A new routine
The sound of gongs clanging awakens me. I cast a brief glance outdoors. It's dark outside, and it's about the time I'd typically begin my own exercise schedule. Seeing how I'm perplexed by what's going on. One of my classmates approaches me and asks, "you're the new guy, aren't you?" I quickly respond, "yes I am," and the other man nods and continues, "those gongs you're hearing are our wake-up call to begin training." I respond, "okay, then I guess I'll get myself ready too."
I swiftly prepare myself for training. And proceed to the training hall, where we are divided into groups depending on rank. Master Brom is waiting for everyone to settle down. When he notices me, he signals for me to come forward, which I do. "That was quite an impressive battle the other day," Brom remarks. "Who taught you to use a sword before you came here?" "My father taught me that he was advanced ranked in all three schools of swordsmanship," I said. He taught me sword God and water God styles, but he refused to teach me North God."
He replies, "I see, well at least we're not starting from scratch but you do have a little catching up to do." He then began to explain to me what I needed to work on, and he did so in great detail. He returned me with the other third ranks after you finished explaining. Our first two hours of instruction included two hours of physical activity and one hour of skill training. We then leave for breakfast. I entered the cafeteria, where minimal meals are served. It offers everything you need to keep alive and gaining vitality.
The way things are set up here is that you go grab your meal and then pick an area on the floor to sit and eat. The meal appeared to be suitable for pigs. As I struggle to swallow my meal, a blonde-haired elf girl approaches me. "Can I sit here?" she asks when she reaches me. I shrug and say, "Go ahead, no one's stopping you." She responds, "Thank you," and then adds, "How are you adjusting to life here? Many people complain about how early we have to get up."
When I hear it, I smile and respond, "I'm used to getting up that early." "Are you now?" Sylvia asked. Sylvia continues, "that's a good thing because I despise lazy people." I said "where do you sleep I didn't see you with the other third rankers?" "That's because I'm not in the third rank, I'm in the second," she laughs. Then I reply, "I was almost expecting to find some Kings or emperors ranks here but there don't seem to be any why is that?"
"Most people of those ranks are out and about doing things," she responds, "at most we have advanced ranked and a couple of Saint ranked." Most individuals, after they attain Saint level, leave the school to gain real-world experience." I just said, "That makes a lot of sense." She then continues to discuss the procedure in this section. So this is how the procedure works. We get up early in the morning for 3 hours of training, eat breakfast, and then go back to training for another 3 hours before taking the rest of the day free
The majority of individuals appear to spend their leisure time participating in free training. Essentially, after 6 hours of instruction. You may then freely practice whatever you desire. It appears to be an excellent system to me. We spent the remainder of breakfast conversing, and Sylvia noted that tomorrow would be a good day to acquire any supplies I might need because a merchant should be coming. But it was soon time to return to training. The training is even more difficult than what I went through, not that I'm complaining.
The day was quickly coming to a close. I'd spent all of my free time doing the drills I'd learnt today. I noticed master Brom washing a curved purple blade as I was preparing to exit the main training hall. It reminded me of something the elves would have used in my previous world. It was an enormously gorgeous blade. I couldn't take my gaze away from it. When Brom notices me looking at the blade, he replies, "You interested in this blade?" I'm surprised he saw me glancing at him, I say.
"Forgive me for staring master." "No worries, boy," Brom laughed. It's an incredible blade. It was created by Hephaestus, a cyclops." I've read about someone with that name who reportedly has built the strongest magical weapons in history. He was last heard from during the lapless war. Nobody knows what became to him. "I have quite a few swords of his work," Brom says. "If you prove yourself worthy, I might give you one," I reply with a smile, "and that gives me something to work for."
After I finished speaking with Master Brom, I went to the restroom to wipe off the perspiration from the day. Now, the regulations of washing in this dojo were easy; everyone used the same room to clean, and it wasn't segregated by gender, as it would be in my world. Because I had Grayrat blood in me, washing and cleaning were really difficult.
It was difficult not to gaze at the few naked women who were getting themselves cleaned up. It was a struggle, but I persevered and avoided staring at the women like a weirdo.
I started making my way to the main sleeping quarters when I was washed up and dressed. I eventually run across Sylvia, who appears to have just exited the restroom. We immediately greeted one other and said good night as we were both heading to bed. I'm crawling into my sleeping bag. I start thinking about what happened today. Sylvia is someone I admire because she works equally as hard as I do. And if me and her battled right now, I'd definitely lose, since she could probably beat father without using all of the techniques I had to employ.
Those were my final thoughts as I fell asleep. I had no idea the next day would provide such a surprise.
It began similarly to the previous day, and everything was normal until free time. Instead of exercising, I chose to wander about town when I heard someone remark, "Oh my God, you're here," and turned around to see who said it. I was tackled, and before I could say anything, someone shoved their breasts in my face.
She hugged me extremely tightly she was whispering "I'm so glad I found you" after realizing I couldn't breathe she lets go and stands up. Seeing who it was a truly surprised me it was in fact my mother with my baby sister wrapped up in a bundle strapped to her back. In surprise I said "mom what are you doing here" mom wipes some tears in her eyes and she says "that's a long story but to make it short Sylphiette told me what you told her she didn't give me any specifics of where you were going though."
She continues talking "so I took some money got on a merchant wagon road to Roa where your brother is staying. And learned that everything I heard was true that Paul was trying to keep me away from you too. But luckily Phillips wife Helga was sympathetic towards my plight and said that you do all she can so I can see Rudy sometimes." I look at Mom and then I ask "that doesn't explain how you found me or why you are here?" Mom said "that's simple I was looking for a job when I seen a flyer on the adventures guild board. That the dojo was hiring a healer then a thought occurred to me that you would most likely be here because Paul detested the north God style."
I nod and say "that sounds reasonable. But what about father?" mom looks a little sad but she says "I've decided to leave your father I will live here and work as a healer that way I can be close to both of my boys" she then says "I'm supposed to meet North God Brom do you know where I can find him" I reply with yes and I lead her to him and after a brief conversation she was officially hired as a healer to the dojo.
This makes me happy since I get to spend time with my mom and newborn sister. Nothing negative can happen now.
End of chapter
The next chapter my first adventure