Arden woke up very refreshed. He raised his no longer sore arms into the air and yawned loudly. He doubted it was for more than a few hours, but he felt like he had slept for days. The first thing he did was look for Vera and Sya who were a small distance away, each doing their own thing.

  Sya was sitting cross-legged with her back ramrod straight with her eyes closed like she was meditating. Vera was performing a sword kata with her weathered sword. Of the two of them, Arden was more drawn to the technique Vera was doing.

  Vera danced around the chamber with the sword in one hand while the torches casted her fluid shadow on every surface. Arden had always thought that Vera was beautiful, but now he saw her as graceful as well. Every swing of her sword was as beautiful as they were fierce.

  Her movements flowed together effortlessly. It was clear that she had done this for a long time. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail as it whipped around her, trying to follow her movements. It exposed her icy blue hair streaks that seemed to cool the air around her.

  Arden didn’t want to disturb either of them, as it was clear they were doing something that required their utmost attention. Although what Sya and Vera were doing was different, Arden could tell they were the same in principle. Assuming they were both forms of meditation, one for the limber Vera, and another for the sedentary Sya.

  Vera's sword continued to arc through the air, whistling as it went. The torchlight danced off the blade, shining as if the layers of caked on dust weren’t even there. For some reason, Arden was reminded of the moon by Vera’s performance.

  Arden watched Vera’s body as she continued, seemingly unaware of Arden’s presence. He watched every part of her. She was someone who used every part of her body to fight, and was training Arden to do the same. If he wanted to be like her, he had to do the same.

  Her legs powered the rest of her body, giving her enough momentum to cause substantial damage to anything if she wanted. Every movement looked like they were made without any thought, but with deliberate care put into each one.

  ‘Is this the power of clarity?’

  Arden’s eyes traveled up from her legs to her hips, where she maintained her perfect balance despite the near-superhuman movements. From there he moved on to her core, where she would be able to rotate and extend in any direction with help from her legs and hips. Arden focused now on her shoulders where all of her sword strikes would originate from. If she wanted to slash down, her shoulder would be where her strike began, ignoring the power coming from the rest of her. Finally, he watched her hands, where her wrists provide the followthrough for her attacks.

  It was clear that Vera had trained for years, easily fulfilling her repetition quota. She also claimed that she had clarity, and while it hadn’t been proven in battle yet, Arden believed that it was the truth. She’d have no reason to lie. And unless she was unfathomably lucky and talented, she would have gained experience along the way to gain that type of battlefield awareness.

  Vera opened her eyes and stared back at Arden, who returned the gaze.

  “Awake already?” she asked, not bothering to ask what he was staring at. She had felt his gaze the entire time, and it didn’t bother her for a single moment. If anything, it inspired her to perform better for the sake of her protege. “You’ve only been out for 45 minutes.”

  “I feel like I’ve been sleeping for days. We have to figure out how to make furniture like that commercially available. We’d make bank.”

  “You’re not the only one to think that. Unfortunately, it won’t work. It's too expensive to make. Satellite smiths exist, but they require a lot of time and star cores to make just one Satellite. The popular smiths have a several month queue between being commissioned and finishing the piece. A lot of people will go to smaller, less popular smiths because their queue is much shorter.”

  “I get it. Sometimes you just need a sword that doesn’t break as easily as a mundane one, not one that spits fire.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Speaking of the couch, do you need to rest? You’ve been up longer than either of us. You should top off on energy while we have the time.”

  Vera dismissed her sword into her inventory and summoned some bottles of water. She gave one to Arden and placed one next to where Sya was meditating before uncapping her own and taking a swig.

  “I’ve been up way longer than this. My family used to force us to stay up for days at a time. Any time we fell asleep, we’d be punished.”

  “Just because you can stay up longer doesn’t mean you should.” Arden took a sip of his water. “What were you doing when I woke up? It looked like a literal sword dance.”

  “That was my sword art, Dance of the Nine Phases. It's how I train the most. That is something I won’t be teaching you because it is tailor made for sword users. I'm proficient with most weapons, but I prefer the sword. You’re too green to have a preferred weapon. I’ll teach the fundamentals, which do include a stellar essence circulation technique, but however you use it is up to you.”

  “Was your sword dance taught to you by your family?”

  “No, actually,” she said, shaking her head. “We had to prove that we were worth teaching. I was only taught a basic sword dance. I made it my own.”

  “How do I make the fundamentals mine?” he asked.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “I can’t teach you that. That is something that only you can answer.”

  Arden nodded slowly and withdrew his sword after taking another swig of water. He planted his feet on the ground and began to practice once more. Vera stood to the side drinking her water and the view. The sight of Arden and Sya training to become stronger filled her with delight.

  “Do you need to rest? You’ve been up for longer than either of us. You should top off on energy while we have the time.”

  “Just because you can stay up longer doesn’t mean you should.”

  The words of Arden rang in her mind. He was right. Just because she could last longer didn’t mean she had to. She was no longer with her old family. Here, they cared for each other. She felt her cheeks warm slightly.

  ‘This is how a real family should be,’ she thought.

  Arden watched Vera sit on the couch and pass out. He chuckled to himself. Shaking his head, he gripped his sword firmly and continued to train. He wasn’t expecting to suddenly get strong, but if he was even just barely stronger when Vera woke up than he was now, he’d consider himself successful.

  If Vera heard his thoughts, she would have been proud.

  Days passed for Vera, while only minutes passed for Arden and Sya. After half an hour of continued sword training, Vera woke up.

  “We had some good training, and rest, but it’s time we continued. I don’t know about you two, but I want more star cores.”

  *****

  Arden scouted the path ahead. There had been several reasons for that decision, first and foremost was durability. With his Legacy Ability, he could heal from any injury, so long as he could activate it in time, and he doubted that a red-tier stargate would have something capable of annihilating him before he healed.

  Having seen what he needed to see he retreated back to where Vera and Sya were waiting. When he returned, he was not a fan of the conversation that was ongoing. Admittedly, he only heard a few things, but most of them had the words “Arden” and “sub” in close proximity to each other.

  When Arden showed up in front of them, they both looked at him with innocent expressions.

  “How long will that joke last?” he asked.

  “What joke?” Vera asked with playful eyes.

  The trio said nothing for a few moments, everyone waiting for someone else to break the silence. Sighing inwardly, Arden decided to be the one to do so.

  “We have a group of skeletons ahead. Too much to take out stealthily, but not too much for us to take on. I counted seven.”

  “Anything unique about the room?” Vera asked.

  “Not really. Same layout as the previous ones. There are some chains hanging from the ceiling that lead further in.”

  Vera nodded and rubbed her chin for a few seconds.

  “Alright, let's get some star cores.”

  A few minutes later, the trio was staring at the group of skeletons. Arden and Vera were side by side, and Sya was behind them. A ranger like her needed to have some space between herself and whatever threat she wanted to kill. For Celestials as weak and uncoordinated as skeletons, there was no need for a fancy plan. The formation alone would be enough

  Vera and Arden rushed out towards their prey at the same time. Vera thrusted with her sword into the back of a skeleton’s skull before it had the chance to turn around. Lagging a second behind, Arden slashed down, just like he had practiced. And just like he was told, the sword had enough power to slash through the upper spine, flinging the skull off of the skeleton. As soon as the two were dealt with, messages from the Status appeared, along with two piles of dust.

  You have slain a red-tier protostar, Grave Guard.

  The remaining five skeletons didn’t need any further prompting. It was time to fight.

  “Remember the perception training!” Vera called out as she blocked a sword coming her way. As the skeleton’s sword collided with hers, she surged forward, breaking the skeleton’s stance, giving her a chance to cut the head off of the skeleton.

  Arden, hearing Vera’s words, watched the two skeletons speeding towards him. One of them jumped, holding its sword in both bony hands above its head. The other staggered back as it was hit by something flying through the air.

  Sya’s slingshot.

  Not willing to try and block the heavy attack of the skeleton, Arden ducked out of the way.

  ‘Steal moments,’ he thought.

  Arden didn't give the skeleton any time to attack a second time after it hit the ground. as Arden’s sword cleaved through the skeleton's neck, and another pile of dust appeared.

  He noticed the skeleton shot by Sya fall to the ground and turn to dust, joining the dead once again, and hopefully the final time.

  Ignoring Sya’s victim, Arden looked to the remaining two skeletons, only to find Vera instead, standing over another two piles of dust.

  “That makes four for me, two for Arden, and one for Sya,” Vera said to herself.

  “Arden's slacking off, like a scrub,” Sya said.

  “What was that?” Arden responded. “I couldn’t hear you because you were so far away from the fight.”

  “Come on you two,” Vera said. “You’re both scrubs. Get good.”

  “I can accept that,” Arden said as he knelt next to one of the dust piles to scavenge the star cores.

  “Of course you can. I bet you enjoy getting talked down to,” Vera said.

  “I can show you I’m not a sub right now!”

  “I’m gonna leave if you do,” Sya said.

  To accentuate her point, Sya walked back the way she came, leaving Arden and Vera to loot the cores for themselves.

  “Someone’s not going to get any star cores from this fight,” Arden said once she was gone, causing Vera to laugh.

  “It's not like she can use them anyway.”

  “Well, neither can we.”

  They took the time to collect the swords, adding them to their inventories. The pair split up the spoils from the dust piles. Arden took three star cores, while Vera took four. She had killed more, after all.

  Sya reentered the chamber tentatively.

  “Early finish?”

  Arden responded by throwing one of the star cores at his sister. His aim was true, as it bounced off of her forehead, much to his delight. Sya left the room rubbing her forehead, grumbling something beneath her breath. Arden looked at Vera with a pleased expression.

  “I found a way to use the star cores now.”