“I have two options for you, take a look.”
[Skirmisher Crossbow] Lightweight crossbow with quick reload speed and quick shots. Fails at a long distance. ~10-15 second reload. | 50 Credits
[Longshot Crossbow] Heavy crossbow built for distance and power, takes longer to reload. Bolts pierce armor. ~30-45 second reload | 60 Credits
Evel looked at these crossbows closely. He wasn’t interested in the longshot crossbow, lacking the specific aiming skills, but even the skirmisher was too expensive. 50 credits for the bow, 5 for the cheapest wire, around 20 for the food, and even more if he used the pods. That left him with at most 25 for the rest pods and other items he wanted to purchase.
“So what do you think? They come with the quiver, bolts, a sling, and the case! Crossbows can be quite difficult to load, but for you, if you work out a bit, it’ll produce better results than a regular bow!”
The shopkeeper looked at Evel keenly.
“Too expensive,” Evel replied bluntly, analyzing the crossbow in front of him with great curiosity.
I mean, if I didn’t use the rest pods frequently then I could easily afford it, but I need the extra time.
“I could maybe throw in the wire as well.” The shopkeeper offered.
“This crystal coil?”
Evel asked hopefully.
“What, of course not! Those alone cost 25 credits, let’s be realistic here.”
“I don’t know…”
Evel's eyes remained firmly on the crossbow, as he played around with a card in his right hand.
“It’s the best price you’ll get.”
“30?”
Evel gave the shopkeeper a toothy grin. He had never really learned how to properly bargain. The shopkeeper looked back in disbelief.
“Come on man, let’s be realistic.”
“It’s not your stuff anyways, and I doubt the military would notice.”
The shopkeeper immediately shrugged him off.
“I gotta make money to get paid, how about this: 50 credits but the ferrum coil for free on the side as well as another small item worth less than 5 credits.”
Evel considered this for a while. Doing this would already save him 10 credits, an amount he was satisfied with. Internally, he already accepted this offer but decided to ask for some extra benefits anyways.
“How about this: throw in those caltrops worth six credits, and the bell from the door.”
Now the shopkeeper was really surprised.
“The bell???”
“It can get loud, right?”
…
They stared at each other for a while.
“Yea sure… but you want to buy the bell?”
The shopkeeper repeated, trying to confirm Evel’s wishes.
“Could I?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
…
After a few more seconds of silence, the shopkeeper gave in.
“I mean sure, I guess.”
He doubted many other people would come to buy a crossbow soon, and had honestly expected to get even less for it. 50 credits was a good haul, but he made sure not to let Evel know, the customer always needs to feel like they won.
He walked over to the door and grabbed one of the bells and stuffed it with some cloth in order to silence it. Then he returned and handed the four items to Evel.
The Skirmishers crossbow along with a sling, a quiver containing 15 reusable bolts
The Ferrum Coil which came with cutters.
Caltrops
A bell wrapped in cloth.
This had cost him 50 credits, and he had already spent 3 on food.
That leaves me with 47 credits. I have at least five more days so that will cost me 15 credits, and if I want to use the rest pod once a day, I’ll need 25 credits, which leaves me with seven credits…
No…
I’d have to eat more as well if I used the pods, so at most I could use it four times, leaving me with one credit to spare.
Evel did some more calculations in his mind.
If I use it three times, then I’ll have 9 credits left…
Evel walked out with the shop with a comprehensive plan in mind.
He had to eat.
He had to strengthen his body, particularly his stamina.
He had to train with the crossbow.
He had to train with his ability and the wire.
He had to take appropriate breaks.
He had to find other strong allies.
That’s how the remaining five days would be spent.
A few days later…
Brenton charged forward, buckler on his left hand, and a wooden stick in his right.
SWOOSH
He swung hard but it hit nothing as Elena gracefully ducked under the stick and swooped her feet to kick Brenton’s ankles.
Remaining firm and keeping his footing, he brought the sword above him to perform an overhead swing.
Elena, after failing to topple over Brenton was in an awkward position so she brought her dual wooden daggers to block the swing.
Brenton swung with all his strength, crashing the sword down on Elena.
She created some distance, using the momentum of her block to perform two backsteps.
“RAHHHHH”
From her right, Leo was charging at her with his wooden shortsword.
Brenton, after reeling back from the contact, looked forward again and charged.
Surrounded, Elena took a few more steps back. Then, she pivoted hard right.
Leo continued charging, but Brenton was in an awkward position, being directly behind Leo, so he was forced to wake a few steps to the side to try and surround Elena.
Pouncing on this opportunity she created, Elena dashed in front of Leo.
Leo took a big swing diagonally down from his body.
CLACK!
Elena parried his attempt with one of her wooden daggers, then took a hard swing at Leo’s stomach with her other.
SMACK!
“ARHHGG”
Leo went flying to the side as he yelled in pain.
“You’ll be fine!”
Elena waved his pain off as she turned her attention to Brenton. Brenton had tried to get to her at an angle so they would have her surrounded, but Elena defeated Leo in a single sequence.
Elena threw one of her daggers at Brenton.
SWOOSH!
Shocked, Brenton deflected the dagger with his sword.
This was an opportunity!
Elena didn’t have one of her weapons!
Excited, he turned back around to focus on Elena, but by then it was too late.
She was already within striking distance. Elena got low and swung as hard as she could.
SMACK!
“FUCKK”
Brenton also went flying.
Smug, Elena looked at the two on the floor, grasping at their stomachs.
“Suffering builds character!”
She walked to the side and drank some water from her flask.
The two men slowly got up and walked over to Elena, before sitting down on their knees.
“Leo! Stop yelling when you charge at someone, you’re giving yourself away.”
Leo nodded guiltily, one hand still clenching his stomach.
“Brenton! Why are your swings so wide? You’re full of openings! Don’t ever let someone with daggers get so close to you, keep them in the golden zone where they can’t hit you but you can hit them. Use thrusts if you have to! Also is your buckler for show? You can use that as a bashing weapon if I get too close!”
Brenton nodded as well.
Elena had gotten proper training from a young age so he knew she was right, but it didn’t help his pride getting beat up by his girlfriend.
“You didn’t have to hit us so hard, we had already lost…”
Elena shook her head at the dumb comment.
“If I was using real swords, both of you would be dead! Do you want me to train you guys so you WANT to be hit?”
“Why are we even training so hard? We’re gonna be soldiers in a week regardless!”
Elena threw the flask at Brenton,
“Do you not see how hard Evel is training? Do you want us to be left behind? Yesterday I saw him and Fern sparring, and earlier today he was sparring with the creepy guy from the restaurant! Hell no we’re not gonna fall behind.”
“There’s something we haven't been told,” Leo groaned, still in pain. “A lot of the people who seem smart have been training non-stop.”
Elena nodded.
“Our induction prolly won’t go as smoothly as we hope. We can only prepare the best we can.”
Brenton knew she was right, but still found it difficult to accept everything. He simply nodded his head and waited for the pain to subdue a little.
They rested for 10 more minutes, as Elena went into more depth on specific theories of combat. It had been a while since she had gotten real practice so this also helped her return to form.
“This time, use your powers too Leo.”
Elena got up, and walked away.
Then, she turned around to see Leo and Brenton already charging at her.
I hurt their egos, huh?
A big grin appeared on Elena’s face as she charged back.
A few days after that, a very important announcement was made to the entire camp.
