Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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"..."

'This should be enough for today.' Dale thought as he looked at his computer screen

After sending a few messages to his old friends, Dale left his computer.

Most of them were as he expected, excited about the game, doing their own things, some more than others.

He gave them a few tips so they could grow faster, and in the blink of an eye, the minutes rolled by, and it was now time to go back.

...

"Urg... My eyes..."

Under the golden light coming out of the broken window of his room, Dale logged back into the game.

/Chirp!/

/Chirp!/

Under the faint sound of birds chirping, he smiled.

"... I'm back." Dale said as he got up from his bed

"Even in this desolate place, birds chirp in the morning, and the breeze is quite nice."

Dale stretched his body slightly, a habit he created during his one year of heavy training.

He stopped after a while and opened the game menu so he could check the time.

'6:13 Am? Good enough.'

He walked to the window and looked at the Village, and as expected, he didn't see any of the villagers.

"They do wake up early…"

Descending down the stairs, Dale was met with unusual silence, but he immediately noticed a small and simple plate of food with a letter on one of the tables.

"This is?"

Opening, he realized it was a brief note from Illia, the inn owner, saying she didn't wake him up for several reasons, but she made this food to thank him for yesterday.

It was still warm.

"She… Is truly nice."

'There was no need to go this far.'

[Toast with ham and eggs

Upon eating, it grants a +20% to Stamina regeneration for the next 4 hours.

Description: Contains a lot of protein!

]

"It even gives me a buff? How considerate… And interesting."

'Is this the effects of a high Reputation, or merely a consequence of doing a great deed to the community?'

'Perhaps I should try and invest more time in researching how this works.'

'Food is considerably easier to make than potions, but of course, this is only an impression, making food with special effects may be relatively hard.'

[Resko: 71 (Honored Guest)]

Upon checking his reputation, the result of one day of hard work, Dale smiled and ate his toast.

He had places to be, and things to do, he had no time to doze off and enjoy this small plate of food.

Not when there were tens of thousands of players right on his ass.

He checked it a bit before coming here, and the highest Leveled player after him was already Level 11, a mad lad that focused entirely on Level up speed, not even sleeping, just grinding non-stop.

But he was an irregular, and in any case, he is only the highest Level player publicly. There may be others in between this Level and Dale's.

However, that is unlikely.

'As I had predicted before, I said that it would take around a week or two for the Normal players to reach Level 10, and that the elite players would likely be even faster.'

'But I am sure it will take over a week for the Elite players to reach Level 20 in the least, the problem is the Unique, lucky, and the exceptional players who can somehow Level up faster than these big guilds.'

'Of course, they may be a combination of all of the above and have the support of a big Guild, those are destined to excel at this game.'

'I don't really have the intention of competing for power in this game, I only want to find the truth about this world while getting as strong as possible.'

'If this leads me to become the strongest... Then so be it, if I have to become the strongest to find those secrets, then I shall become it.'

'And for that, the minimum requirement is for me to keep my leveling speed so that I can enjoy these privileges... I need to be faster…'

/Clack!/

Dale closed the door behind him, and beelined towards the training grounds next to the Mercenary Guild…

…

/2 minutes later…/

Dale arrived at the training grounds, and it took no time at all for him to find his target.

It was an old man swinging a spear on a training dummy next to a massive metal spear... The Flagstick.

"..."

'Even the old wake up early...'

'Did he train every day? From morning to dawn?'

He was surprised, but Dale tried to not show it as he approached the old man.

"... You're here, earlier than I expected." Testros replied as he stopped swinging his spear, resting it on his shoulder as he turned around calmly

"We have a lot to do, right? Time isn't on our side." Dale replied with a slight yawn

"Indeed, we have no time to waste..."

Testros looked around for a moment before putting his spear down.

"Shall we start then?"

"Of course. Just tell me what to do."

Testros turned around and pointed at a small warehouse next to the training grounds.

"Go pick up a weapon and come back here…" <subtxt> nnra. </subtxt>

But Dale just took out his black Iron spear from his inventory, surprising Testros.

"Hum… That works as well. But I am surprised, I did not expect you to have such an item…"

Dale frowned at his reaction, asking:

"Item?"

'Did he notice? Just like David?'

"Don't act dumb with me kid, I'm talking about the place you used to store the spear."

"I may be an old man in the countryside, but I know some things, and I am good enough to recognize a Compressed pocket when I see one."

"..."

'Compressed pocket?... Is that how they refer to it?'

'He doesn't seem offended or anything, as if this wasn't of importance to him perhaps a bit surprised at most.'

'Perhaps these things aren't that valuable, though still unavailable in the countryside?'

'But if there are such items, they may have some value for me as they could expand my own inventory space.'

Testros seemed to think for a little while before he said:

"This spear in your hands is good enough, let's start right here."

Testros' dismissive attitude made Dale a bit curious...

"... You aren't going to ask about it?"

"No, I will be clear, but I don't care much about your past, although I will hear you out if you wish, after all, you did hear about my past, so it would only be fair for me to listen to yours."

He got in a stance and pointed his spear toward Dale, prompting him to do the same.

"Once this coin falls on the ground we'll start, is that okay for you?" He said as he took a coin from his pocket

"No need to hold back."

Testros didn't smile, and instead, his eyes sharpened, he was incredibly focused…

/CLINK!/

/FWOOSH!/

The coin fell on the ground, and Testros immediately dashed, leaving an 'afterimage' behind him.

His speed was such that it seemed as if he had disappeared from Dale's vision!

"!"

Where...

/Clang!/

In the blink of an eye, Dale moved his spear sideways and blocked to block Testros' swing, but he was sent back flying.

After a few meters flying, he fell to the ground and rolled slightly before raising his head, only to see the tip of a spear in front of his eyes.

"Hum, this is enough for now."

Feeling depressed, Dale raised his head, saying:

"I didn't expect to be driven to my knees in the time it takes for me to take a single step forward..."

"I'm a bit ashamed."

"No no, don't undervalue yourself kid."

"To be honest, that was way better than I expected and more than enough for me to understand what you are."

As they walked back to the center of the arena, Testros said:

"Your body is strong... Too strong but it shows your efforts... It's also very balanced, something even harder to accomplish through serious training alone."

"I don't imagine you indulged in medicine and similar items to aid your training did you?"

Dale thought for a moment before he shook his head.

"..."

'Does WHEY Protein counts?'

"But... I can also tell that your combat proficiency is rather lackluster… In fact, your body seems out of sync with you." He said as he tapped on his training spear

"I can easily say, you must've spent most of your life training your body and didn't really fight much, right?"

"Y-Yeah…" Replied Dale awkwardly

'To be honest, it's just that my strength rose too fast within a year and I can't properly control it yet… Though I feel like I can.'

'From his perspective, I may just be limiting myself, perhaps that was my Highest score by the Green Box was 7/10 and not something higher.'

'My combat training was almost all done through Vr, and even after many years gaming, that doesn't really surmount to much.'

'But he isn't wrong to assume I have low combat experience, I fought a lot in the simulations of VR, but they were always… 'Down to Earth', and not fit for the SuperHuman body I have.'

Hearing his reaction, Testros said as he turned around:

"Since your body surpasses the minimum by miles, we can go straight to the next phase, but before that, we need to give 'Texture' to your muscles."

"Texture?"

"Yes, there is no meaning in having a lot of strength that can't be controlled."

"A master can use minimum strength to cause great effects, while in your case, you waste a lot of strength to do very little..."

'You waste more effort trying to control your own strength than you do with your opponent."

"Not only that, your muscles aren't designed for Spearmanship yet, they lack those reflexes a warrior needs… In essence, they lack 'Texture'."

"So from now on, I will teach you how to give Texture to these muscles and increase your combat experience."

"And when we reach a decent point, we can finally advance to the next stage where I teach you some proper techniques, like what I used just now to approach you in an instant."

"It has a name, it has a process, and it has a theory. You'll understand it all soon enough."

"Ok!" Dale said with a an enthusiastic nod

Testros looked at him with a small smile before he said:

"Normally, it would be here that I would ask you to perform an Oath, but unfortunately, this Oath holds no meaning anymore as the Corps has already fallen."

"Nevertheless, I fled from the Corps when I was but a foot soldier, so what I know is nothing but the simplest techniques I've been training and refining over time."

"But even so, I ask of you, not as a member of the Southern Corps, but as Testros Palinar, the current and last Commander of the Corps. Treat our techniques and legacy with care." He said as he bowed slightly

"What? Why are you bowing to me when you'll be teaching me?!" Dale exclaimed in confusion as he didn't know how to proceed

"Old ma… Commander, I never had any thoughts of treating your techniques and knowledge like that, so raise your head, and let's train!"

'These old people are way too humble, it's not a bad feeling, but it makes me feel awkward when they do it one after the other.'

Hearing his words, Testros smile grew wider before he recovered his serious persona.

"That's some good spirit, Soldier!"

"We'll start with some light training… See that Dummy? Stab at it 50 times."

This surprised Dale.

"Ok…"

"I'm not done yet"

"One more thing, when I talk, you are to remain silent until I give you the permission to speak, are we clear, Soldier?"

"Roger!"

'I can't help but feel as if I am doing some lame roleplay... Just hold it in, there's no one here to make fun of me...'

'And dammit! Say that from the start, the sneaky old man waited for me to commit this mistake before reprimanding me…'

"I want you to perform 50 Forward Thrusts, 30 Horizontal, Diagonal, and Vertical Slashes, followed by 25 Backtracking slashes… With the flag holder."

"With the wh...?!"

Dale almost opened his mouth but he remained silent.

'With the freaking flag holder? Are you kidding me?! That shit is super heavy! And even though my stats greatly increased, it sure still weighs a fuck ton!'

'But above all, I can barely hold it properly due to its thickness, perhaps if I were I 2.5M tall giant it would've been fine, but I am not.'

'Wouldn't that break the purpose of this training?'

"What's with that expression? Do you have anything to say?" He asked as he looked at Dale with a sly smile

"N-No Sir!"

"Good! I will be here observing your training, and I will not accept any mistakes from the form I'm about to show you, so watch closely since I am not going to repeat myself."

Tetros grabbed his spear and got in position.

"One step after the other, if you are left-handed it's the same, and make sure you raise your arms like this…"

He explained the form step by step and grabbed his spear, and suddenly, his body exploded with strength as he pierced forward, striking the poor dummy in the head.

"This is it for the basic execution of a Forward Thrust, no technique per se, just a simple movement... Now, I'll show you the Slashes…"

"..."

'This is going to be Hell…'

Testros continued to show all of the movements to Dale and once he was done, he said:

"You are free to leave once you finish all of these, but until you finish them all, you'll be stuck here with me!"

"Each time you drop your spear, I will reset the counter for the current exercise you are performing and I will deduct from the counter each time you commit a major infraction."

"..."

[Ding]

[Complementary Quest Activated, Training part 1 (Repeatable)

Complete the training 0/1

>Forward Thrusts 0/50

>Horizontal Slash 0/30

>Vertical Slash 0/30

>Diagonal Slash 0/30

>Backtracking Slash 0/25

]

Dale read the quest information and almost let out a sigh when…

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! GO FOR IT SOLDIER WE DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!"

In a hurry, he grabbed the flag holder and got into a stance…

He immediately noticed its massive weight, but it was bearable, he could do it!

It felt a bit awkward on his hand since it looked more like a spear a giant would use, it felt a size or two too big for them.

But he had to do it.

So he focused and stepped forward…

…

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Notes

This is where Dale's training begins, from a noob to a legend!

That's about it for today, goodbye.

Thank you all for reading!

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