"You know, I don't get you," Paul said suddenly.

"Hm?" Nero responded, not taking his eyes off the trainees who were sparring at the moment. The instructors sometimes had them hold mini tournaments of sorts, round-robin style elimination matches. The winner gets to keep fighting, and the loser is changed for another trainee. Currently, the reigning champion, the military brat he had met in the tunnels whose name he now knew to be Mei, was on a five-round winning streak. It was almost her personal record but whether she could keep it up or not was unsure. It only took one mistake to undo all her progress, and as time wore on, she started to have more minor slip-ups.

"What are you even doing here?" Nero shot him an odd look at that question. "I mean, I know you are here to learn how to fight, that's obvious. But why Ground Sheer? Why not another training hall? No offense but this place isn't really your style."

"Inertia mostly, I guess." Nero shrugged the question off. "This was the first hall I applied to, and I got accepted right away, so I see no reason to change now."

"But that doesn't make sense. Ground Sheer is a pretty straightforward hall, they teach you the basic techniques to survive in the wild during the summer, but the fall and spring courses mainly show you how to hit things correctly and then give you plenty of opportunities to practice. You don't think or fight like that. You're tricky and cunning and prefer using tactics rather than brute force. Last week was the signup for Cloud Cover, I was surprised you didn't ask for a transfer to them."

"Cloud Cover?" Nero asked.

"Another hall but one that focuses more on taking advantage of situations." Paul gave a brief overview of what he knew before returning the question. "I know why I am here, as a traveling merchant I won't be setting up ambushes or the like so I just need to know how to not kill myself with my own sword. For the life of me, I cannot understand what you hope to get out of this place. You train harder than anyone, you take on every extra task that is available, and your improvement has been impressive. But you poke at every loophole when you can, you have never won a single one-on-one bout and never fight fair. So what are you doing here?"

It was a fair question, what was he hoping to get out of this training hall? He had learned the basics of fighting by now, he was no master fighter, but he could hold his own. All he was getting out of Ground Sheer was time to practice time and stat points. While those were useful, he could accomplish the same by doing the standard player thing and killing lots of monsters and level up in the process.

"I don't like leaving things unfinished I guess?" It was a part statement and part question. "I started it, I might as well finish. Besides, I have things to do in Sarra Keep so I can't leave just yet."

Paul didn't seem to believe him but decided not to comment as he was called to be Mei's next opponent. He was right to doubt, Nero wasn't too sure of his reasons either. It was true that he didn't like leaving things unfinished, but he wasn't opposed to stopping something if it no longer served its purpose. Paul had a point, Ground Sheer did not suit him very well. In a straight up fight like they were doing right now, Nero was lucky to survive a minute. Some of that could be attributed to his late start and lower level but not all of it. In team battles or free-for-alls, on the other hand, he was always one of the last standings because he knew when to fight and when to retreat.

At the end of the day, Nero did not believe in fairness. He believed in advantages and disadvantages, whether in physic and intellect or opportunity. No two people are truly equal, if they were, then they would be the exact same person. Thus a part of Nero's mind was always dedicated on how to increase his advantages and make opportunities for himself. So what was he doing at Ground Sheer?

The question plagued him all evening as his mind kept going in circles. It was only when the instructors announced the end of the evening's activities and Nero felt a vague sense of disappointment that the answer came to him.

Was he... having fun?

Certainly, Nero had enjoyed his time in Gods' Nature. The world and lore were interesting, and it gave him something to do outside of laying in a hospital bed. He also enjoyed the feeling that he was improving at something, learning had always been his passion. Augustus had never been a violent person, he understood the necessity of violence in certain circumstances as well as the attraction it had for many people, but he had never craved it or engaged in it.

So was he really having fun fighting? Beating people up and getting beat did not sound fun to Nero but that seemed to be what was going on. Perhaps it had nothing to do with the actual fighting aspect an more to do with the novelty of the experience? That sounded more likely to him. He didn't enjoy the brutality but learning about a different way of life was always a good thing in his mind.

That answer didn't cover everything, but it satisfied Nero for the moment, so he set off from the hall with a light step.

As had become a habit over the last three weeks, he walked to the little park to meet up with Medea. By this time at night, she would be finished with whatever occupied her during the day so they would spend most of the pre-dawn hours talking about a variety of subjects. Sometimes she would run a little late, and Nero would take that opportunity to do some exercises to help increase his stats.

This evening Medea had arrived first once again and had already been set up for a while. She was laying in one of two hammocks while staring at the stars, the cool autumn breeze gently rocking her. It always struck Nero how useful magic could be, especially to somebody who seemed as gifted with it as Medea. The first night they had met here, she had taken one look at the park and smiled. With a wave of her had two hammocks had set themselves up perpendicular to each other between four of the trees. On colder nights she would conjure a purple flame that kept the area warm without burning any of the environment. All this she did with no incantations, or 'aria's as she liked to call them.

"Man, I can't wait for this summer." She said as he approached, not even looking at him. "Once break starts I think I'm going to have my own little vacation. I'll get Fergus to take care of the workload and just spend my time like this, wasting the days away and relaxing." Fergus was the Vice-principle of the school, a hardworking man in his second century that had turned down the head position allowing Sophia to get the job despite her not even being half a century old.

"That would drive you insane." Nero settled into the other hammock, Jorry taking this time to slither his way over to Medea. She honestly spoiled the snake.

"You think so?"

"I know so. You're like me, we don't do lazy. We need to be doing something, we get tired too easily if we do nothing."

"I suppose you're right." Medea sighed and scooped Jorry into her embrace. She then fed him a little pellet of sorts, Nero didn't know what it was exactly, but the relish the serpent seemed to have for them made him think they were the snake equivalent of candy. "I've been meaning to ask you, what's it like talking to animals? Have you experimented at all?"

"A bit." Nero relaxed more into his hammock and put one foot to the ground. He pushed slightly to get more swing. "Jorry's pretty young, so most of our conversations are me explaining things to him. He's a bright kid and picks up on things rather quickly. Most of it's abstract until he sees more of the world, he's never left the area after all. He's a bit lazy though." Nero grinned as he saw the snake's head poke above the neighboring hammock to glare at him.

"I've noticed some commonalities between animals though." Nero continued. "They can all vaguely understand human language. Is that discriminatory? Should it be called sapient language in Gods' Nature because there are so many different races? Anyway," he shook off that odd train of thought. "They also seem to know that most sapients races can't understand them. Most animals I've talked to also have an innate understanding of certain aspects related to day to day life. They know about food, mating, and survival already but the more complicated things get, the less they intrinsically know.

There is a restaurant down that way," Nero vaguely nodded in the direction despite knowing Medea couldn't see him. "They have a cat that I've talked to. He can go on and on about quality and proper preparation of food, mostly cream, that he learned from living there."

"Is it contact with other races that give them more knowledge then? I wonder if they are affected by the culture they live in, to the same extent." Medea asked.

"I think it is like us, just life experience. They are not too good with names of things, but when I describe things to them, they generally recognize it quickly enough. A bird I talked to didn't know what a mountain was, but when I called it a hill that reaches the clouds she recognized it instantly."

"How much of our stereotypes are true then? Are birds birdbrained? Are turtles and snails slow speakers? Are cats as egotistical as they act?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Again, I think they are just like us and vary on a case by case basis. One bird I met definitely fit the description of birdbrained, it was distracted by shiny things easily, could finish a thought and forgot things easily. But another one was surprisingly educated, it had spent a bit of time as a pet to some noble and had learned etiquette and the like. He called himself something like 'Sir De Whimsy Propington the Eighth.'" Nero heard Medea stifle a snort of laughter at the thought. "I haven't met any snails or turtles, but I do know not all of our stereotypes are true. Jorry, for example, doesn't elongate 'S' sounds when he talks."

"I'm jealous." She said. "You get to talk to all sorts of exotic creatures. Right now it might not seem like much, but once you leave the keep, you'll see some really cool monsters you'll be able to talk to. I know for a fact that not all of them are hostile and have rudimentary forms of civilizations. Just imagine the things you could learn."

"From what I hear it's not that rare to be able to talk to animals. Anybody who becomes part animal gets a similar skill." His response was waived off.

"That's different. You only get the skill to talk to animals that are similar to you. Cat people can speak with felines and snake people can talk to other serpents. I don't know many who can talk to all creatures in the animal kingdom that aren't at least level five hundred."

"Huh," Nero responded plainly. "I always thought it was pretty standard. I can think of plenty of other Natures that could give a similar skill."

"I'm sure there are, but not many people would try something like that. They usually go for Natures that provide boosts to stats or growth with specific skills like swordsmanship. Probably between forty to fifty percent of players use the pre-set Natures."

"Pre-sets?" Nero asked.

"You know it takes three months to be able to create a new character right?" Nero nodded to her question. "Sometimes a player won't like the way their Nature turns out, so most do not want to risk losing that time. There are tonnes of Natures online as well their progression and what skills they get. It will vary from player to player depending on actions taken when playing but the general layout is there for most standard RPG jobs. Mage, priest, warrior, rogue, assassin, ranger and a lot more. It also became a status thing, famous players sometimes post their Natures online, and others try an copy them."

"I never knew, though I suppose it makes sense." After all, Nero wasn't sure he would keep the Beast and if he didn't that meant he had wasted fifteen in-game months. "Still, if you want to speak to animals I'm sure there are items or a spell you can use. This is a game filled with magic after all."

"You're probably right. Next time I meet Octavia, I'll talk to her about it." It took a moment for Nero to place the name.

"By Octavia, you mean Nico right? What does she have to do with it?"

"You didn't know? Her Nature is something along the lines of 'Creator,' and she specializes in making magic items that she uses to fight with. I'm surprised they never told you, she is probably the best artificer among players right now."

"They never talked to me about Gods' Nature with me before the accident." He explained. "All I know is their avatar's names and that they are pretty strong because they have been playing since the start. Do you know Maude's Nature?"

"I don't know the exact name, but from what I have heard she uses some form of undead and staff. Or was it a spear? Either way, it should be along the lines of Necromancer or something similar."

"Necromancer? Maude? I would never have guessed. Out of the two, you would think she would be the one to play a lifestyle job." It was difficult for Nero to imagine the sweetest of the siblings having anything to do with combat or undead. He decided to put off that odd thought until they met in the game and he could talk to her in person. "Still, what are you thinking about making."

"I know a few universal translation spells that I could probably adapt for animals. It would take more magic than I would like but if we can turn it into an enchantment for items, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm just worried that they won't arrive in time for us to create it. I can only stay in town for another week and a half at most before my quest needs me to travel to Selwe."

"That's a long trip, what's your quest?" He was curious as to what could ask her to travel the length of the continent.

"Just some favor to the mage association. It is not difficult, only a C rank, but they really helped me out a while back, so I wanted to pay them back. Worst comes to worst, I'll meet up with the twins some other time. I just can't help but think about all I could learn with an item like that." Medea seemed a bit down, so Nero tried to cheer her up.

"You never know, they could get here tomorrow. Or even tonight."

****

You know what they say, speak of the devil, and she shall appear.

As Nero and Medea were relaxing in their hammocks and enjoying a pleasant conversation in the night, a carriage rolled its way towards the front gate of the keep. Typically something like this happening in the middle of the night would warrant careful examination but as soon as the poor sop who had drawn the unlucky straw for the graveyard shift saw the insignia on the carriage and who was driving it, he didn't hesitate to order the gates open. He also ordered a runner to bring a message to the king of the keep, this was too important to keep under wraps.

As for the carriage itself, it was a simple thing, at least on the surface. It seemed to be made from dark wood, and it lacked many of the ostentatious decorations many of the aristocracies liked to adorn their personal transport with. The driver was an unassuming man dressed in standard fare with a hat hanging low over his eyes. He held the reins in his hands but didn't do anything as four black horses pulled the carriage forward.

The only thing that appeared remarkable from the outside was the silver crest on the doors. Much like the rest, it wasn't very grandiose, but the simple design of an outline of a man sitting on a throne with a scythe and hammer crossing behind him was enough to terrify the poor gate guards.

Once the carriage had rolled its way past the great doors of the keep and turned a corner, it halted. Out of it stepped two women who began to stretch the kinks out from their long journey.

"Fucking finally!" One cried as she popped her back. "That took forever. Next time make something faster."

"I'll get right on that." The other answered sarcastically. She went to the driver, who still hadn't moved, and pulled out a wooden tablet of sorts. She fiddled with it for a bit before putting it away. The carriage suddenly started to roll again and disappeared around a corner in seconds.

"Come oooonnnnn," the first one wined. "My Onii-chan senses are tingling."

"Onii-chan senses?" The second deadpanned.

"Yep yep, all true imoutos have it. You wouldn't know because you're a failed product." The first said matter of factly while the second scowled at her. "He's that way." She declared, pointing to west in an exaggerated fashion.

"Actually, he's that way." The other woman pointed towards the northeast casually, her face set in a smug smirk. "Looks like your Onii-chan senses need to be checked."

"How would you know?" She puffed her cheeks in a pout.

"I've had some people check up on him. He likes going to a small park around this time of night." She must have said something wrong because her compatriot was staring at her with a devilish smile. "What?"

"You've been spying on him~."

"I have not! I've just been making sure he's doing all right. Like any good sister would." That didn't seem to appease her companion who suddenly took off in a run towards the north-east.

"I'm telling Onii-chan you've been spying on him." She yelled back.

"Goddamit, get back here Claudia!" Octavia yelled as she took off after her sister.

Anybody who had was up at this hour would swear they heard a little girl running down the street while singing; "I'm telling, I'm telling, I'm telling on you~" followed by a bunch of swear words.

****

"Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship."

Margaret Mead