Seeing Cythe decked out in new armor and a stronger weapon than even what he has, Feng can’t help but feel a surge of jealousy and annoyance especially since it was HIS gold that was spent on them…

Snapping his fingers as he remembered something, Feng quickly called out to Cythe to wait and ran back into the blacksmith for a few minutes before returning again with a grin on his face.

“What was that about?”

“Oh nothing much, just refitting some of the armor I picked up to fit. It will take a while so let’s just continue on to the guild first.”

As the duo walked up towards the main door, Feng decided to pull a prank on Cythe and slowed down his footsteps allowing her to reach the door first.

Cythe unsuspectingly put her hand on the heavy door and pushed only for the door to open a few inches.

‘…Damn, she did better than I did. Then again she does have more strength stats than I did.’

“Here, I’ll open-“

Having caught up, Feng tried to offer his assistance but Cythe turned him down with a sharp gesture of her hand before planting both hands firmly against the wooden door.

*BANG*

With an extremely unladylike growl, Cythe launched her entire bodyweight against the door and flung it wide open.

“Hey. I thought I told you guys to save your strength for the inner do- Wait, you don’t look familiar… Are you a newcomer?”

Roth said with some shock as he looked up from the massive tower shield he was polishing.

“Hey Roth! This is Cythe, my girlfriend, she’s new here and I thought it would be best for her to start training here.”

Feng quickly caught up behind Cythe and took the chance to greet Roth while Cythe was still recovering her breath from her exertion.

“Oh Feng! I see. Feel free to use the public training grounds though why did you come by this way then?”

Feng felt a heavy and suspicious stare emitting from Cythe and cold sweat rolled down his brow as he picked his next words carefully.

“Oh… You know, I was hoping you’ll be around and maybe you could help give some pointers for my girlfriend since she got a rather unusual weapon – a chain sickle to be exact.”

Feng gestured as he spoke at Cythe who proudly brandished her new shiny weapon and thankfully seems to have forgotten about her suspicions of Feng’s prank… or more likely saved as ammunition for a later date.

“Hmm… Can’t help you there. Holfen over at the public training hall can get you a practice sickle and instruct you in some basics but I’m afraid you are on your own otherwise. And Feng I got to ask you about something.”

Stashing the massive shield underneath the counter, Roth stood up and moved over to them.

“That’s an interesting weapon you have chosen… while it has some range capabilities, are you sure about fighting up close? I’m sure a lady like you will be more comfortable with magic or maybe a bow?”

Roth said as he reached out to shake her hand, only to widen his eyes slightly as she gripped down on his hand and answered in a slightly peeved tone.

“Yes. I’m pretty sure I can handle myself. I’ll see you guys later then.”

Cythe marched off to the direction they indicated with a huff, leaving the two men behind.

Roth raised a questioning eyebrow only to receive a helpless shrug from Feng as he silently mouthed ‘Women’.

“Hahaha, you got a fine lady there. She’ll definitely fit in with us here. Anyway, I got to check with you about a report I received from some guild members who picked up a girl outside the Black Forest. They reported that you cleared out the Black Forest Bandit Clan and rescued the girl. Is this true and if so, how come you didn’t escort her all the way back?”

Roth laughed heartily and slapped Feng on the back lightly before he grew somewhat more serious and questioned Feng.

“Yeah, put simply I was lost and looking for directions when I got attacked by the bandits. Somehow I ended up fighting them all before rescuing the girl. As for escorting her back… I sort of tripped and was sent back to my world because my body was too damaged.”

“BWHAHAHAHAHA! Only you Feng! If it was anyone else, I would have to get the witness’ confirmation before I can issue out the job rewards for clearing the bandits… But after hearing what you said, I have no doubts you actually did it. Let me go update the job board and guild ledger to dispense your reward.”

Feng got over his embarrassment at the mention of reward, though he was puzzled by what Roth mentioned.

“Huh? Why do you need to update the guild ledger?”

“… Oh right, it’s your first time completing a job. Every job grants a number of guild points which will contribute to your rank. Well basically for your case, this job actually belongs several ranks higher than your current and thus the amount of guild points you receive greatly exceed your promotion requirement… in fact, I do believe you are due for a double promotion.”

Feng took a moment to process the explanation before grinning as he waited for Roth to complete the paperwork and pull out a bag from beneath the counter which magically seemed to be able to hold an incredible amount of items…

Job Completed: Eliminate Black Forest Bandits [Adventurers’ Guild]

The Merchant Guild has posted a contract for the elimination of Black Forest Bandits who have been greatly disrupting trade coming from the north.

Objectives:

1) Kill or drive off at least thirty Black Forest Bandits (Completed)

2) Defeat the Black Forest Bandit Chief (Completed)

Rewards: 100 Gold, 80 Guild Points

Title Obtained: Hardscale Adventurer

You have been double promoted to the rank of Hardscale Adventurer, awarded to adventurers who have survived and been toughened up through their adventures.

+50 Fame

+10% Quest Trigger Chance

Privileges

Access to Adventurers’ Guild Mission Board, Commons, Dormitory & Training Hall

Closing the notification windows, Feng gleefully accepted the bag of gold but asked Roth with some confusion.

“Huh… Didn’t you mention something about rank up exams and being able to learn new skills as well?”

Roth shrugged his massive shoulders and said.

“Oh, most people join our guild to gain access to the jobs so we have way too many members at our lower ranks. Testing them all will be a pain. So we only test at the fifth rank for the lower ranks and start testing every rank from tenth and above.”

Roth stood up and gestured at Feng to follow him as he continued speaking.

“As for your questions about learning more, well just follow me and we’ll sort that out right now, since your girlfriend will probably take a while to complete her training anyway.”

Feng looked at him suspiciously, noticing the grin Roth was sporting…

“You aren’t going to repeat that torture you call training again, are you?”

Roth laughed and shook his head

“Nah, that’s just hazing the rookies and toughening you kids up to make sure you make it back alive… Although yours was extra special with the blindfold and all. But anyway I’ll be teaching you some actual fighting moves this time.”

As they moved towards the private training hall, Roth suddenly perked up and snapped his fingers before he said.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot the girl you saved was also very interested in looking for you.”

Feng noted the snippet of information but quickly dismissed it as irrelevant… Not realizing the amount of trouble that would bring him in the future…

As the pair walked into the private training hall, Feng idly observed the increase of players in the public training hall and automatically searched out Cythe who was talking to the instructor before moving on.

To Feng’s surprise, Roth continued moving through the private training hall and brought him to one of the smaller side rooms he didn’t notice previously. It was occupied by a single training dummy which looks much more reinforced, with a thick steel red securing it to the ground with the dummy itself basically a steel mannequin covered with some cloth and padding.

Roth picked up a pair of dark-colored wooden training swords from the side racks and experimented with some swings before he suddenly dropped both weapons at the side with a look of disgust crossing his face.

“Damn, I just realized… I got to teach you the boring part as well. Hmm… you are pretty smart so let’s cut this short. We use Aura for our skills, almost all fighters uses it though in different ways. Basically, we channel aura from our body into weapons and armor to increase our fighting capabilities. Got that?”

Feng simply nodded to indicate understanding as he paid close attention.

“Great. So the most basic move is to channel your aura to your blade as you attack your target. Like so.”

Roth casually picked up one of the wooden swords and swung it lightly at the dummy, with a dull glow emitting a moment before the blade contacted its target.

*BANG*

Despite the obviously weak slash, Feng was amazed to see the heavy steel dummy tilt from the explosive force of Roth’s strike.

“As you can see, it greatly empowers your attacks. Go ahead and try.”

Feng looked bemused at the extremely short lesson and tried to clarify further.

“Uh… How do I channel aura?”

“Oh just pick up the sword, concentrate on pouring your energy into the sword and it will come naturally.”

Sweat-dropping at the rather unhelpful advice, Feng shrugged and picked up the training sword before concentrating and swinging.

*Thonk*

Feng frowned as he felt his concentration moving mana towards his weapon but stopping right outside his skin and dispersing soon after. Furrowing his brows, Feng stared at his weapon for a good minute, pushing mana to coat the weapon in a gentle blue glow and sweating tremendously as he did so…

Feng’s victorious smirk rapidly turned into a grimace as his moment of distraction caused the blue glow to flicker and almost extinguish, only his quick re-focusing strengthened the glow before he slashed at the dummy again…

*Plonk*

“HA HA HA HA! That’s the funniest expression I have seen so far training newbies!”

Roth roared with laughter, his hands clutching his sides as he took in Feng’s comical betrayed look as his training sword literally BOUNCED off the dummy.

His eyes twitching as Roth’s laughter continued, Feng irately said.

“Some REAL advice will be nice about now Roth.”

Roth slowly regained control of himself as Feng looked on with irritation, and wiped away tears of laughter before he finally spoke.

“You are doing two things wrong. Firstly, that is mana you are using, concentrate harder and feel your mana become heavier and thicker before you focus on your blade. Secondly, you are coating your weapon with your energy, instead send your aura into the blade and release it when you strike.”

Feng sighed and looked at Roth with exasperation.

“You could have told me that from the start.”

“Heh. But where’s the fun in that?”

Feng grumbled under his breath before turning back to concentrated fully on his blade, shutting his eyes to feel the flow of mana and condensing the flow at his hands. He felt the thin threads of mana slowly twine together and thicken… before his concentration was abruptly broken by a hard poke at his forehead.

“Eyes wide open. That’s a terrible habit to form and will get you killed.”

Roth stood in front of him with a serious expression with his training sword lightly resting on Feng’s forehead.

Grimacing as he acknowledged Roth’s warning Feng repeated his actions only this time with both his eyes open and focused on his mana and sword... Only feel the tip of Roth’s practice blade jabbing at his torso.

“Eyes on the target.”

Feng sighed at the interruption and resigned himself to constantly repeating his actions as Roth corrected him with light pokes and jabs.

*DING*

New Skill Obtained: Aura Mastery

Congratulations! Through Roth’s private training, you have learnt how to call forth your Aura.

(Passive Skill)

+1% Decrease in Aura cost for Aura-based skills

+1% Effectiveness of Aura-based skills

+3 Wisdom

New Stat Unlocked: Aura

+50 Aura

-500 Mana

Note: Aura can be converted from Mana at a 1:10 ratio, this can be improved through higher levels of Aura Mastery.

New Skill Obtained: Aura Strike

Congratulations! Through Roth’s private training, you have learnt how to infuse your weapon attacks with Aura.

(Active Skill)

+25% Weapon damage

Aura Cost: 5

After many repetitions and nearly forty minutes, Feng finally grasped the trick to condensing aura to Roth’s satisfaction and felt a portion of his mana convert into aura which gathered in a pool within his core. Pushing aura into his blade and mastering the timing to infuse and release Aura into his attacks was a simple thing in comparison.

“You didn’t catch it as quickly as I thought you would be but you are faster than average I guess. Anyway, the next skill I’m going to teach is one of the most commonly used skills for us adventurers. By now, you probably ran into at least one annoying creature which fights at a distance, as you probably experienced it is a pain to get in close. is our go-to skill in these circumstances.”

Standing in the furthest corner away from the dummy, Roth swung at the dummy with his dully glowing practice blade, releasing a familiar-looking almost-transparent wave of energy rippling towards the dummy.

*BANG*

“It works exactly like , except we project our attacks out of the weapon to attack at a distance with pure aura.”

Feng shuddered slightly at the memory of dodging the bandit chief’s and promised himself that he will fully master the skill, having seen the effectiveness of it first-hand and up close…

*DING*

New Skill Obtained: Far Strike

Congratulations! Through Roth’s private training, you have learnt how to project your weapon attack through Aura to strike at far away targets… or at your level, not so far away targets.

(Active Skill)

25% of weapon damage

Maximum Range: 8 meters

Aura Cost: 15

“Excellent, you got it much quicker this time. Well that’s all I have for you for now.”

After another twenty plus minutes of trial and error, Feng nailed the basics of projecting his aura through the blade though a stray thought occurred to him midway and he voiced it out as Roth congratulated him

“Hmm... Roth, why do we strike at a distance instead of moving faster to reach melee distance instead? Won’t that be more useful?”

The half-troll snorted and answered his question.

“Sure, it would be. But we are warriors not monks, who learn how to enhance their bodies up in mountains and deep caves. They employ their own brand of energy called chi to achieve crazy feats. Many have tried to replicate their feats with aura before and have failed badly. I won’t recommend trying to find them though; they have ridiculous entry requirements and all sort of weird rules.”

‘Sounds like joining the monks is more trouble than it’s worth but… those skills will be so worth it… Chi… Maybe it is similar to qigong I learnt in Wing Chun… It’s worth a shot.’

Feng pondered about the possibilities and came to a quick decision before he called out to Roth who was already preparing to leave the training room.

“Roth, could I get you to stay and observe for a bit? I want to try to see if I can replicate some sort of Chi movement skill.”

Stopping in his tracks, the large man turned around with an intrigued look and thought for a moment before shrugging and waved at him to continue.

‘Alright, now that Roth is here in case of anything going wrong… Where do I start? Qi… begins from the breath in Chinese martial arts and he mentioned that warriors using aura could not accomplish the same feats.’

Feng breathed in deeply and felt the slender strands of mana enter his body and circulate throughout his body and decided to simply attempt to focus mana into his leg muscles before kicking off.

*Whish*

Feng’s hair trailed behind him as he took a quick step but it was almost completely the same except for it being seemingly slightly quicker than usual…

‘Maybe I need more mana?’

Concentrating once again, Feng gathered a large quantity of mana before focusing within his legs before he took a step… only to feel the large amount of mana almost seem to have slowed him down instead…

Feng closed his eyes and was determined to get back the fleeting feeling and focused back on his breathing, deciding to simply observe his body and mentally willed himself to take a faster step…

*WHISH*

Feng’s eyes snapped open as the sudden feeling of speed and found Roth’s similarly shocked gaze as he looked back only to realize that he had traveled nearly two footsteps distance in a single quick step.

“But that’s impossible!”

Feng could only shrug in response to Roth’s bewildered exclamation and mentally ran through his observations.

‘What was different about… WAIT! The brown mist, I could feel it vibrating for an instant when I took the step… That’s it! If warriors had such a hard time with it and qi is about breathing, then chi is basically the lighter gaseous form of mana!’

Delving deep into a meditative state, Feng began unraveling the thin strands of mana flowing through his body and mentally dissolving them. Slowly, he felt his legs fill up with the “mana mist” or what he believes to be chi and decided to take the next step.

Feng vibrated the chi in his legs fiercely before taking a single quick step…

*WHOOSH* *BAM*

“Ow.”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Roth started laughing uncontrollably as Feng completed his step… which took him all the way into the wall of the room- face first.

*DING*

New Skill Obtained: Chi Cultivation

Congratulations! Through trial and error, you have learnt the art of cultivating chi.

(Passive Skill)

+1% Decrease in Chi cost for Chi-based skills

+1% Effectiveness of Chi-based skills

+3 Wisdom

New Stat Unlocked: Chi

+1000 Chi

-100 Mana

Note: Chi can be converted from Mana at a 10:1 ratio, this can be improved through higher levels of Chi Mastery.

New Skill Obtained: Qing Gong

Congratulations! Through trial and error, you have learnt the art of Qing Gong (Light Body Art), allowing you to greatly increase your speed… and crash into walls.

(Passive/Active Skill)

+200% Movement speed (Active)

Chi Cost: 100/s (Increased chi usage increases speed proportionately.)

+10% Movement Speed (Passive)

+ 5 Agility

After Roth recovered from his bout of laughter, he questioned Feng who was both jubilant and annoyed at the fact he succeeded but overshot so badly.

“Damn… You never fail to surprise me… How did you do that without chi?”

“I did generate chi. It is just the opposite of aura, being lighter instead of denser than mana. Afterwards, I simply channeled it into my legs.”

“… Woah. Can it be that simple?”

Roth concentrated for a moment and…

*BANG*

Roth was sprawled on the ground with his feet sinking into the cracked floor.

“… Damn it. It seems that my body is too used to generating aura which is not suitable for such use.”

“Pft… Hahaha. You look ridiculous.”

Feng gleefully took the opportunity to laugh at Roth as payback. Unfortunately, Roth took offense to it and smiled darkly as he stood up and walked over to a training chest to retrieve some objects.

“… Since you completed the training session so early, and I doubt your girlfriend is done yet… Why don’t we continue with our training session?”

Feng looked suspicious, but before he could react, Roth appeared next to him with four items he retrieved from the chest. He quickly slipped two over Feng’s wrists and slapped the remaining two onto his ankles and stuffed one of the training swords into his hand before backing away again.

Within an instant, Feng felt crippling weights in his limbs and staggered.

“Surprised? These training weights are enchanted to draw upon the wearer’s power to increase the weight and weigh up to a ton. Time to increase your defense skills, next up learning how to parry and dodge more efficiently…”

Roth had a victorious smirk as he spoke, walking towards Feng with his own training blade lazily tracing patterns in the air.

*Another Whack-A-Feng Session Later*

New Skill Obtained: Parry

Congratulations! By deflecting some of Roth’s blows, you have managed to learn how to parry attacks.

(Passive)

+1% Parry Chance

+2 Dexterity

Congratulations! Your training has earned you:

+2 Strength

+1 Endurance

+2 Constitution

+2 Dexterity

+1 Perception

Sword Mastery have leveled up to Basic 7

Observe has leveled up to Basic 5

Combat Instinct has leveled up to Basic 4

Evade has leveled up to Basic 3

Toughness has leveled up to Basic 1

Parry has leveled up to Novice 6

“Well, I guess we are done for today. Why don’t we go out and check out your girlfriend’s progress?”

Feng mumbled unspeakable words at Roth’s chirpy tone and delighted expression from his slumped position on the ground before slowly and painfully levering himself to stand up with the aid of the training sword.

Hobbling over to replace the sword back on the rack, Feng winced feeling the bruises all over his body. He slowly trailed behind Roth going out to the main training hall only to see him stop abruptly in his tracks, blocking the doorway.

Curious at what made Roth dumbstruck; Feng peered around his large frame and spotted a horrific scene… with Cythe at the middle of it…