Chapter 09

Since this wasn't my first trip to the mountain range, I did not waste too much time dawdling around the outskirts and rushed straight to the foggy gulch by following the landmarks I had memorised before. It only took me a couple days rushing here at full speed to get there and after a short break at the top of the canyon walls to recover, I dove right in to continue hunting for powerful magical beasts as well as Blueheart Grass- one could never have too much of that.

This time around though Bebe was a more active participant in combat as he was quite proficient with the Air Run wind type magic spell I had taught him and mobility in the sky was not a limitation for him. I had also put in the time to work on channelling his wind, darkness or even water type energy into his claws and fangs to increase the range of his damage and also help him to hit hard on enemies much larger than him.

The power of his strikes was never in question as he could even break through something as tough as my 7th ranked Earthguard Armour in a reasonable amount of time, it was just that many high ranked magical beasts were so big that Bebe's previous attacks only amounted to flesh wounds at best. The amount of effort he had to put in before to kill those beasts was way too much as nearly none of his attacks were fatal, he had to waste a lot of time to exhaust them before they were no longer able to defend their weak spots like their eyes or necks. That was again not considering those beasts smart enough to run away early on when they noticed the battle not being in their favour, if they put all their efforts in escaping there was little Bebe could do to stop them on his own.

That was all in the past now as with some wind type energy Bebe could easily extend his reach up to a meter and though darkness did not have quite the same range it had a corrosive added effect that would linger on his opponents and to do more damage over time. His water affinity was not that good so he could not consistently get the desired results from it but I had him practice with the intent to have his attacks bypass exterior defences to cause internal damage by inducing pressure differences in the targets bodily fluids. The few times he got it to work dealt horrifying internal haemorrhaging on his targets, I should know seeing as I had initially experienced a couple of those myself; again, thank the gods for the healing power of Life magics. I only had him practice that skill on partially filled waterskins or leather bags filled with water and meat, that technique was just way too scary.

All these attacks while based on the various properties of the Laws and Edict were not the same as those used by seasoned Saint level combatants, my current methods were only a more long-winded imitation using magic. I had carried out extensive experimentation and testing on it after all and there were some limitations with what I was currently using compared to what I thought was the realm of Laws and Edicts that came after the Impose level.

For starters, just like magic spells it took casting for these techniques. There was also a considerable amount of time taken to channel and build enough power before we could do any reasonable damage and lastly it was difficult to launch continuous back-to-back attacks using this method. The enhanced power would dissipate after a short while and it was only useful for surprise assassination strikes or in the beginning of combat, it was difficult to use when you were already in an intense battle.

All this led me to believe that even though I was on the right track, there was a long way to go. I reasoned that one would have to have sufficient spiritual strength to be able to manage all these complicated and cumbersome requirements on the fly in combat while also having a strong enough body to bear the strain the channelling of so much power would cause. No wonder only Saint levels start learning to use these methods for combat. I was again very glad for Life magic as I had injured myself plenty while testing but the good thing was, I could share these experiences with Bebe and my friend group and warn them of the dangers of over usage or even heal them if they mess up during practice.

Anyway, back to the here and now, I watched as Bebe polished up his assassination technique by ambushing one large Green Tattooed Python after another. This proved to be good practice for his stealth, dexterity and single attacks. I only had to step in myself to quickly kill the targets on the first couple of days to still ensure our cover was maintained and we did not attract attention. After a week Bebe could now easily one-shot these pythons if he was given a few seconds to build up power and our hunting efficiency was amazing. I had plenty of high-grade magical beast cores and parts along with a good top-up on refined Soul energy in the CD ring.

After a while we were happy enough with our accomplishments as assassins and we wanted to practice straight up combat so we made some preparations. I had Bebe hop on my shoulder and we slowly descended to the floor of the valley in full stealth. There were really too many powerful beasts concentrated in this place and if we were not careful, we could be bogged down by their sheer numbers and killed if we were not careful. Even though we could somewhat hold our own against even a dozen rank 7 beasts with preparation, it did not mean we could go wild in this place where hundreds of them roamed.

After we descended past the fog banks, I was able to better see the valley and like I guessed it extended to the central region of the mountain range as the canyon walls to the north, south and west were visible in the distance but there was no such barrier to the east. The concentration of the natural essences was getting higher as I descended into the valley proper, where it was only 3-4 times the normal concentration up in the foggy sky, it had now increased to around 6-7 times and only seemed to get stronger as one headed east.

I landed in the cover of some thick vegetation on the outskirts and observed our surroundings some more. There were a lot of strong beasts around and the place I had landed at seemed to be the territory of some Landwyrms, one of the weakest of the dragon type magical beasts but eve they were around 6th rank when mature. Hundreds of 6th rank dragons looking to eat me… I suppress a shudder and go about setting up a formation to hide my location as well as a considerable portion of my surroundings in order to test out the effectiveness of my craft and also to have a place I can safely fight a few beasts at a time instead of attracting all their attention.

I got the idea to try and use darkness and Fate/Oracular type magic to replicate something like a notice-me-not field thanks to the inspiration of the transmigrator. After a lot of research, I managed to create a prototype that had allowed me and Bebe to pull a lot of pranks on my friends back in the institute, when I was sure everything was working and stable even the other higher-grade students and some teachers were not spared from our pranks with them remaining clueless who the culprits were. After I finished setting up the formation, I found out that it was even stronger than expected, huh, looks like the high natural essence in this place is giving a boost to it, need to make a note of that.

I did not go about challenging the Landwyrms immediately after though as I first set up some more wards and formations inside in case something went wrong and I need a quick getaway. There were some more formations that would hide some paths of retreat, formations that would create a distraction like creating a smoke screen, make noise or launch weak attacks from the flanks to distract my attackers. I would only use these if things start going to hell though as my main purpose was to practice frontal combat.

With everything set and a short break to be on my best game, I create an illusion of a human silhouette and have it approach the nearest Landwyrms as bait. It works as the nearest few show intense hostility to the intruder and move to attack, I have the illusion first dodge and move around randomly a bit to just to see if the worst case scenario of all the valley's beasts going into a frenzied stampede does not happen. After a while only about a dozen closest Landwyrms move to deal with the intruder and the rest do not show much interest seeing as the intruder was having a tough time and will be dealt with soon.

Seeing that there is no rampaging beast army I have the illusion make a desperate escape attempt into my outer notice-me-not warded area and the dozen or so Landwyrms quickly give chase. Seeing as the beasts outside are still relatively docile I quickly move in to attack the lured Landwyrms along with Bebe after dispelling the illusion. The Landwyrms are only distracted for a moment while Bebe and I are only able to land an attack on our first one targets; they quickly lock on to us and start attacking and the battle begins in earnest.

Bebe was speeding through the enemies and cutting them up before they had any proper clue what was going on. It was like watching Levi Ackerman- the living Beyblade- tear up the Titans which were many times his size, hmmm… now I'm wondering if I should have named him Levi instead of Bebe. I was not slouching on the side munching popcorn either as I also dove into the Landwyrms with earth spell boosted defence and wind spell boosted speed and my trusty daggers. The Landwyrms were a bit different as we had never faced such large and powerful beasts in such numbers before and after a few hiccups and hits taken we managed to kill all of them. I did a quick check up on the surroundings after the last Landwyrm dropped dead to make sure the others outside the ward are still clueless and only get to healing and collecting our spoils after confirming that everything is fine.

We change locations every now and then just to make sure the beasts around us don't get too cautious about their numbers in one small area decreasing rapidly. We move around to also challenge other types of beasts like the 7th ranked Gold Tattooed Panthers, Velocidragons and Giant Pythons to great success and around the last week we even challenge the Pegasi, Dragonhawks and Blue-eyed Thunderhawks close to the fog bank to practice arial combat as well.

Needless to say, the last week was just as exciting as it was dangerous as fighting up in the air created a whole new set of challenges like for example dead beasts dropping down to the ground below and alerting all the surrounding beasts outside the ward that something was up. Magical beasts were quite intelligent after all and dead bodies dropping out of nowhere tends to gather their attention. Well, I learned my lesson after that and we only fought closer to the ground along the canyon walls after that so I could ward the area below as well to not alert the beasts of the valley to the corpses falling out of the sky.

In the end Bebe and I had a decent harvest of beast cores, meat and parts along with plenty of combat experience by the time we decided to call it quits and head back to the Institute. I had also harvested plenty of Souls as well as pocketing the numerous ores and herbs that were abundant in the valley. The only down side was the lower number of beast cores compared to my last jaunt through the mountains, killing human assassins was truly profitable after all- better see if I can find some on my way back. There was also a stunning lack of inter-spatial rings or magical beast infants I could whisk away too, looks like I can't expect the MC halo to throw something at me every time I step out of my house.

On the matter of infant magical beasts, I certainly did come across a fair few but they were with their guardians and although I could kill the adults and kidnap the young successfully with a little careful planning, I chose not to. I did not even move to attack any groups that seemed to be raising their young as it didn't sit right with me to kill them at that point. If I came across a magical beast infant in danger or abandoned, I would definitely whisk it away but I was certainly not going to stoop to outright kidnapping.

I carried the pleased Bebe on my shoulder and flew out of the valley to make our way back when we still had 5 days before the institute re-opens for classes.

"That was amazing big bro, did you see how I dealt with that last group Thunderhawks? They were all like- We'll attack you from all sides- and I was like- Oh no you won't…" Bebe was excitedly chattering over our mental link and I could only laugh a bit as I heaped praises on him. He did a good job after all.

"Haha, that's right lil bro. You were amazing back then, I guess it is only to be expected when you had such an amazing teacher." I could only laugh a bit as I heaped praises on him and myself. He did a good job after all so I'll give him that.

"Uuu… big bro… humph… I'll let it go this time if you promise to teach me some more new techniques." He pouts.

"Hehe, ok Bebe, but only after you have learnt that water pressure crush technique properly." I tell him and he pouts some more at that.

"At least give the technique a cooler name, that way I will be more motivated to learn it." He fires back.

"What, that scarily powerful, physical defence by-passing technique is not good enough for you?" I tease him.

"No it's good… it's good boss, I just need some help with it. Water is not my strongest affinity you know. Anyway are we done with this visit? Can we maybe, possibly, hunt for some assassins and bandits on the way back?" He agrees quickly before changing the topic to more fighting and hunting for riches. Sniff, that's my little boy, I have raised him well.

"Sure thing lil bro, what's a journey to the mountain range of magical beasts without a few encounters with assassins and bandits after all?" I respond with a devious smirk of my own.

Needless to say, around a dozen groups of dirty murdering scum met their end at the hands and paws of yours truly before we were out of the woods. We made a quick stop at our home in Wushan town to check how everything was going and for a day of proper rest before making our way back to the Ernst Institute. There were a few things I had to go over with Uncle Hillman after all, like if the funds issue was stable or making an official announcement on father's disappearance and such. It had been a little more than a year since anyone had seen Hogg Baruch in person and we could not keep it quiet anymore or we will attract the wrong kind of attention.

Rumours were already spreading so it was best to stay ahead of this. Uncle Hillman and I had decided to go with the cover story of father heading off to the mountain range of magical beasts in order to earn enough gold to make ends meet. It was somewhat well known that our clan wasn't that rich and were always looking to other ways to make some gold so something like this would not be considered strange, especially as our expenditure had shot up ever since we had decided to enrol Wharton at the O'Brian Warrior Academy in the O'Brian empire.

The beast cores I had handed over to Uncle Hillman would only go to further prove the fact that Hogg had at least one successful trip in the mountains before he got too careless and his whereabouts were now unknown as he had not returned at the set date from his last trip. If everything goes like how I expect it to on the political side, the officials from the kingdom of Fenlai would give us 6 months or maybe a year even before they write of Hogg Baruch as officially dead and appoint someone else to manage the town.

Whatever the case maybe, I took the time to go about throwing the last bit of valuables like some sculptures and the pendulum grandfather clock into my large inter-spatial ring for safe keeping. I also packed up most of our clan's personal effects from the ancestral shrine and father's study along with the knick-knacks that belonged to Wharton and me. I just told Uncle Hillman that I had arranged for all the items to be moved away the next day and not worry about it, I was certainly not going to tell him that I had a spatial ring let alone 3. After a lot of convincing with judicious use of mentioning the powerful friends and connections I was making at the Ernst Institute, I got him to drop the matter before I left for school that afternoon.

My normal school life continued with the start of the new term at Ernst's and I continued to ditch most of the official classes in favour of self-study and training along with my friends. They had all progressed well and now it had gotten to a point that they could also join me under the effects of Super Gravity Field for better and faster development of their warrior rank. Normally it was not advised for low level warriors i.e., below rank 4 to train under high gravity as their bodies were not strong enough to withstand that level of strain. Needless to say, all the pride and excitement my group had at achieving rank 4 as warriors was shattered when I greatly enhanced their exercise loads.

As a compromise I started more formal armed combat practice for everyone. Sure, George and Reynolds were already proficient with a staff and spear respectively but even they did not have any structured methods or techniques for high level combatants like my clan's Dragonblood warrior legacy. That was not even including all the simplifications and minor modifications I had done so yeah, I had what was probably one of the best training methods for warriors on the continent. As for weapons themselves, I had Yale, Dixie and Delia try out some simple training weapons to see what they preferred, I would forge them a decent weapon after that.

Dixie and Delia being members of the speed focused Tigerstriped warrior clan were not comfortable with heavy or bulky weapons and Yale was also not suited for them as his primary attributes of Lightning and Light lent more to a lean speedy physique than pure power. It was quite challenging fitting all of them with a weapon they would be comfortable with. I still remember the day I had them select a weapon type-

"Do we really have to try all of these?" Delia had asked in amazement after looking at the large pile of practice weapons I had dropped in front of our group.

"Of course, how else am I to figure out what type of weapon suits you best and forge it?" I asked back.

"Really, Third Bro, you don't need to go that far for us. I could just as easily have some quality weapons made for us with my family's connections. My father is quite pleased with my progress so far and I'm sure he will not spare any expense." Yale tells.

"Nonsense, I actually want to do this and I'd be insulted if you commission weapons from someone else. You are actually helping me as this would be more practice for my blacksmithing and enchanting technique. I wouldn't mind if you have another weapon commissioned later on if mine doesn't suit you, I just want to see if I can do it." I explain part of my reasoning.

"Well, when you put it that way… then excuse me…" Dixie was the first to start picking up weapons to try out and experiment and the other two soon follow.

"I think this is suitable for me Third Bro." Yale calls out as he is the first to finalise his choice and I see him doing some practice swings with a curved sabre. Hmmm… I think to myself, a curved blade and Lightning affinity; I wonder if I could have him practice with something like a katana and replicate the Thunder breathing style of sword play from Demon Slayer. My transmigrator memories are having a field day with all my observations.

"This seems comfortable to me Linley." Delia calls out next and I see her dual wielding a pair of curved daggers. She very elegantly flits and dances about the clearing we were practicing at and I am just lost for a moment at how beautiful and graceful she is.

Dixie seems to be having some issues as he is still trying out various weapons. Like his sister, he seems to be a bit more comfortable with dual wielding but he just isn't satisfied with the choices I've given him. I have naturally sparred with him and I've noticed that along with his speed and flexibility, he has very sharp reflexes. In fact, I'd wager that he has the sharpest reflexes among our group, other than yours truly of course. This would lend to him being able to easily track movements around him and also react or strike in the trickiest ways possible.

Looking at him trying out weapons I could tell that he wanted something just as tricky as his fighting style. I racked my brain a bit to think of something he could use that would meet his high requirements. I could not create something godly like the Bloodviolet flexible sword or even remotely close as I had no idea how to make that sort of flexible alloy, at least not yet.

In the end I picked up a couple of short clubs and tied their ends together to make a makeshift nunchaku, that seemed to fit Dixie a bit more as he was able to smoothly wield it after I gave him a small demo. I went further and had him wield 2 nunchakus at the same time and also had him try out a combination of both nunchaku which sort of became a 4-jointed staff. I had a brief flash of Ban from the Seven Deadly Sins anime/manga and figured it would be awesome to make something like the Holy Staff Courechouse for him.

Seeing the passion, I was showing George and Reynolds also decided to update their weapons as the ones they currently had were given to them when they were much smaller and younger. They also insisted they be called in when I got to the enchanting phase as they also wanted to practice their skills. Seeing that I was open to their participation Dixie asked to be involved in the forging itself, he had joined the blacksmith association the same time as me and had shown surprising interest and talent for it. There was also the fact that he seemed to have developed a crush on a senior there so, yeah, looks like mine and Delia's plan to get him a girlfriend worked out in a weird way.

Back to the present, I was in my personal forge along with Dixie and senior Anna (Dixie's crush) working on our new weapons. I had decided to rope in senior Anna as she was actually the one who had taken Dixie and I under her wing when we first joined the association and she had helped us out a lot, both with the craft as well as fitting in with the rest of the association. She was not from any noble or rich household and was actually from a simple family of blacksmiths, which explained why she was the only girl in the association which already suffered personnel shortage due to being in a mage academy.

She was three years our senior and very straight forward, she was very blunt with her interactions with people which seemed to be the main reason for the uptight and cautious Dixie to develop a massive crush on her. Well not to say she did not look pretty or anything with her rich honey coloured hair in a short pixie cut, a tanned complexion as well as her amber eye. Unfortunately, most people were turned off by her slightly more muscular arms and back as well as her attitude. Looks like the things that other stuck-up mages in the academy thought as a turn off was exactly what young Dixie sought in a girl so, here we were after Dixie had asked if we could include her in our project as well.

I was naturally being a good friend and wingman to Dixie and encouraged him to go for it with senior Anna. I had also got to know her more over our interactions at the blacksmithing association and found her to be a very honest and upright person, I had also told Dixie that I wouldn't mind if he invited her to train with the rest of our group in the mountains out back. He was still dragging his feet though so I was contemplating getting Delia to also help out.

"Hmm… these designs look good enough. It is still somewhat surprising though that you guys want to forge weapons for yourselves instead of magic staves like the majority of the students out there. These are also not those gaudy ornamental pieces that those stuck-up nobles think will make them look valiant and distinguished." Anna adds with a snort.

"No these are for actual warrior combat usage as we and our friends are also training to be warriors." I explain.

"Well good for you then. Not many seem to realise that having a strong and healthy body helps greatly with advancing quickly as a mage despite me telling my friends and roommates much the same. A lot of people insist on just strictly sticking with the class work with their remaining time used up for meditation." She laments.

I prod Dixie in the ribs to continue the conversation as Anna is still looking over the design specifications that we had drawn up. "So… Senior Anna, do you also train as a warrior?" He ventures with a bit of fidgeting. I need to work on his confidence and flirting skills some more, I am not about to leave my future brother-in-law in the lurch.

"Why yes, I'm already a 3rd rank warrior as well as a 5th rank mage you know. The forging especially has helped give my body plenty of exercise, I swear it has also helped me progress quite far in magic as well." She tells us.

Now that had me thinking, she had high affinities for Earth and Fire so I was wondering if she was sort of unconsciously used those affinities and spiritual essence while forging to produce the same effects Grandpa Doehring had achieved when stone sculpting. She seemed to be entirely unaware of it though as Dixie and I shared a knowing glance between ourselves. This explained so much about her as she was by far the youngest in her grade which meant that she achieved her 5th rank magus qualifications earlier than anyone in her age group. Ironically, all this just made the other entitled so-called elites look down on her more, even the teachers were a bit cold towards her after she had bluntly turned them down when they had asked her to 'quit wasting her time and talents at the blacksmithing association and spend more time in meditation like a proper magus'. Oh, I wonder how they would react if they figure out that the secret to her incredible progress was the very thing they were calling a waste of time.

"Well, everything seems to be in order and I see you have plenty of materials to work with so let's get to it the. Man, the bellows Dixie, keep that furnace going nice and hot." She exclaims as she moves to pick some ores we had on hand and dropped them into the furnace. Using the excuse that we were forging a weapon for him, the money bags, Yale had gone out of his way into procuring plenty of high-quality materials, more than enough for all of us really and had also made a generous donation to the blacksmith association. Guess that some things never change.

This time around though I pay extra attention as she is tending to the fire and hammering at the glowing lumps of metal. I nudge Dixie as well to watch and more carefully study her technique and I must say that it was incredible, she seemed to naturally connect to the fires and hot metal ores so her temperature control is impeccable. There were also her steady and rhythmic hammer blows that I begin to realise has a faint presence of the laws of earth, the throbbing pulse of the earth in particular, I can't believe that I never noticed that before today.

After a while she left us to work on our own as she had some of her own projects to do but I managed to invite her to our group's training spot. She was reluctant at first but I managed to convince her to visit at least in the guise of checking out how the weapons she helped forge would handle in a spar. She left after that and I had to deal with a nervous Dixie who was half happy and half in shock that I had managed to invite senior Anna to come visit our gang.

"Say Dixie, how about we make one more weapon. We have plenty of materials after all and it would be a waste to not use them, really what was Boss Yale thinking giving us so much stuff." I complained a bit with a mischievous glint in my eyes, I had a plan to have Dixie make a good impression on Senior Anna.

"Ahem. What did you have in mind?" He tries to compose himself and act calm but he is still sort of out of it.

"Come on, you noticed how amazing Senior Anna was too right? So, what do you say we forge her a good hammer that she can use to fight with as well? You know, as a thank you gift for taking care of us and teaching us." I tell him.

"You're right. We need to thank her with a proper gift." There was a fire in his eyes as he said that and we got to designing a two-handed spiked war hammer for our senior. She had the strength for it and after we had seen her working the forge, we were sure that with a little work she could easily transition from striking to shape metal to striking down her opponents in a battle field.

It took us an entire month of careful work to finish forging and enchanting our new weapons between our regular school schedules (that we barely attended these days) and personal activities. George and Reynolds went wild when we gave them near complete reign with the final enchanting, Dixie and I had already done quite a bit already and had folded in our core strengthening enchantments while forging itself. It only made sense to leave the more magic channelling and auxiliary bits to the others so they may practice as well, we still had a bit of inputs on designing the kind of enchantments we all wanted but we distinctly separated the task when actually applying it.

I must say that at the end of the month, we all had some impressive weapons to show for. Not only were they really good to just swing around in melee but they could also function as high-quality magi-staves to channel spells through thanks to the enchantments. The quality of raw materials and workmanship really showed in the finished products, Yale had spared almost no expense when sourcing raw materials and I also added a few from my collection that I thought would be useful. I had also thrown in a good number of magical beast cores into the creation of these weapons and I had taken quite a bit of care to match the type of cores with the affinities of the intended wielders.

Needless to say, all the people involved in actually making it were very happy with the end result and we all took the weapons to our usual training spot to show the rest of the gang. We were naturally also accompanied by Senior Anna who we had invited along for the first test run of our new weapons. I discreetly disabled the wards I had set up around our training grounds as well as those along the way as we passed and reactivated them after we passed through. They had sort of become necessary as there were now quite a bunch of curious people wondering what we were up to. Thankfully it was only the nosier bunch and none of the actually with powerful or authoritative figures were interested as they thought that we were beneath them, which worked out fine for our group.

"Wow they look amazing!" Delia exclaimed in awe of her new set of curved short swords. I may have gone out of my way a bit on this one as I had also made sure to make it look a little more elegant. Nothing too much as that would not only detract from functionality but also draw unneeded attention in a battle. The blades themselves are in the shape of a feather with the metal even having a feather like pattern to it, the hilt was crafted from the bones of a Golden Tattooed Panther with a light green leather of Green Tattooed Python skin wound around for better grip. I had also used a bit of the spine from a Blue-eyed Thunderhawk while crafting the cores of the blades.

She hefted the blades and checked their balance for a bit before skilfully twirling them in her hands and then proceeding to perform a quick series of cuts and thrusts that was graceful enough to be called a short dance.

Yale took his katana next and inspected it a bit before he also tried out a few moves with it. He seemed quite pleased with it judging from the pleased look he had when re-sheathing it. The blade of his katana had a sort of lightning bolt pattern running through its length and like Delia's it too had had beast parts integrated into it. The core of the blade had the spine of a Thunderwing Pegasus, the hilt was made of Pegasi bone wrapped in Veocidragon hide.

Since George, Reynolds and Dixie had chosen staff/spear type of weapons I did not have to work separately for the hilts and their weapons also had different beast spines as the core- Green Tattooed Python, Velocidragon and Golden Tattooed Panther respectively. (For your reference- George's staff has a dark greenish with a carved serpent spiralling along its length. Reynold's spear is red and sort of looks like Gáe Bolg from the Fate series. Dixie's looked a lot like Courechouse since that was exactly what I had based it on.)

Everyone was very happy with their weapon and spent a good deal of time practicing with them. I also take out my twin short swords to practice, unlike in canon I did not favour a single two-handed heavy weapon after all. All our weapons naturally weighed a considerable amount as compared to what the Transmigrator would consider normal in his world due to the unique raw materials used but mine was be deceptively heavy for its size and the two blades were also connected to each other via a length of chain at the base of their hilt (Kratos's Blades of Chaos).

"Impressive, I had my doubts if you kids could actually wield those weapons properly but looks like I don't need to worry, you all obviously seem to know what you're doing. Though I have to ask, what is in that box?" There was still one more weapon left to be unveiled and Dixie and I had taken great pains to keep it a surprise.

"Well Dixie here insisted we make you something too. You have helped us out so much after all and we had plenty of materials anyway, this is for you. Don't even think about turning it down, you have no idea how much effort went into it." I tell her while also phrasing it in such a way that it comes across as mostly Dixie's idea.

"What?! This… but I can't accept something like this." She tries to decline our gift without even opening the case and looking at it. I guess it was sort of expected in a way as it was a very expensive gift, the materials used were of really high quality given they were mostly sourced by the money bags Yale and the less said about the craftmanship and enchanting the better. Dixie and I had quickly become one of the top three smiths in the association right behind Anna herself (even if our skill in forging paled a bit to her skill honed over years, our enchanting was slightly better). The finished product was naturally high end and she could tell that it was not something someone of her background could normally get her hands on.

Though she was an amazing smith and mage studying at the world's premiere magus institute she was from a humble blacksmith family who had never even worked with such high-quality raw materials as compared to before she came to this institute. Even now she was not able to afford even a fraction of the ores we had thrown into making our weapons and here were her juniors just giving away something so precious to her. If the quality of what was in the box was even half as good as what she had seen so far, she had no doubt that even high-level warriors of the 7th rank would covet them so she was naturally hesitant to accept.

With me suddenly placing the box in Dixie's hand and a push from Delia, he went stumbling up to Senior Anna as the weight and shove had made him lose his balance quite a bit. He would no doubt burn holes in us with his glare later for that but right now he was just too nervous as he suddenly found himself in front of his crush with a gift she was refusing to take.

"Do…don't be like that Se…Senior Anna. Linley and I put a lot of effort on this with only you on our mind." He blurts out and then blushes heavily when the meaning of the words he said registers with his brain.

"Ahem, it was mostly Dixie who worked on that particular piece. I was much too busy working on the short swords for Delia at the time." Like the good brother and wingman that I am, I down played my role in this so my good brother Dixie could take all the credit and woo the girl he fancies. It was also true as most of the work was done by him so I saw no need to take much credit if any.

Dixie now looks like he is desperately searching for a hole big enough for him to dive into but in the end, he firms his resolve and just pushes the box toward Anna in a sincere manner. "Please just accept this Senior Anna, I put a lot of work into it and it would mean a lot to me. You have helped me learn a lot so far and I hope you continue to give me your guidance going forward." He says without stammering this time, he is still very red in the face but his eyes have a determined gleam to them.

"…Well, when you put it like that… understand that I am only accepting this gift as your senior and guide in blacksmithing." She put up a fight for quite a while but she eventually accepted when all of us pushed for her to just accept it.

She was naturally in awe when she saw the two-handed war hammer that was a very dark grey in colour with red veins running through it that seemed to glow (Bellona's war hammer from the online game Smite). The shaft had a combination of Velocidragon and Landwyrm spine and a considerable amount of their bones were also used in making this deadly weapon and the handle was also wrapped in dragon hide.

Despite the considerable weight of the weapon, she hefted it without too much strain as someone who was used to working long hours forging in a smithy. She gave it a few practice swings as well but what surprised her the most was the ease with which she could channel her mageforce through it as well as the heightened connection to the natural essences she felt while wielding it.

"This is incredible, I mean I knew you were better at enchanting than me but this is something else. This hammer is much better as a magical aid than my current magi-staff even." She exclaims in awe and Dixie's face brightens up in pride at the honest compliment.

Hehehe, I laugh a bit internally at that comment. Of course, my designs had excellent magic channelling properties, I used some of the principles of the Harry Potter world's wand making and included magical beast components as a core for all these weapons. It was difficult at first as the high temperatures and force of the hammer blows was damaging the beast parts too much but I solved that issue by applying a thick coating of powdered magic beast cores that I ground up over the spines before I folded the metal over them. I also sprinkled some of the powder over each layer so they were excellent conductors for natural essences and spirit energy.

This technique was not widely known and I did not plan to make it wide spread either. Only my friends knew the details and they agreed it was best to keep this secret as well. I did not even use these methods to forge tools for my other customers even though I could make a huge profit from it, the cons out weighed the pros. We all realised that our group had too many secrets now and we had to be extra careful, revealing even one aspect could lead to an investigation that could uncover all our secrets.

"Say Senior Anna, how about you practice with us for a bit to get used to your new weapon." Feeling a little braver, Dixie invites her to train with us. Though the way he worded it was somewhat lacking I my opinion, he said it almost like she was only invited this once rather than the open invitation to our group that it was meant to be.

"…Ok, I must confess, I really want to know how this hammer holds up in a fight. I'm curious to know how all the weapons you have made perform in fact." She agrees to this more easily than when we tried to gift her the war hammer.

Needless to say, I came out on top in our little practice fight as I was by far the strongest and I had already mastered the second stage of battle techniques (the wielding-something-heavy-as-though-it were-light stage). For simplicity I started to call it 2nd stage battle techniques that can be attained with any weapon or fighting style, the methods in my clan's manual only applied to heavy weapons after all and were just to convoluted. The 1st stage was just being able to properly wield a weapon without hurting yourself and the 3rd stage was the Impose level, anything after that would fall into the realms of directly using the laws.

Even though it looked like I handily beat everyone into submission I was very impressed with their progress so far. They all could be considered seasoned warriors now as they had completely mastered the 1st stage battle techniques and even though they were still relatively new to their weapons, the past few years of physical body conditioning and training with practice weapons easily made up for it. Even Senior Anna was not a clumsy noob either as she quickly adjusted to fighting with the hammer, looks like she already had some practice with converting her blacksmithing skills into fighting skills which will make future progress easier. She was still the most winded after our practice though as she was now the weakest one in our group.

In the end Delia and I made the effort to more formally invite her to train with us from now on and she readily accepted to this. Something about us juniors being stronger than her physically despite her working out over her forge seemed to rub her the wrong way.

Anna did not waste much time accepting the invitation her junior Linley from the blacksmith association was extending to her with his cute little girlfriend, a girlfriend who happened to be the sister of another junior of hers. She was not completely oblivious to the interest Dixie- the most talented genius in Ernst's recent history- had in her either. At first, she was cautious if it was some trap but over the past year, she was no longer completely guarded or dismissive of his advances. She quite frankly did not know what he saw in her either, her wealth and background was paltry compared to his and he was not really a slouch in terms of magic potential either and would soon catch up with her in her grade.

At first, she was weary if this was a scheme by a jealous noble who could not bear someone of common birth like her being better than them at magic, she had encountered her fair share of such petty pricks after all. She was the best in her age group in terms of both magical and warrior strength as far as she knew and there were just as many schemes by people to hurt her progress as those that sought to curry favours and she had to learn that lesson the hard way in her first few years at the institute. This situation seemed to be very different though as after seeing a bit of the true potential of this bunch of juniors, she had realised that she was not actually at the top.

In fact, training with them could be very beneficial to her. Her warrior training especially could have progressed a lot further before if only she was not so self-conscious and somewhat affected by what others said about her, even her dorm mates were not so supportive and made fun of her. She finally felt that she had found a group of people that she could be herself with and they would not mock her, they would actually help her improve herself immensely so she easily agreed to join in their training when Junior Linley invited her.

Training continued in that manner with the addition of Senior Anna into our group, initially we still had to be careful for the first couple of months as we weren't completely sure we could share all of our group's secrets but over time she proved to us that she could be trusted. She now had a better idea of all our actual strength ranks as well as the three supreme warrior clan members we had, she readily agreed to keep our secrets after we explained some of our issues.

She really was blunt and straightforward with her attitude, once she considered you a close friend and confidante, she would not betray you; she kind of reminded me of the original Linley's personality. Whatever the case after Delia and I were beyond sure that Anna could be trusted, we took Dixie aside and gave him some tips and dating advice to court her. I also took this opportunity to hear out if Delia lists out any activities, we hadn't tried out ourselves, my one and a quarter lifetime's worth of life experience did not have much romance in it sadly but it made up for it in maturity and slyness.

"You know you could take her out for a nice picnic dinner and then maybe have a dance under the starry sky later. Father and mother did make sure we had learnt to dance early on, unless you have forgotten." Delia advices him at one point. I make a note to myself in the meantime to learn to dance, see taking your girl out dancing would be obvious for others but I need these schemes to figure it out. Now I just need to find a dance teacher, maybe Yale or George could help, maybe George would be a better choice.

Things continued in that manner until roughly half way through that year's school term when Uncle Hillman dropped by with some troublesome news.

"It seems as though I underestimated the greed of the nobles." I say to Uncle Hillman after reading through the official writ he had brought to me. I honestly thought we had a few more months at least but it seems as though I have severely underestimated the political games and schemes of the aristocracy. The words in the document were concise enough and it even seemed to convey the official's condolences on father's disappearance but what it boiled down to was that they were asking my family to get out of Wushan town by the end of this year i.e., 9995 of the Yulan calendar. Anything belongings we have not taken away by then will be considered the property of the new rulers of Wushan.

I did not even bother wasting time to learn the names of the idiots that had made a grab for my family's home. They could have it for all I care, all those titles and authority meant little before personal strength in this world, besides I had already cleared out the house of all its valuables.

"Sigh, honestly I was not expecting any of this. Even after you had told me this could happen, I did not expect it to happen so soon. I am truly sorry Linley; I wish there was something I could do to help you keep your family's ancestral home." Uncle Hillman consoles me, he seemed to think my silent ponderings for shock and sadness.

"It's alright Uncle Hillman, really. Stay in the outskirts of the Fenlai city for a few days if you can, my monthly rest days are coming up and I will meet you in the city to see what we can do next. I will consult with a friend of mine in the meantime to see if I can arrange for you to head the O'Brian empire to meet up with Wharton." I tell him.

"Very well Linley, let's do as you say, there's not many things back in the town that require my attention right now either. Besides I'm not even in the mood to get back to the paper work, humph*, if those greedy leeches want to take away your birth right and ancestral home, they might as well put some more effort." He responds to me with a huff. I smirk a bit after seeing the usually stern and serious Uncle Hillman acting all petulant in front of me.

We bid farewell to each other before I head back into the institute and Uncle Hillman heads to Fenlai city. On the way back I start planning on how make it look like I moved my family friends and our assets to the O'Brian empire so it doesn't attract the attention of certain greedy parties. While my family was not rich, it was known that we still had a few objects of value like the antique pendulum clock, some stone sculptures and other artworks, what was that saying- a dead camel is larger than a horse or something.

Whatever the case, I had to make it look like I had arranged transportation for them as well as for a few people to move with us. I was sure there would be a few people and families besides Uncle Hillman's that would want to follow us as they were very loyal to us, father had managed the town very well after all and was both well loved and respected by the townsfolk. Though many would not like to risk their family's livelihood by moving with us, some would consider it and join us if we gave them a chance.

For all these things I know just the right person to approach to help so, I head straight back to my dorm. "Boss Yale, you here? I need some help." I call out to the young master of my dorm whose father is the head of the Dawson Conglomerate, one of the top three merchant trading factions of the Yulan continent.

"What is it Third Bro? What can I do for you?" Yale responds after getting up to a sitting position on the couch he was lazing on before.

"Boss Yale, I wanted to know if your Dawson Conglomerate has any caravans scheduled to head to the O'Brian empire from between the end of this month to the start of the next year. It would be great if there are any that go right up to the imperial capitol Channe." I ask him.

"No problem Third Bro, as you know our business network is very vast and we have many caravans transporting goods all over the place. The imperial capitol Channe is also a very important city so there are caravans that travel there every other month or so, if you want us to deliver something for you just say the word and I will get it done, no need to worry about the fees or anything between us brothers." He responds.

"Don't be like that Boss Yale, I can't let you keep doing things like that for free. Besides, the things I want you to move are not only goods. I would like to know if you could arrange to escort some of my family's retainers and friends to Channe, some may want to move their whole families over so it may be cumbersome. Also, if you could help them get some simple jobs and settle, I would very much appreciate it." I tell him my request.

"Well yes I can have that arranged but why do you need all this Third Bro?" He asks out of curiosity. I guess that was to be expected since the request I was making was odd. In the end I decide to honestly tell him my family's current situation that is the reason for this, I don't tell him the details of how my father actually died and all but I do tell him a bit about how we were politically out manoeuvred of our home.

"Why those no good dirty rotten #&@$… Don't worry about moving Third Bro, I'll speak to my old man to see if we can do something to let you keep your home." He gets indignant on my behalf and is completely ready to take this particular bull by the horns even if I don't really care if I keep the house and position of Lord of Wushan town.

"Don't bother Boss Yale, let them have the house and town. I've told you before, my family and the Church are sort of enemies as they were responsible for my mother's death, who knows they might have a hand in what happened to my father as well (This was completely true). It would be better for me to make use of this opportunity to completely get out of the Church's range of influence so, let me ask you again Boss Yale, will you help me. Or would you rather prefer to help me fight the Church directly." I ask mockingly in the end as his emotions seem to be getting away from him. He immediately cooled down after I had mockingly asked if he was willing to directly oppose the Church.

"Ahem well, fighting the Church directly would be too much for us Linley. The rest days are coming up soon anyway so let me take you to our Fenlai branch of the conglomerate and we can get you the exact dates of the caravans as well as planning for the relocation of your people." He tells me after I deflated his anger on my behalf.