The both of them slept for a full day before waking up and very sore. Their bodies barely reacted but they could still stand up. In their hands were their swords.
Olivia had a Nodachi, Logan he smiled as he found Arashi as a Katana.
He raised it and felt happy to feel the light weight. This was the proper weight for it, he had learned and trained with. For the last few years it had been hard to properly use the katana form because it was so heavy but now that he held one with a proper weight it felt so light.
As they sat up Helix appeared. “So you are both up, only a day of sleep. Impressive, long ago, there are some people who stay unconscious for weeks after having a Golden Lion sword.” he said.
Logan raised his hand and slowly clenched. “Although i feel so sore, i feel stronger.” He said.
“I hope you do or else that would be troubling. Thanks to the fact that you have been training for a full year creating mana and channelling it you had enough control over your mana to avoid weak points in the development process during the forging. The flames induce the technique but only if you have at least trained it once. You completed a full cycle and two cycles of the mana pool. It should be much larger now that you have developed it twice.” He said.
Logan slowly nodded and felt his body and knew it was true and his body felt sore because the mana flowing was in larger quantity.
“As for you girl, you should focus on doing the F rank again because you had barely trained with the ancient art. Your body tried to fix that and it made improper cycles so you need to go back and properly fix the development or it might damage your body when it matters.” Helix said.
“So… that is why my body feels so much weaker.” She said.
“Indeed, your condition is what happens when a disciple is getting their legend sword without sufficient training. You should dedicate a few month’s to this. It is a great time to develop the elemental bird flock of yours. Next to you is the medical kit that Elas prepared.” He said.
They looked around and found a wand, a staff and a large white box.
Logan smiled and used Arashi as a crutch and stored it. “Ah, it still hurts to walk.” He groaned. “Where are Storm and Jade?” He asked.
“I returned them to your room.” He said.
He nodded and looked at Olivia who was getting up and storing the kit. “Olivia, do you need help picking out a creature for your… servant?” he asked.
“I’ll go with a goblin. I’ll go to the tamers guild and buy one, they have specific classes and some are low leveled ones like unranked ones from the first floors. Are there any restrictions on our mana and how long do we need to rest our bodies?” She asked.
“Three months, the impact from this forging is ten times stronger than normal ones but you both have grey swords now and their capacity for enhancing your healing ability is also better but understand that even then it is still triple the regular time. If you don’t have it on you, it might even take a year to heal fully.” he said.
They understood, in a sense, it was as if they were crushed under thousands of rocks and had undergone surgery of every kind to piece their bones and were still weak from that. No matter how strong their recovery power is, they still need time. That said, their magical abilities were unrestricted because it had developed during the process.
Naturally Olivia needed time to repair the problems that appeared so she had to watch out for that.
“Alright, this is perfect because I can make Jin and Jade stronger in this time and after developing them I can continue what stopped and finish the third cycle and quickly start on the final cycle to fully form their mana channels.” He said.
“Remember you two, having those swords means carrying the weight connected to their legend. Don’t think there aren't consequences that said, we will not control your paths just be aware that not everyone is ignorant of the Golden Lion. As your fame gets larger the legend of the Golden Lion will reawaken.” he said.
“Do you mean we should form the mercenary group again?” Logan asked.
“Your sister is already planning that, I can feel it just from looking at her demeanor.” Helix said.
Olivia smiled, “Am i that easy to read?” She asked.
“You have the demeanor of someone with a firm goal for the future.” he said.
“Yeah, but I need names. I don’t know anyone from the old generation much less if they have kids.” She said.
“You don’t need to call the old ones, every generation the mercenary group has been reformed by every leader’s child. They have picked their own members and train them, though the old generation generally has children who go join actively.” he said.
She understood that she didn’t need the old members.
“I just realized but why is Maxwell only the 12th golden lion when he is only in his 60s now.” Logan asked.
“The title is given only to those who successfully master the development technique. Maxwell is the 12th of the Golden lion, or the 8th since the disappearance of the full technique, to achieve B rank, the current limit.” Helix explained the strangeness.
They understood but that meant that there were generations where there weren't any and that was likely the weakest years for the group.
He looked at both of them, “It would be in the best interest of each of you to form your own groups, two branches.” He said.
“Would that not cause problems later on?” Logan asked.
“The same rules, the same name. I doubt it, just keep each other informed on any changes and there shouldn’t be trouble. A lot of F ranks would give anything to join a powerful mercenary group with high ranking members and some are desperate and would join even a weak one just to move up to a higher rank and gain proper skills.” Helix explained.
“I assume we don’t need to be limited to humans?” Logan asked.
“Huh?” Helix muttered. “Do you mean hybrids or monsters?” He asked.
“Both.” Logan said.
He thought a bit, “Well, I wouldn’t know, up to the 4th golden lion, the number of sentient monsters wasn’t very high. Most of them were usually battle beasts tied to humans. You would basically have to find sentient monsters and train them but I am sure you understand the general rule of the dungeon.” he said.
“Right, don’t reveal techniques until they fully form a solid body unless they are battle beasts.” He said.
“Correct.” He said.
Logan sighed, “All those would be arrogant and wouldn’t be loyal at all.” He complained.
“So you were thinking of making a pure monster mercenary group?” Helix asked.
“Not pure, just a few starting members. If we have some skilled fighters that means we can split into parties and train others with more efficiency instead of moving like a mob.” He said.
Helix understood and smiled but he shrugged. “Right now i need to balance my body. That is more important, I will personally think about it much later.” He said.
“You are so dumb, you should start earlier than later.” Olivia said.
“Personal strength is required in a mercenary group above all else. Otherwise your control will be gone.” Logan said.
“Alright, I am sending you back.” Helix said.
With a snap, the two vanished.
The smile on his face slowly faded as he vanished and rapidly reached the top floor and walked to a long distance teleportation magical formation and left the dungeon like the first meeting to turn in the material and artifacts.
In the room, the two appeared and Jade jumped up from Storm’s back happily and ran to Logan hugging his legs happily.
He smiled and bent over to pet her head. “Was there any problems?” he asked Storm.
“No, the room remained closed but the employee asked about your sister. I informed her that you two had left.” he said.
“Thanks.” Logan said.
He walked to the window and saw the ally and slowly put his legs out.
“Are you going to jump?” Olivia asked.
“Yeah, we can’t enter from out of nowhere, we already disappeared like that.” He said and dropped down and almost stumbled. Olivia sighed and carefully positioned herself and dropped down. The windows closed right after and locked.
They each used their swords as canes and walked in.
“Ah, sir and miss!” the employee said. “I did not see you leave.” She said.
“No worries, we left when you were not here. We had to go spar so that we could deal with our problems.” He said, explaining their current conditions.
Logan asked if any of the rooms next to his was free and they were so supplementing his own rent time to three months, Olivia rented the room to the right from his own and they walked up. Logan unlocked his own room and she entered hers and he finally had privacy to check on his body.
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The first thing he did though was slowly draw Arashi.
Her blade was no longer white, it had turned grey but not completely, along the entire length of the sword was a faded red burn having barely a line but the burn from the white rank still left a shadow that was filling up. It was incredibly beautiful but he wondered how sharp it was but sadly he was not in the condition to check.
That said, something in his mind clicked and he rummaged in his inventory and pulled out the unidentified scale he had once gotten.
The size clearly was from a dragon so the hardness was as well so he gently placed it against it and just slid it along it.
Shockingly, sparks flew from the gentle pass and it left a mark.
“Heh, the power rose so sharply. Now then…” He said and closed his eyes and entered Arashi’s world.
She was there waiting for him. Closing her eyes, she began to release a glow and just like the time he learned about Lightning Clad, new knowledge filled his mind and after it passed along, he smiled as he activated it and the platform he was on began to change and light gathered until it formed weapon racks but most of all, light gathered until it formed into a building around it all.
“Heh, an armory for sure.” he said.
Looking around, he found a sword rack with three blades.
The original form, Katana in the middle, the double sized nodachi with the same engravings and finally the Tanto like a beautiful dagger. Each of them had the same beautiful burning pattern on their blades.
He took each and felt good about each weight, especially the tanto that was very light now.
After feeling each weapon he returned to his body and looking at the sword, it suddenly glowed before expanding and the lights burst revealing the Nodachi before it glowed again and became a tanto.
“It feels so good in my hands now.” he said, wishing for nothing more than to test it but he truly had nothing to use them on so he sighed and returned Arashi to her base form and sheath her and placed her next to his bed before turning to Jade and calling her.
“Alright you, thanks to the forging I already finished my next cycle and we can restore you more.” He said.
Her eyes sparkled when she heard that.
He crossed his legs and Jade sat down on him looking like a father and daughter if her skin color had been normal.
He began to channel his mana, he felt amazed by the improvement, the size of his mana channels, the internal space of each acupoint and the mana pool.
He understood why it improved the quality after each layer. The internal space for his acupoints allowed him to increase the number of grinding vortex within them. His mana channeled and began to form each group of vortexes and he began to gather mana and Storm opened his eyes in surprise by the improvement and knew his master had caught up magically and maybe even surpassed him because of the sword.
He knew he couldn’t be lazy so that he could accompany his master in the future so he closed his eyes and began to work as best he could and reach the same level as Logan and they both became pits for mana until Logan connected to Jade and began to channel mana into her.
Her body has been gathering mana for a while from eating food and mana stones so channeling only a bit to start the process, he spread the mana in the flow along the main channel and slowly mapped her body along that route before spread it on the thin new channels and slowly found the acupoints of the proper flow.
The current mana channels were basically closed with their size but they were flowing mana like normal but the secondary channels were too small for the size.
He began to form the flow and in the acupoints he could only make the smallest vortexes and cause her body to draw in very little mana but when it was all formed and returned back to the mana pool, he started grinding her own mana with his and then started developing the mana pool.
The amount of mana was still small though double before because of the increased size.
She had to grip his hands due to the pain but didn’t move around as he did this process for her and after an hour the mana pool was done but they both felt it. A magical effect that suddenly increased the internal space by 50%.
The sudden extra space was surprising but it would definitely grow as her body size grew.
After a small rest, he started on the mana channels.
It was normal for about 10 minutes until the first secondary channel appeared and the flow started to channel down that route as well. She instantly jumped in pain.
He had to order her to stay still.
Just like a closed channel though, it absorbed nearly three times of the mana and slowed down the development of the main channel to the speed of the secondary one. They both knew it would be a long uphill battle to open every last channel.
The new channel being reformed form the current secondary channels were almost 3 times bigger than the size clearly showing just how much bigger it was.
They continued for another hour before stopping since Jade was trembling in pain.
“Alright, that is enough for now.” He said.
She looked at him with tear filled eyes from the pain so he reached into a pouch and took out some mana stones for her.
She took them and begrudgingly started to chew on one as she took the others to the end of the bed.
He smiled and then summoned Jin.
The little lion cub appeared and stretched as if being woken from a comfortable sleep.
“Ready to train?” he asked.
“Meow!” he replied.
He smiled and took him in his lap and like Jade, he started on the mana pool. In the same stretch, the mana channels had sprouted countless tiny filament channels but the mana body did have acupoints blended in as they controlled the body.
That said, Jin was much more resistant as the spirit in the mana pool was blended with the mana and drawn out to the mana channels a second time and began to build the secondary ones. It went for two hours and reached three several splits and fully reached the ends that extended back but had only reached half the main vein.
He stopped there as well as the spirit within was stressed and had to regrow the spiritual flame after obtaining feedback from the body.
He sighed and recalled the spirit animal to his body allowing him to rest.
“Finally my turn.” He said calming down and restoring his mana before he finally started on himself.
***
At the same time that Logan started training Jade, Olivia just took some pain inhibition medicine to reduce the soreness and then left to the tamer guild.
Class guilds are all branches of the adventurer guilds and have specialized facilities for each. In fact, the term ‘Mage tower’ is not the proper name for that, it is the Mage Guild but libraries have usually been in tower format for a long time and since a mage generally stays studying for long times, the term came to be for libraries filled with magical knowledge.
She had Hydra as a Tanto and stumbled outside until she found someone selling a cane and bought one to support herself until she arrived.
“Hello miss, how may we help you?” he asked.
Olivia tried to hide her fatigue but they could see her trouble walking. She knew they had noticed so she fabricated a story based on that, “I was heavily injured and can barely care for myself. It's been a few days since I have been able to walk but I decided to get a servant. My brother possesses quite an intelligent goblin so I was hoping to get one to train to deal with common tasks and maybe for combat, maybe scouting as I am unskilled in that.” she said.
“Hmm, that is a pretty tall order without getting a tamer trained one and most that reach that kind of intelligence level usually are already a higher species than hobgoblins. What we can provide are low level goblins with skills in scouting. If you have a mana development technique, it shouldn’t take long for it to gain sentience if you add in some knowledge through magic tomes.” he said.
She was obviously unsatisfied but could do nothing and asked to see what the scouts could actually do and was surprised by their training but all these were beaten like dogs to learn them. They are all untrained and they were all unranked.
“Do you train all unranked like this?” She asked.
“Well, until they gain higher intelligence or sentience, they are like animals so carrot and stick is the way to go. Thanks to tamer skills, we do know which skills they have.” he said and showed her a tool that showed similar information and passed it over some goblins.
They were all the most undeveloped and reached the height of her thigh as goblins normally do.
She looked at the skills and found one with a slightly strange skill called keen scent.
“What is that skill?” she asked.
“That is a skill that enhances his sense of smell. It isn’t a rare skill but these goblins have a higher survival rate because they can smell the scent of other creatures within a larger proximity. It is about as keen as a common puppy that hasn’t had any training. Full training could make it only a little better and could identify different scents and search with them. Goblins with this skill have an near uncontrollable desire for gold when they smell it so they make poor tamer breed goblins since they basically try to eat all the money dropped.”
She nodded but this kind of skill is what she needed for hunting. Although a common dog could do much better, she had a different idea for it. If his sense of smell was so good that meant he would be able to cook delicious food with his delicate smelling ability. Even finding herbs and spices with this was great, much less food.
Of course, the fact that it steals gold on impulse is a pain but this would be a great incentive if it remained after gaining higher intelligence making it that much better at managing money.
“Alright, i will take this one.” She said.
“Are you sure?” the man asked.
“Yeah, I just need to discipline him properly but until then, i am mostly stuck to bed or just some light walking so it won’t get many chances to steal money.” He said.
He understood and it was during that time that she would train it.
“Is there something I should be aware of for training it?” she asked.
He nodded and began to explain how to form the proto mana pool.
It was basically the same format that Logan suggested for the elemental birds but it needed a bit of space and to fix the positioning of the core.
The goblin was isolated and pushed down and she put her foot on it’s head and it completely couldn’t move so she bent down and pressed her hand against the back and channeled her mana and began to process the mana and it struggled but the limbs were trapped until it was fully bound.
“Alright.” She said and it was released, “Silence, stand still and make no noise.” She said as it jumped to run but it’s body froze. “Alright, this is the money.” She said and took out the money in tip for the goblin.
After that she commanded it to follow and returned to the inn and sat down, tired.
“Alright, come sit down here, don’t move, don’t resist and don’t you dare try to attack me.” She said.
It was forced to sit in front of her with it’s back to her and she touched it and the mana surrounded the mana stone in the chest.
It instantly shouted in pain. The core had been completely sideways so she had to turn it a full 90 degrees. Her turning caused it’s body to actually start to destabilize and amazingly the mana channels were moving to rearrange themselves. The mana body actually became transparent part way through while the interior was filled with a black fog until finally the top and bottom faced up.
What happened next was shocking. The body began to glow and the ten channels began to change shapes and positioning but the most surprising was the horrible appearance rapidly humanized. The warts and nearly 60% of the ugliest features vanished but the eyes were vacant since it had fainted but something had clearly happened.
She blinked in surprise and decided to check and pulled out a device that connected to the net and typed in a search topic.
“How does the positioning of a monster core affect a monsters form?”
Olivia checked and was shocked, depending on the positioning of the two longest sides, the more monstrous the creature was. Something that was completely horizontal was unlikely to ever become sentient while those that were closer to vertical could gain sentience and even form a proper mana pool if they developed enough. If the monster core is forcefully turned by the monster’s master to the upright position, the body will actually start to undergo evolutions to properly fix the body. It can undergo several evolutions within a day as the different layers of mana channels properly find their locations and more vital organs are properly formed such as the acupoints and the brain which most wild dungeon monsters don’t even form.
The interior of a wild crazed monster is basically the black fog she saw but when it was properly arranged, organs form and slowly start solidifying.
She smiled as she understood that this was the most she could do with the goblin but she did give it an order through the binding, “When the evolutions end, go to sleep.”
She got onto her bed and began to train herself and try to examine and fix the problems that formed in her mana development thanks to the new technique and the forging.