William PoV

It’s been around three years since I’ve started practicing softcombat which means I’m familiar with sword fighting. That’s the reason for my first skill to be sword related.

After wandering through the academy I’ve found different sword training centers, so when I find an empty one I go inside.

“Welcome to the sword training center, do you want to learn how to fight with a sword?”

A tall, bulky man who resembles a viking is the instructor in this place.

“Yes, I’d like to learn some sword skills”

He grabs a sword from behind him.

“Follow me”

We walk towards the practicing area.

“First I will teach you the basic movements and footwork required to master the path of the sword, watch and learn”

He takes the sword with his right hand, his left foot on the front and right foot behind, the tip of the sword pointing towards my face.

“This is the basic posture while wielding the sword with one hand, the tip of the sword must always point towards your enemy line of vision”

Then the instructor moves his right from behind to the front while attacking with the sword, just one step and he’s advanced at least a meter towards me.

“Your hip movement is really important, as much as the movement of the wrist which decides the direction your sword is going to take”

Then he goes back to the basic posture.

“Always remember to keep your knees bent a little, it’s important to control your center of gravity while you move”

He hands me the sword.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes”

I take the sword and assume the basic posture.

The instructor takes a look at my posture.

“That’s correct, now try hitting me”

I look at him, clearly he’s serious about attacking him, is he that confident?

“But you don’t have a sword”

“Don’t worry kid, you won’t be able to hit me no matter how much you try”

Now I’m pissed, he’s underestimating me.

I attack him with the sword aiming towards his shoulder.

He easily avoids my attack.

‘You have attacked using a sword for the first time

STR +1

AGI +1’

I stop moving to read the window that popped in front of me.

“Come on kid, keep attacking”

As the window disappears from my sight, I attack again, this time aiming towards his legs.

He keeps avoiding my attacks, one after the other.

We keep going for around five minutes, until I can no longer move the sword.

‘You are tired

Stamina added to your status’

“You can rest for a couple of minutes, then keep practicing I will go to take care of the other students”

Around us there are nine players watching while I was training. The instructor goes to the counter and starts talking to them.

‘Skill Learning: Sword Mastery

To learn this skill you have to swing the sword until your basic posture flows naturally’

Looks like learning a skill in this game is similar to accepting a quest.

I sit on the ground after reading de skill learning window.

“Show Status”

‘Name: William

Class: None

Health: 25/25

Mana: 10/10

Stamina: 8/100

STR: 1

AGI: 1’

For every second I rest, my stamina recovers one point.

Now I understand something else about this game, it’s possible to acquire status as I learn stuff.

Little by little I feel my stamina filling up until it’s full, then I stand and keep swinging the sword using the basic movement taught by the instructor.

As I train, other players start doing the same after being taught by him.

Each time my stamina hits zero, I watch the instructor showing the basic movements to the players that keep arriving to the training center.

After two hours of practicing with the sword a message appears.

‘By practicing the basic movement with the sword you have learnt Sword Mastery

Show Skills command unlocked

Health +5

STR +1

AGI +1’

“Finally, show skills”

‘Class Skills:

None

Common Skills:

Sword Mastery – Beginner Level 1’

No description, huh?

I go towards the counter where the instructor is.

“I’ve learnt Sword Mastery”

He looks at me surprised.

“That was faster than I expected, normally it should take between two and five days of practice”

Looks like learning stuff in this game is going to be harder than I thought.

“Do you have previous experience with a sword?”

I can sense the curiosity in his voice.

“Yes, I’ve practiced a little”

He nods.

“Previous knowledge is helpful while learning skills, for instance if you tried to learn some magic you would need at least a week of practice”

I think I get how this skill learning works, it’s going to be hard to learn stronger skills.

“Is there a way to see the description of a skill?”

“That’s simple, just say Sword Mastery Description”

“Sword Mastery Description”

‘Sword Mastery – Beginner Level 1

Basic sword movements are stronger and faster, stamina consumption while wielding a sword is reduced.

Sword Attacks +1

Sword Speed +1

Stamina consumption -10%’

While I read the skill, the instructor starts talking to another player.

I wait for him to finish with the other guy, then he comes towards me.

“Would you like to learn another sword skill?”

“Can I learn another one?”

“Yes, once you learn Sword Mastery I can teach you a skill that can be used during combat, but believe me, it’s going to be much harder”

I wonder about that.

He notices my expression and starts laughing.

“Let me show you”

He grabs the sword and guides me to a corner in the training area, there is a row of training dummies.

“The skill I’m going to use is called Bash, it’s necessary to focus all your strength in the sword and release it when you hit”

Then the sword has a faint glow around it, he slashes the training dummy with explosive power.

“Using this skill will use your stamina faster than a normal swing”

‘Skill Learning: Bash

To learn this skill you have to focus all your strength on the sword and release it while attacking, it will be successful if your sword starts glowing’

The instructor hands me the sword.

“Let’s see how long does it take you”

After that he walks towards other players.

I take the basic position and point the sword towards the training dummy, then I try to put all my strength in the sword and slash the dummy.

It doesn’t have the same effect as the skill the instructor used, my sword didn’t start glowing.

An hour later I’m still swinging the sword, I tried to get the same effect as his skill but it doesn’t work. I assume it’s going to take a lot of time to get this skill.

‘You are hungry, find something to eat

Stamina reduced faster

Satiety added to status’

So I have to eat something to keep training, which was unexpected.

I walks towards the instructor.

“Master, where can I find something to eat?”

“There are various restaurants and food related buildings in the academy, food is free to students so go find something to eat”

“Thanks“

I leave the training center and walk around looking for food.

At some point I notice the smell of food guiding me towards a building.

When I arrive, there are hundreds of players eating inside, it makes me remember the dining hall at school.

I walk towards the female NPCs that are handing food to the other players.

There aren’t many players on the line, so a couple of minutes later I’m in front of the counter.

“Today we have Beef Stew on the menu, would you like a serving?”

“Yes, please”

The female gives me a tray with bowl of beef stew.

I walk towards a table and sit by myself, I notice there are groups of players eating together.

I forgot to contact my friends so that we can play as a group. Well, I enjoy solo play.

The beef stew is really good, I didn’t expect to find virtual reality food with such an incredible flavor.

I slowly eat my food, enjoying every second.

After I finish, I check my status and find that my satiety was fully replenished.

Thinking about it, there must be some way to carry food around.

I try opening an item menu or inventory, doesn’t seem to work.

Looks like you have to carry items the old fashioned way, that won’t be comfortable when looting items from monsters.

I’ll ask about that to an instructor.

As I leave the dining hall, I notice that in front there is a marketplace with different kinds of food to take.

I walk towards the NPC handling the items, a young female, she doesn’t look older than sixteen.

“Hello, may I ask you a couple of questions?”

She smiles at me and nods.

“It’s okay, what do you want to know?”

“How do item works here? How do I carry them?”

She tilts her head, her eyes look up while thinking how to answer my question.

“You need to get a bag to carry items, outside of the academy it’s possible to get magic bags which allows you to carry a big quantity of items”

“Where do I get a bag inside the academy?”

She looks at me while smiling.

“You should find a tailor shop and ask them to make one for you, it won’t be a magic bag but at least you will be able to carry some food around with you”

“Thanks for answering, I will look for a tailor”

I start walking looking for a tailor shop, I think it’s really important to get a bag early.

The company really wants us players to figure out everything by ourselves.

‘Someone it’s trying to talk to you from outside the game, do you want to log out’

Now that I think about it, I’ve spent around eight hours playing.

“Log out”

Everything goes to white, then to black.

I open my eyes and find my brother in front of me.

“The game is amazing”

He looks really excited, not that I don’t understand why.

“Yeah, did you try the food?”

Gabriel raises an eyebrow.

“I spent the whole time playing cards with some NPCs”

I start laughing.

“Well, you should try the food, I can’t believe it isn’t real”

He seems to be thinking about something, then points towards the clock in my room.

It’s only been two hours since I started playing.

“It can’t be…”

“I was as surprised as you when I saw that less than two hours had passed since we started playing”

“I’m sure I spent around eight hours in-game”

“Me too, so I checked the forums and read a lot of players asking about it”

He sits in front of my computer and starts a video.

A representative from the company starts talking.

“We wanted to surprise the world with our technology, every four hours someone spends inside the game only one hour will have passed in real time”

Now I’m surprised.

“Can you imagine all the possibilities this new technology introduces to the world? Studying, working, anything you do inside the game it’s more time efficient than doing it outside of our system”

The man keeps explaining the benefits of this technology.

My brother looks at me smiling.

“So, will you go back to the game? There are at least three hours until dinner”

I didn’t even remove the headgear so I go back to my bed.

Gabriel tries to stop me.

“At least let’s share some information”

“You were playing cards all this time, I doubt you have anything interesting for me”

Then I laugh and turn on the game.

The countdown starts.

Seconds later I’m inside Initia Academy.