39

"So, what do we do, now?" Ivana asks tiredly when we got back to the city early in the evening, wandering through the middle of the streets as one large group of people and familiars. We were kind of automatically heading toward the public smithy because that was one of our usual destinations.

Opening my inventory, I take out a bunch of swords and the suits that everyone made previously before dividing them among the ladies in the group. "Put them pretty faces and big voices to work, ladies," I reply with a shrug, clapping my hands together as if brushing dirt off of them after a job well done. Lil and Oleander who had experience in this just started yelling about how good their goods were but I could have swore I heard the words 'I hate you' muttered by Ivana before she and a hesitant Agnes joined in.

Not surprisingly, since it was now night time in our part of reality and still before ten-PM in the game, we received a lot of interest in the goods offered by the beautiful young women of my party. It did not hurt that none of them were normal human women so they were more exotic and attention grabbing. Plus, one of them was wearing nothing but vines.

When we finally got to the smithy we stopped peddling and I had the others spend half of the earnings on materials even though my inventory was loaded with it. However, that was for whenever we were out and about. Some large-scale dungeons or wilderness locations would have various forms of ruins and the like in which we could potentially rest and repair our equipment. In town, we could buy everything we needed in slight excess to maintain the emergency stock.

While everyone else started practicing simple iron folding to work their Endurance and Strength stats, I sought out Canley and pulled him aside to try asking him for a favor. I gave him fifty gold and said, "Canley, you're a good friend of mine and I trust you. that's why I need your help with something. You can even call it part of your own training. So… Canley, I want you to try punching me."

Looking down at one handful of coins and then up at me, Canley looks uncertain for about two seconds before abruptly throwing a half-cocked haymaker. It was quick and fluid in its motion, meaning he was no stranger to a good old brawl. However, neither was I and I easily leaned back to dodge before taking half a step to the side.

Canley did not stop with the one punch but kept going, transitioning from a forward haymaker to a spinning back elbow as soon as I started stepping away. Once again, though, I easily leaned out of the reach of both his elbow and the sudden downward unhinging back-fist he tried to throw when the elbow did not work. All with the same arm.

For a bigger fellow he was well balanced and knew how to move his weight, calmly moving from one attack to the next after pocketing the coins that I gave him. After trying and failing to land not only four more punches but also a sudden front kick that could have knocked me on my ass if I did not hop back in time, Canley takes a quick hop of his own back for some breathing room.

"I honestly thought I might get the first one, but I knew you'd be too good for me to hit otherwise," Canley says with a chagrined smile and shake of his head, bringing his fists up close to his face. "Are you going to fight back or is this just a game to you?"

"This is my Agility training, actually," I inform him with a helpless shrug. "I knew you'd be good enough because you're in training but you're much better than I thought. Are you sure its a blacksmith you want to enlist as and not as a proper soldier?"

Stepping forward with a quick pair of jabs followed by a front kick, Canley wordlessly watches me slither left and right in place before hopping to the side while turning sideways to evade his kick. These attacks were nothing close to the level of a hobgoblin warrior's spear thrust but he was certainly better than a hobgoblin or even an armed warrior imp. If his own Agility could be brought up a notch or two then things would work out great for both of us.

After failing to land another few combo sets that force me to dance in and out of reach in a circle around him, Canley takes dome distance once again. "My mom told me… she wants me to come home," He says suddenly after a few seconds of slightly heavy breathing. "As a blacksmith was the only way she would let me enlist. But… I have to do something, you know? I… have an older sister but I have two younger sisters and two younger brothers but… only one mom."

Nodding my head slowly in understanding, I realize that I had been right in assuming that my younger friend here was the oldest man of an impoverished household. He probably did not even want to join the Legion but saw it as his only opportunity to ensure his family's well being. If he had a different life with better options, he would probably take them.

But, then again, was this really any of my business? I had some money right now but eventually I would either run out or have to move on. Even with my quest series, staying in Sierra forever would only impede the growth of my character regardless of the Elder Oak Passage.

However, even if I could not handle his problems I could still help him handle his problems himself because that was simply part of the reasons why people like me play games like these!

Taking off my suit and pulling it from my inventory, I pass it over to Canley and say, "Because of my training, I won't be able to go hunting and stuff like I usually would. I need to get my base Agility above my other stats because all of my stats are out of whack right now. By the time I can go hunting again, a suit twice as good as that one will have been made by a pro down the street. If you help me train, its yours."

"I… I don't know what…" Canley starts to say while looking at the armor in his hands without even checking the information. Then, looking at me with eyes that were actually watering, he asks, "Why do you keep doing these things? Who are you?"

"I'm a very selfish man helping himself by helping others, now shut up and put it on so you might actually have a chance at hitting me," I say while putting on one of the armor suits that he had made just in case he actually did manage to hit me. "If it's not too late to opt out of the Legion, you should think about it. I have friends in the city and I know Agar doesn't mind having you around. Have you ever met a knight?"

"You know a knight?" Canley asks in surprised distraction while trying to put the armor on manually, almost sound suspicious of me.

"Not just any knight, the coolest knight a guy like me could ever meet," I assure him with a laugh. "I might be able to introduce you to that knight. When I'm allowed back out of the city again, anyway."

Nodding his head, Canley did not ask anything else but instead got back to work by walking forward with a steady stream of jabs and haymakers and uppercuts blended together to the best of his abilities. With a sudden growth of twelve Agility on his part and an equal loss on mine, we were much closer in speed and coordination. There were very few stutters and stops in his freestyle movements.

I was actually reminded of evading a pair of hobgoblin warrior spears a few moments before I finally gained another point in Agility, bringing my accumulative Agility points up to seventy while the base was still below fifty. Now I just needed ten more points. Or, rather, all of the points that I could get to keep my Agility above my Strength.

Sadly, even though I had paid him for his time he was here to work in the smithy so Agar only allowed me to spar with Canley for an hour before making him go back to 'work' waiting to be hired. Agar actually spent half of that time watching us and looked thoroughly impressed. I would be upset if he was not.

For the first time, I was actually dripping with sweat and struggling to keep air in my lungs from exertion exhaustion.

I had even gained two new skills in the process and initiated one of them. The first was Evasive Actions that was a passive buff I acquired for naturally dodging attacks that would raise my Agility by ten for ten seconds after a successful dodge and after initiating it with ten minutes of going untouched it gave me the Counter option to deal fifty percent more damage with my next attack within three seconds of a successful evasion.

The second skill I acquired was the skill that I had been after which I finally got after being 'glanced' three times. The few times Canley managed to hit me had only been light touches that scraped my armor more than struck me. The skill was called Light Glances and it would increase the effectiveness of light and some 'medium' armors as well as increase my movement speed while wearing light armor.

Our primitive styled leather suits were all light armors because they were non metallic while a medium armor would be chainmail and light plating or heavy studding added to our leather suits. My long-term goal was to become proficient in the crafting of medium armors for reasons just such as this. With a few more skills or titles or perks like it, I would be set.

In only an hour, though, I could only get a total of three Agility.

"So, who taught you to do that?" Agar asks after I spent a minute or two catching my breath. "That's not something someone at your age just picks up in passing. If I had to guess, you were raised with it."

Nodding my head tiredly, I cant help but think of the years before virtual reality gaming in which I was being taught how to fight bullies or how to fight because I liked fighting. Then in games I started learning how to use weapons. For this game alone I had gotten in touch with people just to test my skills and see what I could improve of.

"Yes, I was raised basically FOR fighting," I reply with an unabashed smile. "My stats may not be that high, but my skill balances it out. Plus, my stats just keep getting higher and higher."

"True…" Agar says slowly while giving me a considering look. "What's your Strength at, if you dont mind?"

"Sixty-three," I say shamelessly, knowing that was more than twice my current level so it was good enough for a classless player. "Why do you mind, if you don't mind?"

"It would do you more good to go running through the woods," Agar informs me with a shrug. "Take your armor and some of those weapons off so you're lighter and you should be pretty fast. Managing the terrain while avoiding trees during a good hard run will help you raise your Agility better than sparring with Canley."

"I'm level twenty-four, really close to twenty-five, and I have to reach fifty," I tell the night shift foreman with a sad sigh. "A couple more fights and I let a good friend of mine down, so I have to do it within the city."

Looking at me as if he were looking at an idiot, Agar remarks, "If you can evade Canley, you can outrun a goblin. what's the problem? Just run instead of fight, nobody cares since you're not even there to fight."

*