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[Congratulations! [Push Through] has leveled up from 14 to 15!]
[Congratulations! [Hohō] has leveled up from 14 to 15!]
She stopped to lean on her knees as she was panting so heavily. It wasn’t surprising to see both of the Skills gaining a level as she’d been pushing herself hard. She was finally starting to get used to the hooves. They still didn’t feel completely natural, but at least she wasn’t stumbling over them anymore. She’d never be as comfortable with them as normal feet, what with having spent her entire life with standard humanoid feet, but she could get to a comfortable level with hooves at least.
As she straightened up, she called out to the seemingly empty forest around her. “You can come out now.”
“You did quite well spotting me-de gozaru!” A rather tall female human dropped down from a tree behind her. The woman had a long and straight ponytail going down to almost her ankles, and two long fringes of her dark blond hair on both sides of her face. Her eyes were also closed. She was wearing a standard uniform of the academy, though without any markings to designate her as either a student or teacher.
“You let me sense you. A ninja can obviously hide much better if they want to.” Seraphiel smiled at that.
“Ah-ha. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The woman placed a finger on her lips before muttering ‘nin-nin’.
It seemed that Kaede had not changed a lot. In fact, appearance-wise she hadn’t changed at all. And yet it wouldn’t surprise Seraphiel if Kaede was the strongest instructor at the school, aside from Evangeline herself. She’d been mysterious but powerful even back when they’d last seen each other. “It’s been a while Seraphiel.” The ninja stated confidently.
“Hah. Should’ve known you’d realize right away.” She chuckled. Kaede had always been sharp, and the ability to notice things was crucial for a good ninja.
“I’m surprised most of the others haven’t yet-de gozaru.” There was the quirk of her speech as well. “Then again, it might be hard to put the pieces together if fed one at a time. I had the benefit of looking into you and your abilities when the others asked me to train you.”
“Train me? I’m not exactly ninja material.” Seraphiel laughed and Kaede joined her.
"No, you're really not. You have many strengths but subtlety and stealth are not among those. No, I take some students under my wing occasionally and give them more focused training. Usually, those that show promise, and we plan on utilizing in the tournaments. Imagine that. You qualify-de gozaru." Kaede smiled and had a very pleased cat-like expression. "Then again, I probably won't be able to teach you much. It's not your skills that are the problem, but your Skills and level."
“Right. I need time, not lessons.” Seraphiel shrugged. “Though I won’t be foolish enough to think I know everything about how the System works. If you have any tips, I certainly won’t dismiss them.”
"There's a world of difference between boosting a stat and boosting the effect of a stat," Kaede stated immediately. "One can make you unbalanced, while the other just makes you stronger without downsides. One of the most important lessons I've learned."
"A good one, but one I already learned. Otherwise, I'd be pretty fucked." She gave a shudder. If her Gift of Permanence gave her a 1000% increase in Vitality, instead of increasing the effect, then she'd be hopelessly unbalanced.
“Oh? The Skills that increase effectiveness usually only become available after evolution.” One of Kaede’s eyes opened just a smidgen. “Lucky you. Anyway, I might not be able to give you much actual training, but what I can do is give you time. One of the benefits I can provide is access to Evangeline-dono’s resort.”
“Wait, you mean her miniature thingy that speeds the time inside? That still works here?” Seraphiel was a bit shocked that it had survived the transition over to the System.
“It required a bit of tinkering to get working, but Evangeline-dono realized what a benefit it could be. She hasn’t been able to increase the compression ratio beyond 24:1 but then again, she’s not a time mage.” Kaede explained.
"Well, that would certainly help." Seraphiel grinned. Cramming in 24 hours of training into a single real hour? What was there not to like?
“The usage will be limited, as it requires a lot of power to run, but still. We should find it quite useful indeed. You’ll need a sparring partner closer to your level though.” Kaede said the last part thoughtfully.
"My brother," Seraphiel stated immediately. "He's on the team as well, so two birds with a single stone, and he's also more advanced than his age implies. He's also just strong enough when compared to me to force me to really push my limits."
“And he’s your brother.” Kaede pointed out with a smile.
“Hey, I’m not above nepotism. But if he fits the bill…”
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“This place is amazing!” Raziel gushed as they looked over the resort. They’d arrived at a circular platform that stood atop a tall pillar standing in the middle of a lake, connected to the resort proper by a singular stone bridge. The resort was surrounded by jungle on all sides, while a very impressive waterfall rushed down to meet the lake below.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"Glad you like it." A single impressive-looking woman was walking over the bridge to meet them. It had been a while since Seraphiel had seen Eva's adult form. She really did look quite impressive. She turned to Seraphiel. "It didn't take long for you to make your way here."
“Hey, it wasn’t my idea.” She shrugged defensively.
“True. It was Chachamaru’s actually, so you should thank her.” She walked past them to the magical formation that would take her outside. “And Seraphiel? Don’t wreck my vacation home. I’ll be very cross if you do.” She stated before disappearing.
“Huh. That’s interesting.” Seraphiel commented.
“What is-de gozaru?” Kaede asked.
“I seem to recall that in the past you couldn’t leave this place until the 24 hours were done. So back then she would’ve had to leave as we came in.” She explained.
“Oh, that’s how it still works. Just that the rule doesn’t apply to her anymore.” Kaede dispelled the confusion.
“Fair enough. Well, we better get to it. We didn’t come here to have fun.” They’d packed for a week’s stay, with their bags floating behind them, held aloft by Seraphiel’s Telekinesis. The Skill had grown powerful enough to lift bags, as long as she didn’t need to move them too quickly. It was also good practice.
"Well, we can have a little fun at least," Kaede said. "Or at least I will. You can do as you wish, although I doubt your brother will be able to keep up. Oh, and you can use your real forms here. No need to worry about others seeing."
“Finally!” Raziel released his form with a relieved sigh, popping his wings out and flapping them a bit to get used to them. “My winged combat and flying are really lagging behind.”
“How did you even manage to hide your race with your Class being a Seraph?” Seraphiel asked curiously.
"Oh, they don't ever need to know your exact Class and won't push if you choose to not go into detail. Many people want to hide the specifics of their Class." Raziel said happily.
"That's partially because we don't have to," Kaede explained. "We've seen pretty much everything and can identify most Classes from the Skills used during training. If someone has a special twist on a Class, then that's their ace to keep and train."
“Well, at least mine seems to confuse the teachers.” Seraphiel pointed out.
"You tend to confuse people as a general rule though," Raziel said bluntly, though didn't mean it in a rude way, which caused Kaede to laugh again.
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Kaede watched quietly as Seraphiel moved through her training on top of the lake. She knew that Seraphiel was creating platforms of hard light under her feet and holding them in place with telekinesis, but it looked just like the young girl was dancing on top of the water like some Nymph. Indeed, there was just something in the way the girl moved that couldn't be imitated by the Skills granted by the system. Her every action oozed surety, smoothness, and effortless ease at which the movements were executed. Something that only came from endless experience. Only someone who'd done it a million times before could achieve the level of perfection in the simplest of movements, as Seraphiel's spear drew images in the air and gently caressed the surface of the water.
As a ninja, observational Skills and Perception were her forte, but sometimes she wondered if all her old friends were blind. Even Chachamaru, who knew the real identity of the girl, was underestimating her. They couldn't see the forest for the trees. Seraphiel would take this universe by a storm and it likely wouldn't take too long until the storm began. She had much the same feeling as she did as a young girl when they'd been stranded in Mundus Magicus. Excitement, anticipation, just a smidgen of fear, but most of all she was feeling like the start of an adventure.
Unlike most of those she’d known most of her life, she’d never stopped moving forward and training, knowing there would come a time when she would need all the power and skill she could muster, and Seraphiel’s reappearance was like the starting shot, letting her know things were about to get wild again. Even though they had a good thing going with the academy, she personally thought they’d all need a little shakeup. The problem with a life that just went on was that you could easily become complacent.
“She’s still going at it?” The girl’s brother said sleepily, rubbing the remains of his rest from his eyes. “Of course she is.” He muttered tiredly.
The boy had managed to keep up with his sister admirably. Normal kids would’ve given up long before, but Raziel had managed four days of hard and constant training. He was showing strength of character rarely seen in someone so young. “Was there ever a question?” Kaede asked with a small smile.
"I just can't get how she can keep at it. I know that she has a lot of Vitality, but…" Raziel muttered.
Kaede smiled a little again, the edge of her lips quirking up just a bit. There it was again. Even Seraphiel’s brother couldn’t see it. Perhaps being her brother made it harder to understand. Everyone kept forgetting there were different kinds of Angels. Most of them were similar in rank, but not all of them. How everyone couldn't see that Seraphiel was definitely not one of the standard angels was a mystery to Kaede. She didn't know exactly what rank Seraphiel was, but she suspected.
“You’ll figure it out sooner or later.” Kaede just said mysteriously.
“Does look beautiful though.” There was nothing odd in what he said. The girl was creating a very striking picture as the morning rays of the sun reflected off the drop of water being flipped up and cut into two by the girl’s spear. Kaede could move faster, and likely so could Raziel, but even then she knew she wouldn’t be able to quite copy the movements. Oh, she could copy the moves themselves, but they wouldn’t look the same. Not as smooth and certain. It was like every movement was a part of a well-choreographed dance. It would’ve been more odd if Raziel had not thought the image gorgeous. It was always attractive to watch a true master at their craft.
“Ready for another stretch of training?” Kaede asked instead.
“Not sure I’m fully recovered yet, but I’m certainly going to give it my best.” Raziel nodded with more confidence than he was really feeling.
“Don’t worry. You’ve been doing great so far. Not many people could keep up with your sister.” Kaede stated honestly.
Raziel truly was showing a lot of promise. He might’ve been overshadowed by his sister, but he was not someone to ignore either. Given the right training, he could become a real force to be reckoned with. Funnily enough, this joint training with Seraphiel was perhaps the best kind of training for him. Kaede could already see that the boy learned a lot faster from his sister than even from her. The importance of motivation and a real connection with the trainer. It might turn out that he would be the one to actually learn most during this training, while his sister mostly needed time to develop and the opportunity to level her Skills efficiently.
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“You look absolutely knackered!” One of Raziel’s friends commented as he and his sister entered the cafeteria.
“I know you said you had training today, but what the heck happened?” The other half of the Elven twins asked, supporting his sibling.
"They had Instructor Nagase's lessons today." His Asari friend commented as if that explained everything.
“Meaning what? Is she a harsh educator?” His Turian friend asked almost eagerly.
"You didn't know? Every time Instructor Nagase drags someone away, they return completely exhausted but also a fair bit stronger." The Asari explained, before frowning at Seraphiel. "Although his sister doesn't seem to be affected."
Raziel couldn't help a wry smile. Of course, Sephy was practically glowing. She'd worked harder than him, and without rest at that, but she looked ready for more. In fact, she looked more refreshed than when they began. Probably the result of five levels worth of stats. It seemed Sephy really had spent her time well and time to focus on training had been well spent. Even he’d leveled three times, which was a lot for a week’s worth of training.
Perhaps the most fun part of the whole thing had been that both of them had managed to level their winged combat, a Skill both of them had been forced to neglect in order to hide their race. He was eager to go back and level the Skill because he knew it was an important part of the Seraph Class.
“Are you having training with her again?” His Turian friend asked, obviously wanting to join them.
“Kaede, sorry Instructor Nagase said that we’ll be doing this several times in the next few weeks.” He explained.
Seraphiel turned towards him. “Sorry brother. I think I’ll take my dinner with me. I need to see a few people and then catch some sleep.” Raz knew she was most likely also going to train some Skills that she’d been forced to ignore during the training with Kaede.
The Asari looked after her, and suddenly her eyes grew large, just as Seraphiel stepped out of the cafeteria. “Five levels!? What kind of training did you do? I saw you two this morning!”
Ah, she'd used [Identify] on Sephy. Made sense. "It's a secret. Besides, you're the one who said Instructor Nagase's trainees return stronger. I think they're trying to level her quickly before the events between academies begin." Five levels was a lot, but the next time they repeated this training the effect would be lessened. Repeated training would always work, but the effects diminished as your level went up. The amount of basic training required to go up from level 1500 to 1501 was staggeringly higher than for someone at Sephy's or even his own level. “Anyway, anything interesting happen while we were gone?” He asked while listening to the latest gossip.