.

When they got back to camp he found that Anna, Brandon, and Lora were training the kids in small groups while Jack kept a lookout. As soon as Marco and Alex were spotted the kids and the guards stopped what they were doing and walked to them.

Anna looked at Alex's expression and then turned around to Marco. She pointed at the captain and asked curiously "Sir what happened to him? I've never seen him so happy in my life."

Marco looked at her confused and then turned around to take a look at Alex's face and sure enough, his face had a wide smile and his body was physically shaking. He sighed and looked at the group "I'll fill you guys in later for now just keep on doing whatever you were doing before."

They nodded and continued their training. Alex looked at him and lowered his head "I'm sorry your Majesty I couldn't hide it."

Marco patted the captain's shoulder and shook his head "Don't worry about it, I never meant to keep it a secret from you guys. I was just worried about the way that you guys would react, for now, we can let the kids know since I can't really trust them to keep their mouth shut."

Alex nodded and was about to make his way towards Jack when Marco stopped him "Alex since you're not going to go hunt today do you think that we could spar for a while."

The captain looked at Marco excited and nodded. "Yes, Sir I would love to."

Marco nodded and headed to the hut to retrieve the axe that they had bought earlier that week and chopped 2 pieces of bamboo. One was about 3 feet which was the same length as Alex's arming sword and the other was about 7 feet to represent the Naginata.

He handed the 3ft long one to Alex and they both began weighing and swinging them so that they could become accustomed to their 'weapons'. Marco made a line that was about 1 ft long on each side to represent the blade of the Naginata.

After both of them got ready they took a stance and waited for one of them to begin the stance. There was an awkward silence as both of them looked at one another since Mark had range and was inexperienced he decided that he would take the defensive no matter what.

After the long silence, Alex smiled and nodded and began to charge. Marco gripped the 'Naginata' towards the end and tried to hit Alex's legs. The captain jumped and avoided the swing getting inside Marco's defense.

After his swing failed Marco used the momentum and spun his body doing a 360-degree turn. This allowed him to surprise Alex, however, the captain suddenly increased his speed tremendously and crashed into him.

Marco literally got blasted away and landed on the ground breathing hard.

Ding 🤖 "Nice move you would have gotten if not for the big level gap. Don't forget that he is the captain, after all, he was probably taught never to lose and instinctively increased his speed"

"((( Well at least I don't have to worry about them going easy on me. Still though I'm starting to wonder if there is anyone normal that I can spar against.)))"

Ding 🤖 "Well remember you are now in a world where every fight can easily lead you to death so going all out is best."

Alex helped him get up and kneeled "Sorry Sir I didn't mean to…"

"Don't worry about it, if you go all out then at least I'll be ready whenever I face someone stronger than me in the future. Anyway as much as I hate to say it the harder the training the higher the probability I have to survive."

The captain smiled at Marco and nodded "I was pretty impressed you kept your stance at the beginning of the fight even if it got awkward, many times in battle one ends up falling into the enemy's claws due to those awkward moments."

Marco nodded and they kept sparing for most of the day, in the end, he lost a total of 40 times and managed to touch the captain 6 times. After the sparing he was completely wiped out, he went and sat down in a meditating position.

Ding 🤖 "Hey looks like you made a good decision about the weapon, compared to your skills with the sword it seems like the Naginata is the weapon for you."

He nodded "(((That's because back in Mexico my friends and I would find long branches and pretend that they were weapons. Since we didn't have any money back then all we could do was spar with other kids all day.)))"

Ding 🤖 "Oh, well thanks for that you are at least got some basic techniques so once you level up a bit more you will be able to join in soon"

"(((Sounds good I'll ask the Alex if I can join in the hunt tomorrow, I might be too weak to fight but at least I'll be able to catch some tips from looking at them hunt)))"

Ding 🤖 "I like the plan, just try not to get killed, okay, I don't wanna go back to being lonely in that dark space. I prefer to be here and make fun of your stupid mistakes haha."

Marco nodded and began to meditate.