Kyrion pulled himself from his bed the following day, sore from a long night of labor. He let his regeneration heal the soreness in seconds. Afterward, he made his way to the hot spring pools at the hotel’s bottom.

The pools of water were quite large, enough to comfortably fit thirty people in each. He brought the water to the necessary temperature and placed a few lotus heads onto the surface to float. He did the same on the other side before leaving the bathing area.

As he made his way down the hall, he noticed that the gremlins he captured were running back and forth carrying various towels, robes, and articles of clothing, among other things. Huh, much earlier than he thought. Kyrion made his way to the front of his building.

A cart full of towels, robes, and other supplies was parked in front of the building. Kyrion saw a group of five people dressed in traveling clothes.

A boy he recognized as Everest was helping two older men transport crates.

A giant of a man with a shiny bald head and a full beard. His skin was the tan of a man who spent most of his time outdoors working. Kyrion could tell this man was strong. But he didn’t know how or why.

The other seemed utterly remarkable. Eyes like a dead fish with average height and build. Brown hair in the standard cut. The more Kyrion tried to perceive him, the harder it got to lock on. The boy eventually moved on.

Unlike the previous man, the woman behind them had a woman with an odd beauty about her. Kyrion had just met his first love. She had light blue eyes that reminded him of the sky, hair pink like the Azalea flower. A pressure entered his forehead, and he knew…

“Kyrion, what took you so long? It’s well past noon!” Everest yelled to his stunned friend. Which interrupted his thoughts.

Kyrion noticed pressure in his head and flushed it out with a surge of beauty and water mana. The pressure faded, and Kyrion was suspicious.

“Kyr-riii-oooonnn!” Everest reappeared in front of his friend’s face.

“Oh, hey, Everest. What did she just do to me?” Kyrion asked, his right eye twitch.

“Did that old harpy do something to you?” Everest looked at the women with a stoic expression.

“Yeah. I broke out.” Kyrion told his friend.

“It’s her enchanting aura, she’s training to be an enchantress so most of her abilities involve attracting the affection of those around her.” Everest stated.

“Yeah. Gonna stay far away from her.” Kyrion said seriously. His first love did not even last a full page.

“And that’s why I missed you. Most seem to go towards her, after that warning.” Everest hugged his friend.

“Oh… So she did that on purpose.” Kyrion no longer counted the manipulator as his first love.

“It’s more a natural occurrence. She did the same trick on me, but for some reason it didn’t work. So I must just be special.” Everest said, scratching his head.

“Uh-huh.” Kyrion looked at the last person in the group, noticing that there was a young girl around his age. Only a head taller than Everest. Her gaze had been on him for longer than most of the others in the caravan. Yet when he probed the area with his senses, the only expert rank spirit master nearby was one of the men. So it felt off to him when he thought that the small girl appeared as a fledgling one, rank spirit master.

“So is the kid you brought with you a student under your teacher?” Kyrion asked his friend.

“She is from the same school but we aren’t in the same class.” Everest said.

If she knew Gamodren, then she could be able to hide her core like he does.

“I see. So she is like a mentor, but still a student herself?” Kyrion scratched his chin.

“Huh, figured it out. No need to hide that from you. Would you be interested in joining our group of go-getters?” The small girl approached, and Kyrion recognized the voice.

“I don’t, my abilities fall into a support category. I can use them for destruction but it takes more work than it does to create this. Then again all I did was recruit monsters.” He motioned towards the building.

“So you tamed those gremlins?” The girl asked.

“Yes. Is that bad?” Kyrion raised an eyebrow.

“You’re someone we’d like to keep on our side then, but no, your abilities aren’t all suitable for tailoring.”

“When did you learn how to tame monsters?” Everest asked.

“I just give them one of these and they want to work for me.” Kyrion tossed his friend a walnut.

“That’s a new one? Does it heal as well?” Everest asked.

“Ailments of the mind, like confusion, fear, and some other things. It makes monsters smarter as well.” Kyrion explained.

“You’re a foot away from practitioner rank, aren’t you.” The girl stated.

“Correct.”

“Do not give those walnuts away, if it’s what I think it is then it’s quite a precious resource.” The girl told him.

“They’re made from excess mana so I tend to get quite a few.”

“How many can you make in a day?” She asked.

“Somewhere around five.” Kyrion answered.

“Five. If you started now you could probably build an army over the course of your training. Which means if those people capture you then chances are you’d be used to tame, beast of war. Can’t let that happen now can we.” The girl jumped to mat Kyrion on his shoulder before heading on in.

“A Lot of that went over my head.” Everest said plainly.

“Ah, someones out to get me. Do you remember Leon?”

Everest went stark white. “That corrupt teacher?”

“What do you mean?” Kyrion got concerned.

“Remember when we were in that jungle during the first trial? I saw him take the cores from the monster we beat. We didn’t get credit for those cores and when I brought it up, he said that I must have been making the story up since he didn’t see me there.”

“That’s odd. You broke your ankle when you missed that landing.” Kyrion said matter of factly.

“How do you know about that? I didn’t tell anyone that happened.” Everest eyed his friend

“I saw it happen. It’s why you had to stay out of the fight. I wish I could have healed it back then.”

“So you believe me?” Everest opened his eyes.

“The Leon you met doesn’t know how to sense or manipulate his mana the way I and Gamodren do so easily. His actions are pretty messy now as I’ve sensed his presence quite a few times.”

“Gamodren and I… Continue.” Everest pinched the bridge of his nose.

“The one I met on the trip to the capital was much different, his mana emitted control.”

“What do you think happened?” He asked.

“Possibly a body snatcher, or something else.” Kyrion crossed his arms.

“So you want as many weapons as you can get to fight him off?” Everest asked.

“Yes. While his control may be bad, it was a lot of power. LIke watching a mountain made from ice follow you.”

“That is quite bad.” The girl said from behind him. She returned with ten keys that were then handed to each of the tailors, who received two each.

“What now?” Everest asked.

“I want you to meet some new friends of mine.” Kyrion led them to the training room he built into the hotel.

“Why is there a place to fight in your hotel?” Everest asked, examining the dirt ring in the center of the room.

“It’s limited to just physical stuff, we have a place outside for heavy mana use. Things like sparring and weight lifting are done here.”

Everest eyed his friend. “I noticed that you got a lot taller. Is that what all that food was fueling?” He asked matter of factly.

“I think so.” Kyrion pointed to a girl with brown hair doing stretches.” Anyhow that right there is Tiffany, we met on the way here and she’s training to go to Drisil.”

“I see. An acrobat, how good is her training in combat?” Everest asked.

“I think it’s good but I have only been taught the basics myself.”

“Ah, I’ll go talk to her then.” Everest made his way over to the girl and whispered something into her ear.

Kyrion took out his staff and started on his practice swings. He watched as Tiffany’s face turned as red as a tomato before the duo made their way to the ring.

“Everest! Why is she so mad?” Kyrion asked.

“You see, it’s because….” Everest stalled in a way to give Tiffany a chance to deny.

“You can’t just blurt stuff out!” Tiffany, enraged, just charged at the younger boy with her rapier aimed at his body.

Everest ducked under the thrust, countering with a kick to her chin that turned into a flip backward. “Left yourself wide open.”

Tiffany rubbed at her chin and attacked again, this time with more thought, A sweep to his legs then a thrust.

Everest rolled into the attack, and before she could draw the blade back, Everest tapped her on the neck.

“You’d be dead if this were a real fight.” Everest said as he backed up, a claw appearing over the finger.

“What was that about?” Kyrion asked.

“She has potential. I assume she fights with a buckler as well. Wouldn’t change the ending, does she have experience fighting people like me?”

“We fought some shadow gremlins but they aren’t don’t fight as smartly.”

“She was attacking with the expectation that I’d dodge a certain way. While it’s not a bad thing to learn. It’s an ability that comes with training and experience. Not sure the extent of her powers however.” Everest rubbed his chin.

“Ah. Would you mind helping her train? I’m not as quick with subtle movements. Your styles are somewhat similar in a few ways.”

“Not really, most of my attacks are meant to kill. You should know this already. The rest revolve around traps and baiting. Her style is more direct, though if you’re talking about how we were both acrobatic then yes, we are similar.”

“Kyrion. Who is he? Explain.” Tiffany demanded in short spurts.

“This is my friend Everest. He’s a tailor.” Kyrion told the girl.

“He’s strong is what he is. How did he know what I was going to do? I felt like I was dancing to his tune.”

“It’s how he fights, be lucky that you figured that out now.” Kyrion restored Tiffany’s stamina and minor injuries.

“Kyrion, how heavy is the stick you’re using?” Everest asked.

“Around two hundred pounds.” Kyrion lifted it in his right hand.

“No way.” Everest asked. “Set it down for me just in case.”

Kyrion sat the stick down.

Everest approached the stick, and with both hands, he attempted to lift the object but to no avail. “I can see why she had to learn how to dodge if you were her only training partner.”

“What does that mean?”

“How heavy do you think a normal sword is?”

“A hundred pounds?”

“Wrong, somewhere between 3 and 8. Do you know why they seem so light?”

“No.”

“Because a normal human can’t wield anything much heavier as a melee weapon. Now if a normal person would swing a fifty pound sword then they’d break some arms. You my friend are swinging around a 200 pound stick with ease. When did you get so strong?” Everest looked over his taller friend and eyed his deceptively thin build.

“I was always strong, it just jumped quite a bit during the fight with Edwin. My master told me I shouldn’t hit people with my bare hand. Use my powers, since they don’t hurt as much and I need the experience.”

“What is your weight limit at the moment?”

“More than five hundred and I have trouble.” Kyrion said.

“With one hand or both Kyrion?” Everest eyed his friend.

“Each, though I don’t know how strong I am with both.” Kyrion scratched his head.

“You know Kyrion. Sometimes I wonder if you’re a monster pretending to be a person.” Everest laughed.

Tiffany looked at Everest. “So he’s just freakishly strong on his own. It’s not a common thing?”

“There are some with enough strength to make him look weak, but most you run into will not focus this much on physical strength; it’s one of those things you have to train from when you’re young. You can’t laze around with that sort of training. Kyrion is a good kid and must train a lot.” Everest explained.

“I am not good… All the time…You should know that I can cause trouble with the best of them.”

“Petty pranks do not make you evil. How you convinced the local squirrel population to periodically leave droppings in the shoes of only two students and only those two students was amazing however.” Everest nodded

Tiffany eyed the Kyrion and squinted. “Local squirrel population… Is that what you’ve been up to in the forest?”

“Kyrion I’m going to go get a friend of mine that focuses on fist fighting. He’s an expert with tons of brute strength. He’s the reason we got here overnight.” Everest took that as a chance to escape.

Everest left the room.

“No, I tamed the squirrels around two months ago, currently I have been bribing beavers, and moles. How else do you think the hotel was put together so quickly.”

“Had I not known about magic then I’d think you were insane.” Tiffany said.

“Yes… I used magic to convince them.” Kyrion didn't meet Tiffany's gaze.

A few minutes later, Ceres arrived, donning her armor.

“Morning master. You were not in your room this morning.”

“It’s the afternoon.” Kyrion stated matter of factly.

“I must have stayed up too late with you then.” Ceres yawned.

“I needed your help. How else would I have gotten back here?” Kyrion said.

“So what’s going on?” Ceres asked.

“One of my friends just arrived.”

“The Everest one?” Ceres asked.

“Yeah. He just beat Tiffany in a fight, she has a lot to learn.”

“How strong is he?” Ceres seemed excited.

“Deadly when he needs to be. Other than that he’s just a tailor.” Kyrion crossed his arms.

“A tailor. Like someone who makes clothes?” Ceres asked.

“I lost to a tailor?” Tiffany seemed dejected.

“Correct. Tailors can be very powerful.” Kyrion nodded.