Jack walks towards the training ground looking for the trainer he heard about, Sergio.
As he approaches the training ground, he sees a small building next to an open flat area with different target dummies and archery targets.
The ground is hard and tacky, lacking any grass or other greens which normally sprout.
An older man with a lot of scars sits on a chair next to the small house, he looks expectantly towards Jack.
Jack calls out for him and introduces himself. He still claims to be a merchant robbed of his goods and now wishes to take some combat training for future defense.
Sergio stands up. Even though he was described as retired from the military, his eyes still sparkle a little when Jack asks for training.
They chat for a bit and eventually move towards the training dummies.
"So, Jack, do you have any combat training from before?" Sergio asks.
Jack thinks back to Earth, where he actually practised some martial arts for a year or two, but he quit before he became any good.
"No, sir, I know how to throw a punch, but that's about it" Jack says humorously.
"Haha, that's good, young man. However, a true warrior needs real weapon training and most importantly, a fighting stance."
Sergio continues
"Wizards and magic users typically have a mindset, also known as a mental focus, which helps them use their spells more effectively and strategically in different situations. They usually do it to clear their minds and focus exclusively on the fight they're in or the problem they are focused on. A fighter instead uses a fighting stance, which combines the readiness of both the mind and body to excel in a fight."
Jack's mind consumes the information and immediately starts thinking.
"So by being able to instantly become both mentally and physically prepared, a fighter can increase his combat performance simply by switching mindset and standing in a certain way?" Jack curiously asks.
"Indeed, you are a fast learner. So the first thing I want you to do is follow my instructions, and I will teach you the Battle Stance," Sergio proudly says.
He shifts his feet to be roughly his shoulder width in length apart, one leg forward, arms raised in front of him, legs and body slightly crouched, all while explaining it.
"If you wield your weapon in your right arm, then you want your left leg forward and your left arm raised with a shield," Sergio says.
Then he proceeds to explain about the mental state he pushes himself into. It is firstly about his breathing technique, by taking quicker breaths he is preparing his body for intense physical activity. He focuses his senses on his surroundings, hearing and noticing every little detail, while always keeping an eye on his opponent.
The old man suddenly gives off a completely different feeling, he looks like an angry warrior ready to strike at any time. His arms raised and ready, he looks menacing.
"Now, young man, take your stance."
Jack watches and listens attentively, so he starts repeating the process himself.
Firstly, he takes one step forward with his left leg, shifting his feet apart into shoulder width length. Then he slightly bends his knees and raises his arms in front of him, which reminds him a lot of the martial arts lessons he used to take, where they had similar stances.
After he feels like he has an elastic position ready to strike at any moment, he switches to changing his mental state. Firstly he tries to focus on his surroundings rather than blocking out thoughts, this effectively makes him very aware of everything going on around him while never stopping his brain from thinking.
After that he puts most of his focus on Sergio, staring at him and really preparing to fight him. He channels some angry thoughts into it and really tries to convince himself this is a serious fight about to commence.
After he feels done, he asks Sergio in a concise tone, "How's this?".
Sergio still stands in his battle stance, but he takes some time answering. The answer is somewhat delayed, and he catches himself almost stumbling on the words.
"Good.. good, a really good stance. I was gonna say come at me but I don't think you would be ready for that." Sergio says in an almost timid voice.
He continues, "Alright, now that you have your fighting stance, you must also train using weapons. I have a few simple melee weapons here, which you can borrow while training, also a shield."
'Phew, I thought he wanted to actually fight me for a second. Don't know if I would have split him like those trees before or not.' Jack thinks to himself.
Jack thanks Sergio for the lesson and walks over to a table with several different melee weapons. Most look very medieval, but some are a bit more obscure.
Jack starts by picking up a simple one-handed sword. He swings it around a bit and tries to feel its weight in his hands.
'It's way too light, it almost feels like I'm not holding onto anything.'
He puts it down and continues going through the collection, handaxe, quarterstaff, mace, dagger, he even picks up a trident which just looks like a weaponized version of a hayfork.
Lastly, he picks up a large greatclub, which is just a large baseball bat but squared instead of round. He really likes the weight of it and plays around with it a bit. However, to his demise, he notices Sergio sitting in his chair further away, watching him with great interest. So he drops the idea of wielding a typical two-handed weapon in one hand.
Instead he picks up a warhammer, a hammer which isn't too big but is versatile enough to wield with one or two hands. He also picks up a shield and puts it on his left arm, holding onto the inwards handle with his hand.
He notices Sergio in his chair, giving an approving nod, so Jack walks over and asks for some pointers before he heads over to a target dummy to begin practising.
'So I need to go into battle stance, against enemies my size, I should first block the incoming attack using my shield, then push forward and counter with an overhead swing. Sounds simple enough.' Jack thinks to himself before getting ready.
He practices this move a few times against the dummy, but he makes sure to only "lightly" hit it, which still produces a good whack sound.
He continues this for a solid 10 minutes, getting increasingly more confident in his moves. However, he makes one little mistake, his battle stance makes him forget that its not a real fight and he accidentally uses a lot more force.
*WACK*
The target dummy is hit with an overhead swing, smashing its head, continuing down the body and obliterating most of the dummy before Jack stops it.
'Oops, I forgot to only do light taps.'
Sergio stands up from his chair abruptly, staring at the obliterated target dummy and the awkwardly smiling Jack.
"Sorry about that," Jack says and scratches his head.
Sergio comes over and inspects it. "It's okay, these are mostly just hay and random cloth put together. It's actually meant to be destroyed through training, so good job on that." Sergio slowly says with a puzzling look.
After some awkward laughter and polite small talk Jack asks if he can buy the warhammer and shield, to which Sergio simply says "You can keep it, they feel very suited to you so no worries" while waving his hands dismissively.
"Thanks, but if there is anything I can do to make up for it, then please tell me."
Sergio thinks about it a bit and says, "I'll get back to you if I need anything, but right now I'm fine."
Jack thanks him and takes his newly gotten gear with him as he leaves.
Sergio says goodbye. Then he stares in Jack's direction as he walks back towards the tavern.
"That man is hiding something, no fucking way is he that strong" Sergio mutters for himself before he once again sits back in his chair. "Fate sure is kind to some" he mumbles before taking a nap.
A few hours later, Jack is standing in Greenwood Forest, shield and warhammer at the ready. He helped the tavern owner with cleaning after he got his weapons and managed to find out about the local problems this village has. Apparently, the wolf population is too large around here, and the village doesn't have enough hunters.
So Jack is now walking straight towards a den of wolves.
'I did a test earlier and apparently my body is incredibly resilient against most things'
He walks into a clearing with several animal bones lying around next to a cave. As he approaches it, two wolves come out and snarl menacingly.
'Normally, I would be scared to death if wolves threatened me, but not in this world'
Jack takes his battle stance and gives off a battle cry. "COME AT ME!!" he yells.
The two wolves circle him before one of them pounces on him.
Jack responds by moving his shield in front of him, making the wolf eat wood and metal. He then slams his warhammer with an overhead swing, hitting the wolf square in the head.
*SMACK*
*CRACK*
A loud cracking noise can be heard in the clearing as the first wolf's head is smashed into mush, and it falls immediately.
The second wolf reacts quickly, realizing the foe is dangerous, so it pounces on him from behind, trying to bite at Jacks neck.
Jack can once again feel how the world somewhat slows down around him, his brain thinking fast, and his senses make him react quickly towards the second wolf.
He turns halfway around with his left side towards the wolf, his insane reflexes make him quickly raise the shield in a perfect block, and the wolf fails it bite.
He then once again swings his warhammer, crushing the skull of the second wolf.
He confirms that both wolves are dead, but still does not leave his battle stance. He waits for more to come out of the cave.
However, no more wolves arrive, so he is left standing in a now quiet forest.
'That was easy.' Jack thinks to himself before slowly relaxing more and more.
He takes a look around and finally realises that the wolves he killed are mushed into the ground, blood pooling around them, and brain matter scattered around.
It looks disgusting.
Jack wants to look away from it, but somehow he doesn't really think it's as gross as he expected.
He looks at the corpses, and somehow his brain sort of refuses to make him sick or queasy about it.
'Weird, I know for a fact I still have feelings, so how can this not disturb me as much as expected?' Jack mumbles.
He actually leans in a bit closer, using his warhammer to poke at one of the corpses, trying to figure out why he isn't afraid or disgusted by it.
But not before long, he stops and simply accepts that he isn't.
Jack makes a mental note about it, thinking that his brain must simply protect him from the gore, or some other form of selective memory strategy to make him focus on the fight rather than the result of it.
'Now what, do I enter the cave? Feels kind of stupid to just rush into a den of wolves, but if I'm this strong, then it won't really matter.' He thinks to himself.
He once again picks up his stand and slowly enters the cave. He quickly realises he can't see in the dark, and wolves have much better nocturnal senses than him.
Jack, therefore, decides to go back and get a torch, or at least something that can provide light so he can see properly. However, he realises he still does not have any coins.
He once again looks at the dead wolves.
'Maybe I could remove the heads and sell the bodies to a butcher or something?' He thinks before he decides to do just that.