"Who was that?" I asked Beth once the noblewoman was out of earshot.

"That was lady Serin Staphenidie. If you make it as far as one of the strongholds or dungeons you may end up partying up with her. She sometimes teams up with Lillia." Beth explained while she put away the coins.

"Is she a summoner too?"

"No, but she is royalty and a ranking adventurer. Her cousin is the summoner from the human contingent."

"I see. She definitely seemed very skilled with a blade."

"Yes, her skill is almost unrivalled."

That was high praise coming from Beth.

"How come you called her my lady, but you talk to Lillia normally?"

"Because I only know her as a customer, and I've known Lillia for many years. Lillia gets annoyed with me if I talk to her formally even if she is a princess, but it would be different if we spoke in front of anyone official. They would expect deference, just remember that. Even if Lillia doesn't expect that from you, some people will when you talk to her, so remember to mind your surroundings."

"I will thank you."

"Altria on the other hand. The catkin aren't big on that sort of thing so you should be okay."

"I think I'll still keep an eye out depending on the situation."

"That would be sensible." Beth agreed as she stepped out from the counter.

She headed to the front of the shop, pulled the door shut the locked it and flipped the open sign to closed.

"Now that's all finished we can start. Follow me." She instructed.

Beth headed out behind the counter into the back of the shop, there was a long hallway out there. First, we passed what looked to be the smithy, I could see an anvil and tools lying around but the forge was off today. Beth then headed into the next room that led off from the corridor. This looked to be the training room. It was a large and open room, with mats over the floor and weapons of various types strapped to the walls.

Beth strode across the room and pulled a wooden training sword of the wall, which she tossed over to me.

"Here take this." She told me as I caught the sword.

"We're going to go straight to this?" I asked.

I had thought we would address some theory and technique first.

"I want to see what I have to work with. Anyway, you've already been out into the field, haven't you?"

"To the beginner's area yes, but I suppose I did level up."

"Then you should have at least some technique. Let's begin." She said taking herself a training sword from the wall.

I knew I was outmatched from the very first moment. She took the training sword and spun it around on the palm of her hand before taking a grip and taking a stance. At first, we both just circled the room. I was looking for an opening but there wasn't one to be found. Then Beth moved. She stepped into my blind spot before hitting me with the rear of her blade almost knocking all the wind out of me and sitting me on my butt.

"You okay to continue?" She asked lowing her weapon for a moment.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Please carry on."

The same thing repeated itself over and over. Beth would move in and strike without me even able to offer up the slightest bit of resistance. I tried several times to go on the attack. But that only ended in me being sat on my butt even quicker than when I was on the defensive. Eventually I started to become a little frustrated at the cycle, even if I could tell that Beth really was just taking it easy on me and trying to gauge my capabilities. Then an Idea flashed across my mind, now was the time to test that. Without giving it a second thought I used "disarm". The results weren't what I had expected at all and I froze.

Beth was unphased and swept my feet from under me and I was sat on my ass yet again. Only this time I was staring up at her naked body.

"That was an interesting technique. What was it?"

"It was unexpected…"

"Someone less experienced might have easily been distracted by that, but you should have kept your attention to my sword."

"Right sorry." I said averting my gaze.

"Oh, this isn't what you wanted to see?"

"No, I mean it is nice, but I didn't mean to."

"There are more polite ways to get a woman out of her clothes, but now we're here I suppose…"

I turned back to face her hearing that her voice had grown closer, only to find her almost over me and on all fours. She slid her hand up my leg and grabbed my crotch.

"Oh, so you did want this. Well seeing you are like this we'll have to do something about it before we can continue." She said slipping her hand inside my trousers and rubbing away.

I took the chance to fully examine her body. She was nowhere near as slight as either Lillia or Altria, but she was every bit as feminine, even with the odd scar from training or work on the forge. Every muscle was well defined and firm. As I watched she had started rubbing herself with her free hand, that was until she noticed I was just laid there watching. She pushed me back and climbed up me.

"You aren't just going to leave it all to me, are you?" She asked playfully.

"No."

I pushed back, rolling her over on to her back and sliding my fingers inside as I did so. She was already wet, she seemed to be excited about this. As I continued, she leant forward and whispered in my ear.

"Go easy on me it has been a while."

That was it, I couldn't let that go. I had to give her a good going over. I threw off my top and trousers and pushing apart her legs I slid inside her already wet pussy activating "special heal" as I did so. The girlish moan she let out that instant when she felt pleasure role over her body like she wasn't expecting, it was such a contrast from the strong woman that had been kicking my ass only a minute before. I liked it. I started thrusting away into her already mushy pussy, her legs spread and her toes coiling. She was already nearly cumming. I notched up the skill and sped up. Her eyes rolling into the back of her head told me she was there.

I slid out for a moment as I went to change position.

"That was…" she said gasping for breath. "That was better than I remember!"

"We haven't finished yet."

I grabbed her arm arching her back and pushing her on her knees as I went in from behind. She moaned as I entered, her juices almost squirting out. I was all the way up to the base and pushed in and out, her insides coiling around me. She was nearly there again already, so I didn't let up, hammering away until she came and then releasing it all inside quickly after. She slid on the floor as I slowly let her arm go, seemingly still enjoying herself.

I lay back on the mats myself catching my breath. It had only been brief, but it been intense. After a few moments Beth sat up, now having gotten a hold of herself. She grabbed her tee shirt off the floor a slid it over her head.

"Well I must say, I wasn't expecting that from you."

"Err thanks… I wasn't expecting you to do that either! I didn't know that was going to be a part of the lessons."

"It isn't normally, I'm not quite sure what came over me."

"Well I enjoyed the lesson!"

"I bet you did… Now that you've got that out of your system we should continue with your training." She said tying to sound more serious again.

It didn't quite work because she was in the process of picking her clothes up from the floor and dressing as she told me. Once we had dressed it was back to training and Beth was fully back to acting like a teacher. The rest of the day I spent having my ass worked off as Beth drilled into me the basics of her sword style. It was late evening by the time we eventually finished.

"You did well for your first day." Beth told me as we put away the training swords.

"Really? I felt like I was having my ass handed to me most of the time."

"Well you were, but it could have been worse. Anyway, what do you think, do you want to continue to learn from me?"

"Definitely!"

"Good. I won't have many days I can devote to your training like today and I expect that most of the time you will be busy with Lillia. I will be able to give you an hour or so if you come before I open or at the end of the day. Will that be alright with you?"

"Yes, I'll be happy to come when you're free."

"Great. I open at nine, if you come just before eight, I will be here and I close at five, but if you get here before six, I should still be around. No need to tell me when you're coming, I will just expect to see you when I see you."

"That would be great thank you. I've no idea what Lillia has instore for me, but I'll definitely come whenever I'm free!"

"That's good to hear. Now, you should be on your way, it's getting late."