"All else aside," I get up, "I promised to teach Henna how to fight, so I'll get started on that. If you want to check out your new toys, you can come with me, otherwise, your time is your own."

"I think I'll log off. It's been...a day," Angelus says, lying down exhausted. Have to say I empathise.

"I'll stick around for a bit," Windy says, standing and stretching, "I'd like to get used to how Interceptor works so I don't trip over myself in a real combat situation."

"Good idea," I agree, "Movement Skills are always a pain to get used to. Teleportation-styled abilities are the absolute worst, though."

"How come?" Jade asks, curious.

"Think about how it felt to get teleported out here, then imagine doing that manually, repeatedly, while in a fight," I reply, "It's difficult and unpleasant even if it is a powerful tool to have at your disposal."

The girls shudder. Jade hops further back onto her cot, "I'm gonna log off - I barely have any arrows left so I'd rather keep ahold of them unless you're going to order in another delivery from that girl."

"Miss Leovoldt? We'll be meeting up with her outside the city tomorrow, I believe. I already asked them to bring enough supplies for us as well, when we go into Ujax Forest together," I tell her.

"Cool," she flops onto her back, "Still gonna head off though, need my beauty sleep."

"G'night," Windy waves.

We leave the room, "Do you still have your old sword and shield, perchance?"

"Yeah, just in case my current ones broke, why?"

"I'm thinking of getting Henna to experience multiple styles of combat instead of only what I can teach her," I explain, heading downstairs, "Most likely, she'll default to melee, but what weapon and fighting style she'll end up using isn't clear to either of us, I don't think."

Windy hums, "So you want me to try teaching her how I fight?"

"In broad strokes, yes," I nod.

"Sure. Although, aren't you supposed to be finding me a teacher, boss?"

I yawn, "Yeah, I am, aren't I? Since you're a Vanguard, I can recommend a few people based on that, but we won't be able to meet up with them for a while yet. They live too far away from us to be worth the time investment at this stage."

Leaving the building through the main hallway, I turn around and give her an apologetic look, "Not to sound like I'm fobbing you off, or anything, but the nearest one is a knight in Triumph. There are others closer, no doubt, but they won't give you the time of day or aren't worth trying to talk to."

"Triumph...You mean where that other starter zone is? The Town of Forgiveness?"

"That's the one," I nod, "More than two months away by foot for us."

"Yikes. No portals or anything?" Windy pleads.

"Not that we can afford, no," I reject, "We'll be hanging around Meteo City for a while yet, since this is where we'll be basing the Guild for the foreseeable future."

"Why's that?" we round the building, to where Henna is sat on a crate.

"We'll talk about it in the future," I sigh, "Hello, Henna. Hope you've been doing well."

The smith snaps out of her reverie, "Silver. I was starting to think you'd forgotten your promise yesterday."

"Sorry, we've been...very busy," I scratch my ear.

She stands up and dusts herself off, "No skin off my back, friend. You're here now, though the sun's almost gone."

I nod, "Unfortunately. Once my schedule calms down, I'll be making time for it, but you'll just have to put up with it for now. My apologies."

Henna shrugs and picks the old zweihander off the floor, "It's fine. So, what do I need to do?"

"To start off with, I'm gonna give you a choice," I lead in, "You can either learn how to use a shortsword and shield from Windy here, or the zweihander from me. Either way, you'll have other opportunities to learn from her in the future, assuming she's willing."

I share a look with her, and Windy nods, "I'm not perfect, but I'll try."

Henna smiles, "Thanks for the offer. I'll take you up on it some other time, though. For now, I'd like to learn what Silver has to teach me - he strikes me as the more senior of you in the field."

"No offence taken," Windy smiles back, "I'll just be spamming Interceptor off cooldown on you, if that's alright, boss?"

"Go ahead," I give permission, "Make sure you put some distance between us first, though, and try not to crash into me."

"No promises," Windy laughs, strolling away.

I clear my throat, "First things first, you need to learn how to stand and how to hold the sword."

"Incoming!" Windy calls as a courtesy from about 15ft away. A moment later, she skids to a sudden halt in front of me and falls on her ass, cursing, arriving so quickly I almost didn't see her approach.

"Ho-hooo-hooolyyy shhhiiiiit that was faaaast..." Windy wheezes, "Is that what being a bullet feels like?"

"Not fast enough for a bullet," I remark, "You need a hand getting up?"

"Please. My legs feel like jelly," Windy takes my outstretched hand, and with a little effort I heave her up to her feet.

"What...was that?" Henna gapes.

"Interceptor - a Skill from my new Class, Vanguard," Windy explains, taking a seat on the same crate Henna was using before, still panting a little from the exertion.

"It lets her move rapidly to an ally in danger," I add on, "As I was saying, the basics of any martial art are knowing how to carry oneself."

I draw my Terrorsteel Horrorblade, then take a few steps out before falling into an extremely basic stance: Side-on, feet place apart no further than the distance of my shoulders, both hands holding the grip firmly but not crushingly hard and the blade ready. Eyes forward, staring at an imaginary opponent the same height as me.

"Take this as an example to study," I instruct Henna, "Then try to mimic it."

Resting the zweihander on her shoulder, she walks over, looks me up and down then from the other side before walking back, closing her eyes and settling into the very same stance smoothly. Relaxing my arms, I do the same in return, and find no flaws worth correcting for this exercise.

"This stance is, while not ideal for combat, the closest I can imagine as being the foundation from which others come from," I explain, "If you were to lean into it more, with your front foot forward and arms further out, it'd be what's called Longpoint, for example. Not the most useful guard stance, but you get the idea at least. Now, lift the blade up, but not past your forehead."

Henna obliges, though I have to push her arms back down a little when she overextends, "Now cut down, stopping when your elbows come back to your torso, roughly, and then lift back to the same position."

She breathes. then cuts down swiftly, acting according to my instructions almost exactly, but she still used a little too much force and her grip on her sword wavered a little due to the recoil effect of the sudden stop, "Close, remember, you're trying for a smooth cut, not the strongest. If you swing too hard you risk injuring yourself, dropping the sword or getting it stuck in whatever it is you're hitting. Hold that stance, and watch me do it."

Standing parallel with her, I assume the same basic stance, raise my Horrorblade, then cut smoothly with no excess force, compensating a little by pulling my arms back in almost a crescent motion, "Try again."

It takes a few swings for her to get her strength under control, but soon she executes the downward slash perfectly, even when I ask her to vary the angle left and right. Her learning speed is really quite something.

"Excellent," I praise, mindful of the dimming light, "Next, try it while stepping forwards and backwards. I'll demonstrate once Windy's used Interceptor again - ready!"

On cue, Windy appears next to me, sliding to a halt, knee bent, shield raised to block an imaginary attack, before the determined face breaks down into giddy giggling, "That is so fucking fast, I love it."

"Getting the hang of it quickly, I see," I smile, "But this is a short distance with no obstacles on easy, flat terrain, it'll be a different story elsewhere."

"True," Windy grunts while standing, "But I think I'll manage. I figured out that it's not about how many steps you take, but how much distance you take with each stride - the Skill kinda compensates magically, it feels like."

"Just be careful you don't get lazy with it," I warn, "The Skill can only compensate so much."

"Roger that, boss," Windy snaps off a half-assed salute then takes a seat, "I'll just wait until I can use my legs again, then I'll be done for the day. I don't have the MP to do another Interceptor."

"You should consider levelling your Wisdom, then," I advise, "Gear that increases MP and Stamina aren't easy to come by at our Levels."

"Maybe. Don't plan on using it constantly though, maybe once a fight if I really need to," Windy yawns, "Oof, I'm exhausted."

"Don't let me keep you up," I smile, then turn back to Henna, "Sorry about that, here I go."

From the stance, I raise my blade then step forward and cut in near-synchronous motion, then repeat the same in reverse. Henna follows along, and for variety I also add in some thrusts of the sword randomly. It throws her off at first, but she adjusts quickly.

By now, however, we've lost all light, so I stop our drills and sheath my sword, telling her to do the same, "These movements aren't of much use in an actual fight, but it'll be adequate practice material for the next few days. The point is to get you accustomed to swinging the sword with the correct amount of force without overextending, even as you move. Once you're comfortable with that, we can progress along to different stances and their specialities, followed by footwork and then some light sparring to cap it off. If you decide to specialise in the same style as me, we can move into more advanced techniques and lessons."

"Ok," Henna agrees without complaint, "Thank you, Silver."

"Think nothing of it," I wave her gratitude off, "I'm just passing on what I learned as best I can, it's down to you to make something of the lessons. I can hardly consider myself a master swordsman; an expert, if I'm to be generous to myself, perhaps, but not a master, yet."

As we walk around to the entrance of the farmhouse, Henna shakes her head, "Even that is more'n I could hope for."

"Just try not to overestimate my capabilities, is all I ask," I request, not really wanting to be put on too high a pedestal. Some admiration or respect can be healthy as a stimulus for growth, but I don't feel comfortable being the target of any potential hero worship.

---

 

Alex's Room, Le Chevalier

Groaning I turn over from my front onto my back and stare bleary-eyed at the ceiling, not wanting to move further even if it is to change out of my clothes ready for bed. Today was a long, long day. Longer than I anticipated and the rental Capsules at Gaming Sanctuary really aren't the greatest models for consistent marathon sessions like I've been subjecting myself to.

I really need to take a day off or something, but I know all too well that I don't have the luxury of free time. Depending on how much I can get done before RotA drops, I may be able to take a break a few days beforehand, but until I've got Meteo City under control and the Guild up and running, I can't afford any lapse in my schedule.

That said schedule has been sent into disarray because of the urgent need to perform a jailbreak for Henna and the others only increases my stress levels further.

My body yearns for sleep, but I have my priorities to consider, so with reluctance, I sit up, retrieve my Pane and get to my nightly routine. Looks like Olrica left a message about today's progress for Miner's Nightmare. The top teams for the Meteo City area have yet to properly crack the code for how to deal with Trophytaker, but one of them apparently managed to kill it at the last second, after losing two party members and subsequently being forced to give up upon reaching The Pool of Desire. They basically just brute forced it with three Hedge Mages spamming him down - figuring out that it's less resistant to magic attacks.

Rambling Rose, on the other hand, is doing much better for themselves now that they've got the hang of the strategy I handed over, but Hadrian and his officers are trying their best to figure out how to get their loot Identified without going through me. Fat chance of that happening. They're all approaching Level 9 now, in any case, and are thinking of tackling The Farmer's Secret next, since that's also become public knowledge by now, owing to its location and our emergence from that direction in the tunnel.

Without the unlocked gear and not knowing the tricks to Covetous Form, they'll stand little chance, however, which means that one way or another, all their money and resources will inevitably become my property if they want an easy time progressing, which I'm ill-inclined to give to Hadrian for cheap. He may be able to avoid his disastrous fate this go around, but that doesn't mean I'm going to tolerate his ambitions when they conflict with my own interests, so I'll be doing all I can to drain his wallet.

Oep Shae's gained a fair bit of attention for hitting Level 10 first, but his rival, Indigo, beat him to the first clear of Easy mode Squire's Dream about 40 minutes ago. She's put up a post calling him out too, which has almost as many thread views as the screenshot of his Level 10 World First, basically saying that he spent more time grinding levels than he did actually progging the dungeon, which might be accurate for all I know.

Nothing new in Nostraza Town, and Taladi's Waystation is still functionally drowning in an ocean of dead Newborn, so nothing different there either. Satisfied, I put in a thank you message with Olrica, a reminder to Miss Leovoldt about the expedition supplies - arrows specifically - and go to sleep once my diary keeping duties are complete. I'll deal with Jupiter's recruitment when we log in.