The Start of Training Part 1

Jason finally managed to swallow the last bits of the potato, It took him a while but he finally finished his food. He tearfully placed the tray back onto the table next tot he trash bin and started to head out of the door. He had reached the doors when a hand grasped his back stealthily.

Jason turned around to see Ardem, looked at him in the eye.

Jason expected Ardem to get mad because it looked like he was running away from his training. But Ardem instead just spoke a few words and walked off.

"Charlie told, follow"

Jason had to decode the Ardem-speak and finally realized that Charlie told Ardem about the training week. And watching him walk to the field made Jason realize that he was going to be in for a long week. If Ardems training was already tough enough for Jason to collapse and have muscular failure then he couldn't imagine what it would be like with the rest of the blue 2 team, which it turns out, was pretty hardcore.

The trip to the field behind the mansion was a pretty long trip. The entire camp itself was settled deep into the forest. The mansion, on the other hand, was very close to the city and had actual cobblestone roads leading from it to the city and connecting to the main highway.

Jason, as he was walking started to see the difference, between him and Ardem, most of the time he had spent in the training center, he wasn't able to interact with the barrack members because of, you know getting launched into the air by a giant monster gorilla and then having to fight off a den of snakes and a squad of goblins.

But still, the difference between him and the barrack members was scary. The trainees mostly had an average level of 50-60. People that stayed longer because of them failing the final trail like Charlie were around level 70. Boops said so himself, he had stats that could rival a level 70 player, and yet, here he was struggling to keep up with Ardem who was moderately jogging down the trail. Jason felt no embarrassment since he was basically surrounded by monstrous people, but it was pretty confusing on how they as NPCs with a certain level were much stronger than probably a level 90 player.

Jason only needed to think about it for a few seconds, then came up with the reason. It was the training center, wasn't it? The training center that gave out stat points if you worked out hard enough. The one that gave you stat points if you completed a trial. Jason still had no clue who the maker of the training center was, but he could tell, from the vast library of knowledge left in the intelligence trial that that person was very skilled in all sorts of things. The more and more Jason thought about the training center the more valuable it became in his eyes.

Jason realized that he was completely stuck in his own thoughts and had totally forgotten about Ardem, Ardem had slowed down enough so that Jason wasn't struggling on the way to hell week. Which in hindsight kinda scared him, if he was already gasping for air on the way to the place, how would it be if he actually reached the place? But the pace that Ardem was going at was pretty fast still. They were darting down the trail with the wind blowing against their faces and the environment was already turning into a blur in Jason's eyes.

Jason definitely got faster, his agility stats proved it, but Ardem was just so much faster than Jason felt that he had returned to the time when he was trying to keep up with the wolves a few weeks ago.

Ardem suddenly stopped and Jason had to dig his feet into the ground to stop. That didn't stop his from sliding a few feet down kicking up a cloud of dirt. But he still stopped, unlike the time when he tripped and ate it once when he was traveling with the wolves.

Ardem enveloped in the cloud of dirt, waved his hand gently, Jason could barely see, but he could definitely tell that he wasn't placing any effort into it.

*swoosh*

The dirt cloud was swatted away like an annoying bug, it flew to the side of Jason and Ardem and dispersed a few meters away from them.

Jason watched the mini-event with wide-open eyes but didn't want to comment on it, since he already knew how Ardem would respond. Ardem looked at Jason and said

"here"

Jason looked at the field in front of them. It was a wide one, with the red mansion in the background. Jason could see some trainees exercising on the field, some ran laps and others did one-fingered pushups. Just a normal day, and in the middle was a group of 5 people waiting for Jason.

Charlie was in the front wearing a suit of armor that reflected the sun and made him shine like an unearthly being. Colby was wearing a steel tank armor with red stripes on it while holding a large shield. Lyle stood in a simple leather garment with a single elegant dark blue sword hanging from his waist. The twins Mark and Ethan were wearing a simple adventure's garment much like Lyles, simple leather clothing with a metal guard covering their chest and right shoulder.

They all watched Jason walk to the center of the field. Jason was halfway to them when Lyle shouted out impatiently

"hurry up!"

Jason started to jog and he quickly reached the center. Lyle smiled evilly when he got there, but Charlie stopped Lyle from approaching Jason and started to give Jason an introduction

"Alright, Arch, the suns almost most setting so we only have a small window to do this specific thing. For now, we will teach you the rose knight swordsmanship while training your body and giving you other skills that every rose knight should have."

Ethan summed up everything

"in short, this is your crash course to being a rose knight"

Charlie agreed and continued

"Each one of us team members and Ardem will teach you separately as we all have our own specialties, but first your swordsmanship. That will be taught by all of us"

Charlie nodded to Lyle who sprinted in an inhuman fashion to a shed next to the mansion. Jason heard some rustling and moving noises and then Lyle emerged dragging out a blackboard with chalk and erasers sitting in the little stand the blackboard had.

The blackboard and Lyle reached them and Charlie grabbed a piece of white chalk and started to draw. He was talking the entire time to Jason, who was just sitting and watching him.

"rose knight swordsmanship is something passed down from generation to generation. But yet at the same time, it's every knight's own unique swordsmanship. The swordsmanship starts of with a base, a foundation after the foundation is placed the knight can add modifications to the skill, but somehow all of the swordsmanships have something in common. Besides of course the first few standard set of moves."

Charlie finished his drawing, showing an empty plot of land, and next to it was the same plot but with a block of solid stone that covered the entire plot that was served as the foundation.

Lyle grabbed the red chalk on the board and started to draw while addressing Jason

"so yeah, the one thing all of the swordsmanships have in common is that they all somehow produce flowers as we use it, there are certain conditions to activate it, but a spectral flower always appears, without fail. The flower changes according to your swordsmanship though,"

Lyle finished the drawing of a flower that had petals that were burning brightly and smiled and pointed to it. He started to brag

"like mine, I call it the burning lotus, pretty cool right?"

Ethan ran in and grabbed a brown chalk piece (why they had brown Jason had no idea). He started to draw wooden walls on the stone foundation. He also talked while pushing away the annoyed Lyle who wanted to continue to draw his burning lotus.

"so the rose knight swordsmanship is a skill that is really customizable unlike most swordsmanship, which are really direct and stubborn. As you are building your skill, you need to create every part of it, the foundation already gives you your regular skills and positions, but the real fun is when you start adding your own stuff in. Its to make swordsmanship that is truly suited for its user. The maker of the swordsmanship didn't want to tie people to one single stance and swing, instead, he wanted to create a platform for talented people to jump off of, heck it's not even limited to the sword, like Colby who is using it for his shield."

Jason looked at Colby in surprise and he just nodded in Ethan's direction as he said that.

Lyle successfully regained control over the chalkboard and countied drawing his firey lotus

"Yeah, it's true that the skill is pretty sweet, but it's not for everyone, if you don't have a good grasp on swordsmanship itself, you should just stick with the foundational skills, they are still pretty good compared to most of the ones out there."