Chapter 24: Training (1)
"How is he doing this?" Noah thought.
Every attack failed, every attempt. Nothing worked, nothing ever worked. He took heavy breaths, was this a disparity in skill points?. It couldn't be, Noah could clearly see the man's movements, however he could not follow along. Something felt strange, something felt off. It felt like the man could see into the future.
Noah had tried to bluff, by striking and then stopping. The man had not flinched, Noah didn't understand this at all. The entire thing felt unreal, he had never met anyone who fought like him.
Eventually, he got this strange feeling of his own attacks being telegraphed, it was like his mind was telling him "You are going to do this, then this, then this". It irritated him at how predictable he was. in a fit of rage, he threw the daggers, the man simply grabbed with one hand and dropped them.
"There's no point to this", Noah said, he walked up and grabbed his dagger. And he walked away, towards the city. "you are not allowed to walk away", Noah turned around "what did you just say?". "You. Are. Not. Allowed. To. Walk. Away." uttured each word clearly.
"Stop me than", Noah turned his back towards the man and begun walking away. His danger sense begun shouting at him, his head especially. He ducked, a wooden stick flew by. He turned around to find the old man smiling.
Once again he took out his dagger and went for the strike, he lunged at the man aiming to pierce him. The man took a step back, the dagger stopped at his clothes, Noah weighed his body forward to propel it a little further. He ended up tripping.
His face plastered on the dirt once more, he simply didn't have the energy to get up. It was until he felt the man standing on his leg that he struggled up. His swings became clumsier, his body had grown slower. He was exhausted.
The man took out a dagger, he slashed him enough to leave a mark but not enough to draw blood. It hurt like hell. Noah attacked, in anger, attacked again, a small slash appeared on his forearm when he missed, pain rushed to his head.
The pain brought more energy and he began fighting with energy again. However, each one of his movements felt telegraphed, it annoyed him to no end. The man beat him with such precision that he could clearly see what faults he made, even though he couldn't not make them.
He fought like a brute, that much he had figured out. Was it all technique in that case? Noah brought his daggers close to him, he decided to copy Ferro, he slowly approached the man. The man smiled smugly, he simply stepped back each time Noah tried to approach him.
When Noah sped up, he stopped and tripped Noah. He fell flat on his face, even then was it telegraphed. He began acting randomly, Stabbing when he should of swung, Jumping for no reason. Anything to make his actions not feel so telegraphed.
The man responded which such precision that they still did. He made sure to punish Noah extra much when he acted like a clown. The fight continued nonetheless. Eventually Noah fell limp on his face, even when the man poked him he didn't respond he was completely exhausted.
The man sat down beside Noah.
"Boy, open up your stats menu. I think you'll be shocked by what you see there."
He did and what he saw was completely surprising.
--
Level: 14
Class: Rogue
Unassigned points: 1
Agility: 20
Stamina: 9
Magic: 5
Strength: 10
Charisma 5
Luck: 6
Skill: 0.5
Skills: Basic sword fighting level 3, sprint level 3, Scared shriek level 2, Sub-Stealth level 2 (passive), backstab level 3, Back track lvl 1, Swift level max, Danger sense lvl 2,
--
First things first, he had an unspent skill point, and secondly he had a completely new stat. Strangely he had never seen anything like it, he tried investing his point into it and noticed that he couldn't, it was locked.
"Skill is usually hidden but it can be unlocked after experiencing it too much, you can't invest into it and the only way to increase it is through practice. Currently you are incredibly unrefined, so that's why your skill hasn't reached 1."
"What's your skill?"
"Oh, my skill, somewhere over 300". Noah's jaw hit the floor, it had been doing that a lot lately. "Either way kid, we are going to train it up to 10, then you can go."
"Now?"
"Yes, when else", he let out a scornfilled laugh.
"I can barely lift my arms?"
Something materialized inside of the man's hands, he walked over to Noah with a potion is hands and dripped a few shots inside of Noah. Energy burst inside of Noah, his limbs began shaking furiously.
When it stopped he felt that his exhaustion had been killed, even his urge for sleep was gone. He took up his daggers, it felt painful to move his body, he purposefully moved as little as possible.
Noah slashed at the man, he felt his hands being grabbed, twisted, and the dagger was now in the old man's hands. He threw them back to Noah and he barely caught them, Noah tried again, the pain was blinding and Noah reminded himself to move precisely.
The man easily disarmed Noah. This happened a full day before Noah could manage an attack without being disarmed, not once did the men inside of the tavern leave. Noah grew slightly confused as to why, 'didn't they need to sleep as well'.
"Open your stats again, tell me what points they are", Noah did as asked, "1.5". "That's actually a lot", Noah felt depressed initially after seeing the low number, but now he felt satisfied. "I guess it's easy when you have a good teacher, hehehe" ' Screw you old fart' Noah thought.
The old man took up a dagger, each time Noah went for an attack he had gotten a small slash in return. Simply walking made his skin scream in pain now, he had to move the least to reduce his pain, he also had to dodge the mans strikes which seemed impossible.
His entire chest, had been covered by incredibly small slashes, none of them were big enough to let a drop of blood out, but together they had created a big enough space at intersection.
Blood ran down to his pants.
Another day passed in this fashion, each time Noah fell on the ground because of exhaustion he would receive another drop.
Noah dodged an attack, it was an attack that shouldn't of hit either way. It was the type of attack that repels a attack, not one aimed to actually injure the opponent. Still, an attack was an attack, Noah rejoiced. "Open up your stats, tell me your skill points", he did as told, "3". "That was quick, I'm just too good", His smile widened to the point where Noah thought they would drop off his face.
'level up'
Noah opened his stats page and spent his point on agility, he realised that he had an unspent point and invested into agility. Upon reaching level 15 another window popped up in his face, the man saw this.
"Class evolution", Noah muttured.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone