Fantasy World Online II: Second Chance

Day 2: Propheus and Zeo

Phropheus and Zeo were at the Barracks among the group of Users that had choosen Soldier as their Basic Class. All of them were waiting for their first training session, Propheus as a Soldier and Zeo as a fighter.
They were put into 4 different groups.

The first one was to run around the training ground and barracks.
It seemed simple at first, but they kept running without pause and when the sun started shining strongly above them, the heat and dehydration took a toll on them.
Several had to stop, others kept going until they were in critical shape.
At some point several quit under the disaprooving eyes of their trainers.
Only a few users managed to keep the pace, among them was Propheus.
He ran at a moderate speed while breathing steadily, took small ten seconds breacks whenever a negative effect message showed and started again but runing at a lower pace for a while. Most of the other kids had addopted a similar running style.
They held that way for six hours upon then they was so hungry and thirsty that they could no longer muster any strength.
Only then did the trainer call the exercise over.

The second group was to hit scarecrows with a training sword.
Same as with the first group, the relentless task prooved more demanding than they expected. When the sun meddled many quit. At the end only a dozen finished the exercise.

The third group was to learn of how to maintan their equipments and weapons. They listenned to their instructor while sitting in the shade, their back to the training ground, oblivious to the torture of their fellow men and women.
They were given old swords, shields, soft leather armors and followed their instructors guidance. By mid-morning they knew how to sharpen a blade, mend a shield and soft leather. By mid-day they knew how to put on and of their armor, adjust their scabard and hold their shields.
They had also seen the state of the first two groups.
Zeo was in this group.

The last group was to learn the different class ups and evolutions available to them and their equipment and weapon limits. then they learned of the positive and negatie sides of each Class.

They all ate together on a long ween table. The meal constitued of bread, cheese, an apple and some meat. and water.
Those from the first and secong group ate all their fill while the rest watched them with pity and apprehention.

In the evening, each users were to go see their menthor wich would give them a specific training depending on their aspirations.

As decided before, Marco came to pick up Zeo and they left the Barracks. As they were walking towards the Mercenary Guild Marco asked him what he wanted to learn.

"Dual swords master Marco."
"Dual swords..."

Marco went to talk to one of his friends who accepted to train him for the afternoon.
They went into an undergroung passage at the back of the guild hall that lead us to a training room filled with swords, staffs and long range weaponary.

The secon mercenary lead Zeo to a scarecrow and made him kick it. When his leg become painfull, he used the other. When he was too tired to continuenhe would sit and remember his best kicks, trying to find Why they were better than the others.
Zeo kicked the manequin for more than four hours without complaining.
At that point the mercenary told him to quit, to give up, but Zeo couldn't hear him as he was too busy kicking the scarecrow.
Two more hours later and the training was over. He was told he was free for the day and that he would have to go back to the barracks in the morning and come back here in the afternoon.

After eating and drinking at the guilds bar, Zeo leaft to find a weopon shop.
As a mercenary he would have to buy all of his weapons and equipments himself. Considering he would need two swords he wanted to know how much it would cost him.

He entered the shop and looked around. The most simple looking sword was at 30 Silver witch was all he had.
On the other hand, throwing weapons were at 5 Silver the knife and 10 Silver the axe.
Taking a risk, he used two thirds of his money to by two throwing axes and left the city to hunt low level mobs.

He found rabbits hidding in tall grasses and tried to hit them with his axes but he often missed or the rabbit escaped him. Since he was using both hands at the same time, the second axe would sometime colide with the first.
After an hour of hunting, Zeo got tired of failing and decided to train.
He found himself a tree and practiced throwing two axe at the same time.
At first he succeded one every fifth shot. When the sun reddened the horizon it was two out of fife.
Finally when his automatic bipper signaled it was time to wake up in realty, it was four out of five.
••••

While Zeo left with Marco, Propheus stayed at the barracks with his menthor. There he asked to be taught of the most defence based infentry posotion.
After some thinking the man told him of the Pikemen, solo they were weak but in a tight formation they became one of the most dzstructive unit known today.

That is when Propheus decided to become a Pikemen.

Since Pikemen wore heavy armors, he was made to run around the training ground carrying a bag of flour above his head. He was not the only one doing so. More than thirty others were running. Once again, Propheus was among the few to finish the exercice.

After that he was told he was free to do what he wanted. So Propheus went to the river and tried to learn how to swim. He drowned a total of six times before night fell and he returned to the Barracks and logged off.