“Lios, can you bring these over to Darren?” The voice of his father rang out over the clatter of steel on steel. He was standing beside a cart full of damaged gear, primarily armor but a couple of shields with chips in them and a few swords that needed some care from the smith the guards used the most. There was another smith in town, but the guards had a deal worked out with Darren already.

  “Yes, sir!” Lios called back, gingerly racking the spear his father had tasked him with polishing and sharpening. He had just finished with it, and it positively glimmered in the early afternoon sun.

  He trotted up to the cart, eager to continue working. The past several weeks had found him following his typical routine most days, but three days a week he headed to the barracks to help with odd jobs and chores for a few coins a week. Already he had gained nearly thirty silver, enough for ten to fifteen nights at an inn. Lios mentally compared prices to those of his previous world and found that he was making the equivalent of a few hundred dollars a week.

  He only hoped it would be enough for his book or books by the next spring festival, if not sooner for the harvest festival in only a few months.

  “I just need to bring this to Darren? Come back after?” Lios asked in short sentences, ensuring he understood his simple task to its fullest.

  “No need to come back today. Take a break and go play with friends. You can collect the cart when you come back in two days.” Zeke replied through a smile. He had initially seemed reluctant and unsure when Lios started helping at the barracks, but he quickly changed his tune. It was a pleasant reprieve for some recruits or lower-level guards that allowed Zeke to train them even further. Of course, he still had them perform several chores to help them build character.

  “Understood, see you later!” Lios called before ducking under the front of the cart and grabbing the bar so he could push the cart into town. Thankfully, the market square where Darren worked was only a ten-minute walk away under normal conditions, and even with the heavy cart, Lios only took about thirty minutes to get there.

  As he walked, a few of the townsfolk called out to him in greeting. He had grown familiar with them, and they all seemed to get some amusement from someone his age working so young, especially when they knew his family was not struggling for money. He waved to them all with a smile on his face as he passed people by, breaking a bit of a sweat, but his body was strong, and he had great endurance from his frequent training.

  Soon enough he was standing before the smithy, the ring of metal on metal filling the air alongside the smell of smoke and fire. He could see the guild hall for the Iron Tigers in the distance, scaffolding and half-finished walls showing it wasn’t yet complete.

  He pulled the cart out in front of the forge, watching as a few apprentices polished and sharpened various gear and forged nails or horseshoes. Darren himself was nowhere to be seen. Just as Lios was about to ask one apprentice, catching a lull in his activities, a firm hand clapped over his right shoulder. Lios turned to find a burly-looking man with a black beard that contained wisps of grey.

  “Lios, is this tha orda from the guards? Wonderful!” His voice was gruff and rough from years of inhaling forge smoke, but his lips were spread in a wide toothy smile. “I’ll get tha kiddos workin on it right ‘way.”

  “Sounds good! I’ll leave it to you then, Mr. Darren! I’ll be back to pick it all up the day after tomorrow, if that’s okay!”

  “O’ course, o’ course!” The bigger man nodded amiably before moving forward to assign the work to a lanky boy with clean hands. “Oy, Arin, get all this equipment laid out and pull this cart out back, will ya?”

  The large man stepped away to stand over by his anvil, taking a glance inside of the forge before grinning and using tongs to pull a red-hot bar of metal from within. Without hesitation, he placed it on his anvil and drew his hammer, slamming it down in a shower of sparks. Lios watched raptly, making no moves to avert his eyes or carry on with his day. Watching a master smith was a treat for him, one he had taken to enjoying every few days when he didn’t have plans with Rose.

  The smith and his apprentices paid him no mind as he leaned against the fencing surrounding the forge. He watched as a small rectangle of what looked to be steel was worked into the shape of a sword. What would have taken a smith on Earth a week or more took Darren mere hours. After half a day, the blade was shaped, with the final touches likely taking place over the next few days. It astounded Lios how much even crafting classes, classes that required meticulous care and precision, benefited from the system.

  The sun blazed down on Lios’s bare back as he practiced. It was the end of summer with autumn nearly upon him, and the sun was relentless. Sweat dripped down his cheeks and forehead, trailing lines from the dirt that covered him. He didn’t have any work today, and so had continued practicing. Somehow he had convinced his father to train him with a couple of different styles of sword that he had commissioned from Darren for pretty cheap. To be fair, one apprentice had done the actual work, and it didn’t need to be sharp.

  Around him were his spear and the short sword he had started his training with, alongside a falchion, a rapier, and a longsword. Lios still wanted a glaive to work with. Imagining himself wielding it against massive foes brought a smile to his face, but he hadn’t quite gotten around to it. He preferred to become at least adept with his other weapons before trying new ones.

  He was just finishing up his latest set when he heard the pitter-patter of bare feet slapping against grass devoid of water behind him. Taking a deep breath, he stabbed his falchion into the ground and turned, smiling as he already knew who it was by the sound of her running.

  “Hey Rose, you're late. I was wondering if you had gotten lost!” Lios teased as he saw the girl. She stopped a few paces away and bent over, resting her hands on her knees as she struggled to catch her breath.

  “I can’t be late; we didn’t have plans!” She retorted once she had recovered.

  “Is that how it works? And what, no lute on you today?” He tilted his head; he hadn't seen her without her instrument before.

  “Nope! We are going somewhere else today! Come on, oh, and bring one of those with you!” she said excitedly, not giving him any room to argue.

  “What are we doing?” Lios asked as he picked up the longsword. It was still heavy for him at his size, but it was the blade shape he liked the most among his options.

  “You’ll see! I think you’ll like it!” Rose exclaimed before turning around and running the way she had come.

  Lios only hesitated for a moment, turning to check his house for a second before shrugging and running after her. His mother would assume he was with Bri or something. He hoped. Before he could think too much, he called out, loud enough that he was sure she could hear him, “Mom! I’m heading off with Rose for a while!”

  And then he was following the barefoot girl. She giggled as she sprinted to catch up before falling into a jog, trying to tuck his longsword into his belt as he moved. He poked himself twice before slipping it into the belt. “So, what are we doing? Where are we going?”

  She laughed and just kept jogging, not deigning to give him any sort of answer. They jogged for around eight minutes, with Lios trying once, twice more to ask what they were doing. Distantly, a sound reached his ears, the sound of children playing and laughing but more than that - the sound of blades clashing against one another. It grew louder as he got closer to whatever was happening, and he could also pick up on the sound of wood slamming against wood.

  And then, then he could see it. A group of thirty or so kids, all below the age of ten. They formed a circle around a duo with wooden training blades, the sort that were often found at festivals and bought for young boys. Lios watched as the taller of the two lunged, aiming to stab the smaller boy in the chest in clumsy movements. The small boy, however, sidestepped and landed a slash on the tall one’s thigh.

  “Point for Ralphy! Reset!” a girl called out. With a start, Lios realized that around a third of the people there were girls; it wasn’t just boys slapping each other with swords, apparently.

  Lios and Rose slipped into the large circle, watching as Ralphy and the other boy readied to go again. After about thirty seconds of facing each other off, the same girl who had them reset called out a countdown.

  “Come on, Terry, don’t let that runt get you again!” a boy called out.

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  Terry, the larger boy, who was probably nine, let out a growl and rushed Ralphy again. Lios winced at the sloppy movements and eyed the openings he could see from the boy. Ralphy did not sit still and wait for the other boy to take him down. Instead he swerved around the falling training sword and brought his own forward, thrusting into Terry’s belly. Ralphy’s movements were not prolific by any means, but they weren’t bad.

  Simply unrefined.

  “That’s another point for Ralphy! That’s three! You two, step aside and let other contenders take their chance!” The girl spoke in a serious announcer’s voice, then broke into a fit of giggles alongside her friends. “Now, who would like to spill blood next!”

  “Wow, she’s really into this,” Lios commented to Rose, who he only now noticed was staring at him expectantly. “What? What did I say?”

  “Go on! Fight!” She said emphatically before taking his hand and raising it high. “Lios wants a chance to fight!”

  “Wait, Rose, I don’t-”

  “A new challenger has risen! Who then will take on this young warrior!” Another round of giggles as the brown-haired girl hyped up the crowd of seven to nine-year-olds. They cheered with a fervor that surprised Lios as Rose pushed him forward.

  He took a few steps, spurred on by the surrounding kids, and suddenly he was in the middle of a circle of thirty or forty kids around his age. His chest thudded as he turned around and looked at everyone before he took a few calming breaths and tried looking for his competitor.

  “Hey... Hey, can someone lend me their wooden sword?” He called out, his voice squeaking at first, causing him to clear his throat and try again.

  “You have a sword!” One boy called out while holding his own wooden longsword. “Why should we give you ours?”

  “I don’t want to hurt whoever I’m up against,” Lios called back, resulting in a series of boos and heckling from the crowd.

  “Oh boy, he sure is confident, even though this is his first time, huh? We’ll see if he can keep this up after fighting Keeeeeegaaaaaannn.” The girl was like a bad WrestleMania announcer, but it was enough to get people cheering.

  A nine-year-old boy stepped out holding a metal training sword. Like Lios’s, his was beat up and overused. Maybe this will be a challenge; looks like he’s worked pretty hard. Lios thought as he sighed and drew his sword.

  He took a stance, holding the longsword in both hands before him, as the other boy did the same. Lios’s blade was a fair bit longer, likely because of their relative sizes, and would be a bit more unwieldy, but that was negated by the additional reach he would have.

  “Boys and girls and ladies and gentlemennnnn, it seems our fighters are ready! On the count of three you may begin; do try not to kill your opponents!” The girl called out as Lios eyed his opponent. He halfway wanted to decline the fight, but he felt that backing out now would be more trouble than just fighting.

  “One!”

  His grip tightened on his sword, and he observed Keagan’s stance. It was decent but not perfect.

  “Two!”

  The other boy smirked with confidence. Some chatter reached Lios’s ear. Something about Keagan's having not lost yet, how he was going to beat Lios.

  “Three! Go!”

  The other boy leapt forward, hoping to surprise Lios. Lios moved forward in turn, twisting his blade to block the horizontal strike coming at his left side. Metal clanged like a gong, and Lios spun, using his momentum to twist behind the older boy. To his credit, the boy didn’t panic. He turned, his eyes wide, as he attempted to put his sword in Lios’s way.

  Alas, he was too slow. Lios tapped his upper thigh with the flat of his sword, the sound of the slap silencing the crowd for a moment.

  “Wow! So fast! The first point goes to... Hey, kid, what's your name?” The girl called out, scrunching her face.

  “Lios!” he called back, not letting his eyes leave Keagan as the other boy sighed in frustration and walked back to his spot to prepare for the next round.

  “First point goes to Lios! Will our newby be able to take down the champion? Let's find out. On the count of three, you will begin. The fight stops when one combatant hits the other!”

  “One!”

  “You got lucky; you won’t hit me anymore!” Keagan shouted at Lios, a hint of a growl in his throat.

  “Two!”

  “We’ll see!” Lios called back, his blood rushing through him as his heart pumped with adrenaline. He relaxed his body, all the better to lash out in an instant, and prepared for the next clash.

  “Three! Begin!”

  This time Keagan didn’t rush forward but walked up, circling liesurely. Lios circled too, his sword pointed at the other boy the entire time. He grinned up at the older boy and tilted his head. “Scared?” He taunted. This is kind of fun. Maybe I should do this more often; it’s nice to see my training pay off.

  With a cry of frustration at the slowness of the battle, Keagan lunged. His sword aimed to pierce Lios’s belly in a clumsy series of movements. Lios watched as he got closer, the adrenaline slowing down his perception and helping him to keep up. He let out a held breath and sidestepped, evading the point of the other sword. He knocked the blade away before retaliating, his sword swinging down until it landed at rest on the other boy's shoulder.

  “Wow wow wow! Lios has just gained a second point on Keagan! A feat no other man has managed! Can he do it a third and final time or has Keagan just been toying with his food?” The girl called out, her voice cracking from all the yelling.

  Lios watched as the other boy took his spot, frustration clear on his face. He frowned down at the floor and took slow methodical breaths before raising his eyes and glaring at Lios. “I won’t lose a third time; you had best prepare yourself!”

  “Don't worry, I'm ready for you.” Lios said, some of the adrenaline beginning to fade already, the lack of a threat easing his anxious heart. He took a long, slow breath and refocused, ensuring that even without the heightened energy pumping through him he would not let down his guard. A part of him considered letting Keagan land a blow, but his competitive nature prevented him from giving up a point. He just didn’t have it in him.

  “You know the drill! On the count of three, we will either see a victor or continue to enjoy this fight! Will Keagan land a blow and reassert himself as our champion, or will the new guy become our new champion!?”

  “One!”

  Lios watched as Keagan wiped the sweat from his palms before adjusting his grip on the leather sword handle.

  “Two!”

  A hush fell over the crowd in anticipation of the final round.

  “Three, fight!” The girl yelled with enthusiasm that could only come from an intense child.

  “Get him, Keeg!” another young boy called, a wooden sword at his hip and bruises on one of his biceps.

  “Keagan you got this!” a girl screeched in a shrill voice that had seen too much use in the past few hours.

  Keagan leapt forward, not bothering to hold back as he rushed in at Lios. He seemed unfazed from the previous two rounds, having taken a few moments to calm himself. Much like in the first round, he lashed out with a heavy horizontal slash, aiming for Lios’s left leg.

  Lios let fall his sword so that he could block, stepping to the right as their steel clashed with a resounding ring. This time, though, the match didn’t end immediately. Just as Lios was preparing to counterattack, Keagan raised his blade to parry. The two backed away, separating from each other, both with expressions of shock in their eyes.

  Keagans dispondant countenance lifted, his surprise turning into elation as he let out a high-spirited laugh. Two blades clashed once again, a grin forming on Lios’s lips, his cheeks rising. He didn’t counter too quickly, but most certainly did not allow Keagan to hit him. They exchanged blows once, twice, three, no, five times before backing away again, both of them having countered each other nearly half a dozen times.

  Lios chuckled in amazement. The other boy, once he had calmed down and focused on his skills, was keeping pace well. Grinning, teeth shimmering in the sunlight, both boys stepped toward each other for a final exchange. Lios, unlike usual, was the first to attack this time and moved a touch faster than he had been, though still not at full speed. Keagan tried to block the thrust, to push the blade to the side with his own, but it poked him in the left peck just before his blade contacted Lios’s.

  “And the winner issssss Liiiiiooooooossssss!” The girl cried out. A raucous cheer that only kids could have managed followed her proclamation.

  Lios pushed his sword into his belt, sheathing it, before approaching his foe with a friendly smile. “Thank you for sparring with me! You're pretty good!”

  “And you were holding back.” The other boy stated matter-of-factly. Despite his growth amid the fight, he looked a bit frustrated, likely not used to losing to others his own age.

  “Maybe a little. Sorry.” Lios kicked the ground, his left hand raising to scratch the back of his head.

  “No need. Just know, next time I will not lose.” There was fire in the young boy's voice, and a twinge of respect.

  “I look forward to it then!” Lios exclaimed before turning back to look for Rose. He found her at the front of the crowd, her eyes glimmering as he walked toward her.

  “That was AMAZIIING” she shouted at him as he pulled her to the back of the crowd. “You were like block - BAM! And then he was out. I’ve never seen anyone beat Keagan like that before. That was soooo coool!”

  Lios chuckled shyly, not used to this sort of attention and gushing. He laughed alongside her though, despite his discomfort. The two chatted at the back of the crowd as another fight began, and they settled in to watch. None of the following fights were as skill intensive as the one between Keagan and Lios, nor were they finished quite so quickly, but they were fun to watch.