Taking a look at his Character Parchment, Prof started to take notes in his newly acquired notebook. With literally thousands of Skills, and only a month''s worth of training available for now, it was obvious, he would have to set priorities. Not, that he was keen on learning how to make pottery, rugs, baskets, barrels, wagons, or saddles.


    Or learn any other profession, including digging dirt, no matter if it was for making plants grow or finding ores.


    Mini and Bianca shortly joined him and started to give him advice.


    “[Acrobatics], [Parry], [Block], [Shields], and the rest of the fighting Skills are a priority for you." Bianca told him in no uncertain terms "The two Skills you have are good, but you have obvious and glaring gaps in your knowledge."


    “Yes! Don''t forget [Intimidation], [Convincing], [Party], and [Sex]! One leads to another!" Mini added "You are lucky, I could help with the last one, and won''t even ask for payment! The offer is good for you too, Bianca, honey."


    “No, thank you, Miss Minerva. I’m good.”


    “You are good in [Sex]? Maybe you could teach me some things?”


    Prof ignored the girls goofing around again. Even Bianca got used to Mini’s antics by now, and knew, the Vampire was mostly harmless. Outside of battle at least. Harmless and just a little bit annoying, but fun, if you didn’t take her seriously.


    “[Sssstealsss], [Climbing], [Trapssss]" a sharp claw poked him in the side. It was nice to know, all his friends were concerned and were willing to help. Unfortunately, their help did not make Prof''s life easier. Or rather, help him decide, which Skills to train. Fifty points – actually, fifty-five, because he had Point Harvester – weren’t that much, he needed to settle on three or four Skills at most.


    Prof made a nice-looking chart, with needed, wanted, and would-be-nice-to-have Skills, procrastinated for a time, delayed for a bit more, drew out the decision by rewriting the chart, and finally settled on the three Skills, most of his friends identified as the most pressing from the beginning: [Acrobatics], [Parry] and [Block]. Those three were the three sides of the same coin, the fourth being [Evade], most likely a single trainer would be able to teach him all three. Prof mulled over the issue of how a coin could have four sides a bit but shrugged in the end. There was no sense in questioning the sense behind old sayings.


    It was finally time to get excellent! Or at least less bad in those three Skills!


    With how dedicated the Greenskins were to constantly better themselves, it wasn’t hard to find a gym – every few blocks had one, mostly built into the same house as the local “school” or “academy”. Prof had some difficulty understanding the words and concepts for the combined gym-academy. The word used for those “schools” or “academies” weren’t the same as used for an elementary or secondary school – education was compulsory up until the child got his Character Parchment – the closest Prof could put the meaning was “betterment center”. These were reserved for adults, providing teachers and trainers for a small fee.


    Not every betterment center offered the same courses, some specialized in natural sciences, others in social fields, arts, utility, or professions. The attached gyms were diverse as well – some providing training in small unit tactics, others for a select few weapon Skills. There were even a few, that concentrated on [Swimming], [Climbing] or [Riding], or just strength or endurance training.


    Prof found out, that Stats were semi-permanent, and not quasi-fixed, as he assumed previously. With enough torture… ehmmm… training, it was possible to squeeze out a point or two. Prof wasn''t dissatisfied with his Stats and body – he gave enough attention to "re-creating" himself back in the afterlife – but it was good to know. Maybe later, when he was finished with his Skills, and still had enough money and time, he would give a chance for such training. For now, Skills were a priority.


    It only took the rest of the day to find a trainer, who had a high enough Skill in the three, Prof wanted to train, and high [Teaching] at the same time. “Her” betterment center was on the other side of the city, but since it was a medieval city, the distance wasn’t that large – less, than an hour of easy walk. While Prof couldn’t understand Greenskin architecture to begin with, the betterment centers confused him even more. The main training room on the ground floor was a mix of a smaller school-gym, lecture room, and concert hall. It was flanked by smaller training- or classrooms, while the first floor was occupied by a few medium-sized halls and a lot of small rooms.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    All with superfluous columns and tympanums, but without any clear function.


    The trainer Prof paid, a female Hobgoblin named Sieglinde, was a dedicated defense trainer, focused on [Parry], [Blocking], [Evade], and [Shields], while [Acrobatics], [Athletics], and [Dancing] being just secondary subjects. She also held torture sessions for Agility, Dexterity, and Endurance. Luckily, Prof had high numbers in those Stats, so didn''t need to work on them. Sieglinde even congratulated him on his Agility and Dexterity – although she probably found them strangely high.


    Prof and his party already agreed on a story that would obfuscate the true reason for his strange spread of Skills. According to the story, he grew up in a small settlement for soldiers (the concept of a “sect” was known on Arkadia, and it was implied, the settlement was one), where the training focused on Critical Hits and running away. The strange Skill spread was due to the expedition to the Valley.


    Since [Magic: Mental] and truth detection were things on Arkadia, they had to be cautious about what and how to say. Telling outright lies wasn''t recommended, but they settled on a phrasing, that was technically true: Prof never even left his small village for all his life, except for training in an undead dungeon, that took advantage of his skillset. The others could be more creative, they just had to say, Prof, them told the facts like that. Just to be sure, Prof told them, he grew up in a sect village and was trained this way.


    After all, it was better to be thought of as a cave dweller than as a Traveller. The former had a longer life expectancy.


    Sieglinde either didn''t care about the origin of a Pinkskin (as Humans were called by the Greenskins), or Prof''s story worked with her. Either way, no hunters of Extra-Arkadians intercepted Prof to ask pointed questions or to kill him off. It was a win in Prof''s book.


    The training consisted of three parts. For [Acrobatics], Prof had to practice on dedicated torture equipment: uneven, parallel, and horizontal bars, balance beams, rings, pommel horses, trapeze, aerial hoop, and a few others. All the while Sieglinde was throwing balls or Gremlins at him. From what he was told, a high Level of Skill would enable him to perform incredible feats on any surface, jump around on a thin rope and confuse the enemies with his untraceable movements.


    For Prof, it sounded as if he would be a star of any circus, though.


    Learning how to parry and block was actually harder.


    All of Prof’s reflexes told him to attack or most likely simply evade, not divert his opponent’s weapon away or meet an attack head-on. The problem was the unusually large gap between [Evade] and the other two Skills – it was simply easier to teach a dog a new trick than to modify a known one into another. Sieglinde flat-out told him, he would need to rise [Parry] and [Block] not just to 100%, but most likely up to 150% and he would need to keep the gap as small as possible in the future. Otherwise, his reflexes for evasion would take over and all the training would be for naught.


    Prof was also told to get a shield and get that Skill to over 100% too.


    From the other party members, Bianca took lessons in [Blunt Weapons], [Axes], and [Cooking]. The first two were to round her weapon Skills, the third to finally have someone, who could actually cook. Obviously, not just Prof got fed up with their inability to make edible food. Even so, they were a long way from having a chef.


    Mini actually joined Prof in his training, taking [Block], [Parry], and [Acrobatics] too. Her reasoning was that she wasn''t able to find a trainer for the much more important Skills of [Convincing] and [Party] and did not like the way Greenskins danced. According to her, [Acrobatics] would synergize well with her highest Skill, and would enable her to perform even more incredible feats. Her highest Skill was [Sex]… Prof wasn''t exactly sure, it was a good idea to give a crazy nymphomaniac Vampire even more abilities in her chosen field, but who was he to berate folks who already forgot more about Skills than he learned in the last months?


    The last of the party, Sharpclaw, was quite in a bind, what to learn. For some reason, [Lockpicking], [Stealing], [Con] and a few others were considered "criminal Skills", and there were no classes on offer. She wasn''t built to handle heavier weapons than her trusty dagger, so those Skills were more or less out of question too. Being in a city, there wasn''t wilderness survival training to have either. She ended up splitting her time between only two classes: [Climbing] and [Valuation].


    They settled into a routine fast. Getting up early in the morning, training until four in the evening with only a few short breaks, having dinner together in a different tavern every day and studying in the late evening. Everyone agreed, they had enough of porridge and tried to find sources of real food with fervent dedication. As it transpired, even the street vendors had good food – being excellent and selling subpar fare were mutually exclusive. Greenskins loved spicy and hot food, that reminded Prof of home – taste buds were there to be burned out, after all.


    As for studying, they managed to get a few dozen books for cheap, most being scientific textbooks, but also some literature. Mini swore, the romantic fiction, she bought was actually for study, as they gave some percentages to [Romance], [Convincing], and [Literature: Greenskinian].


    All went well for exactly one week.