If the other members of the [Hero’s Party] thought Zack wasn’t good enough, well, he’d just have to show them.

  All the knights in the training courtyard were stunned at seeing the [Hero] instantly defeated.

  But, even as they watched him regain his footing, and Knight Captain Sir Rosimund laid down ground rules for proper sparring, cowled priests in grey robes emerged from the shadows and gave their orders.

  Speak nothing of this to anyone else.

  Details of the [Hero]’s training are to remain a secret.

  And, as soon as they appeared, they vanished down several corridors away from the courtyard.

  Though this went unnoticed by the [Hero] himself, the secret agent felt his paranoia grow even more.

  New world, same as the old.

  Under surveillance.

  He contained himself to merely blinking once, rather than clicking his tongue, and focused on what the [Guide] was saying.

  “First of all, Sir Northcourt has not yet gained the [Heavy Armor] skill. This put him at a serious disadvantage.” He furrowed his bushy eyebrows and frowned at Zack.

  Zack shrugged.

  “Second, Sir Northcourt was unarmed.”

  “So was I,” Zack pointed out.

  Rosimund ignored this and continued.

  “We have to set the terms of the spar before we begin. In the interest of fairness, both of you should spar with a weapon neither of you has a skill in.”

  “Like hand-to-hand?” Zack drawled and cocked an eyebrow.

  “That’s unfair! You said you studied that already!” Maria protested angrily.

  Zack shrugged. “I don’t have a skill in it, do I?”

  Maria continued to argue, but Bradley raised a hand to cut her off. “No, Maria, he’s right. If we’re matched in skill level, that’s fair.” Then he turned to Zack. “But we should be matched in armor, too.”

  “That’s fair.”

  So Zack waited while a pair of knights helped Bradley out of his armor, revealing he was wearing a similar training tunic to Zack’s own.

  “And, Zack Adder, you have to wait until I announce the beginning of the spar! No underhanded sneak attacks!”

  “Alright.”

  Zack felt that he had made his point already, at least to Bradley. But Maria was still making faces at him.

  Very uncute.

  This time, Zack and Bradley started some ten yards apart, with plenty of space between them and anyone else.

  “The rules for this spar are as follows: unarmored, unarmed, to the yield or when I call stop. After I call stop, you both have to stop immediately, understood?”

  Rosimund narrowed his eyes at Zack specifically.

  “Understood,” the two [Otherworlders] replied in sync.

  “Begin!”

  This time, it was Bradley who rushed in with a tackle. A beautiful football rush that, both of them being unarmored, would mean concussions for both if they hit head to head.

  But Zack merely lowered his center of gravity, secured his footing, and…

  With a graceful, flowing motion, picked up the larger, younger man and threw him over his shoulder, flat on his back.

  “Oof!” All the air in Bradley’s lungs was forced out involuntarily.

  “Stop!” Rosimund called, and Zack froze.

  “Ah, sir [Hero]!” Maria rushed in and started chanting a prayer, and holy light descended on the [Hero], healing him.

  “I’m, huff, fine, huff…” Bradley said, struggling to catch his breath as he lay there.

  “Ooh!”

  Several of the knights started clapping their hands.

  “Well done, Zack,” Rosimund said, affecting a professional tone, and the former secret agent dipped his head in acknowledgment.

  A knight near the front of the group of observers raised a hand.

  One of the knights who had prayed differently from the rest. In fact, his gestures had been entirely unique among those Zack had seen.

  “[Otherworlder], how can one avoid being thrown like that?” he asked respectfully.

  Zack stood up straight and smiled at him. “Please, call me Zack, sir…”

  “I am Elandriel,” the tall, slender knight replied.

  “Sir Elandriel, then. Well, first off, don’t charge in like an enraged bull.”

  Zack paused. “Do you have bulls, in this world?”

  A few of the knights snorted. “Yes, we have bulls, and cows, and other such animals,” Elandriel answered.

  “No way he’s throwing a charging behemoth, though,” a knight in the back snickered.

  Bradley got to his feet, helped by Maria, and Zack turned to him. “In football, grabbing is a foul, and you can’t really throw if you can’t grab. But we’re not playing football.”

  “True,” Bradley wheezed.

  Then, he stood up straight, coughed one last time, and was recovered.

  “Another round?” he asked, grinning.

  “I’m game.” Zack smiled.

  He was starting to have fun.

  “Staves, then,” Rosimund decided.

  “You haven’t studied the staff in your world, have you?” Maria asked suspiciously.

  “No,” Zack answered truthfully. Although the basics of combat were the same.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Seize the initiative, strike first and hard, remain maneuverable…

  “Begin!”

  This time, with two losses under his belt, Bradley was more cautious. He gripped his staff near the center, with his hands decently spread, ready to ward off any swings.

  Zack calmly approached at a normal walking pace, holding his staff low. And when he was just barely in striking range…

  He slid the staff in his hands until he was gripping the very bottom edge, with the staff like a spear, or a fencer’s sword. He swept forward in a lunge, thrusting the edge of the staff as far as it could, with as much speed as he could…

  This time, Bradley was able to try to block. He was the faster, and watching for the strike.

  But, unskilled, he missed the block.

  It takes a bit of technique to block a thrust. A side step would have been better.

  And so he took the thrust directly to his stomach, which once again knocked the wind out of him.

  “Stop!”

  Zack stood back up, and there were a few more scattered claps from the peanut gallery.

  “I rather think that’s enough. Zack Adder, have you made your point?” Rosimund turned to Zack and looked at him not unkindly.

  But it was the [Priestess] who responded.

  “No way! The [Otherworlder] is only winning with cheap tricks and low cunning! The [Hero] would definitely win in a fair fight!”

  Zack cocked an eyebrow.

  “A fair fight?” he asked.

  “Yeah! Fight him with swords!”

  Bradley, gripping his stomach, forced himself to speak.

  “Maria, please. Zack doesn’t have the [Swordsmanship] skill…”

  “Bradley, you must! You have to put that sorcerer in his place!”

  “I’m not a sorcerer,” Zack repeated, though Maria was ignoring him.

  Rosimund shot Zack a look, and he shrugged.

  Better to see the difference skills made in a sparring environment, rather than in live combat.

  It would be valuable data.

  “First, Quillon!”

  A particularly broad-shouldered knight stepped forward, one who had prayed like those in the majority, the same as the priests and Maria.

  “Give them both some pointers first.” Rosimund gave Zack an appraising look. “We’ll see if your unique skill is very useful.”

  Unique?

  Zack held his tongue and nodded.

  He would ask about that later.

  Quillon and Elandriel showed them the basics of swordsmanship using wooden longswords. How to hold the sword in a one or two-handed grip. A high stroke, a mid stroke, and a low stroke. How to block, and how to parry.

  Bradley was able to copy the moves with ease.

  Not so for Zack.

  “No, lower your shoulders a bit. Spread your legs. More. More! Keep your back straight. There you go.”

  He was proving a slow student of the blade, despite his one skill: [The Learn].

  He recalled the description of his skill from the appraisal ceremony.

  [The Learn Level 1]: 100% increased skill experience gain up to level 1.

  Effectively, the skill was supposed to cut his training time in half from not having the skill, to getting the skill at level 1.

  And he had, in fact, learned three new skills already.

  [Conceal], [Paranoia], and [Private Conversation].

  Though he wasn’t sure what those skills actually did.

  “There you go, you’re getting the hang of it!”

  Bradley had successfully parried a strike from Quillon, and knocked his wooden sword out of his hand.

  “You may have even increased your skill level; your movements are markedly sharper.”

  “Status,” Bradley said.

  Everyone gave him a look.

  “Huh? Show status. Status!”

  “What… are you doing, Sir [Hero]?” Maria asked him with an expression of concern.

  “I’m trying to check my status. You know, to see if my skill went up.”

  “Your what? Is that from your old world? We don’t have anything like that.”

  “Huh? But then, how does anyone know what their skills are?”

  Rosimund stepped forward. “Most people don’t. If they learn a new skill, they can hear a voice speak to them, informing them of such, but that’s it. Skills one is born with, and skills picked up as young children are often unknown unless, or until, they get appraised.”

  “Skill Appraisal is a holy rite performed only by the Church,” Maria swiftly added. “You and the [Otherworlder] were both appraised by the Pope himself. A great honor!”

  Bradley turned and looked down at Maria. “Can you perform the rite? I want to see if my skill went up.”

  Maria shook her head sadly. “No, but any [Archbishop] or [Cardinal] can perform the rite. I am only a [Priestess], despite my [Oracle] skill…

  “Well, that’s a bummer.”

  “Hmm…”

  Zack would have to think on this.

  “You still haven’t got the skill yet?” Elandriel asked.

  “Nope.”

  He sighed. “Well, we can keep training later.”

  Maria was shooting them impatient glares.

  “Just don’t practice on your own until you get the skill. If you build up bad habits, it’ll make picking up the skill take longer.”

  “Alright, got it.” Zack nodded, and then frowned to himself.

  How long would it take to learn this skill?

  So far he had only learned skills incidentally, without consciously attempting to do so.

  “Come on, [Otherworlder]! You’re not getting scared, are you? Finally gonna fight fair?” Maria taunted.

  Even Rosimund rolled his eyes at that, and Bradley shrugged and smiled awkwardly.

  “Look, I shouldn’t have called you a nerd. I’m sorry. If you don’t want to spar with swords, that’s fine…”

  “No, I’m game. I want to get stronger, too.”

  Zack stepped forward, and they both took their swords in two-handed grips at a distance of ten yards.

  “Begin!”

  Bradley strode forward confidently, keeping his sword held up in a midguard, ready to raise for a high stroke or rotate for a mid stroke, or even a thrust.

  Zack tried to move as well, keeping in mind all the pointers he had been given about his footwork, but…

  It wasn’t clicking.

  Suddenly, Bradley darted in. Zack attempted to block, and his swords was knocked clean out of his hands, spinning into the air.

  And so Zack immediately stepped in close, inside Bradley’s guard, and took him to the ground with a leg sweep.

  “Stop!”

  Zack stopped before the pin, then reached down to offer Bradley a hand.

  The [Hero] sighed.

  Then he took Zack’s hand, who hauled him to his feet.

  “Foul! Foul! Underhanded trickery!” Maria shouted from the side. She then turned to Rosimund, who was sighing and shaking his head. “That’s Sir Bradley’s victory! Once again the [Otherworlder] cheated!”

  “There was no rule against… that.” Rosimund replied, exasperated.

  “But!”

  Zack rolled his eyes and took a step towards the two. “That was certainly Brad’s victory, as far as swordsmanship. I was completely outmatched.”

  And Bradley took a step forward to stand next to Zack. “Yeah, and then Zack took me to the ground again.” He turned to his fellow Earthling. “You gotta teach me how to block that!”

  “Sure thing,” Zack smiled, and then they shook hands.

  All the knights clapped this time.

  Rosimund nodded, even as Maria bit her lip in frustration. “This is exactly what I wanted to show: why we are doing this training. Although the [Hero]’s [Potential] is enormous, he’s still only level 1. Until he increases his level and trains his skills, he can still be outclassed, even by others also at level 1.”

  Bradley furrowed his brow. “Hey, yeah, I have an S in speed, so how come Zack was so fast? His speed, was, uh…”

  “C,” Maria supplied to Zack’s annoyance.

  “That’s your growth rate,” Rosimund explained. “As you increase your level, your speed will increase more greatly the higher your growth rate is. By level ten, you will surely outspeed Zack.”

  Something about that made Zack feel very uneasy.

  “So, just how important are levels, anyway?” he asked, recalling how easily he had pinned Maria to the wall the night before.

  And suddenly he found himself on the ground, face pushed into the dirt.