Footsteps roared in Jake's ears. Blue eyes met his. A sword was aimed at him. He stepped away and then a flash of blood. Then the blue eyes went dark like a dull sapphire that lost its luster.
Jake breathed heavily as he awoke from the terrible nightmare. He rubbed his face tiredly, wiped sleep from his eyes, and sighed. He hoped there were no more of those nightmares again but he doubted he had a choice in that.
Either way now that his mind had somewhat rested he could be much more objective with what was happening.
First was that he was dead there was no question of this. He remembered looking up at his worried mother and sister as he drank the medicine they had prepared and then it all went black and he awoke here in the Abyss.
Second he killed someone yesterday... or whatever you called it. But as a result he had gotten the man's soul and earned rewards due to it.
Third was that he had drastically improved in his swordsmanship. He knew this because when he got up to stretch he found himself slipping almost unconsciously into the sword stance and had an easier smoother gait to go with it.
Jake smiled inwardly. This was good but he most certainly was nowhere near the level of those men who had been slaughtering others. On that note it was time to begin morning training... or whatever time it was really he didn't think there was a day night cycle right now.
First Jake started with stretches. He stretched his legs and then his arms for about 20 minutes to make sure they were really loose.
Now Jake had a few options to go with. First, he could look into the deeper part of the forest and try to find something to fight but... if he did he would probably find something beyond his level and he might get killed. Not a fun option especially when he considered that there was also no guarantee of there being anything to fight anyway. Second, Jake could go back to the gathering area where everyone else was and try and duel with someone; after all only a few people had seen what he did and out of 4,000 people he was sure he could find at least one idiot stupid enough to duel him. Third, he could try and train his stamina more. This was a reasonably safe option with great benefits but he also didn't want to be sore for the second trial.
Now that he thought about it why did his body get sore from exercising? He was dead and yet still tied down by mortal functions 'Damn this abyss' he thought bitterly.
Option 2 had the greatest overall benefit. The rate of improvement was getting slower just training with his shadow. Even Improving the shadow with the knowledge from each fight was becoming far too slow and the battles took much longer to find a killing blow for either of them. Another downside was that his shadow was nowhere near a perfect opponent it only matched the knowledge he had and while when it came to basic swordsmanship he could push it to the limit he had no way of knowing how an actual opponent would react or if he could follow through on his cuts and thrusts. In short people were unpredictable and he needed dueling experience against people to have a real chance.
So Jake looked towards the sky for the big blue screen and began his trek back to the fields of grass.
Soon the forest thinned into nothing and the grass grew longer and bigger as he made his way to the group of 4,000 people. Many people had formed groups and cliques on their own and many watched him with suspicion.
This would be harder than Jake initially thought. Then pink eyes flashed in his head. Right she could be of help she seemed nice and kind and seemed to be social. Looking around he searched for any sign of the orange haired girl. Nowhere near him at all it seemed.
He sighed. Jake wasn't exactly sociable he could hold a conversation but he hated troubling people by asking questions. It just made him uncomfortable.
'Well there's nothing I can do about it' he thought. He began walking around and turning his head to look at the hair color of each person he passed. 'Brown, brown, black, blonde, red' he listed off silently.
Each group always looked suspiciously at him, probably because they had no idea of knowing if he was scouting competition or just walking around.
For some reason unknown to Jake he could pick the leaders out rather easily. For example there was a young man lying on his back while his group sat a respectful distance from him. The young man had dark olive skin with a scar down his face and black eyes that held a calculative gleam in them.
He unsettled Jake deeply by his carefree aura but also hidden strength in the way he seemed to command the older rough men around him.
The man seemed to have noticed him and got up from his place on the ground white teeth flashing as he grinned while he walked towards Jake.
" Hey there" said a light playful voice " you know staring can be quite rude" the man said.
" I apologize" Jake said trying to disarm any conflict before it started " I'll be on my way." He turned to leave.
A hand grabbed his shoulder and a light chuckle filled his ears " ahh man your way too uptight." His grin deepened " I'm Hirez. You don't seem to bad so why don't you join me and my buddies."
Jake turned back his eyes scanning Hirez. " How do I know I'm not getting sold out when shit hits the fan after all I seem to be joining rather late."
Hirez's smile faded and instead a questioning look found his face. " hmm... I suppose I can't guarantee that but I led a group before back when I was still alive. We had no obligations no friendships with each other but we stayed together in order to live.
Jake seized his opportunity. " Then let me duel some of your team members. If I'm gonna join then I need to know you all can pull your own weight."
Hirez hesitated for a moment. " I can't let you inj-"
Jake cut him off " I'll do my best not to injure them just enough to try and gauge their skill compared to mine."
Hirez's eyes narrowed. " since you seem to be such a master you wouldn't mind a duel with me then would you."
" no problem" Jake replied coolly
* * *
Jake dropped into his stance comfortably. Hirez, who was about 15 feet away, just held his sword with one hand looking relaxed and composed.
One of the group members stepped forward between them hand up and chopped the air signalling the beginning of the duel.
Jake stood his ground while Hirez walked towards him.
Something Jake realized, much to his chagrin, while Hirez walked towards him was that he was tall, really tall and built like a tree with thick knots of muscle in his form despite being relatively skinny.
Jake took a tentative step forward putting Hirez in his range and thrust towards his neck.
Hirez responded by simply stepping to the side and slashing at Jake's arms. Jake pulled back then overlapped his sword over Hirez's to prevent repositioning and thrust at his stomach.
Hirez,of course, side-stepped once more. He brought his sword up and thrust at Jake's hands smoothly. Jake brought his hands down and up to catch the sword on the cross guard and pushed it up and left while stepping to the right. Jake then followed up by stepping closer and trying to smash the pommel into Hirez's face.
Hirez danced backward and swung wildly towards Jake. Jake stepped back calmly and controlled to maintain his stance.
Jake had been surprised initially, the strikes were different than what he initially imagined they were heavier but nothing he couldn't handle at the moment.
" You're pretty good. Wanna call it here kid?" Hirez asked a small smirk on his face.
Jake paused for a moment. The fight had been good so far but he needed more if he was going to evolve.
"Nah lets keep going." Jake replied kindly.
Hirez nodded his smirk never leaving his face. He changed his grip to a two handed one and dashed forward towards Jake with a frightening amount of speed. The tip of Hirez's blade was instantly under Jake's nose.
Jake jerked his head back struggling to maintain his balance. A flash of steel.
Jake thrust his blade down in a wild attempt to block the slash towards his left side.
Their blades never connected instead Jake found that Hirez had snaked his way past his guard and put his foot behind him while pushing his chest lightly.
Jake fell with a thud. When his eyes opened he found the tip of a sword at his chest and Hirez standing there a smile on his face.
"Not bad, kid." The grin on his face seemed much more annoying to Jake now than it had before.
" Why are you calling me a kid when you don't look too many years older than me?" Jake said with a small amount of venom. He guessed he was a lot more annoyed than he thought.
Hirez stiffened. " I am a bit older than you think." his tone was light but there was stiffness to it. He moved his sword and reached down a hand.
Jake reluctantly took it. " what were you when you were alive." Jake asked
" I was a combat slave. Debt from gambling kept me on the front lines and well." Hirez said
Jake felt a little bad. " sorry about that I heard combat slaves don't get much when it comes to training it must have been tough to have..." Jake realized nearly as soon as the words came out. He had accidentally reminded him about his potentially violent death.
Hirez waved it off " Don't worry everything's a bit strange right now but we all have to adjust. May I ask how you know about combat slaves though. I didn't think commoners would have that kind of knowledge."
Jake looked away not feeling like discussing this with Hirez. " Ah well back in my village I was the butler of a young noble woman. My family lived close enough to her mansion that I could get up and head to work while also being able to head home to my family."
Hirez stared skeptically " you mean to say that she allowed you to head home at the end of the day, wouldn't she need her attendant to be ready at all times?"
Jake said nothing while Hirez's eyes slowly widened and a grin broke out onto his face. " ah I see you lucky bastard."
" It was never like that." Jake said glaring daggers into Hirez.
Hirez patted Jake on the back and took him to sit down and began introducing members.
There was Jamie, a blonde pretty boy with eccentric features; Andre, a giant of a man with long curly black hair whose long-sword looked like a tooth pick in his hands; and finally Theo, a small wilily man who was balding.
They were a rather rambunctious group telling old stories of their misadventures. Jamie talked about his rescue of a noble woman who had been kidnapped by a group of bandits, Andre spoke of his time in the ring as a pugilist, Theo gave a few words of wisdom.
It was warm with them. They were kind people.
" So what about you", Jamie asked " what did you do to get good enough with that sword of your's you almost looked like a squire for a moment." He smiled
Jake was a little startled and answered hastily. " oh uh I just trained in the forest not far from here."
They all looked at him a little puzzled. " you mean a forest near your home right?" Andre asked.
"ah... no I only recently touched a sword when I came here." Jake answered a little flustered.
This time Hirez stared at him. " You mean to say you learned how to use a sword so well within... 15 hours?"
" well when you put it like that..." Jake said
He scoffed and muttered something to himself about prodigies. Jamie just stared flabbergasted and Andre looked at him with almost approvingly.
Theo looked at him questioningly, " What ranking did the Abyss give you?"
Jake didn't know how to answer for a moment but decided he was committed to this group. " I got 23rd but I don't really know what it means."
" Isn't it obviously saying you're the 23rd strongest?" Jamie asked.
"Not necessarily." Theo interjected, "From what I saw there were other extremely strong people out there. There was a group killing indiscriminately but they looked sharp and based on the fact that so many people were killed in an hour there should be at least one other group like that. In addition to that I'm sure there's at least 20 other people who are as good as the captain with the sword." Theo explained.
Jake had come to a similar conclusion. " Any Idea what it's measuring then?"
Theo smiled lightly. " I have no idea young man, but seeing how quickly you improved in just a day there is a real possibility that it's measuring your potential."
Jake felt something click at that phrase. Potential, what is it? If potential was what determined ranking then what did that mean for the 22 people above him? Did that mean he would always be weaker than them? Something about the idea intrigued him deeply. It made his heart race. He smiled unconsciously.
" Hey Andre you were a fighter right? Would you mind teaching me some stuff." Jake said his passion for learning burning like a forest fire.