The Lady of the Forest informed Hans that two adventurers approached, one Bronze and one Silver. They arrived a day and a half later, walking alongside Uncle Ed’s two delivery wagons. The guard watching the front gate announced their arrival by ringing the bell, the painful clanging seeming to echo all the way to the top of the mountains.

  Before the visitors reached the gate, the guards unfurled the signal banners around town.

  Hans met the wagons at the entrance to Gomi.

  “Mr. Hans!” Uncle Ed said, hopping down to the dirt. “You have two new students. Met them on the road from Osare. I’m sure we’ll talk again, but also wanted to say the donations went well. Eduardo’s efforts were appreciated.”

  Uncle Ed introduced the two adventurers. The first was a female dwarf named Donbia. By human standards, she looked younger than Becky, but Hans had never been able to get his mind around the longer-lived races. He could surmise, however, that Donbia was likely a Ranger or a Fighter.

  The sides of her head were shaved, and her remaining strawberry blond hair was pulled back into a high ponytail. Her beard, the same shimmering red as her hair, was secured with five individual braids. Donbia had the condensed bulk common in dwarves, but she was not as muscular as Becky. She had a bow and shield on her back, and a sword on her hip. Seeing the kite shield was what had Hans stuck between labeling her a Ranger or a Fighter. A shield like that was awfully inconvenient for hiking through wilderness, and kite shields had fallen out of vogue for Fighters some time ago.

  The second adventurer was a human man, likely in his late twenties. He was fit and lean, his head shaved perfectly bald, as if he ran a knife over his scalp just that morning. His brown beard was full but no longer than an inch.

  Hans knew the look. The adventurers who gravitated toward sparring a great deal–with and without weapons–often adopted that style for the sake of their training. Long hair and long beards got in your eyes and the eyes of your training partners. When grappling was involved, a finger getting snagged in your luxurious locks didn’t feel great and left chunks of hair around the training yard.

  He once met a wrestler who intentionally kept his hair long to disrupt any grips that might threaten his neck–chokes, headlocks, pins. That adventurer was an odd outlier.

  The human man introduced himself as Marrok. He carried a sword and a greatsword, this version of the weapon not typically wielded by humans because of its inconvenient size. The histories on swordplay Hans read suggested that the greatsword evolved over the years, progressively getting larger and larger. A few centuries ago, Marrok’s greatsword might have been four or five feet long. This one looked to be seven feet and required a specially designed back sheath to keep it from dragging along the ground when he walked.

  Berserker or Fighter, to be sure.

  Knowing Marrok’s Guild Master was a Diamond Berserker made one of those possibilities more likely than the other.

  “Any problems on the road?” Hans asked Uncle Ed.

  The big farmer got Hans’ meaning. “No, sir. Last part of the trip went faster with good company.”

  Hans thanked Uncle Ed for the introductions and asked him to visit the guild hall. No rush. Whenever he had the free time.

  “Master Bertram said to expect you,” Hans said. “Come. I’ll show you the guild hall.”

  “Odd to hear him called ‘Master Bertram,’” Donbia chuckled. When Hans asked why, she said, “He gets right pissed when anyone calls him anything but Bertram. Doesn’t even like to hear a Mister before his name.”

  “Have you met him before?” Marrok asked.

  Hans shook his head. “I’ve not had the pleasure. We had a small exchange of information last year regarding some orcs we found in the forest, and he seemed cordial.”

  “Aye,” Marrok said, nodding his head. “He’s like an old father bear to Kohei. Big and gentle, but perfectly capable of ripping your face off.”

  Hans laughed. He knew the type. “I take it you both teach at the Kohei chapter?”

  “Donbia started teaching this year,” Marrok answered. “I’ve been at it for about seven years now.”

  “Excellent. If you have specific requests of what you want to cover, I’m happy to hear them. I don’t mind questions, and I don’t mind deciding what we cover either. Whatever is best for you, really.”

  “Other than wanting to observe some of your classes, we are open to your recommendations.”

  “Well,” Hans began, “might not be much to observe right now. Late summer is pretty busy for the kids. Lots of harvest work and such.”

  As they passed Gomi’s City Hall, Hans saw Olza, Willow, and Harriot cleaning it out in preparation for its transformation into a school and a library. She glanced up at the adventurers as they passed but didn’t say anything.

  A short while later, Hans welcomed the visitors to the Gomi chapter. “I’ve not been to Kohei. What’s your guild hall like?”

  “Umm…” Donbia hesitated, looking around the room.

  “Bigger then.”

  “Yes, maybe twice this size,” Marrok answered. “We only have one manager on staff, though. Nothing like the big chapters.”

  Hans explained they didn’t have lodging available for visiting adventurers, unfortunately. They could, however, make camp next to the training yard. He also showed them where in the storage room they could stow any of their things that they didn’t want or need with their tents. Marrok accepted the invitation and leaned his greatsword in a corner.

  “Master Hans,” Marrok began. Hans cut him off.

  “Unlike Bertram, I’ve never earned that title. Hans is fine.”

  “Oh, apologies,” Marrok said. “I hope this is not rude to ask, but how do you know the brothers Izz and Thuz? It was quite a surprise to see them all the way out in Osare.”

  Hans said they trained under him for a bit when they were younger.

  “How much?” Marrok asked.

  “Some.”

  Their immediate questions addressed, the Kohei adventurers went outside to set up their camp. They wanted to start training that day, so they would meet Hans in the training yard in an hour or so.

  So far, so good, Hans thought to himself. They attempted to hide it, but the visitors betrayed their surprise at the size of the guild hall and the state of the training yard. Hans’ Ultimate Training Dungeon didn’t impress them, but they made the effort to be respectful.

  Kane and Quentin appeared shortly after Donbia and Marrok stepped outside.

  “Is that them?” Quentin asked, excitedly.

  Hans nodded.

  “Do we get to watch you smash them?” Kane asked.

  “Those days are behind me,” Hans said. “I’ve had my fill of that kind of thing.”

  Kane frowned. “Don’t you have to show them how good you are?”

  “Nope.”

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  Hans went on to explain that visiting adventurers had a habit of sizing-up every new adventurer they met, wanting to see how their skills stacked up against new sparring partners. Local adventurers did the same, seeing their visitors in a similar light.

  Sometimes the sparring was friendly. Most of the time it was a pissing match.

  A couple decades of fighting every visitor to Hoseki–and the Hoseki chapter got a lot of visitors–Hans was tired of having to prove himself again and again. The older he got, the more punishment those matches delivered to his body, to the point that he felt he had to choose between staying healthy for his full time students or stroking his own ego by getting the win from every challenge.

  He chose the former. That didn’t help his reputation much. Instead of visitors getting a sense of his abilities, they went back to their home chapters with a story of how a Hoseki instructor ducked them because he was too afraid to spar.

  Whatever.

  Hans and the boys bullshitted about the Osare tournament until the Kohei adventurers re-entered the guild hall. Marrok put a bag of gold on Hans’ desk before greeting the Apprentices and exchanging names. Neither of the visitors revealed any sort of reaction when they saw Kane and shook his hand. That was a good sign.

  “Shall we?”

  “If you hurt my Apprentice, you owe me a new one,” Hans said as Kane and Marrok squared off. “I’m serious. This is a light spar, which goes for both of you. Marrok, don’t forget he’s a kid.”

  “I understand,” the Silver answered.

  Each adventurer held a wooden sword in their hands, no shields. Hans was apologetic that they lacked a training greatsword, but Marrok was fine with a regular shortsword.

  When the match began, Marrok slowly circled to Kane’s left, away from his sword hand. His guard swayed somewhat, but otherwise, Marrok didn’t leave his stance.

  Ah. A counterfighter.

  Kane thrust. Marrok parried and stopped his sword before it hit Kane’s neck.

  They went again.

  Kane moved more timidly this time. Probing with short thrusts, not committing enough to get sucked into another trap. Marrok responded with a forward thrust of his own. Kane parried. Then Kane parried a slash. As soon as the Silver halted his advance, Kane responded to the barrage with a thrust.

  Marrok parried, again halting his blow before it hit the tusk’s neck.

  “Gods damn,” Kane said with a smile.

  Kane grew more bold with the next three rounds, taking greater and greater risks for a chance of landing a strike on the Silver. He never did.

  Watching from the sidelines with Hans and Quentin, Donbia said that Marrok taught all of the swordplay classes in Kohei. Quentin added that he remembered seeing Marrok take first in his division in Osare.

  When the pair stopped, Kane panted to catch his breath. Marrok had a light sweat. He stood in the yard, waiting for Hans’ critique.

  “Do you counterfight with the greatsword?” Hans asked.

  “Not so much.”

  As Hans expected. Larger weapons rarely leant themselves to strategies reliant on speed. Counterfighters had to react quickly to attacks in order to be effective. Not only did they have to read and react quickly, but the physical distance their weapon needed to travel mattered as well. The more weapon they had to move, the harder counterfighting became.

  “I’ve seen you spar for all of six minutes,” Hans said, “so this is a pretty early observation, but your greatsword habits are leaking into your shortsword. You’re so used to a double grip on the greatsword that you forget about your offhand with the shortsword. It looks a bit stiff, like you’re resisting the urge to two-hand.”

  Marrok’s eyes fell to the ground as he replayed his matches with Kane in his mind.

  “Fair to assume you’re the only one at the chapter using a greatsword?”

  The Silver nodded.

  “So you’re teaching short and longsword, primarily?”

  He nodded again.

  “This is the part that sucks about teaching so much,” Hans said. “Teaching the techniques right for a student often means teaching techniques that aren’t your favorites or are damaging to your style, right?”

  “That’s true.”

  Hans scratched his beard. “From now on when you spar, I need you to make a deliberate mental choice: Adventurer or teacher? If you go teacher, be playful like you were with Kane. Use a wider range of techniques. You know what I’m saying. Adventurer mode is A-game only. If you do that before every match, you’ll have an easier time committing fully to one or the other. Won’t be a perfect fix, but I’ve seen it help a lot.”

  Marrok nodded slowly, taking in as much of Hans’ instruction as he could. “Anything else?”

  “I take it you have to use a shortsword in the field sometimes?”

  The Silver said that was correct.

  “This is a long-term project–very long-term–but you might consider refining your style so that your greatsword and your shortsword styles share as many movements as possible. I’ve seen this a lot. That little glimmer in your mind that goes ‘Am I using a greatsword or a shortsword?’ when you choose an attack will mess you up. The fewer differences in strategy between the two, the less you have to ask that question.”

  “I understand the idea,” Marrok replied, “but those are two very different weapons.”

  “They are, and those differences will still matter, but you’d be surprised how much overlap we can find. I’d try to talk you out of the greatsword, but anyone who lugs one of those around really likes it.”

  Marrok smiled.

  “Alright, Donbia, you and Quentin are up.”

  “I couldn’t freaking touch him,” Kane said when the visitors left the guild hall. Only Hans, Kane, and Quinton lingered. “I felt so stupid out there.”

  “His technique is good, but what’s really frustrating you is his experience. That guy has put in a lot of reps at this point in his career.”

  Kane nodded.

  “I didn’t understand what you were saying about his greatsword and shortsword technique,” Quintin admitted. “They seem really different to me too.”

  Hans stepped into the storage room and emerged with Marrok’s greatsword. “We don’t have one of these, so I’ll show you on his, but don’t say anything. It’s not good form to touch another adventurer’s weapon. Gods, can barely move the thing in here.”

  The Guild Master pointed to the grip and compared it to a shortsword. The greatsword grip was nearly three times as long.

  “You can still be quick with a greatsword. It’s just harder to do. Do you see how much space I have between my hands?” He indicated several inches of untouched grip. “A longsword or a bastard sword, your hands are basically touching, so I get the power of two arms instead of one. With this beast, I get that plus more leverage. The bottom hand is surprisingly active with a greatsword, and it’s tough to see it happening, but that leverage amplifies power. The end of the greatsword is moving pretty damn fast by the time it gets to you.”

  “Okay…” Quentin said. “How do you apply that to a shortsword?”

  “If it were me, scrap all of the counter-fighting. He’s good at it, don’t get me wrong, but I’d like to see him pressure more the way he would with a greatsword. You fight how you practice, so that would close a lot of gaps right there. As for individual techniques, I’ve trained with a few folks who do a lot with the pommel and their offhand when they use a bastard or longsword. It’s tricky to learn, but when you get good at using both hands, a quick torque of the pommel can give you access to some interesting angles.

  “Again, not perfect overlap all the way across, but there's enough. The immediate goal, in my mind, is to adjust his style so using two hands without the greatsword isn’t a mistake. His habits have him reaching for a double grip, so we need to make that useful. That little moment where he starts to move for a double grip and thinks, ‘Wrong sword!’ will get him into trouble. If it feels right for him to use a two-handed grip, we don’t want that to be a mistake if he’s not using the right sword.”

  “I see.”

  After returning the sword safely and respectfully to its place in the storage room, Hans asked Kane if Gunther had talked to him about the dungeon recently.

  “You mean him wantin’ to be up there with us? It’s all he talks about.”

  “Would that bother you?”

  “Not one bit, Mr. Hans. I’d like it better actually.”

  Quest Update: Talk to Uncle Ed and Tandis about Gunther spending time at the dungeon.

  Hans left the boys in the guild hall. On his way to speak to the smith and the fletcher, he invited the two adventurers to join him for dinner in the guild hall. When he returned from his errand, he found Becky talking with the new arrivals. Everyone was smiling and laughing. Becki was partway down the street, poking her head into the open door of City Hall.

  “Nice to see you, Becky. Want to join us for dinner?”

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

  Mend the rift with Devon.

  Complete the next volume (Iron to Bronze) for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

  Visit the locations of old Diamond quests with Becky.

  Explore the idea of training “dungeon lifeguards” to accompany adventurers in training.

  Determine if the golem is a threat when the tower is undisturbed.

  Find a new Apprentice Rogue to fill the gap in Gomi’s adventuring capabilities.

  Await the arrival of a safe for the Gomi chapter.

  Manage the Kohei adventurers while they are in Gomi.

  Complete construction of the Takarabune (still need diamond, scarlet steel, celestial steel, and mimic blood).

  Ideate on physical chokepoints to prevent monsters from escaping the dungeon.

  Talk to Uncle Ed and Tandis about Gunther spending time at the dungeon.