Hot puffs of air brushed up against Luke’s face, a thin reddish barrier enclosed around him. All around were hundreds of slithering beasts, real, yet not. Scales covered their bodies, some had sharp black claws jut from their thin arms, while others spewed poisonous gas merely by breathing.
Xera was practically glowing in excitement from her crystal, “Look master! Plenty of fun all around us. Let’s get started.”
In a rare showing, Wayfinder agreed, “I wager once the barrier’s down, this place could shake off bits of rust from the both of us, Wandy lass.”
“Not against it, but let’s figure out the situation first.” Luke’s vision caught a brown haired pale elf firing a white bow at a rapid pace. A gray feathered owl fluttered around from her, spells shooting from its body in an attempt to support the elf. A thunderous bear roar provoked the attention of nearly a hundred monsters forming a horde.
Plant life, nature, and a wooden element bloomed bizarrely around the elf, empowering her shots, keeping back nearby threats, and dominating space. The Reaver admired how the she-elf managed control over each muscle to boost her speed at key moments or to enrage in power shots when regular ones did little to help against the more durable illusion beasts.
Magma burst around the elf, and despite the natural domain around her, she suffered from burns every so often. Geysers opened and closed at random, further poisoning the air. The lightning summoned from the forming noxious clouds displayed the targeted ability to strike where least wanted.
The Beastmaster had to use her companion owl and bear more than once to block a blazing white bolt. Yet the trio displayed near-perfect teamwork, Lulu with green waves healing the other two yet controlling other monsters when required. Timber mauling aside slithering beasts by the pair, lightning crackling around his paws. Finally, Iona used Beastmaster abilities to strengthen either beast and used her techniques to even out the battle, the ranged support provided by her the final stemming to the monster rush.
Calming awaiting in the barrier, Luke watched the struggle, as for helping, he believed that would earn a scolding over anything else. This was all a created illusion, after all. Iona left him alone when he trained, the least he could do was return the favor to the Beastmaster.
Instead, Luke put out a palm, and the Whispering Tome floated over to land on it, Luke created an ice pillar near the exit portal and leaned against it, enjoying the role of being the spectator.
Iona barely spared him a glance, continuing to pin beast after beast to molten ground. Her steps would restore the fiery surface to regular grass; plants would attempt to soothe her wounds while thorns grew to protect her from attacks.
Right as Luke believed the fight to be over, with a dozen beasts half a second away from skewering Iona in the stomach, her body swapped with Lulu. A distorted barrier surrounded the Day Flutter owl and vanished to Timber’s side, using his body as protection.
Taking Lulu’s place in the sky, Iona rained down a volley of arrows on the monster gathering, vines twisting around each projectile, strengthening it. When the falling speed increased, the woman took out her dagger a moment before impact. Luke saw each muscle in her arm bulge, she diced the monster survivors into cubes.
The clearing in the battlefield allowed Timber to regroup with Iona, Lulu focused on flapping green waves of healing to the three of them at once. A deep rumbling shook the entire realm, a giant eye stared down at Iona, following it were a pair of molten rock arms rising from the lava pool some distance away.
Stamping harshly to the floor, Iona cut her hand in the air, and a particular ripple shot out, shattering the illusion.
All returned to white, the barrier around Luke gone to the empty space.
Finding himself clapping, the Reaver approached Iona, “Why’d you end the illusion? The three of you were unstoppable.”
Taking a drink of water from a canteen, Iona gulped down the water, replying after sharing the liquid with Timber and Lulu, “The three of us could take that molten giant boss down if we were in top shape, but…” Vexation crossed by Iona’s features, “We’re too exhausted by the time it spawns. We’d fight, make it enraged, and die by hellfire after an extended struggle. Trust me, I know. This is probably my hundredth or so simulation.”
Letting Sooty off to greet Lulu, Luke came up to the edge of the white plane, pressing his hands out. A sharp shock traveled through. Shaking his hand lightly, the Reaver said, “Ouch, this thing have a limit to what it can simulate?”
“Anything above the third tier,” Iona answered, “it’s why you won’t see Musai in here, it is all too easy for him.”
“Sounds like a problem only Musai would have.”
“In this city? You’re right on that account, Luke.”
“Right, well, I’ve not been the best at endless small talk, so Aruna said you could help me train Sooty?”
Chuckling at Luke’s straightforwardness, Iona leaned against Timber, with Lulu flying around in the nothingness, Sooty beside the owl. Closing her eyes for a moment, Iona said, “We talked about Beast Crystals a while ago, just before your meltdown.”
Lightly embarrassed by the mention, Luke kicked out his foot, “Don’t remind me. With hindsight, I probably could’ve handled the news better.”
“That slight insanity within you is a crucial part of becoming—and staying—a Defier, I assure you. The crystals are straightforward enough, no need for me to explain them twice to you. Now for the harsher—but more flexible path—training.” Iona splayed out three fingers, “Care to take a guess what the three main ways are?”
Putting a thumb and index finger over the ridge of his chin, Luke looked up in thought, his posture straightened, “You mentioned repetitiveness before, is one form constantly using an ability on illusions here hundreds of times?”
The Beastmaster put down a finger, “The least creative, but still necessary way. Particularly effective at getting skills to grow in between Tier upgrades. Care to guess another?”
“I couldn’t imagine how, but a rigorous way to raise up baseline attributes, maybe special types as well?”
Grinning, Iona put down a second finger, “Vague, but I’ll take it. Attribute training is something not just companions need to face. Nearly all hunters run into a glaring issue—monsters naturally grow stats faster per level than we do. To close the gap, you have two options, extra attribute training or techniques.” She lazily twirled a finger in her hair, “As you can see by our numbers, most hunters fail to get very far on the second option.”
Sitting down on the white space, Luke put his hands out for support to lean back slightly, “I’ve been meaning to ask why that’s such a problem. From the looks of it, the city has hundreds, possibly thousands, stuck at adept in a technique, how?”
Winking at Luke, Iona returned an answer in a light voice, “Veering off topic, are we? I can give you part of the answer, but it fails to account for all of how severe the shortage is. Put simply, talent and hunters refuse to put themselves in situations where techniques can bloom. Usually until it’s too late.”
“Talent is simple enough, either you have it, or you don’t. You can make techniques ‘bloom’ with the correct approach?”
“Take this with a grain of salt, the art behind what makes a technique appear in a combat type is too sophisticated for me to entirely understand. There is a half-sound basis for it, you must repeatedly be put in situations where abilities will not be enough, survive, and do that ad nauseam. Apply too much pressure, and the hunter breaks, dies, goes insane. Too little, and a technique has no need to be created. This is incredibly apparent when growing from adept onward.”
Exactly how the Reaver trial was, the Spectral Lord was unbeatable without a technique giving me the final edge. Trials would then help you enter the correct situation for you to bloom, as Iona put it.
Popping his back and rolling his neck, Luke asked, “If you already know a technique, is learning another one as difficult? Musai zapped on into me earlier, rather painful, I must say.”
“It’s not, thankfully.” Iona stood up and stretched, Timber yawned while closing his eyes once she got off him, “I wondered what Musai was going to do about your predicament. Defier’s have a technique book that can help guide you to adept with an element, the requirement being you already have another technique at expert first. Otherwise, the book reads as nonsense or the ravings of a madman. So, he gifted you his own technique, how lucky of you. Do you know what that symbolizes?”
“That I’m his student? Musai made it sound like a duty to make up for the typical route not working for me.”
“Certainly one way to put it, but vastly understating the implications. One can only impart a technique like that if they’ve reached master level with it, and,” Iona balled her hand into a fist, “passing it down like that is possible three total times. Luke, you were the third and final for Musai. His other two students died.”
Widening his eyes, “Wait, then, couldn’t he teach it the old fashioned way?”
Laughing, Iona heaved her chest while strolling toward Luke, “It’s possible, but atrociously difficult. Forgoing finding a diamond in the rough with immense talent for that particular technique, it’d take years, minimum.”
Years? I managed elementalization in days. Hell, Sooty did the same thing. The thought colored Luke’s face.
“Confused? I meant more that getting the technique from unlearned to expert.” Iona wrapped a hand onto Luke’s shoulder, “Enough of this talking. We were here to help Sooty, not a class about techniques. In that spirit,” Iona tapped her ring finger on Luke’s chest, “The last type of training. Technique training for a companion. You’d do it the same way you would for yourself. Use it over and over, meditate on it, breathe it, or—like a certain ‘spell sword’ I know—enter a trance with insight about it. The longer I know you, the more ridiculous things I see you manage, Luke.”
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The Reaver stepped back, taking Iona’s hand off him, “Surprised you didn’t say something like teamwork training.”
Iona snapped her fingers loudly, creating verdant rolling hills with a cloudy blue sky. A daylight moon peaked between two stationary clouds, and moon hares, all below level ten, hopped about.
Circling back to Luke’s implied question, Iona elucidated him, “All companions have a ‘link’ passive to their owner. That does all the work, as it goes up in rank, the bond grows stronger. Teamwork is easy when your partner is all but able to read your mind. Except for when you first bond, your effort is better spent elsewhere.”
Flustered from lacking what Iona subtly put off as fundamental knowledge, Luke tried to stonewall the emotion, “Thanks for the crash course. Time I get started, having a companion ‘senior’ of sorts is pretty useful.”
Waving off while patting down her gear, Iona said, “We’re the only two companion types among the Defiers. It behooves me to help you. Especially in the long run.” Clapping her hands together, she swiveled to Luke, “Right then, Sooty needs training and a lot of it. Her master is leaving her in the dust, poor girl.”
Sooty circled Iona’s head, Lulu chasing after. The corvid released a mix of rattles, coos, and clicks. Judging from Reaver’s link, Luke chuckled at the bird’s ardent defense of herself, “No one is leaving you behind, Sooty, but we all could use training.”
Practically huffing with a rattle, Sooty hopped beside Luke, stretching out her talons. The Reaver lightly ruffled her feathers, asking Iona, “Let’s begin?”
Swaying toward the portal, Iona gestured to Luke in such a way for him to come over. Once he complied, the Beastmaster said, “Link yourself to the realm through the Interface. You’ll get the hang of it quickly after a few attempts,” She swiftly shoved Luke out a ways, “closing your eyes can help with it the first time.”
Rather crumpled, Luke closed an eye, a thread lightly wrapped around every sentient being within the realm, reaching out with Essence, a prompt inlaid within Luke’s vision center.
[Access Illusion Realm Controls, Y/N?]
Going with the obvious choice, Luke tapped on ‘yes’. Sliders with adjustments and creation to terrain, monsters, levels, monster tier, rarity, weather patterns, and more alighted within near endless options. As a shortcut, there were dozens if not hundreds of templates to use, most tended to be labeled after a dungeon section, tower floor, or monster zones within the Duchy.
Judging by the subtle mix of surprise and focus, Iona ventured a guess, “You’ve figured it out, I take it?”
Tapping to a notice screen invisible to anyone but him, Luke painted the blank canvas space around him. The green verdant hills began to rustle from the wind, the moon changed to the Red demonic version, a mix of grey sprinkled in the crimson, almost glaring faint light source. Moon hares grew thicker hides, reddish eyes, more powerful legs, and longer fangs.
Letting curiosity get the better of him, Luke pick a ‘black’ option, called ‘Leiru’s gales’. The previously rustling winds around began to form twisters, and white winds sliced about, cutting many of the poor bunnies around in half. Sooty instinctively summoned an Iron Feather to protect herself.
A thin, near indigo, layer of ice covered the Reaver, slicing wind passed by, at a speed beyond what Luke could react to. Sooty’s Iron Feather split in half, then was replaced by two noticeably smaller feathers, still protectively rotating the corvid. Leiru’s gales twisted about Luke, crashing into the ice, which surprisingly held up better than he was used to, but damage affected him all the same. Sooty lacked the same additional armor, and thus the poor bird began to bleed all over once the other two Iron Feathers dissipated to repeated terrain wind attacks.
Timber appeared, shielding around the corvid companion; Lulu sent healing waves to the struggling bird, and Luke, realizing the option was beyond them for now, shut the weather phenomena off. The twisters vanished, gales ceased, and the previously gentle winds returned. The moon back to a brilliant gold set nicely between soft clouds.
The hares were still dead; the thirty-second deadly weather had exterminated every last one.
A landscape of torn grasslands, wet blood spots, bits of flesh, and ruined hides spread every couple of feet. Iona poked Luke in the cheek, crushing into the thin ice armor there, “It says black option for a reason, you knuckled-headed Reaver. Stay away from those until the two of you are at the second tier, minimum.”
Witnessing the cuts sealing up around Sooty, Luke scratched the back of his head, “Curiosity kills the cat or bird? Are you fine, Sooty?”
Shaking herself off, Sooty cawed with strength, hopped twice over, then pecked Luke in the ankle—hard. Dealing with the sharp pain, Luke grunted, “Fair punishment. No complaints here, are we even now?”
Communicating with coos and Reaver’s link Luke received a sense of fairness from Sooty. With that, Luke considered the mistake settled.
Still, my ice managed to prevent any significant damage to me. Could I apply that ice armor to Sooty?
Taken by the idea, Luke attempted it after a short warning to Sooty, seeking her permission. The corvid took it as a challenge, telling Luke his ‘ice feathers’ couldn’t match her raw black plumage. Sometimes, having the link between Sooty and him led to rather interesting translations, Luke had grown used to it by now.
Just as Luke was to generate ice around Sooty and enclose it around her, Iona shimmered her own hand in the nature element slapping away Luke’s attempt. Planting a palm over her right eye in frustration, Iona said, “These ideas of yours are natural in a sense, considering you lack education, but by the founding four, are they stressful to see.”
Sitting down next to Luke, hands in her lap, Lulu perched on her left shoulder, hair lifting lightly from gentle winds, Iona kept the green elemental glow around her right hand. Believing it his turn to speak, Luke began to ask, “Is there something wrong with what I did? Sooty was-“
“Yes, there was, you ignorant Reaver. Elementalization is inherently a technique from the ‘self’ generated by your resource, and as an expert in it, is commanded by you. As Musai taught, you’ve been expanding your vessel to handle it.” As a show, Iona gently palmed the green element from her hand to Lulu, and the owl jerked back from the resulting shock, “Sooty has not done the same, as applying the advanced armor technique to someone without the same element will damage them. I recommend becoming a master at the minimum before trying something that arrogant again.”
Rubbing Sooty, Luke said, “Keep my ice to myself. But that’s confusing, how come the ambient ice appears to spare Sooty?”
“Simple, you command it, and can partially shield your companion or party members from the aftereffects, but it’s far from perfect. When you stop holding back, those around you without proper resistance will be helpless, including Sooty. Your items tend to manage, so Xera probably enjoys it each time.” Iona smiled toward the end.
Xera mentioned and agreed, “Absolutely, ice wand and ice sword time is a blast. Sometimes literally!”
“Two beastin’ elf lass, how would you guide the clatter trap? This thick-headed Reaver of mine is too restrained to say it. Let this old compass be the big baddie, our birdie isn’t keeping up to the lad’s rate of change.”
“Glad to see you trust me enough to speak freely, Wayfinder the Lost.” Iona tapped in the air a couple times, and new monsters populated the terrain, slimes, to be exact. Assured of her choice, Iona continued, “Attribute training would take too long for Sooty, she should focus on skill growth and technique growth. These monsters here will be perfect for her in her current level range.”
Rather than dismiss, Luke inspected the creatures slicking around from place to place on the grasslands.
[Immortal Slime] (Neutral Creature, Illusion Realm Generated)
Tier: 2
Level: 74
HP: 29999/29999
Bottom feeders, in return for exaggerated regeneration abilities and health pool, their offensive capability is near zero. Peaceful.
The slimes moved about casually, each content to munch on grass they slowly digested within themselves. The monsters completely ignored the two Defiers, living in their own zen world.
“Slimes that are near impossible to kill? How would that help with training Sooty? They seem to be the pacifistic type, there’s no pressure.”
“Using the inspect function makes it easier to explain then. Sooty has no chance of killing any of these things. As a matter of fact, you’d struggle as well.”
Affronted, Sooty flew to the nearest slime, beginning with a shadow-infused Reaver Beak, lowering the slime’s resistance and armor by 10%. Sooty chained the attack with her Talon Strike. She managed a critical strike despite no debuff or slow from Luke, creating a talon gash that lowered the slime’s defenses yet again.
The immortal slime, subject to Sooty’s all-out attack, merely folded in on itself, losing a slight amount of body mass, regenerating it a second later. Bits of Sooty’s black shadow element tried to eat away at the regeneration, only preventing the healing from acting as fast.
Undeterred, Sooty began to use her items, like Wing of Reaver and then doubled up with Shadow Wing. Each screeched from either side of the slime, barely reacting to the barrage. Unleashing her entire move set, empowered by as much shadow element as she could manage, moments later, Sooty clicked her beak in bafflement. She turned back to look at Luke, beginning a symphony of bird noises.
“You think the slime is cheating and won’t give up?” Luke chuckled, “At least you’re determined.” Shifting his eyes to Iona, Luke asked, “Spill the beans, what’s the plan with those things?”
Standing up, Iona instead spoke to Lulu, “Lulu, you feel guilty about Sooty, don’t you?”
Hanging her head down with light hoots, Lulu floundered to the grassland with a trio of hoots, wings slumped down. Clapping hands together, Iona said, “I know what you can do to help get over that, Lulu,” She gestured to Sooty, “Train your friend there, as I did with you.”
“And what training exactly is that?”
“Split training, Lulu will have Sooty use her abilities on those slimes time after time, hour after hour. If you want her to train up her technique with shadows too, she should try to apply the element to each ability as well.”
“Training by repetition? But if Lulu is guiding Sooty here, then what about me? How can I help her? And what about yourself?”
“Don’t worry about me, Timber and I can take half the realm to ourselves, while Lulu and Sooty will undergo mutual training on the slimes together.” Flicking Luke on the forehead, Iona lightly admonished, “You’ve been a little neglectful, Luke, you should’ve been in the Spectral or Vampiric Wing by now, trying to gather some beast crystals for Sooty.”
Taking in the sights, Luke saw Lulu in bird chatter with Sooty, both using abilities together in tandem against a slime or two. Whenever Sooty failed to apply her element to an attack, Lulu purposely stopped her.
“Does Lulu have an element she can use? Timber has lightning from his attacks, but I see nothing with Lulu.”
“My special owl? Of course she does, she’s a lucky little bird, born to one of the rarest affinities, illusion, it bolsters her abilities in usage, tricking others, and protecting herself. Hard to see, but invaluable to me. Too bad it does less than nothing for her damage. Timber takes care of that, don’t you boy?” Iona scratched Timber’s ears while the Thunder-Paw bear closed his eyes in contentment.
Gathering himself, Luke dusted off the grass that had found its way onto his clothes. He took the opportunity to test Whispering Tome’s abilities. He launched an Essence Lance at a slime, the faint oscillation sound absent. Next, he applied its active to the slime. A vast, gray domain shimmered in the air.
Oddly, the slime circled around for two seconds but, afterward, stood still. A gray cloud attached to what would be considered the slime’s mouth for six seconds. The domain vanished instantaneously with the six-second marker up.
“These guys are pretty non-reactive, aren’t they?” Luke said, observing how the slime acted when under the item’s active ability. Which is to say, barely at all.
Iona walked away from the other half of the illusion realm, the area she now occupied with Timber returned to the original terrain. That of black lightning, erupting geysers, illusion beasts, and flowing magma. The contrast to Sooty’s half area, a lush grassland with slimes, was a sight to behold.
A thin peach barrier cut the two zones from any interaction, an illusion beast tried to ram its way in, only to be evaporated on the spot. The slimes, of course, acted no different, blissfully unaware the hell Iona had willfully returned to.
An aura whisper wormed its way to Luke’s hearing, Leave Sooty’s training to Lulu. You have little time to spend here. For the coming period, you must separate. Before either of you complain, you’re free to come here and check on Sooty anytime.