“It’s already been said before, but it will be said again and again during your classes here. It is essential to consider the stages of a fight, especially the submission and the execution.

“In this combat techniques class, you will learn an attack style that will allow you to force an enemy into submission without risk of killing them. That said, if you haven’t already, you will develop favour towards certain types of weapons. This is encouraged, as it allows you to reach closer to perfection in your field.”

Freid’s speech continues on for a while longer, it would bore me to tears if I had to listen with my full attention. Instead, I do what little I can without looking like I’m doing anything at all.

I’m thinking of strategies.

First thing on my mind, is that there probably won’t be a chance to go digging up that combat machine again; Barry, I think I called him. He’d make for a better teacher, I think, but I honestly want to polish my fighting a bit more before taking on the challenges of the ruins again. There are yet other things that I can be focusing my attentions on for now.

It feels a little strange to be back to sneaking my phone into class, but it is what it has to be. I’ve made enough connections through the message system on Chip that I can now have a few conversations going at once. It’s a bit of a headache, since few of them are actually enjoyable, but it still does feel rather satisfying finding the right responses, helping those that need help, and building up my connections and relationships.

I’m sending some details of the combat course over to Pom of the journalism club, who wants some input for one of her stories. Her talk is short, and kept vague to maintain some imaginary sense of mystery so I have to spend an extra effort to interpret her words.

I’m trying to hold a conversation with Leai, who is getting weirder and weirder by the second. Her last message was either a threat, or an attempt at dark humour, and I’m pretty sure it was the former. Yet, the next message to come from her is all sugary and bubbly, either her time getting ‘tamed’ broke her mind, her she was just a bit strange from the start.

I’m chatting with the grass girl from class, while watching her standing in the front row. She’s a little more blatant with her texting, for some reason needing to imitate writing with a pen, or quill perhaps. At least she’s holding it down to her side, rather than right in Freid’s face.

Nel is updating me on what she’s been up to. So far, she’s discovered a few more hints on where I can track down another fallen member, but nothing’s concrete as of yet.

Finally, I’m also sending out a few messages here and there trying to get conversations started with some others.

~Skill developed

~Multi-mind messenger

Not what I was expecting, but I’m not one to shoot a gift horse in the mouth.

“To get started, I need you all to think about your strengths and what weapons you’re interested in taking up.” He explains, waving over a few other teachers that have come around for this class, “Due to the nature of this class we have a few extra hands to help out. Listen for your name, we’ll discuss how to develop your combat form, in one on one discussion.

“Kyra.” He instantly calls my name, glaring my way.

Either I’m the talented kid, or the troublesome one. Actually, I’m probably both.

“What are your combat Skills? What can you do, and what thoughts do you have on developing further?” He asks.

I hesitate for a moment, but in the end, it’ll probably be better to give him the truth. If I’m going to get screwed, it’ll be by Adler and the welfare officers and on top of that, there’s not much I can actually do to prevent this guy finding out my combat techniques. Not without effectively crippling myself in whatever fights he throws my way.

“I can use mana surges to support my movement for punching and stepping around. I can limitedly use fire magic, but it’s expensive. I can drain mana at touch, and I can use mana shields and mana skin.”

“Mana drain?” He asks, curiously, “Can you use it right now? I need a sense of what it can do.”

“Alright,” I reply, reaching out and pulling some mana out of his arm. Frustratingly, though I feel plenty of reaction from the mana friction, almost like running my hand down a belt grinder, but it is much more resistant than with the smaller beasts I’ve used it on in the past. Only a tiny amount of mana comes with me as I pull at it.

“Not too effective. I can barely notice it at all,” he says. “That said, do focus on the Skill. I’m unfamiliar with it, but it will likely prove useful for weaker enemies, which will hopefully be the majority of those you have to fight.

“It seems you’re a close-range preference fighter from your skill set. Do you have any issue with further developing in that direction?”

“No, it sounds alright.” Until I make my first guns at least.

“Good, then whenever you’re in combat I want you to perfect those mana surge Skills. They aren’t what we’d normally teach so we can’t advise you further on their development, but they would provide a good boost to movement and strength.

“Next, you’ll need a few Skills to disable and subdue your enemies. I would like to teach you grapples and more advanced combat techniques, reactive mana skin could keep you alive if things turn against you, as well. So, I’ll give some direction on that, but try to develop it further in defensive techniques class.”

“Grapples? Like wrestling?”

“Yes.” He replies, “It’s no issue, I presume?”

“Just not what I was expecting,” I reply with a sigh. “And not very regal,” I whisper under my breath.

It’s hurting more and more that I don’t have access to guns. Saya hasn’t come back to me with any news yet, but then again, she’s likely busy with her own classes.

“Now, I’ll show you some quick grappling techniques. For the rest of class I want you to run them through in your mind until the Skill forms. In combat class you can practice more properly against available beasts.”

Barely waiting a second, he doesn’t hesitate to pick me up in a great big, stinky, hairy hug and squeeze the life out of me. It’s nothing more than imitated violence, but that doesn’t make it comfortable.

The techniques all involve wrapping arms and legs around, pulling at enemy limbs, and using weight and mana density to force the enemy into submission. The mana friction is slightly bothersome, but it’s not as if I haven’t already gotten used to it.

He shows me each technique a few times, only ever enough to be sure that I barely know what I’m doing. In minutes I’m released, slightly bruised, and with aching joints.

“Reactive mana skin.” He says, “Ask about it in your defensive techniques class. It’s a Skill that allows you to actively spend mana gathered in your mana skin to resist external forces.

“Now go and review what I’ve taught you.” He says, before calling on another student.

Vii and Eshya spare me momentary sympathetic looks as they work with their own teachers.

Vii doesn’t get even a fraction of my awful experience. She’s mostly being instructed through verbal direction as she moves through the air and casts wind magic.

Eshya, meanwhile, has the teacher run through some swordplay techniques, which she quickly imitates with the supplied wooden sword.

I quickly run through the messages in Chip, my new Skill allows me the freedom to check them while still focusing on my new techniques. It’s a useful thing, if a bit weird to have such a cleanly split focus.

Filled with frustration, I focus on the movements that I’ve been taught while I try and come up with what name I’ll take when I inevitably return to Earth to moonlight as a WWE wrestler.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Me? Grapples and wrestling? Tossing beasts and throwing them around?” I know I’m ranting a little much, but it’s just not right. I’m not some big, muscled exercise maniac. I know that in this world muscle mass matters less than mana density, but still….

I don’t have the image or the body shape for this sort of thing, and I certainly don’t like the idea of rubbing my body on some ugly beasts. Wrestling should be enjoyed in the sheets and kept away from the streets.

“Well, it does make sense with your Skills.” Eshya says, “Your mana drain probably can’t pass through a weapon. Feel free to try, though, because that would be even more amazing.”

“It’s not that bad, is it?” Vii asks, “I think it’s pretty cool. Overwhelming your enemies without even needing a weapon or magic. Just hold them down and consume their mana until they die!”

She’s way too enthusiastic about this.

When I messaged Nel about it, she didn’t seem to understand the problem either.

The pounding of metal-on-metal rings out across the yard as I look over the different craftsmen at work and the collection of different creations from each. I’ve yet to find the supposed perverted smith that is meant to be a part of this strange secret society.

Of course, with an academy this large, just stumbling into him while out looking through the area would be something of a miracle.

I focus on things made of metal, mostly all are everyday items and crafting materials, from hammers and tools to a few more delicate things that I would suspect to be part of a chemistry set. I can’t see a single weapon here, and honestly, I don’t expect to.

What does catch my gaze though, is a small metal figure. It looks like it might have been cast, but I’m not entirely sure, as it’s almost too perfect.

There are two reasons for it being the one piece that catches my eye.

First of all, it’s the most useless thing here. That isn’t a criticism either, rather the opposite. Everything else looks like it’s made for a purpose, even if most are made with perfection in mind. It’s like they’ve brought a whole bunch of talented, artistic smiths together and forced them to create only things that are practical.

This statue, however, has no real use. It seems to be made for aesthetic and nothing more.

Secondly, it’s sexy. Not to say that it turns me on, or I’m suddenly attracted to inanimate objects or whatever. Rather it’s made to be ‘sexy’ and that much is clear even across cultures. The depicted elven beauty has her leg stretched out and she’s posing to show off her rear quite spectacularly. If it weren’t blatant enough, it has been forged entirely nude.

“What in all good sense is this?” Alder asks, trying not to have a fit as she hesitantly picks it up and looks it over. It’s small, only as tall as my hand with fingers spread wide, but it’s been very intricately made.

As she’s looking it over, a large, muscular lizard man walks over to us while oozing confidence with every step.

“Do you like it?” He asks, “I think it’s one of my better works.”

“What purpose is there to this?” Adler asks, her hands trembling. “Please don’t tell me you wasted valuable materials on… on…”

“She’s a welfare officer,” I tell him.

The lizardman snorts, taking the nude figure from her hands.

“This.” He says, “Has been near perfectly forged to accept enchantments. Put this in the hands of a talented enchanter and they can draw out any one of many different effects.”

“It’s form…” Adler hisses.

“Shaped to suit the mana within the metal.” He replies confidently. The metal knows what shape it desires, I simply allow it that form.”

Adler looks less than impressed and seems just about ready to throw chains around him and drag him down into a cell.

“If this isn’t to your liking, you might prefer one of my other creations.” He pulls out a bronze statue of what is all too clearly a male goat-man. The hair is incredibly intricate considering it’s made from metal, but I just wish that it were the only part he put such thorough efforts into.

“That’s even worse!” Adler nearly shouts, “This… this…”

“I can vouch for his works efficiency.” A tall hairy man intercepts us, I vaguely recognise him as a teacher, from when I was touring the different classes. “There are few whose work compares to this quality.”

Adler is grinding her teeth.

“With work like this it’s likely for him to be recommended work in the core realms. It’ll be well deserved, too.” The teacher says with a smile, patting the lizardman’s shoulder happily.

“As much as I’d like to watch Adler have a full breakdown, we are here for a reason. I’m guessing you’re the smith?” I ask, and he looks at me in confusion, “The fallen smith?”

“Oh? That thing. Yeah, I’ll vouch for you.”

“Wait, that’s it?”

“If you want, I could use a model for future works.”

“Nope.” I reply quickly, and he nods happily regardless.

“Yeah, few people seem interested. It’s a shame, but I won’t bother you about it.” I feel a little bad considering how easily he takes the rejection, but no. No matter how much I would like a little model of Eshya, Vii, Nel, or even Adler, I’d hate to have them naked before someone else. Especially a man.

They are mine, and what’s mine is mine, and what’s mine is theirs, and that’s where the sharing ends.

That made my head spin, a little.

“So that’s really all?” I ask the strange smith.

“Pretty much.” He grunts, “If you really must do something, then how about you look through my work. I’m especially proud of the feathers on my recent attempt at creating a harpy.”

“Oh, then please show the way.” I say, following after him, half interested, half trying to get some more information out of him.

“So, what’s the party of the fallen like?” I ask.

“Eh,” He shrugs his shoulders, “A bunch of folk interested in different ways to sneak by the rules and learn things they probably shouldn’t. They support my work and help me get by without crossing the welfare officers.”

“I really have to say, I don’t appreciate that attitude.” Adler says, “You shouldn’t be sneaking by the rules at all. That’s the reason we don’t tell anyone the rules.”

“Well, that’s life, I guess. Live with it.” He replies, non-committedly, “I don’t much care, long as I get to keep creating what I want to create.”

“The life of a dedicated artist?” I ask, considering him more seriously.

It is people like this that help to create culture and foster a good and happy society. In a few rough years of my own I’ve relied on different sorts of art to help me get by. Though in my case it’s more been stories, rather than naked figures.

That aside, I’m not one to judge, and I’d be glad to have a man like this as part of my empire. Though to support such career artists a society needs a certain measure of excess in resources. Still, I want to build a society that I’d want to live in. Thus, artists are a must.

“This here, what do you think?” He says, lifting up a small metal figure of a nude, winged harpy that looks not unlike Vii. She’s standing on one leg with her wings pointed up framing her face. I drag my eyes to the feathers that he’s so proud of.

“This is good…” I say, reaching out and touching at the feathers. He passes it to me for a closer look as I do.

“I had to modify a few tools and develop some new techniques to get it quite right.” He huffs proudly, “There is beauty in the physical form, that can’t be captured without going to such efforts.”

It’s a strange sensation touching the wings of the figure. The feathers almost feel soft under my fingers, and I can see the difference between the long flight feathers and the softer down feathers used in different parts of the wing.

Looking this closely, it’s almost perfect.

Almost.

Something about it itches at me, seeming vague where the rest is in perfect detail. Looking into the eyes of the figure, then the face, the uncomfortable itching gets worse. It feels empty, the expressions dead, quiet.

“Is this finished?” I ask, hoping to rid myself of this nagging feeling.

“It is,” he replies. “There’s nothing more I can do to improve it.”

I try to suppress the frustration building inside me, but at his answer, instead… I feel magic bursting from me.

More specifically, the mana in my fingers where I touch the figure start to tingle. The mana in my skin enters into the figure and becomes something else, transforming and reshaping the figure.

Following my instincts, I feed the magic that is forming at my fingertips, bleeding into the little harpy. It demands more and more mana, I hesitate a moment, but oblige.

Something about the face changes as I watch. I can barely notice the difference, but it bothers me slightly less. As more and more mana floods in, the changes come quicker.

It’s small changes, so small that I can’t even see most of them, but I know that they’re there. Her skin is now smoother than before, the feathers even softer, and her face more expressive.

In minutes, a little, nude Vii sits in my hands, cheering happily with her wings up to the sky. Her body a perfect reflection of the real one, that’s currently staring down at the fake from over my shoulder.

“That…” Begins the fallen smith, shocked into silence.

It seems Vii wasn’t the only one to notice.

I quickly cover her up as the smith stares wide eyed at the changes. I shudder at the weight of his mana dense grip as he grabs my shoulder.

“Could you do that for the others? What is that, reinforcement magic?” He stares down into little Vii’s face as he grows more and more excited.

Meanwhile, I try not to feint from the sudden dent in my mana.

No, dent isn’t accurate.

It’s like someone cut a slice of a birthday cake, then took the rest of it, leaving only the slice behind.

“Later, I… I think I need to rest.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats & Skills

~Mana Form:

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 129 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 21%

Muscle: 8%

Mind: 13%

Cardiovascular: 8%

Misc.: 3%

Efficiency: 53%

~Skills:

-Mana drain touch

-Mana skin

-Mana shield.

-Mana surge strike

-Mana surge kick

-Flame burst

-Fireball

-Infused delayed casting

-Harsh petting

-Chaos dance

~Multi-mind messenger