Skills and Strategies

*CLANG!*

The dagger was sent flying as it made contact with a slab of stone that coated Alice's ribcage where the goblin was aiming to strike.

She quickly rotated to face the now unarmed creature and stabbed it once on its chest with her left hand and struck once again, piercing its abdomen.

It began to spit blood as it fell to the ground until it died.

"What was that Alice?" The surprised Klein said as Elric stood speechless and looked at Alice with an impressed expression.

"Well, I'm not going to depend on you guys to have my back all the time. I need to know how to protect myself and this is the solution that I came up with." Alice explained.

"I might have to copy that skill from you Alice." Elric said, still very impressed with what his friend had done.

"Let's take these bodies up, so they won't know what happened here." Elric suggested.

They dragged all six bodies up the passageway and back to their little cave. After they've dragged them and cleaned the trail of blood that they've made, Elric asked for a way for them to seal the passage that connected the large cave to theirs for a while until they've thought of a way to deal with the goblins.

"Well, why don't we just move out and choose another hiding place?" Klein suggested.

"We can't do that Klein." Alice interjected.

"What Alice is trying to say Klein is, if we move out and ignore the goblins, there is a huge possibility that they will attack the nearby villages. You saw all those equipment, they were preparing for something. And I know you don't believe that the military will make an effort to protect the Transmuters and the Classless."

Klein was in thought after Elric had explained the consequences of their leaving and ignored the threat of the goblin hoard.

"We have to make a stand here then." Klein announced his new conviction.

"But how? There are just three of us. There's no way we can take on a whole army of goblins with full equipment. And I know you both felt something from that secluded room, it was something we have never seen before." Klein said as he asked about the things they needed to consider, giving emphasis on the room that was separated in the goblin settlement.

"I have been thinking of a plan that might take some time. However, I think it would yield the best results." Elric said with a grin on his face.

"I hate it when you do this. Spit it out Elric!" Alice yelled out in annoyance.

"We would have to make a lot of preparations. That's why we would have to seal both entrances down there and here." Elric explained.

"And how do we do that?" Klein asked.

"I have been thinking about the nature of the Transmuters for quite some time now and I have made some experiments in my own time. Just as you and Alice have made progress with your training. I have also made progress." Elric started to ramble.

"When using Transmuter skills, I found out that when we coat ourselves with the materials that we've chosen or are touching, we use and expend our Enliven to absorb and mold that material into shapes and sizes depending on the size and amount of the material that we have on hand and coat them to our bodies."

"Naturally, I've always wondered if the ability to coat our skin can be used on inanimate objects to reinforce them or morph the materials without directly absorbing it and just shaping them however we want. So, I tried it with my sword and..." Elric's words drifted as he unsheathed his swords and move back a couple of paces and touched the cave walls with his left hand as he held the sword with his right. And right on command, a message popped up.

[Tranmuter Skill Activated]

[Envelop]

A good amount of material from the cave walls slowly enveloped the steel sword.

"How!? How do you think of doing these things, Elric!?" Klein reacted violently.

"I know it might seem great but I just utilized the basic and natural abilities of a Transmuter. Any Transmuter can do this. However, it will expend more Enliven to coat objects other than your own body and it takes even more Enliven to reshape materials entirely without a base, like this." Elric said as he approached the entrance and placed both of his hands on the walls right next to the opening.

[Transmuter Skill Activated]

[Alter]

The cave walls started to thin out slowly and move to cover the passageway of the tunnel. Elric almost covered the lower part of the entrance until he stopped.

He was a bit out of breath after using his skill but his demonstration was a success. Both Alice and Klein were amazed by how Elric came up with skills that seemed natural to him.

"Can you teach us to do it Elric?" Alice asked with eagerness.

"Of course I can, I plan on adding this to our training. It doesn't make sense for you not to learn it if you can, right?" Elric confirmed Alice's question.

After Elric's demonstration, they all went back to training into acquiring the [Envelope] and [Alter] skill and use them on their armors and practiced covering up the two passageways of the tunnel.

They started training right away.

Training daily without rest.

Although Klein and Alice took a bit of time to learn these skills, they have acquired them once they understood how the skill or the ability works. Since they had a natural affinity to it, they have made great progress.

Elric had also started to train his body more since he felt that his skills were not enough.

'I need to be able to have the strength that Klein has to replicate his skill and I have to be as fast as Alice to be able to copy hers.' He thought.

He had this mentality that he needed to do have every skill available to compensate if either Klein or Alice is incapacitated.

'To be a better leader, I would have to do more.' That is what he kept repeating in his head as he pushed his mind and body to their limits.

He practiced his sword and hand to hand combat with his Caster and Transmuter skills as well.

Months of training had passed and after covering the passageways of the cave, they started to make traps and started to practice reshaping materials into other shapes in terms of volume and refining as well.

Although they have mostly used rocks or stone as it is the hardest material available to them.

They kept hunting inside Teal Forest even in the cold weather the winter had brought. They decided to search and hunt down giant bears that Elric had encountered once, to raise the difficulty of the opponent they would have to face.

To vary the skills of their opponent. They wanted to face a creature who had pure strength, an enemy that can strike them down with one blow. They needed to form a plan for an opponent of that size and raw power.

If they succeed in hunting this great beast, they can proceed in advancing inside and deeper into the cave.

"Klein! You know what to do! GO!"