I wanted a puppy, I wonder if I could ask Demiurge to summon a demon hound for me, but it would have to wait unfortunately…
"Lead me to Yamaiko and Lily please" I asked Lupisregina, who got up and bowed. She brushed her ponytail behind her head and turned, she glanced back to make sure we were following and then started humming and skipped off down the corridor. Strange girl. Was every female around here slightly odd?
She lead us to a door with the number 28 on it, upon knocking Yamaiko's voice called out "enter". Lupisregina opened the door and stepped to the side, gesturing us to enter.
Lily was laying on the bed, looking like she was peacefully sleeping, no sign of a wound, Yamaiko was sitting by the bed reading a book with a complicated medical sounding name. Yamaiko was only a healer in the game, in life she was something else, I think Bukubukuchagma mentioned something about her being some sort of teacher.
"Lily is safe, just not waking up yet" Yamaiko sighed
So Lily seemed to be doing ok, we couldn't do any more until she woke up. "How is your sister?"
Yamaiko turned and looked at me, "I am unsure, we were not incredibly close in real life…"
"I know, she mentioned regretting that" I said
"She spoke to you of that?" Yamaiko sounded slightly surprised. She placed down her book, and turned her chair to face us.
There was a knock on the door, "Enter" Yamaiko said, as she looked at the door.
Shizu entered, "How…is…Lily?" seems she was worried too, I wonder why. Shizu bowed to us and then walked up to the bed and reached out her hand. "uwah…fluffy, poor…fluffy…is hurt", her hand started to stroke Lily's hair and ears. Shizu's voice was emotionless as it had been when she travelled with me, but I could see worry in her eyes.
Shizu then knelt on the bed and kept stroking Lily. Yamaiko turned back to us, "Akemi got her own quarters, and disappeared with Rei in them. I don't wish to interrupt. But I am worried about her"
"Silly girl" I muttered, and then asked "Which room?"
"30" Yamaiko said quietly and turned her chair, picking up her book.
I walked over towards the door, which was opened by Lupisregina. Arche, Zesshi and Rael had been so quiet that I had almost forgotten that they were there, they were just following me.
Lupisregina opened the door, bowing "Anything for you, Lord Tek" she said in a sultry tone, and winked.
Shaking my head softly, though grinning back at the red-haired maid, I walked to the next door. Number thirty. I knocked on the door, it took a while for Akemi's voice to call out, "Enter".
I opened the door, to find Akemi in the bed, wrapped in the sheet, the thin silk clinging to her body, she wasn't wearing clothing. Next to her was Rei, he was still restrained but without clothing either, did she have those sorts of tendencies, interesting.
"Tek?" She squeaked and held up a pillow, "S-sorry, I thought you were my sister"
"Nah, I am not your sister. But I am family, sort of, Ainz Ooal Gown can be said to be like family, more so since we are trapped here in the New World" I laughed quietly.
"Anyway, what do you want?"
"Just checking up on you and…Rei" I said looking from her to the smirking restrained man, he stopped looking at the naked Akemi next to him and glanced over at me and grinned indecently.
"We…We, are fine" Akemi blushed.
I could see, she was going to get hurt again. She was one of those types that was so whipped that she would keep getting back together with the guy, no matter how much he hurt her. Oh well.
I tried to help her, what she did with that help was up to her. "So what about Rei? He may be trying to infiltrate Nazarick, he is dangerous…"
"Uhh, I don't know" Akemi said quietly.
I sighed, something I may have to discuss with Yamaiko. "Can you unbind me?" Rei asked. "Nope, not yet" I said before Akemi could say anything.
"Why not?"
"You haven't been found whether you are a threat or not" I said, "Akemi, I shall be leaving now" She nodded in reply.
Lupisregina opened the door, but stayed inside, she winked and nodded at me as we walked past.
I had wanted to spar with Cocytus, but he was busy with protecting the Lizardman village, I still had to see how the fight was going. It had been a couple of days, I was hoping that Arwintar hadn't fallen.
"Let's go to the arena, Rael, feel like sparing with me? You will have to go easy" I said as I turned back, the little dragon nodded happily, "Sure, from watching the way you fought, you need practice"
That was true, on Earth I never did martial arts, and Yggdrasil used set moves, so I was doing a sad attempt at copying movements.
Something I couldn't quite get used to was the feeling of power, and the feeling of actual mana, or the warrior equivalent. As a human, I never had that before.
I walked to the sixth floor, it was a good walk, so many interesting things to see. We finally arrived and I walked down the corridor leading to the arena. Zesshi and Arche sat against the wall, I walked with Rael to the centre of the large space.
Rael raised her hands into some sort of combat stance, I raised my fists as well. "You are not going to use your swords?"
"I think I need basic combat experience, not weapon dependent experience" I said as I turned to face Rael as she circled me.
"You have no combat experience? Then why did you try to attack the base?" She sounded rather curious.
"Well, most of us Players have real combat experience, so we are about even"
"You have so much power, but no experience, why?" Rael stopped, and stood still, her head tilted in confusion.
"We were summoned to this world, from a game we played on our world, which is why we are called Players. On our world we were equal to people who level one here. We actually didn't have levels" I am not sure why I was telling her this, though I felt I could trust her. Zesshi and Arche were not within range to hear us.
"Really? That is strange, do you know how you were summoned?" Rael asked, it seemed that my goal of sparring was put on hold, but maybe she could help me.
"Well, the game was shutting down, and then a hole opened in that world and we fell from the sky"
Rael nodded, and for a second a look like she understood flashed through her eyes, but was gone again. She was hiding something, but if she didn't wish to speak of it, I wouldn't push her, it wasn't that vital.
"At the moment, I believe you need less to practice combat, and instead need to know how to control your power. Am I correct?"
"I don't know" I looked at the ground, it was kind of embarrassing that I had wanted to spar, but this came up.
"Well, I shall take it on myself, I will be your trainer, we will have to go from scratch" Rael smiled in a slightly sadistic way, walked up and patted me on the cheek.
She then stepped back and sat down, signalling for me to do so as well. I sat across from her.
"The most basic aspect of controlling power, is to at first be able to sense it, then to move it. You shouldn't just pour it all out from all over your body, to be efficient, you need to channel your power to certain aspects. Such as to your muscles to increase speed and strength, or to your heart and lungs to improve your breathing and blood rate, or directly to wounds so as to increase regeneration. The most important is to have a thin layer of power covering your skin so as to have armour even if you were completely naked. The more your power, the stronger your armour." Rael explained patiently.
Well I could feel power inside me, but it was constantly leaking out like water from a strainer.
She spoke of moving my power, but I think stopping it from leaking may be important as well. "Rael, I feel that my power is constantly leaking, is that normal?"
Rael looked slightly shocked, "Leaking? Is something wrong with you?"
"I don't know"
"Hmm, maybe when you were summoned there was an issue with constructing your bodies" Rael quietly muttered, "I could try something, will you allow me, Tek?"
"Yeah, feel free" I wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but so far it seemed unlikely that she would deliberately injure me.
Rael started chanting again in that unknown language, this time green flames appeared in her palm, the flames hovered and revolved, forming a weird rune. Rael blew on it, and it drifted towards me, and it attached to the back of my left hand.
I felt a strange buzz through my body, then it disappeared, the rune glowed and then faded to an emerald green tattoo.
"What's it mean if I constantly leaked power?" I was curious about that, for I didn't feel any different.
"It means that you would no longer be able to increase you power and were stuck where you were when you were summoned. In other words, you would be unable to level, or learn this world's skills, or spells." Rael looked at me, and then she shrugged.
"So I can now level up and learn new skills and the martial arts of this world?" This was a vital discovery for Players, but other than Rael I do not know how I could help them. And I didn't want to put too much strain on her.
"That is correct"
I reacted without thinking and hugged her, she grinned and hugged me back. She turned to Arche and Zesshi and grinned at them. Arche looked away, but smiled, and Zesshi gave her a thumbs up. They approved? That is odd.
As for why I did, it's she had literally saved my life, this meant I could get more power, and earn back levels without using a World Item.
"In a way you saved my life, like I saved yours, aww, now you don't owe me" I grinned and quietly said into her ear as I was still hugging her. She blushed and then muttered "I still…owe…you", then she pushed me back, surprisingly gently, and strangely hesitantly. "Uhh, back to training you. Try sensing your power again" Rael stuttered slightly.
While she collected herself I tried to feel my power again, it was as strong as before, but none was leaving me. I then channelled some into my right hand, to see if I could, and a slight shimmer surrounded my hand. Finding something interesting, I continued practicing channelling power from place to place, and then splitting it to make it go to multiple places at once.
It was surprisingly easy, I thought it would be harder.
"I can feel it, and move it a bit, what's next?" I asked Rael, who raised her hand and focussed power into it. "Hit my hand while concentrating power into your fist and arm muscles"
I did as she asked, I concentrated power into my fist and arm muscles, they felt strange. When I hit it was a little faster than usual, and there was a slight flash as I hit the power around her hand. With a crack, the bones in my hand broke…
I took out a healing potion and drank it, the good thing about this world, these potions could heal wounds and restructure bones.
"This is why you need magic armour" Rael grinned, apparently, the power is magic, whether you are a magic caster who uses spells, or a warrior who uses skills. Well it a mixture of what we called mana and what was called stamina. Magic was an umbrella term.