...

*Riiiiing*

Li Ming promptly rolled off his bed to the sound of his phone's alarm. It was currently 5:30 in the morning. It had been just 4 hours since his conversation last night. Today would be Li Ming's first time visiting the old man for spear training. The old man had given him the "OK" for going over today.

Li Ming excitedly threw on his work out clothes, which was composed of sweatpants and a light fleece sweats.h.i.+rt. He made a quick piece of toast to eat with his left over oden for breakfast. Although it was quite a bizarre combo, it would be enough to sustain him until lunch.

Thankfully, the old man lived only 2 train stops away. He jogged over to the closest train station to catch a ride to the old man's house.

***

Li Ming made his way over to the old man's house while dragging his feet. Not to mention, the old man's house was quite large. It appeared to be a dojo of sorts attached to a traditional j.a.panese mansion. Because of the size of the house, Li Ming was physically tired already before he even started his spear training as he had to walk a further distance to the front door.

He didn't realize that he was this far out of shape. He had been so use to mobility and fighting for long durations in the game that he didn't reconcile the variance between his in game state and physical state out of game.

Out of breath, he reached for the doorbell. However, before reaching the doorbell, Li Ming remembered that it was still only around 6 in the morning. Ringing the doorbell could be quite disruptive to the neighbors, so he chose to call the old man instead.

Li Ming dialed the old man's phone number into his phone. After some while, someone picked up.

"h.e.l.lo?" a young feminine voice answered.

"Uh... h.e.l.lo!" Li Ming said confusedly, "I'm looking for... uhhh..."

It was at this point that Li Ming realized one crucial error. He had forgotten that old man's name!

"Li Ming, here for spear training, right?" the voice said sleepily, "Give me five minutes. I'll be right there."

After a five minute wait, the front door creaked open. A young lady in her pajamas stood there while rubbing her eyes. She was surely the one who had just picked up the phone earlier. She gave Li Ming a quick glance before beckoning him in. As Li Ming walked in, she shut the door behind him and quickly walked back into the house, rubbing her elbows with both hands to warm them up from the frigid morning air.

"This way." she said tersely before walking off, threatening to leave Li Ming behind if he didn't follow immediately.

Li Ming quickly shed his shoes before following her. They crossed the center courtyard before she led him to a large room in the center. This large room appeared to be a dojo of sorts. She knocked on the doors.

"He's here!" she announced at the door.

After she heard a couple of footsteps coming from inside, she quickly turned to leave.

"Grandpa is inside there." she said casually before walking away towards the main house.

The doors of the dojo flew open soon after she left. The old man stood there proudly smiling at Li Ming, but upon looking him up and down, the old man's smile turned into a puzzled frown.

"You've come to wear martial arts, but you wear something like this?" he asked.

"It's the only clothes I have for physical activity that isn't my school jersey." Li Ming explained.

"Very well then..." the old man nodded, "Come in, come in..."

As he stepped into the dojo, the first thing he noticed was a lack of dust. For an old man who was supposed to not have students, such a clean dojo was unprecedented.

"Well then, take this here." the old man said as he threw out a wooden spear, "We're starting now."

"Eh? We're starting this soon?"

"Hoho, but of course!"

"But I haven't even stretched or warmed up properly yet..." Li Ming complained.

"It matters not, to be honest. You walked from the train station to my estate, no? It should be enough."

Li Ming was surprised at such a response. In modern self defense course, you would always start with some aerobic warm up exercises in conjunction with static stretches to prepare for physical activity.

"Alright, let's start sparring now" the old man declared.

"Huh?"

"Spear up!" The old man declared as he charged forward with his speartip pointed at Li Ming's heart.

From Li Ming's experience in game, he would normally activate a trinket here to gain him some distance. Li Ming hated it when the enemy had the upper hand, so he always wanted to be the one with the fight's initiative. With the old man charging him down, Li Ming had no choice but to lift up his speartip gently.

This was something that he had learned from a girl in his kendo cla.s.s in his middle school days. She was always weaker than the other boys in the cla.s.s, but no boy could land a single hit on her. One day, after suffering another humiliating defeat to her, Li Ming had approached her after their match to ask about her methods.

She had revealed to him that keeping the blade gentle was her key to parry attacks. She also expressed that she would never directly block an attack, she would only deflect it. Li Ming had used this advice a lot recently, as he has started using a spear in game.

As the old man's spear came forwards, Li Ming's spear crossed right into the old man's spear's path. As Li Ming's spear was about to bounce off from the impact, Li Ming immediately put more strength into it. This sudden change of force bounced the old man's spear slightly off track.

Using this opening, Li Ming then jabbed his spear forwards at the old man's forearm. But before he could make contact, the old man crouched down and swung his spear upwards at Li Ming's wrist. Before Li Ming could respond, his wrist was. .h.i.t quite hard and he was forced to let go of his spear with his right hand.

Not expecting the pain, Li Ming's hand was unable to react in time to reach out for the spear again. This opening was a fatal mistake, as the old man stepped forwards and stabbed at the air three times next to Li Ming's neck. As the old man's motions stopped, Li Ming realized that if they were using real spears here, he would have certainly died.

The old man then stepped back and got back into a stance before smiling and glaring at Li Ming once again, as if he was a dragon toying around with fresh food that he had just caught.