Despite Giovanni Cartelone’s glare, the after-party ended without incident. Zack made sure to eat his fill of the free food, as did all the other actors and actresses, and late that night he returned with Vlad to his apartment.

  “Do not forget that you have training tomorrow morning,” Vlad cautioned before retiring to his own bedroom.

  And early the next morning Zack headed to the Rose Theater, arriving just after dawn at the same time as Ronaldo.

  “Good morning… yawn Jack.” Ronaldo said.

  “Good morning, Ronaldo.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’m going to skip getting into costume, myself. It’s too early…”

  “Not a morning person?”

  “Not particularly, no.” He sighed. “I thought after I improved my [Swordsmanship] I’d be done with early morning training, but the Director is merciless…”

  Zack frowned. “It’s not my fault, is it?”

  Ronald jerked, startled. “Huh? What, no, Jack!” He sounded much more awake. “Training a male understudy is part of my job, same as it was Sandra’s job with Roxy. You did fine last night. And you’ll do even better going forward.”

  They walked backstage. “Still, you should get in costume. Let’s start with the sword-bearer role, and work our way through the other minor roles.”

  Ronaldo leaned against the wall, yawning, as Zack got costumed, including the stage makeup. Every bit of practice seemed to help with his [Skills], and he wanted them as high level as he could get.

  “So, you went out yesterday? How was it?”

  Ronaldo had been chatting with Zack every now and then about how to fit in with Fortinium customs, after the Director had let him know that Zack was a foreigner like himself.

  “It was fine. There was one thing, about the Warden?”

  “Ah, yeah. The Kingdom here restricts hunting in the forest outside the city. You either need to be a Knight or Guard fighting for levels, or a licensed Hunter or Adventurer doing a quest. Hunting without a license is considered poaching here, and they take it pretty seriously.”

  Ronaldo knew that Jack was registered with the Adventurer’s Guild, due to his accidental [Taming]. “Well, you’re already registered with the Adventurer’s Guild, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Did they not have a Warden where you came from?” Zack asked.

  Ronaldo’s face darkened. “No, they didn’t. I don’t have a lot of memories, but the Hoxichtl tribe was nomadic. My parents told me the tribe would settle down in one spot for a few years, until the hunting got tough, and then move on somewhere else. Then the imperials rolled in and said they owned everything, and tried to force our tribe to relocate into some new city they were founding. When we refused, they labeled us all bandits, and started hunting us…”

  Ronaldo shook his head like he was banishing the memories.

  “Anyway, my parents and I made it here, and the Southern Empire’s not our problem anymore. We’re Fortinians now. You ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  They started with the sword-bearer’s role, and in the end, didn’t get to any of the other minor roles. With the blocking and cues down, the bare minimum to get onstage and not ruin the performance, Ronaldo had a lot of critique regarding Zack’s expressions and posture during various scenes. They both had the entire script memorized, and time flew until the first of the other actors arrived: Sandra.

  “Fine. My sword!” Ronaldo, in character, extended his hand and Zack handed it to him.

  “Your grip, Ronaldo,” Sandra chided.

  Zack broke character and looked at Ronaldo’s hand, and saw his fingers move slightly.

  “There, better.” She turned to Zack. “Good morning, Jack. How’s the training?”

  “Good morning. It’s good.” Zack smiled.

  Ronaldo heaved a sigh.

  “I’ll check your progress, then. Ronaldo, sword swings.”

  “Seriously…?”

  “Do you want to drop your sword mid-performance again?”

  “Fine…” Ronaldo moved off to the far side of the stage and took a stance.

  “Wider.”

  He spread his feet a little more.

  “Good.” Sandra looked to Zack. “Go fetch Fyodor’s sword, we’ll use that as our prop.”

  They ran through the scenes, Sandra matching Ronaldo’s voice and inflection nearly perfectly for his lines. Her vocal range was truly impressive.

  “Well, you’re improving rapidly,” she assessed. “Already much better than last night. During rehearsal, keep in mind what the Director said: inhabit the role. Think the thoughts your character should be thinking.”

  For the rest of the morning, Sandra drilled Ronaldo on basic [Swordsmanship] drills.

  “You need to practice every day, Ron. Every day.”

  “I just have no talent for the sword,” he complained.

  “That’s why you need to practice every day,” Sandra chided.

  “Do you mind if I [Mimic] you?” Zack asked Ronaldo.

  “Oh no, absolutely not. You’ll just pick up bad habits,” Sandra answered.

  Ronaldo merely groaned and continued his sword swings.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  “Here, Jack, this is how you hold a sword.” She placed her hands over his holding the hilt of the sword, and adjusted his fingers. “Now memorize this grip. Got it? Okay, let go of the sword and grip it like this fifty times.”

  “Are you serious?” Zack asked.

  “Yes, she is,” Ronaldo answered.

  Sandra narrowed her eyes as she smiled at him.

  “You need to learn this anyway, Understudy. You might have to fill in for Fyodor or Vlad one of these days.”

  “Right, okay.”

  And so he put the sword down and picked it up, with the same grip, fifty times while Sandra critiqued Ronaldo.

  “There, done.”

  “Good.” Sandra deftly snatched the sword right out of Ronaldo’s hand mid-swing. “Now, without getting too fancy, this is a thrust.” She lunged forward, jabbing the tip of the sword in front of her. “The power comes from the entire body, not just your arm. Watch closely.” She repeated the action. “And this is an overhead strike.” The step forward was shorter this time, she brought the sword down in a perfectly straight arc with an audible whoosh.

  She tossed the sword back to Ronaldo, who caught it easily.

  “Ron, practice your grip more! Zack, show me the thrust.”

  She gave pointers as Zack thrust over and over, adjusting his movements bit by bit, until…

  *ding!* The skill [Swordsmanship] has been acquired!

  Just like with [Running], all the pointers he had been keeping in mind consciously settled into his body like good habits, and his thrusts became much more consistent.

  “Good! Now the overhead strikes.”

  After a dozen repetitions of the overhead strike with pointers, Zack felt the good habits sink in again.

  Sandra squinted at him. “Jack, have you trained with the sword before?”

  “Just the once,” he answered, thinking of the short training session before his spar with the [Hero].

  “Hmmm…” She looked at him appraisingly.

  “Actually, I had a question. So you know I’m registered with the Adventurer’s Guild, right?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well they want me to go out hunting thurgenrats.”

  “Ugh, don’t.”

  “Seriously Jack, don’t bother,” Ronaldo added.

  Zack paused his sword swinging, letting the sword in his hand fall to his side. “Hm? Why not?”

  “They’re gross, for one,” Sandra said.

  “They’re not worth your time. What’s the going rate for a tail, a lindra?”

  “It’s up to three now.”

  “Even so—wait, what?”

  “They’re swarming,” Sandra clarified.

  Ronaldo shook his head a little, refocusing. “Ahem, anyway, they’re annoying to fight and you’ll make better money here in the theater.”

  “I’m not getting paid, though.”

  “You’re getting paid in training,” Sandra said with a light glare.

  “And you’ll get sick. It’s just a matter of time until you get bit, catch bloodrot, and wind up in debt to some apothecary or worse, the Church.”

  While Ronaldo explained, Sandra demonstrated how to perform a lunging thrust towards a small target low to the ground. Zack [Mimicked] her demonstration.

  “You’ll want a shorter step, since you’ll have the range advantage,” Sandra said.

  “Like this?”

  “Yes.”

  Ronaldo blanched.

  “You’re seriously considering it, aren’t you?”

  Zack pursed his lips. It would get him on Stacy’s good side, and she seemed a good target for cultivation.

  In layman’s terms: if she liked him, she’d share Guild gossip with him. Much more efficient than lurking in the Guildhall [Eavesdropping] himself.

  “I’d like to get my level up,” he said after a moment’s hesitation. “And a bit of pocket money would be nice, for Sienna’s food if nothing else.

  “Your snake familiar?” Sandra asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Just let her out to hunt on her own.”

  Zack gave her a look. “She’s a taipan. I don’t want anyone attacking her.”

  “I can understand wanting to raise your level,” Ronald said, “but it’s not really worth the risk of injury, and there’s no safe way to do it, in the long run. You don’t see many elderly former Adventurers, Jack.”

  “What about archers?” he asked.

  “Yeah, until something runs up on them.”

  “So what do people around here do for self-defense?”

  “Huh?” Sandra looked perplexed.

  “Jack’s not from around here,” Ronaldo said.

  “Yeah,” Zack confirmed.

  “Anyway, that’s what the City Guard is for,” Ronaldo explained. “Anybody going around getting rough with people is going to get caught by the City Guard soon enough, and the castle dungeons are notoriously unpleasant.”

  “Still…”

  Sandra heaved a heavy sigh.

  “You’re still planning to go out and muck about with rats, aren’t you?”

  Zack shrugged.

  “What’s your weapon, then? Sword?”

  “No, can’t afford one. The Guild gave me a dagger.”

  “Do you even know how to use it?”

  “Not really,” he lied.

  Sandra facepalmed, loudly.

  “Well, go get it.”

  “Huh?”

  She glared at Zack. “Go. Get. Your dagger.”

  Her tone brooked no argument.

  The usual caterers arrived with the casts’ lunch, and Ronaldo slipped away to go eat.

  “Go on,” Sandra urged him, and so Zack went and fetched his dagger. Sandra held out her hand expectantly, and although he felt uncomfortable handing over his weapon, he did so.

  She took in hand, drew it from the sheath, and inspected the blade. She then tossed it in the air, letting it flip once before catching it by the hilt and flipping it into an underhanded grip.

  “Here, look, this is the proper underhanded grip.”

  Zack looked closely at her slender fingers wrapped around the dagger’s hilt.

  “For thurgenrats, you’ll want to stab and pull, slicing on your way out. And you’ll want to use an underhanded grip, because if you trip and fall, you won’t accidentally stab yourself falling on your knife. Blade pointed away from your face, got it?”

  He copied the movement.

  *ding!* The skill [Knife Wielding] has been acquired!

  “Another Adventurer told me to hold the head down with one hand while stabbing,” Zack said.

  Sandra shook her head.

  “Stomp on the head or neck, pin it down, then slice.”

  She looked him up and down.

  “Hey, where’d you learn so much about fighting, anyway, Sandra?” Zack asked.

  She frowned at him.

  “That’s really none of your business, Jack.”

  Patreon!