"Talking"

Thoughts

'Mental Communication or using a magic item'

[Debuffs]

Skills/Systems

Chapter 30 – Training Montage

Sweets Café

Claudiah R. Dryfe entered the café, enjoying the sweet smell wafting through the air. Eyes scanning for Crescent Rose.

Truthfully, the young Master had rather impressed her with her arena debut. Initially, she had only made contact with Crescent because she needed an agent to do a task while Bahia was preoccupied. Thankfully, she finished her task early and could assist the less skilled Maiden Master with that ancient weapon.

Said girl followed behind her dutifully. It wasn't that she made her do so, it was more of Bahia's habit.

While she did consider Bahia one of her closest friends, it was obvious to all that she meant far more than friendship to the red-haired girl. Even despite repeatedly stating she had eyes for someone else.

Forcing the dark-skinned Master with white tribal tattoos to give her a piggyback ride was her Embryo Andromalius. Or Andro for short.

The Embryo, in her indigo and gold ceremonial robe, got tired of walking on the streets of Dryfe and wanted to be carried.

Normally she would have suggested just wearing shoes…but after last time, Bahia had eagerly agreed to carry her.

Typically, one would expect her to be saddened or even a bit bitter about their first entry into the coliseum resulting in defeat. Yet she was devouring the largest chocolate cookie and strawberry ice cream Claudiah had ever seen, spoon in one hand while her left hand jotted down notes as she excitedly chatted with Wotan. A translucent screen playing in front of her face of her fight.

While Masters, and especially their Embryos, could be as diverse and unpredictable as can be, they all did possess some common abilities. Their ability to understand any language, return from death three days later, and not being affected by the usual limit in levels that prevented most tians from reaching level 500, to name a few.

However, the feature on display was the ability to take images or even video feeds.

Typically, a tian would need to either use a special magic item or a combination of divination and illusion magic to achieve the same results.

This was why many were starting to use Masters for information gathering. They couldn't die, were well above tians in power, and could effectively record anything and everything they saw.

"Crescent." She spoke up, stopping the younger girl from trying to speak and eat at the same time.

"Claudiah!" she excitedly gasped, "How are yo-oof!" her sentence was cut off as a black blur, to everyone but her and Bahia, rushed forward, knocking Crescent and her seat over, to grab Andro, who had just gotten down from Bahia's back, into a tight hug.

Claudiah may have had to put a hand on her red-haired friend's shoulder, so she didn't stab the blur. It wasn't malicious, just a normal reaction for her.

"Huh, oof, Master, help me! This savage beast is trying to eat me."

Giggling, Wotan, Crescent's oddly dressed Embryo beamed, "I always wanted to meet and cuddle another Maiden Embryo. You. Are. SOOOOOOO. CUTE!"

"Complements won't help you beast." Growled Andro, face turning an amusing dusting of pink, "I do not consent to these cuddles…no matter how soft." She grumbled the last part softly. But the way Wotan's eye – she couldn't see the other one behind the eyepatch – lit up, she had heard…and started cuddling her more.

"Ooh, a tsundere Maiden. Sweet."

"I am not a tsundere!" Andro shouted while looking like a cat trying to escape its owner's grip.

Picking herself up, Crescent gave an awkward smile, "Sorry about Wotan, she's…Wotan."

"That I am." Interjected said Embryo.

"I'm Crescent Rose by the way." She offered her hand to Bahia who just looked at it disapprovingly, "I know who you are. I saw you lose to that low-level scrub."

Rather than looking depressed, the blond with red tips Master seemed excited, "Oh, so you saw my fight?"

"You said he's low level, that means you're higher level both in level but in Embryo form, right?"

"…yes." Bahia could only respond. Claudiah was giggling behind her hand at how her friend's attempt at being territorial was being turned on her by sheer excitement. Unintentionally no less. Which made it even funnier.

"What would you say were mine and my opponent's greatest strengths, our greatest weaknesses, based on your gear you're an AGI-build, what would you recommend to counter those types of builds?" she asked in rapid succession.

"These two are crazy Master," Andro added having just freed herself from Wotan's grip and now the two were locked hands forward trying to push one another back. "I think we should leave. Now." The monochrome-haired Embryo stated flatly, trying to use her long twin tails that shifted from black to white to black again down their length to slap Wotan in the face by shaking her head in an attempt to distract her opponent.

"That's not going to work" the blonde-haired Embryo grinned, "It just makes you cuter and the cuter you are the more I WILL cuddle you." She finished with a rather fiery intensity to the word 'will'.

"You don't know the first thing about affection." Andro shot back, "True affection is head pats."

"Blasphemy." Gasped her opponent(?) "I shall enlighten you to the one true path of cuddles."

"Fallen Maiden, I shall put you on the straight and narrow, love the head pats."

As Claudiah had decided to pull up a seat and enjoy whatever insanity was unfolding, a blonde-haired rabbit faunus in a maid uniform came to the table she had taken a seat at.

"Going with your hair down today Bun-Bun." Despite being the only higher-ranking Master in the Kill Rankings than Bahia, Bun-Bun was another excentric who preferred to roleplay as a maid.

"Yes, mistress. I thought I would change things up a little. While I do enjoy the ponytails, I sometimes want to try how I wear my hair on the other side."

"It's a good look for you." It really was. It reminded her of Altimia. Speaking of which, they would be able to meet up soon for a trade discussion now that the capital had been fully rebuilt - and her negotiations had been better than she expected. She had to try the sweets here. They were the best in the Imperium.

"Thank you, mistress. Would you like your usual?"

"I would, and if you could make it a double. I feel like this will take a while." She said as Crescent kept badgering Bahia with questions about how to improve her combat potential causing one of the most feared Pre-Superiors in the Dryfe Imperium to continuously back away while Wotan and Andro engaged in a battle(?) of cuddling and head pats. Each was giving the other their form of affection.

Truthfully, she wanted to give both Embryos cuddles AND head pats but decided to hold off for now. This was just too much fun to watch.

Even if they weren't near immortal demigods, like the King of Altar, Altima's father, believed, she would like to think she would have continued to interact with Master just for their sheer entertainment value.

/-/

After another twenty minutes or so, Claudiah, Bahia, and Anthro were now seated across the table from Crescent and Wotan. The latter clearly still wanted to cuddle with Anthro.

It would seem the Maiden with Guardian Rule Embryo had failed to convert the Maiden with Arms and vice versa.

"Now, I originally came here to see if you needed any cheering up, but it seems like it wasn't needed."

Crescent seemed a mix of thankful and a tad bashful, "It's still appreciated, but for once I've been able to fight without someone being in danger, Masters potentially killing tians, or a giant murder bot threatening to terraform Dryfe. If it's something normal like a typical speedster versus mech battle, I'm fine."

Bahia shared a look of utter confusion and absolute bewilderment with the blonde tian.

And with that, the dam burst and Claudiah burst out laughing.

That settled it, she had to have this Master working for her.

After wiping a tear from her eye, "How would you like me to help you get stronger?"

Crescent froze, spoon halfway in her mouth, "Do you mean like assigning me quests to help me level up?"

"Well, that is certainly an option, but I was referring to helping you with your build, providing you with training, and a way to spar with higher-level opponents than yourself."

"Ooh, that sounds super cool, but why?"

She just smiled a reassuring smile, "We're friends aren't we?"

"Are we?" was the response. Not one out of sarcasm like most would expect, but genuinely not knowing. Based on her prior meetings Claudiah, or the part of her that wasn't exclusively the Claudiah personality, assessed the girl as young, easily excitable, socially awkward, and a little introverted at times.

"I would like to think we are." She replied giving a warm smile. "Or I would at least like to be."

"Oh…okay!" she eeped in surprise. She obviously hadn't expected that.

"Um, what would you say I need to improve?"

Tapping her finger to her chin, she made a thinking motion.

"Firstly, I would like to know about your build and what skills your Embryo possesses." She began, having already done her research. She had a rough idea of Crescent's build as well as the approximate level of each of her skills. However, there was no way for her to analyze an Embryo. She would either need to see them use their skills and puzzle out the mechanics or simply have them tell her.

This would be the latter.

Build-wise, she hadn't been wrong. Crescent's jobs were better suited for a crafter than a fighter. While most Pilots in Dryfe's Armored Battalions did take Mechanic and Engineer, it was so they could make minor repairs in the field and diagnose issues with performance.

She had been too focused on crafting her Crimson Rose, that she hadn't put much into actually being able to fight.

Honestly, it was amazing she did so well. The use of the Magingear's customized frame to store and release various devices and tools was a novel idea and a rather inventive one.

Inventories couldn't be stored in Inventories, so many wouldn't expect a Magingear to house hidden weapons like that.

She could even feel the personality of Reinhard stir within her as she went on to explain all of the upgrades and innovations she had implemented in her Magingear.

Personally, she would have loved to talk shop with her, but her Claudiah personality wasn't supposed to know these things. Sometimes having to be two different people was just annoying.

However, the most interesting part was when she went on to describe Wotan's abilities.

Bahia had explained that Embryos could give status corrections and that they could either have several relatively weaker skills in exchange for being versatility or be extremely focused on one area at the price of being limited in scope.

Wotan struck her as the former.

According to Bahia, Masters had done research on the different types of Embryos and found all Type: Maidens had a theme of "giant slaying". In short, fighting opponents who are stronger than the user.

Wotan allowed her Master to wield weaponry better and with greater power than normally possible.

As someone who used a lance the idea of her Spear Mastery skill increasing in level by simply having an energy cape was both an intriguing look and more than a little exciting.

While Master the Swaying Weapon allowed the Master to, in theory, always be able to use any weapon with at least some level of skill, Runic Script increased the performance and damage potential of the weapon in exchange for putting increased stress on the weapon.

For something along the lines of Mithril to be a requirement just to endure the skill's backlash meant it could instantly defeat almost any high-rank tian. And this could even be further increased by charging the effect with Runic Scrawling.

Master the Weapon's Flow seemed like the odd skill out, but according to Crescent Wotan awakened the skill during a situation where she didn't have access to her Magingear. Still, being able to exchange SP for an increase in STR, AGI, or DEX would be a skill she honestly wouldn't mind having herself.

"And just yesterday, Wotan got a new skill."

"Oh?"

Said Embryo joining the conversation "Well, it's more that a skill evolved. Runic Script evolved so that I can apply it to tools Master is using to craft weapons with. The weapons get stat buffs equal to the boost from Runic Script…at the price of reducing the tools' durability after the skill is deactivated. At that point, they usually turn to dust."

"I don't suppose you know where I could find some Mithril or even Orichalcum tool sets do you? Heh heh." The silver-eyed Master chuckled nervously.

Truth be told it wasn't the first time someone had created tools like that. In fact, the treasury had several such sets. Some dating back to the Pre-Ancient Civilization where they used a metal that couldn't be replicated by today's technology or magic.

"And can I assume that the reason for the petal-like energy effect is because you effectively used Runic Script on your Magingear twice?"

She seemed surprised by the statement, pondering it for a moment before replying, "Actually, yeah, now that you mention it. I guess we did."

If it wasn't already settled, it was now. Even if she didn't become a field asset like Bahia, her crafting abilities alone would be a great boon to Dryfe and her agenda.

"First let's get you some experience fighting other types of opponents."

/-/

After eating, and Claudiah paying for everyone's food despite Crescent's protest, they made their way to her main place of residence; the Barbaros Estate.

"Wow, this place is so big and the gardens are beautiful."

"Why thank you." Her uncle, Gifted Barbaros, said stepping out from behind a large bush. Unlike his normal attire he was dressed in casual work clothes consisting of a grey long-sleeve shirt, gloves, blue overalls, and a straw sun hat, "We just finished planting the last of them today." He said as a small little boy, barely five years old peeked out from behind her father's leg.

Able Barbaros (1) was her uncle's only child and her cousin. He was a shy boy who preferred not to interact with those he didn't know.

So that made Crescent's interaction with him all the more intriguing.

Lowering herself down to his level but still placing herself a distance away from the two, she smiled at him, "You and your dad did a really good job. The gardens are beautiful." She beamed.

"Do-do you think so?"

"Of course. You grouped them by which flowers not only looked good together but would need roughly the same level of water and sunlight. That way you didn't risk over or under-watering them."

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

She gave the young boy a reassuring and kind smile, "When I was younger my mom and a neighbor used to garden together. They taught me and my sister a few things about plants."

"That's why I know you've got a green thumb."

"Th-thank you." He said before running off.

As someone with not one, but two, Superior Jobs she could easily catch up to her cousin and gush at how adorably he was blushing, but a look from her uncle suggested business before pleasure.

"My son is a bit shy, but let me thank you on his behalf." Her uncle greeted, extending his hand, "I am Gifted Barbaros, head of the estate."

She took his hand before he named himself and immediately went ramrod straight with nervousness. "I'm Master I'm a Crescent Rose!" she shouted far louder than she intended before blushing and stuttering to try and correct herself.

She, her uncle, and Wotan laughed at her antics.

"I know what you mean. And the fact my niece has brought you here means you're either here to practice something or for tea. We can do both on the patio. My niece can guide you while I go and clean up."

"Right away uncle."

As their group walked by he wordlessly mouthed a coded message to her. Normally it would take most people a few hours to decipher her code, but being a High End tian meant she was an anomaly among anomalies. The speed at which her brain processed information would make even the holders of Superior Jobs like Great Teacher or King of Philosophy seem slow by comparison.

"We have found the last mercenary clan from the attack. They're hiding on the border of the Harshwinter Mountains near Starve Ranch. They're looking to move within the next two to three weeks while they gather supplies. We have at most another week on top of that before we lose them again."

It was about time. Personally, she didn't care about them, but they had come to her home personally and threatened her family. That was not something she could allow.

Now what to do?

After several hours in her mind, or several seconds in the real world, she had formed the bones of a plan. But first, she needed to confirm a few things…and find a way to counter the King of Hide who she had previously found out was working with them.

Getting around him would be the most difficult task.

/-/

Over the next three hours, Crescent would face off against Claudiah, Bahia, and her uncle one after another.

This was to help her get a better understanding of opponents stronger than her Magingear, opponents faster than her Magingear, those with Steal-like skills, and those who fought using numbers.

Needless to say Crescent hadn't won a single spar. Despite only being thirteen, younger than even Crescent, Claudiah possessed the Superior Job, The Ram. As such, even using a training spear with a soft tip, she could send the ten-ton machine flying.

Bahia first demonstrated that her Burglary Princess Superior Job's skill Greater Pickpocket could steal any transferable item, such as Crescent's Magingear, from her.

The sound she made when her Magingear was literally stolen from her as she fell from the height of her cockpit was hilarious.

Then when they sparred again, she simply out-maneuvered her using her Mythical Special Reward Twin Moon Carvers, Crescent Glissando to directly damage Crescent's MP until she couldn't fight anymore.

Against her uncle, the Zero General, his mannequins simply overwhelmed her with numbers before pinning her down.

Crescent was an individual battle type with a wide array of weaponry including, but not limited explosives, Hand Canons, Combat Knives, her blade launching scythe, inflatable decoys, smoke grenades, regular grenades, Vulcans, lightning flails, dispensers for putting out fire, spraying adhesives and lubricating substances. Honestly she was almost an individual survival type with the sheer volume of things her Magingear could do.

Sitting around the patio again, she sipped her tea as she compiled her thoughts.

"Your Magingear is truly a novel invention, however, you're desire to stack combination attacks, though effective, can make you predictable and commit the use of resources you should be more frugal with."

"How can I not? You and Bahia can break the sound barrier and you're uncle always seems to know what I'm thinking." She turned to Gifted who was sipping some wine from a glass. Knowing him, it was something sweet. "Wait, do you have a mind-reading Superior Job?"

He simply shook his head, "Like my niece said, you're predictable. Your style of fighting is to evade, strike, retreat, regroup, and repeat. Once someone can see you're pattern even your decoy combination can only hold out for so long."

"Furthermore your biggest problem is that once you commit to an attack or a sequence of attack combinations, you lock yourself into it. Often over committing."

Nodding to her, Claudiah took the reins of the conversation again, "What you need to do is boost your AGI more."

"But I'm a Pilot, who would that help?"

At that, Bahia scoffed. Claudiah just put her hand on her shoulder to keep her calm. Bahia was always harsh on herself and others, so this reaction was within her calculations.

She then went on to explain "AGI represents a person's agility, reflexes, and thinking speed. With the latter two being the point of focus. The higher a person's AGI, the more slowly they will experience the movement of their surroundings."

"What, really?"

"Yes. That's why your opponent was able to counter you. The only reason you were able to give him such a hard time was your combination of attacks, ingenuity, and liberal usage of explosives. If you were able to think at a faster speed, you likely would have beaten him."

"Huh, so that's how that works."

The blonde tian nodded, "Yes, yes it is. If you want I can help you re-spec your job build like I did for Bahia." At that, the red-haired, green-eyed girl blushed and looked away.

"Yeah, that was funny." Andro chimed in while seated on Claudiah's lap, "She was- mmph" Bahia shoved several macarons into her mouth which she happily ate.

She adored cake-flavored ones. Andro's maidenly eating habit was that she couldn't eat using utensils, only her hands. As such, she tended to eat with hand foods.

Based on her observations Wotan couldn't eat anything unless she saw her Master eat it first. Or something like that.

Chuckling at how amusing both Maiden Masters were, she continued, "Firstly, I would recommend removing Appraiser and replacing it with something like the Scout job. Normally you might need to use other jobs, but with your skill Master The Weapon's Flow skill, you can simply increase your AGI if needed."

"But what about the other skills it has? I need those for working on my Magingear."

Claudiah, Bahia, and even her uncle blinked. Andro was still preoccupied with getting into a macaroon eating contest with Wotan.

"Crescent, are you aware that there are items for sale in the market that do just that?"

"There are?" well that answers that question.

"Yes. Many of our Armored Battalion members chose scout not only for the Reveal skill and boost to AGI, but also the Killing Intent Perception skill. Something that cannot be underestimated on the battlefield."

"I guess that makes sense." She seemed deep in thought, "Does the Dryfe army have any standard job builds? And if so, what would you recommend."

Claudiah smiled, "Well there are several different builds, both for job level and function. Some builds focus on artillery fire, defensive builds, scouting builds, and high-speed combat."

"Oh, I like that last one."

"Hmm, let me see. Gale Pilot is an upgrade of Pilot that focuses on highspeed. However, it will only get your Pilotingskill up to level 7, or level 8 in your case. If you want to get it to level 10, you need the job High Pilot."

"Actually, wouldn't Wotan's skill make it level EX?" her uncle asked.

Even Wotan didn't seem sure as she dropped the half-eaten macaroon in her mouth onto her plate.

"I-I honestly don't know." It was almost jarring how such a happy bubbly young girl seemed so shellshocked and crestfallen at the same time.

Then again, she supposed it made some modicum of sense. She was an Embryo, her skills were part of her very existence. She wondered if it would be like a person with perfectly functioning legs not knowing if they could walk or not.

Before she could reply, Crescent started patting Wotan on the back, somehow the Maiden's tail, which she was certain was just a part of her costume, was flapping about happily smacking into the chair she was seated on, "It's okay Wotan, we'll find out when we get there."

"Do you have any other job advice?"

"Hmmm", she pondered for a moment. This could be her chance to sculpt another Master into her ideal piece on the board…however, she knew that Embryo's abilities reflected their Master. Picking a build that did not resonate with their Master could produce lukewarm effects or even detrimental development.

No, she needed to be honest with the options.

"Blaster if you plan to keep on using explosives. Gadgeteer would be another high-rank job since it is specialized in making equipment for machines. Gunner for using firearms more effectively would suit you well. Avoid the Philosopher as most Masters make the mistake of boosting their thinking speed, but you need your hands empty for that. So unless you can learn to pilot with your feet, I wouldn't recommend it. You could take the Sacrifice job to boost your MP. Its stat growth is actually higher than most MP-focused high-rank jobs, but you'll need a party to help level you. Shooter could extend the range of your shots and even help with non-firearm projectiles. And lastly, I would suggest looking into the Painter job."

"Why Painter? I mean the other stuff makes sense, but why Painter?"

"Painter is like the Cook job. Just about anyone can have it and so long as you don't have too many jobs that focus on painting and art, it won't restrict your build. Additionally, it has a skill called Delicatewhich is an active skill that increases the user's DEX by (10% * Skill Level) for 60 seconds."

"Oh, that sounds pretty helpful."

"It is." She smiled. "…Also, I could ask a few favors and get you a chance to train with the Armored Battalion."

"You can do that?!"

Bahia just blinked. "Do- do you not know who she is?"

"…Claudiah?"

For the second time today, all the tians present, Bahia, and even Andro, blinked at Crescent. Said Master started to squirm under their collective gaze.

What broke the silence was, surprisingly, her uncle laughing to himself. Even Claudiah was surprised by this. As a member of Dryfe's Special Mission Task Force, Gifted was trained not only in combat but also infiltration and how to comport in a way that not even high-level Truth Discernment skills would find fault with his words.

The man who was among the top three candidates for the Field Marshall position when the current holder eventually stepped down to lose control and start laughing even had her, a High End, stunned.

Wiping a tear from his eye, he smiled, "Forgive me, Ms. Rose, I just found that whole reaction too funny not to laugh." Stifling another chuckle, he continued, "Allow me to formally introduce my niece. She is Claudiah Reinhard Dryfe, the princess of the Dryfe Imperium."

(1) Gifted's kid's name or even their gender is never given. So, as a play on "Gifted" his son's name is "Able". I know, my naming sense is unrivaled.

Crescent Rose = Ruby Rose

Bahia = Emerald Sustraia

Bun-Bun = Velvet Scarlatina

If you like my work, please support it at Pat Reon Dot COM (Slash) jwrite

And remember to review. Seriously, it helps me get better at writing and you get a better story to read. It's a win-win.