Chapter Six

Harmony had mistakenly dressed in her travel clothes the morning of her departure. Brown pants and a jacket she knew made her look more like a young boy than a girl.

"Why aren't you in uniform?" Lord Tyler asked with a tone of command.

This caused Harmony to spin on her heel and march straight to the dressing room. On went the uncomfortably revealing outfit, and the two spares went into her bag. Thankfully, they didn't take up much space. While she was his personal maid for this trip, she knew she'd still have downtime. Maybe a chance to see Mike and The Dig Boys again? They'd always been her backup plan for gaining levels.

Hyacinth grumbled beside her, and she could only agree.

Back to Tyler's leerable standard, she joined him in the foyer, her familiar following.

Lady Coodly conversed with her grandson, "I approve of you working on your levels, darling. You know I had twice your levels at your age. We can't stay in the sticks forever. There's the capitol waiting after wringing this place clean."

Harmony did her best to approach discretely and professionally while the young lord shifted uncomfortably under the matriarch's gaze. Relief came when he noticed the elder turn her gaze to the newcomer.

"Oh, Harmony. I'll miss you, but there are only so many parties this old lady can handle this week. Let me know if Tyler here tests your boundaries."

"Grandmama, I'm always a gentleman!"

The dame gave him a loving but incredulous look and two light pats on his shoulder. "Have fun, you two. There is nothing quite like progressing to new heights. And keep my darling stylist safe. Astel is the best, but I loathe to give her so much extra work." She strolled away.

The Maid followed as the lord grumbled a bit due to the interaction and joined him in the carriage to the dungeon lodge. Hyacinth chose to ride up top with the driver rather than join her, his opinion of the grumpy lord clear through the bond that he would have tried something if forced to sit near him.

During the ride, Tyler didn't say anything but kept giving her long looks up and down, though less leering and more similar to how he would look at a new piece for his collection, overly possessive and with intense focus.

This was Harmony's first time at a Hazeldown dungeon lodge; all the aristocrats had one to make it easy to train young lords and ladies in the dungeon without needing to mix with the riff-raff of adventurers and local crews. Walled square lots mainly encompassing training and meditation grounds and a two-room structure that was kept simple on purpose. Either to house a trainer and student or lord and servant. The lack of amenities made these lodges stand out for the upper classes. The crowded bars, pits, gyms, and guild halls filled with gambling, booze, and other distractions were for the ordinary adventurer.

Lord Tyler carried his own bags in, which was a relief to Harmony as she didn't think she could lift the one filled with all his gear and the heavy armor that was the focus of his Tank class. The lord claimed the larger room while the maid took the smaller one. Hyacinth signaled he was off to take a nap. A new area meant tempting and unweary cats, so he needed to conserve energy.

"Meet me in the training grounds," Tyler told her abruptly.

The Maid waited patiently in the center of the training area, almost missing the chaotic Gym she'd visited on her previous trips to the dungeon. At that location, she could wear complete clothing, be relaxed, and didn't subserviently stand at attention. [Poise and Bearing] worked overtime, slowly pulling from the skill, activating the base skill snapped her face into a casual look while directing her posture into perfect alignment, which gave away the use of it. Something she usually only did when needing to counter a shocked or disgusted moment she felt might overtake her.

Tyler came out in his full suit of armor minus the helmet, a heavy maul strapped to his back. "The plan is to get trained up to join the team. While your skills will be extra efficient for the undead dungeon. I know you lack close combat and defense. So I've got you some skill gems to shore up any weaknesses. Sadly the armor I've commissioned won't be ready for a day or two." Reaching out, he presented three red gems.

Harmony activated [Poise and Bearing]. She could feel it level up as it stopped her from inhaling with shock, allowing her to take the gems with unshaking hands. Three gems for the open skill slots. Even if each was common, the red crystals represented a cost of more than she could make in a year if she saved every copper. And that would be if they were only common ones, and knowing Tyler, they'd be something unusual. Tyler didn't have the right to dictate what skills she should and shouldn't learn or how she chose to progress. But they could fire you if you no longer fit the position. It wasn't like the man was giving her options, but even then, this wasn't an opportunity she could easily refuse.

[Analyze]

Small Armor - High Kick - Mana Rotation

The names might appear simple, but there was always more to skills than that. "Thank you, my lord. I shall meditate and absorb them as fully as I can."

"I was thinking you can absorb them, and we'll work on making the activation second nature." He responded with a bit of whining and frustration.

Now, this was something Harmony would resist. Mastering skill activations was not how she worked. Some maids cast dust one square at a time, slowly working from one end of a room to another. Even without her synergies, she knew that wasn't for her. It seemed an inefficient use of these kinds of skill gems. "I didn't realize you were such a fan of Thibodeux's theory of skills. I prefer Carter's schema."

"Thibodeux is how it is done. Being quickly able to use [Immutable] over and over again is the core of my defense. Nobody does Carter. He's attic dust. Only half a dozen of his books are… you read my copy."

"How else was I going to repair it without ensuring I wasn't damaging or obscuring the text?" She'd read it before then, and Carter's logic made sense. It was just more challenging than simply activating the skill. The schema focused on finding synergies and controlling the flow of mana, stamina, and authority through the skill. Skills provide more than just repeatable actions you can trigger. With the unusual types, Tyler gave her a set of opportunities, and she wanted to make the most of them.

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The young lord shook his head and rubbed his temples. "Fine. While you process those, I will practice on the dummies at the far end."

Harmony knew him well enough to know he was thinking this through. He could see how they worked as long as she got the skills. Thibodeux preached his method because people tended to default to activation, like how she had to cover the surprise of the gift. Because of that, it made sense to practice activation until it is second nature, never mind that they can be used for more than that. Tyler would have to have delayed satisfaction as Carter advocated slowly absorbing skill stones and processing them to gain a fuller awareness.

The necromancer found the meditation mat near her. The type of training and skill exploration Carter advocated wasn't so far out of practice that meditation, introspection, and skill exploration were ignored. The more magic and crafting-intensive classes and professions tended to need it to help their skills level.

With the three stones in hand, she weighed her options on what to process first. It's not like she'd ever actually used a skill stone. She'd merely read about them. The darker theorists thought they were prizes created by dungeons out of the skills of dead adventurers. Generally, though, most people considered the loot to be crystalline structures from the gods, a way to gain them other than through leveling. The fact that in sporadic cases, a person can form skills within their body through actions, deeds, practice, or contemplation helped support people on that. It at least made a convenient excuse for Tyler's sensation play.

[Mana Rotation], [Small Armor], or [High Kick]. She set [Mana Rotation] aside because most of her skills used mana. She wanted to practice using the first two skill stones before she tried to tackle something that touched deeper into her and might need more experience and contemplation. [High Kick] was deceptive, a title for a single-use action, the kind Thibodeux fans loved like a fireball, where you can repeatedly use the skill to powerful effect, but those kinds of skills often evolved from general skills like unarmed combat, street fighting, boxing and the like so if you dig into the ability there is a lot of useful physical movements and combat skills baked into them if you work on accessing them. Not that she expected any of Tyler's gifts to be simple. She focused on [Small Armor]. Her first one should be the least complex option.

Do you wish to learn the skill [Small Armor]?

She mentally accepted it, and a surge of energy rushed from the crystal. Practiced enough from her own leveling up, she willed it to slow. Immediately she could tell the crystal differed from the skills she had acquired from her class and profession. The external fire that ran up her arm instead of extending from her core made it more slippery, and the first burst of information hit her gut with a grunt. The maid's soul rippled like a rock was dropped into the pond, and she focused on the connections and how the reverberations of his new skill interacted with her existing ones. The physical aspects of [Poise and Bearing] and [Style and Grace] synergistically intertwined with how [Small Armor] would settle in, but it was more than physical as [Analyze] and [Renew Spirit] showed some synergy in the level of perception needed to occupy it.

As the skill bled into her, she focused on how it felt. Defense, not something like Light armor or heavy armor, which improved how you wear armor. This was positioning, deflecting, and stopping when necessary. [Small Armor], something as simple as an iron wristband or a large medallion above the heart, used to turn a blow and spare a life.

Time felt meaningless as she focused on the skill entering her and her understanding. Use awareness of your position and your opponents combined to deal with the strike. Not a lazy strike, either. Spell or skills, you'll interrupt that with full activation. Those are the pieces [Analyze] and [Renew Spirit] synergize with. Understanding, awareness, and perception from those strengthen the skill and the skill's information, in turn, strengthening those back. Harmony focused on that connection. With this skill, she'd also be able to intercept blows against allies. Between Hyacinth and her new pet, she knew she would have others to protect.

That last thread of energy entered her, and she felt the skill rise this time with the stronger connections of balance and posture from [Poise and Bearing] and the smooth, clean motions given from [Style and Grace] like [Small Armor] was more of a skill related to dancing and dodging than something like Tyler's [Heavy Armor]. She wondered if it was an evolved skill like she expected [High Kick] to be. A good skill for activating as quickly and efficiently as possible, but she knew that wasn't what she was best at.

A plate of cold food and a large cup of water sat next to her. The sky tinged pink from the setting sun. Tyler, his armor dusty from use, sat on the ground a short distance away, staring. It wasn't his usual stare that made her feel uncomfortable. Slowly she blinked out of her self-imposed trance. "Does it usually take you this long to adapt to your new skills?"

With her mouth dry and stomach empty, the necromancer took a bite of cold bread and a gulp of water before answering. "I try to do it on my day off."

Harmony couldn't read her employer's look. Many people felt necromancers had naturally damaged souls. Still, the maid knew she could acquire a skill quickly if she accepted it. Slow skill acquisition was considered a sign of a damaged soul or skillful incorporation, allowing people to be selective of praise or criticism when it happened.

"Which skill did you learn?"

She figured if it was this late, she probably wasn't on the clock anymore. So shoved in a few more bites of food and finished off the water. "[Small Armor]. It's a defensive blocking skill." The plain description didn't fully express how she felt it could be used, but that was essentially true for activation. "I'll need a piece of armor."

He worked off one of the gauntlets of his armor and handed it over. The thing swallowed Harmony's tiny hand enough that she could never articulate the fingers. Yet, she managed to grip it from the inside to hold it steady. Closing her eyes and probing with her new skill, she knew this would do. While feeling it out, she realized she could preemptively highlight Tyler as a target to block as long as she kept some of her attention on him. "Okay, take a swing at me. Something strong."

He lifted his giant maul. "Lord's Punishment!" He cried out. Even if he didn't announce what he was doing, he projected his attack in his stance enough to make the quick attack seem slow. Not only was the massive attack holding physicality, but she could also sense magic and authority behind the skill. Authority was more of a given due to the attack's name, that extra boost lords and ladies had to their powers.

[Small Armor] moved to counter, not a direct block but a deflection using the gauntlet to push the strike aside. She could feel the skill slice a bit of the non-physical power behind the strike, letting it tingle the hairs of her skin. The deflection's force made her hand go a little numb, but otherwise, she stood there untouched. Removing her hand from the gauntlet, she opened and closed it a few times until the numbness disappeared.

"You should be stunned even if you blocked the attack."

"Using a bit of armor, I can stop an attack, even the skill aspects." As she said the words, the maid wondered if the countering was limited to only an attack but brushed those thoughts away for another day.

"That's more impressive than I thought. If I'd known..." Shaking his head, Tyler forced a smile. "I know a good place for dinner if you'd like to join me?"

Harmony glanced down at the half-eaten food. It was cold enough that it could have been from lunch. When she awoke, Tyler had been staring at her. She couldn't help but wonder how long he'd been doing that. A quick usage of [Poise and Bearing] stopped her from shuddering and allowed her to speak calmly. "I appreciate the offer, but I have plans to check in with some friends this evening. I won't be out too late, my lord." With a little bow, she excused herself.