Now for the real training that I had been waiting for, combat!

 

Rue: “Can you create fire?”

Me: “No?”

Rue: “Let’s learn that first then.”

 

Nooooo! Let’s just finish this quickly then. 

 

Me: “Fire bow? You just spin this until fire comes out?”

Rue: “Yup.”

Me: “That’s easy.”

 

30 minutes later.

 

Rue: “Still no fire?”

[Me: “Grandma help!”]

[Foxy: “You said you need these training so you can survive without it”]

[Me: “But I wanna learn combat.”]

[Foxy: “No.”]

[Me: (╥_╥)]

 

It took me another 30 minutes before I managed to make the fire…

 

Me: ”Rue! I’m Done!”

Rue: “Hmm… not bad for your first try. Let’s proceed then.”

Me: “Yes Sir!”

 

And finally we started the combat training. First the bare handed combat. Rue was someone who liked the hands on approach for teaching somebody, so we sparred with each other and he would guide me along the way. I got my butt kicked immediately. He was a guard with decades of experience under his belt after all. Rue then taught me some things to pay attention to in my opponent and to dodge and many other things. Rue also said not to be too comfortable fighting humans because hunters need to familiarize themselves with fighting many other species.

 

I remembered in my old world that the best advice when you get in a fight is run away, but I guess it would be hard to run away from the hunters whose job is to chase around monsters almost everyday. 

 

After sparring for a while we took a little break and had lunch.

 

Rue: “So do you have any weapon you wanna use?”

Me: “Weapon?”

Rue: “What, you wanna fight with only a knife and your bare hands?”

Me: “Ah that’s right. What do you recommend?”

Rue: “I can’t recommend anything. It all depends on you yourself.”

Me: “What are the options.”

Rue: “Many. There are no restrictions for a hunter on weapons. As long as you can use it well then nobody will complain. I even heard there was a hunter that used a big steel pillar as his weapon.”

Me: “Must be heavy.”

Rue: “... yes.”

 

Weapon, huh… Never thought of that before honestly. I didn’t even know what kind of weapon would be right for me. The obvious choice would be a sword but I also want to consider other kinds of weapon first. There were many kinds of weapons that could be used for different kinds of situations. A spear has a good reach, a hammer can smash things, a greatsword can smash and cut things, that’s 2 things in one… wait, why don’t I just combine everything.

 

Me: “Rue, I want a halberd.”

Rue: “Ooh an interesting choice. Beginners usually just choose a sword and shield for the ease of use.”

 

Oh that’s right, no shield. No matter! I had already decided.

 

Me: “Not having a dedicated shield might be a problem but I already decided on a halberd.”

Rue: “Good good. There is one problem though.”

Me: “What?”

Rue: “I don’t have any halberd for you to use.”

Me: ( ╥ω╥ )

Rue: “But I do know somebody who has one.”

Me: ＼(≧▽≦)／

 

After eating our lunch we walked to the place where I could get a halberd. The way to the place looked familiar though.

 

Me: “Wait a minute, this is the village chief’s house.”

Rue: “Yup.”

Mojak: “Hohoho hollo, ahem, hello boys, you need something from me?”

Rue: “This guy said he wanted to use a halberd as his weapon.”

Mojak: “Ohohoho finally someone who wanted to use the best weapon there is. I wanted Len to follow in my footsteps but in the end he chose a sword like a pleb.”

Me: “So you were a hunter?”

Mojak: “Of course, my boy. Everybody around here is a hunter at some point in their life.”

Me: “Make sense considering this village’s location.”

Rue: “The chief stopped being a hunter because of an injury he has. He did hunt until he was in his fifties though.”

Mojak: “Ah yes, I used to be a hunter like Rue, but then I took an arrow...”

Me: “Oh.”

Mojak: “In the liver.”

Me: “Ouch.”

Mojak: “Still alive and kicking tough, hohohoho. Now, let me grab my old halberd from the storage.”

Me: “Was he a good hunter?”

Rue: “One of the best around here.”

Me: “So how did he get hit by an arrow?”

Rue: “It was an accident. I think it was during the festival in another town, he and some other guys were drinking until late night. Then in their drunken wisdom they went to shoot some bats without bringing any light. Fortunately he was the only one injured.”

Me: “huh...”

Mojak: “Here you go boy.”

Me: “Woah.”

 

What the chief brought back was not a simple old halberd like I thought. It was old of course but you could see that he still maintained this weapon all this time because I couldn’t see any rust or damage. Just like other halberds it has an axe head and a sharp tip at the top, but the back of the axe is not the standard point or hook but a hammer head, there is also a sharp tip added to the bottom end of it. The pole itself is shiny black.

 

Me: “Can I really use this for training?”

Mojak: “Hohoho if you really like it that much you can have it even after your training is over.”

Me: “Really?”

Mojak: “Yup, at my age there is no way I could ever use it again. It just sat in my storage gathering dust for years. Better if somebody else uses it, right?”

Me: “Thank you chief! How can I ever repay you?”

Mojak: “Just give me the same massage you gave Rue.”

Me: “Okay.”

 

I now need to spend 2 hours every day massaging 2 old men but I’m not complaining.

 

[Frog: “So that’s your taste, eh?”]

[Me: “I’m not playing your game.”]

 

With the weapon now in my hand (pretty heavy actually, but that is why training is important) I went back to the hall with Rue and started training with my new toy. After familiarizing myself with the weight and the shape of my weapon Rue picked up his own weapon, a sword and a tower shield, a weapon that reflected his occupation. We spend the rest of the day sparring with each other with Rue beating me 10 out of 10 times.

 

Just like that we continued all of the training until one day the bell rang again, twice this time. When I got out of the village chief’s house I saw something in the sky. It was way bigger than a regular bird. At first I thought that another monster had come to attack the village but Rue and Len were calm and didn’t even bother to grab their weapon. While I was confused all by myself the big bird landed not far from the house. Birb! Wait no, they were skywalkers here. To be more precise it was an eaglewoman. She came to the village to tell the village chief that the hunters had finally arrived, all 4 of them including her. 

 

Me: “What’s happening?”

Len: “It’s payback time.”