Designing new weapons turned out to be a lot harder than he had expected at first, with the curved sword being something of an outlier when it came to ideas. The main reason for this is the very nature of stat points, unlike back on Earth people have a lot more strength and this leads to the accessibility of different weapons.

As he unloaded all of the ore from the carts he found himself comparing the designs he thought up more with the games he played than any history lesson he learned. The simple truth being that adding a lot of steel to a weapon here wouldn’t make it unbalanced or too heavy to lift like it was back in his old world.

One of the first things to jump to his mind was the famous Japanese katana. The sword was iconic not only because of the amount of importance it held in japanese history but also because of their prevalence in animation and fiction led to it being the sword type for elite skilled swordsmen.

Here however the katana would only be good as a training weapon. A short single sided blade could be easily taken advantage of. Better choices would end up being bigger and unrealistic looking weapons that already were created here by trial and error. The only reason his curved swords were so successful was their added utility to be able to grab and bypass armor too strong to cut.

Three hours he spent on moving the ore and in that time he didn’t manage to think of anything else that could be a useful innovation. With the job done he left his father to do the forging and headed towards the guard compound to meet with his brother who should be finishing his morning patrol shift in a few minutes.

As he reached the main building he entered for the first time in a while. He had subconsciously avoided the place after having been brought here following his meeting with the vampire all those years ago.

The place looked both different and very much the same. The layout of all the furniture on the reception floor had changed from how it was when he first started coming here to train, the desks and chairs however were all still the same ones he remembered, maybe with a few more scratches and dents.

“How can I help you, sir?” The younger of the two receptionists greeted him as he was about to head towards the practice courtyard. “Civilians aren’t allowed past this point.”

“Ah” Ajax tried to think of the best way to explain so that he would get access without a whole lot of paperwork.

“Ajax, you here to see your brother?” the other receptionist looked up. He was one of the members of the command staff during the skirmish and quickly recognised Ajax.

“Yeah, I’m leaving for the capital this week” Ajax admitted cheerfully “I got my training started in this courtyard after I turned ten years old, thought I’d practice with my brother one more time before who knows when I’ll get the chance.”

“Head on through” the man gave him an approving nod.

As he entered the courtyard Ajax came across a nostalgic scene. It was the end of the combat tournament the new recruits were put through. Finding his brother among the people waiting for the training to be over on the side was easy. Despite wearing the same armor or having a unique physique Fluffy sood out like a sore thumb.

After the new recruits finished with their training the people coming off patrol split up into their pre-set training groups. All the pairing consisted of two people facing each other except for Tom who was facing down three people with Fluffy by his side.

As they sprang into motion Ajax took a seat on the side to get a good view of the action. With Fluffy now being the equivalent of a level twenty-five and Tom having reached level twenty four they were on the back foot against three level twenty-five people. Not only that but their opponents were also quite a bit older, meaning they had been part of the guard for a while and had experience working together.

In order to stand a chance Tom and Fluffy had to rely on the novelty and magic of the shadow cat and their ability to cooperate. Being city guards the three were used to working together but didn't have all that much experience when dealing with tamed beasts.

Fluffy quickly dashed and moved to flank them. Tom did his best to back away and circle away from Fluffy in an attempt to force them into splitting their focus and not letting them all three rush him at once.

The idea worked, somewhat, as two of the three turned to deal with the large cat while the third rushed Tom. Clearly this wasn’t the first time they played out this exact scenario. The training blades clashed against each other once before both took a defensive formation and brought their shields in front for cover.

Tom stopped retreating however and went for a shield charge. It was decently successful at knocking his opponent off balance as the shields hit each other. Tom took that moment to try and slice at his now exposed leg but the slice was parried awkwardly. Seeing his opponent on the back foot, Tom pressed his advantage with a shield bash whose sole purpose was to stop his opponent from getting his shield back in position.

Knowing he didn’t have time to spare Tom used his sword as a throwing weapon, if a poorly thrown one. Despite the element of surprise his adversary managed to knock it aside with his own sword. The throw did serve its purpose though as it distracted the guard long enough for Tom to tackle him to the ground and bring out the knife from his belt and place it at his throat.

“I’m out” the man admitted with a disappoint smile, while making sure to keep his neck very still as the knife wasn’t a dull training blade.

Tom wasted no time in rolling off his foe and picking up his tossed blade but by the time he was back on his feet he saw two more guards heading towards him with Fluffy laying down behind them and his hind paws slightly tangled in a bola.

From there the fight ended quickly with the two guards using their number advantage to come at Tom from both sides ending the bout. With the bout over Ajax finally made to approach them before they started another.

“You guys have space for one more?” Ajax asked them as they gathered around Fluffy and untangled his paws without cutting the bola.

“Sure.” one of the three nodded.

The one who nodded had known Ajax already but the other two were unfamiliar with him, now that they were back in the city Commander Grievous’s men started mixing with others for training and patrol. The other two didn’t seem to be against it but they looked skeptically at Ajax.

“Think you can take all five of us?” Tom asked, though he knew fully well Ajax could handle all of them without much difficulty now just from how high his stats must be.

“Think it’ll be best if we have a two on four and I don’t use any magic.” Ajax offered.

Even only counting his physical stats Ajax had gotten to the point of reaching a level thirty-five pure warrior. With his magical stats added on he was closer to a level sixty adventurer.

As Tom would remain with Fluffy, only the guard who knew him was comfortable pairing up with Ajax for the two on four. Grabbing a blunted sword and a shield Ajax took his stance and locked his eyes on Fluffy.

From what he saw earlier he knew Fluffy was actually the one his teammate would have the biggest problems with. Without his magic Tom and the other two could most likely stall him if not beat him and Fluffy would only join once the side battle finished to put the final nail in his coffin.

Since this was only practice and one he decided to go for more as a goodbye to his brother Ajax didn’t switch to [Berserker Style] as he would in a real fight with these odds. The quick dash towards the shadow cat was interrupted by Tom who clearly saw his plan.

The exchanges between Ajax and the three guards who surrounded him looked very different from the previous fight Tom had been a part of. Every swing of the blade or bash of the shield sent a person off their feet. The difference in stats forced them to deflect blows if they didn’t want to get crushed.

Despite their appropriate reaction to his power Ajax could see both of the other guards had their eyebrows joining their hairline at his display of power. The fight didn’t take all that long, Ajax had learned how to use his [Deception] skill to increase how believable his fakes looked. It was also something that Tom, being the most inexperienced of them, had no practice against. By the time Fluffy won the side fight Ajax had taken two of them out of the fight at the cost of his shield arm and was in the process of overwhelming the third.

“You’ve grown quite a lot from the runt who used to get his ass kicked in this very courtyard not too long ago.” a voice came from behind Ajax after spar ended.

Ajax was a little surprised, being in a training courtyard he wasn’t quite as careful about people approaching yet someone had gotten within striking distance of him and he hadn’t noticed.

All three of the guards, Tom and even Fluffy in her own way threw a salute towards the person now standing behind Ajax.

“Why don’t you and I have a round?” Commander Grievous suggested with a friendly yet slightly mischievous smile.