Eldrian approached the dummy and readied himself. First, he tried to feel how the spear weighed, trying to find the balance point.

After he found it, he tried to make his stance grounded. Eldrian did not do these actions consciously, but rather subconsciously. Due to him having done some kickboxing during his teenage years.

After he felt comfortable Eldrian started attacking. He quickly found that it was a lot more difficult than it looked. After 5 tries only 2 were proper. The other times he ended up twisting the spear a bit. This caused the spear to glance at the dummy, instead of cutting into it.

Determined to perfect this basic rule Eldrian started diligently practicing.

Strike for strike.

…

Exhausted Eldrian finally stopped striking the dummy. ‘Dang I feel just as tired now, as I did after training back then.’ He mumbled to himself. As he was catching his breath Eldrian decided to try and view the training spear he was using. To his surprise it worked.

[Training spear]

[Grade: Training [Tier 0]]

[Damage – 2]

[Attack speed – 1]

[Durability – 178/220]

[Stamina consumed per use – 1 <Training weapon-specific stat, as all common weapons cost 1 stamina to use>]

[Attribute requirements:]

[Strength – 68, Agility – 54, Weight – 1.2kg]

[Training weapon explanation:]

[For every strength point missing increases stamina consumption per use by 1 point. On skill usage increases skill stamina drain by 10% per 1 strength point missing.]

[If strength is more than required, decreases skill stamina cost by 5% per 10 points. Up to max of 50%. Limit in every grade, with Tier 1 weapon being limited to 10% decrease (Only applies for magic weapons.)]

[For every agility point missing decreases attack speed by 0.05%. For every agility point extra gives 0.01% extra attack speed. Limit on the increase is same as for strength.]

Looking over the stats Eldrian was happy with the neat information displayed in his head. As Eldrian looked at the stats again, he started wondering why it showed up while he couldn’t identify the other weapons. With this thought, Eldrian tried to open his stat window.

He failed a few times before finally finding the correct way to call it up. ‘What a bother, I can see why she said they are going to update this system.’ Eldrian mumbled as he looked over his Avatar’s panel. He had to say ‘Haru’s Statistics’ to call the panel.

[Haru’s Statistics:]

[Level 1 (0/2000), Tier 0]

[Strength: 105]

[Agility: 115]

[Constitution: 105]

[Intelligence: 110]

[Spirit: 105]

[HP: 105]

[Mana: 105]

[Stamina: 105]

[Armor: 0]

[Magic Armor: 0]

[Physical Resistance: 0%]

[Magical Resistance: 0%]

[Apparel: Full set of clothes currently worn. <Clothes give no statistical bonuses>]

[Weapons: Training Spear]

‘Seems like I can get the information of the weapon due to having equipped it. This is a handy workaround.’ Eldrian thought to himself, he had no idea if the devs meant to have such a workaround or not.

Eldrian was also curious to see what all the attributes meant, so he tried to call out their function. Failing a few times again, he soon succeeded.

<Strength, a display indicating how strong a person is. With the average of all level 1 beings being around 100 at adulthood. This attribute affects all physical forms of action some of which are attack damage and weight limit.>

<Agility, a display indicating how fast and flexible a person is. With the average of all level 1 beings being 100 at adulthood. This attribute affects all physical speeds, for example, attack or movement.>

<Constitution, a display indicating how tough a person is. With the average of all level 1 beings being 100 at adulthood. This attribute affects the recovery of physical aspects and their max amounts, like the amount of HP and stamina a player will have, as well as stamina regen.>

<Spirit, a display indicating how well a person is connected with the mystical. With the average of all level 1 beings being 100 at adulthood. This attribute will affect the amount of mana a person can gather and its recovery amount. It will also affect negative mystical effects.>

<Intelligence, a display indicating how well a person can use the mana he can connect with. With the average of all level 1 beings being 100 at adulthood. This attribute will affect mystical damage.>

After satisfying his curiosity Eldrian turned to Old Sword and asked, “Would you mind if I also tried different weapons?”

“I am a strong believer in versatility leads to survival, since for an example the spear would be unwieldy in a room.”

“Sure, in fact, I agree very much with what you just said. The more weapons you learn the better. So why don’t we change your challenge from mastering one weapon type to mastering four? Of course, I will give you an extra day.” Old Sword said grinning.

[Quest Updated]

[Quest Name: A Veterans Training]

[Quest giver: Old Sword]

[Quest Rank: E -> D -> C]

[Quest Progress: 0/4]

[Quest time limit: 3 days]

[Quest Limiter: No XP may be gained, from kills, while this quest is active]

[Quest reward: 1000 XP, condition to continue training with Old Sword]

‘This guy, is he just trying to test me again. Why would he increase the difficulty so much?’ Eldrian grumbled to himself as he walked to the weapon rack. He wanted to try a typical one-handed sword next.

“I see you took an arming sword. So, let me quickly show you the basics for training with swords. Unlike spears, which are very basic there is at least a few starting methods for swords.” Old Sword said as he also grabbed a one-handed sword. Eldrian never even knew something like an arming sword existed. The name sounded so blunt to him, he thought he took a longsword.

“Um, Old Sword isn’t this a longsword?” Eldrian decided to ask. He knew that if he didn’t then it would be bugging him for a long time.

“No, longswords are two-handed swords. Granted they are smaller compared to some other two-handed swords. And longswords can be effectively wielded by one hand if you train enough. They are still classed as two-handed swords, or rather one and a half-handed swords.” Old Sword calmly replied.

While to him it was a very stupid question, he didn’t want to be mean about such small details.

“So, with swords we have a basic training method called the eight cardinal strikes. Let me show you.” Old Sword said before he started attacking a new dummy. He struck the dummy first from the top, then from the bottom. Next left and right followed by four attacks between the other four strikes.

“Training with this style helps you to become used to the versatility of swords, and how to align your edge.” Old Sword said as he finished his last strike.

By now Eldrian felt refreshed again and ready to train some more. This was precisely what he did. He walked to a new dummy and started slashing at it. At this time a few players walked by and commented to each other about this weird sight.

“Look there, that guy is taking this game too seriously. In what game did we need to learn those basics. Surely when you enter combat you just need to use a few skills to kill the enemy.” One said.

“Yeah, this guy is weird. Why on earth would you work so hard in a game meant for fun.” This comment resulted in a few laughs from the group as they passed.

Eldrian didn’t even realize that he was being seen as weird by his fellow players. He was fully immersed in his training.

For him, just being able to wield a real sword -granted in a game, but it felt real- was already very fun. He could never really justify buying a real sword IRL since they cost a lot, and then he could only use them on certain occasions. Here in A New World, he could use the sword whenever he wanted. It felt great.

…

Eldrian, again heaving for air, was exhilarated. The training felt demanding, but due to being in a game, he recovered far faster than he would IRL. If he could take the skills he learns here and apply them IRL, then he would easily become a master in almost any fighting style he wanted.

After three more attacking sets, Eldrian started to feel tired even after resting. The worst part was that this tiredness wouldn’t go away, his max stamina even depleted to 99.75 by now. ‘Seems that my avatar still becomes tired. I need to learn more about how this world works.’

‘What an interesting kid. He has been going on training for almost 2 hours now and still is so energetic. If all Chosen are like this, then they might really be able to support us. That is if they mature to this kid’s level.’ Old Sword thought as he saw Eldrian standing up again to train with a great sword.

‘He also didn’t lie. He is trying every weapon properly. He will probably decide later which to focus on. I like his style, no one can know their style until they tried many different ones.’

After Eldrian became too tired to attack with the great sword he stopped for a while. ‘I wonder why I feel so tired?’ With this thought, he called up his Avatar Statistics to take a look. He quickly found some useful information. His stamina was regening at 0.575 per second and he had gained a status effect called fatigue which was at level 1 out of 8.

‘I wonder how fatigue works. Luckily it doesn’t make me very tired, at this level, it just constantly feels like I just did a few push-ups.’ Eldrian mumbled to himself.

Rested, Eldrian again went to the weapon rack to try the next weapon type. He continued doing this, asking Old Sword to show him how to better use the weapon when he didn’t know the key facts. Like when he tried using a bow.

“With a bow, the method to train should be obvious. Shoot the target. In the beginning, I would suggest you try to hit it while being 15 meters away. As you become more comfortable you can move farther from the target. In fact, if you can move 5 meters back or more your training speed will increase faster. But do not move closer, as then the training will yield no results, other than becoming used to pulling a bow.” Old Swords advised him, not even bothering to take a bow.

Eldrian never managed to move further. Hitting a target dummy, human form, from 15 meters away might sound easy. But to someone who has never used a bow before it was a monumental task.

Adding insult to this, Eldrian received no help from the system. He had to fully learn how to draw, which in itself was hard, aim and then shoot. This process made it difficult, since aiming for longer lead to him losing strength in his arms.

Eldrian struggled the most with this weapon type. He even spent three training cycles on just this.