Training

As instructed by the system, Leon was browsing the skill shop. There was really anything he could ever want in there, skills related to sports, arts, crafts, music, cooking and even more abstract skills that could let you have a better view of your surrounding.

Leon was interested in the last one, it was named eagle eye and with enough practice one could see the world around them from the sky.

' If that skill work in Tales Eternal it would be perfect against ambushes but the goal of the mission is to complete an objective related to the skill I take. It would be greedy to try and take something complex like this.'

He made the decision to simply buy it on his own later, for now he was trying to find something that could still help him in the game but since he was planning to be a mage there really wasn't many things available. Even the system couldn't let him cast magic in real life, or at least there was no option for now.

' Tales Eternal is a game about completing tales, I would be going from story to story to try and complete them so something that could help me investigate? Skills related to detectives do exist but I don't know if the system is going to make me solve a crime.'

In the end his eyes wandered around the sword skills. There was a main skill called sword mastery then around it there was many skills that were focused on the different part of swordsmanship. There was also techniques that he could learn but it would be useless if he didn't even know how to wield a sword in the first place.

' It wouldn't hurt to have an option if an enemy come close. I might be able to make a magic swordsman too.'

He couldn't really predict how the game would be so for now it seemed like a good option. At the very least it wouldn't hurt him. He decided to start with sword mastery, when starting something new it was important to understand the basics after all.

' I'll just use a random stick to train, should be good enough.'

With that in mind he took the skill and before he could even react he felt a flood of information entering his brain. All of the basic information related to the sword was crammed in there, what move to use in which situation, how to balance his strikes, how to defend, all of that was now in his brain.

It was definitely a lot of information to digest and despite understanding everything it felt like a random piece of information he had read in a random book somewhere, it definitely didn't feel like he had just become a master swordsman. He blinked a few times to regain his focus then he looked at the window that appeared in front of him.

[ Tutorial mission update: Sword mastery has been selected. The mission objectives have been set.

Each day for the next 14 days you have to complete this training regiment:

100 set of sword swings following the instructions (here)

3 miles of running or jogging

100 push-ups

100 sit-ups

10 minutes of full body stretches following the instructions (here)

- - - -

Daily reward for completing the objectives: A minor increase to your comprehension of the skill 'sword mastery'.

Penalty for failing to complete all daily objectives: The training requirement of the following day will be tripled.

The mission will be considered a failure if you fail to meet all of the daily requirements on 3 different days.]

It was a very reasonable training but there was a single problem. Leon was more of the studious type, he had never trained even once in his life.

He was also certain that the mission included today in the 14 days. He was already mentally drained by all the information he had received in the last 2 hours so he wanted nothing more than to sleep but it seemed like he would have to wait for that. He sighed inwardly as he decided to watch the examples provided by the system first.

He started with the set of sword swings to fully understand how much work he would have to do. The moment that he touched the flashing (here) in the system he felt his vision fade as an illusory world appeared in his mind.

A mannequin with no special feature stood in a forest with a plain sword in hand, as soon as Leon focused his attention on it the thing started to move. Its movements looked incredibly simple, it simply swung its sword from different directions with simple steps and yet everything looked so perfect that Leon felt mesmerized.

Since he had a pretty significant amount of knowledge about the sword thanks to the system he could fully appreciate what he was seeing. It looked incredibly simple yet efficient. After it did a set of 7 swings the mannequin stopped then repeated it a second time.

Leon felt a bit excited to try the training in the real world but he wasn't ready for the next part. He could feel his mind being moved toward the mannequin as he started to share its sensation yet Leon had absolutely no control over it.

He could simply feel the mannequin's movement as it repeated the set of swings effortlessly. The feeling was so foreign that Leon couldn't fully grasp what was happening during the first set but he was quickly able to adapt as he studied everything he could while the mannequin repeated everything a second time.

The feeling of the sword being swung perfectly was shared with Leon, it felt so satisfying that for a moment his mind was fully focused on those feelings. He felt a bit disappointed when it ended.

[ You can replay this example at any time you wish. Your 'sword mastery' skill also possess a simulation mode to enable you to learn more about the skill. Do you wish to stop the simulation or do you wish to watch another example?]

Leon made a note of looking at his sword mastery skill later, for now he just wanted to get things done so he looked at the stretches which were pretty simple. Once the simulation was done his vision slowly returned to him.

He prepared himself to go on a run, since he wasn't too confident on his stamina he wanted to get this one done first.

' I just took a shower too.'

He complained to himself a bit as he started his run. It was in the middle of the day so there was cars everywhere, making it hard for him to get into a good rhythm until he reached a nearby canal.

Once he could run freely he was surprised at how easy it actually was, despite feeling his lungs burn a bit the feeling of training his body was quite intoxicating which made it easy to ignore the fatigue. The system kept track of the distance he ran so it made it easy for him to turn around at the halfway mark.

He arrived back in front of his house after 40 minutes of jogging, he was drenched in sweat but more motivated than ever as he discovered a love for running.

Next he went to his backyard to do the push-ups and sit-ups and this is where his lack of training started to show. He was forced to do each of them in sets of 20, alternating between the two to make it a bit faster but even then he struggled quite a bit.

It was even worst than it seemed considering that he had just taken an elixir than made him quite a bit stronger than he originally was. Still, he did the 100 push-ups and sit-ups before looking around for a good stick in his yard, feeling happy that he was even able to do the training at all.

' I used to swing a lot of sword-like sticks when I was younger, hopefully I haven't rusted too much.'

Despite being exhausted he had never felt more energetic and more alive than right now. He felt like he had missed out by never working out before. He searched for a bit but there was a surprising lack of good branch on the ground despite the big tree that was in his backyard.

' What about the item shop? Surely it can produce a wooden sword, right?'

It was the only thing he hadn't looked at yet in the system.

' Actually, I forgot to look at the favor points.'

He decided to take a breather to look at the message that was beside the points.

[ You have been granted 200 favor points for impressing God. Most favor points will be gained through either missions or accomplishing personal goals although there is some exceptions that you might discover in time.]

It was a simple concept. It didn't seem like it would be too hard to earn more of those points so he was really considering buying a wooden sword with it.

He opened the shop without having any real expectation however he instantly found a type of item that surprised him. They were named gems of luck, they were temporary boosts to luck that varied in length and strength.

Leon was pretty unlucky in general so he was definitely interested in buying them but the shop was filled with wondrous items so he didn't want to waste his points hastily. There was minor elixirs that could boost his stats, medicines that could cure all illnesses, tonics to make his training more efficient and all sort of other things.

He quickly realized that 200 points was a very small number, with it he could buy a single minor elixir or a few gems of luck so it was at least a decent amount but he couldn't just buy everything he wanted. The cure-all medicine was 500 favor points and some stronger elixirs were in the thousands.

When offered with things like that he wasn't so sure about wasting his points on a wooden sword anymore and he would certainly not buy a real sword considering it was illegal. Still, it was worth a look since he still needed something to complete the system's objectives.

Just by thinking of that the shop's item were all filtered out, leaving only a single item.

[ Training sword

A sword made of wood and blessed by an angel. The sword's weight can be changed with a simple thought of its owner. Useful to train the body while honing your sword skills. Weight cannot go lower than 2 lbs and cannot go higher than 30 lbs.

Cost: 1 favor point]

It seemed surprisingly useful and it was as cheap as it could be. Leon hesitated for a moment but in the end he didn't really have many other options apart from looking in the streets for hours for a good stick. He bought the training sword and it immediately appeared in his hands.

It was smooth and it felt good to hold. It didn't really look special but Leon was pretty happy about its look.

' All that is left is to test it against an imaginary dra... To test it in practice.'

Leon's inner child was coming out in full force as he held the sword in his hand.