Jack claimed to have already decided my weapon selection, I was curious what he used to determine that. Was it my body structure? My posture?

“And exactly what weapons do you intend to train me with?” I asked, raising an eyebrow both inquisitively and doubtfully.

“Your primary focus will be the katana, potentially with a relatively high calibre sidearm for support.

After that, your secondary focus will be dual wielding, both with light pistols and blades – you may learn mixed dual wielding depending on your aptitude.

You will be trained to be versatile with blades but specialise in Oriental, Tribal, and Germanic blades – in that order.

Situationally, you will also be trained in various assault class firearms and heavy blades; specifically tailored towards the use of pulse type weapons and Germanic great swords.

As for supporting practices, you will be trained in martial arts – specifically in the Aikido and Dirge styles.

After you reach a certain point you will also undergo the Psion procedure to unlock your powers… assuming you haven’t managed to manifest them by that point. It would come as no surprise if you manage to unlock them yourself.”

I was shocked. He managed to come to an agreeable solution by only-

Ah… so he watched me checking the weapons out, how sly. Though that doesn’t necessarily explain how he chose the martial styles…

“Interesting… It’s in line with what I was considering but more professionally built. There’s a lot of learning to be done though, what makes you believe I can master all of that?” I asked him, greatly impressed by the cunning he possessed, “Do you perhaps intend to let me become a Jack of all trades but master of none?” I asked, judging his intentions, “Also, what basis did you use to choose the martial styles?”

“My intuition tells me you can handle it, and my intuition is very rarely wrong…” he said with a dangerous smile before relaxing into a wiser demeanour, “As for the martial arts, it was the way you carry yourself and your build that I chose on. I could tell by your build that you are quite nimble at the price of power, so a martial art based on speed and agility would be ideal. Something like Doenari would have fit the description better than Dirge, but the way you carried yourself made me reconsider; you seem to be quite adaptable given your stance but your aura is that of a king… Aikido focuses on using the enemy’s power against themselves, this would allow you to control the battlefield, and Dirge focuses on flexibility and exploiting weaknesses rather than dealing damage and defence. Dirge and Aikido are complimentary styles and so I’m expecting you to show me a truly fearsome combination of them.”

I grinned madly as I came to fathom the sheer quantity of experience this man must have held.

“Consider me thoroughly impressed. When do we start?” I asked.

“Soon, but first we need to draw up a contract and then I’ll still need to call in specialists to train you… Shall we?” he said, gesturing to another room.

“Yes, lets.” I chimed, happily following along.

We entered the next room, it was a mix between a meeting room and a music studio. The table formed concentric rings of wood and glass with a gaping hole in the middle, it was shape as an oval and had holographic screen brackets mounted on the inner edge of the table surface. On the far wall, there was a large holographic screen covering most of the wall and when I checked the middle of the table I found a sophisticated holoprojector installed and primed for use.

There were also bookcases and storage cabinets lined up against the walls, several tables and even a weapons workbench could also be found along the walls.

There was an open area off to the side, separated by a grand glass window with a control board underneath and a door to the side for access. Glancing through the glass I could see a firing range and several mannequins tightly packed into a corner.

I could tell that this room was more than just a meeting room. I sat in one of the leather chairs near the tip of the oval and Jack chose the seat on the other side of the same tip. To my surprise, a few notifications appeared on the glass portion of the table, the table itself was a touch screen interface. This was no meeting room, it was a war council, even if the weapons bench and training seemed a little misplaced.

“I’ll get us going, I’ll start by typing up what you are asking for,” he said, typing something into the table.

The main screen cleared itself and gradually turned into a full screen table displaying what he intended to provide, laid out in an easily comprehensible way.

Weapon Training

Skill Training

Primary

Oriental (Katana)

Academic

*Evaluation Pending*

Sidearm (Magnum)

Economic

Secondary

Tribal (Kukri)

Political

Pistols (Micro)

Psionic

Supplementary

Germanic (Zweihänder)

Mechanical

Plasma gun (Pulsar)

Digital

Additional

Firearms (Assault)

Equipment Acquisition

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Physical Training

Custom

Magnum

Primary

Martial (Aikido)

Digita

Assassination (Dirge)

Stock

Katana

Supplementary

Mobility (Acrobatics)

Kukri (2)

Conditioning (Nuvian)

Switch pistol (2)

Stealth (Standard) 

Energy Shield

“So, when will you evaluate my skills?” I asked, curious about what skills I would be taught.

“When a proper teacher gets here – I’m a combat specialist and a black-market merchant, not a school teacher.” He replied with an irritated glare.

He sighed and dropped the negative attitude before continuing, “in regards to that, here are the potential teachers I recommend.”

He tapped away at the glass for a minute before sending me the data with a sliding gesture. Several dossiers appeared in front of me, some were marked with stars; likely his recommendations.

I wasn’t interested in looking through too much so I merely glanced over the others before investigating his recommendations.

The first one to catch my eye was a man of heavy Russian decent named Chesnokov Foma Grigorievich, an assassin that specialized in snipers and tribal blades. He was also a renowned hacker and mechanic, he used those skills to aid his infiltration. He would teach me dual wielding, digital skills, mechanical skills, and stealth.

I tagged his dossier and moved on to the following dossiers. The next few didn’t interest me, but the one that did catch my eye was astoundingly perfect for my needs; A woman of primarily Japanese descent named Grace Sakurano. She led a sizeable yakuza for a while but their headquarters and every branch fell when all the rival clans conspired together against her. She was away to discuss business with another clan and survived with a small group of her followers. She and her followers switched professions to mercenaries to make a living – but not before slaughtering every bloodline stemming from a clan head.

Grace followed family tradition and mastered the Japanese art of war, she is considered the galaxy’s greatest swordsman. Additionally, she is a Psion. She also has extensive knowledge of politics and a is a master of Aikido.

The last dossier that caught my eye was that of a beautiful woman with ash grey skin named Nordon. After looking at the description I realized Nordon was a man of the Stryfun race. They originate from a tidally locked planet where the north was a frozen wasteland while the south an arid desert. Combining this with the volcanic nature of the planet meant that the only habitable places were found to the north. Only the mightiest of creatures could survive on the surface but life was abundant below ground. Due to this hostile home world, the Stryfun are have incredible thermal resistances and incredible night vision. Other races often get confused as to what gender a someone is because of their physiques; the men have very feminine body shapes while the women look like little boys.

Nordon was a scholar, he could teach me all the academics and economics necessary. He also was also a high-ranking Dirge practitioner. It made sense for him to practice the style given his lithe frame.

Now that I had selected my teachers I slid the three dossiers back to Jack, he looked at them considerately and nodded in agreement, “you’ve picked a good selection of instructors. I’ll fill in the gaps that these three can’t cover. Will that work for you?”

I nodded affirmatively. I got a lot more out of this meeting than I expected to, I had expected to get a decent instructor that knew what he was doing, getting three renowned masters to train me was far more than I could have asked for and now I was scared to find out the price of this deal.

“… How much is this going to cost me?” I asked Jack hesitantly, looking over what I was getting with a fearful gaze.

“For the equipment acquisition you will pay me standard rates, and I’ll teach you for free so long as you impress me, and you won’t like what will happen if you disappoint me.” Came his serious reply with a threatening glint in his eye, he was talking business.

“Alright, I can accept that, even if it’s a little scary… What about the other instructors?” I asked, wanting to know what the conditions would be.

“You’ll have to sort those deals out with them, I’ll call them in and inform you when they arrive. Fortunately, one of them happens to be in the neighborhood right now, you can get started immediately. I’ll call him over right now, he should be here in a few hours. Will you wait here for him?” Jack told me, this was rather convenient.

Jack said that ‘he’ was nearby, that means it is either Chesnokov or Nordon. A pity, I was hoping to meet Grace.

“Very well, I’ll wait here for him,” I said with acceptance and hidden excitement, “… in the meantime, would you be willing to give me an introduction to firearms?”

Jack pondered my request for a moment, “Sure, I see no problems with getting started now. Though you must first excuse me for fifteen minutes so I can contact the relevant parties and submit orders for your equipment. I’ll send the bill to Wolf Pack’s treasurer.”

“Sure, shall I wait here for you? Also, its ‘Dragon’s Nest’ now, you might want to update your systems.”

“Interesting, I wasn’t expecting a name change… I suppose you plan on doing radical restructuring then? It’s a good choice, it would prevent others from comparing you to your former selves and patronizing you, though it would also open you up to aggression from some groups due to the youth of your banner… Something like that?”

“Something like that…” I responded wryly.

“Anyways, would you mind heading back to the front of the store, the clerk will guide you to a proper waiting room.” Jack said with a friendly voice.

“Thank you for taking your time to meet with me, it was a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I said, standing up and extending my arm for a customary handshake to finish the formalities.

Jack tilted his head in acknowledgement and then gestured towards the door as he spoke, “I look forward to working with you in the future.”

I followed his gesture and returned to the front of the store, finding a shocked duo staring at me with their mouths hanging open. They seemed to be struggling to accept something, the silence continued as I walked past them to the counter and hailed the clerk with a hand gesture.

The clerk told us to follow her to another room. The duo behind me, still stunned into silence, slowly drifted after us in their dazes. The waiting room was a simple room filled with chairs, there was also a TV on the wall and stacks of magazines on the coffee tables to help guests keep themselves busy. The themes of the magazines tended towards martial arts and guns, but there were also newspapers and the usual fitness magazines here and there.

After I took a seat one of my companions finally snapped out of his daze, Craig aggressively approached the topic, “what happened in there? Did you really meet Jack? Face to face?!”

“Well, yes… Is that a problem? He offered to train me personally to supplement the teachings of the other instructors he’s organizing for me.” I told him, unsure about why he was so invested in the matter.

“WHAT?! I trained for eight years under his representatives before I met him! It’s been five years since then and I’ve only met him face to face twice! AND I WORK FOR HIM!” Craig shouted at the top of his lungs, aggravated by my recent meeting with Jack.

“Is he really that elusive?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow in doubt.

This time Mr. Wizard spoke up, “well, ‘elusive’ might not be quite the word… but yes, he rarely meets anyone other than a certain handful of people. Most of them are incredibly powerful and nobody knows his criteria for who he meets or why. He doesn’t mind socializing, he just usually finds other things to take up his time, usually refining his strength. My sister is one of such people, that’s how I got his attention. To meet him face to face… and even during the first time contacting his store, simply impossible. Not to mention he promised to personally train you, he’s only done that four times in the last fifty years, all his previous disciples are highly influential and dangerous people.”

I seriously underestimated Jack, his infamy is simply mind-blowing. Trying move away from the topic I brought up the reason we were in the waiting room. “Jack is organizing three mentors for me. They go by the names of Nordon, Chesnokov, and Grace.”

Craig and Mr. Wizard froze as I mentioned the last name.

Trembling slightly, Mr. Wizard asked me “t-t-that wouldn’t happen to be ‘Grace Sakurano… would it?”

“That’s her.” I simply stated, after that Craig turned into a quivering lump on the floor, mumbling incoherently and twitching unpredictably. Mr. Wizard was handling the announcement far better, but he had still taken a heavy blow and was simply standing there like a statue with his eyes locked onto me.

“… another big name I suppose?”

“She was Jack’s last disciple… what the hell did you do to get all this out of him?” Mr. Wizard asks, trying desperately to keep his sanity.

“Honestly? Nothing, he practically wrote the entire deal up himself. I hardly gave him any input, he just judged what I needed by how I acted.” I replied, trying to comprehend the danger I was in.

“This entire deal is either going to be your greatest blessing… or a mortifying curse.”

“Indeed…”

I can only hope it will be the former, it’s too late to back out of it now.

I sat down and tried to calm my nerves, but after a few moments Jack stepped into the room. My nerves stilled as I looked up at him, understanding that it was time for our first lesson.