Family Skill

The two women moved to the office and sat down on the comfortable chairs.

"Would you like some tea?", Lara asked in a friendly tone, which calmed Irena down, who had feard that the talk would be very unpleasant.

"Sure.", she accepted the offer and Lara poured her a cup from a teapot standing on her office table.

"How much did Ivan tell you about how our situation came to be?", Lara then started the conversation.

"He told me about how you have met before his hard reset, but nothing concrete. He just said that you only met once."

Lara nodded, she seemed to be satisfied with what he had told her. She wasn't willing to have everyone know the details of their meeting.

"Then I'm sure you can imagine why I wanted to meet you?"

"It should have to do with our Training Skill."

"Correct. I'm not sure how much you know about dual Training Skills?"

"Nothing. Before I saw the skill, I didn't even know they existed."

Lara was surprised when she heard that, "You parents didn't talk to you about that?"

Now it was Irenas turn to be surprised, "My parents?"

"So you didn't know. Your parents too train in a dual Training Skill, so I expected you to know about it."

Irena wasn't surprised that the woman before her, had information about her parents because with her apparent wealth it would be easy for her to get some information, but to know their Training Skill did go above what a normal investigation could find out. And since even she didn't know, it should be a well-kept secret.

"How do you know that they train in a dual Training Skill?", she asked suspiciously.

"Do you know why your ancestor rebelled?", in response, she got a completely off-topic question.

"Huh?"

"Well since you didn't even know about the skill your parents are training in, it is no surprise that you don't know about it because it is exactly this skill that is the reason.

Back then, the emperor decided to change the family skill, since it had too many drawbacks in his opinion, but his brother was much more conservative and he wanted to keep it. They argued about it and finally, your ancestor decided to leave the family, so that he would be able to keep the skill. But unlike normal families, it isn't that easy to leave the royal family in such a way, that one can keep the family skill. The only way is to rebel and create a situation where the family is split, which was what the two brothers decided on."

This was the first time Irena heard about the reason for the rebellion of her ancestor. "What do you mean with family skill? I haven't heard about it before."

"It is a skill, that is set as the inheritance of the family and the reason why the big families can keep their status through the times. Everyone in the family can learn it with the permission of the family head, without the need for a skill book."

Irena instantly understood the use of the family skill. After all, the biggest problem with high graded Training Skills was that they required skill books, that couldn't be replicated. So everyone in the family being able to learn them without a skill book would certainly increase the strength of the family's descendants.

"So that's how it is. Then how come I haven't heard about it?"

"Sorry, you would have to ask your parents about that.", Lara too didn't know why her parents hadn't told her about it.

"But how come you know so much about what had happened?", Irena asked the question she had in the back of her mind, ever since Lara had started to talk about the skill of her parents.

Seeing the curious look on her face, Lara smiled. When she had gotten her information from her secretary she had been quite surprised. Who would have thought that the girl Ivan had chosen as a training partner would be from that part of the family? Although officially there wasn't any contact between their families, in truth her mother and Irena's were good friends and often met.

"That's because my name is Von Berg."

As soon as she said this sentence Irena stared at her in shock. Only the members of the royal family had the name, Von Berg, while the others could still keep the Berg name, they would lose the Von.

"Well, I guess that explains it.", it didn't take long for Irena to calm back down. She took it surprisingly well, impressing Lara.

"Good. Back to the topic. Since you don't know anything about dual Training Skills, let me explain a few things to you.

First and most important, don't try to skip any steps in the progression.", she then warned.

Irena understood that she meant the part of the skill, where it was described, which actions were necessary for it to work. For the first part, it was holding hands, while the second part was still hidden. "Why is that? Shouldn't it be more effective if the partners are more intimate?"

"One might think that but the truth is the complete opposite. If that was the case then why is there even any progression? Couldn't one just start at having s*x?"

She hadn't thought about it before but when hearing these questions she too felt that it had to have some meaning.

"Our family has made many experiments before so we know much more about these skills than others and many things you won't find in any library."

"Then why are you telling this to me and not Ivan?"

"That's because you are the one who is the most affected by skipping. For the male partner it doesn't make much of a difference but for the woman, there is a huge difference. If you skip a stage, then the effect of the training skill will diminish heavily. So don't skip any and follow the description of it. As soon as the next stage unlocks you can do whatever is described without suffering any setbacks."

Irena looks at her thankfully, "Thank you for telling me."

"Haha", Lara lightly laughs, "I'm not just doing it for you. Ivan had, way to much luck with getting women, so it is necessary for him to follow the proper order with at least you. That way he will value you more too."

"Women? Don't tell me there are more than us two?"

Once again Lara laughed. "So he didn't tell you." After that, he told Irena everything that had happened with Lin and his bloodline.

"Damn, that guy.", Irena couldn't help but curse when she had heard all that. "I'm definitely not going to skip any steps with him. What the hell, I am even going to take as much time as possible."

The two continued chatting for a bit more until the housekeeper called them down for dinner. They had enjoyed chatting, so Lara invited her to stay for dinner and Irena gladly accepted.

While they had talked, Ivan and Jane had played in the other room together with Tess. After first materializing Jane had been unable to call out Tess again until today. It was the same with Ivans little lizard. He had disappeared after less than a day and during the time he had been out, he had only slept. Now, if not for the faint connection he could still feel, he would have already forgotten about it. When he had seen Tess, he too had tried to call out the little lizard, in the was Jane described she had managed to call out Tess, but there was no response. Maybe he would need more time until he was able to come out.

What Ivan found the most interesting, was that Tess was able to increase in size until she was about one meter high at her shoulder and it seemed like this wasn't the largest she could get. But because she was still young and Jane was still weak it was the most she could reach yet. When he had seen it he had tried to playfully fight with her, much to the amusement of his daughter who cheered loudly for her kitten.

It didn't take long before he had to realize, that without using weapons or deadly skills he was unable to win against her since she was much faster and only slightly weaker than him. After being thrown to the floor the second time he had wanted to stop playing with Tess, but seeing his daughter laughing loudly at him, he couldn't help but fight a few more rounds just so she could enjoy herself even more.

After that, they laid down exhausted at the floor. For Tess to fight, she had to consume some of Janes energy so she too was now tired. And if not for the housekeeper calling them to dinner, they would surely have fallen asleep.