29.12.312 (CR)
Osric had just finished his training session and was calming his breathing.
'This has been a tough but rewarding week.'
Franklin spoke after putting away his wooden sword.
"Alright Osric, you did well this week."
"We got rid of your biggest flaws that dragged you down in a short time and also integrated the most important fundamentals of swordsmanship into you."
Osric was about to thank him when Franklin continued.
"Although you are still a beginner with the sword, you learned a lot in a short time frame."
"I think you should use what you learned in real battle now. Start taking missions again and build your own party."
"I have a lot of stuff to do as well, especially after the report I got. But whenever I have time I will spar with you and give you pointers."
Osric showed a rare smile as he felt a lot of gratitude.
"Thank you Franklin. This has been a productive week."
"I will take a new mission alone to find out how my training will help me in battle and then I will look for people to recruit into my party."
Franklin looked proud.
"Alright do that. Good luck kid and come find me if you need something."
He walked inside the building after saying that.
Osric just nodded with respect.
'He is the first person who has taught me this much after Greta and Florena.'
Franklin was also in his thoughts.
'I knew he had potential and even though he might not be a genius or will be able to become a knight because of his age, but his learning abilities still far exceeded my expectations.'
'It's a shame he didn't awaken mana. Sadly the age limit is 16. If he had awoken his mana space seed, I am sure that he could've become an excellent knight.'
When Franklin was already gone and Osric was about to leave as well, he got a system message again which surprised him.
[Host has awakened a Skill]
Swordsmanship (F)
(Basic Swordsmanship Knowledge and Abilities)
'I didn't know this was possible.'
Osric truly hadn't expected this.
'I can get skills through training?'
Osric didn't get a flood of information inside his head or anything alike.
But when he started using all the movements he learned with the sword, it felt more natural and he understood his movements better.
'It's like the sword is a part of me. I can now more easily tell when something is off while moving the sword.'
He didn't feel some kind of supernatural power but Osric knew that this skill was much more profound than the other skills when they were F-Rank.
'What else can this strange system give me?'
'So effort has a measurable return.'
Osric started thinking bigger.
'Will I be able to awaken mana someday with the system? My plan was to gain power with the help of it, but I didn't really think about how exactly I would achieve that other than money.'
'No. I shouldn't get my hopes up. There have only been very few cases of someone awakening mana after the age of 16 and people couldn't explain why. Even if I somehow managed to do it, I would get attention from every powerful and dangerous figure inside the Aldreth kingdom.'
Osric realized he was getting ahead of himself and dismissed those thoughts.
'I'm being ridiculous. I should just focus on growing in what I can right now.'
After another hour of getting used to his new skill he finally left the training grounds that he had spent many hours in for a week.
—
Osric arrived at the inn and just like the days before he sat down at a table to eat before heading to his room upstairs.
The same girl as always served him since it was only her and her parents in this small rundown inn inside Lowbrook.
They only had ten small rooms for guests on the second floor. This inn mostly made money from selling cooked food and alcohol.
The first floor wasn't very big but still enough to fit six people on each of the eight tables.
Osric noticed that there were a little more people here than usual. Usually there were 2-4 people on other tables. But today there were around 10.
'Strange. Am I overthinking things again?'
The girl named Natasa interrupted his thoughts.
"Same meal as usual Osric?" She gave him the same smile as always.
She was strangely warm for someone raised in the slums. It reminded him of Florena.
"Yes same as usual. Thanks."
"Sure thing. Oh and do you want me to prepare you a bath?"
She had an awkward smile this time as she said that.
Osric quickly realized why.
'Shit. I haven't bathed in a while because I was exhausted from training.'
"Yes please."
Natasa chuckled inwardly as she nodded and walked away.
While Osric was caught up inside his thoughts about everything that happened this week as well as his future plans, he didn't even notice the strange looks that the newcomers inside the inn gave Nasasa.
After paying a combined 12 copper for the meal and bath, Osric called it a night and mentally prepared himself for what was to come.