Over the next few days, I was put through a much more thorough examination of my abilities than the one that Hook had done initially. I primarily had three separate instructors in the Nocturne Division.

Hook remained my primary teacher, focusing mainly on combat and weapon skills. One of the first things that he did was start my training with a bow. For now, he was having me use a short bow, as apparently I just wasn’t strong enough to use an actual quality longbow. He outright scoffed at the idea of using a crossbow, calling them near useless for my purposes.

I took his word for it.

Other than that, he was kicking my ass up and down the small training hall that was found in the underground base. He refused to let me use my Oninite blades, instead demanding that I focus on relearning how to use a dagger independently, and then the same thing with a spear. He had been satisfied to learn that I’d maxed out the basic Spear Proficiency Talent, but had clucked his tongue when I’d said Knife Proficiency was only at level four. In fact, he told me that he had a certain plan in mind for both my combat abilities and actual Talents.

“What we’re going to do,” Hook said conversationally, parrying a slash from one of my dual training daggers. “Is get you to General Weapon Proficiency, like your friend Azarus.” He leaned out of the way of a stab, before continuing. “Once you max out seven weapon Talents, you can combine them into the General Proficiency version.”

“What…use…is…THAT!” I panted out, in between trying to score a hit on the master assassin.

“You ever wonder what the actual benefit from these weapon talents is?” Hook answered mildly, dancing away from my strikes. I managed a nod before having to dodge out of the way of his return blow, just barely making it. I was admittedly pretty curious about their actual function. It’s not like I had ever had some kind of epiphany about knife or spear combat and suddenly gotten better. “What they provide is a kind of instinct. You still need to learn how to actually fight with a weapon, but the Talent gives you a guiderail. I can tell you from actual experience that, even as shit as you are, you’re still better than someone with as little experience and training time as you should be. It heightens what you do have, so to speak.”

I leaned over clutching my thighs, panting and dripping sweat. After a moment, I rose from my little mini-break to look at Hook. “That just sounds like it raises the skill ceiling from normal-”

“To otherworldly, yes.” Hook nodded. “Let me tell you, some of the real weapon masters that I’ve met in my day? Crazy, crazy bastards with their instrument of choice. You see, you don’t have to choose a General path. You can specialize in something like, say, Longswords. You just choose seven different kinds of sword to max the Talent in, and then feed those different sword Talents into the kind you want to master. That upgrades the Talent into an Advanced Longsword Talent. Take for example your companion Venix.”

I blinked at the out of nowhere mention of the still comatose Antium man. Last I’d heard, he had been placed under the care of Honoka’s medical division.

“I’d eat my mask if he doesn’t have a Katana Mastery Talent. That’s the level after Advanced, by the way,” Hook told me. “So seven maxed sword Talents, fed into Katana Proficiency to make it Advanced Katana Proficiency. Then seven individually maxed other Advanced sword Proficiencies, fed into the Katana one to end up with Katana Mastery.”

I tilted my head in thought. “Is there a level after that?”

Hook nodded. “Yup, Grandmaster. But there are only a few people on the damn planet that have a Grandmaster level talent. A major factor to that is because of how long it takes just to reach Mastery, much less Grandmastery. It takes decades of day in and day out grinding and practice to get a Master level weapon Talent, much less seven of the damn things. I sure as hell don’t have one. Hell, I know Greycton doesn’t have one. He was satisfied with Longsword Mastery and stopped there. The man has never been all that serious about his weapon Talents, and he doesn’t need to be. He has his magic to fall back on instead.”

I furrowed my brow. “I wonder why Grey, or hell, even Azarus, never told me about this? I mean, I know Azarus has General Weapon Proficiency, but he never told me how to get it.”

Hook shrugged. “My guess is that it’s just never been the right time. You only have a single maxed weapon Proficiency. But back to the matter at hand, what we’re going to do for you is go the generalist route. It’s better for an assassin to be flexible, I’ve found. Your seven are going to be Spear, Knife, Short Bow, Long Bow, and then I’m thinking Longsword, Throwing, and…maybe Club or Mace. Or perhaps Stave. Hmm.” He said, tapping his mask over his lips in thought.

“That’s a lot,” I deadpanned. “How long is that going to take?”

“Oh, months and months,” Hook answered offhandedly. “You’ll be doing missions long before you reach General Weapon Proficiency. I’m just getting you started. You’ll have to do a ton of individual training to reach it on your own. However, the benefit of General Proficiency over specialization is that you’ll gain an instinctive ability for weapons you’ve never even touched, while retaining ability in what was fed into it. Damn useful in a pinch, let me tell you.” Hook chuckled. “You haven’t really lived until you’ve watched a General Weapons Master fight off an infuriated Advanced level specialist with a fork.”

Well, that was certainly a mental image.

“But enough talk,” Hook said ominously, adjusting his stance slightly in a way I was learning meant a lunging stab. “Back to the grind.”

I desperately crossed my daggers in front of myself to block the incredibly fast lunge from Hook.

Oh, how I wished I was able to use Sylvan Vigor in training.

……………………………………………….

Hook was only the first of my three instructors. The second one that I met was an Agent named Sparrow. Like Hook, he had an avian themed mask that was unpainted, only slightly different. The beak that was etched onto the surface of the mask was smaller than the long and thin one on Hook’s. This guy kept his hood up at all times, but I could still tell that he was a human male.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Sparrow was the trainer who was supposed to work with both Fade and me. I’d actually enjoyed the visible shock that had rolled over him when he’d first met Fade and seen his horns. I guess it’s not every day you meet a near-mythical Spirit Wolf, after all.

“My job,” He said to me, from the small break room that we were meeting in. “Is reconnaissance. I’m not on the combat track like you and Hook. I’m the only Beastmaster in the Division, actually.”

I nodded to show I understood. “Yeah, I think Hook mentioned you. You can help me and Fade work better together, then?”

Said wolf was in the room with us, lying on the ground and watching us. Despite his relaxed posture, I could tell that Fade was interested from the perkiness of his upright ears.

“Indeed,” Sparrow inclined his head. “I mainly work with birds, but I needed to gain a general understanding of most animals in order to qualify for the Beastmaster class. In fact,” He said with a chuckle. “I’m a licensed Veterinarian with the Professions to back it up. That’s my day job, so to speak. I can give your young Fade a check-up after this, if you’d like.”

Day job, huh. More like cover.

Still.

“Yeah, that sounds nice, actually,” I said with a smile that he couldn’t see. We were both in our masks, after all. “So, what are you going to be doing with us?”

Sparrow leaned forward, clasping his hands. “Well, that depends on you two. What are your goals as partners?”

I tilted my head. “You mean…how do we want to fight together?”

“You don’t necessarily have to fight together, you know,” Sparrow pointed out, to my surprise. Wasn’t that the whole point of this? “I don’t typically expect most people who aren’t Beastmasters with animal companions to fight side by side. You don’t have the support skills to make it worth it. You don’t even have the actual familiar bond yet, being below the first breakpoint.”

“Wellll,” I said, drawing out the word. “I’m betting most animal companions aren’t Mystic Beasts like Fade, either. I’ve seen him do some odd stuff with his powers. To be honest, I don’t think even he knows everything he can do yet.”

Fade chuffed from his position on the floor.

“That’s a bit rude,” Sparrow said unexpectedly. At first, I thought he was talking to me before I noticed that his mask was directed at Fade. I was taken aback by the implication.

Fade was too, suddenly sitting up and paying much more visible attention to Sparrow.

“You…can understand him?” I asked slowly.

Sparrow laughed. “Well, I’d have to understand animals if I was performing reconnaissance with their help, wasn’t I? Yes, I can understand your young friend. It’s a Class Talent that I received from Beastmaster.”

I deflated a little. “Oh. I was hoping I’d be able to learn something like that for a moment.”

“Welll,” Sparrow said mischievously, drawing the word out like I’d done earlier. “I didn’t say it wasn’t possible. When you bond an animal as a familiar, you get something similar to a Beastmaster’s Beastspeech Talent. You won’t be able to understand all animals like I can, but you will be able to understand your bonded companion,” He laughed at the visible interest in both Fade and I. “Just another reason to strive for the first breakpoint, eh?”

“Hell yeah, that sounds awesome,” I said enthusiastically, before pausing. “Wait, what did he say?”

“Ah, something along the lines of ‘That’s rich, coming from you’.”

I held up a finger in protest, before deflating. I nodded at Fade. “Touche.”

Fade nodded in satisfaction at my surrender.

“You know, since we’re here and all…” I said musingly, still looking at Fade. “Is there anything you’ve wanted to tell me but haven’t been able to get across?”

Fade tilted his head slightly before his tail started to wag. He barked a few things at Sparrow.

I didn’t expect the senior Agent to burst into laughter.

You know, suddenly I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. I still asked, though. “What did he say?” I sighed.

“H-he said,” Sparrow managed to get out in between laughs. “‘You should make a move on the silver one already before she loses interest’,” He shook his head at me amusedly. “Problems in your love life, Hangman?”

God, I was glad this mask hid my face. At least this way I could hide the redness I could feel creeping across it. I cleared my throat, desperate to move on from this latest humiliation. “So, about that training schedule?” I said in a higher-pitched voice than usual.

Sparrow let out one last chuckle, but gratefully moved on. “Well, if you don’t know what you and Fade want to do together, we’ll just do general stuff for now. We’ll work on tracking, general fighting with an animal companion, and reconnaissance methods.”

Sounded good to me.

………………………………………………….

I didn’t have to go looking for the last of my three instructors. Instead, she came to me. I was trying to relax after a training session with Hook in one of the break rooms when I was shocked half to death by her arrival.

From one moment to next, the empty chair across the table from me was occupied.

I nearly screamed at the sudden unexpected arrival, clutching my rapidly beating heart. “Jesus, warn a guy next time,” I breathed, eyeing the sudden arrival. They looked to be one of the rare non-human members of the Order, much less the Nocturne Division. They were very obviously a Gnoll and a female one at that. I’d gotten more used to telling them apart, after weeks spent in Renauld’s presence. This particular Gnoll looked to have white fur from what little of it I could see, through their mask, heavy cloak and form-fitting leather armor. The Nocturne masks that I had seen for Gnoll members were really only upper-face masks, as it was kind of hard to fit a whole one over a muzzle. The bottom half for Gnolls like her was more of a stretchy material pulled up to hook onto the mask itself. Hers was painted white like Whisper’s had been, and had a circle with three wavy lines overlaid on it, charred into the left cheek.

The Gnoll Agent tilted her head to inspect me better. After a moment, I was surprised to feel the telltale tingle on the back of my neck that indicated someone using Observe on me. Surprised, and a bit offended.

“Hey,” I said sharply. “What’s your deal? What do you want?”

The Agent ignored my question. Instead, she just nodded, as if to herself. “I am Dusk,” She said, in a raspy voice. “I will be your instructor in stealth and infiltration. When I am not busy, I will find you. I must go.” She stood up from her chair abruptly, making as if she was going to walk out the door.

I scrambled to stand up. “Wait, that’s it?!” I asked incredulously, causing ‘Dusk’ to stop in her tracks. I could see her ears swivel my way under her hood.

“Yes,” Dusk said flatly, before disappearing through the doorway. I just gaped after her.

I nearly had another heart attack when Hook popped his head around the corner abruptly, holding a steaming mug of tea. I couldn't help wondering what he was doing with it, wandering around in his mask as he always did. “Don’t mind her,” He said mildly, audibly amused at my shock. “Dusk isn’t the best at socializing, but she’s one of our best when it comes to pure stealth ability. She’ll have plenty to teach you, when I’m not unfortunately running her ragged.” Hook shrugged at my baffled form. “Don’t forget the campaign for Elderwyck moves out tomorrow. For now, you’re expected to rejoin your companions.”

“Are we still going with the cover you decided on? Did you contact her?” I asked curiously, shaking off the odd interaction.

“It’s all been arranged, don’t worry about it. Just get going, and you’ll be contacted for Division duties and training once we’re underway.” With that, Hook wandered away with a waved hand over his shoulder.

I just shook my head.

There were certainly some characters in the Nocturne Division.