‘Clap. Clap!’
Sir Einar clapped and walked towards them as Circe lowered her wooden sword, letting Zeke pick up his own on the ground. “That was a fabulous fight,” he remarked in a genuine tone, then turned towards Zeke. “Especially you, Young Master. Despite your differences in skill, you managed to keep up well. I noticed that you have good instincts,” he glanced at Circe. “Even if it may not be enough to match Lady Ruelle’s performance. So dungeons truly do give a major boost to one’s abilities.”
A forlorn smile played on Zeke’s lips, dulling the light in his eyes. “Oh, well…Lady Ruelle was holding back against me the entire time,” it appeared that he took Einar’s words as an attempt to comfort him. “Since I’ve lost, I will keep my promise and train as you said. But go easy on me, alright? I’m so weak that I got beaten by my fiancee.”
Hearing his dejected voice, Einar slowly nodded, giving in to the young master’s earnest plea. “Very well, I’ll lower your daily requirements from five hundred swings to three hundred, that is the lowest I, as a teacher, am willing to compromise.”
Joy swept away the desolation on Zeke’s smile. “Thank go—thank you, Sir Einar.”
“Oh, Lady Ruelle,” choosing not to acknowledge Zeke’s slip-up, Einar turned to Circe. “Would you mind helping me with Lord Silas’ training? I shall do the same and help you improve as well. Seeing as you already have the basics down, it shouldn’t be difficult to build up your skills from here.”
Circe’s eyes lit up with glee. “That would be greatly appreciated, Sir Einar,” delight bubbled up from her voice, reflected in the curve of her lips. “Though I’d be using a variety of bladed weapons, so I would like for my lessons to be flexible, if that’s not too much to ask.”
“Of course not, Lady Ruelle,” Einar nodded in understanding. “I shall adjust my lessons to fit your needs. I’m happy simply knowing that my teachings could help foster the younger generations.”
“You’re barely thirty, why are you speaking like you’re an old man?” Zeke laughed, causing Circe to chuckle as well.
Einar returned their jests with a smile, though his eyes betrayed a hint of provocation. “Young Master, if you have the energy to make a joke, then I assume you’re ready to continue your training?”
”Ah.” Swallowing down an invisible lump, Zeke forced himself to smile. “Yes, you won’t…take back on your words, right?”
When Einar simply took out his wooden sword, the thought of fleeing crossed his mind for a moment, until Circe flashed him a wide grin.
‘You’re fucked.’
’…Fuck.’ A glint of dismay flashed across Zeke’s eyes.
.
.
.
Many repetitive days passed by spent on training the sword, and the two of them had improved a lot compared to when they’d just started. Due to her
While her swift improvement impressed the swordsman, Zeke’s development brought Einar as much joy, perhaps even more than Circe’s. ‘I never thought I’d see the day! Congratulations, Young Master, you now pass as a novice swordsman!’ Even if Einar had exclaimed with a voice filled with elation, Zeke couldn’t help but feel like he just got insulted for his lack of skills.
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As a reward for his hard work, Sir Einar allowed Zeke to take a break from training for three days, and he planned on spending them very wisely.
”Is that book all you know in life?” Circe grumbled with her chin resting against her opened palm. They’d once again found themselves atop the library’s mezzanine as Zeke’s obsession with the Witch’s Codex began to show. “I didn’t think anything at first, but you really read it every chance you get.”
”But it’s very interesting,” Zeke responded without looking up from the tome’s pages. “It doesn’t tell me the tiers so I don’t know which one I can or can’t learn, but recently I’ve been trying to figure this out.” As he spoke, he placed the Witch’s Codex on the floor, turning it over for Circe to read its contents.
A large, intricate circle filled up a forth of the left paper’s space, while descriptions and other enigmatic patterns spread out across the two visible pages. From what Circe could make out at first glance, she noticed the words ‘Falling Stars’ written in bold letters beneath the magic circle.
Unable to grasp the pages’ context, her eyebrows raised in puzzlement. ”…What am I looking at exactly?”
“Falling stars, of course,” As an excited smile spread across Zeke’s brightened face, Circe looked at him with a frown, thinking that he deliberately tried to mess with her. His next words disputed that thought, though. “Or in Dungeon Regime, the spell is called ‘Meteor Shower’, it has a cool name, but since it’s only a B-Tier spell, I might have a chance in learning it.”
Now understanding Zeke’s intentions, Circe nodded along in agreement, thinking that his plan sounded reasonable. “Oh I see, so you’re going full support mage build?”
“Yeah, I have the Hexbringer Pendant, and two of my skills focused on support, so I see no reason why I should be stubborn and go for DPS,” Zeke spun the book back towards him, eyes darting along its pages in great interest. “Especially when you’re already dealing good damage, and I actually like playing support. It checks out.”
“You like playing support?” Circe’s eyes went round with surprise, lowering her hand from her chin. “Wow, you’re one of a kind, I haven’t met many people who like the support class in Dungeon Regime…or any game for that matter.”
“I mean, seeing big numbers is satisfying too, but…” Zeke glanced up at her as he grinned. “The pride of being the one who keeps your team alive, or allowing those people to deal the damage in the first place is a unique feeling in itself, you get me?”
Circe took a moment to think, a slight frown creasing her forehead. “…I guess that makes sense…although I’m really bad at playing healers and buffers so I can’t relate,” untying the knot of her brows, she flashed a smile. “But I feel comfortable around real supporters too, so I’m definitely going to help you with this one. Do you need me for anything?”
The two of them had decided to stick to each other like glue simply because they didn’t like the thought of navigating social interactions on their own. It felt safer knowing there’s someone else by their side, waiting to give the other their support. Even if Zeke could simply read in the library alone while Circe could go train at the arena, she chose to accompany him because neither of them wanted to be alone.
Though the fact remained unspoken between the two of them.
“Well, I’m not going to learn ‘Meteor Shower’ right away, I actually have something else in mind right now,” Zeke flipped the Witch’s Codex to a specific page before placing it back down for Circe to see. “This is what I’ve been looking for, a way for us to finally put the monster cores to good use.”
Unlike the previous pages, the ones Zeke showed her had less words, and a lot more images with some descriptions beneath them. They depicted the picture of a spherical shape shifting into formless energy via the use of magic circles. Once again, Circe didn’t understand anything in front of her even though it was in English, but she did see more bolded words like ‘Conversion’, ‘Heart of Beasts’, and ‘Mana’.
”Wait…” A memory surfaced in Circe’s thoughts, bringing a frown to her face. Realization flashed across her expression as she snapped her fingers, eyes widening in surprise. “Don’t tell me this is ‘Alchemy’.”
“Ding ding ding!” Zeke gunned his fingers and smirked, using his other hand to point at the gas-like mass shown on the tome’s page. “Yep, the Witch’s Codex is too thick to get through in one go, so I completely missed this chapter when I skimmed over it the first time. Now with this, we have access to ‘Alchemy’ without needing to find the Alchemist NPC.”
Alchemy, a function in Dungeon Regime that allows the players to convert their materials into another, its main purpose is to reduce tedious farmings when they require specific materials. However, that only scratches the surface of Alchemy’s capabilities. Completing a series of quest lines assigned by the randomized Alchemist NPC will unlock the Alchemy function’s additional abilities.
But since the function no longer operates like in the game, finding the Alchemist for the two of them would not change anything, in fact, it would merely be a waste of time and resources.
Besides that, Dungeon Regime’s alchemists are amongst rarest occupations in all of Oriens Empire, and a skilled alchemist is even rarer than the chance to get struck by lightning. Legitimate alchemists in the game’s lore can actually turn lead into gold, and the one called ‘The True Alchemist’ can even create energy from nothing.
”Alchemy…” Circe muttered under her breath, her mind racing at the opportunities that’d just opened before them. “There’s a section about it that tells the story of an alchemist…one that can harness the strength of monsters…”
“Yep, you remember correctly,” As Zeke spoke with an exhilarated grin, a green sphere appeared in his palm. “And we’re going to extract these cores for all that they can give us.”
“Ha.” Following suit, Circe summoned Arachne’s Core into her hand, staring at its vile dark green color, like the appearance of toxic wastes near factory waters. The thrill of possibilities sent shivers down her spine as a smirk danced on her lips. “I like the sound of that.”