BORNEO

Ch. 6: Caught In The Middle 2

Reaching the watch tower, Rimba greeted by a young militia who scan him cautiously.

"Hello, I'm Rimba the traveller. you must have heard about me from the others. I was training at Olaf's and want to take a break. Can I join you in your watch?" Rimba greet the young militia and asked.

"Sure, come here. At least now I won't be bored watching here by myself. The others are patrolling now, they won't come back in another hour or so. I was bored and struggling to stay awake before you came." The young militia welcomed Rimba. He looks happy to have a company during his shift.

Rimba accompanied the young militia and spend time talking while keeping watch. When the patrolling team coming back to the tower, Rimba excused himself and return to Olaf's. Now he have place to go spending time while waiting for his stamina to recover during the night.

Back in the training field, Rimba once again took the rod and hit the dummy until morning come and Olaf coming out from his hut with a pot of coffee. Olaf told him to stop and take a break. He give a cup to Rimba and pour some coffee.

"Drink." Olaf said. Rimba thanked him and take a sip, his stamina is running low so it's also a nice timing.

Your stamina recovered by 1

Rimba surprised to see the coffee also recover his stamina, although in lower number compared to the jerky. Still, it's nice to know other option to recover stamina. Didn't this mean he can eat jerky and drink coffee to recover more stamina quicker?

"Come with me, you will join me in my morning walk from now on. It will also provide some training for your body, while we can patrol the area at the same time." Olaf instructed Rimba when he finished his coffee.

Rimba and Olaf walk outside the village, past the farmland and to the edge of the forest. They went along the forest edge then circling around the village from a distance. Rimba realized his stamina recovers when he walks, although at slower rate compared when he just sitting or resting. Then come the surprise.

Your Vitality+1

"(What?! Walking could also raise stats? I guess it makes sense, it's a kind of training too. Now that I know while walking I also recovers stamina it will be a better option besides just resting or went to watch tower. Maybe I can try to apply for patrol? It might help in building my reputation in this village.) Rimba is excited to found a way to do things more efficiently. He can training, recovers his stamina while also building his reputation. All in one action. He become more confident about his chance reaching the target for the military training.

But he realized it's not that great as he imagined. After walking around for more than 2 hours with Olaf, Rimba didn't get another stats gain. He realized he might need to walk much longer before gaining another stats. Returning to training field, Olaf just told Rimba to continue training before doing his own training. After a few hours Rimba reached his gaming session quota and logged out.

Getting off the capsule, Arang went straight to his dorm room and went to sleep after some talk with his roommates.

The days continue, Arang follow his schedule strictly. Military training as cadets in the morning until afternoon, then logging in and training, visiting the orphanage, night watching, walking with Olaf until 24 hours in-game before logging off and sleep in the dormitories. The days seem dull, but Arang endure it. The salary to help Kasih orphanage keep him motivated enough, no matter how dull it is.

NameRimbaClassUndecidedRankCommonerTitleNoneLevel0Reputation10Health204Mana120Stamina100Stats Point0Strength21Constitution20Agility22Intellect12Dexterity20Wisdom12Vitality22Luck10

Rimba checked his new stats. It's been 2 weeks ever since he start the gaming session. His stats, especially the physical ones, are growing nicely. All the dull training shown the results, he can't help but becoming excited. He even more excited when checking his skills.

Beginner Magic Rod Mastery Level. 2 (11%)

Intellect+1 for each level gained

Wisdom +1 for each level gained

Magic Damage +1% for each level gained

Beginner Blunt Weapon Mastery Level 1 (46%)

Physical Damage when using blunt weapon +1% for each level gained

Strength +1 for each level gained

The skills finally appeared after 5 days of training. The first one learned is the Rod Mastery, while the Blunt Weapon Mastery learned after 7 days training, that's why it still level 1. The Intellect and Wisdom bonus are the icing of the cake. Rimba finally find a way to increase them, he was a bit worried when he realized both stats won't raise even after days of training. Now he only need to look for how to raise Luck stat.

Rimba is finishing his today's quota of gaming session, he note down his stats and skills in his memory. The next morning there will be a routine evaluation of cadets. They will evaluate the cadets progress, performance and situation, now with the addition of evaluate their gaming performance.

The next morning, Arang is gathering together with other cadets in the hall. Before going to the hall the cadets submit their reports to their respective lead instructor. At the end of the report form there is a new section asking the cadet's character level, location, number of skills and their level. The reports will be evaluated by the military AI first, then separated into groups to make it easy for the evaluators to quickly check the noteworthy cadets before the gathering so they can identify the best and the worst cadets right away.

When the evaluators finished checking the reports and inputs from each instructors, all cadets are waiting nervously.

"Cadet Arang! Your military training performance is average, but your gaming performance is dissapointing. When your peers already reach level 4 at minimum, with skill levels averaging at 3, you still level 0 with skill levels averaging less than 2. Hence, your evaluation this time is the lowest from all cadets." The Head Instructor declared. Other cadets are looking at Arang with pity, they know the punishment that awaits the lowest rank.

"Starting from tomorrow, you will have maintenance duty in addition to your normal duty. Discuss with your lead instructor later for the details of your maintenance duty." The Head Instructor give the judgement to Arang.

Arang is shocked. He can't think why he is lagging behind so much inside the game. He thought he is doing well enough and at least can ranked somewhere in the middle as usual. Ignoring him, the Head Instructor gives the evaluation for other cadets and dismissed them to do their training.

Arang walk soullessly to the training location, he knows how hard the maintenance duty is. It's just an honorable name to cleaning, laundry and training equipment preparations duty. The actual equipments maintenance is conducted by a team of specialist. He would have to reduce his sleeping and breaks time.

He then asked the other cadets about their gaming situation. They explained to him. some give him advices, while the other just downright mocking him for not leveling at all after 2 weeks. He also asked about their stats and skills, after learning about their stats and skills, Arang came to a conclusion.

"(My stats are actually higher than most of them. Every level up gives 10 stats point to allocate, so level 4 should give them 40 points. My total stats gained are 59 points, it almost like gaining 6 levels. The highest level cadets are only level 6. I have similar stats with level 6 cadets at level 0. I need to put this into my report later, I also can discuss this with the lead instructor when I meet her.)" Arang knows it will be hard to change the evaluation decision now that they already left the hall. But he will make sure next evaluation will also consider his stats as part of the evaluation so he won't be the bottom rank anymore. For now he will endure this maintenance duty, but after 2 weeks he will shows that he is actually doing great inside the game. He might be placed in upper ranks next time.