Mina Sword Style: First Form

One fine morning, in an open field to one side of Initial Village, an older boy stood in front of a class of five younger boys. Cody was one of those five, and this was his first class in the Academy VR, the 40 credit class taught by one Instructor Herman; the Mina Sword Style's First Form.

The Mina Sword style had four popular forms and two rare ones. The first of the forms was called Uta, and was designed for simplicity and ease of use.

The class was simple enough. Instructor Herman distributed practice swords and instructed them on how to hold them, a few basic swings, and a balanced stance.

In the Uta form, fights were duels, and in duels, you only needed to worry about two directions; forward and backward. Footwork was simple; keep your right leg forward, left leg back, stay on your toes, shuffle back and forth as necessary. Keep your body twisted so your side faced the opponent; that'll reduce the target he has to aim at without sacrificing your reach. Reach, incidentally, was the biggest thing a beginner like Cody should worry about when using the Uta form.

The practice swords he used were three feet in length, made of synthsteel and matching the shape of blunted swords, but covered in plastic shells. This was to reduce the damage that trainees took from each other, Cody supposed. More than half of the class time was devoted to swinging at the air with the most basic of stances.

"I need to get one of those practice swords." Cody said. "Does the warehouse have any?"

"There's a sale on for students of Herman's class." Orb told him. "Ten credits per practice sword. Pick up at the warehouse."

"I'll take one." Cody decided. "I'll grab it on the way back."

Other than swordplay and footwork, one of the basic things Herman taught them was breathing and warming up.

"Use your nose to breathe in." He said. "Exhale when you want to exert force. Steady breaths, don't rush, don't rush…"

Also, it seemed there were two kinds of exercise; aerobic and anaerobic. Generally speaking, aerobic exercise was less intense and longer lasting, and proper breathing was more important there. Anaerobic exercise was more intense, and often quickly over. For example, a 5 km walk would be aerobic exercise; a 100m sprint race would be anaerobic.

Uta, the first form of the Mina-style, was usually considered an aerobic style; it was designed for ease of movement, stamina, for long periods of use, and a rhythmic flow. There were other Forms that were anaerobic, such as the Third Form, Yanagi, and the Fourth Form, Shou. Those were much more intense, and not suited to keep up for long. Of course, those styles were much more effective in offense.

"What about the Ironheart Sword Style?" Cody asked, remembering Riki's yell.

"That's a two-handed sword style. The Mina-style uses one-handed swords." Herman explained. "It is compatible with several shield styles, though adjustments would be necessary. If you want to train in a sword-and-shield combination, the Second Form, Iwa, is much more compatible with shields. As for the First Form, a more popular combination is the sword-and-pistol."

Another important thing he taught was warming up.

"Stretching doesn't actually help you avoid injuries during exertion all that much." Herman advised while he went through a simple routine. "Better to just get the blood flowing and the heart pumping."

As for body training and muscle building, those lessons can be found online for free. "Just remember, don't overdo it. After you train, your body needs time to develop your muscles. Straining your muscles all the time without taking proper breaks would simply cause damage. That's not good."

The majority of the class seemed to involve Herman inspecting their stances, their movements, and making corrections and tweaking their motions as they went. These were the things that they couldn't have learned by watching online. This was the value of having an actual instructor guide them.

"Go home and practice. I'll see you all again next week." Herman said, as the class came to a close. He saluted them with his sword, holding it vertically in front of him as he bowed his head a little. "Class dismissed!"

"Ho!" the sword students saluted in turn, and then the field dissipated. The teacher vanished in a splash of fuzzy static. The other students all fizzed out too.

Cody was left entirely alone in the open field of Initial Village SE-T3. The instructor and the other students had shared the same space temporarily for the duration of the class, but really, they had all been in other places in this virtual world. Once the class was over, everyone just went back to wherever they had been before class.

***

It was two days after Cody planted the bean sprouts, the fifth day of the first week since Cody Rivers entered the Academy. Having accomplished nine level 4 missions over the past two days, with accumulated earnings of 296 credits (currently with 238 in his account since he had to pay for classes and all), Cody was on the verge of reaching Level 6.

He wasn't the only one. Except for Melinda (who had reached level 8 already) and Riki (who had just entered Level 5, for some reason destroying Elder T's basement succeeded in keeping the rats out of it), just about all the other new students were on the border to reaching Level 6.

Cody wasn't too worried about that. He wasn't in a hurry to level up. The way he saw it, higher level missions would only be more difficult and more dangerous. The important thing now was to learn to protect himself and survive those dangers in order to accomplish those missions. Surviving danger seemed to be a very important part of this Academy; the idea of survival itself was an important part of living in the Galactic North Frontier.

That was why Cody signed up for all three 'Squishy' classes; Mina Sword Style Basics, Life Force Activation and Rudimentary Telepathy. Telepathy, especially, was on sale, with 10 credits off.

The thing is, those classes were scheduled for set times. Cody had to wait until they ran in order to attend and learn from actual instructors. Today's Mina Sword style class was the first of those three. Life Force Activation was scheduled for Monday evenings, and Telepathy for Tuesday evenings. Also, the follow-up classes for the Mina Sword Style Basics would be the following three Friday mornings.

That meant, his next class was three days from now, after the weekend.

So… what to do?

By this time, Cody was sick and tired of Level 4 missions. He'd been chasing rats and helping warehouse renovations so much yesterday, he even dreamed about doing those missions endlessly, never graduating even after he became an old man…

No more. Enough with the Level 4 missions. Cody couldn't take any more.

He only needed 4 more credits to break into Level 6. Any level 2 mission would suffice.

But Cody didn't want to do a level 2 mission. It felt like a waste of time, all that effort just for a measly 5 credits… take the copper ore mission for example. They wanted 1 kg of copper ore, which meant a trip out all the way to the mines, and a difficult haul back, likely a couple hours work, if not more… all for 5 credits.

Heck if he were going to the mines, he may as well do the Level 3 mission to collect 5kg of iron ore, or bring some ore back and smelt them for the Level 4 mission for a 100g bar of industrial grade copper…

Cody paused. 5 credits for a Level 2 mission wasn't much, but if he added 9cr for a Level 3 and 15 for a Level 4… that was 29 credits for a single jaunt to the mines. Was that worth a few hours' effort? If he could do it in two hours, that would be just as time-efficient as chasing rats around with a stick for two hours non-stop.

It would be a change of scenery, if nothing else. By now, Cody had chased rats around so much, the rats were probably as sick and tired of seeing him as he was of them.

Actually… another weird idea popped into Cody's head and instantly, he made his decision.

"That's it. I'm going to the mines." Cody said. "And I'm going to make it worthwhile."

***

The first place he went to was the warehouse. He picked up his new practice sword, and then asked about that thing he wanted.

"You want to rent a tricycle? With a big basket?" the warehouse staff paused. "Yes, we have a few of those. Renting one will cost 20 credits a day."

"What?!" Cody spluttered. That was going to take a huge bite out of his profits.

Maybe Specs might have a better offer. He went over to ask her.

"A tricycle with a basket?" Specs mused. "Why would you ever want that?"

"Well… to carry cargo. I don't want to carry ores back on foot." Cody explained.

"But if you're going to make a trip to the mines, you may as well bring some real cargo capacity." Specs said. "Something like this…"

Specs brought out her offer and Cody instantly understood why she thought his plan was bad.

In front of him was a bicycle cart. Five feet by three feet of cargo space hitched to the back of an electric bicycle. "I can add in side-wheels if you need them, but the cart is more than enough for balance."

"Awesome…" Cody had to admire Specs' foresight. "How much would it cost?"

"Forty credits per day." Specs said straight out. "Considering the amount of cargo it can carry and the amount of mission goods you can get from just one trip using it, I don't think it's too much to ask."

No kidding. He could fit in a lot of ore in there. Ten missions worth? Twenty? It would depend on what missions were offered over the next few days, but having those ores already on hand, he would be able to complete them pretty much as soon as he accepted them.

"Going to the mines, Cody?" a voice asked beside him.

Cody spun. "Melinda? How did you know…?"

There behind him were Melinda and Laila. Laila gave him an innocent wave and a smile in greeting.

"You're renting the bicycle cart. You're obviously stacking missions and going out for a haul."

"Stacking missions…?"

"Accepting a few missions all in the same place with similar needs, and then doing them all at one go." Melinda explained. "I did that too. How do you think I made it to Level 8 so fast?"

"Right…" Cody looked at the bicycle cart and wondered if Melinda, too, had rented it earlier. Or whether, in fact, she was here to rent it right now. "You're here for the bike and cart then?"

"Actually, yes. We were about to make a run out to the mines ourselves." Melinda said, including Laila in her statement. "But we could use an extra sword, if you're willing to share the cart."

"Why do you need to share a cart?" Specs asked, cutting in. "I have another one. You can both rent one each, and guard each other's back along the way while you're at it. Wouldn't that be even better?"

Melinda lit up. Laila too. "Do you have three?"

"Uh… sorry, no. I only have two."

"We'll take them." Melinda said shortly. She glanced at Cody. "Do you have everything you need? Are we ready to go?"

"I think so, but I was just wondering if we should bring in a little more help. Have you seen Riki anywhere?" Cody asked.

"Riki? An hour ago, he blew up the warehouse and died." Melinda snorted.

"Not coming with us, then. He'll be stuck for another two hours." Cody shook his head. "Okay, let's go."