“David! Teacher is waiting on you! Get in here!”

David heard Cassandra’s call as he walked through the square, drawing a few looks from other curious trainees as he passed them by. Somehow she managed to sound cheerful even as she yelled for him, and David felt the urge to break into a jog as he approached the end of the courtyard area, where a large wooden door opened into the White Fox Dojo itself.

Cassandra had an exasperated smile on her face as she held the door open for him, beckoning for him to join her and the other students inside. She was wearing pink workout pants with a pink training top on.

David mentally inspected himself as he approached the flamboyantly dressed woman, noting his brand new training slacks and his plain workout shirt, each in a muted shade of green that didn’t clash with his brown eyes and short cropped brown hair. He had wanted to set a good impression after nearly running out of the Dojo during his last encounter with Blane.

His memories flooded back into the forefront of his mind as he stepped through the threshold of the dojo, eyes once more coming to a rest on the powerful looking Blane Watson.

“Well Mr. Apollo, do you have any previous training in hand to hand combat?”

The encounter had quickly grown awkward as David suddenly received a message from the system, his body freezing up as he shook Blane’s hand. He had taken just a little too long to release it, prompting him to ask David a question.

‘They…they found me already?’

‘They….they found my body…’

He had been suddenly filled with an intense sense of fear, causing him to nearly ignore the man in front of him as he realized that he had truly transmigrated, that he could never return.

‘He’s waiting for me! I had a plan! I have to respond!’

It had taken a colossal strength of will, but he had dismissed the system message from his view, shaking himself free from the fog and fighting to keep the raw emotions from showing in his voice. He schooled his face into stillness, ignoring his desire to take a deep breath as he forced himself to look the powerful man in the eyes.

“I trained once under a family member. Unfortunately, that family member passed away, and I have since let the skills he taught me grow rusty. Please treat me like a beginner.”

His voice hardly wavered throughout his short preplanned speech, and David hoped desperately that Blane would not notice the emotions that had surely flown across his face.

“I see.” He’d responded, his muscular arms clasped behind his back magnanimously.

“In that case, you shall train here with the other non-superhuman students tomorrow.”

The man had taken it all in stride, not a single emotion flickering across his face, his eyes remaining steady. David had quickly assured him that he would return in the morning before all but running home, where he had spent the remainder of the day suffering over the realization that his old life was gone.

Again.

He shook the memories free from his head as he realized that Blane and the other students were staring at him, and hurried up to join them as they stood in a loose circle on the polished hardwood floor around Blane.

“Ah, now that we are all here, I will start our session off with some stretches.” Blane began, his deep voice seemingly filling the room.

“It’s important to remember to stretch and warm up before you train and especially before you enter combat, should the occasion ever arise.” The man spread his legs apart, reaching down towards his left leg and deeply contorting his muscular body as he held the stretch. David hurriedly rushed to copy the pose as the other students seemingly followed by memory. They were probably used to such motions.

Blane switched legs after about twenty seconds, speaking to them in his deep rumbling voice without appearing to be exerting himself at all with the deep stretch.

‘

“The other students have all already achieved superhuman strength, and thus can be trusted to train with each other without my supervision. Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that I will not always be watching over you here, and may step away to demonstrate for the other students. During this time, you will be expected to follow the simple training regime I will give you each morning…”

David steadily began to limber up his body, feeling the different stretches burn his new muscles as they proceeded from one pose to another. His new body had more muscle mass than his last, and while he had always stayed in shape, he felt himself strain harder to achieve a stretch than he had ever had to before.

He hoped he’d had enough time to acclimate to his new body. That it wouldn’t affect him when he trained.

“When we stretch, we are preparing our bodies for the ordeals to come…” Blane’s voice filled the room with an almost peaceful timbre, allowing David’s mind to reach a calm harmony with the stretches he was performing.

“As we prepare our bodies, so too must we prepare our minds. Too often do warriors neglect this aspect of the self, believing that a strong body is the only weapon one needs against the world. This path leads not to strength, as no weapon will ever serve you so well as your mind. You must empty yourself of all emotions, let your thoughts go, focus only on the stretches you perfor-”

Congratulations! You have gained a skill!

Meditation, Level 1.

Meditation allows the user to focus their inner self, harmonizing the body with its surroundings.

Regenerate STAM and MP/WILL 5% faster while meditating.

David nearly jerked in shock as he received the prompt, it’s bold letters flashing in green across his vision. He quickly flicked it out of his view as he checked the other students to make sure he had not fallen behind.

No one had seemed to notice his odd behavior, so he rejoined them as inconspicuously as possible.

‘I gained meditation already? Is his voice really that calming!?’

He knew it was likely a result of the deep emotions he had been feeling, how he had seemed to relax so deeply when he had finally stopped thinking about his problems. Blane’s skill level was likely quite high, and he was a skill trainer. These were all indicators leading to his quick acquisition of the skill, he knew that.

Still, it was much faster than he’d ever thought possible.

He found himself wanting that feeling back. That moment just before the skill had distracted him, that calm emptiness that had suffused him, so different from the normal raging void that resided within the fog.

He wanted to feel that sense of peacefulness again.

Unfortunately, try as he might, he didn’t achieve that state before Blane finished their stretches and moved over to the weightlifting area.

Blane instructed each of them thoroughly on the proper methods to use when lifting weights, and David soon found himself sweating as his body was pushed to its limits. His new body was stronger than his last, but it was a stark reminder of the importance of stats as he saw the other students easily lifting much heavier weights than him. Even Cassandra, a bubbly woman who was smaller than David, was lifting at least as much weight as he was.

As the weightlifting session drew to a close, David found himself almost dreading the next portion of the class, since he knew they would begin training for real.

He had been unable to find a way to convince himself to accept the prospect of willingly allowing other people to casually touch him, something that he knew would be a frequent occurrence here.

Eventually he had settled for simply ignoring his intense aversion to physical contact, believing himself mentally strong enough to hide his emotions whenever it occurred.

He hoped he was, at least.

“Mr. Apollo, since you have just joined us today, I would like you to partner up with Cassandra, she will teach you the basics. Rolland and Temir will partner up and practice while I speak to some of the other students.”

He said the last with a gentle wave of his hand as he calmly walked away, leaving David desperately staring at his retreating back.

He wasn’t ready for physical contact. Especially not with the capricious and cheerful woman who, even now, was smiling excitedly at him.

She wasted no time in approaching him, nearly skipping with excitement as she did.

“Let’s start with your stance!” She bubbled cheerfully. “You need to have a solid stance as a base from which you’ll attack and defend from!”

‘It shouldn’t be possible for anyone to be this happy about training…’ He cried in his heart. She almost gleefully helped him form his stance, feet shoulder width apart and his dominant foot slightly back, knees bent slightly with his right heel raised slightly off the ground. ‘To give him more spring’ she had said.

Whatever that meant.

He eventually ended up in a somewhat awkward stance, his body bent in a very slight crouch with his hands up by his face, his shoulders raised. Cassandra had seemed inordinately happy every time he moved his body into the correct position, though he could tell from the disdainful glances cast his way by Rolland that he wasn’t doing anything special.

“Now it’s important to remember” She continued, almost as if by rote. “This is the stance you always return to between attacks and it will be the most useful defensive posture you can use against another human. If you ever wonder why you use this stance, it's because countless warriors who have fought innumerable battles over time came up with it after thoroughly studying their movements, and the science behind it tells us that this stance is by far the most efficient.”

David was fortunate in the fact that, with her cheerful attitude, he almost never had to speak, simply nodding his head to indicate he understood. She sounded like she had memorized almost everything Blane had ever taught her, and was incredibly pleased she had the chance to show it off.

She was just showing him a few basic strikes when Blane wandered over, his arms habitually clasped behind his back as he looked coolly upon his training students. He cast a casual eye over the other two students, Rolland and Temir, nodding at their efforts, before approaching David and Cassandra with a critical eye.

“You’ll want to always remember that when one hand attacks, the other can defend.” Blane interjected. “Don’t drop your other hand when you strike, instead move it into a defense posture so that it becomes a habit. When you fight, you may attack at the same time as your opponent. If he defends and you do not, you will always be the loser in that engagement. It is better to get in the habit now while you are still learning.”

David followed the stoic man’s advice, adjusting his body to follow the correct movements, and was almost immediately greeted by the familiar ping! Of a system message.

Congratulations! You have gained a skill:

Hand-to-Hand Combat: Level 1.

Aids the user in engaging others using the body as a weapon. Can be used in conjunction with other skills to make the user more deadly in combat.

The effect was immediately noticeable. Unlike his other skills, Meditate and Stealth, he felt a strange click within his mind, like he suddenly understood much more than he ever had before about fighting hand to hand.

He rolled his shoulders, dropping his stance just a hair more, spreading his feet just an inch wider.

He felt better, much better, about this entire concept.

The effect was compounded when Blane gave him a sudden knowing grin, as if he had expected such a development all along. The man nodded conspiratorially before turning and briskly walking away.

—------

Regardless of his newfound combat ability, David soon came to learn that stats really were a major deciding factor in almost every aspect of a fight. Cassandra almost certainly had more points invested in strength than he did, while he had more points invested in agility. In a real fight, he might be able to use such a thing to his advantage, but as they were only practicing, she seemed to have almost complete control over his movements whenever she managed to get ahold of him.

It could have something to do with the fact that he almost instinctively shied away nearly every time she touched him, but her surprisingly iron-hard grip would eventually find him no matter how nimbly he moved, allowing her to latch onto him and begin dominating the spar.

If he ignored his growing horror at the repeated physical impact, he had to admit that he needed continued work. It should be obvious, he was only at level 5, while she was at level 9, but it was an apt demonstration as to what just a few extra stat points could do.

If he was being honest with himself, she was manhandling him.

With ease.

Other men might grow angry when placed in such a situation, especially as Rolland continually sneered with derision in his direction. Instead he only felt humbled, filled with the realization that he could never underestimate anybody.

A cheerful, bubbly personality could hide a snarling tiger behind it.

It was fortunate, then, that David had relatively little pride.

—----

“Great job out there today!” Cassandra beamed at him. “You really improved a lot and showed that you have a solid foundation!” He did his best to smile back at her, dipping his head and saying “thank you” in response. She had worked hard to teach him, and he felt he owed her an actual response, even if he was apprehensive at the thought.

“Go ahead to the locker rooms and get yourself cleaned up, and I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning!” She turned and nearly skipped away, not appearing drained at all from the day of hard training. David felt exhausted, he was so tired he unwittingly followed her advice, heading to the locker rooms instead of just walking across Adventurer’s Corner to his hotel, where he could shower in peace.

He didn’t realize his mistake until he entered the noisy locker room area, where other male students were excitedly conversing with each other, sharing rumors and debating techniques boisterously as they prepared to head home for the day.

David immediately froze as the noise from the room washed over him, turning around and exiting the room as fast as he could. He did not want to be surrounded by that many people at once.

Especially not that many sweaty people.

He did catch one interesting piece of information as he left the room, however.

One man was excitingly slapping another on the shoulder, shouting nearly loud enough for the whole room to hear him;

“Did you hear the news about the front entrance? Their saying Lord Eadwhin himself is going to step up and handle it! Won’t that just be inc-” David missed the rest of the conversation as the door closed behind him, and he hurried home to shower.

He couldn’t help but to wonder while he walked…

‘Just what is Charles Eadwhin going to do?’