God, I hate being right. Maxine panted heavily on the ground while covered in painful welts that would probably heal before she went to sleep. It has been a week since Maxine started training under Horatio Quay's tutelage and like she had anticipated, he increased the difficulty of his training regiment twice in that time. She just wished he kept to using the flat of his blade during their sparring matches, but he decied today was the day that he would switch to using a metal training blade in their sparring matches.
"You did quite well today," Horatio Quay praised, "But you still have room to improve. Those welts are evidence enough of that."
Maxine asked a question that had been bugging her for the past week, "How are you able to dodge my attacks and hit me? I'm much faster than you are."
"I use smaller movements to dodge and attack," Horatio Quay answered, "So, while I may be physically slower than you, I can still defend and attack because of this. It's simply a matter of skill and experience vs athleticism."
"And why did you use my attacks to give yourself a shave then?" Maxine asked angrily as she eyed his freshly shaven jaw.
"Mostly to anger you," Horatio Quay answered, "But you acted beyond my expectation and kept your cool. I'm rather impressed. Most young people would've lost their calm at such humiliation and they didn't have the savagry of a hydra bloodline urging them to give in."
"I'm not like most people," Maxine growled and recovered enough to sit up, "Can we move on to the next exercise, please?"
"Certainly," Horatio Quay said as he produced the game that they've been playing lately. However Maxine noticed her assigned troops were very familiar. She had 280 wolves, 17 ravens, 3 human dual-weilding warriors and one dragon. That's the exact same number and type of my constructs. That's too accurate to be a coincidence.
"What the hell?" Maxine asked in surprise.
"Like I said before, your 'master' told me quite a bit about you," Horatio Quay said with a smile, "I know whose daughter you are." What? He treats me like this knowing I'm Guan's daughter. No, I'm getting ahead of myself. Perhaps daddy gave him false information.
"And whose daughter am I?" Maxine asked cautiously.
"A certain famous poison user's daughter," Horatio Quay answered with a vicious smile, "I thought we covered that."
"And why are you not afraid of him?" Maxine asked.
"Because I'm on the same list of people and groups that the Alliance will not mess with," Horatio Quay replied, "Your father is ranked third the last time I checked while I am ranked seventh." Oh shit. The two spots above Guan are huge groups. One of them is the Black Hand Assasins and the other is the Sacred Beast Alliance. To be ranked in the top ten as an individual, you would have to be some kind of monster. Daddy has both his immense might and poisons to earn him on that placement. How the hell did Horatio Quay earn his spot as a fucking gold stage cultivator!? Wait, the person ranked seventh doesn't look like Horatio Quay. If anything he looks like that guy's father. I guess it's possible they are the same person if this picture was taken centuries ago, but still he's listed as a peak immortal stage cultivator. And, he definitely doesn't look like he should have a title like Blade Demon. Regardless, it's best to tread lightly.
"Can we begin our exercise now?" Maxine asked with a hint of fear in her voice.
"Of course," Horatio Quay answered as they began the strategy game.
Maxine looked at the terrain and sent her wolves to the forests to limit any ranged offensive. She had her dual-wielding warriors mount up on three wolves and follow behind the wolves. Next she sent out her ravens to do some scouting and kept her dragon in reserve. It only took her ravens a few minutes to find the enemy forces. There were at least one thousand of them and the majority of them were heavy infantry. The others were carrying crossbows as tall as they were on their backs. Dragonkiller crossbows?! Shit, the heavy infantry is hard enough to take out using just my wolves, but those crossbows make it hard for me to use my dragon. Hmm, but that doesn't mean I can't win.
She sent thirty of her wolves to perform a hit and run attack. They were torn apart by the heavy infantry, but half of them managed to lure one hundred of the heavy infantry to follow them into the forest. Maxine immediately had the rest of her wolves fan out to ambus the heavy infantry and once they were in the forest, her wolves ambushed the heavy infantry. She lost ten more wolves, but it was worth the sacrifice.
Unfortunately, the remainder of Horatio Quay's forces charged towards the forest. Shit, I can't fight them head on, but this is where some vicious tactics come in play. Maxine had her dragon take flight while her wolves allowed themselves to be seen before fleeing deeper into the forest. She watched as the heavy infantry charged into the forest, but the crossbowmen didn't. Instead they were setting up. Shit, this won't work if they kill my dragon. She broke off a small portion of her wolves to circle around to attack the crossbowmen.
Unfortunately the heavy infantry noticed and started to turn back. In desperation, Maxine ordered her dragon to torch the forest starting with the place between the heavy infantry and the crossbowmen. Her dragon made one pass before it started getting hit with the crossbow bolts. Thankfully it managed to set the forest around the heavy infantry on fire before it was shot down, but the majority of her wolves were in the blaze as well. Both were burned alive. Her remaining wolves were not enough to kill the crossbow men and she lost the game.
"You cheated," Maxine complained, "You geared your troops specifically to counter mine."
"Yes, I did," Horatio Quay said calmly, "Your enemies will do the same thing if given a chance. Or do you believe they will not have made any preparations to counter your abilities?"
"I don't believe they would be that careless," Maxine agreed with him, "And I understand why you want me to be prepared for that, but I have no intention of ever being in a situation where I have to fight such unfavorable odds."
"It doesn't matter what your intentions are if your enemies are prepared enough and force that situation on you," Horatio Quay retorted, "That is why we do these exercises. It's to prepare you for such a scenario. Regardless, you did very well considering how poorly of a match up you had."
"Thank you," Maxine said, "I still don't like loosing."
"Now, let's have another match," Horatio Quay answered.
"Understood," Maxine answered. They continued playing that particular game for several hours, but Maxine wasn't able to defeat Horatio Quay. They only stopped when Maxin sensed that Ismena and Reina approaching through the shadow wolves she placed in their shadows.
"I see your helpers are here," Horatio Quay said calmly, "Let's stop here for today. Go enjoy the rest of your day." He disappeared before she could respond.
She stood up and winced. The welts she earned earlier hadn't healed yet. But she was quickly distracted when Ismena started reporting, "I sold the healing and antidote potions that you gave me yesterday and I bought large quantities of the herbs you requested."
"Good," Maxine said happily, "Did you manage to find out where the Guardian Mothers have set up in the academy yet?"
"Yes, they're to east of the elven district," Ismena replied, "But may I ask why you want to talk to them?"
"We need more allies," Maxine answered plainly, "My identity as a gold-tier alchemist can only provide so much protection."
"I think I get it," Ismena replied.
"Good," Maxine said cheerfully, "Did you get harrassed by anyone today today?"
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"No, we were mostly left alone," Reina chimed in happily, "These alchemist helper badges you got for us worked wonders. Those bullies from the Tiger-Bear Mercenary group avoided us."
"That's right, but while we were on our way back, a courier approached us," Ismena said as she held out a letter, "He asked me to give this to you."
Maxine took it and swiftly read it. It was an apology for the behavior of their members and invitation for her to meet the two leaders of the Tiger-Bear Mercenary group at their base within the academy. I didn't expect this. I wonder what they are planning. Still, there is no way in hell that I will go visit their headquarters. I'll just send a coreless shadow clone in case this is somehow a trap.
She promptly created a coreless shadow clone and linked to it through a tiny portal on the bottom of it's left foot. Ismena and Reina looked on in surprise.
"I didn't know you could create clones so effortlessly," Ismena said.
"Technically it's not a clone. It's a construct," Maxine replied.
"Does that mean you will be sending it to the Tiger-Bear Mercenary's base," Ismena asked.
"Yes, and I will be making some potions while I do so," Maxine said and saw the sisters give her a disbelieving look, "I'm not going to explain how I'm able to. I don't need anything else from you two for now. Go on and have some fun."
"We will," Ismena said and walked off with Reina trailing behind her.
Maxine walked into her cottage and began making potions with a small portion of her mind. Meanwhile she directly controlled her shadow clone to make it's way to the Tiger-Bear Mercenary group's base.
As soon as her clone arrived to the base, she placed most of her focus on it. The guards opened the door and allowed her in without saying a single word. Inside, she encountered a secretary of some kind that gestured for her to follow and shrugged her shoulders before following behind. No one is talking to me. This isn't a good sign. She was lead into a rather spaceous room and saw the two young tigerkin and bearkin girls off to the side. Both of them were smirking at her. Another bad sign.
There were two large male beastkin relaxing on a nearby couch. The tigerkin looked lean, but Maxine had no doubt that he was physically powerful. He was easily over six feet tall. The bearkin male on the other hand was massive. He was easily seven feet tall and nearly four feet wide. His arms were bigger around than Maxine's waist and he had the face of a brawler that had taken way too many punches to the face. His nose looked had been broken several times. But both of them had a cultivation of Gold rank five.
"Welcome, I never imagined you would accept our invitation, Alchemist Maxine," the tigerkin male said with a sauve voice, "My name is Rigel and my hulking companion here is Drugar. I believe you've met Tianna and Koulan."
"Yes, I have," Maxine said calmly and decided to get straight to the point, "Care to explain why you wanted to see me?"
"Of course," Rigel said calmly, "We wanted to ask you to be our excusive alchemist." A mercenary group is asking me to be their alchemist? They must really think highly of themselves. They would have a hard enough time getting a silver-tiered alchemist to work with them.
"I'm sorry, but I will have to refuse," Maxine said politely, "Two of your members already have quite some hostility towards me and I don't think it would be appropriate for someone of my standing to associate with a mercenary group."
"Normally, I would agree, but I think you will do it anyways, Miss Levings," Rigel said with a smirk.
"Who are you talking to?" Maxine asked without revealing any emotion, "Because I know you are not talking to me. If you were, you wouldn't have said something that stupid."
"Oh and why is that?" Rigel asked in amusement.
"Because you will make an enemy out of a gold-tier alchemist for no good reason," Maxine said angrily and she altered her appearance so that her eyes became verticle slits and her teeth sharpened, "An alchemist that could easily place a large bounty of every member of your mercenary group and will pay double for you fuckers be brought to me alive. So I can have you watch as I EAT ALL OF YOU ALIVE!" Rigel was pale and sweating, but Drugar looked smug as if he knew this was going to happen. Tianna and Koulan were backed up against the wall shivering in fear. I didn't expect my dragon fear to be this potent without actually directing it at them, but still, that Drugar seems to have some resistance to my dragon fear.
"I told you that blackmailing her was a very bad idea," Drugar said with a deep voice. Maxine raised her eyebrow. Wow, if it wasn't for his fucked up nose, he could easily attract girls just by speaking.
"I see at least one of you has a brain," Maxine said calmly as her appearance reverted, but she was still very angry, "I can forget that you just tried to blackmail me, if you make it worth my time." Rigel visibly relaxed and took a deep calmling breath. It's safer to make them think that I'm greedy than to just walk away. This way they won't freak out and do something stupid since they believe that they bought my forgiveness.
"I hope this will suffice," Rigel said as he tossed her a dimensional pouch. Maxine caught it and peered inside it with her spiritual sense. It was filled with common, uncommon and a few rare herbs. I could make a lot of potions with this. Hmm, there is even a few dozen sets of herbs for breakthrough potions for both bearkin and tigerkin. Interesting, but this recipe is the most crude and ineffective recipe. I will improve on it and sell them at the Alchemist Association
"Yes, this will do nicely," Maxine said with a pleased smile, "And try to buy the potions with the tiny hydra drawings on the base of them. Those are mine and they have far higher quality than the others."
"We will keep that in mind," Drugar said calmly, "Do you need anything else from us?"
"No, I'm fine," Maxine said as she created a portal in her shadow leading to her main body before dropping the dimensional pouch into it, "I'll be leaving now." She switfly returned her focus back to her main body and dispersed her shadow clone into a cloud of rapidly fading smoke before either of them could say or do anything.
Maxine finished concocting her potions before transfering the contents of the dimensional pouch to her ring. Afterwards she stood up and left her cottage. She wanted to see if she could either join or set up a deal with the Guardian Mothers. Although, she would much rather join them. As far as she heard, they look after each other as well as any orphaned children they find during their missions from the Mercenary guild.
As she was flying to the Guardian Mothers' base, she saw a large group of elves singing and dancing. That looks fun. I think I will make some time on another day to join in on that fun. A few moments later, she arrived infront of the local Guardian Mothers' office.
It looked much like an over large orphanage and she could hear the faint sounds of children within it. She only raised an eyebrow as she walked into the unguarded entrance and saw several young women playing with a large group of children from various species. She was concerned when she spotted a harpy, and an arachne child among those children. It was concerning because both races were extremely protective of their young.
"Are you sure it's safe for you guys to watch those two?" Maxine asked the wolfkin Guardian Mother that was present while gesturing to the arachne and harpy children.
"Of course. Both of their mothers are members and asked me to watch over them while they attend classes," the Guardian Mother member answered, "Is there any reason you are visitng today?" Its a good idea to ask a wolfkin to watch these kids. They are known for their ferocity when protecting the young of their pack and this girl clearly has chosen the Guardian Mothers as her pack.
"Yes, can I talk to the current leader of your branch?" Maxine asked and saw the Guardian Mother member glance down at the gold-tier alchemist badge at Maxine's hip.
"Yes, she's on the second floor. Her office is the only one with the double doors," the Guardian Mother member replied.
"Thank you," Maxine said as she proceeded up to the second floor and saw several groups of children running around before she found the office with the double doors.
"Hello, Alchemist Maxine," a young brunette said softly as Maxine walked into the office, "I wasn't expecting you to visit. How can I help you?"
"You can help me in several ways," Maxine said while a smile and noticed a name plate on the desk, "One of which is that I want discuss forming a bond of friendship with the Guardian Mothers, Melina." However against Maxine's expectations, Melina's expression soured slightly.
"I'm sorry, but we can't discuss that," Melina said apologetically.
"Why is that?" Maxine asked out of curiosity.
Melina sighed before she answered, "You sold a certain potion to one of our members and as you recall, she used it for malicious purposes. We can't be associated with someone who sells poisons of any kind." Maxine was instantly furious, but attempted to remain calm. It didn't help that she was still angry from when she talked to the Tiger-Bear Mercenaries.
"I didn't sell a poison. It was a potion," Maxine growled as she failed to keep her anger from showing, "And I genuinely believed she wanted to get out of a marriage with someone she hated. I had no idea she was going to use the potion that way. In fact, I had no idea it worked on men at all since it was specifically designed to be used for lesbian couples to concieve children."
"I'm sorry, but your explaination won't change my stance," Melina replied.
"Fine, then," Maxine said angrily as she turned around to leave, "You know I only came to your group because our mentality regarding the treatment of children aligns, but clearly you disagree. I just hope you don't regret this decision later. I know of several large clans that would be ecstatic to have any alchemist befriending them, let alone a gold-tier one. Goodbye." She didn't wait for Melina's answer as she stormed out of the Guardian Mothers' orphanage.
"Wait, I didn't mean to-," Melina said as she chased after Maxine, but Maxine ignored her. At this point, she was afraid that her hydra aggression would cause her to kill the young woman in her enraged state before Maxine could hear her out.
She quickly stomped the ground to rocket herself off of the ground and flew towards her cottage. I don't know what I was expecting. Although, it was a bit juvenile of me to throw the fact that I'm a gold-tier alchemist in their face like that, but the way she said that shit just pissed me off. I know I shouldn't have gotten so angry, but this fucking transformation is pushing my aggression all the way to eleven. It's making it real hard to keep my temper in check. It's best that I just focus on my training and completely my breakthrough potion.