When I arrived at the training meadow, Kibi was already there, effortlessly balanced in a pose that looked like something out of a martial arts manual. One foot was high up on a tree, and the other was solidly on the ground, a clear display of her agility. While it was impressive, it made me hurt just looking at her. Catching sight of me, her smile broadened. “Look who’s back. I thought I was going to have to chase you down.”

  I greeted her with a matching smile as I closed the distance between us.

  “Quiz time,” she declared, seamlessly transitioning back to our mentor-student routine. “What’s the one-word takeaway from this morning’s session?”

  This seemed to be her teaching style. She wanted to know if I was learning the right lesson or if I needed to be retaught. The answer came easily. “Speed.”

  Her smile turned into a teaching moment. “No, it’s weakness,” she corrected. “Remember what I said? I might outpace you, but it’s not just about raw speed or strength. It’s about pinpointing and leveraging your opponent’s vulnerabilities. When I push your arm out of the way, I am doing that because you have more strength. I can fend you off despite your ability to overpower me. And why do you think I stress this?”

  After that earful, I felt like I didn’t want to answer, but she wouldn’t let me get away with that. It was more embarrassing to be reprimanded by a little girl than to be trained by one, so I tried my best and took a full 30 seconds before responding this time. “Because it builds on what your dad was teaching me.”

  “Good,” Kibi said, and that gave me some sense of relief. “Now that you are allowed to use a sword in the village, and that is the most common weapon you are going to use, pull it out.”

  I pulled out my weapon and stood in a fighting stance. I had no clue what was wrong, but Kibi slapped her face and then dragged her hand straight down.

  “You can’t be serious. Who did you fight to gain your levels?”

  With Rabbit’s help, I answered the question, “Well, there was a teenager, some people we surprised who Jack killed, a lot of people without weapons, then there was that time I just ran into someone’s sword to distract them. Besides that, just a lot of surprise attacks with Jack’s help.”

  While repeating what Rabbit told me, I realized he was making me look bad, but I was already in the middle of his joke, so I decided to finish before grumbling in my head, “Thank you for that, Rabbit. I looked like a complete moron.”

  “The truth sometimes hurts” was his only reply.

  “That makes sense then. If you had a prepared enemy who knew how to use a sword, you would probably be dead right now,” Kibi said, puckering her lips into a disappointed expression.

  “Well, what am I doing wrong? I’m just standing here,” I replied, holding my sword out as if ready for an attack.

  “Look at your hands. They are together near the top of the hilt.” I felt like my grip was excellent. If I were golfing, I would have been solid, with my thumb even interlaced into my other hand. Kibi, in response, took her sword and struck mine as if to knock it away. My sword went with the direction of the blow, moving it away from my center, where I had it a second ago. “You see what just happened? You have no strength because your hands are grouped together. Instead, put your dominant hand toward the blade and the other hand near the pommel.”

  After copying her positioning, I hoped I followed her instructions successfully as she went out and struck my weapon again. Instead of my sword flying off to one side as it did before, it only shifted slightly since I had significantly more strength than she did.

  “Good. You will see that this not only helps with defense but also with offense. You probably had a good amount of power before, but with this, you should have greater strength and control.” Kibi stood right next to me and put her hand on mine. “This hand will push while the other will pull.”

  Pushing with one hand and pulling with the other had acted like a lever, giving the sword a flick.

  “Yes, but no. You need more control.” Kibi moved away, pushed out her legs, shot her sword out from her shoulder, and it stopped at her leg. She then carried the weapon to the other shoulder and brought it down to the other side, again stopping at her leg.

  “Why did you stop at your leg?” I inquired, thinking that a full swing would be more useful.

  “I’ll get to that in a bit, but for now, you need control as well. Try what I just did,” Kibi suggested, and I spread my legs to a wider stance, but not too wide, and swung down to my leg and stopped. I crossed over and did it again on the other side.

  “Bring it to your shoulder and lay it flat, with the hilt in front of you, like this,” she instructed, enacting the lesson with her sword. “Now, instead of trying to swipe down like you did, do it at an angle.”

  I was trying to swipe directly down, as if I was trying to split a man in two. But what she was doing was swiping at a 45-degree angle down to the feet.

  I copied what she did and was proud, but her mere comment was “Acceptable. Let’s move on.”

  “Wait, wait,” I interrupted, still curious. “Why do we keep stopping at the leg?”

  “You aren’t going to let this go, are you? Okay, I’ll teach you a little theory before we go back to form.” She stood up from her chopping form and put her sword out in front of her. “If I were to attack you, what are your options?”

  She swung her sword forward and down at me, and I immediately did the same in response, knocking her sword out of the way.

  “That is one of the options. You deflected the blow.” After I stabilized, she continued, “Now strike at me from above.”

  I followed her instructions, and she put her weapon above her head with her hand on the blade, and the other stayed on the hilt. Her grip on the sword blade wasn’t on the sharp edge but served to reinforce her power. Instead of knocking my blade to one side, she stopped it right above her head.

  “The second way is blocking, as you can see, and the third way is evasion.” At that, she stabbed at me, and I moved back as I didn’t have my sword in position to do either blocking or deflecting. “Now, the problem with evading is that you need to be cognizant of the enemy’s strength, his sword’s weight, and his level of expertise. When you dodge back, someone with a light sword or a high strength could chase you,” she explained, proceeding to action. She swung her weapon down as if it were an overhead chop, then stopped midway at my stomach and pushed forward. “The reason we stop at the leg is to give more options. You can chase the enemy or put yourself in a position to counter the next strike.”

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  “You haven’t brought up countering,” I voiced out.

  “Well, it becomes more advanced, so you should work on the basics. Masters of the sword can easily counter-strike not after they are attacked, but while they are attacked.”

  “Can you do it, Kibi?” I requested, curious about the reach of her skills.

  “Me? My dad has taught me some, but as I said, it’s not easy. I can only do it under specific circumstances. Someday, though, I will be a master swordswoman. I’ll fly around like no other, slicing enemies before they even spot me,” she said with a big grin, leaning on her sword. She stared out into the trees, her eyes gleaming as if she could already see that future unfolding before her.

  “Any advice on striking while being attacked?” I asked, sword at the ready, prepared for a lesson.

  “Don’t do it. You will end up losing a hand or your life. But in the future, you will want to block using the strong part of the blade.” She pointed to the area near the hilt, resuming, “And attack with the end of the blade.” She moved her hair out of her eyes and said, “Done with your questions?”

  Even though I had a ton more, she continued faster than I could open my mouth. She truly was quicker than I.

  “Good, now let’s get to the point.” Taking her sword, she poked me in the chest until it bit in and drew a small amount of blood, meaning I shouldn’t ask more questions if I could avoid it.

  “Ha-ha. Point.” Rabbit laughed in my head. Sometimes the simplest things got him.

  “Now the sword is at your leg. You have two options. You can bring it up to your opposite shoulder. Or, if you need to defend while setting up for the next attack, you can bring the blade up and around like so.” With that, she moved the sword up and over her head and to the opposite shoulder. This allowed the weapon to protect the body while getting back into a starting position to strike again. “You now repeat with the opposite leg.” She then twisted her stance ever so slightly to make the other leg dominant, struck down, and stopped at the other leg this time.

  “Since I know you’re going to have questions, I am going to make an outline for you,” Rabbit volunteered helpfully without me asking, then outlined where I was supposed to move. This made things easier, but by no means simpler. It just created a shape, so I could see where I was going, but it didn’t help me perform the foreign movements. What helped the most was the stance.

  Of course, trying to copy it seemed easy, but it was nuanced. Everything mattered, from where the toes pointed to whether the heel faced outward. Rabbit’s help made my position easy, as I only had to follow the outline and twist my body to the exact configuration.

  “Much, much better,” Kibi praised, impressed.

  For the next couple of hours, we went through the proper way to attack, hold, and defend with the sword, and then she started teaching me something real. She taught me actual techniques and how to counter moves. After seeing how much I learned, I was as surprised as she was that I had survived so long. Her demonstrations showed me how easy it was to knock away an unprepared sword or attack an enemy without proper preparation.

  If I could spend another week with Kibi, I would. She proved to be a brilliant teacher with a wealth of knowledge. Still, after considering their teaching style and the fact that children ask even more questions than I do, it was not surprising that she was a font of information.

  The sun, now lower in the sky, cast a warm glow over the meadow. We had left marks all over the ground. The grass was flattened in places, with footprints and impressions marking my movements with Kibi.

  Carrick came back to watch us train and practice. We did little actual training because, according to Kibi, my timeline was tight, and she wanted to ensure I had a solid foundation of knowledge. She felt that I would forget most of what was taught to me today, or the forms would be quickly skewed. That was why fighters would learn a little and build on each learning experience by practicing it until they mastered it before moving on. As I didn’t have the luxury of time, she lamented that I would be a mess while fighting, but I would still be ten times better than I was before.

  As I was leaving, I remembered that I didn’t have a place set up for me, so I stayed at Carrick’s once again, but I enjoyed it. In this crazy world, his place was the closest thing I had to a home. He and his daughter felt like close friends even after such a short time.

  When morning came, Kibi woke me up once again. Since I didn’t have most of my items, she walked with me to the crafters. Instead of finding Bolo, I found an assistant named Sarah with the quiver and the bag. She told me that Bolo went to sleep a little while ago, but the project was done.

  She had a note from Bolo asking if he could borrow the arrows, the large bell, and the small bells that I took from the Black Rock Islands. I wasn’t sure what I would do with them anyway, so I left them behind. I figured we were on good terms now, and loaning him items would work well in my favor in the future.

  I asked the assistant if she had helped out, but she replied that crafting was more of a one-person job. I had to disagree with that statement internally, but what did I know, seeing as I had never done it before? I thoroughly tested the quiver to make sure it worked. There were no actual arrows in the quiver, but when I thought of the one I wanted from my bag, it appeared, slightly sticking out for me to grab it. Without touching it, I could change the arrow at will, and a new one would show up. The only catch was that I couldn’t summon a different arrow once I had my hand on one. Although this wasn’t a significant issue, I need to be more aware of it in the future.

  My ring would take some time, as he had told me before, but I hoped to get it when I came back to the village.

  After I had my bag back, Kibi helped me with my armor. While I could put it on myself, it was much faster with two people. The bag had grown on me more than I realized. Having everything with me and keeping my whole financial wealth safe gave me a significant sense of comfort. Carrick had left early this morning, so it was only the two of us walking to the village entrance.

  Walls on both sides flanked the gate itself, and beyond, there was a river that flowed down the cliff’s end. Because of this, trying to assault this entrance is a suicide mission. Unless the gate was down and acted as a bridge across the river, someone could easily get swept away by the river and down the waterfall. Even if they somehow managed to survive, there would be guards at the top of the walls protecting the village.

  My group was positioned off to the side of the main gate, near the jails and the lift. The fastest way west was down that lift on the boat at the bottom. There was only one boat, and it wasn’t ours, forcing us on a tiring walk from the bottom of the waterfall.

  When I got to the lift with Kibi, everyone was waiting near the elevator. I could spot the girls from afar by the color of their hair, Sana’s long black hair contrasting with Kaylie’s red. Jack stood next to them, the tattoo on his forehead and bald head distinguishing him from the other two.

  I couldn’t yell from afar because the noise of the water would drown my voice out. Hearing someone coming up behind you was impossible, and even talking to someone close by was difficult. When the others saw me, they nudged each other, and Kaylie was the only one who gave me a huge smile and a wave.

  When we met up with them, Kaylie and Kibi gave each other big hugs and goodbyes. It was a little odd since I didn’t realize they knew each other. I almost forgot that this village wasn’t like a city, and everyone must at least know everyone else at a glance. It was possible to be close to someone without spending all your time together. This wasn’t like high school, where everyone went to the same classes and shared every break, lunch, and sport. This was real life, where people were close but couldn’t see each other that often because of work or other commitments.

  Oddly enough, Kibi came up to me next, hugged me, and said, “Don’t get yourself killed. I would hate for all my hard work to go to waste.”

  I tried to play it cool but failed. “Don’t worry. It’s only one day that you would lose in training. You’ll be fine,” I mumbled.

  In response, Kibi hit me with surprising force. Little kids usually couldn’t punch that hard, but in this world, she was enhanced by her attribute points, and it stung.

  “Oww! What was that for?” I protested, rubbing the spot where she hit me.

  “Don’t die, or I’ll kill you,” she threatened, a little red in the face.

  “Okay,” I said, as much as that didn’t make sense, and hugged her goodbye.