Chương 7: Training

A few hours later. The backyard of the cheap inn was completely empty. The sky over Oakhaven was beginning to take on deep, orange hues. Ren stood alone, wearing only a worn linen shirt. His hands, which had never carried combat scars in the predictable monotony of modern life, now stung with the first blood blisters caused by the friction of the leather hilt. Forward. Vertical strike. High guard. Side step. Thrust. Retreat. Ren repeated the movements to the point of exhaustion.

He had no arcane magic, no special blessings, and his physical strength was merely that of an ordinary young man trying to master the handling of iron through pure willpower. But he had focus. And a brilliant mind. For now, I need to learn the stance of a frontline warrior, Ren calculated silently. Callous the skin. Accustom the muscles to the impact. Read the distance to the target. But fighting head-on is a waste of energy. It demands too much brute force, too much exposure, too much blood.

The real chessboard of this world isn't won with honor. It's won by eliminating the threat before it even realizes the danger. The longsword draws everyone's eyes... A perfect distraction for the future, once I learn to conceal my presence in the shadows. Sneak attack. Silent lethality. That is the real goal. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, feeling his leg muscles protest from the lack of conditioning. On the worn wooden table in the yard lay a piece of rustic parchment.

On it, he had drawn a map of the forest's outskirts, noting the terrain features and escape routes based on the gossip he had fished from the drunk adventurers at the guild. A shadow fell over the paper. Selene was leaning against the inn's doorway, having watched his training in silence for some time. She no longer looked as irritated. Just genuinely curious." You train as if you're expecting the ground to vanish beneath your feet at any second," she said, crossing her arms over her worn robe.

"Your stance is strange. You don't fight like the guild warriors. They shout, using their body weight to crush things. You seem... too calculating. As if you're anticipating every inch of the air." Ren slowly sheathed his short sword, feeling his heart rate decelerate. Her comment hit too close to the reality of his instincts, but his mask didn't waver for a millimeter. He let out a light laugh, walked over to the table, and calmly folded the parchment." The world is a chessboard, Selene.

And tomorrow, we move the first pawns. Get some rest. You'll need plenty of mana to burn what's coming." She huffed but turned around and entered the inn without arguing. Ren looked up at the sky, which was finally darkening. A cold, terrifying sensation tried to settle in his chest—the distant echo of a purple forest, of masses of living darkness, and of a name he held onto with tooth and nail so as not to forget. Aurelia. He gripped the hilt of his short sword until his knuckles turned completely white.

That modern reality was a predictable cage, Ren thought. This place... is bloody. No rules written in the air. But I will learn to read its every move. First mission: Tomorrow. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.