Lessons in Strategy.

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Following a chat with the homeowner, I discovered dinars inside the wine crate. I headed downstairs to the basement store, where the owner's mother guided me to a knife table. After equipping a blade, I completed a close-range combat tutorial with Luca, mastering strikes, parries, and guard breaks.

Following our brief conversation with the man of the house, Luca instructed me to inspect the contents of the delivered wine crate. Inside, I discovered a hidden stash of dinar, a criminal currency acquired through looting that could be used to purchase various weapons, vehicles, and custom outfits from stables, garages, or weapon lockers.

The homeowner, Pasquale, directed me to head down to the basement level, assuring me that his mama would assist me with purchasing a knife from their underground shop. I descended the stairs to locate the elderly woman, who silently directed me toward a specific display table upon hearing my request.

I began exploring the room, which featured numerous tables stacked high with diverse black-market goods, ammunition, and melee blades. While high-powered firearms were also available for purchase against the back wall, I lacked the necessary amount of dinars required to secure them.

I walked over to the primary knife display to inspect the available inventory. I selected and equipped a sturdy blade that surprisingly required zero dinars to acquire, allowing me to slip the weapon into my belt and head back out to the open courtyard.

Now that I possessed a reliable knife of my own, Luca decided it was the perfect opportunity to teach me a few rules regarding close-quarters survival. He cleared a space in the yard to initiate a hands-on combat tutorial designed to sharpen Enzo's reflexes.

The close-range training forced me to adapt quickly to incoming threats, a lesson that Enzo desperately needed to survive in this line of work. Luca launched a sudden, aggressive strike that connected cleanly, forcing me to step back rapidly to re-establish my defensive footing.

After I demonstrated basic mastery over slashing, thrusting, and timely dodging maneuvers, Luca adjusted his stance to teach me how to properly parry incoming steel. The technique appeared to be an incredibly effective skill for shifting the momentum of a frantic melee encounter.

Once the parrying phase concluded, the instructions shifted toward executing fluid counter-attacks immediately following a successful guard break. I worked diligently to shatter Luca's defensive stance exactly three times by landing a sequence of highly precise strikes.

When the combat tutorial formally concluded, Luca admitted that Enzo possessed a natural fighting spirit, but urged him to rely heavily on his intellect if he wished to outlast the other enforcers in the region.

Their conversation was suddenly cut short by the sharp sound of the racing event whistle echoing from a distance.

To be continued.

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