ABANDONED

TRAINING

After I got into my group the king dismissed us allowing us to retire to our rooms and follow our new teachers apparently to our training rooms. while everyone else filed out of the room my group stood and waited leaving the room as the last group present. I looked at our new teacher and was intrigued by his outfit, he wore what looked like hunting armor that was made of thick leather with a silver pauldron on his shoulder. His pants were black and baggy with pieces of armor holding it down in places, though the ends of the pants were unseen since they were stuffed into the brown cuffed boots the man wore. This man was peculiar especially his hair, it was wild and scraggly with wisps of orange protruding in strange and paralleling ways. The man wore what looked like a porcelain mask but his voice was not nearly as smooth as the mask, his voice came out rough like his throat was sore "mmk, follow me you little vamrats". the man began walking not even looking back to see that we were following and left the room through a wooden side door, the rest of the group along with myself caught up to the instructor and followed him through the castle.

We passed through numerous hallways and corridors noticeably getting deeper and darker by the distinct lack of windows and the ever dripping black sludge that fell from the cracks in the grey stone ceiling. finally we reached our destination it was a dungeon like area with a purely stone interior covered in moss and mildew, the air was damp and musty while the furnishings of the room where befitting of such a place. Along the sides of the far wall were a series of small cots that were lifted just inches off the floor and looked on the verge of collapse, besides that there was a lone chalkboard on the wall with the rest of the room being filled with cabinets and bookshelves filled with bottles, vials, and jars of varying sizes. The instructor stood in front of the board giving a deep "ahem" since we were still standing at the entrance truly appalled by the surrounding area. I along with the rest of the group sat on the floor looking up at the man in front of the chalkboard, clearing his throat the man began the lesson "okay listen up you useless little skags, my name is Charles D. Varian but you will refer to me as either Mr. Varian or sir do you understand" I could tell that nobody took Mr. Varian seriously since they though he must be pretty trashy to be stuck in this dungeon of a room so as everyone droned out a lazy "yeeeeesssss" Mr. Varian grabbed one of the vials from the shelf and threw it at everyone feet. the vial quickly burst into flames illuminating the crypt like room with golden orange light and with an extremely irritated tone only emphasized by the fire he asked "do you understand" everyone stood up and saluted saying "yes sir".

I remained on the ground watching the flames from the vial dissipate until the room was once again a dim dingy are a now filled with smoke. it didn't take long for Mr. Varian to spot me and he immediately called me out not only for not standing up which he commended as an act of bravery but also for my angry look which he found was perfect for a fighter so it seemed that he took a particular liking to me which I found as a nice change of pace from constantly getting shit on by my teachers and being avoided by my classmates. Mr. Varian wasted no time training us he forced us through some extreme physical conditioning forcing us to chase him around the castle while he used a type of wind magic and having us lift solid stone pillars as a means of building muscle though our more chubby members had trouble with this. The food we had was only that found for necessity, we were often sent into the woods to forage for yourself rarely able to catch an animal and often ate weeds and berries to keep us sustained. Mr. Varian taught us how to stalk and track our prey by using something called arrowweed, they were stalks of thin red grass and were extremely brittle. when they were napped the dust from within them would settle on a tuft of fur, or a footprint and start creating a streak of red in the direction of the creature location, may use it for hunting while a few used for tracking people but for Mr. Varian he considered all of this the easy stuff.

It had been three months since I and the rest of my classmates have come to Varian and it seems that one thing is burningly clear, I was still the outcast. Even though the harsh conditions of the training Mr. Varian had given us were also supposed to serve as a team building advent but I was not included in this little group. when we were hunting I was always alone while everyone hunted as a group yet when I was the one to actually catch a Ra'goo (this world's equivalent of a rabbit) they would claim that they in fact helped me catch it, and I was usually training alone while the others were spotting each other. I didn't mind the action I was used to being snubbed but it was the next day that presented a new and absolutely wondrous development.

I awoke to the sound of metal banging against stone as I slowly rose from my cot easing myself as to not break it, I stood up to see that everyone else was already awake and they were holding sword. granted they seemed a bit dull and rounded on the end but still a sword was a sword, apparently Mr. Varian had come in last night with a little gift he was standing near the door watching as the rest of my aforementioned group were practicing stabs and slashes against the wall . Knowing that I had gotten up late I didn't expect to get a sword so I silently meandered around the room inspecting the rows upon rows of bottled potions. thankfully they were all labeled and I knew that I didn't want to touch the one that said "bile of the black sun" soon enough I found one that intrigued me it was the "blood of the forgotten ones" as I picked it up Mr. Varian quickly rushed over yanking it from my hands saying in a concerned but also stern voice "what are you doing, never touch things like this again do you know what would've happened if you had let this spill on yourself or gods forbid drank it. Well did you!" I was shocked and confused. I had never seen Mr. Varian act this way so I simply stepped back and said "yes sir". One of my classmates handed me their banged up sword and said "here you need the practice" I could practically hear the sneer in their voice. I was tempted to try hacking to death with the dull blade but Mr. Varian stopped me by handing me a silver short sword and telling me to go train in the forest. I did so obediently venturing to the forest and practicing my attacks, thanks to the intense training I endured my legs were able to carry me farther and faster allowing me to leap from trees and flip around avoiding tree barbs and fallen logs. I practice using the sword by cutting down branches of slicing a tree until it fell over, as I was running around I thought back to my horrible stats and decided to check the and I was happy to see that they had improved somewhat.

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Name: James Everett

gender: male

age: 17

race: human

class: <?????>

title: <forsaken by god>

lvl: 0

hp: 20/20

mp: 20/20

str: 30

vit: 35

spd: 60

mres:20

skills: <blood rage>

_______________________________________

I enjoyed how I was stronger and three times faster but I was confused, why didn't my level go up at all maybe I have to kill a monster though while my mind was preoccupied I wasn't looking where I was going and slammed into the base of a tree with the only thing cushioning my descent were the thorny branches of the trees. Each scratching my skin causing it to hurt slightly more when I finally hit the ground. As I collected myself I thought I heard a voice whispering to me in a faint tone "find me...find me" just as I thought I had located the voices direction I was startled by Mr. Varian and the rest of the class approaching yelling "hey, James. come on everyone's been called for a raid" I nodded my head in response and began walking toward the group occasionally stealing glances behind me hoping to see or at the very least hear the voice again, it was fain yet light and smooth like the voice of an angel.