My OP Minion System in the Apocalypse

"Alright then, how much time do you want."

"I'll just get one hour for now."

I still wanted to make it in time for lunch, so I decided to just start off with one hour. It'd be good to see how skilled the trainer was as well.

"Okay, he's free now, that'll be just 65 Krena."

"Alright."

I took the money out of my inventory and handed it to her.

"You're sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

After collecting the money, she made her way into the back of the building and called for the instructor. I waited awkwardly in the reception area until a little while later, a muscular and very toned man walked out beside the old receptionist.

"Is this the boy?"

"Yes."

"Well, come in then."

He led me into the main training area. It was quite large, with slick wooden floorboards and way too many mirrors. It reminded me of a dance studio, although there were a lot more weapons than you'd find in a dance studio obviously. I didn't really know what to do so I just waited for him to give me further instructions.

Suddenly, he threw me a training sword.

"Alright just come at me."

I charged towards him and raised my sword. I swung at him several times but each time he managed to use my own momentum and parry the attacks. It seemed as if he was reading me like a book, predicting my every move. Every time I went in for a stab or a slash, he would always react swiftly and either block or parry the strike.

He stepped back and created some space.

"Here's your first problem. Your moves are way too predictable, add some feints in. They're necessary if you want to outmanoeuvre the opponent. At the moment, all the opponent has to do is choose the best defensive technique to counter your strike, which is extremely easy, given the large amount of time it takes for your attack to actually connect."

He came at me, jerking certain parts of his body, my arms automatically attempted to block his strikes but it turns out that they were feints. With my body in a bad position to block his committed strike, I didn't have enough time to react and the sword hit my chest with a thump.

"Secondly, you need to keep a good distance between you and your opponent and especially be able to read his moves and identify his biases during a fight. The more you are able to learn about your opponent, the easier it will be to counter them. The best thing we can do now is just practice, come at me a few more times."

I continued sparring with Laiex, the instructor, and for a decent amount of time, I was completely outclassed, unable to land even a single hit on him. My eyes just couldn't read his intentions and his movements were always misleading. Every time I swung my sword it seemed that he always was in the perfect position to block it.

We continued training for the entire time. He didn't seem to struggle at all as he fought me, easily breaking past any defence I'd try to muster. Whenever I tried to attack him, my attacks would be easily repelled.

As the lesson came to a close, he made his way over to me.

"Honestly, you weren't that bad, but you are definitely an amateur."

"Oh."

"I could make you into a decent warrior, in fact, I'll give you a discount."

"A discount?"

"I'll drop the price to 60 Krena for five hours, you're the first human I've ever trained and you've got a lot of potential. But mostly, your style of fighting is really interesting."

"Really? Well, that sounds good to me."

"Are you free now? We can continue?"

"Ah, sorry, I've got to go somewhere for lunch, I'll come back this afternoon though."

"Alright! I'll be waiting."

I made my way out of the building and onto the wide-open street.

Now that I thought about it, we never specified where to meet up. I guess I'd look around for a little but if I don't find her I'll just go back and get some more training. As I began walking through the city, I was quickly stopped by a very intimidating-looking guard.

"Young miss is looking for you."

Well, was this really the best use of manpower?

The guard led me through the city, and eventually, the two of us reached a very high-end restaurant near the palace wall. It was really posh, with marble pillars and uncomfortable large chandeliers, golden tablecloths and waiters dressed in suits. I had literally never been to such a place in my life.

I followed the guard inside as we were led over to the place where the elf princess, Aina was seated. It was somewhat awkward since she had three guards also sitting around the table...

"Hi, William...!"

"Hey."

I took a seat on the free chair and looked down at the menu on the table. There was a basket of bread and water already sitting in the middle of the table for snacking. I guess this was commonplace in all high-end restaurants. I looked over at Aina who seemed to be fiddling with her fingers like last time. She didn't even look up at me.

She really was shy...

As I looked at the prices on the menu, even my pretty decent amount of wealth was in peril. A meal was around 200 Krena... these were prices that I simply couldn't afford.

I wonder... was she paying for me...?

I didn't really want to take their kindness too much but I'd be literally living on the streets if I bought a three-course meal here. I was saving money for more sword lessons as well. At this rate, I'd have to begin taking odd jobs to stay above water.

I looked over at Aina who still wasn't looking me in the eye.

Ah... what was I meant to do here?

Suddenly, one of the guards began talking to me.

"It's fine, order whatever you like, it's on us."

Thank goodness.

Now that my wallet wasn't in peril, I decided to actually have a good look at the meals on offer here.