24 Hearts

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Serenia: City of adventurers.

If there was one thing that children lacked, it was patience. And if one child started bawling and throwing a tantrum, others would soon be swept up in this tide of emotion and start crying as well.

They had cleaned most of their mess, yet when I had wanted them to start cleaning the upstairs rooms as well, their collective howling had begun. During all of this, I had been curious as to the stats of the kids, yet I soon found out that I could not summon the stat windows for any NPCs. I had to go by the average stats that I remembered upon having created the game. Was there a way in which I could gain the ability to see such things?

I could finally bear their moaning no more and told them to get out of my house as I unlocked the door. They grabbed their shoes, and once outside, put them on while staring at me with resenting gazes.

“I’m going to tell everything to my mom,” the weaselly-looking boy said petulantly.

“Oh, okay then,” was all I said as I watched them scurry away into a nearby alley. Their tattling would bear no fruit, for they were commoners while I was of noble lineage. I had the support of Kaseun Sabrak and knew that their parents would not be foolish enough to press the matter. I locked the door after myself with a sigh and went about cleaning the spots that they had missed. I then left the mop and rag to dry by the window as I flopped down on the living room sofa. I stared at the ceiling then, my body relaxing as if it was being hugged. My home had been filled with noise for the first time in two years, so I was once more reminded of how lonely it was. As I lay there, the house felt like a vast, empty cavern to me.

“What a bitter thing,” I mused sadly. On Earth, I could at least talk to my parents if I felt lonely. In this world, I did not even have a single friend to share my life with.

I had never tried to make any, as I still wished to escape this reality. Well, I might settle down here and live my life as a noble… but what of Earth, then? Even if I forgot about my previous life and lived to a ripe old age in Serenia, once I died, I would return to my last save. This rang true whether I died by blade, pestilence, or the simple passage of time.

This ability to start over did have its advantages, yet I had no desire to repeat the process ad infinitum.

I knew that the moment I was an adult would be the moment that I set out on my quest for the fragments and claim my place as Pernen’s heir.

“It can’t be that hard to become the Fourth Lord’s successor,” I mused, cursing Xian’s meddling ways as I stood up. There was one very real problem which faced me: To become the heir to a Demonic Lord was to sacrifice one’s very humanity. These Lords stood in direct opposition to the Celestial Kings, who were the personification of all that was good in the world. The moment that other humans became aware of someone’s desire to become a successor, they would hunt you ceaselessly, fearing the malicious power inherent in one who would freely choose to become a Demonic Lord.

“Unfortunately, it seems that this fate has been chosen for me, not by me,” I said aloud as I allowed shadow magic to bloom from my palm, the black tendrils reaching into the air.

I decided that the problem of my ascension was still far off, so there was little to be gained from being worried and depressed. Now was the time for me to focus upon the honing of my swordsmanship, as well as the gaining of core survival skills that would aid me upon my quest.

It might not be an easy task, yet I still had plenty of time.

***

After a few days of trying to practice, I realized that, within this reality, I would get nowhere without a trainer, a teacher. Even by using the game elements I had by then mastered, any training I did on my own became nothing more than repetitive labor, which did little to improve my skills or stats.

I knew with a firm conviction that I was wasting my time. Basic skills, like cooking, were easy to learn. Survival skills and the art of the sword took practice and regimented training. I had gained much knowledge of such things in my perusal of the library, yet reading about the tying of a rope or the employment of a perfect riposte after parrying a strike was not the same as physically doing it. The only way that theory and practice could become intertwined was by, well, practicing.

I decided that I had to go on a little hunting expedition. I failed at it, though, and quickly too. Unlike normal sandbox RPGs, one could not merely exit a city as it pleased one. The guards would not let me, a mere boy, go outside the walls of Serenia on my own.

I needed a qualified escort. It seemed that I had hit a brick wall in all my efforts.

Someone had to help me if I wished to advance. One name immediately came to mind.

“Kaseun Sabrak.”

It would be difficult to find a trainer better than he, for he held a platinum disk which he had earned when he had been a Mercenary King. I also considered going to Seron for training, yet I knew his manner would not be as leisurely and understanding as that of Kaseun. I made up my mind and went to visit the Sabrak household.

It stood proudly near the inner wall, one of the larger and more opulent mansions in Serenia. It had an iron fence around it, which stretched as tall as its roof, and more than one building stood in its compound. Their style was one of subtle elegance that few architects would be able to emulate.

After knocking on the door, I was greeted by a butler. I stated my purpose to him and entered the house, taking a seat in the foyer. The butler left to fetch his master, and I was greeted by Kaseun in short order.

“Oh, Judah! You have finally visited my home, I see. How amazing,” Kaseun said, for I had only been here once when he had shown me where he lived. After exchanging a few pleasantries, I got straight to point as to the reason for my visit.

“So, you want to be tutored in the art of the sword?”

“Yeah, grandpa.”

“And why have you come to me, then?”

“Well, you are an honorary noble of Baekje and possess a platinum disk, which means you know how to use a sword and train others. They even say that you are the best trainer in Serenia. You once said that I must come to you if I ever needed anything. Right now I need a trainer, so here I am.”

“I don’t remember telling you that I was an honorary noble of Baekje… Well, well, no matter. You are right, I am the most skilled man in this city,” Kaseun laughed, clearly pleased upon hearing my request.

“I’ll train you.”

“Okay, I think you’ll be an excellent sparring partner, grandpa. Before we begin, I just have to check my stamina.”

“Check your… check your stamina?”

“I mean, I just want to make sure I’m not too tired for intense training.”

He nodded at this, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “If you are tired today, we can always start tomorrow,” he said as he started to noisily sip the tea his maid had placed before him.

“No, we can start now.”

“Yes? Excellent! Let’s head to the training grounds,” he said as he emptied his cup and stood up. I followed him outside. Within the courtyard of his compound, there was a small field covered with sand.

“Now, I have decided to tutor you. I am telling you in advance: This will be proper, hard training, and you can’t chicken out, not even now. A true man does what he said he would do,” Kaseun told me with his hand upon my shoulder.

“Yes grandpa, I won’t disappoint you.”

“You have answered well, Judah. I know through rumors that you have jogged along the city walls every morning. So, let’s see what you have in you. Run laps over the training ground until I say stop,” Kaseun said as he settled himself under the shade of the pagoda which had been erected nearby. Upon hearing his command, I entered a jog, my steps and breathing coming at regular intervals. I gave no thought as to how many laps I did; I just ran. Sweat soon began to pour from me like a salty rain, yet my stats held me on my feet.

After I had run for a goodly while, Kaseun said that I could stop. He then proceeded to test me through push-ups, sit-ups, and squats.

“Excellent, very good!” he praised me.

Well, I knew I could be better for this session of training had at last exhausted me. I had trained without rest for many hours by then.

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[Your body has reached its limit. Determination has been activated, granting you a brief second wind]

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When I saw this message and felt the brief boost in my Stamina, the exhaustion had finally become too much to bear. I looked toward Kaseun, who nodded in a satisfied manner.

“Is this enough, grandpa?”

“Uh huh, of course, it is! Your strength and stamina are superb, far better than I had expected. So, from now on, we will train for three hours each morning, starting at around nine on the clock.”

“…Okay, yeah,” I managed to say as I lay in the sand, taking deep gulps of breath. Kaseun had approached me and started to massage my thighs and calves. I tried to get up, but his grip upon my shoulder prevented me from doing so.

“Just stay down. You always have to release the tension and fatigue in your body after training, so just relax.”

I hesitated, but then did as he had instructed, feeling his grip on my shoulder slacken.

“Thank you,” I said as he finished his labors, his massaging technique having removed much of the pain from my body, which now felt cooler than before.

“Yes, in this case, thanks is all I want from you, Judah, nothing else. So, why do you wish to wield a sword, then? I thought with all the days that you had spent in the library that you sought to become a scholar, a bureaucrat or a mage.”

I pondered his question and my response for a while. When I looked into his eyes, though, I noticed the deep and anxious concern within them. I knew I could not tell him the entire truth, but at least sketch a rough idea for him.

“I have no interest in becoming a boring old scholar or a bureaucrat. Being a mage is also not my goal. No, I’m leaving Serenia.”

“When, Judah? And to where?”

“On the day that I become an adult, I will set out and travel the world. The knowledge from books have taught me about other realms. Now, knowing how to wield a sword will protect me on my journey, and allow me to protect others, not stand around as if my hands had been cut off.”

Kaseun groaned upon hearing my last sentence. Perhaps I had been too blunt, speaking more like an adult than a child. But I could see that Kaseun was rather thinking about the murder of my parents and that this event had led me to take up the sword.

“You want to be strong to protect others? That is such a thought in one as young as you.”

He had clearly misunderstood my intentions, which might have been for the best. My true goal was the collection of the fragments, and toward that goal, I had read all that there was to read in the library. I had to be prepared for the unknowns of the world I had created. Kaseun bumped my shoulder with his fist.

“Don’t worry, I understand,” he said.

“Yeah?” I asked, surprised at Kaseun’s reaction. He just gave me a thumbs up, his hand as thick as my head, and then laughed as he shoved his yellowed teeth.

“I will teach you. Nine is a good age to start, not too late and not too early. I will drill the art of the sword into your heart, but one requires talent for that. No… Even if you lack the talent, I will train you until no one can harm you, trust me,” he said as he thumped his fist into his chest.

I was sweating as I watched him.

Something was wrong…