I opened my eyes and exhaled while slowly raising my arms into a stretch. Meditating was surprisingly easy nowadays, even if the process still left my body sore and fatigued.

But I couldn't complain. Progress required work, and I needed those mana channels carved and refined. And every time I summoned one of the girls and their mana pools were larger and their skills stronger, it made it all worth it.

"Rank up again?" Teddy asked from across the room.

I gave him a smug smile and pulled up my status sheet. At the same time, I willed the sheet to be shared with him and waited for his reaction.

A quick thought pulled up my status sheet.

STATUS

Name: Cyrus

Race: Reborn (Felkin)

Age: ??

Tier: 0

Active Skills:

* (T:0 R:6) Summon Familiar: Verdant Healer: (Áine )

* (T:0 R:6) Summon Familiar: Resplendent Inferno: (Zharia)

* (T:0 R:5) Racial Skill: Dimensional Storage: (Chomperz)

* (T:0 R:5) Spirit Lord's Invocation

* (T:0 R:6) Summon Familiar: The Dead Will Provide (Erebus)

* (T:0 R:5) Summon Familiar: Reflective Coat of the Mirror Beast (Magnus)

Passive Skills:

* (T:0 R:6) Etherious Blood

* (T:0 R:6) Sovereign-Threaded Soul

Perks:

Legacy of the Obsidian Crown

Scion of Calstrax

Demonic Blood

Child of Mana

Dread Guardian's Apology

Crystal Synthesis

If I had the chance to do another dungeon run, I would have been able to get the other skills up to rank six, but I was proud of my progress. Especially since my latest skill was nearly two weeks old, I managed to get in some serious work to avoid Magnus lagging behind the others.

"I have always heard complaints from others about how my progress was too easy and fast. But after seeing yours, I can honestly say your body is unfair. Nobody can rank up a skill four times within a two-week timeframe. And yet, you managed that while raising your other skills." He said all this while shaking his head in disbelief. It was funny to see, and it made the corner of my mouth twitch in response. "And what's the new perk? When did you get that? That wasn't on your status when you showed it to us. Wait, what are you doing?"

I averted his gaze as I slowly placed a thumbnail-sized gemstone in my mouth. When he paused to see what I was doing, I tipped my head back and swallowed. The gem was awkward to get down, but I managed to do so without choking.

"Cyrus.... Was that... was that one of Magnus' treats that Celanae gave you?" Teddy asked, disbelief colouring his voice.

I slowly slipped the pouch of gemstones into my pants pocket. "Maaaybeee."

"Cyrus," he said, completely serious. "Why did I just watch you eat one of those gemstones? Your body shouldn't even be able to process something like that. What the heck?"

I clicked my tongue and pulled up the description of my new perk before sending it over. Teddy's next question died in his throat as he shut his mouth and read the system message.

Crystal Synthesis

* A minor blessing from the guardian, Erath.

* To grow into a new self, one must synthesize the material to use as one's base. A new lattice must be made in order to reinforce the frame.

* Through the blessings of the guardian, you have gained the ability to adapt your body to the crystal element. Digesting different crystals and gemstones will allow your body to slowly replace your bone structure with that of specialized star crystal.

"So don't tell Celanae, but yes. I have been eating some of the gemstones. And before you ask, no, I don't feel any different. And I have no idea what a star crystal is. The system can be so annoyingly vague about things."

"Right, huh. Interesting perk. What would the end results look like? I'm especially curious to know how this would affect your evolution. As far as I know, felkins can experience some drastic changes.

I shrugged my shoulders and stood up. "I wouldn't know. Haven't met anyone else besides Cal, and he's a god, so my experience with that stuff is pretty limited."

"After the festival, we're heading to the capital. We can try to introduce you to some of the felkin there. I'm sure they would be interested in meeting you.

"That'd be great, thanks." As I walked to the door, I noticed another hole in the bottom of my shirt. Frowning, I held it up for Teddy to see. "While we're in the city, would you happen to know any good tailors? I am running low on clothes. Again. And to be honest, I miss my clothing from the Before. It'd be nice to find someone who could recreate some things off my sketches."

Teddy stood up and joined me near the doorway. "Yeah, no problem. We get all of our clothes from a friend. She should be able to make anything you want."

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Thanks in advance, then." I let out a deep sigh and squared my shoulders. "Alrighty, time to go get bullied for an hour."

"Oh, come on, it's not too bad."

That's a lie and a half, and you know it.

----------------------------------------

Igas blocked my attack with a casual swing of his sword. Flicking it downward slowly, I was caught off guard as he abruptly changed direction and entered into a lunge. The heavy weapon took me in the gut, and I was knocked onto my ass.

Letting out a series of coughs, I braced the bruised area and lifted my shirt. Already, a big red welt was starting to form, and I let out a groan as my rapid coughing caused more pain to shoot across my body.

"That. That was unexpected. Did you have to hit so hard?" I asked in between breaths.

Igas planted his training sword into the ground and loomed over me, unamused. "You literally have the ability to mend flesh and cure stamina fatigue. Me temporarily bruising you will not kill you. The better question you should be asking is, 'What did you do wrong.'"

I grunted as I stood up and walked over to my dropped spear. "It's your movements that are messing with me. I'm so used to fighting beasts; I'm not used to all your feints. I still think your acceleration speed is a little ridiculous. The fact you can swing that heavy blade so quickly and easily really throws me off."

"Good assessment. This is a common problem with adventurers who don't grow up with a local dungeon with people-shaped monsters. A wild beast will rarely bait you into an attack, but exceptions to the rule exist." He lifted his sword and walked back to the middle of the training circle. Holding his weapon out with a single arm, he pointed the tip of the blade at my head. "If you insist on engaging in melee combat, you'll need to get used to this."

I nodded to show him I understood and raised my spear again. Off to the side, Eodyne sat on top of a pillar of ice that Igas had created while showing off his skills. I wasn't sure how she was unbothered by the cold, but she stared like a cold goddess as she officiated our sparring session.

From behind her, the rest of the gang watched from their chairs next to Arturous. Getting my ass handed to me in front of a crowd was strange, and it didn't help the anger that wanted to flare up every time I was knocked down. Still, I sucked it up and moved to my position.

Áine quickly flew from her perch atop Eodyne's shoulders and sent a wave of healing into my chest. When she flew away, I finally raised my weapon and lowered my stance.

We waited, silently. Igas stood like a statue, unbothered by my spear pointing in his direction. At the same time, I was trying to plan out my avenue of attack. The only problem was that Igas was faster, taller, and stronger than me. Combine all that with more than a decade of weapon training and half that in fighting experience, I was not going to win this spar. But that wasn't the point.

Eodyne raised her head and released a shrill whistle that sounded like a sharp clap. Not worrying about the odds of my success, I kicked off my back foot and aimed for the oni's left shoulder. He shifted his grip to a two-handed style and positioned the blade of his weapon to deflect my attack.

The attack wasn't meant to hit but force him to move, so I pulled back at the last second and twirled my weapon to sneak in a blow to his knee. Igas remained silent as he leaned away from the attack. I tried to swipe my spear across his arm, but he raised his sword to strike beneath the head of the spear and pushed down on the wings. Before I could disengage, his right palm rocketed forward and crunched into my left wrist, causing me to pull back in pain.

He stepped closer, planting his leg between mine as he raised his hand for my face. Panicking, I did the only thing I could think of and slammed my skull into his nose, rocking his head back.

As much as the savage part of me, tired of losing, grinned, I could not say I came out on top of the exchange. Whatever damage I managed to inflict via the unexpected attack, I managed to harm myself more than I hurt him.

Fighting through the pain, I used my only functional hand and grabbed his arm. My claws cut bleeding lines into his skin. The corded muscles underneath his blue flesh prevented me from digging in deep, so I abandoned the effort to disarm him and used his large chest to kick myself backwards.

With space separating the two of us, I unsheathed the knife from behind my back and threw it at his head. I didn't care if the throw landed; I simply needed a distraction.

As he flicked his sword and deflected the thrown dagger, I was already charging at him. I kept my body low to the ground, aiming to trip up his legs and dive in to grab my spear.

Once I was within a meter away, I turned and dived to Igas' left and reached my hand out to pick up my weapon. I managed to lay two fingers along the shaft when a cloud of sand suddenly splashed the side of my head. I yelped in surprise as the gritty sand pelted my eyes, forcing me to shut them instinctively.

Before I could roll away and rub at my face, the crushing weight of the flat part of Igas' greatsword took me in the shoulder. My body was sent sprawling across the ground, and with my eyesight filled with stinging sand, I quickly lost my sense of direction as I tumbled into a roll.

My body landed somewhere, and I let out a loud groan as everything began to hurt. I must have gotten sand in my ears because I heard some shouting in the background, but I was unable to make out what was said.

When a pair of tiny feet landed on my head, I didn't react as I already knew what Áine was thinking. As the healing magic started to flow into my body, I calmed my breathing and let the adrenaline flow away. It was nearly a minute later when I felt a hand tapping my arm.

I tried to open my eyes, but even Áine's magic was not enough to magically clear away the debris. Luckily, I was spared the horror of blindly leading myself to the water when a flask was pushed into my hand. Mumbling thanks to whoever granted me the liquid salvation, I uncapped the flask and poured it over my eyes.

Áine helped clear away some of the more stubborn pieces of sand, and I managed to get my eyesight back. My eyes still stung, but a quick rush of healing from Áine fixed that problem, and I found myself staring up at Eodyne's raised eyebrow.

"Are you good?" she asked neutrally.

I gave a weak cough and a defeated thumbs-up. "Yep. Next time we spar, can we find somewhere that isn't a beach? I now have a growing hatred for sand."

She didn't reply to my comment and offered me a hand. I took it while Áine briefly jumped off before joining me on my shoulder once I was standing.

I looked at where I was and found, to my surprise, that I was a couple of feet outside the circle. I let out a whistle and shook my head. "I must have rag-dolled like a skipping stone. Did you have to hit me that hard? I'm pretty sure I felt one of my horns break."

Igas looked away when I turned to stare at him. It was hilarious seeing the large oni avoiding eye contact. While I thought he may have gone a little overboard with his last attack, I wasn't mad, which was a pleasant surprise. Last time, things got awkward when I started to rage out during the previous sparring session.

Eodyne did a running leap, gliding back over to the ice pillar, and sat back down. When I gave her an exasperated look, she did something with her mana, and a burst of air launched my spear into the ground beside me.

"Igas, avoid aiming for the head. Cyrus, don't abandon your weapon unless it's the only option left. In a fight without skills, you're signing your death warrant if you try to engage in a pugilist battle with someone who is still armed."

As I dislodged my weapon from the ground, I walked back into the circle and moved into position. Áine booped me on the nose before flying off to join Eodyne in her perch.

Igas nodded once he saw that I was alright and ready to go. Before he raised his sword, he tapped his horn, causing me to raise an eyebrow. "It was good you kept fighting until the end. Those claws of yours are surprisingly sharp, so put them to use. Getting distance after I disabled your hand was not a bad option. The knife throwing could use some work; at least learn to curve the trajectory." He then tapped his horn again. "The headbutt was unexpected and could work on opponents who are less thick-boned than I am. Next time, use your horns; don't be afraid to gore someone. I've ended many fights with a dead monster impaled on my horn."

"I'll keep that in mind. I just didn't want to go too far in case something bad happened. And what if I manage to impale someone, but now I'm stuck, and they're not dead?" I asked as I eyed the sharp point of Igas' horn.

He frowned, then shrugged. "If that happens, then do everything you can to free yourself. A bigger opponent will crush you if you can't escape. I can't say that has happened to me, but you are smaller."

I ignored the accidental dig into my pride and nodded my head. As I held my spear in a two-handed grip, I flashed my fangs.

Don't complain when you get sand between your cheeks, big guy.

Eodyne whistled, and the match started again, and even as I found it nearly impossible to win the spar, I was ready to sacrifice a couple of bones to make the tall oni fall.