Fork in the road

Somewhere inside dark cave, there were sounds of bones rattling and crushing followed by heavy breathing.

"So you were serious when you said you won't help us?" Asked Sasha once they cleared small group of skeletons.

"Would it be training if I did everything for you? You must familiarize yourself with the game if you want to be successful, I'm here to help you but you must learn how to differentiate help from being carried." I answered as I thought over their combat styles and possible improvements.

"So this isn't just punishment for me because I said you will go on a date with a fat cow?" Asked Mia.

"Of course not, your brother is not so petty to punish you over some joke of yours; I know you love your brother the most so you won't let me go on a date with just anyone." But I certainly did want to pull out your ears for that.

"Back to the topic, because you don't have any class right now your primary goal is practicing your combat abilities, Diane and Sasha have some good basics but Mia you are just lazy, you need to practice more, look even if you are going to be a healer you need to know how to fight, your team mates won't be able to protect you all the times and only living healer is a good healer so if you want to be good you must put in more effort in you combat basics." I crouched down and picked up few pebbles and then I threw them at skeletons further away from us, with that I successfully aggroed them and they started moving toward us.

"You could've at least let us rest a bit more." Complained Mia.

"There is no rest on a battlefield, only energy preservation, so learn how to effectively use your resources, once any resource bar falls down to 0 you are as good as dead so never allow yourself to hit 0." I explain slowly as I took few steps back so they have more space to fight.

"Learn more about weaknesses of monsters, most but not all monsters have their weakness on their joints or vital points, aim for those, these are humanoid monsters so if you want to beat them without suffering remove their movability first and once they are incapacitated you can do anything you want to them before they recuperate."

"Mia, raise your hands, put more strength into those strikes, can you even kill a fly with that speed? Sasha you need to stay clear about your positioning and location of your enemies. Diane don't blindly rush into the crowd, your best choice in this moment is to start from their flank and drag them around so they are bother to each other but not to you girls." I give them some tips while they are fighting and they do seem to be improving quite fast, soon enough we will be finishing with fighting basics and I will need to teach them some more advanced techniques.

"Mia aim for their knees, once they are down aim for the neck or head, they are just brittle bones so just sweep them."

"Sasha your wish is to be a vanguard but you run away from every strike of theirs, learn to evade not run away."

"Diane you will soon become a necromancer, how do you expect to lead an army if you can't even place your enemy where you want them, read their movements and rest is a piece of cake, soon enough you will be able to feel the flow of battle without even trying."

I wish there was someone who taught me same way I'm teaching them, all I got was being beaten up senseless until I learned this stuff the hard way. But I'm somewhat glad, because of that they don't have to suffer the way I did, there is someone who can point out their mistakes, my teacher only knew how to knock me around until I either passed out or he became satisfied.

Three skeleton groups later we came upon a fork, there were two ways we can choose to proceed but I honestly don't know which road leads to where, even though Gabriel did tell me a lot of things most of them were things I need to know for my future progress.

"Okay girls, you pick the way I won't interfere with your decision."

"Can you at least give us some tip?" Asked Mia cutely.

"Sure, when there's nothing left go right, when nothing is right go left."

"Can you be any more annoying?" Asked Mia with a pout.

"I could try, but are you sure?" I asked her teasingly, but she ignored me and continued discussing their decision with girls.

"We choose to go left?" Said Mia as she looked at me.

"Is that a question or a statement?" There is a smirk on my face, am I turning evil? I laugh at my own thoughts as Mia responded.

"Um a question?"

"Are you questioning your question now? Let me give you guys some heads up, in some game you can only have one choice when it comes to stuff like this, either game blocks the other road once you make your pick, or you just clear the first road and there is no need to check the other one, and there's also a possibility that both roads are connected later."

"But how do we know which choice is right and if any of those situations occur?"

"It's quite simple, sometimes you don't know and you can't know."

"So why are you making us make a decision now if it's pointless."

"It's not pointless."

"Then where is the damn point?" Asked Mia angrily.

"Hey little lady, watch your mouth, the point is that you must make a decision and not regret it later, you need to be firm in your decisions whatever the end result may be, some decisions are made after a lot of careful considerations, but some are just based on your luck and only thing you can blame if things go south is your own bad luck and nothing else."