(Zack)

"Hey, Pervert!" I greet Jesse as I enter the Trading Post. "Oh, hey, Nik."

"Zack," Nik greets me, and I feel a wave of disturbed feelings coming from Max. "Hello again, Max."

"Hey, Pervert," I lead Max up to the counter. "Meet my newest teammate, Max. Max, this is the pervert. Pervert, Max wants to be a Novice Elementalist, so we need a staff and a knife."

"Elementalists don't use knives!" Jesse exclaims.

"Don't listen to him," I tell Max. "He doesn't understand our kind."

"No one but your kind does," Nik chuckles.

"Knife and staff for my new teammate," I tell Jesse. "Make it pronto, Pervert!"

"One beginner weapon at a time!" Jesse protests. "You know the rules!"

"Okay, then give him a staff. Once he has it, give him the knife."

"You know what I mean!"

"You like playing this game with him, don't you?" Nik asks Jesse.

"Hey," Jesse grins. "It's good to see Zack back to how he was, rather than that sulky, moody, depressed boy he's been the last few days!"

Max gives me a confused look.

"Later, Max," I tell him, then direct my gaze back to Jesse. "And I'm still depressed, Jesse. But I have another teammate to train, now. I can't focus on my own training while I have to worry about someone else's. So. Staff and knife, Pervert."

He rolls his eyes, but pulls out a basic wooden staff and a basic training knife and hands them to Max. When I see the staff in his hands, I flash back to Braden, and when he received his from Jesse. When I taught him how to perform Wind Spike.

A strong hand grips my shoulder, and I look up to Nik, who's giving me a concerned look.

"If you need more time, Zack-"

"I'm fine," I shake my head. "I'll be fine, Nik. It's just… Bryce, and now Braden. But I'll be fine, and the Shadow of Life is going to go down. Just ask Nathan, he's found the full prophecy."

"He's found it?" Nik asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "And it's pretty clear that a Child of Existence is the sign that the tides will change. I'm not sure about the way to tell how the war ends, but maybe you'll have more insight on that. And I'm going to make damn sure I meet the other two criteria to show the tide is changing. Once I meet them, all we have to do is let the rest of the war play out, because it will end. Come on, Max. Let's head to our next stop."

Max follows me out, and I can tell he's a bit confused and scared to ask.

"Bryce was my brother," I tell him as we walk. "The Shadow of Life concocted a plan to kill the two of us so that we couldn't be a sign of the changing tides of war. It killed Bryce, but failed to kill me. Recently, I acquired two new teammates, a set of identical twins named Luca and Braden. A few days ago, Braden talked Luca into going to a dangerous area while I was busy with stuff and unable to keep an eye on them. I'd… made a mistake in an action, hadn't thought of something. It resulted in Braden dying. The last few days, I've been killing monsters like crazy, trying to gain Levels and practical experience."

Max does a mental 'oh', and I can tell he wants to hug me and reassure me. Instead of commenting on that, though, I just lead him to the temple, to Luca's room. Max gives Luca a curious look when we enter.

"This is Luca," I say. "You could probably smell him back at the house, his scent still lingers in the rooms. He's in Zero Down right now, and we think it'll be another five days before he wakes."

Max walks over to Luca and looks at him with concern, before turning those bright blue eyes of his to me.

"Yes, Max," I say. "He's my teammate, too, just like you. Luca's the healer on my team. Don't worry, though, I can heal, too. Come on, let's head home."

Max follows me home, and Gold and Aurum are gone. I don't sense them across the street, so they're probably hanging out with the other servants over by the Dark Temple. Now that we're home, I have Max work on managing to cast a Fireball. It costs 20 Mana, so he's got enough for it.

"Max," I say. "Imagine I'm a goblin that's here to kill you, and the only way you can kill me is to cast a Fireball at me."

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

He immediately fills with fear.

"Max no attack Boss!"

"Max," I say. "There isn't a single thing you can do to injure me, I promise. My Endurance is stronger than your Strength, and my Willpower is stronger than your Intellect. You don't have the ability to hurt me."

He still looks unsure, but I manage to succeed in talking him into trying to attack me like I'm a goblin. After a few attempts, he manages to make a Fireball. I hold out my hand so the Fireball hits my palm, and it disappears, used up.

"See?" I ask as Max looks at my hand in awe. "No injury."

"Boss cool!"

"Thanks," I smile at him. "You're pretty cool, too. While we wait for you to have enough Mana to cast that again, let's play a game."

"Game?" He tilts his head to the side.

"Yeah," I hold out my hand, summoning the basic training knife I keep in my Inventory. "A game. I'll attack you, and you avoid it."

I hold out my other hand and a jar of candy appears, which I then set on the table.

"If you manage," I face Max again. "To avoid being struck until you have enough Mana to cast Fireball again, you can claim one piece of candy from the jar."

This was a game I'd come up with for training Braden, but because of my stupidity, I never got to utilize it. It would be with our staffs, though, rather than with knives. Or I'd alternate between the two. Maybe I'll alternate between the two for Max, so he can use the staff some, though I think that's mostly for casting, for him.

"We'll play the game," I tell Max, whose tail is wagging as he does his best to not drool or look at the candy, the former out of desire, the latter out of fear. "Until either you get five pieces of candy, or you've cast Fireball twenty times."

By my math, that would take around three and a half hours, or a little more. I'm sure Max will pass out before then, especially with all the 'excitement' of today.

"Alright, Max?" I ask, and he nods. "With your words, Max."

"Yes, Boss!" He looks nervous. "Max bad?"

"No," I take a stance, then mentally restrain myself so that I can fight at only a little more than his own strength and speed. "You weren't bad, Max, this is training, okay?"

"Max hurt?"

"Yes," I say. "You'll probably get hurt during this training, but that's part of it. The training will help to boost your Vitality, which increases your Health, which helps you survive many types of attacks. It will also increase your Strength, Speed, Endurance, and your natural reflexes. It will also improve your Knife Mastery Skill. We can also do martial arts for that Skill, and a staff for that one. This will benefit you both as a magician and when you become a Dark Knight, as Dark Knights use their Health for attacks and take a lot of damage to deal powerful, devastating blows, okay? So are you ready?"

"Max bad?"

"No," I shake my head as I try not to laugh. "You're not in trouble, Max! This is training! Trust me, Nik's hurt me even worse when we train than what I will do to you. So do what you can to avoid the attacks. If you manage to do that until you cast Fireball again, you'll get a piece of candy from the jar."

He nods hesitantly, and I lunge at him. Max barely manages to evade the slash with my knife.

"Try to block my knife as well," I tell Max, before slicing at him again, and he ducks under it. "If you can."

Max continues to avoid my attacks as best he can, though I manage to strike him a few times. Never with the edge of the blade, only the flat, so he just whimpers briefly before avoiding the next one if possible.

Once he's recovered enough Mana, I have him fire another Fireball at me, which I let strike my hand before I attack Max again.

We spar until halfway through the recovery after his fourteenth Fireball, which is when he passes out from exhaustion. I'm impressed with his stamina, he's got a lot of it. I guess I should've assumed that, since both Gold and Aurum have an immense amount of stamina, too.

I pick up his knife and send it into my Inventory with mine, then send the jar of candy there as well. Then, I pick up Max and carry him upstairs and lay him on a bed, tucking him in. He'll probably freak out when he wakes up because of the 'scary' situation of being in a person's bed.

Shaking my head, I head downstairs and slip into the bath to soak. Today was a tiring day, for sure, but it's probably a sign to me. I wasn't reckless, I kept myself from getting into true danger, but it probably wasn't the best way to train.

Sighing, I close my eyes and lean my head back, then do my best to relax.

----------------------------------------

(Max)

Max happy! Master put Max bed! No! No Master! Boss! Boss put Max bed! No Master do that! Boss no Master! Max happy! Max no slave!

Boss awake. Max think. Boss no bed. Yes. Boss awake. Hm. Where Boss? Max leave bed? Max no leave bed? Hm…

Max leave bed, go downstairs. Boss cooking. Max cook! No Boss cook! Bad Boss! Bad, bad, bad! Max job!

"Max," Boss look Max. "Sit down and relax, it's not your job to cook."

Max job! Max slave, not Boss!

"You're not a slave," Boss say.

"No!" Max say. "Max slave!"

"Oh," Boss say. "You're saying you're a former slave, so you know how to cook, so it's your job?"

"Yes, Boss!"

"Yeah, well, I'm the team leader," Boss say. "I say that you don't have to cook if you don't want to cook. Do you want to cook?"

"No, Boss!" Max say. "Max job cook!"

"If you don't want to cook," Boss say. "Then it's not your job to cook, Max. You cook if you want to cook, not because you can. I usually do the cooking here, since… the others couldn't really cook that well. If you want to be helpful, though, you can put the dishes on the table. We'll need plates, cups, forks, and knives. They're in the cabinets there and the drawers there."

"Okay, Boss!" Max up, walk cabinets Boss point.

Max pull two plates, two cups, two forks, two knives. Then, Max put table. Max good! Boss candy?

"I'm not giving you candy for doing something that's expected of my team," Boss say. "When the rest of my team arrives, they'll be expected to do stuff like this."

"Yes, Boss!" Max confused.

Wait! Max stare Boss intently.

"What, Max?" Boss turn look Max.

"Nothing!"

Max know Boss secret! Hehehehehe.

Boss roll eyes, return cooking. Then, Boss finish cooking. Food delicious. Breakfast finish, Max clean dishes! Max happy! Max good boy!

Dishes clean, Boss train Max! Max want candy! Max train hard!