Raka was learning the language of Ilmentia Island for the past 3 hours. The game time had been adjusted as 3hrs = 1hr of the real time so for 1 hour in real life, he had been extremely busy.

He walked the empty streets eavesdropping on the islanders to increase his experience. He also greeted the ones he found alone, with a simple ‘hello’ and bowing his head. The islanders sometimes replied back saying “hello…”followed by gibberish at which Raka only smiled and kept walking.

Raka did not have to worry about anyone hearing him anymore as everyone seemed to be in the library, but he still looked around every time he spoke anyway. According to his plan he had made sure that people concentrated themselves in the library, while he could roam the streets learning language by talking and listening without worry. After all, it was giving him more experience than the books and he could raise intimacy at the same time. The biggest surprise was speaking though; every word he spoke gave the highest experience. He tried saying ‘hello’ to the first person he met, and it had worked. So he actively greeted people he met on the streets though leaving them alone if they were talking to each other. He did not feel it worth to disturb their conversation when he couldn’t even understand it. The people being interrupted might get angry.

He started in one direction reaching the end of the village. He saw a gate at the end. There were guard towers next to the gates with armored guards manning them. He remembered yesterdays’ conversation about players not being allowed outside, but he still walked towards the gates anyway. He looked towards the guards to see if anyone would try to stop him, but the guards didn’t show any sign of concern and were intent on keeping a lookout outside the gate.

Raka approached and suddenly felt like he hit an invisible wall.

“You are not allowed to leave the village. You are not old enough!”

‘Hmmm seems it was true.’

Forgetting all about the gate he resumed his walk towards the other end of the town.

Raka figured he had atleast 6 hours of real time in the worst case that is 18 hours of game time, before he expected people back out on the streets. He calculated that even if the other players found the way to learn the language, it would still take a very long time for them to actually go through all the picture books. He hoped the people would stick to it and not give up halfway and come out early. All in all he expected that the only time he would see people outside in some number is when they get hungry.

‘Till then, the only problems are the players who stay outside.’

Being careful of that Raka kept lingering the streets.

The village unexpectedly turned out to be larger than he imagined. He had spawned quite close to the library on the first day so this was the first time he had actually walked it end to end.

‘I would say it stretches about 3 kms.’ And that was only the main road. There were countless side streets which headed off to a wall which surrounded the whole village. On top of the walls were more guard towers, having one or two guards keeping watch.

The design of the village seemed to be the shops and the main buildings including the library on the main road with residences and houses built along the side streets towards the walls. Overall it looked like it made a large oval tapering towards the gates on either end of the village.

Raka thought that it would be classified as a town rather than a village at this size.

He gobbled up an apple when he felt hungry while keeping up the walk. Every couple of hours he would come find the food shop and beg for an apple. He found the shop lady quite friendly and she would smile every time he came. After a while he tried other food words he learnt as well. She had laughed at his attempts and then invited him in the shop, pointing at things and trying to make him say their names.

When he felt tired, Raka sat down besides the road for bit and then continued again.

After another 8 hours…

“You have grown up. Your age is now 3”

“Language of Ilmentia Island: 60%”

“The residents of Ilmentia Island will now help in your learning and teach you simple words.”

‘The residents will help?! Something like that shop lady was doing before. But I just had this message now, so before she was helping based on our friendship, I guess.’

Raka walked towards the shop on the side, which looked like a blacksmith, run by a middle aged thickset man with bulging muscles. He did not know what to say, so he simply greeted him. The man said ‘Hello’ and then followed it by some gibberish. He thought he heard ‘you’ and ‘want’ in what he spoke.

‘Now how do I answer him?’

He thought for a bit and then said ‘help’ pointing at his mouth and then pointing at different things in the shop.

‘Would he understand?’ Just in case he took out an apple and pointing to it said ‘apple’ and then pointed at a hammer looking like he was asking a question.

The man seemed annoyed and then said loudly “Hammer”.

“Language of Ilmentia Island: 60.1%”

“Hammer”, repeated Raka.

“Language of Ilmentia Island: 60.15%”

Raka decided that before he gets angry he better ask a couple more and leave so he simply pointed at an armored vest. The man was making quite a face now, but he still replied, “Iron Armor”.

“Language of Ilmentia Island: 60.2%”

Raka bowed and left.

He was soon stopping by every shop trying to ask the residents as much as he can about the stuff inside. Armor, leather, wood, food, weapons, clothes, knick knacks, and other things. He asked for as many item names he could manage without making them angry. His food shop lady though, helped him a lot. He simply repeated as many names as he learned earning a bit of extra experience. And he continued listening to others as he walked.

*

Soon he noticed people leaving the library, so he logged out for a bit and checked the forums. He expected if anyone found something, it would be end up in the forums for sure. After all, so many people were in the library. It was hard to hide anything.

Sure enough, there was this post explaining the trap door and the hidden room within. Within a few minutes another person posted that picture books were the key. And then the landslide of posts began.

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Swamy looked at the time, it was 2 am. He knew he was supposed to be sleeping so that he could attend class tomorrow. But he was so close now. A couple of hours more and he could probably reach 80%. After all he had to have as much of a lead as he can manage. He couldn’t skip college; his parents would eat him alive, if they found out. So he hoped that any lead he could manage tonight still remained till next evening.

He waited for about half an hour and then logged back in.

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Raka found the streets empty as it was the middle of the night in the game. The shops were closed and he didn’t want to go to the library.

‘Now where do I find people at this hour’ he wondered. Then he remembered the guard towers.

Feeling like there was no other choice left, he started walking towards one of the gates. Gurrow village had two gates. The west gate, where he had tried to get outside had a thick forest a little ahead of it. On the east side, however, there was wide thick road, where he saw caravans coming in during the day.

Next to the gate was a large building, which Raka assumed was a warehouse. He decided that he could find people there if it did not work out on the gates.

Raka headed towards the east gate. He could see the light of lanterns and torches carried by roving guards near the gates and in the towers. He walked close to one of the guards and from a bit far away so as not to alarm them, he said,

“Hello!”

The guard turned around and saw him. He said something which had the words ‘kid’ ‘late’ and ‘night’. Raka assumed he was asking what he was doing late at night.

“Walk, no sleep”, answered Raka.

The guard nodded and pointed towards a door on the wall.

‘Does he want me to go in there?’ Being apprehensive a bit, Raka went in to find a small fireplace with some guards in there playing cards. They all lifted their heads from their game and looked at Raka.

“Hello!”

Raka wished he knew more than this. But the guards smiled and waved him to come sit next to them.

‘Were they drunk?’ They served him some soup in a bowl which incidentally had been cooking up in the kitchen next door. And started teaching him how to play cards!! Ye wonderful guards!

He hadn’t seen cards like these in real life; every card seemed to have some kind of a picture on them. They pointed to each card and said a single word.

“Theona”, “Mercedes”, “Juno”, “Minerva”, “Verona”, etc etc. Raka simply repeated along words he had never heard before. But nevertheless it was still increasing his experience.

They started explaining the game. Between the gibberish he understood that these were names of Gods and Goddesses. And then they started playing their game.

One of the guards was kind enough to show him his cards and every time he threw a card, asked him to name it.

Raka watched. He soon realized that this was a simple game. Whoever put the highest card won that hand. More hands decide the winner. Watching for a while he started to understand the cards hierarchy. He could soon tell the winner just by looking at one hand.

Raka thought of joining them, but realized that they were almost asleep and were only playing by reflex. A little later everyone dropped off and started snoring. Raka took the cards and kept repeating their names for next 6 hours.

“You have grown up. Your age is now 4”

“Language of Ilmentia Island: 85%”

“You may now understand simple conversations.”

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In the university Swamy had trouble staying awake. Rajan kept shaking him to wake him up from time to time. Lunch hour and Swamy had put his head on the table and dozed off. He woke, when Rajan shook him later for afternoon class.

The longest day Swamy had yet! As soon as he got home he dozed off for an hour.

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Raka started on the streets near the east gate where he had logged off last night. His aim was to learn the language 100% today. He started his routine of walking, talking, naming and listening once again.

4 hours later he reached 99%.

He had reached the food shop he frequented. He entered and the shop lady smiled. It was like the 4th time he was entering here store today.

The first time he had come in he asked her name. She was called Neona. She had homely face, lovely laugh and could carry any conversation. It was a delight talking to her but as people started coming in the shop, he left.

Over the day he would stop by her shop for a while just to talk to her about stuff. She was a treasure trove of information. He found out that the players were treated as children born by the gift of the Goddess Verona. They had undeveloped minds and no strength, but developed bodies so they did not grow taller. The Goddess had decried a long time ago, that these children would help them bring peace to their world. He also found out that this Ilmentia Island is actually a nation on an island. It has 7 villages like Gurrow and a capital city, called Thelmova located north of Gurrow, beside the sea.

Neona was a 3rd generation owner of this food shop. Her father was a soldier in the army and had died during the war. Her mother who used to own the shop before her had died of sickness 2 years before. She now runs the food shop with her old aunt and they lived above the shop.

*

This time when he entered, she offered him a piece of pie which tasted delicious.

“Tasty pie” Raka said.

“You have grown up. Your age is now 5”

“You can now join a school to train.”

“Language of Ilmentia Island: 100%”

“You can now talk to the residents freely.”

“Intelligence stat has been created. Intelligence is the basis of learning. It allows and assists in new learning but it requires proof that you can learn. You have learned a skill fulfilling the requirements.

“Based on your efforts you receive 35 points to intelligence. The stat increases based on your actions.”

“Finally!!!”

Raka had spent above 18 real life hours over 3 days just to learn how to speak!! It had been a long tough road which finally came to an end. And it gave a bonus of 35 points.

‘Who says hard work does not pay.’

*

‘I can join a training school now’ thinking that, Raka asked Neona where he could learn to fight with weapons.

*

Near the east gate there stands a nondescript building with a large training area covered by a tall wall, unseen by eyes from the street. Above the front door there stands a sign written in native letters which till now meant nothing to the players.

Raka stood in front of that building and read the sign which said ‘Battle School’.

He entered a hall where he saw a table, some chairs, and lots of armors hung neatly on wooden walls at the side. There was no one present.

Raka shouted out “Is anyone here!”. There was no response. Wondering whether he should enter, he heard noises coming out from the beyond the back door. He walked in and opened the back door.

What met his eyes were two lovely women. Both of them were wearing tight fitting vests with short leather pants tied around by leather belts and were swinging a wooden staff trying to hit each other.

Every strike which was launched was so swift his eyes could not follow, but it was being parried or blocked. Every counter was being dodged. In front of his eyes were two women sparring with an intensity that shook the air and a beauty of movement only found in dance. They moved like the wind and struck like lightning.

Raka could feel the wind blow everytime one of those staffs was swung. He could hear the loud snap as wood hit wood. The force being exerted in every move made it look like it could gouge the earth, let alone splinter wood. But somehow the wooden staff had not broken. The staff moved in various directions trying to find an opening in one another but without fail met the other as if they were destined to meet.

Raka stood there stupefied, unable to move, watching with bated breath the fight happening in front of his eyes.

Soon the spar came to an end. Both women saluted and bowed to each other and then shook hands. And the clapping started. Only then did the spell cast on Raka shatter and he realized that there were other people in the training field as well.

Raka took a deep breath to calm himself and stepped forward. The people who were in the yard, then noticed him.

A man who was standing on the side asked,

“Who are you and what’s your business?”

Raka gulped. He simply said,

“Hi, I am Raka. I came to join the school to learn to fight.”

“Hmm you seem eligible and of age” the man said. “Well, wait in the hall over there which you should have done earlier, instead of barging in”.

Raka apologized and went back to the hall.

Soon all of them including the women who were fighting came back in. There must have been a dressing room somewhere because all of them had changed into formal clothes.

One of the women was golden haired, with a lovely face and blue eyes and was wearing a sexy sleeveless dress which came loosely down to her ankles and was tied using some kind of cloth belt. She carried a book in her hands. The other one who was also quite lovely, had raven colored hair, tied in a braid at the back with dark black eyes. She seemed to be wearing a kind of a leather skirt and vest topped off with metal of some kind. Also she was carrying a type of sword on her belt.

Raka remembered the two women he saw when he started the game. They were the ones.

The man from before then came forward and said,

“Please stand.”

Raka stood up.

“I am Nathan. Welcome to the Gurrow village battle training school. We accept you as a student of this school. You will train under a teacher and will be evaluated for further studies based on your performance and reviews from your instructor. Do you have any questions or requests?”

Raka looked at the women. Then bowed and said, “If possible, I would like to train under them” waving his hand towards the two women.

“Ho ho ho so the young boy seems to like challenges, eh!” said the golden haired woman.

“He he he good choice as always lil’ eggplant!” added the raven haired woman.

Raka glanced at Nathan who seemed to be staring scared at the two women. Infact now that he noticed everyone looked scared at my request and was staring at them.

Nathan quickly said, “Unfortunately the new students are supposed to learn from the junior teachers before you can learn from the head of the school, Lady Altia.” As he said he waved to the raven haired woman to show who he was talking about.

“And also Lady Verina here”, he waved towards the other, “is the head of the magic institute, so cannot be your teacher.”

“Umm… I would like to learn both weapons and magic.”

“Ho ho ho! Yes, definitely the blood of youth. And a cute one to boot!” said Lady Verina.

“He he he! You are right! The lil eggplant is definitely interesting!” said Lady Altia.

Lady Verina continued, “Well I can teach you magic alright. But you are very weak right now. Even though learning magic does not require battle skills, I believe strength and magic complement each other and for that reason you are not yet ready to learn magic.”

She then added after a thought, “Altia, if you like him, why don’t you take him under your wing. After all he would be your first student and what’s more, from the Goddess's children. And then I can teach him magic.”

Altia thought for a while. Raka looked expectantly at her. She smiled. Nathan and others shivered at that.

“I accept you as my student lil eggplant. My training is tough so you better be prepared for it.”

“Thank you Lady Altia. I will do my best to not let you down.” Raka bowed.

Altia smiled even more. Nathan and the others were definitely shivering now.

“Well then, that’s decided. Raka, if you survive her training, find me at the magic institute. I will be your teacher. See you later then Altia” and Lady Verina left.

‘Survive.....eh!!!’