Chapter 2 The Way Of Fire

When I finally woke up, I was pretty sure that a lot of time had passed, but thankfully I had the three-day grace period to get myself situated in this place. First thing I did was get a shower and go to the bathroom, and I was surprised to not find wooden floors in the bathroom but instead ceramic tiles. I think I prefer them over wood.

When I made it to the large entrance hall of the dorm, I figured out that I had slept for close to 17 hours, but I had a lot of work to do to figure out what my next steps were. Fortunately, all Guild members had access to the library.

My first goal was to find a suitable training map. Preferably, I would want something to do with fire, which might mean that I need to leave this place and set up in another city or town more suitable for my needs.

It took me hours to comb through the literal hundreds of training maps available to beginner adventurers. But this was why I came to this place. Not only were there literal hundreds of training maps just for beginners, but you could simply go from city to city without basically any extra cost and set up in a new location with the training map more suitable for you.

Before I started to go through all the maps, I also read all the information pamphlets and papers I was given, so I now know a lot more about how this place works. That was really useful, but things won't be easy around here. So finding the perfect first training map was crucial; otherwise, there were many ways I could get stuck and even become an indentured servant if I mess up too badly.

Eventually, I found a few options that might work; unfortunately, none of them were in this city. It meant another train ride, but the ticket should be free. Currently, I had the training maps I selected in two categories: ones that had monsters that used fire, the others had training maps where the environment had something to do with fire.

After thinking about it a little bit, while it would be stronger and more beneficial for me to consider the environmental ones, they would also out my capabilities of basically resisting all fire, which would be bad. No, I would need to take the monster option, but that also came with problems.

Slowly, I eliminated training map after training map for various reasons. Whenever there was a monster in a training map that could spew a lot of fire, it was eliminated, as once again it would be too suspicious for me not to get hurt even once. Eventually, I found the one I was looking for.

It had an ashy, rocky map, and while it was hot, it wouldn’t out my secret. There was only one type of regular monster, and even the boss monster was somewhat suitable. The monsters themselves were small imps that could fly but only slowly, basically just hover around a metre or two from the ground.

Their main attack was a dangerous fireball that was quite huge. Its danger rating was red for new adventurers, and normally I think this wouldn’t be a training map available for new adventurers except for the fact that it took 5 seconds of casting for them to fire one off; it then flew pretty slowly, so it was quite easy to dodge, but if you get hit by one you would be dead.

It also seems like they were rarely close enough that you would aggro two of them. When you got close, they could also use their sharp claws, but their close-by fighting capabilities were only at the gray rank, which meant perfect for beginners.

The note at the bottom of the description of this training map said to be really confident in your dodging skills, but if you were, this would be a good first map as it was also quite profitable thanks to what the monster drops when it dies.

My choice made, I went and finally ate something, after which I got the ticket to the new city I was going to, which was luckily smaller—a lot smaller than this one—and even better, I could do my mandatory one-week training there as well.

This time the journey was quite a lot longer, 12 hours on the train, but this time I did sleep as I knew that my stop was the final stop, so I didn’t have to worry about missing it.

This city was a lot quieter, but it still wasn’t what I was used to. It still had over a million people living in it, but it wasn't the 11,000,000 of the portal city. It will take me a bit of time to get used to things, but it’s time to sign up for the one-week beginner course that’s mandatory.

I found that the Adventurer Guild looked quite similar in this city like it was in the other, with only some of the layout being different and some of the building materials, but the dorms looked basically identical. It was easy enough to sign myself up for the beginner course, and I already needed to show up for class in just two hours.

I was one of 17 people who was currently in a modest classroom waiting for our instructor. When she finally came, I was a bit disappointed that I basically knew everything she was talking about, but I still managed to pay attention just in case there was something. She went over all the basics of how to feel your heart crystal and how to view information about monster-forged items along with skill crystals.

At the end of the class, there was some more important information. "Every one of you will need to choose a starting training map. That choice is crucial. The Adventurer Guild guarantees that every single one of you gets three tickets to the training map you choose. If you complete them, you will get a fourth free one we call a wild ticket, and that you can use on any other training map."

Immediately, some hands went up in the class, and she pointed at someone near the front. "Is it possible to get your chosen training map changed if you feel like the first one didn't fit you, and what are training maps?"

Asked the person she had pointed at, but the last part she asked hesitantly, probably assuming everyone already knew, but even I didn’t exactly know what training maps were.

"An excellent question. Yes, you can get your tickets exchanged, although you would need to give good reasons why you found the map you chose unsuitable and how you think the new map will improve your chances. Now, you asked what training maps are. That is a bit more of a complicated answer, but in essence, they are mimicking our worlds.

"What I mean by that is the current world we’re living in that’s technically called a shard and is formed in the void over long periods, creating a stable world where we could live. Maps, on the other hand, are artificially created shards that are snapshots of a moment in time.”

“Normal maps, the ones adventurers use when they get stronger, usually only last a few visits. The training maps are different because first of all, they are weaker, they give lower rewards, and a lot of resources were expended to make them basically permanent."

While I knew some of those points, her explanation helped fill in the blanks. She then continued with other topics that dealt with the bureaucracy of the Adventurer Guild. I saw most others barely able to listen, but I noted down everything I could, especially the library resources she mentioned.

One thing I had learned in my short life was that if you knew all the rules you could take advantage of them, and when your life was at stake, well, you should take every opportunity you could to safeguard it.

The class ended soon after that, and while I wanted to go to the library to start reading up on everything, I would need to wait until the end of the week because currently the training grounds were a free resource for me. After the week was up, I would need to pay for every lesson there, and those were quite expensive as every instructor was a master at their weapon or fighting style.

A large section of the Adventurer Guild seems to have been dedicated to the training grounds, but I wasn’t complaining. There was a large list of trainers to choose from. Fortunately, the style that I wanted to learn was quite popular for beginners, so there were multiple masters I could choose from.

What I needed was someone who could help me train with my scimitar and also focus on more evasive and quick actions with fast opportunity attacks. I was informed that I needed to wait for about half an hour, and during that time I decided to warm up, unlike most others who simply stood and chatted with each other.

While I also had an urge to make friends, I decided the lone wolf approach was necessary as I had secrets to keep. That wasn't my original plan, as being in a group was always safer unless you stumbled on a bad group. In fact, all of my plans on how to build myself were scrapped.

"Are you Mark?" I heard someone say to the left of me. Looking over, I found a man who looked older than I expected, who already had grey in his hair and beard. I nodded, after which he indicated that I should follow, which I did. He had a scimitar on his belt, and on the other side what looked like a small buckler. He was wearing proper armour, and while it looked old, it also looked well taken care of.

It was a mix of metal and leather, and I was certain that there was even chainmail under that. That was another bad fact about beginners; only a small portion could afford armour, and only the truly rich could afford armour with sockets.

Currently, only my sword had one socket with my skill crystal in it, but I bet this master had perhaps a dozen sockets, most likely all of them filled with different skill crystals.

He should be able to kill me in an instant, so perhaps I should not get on his bad side. We reached whatever destination he wanted to get to, and then he started to test me to see how much I knew. His sword strikes were slow, aiming to understand how well I knew the basics. After about 10 minutes of this, he stopped.

"Well, I would say that you’re not really that talented with a sword. I would not recommend you sticking with it for too long. While you lack talent, you have certainly made up for it with hard work.”

“There are some bad habits, most likely from not having a proper teacher, but I can fix those in a week as they’re not too bad. That all being said, you are still probably one of the better swordsmen out here, so don't doubt your capabilities. It's just that you might need to rethink your future plans. Now prepare yourself, as I will not go easy on you."

I just came out of the shower, and I was barely able to walk to my room. That fucker certainly didn't go easy on me. He only ended our lesson when I collapsed from exhaustion. "Hard worker indeed, I commend you," were the words he said to me before he simply left, leaving me there so exhausted that I could barely move.

I cursed him in my head, but damn he was a good teacher. I felt like I had gotten better in a day than I had in five years learning by myself. Sleep came quickly after that, and in the morning I was famished. The mess hall was quite busy even at this early hour, but the food here was amazing, and what was even more important, there was a lot of meat that I could take.

Meat back home was something we could enjoy once, maybe twice a week, and even then only in small portions, but here half of my plate was filled with meat, while the other was a mix of vegetables and something they called potatoes. It tasted quite good, and there was also black bread that I hadn’t tasted before. It wasn't better tasting than bread, but it did seem more filling somehow.

Once again, I was thankful that for the next six days—well, six and a half days—I would be able to get my food for free. In the mornings, I continued to go to different classes that taught the very basics of how to be an adventurer and how the adventurers Guild worked. Most of it I already knew, but it was nice to fill in the blanks. The biggest benefit of this week was still the training grounds.

Fortunately, the scimitar master didn't exhaust me every day, so I was also able to take some other lessons like survival and hand-to-hand combat. What I would have liked to do was try out different weapons to see if I had talent for some of them, as the scimitar master's words on the first day didn’t leave me.

That meant that I might have to scrap my plans of using a sword, which meant that I had literally nothing from my original plan left. It often made me sigh out loud, which made others feel sorry for me, as many expressed the same feelings in the training grounds as they got their asses handed to them by different masters.

Time went by so fast, and before I knew it, I held in my hand three tickets to the Ash Fields training map. I did get an eyebrow raise for my choice, and I was even asked if I didn’t want to reconsider, but I was firm in my conviction, so I was given the tickets. The best part was that there weren't many who wanted to use this training map, so I shouldn’t have to worry about having to wait too long to enter.

It seems that my assumption was correct because I got a time slot for the next morning. It wasn't much time to prepare, but I did as much research as possible on this training map before I got a proper eight hours of sleep. I still didn’t have any armour, although I shouldn’t need it. What I did do was bring along an extra change of clothes just in case I was hit with one of those fireballs.

While I didn’t want to get hit as I was still a little bit hesitant about the effectiveness of my heart crystal, if I did get hit I didn’t want to come out naked.

It was quite early in the morning, and I had an hour’s walk to my destination. It was a bit cold, which I wasn’t used to as it never got so cold in my home. I guess that truly was the most difficult thing to get used to, not knowing exactly what weather the next day will bring.

In the location of the training map, there was a small village surrounded by farming fields that had already been harvested. Looking around, I suspected this place looked quite similar to my home if the fields were full of grain. The largest building made out of wood seemed to be the Adventurer Guild house.

As I entered, I only saw five people. One of them was the receptionist while the other four were sitting around drinking. It seems like they had just had a fight and were celebrating a successful map clear. I headed towards the reception.

"Good morning, I’m here for my scheduled Ash Fields training map time slot," I said while handing over one of my tickets.

"Oh, so you are the one. I just need your thumbprint. It seems like everything matches. It also seems like this is your first training map. It is a dangerous one if you are slow, but you don't seem slow to me, so I wish you good luck, and just head through those doors there; they will take you to the inside courtyard. The guards there will let you in when the time’s right."

I thanked the man as he seemed like good people. I headed towards the doors he pointed to and emerged into quite a large courtyard that, unlike the building surrounding it, was made out of rock bricks. There were ten guards here, and before they could say anything, I showed them my ticket.

"About 15 more minutes, you can wait and sit on one of the benches," was the answer I got after they verified who I was once again.

Sitting on the bench was a bit nerve-wracking, and the minutes seemed to go by really slowly. Eventually, the same guard spoke up once again.

"The training map has finished cycling, you can go in now, and you have 4 hours to get out. If you don't get out in four hours, we will come in to get you out or to find your corpse. If you are still alive, you will get fined, and another ticket will be taken from you. Is that understood?"

I immediately nodded and rushed to the portal where I waited a few moments before I took a deep breath in and let it out before I stepped in.

"How much you wanna bet he doesn’t come out?" I just heard being said by one of the guards before I was in another world.

The sun was not very bright, but it was red-coloured, which I hadn’t seen before. Everything was covered in ash, and I think it was quite hot here, even hotter than the warmest weather I have ever experienced. Yet it didn’t bother me at all; I wasn’t even sweating, and I don’t think I will, at least not from the heat. Wait, could I even sweat now? Thinking back on my training, the answer was no, I didn’t sweat.

Focus, I need to focus. Every time the training map cycled it was a bit different, but there were constants here, one of the reasons why it was a training map. There were no imps close to the portal, but they weren’t too far away. I dropped my backpack as I didn’t want it getting damaged, pulled out my sword, and headed out.

My steps were a bit unsteady as there was at least two inches of ash on the ground. After I realised that, I took a little bit of time to get used to the ground while going through my fighting moves. It was a bit of an adjustment, but after about half an hour I continued onwards. Unfortunately, I should have been more sneaky.

There were many rocks around that were big enough to disrupt line of sight, so while I went around one, an imp and I noticed each other at the same time. Immediately it started its casting, holding its hands in front of itself, where flames started to gather from nowhere. I started to move sideways, making sure that there were no other imps around, but it seems like I was in the clear like the map information said.

In my head I counted the seconds, and when I reached five, I dashed to the side and a little bit towards the imp. The fireball exploded to the left of me and behind me, not causing any damage as I was out of its range. As I was two metres away from the imp, I activated the skill gem in my scimitar and moved forward unnaturally fast, surprising the imp.

My strike was true, and I pierced its small body. It still tried to crawl towards me even while impaled, but its wings had already stopped moving, so I let my sword tip drop and it slipped backwards off my sword and onto the ground. I finished it off with another stab and watched how it started to disappear.

While the monsters here could kill you easily, they were not actually real, just manifestations of some time and place. When it disappeared, however, it did leave behind seven small pieces of horn the size of my fingernail. That there was enough money for me to live in the Adventurer Guild for another week. Outside it, it could perhaps only get one meal, but until I got stronger I had heavy discounts on my basic needs.

I had barely done anything, but I was still a bit exhausted because of the skill usage. It took a lot out of me, and my magic was also running close to empty. I would not be able to pull off another use of the skill, but for today my plan was to only kill one.

I took my loot and headed back towards the portal. Before I went out, I meditated and went to look at my heart crystal. Everything was normal except around my heart crystal there was now a crimson ring forming, and around it there were particles of the same colour. From the looks of it, I had gotten enough essence to form my first ring, which would make me stronger.

Nowadays, there were different names more commonly used for what was happening to me. Essence gaining was now called experience, and the rings were called levels. So currently I had gained enough experience to gain my first level, which will give me a small improvement to basically everything. I would need ten more rings before they would collapse in around my heart crystal, making me a proper adventurer.

I decided to wait another 10 minutes to finally get my first level, and I felt the small power boost it gave me. It made me smile. I took my backpack and headed outside. "I would like to declare my loot," I showed one of the guards what I got.

"Seven pieces of horn, an unlucky amount, but at least you managed to kill your first monster without getting killed. Congratulations, kid, and while using your first tickets you would only need to give up a portion of your loot if you bring out more than 20 pieces of horn. I also recommend you don’t spend all your money in one place. And here, take this."

The guard then proceeded to flick a gold coin at me. That was basically another two weeks' worth of food and a roof over my head. While I was grateful, I was also confused, and I guess the guard understood that.

"You helped me win quite a few coins by coming out alive. That coin was to thank you for not making me lose my coin," he said with a smile and then looked towards the guard who had a sour face.

I did not know how to feel about them betting on my life, so I decided not to think about it and just left. There were a few more people inside the Guild house now; none of them looked new, most likely they were the ones who were either stationed here or they were the ones who were farming this map. The looks they gave me weren't the most friendly, so I decided to go back to the city.

When I made it back, I was surprised to realise that my magic had returned fully. It seems that my recovery also got better, and while I wasn’t certain, I was pretty sure that I could now use my skill two times before I was close to empty. It was nice to see that everything seems to be working like it should even with a heart crystal so unique.

Immediately, I went and sold my loot, keeping some of the copper coins I got while depositing everything else, including the gold coin, so I could stay in the Guild dormitory for another three weeks and have access to the wonderful mess hall with all the different kinds of foods.

What that gold coin could have given me was another lesson in the training field, but the two weeks was more important for me. Now I could register once again for the training map, but I will look at that in two weeks. It was now time to go to the library and start studying up on the Guild itself. It was a lot of reading to do, but if there were laws that would help me, I was going to find them.