Chapter 278 - Combat Drill

With a loud sigh, Benji stepped out of the capsule and made his way to the Kitchen, where Sophia was already getting some food ready. "Took you long enough, what were you doing in there?" She asked with a frown, and Benji simply shrugged.

"Just had to finish some stuff up. By the way, how’s your music practice actually going?" The young man inquired, while Sophia looked at him with a sigh. "Not well, to be honest. I mean, it’s going great and all, but it’s not as much fun as I imagined, mostly because that’s not necessarily my style of music. I’m more of a..."

"DJ?" Benji finished his cousin’s sentence, before she nodded her head. "Mhm, basically. But that’s not really a thing in the game, so..."

"Why shouldn’t it be a thing?" With a smirk, Benji began to help his cousin make some food, before she looked at him confused. "What do you mean? It’s medieval fantasy, obviously there wouldn’t be DJ stuff and remixing."

Quietly laughing, Benji just shook his head. "I can really just confirm with you if I’m right when I learn magic from Xenia, because I can just ask her then, but I’m pretty sure something like that should be a thing as an element. And it’s definitely possible to save audio-information in crystals, because that’s what Grampa did for his Automata and Camera Bots, so it’s most likely possible to interact with it and manipulate it. Maybe there’s no direct skill for it, but at the very least you should be able to find a way to be a DJ in the game." He explained, before Sophia looked at him with bright eyes.

"Seriously? That would be really cool! Talking about skills, though, how many do you have now..?" She asked curiously, before Benji went through it in his head. "I’m not exactly sure? 20? Only so far, though... I’m going to be learning more from Brody and Xenia later." He said with a wry smile, and Sophia just chuckled.

"Damn, that’s insane. Maybe you’ll unlock a rare ’Skill Hoarder’ occupation."

"Just you laugh, but I’ll be really dope!" He protested, and Sophia continued laughing, as the two cousins continued to make food for themselves, Tony, Katy and Sean, before the two of them sat back down in their capsules.

---

When Stahl woke back up inside of the Atelier, his hand was still holding Evalia’s. Luckily, Stahl seemed to have logged on a few seconds earlier than Alnico, so he managed to stand up before she saw them hold hands, as he, and Evalia too, would prefer not to openly talk about this just yet, because neither of them really knew what ’this’ even was.

"Oh, Brody’s online!" Stahl exclaimed with a smile as he checked his friendslist, and Al looked at him with a smile. "Well, then go before he logs back off!" She told him, and the young man nodded his head before stepping out the door as Thul was still waking up, and his freshly-painted undead were following behind him.

And swiftly, Stahl made his way to the training room, where he unsurprisingly found Brody testing some moves on a dummy. Before Stahl could even greet him, Brody had already turned around.

"Alright kid, you’re comin’ to learn some of my skills?" He asked with a grin, showing his shining teeth as his tusks were nearly boring into his skin.

"Yup, obviously!" But stahl didn’t really care about that horrid scene, as he was far too excited for that.

"Alright, then let’s get started. Punching a Dummy all day is pretty boring, ya know?" Brody said as he kept up his broad grin, before Stahl nodded his head. "I bet it is! Good thing I’m not an idiot!" The young man responded, before Brody’s excited grin just turned slightly dumbfounded, before he began to laugh loudly.

"Good one, kid. First, we’ll start with getting you the unarmed combat skill. Hmm, I think I should tell you some theory first, huh?" Brody said with a loud sigh, before swiftly starting his explanation.

"Alright, with Combat Skills, you have to be aware that you only have general skills, and your style will really depend on you. At Rank 5, your skill will be upgraded toward a skill of that specific style. But I’m sure your goal is to exactly not stick to a single style, but instead be able to do a bit of everything, right?"

Immediately, Stahl nodded his head with a broad smile. "Yep, that’s basically it! So, what are we starting with, then? Boxing, Judo, Karate?" Stahl asked, but Brody looked at him with a wry smile.

"You’re kiddin’, right? We’re only working toward the skills, you know? Martial arts heavily depend on the right form and specific movements. With other types of skills you might get away with learning the basics and just going from there your own way, but if you want to learn from me, I ain’t letting you do this half-assed. You’re getting the skill to Rank 1, and then we’ll move on to the next skill. But from now on, at least once a week, real life, you will come and train with me. That means four days in a row in here." Brody exclaimed, and Stahl looked at the fighter with a surprised expression.

"If you don’t think you can do that, then forget about it and leave." The Demon-Orc said strictly, but Stahl immediately shook his head.

"Oh, no, that’s not why I was hesitating! I’m starting college soon, so I was thinking how I’d best fit it in with my schedule." He explained, before Brody just replied with a smile.

"Right answer, kid. Alright, as I said, we’re starting with unarmed combat. It can roughly be cut up into four different large techniques. Punching, Kicking, Throwing, and Holding. We’re going to go through all of that just so I can see what your idea of everything is, and so I can see your natural intuition. You haven’t done any martial arts yet, right?"

"Nope, just some stuff here and there in middle school, because my Gym teacher was pretty MMA obsessed. Now, where do I start? Punching, right? What do I punch?" Stahl asked with a grin, before Brody swiftly stuck out his thumb and pointed it at himself.

"You’re punching me. And don’t worry, I doubt you can do triple digit damage even with a sword. So just go ahead and throw a punch at me with all your might." Brody said with a grin, and Stahl slowly nodded his head, although he was just so slightly hesitant about it, and just tried to punch Brody’s chest with all that he could.

And in return, he received more damage than he dealt. The latter of the damage values being null.

"What the- Dude, did you attack me somehow?" Stahl asked confused, but Brody just shook his head. "Nah, kid. My Endurance stat is around 200 right now, so I’m basically a rock from your perspective. Your stats are at the level of a below-average adult. Obviously you would only hurt yourself when punching a rock. But let’s move on. Go ahead and kick me." Brody said, simply crossing his arms, before Stahl slowly nodded.

With all his might, he swung his leg from the side to kick Brody’s hip, but once more, all that happened was that he himself got damaged.

"God dammit! Again? I might end up killing myself at this rate!" Stahl exclaimed with a bit of annoyance, but Brody just passed that by and moved on. "Mhm, anyway, try to throw me to the ground now." He told the young man, who nodded his head and tried to do something that he remembered would work against even a stronger and heavier opponent.

He moved his foot behind Brody’s and then pushed against his chest with his hand. This time he didn’t actually hurt himself, but that was because nothing happened. "Well, good enough. And now, somehow try to pin me down." Brody said with a sigh and laid down on his back, keeping his arms crossed, before Stahl looked at him with a wry smile.

"This is gonna be a long day, isn’t it...?" Stahl muttered with a sigh, before he did as he was told.

---

"Shoulders back. Arms parallel. And stop clenching your fists that way all the time." Brody once more corrected Stahl.

It’s been about two hours since they started, and Stahl had actually gotten the Unarmed Combat skill and nearly got it to reach rank 1 already. And so, Brody had started actually properly training him, although that mostly just included showing him the moves and having Stahl copy him, while sometimes letting Stahl use him as a training dummy.

And so, everything became a continuous circle of different kinds of punches, kicks, throws and pins, until Stahl finally managed to Rank his skill up.

"Fucking finally! Brody, it ranked up, so let’s move on for now, alright?" Stahl suggested with a grin, and Brody nodded his head with a deep sigh.

"Sure, alright. Overall, I’d say you’ve done pretty well with unarmed combat, although you technically didn’t fight anyone yet. We’ll do some mock-fights in our lessons from now on, so that you can get some proper experience. Oh, and obviously you’ll be going out to figth some of the monsters on the islands as well once we go there." Brody explained as he got some of the weapons ready that they would be using next, before Stahl nodded his head, although he was confused about something.

"Got it, but... Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, those are all Rank 3 monsters, right? I know you all said that we’d find a place to Level up low-level fighters, but even then... That’s a bit much for the start, right? It takes a while to level up to that level as well, so-"

"Obviously you’ll level up a bit more, but as soon as you can even think about fighting them, I suggest you do. Fighting enemies stronger than you not only helps level up quicker, but also gives you more proficiency in your skills. Personally, I’d say to get your occupation as soon as your Grandfather is back, and then level up a good bit even on the ship if possible. There’s some sea monsters that will surely give you some nice experience." Brody pointed out, and Stahl nodded his head with a grin.

"Got it! I’ll do that!" He responded excitedly, but Brody swiftly tried to move on.

"Anyway, let’s move on now. You have Swordsmanship and Shield Arts, right?" Brody asked just to make sure, before Stahl nodded his head, and was instantly given a small shield and a sword, while Brody cracked his knuckles.

"Then let’s just grind a bit for now, shall we?" The Demon-Orc asked with a grin, before Stahl tilted his head to the side nervously. "Erm, what do you mean with ’Grind’ exactly?" He asked, but Brody just continued grinning.

"Pretty obvious, right? We’re taking turns attacking each other. I aim at you, and you defend with your shield, and then immediately counterattack with your sword. Then I’ll punch the shield again, and you counterattack. Don’t worry, I’m gonna go easy on ya, kid." Brody explained, and before Stahl could even ask him if he was serious, he already threw a swift jab at him. He just so slightly aimed at the shield, so that Stahl only had to move it a tiny bit to be able to defend against it, but even then he was just barely able to do so, and most importantly, it still damaged Stahl.

"Dude, be careful! I thought you’d hold back!" He protested, and Brody nodded his head with a grin on his face.

"Oh, but I am holding back." Brody responded with a smile, before looking at Stahl’s sword. "So, when’s the counterattack coming?" He asked in a mocking tone, before Stahl ground his teeth and swung his sword at Brody, who simply brushed it off with his arm, before Stahl muttered something to himself.

"Yup... This really is gonna be a long day..."