“Ray, we need to talk.”

Ray shot up, looking around with wide-eyed alarm.

“Who’s there?” she muttered.

The room came into focus, but she didn’t see anyone else present.

“It’s me, the Overseer.”

Ray sighed when she realized that the voice in her head was speaking to her again.

“What do you want to talk about?” she asked, tilting her head with curiosity. Her now tangled hair bobbed with the motion and she grimaced when she realized that she would have to straighten it out shortly.

“Yesterday. I support your decision to rescue the catgirl. I believe your actions were just. However, you didn’t even attempt to resolve the situation peacefully. Fear is a great tool for creating power, but it is terrible at maintaining it.”

“My actions were just? Creating power? I wasn’t worried about anything like that. I saw someone in trouble and it made me feel unpleasant so I fixed the problem.”

“My point is that you need to start thinking about those things. Some people are only alive because it is illegal to kill them. Even if those people deserve death or worse, if you break the law then you will bring upon yourself trouble that you and your new friend won’t be able to deal with.”

Ray’s cheeks burned and she felt her chest tighten.

“Who are you to lecture me? You don’t know anything about me!” she half-shouted, her voice rising with indignation.

“You’re right, I know very little about you. That is something that will only change with time. But keep in mind that you also don’t know much about me. I’m only trying to help you.”

He was just trying to help?

Ray took a deep breath to push back her rising irritation.

“Of course, I don’t know anything about you. You’re a voice in my head! Why do you even exist?”

“An excellent question and one that I am not sure how to answer. I am a god and you are my prophet. I was not given a reason for why I became a god. Perhaps it is up to us to decide what our purpose will be?”

“What kind of answer is that?” Ray growled. “You haven’t even told me your name yet and you want me to work with you?”

The voice was silent for a long time. Ray was starting to think that he wasn’t going to reply when he finally broke the silence.

“Ah, that's right. I haven’t even picked a name yet. I know that you still aren’t convinced that you should work with me, but please at least consider my advice. Try some diplomacy next time and see if it doesn’t work out in your favor.”

There was a knock on the door. Ray rolled out of bed and landed on her feet.

“I’ll consider it,” she replied.

Her shoulder felt a little stiff, so she lightly stretched it as she sauntered towards the door. When she answered the door, there were three figures waiting on the other side.

“Good morning!” Ray greeted them.

She stepped away from the door and motioned for them to enter.

They moved through the doorway one by one, and Ray closed the door after Eileen entered last.

“‘G’Mornin’” Eileen grumbled.

She drearily rubbed her eyes as she limped over to the bed and sat on the edge. Then, with a sigh of relief, she leaned back until she was lying down and closed her eyes.

Huh?

“She’s not a morning person,” Kelsey supplied.

Ray snickered while Lexi simply stared at the High Priestess with curiosity, her triangular ears twitching.

“I heard that!”

Eileen pushed herself back into a sitting position and glared at Kelsey as she continued.

“I like mornings just fine. Unfortunately, mornings do not like me.”

She tapped the dark bags under her eyes as if to prove a point. Ray wasn’t quite sure what point she was trying to make, but she decided to change the subject after Eileen turned her sharp glare toward her.

“So, what brings you all here this morning?”

Eileen motioned to come closer, and Ray complied.

“I purchased the slave contract yesterday evening and I came to give it to you.”

Lexi gasped and then covered her mouth. Tears formed at the edge of her eyes. Ray smiled at her before returning her attention to the High Priestess.

“Why didn’t you just give it straight to Lexi then? Is there really a need to give it to me first?” she asked.

Eileen nodded.

“A fair question. I am not the one who will give her back her freedom, you are. You may not understand now, but it is an important distinction to make. This will help you down the road.”

Ray angled her head in confusion but decided to just accept it.

“How do we go about this then?”

“Transferring a slave contract is like imprinting a magic signature. A portion of the slave’s mana is connected to a slave collar or wristband. The master is registered to the same medium and has a mana conduit that connects them. I can transfer ownership of the conduit through contact with your mana.”

“So, Lexi and I just need to summon our respective mana, and after you give it to me then I just touch her mana and give it to her?”

“Correct.”

Ray closed her eyes and focused her attention inward. She felt for the mana that she knew was there and smiled as the delightful aroma surrounded her once more.

She opened her eyes and noticed Kelsey scrunching her nose.

“What the heck is this?” she complained while plugging her nose to block out the smell.

“Blood, I think,” Ray replied with a smirk. “You don’t like it?”

“You really are a beginner if your mana still has a scent… but why does your mana smell like blood?”

“Let’s continue with the task at hand,” Eileen interrupted. “Are you ready?”

Ray nodded. A moment later, an enormous presence contacted her mana. Her eyes widened as she realized that she couldn’t see anything about Eileen’s mana. When she had connected with Peter, she felt the entirety of his mana supply and the fact that he was using magic.

With Eileen, she felt completely overwhelmed. It wasn’t that there was nothing to see. Rather, it was because there was so much to see that she effectively couldn’t process anything.

A piece of the aura broke off and attached to her mana. Ray felt for the piece and intuitively understood that it was a pathway or channel of sorts. She followed the link to the shackle on Lexi’s wrist.

“You ready?” Ray asked Lexi.

The young slave nodded, though Ray noted that her shoulders were tense, and her tail was stiff.

“Summon your mana!” she ordered.

Lexi meekly complied and they felt the air fill with something that had a faint fishy smell.

Ray reached out with her aura and touched the new mana permeating the air. With some effort, she forcibly detached the portion Eileen had transferred to her and moved it over into the catgirl’s mana.

They both pulled back their mana and stared at each other in silence.

Lexi launched herself forward and embraced Ray.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” she cried out, tears flowing down her cheeks.

Ray patted the former slave on the back. She felt a strange sense of satisfaction rising within her, different from the one she experienced after flexing her strength on Jantzen and Peter.

She also liked this feeling quite a bit. It was warm.

Maybe if she helped more people, then she could experience this feeling more? But she would have to balance it. She also wanted to experience more of that rush that came with breaking and terrorizing people.

Then again, Eileen had said that she wouldn’t be able to help out every time Ray tried to rescue slaves, so she would have to plan a bit more before doing something like that in the future. There was that request from the voice in her head as well.

Eileen called out to them, interrupting her contemplation.

“If you two are done, you should be heading out. Siegfried will be waiting for you on the public grounds. Today he will show you the way to his private training area.”

Ray nodded as she gave Lexi one last pat on the back before she broke away from the embrace.

“Shall we go?”

Lexi wiped away the tears on her face and nodded with a determined look in her eyes.

The two started to move towards the door but Eileen stopped them.

“One moment!”

Ray heard a faint whistling sound as something flew through the air, she turned and caught the small box. She didn’t know where the box came from, but it had a somewhat appetizing scent.

“A little breakfast for the two of you to eat on the way. Off you go then.”

Ray nodded in thanks and walked through the door.

As they left the room, Ray overheard a brief exchange between Kelsey and Eileen and she frowned, curiosity raging through her.

“High Priestess, why did you ask me to witness this?” Kelsey asked.

“I’m just planting a seed. Ponder on what you just saw and pay close attention to her for a while. Things should be getting interesting pretty soon.”

Just what did she mean by that? Eileen had been upfront in saying that she had her own agenda for all the help she had provided. Ray was somewhat curious about what that agenda might be, but she vowed that for the time being, she wouldn’t ask.

After everything Eileen had done for her already, it was the least she could do to wait until the High Priestess was ready and willing to talk about it.

***

After meeting up with Siegfried, he guided them to another portion of the martial quarter that Ray hadn’t seen when she visited the previous day. He only gave Lexi a single curious glance before giving his undivided attention to Ray as they walked.

While moving, he explained a bit more about what his training would entail.

“As of today, you will be one of my students. My job is to raise adventurers to hunt monsters and that is what I will be teaching you to do. Specifically, I will be teaching you to fight in a traditional guardian style. That means you will learn to fight with a sword and shield, and with a two-handed greatsword. Any questions so far?”

“So, if I learn from you, then I have to become an adventurer?” Ray asked with a slight frown.

“Of course not. However, while training under me you will often be expected to perform ‘adventurer’ work. Your practical experience will come in the form of ‘missions’ and you will be expected to join and operate in a team of fellow students.”

Ray thought about that for a moment before nodding.

“What is classified as a ‘monster’?”

Siegfried examined Ray carefully before replying.

“Adventurers are glorified monster hunters. ‘Monster’, in this case, refers to any non-human entity that poses a threat to humans. It could be wild, unintelligent creatures such as a roc or a yeti, or it could be orcs, trolls, goblins, beastkin, vampires, or bandits. Those are the most common monsters in this area, anyways.”

Beastkin? Ray glanced at Lexi.

“Am I allowed to refuse some missions?”

Siegfried shrugged.

“That depends. You will have fewer opportunities to gain practical combat experience, but I can’t exactly force you to go. It comes down to how dedicated you are to growing stronger and more proficient.”

He paused just before a nondescript stone structure.

“After we go through here, you will meet with your fellow students. I’ve been told that you have already had some spats with other students. I’ll give you one warning, and one warning only: No fighting in my class outside of practice matches or sparring.”

Ray chuckled as she recalled her brief ‘spat’ with Jantzen and Peter.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good.”

Siegfried opened the door and stepped to the side. He motioned for Ray to enter first.

“After you.”

She entered through the doorway and found herself in a small entryway leading to a set of stone stairs. The stone was old and worn, with some cracks and chipped edges and corners. The stairs lead down to a bright doorway.

Ray glided down the stairs, followed by the quiet Lexi and the enormous Siegfried. As she entered through the doorway, she gasped. She found herself in a huge underground area, the ceiling being almost twenty feet high. The room was wide with plenty of space to run and jump and practice. The leftmost wall was jagged and covered in ridges. The rightmost section had a heavy waterfall and a deep pool. In the center of the room stood seven others.

She was surprised to recognize four of the seven people. Standing off to the side were the two instructors that had watched her practice match against Siegfried. However, she had also met two of the five students.

They seemed to recognize her too. Jonathan was frozen, his eyes wide open with shock as he stared at her. Vick stopped mid-laugh. The two of them glared at Ray and Lexi shivered, her ears flat against her head.

Ray was completely unaffected by their obvious animosity, though.

“‘Sup! Wasn’t expecting to see you guys here!” she called out cheerfully.

She strolled up to Jonathan while intentionally donning the purest of pure smiles.

“Maybe I should teach you how to act. That looks weird as hell…”

She ignored the voice in her head as she reached out and offered to shake his hand.

“Peace?”

Jonathan gaped at her. At this point, every eye in the room was focused on the two individuals, though only a few of them knew why the two men were so angry.

“What is a ‘monster’ doing here?” Jonathan growled.

“My, whatever do you mean? Do I look like a monster to you?” Ray played innocent. She tilted her head to the side to add to the effect.

“You killed Bill and Suzy! And you have a red eye!” Vick spat out.

“And she was vouched for by High Priestess Eileen herself!” Siegfried added.

“Right, and she was...“ Vick trailed off. “Wait, what?”

Every eye turned to Siegfried and he smirked.

“That’s right. I spoke with the High Priestess myself and she vouched for this young lady. She passed my talent test and is now one of your fellow students.”

“That’s ridiculous! She killed two of our party members. How could you possibly expect us to team up with her?” Jonathan shouted, his face burning with crimson outrage.

“I don’t care what you decide to do. Team up with her or not, I’m sure she’ll be just fine either way. Your teammates can reflect on their loss while they wait to respawn. If they didn’t want to die then they should have won.” Siegfried replied simply.

Jonathan shut his mouth.

Siegfried turned and pointed toward the remaining students. There was a tall, lithe woman covered in leather armor and hidden daggers. Her light-brown hair was tied back in a ponytail and she had a quiver and a bow strung across her back.

“Helen.”

Then he pointed at the strange figure next to her. He was wearing a long, dark cloak that covered most of his body. His face was covered by a silver mask with two slits that revealed icy blue eyes.

“Ven.”

He pointed at the two instructors, one whom Ray recognized as the weapon-obsessed trainer and the other was a man who didn’t stand out in any way.

The weapon trainer had the same weapons as before, three swords, a dagger, and an axe all tied to his belt, two large swords across his back, and daggers strapped to his legs and to his chest. The ordinary man had short-cropped grey hair and wore a simple robe with no visible weapons.

He first pointed at the weapon-obsessed trainer.

“The Blade Storm, Rick. He’s the warrior trainer.”

Then he pointed at the other trainer.

“The Echo Fist, Jedediah Lion. He’s the martial arts trainer.”

Siegfried clapped his hands together.

“Introductions complete. While the rest of you get started, I’m going to get Ray here a sword and shield and run over the basics with her to get her caught up.”

Rick and Jedediah nodded.

“Alright, line up!” Rick shouted.

The students moved to comply while Siegfried motioned for Ray to follow him. Ray and Lexi followed Siegfried to a small room near the entrance. The room was full of weapon racks, sorted into swords, axes, maces, spears, shields, staves, nunchucks, bows, and so on.

Siegfried stepped up to a rack of smaller swords, looking back and forth between Ray and the swords on display.

“Base strength is higher than a beginner adult male. Roughly five foot six…” he muttered to himself as he picked up a few different swords and tested out their weights and balances.

“She’s a beginner, so we can’t give her a masterwork sword yet… gotta be one of them trash swords, just like everyone else…”

He reached out and grabbed a shortsword and smiled as he passed it to Ray. “Give this one a try.”

Ray effortlessly swung it around without any particular technique.

“It’s as light as a feather.”

Siegfried frowned slightly.

“Normally, I’d say that’s a good thing but…”

He pondered for a moment before grabbing another sword and trading it with the one she was holding.

“This sword was designed for more advanced students to practice. Normally, people can’t wield it until they can enhance their strength by roughly four times.”

Ray swung the sword lightly and stumbled as the weight of the sword pulled her forward. She could feel a bit of strain in her arms but the motion itself wasn’t too difficult.

“I could see myself getting tired if I used this one for a while.”

“I should hope so. That sword weighs half as much as you do…” Siegfried shook his head. “Go ahead. With the style I’m going to teach you, there’s little point in practicing with a weapon that’s so light you can’t even feel the weight. Let’s build up your strength and make you even stronger.”

Using the weight of the sword as a reference, he picked out a heavy kite shield and a large two-handed longsword. Ray lifted each piece without much difficulty, though she needed both hands to make a controlled swing with the longsword.

“Unbelievable…” Siegfried said as he watched her swing the sword around. “That lump of iron is too heavy to swing for non-enhanced humans. How heavy will your sword get when you master enhancement magic?”

Ray grinned as she rested the sword against the ground. She motioned towards the catgirl who had been silently following behind them.

“Can we get a weapon for Lexi too?”

Siegfried shook his head.

“I’m sorry. Though I’ve heard the circumstances between you two, it is illegal to train slaves or provide them with weapons inside of a residential area.”

“What about combat slaves?” Ray asked.

“If they have any training at all, it’s from before they were a slave. They are never provided with weapons near civilians, and they only have weapons at all because it improves their reusability. Slaves with weapons usually survive longer while fighting monsters.”

Ray grimaced while Lexi shuddered.

“It’s alright if she watches from the side though, right?”

Siegfried considered for a moment and then shrugged.

“I don’t see a problem with that.”

He passed Ray some straps and sheaths and showed her how to tie them so that the longsword and the shield would both be strung across her back while the shortsword rested on her belt.

“You can carry those in your enchanted bag, but I would encourage you to take a few days to get used to wearing them. Walking with the added burden takes some practice so that you don’t bump into people or objects or fall over unexpectedly.”

“The rest of it, I understood but… what enchanted bag?”

Siegfried blinked in surprise. He pointed at the bag tied to Ray’s belt.

“Isn’t that an enchanted bag?”

Ray glanced at the bag that she had forgotten about.

“I picked it up off an archer’s corpse. I tried to look inside of it, but I didn’t see anything.”

“I recall hearing that your memory was a bit jumbled. If you look inside an enchanted bag, you won’t see anything because the bag is connected to an extradimensional space. It’s a type of spatial magic that makes it easier to carry objects around. Enchanted bags are awfully expensive.”

“Oh…” Ray murmured, “How do I use it?”

“To store an object, hold it up to the opening and connect the object to the bag with your mana. To recall an object, hold your hand over the bag and think of the object you want to pull out.”

Ray held the longsword next to the bag and summoned her mana. She connected the two and the longsword poofed out of existence.

She stared at her empty hands for a long moment, shocked that it worked. She then thought of the longsword and it reappeared in her hand.

She whistled in appreciation.

“Convenient.”

“What’s the weight limit?”

“Stop bothering me!” She told the voice in her head.

Then she looked up at Siegfried.

“What’s the weight limit?”

“Hah.”

“It varies based on the material of the bag and the mage who cast the enchantment. This one looks to be made of ordinary leather so I doubt it could hold more than five or six thousand pounds.”

“That’s incredible!”

“Go away, I’m busy!”

“Shall we get started then?” Siegfried asked with a nod towards the door.

Ray followed him out and they found an open area away from the other students who were taking turns swinging at posts under the observation of their respective teachers.

“For today, we are going to cover the basic stances and swings for each of your weapon sets. As a guardian, you will generally be using a sword and shield but there are times when you need to abandon defense and commit fully to an offensive. As such, you will also be learning to use the two-hander.”

Ray donned the sword and shield first.

“Now, follow me and try to mimic my stance. I will correct any mistakes.”

***

While Ray was being introduced to the basic stances by Siegfried, Lexi stood near the entrance to the room, watching the other students.

She stroked the chain attached to her wrist. The rattling chain no longer seemed as constricting as it did just a few hours before.

She was free.

Lexi had only been a slave for about a month but in that short time frame, she had endured many kinds of cruel treatment. She knew that she was beyond lucky to escape after such a short time.

And it was all thanks to Ray.

She honestly didn’t care what race Ray was anymore. The beautiful and kind woman had rescued her. Until she repaid the debt, Lexi had every intention of staying and helping Ray accomplish her goals. At the same time, Lexi had her own goals. She needed to get stronger to track down the evil creatures who murdered her family and friends and enslaved her.

When she found them… well, it wouldn’t be pretty.

Though she couldn’t receive formal training or receive a weapon, there was a discipline here that did not involve weapons. Lexi carefully observed the Echo Fist and his students, taking note of their stances and techniques. She couldn’t try them now but at night, when she was alone in her room, she could practice without anybody knowing. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it would be better than nothing.

She would do the same thing when accompanying Ray to her magic lessons. By doing so, she would be indirectly receiving lessons from highly respected teachers amongst humans.

Through this training, Lexi vowed to herself that she would accomplish three things:

She would protect Ray.

She would avenge her tribe.

She would never be a slave again.