“Good evening. My name is Jin, and I have come for training in the ways of the staff.”
“Get lost.” The man replied with two simple words.
“Pardon..?”
“We don’t have any more openings for foreigners, so beat it.”
Seriously..? I am a paying customer! Cursing under my breath, I turned and headed back out of the building. I could probably train myself, maybe? Carrying my staff alongside me, I walked aimlessly through the city, trying to think of the best method to train my staff without an instructor.
“Damn, tough break man.” I heard a familiar voice behind me, and let out a soft sigh.
“Kirasami. Was wondering when you’d show up.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been watching the entire time… young mage.” He said the words with an audible grin, causing me to turn around and look at him. “One of my skills lets me see the character information of anyone I stalk for a few hours. And man, was I surprised when I saw yours.”
He chuckled for a few moments before walking down an alley, waving a hand for me to follow him. It should be late at night in that world, so a lot of foreigners will be here while their body sleeps. “So, you saw all of that, huh?” Obviously, there were more secrets on my character sheet than just my Mage title.
“Oh yeah. How the heck did you get in touch with Hell? You really don’t seem like the type to take up with demons, you know..” If I had to guess, I think he sounded a bit disappointed at that.
“Hmm, well, if you knew them, you might not say that. The demons aren’t the bad guys in this world.”
“Uh-huh… and how do you expect me to believe that?” He leaned against the wall of a building, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Well, if we weren’t in a city, I could call up their queen for you, but that’s a bit hard given our location.” I waved a hand around, indicating the city around us.
“Hmm, true. But you’ve got the queen of all demons as a friend… Damn, why the hell are you keeping all of that a secret? Nobody would mess with you if they knew how strong you are.”
Shaking my head, I smiled at him. “It’s the other way around, isn’t it? The stronger people think I am, the more people will come wanting that strength. Tell me… did you see Denise’s information as well?”
Again he chuckled, giving a slight nod. “I couldn’t get all of it, apparently, since her race didn’t show up. But she’s obviously a human, right?”
“Well… she was.” I sighed, “What I’m telling you, you’ve got to swear never to tell anyone else. It’s probably one of the biggest secrets I know about this world.”
Pushing himself off from the building, Kirasami looked at me curiously. “Alright, man. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“You know that there is no resurrection magic in this world, right?” When he nodded, I continued. “Well… now there is. Denise and I were killed a little over two weeks ago by a dragon. When I came back, I used the help of the demons to create a ritual to revive her. But she didn’t come back as human, and I haven’t been able to discover what her race is yet.”
“Wow, that’s serious. Yeah, if you managed something like that, I can see why you’d keep it secret. And I can admit that if they went through all that for you, demons might not be so bad.”
“Thanks. Now I’ve got to find someone to teach me how to fight with this staff, so that I can defend myself better.”
“Yeah, I saw that you struck out at the Fighter’s Hall. Well, they weren’t who you wanted anyways.”
Now it was my turn to be curious. “Okay… so who is?”
“I am, of course. Well, either me or the person who taught me. But I’m the one that’s here, so I’ll train you.” Bringing one of his hands wrapped in black cloth up, a symbol glowed on its palm. “Staff.”
When he said that single word, a wooden staff materialized in his hand. “Summoning spell? Figures that you’d have learned a bit of magic to be a ninja as well.”
“Exactly. I’ve got a small armory kept at my headquarters, and these wraps let me summon them whenever I want. Had to leave the enchantment to someone else, though.”
Taking a look at his staff, I noticed something strange about it. At either end of the staff was carved a unique symbol, one I knew very well. “Where did you get that staff?”
“Hmm? I got it from my sensei.” Seeing where my eyes were drawn to, he let out an ‘ahh’. “He had that symbol on a bunch of stuff.”
I couldn’t help myself, and slowly started to laugh, softly at first but building until I was clutching my sides. “Oh, that is perfect.”
“What’s the matter?” Kirasami was obviously confused, not getting what I found so funny.
“Your teacher… he was a demon…” The symbol carved into the staff was one of the runes I drew up for Lilith, meaning Twin. I had told her to have the demons in the human world wear one of the two runes I made her in case they needed to contact me, so I’d know they were from her.
“What..? How is that possible?”
“Trust me, man. That symbol means he was a demon. It’s kind of like a special code meant to identify themselves.”
“His character window said he was human, though…”
“His disguise ability might have been more powerful than your skill. Kind of like how I couldn’t detect you with my magic when you were hiding. I was wondering when I’d be seeing someone with that icon, just never thought it would be with a foreigner.”
Shaking his head, Kirasami let out a sigh. “Okay, so he was a demon. It doesn’t really matter, though I’m definitely going to talk to him about it after this. Either way, the offer still stands. You want to get trained or not?”
“Sure. You said he was a monk, or at least acting like one, and that fighting style uses staffs a lot.”
“Alright, this will be some good training for both of us then. I managed to learn a few skills from him, but I haven’t mastered it yet.”
Nodding to him, I brought my staff up in front of me to mimic his pose. As he brought it down to his side, I did the same. With my movements just a second behind his, we slowly brought our weapons over our head and spun them once, before pushing out at the air behind us.
“These are basic exercises, but they are also the foundations for techniques.” He spoke calmly, going from one motion to the next, sweeping his staff around himself and bringing it up into the air.
“So there are special techniques for weapons, as well.”
“Of course. You’ve probably learned this by now, but the skills you acquire automatically are based on how you use your abilities. You can also learn skills by specifically practicing them, letting you exceed the normal amount.” The concept made sense, so I nodded while copying his movements. “Also, weapon skills do not function off of mana, but off of your own energy. The more you use a skill, the more exhausted it will make you until you master it.”
Staff Mastery has increased to 6
“Is it possible to mix magic and weapon skills?”
Kirasami grinned to me after my question. “I asked the same thing. It’s an advanced ability, and most people have to create such skills themselves. So far I’ve only managed to make one, and that was with my sword. It might be easier for you, since your skill with magic is high. But from what I saw, didn’t you already make something like that? Your Arcane Marksman ability.”
“Ah, that was just something I got in place of archery when I was using magic with a bow.” I didn’t quite trust him enough to tell him that I was able to create objects out of my mana yet.
“Still, it’s quite similar. What I received was Arcane Blade, which lets me use spell combinations with my sword.”
“I see..” If I practice with a staff created from my grimoire, will I learn something like Arcane Staff? It was an interesting idea, and I decided that after today, I would bring a staff like that instead of this one. From what Kirasami said, I should be able to learn staff skills even with something like that, I just won’t
get experience for the talent since I am already treated as proficient.
This was just another reason why I needed to keep that ability to myself, as it made me a bigger cheat character than I realized. “By the way, I spoke to the boss.”
Turning my head towards Kirasami, I continued practicing the motions. “Of the brigade?”
“Yeah. He wants to have a duel with you before you leave the city, but he’ll wait until you’re done training first. Don’t worry, not a duel to the death or anything. Though it upset a few of the members, he said that there was no helping those defeats if you could take out that many at once.”
“So basically, he wants to test himself, not me?”
“Something like that, yeah.”
“Any idea what my odds are?” I smirked to him, and he chuckled.
“As you are right now? Without using your magic, he’d defeat you easily. But I don’t know what spells you have, so I can’t be the judge if you go all out.”
Thinking over it for a bit, I nodded. “Alright, but how about we fight without Hidden Powers? If I used mine, I might accidentally kill everyone in the area, since it can’t be focused on a single target.”
Kirasami began laughing again. “Must be some magic explosion, then. And fine, I’ll pass it along. That condition was probably going to appear anyways, since trump cards like that are meant to turn the tide of life and death struggles.”
“Thanks. You’ve done pretty good to make yourself into a ninja like that in such a short amount of time.”
“Eh, I’m still working on it. My throwing weapon skills could use work, and I need to get better with poison and traps before I’m happy.”
“You going to be out tomorrow for your job back home?” I asked, figuring I knew the answer.
“Yeah. Thanks to how time passes here I can stay for a little over a day at a time, but I do have a life back there too.”
“That’s fine, I expected as much. I’ve got an idea on how to train myself to get the magic weapon skill.”
“Well, good luck. You’re going to need any advantage you can get to beat the boss.” He smirked to me, and began moving into a new series of motions, now consisting of practice strikes alternating between high and low.
Staff Mastery has increased to 7
Once I leveled up again, Kirasami let out a soft whistle. “Congratulations. Level two hundred. Anything interesting?”
I glanced at the information window, and saw that nothing new really stood out. “Nope, no second Hidden Power. Guess I wasn’t the only one hoping to find that, huh?”
“Damn. Maybe each person only gets one?” To his question, I just shrugged. It was certainly possible that only one Hidden Power was given to each person, but there was no way to know for sure.
“Who knows? Anyways, about the duel. I should be done with my training in a week, one way or the other. So, in eight days here, four for you. That would be the best time for us to meet up.”
“I’ll let him know. You going to keep looking for a native warrior to join your group?”
I laughed softly. “So you’ve just been keeping an eye on everything we’ve been doing, huh? Yeah, I planned to start meeting the ones Denise found tomorrow between training sessions.”
“Well, good luck. I’d probably offer to join you myself, but it wouldn’t work out since I have a life on the other side.”
I nodded to him. “Exactly. I’ll get in touch with you if something happens that I need you for, though.”
We continued training like that for a few hours, before he had to log out to get ready for his day. In that time I had gained another two levels of Staff Mastery.
Name: Jin
Race: Human
Title: Mage, Emissary of the Underworld, Ritualist, Arcane Savant
Fame: 1670
Level: 202
Gild: ∞
Soul: 562
Health: 1050
Mana: 3103+850
Strength: 60
Agility: 135
Endurance: 200
Wisdom: 245+20
Intelligence: 500+20
Luck: 10
Attack: 10 + 52
Defense: 10 + 117.5
Talents: Magical Talent 25(+2), Magical Knowledge 25(+2), Navigation 6, Nature Magic 17, Summoning Magic 12, Runescript 8, Discovery 4, Divination 3, Enchanting 11, Infernal Magic 25, Arcane Marksman 8, Sailing 11, Mana Pool 7, Mana Recovery 9, Origin Magic 10, Axe Mastery 2, Carpentry 10, Staff Mastery 9
Title Bonuses: +2 Int/Wis, +400 Mana, +2 Magical Talent/Knowledge, +50% Mana Recovery
Equipment bonuses: +20 Int/Wis, +750 Mana, +50% Mana Recovery, Elemental Resistance +5%, Magic xp gain +15%
Well, my defense is undoubtedly better than it had been before. I should be able to start investing my points back in Intelligence and Wisdom, once I hit two hundred Agility. That gave me thirteen more levels to focus on Agility, unless I found another method to raise it. At that point I should be good enough to fight in melee with my various other abilities.
After Kirasami left, I confirmed that nobody was around, before setting my staff aside and making a new one from my mana. I began moving through the same patterns that he had shown me for training my staff skills, hoping that I’d get something. Noticing that it was easier to move with this staff than my normal one, I gradually increased the pace of my movements.
Before long, it was like I was holding a mock battle with an invisible opponent, swinging my staff back and forth to strike at invisible pressure points with an almost instinctual effort. But even staying like that for a few more hours, until the sun began setting, I didn’t receive the talent I wanted. I was determined to keep this method of training until I got what I was looking for. It worked for the bow, so logically it should work for the staff as well. If a talent like Arcane Staff was the ability to use magic with a staff, then wielding a staff made of magic should be the perfect way to train it.
After it became dark, I dismissed my conjured staff, picking up my crafted one and moving back to the inn. Denise asked me what happened, since she had seen me enter and leave the Fighter’s Hall. When I explained that they wouldn’t teach me, but Kirasami offered to instead, she nodded. We made plans to meet the first of her candidates the following day.
Chapter 9
I had decided that today I would only use a staff made by my Lesser Creation ability. So, after I woke up, I focused about a hundred and fifty mana into making a quarterstaff, I then placed it on my back with the one I had crafted, the two resting alongside each other. I could have sent the staff to Hell, but opening up a gate in the hotel room might have been troublesome. I really need to work on that storage device.
Once that was taken care of, the two of us headed towards the Fighter’s Hall. I didn’t bother asking for lessons this time, since that wasn’t what we came for. Instead, we took a look around at the various students. Most were adults at least in their late twenties. There were also a few teenagers mixed in, and a pair of kids. It really must seem unfair to the people living here when a girl in pigtails can show up and master a lifetime’s worth of combat training in a few weeks.
After Denise took a quick look at the gathered students, she told me that two of her candidates were already here. One, a slim girl with long red hair, and the other a brunette with ample proportions. Both were clearly struggling against their sparring partners, who were considerably younger than they were. Did they both have to be women? I really am not aiming for a harem you know!
Once the first one, the brunette, was knocked down and her match was called, Denise and I went over to speak to her. “Hey, you alright there?”
Looking up at us, she seemed like she was about to freak out and kill anyone that got in her way. “Yeah, I’m fine, what’s it to you?”
“...I was just concerned. That guy really didn’t seem to pull any punches.”
She scoffed at me comment, stepping up with a groan. “I’m used to it. One of these days I’ll get the hang of it,
and that bastard will get what’s coming to him.”
Okay… I am not liking this so far. “I see… I’m sorry to trouble you. I hope you have luck with your training.” I bowed politely, getting a grimace from her, before we went and waited for the redhead to finish her match.
The redhead, whose name registered as Cynthia, was carrying a sword and a shield, but she wasn’t wearing any armor. Likewise, as this was only a practice match, her sword was a dull one. Her opponent was carrying two swords, and didn’t look like he was doing more than toying with her.
The Dive: Birth of a Hero Page 12