Everything was so neatly packed into the fridge. Even with the number of people inside the room, there might have been enough food for us all. I had brought over two weeks of food just in case he wouldn't have given us enough. But I'll let my pets enjoy these new foods. The ration I had eaten was one of many. After counting them, I realized that we could eat around three of these a day and would still have a few left. After looking in even more detail, I realized that each ration was for a different meal. Breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I give each of my pets a ration. Also giving Darkclaw an extra two rations worth of our food. He needs more than the rest because of his size. I watch them all try to figure out the meals like I had just done. I begin to help the ones that couldn't open the packets easily. The rest watching me open them mimicked me. They all enjoyed the meal like normal. Until we got to the desert portion.

Not everyone had gotten chocolate bars. Some had something called cookies, others had something called candies. I watch them enjoy their treats. Almost all of them enjoy it completely. Some don't though, Sock bit a corner off of his chocolate bar and had set it down after that. Blue had also ignored his sweets. Maybe it is a preference thing? I let them trade their candy for some of our food if they want. Sock eats an extra piece of basilisk meat, Blue picks up some of the vegetables from the fridge. He seems to like the orange sticks, which I did not.

Darkclaw enjoyed the sweets too much. He greedily accepted the portions of sweets Sock and Blue had not eaten. Red broke a cookie in half and let Darkclaw and myself try it. It is also very sweet, just like the chocolate. It tastes like sweet hardened bread when I try to place the taste. Pokodo gave me and Darkclaw two of her candies candies to try.

The taste of it isn't something I've never had before. Darkclaw gagged and immediately spit it out. The taste was weird, like it wasn't supposed to be eaten. It still made my mouth water as it was in my mouth… I'm not sure what to describe the flavor as though. It made my mouth pucker while I sucked on the hard candy.

I need to learn from this. If I can prepare meals like these for my troops, they would be able to travel further away without needing to rely on taking a chef with them. Food can only last for so long. Without the usage of special bags or a job, most of my troops would only be able to travel a few days away from the base. If I make food similar to these rations, they'll be able to travel as far as the amount of rations they can carry. Which is easily twice as far, each troop would be able to travel a full week away easily.

The main reason for the chef job isn't because they get better at cooking (they do but that isn't the main reason). Everyone can do every job, at least theoretically. The reason you would pick the chef job, is the fact that you can cook monster meat and make it edible. No one else can unless they pick the chef job… Speaking of which, why am I thinking about food so much? Lust answers.

“That would be my doing. The two things I enjoyed the most in life. Good food and good sex.”

“Well, it is somewhat distracting but I actually enjoy the food far more than I previously had. It also helps me look at things I would take for granted or never think about. I would have most likely eaten the food and never gave it a second thought on replicating it.”

“That is why I'm here.”

Eating food only takes 30 minutes… We still have so much time left. I begin running. I'll knock out the trial of wind next, at least try to do as much as I can while I'm in here. I might be able to get 30 or 40% more while I'm in here. I also have to continue working on my new classes. Ninja and samurai need leveling. I should also practice my new true elementalist skills. I'll try to reach level 10 with both Ninja and samurai while in here. Perhaps by doing so, I'll unlock something else that Nami can teach me.

I get to work, running is easy enough. Most of my pets have started doing there own thing. Running for three days is easy enough, I will barely use 20% of my fatigue points. It's just getting tired from staying awake for three days is far harder. While running I continue casting my shadow doppelgangers every time they come off cooldown. It is around a day and a half before I get the first dexterity of wind trial completion… What!? HOW? It should have taken twice as long. Something doesn't add up…

I try to figure it out. It just doesn't make sense. Could it have been because of true elementalist? I haven't been doing anything differently… Except I've been casting shadow doppelgangers… Even if you count their effort towards increasing my speed of learning. It still doesn't add up. That would only add 2 minutes, every 10 minutes… If you triple the amount I would get plus each doppelganger, that is the only way I could have increased the speed. So, it seems while the doppelgangers are active. I have increased learning/leveling during that time.

I take a quick nap. Then I begin to train again. I decide to spar with my pets before I push towards finish the dexterity of wind trial. This time it is a fight between me, Darkclaw and Sock. Fighting against multiple opponents is good for preparing for the unexpected.

The fight starts with us all facing towards the other two in a triangle formation. My other pets have all stopped what they were doing to watch this fight. I'm also excited to see how this fight turns out. It begins, I start going through my pre-fight routine as they charge at each other. Applying every single buff I can. With my new true elementalist class, I activate a healing wind behind me to increase my speed further. I make shadow doppelgangers and talk inside my head.

“Focus Darkclaw, lets take him out before we lose our buffs.”

Each of the two extra people inside my head take control of a shadow. We've been practicing at attacking the same target. The main difference for my clones is they can't use my skills. I'm the only one with magic and breath attacks. They are cloned with similar versions of my gear though. So each of them has two totem swords in their hands. The enchants don't roll over on the gear, so they are regular treant wood swords.

We slam into an unguarded Darkclaw… He is overwhelmed by the attack coming from his flank. He is knocked down and out of the fight temporarily. All three of us switch targets onto Sock. Even with all three of us assaulting him at once, he continues to block all the attacks being launched against him. Almost ten seconds have passed before Darkclaw rejoins the fight. He cleaves one of my clones in with his claws, instantly taking it out. I readjust to being sandwiched between two combatants.

I block Darkclaw's assaults with Aegis while still trying to attack Sock with my remaining shadow doppelganger. Aegis is the clone that was left. Darkclaw increases his attacks now that he's regained his senses. FUCK! I can't continue blocking and also attacking Sock. I have to focus on blocking or Darkclaw will overwhelm me.

I switch to focus Darkclaw. I block his claws with Aegis and continue attacking with one of my totem swords. We lock eyes as he begins to open his mouth. I know what he's going to do when he does that! I unload two wind scrolls into my mouth to counter. He casts fire while I cast freezing bad breath mixed with conjured water and wind to increase its effect. Even with the two scrolls his breath starts to overpower mine. I'm caught with the final second of his breath as the room fills with steam from ice coming into contact with fire.

I dodge away in the cover of the cloud. I begin to heal myself as I back into a corner. The cloud starts to dissipate. Sock had also done the same thing as I had and backed to a corner as to not get attacked from behind. Darkclaw didn't move at all. He is still in the center, now in human form. I hear him speak.

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“HAH! Even with your boosts, my breath is still stronger than yours. This fight is decided if you can't contest me.”

He is beginning to get too arrogant. I'll have to bring him down a peg to keep him humble. He is right. Even in dragon form, I doubt I could contest his breath with mine. It would be a stalemate for one more breath, then I wouldn't be able to fight against him... That would be before I had my fight against Nami. He begins to take in a deep breath for his next attack. Boy is he in for a surprise.

I wouldn't be able to match his breath. Mine is weaker than his. So I throw a pepper bomb at his mouth. It would have missed but I used conjure wind to guide it into his mouth. Boom! It goes off and covers his face in pepper. He begins to cough and during this whole time I was running towards him. He begins to brace himself for my next attack.

I go into dragon form, dropping my totem sword. I'm around ten feet from him when I use my next new attack. I jump into the air and begin to spin to build up force in my tail. He is still looking towards me. I blink strike behind him and slam my spinning tail attack down onto him. It is augmented with several skills, chi strike, mana slash, opportune strike, heavy rending slash, wind strike and strengthened with rage and energy empowered strikes. Darkclaw's feathers are far better for blocking slash attacks then blunt attacks.

He is knocked unconscious. I call this new attack spinning class combo attack. I could use it while in dragon form, with a weapon in human form… Maybe even without a weapon. I'll have to keep working on it, every new skill I gain might be added to this combo move if it works properly with it.

I turn to face Sock. He has been watching the entire time from his corner, waiting for me to finish. I check to see if Darkclaw is still breathing and change back to a human to move him to the other pets. If he had taken the fight seriously and not assumed his victory, he would have been much harder to beat. Him dropping his guard this time might not happen again after being humiliated like that.

Me and Sock readjust and take renewed fighting stances. He shows no signs of underestimating me. His stare is penetrating me. Looking for any openings that will show up. Gauging the threat of any attack I will make almost instantly. He slowly edges towards me. Shield first, giving me no target to aim at. I want to win this fight! I need to win this fight! I can't keep losing!

“Aegis… I need this win… Please help me any way you can.”

“We… We need to beat him slowly, wear him down with ranged attacks while you run from him. Do not let him hit you or it will be your loss.”

I pull out my shuriken launcher. Socks eyes don't waver at all. He continues to edge closer towards me. I use the launcher, he easily blocks and dodges all of them. HOW!? My confusion must have shown on my face, because Sock responds.

“I've been dodging dragons breath attacks for two days straight. A few shurikens are easy enough to dodge.”

He hasn't stopped moving towards me! What do I do!? I change into dragon form and fly up. At least up here he won't b-. I get hit in the face with a rock! Of course he would have counter measures to flying by now. It knocks me down just enough for him to be able to reach my wings and pull me down. He's ready to deliver the finishing blow when I change into mouse form and fall out of his grip. Dropping to the floor and changing into a human again as I turn to face him.

He's right over top of me. Shield right against me, he could slam me with it but that would push me out of his reach again. Fuck! What do I do? I have nothing to counter him. I start to block with Aegis but he pushes my gauntlet out of the way. I have nothing to block with! If I block with my arm it will break. What do I do!? Aegis chimes in.

“Use your feet! Like you did with Nami!”

I barely get my foot up to block! It is just plain leather though, his training sword easily injures my foot. But at least it wasn't a finishing blow. Sock is surprised by my block. I jump backwards in this time. Increasing my distance with wind and healing my now throbbing foot. It hurts but I can stand on it. A few more attacks like that and I might be in trouble though. Lust yells out.

“You need to punch him in his dick.”

“I'm not punching hi-.”

Sock not realizing I'm in the middle of a conversation charges at me. Aegis talks while he charges.

“Attack him indirectly. Aim for numbing his body. If he gets into close range like that again, cast numbing poison breath at him.”

That is a good idea! I need to make better gear for myself… Lacking a gauntlet on my left hand reduces my blocking capabilities too much. I should also think about having specially made shoes to use to block with. I don't have time to think of that right now though. I'm in the middle of a fight.

Sock is almost in range. I begin to cast a bad breath with numbing poison. While it would be more effective to just kill some people. Tanks are too hard to take down by normal means. Weakening him with numbing poison will even us out a bit and he might even be immobilized by it. I put my gauntlet up to block right as my stat boosts wear off. What awful timing.

He pushes my hand out of the way with his shield again. Swinging his sword at me I once again block it with my foot. I can tell that my poison breath is effecting him. His attack stings my foot far less. I might ju-. I get kicked across the room… Shit! I'm at less than half health now. I begin healing myself I see that he is at 70%.

He pulls out his shurikens and launches them at me. I manage to switch into mouse form and dodge all the-. He rushes before I can think and I barely get back into human form before he is on me again. I could have went dragon form but I have no defenses in dragon form. It is an all out, high risk high reward form. I go to block with Ae-. Getting kicked across the room again! Shit! He's too strong! He keeps getting stronger and stronger as the fight goes on! I make a tiny tornado, trying to get some fir- he cuts through the tornado as if it wasn't there.

I have a few trumps left… All of them are meant to kill though. SHIT! What can I do?... I have one attack I haven't used yet... I want to win so badly though. I really should have tried this skill out before using it in a fight. This spell could easily backfire if it isn't strong enough... I remember Leon and Nargzar laughing over my loss against Nami. I can't keep losing fights... My army will start to lose faith in me. I NEED TO WIN!

I begin to cast flash bomb. It starts forming in my mouth and as soon as it comes in contact with the ground it will most likely explode. I spit the orb at the ground. A white light starts to form just in time for me to cover my ears and close my eyes. I barely protect myself before it goes off. The sound is still extremely loud even closing my ears. I wait a few seconds and re-open my eyes. Sock is rolling around on the ground as his eyes burn from the bright light… What did I just do!? Why would I use such a dangerous attack against my ally!

That attack is too dangerous. Not because it could kill, but because it could cause permanent damage. Even the bystanders got caught up in the attack… What is wrong with me! I rush over to help Sock up before I call the match.