Discussion And Progress

"Fine." Jack sighed while realizing how weak his beer was and thought that he would have to drink a few barrels before being drunk enough for his tastes.

"I will start then." Andrew said while looking with surprise at the man in black suit chugging down his beer in front of him. "As you can see, I am the main front line of my team and I usually protect them thanks to my trusty shield. I also sometime cut down some foes with my sword but those two like to spoil my pleasure and usually don't let anyone come near us." He grunted while pointing his two companions on his left.

"We do that to protect you, don't you dare pout about it." Zoe laughed while poking her armored friend with her finger. She seemed to have forgotten that they weren't alone for an instant and straightened up before continuing : "And I am a Tier 2 Thunder mage. I usually roast our enemies from the distance or at least incapacitate them."

'Ah, this remind me that I still haven't read this damned book about tiers of magic or whatsoever. Well, time to play the card of the ignorant commoner.' Jack thought before sheepishly asking what those tiers were supposed to mean.

"Don't worry, it's normal that you don't know it as it is a ranking system created by the Kingdom's magic schools. Only magicians and those who have some in their families have heard of it but it is in facts really simple : Spells are sorted in books and graded into tiers. You become a mage of a tier when you can cast five of them."

'Spell books... Are you kidding me? This means that they simply copy what they read...?' Jack was at loss for an instant but decided not to delve any further into the subject in order to avoid suspicions. However, he wanted to read his stolen book more than ever and felt even more bored than before. Since he still had everyone's attention, he thanked Zoe for her explanation and explained his "abilities" :

"I am a martial artist that my Lady found during her travels. She has been training me to the way of the sword so I might use one but I'll mainly remain a fast vanguard."

Laena sighed inside when she heard him and continued since he had kindly introduced her :

"I am a swordswoman who like to remain light and agile too."

"Well, we had already noticed that." Moringar laughed while staring at her leather breastplate. This made the elf's ears wriggle in embarrassment while the old man got scolded by his teammates.

"My bad miss Brathadh, I couldn't help but mess a little with you. I'm an archer, former soldier who served this shitty Kingdom for twenty years."

"And I'm a rogue who sneak behind the enemies." Evelyn promptly said while hoping to drag the attention away from her uneasy friend.

"You can do useful things, kid?" Moringar asked while frowning.

"More than you, decrepit old crap." Zoe grunted before walking around the table and hugging Evelyn who was seated on the side. The young girl didn't know how to react at such a sneak attack so she simply enjoyed the comfort of this warm and soft embrace.

"Have you finished your child play you two...?" Andrew sighed thanks to the scene his companions were making.Laena seemed to have recovered her fiery temperament and soon the situation became even more chaotic. His gaze crossed Jack's deadpan one and he felt like this guy was simply sleeping inside while ignoring the ruckus around him. 'This might be the right way to handle such bickering...' He thought while the other four were still in a squabble.

After some time, they finally quietened down and the immortal announced : "Well, this was an... Interesting meeting. It's a shame but we have some preparations to do about the upcoming mission and little time to do so. Thus, we will have to excuse ourselves first. I hope that we will be able to work together more easily than we communicated."

"Are you really going this soon..?" Zoe asked as she bitterly let Evelyn go away.

"Yes, but we will see each other soon at the guild." Jack said while waving his hand toward the other three adventurers. Dragging the furious Laena had been a bit harder than he thought but seeing Andrew struggle as much as he did motivated him to leave as fast as possible. 'Well.. That escalated quickly.' The immortal thought while walking toward their inn.

The girls seemed to have quietened down thanks to the fresh air of the evening and the pink gleam of their cheeks which appeared for different reasons disappeared quickly. Laena apologized a few minutes later for her unsightly behavior while Evelyn seemed to have particularly enjoyed the meeting.

"Aaaah... It's nice to see that you are this relaxed by the way." Jack said with a fiendish smile as they sat around a table to eat their dinner in their inn.

"What do you mean master?" The young girl asked while feeling shivers run down her spine.

"Oh, I didn't only say that for you young one, Laena also seems to be quite energetic." The immortal continued.

"Y-yes?" The elf stuttered as she felt cold sweat run down her spine.

"If you are both fully healed then you won't mind some training?"

"Do we have the choice?" Laena asked while her shoulder dropped as she already gave up.

"Not really." Jack laughed before digging in the piece of meat which stood in his plate. "On a more serious note, you will really need to step up to survive the upcoming fight."

"What do you mean?" Evelyn wondered as she remembered that their enemies would be peasants.

"I will probably strike the holy knights during the assault if I manage to control myself until then." He explained with a cold voice. He had said this sentence with telepathy and this allowed them to feel his feelings more precisely. The girls were surprised and a bit overwhelmed by the anger, sadness and madness which were flowing back and forth in his mind but they didn't say anything and simply nodded as they knew that it wasn't the most important thing right now.

"You will have to survive in a probably chaotic melee where you will be stuck between two fronts... I don't really know how will I do it nor how powerful our enemies will be so I want you two to be as ready as possible for every eventualities."

"Teacher... Excuse me to ask it but... Do you really need to take such risks just for a few knights?" Evelyn said while fidgeting with her hairs. She didn't want Jack to be in danger nor his plan to fail because of such a risky operation. However, her point of view changed when he asked her with a quiet voice :

"Tell me young one, would you be able to remain quiet and fight alongside orcs if you were ordered to do so? Would you be able to remain quiet and watch them while all they remind you is the death of your loved ones ?"

"I... I don't think so." Evelyn said while looking down as she couldn't stand the burning gaze of her teacher.

"Then you understand a portion of what I constantly feel. Well, I will see you tomorrow. I also have works to do on my ongoing projects." He said while getting up and dropping his now empty plate on the counter before climbing the stairs silently. The two girls simply looked at each other and sighed before following him.

"Looks like we will have to work quite a lot again." Laena said to her small friend with a wry grin on her lips.

"Yes, but we don't do it for nothing. Did you notice that he has planned to leave us out of his fight again...?" Evelyn sighed as she felt that Jack protected them too much.

"Indeed... I guess we aren't strong enough." The elf grunted while she added internally :'Or it is simply because he doesn't trust us... I shouldn't think like that, he has done so much for us...'

Since they were both worried by different things they didn't really talk and they simply isolated themselves in their room to train their magic. Evelyn quickly fell asleep thanks to their tiring day but Laena wanted more and kept trying and trying, resting only when she fell out of mana. At one moment, she thought she had been hallucinating thanks to her exhaustion when she saw her dagger continue to fly upward without falling as she tossed it a bit earlier. However, the feeling she got from her mana circuits and her instinct told her that her magic was still active and working.

"I did it... I did it !" She laughed as silently as she could as she finally managed to find how to create gravity mana and negate the planet's pull. Ecstatic, she ran as quickly as she could toward her teacher's room and opened the door wide open as Jack left it unlocked.

During this time, the immortal had been working on a fine and delicate process to inscribe definitive runes in his blade. He had used many of the scales, claws and other organs he had taken from the wyvern's bodies to have an effect as potent as possible. His concentration had reached its peak a few hours ago and he didn't feel the time fly until someone nearly kicked his door open.

Reacting since he thought it was an enemy attack, he turned and got ready to make his foe disappear in the darkness when he noticed that it was simply a smiling and surprisingly happy Laena.

"What may I do for you, young elf?" Jack asked before realizing that he had completely thrown away his precious weapon. Turning his head, he only needed one glance to see that three out of the seven main runic arrangements had fallen apart since he didn't finish the work. It would probably be impossible to repair since it had already been engraved in the bony sword and he hadn't the pure strength to overwrite it.

"I did it teacher ! Look, lo-" Laena said while pointing her floating dagger before she saw Jack turn his head toward her with two red dot dancing in his pupils. In the darkness of the unlighted room this was especially easy to see and she understood her mistake when she saw strange sparks dancing on the blade's side.

"Good job young elf, you managed to control the first step of gravity magic." He said while grinding his teethes. "Was showing me your progress worth ruining my hours of hard work, I don't think so."

Cold sweat appeared on the elf's body while she stepped back, catching her flying dagger in the process but she surprisingly bumped into something solid. Turning her head, she saw that the door was closed by a veil of darkness and when she looked at Jack she noticed that he had his usual wolfish grin on his lips. Despair and surprise appeared on the elf's face while Jack started to explain her punishment :

"You managed to cancel the gravity, good work. Now, try to increase it. You won't leave this room until you manage to make this dagger heavier than an iron ingot."

"*Gulps* Yes teacher..." She sighed before sitting down and focusing on doing the opposite of what she had been doing. Surprised, she noticed that it wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. Turning around to ask for advises, she saw that time had flowed faster than she felt it and that she sun was showing its light through the window.

Jack had fallen asleep while correcting small details over his weapon and was currently sleeping while sitting. Smiling gently, she put a blanket over him and looked over his sword with great interest.