Using his Attramancy, Rook lifted up the sword, and immediately his mana began ticking off. Gerald’s training was paying off; the constant strain on his mana helped slow down the drain. His instincts screamed to throw the sword towards her with all of his might. Afraid that he might spear her through the heart or clip her, causing irreparable damage, he held the blade. I can do this, I can do this.

  “Rook, I want you to slash Reina. Reina, you parry,” Astrid said.

  The sword rose to face height a couple of feet in front of Rook, a steady tremble under the strain. Focus, Rook. Gerald said if you want to get better, you must focus. He inhaled, holding it, and then exhaled, just as grandpa had taught him. The sword steadied, slowing the ticking mana even more. From 5% at a time to now 1%. Amazing

  He willed the wooden blade to slash against Reina, the sword rose up, then struck down towards the enhancer. She quickly parried it off with a slap. Rook’s concentration wavered, and his mana began ticking off 5% of the time once again. Breathe, damn it. In, hold it, and out. The sword once again steadied, and he tried again, and again, and again. Each time Reina parried with ease. That training is really paying off.

  “Down lower, Reina. You’re stance is too high, I want you to parry and riposte.” Astrid’s voice rang out.

  Rook went for a stab this time with the training blade. The wooden tip surged forward towards Reina, once again, batted aside with a flick of the wrist. Shuffling forward, Reina entered his guard and launched her blade towards his neck. At the last moment, he swatted it aside with his training club and took three steps back.

  “Good, do it again,” Astrid said.

  They followed the direction over and over, each time the sword feeling as if he was holding it with an invisible hand. The strain turned into a nagging sensation rather than a wave of sickness washing over him.

  “Rook, you have the reach skill, do you not?

  “I do.”

  “Focus on the skill. Attramancy, as I’m aware, acts sort of like a set of invisible hands. The better you are at focusing, the more you’ll be able to grab and the intensity with which you grab it. Did you notice a difference when you were channeling your focus while training with Gerald?”

  “Yeah, my mana bar was ticking off at a much slower rate.”

  “Focus on those basics. Reina, you keep following through. Now do it again, we don’t have all day.”

  Reina hasn’t spoken even once since the bout. His friend nodded at Astrid and narrowed her eyes.

  With a grimace, he slashed twice in quick succession, rolling it round and around like a propeller. Reina parried twice and went for riposte, but Rook stepped back and batted the tip of her sword away with his training club. Using the momentum, Reina pirouetted, ducking low and touching her hand to his stomach. Immediately, all of the strength left his body, and his knees buckled from underneath him. Unable to hold his weight any longer, he collapsed to the ground and his Attramancy flared, launching the sword against a barrel ten feet away. Looking up, his head lolled and he saw the tip of Reina’s sword just beneath his face.

  Her smiling face came into close. “Best two out of three,” she said.

  Rook groaned, not having the strength to respond. She brought her hand to his shoulder, replenishing his stamina. His strength returned, and he joined Reina, walking over towards Astrid. The trainer held out two crystal vials of blue potions.

  “Rook, you should have one too. We’ll go one more time, drinking too many potions and using too much mana can cause fatigue and mana sicknesses; we don’t want that.”

  Rook glanced over at Reina, and she returned his look. She knew as well as he did that he would have zero negative effects from the consumable. It definitely wasn’t a secret that he was meant to tell Astrid.

  “Alright, go again.”

  The same succession of attacks happened, the flurry of swordplay, and then the follow-through into a sap. This time, though, Rook was adamant to hit Reina with the Attramancy-powered sword. The levitating blade slashed twice towards her, which she batted aside. Good, it’s happening again. He let go of his asttramancy, and the sword was battered aside a few feet away. Surging his mana once again, he brought the sword up in an upward slash towards her ribs. The blow connected, and Reina let out a cry of pain.

  She gritted her teeth and growled before coming back.

  She batted aside the sword once again, and after a riposte was within his guard. She slashed towards him, and he backed up, batting away the tip of the blade she reached out with her hand, and Rook brought the sword back, striking her in the back of the calf, bringing her down to one knee. He struck the training club towards the side of her head, stopping short.

  “Looks like I got this one.” He reached a hand out towards her, and she grabbed it, giving him a wicked grin.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Oh shit. His knees buckled beneath him, and he fell to the floor. Fucking Sap.

  The trio continued to train until nightfall. After their goodbyes, they made their way back towards Brianna’s tavern from the Dome. That bone-aching weariness flooded into Rook, and his head swam. His block skill only went up a few points, bringing it to 90. Rook thought he had found the trick to powerleveling. After all the quests and the fighting, he was missing something. The skills had the ability to raise an exponential amount, but for some reason, they weren’t.

  “Thanks for not taking it easy on me, Reina said with a smile. You know, treating me like an equivalent opponent,” Reina said.

  “Yeah, well, you’re welcome. I can’t have my scribe weaker than me. We’ll hopefully be as strong as one another,” he responded.

  The swollen moon rose high within the cool night air. The refreshing breeze felt good after being in the hot sandy pits all day. Luckily for them, the streets were basically empty, with only the usual cart vendors hoping to sell their last few wares before settling down for the evening.

  “Say,” Reina said, with a pause. “Let’s go this way,” she pointed to the left.

  Rook shrugged. “Why not?” He followed her down the alley.

  It was a portion of the trading district that Rook hadn’t seen before. Unlike the square wooden buildings in the rest of the district, this corner featured buildings and houses that tapered to a rounded point, almost like a mushroom. Murals are spread across a few of the buildings, painted across depicting a forest with a big bonfire. A group of torokin sat around it. Where are we?

  “We’re in the Torokin district. They mainly keep to themselves, but I felt like coming here and showing you. And on top of that, I asked Brianna about the attack.”

  “Why would you ask her?” Rook asked, with a frown.

  “She keeps up to date on the torokin, probably because Strike is one of her bartenders,” Reina said. “It’s pretty widely known that she’s partial to the beast race.”

  “I guess that makes sense.”

  “She told me the torokin girl who was attacked is actually a shopkeeper here. Her name’s Mara.”

  Rook’s heart twinged thinking about the attack. The gentle flower of a person was being stomped on by those stonists, and Rook’s twinge in his heart turned into a silent ball of hate. A deep hate, growing in his gut.

  They stopped in front of one of the mushroom-looking buildings with a plume of smoke billowing out towards the night sky. How did I not notice that? He craned his neck up to watch the smoke rising out of view. A light illuminated the shop, and they stepped into the building. A weapons shop. His eyes went wide with the impressive selection of wares. Looking around the building, it was obvious they used an expansion rune. The room stretched back easily one hundred feet. To the immediate right was a dark-stained wooden countertop. Written in bold golden words was the Torokin forges. Behind the counter sat a human woman with curly black hair cascading out on each side of her face. She regarded them, her light brown eyes widened in surprise, and she cleared her throat.

  “Hi, welcome to the Torokin forges. My name is Kaylee. How can I help you?” She asked.

  Reina was glancing to the left at a wall of weapons, from poleaxes, great double sided axes, pikes, spears, and blades of all the length and shape. Why would she be working here at the Torokin portion of the trading district?

  “Hello, we’re looking for Mara,” Reina said, with a friendly smile.

  The woman’s face darkened to an almost sinister look, and she grit her teeth. Tapping her hand on the counter, she stood up. Rook caught that her other hand was resting on the tip of a curved blade.

  “By the God maker if you’re here to mess with Mara again, I swear.”

  Rook cut her off. “No, no, we’re the ones who came to her rescue, we just wanted to check and see if she was okay.”

  Kaylee immediately softened, and her eyes filled with moisture as she ran around the counter to embrace them both with a great deal more strength than expected. “I can’t thank you both enough. Maras downstairs training, please follow me.” She led them towards the back of the house and down a set of stairs into a large basement covered in stone walls.

  Immediately, a stink smell of burning oil hit Rook’s face, and the heat and the heat of a flaming forge singed his hair. Well, I guess that’s where all of the smoke is coming from.

  “Mara,” Kaylee called out.

  The hulking figure of a torokin walked out from behind the forge. She was not wearing the simple leather tunic in black pants. Now she was wearing a set of leather hide armor, the sleeveless vest showed off broad shoulders and arms bigger than Rook’s. What sort of animal is that from?

  She’s strapped a greatsword nearly the size of a dwarf onto her back and walked towards them. Trepidation hit his chest, and he felt the apprehension, similar to approaching an aggressive dog in the pound. Kaylee whispered something into her ear, leading to a muffled conversation. Mara’s eyes went wide, and the deep frown in her face blinked away, replaced with a smile.

  Mara Redcloud

  Level 14 (Bronze)

  Torokin Swordwall

  Lines were set into her eyes, giving her crows’ feet, and the slight greying indicated that she was probably middle-aged by Torokin’s standards. Then again, he didn’t know what Torokin’s aging standards were.

  “So you both are the two that came to my rescue?” She asked. “Twice now.”

  He blinked with a near zombie level of stupidity. “Now I know why you were so heavy,” he muttered, assessing the thick muscle cording down her arms and legs.

  “Yes, we wanted to check up on you to just make sure you were okay,” Reina said.

  “That’s sweet I really appreciate that,” she said, breath hissing out of her long snout. “Really I’m fine though.”

  Rook knew it was a lie. The discoloration on her face told him that they had hurt her. “How did they beat you? It seems like you could have easily taken those two humans.” Rook frowned, embarrassed that his inside thought materialized.

  “Are you not from here?” Kaylee asked.

  “He’s from a small mountain village to the far far far far West.”

  “Hmm, well, here in Ollar and some of the other capital cities. If a torokin hurts a human or other coalition race, it’s a death sentence since they are considered neutral races. Not technically a part of the coalition forces yet.”

  “But those men they were,” Rook began but was cut off.

  “It doesn’t matter, some things are just the way they are.” Reina gave him a solemn look.

  “My name’s Mara, Mara Red Cloud.” She gave a low bow.

  “Are you related to strike?” Reina asked, taking her notebook out.

  The toroking giggled, before letting out a low moo. “Yes, strike is my brother. Idiot as he is, he’s working deep in the trading district and the Stumbling Ogre.”

  “I’m Rook, and this is Reina. We’re a part of the Order of the Sentinels,

  It’s a pleasure.”

  “Well, I really should get back to training. I have much time before the circuits, that is.”

  Kaylee looked upset as she shook her head. “I don’t know why you’d want to do that to the bloodstone for all they’ve done.”

  “I know Kay, but people will never accept us as we are now. If I can win the circuits It might make the torokin a respectable race, and I would have them grant us a part of the coalition.”