I feel both excitement and anxiety thinking about reaching fifty in endurance as I stir in bed. I was never this dedicated about anything in my previous life. Suddenly it hits me that I haven’t thought about my parents since I got here, which seems strange. Also, now that I think about them my feeling for them seems detached. Something is going on here. I get out of bed and rush down to talk to John. I say hello and ask for breakfast. After John brings me a bowl of stew and says he will get the potion after I eat.

  “John, I have a question first.”

  “Sure, what’s up?”

  “I was thinking about my family from before I came here. I realized that I haven’t even thought about them until now, and it’s been weeks. Then when I think about them, I don’t feel much of anything.”

  “Yes, that makes sense. The System does that when you reincarnate and keep your memories. It is a way to keep you from falling into depression and grief at losing everything you knew.”

  “Oh. That makes sense, but I have lost both the happy and the sad memories. I should say they are still there, but I don’t feel more than a mild interest.”

  John grasps me on the shoulder and says. “Even when you hold on to your memories of your previous life, the System will force you to live this life as a new one without the baggage from the old. After all, it wants you to have a new beginning.”

  I nod in thought as he releases my shoulder and say. “You are right, it just took me by surprise.”

  I finish my meal and pull out two silvers for the potion. John brings out another smoking mug. I know the drill. Pinching my nose I gulp down the disgusting bubbling sludge as quickly as I can. Once again it feels like my stomach is doing flip flops. After releasing another horrendous belch, my stomach finally quiets down.

  John hands me my wrapped meals for lunch and dinner and I head to the barrack. I wave to Cal as I jog by. The Captain is waiting for me. We circle around to the back and get ready for some more grinding.

  “We will start with your Dagger today. Begin casting.” The Captain says as he draws his sword.

  I draw my dagger and then begin casting fire dart. With my reaching Beginner, I can summon a second dart for a 50% increase in mana. Not that it has helped. I have yet to hit the Captain with either a spell or blade.

  As we continue our training, I try to hit different parts of his body with my two darts and the blade at the same time, but it is no use. He deflects the spells with a twist of his wrist and then parries my blade. If I wasn’t continuing to learn so much, I would be frustrated. He stabs me through where I am guessing my spleen is before I pass out from mana exhaustion.

  We continue the training, passing out, waking pattern until the notification that we have both been waiting for after three hours occurs.

  “Holy crap, this is awesome. Hey wait a minute it says I did this without potions for the pain.” I say as I look at the Captain.

  “Of course. The reward is much better without the potions.” The Captain says with an evil grin.

  I grit my teeth and let it go, it’s done.

  The Captain says, “Let’s eat and then we can really get started.”

  I sit down a little grumpily and sulk as I bite into my sandwich.

  The Captain merely looks at me and says. “Would you have taken the potions had they been offered?”

  “That is not the point. It should have been my decision.”

  The Captain appeared thoughtful as he says. “You accepted me as your trainer. When you do that you give up a measure of control and in this case, you literally put your life in my hands repeatedly. Are you now saying that you don’t trust me?”

  I sigh and say. “When you say it that way, I apologize. I thank you for the training and I apologize for my behavior.”

  “That is all right. I understand your anger, but in this case, it is the only way we could have done this training here in the Starter Area. Also, now that you have Numbness II, you can use it to keep fighting with your health down to -10%, which is a tremendous advantage. Of course, if you don’t get healing by that point to take you above zero you will die when it runs out or dips below -10%. In addition, you will pass out until you get back to full health. Now finish your meal and we will get started.”

  We remain seated after lunch. He turns to face me.

  “Now that your Endurance is high enough we can practice the advanced skills.” The Captain says.

  “What makes them advanced?”

  “Advanced skills are dependent on first learning either another skill or a certain ability level. In this case Mana Manipulation must be Advanced and Endurance must be fifty. We will be learning the skill Channeling. This is the ability to focus more mana into spells for different affects based on your skill level. At the Basic level you will be able to Maximize a spell affect for double the mana cost. At the Novice level you will be able to double the spells damage and so on.”

  “Sounds interesting. How do we start?”

  “I am going to attach to your mana pool with a skill called Mana Chain, which allows multiple spell casters to combine their mana pool. You will learn this skill as well. After I connect I am going to forcefully drain your mana until you are empty and keep it empty until your channels are clear.”

  “That sounds like I am going to have a whooping bad headache.”

  “You would, but once you hit zero mana, activate Numbness, which should last long enough for your channels to clear. Ok, here goes.”

  I feel a weird sensation like a fluffy blanket enveloping my body and I get a notification.

  After I accept I feel the Captains mana pool, which is huge compared to mine and then suddenly my mana begins to drain. I feel a sharp pain spike through my head. I grit my teeth and wait for my mana to bottom out. When my mana hits zero, I trigger Numbness II. The numbness washes over me with a feeling of pins and needles. My mana drains away as fast as it regenerates. I am getting more nervous approaching the fifth minute, but suddenly a notification appears and the drain stops.

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  The Captain casts a mana regeneration spell on me. My mana quickly refills and my headache fades.

  “Good, now I want you to focus on one of the training dummies and cast Fire Dart while trying to force more mana into the spell.”

  I start forming the dart in my hand while focusing intently on the mana, forcing it into the spell. The spell reaches its normal completion while I am trying to force more mana into it, and the dart explodes in my hand, causing twenty-three points of damage. “Crap.” I feel a healing wave from the Captain casting a Minor Heal on me. I look at him and realize he has taken several steps away from me. I bet he knew that would happen.

  “Do you know what you did wrong?”

  “I was so focused on trying to add more mana that I lost focus on the training dummy.”

  The Captain nods and gestures for me to try again.

  On the second attempt, I am so focused on releasing the dart before it explodes that I fail to add more mana.

  “Again.”

  I grit my teeth and try again. It takes ten tries to finally get it and a bad headache. With the Captain continuingly renewing the mana regeneration spell, it isn’t until the seventeenth attempt that I am able to repeat my success. The Captain keeps me at it until I succeed multiple times in a row even with my mana pool heavily depleted.

  “Good, you should be able to progress naturally with channeling, just continue to practice it.” The Captain once more turns and walks off. He is not one for long goodbyes. Well I could keep training or take a break, since this is my last free night before I start to pay for everything.

  I notice that when I rest after my mana bottoms out, it is regenerating five times faster than when I was unconscious. I will have to ask John or the Captain about that.

  I look at my stats before heading to the bathhouse.

  After a bath I head over to see Cal, since we have not chatted much while I have been training. He is sitting out on his porch reading a book and invites me to have some tea, which he brings out in two steaming mugs. I can feel myself unwind as I talk to Cal about my last few days.

  I ask Cal about my regeneration increasing by a factor of five over when I was unconscious.

  Cal laughs, “Ah, I bet you increased your endurance above fifty now. If you are conscious and resting your mana regeneration will be five time faster. If you are active or unconscious it will be the normal rate.”

  “That makes sense, thanks.”

  While we are talking, a group of eight people walk in from the North gate dressed in starter clothes much like I was when I arrived. Cal is watching them with interest and says. “That’s odd for them to be coming in so late in the day. This will count as their first day and they will lose most of benefit since it is already so late.”

  I look at them with renewed interest. They seem to move with a purpose into the tailor shop and then the black smith. They are all wearing much better equipment when they emerge from the shops.

  I ask Cal, “How did they get equipment so fast?”

  “Well you can enter the area with a single silver piece. Adventurers from poor families can’t afford to do that, but all the rich families start with a silver.”

  Two carry bows with quivers of arrows, two in heavier leather armor than the rest, and last four are all wearing robes. Maybe mages or clerics. All together a well-rounded group. It looks like the mages and clerics gave some of their money to the tanks so they can start out with better armor. They head into the Tavern. Cal remarks that they are early. Typically, groups come in once a month to this Starter Area and the last group left three days before I arrived. It’s recommended to enter as a large group because several of the quests are hard to fulfill without a group.

  “I think it’s time to teach you a new skill.” Cal says.

  “What did you have in mind?” I ask.

  “A skill called Veil. It will block Inspect if the person inspecting you has a lower intelligence than you do. It is a passive skill and cannot be leveled.”

  “That sounds handy, but you seem reluctant to teach it, why is that?”

  “If a higher-level character inspects you and they don’t have a higher intelligence, you will look like a character with a higher level, which may get you in trouble.”

  “I can see where that could happen, but overall the benefits outweigh the possible problems.”

  “Very well.” Cal says and grasps my shoulder for a moment before I receive a notification.

  Cal and I go back to chatting until I finish my tea and bid him a good night. I head into the Tavern and see the group is sitting at a large table drinking and joking. One of the mages notices me, and then they all become silent as they look at me walking over to greet John at the bar. I hold up my uneaten dinner sandwich and ask if there is any chance to have a wolf steak instead. John grins and says. “Since it is your last free night I can do that.” He takes the sandwich and comes back carrying a large platter with a steak, roasted potatoes, and mixed steamed vegetables. I chat quietly about my success today as I dig into my meal. I can hear the group behind me start to talk in a low tone among themselves. John says. “There is something off about this group.”

  “Cal said the same thing. He said it was strange that they entered so late in the day.”

  “If you go out hunting keep your eye out for more than the creatures.”

  “Sure thing. Have a good night.”

  The group stops talking as I wish John a good night and head upstairs. I lock my door and look at my spells. Fire Dart can now generate 3 darts for double the mana cost. Mana Manipulation will reduce the cost by 20% now, which will help a lot. I think Fire Dart will be my go-to spell tomorrow. I almost forget to check out the details on the Channeling skill.

  Wow, this can be powerful at higher levels, but only with higher level spells. I lay back on the bed to get an early night’s sleep.