thought suddenly coming to him. “Yes, it includes all known True, Blood, Natural, Pseudo and Shard skills know as of the start of the year. There are a couple of institutions that record skills and publish them yearly. They, however, can only publish blood and true skills with the original skill holder’s permission” he answered.
“So, where do I start to look for this skill?” Sam asked. Graham paused for a moment and pulled a book off the shelf. “This book contains a lot of passive combat skills outside of the weapons combat skills. This is probably the best place to start looking” he said. “And if it’s not in here?” Sam asked. “The rest of the books in this row contain other similar skills so look through those. If you still can’t find it let me know and I will ask around and see if anyone else with a more specialized knowledge base can assist” he said. “Okay thank you for the help” Sam replied. “You’re welcome, is there anything else I can assist you with today?” he asked. “That is all thank you” Sam replied. “I will take my leave then” Graham said giving a small nod before turning and walking away.
Sam took a seat at one of the small reading tables near the skills bookshelf and began going through the book he had been given. He navigated to the skills starting with the letter “C” and began going through them. After about 20 minutes he came to the end of the C skills and took the book back to the shelf to grab another one as he hadn’t found what he was looking for.
An hour and three more books later Sam finally found what he was looking for. “Combat Tranquility – A passive combat skill that calms the nerves mid-fight. This skill allows the holder to remain composed in stressful combat situations. The higher the level of the skill, the greater the effect. This skill levels over time and requires successful combat engagements for experience gain” the passage read.
Calms the nerves mid-fight, interesting, Sam thought as he closed the book and returned it to the shelf. That would certainly help when down in the dungeon. Especially if caught in an ambush in a tight cave or if you accidentally triggered a trap. Having now gotten what he had wanted from the Library, Sam made his way over to the Combat Arena to get in some more practice. Before finishing class yesterday, Professor Goldblade had told him about some weekend sparing sessions ran by some of the senior students in the combat arena. Since he wanted to work on leveling his sword skill some more he decided it would be better to train with an experienced partner than it would be to do it by himself. Experience gain is also considerably higher when sparring with someone else in comparison to doing solo drills.
As he walked up to the front entrance of the arena he was greeted by an older student who was sitting in a chair reading a book. The boy noticed him immediately as he approached “Good morning are you here looking to spar?” the older boy asked. “Yes, I was wanting to spar with someone to help level my basic swordsmanship skill. I’ll be diving into my first dungeon soon and want to get some more levels before I do” Sam replied. “Well, you’ve come to the right place” he said. The older students looked over into the arena area where a few spars were currently on going. “DAVID!” the older student called out once his eyes appeared to land on the person they were looking for. A tall dark-haired boy looked over and the student in the chair gestured for him to come over.
Sam waited as the boy got up from where he was sitting and approached. “David, this student here is diving the Small Cave of the Undead soon and wants to get some levels under his belt. As our resident cave fighting specialist I thought you’d be best to spar with him” the seated student explained as David stopped next to him. “Certainly, come with me” David said to Sam as he gestured for him to follow him. Sam thanked the seated student whose name he didn’t get and followed after the one named David.
“My name is David Greene, I’m in my fourth year this year” David said to Sam as they approached the other side of the arena. “I’m Sam, nice to meet you David” Sam replied. “So, you’ll be going into the Small cave of the undead shortly will you?” he asked. “Yes, in two weeks” Sam answered quickly. “Do you have any experience fighting in a narrow space?” David asked. “None” Sam replied to him simply.
“Okay then, that’s what we’ll do. You see this walkway here” he said point to the narrow entrance way leading from the locker room below. “It’s fairly narrow and doesn’t give you room for a full swing. This is where we will spar today. Do you have a short sword and a Mace?” he asked. “I have a short sword and am hoping to be able to get a Mace before I go in. I’m planning to save up my scholarship allowance to purchase one” Sam answered. “Alright, you can borrow this wooden club for this sparing session.” David said pulling a short wooden club from his storage space and passing it over to Sam.
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“Your short sword will work fine for the undead with flesh on their bones like zombie and ghouls but for skeletons you will struggle without a mace so I would highly recommend getting one before you go into the dungeon” David advised. “Also do you have the Basic Clubbing skill?” he asked. “No, I don’t” Sam answered. “Alright, we will also try and force the skill to manifest during the sparing session today. I will use this small shield to defend. I want you to attack me as best as you can with the wooden club. If you gain the skill we’ll swap over to practice with the short sword” David instructed. Sam took up a stance with the club in hand. “Alright let’s begin” David said. Sam lunged in the club held in his right hand and swinging it hard down at his head.
~Ping~ Sam slumped down the wall as the sound of a notification played in his head. It had taken almost an hour of constant sparing for him to finally get the skill. Sam opened his notifications confirming it ~Natural Skill Gained. ‘Basic Clubbing LV1~ “Looks like you finally gained the skill” David said. “That was pretty quick”. “I’m not surprised it was quick considering how much you pressed me” Sam said breathing heavily. “Well, monsters aren’t going to take a break to allow you to sit down and have a rest now are they?” David said. “I suppose that’s true” Sam replied back to him finally starting to catch his breath. “Alright, we’ll take a five-minute break and then we will start sparring with the short sword” David instructed. In response Sam closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall.
~Ping~ A fourth notification sounded in his head just before David called an end to the proceedings. “Alright, I think we’ll stop here for today. Don’t want to overdo it after all” David said putting his sword back into his storage. Sam replied by putting his own sword into his storage space and sat down on the floor opening his notifications again.
~Natural Skill ‘Basic Swordsmanship’ level gained. ' Basic Swordsmanship' is now Level 5~
~Natural Skill ‘Basic Swordsmanship’ level gained. ' Basic Swordsmanship' is now Level 6~
~Natural Skill ‘Basic Swordsmanship’ level gained. ' Basic Swordsmanship' is now Level 7~
“Are you going to come by tomorrow as well to do some more sparring?” David asked him as he pulled a bottle of water out of his storage and gulped it down. “No, I’m meeting up with my party early in the morning. We’re going to be doing some command practice as well as doing some self-study on the dungeon” Sam replied. “Command practice is a great idea when you’ve got a new party or a new member in the party” David said. “I however wouldn’t waste time on doing self-study for the dungeon before a proper session in class. Especially since you don’t have any dungeon diving experience. It can lead you to make incorrect assumptions that are remembered even after you study them in class” he said. “Oh, I see. I guess we can find something else to do then instead of that” Sam replied accepting the advice of his senior student.
Sam chatted with David for a few more minutes while he caught his breath before he left the arena and headed back toward his dorm room. It was about lunch time, and he wanted to change before heading to the dining hall. Now that I think about it I should probably store some changes of clothes in my storage space Sam thought as he entered through his door. Having such a convenient skill is taking some getting used to he muttered to himself before closing the door behind him.
Early the next morning Sam was waiting with Albert and Darren in the dormitory courtyard for Alice and Chloe to arrive. He had informed them about the advice he had been given by David and instead they had decided to head into town to buy some dungeon diving supplies. They knew they would get the required supplies from the school but wanting to be extra prepared Albert had said he would cover the costs of anything extra he wanted them to bring with them and Sam wasn’t going to turn down some free stuff.
“Sorry to keep you waiting” Alice said as she approached the waiting boys with Chloe in toe. “No worries, we were just discussing the plans for today” Sam said. “Oh, are we not doing some command practice and then studying the maps?” she asked. “We’re still doing some command practice but we’re not going to be studying the maps on advice from a senior student” Albert replied. “What are we going to be doing instead?” Chloe asked as she came in step with Alice. “I was thinking we head into town to get some extra supplies” he replied. “Oh yeah, talking about buying supplies from town” Alice said opening her dimensional storage space and reaching inside. “I see you finally got the skill” Darren commented. “I see you still don’t” Chloe chirped back at him. “Well, you didn’t get it either until yesterday” he replied teasingly. “So that’s four of the five of us now with our own storage spaces. That will help with ensuring we can all carry one of each piece of equipment rather than having to share it between us” Sam said.
Alice pulled a Mace from her storage space and held it out for Sam. “This is for you” she said. Sam took the Mace from her and looked it over. “This is the same one from Willy’s” he stammered as he recognized the weapon. “I was going to give it to you that afternoon but with getting back as late as we did and having to rush home I ended up forgetting” Alice explained. Sam looked at her with a searching gaze unsure as to why he was receiving the gift. “Just think of it as a bonus reward from when you helped me back in Rimour and it will also help the team if you’re properly equipped” she added reading his expression. “Well, thank you Alice, I appreciate it” Sam finished putting the mace into his storage space.
Sam caught Darren rolling his eyes for some reason. Before he could question him Albert spoke again. “Alright, let’s not delay any further. I booked one of the large classrooms so we can practice our formation, commands and communication and we only have it for another hour” he said. The group headed for the academic building at a hurried pace to ensure they had enough time to go over everything they wanted.
Sam slumped down in his couch after a long day of walking the streets of the capital. Albert had dragged them all over the place picking up this and that just because it could be useful is one scenario or another. Rich people were scary when on a spending spree Sam thought as he pulled out one of the books he had borrowed from the library. He had about an hour that he could spend doing some reading before he wanted to get an early night in. He had had an extremely busy first week at the academy and was mentally and physically exhausted. He needed to get an early night ready for what was only his second week despite it feeling like it had been nearly a month. Just two more weeks until they would all be going into the dungeon as well. He was going to have to work hard to ensure he was prepared and was confident he wouldn’t hold the rest of his party back.
