The woman who had taught Nate the last time he had been there, Anna, was standing out front when they arrived. Her red-hair which had been pulled back into a tight ponytail, gleamed as the sunlight hit it just right.

He had managed to repress the memory of her painful teaching method until that moment. Suddenly, he was rethinking his decision to come with the girls. Anna was an excellent teacher, and he had learned a lot from her. However, she also had a sadistic streak, and that meant her preferred teaching method involved pain. She belonged to the group of people who believed that pain was the best motivator, teacher, and reward.

Unfortunately, her results had proven her thinking correct on the first two. The last one, however, just didn’t do it for Nate. He wasn’t a masochist and didn’t particularly enjoy pain.

Angie laughed as she watched his face go through a range of emotions. “You forgot about Anna, didn’t you?”

He nodded glumly. “She’s good at what she does, but the way she goes about it is rather painful.”

Lindsay snorted. “You can’t even complain; that dominatrix has been torturing us daily since we got our cores. You have only had the one training session with her. She used to be less physical with her punishments before.” The raven-haired girl rubbed at a tender spot on her side, concealed beneath her clothes.

“Ah, I see how it is now. You invited me along just to spread around the suffering you’ve been experiencing.”

“Yup, exactly.” Angie agreed, without a hint of shame. “Now come on, at least we’ll be working together. She has been drilling us on how to fight as a proper team-based unit lately. We already experienced that while out on the expedition. The three of us worked as a pretty decent party, I think. With any luck, we’ll be able to take her by surprise and get a few cheap shots in.”

“If you say so,” He muttered, as the car stopped in front of the training pavilion, and they lost the opportunity to say anything more.

Anna’s eyes widened slightly as he stepped out first, and the corner of her mouth lifted up a fraction. “Nathan, I see you have come back for more. I was pleased to hear how well you did on the expedition this last weekend. It may have only been once, and now twice, but you are still one of my students. I expect you to perform as such. Should you not, I will train you personally until such a mistake never happens again. Understood?” She finished with a wink.

He blanched and nodded weakly.

A soft snicker came from behind him as Lindsay slowly stepped out of the car next. Angie followed next, closing the car door behind her.

“We are all here, Anna. Should we get changed so we can begin, or do you want to talk with us first?”

The older woman took a moment to look them over before shaking her head. “No, go get changed into your training outfits and grab your weapons. I want to see how the three of you perform. Anything I have to say can wait until afterward. Nathan, I assume you are still using kukris?”

He nodded.

“Alright, I’ll get the same pair that you used last time ready while you get changed. Now get moving.”

The three teens hurried into the training pavilion and a few minutes later stood before Anna once more in their clean training outfits.

She passed the sheathed kukris to Nate and took several steps back. “Take up the positions you decided on for your party formation, and then attack me when you are ready.”

Nate and Ashley took up the striker positions, while Lindsay was a step behind them in the controller's position. It had worked well enough when they had done it on the expedition, though the halberd wasn’t a weapon really designed for controlling movements. You worked with what you had, and it was better than having three strikers.

Ashley glanced at Nate, and as one surged toward Anna.

***

Anna stared down at the three exhausted and bruised teens with a speculative face. The girls had been training with her for a while now and were a known quantity. On their own, they did well enough. However, with the boy, as part of a slightly more complete party and with a person, they seemed to trust their ability went up another level.

It didn’t hurt that he had improved by a fair bit since the last time she had seen him either. His handling of the blades had grown more refined, and his footwork was no longer an awkward shuffle. Wherever he was practicing was clearly well suited for him.

The problem was Nate was not an official member of the girl’s party; he was simply their friend. Generally, friends were invited to become members of the same expedition party for this exact reason. They knew and already trusted each other, not to mention they tended to fight well together.

However, his parents owned their own expedition company and belonged to a lower socio-economic class than either Angie or Lindsay. Something that their parents would have a problem with if he was to join them long term, she was sure. As for the matter concerning his parents, that meant he would likely be unwilling to join any other expedition party outside of his parents. It was a shame, but it seemed as though the girls would only ever be partying up with him here in the pavilion or on school outings.

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It was too bad. The three really did seem to work well together. She would mention it to both the girl’s parents later, and depending on how the expedition went this weekend… Hmm, there might be a chance. Maybe she should mention something to Angie and Lindsay as well, depending on how their parents responded to what she had to say, of course.

***

Nate groaned as he turned the heat in the shower all the way up. The water burned his skin unpleasantly, but the pounding of the hot water against his trembling muscles felt frankly far too nice at the moment.

The training session this time had been even more hardcore than the first time. That was only to be expected since they hadn’t had their cores the last time he had been there. Every strike Anna had let through, they had worked for, and she had let them through.

The woman was a monster!

He had no idea what her realm was, but he almost wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she was stronger than his parents. Not that Nina and Niall were considered top-tier cultivators to begin with. They had made the best of their circumstances and were strong for what they were. However, constantly struggling to provide for themselves and a growing boy meant they had limited time to properly cultivate and look after themselves.

As a result, over the years, their progress had mostly stagnated. They had progressed some, but not as much as they should have. It was the burden of all decent parents to put their children first, and his was most definitely the best he could have ever asked for.

He really did need to find a way to start helping them out. Maybe once the new dungeon was completed, he would start getting some items that they could use. He had already told them about his ‘dreams’ and getting items from them. It was time he started to spread the wealth around, and frankly, he was ashamed that he hadn’t thought to do it earlier, before his parents had left on their expedition.

They would be fine. This wasn’t their first time going out there, but every little bit helped.

With those thoughts in mind, he was suddenly more eager to get home and continue working on the dungeon.

Finishing up his shower, he toweled off his bright red, steaming skin and got dressed.

Lindsay was waiting for him when he finally stepped into the foyer. She was talking to Anna alone, her arms were crossed, and she was clearly annoyed.

“Why won’t you just tell her already?”

“Because it is not my place to pick a secondary weapon for her. It has to be her choice, and frankly, the one I think fits her the best is not exactly dignified. If her parents ever learned that it was me who told her to pick it up-“ Anna spread out her arms. “Finding a new job would be the least of my worries.”

Lindsay snorted. “Please, the Chrighton’s would never let you go over some indiscretion like that.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

“I’ll suggest whatever it is to her then,” Nate said, coming up behind them.

Anna crossed her arms and slowly tapped her fingers in the crook of her elbow. At last, she nodded. “Fine. Come on, I’ll drive you both home, grab your bags, and let’s go.”

Nate lifted his school bag, while Lindsay ran over to the chair where she had stashed hers a few minutes earlier. “We’re ready,” She told their new driver.

Anna rolled her eyes and led them out of the building through a side door. “My car is sort of small, so the two of you will either need to scrunch together, or one of you can sit on the other’s lap.” She said, directing them to the tiniest coupe Nate had seen since coming back to life.

“You weren’t joking. That thing is absolutely tiny. What even is it?” Nate asked, having to duck down to look through the passenger side window.

“It’s a Mark 3.2 GT Ford. I had to order it special and have it shipped from their factory in Detroit.” She patted the side of the light blue car lovingly and opened the gull-wing doors.

Nate did the same and eyed the small seat dubiously. “Uh, the choice is yours, Lindsay. How do you want to do this? Try to manage side-by-side, or one of us sitting on the other’s lap?”

Lindsay peaked around him and sighed. “I’ll sit on your lap, I guess. If you try anything though, I am going to stab you.”

He rolled his eyes. “Give me a little credit, Linds, please? As if I would do something like that in front of Anna.” He winked, laughed, and picked up both their bags. “Can you pop the trunk so I can store our bags?”

A moment later, they were stored, and both teens were somewhat awkwardly sitting in the small car.

Anna fired up her pride and joy and clicked the manual transmission into gear with smooth, practiced ease. Her foot pressed on the gas pedal while simultaneously letting up on the clutch. She took them away from the pavilion at a slow and sedate pace that she maintained until they left the estate behind.

As soon as they hit the main road, she floored it with a whoop of pleasure that had Nate being pushed back against his seat and squished by Lindsay.

“If you say anything about my weight, you will regret it!” She muttered, with an elbow jab in his side.

“I love this car. It’s so much fun to drive. Of course, I can only really use it in the city. If I tried to use it outside the walls on those terrible roads, I would have to overhaul the suspension, wheels, and armor it. But that isn’t why I bought it. This is purely a car to have a fun time in.”

Anna kept talking as she drove, speeding through the city, paying absolutely no mind to the other cars on the road. It was clear that she had a destination in mind, so Nate and Lindsay were content to let her talk.

In a much shorter time than it should have taken, they arrived at a weapon shop. More surprising, at least for the two teens, was that they didn’t also have a whole host of cops on their tail.

“Out you get. I thought it would be better to actually show you the weapon I have in mind for her, instead of just telling you. A little demonstration in this case, I think, will help explain why it would fit her so well.”

Inside the shop, she led them to a corner filled with some of the stranger weapons they had ever seen. The one she picked up though, was completely unremarkable, and decidedly plebeian. It was comprised of two thick leather straps and a single leather pouch. It was an old-school sling, nothing more, nothing less.

She spun the empty sling around a few times in demonstration and then handed it to them. “The enhancement Angie received from the matched core awakening is enhanced physical attack speed. It’s powerful, but it is also surprisingly limited in what it will affect. The sling, because she is spinning it, I believe would count at least initially for her enhancement. She would be able to spin it at incredible speeds, not to mention finding ammo in the form of rocks is fairly easy, though she would have to account for their odd dimensions and flight patterns.”

Lindsay held the sling thoughtfully. “I think you’re right; it would be a good match for her. But she’ll have to train hard to learn how to aim and hit the target properly, even before using her enhancement on it.”

Nate took the sling by one of its leather straps and twirled it around his finger. “Well, I’ll certainly mention it to her. However, even I can tell that you were right before, this wouldn’t exactly be considered a dignified weapon, normally. I don’t suppose you could commission one to be made out of dragon tendon and demon leather for the pouch?”

Anna snorted. “I wish, if I could do something like that, convincing her parents would have been easy.”