I head to the slums with a small fortune. I'm going to force this greedy trait out of me if it costs all of my money. My body is almost fighting me as I walk there. I brought some guards in the form of Gobber and Hilda. I'm also going to heal any other injuries I didn't get to last time in the slums. I can't risk teaching because if someone learns a third class my secret will be revealed. We make it there and 2 more guards accompany me as I go to heal and give out money. I set up a makeshift table and yell.

“I can heal anyone with an injury for free today! I'm also giving away some money to anyone who needs it. Only 1 silver per person, if I see you in line more than once you'll be punished by the guards.”

It starts normally enough, a small line forms, then gets much larger. A few people in line with injuries but even more for the free money. Every time I give away money I feel myself both cringe in pain by the act and feel the greedy trait get more under my control. I hear a voice inside my head. I've heard it before trying to convince me to do something I wouldn't do normally.

“What are you doing! Why give away all this money! We need it!”

“I need to stop you! This is your own fault that I'm fighting you.”

“I figured this would happen eventually. Someone with the kindness trait would never get along with someone who has the greed trait… The greed trait isn't a negative trait at all... You just perceive it as negative because it's the polar opposite of you're kindness trait.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean every person is born with a trait. Most people only have one trait throughout their lifetime. A life guiding trait that defines what they do in life. The memories of the warrior in here are all kindness trait memories. We are just too opposite of each other to ever see eye to eye.”

“You're too much of a threat to leave in my head! You got Zergnars dire wolf killed!”

“No I didn't! I only made the option to not help him clear. If you keep helping people you'll never be the strongest! You keep forgetting about all the good I've done too. I got you that new gauntlet with no curse on it. Everything has it's drawbacks. These people you're helping, might get mugged and killed later for the single silver coin you're giving them. Just because you can't see from my point of view, you're trying to get rid of me.”

“That's right! I have to get rid of you. If I don't, your greed will get more of my friends in trouble!”

“You think so? Back in my life, the life you haven't tried to remember. I was a thief that commanded a pirate ship. I had plenty of companions I would risk my life to protect… But you're just going to ignore that because it suits your purpose as a kind person. Every problem we had since I started voicing my opinion you've blamed on me! You've already made up your mind to get rid of me, so do your worst… But know this! The first time I get control over this body and I won't let you ever have a say with it again.”

Aegis finally speaks his mind.

“He's right you know. It could have been the reverse of that situation very easily, forming a symbiotic relationship with your greed would probably be better in the long run. That's just my opinion though.”

I finish handing out the money and healing people. It's far more quite now, I doubt he'll talk for a long time.

 Trait Greedy- deactivated

I feel bad now… He was right on a few things. He did help me several times, I just couldn't stand him risking my friends lives because it might have cost time and effort to replace the knife cannon… Thinking about it though… I doubt I could have stopped it from happening even if the greed trait didn't slow my reaction time down. Well for now having a trait like that would put to much of a hamper on my training. I need to double up my efforts to get stronger. If he shows up again, we can talk then.

I start falling into another routine, waking up for a brisk jog to the magic academy. Doing classes then heading over to the boot camp. Some of the first year students have started to wonder where I am for the first few hours of boot camp. It's fine to be a little mysterious. I duel any challengers until they get tired of beating on me or it starts to get too late in the day. 

Running back to the fortress, I activate all the siphons Aegis can do. I increased the weight in my backpack from fifty to seventy pounds. Any more and I'd risk causing damage to my muscles since I'm still so young. I mediate a lot more than usual now. Three to four hours every night is added to my chi. If I move around too much with the siphons on. I'd burn through my fatigue too quickly.

I start making improvements to the fortress again. Tinkering in my few moments of spare time I have left would be good too. I start working on enchanting the water in the hot springs with regenerate magic. It would not be nearly as strong but it might help heal the stress and slight wounds everyone gets through daily activity. 

Having an escape tunnel would be a nice addition. I have the miners working towards expanding straight through the mountain. My mental map says that cutting through the mountain would save two weeks travel to get around it. It lets out towards the ocean too. I'll eventually need to make a shorter path there.

Since I no longer need wands or rings I've started to redesign some of my gear. I've been working on poisons for arrows and poison gas vials. I've been working on a type of explosive. If I attach a tier three or four flare scroll to an arrow with the explosive liquid in a tiny glass container on the end. I can make a far bigger explosion happen. 

I'll work out the kinks before I use it in actual combat though. Attaching a few powerful scrolls to a very large crossbow. One even bigger than my giant crossbows. It would be a devastating weapon. I've also switched to using a bow full time now. I can't fire arrows at about the same pace I could use the crossbow at. With the passive dual fire I can technically fire twice as many but they are nowhere near the accuracy to use in combat yet.

I need to think of ways to reduce the amount of equipment I have in my hands. If I do, I can deal with things more effectively. Dropping my bow to pull out a sword and shield once enemies are too close, isn't a very viable strategy in many cases. Aegis says something.

“I have a solution for that if you want to hear me out.”

“Of course, we're in this together Aegis. If I die you lose a big source of food.”

“Yea you're right, I haven't been so full for my entire lifetime. Being with you I've gotten to eat so many good tasting things. Those rares taste so amazing it hurts to stop eating them!”

“Yea so it goes without saying that neither of us want me to die.”

“Well that being said I do have a solution. Feed me your shield and a few more of those mithril plates.”

I do that, giving him the mithril plates reduces the coverage on my sides though, so I hope its worth it. I pull the rare gem out of it beforehand. He wouldn't have been able to use the reduced damage taken effect anyways. I don't think any of my generals can use it. Gobber has a rare shield that would explode if it was added to it. I'll hold onto it for now and give it to Lance once I see him again.

“Here we go then.”

With that, Aegis formed a metallic shield over top of the gauntlet... How?

“I can store things other than metal inside me with the void bag and change my shape to mimic them perfectly. I can only do this with how much metal I've eaten. Bigger things might be too difficult for you to use. I think you can handle a smaller crossbow, you should tinker to try to make one that is a bit smaller then a normal size one.”

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I'll have to think of some other things to add to him. I might be able to add a knife cannon. Having to pull out my knife cannon has caused problems that could have been avoided if I could use it instantly. It would solve those problems.

I work on making a smaller crossbow. The only type that I could make without the bow itself being to bulky or losing too much size of the bolts was a compound crossbow. It also had a crank for pulling the string back to load it. Any other form of pulling the string back would be too in the way or lose too much draw weight. Once fired the crossbow limbs stretch out to the normal size making it a bit clunky but once loaded with the string pulled back it runs even with my arm.

I'll mount a knife cannon under my other arm and make another one and give it to Aegis to store. Double barrel knife cannons could be fired instantly now wherever my hands are aiming. Aegis shouldn't need the crank to fire or load the crossbow but making a few more for my generals to wear on their wrists might come in handy. So it's somewhat of a trial run for mass producing a few for my generals. 

Making a few hidden blade weapons for my thieves would also be a good idea. Maybe adding knives to the soles of their shoes and under their arms like my cannons. It would make their fighting style much less predictable. They wouldn't have to pull out their weapons once they dropped their crossbows. It might also be a good idea to make cloaks for them with the visual distortion rare effect to help conceal them. Perhaps in the future since it would take far to long to mass produce them.

I should also make a few sets of the net cannons I've been messing around with since I've picked up the net from the lizard men. It works on the same principle of the knife cannon except it shoots out a net instead. I've switched the net with my webbing and lined the inside of a much bigger metal pipe with my poison so it wouldn't stick. Most of the silk will stick to anything it touches after it's fired. Making it a very good weapon to stop combat from happening. Sometimes having a means to capture instead of kill is extremely helpful. I could make one for each of my beast riders.

I've been trying to befriend Rock lately in school. As I said having a golem ally wouldn't be a bad thing. Rock doesn't attend many classes. (usually one in the mourning) Then he leaves to head outside to the stables or into the forest. I haven't found a good way to talk with him yet. He doesn't understand much common. I decide to ask if I can head with him. 

We head outside towards the stables. There Rock sits for an hour petting all the animals. Would Pokodo be able to communicate with him better? I'll have to keep that in mind. He then heads into the forest nearby, the few monsters that attacked him he didn't retaliate against… He might be too kind to be a good guard for the fortress now that I see how he acts. I'll still try my best to befriend him.

I brought Pokodo to school with me the next day. She seems to be able to understand him better than myself. She talks with him and is pet very gently by him. It seems like I can use her to convey messages to him.

“Lets try and teach him some common for now.”

After classes I let Pokodo handle teaching Rock all day. It will probably take awhile to teach him enough to gain his trust.

“Pokodo do you want to stay with him for now? It would be easier for you to teach him. Just come find me at school when you want to come home.”

This is the first time Pokodo will spend time away from me... Maybe I should stay in my room here for a few days… It should be fine and it will be harder if I don't go home. I just hope nothing bad happens to her when I'm not around to help but I don't think Rock will accidentally hurt her.

It's been a few weeks since I left Pokodo with Rock. I feel regret sometimes. Hoping I won't lose my companion if she decides she wants to stay with Rock forever. Though I'll be fine with that, if that's what she wants. Rock understands common enough to hold conversations with Pokodo. She can read his body language and it seems like they're communicating even when they're not speaking. Today I'll try to teach him a new class to try winning him over. What should I teach him though…

I've always been a fan on time magic. Elemental magic might be better. I'll try and teach him both so starting with the easier one would be better to even see if he can learn. I'm using Pokodo as an intermediary.

“Ok, so I'll try teaching you time magic today.”

I start going through the basics. I've done this a few times already. We're at the stables right now which is one spot that Rock is almost always at. Pokodo interrupts me.

“Master I've learned it, now what?”…

What!? Pokodo just learned time magic! I had no idea I could teach animals classes! Since it's Pokodo maybe she's the exception?

“Aegis do you think you could learn classes if I tried teaching you?”

…“Well I've paid attention so far and haven't learned anything so I don't think so.”

There must be some hidden requirements to teach. Still Pokodo learning that means she should be able to learn more.

“Pokodo did you get any other weird notifications, like you can't learn any more classes?”

She takes a minute to try and remember.

“When I joined with you I got a title called Servant of the king.”

I'm not sure what that means. I'll ask more questions.

“Did it give you any bonuses?”

“No but I also got one for befriending Rock that gave me a bonus to earth element control and resistance.”

… I should try teaching Pokodo nature magic and elemental magic next and have her try and teach Rock on her own afterwords.

Teaching Pokodo those 2 classes took almost all my fatigue. She learned 4 classes altogether before she hit her limit. White mage, time mage, nature mage and elemental magic. With most people, it would be impossible to learn any type of magic with elemental magic. I think her bonus from befriending Rock might have given her the means to learn it.

I guess there is no way to activate my siphons today but that's fine. Making Pokodo stronger is worth missing a day of that. I should try teaching Sock some classes, not sure it's possible though. I'll try teaching him some melee classes to help keep him alive, knight and guardian might be good. I should try teaching all the dire wolves classes at the same time.

The next day I gather them all up and have Pokodo there to tell me if any of them learn anything. After 3 hours of trying to teach knight with no luck, I give up on that 1. Trying to teach guardian is about the same outcome. After 3 hours I'm ready to quit when Pokodo speaks up.

“It seems like Sock can't learn it yet, he needs to evolve again.” 

Well that's fine then, I have a goal for Sock to hit now.