When I returned from the Infirmary and entered the boy's locker room, the others from my class were already changing. The first to spot me was, of course, my buddy Hank. Half dressed as he was he walked over to me and said, "Dude, that last match you had was Awsome.". As he talked he raised his hand for a high five. Of course, I didn't leave him hanging.

Seeing this Thomas came over as well, "Hey Morty, so how is it? Do you think you want to go down the path of a tank? You did really well against Emily. I saw that you even won one round.". "Is that true dude? You managed to win a round against Emily." Hank asked in a way to loud voice.

"Yes, but she wasn't serious and only used one of her astral weapons." I answered him realizing all the other boys were listening in. "that doesn't matter dude. Your now part of our top tier. Ohh how I wish I could finally manage to win a round against her. You don't know how jelly I am of you right now dude." Hank said.

Looking around I could see some of the other boys in class nod at Hanks outburst. "Now that you are a challenge and not only a victim for her to beat up. I won't be paired with her that often thanks." Thomas said to me while patting me on the shoulder.

It was then that the door was slammed. Looking at the door I asked, "who was that?". One of our classmates answered," It was stan.". "What is his problem? Dude." Hank asked. Thomas answered," He is jealous I think. He has been trying to get Emily to fight him seriously and Morty just got his skill and managed to get her serious right away."

I looked at Thomas, pondered a moment and then asked," Then who does she fight seriously?"

but it was hank who answered, "Dude, I know you are always focused when you fight, but you should watch your classmates more. It is only Nadine and Thomas she fights seriously. Maybe we can add you to that list as well." In the end, he smirked at me. "You forgot Davis" Thomas added.

"But Davis is a special case, I just hope I can beat him sooner rather than later," I said and tried to look determined. Thomas, Hank and some others burst out laughing when they saw my face. "Dude, you always make such funny faces at the weirdest of moments.

After we changed clothes, we separated and all went home as hank and I lived close to each other we walked together. "Hey dude, do you want to drop by your uncle's store? I have finally managed to save up enough for another skill. Wanna go together?" Hank suddenly asked me. I had known that he was saving for a second skill, but was surprised that he already saved up enough to buy one.

"Yes, how much did you manage to save?" I asked. He posed with his chest out and then said," I have saved enough for my first magic skill." "Ohh" I exclaimed and then continued with," That is going to be interesting let's hurry."

We started to sprint towards Uncles store and hurriedly entered it. Uncle was tending to a customer

So we started to look around the store there were some crystals on the display but there wasn't that much to look at. Even though we tried not to listen in, we couldn't help but listen to the conversation the two of them had. Especially when the customer's voice started to get louder.

"Please, can't you raise the price, Even just a hundred are enough. I need this, please. " begged the customer. Uncle Kim looked troubled as he answered," I'm sorry, but I can't the prices for crystals are regulated by the association. If I disregard those I can close my store right away. So, I can only give you 1000 $ for this crystal." but the man wouldn't listen and continued to beg, "Please, that isn't enough, I need just 100 more." It was then that hank walked over to them and boldly as he was asked the customer, "What rank is the crystal?". Confused the customer looked at Hank before he said," Ehh, It is a rank 3 crystal, why do you ask?" Hank looked at the customer and then said," I'm here to buy a rank 3 crystal. What is the level and clarity of the crystal?". The man smiled at Hank understanding that hank wanted to make a private deal and then said to him, "It is a rank 3 level 0 crystal with two choices if you bought this at this store you would pay 2000 $. I will sell it to you for 1100 $ what do you say?" Hank pondered for a moment and then turned to me and asked in a sweet voice," Dude, could you lent me 70 Bucks? I will return them as soon as possible please?"

I started to get goosebumps from the way hank started to talk, so I just started to operate my PAS and transferred him the 70$. Then looked up at him and said, "done" He stared at me and then said, "Dude that is a PAS, I thought it was just a fancy new watch. That's so cool." after he had calmed down a but he said," Thanks dude." and then turned back to the customer. "Then we have a deal, Sir," Hank said to the men. He then turned to Kim and said, "Hey dude can we use your AS."

Uncle Kim forced himself to smile and said, "Yes, I will oversee this transaction. Please remember that personal trades of crystals are limited to five per year." As always uncle Kim did his job professionally.

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After finishing the transaction the customer almost sprinted out of the shop. Hank on the other side was excited as hell. He looked at me and said, "I'm so curious about what skill I will get. Ohh I just can't wait any longer." and just like that, he used the crystal right in front of me. At this uncle Kim shook his and started to complain to me about Hank, "Hank still hasn't learned any manners. First, he snatches a customer from me and then he activates his crystal in the middle of my shop. He just doesn't change. Say, Mortimer, where has he gotten a magic skill, I don't remember me selling him one? Did he go to another one?"

I looked at uncle blanky, then asked him," Hank only got his Archery mastery skill, this will be his second one, why did you assume he already had a magic skill?". At my answer uncle just facepalmed. After a moment he regained his usual professionalism and then said, "Mortimer, you know about crystal level right." I nodded at him and then realized what he meant and almost shouted "He bought a level 0." and facepalmed as well.

"Uncle, is there any way for me to help him?" I asked uncle. He pondered for a moment and then asked me," I assume you will go diving tomorrow or the day after right?". "Yes, we will go tomorrow evening. Why do you know anything?" I asked him.

Uncle nodded and then said, "Someday ago, I had a talk with Linda. One of her Drugs was given the ok for human testing and she was looking for test personal. The drug she is testing is special. It will increase the mana maximum. Linda is hoping to help Like your Mother with this Drug."

"So it could help Hank," I asked curiously. "I think, the other way would be for him to learn another magic skill that is already level one. But that will take him much longer and will cost him at last 2000 $ for the crystal." Uncle explained to me.

I pondered for a moment then said to him," I think we should ask Hank about this." Uncle nodded at me," You are right this is something Hank needs to decide." So we waited that hank would finish his selection. It took him nearly an hour before he reacted to us again. When I started with," He Hank" I was instantly cut off by him," Dude I'm So excited. I will go home first I want to try it out." before I could say even one word Hank had already left the store and was gone. Uncle chuckled behind me and then asked, "I will call Linda. I think Hank will definitely want to try this drug out."

After Uncle called her, he just told me that she would meet me tomorrow in front of the association building. I talked for a bit more with uncle and then went home.

Over dinner, I told mom and dad about what happened with hank and that I would meet Linda tomorrow after I registered.

When I finally got to my room I almost instantly started my PC. I opened the diver association side and looked up the person that made the stepping training method. He had made many more training methods and luckily there was one for shields too. I downloaded it. When I clicked to install the program I was surprised, it told me the program was already installed and that the shield training could be integrated into the training menu. I didn't hesitate and continued to install the program.

When I started the software I was surprised the menu changed a bit. I selected solo training, then choose my skill and inserted the levels I had for each of them. It once again asked for space I had to train. Then the training started and I was overwhelmed, instead of one order at a time I know had two almost at all times, It still started slowly and with more details.

When I finally shook off my surprise I realized that I didn't have a shield. I stopped the program and went into the garage, there I found a piece of wood and some tape and a bit of cable. With this, I made myself an improvised shield. That should be enough for today's training.

With my new shield, I went back to my room and started the training. I won't lie it was hard. Most of the time I didn't manage to follow both instructions and made some mistakes. Still, the training managed to push my skill further and increase both of them by a single level. But that wasn't all I had learned how to do a fading block and how to follow a block with a shield bash. I still don't know how useful something like that is but better to know those technics than not knowing them.

As I pondered if I should start the next level of training I remembered the muscle pain form this morning and decided that it would be best for me to go to bed early.

The next morning I woke up early, It was way earlier than usual when I had school. So I decided that a bit of morning practice wouldn't hurt and started up the software. In this training session, the focus was more on blocking with supporting steps. It took me a bit to get used to those kinds of steps as they were extremely quick, I soon realized that most of them were much shorter than I had assumed at first and that made the exercise easier than I had believed it to be. Soon the steps got complex and the angle of the block changed more drastically. It was then that the tape I had used to fix the cable to the wood loosened and the wood smacked into one of the walls. Luckily there was no damage to the wall. It didn't take long for the door to my room to open and mom looking at me half asleep. "Mortimer is everything alright," she asked while suppressing a yawn. "Yes, mom everything is Ok. My training shield just broke." I answered her. She looked at what I had used to train and then said," You should get a proper one soon. I'm going back to bed. Please be a little bit quieter this time. I nodded and she left the room.

After this Accident, I decided that I should wait until I had a proper shield to train, not this piece of wood that couldn't handle the rapid movement of the training. So I sat down and started to browse. I looked up what I could about the publisher of my training software. His name was Karl Gothenburg, he was a researcher in the field of skills and specialized on rank 1 and 2 skills. His training methods were known to be hard but efficient. But what I found in the forums was unexpected it was discussed if the actual level of the skill was the same as the training level. Many said that you should only increase the level of difficulty once you got used to the training, not when your skill leveled up.

I read some more and then decided it was time for a shower. When I finished showering I ate breakfast together with dad. We talked a bit and then both moved to his car. At this, he turned to me and asked, "Did I forget something? Was I supposed to drive you somewhere?". " Dad We talked about this yesterday, I'm going to the association too. " I said to him. "Right, but I thought you would take the bus." dad said to me bluntly. "You're driving there to work, so why should I take the bus when I can just tag along?" I asked him.

"Your right, get in." He said to me.

On the way, Dad explained to me some of the basic rules that everyone that goes diving needs to be aware of. The First thing he explained was about entering and leaving the dungeon. You need to check-in and out every time you enter a dungeon. You also need to say how long you want to dive and how deep you are going. The reason for that is the Rescue team the association has to save young divers. If you are saved by such a team all the loot you get will go to the association to pay the teams.

Then he talked about Crystal that you can only sell them to registered stores and that you can do private deals only 5 times a year. He also told me that rare crystals are mostly sold that way.

The next thing he explained was how loot in the dungeon worked. I had known that you could get loot from dungeons, but not how. It was strange, you got the loot when you left the dungeon inside a bag. They had found out that it didn't matter who killed the monster inside a dungeon instead it mattered more if you were closeby or not. He also told me that most loot could be sold to the association or shops nearby.

The last thing he told me that I could always ask the personal on side on things I didn't know and that I should ask them how deep I should go with my level.

At this, he asked me," What is your current Level Mortimer?" I looked at my PAS and then said to him," my stepping skill is level 3 and my Shield mastery skill is at level 2."

"Those are your skill level. When we in the association talk about the level of divers we talk about the number of skills a diver can have. With your skills, you should be already level three. I can already tell that you trained quite a bit. Most need longer to get to level three." Dad told me.

I looked at my PAS and Dad was right I could already have three skills.