“Line up, we are going to start by doing some basic evaluations.”

Jack sounded like he enjoyed commanding them, a turn around of his position when the guild master was around. He had been made to act with deference, and Mash thought that he might take out his frustration on them. Still, Mash followed his directions, lining up along one side of the training grounds. He was surprised to see that the floor was covered in grass, or some imitation of it. He was tempted to take of his shoes, to feel the grass beneath his feet. It wasn’t something he would normally do, but he was curious to see what this artificial looking grass would feel like. There were always his hands, but he didn’t want to interrupt Jack by bending over and grabbing the grass.

“I’m going to have you hit this crystal with the strongest attack you can manage. It will give us a rough estimate of how much damage you can do, and I only want to see an attack you can use in battle. I don’t give danm, about a skill that takes an hour to set up. Those are just worthless.”

Jack spoke while placing the metal plates in a circle, sectioning off a portion of the grounds. Each was still visible, a good bit of the plates were sticking from the ground. The aforementioned crystal was placed into the center of one of the training dummies, and he moved it to the opposite corner of the room. His focus shifted to Jack’s words, as he finished his instructions. Honestly, Mash had forgotten that his skills would make it so that his strongest attack would take a long time to set up. If he spent enough time growing out his wooden creations, he might be able to drop a literal mountain on someone. There were stories of the king changing the world, transforming its surface to better support the kingdom. And Mash could manage something similar already. It would take him a lot longer to accomplish, but he had the potential to shape the world and he wasn’t even bronze ranked adventurer yet.

Red went first, her blood dress forming around her body. It grew larger and larger, until he couldn’t make out that , she was within it anymore. Then it slowly condensed around her, and she was left holding two enormous great swords of swirling blood in each hand. She swung them in a cross motion, an attack that would normally be highly impractical. It smashed into the crystal. a wave of blood forming where the two blades collided. Immediately, Red turned and looked at Jack, trying to gauge his response. However, Jack gave nothing away, his expression unchanged by whatever information he got. Although, Mash did notice that a crystal in his right hand was glowing faintly.

“Go sit in the circle, it will help you recover your mana.”

Having noticed Red returning to the group, Jack told her what to do. Following his instructions, she stumbled as she entered the space. Something had startled her, and Mash found his curiosity rising. Sadly, Luke got to go next.

He walked up to the crystal before growing several times larger, bigger than Mash had seen before. Luke’s head was almost grazing the ceiling, and Mash guessed that he could’ve grown bigger if he wanted. Before, Luke had worn loose clothing that would fill out when he grew, but after his last advancement, he bought magical clothing that could deal with his change in size. It could grow big enough to fit a small giant, so he would be fine at this size. At the size of an ogre, he was four or five times as large as Mash now. Punching at the crystal, Luke’s buffs flared across his body, causing Mash to wince at the sudden influx of light. Even with his eyes closed, he could feel the ground tremble a little.

By the time his vision had cleared, Luke was making his way to the circle. His movements were sluggish, having just expended most of his mana. Mash looked towards the training dummy, which was still undamaged, though the ground around it was shaken. Finally, he was called up, glad that he wasn’t the last person to go.

Originally Mash considered using all of his energy before attacking, that way he would get the bonus from his persist skill, but he didn’t think Jack would appreciate waiting for him. Instead, he planned on using Priscilla and handed of his body to her, but before she could attack, Jill called out from behind.

“Don’t cheat and use Priscilla.”

“It’s not cheating, but can I attack twice?”

Jack looked at him, a little confused but gave him a nod anyways. Mash decided to let Priscilla attack first, that way he could use her wooden creations afterword. Once she took control, she raised his hands toward the crystal. Wood didn’t sprout from just his hands though, the whole front of his body releasing a bouquet of wooden creations, each a replica of Priscilla that grew bigger as the approached the dummy. By the time they made it across the room, they had grown significantly, but the beaked tips grew interconnected, the tip making a loud satisfying crash against the crystal. After her attack she relinquished control back to Mash, who waited for Jack to give him some confirmation.

After receiving a small confirmation, Mash started running towards the dummy. He pulled Priscilla’s creation back behind him. Without slowing down, he swung his arms in a circle a few feet away from the crystal, but he followed his swing with the wooden creations from earlier. They wrapped around him as he spun, and he released them after making one full rotation. They exploded out, much like the spikes had from Priscilla’s whip like attack against his brother. The crashed into the crystal and the surrounding wall, though he didn’t feel the ground tremble like he did for Luke’s attack. Again, there was no reaction from Jack, and Mash made his way towards the mysterious circle. As he stepped inside, he felt his energy recovering rapidly, faster even then his meditation could manage. Within a few heartbeats he was completely recovered.

“I still think its cheating to use Priscilla’s creations in your attack.”

Sounding a little snide, Red remarked on his methods.

“I shouldn’t have to attack without Priscilla anyways, we are basically the same person.”

He could feel that Priscilla liked that response, though he just used it to argue with Red. They talked a little bit more, Luke mentioning that he would grab plates like these if they were in the vault. Jill teleported into the circle, looking a little miffed that they had ignored her turn. Although, her turn wouldn’t be particularly exciting, everyone already knew what her most powerful attack was. It was also her only directly offensive skill anyways. It looked like she was going to start complaining, but Jack didn’t give her the option for it.

“That was pretty good. Only Jill, and Mash’s first attack went above your expected range. Luke was close, and Red and Mash’s second attack were about the same. Those last two were around the average of what I expect from your rank. Now, that I have a general idea of what to expect from you guys, let’s go raid the vaults. I’ll help you choose some items, and we can start practicing with them afterward.”

That got their attention more than the results of his little test. Honestly, Mash had thought that their whole group would be above average, at least where damage was concerned, but that clearly wasn’t the case. He guessed that made sense, only Jill possessed a specifically offensive skill after all. It did make him worry for the tournament later but figured he could rely on Priscilla in times of trouble. Instead, he followed behind Jack as he led them out of the room, continuing to lecture them on their attacks.

Jack was very observant and understood their team’s dynamic very quickly. Pointing out each of their roles succinctly, he mentioned the types of items that they should look for. For example, he told Luke to look for a defensive item, just being able to run away wasn’t enough. He gave similar recommendations to the rest of them, telling Mash to grab something to burn off his energy. Apparently, there were some items that would let him funnel his energy into it, letting him straddle the line for his persist skill, though it might make him feel sluggish before the skill kicked in. Being low on mana or stamina would do that to a person, and he would effectively be like that the whole time. Despite that Mash could see the advantage in having an item like that, and Jack mentioned that they usually had powerful bonuses for the mana cost.

Jack led them back up the staircase, only to lead them down a different set of stairs. These were narrower, and they had to march in a single file line. They spiraled downwards, further than Mash expected, but eventually they opened into a small space before a large set of double doors. Each door was solid metal, reminding him of the impossible heavy gates of Krall. Jack opened them easily enough though, letting them into a brightly lit room. At first Mash thought it was lit by light engravings like the rest of the building, but it felt different, and he glanced around the room. It was lit by some of the items in the room, many of the gave off some amount of light.

Mash didn’t bother waiting for Jack’s permission walking up to the nearest shelf and inspecting the items there. He could vaguely hear his words behind him, but his thoughts were focused on the items before him.

“Anything in this room is up from grabs, if you pass through another doorway, then you gotta check with me first!”

Jack’s yells echoed through the room; the others had also dashed into the vault. It was an impressive sight, Shelves reached up to the ceiling, each filled with hundreds of items. Honestly, he kind of expected to feel a call to a particular item, for something to reach out to him. That seemed to be how most things had been working thus far, and he grew a little ashamed at the disappointment he felt. It wouldn’t work like that. So he started with item before him, there was a short plaque next to each, offering him a little information on the item. It was a weapon, a dagger of some kind, though all he saw was the hilt of the weapon. From the description, he gathered that it was like Jill’s armor, which meant that it was useless for him. He set it back down and moved onto the next, deciding that he would ask Jack for recommendations later. After a few minutes of doing it, he was surprised when Jill saddled up beside him.

“What are you looking for?”

He looked at her, trying to find what item she picked but couldn’t find it immediately.

“Go ahead and brag about what you found, and I’m looking for something to pour my energy into, like Jack recommended.”

“Well, since you asked so nicely. I found a paired item for my ring. It felt like I was drawn to it, like what you hear about in fairy tales. The thing said that it had the same effect, but I think it will do something special with pairing. Jack already gave me the greenlight too.”

Sounding eager to share her information, she held her hand out in front of his face. He saw the two rings she mentioned, the old and new, which did indeed look like a pair. He had forgotten about the foresight ring, making a note to try and remember all the items they had. They were gathering quite the supply of useful items. Standing in a room like this really put somethings into perspective. Would Jill’s family debt be considered large for successful adventurers? It seemed so big now, but the items in this vault would eclipse that amount. Even with Jill’s help, he wasn’t making much progress in finding an item. He was hoping for storybook moment, but decided it was time to ask Jack for some direction.