Fantasy World Online II: Second Chance

Day 15-32: Propheus and Zeo

On the next loggin Zeo started his day with a run, several dozens push ups, pull ups, strech ups and flexs to finish with a hundred strike of the wooded sword for each hand.
By the time he was done the sun was high in the sky and it was time to get his new swords. He stoped by the river for a quick wash before entering the shop and talking to the same girl. She handed him the same sword as he currently had exept that their guard was made of metal and was fixed differently than before.

He then joined his master under the large tree and resumed his training.
Strike, slash and pierce. Those were the name Zeo gave the three basic movement he kept repeating over and over again.
Strike was a vertical slice while slach was an horizontal one and pierce... pierced.

Zeo kept practicing, hitting the same spot on the trunck again and again for several days. After eleven days of constent repetitive training the daily exersices changed: from using only one sword at the time he now had to wield both at the same time. It required great concentration and therefore stamina to do so and for the first hours he had trouble hitting correctly. Just like with the axes, the swords would sometimes collide or deviate from their course and miss the target.
When one of the swords broke he would change it with another one and resume training. When his wooden sword stack was depleted he used the weighted ones.
Lunch was made principaly of meat that he got durring his orning run from rabits or wild dogs.
In this fashion five more days went by until the last of his wooden sword broke. He had no choise but to return to the workshop and ask for more. In the meantime he went to the fields outside the village and used his eemaining sword and axes to hunt rabbits. Until the sun came down.

[congratulation, you have grown!
Your physical apparence shall change to reflect this last month's actions, skills and aptitudes you have learned will forever be with you and cannot be lost anymore.
It is advised you reset your Status Plate, look at your new body and change clothes as soon as possible.]

With this message displayed when he logged in Zeo delayed his morning training to check himself out.
His shoulder were wider by a few centimeters, his arms had visible muscles while his torso had lost its underfed impression but stil had no defined muscles. it was when he patted his belly that he felt his pecs and realied they were there too. His legs were a bit stronger too. But the most important were his hands: they had pads of thick skin where the sword hilt was held.

"My training seems to work!! But i don't know what a status plate is..."

Curious he asked his menthor about status plates.

"Hum? Oh, yes. They are given to you when you obtain your basic class. It allows other to judge your strenth and determine the quests you can undergo."
"What do they look like?"

As his answer Marco pulled taggs from under his leather armor and handed them over to Zeo.

"Marco, Male, 47 - Pholien, Last City
Veteran Mercenary - Dual Swordman
Agility: C 73
Defence: E 83
Dexterity: E 41
Endurance: D 93
Magic: E 26
Magic Defence: D 75
Strength: C 99
<Magic>
[ ]
<Skill>
[Slash] [Dice] [Dash]"

Apparently people's abilities were ranked from I to SS, SS being the strongest, and a smaller graduation from 0 to 99 showed how close you were from ranking up in your stats. the stats themselves were similar to any RPG and therefore easy to understand. Then there was the Talents, Affinities, Spells and Skills one pocessed.

According to Marco it was easy to level stats up to F rank by training alone, then a partner or opponent was needed to reach further. The best being fights to the death. Every month mercenaries and soldiers would get their status plate upgraded by the village church by a priest.

In other words it was possible to level up through self training for a while but eventually you would have to confront real enemies and kill them.

Just like Zeo had been doing for the past two weeks. With renewed vigor Zeo started his morning training. He was done in half of the usual time and was barely winded.

"Once more then!"

And he did.

There was a rabbit stew for lunch and fruit for desert, an ecsquisite meal for Zeo who had been eating nothing but grilled meat for the last month.

On the afternoon the strength of his strikes astonished Zeo while he noticed a small increase in their speed too.

"It must men my endurance must be high..."

When evening came by he went to the forest with his hunting partners to test his strength. The wolves that once gave him so much trubles were now easy to defeat even with just one sword and his axes.
Before logging if he went to a tailor and bought new clothes as those he wore right now had become too tight. He would be picking them up the next day.
••••
-EQUIPMENT-
Weapon : customised short training sword
Secondary Weapon :Simple Throwing Axe (2),
Clothing: Fur Tunic, String Belt, Fur Trousers, Fur Boots, Dull Bronze Armbands
-INVENTORY-
26 Silver Coins 52 Copper Coins, rabbit meat (18)
••••

Running, eating and practicing.
This was what Propheus's life was like in Second Chance.

In the morning he would run around the training ground, at lunch he would eat grilled rabbit meat along with the military rations with the trainees and in the afternoon he would train with the pike.

After three more days his teachers came to him.

"Start training with this."
"A short sword? why?"
"In case an enemy gets close to you the length of your pike will be an inconviniance."
"You need to know how ronuse a sword too."
"Yes sir!"

And so Propheus started training with a sword. He practiced piercing with it where the heart and arm pits would be and slicing at the neck's level like the others were doing.
He did so for fourteen days. A message was present when he logged in on the the first day of the second months after the lunch of Second Chance and his first connection.

[congratulation, you have grown!
Your physical apparence shall change to reflect your action of the last month, skills and apritudes you have kearned will forever be with you and cannot be lost anymore.
It is advised you reset your status plate, change clothes and look at your reflexion as soon as possible.]

As he read this Propheus went to the river and observed his reflection in the water. He had broad shoulders, strong arms with visible muscles and had lost the hungry and poor vibe that he felt was always arround players. His face had the begenong of a beard abd his clothes felt tighter.
He started With that, Propheus went to the tailor and bought three tunics and trousers that fit him before changing and selling his old ones. He also bough a leather belt and a pouch ro fix on it.
The pouch could contain one large or several small items, like an inventory slot but on his belt instead of within a bag or sachel.

He was now wearing an ocean blue tunic, earth brown trousers, sandals and a large leather belt with a small pouch. In witch he had put the stringbag with all his money.
After this he went to the training ground and gave a hundred and twenty persent durring the usual training, running as fast and as long as possible with the weighted bags of grakns and ball of iron, all of it to discover the limits of his improved body.

What about status plates? Where do i get those?

Since he did not know he decided that it did not mater and went back to the training ground for the morning exercices. At lunch he noticed that all the others had changed at least a little bit in their appearance, boy were starting beards, girls had longer hair, musles were starting to shape and lean healthy bodies had appeared.
Not many had muscles as deceloped as Propheus. In fact, only those that did not slack durring the training had major changes while those that had half assed it had only lost the hunger stricken look all begining players had.

On the afternoon no one neglected their training. All wee stricking the poles with energy, running with determination or listenning to the instructor with consentration.

When the day of training ended Propheus went hunting with a few other soldiers. The result was the total anihilation of a wolf pack in a few seconds. Followed by many more.
••••

-EQUIPMENT-
Weapon : Pike
Secondary Weapon : short sword
Clothes: Blue woolen Tunic, Large Leather Belt (+pouch), brown woolen Trousers, Sandals
-INVENTORY-
Pouch: 32 Silver, 37Brass
Sachel: blue woolen tunic (2), beown woolen trousers (2), wolf meat (5),