A week passes uneventfully with Dirk going about his days. The entire time, he hardly even left his house other than to workout. He just kept to himself, and he was perfectly content with things that way.

He woke up early and went to bed early, his routine being repeated day by day at exactly the same minutes each day. While his workouts and magic training were filled with pain, he was fine with it. It was a way to keep him occupied.

He didn't just train though. When school had ended, Dirk had asked his father for books on dungeon monsters. He had been taught a lot about dungeons and monsters during his first year, but he wanted more precise information. Being knowledgeable about your enemies was crucial to success in battle. Luckily, his father agreed and gave him a catalog that documented tons of different monsters, from birds to lizards.

Not long after he got it, Dirk documented the entire thing and slowly went through it to memorize the information. He found all kinds of monsters with various characteristics, attack patterns, strengths, and weaknesses.

He studied and trained just like this for a week. At the end of that week though, Rita came to find him with a smile on her face.

"No more girlfriend, huh? Well, maybe this'll cheer you up. Come with me."

Saying that, she led Dirk to their father's house. He just rolled his eyes and followed, quickly arriving at the nice house. Cecilia was also there, so Dirk gave her a nice big hug before they got down to business.

Ryker spoke.

"You're going to be dungeon diving next year, and a big part of dungeon diving is your weapons and armor. While you used that staff for the competition, that won't cut it in the dungeon. You need a real weapon, a blade. Your weapon will be your most important asset next to your armor. And today, you're going to choose one. Come."

With that explanation, they all walked into another room. This room had a big table on it, and the table was covered entirely by weapons of all kinds. Dirk walked up to it and examined the weapons.

"I know you aren't familiar with anything, so I've planned for you to use your break to train with different weapons. We've got knives, spears, swords, bows, hammers, and axes. There are many variations of all these weapons, but I've only brought out the more basic ones. Now, go ahead and choose one that you think you like. Or multiple if you wish."

Ryker spoke as Dirk looked at everything. Everything on the table was real, and they all looked rather high quality as well. Dirk started thinking about the monsters he saw in the books and determined what he would want to use.

With a bit of thought, his hands first hovered to the bow. He picked it up and plucked the string. It took a lot of force to bring back, much more than a normal bow. The wood felt harder and stronger as well, so this definitely wasn't a normal bow.

After the bow, Dirk picked up a knife. There were a few sets of knives in different shapes and sizes. Dirk grabbed a big one and then two smaller ones, feeling each one. At first, his hands handled them like an expert, but after sensing his mother's gaze, he dulled himself before quickly putting them down.

Then, Dirk picked up a spear. He felt the weight which wasn't very high and moved it around a bit. While he wasn't trained with a spear, he was able to quickly adapt. It was almost as if he understood the weapon naturally. His head simulated various scenarios in which he would use it against all kinds of monsters.

After a bit, he put down the spear and moved on to the other weapons. He scanned through and grabbed a couple like the hammers and axes, handling them before setting them back down. Eventually, he came to a conclusion.

"If I were to go into the dungeon, I'd want four weapons. The bow, the spear, a few knives, and the hatchet."

Dirk spoke simply. Among the weapons, these four would prepare him best for the most amount of monsters and scenarios. He could fight long, medium, and short range with these. And in close range, he could use a heavy or light weapon, enabling him to use different styles against different enemies. Some enemies had tough hides and some were fast. The knives and hatchet would cover his bases well.

Ryker, Cecilia, and Rita heard him and were surprised. Kids didn't normally pick out four weapons, especially when they didn't know anything about them. Moreover, it didn't seem like he was just taking the coolest weapons either.

Cecilia was especially surprised. After looking at the weapons, she realized that those four would indeed cover every mode of attack, allowing for the greatest versatility. While one would have to train in all those weapons, it would make one much more reliable in any fight.

But only someone who had experienced combat would be able to make this judgment, thus why Cecilia was surprised. She had been suspicious for a while of her son's ability and knowledge, and this situation didn't help that. Her face became conflicted as unknown thoughts ran through her head. She remained silent though, allowing Ryker to handle things.

"Those are good choices, but let's start with one first. How about you start with the bow. It's safe and rather straightforward. Here."

Ryker grabbed the bow and handed it to Dirk. He also grabbed a quiver filled with arrows that was leaning on the table. After handing it to Dirk, he spoke.

"Alright, since you have a weapon, we'll start your training. Your mother is going to be your teacher. She can actually use all of these, some better than others. She's going to give you the basics of the ones you chose. If we have time, we'll try to go through all of them to give you a taste of each."

"Yes, we should be able to work with all of them. And we can work for longer than a month if need be. Dungeon diving won't start right away anyway. Now come with me. Time to try out that new weapon."

Cecilia spoke and brought Dirk outside. Ryker let them be while Rita followed to watch.

The three walked to the backyard that was surrounded by walls. There was another table out here as well as some test dummies. The table held targets, more arrows, and some logs. They had prepared everything for all the weapons to be used.

"Now, using a bow is both simple and complex. The basic mechanism is easy. You just take an arrow and knock it onto the string. You then pull back and release, sending the arrow flying. The hard part comes with all the little details. Things like your fingers, your grip, arrow positioning, angling your bow, and more. That will come gradually though. For now, let's make sure you can at least loose an arrow. Here, watch me."

Cecilia spoke as she took the bow. Dirk watched her take an arrow and knock it, pulling the string back like it was nothing. Her form was solid as she aimed at one of the dummies, releasing the arrow.

*Fling!*

The arrow zipped through the air, landing on the dummy's head. The dummy was 10 meters away, so while it wasn't difficult to hit in the slightest, it was still a decent display of accuracy. The bow wasn't even her primary weapon either. Dirk wondered about the extent of her training.

"There. Now you try. I'll help you as you do it."

She handed the bow back to him. Dirk took it and mimicked her stance. He copied the grip, the angle, and the arrow position. He kept both eyes open as he aimed at the same dummy. After pulling it back as far as he could, he steadied himself before letting go.

*Fling!*

The arrow sailed a bit slower than Cecilia's. Dirk watched it land on the right side of the dummy's chest. After lowering the bow, he looked at the arrow with a blank face.

"Good! You pick things up surprisingly fast don't you?"

Cecilia ruffled his hair excitedly. Meanwhile, Dirk thought to himself.

Back on Earth, he had trained with the bow. He had trained with all kinds of weapons. Out of the four weapons he chose, he was only unfamiliar with the spear since that was never a realistic weapon to use on Earth. But everything else, especially the bow and knives, he was proficient with. While he wasn't an expert with the bow, he was far from a beginner.

But he tried not to show it. Dirk just did what his mother did and then messed up a little. He aimed for the chest, but only hit near the shoulder. She was already suspicious enough, so he didn't need to worsen his situation.

For the next several hours, Cecilia had Dirk constantly shooting arrows. She did various corrections on his form along the way, making it more perfect and his shots more precise. After that, since his aim was good, she activated a magic function on the target dummies, making them move. Dirk stood and attempted to shoot the moving targets. Obviously, his accuracy went down.

This carried on until the end of the day. When the sun began to set, Cecilia concluded the day's training. They then had a nice dinner, after which Dirk headed home.

The next day, Dirk was back at it again. He spent 8 hours doing nothing but shooting arrows. He got better and better though. At least, that's what Cecilia saw.

This went on for another day. On the fourth day, Cecilia finally had him practice with another weapon. They moved on to the spear, and this time Dirk didn't fake anything since he knew nothing about the spear. He listened to his mother's guidance as he quickly got used to the weapon. His thrusts became smooth and straight while his slashes became controlled. Dirk was quick to learn the basics, and it surprised Cecilia.

Dirk trained with the spear for 3 days before moving on to the knives. After another three days, he moved on to the hatchet. These cycles would repeat until he finally went through almost all of the weapons.

When the end of his training came, Cecilia concluded that Dirk could definitely use the bow, knives, and hatchet. And while he wasn't as skilled with the spear, she thought he should work on it more anyway. She also thought he should use a sword, but he couldn't take too many weapons with him at once. Four was already pushing it, so he would need to drop the spear if he wanted to use the sword.

That decision would come later though when he actually used the weapons and developed preferences. Until then, he just needed to practice more and wait for his first dungeon dive.

During the time he was training, Cecilia also arranged some armor for him. While it wouldn't be the highest quality stuff, it would be plenty sufficient for what he would face. She just told him to trust her as she took some measurements and drew it up herself. While Dirk didn't enjoy not getting a say in his armor design, he trusted his mother, so he didn't worry too much.

With that, Dirk waited as the first day for his next school year approached.

.............

Meanwhile, as Dirk trained at home, Ava was doing her own things with her parents. However, she wasn't having as nice of a time.

Her first week was normal. After resting for a few days, she continued to workout on her own. Her wounds healed nicely as well, letting her get rid of the bandages. Her parents had been surprised to see the wounds, but she just brushed it off saying that she earned top 3 in her class in exchange.

After that, her parents discussed dungeon diving with her. Hearing that Ava wanted to dungeon dive, they figured out what weapons and armor she would use. Like with Dirk, she was able to choose from a myriad of types.

Seeing all the different weapons, Ava was a bit overwhelmed. However, she had gone over all the weapons with Dirk and talked about all that. With the knowledge he imparted, she had pondered on the weapon she would use for a while. Eventually, she decided on the ones she would try out first.

Since she was an anima trainer, Ava decided she would try out the axe. The axe she chose had a big curved blade on one end and a sharp pick end on the other. It wasn't excessively big or heavy, letting her wield it comfortably with one or two hands.

As her secondary, she also chose some knives, just like Dirk did. She knew that it was always good to have backups, so while she may not use them as much as Dirk, she wanted to at least have them there.

Her parents didn't argue as she made her choice. They didn't find any fault with it, so they arranged for a bit of training with the weapons. From there, Ava went on to train for a few hours each day on how to wield the axe and knives.

Outside of that, Ava simply went on with her own routine. For a while, she found herself bored. However, one day, she stumbled upon something she would've rather never seen.

While her father was out working, Ava went into his study to look at some of the books. She wasn't like Dirk who could train all hours of the day and wanted a bit of mental stimulation, so she sought out some academia. However, as she looked through the bookshelves, she found herself glimpsing at the papers on her father's desk.

At first, she only wanted to take a little look at the kind of work her father did. She had never actually known what he did, only that he worked with people. But after reading a few words on one of the papers, her attention was caught.

'Weekly shipment statement:

Human Males: 27

Human Females: 33

Elven Males: 2

Elven Females: 5

Vampiric Males: 7

Vampiric Females: 7

Dwarven Males: 12

Dwarven Females: 18

Total count: 111

Weekly transaction statement:

Human Males: 21 sold

Human Females: 44 sold

Elven Males....'

Ava looked at the sheets of paper detailing different sets of business information. At first, she couldn't quite grasp what she was reading. But as she read more, she slowly came to understand.

'Slaves... My dad works with slaves?'

Ava was shocked at the conclusion she came to. She obviously knew what slaves were. The academy had talked about them briefly, and she heard even more from her friends. Slaves were people who were put under a special contract. Some contracts were lenient, but most were the kind that removed free will. They had to obey their masters or risk losing their lives. They could be put under excruciating pain should they disobey. It was a miserable life, to say the least.

But in the Horizon Empire that was dominated by humans, slaves were illegal. That wasn't the case in all empires, but it was here. This was the reason why the Horizon Empire, despite being dominated by humans, was so popular with other races.

However, Ava was learning that her father worked in an illegal industry. She read more and more of his papers that detailed things like money records and dealings with other bosses. Some papers detailed specific slaves and what 'type' of slave they were. There were the normal ones like fighters, craftsmen, and maids. But there were also those like sex slaves and death slaves, ones who would be used for things that practically guaranteed their demise. There were even letters from various households that expressed their desire for these slaves. The fact that she recognized one of the names shocked her.

The more Ava read, the more she felt her heart drop. After almost an hour of snooping around, she finally couldn't take it anymore and put everything back the way it was before leaving the room. That night, when her father got home, she did her best to avoid him, feigning exhaustion and going to bed early. She knew that he would be able to see the turbulence of her mind. After all, she inherited the ability from him, so she didn't allow him to see her directly, locking herself away.

Luckily, the next day Ava was calmed down. She acted perfectly normal, going about her day and training as she had been. However, she began to internally debate herself. She wondered what she should do. Should she stay quiet, pretending like she saw nothing? Or should she confront her father about it?

Suddenly, she remembered Dirk's words: Be strong in all things you do. Ever since he spoke them, Ava had done her best to apply that logic to her daily life. Strength had become her creed in a way. But now, when faced with her father and his questionable deeds and morals, she found herself conflicted. Whenever she thought about what her father did every day and how he had been doing that for years without her knowing, she felt a bit scared. She wondered if she should be okay with it. Strength was the way of the world, so the slaves could only blame themselves for their positions, right?

But she couldn't justify it. There was such a thing as morality and right and wrong, even in this world where the strongest ruled. It was why kingdoms and empires could stand. Those empires that crushed the weak never lasted long, because even the weak had a role to play.

Ava eventually came to the conclusion that what her father did was wrong. Even that was a nice way of putting it. From the things she saw, it could be described as disgusting. Some slaves were made that way due to debt or crimes, but many were simply kidnapped and turned into merchandise. And her father was the boss, the one who orchestrated and enabled these heinous acts with his money. The amount of lives that were ruined and tossed into misery because of him...

Ava became disgusted, repulsed even. But she couldn't bring herself to do anything. Day by day passed, and each night she found herself ridden with guilt. She hated herself for not being able to stand up and at least talk to her father. She got close a few times, but she would be overwhelmed by anxiety each time.

In the end, the month of break passed with her having done nothing. She had to use her weapon training and workouts to get her mind off of the guilt she felt. And finally, when school started up again, she boarded her carriage. The drive to the academy felt all the more depressing. She felt the weight of all those ruined lives on her shoulders.