“You must have had fun,” Leonel whispered into Erland’s ear immediately upon their arrival back to the living area. “Four more levels in the trial and three hundred points? Did you get a combat trial?”

Erland calmly turned around, his smile not shaken a whit. Leonel pouted, clearly having hoped to spook Erland.

“Only got to kill one person this time,” he replied, tone shaded with light disappointment. “But the trial was incredible. We had to climb trap towers that had our greatest past foes at the top of each one.”

“Ooh, that does sound like fun,” Leonel said, pout forgotten. “But enough about that. We need to get you trained up with your new toy, and we have no time to spare. Don’t spend your stat points yet, by the way.”

He turned and left the room, walking calmly. Erland had to sprint to keep up. It was such a casual demonstration of the difference in their Tiers that it dampened his smile to a grin.

“Close your eyes,” Leonel instructed him once they had gotten to the Top Tier’s room. Once Erland’s eyes were closed, Leonel continued. “Hold your arms out to take your gift.” Once again, the blue-eyed man followed his orders. Unprepared for the weight of his gift, he almost dropped it. “Now you can open them.”

Erland looked down to find a massive battle axe in his arms. It was the most beautiful weapon he had ever seen. The surface was the flickering red of adamanstal, hypnotic like a roaring campfire. It had only a single edge, two hands long. Three spike protruded from the back, wickedly sharp. The handle was decorated with an intricate carving of lily-of-the-valley.

“It’s named Remorse,” Leonel said, gazing at the weapon fondly. “I picked it up sixty or seventy years ago in an A-Tier dungeon. It’s worthless to me now, of course, but it holds some sentimental value. It was with Remorse that I slew my first Top Tier Player.”

Erland ran a hand down the handle, noticing that even with the beautiful flowers adorning it, his grip felt rock solid and firm.

“Now, let’s get you learning how to use it,” Leonel said. “Ready your weapon.”

Erland did so, holding both hands at the bottom of the large shaft. The tip wavered in the air, Erland’s strength barely up to the challenge of the axe’s weight.

“No no, that simply won’t do,” Leonel chided, suddenly appearing behind Erland and sliding his hands apart. “Don’t hold it like a farm tool, you need control here, not power.”

Leonel abruptly returned to his previous position, once again showing no sign of crossing the space in between.

“Now, reverse your grip. Hold it over your left shoulder instead. Next, slide your hands up until your top hand touches the blade. Now with the reversed grip.”

For the next few minutes he ran Erland through the different hand positions, until Erland’s impatience rose to the surface.

“Is this all there is to an axe? How to hold it?” he said.

Leonel smirked. “It’s all that matters, especially when you’ve never wielded one before. If you lose control of your weapon, the next thing you lose is your life. Have you fought a wizard with control spells yet?”

“Not many wizards in the north,” Erland replied, shaking his head. “Haven’t run into one in the trials yet either.”

“Unsurprising,” Leonel said. “They have one of the quickest routes to the higher Tiers of all the classes. You probably won’t meet one before C-Tier. When you do, remember my words, even if you’re fighting with your fists. There are spells that can cause a similar effect to when I imposed my will upon you yesterday.”

Erland repressed a shudder at the memory and nodded after a moments consideration.

“However, since you’re clearly chomping at the bit to learn more…” Leonel trailed off, raising a questioning eyebrow.

Erland nodded eagerly, drawing a chuckle from the pink-haired man. With a snap of his fingers, a training dummy appeared in the center of the gym area.

“Your room is equipped with one of these as well,” he said at Erland’s surprised look. “Just snap when you’re doing your daily training. Don’t slack on your stat training in favor of weapons training either.”

They spent the next hour training in all of the different ways to strike, thrust, sweep, and parry with the axe. Erland’s arms were growing extremely tired by the end of it. He wasn’t surprised when he received a message that his strength had earned a point late into the training.

“Good, that’s enough for today,” Leonel said once the hour was up. Erland’s stomach growled loudly. “You need food, then do your stat training. Remember, don’t distribute your stats yet. Wait until tomorrow morning. You’ll see the most growth if you exercise while your stats are still too low.”

Erland nodded and Leonel smiled and dismissed him, but called out just before he could leave the room.

“When you get to D-Tier, I’ll give you another reward and update your training regimen. Work hard.”

Erland left the room and practically ran to the commons area. Only one other competitor was present, the woman he had only seen on the first day. He vaguely remembered her name starting with an R, the A-Tier chosen. She was the only other chosen that his nose reacted to.

So naturally, he sat down right next to her.

She was reading a book and idly poking at the food next to her. With his nose now significantly easier to ignore, he studied her features for the first time.

She had soft cheekbones and a small, pointy chin. Her light green eyes glowed, but lacked the ring of runes that were present once one grew to Top Tier. The mud that had caked her limbs was gone, revealing lines of intricate and clearly decorative scars from her forearms to her hands.

Her button nose crinkled in disgust and she spoke before Erland could.

“You stink,” she said. “Do you truly not know how to bathe?”

Erland, still sweaty from the training session with Leonel, simply grinned.

“What does that word mean? You’re the second chosen to ask me that,” he said, repeating his joke from the day before.

“If you want to talk to me, you’ll take a bath first next time,” she told him, before disappearing without ever looking up from her book.

Erland laughed to himself.

With a resigned sigh, he ordered dinner and devoured it ravenously.

Later, back in his room, Erland found that his weights were slightly heavier than the day before. The treadmill provided slightly more resistance. His stat gain actually did progress more quickly as well.

Name: Erland Grim

Race: Human

Age: 18

Level: 18(▲4)

Experience: 297(▲9,725)

Class: Mauler

Profession: N/A

Stats: 20

STR

20(▲4)

END

17(▲5)

AGI

20(▲4)

DEX

15(▲5)

VIT

18(▲2)

CON

18(▲2)

INT

12(▲2)

WIL

11(▲2)

CHA

8(▲1)

LUK

80(▲2)

Skills: [???], [Charge]

Equipment: [Remorse]

Achievements: [Player Killer], [Something From Nothing], [???]

he thought as he moved over to his library area to begin training his mental stats.

Erland hated training his charisma. It required him to practice speeches or debates, and it felt tedious and abstract to him.

Suddenly, Leonel was in the center of his room.

“I forgot,” he said without preamble. “You still need training in how skills are accrued.”

Erland dropped his book immediately and moved in front of Leonel.

“Repeat the same actions,” Leonel said. “I know it seems counterintuitive and unproductive. Stifling sometimes. But each time you perform the same action, you get closer to unlocking a related skill.”

“What, like kill someone with a punch to the temple often enough and I’ll unlock something?” Erland asked.

“Exactly. In that case you unlock [Piercing Blow]. One of the first skills I ever earned myself.”

“So I unlocked [Charge] by charging at my enemies often enough?”

“Precisely. Now, back to your stat training. Don’t neglect your charisma training, either.”

Leonel disappeared as swiftly had he appeared, leaving Erland alone in his room once more. Erland scowled at his parting words before letting out a put-upon sigh. He trudged over to his library and grabbed the book of famous speeches.

“I won’t lie to you,” he quoted. “The orcs have us by the balls. They have control of the only Valkyrie crystal within a day’s travel…”

He kept practicing until his stomach interrupted him demanding dinner, then trained his stats late into the night before finally sleeping.

For once, when the blinding light of his transport to the next trial woke him, Erland smiled.

He would have another chance to fight Halina again today.