Author: Thank you for reading

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“Again!” (Robust man)

I rose up again after being beaten into the floor. The man before me is the instructor Khan recommended to me before he went missing. His name is Hank, and like Khan he has a strong no nonsense look standing at 2 meters tall at a glance. His muscles give the impression he would be able to bend thick girders back on Earth with ease. Of course when he actually did it to something similar I vowed to never get on his bad side, at least for now.

“Haha that's the spirit lad.” (Man standing to the side)

The man standing off to the side is also an instructor by the name of Lock, but his preferences are more based on speed and precision. He stands at 185 meters with a lean build. Every time I look at him I just feel like he is preparing to prank someone. Turns out mischief is his forteigh, and has already angered many of the people in the city who earned his attention. Fortunately for them his pranks don't hurt anyone and any damage done he pays off, they still have a bad impression of him though.

The one I’m facing, Hank, is focused on strength and crowd control. Since I will more than likely be facing groups of enemies I felt he was a good choice to learn from. Of course this didn’t sit well with Lock since he has seen how fast I am. So in order to optimize my battle capabilities I am learning from both.

I felt a little dejected when I found out that the things I have been doing so far wasn’t using my stats to their fullest potential. After two months training under them to remove my habits I gained a new skills.

Close CombatPassive SkillMastery 0/100Description:The user is capable of fighting in close quarters to the fullest extent of his abilities.Effects:Reaction speed +.5%

Burst power +.5%

Finesse +.5%

After I got this skill I felt that the way I fought before was extremely crude. The amount of times I could have killed someone in as little as two exchanges rather than four or five was not a few. I may have beat them in the end, but the time wasted could have made a difference in the long run.

These guys are pretty brutal with their training though. Since they found out what happened to Khan they refused to allow me to skip out on training and only allowed one free day a week until my body was worked into a suitable condition. Physical training early in the morning, magic training at noon, and a few hours of free time before bed.

The things they have me doing remind me of the things a person in manga would do to get stronger. Climb up a waterfall, hold up two large jugs of water for hours, marathon runs with ridiculous amounts of weights. *Sigh*

Of course Shiro and Puerial also took part in training but the things they did focused more heavily on building speed and stamina.

When I told them about our magic training they gave us weird looks, up until we showed them we could really cast magic. At that point they looked at us not in awe but as if we were retarded.

Yea they didn’t understand why we were trying to get stronger physically if we had magic. Then we looked at them the same way and asked “Why wouldn’t we?”. This spawned some really evil looking grins, especially after they found out about my healing abilities. The training just got way more ridiculous after that. Our time of rest was spent meditating and practicing magic without those chants we learned from common spell books from specialty shops.

After the first 3 months of practicing chant-less magic, Puerial and me finally managed to figure out how to cast a spell without the chant while Shiro took about 5 months. After that Puerial said she can probably figure out the rest since she has a better understanding of how it works. Now Puerial can cast all of her beginner spells without any chants and they appear a lot more powerful than before. She may be immature, but she is without a doubt a genius, maybe even a prodigy.

Shiro so far can only cast a few spells with the wind and light affinities but they are extremely swift and precise. Dodging them is a real challenge even with my speed. I praised the two for their efforts and they both got heated to work harder. I really wish their feelings were less obvious, but there is nothing I can do. I’m even starting to fear them attacking me one day with the way they look at me sometimes.

Ignoring these scary thoughts, turns out not everyone can simply gain affinities like I can since an element is hard for them to comprehend. Plus they also need to be compatible as well, except for neutral though. Puerial’s affinities are Neutral, Earth, Water, and Spacial. Shiro’s was Neutral, Light, and Wind but I kind of expected it. Puerial was actually impressed because normally people have only one or two except for elves. She said that I’m something she can't explain though, since I can use all of them except spacial since I don't have the method to gain it.

The magic skill I was waiting for was as expected, revealed after I figured out chant-less magic.

Magical BodyPassive SkillUncommonDescription:The user can cast and control mana and spells released from the body without restrictions. Results are dependent on the caster’s comprehension and control over the affinity being cast. Unique magic with an intended use can become a separate skill.Effects:The user can cast various types of magic.

The user can more freely control his/her mana.

This seemed to be the missing piece in my assortment of magic skills and has a type of symbiotic effect on everything.

However when I tried practicing magic, while trying to cast something other than the usual spells derived from chants, I was left immensely shocked. The consumption of my mana was horrendous. Even the results compared to how much it took was disgusting. My body felt like this was something I can’t do, as if it my body wasn’t working properly.

It seems that the skill itself may be too good to be true. I have the skill but my control over it is too bad to be used practically outside my usual magic. Even that feeling my body experiences every time can't be explained.

It did improve my control over the spells I practiced with Puerial and Shiro without a doubt though. They became way more versatile and can be altered. These spells were simple and weak spells, like the usual [Fireball] or [Wind Cutter] and other such types of magic. Now though they can be made more deadly, like making the wind way more sharper or the fire bursting on contact. However this increased the upkeep for casting them.

So in the end, like usual, I will need to train up my control over it to make these spells more efficient. This is way different from simply cladding my body in mana for various effects.

To overcome my lack of powerful spell options, I thought back on the chants. From my analysis, they are like programs to make the mana within us perform a task. Having a proper image and control helps the process, but this method limits the magic to what those chants are meant to do. But I also feel that chants are the key to helping me grasp higher level spells. So I guess chants aren’t so useless, and may more likely be a type of guide. I’ll be sure to find more magic books with many different chants and have the others learn them too.

Lock also gave our magic his approval while giving prayers to our next victims when he was watching our practice. Hank simply nodded in acknowledgment at our progress.

Our teamwork has improved greatly as well, alone we still can't match up to these monster instructors, but together we can put up a good fight for a few minutes. Khan himself was a member of their group but got badly injured and decided to settle down with his daughter. It explains why he knows these monsters.

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When we first entered Tarthus, everyone was a bit nervous. Last thing we needed was another incident with a noble or something. But this city seemed to function around three sects instead of under a well off family. So all we had to do was mind our business and we will be fine...I hope. Our funds were pretty good, with the Lord gifting us a pretty large amount of money almost reaching 3 big gold coins when we account for the few jewels and accessories.

Since I wanted to settle everyone in a stable location, we all opted to buy a large sized two story building with a large terrace and many rooms. We also had the building remodeled for what I had in mind.

Before anything I had everyone search for furniture and clothing, but they returned with materials and not the finished product. I just stared at the large pile brought by employees of various shops and asked why it was only materials. They said the things I make are better. Illis and Shirley just followed along while the other’s have already seen the things I make.

I was flattered but...It was a long couple days.

Before I had the furniture and stuff placed inside the building I had some construction workers remodel the building based on designs I gave. We had a room specifically made for taking baths and was design like in Japan but with a larger bathtub than the standard. Water wasn’t an issue especially when we discovered Shirley can use water magic, Illis may also have the aptitude but she hasn’t awakened yet. This explains Shirley’s strong mental strength, seeing as she still hasn't given up on living.

Practicing magic gives people higher mental strength after all.

Everyone had decent sized rooms to use, Shiro and Puerial refused to have their own though and stuck with me *sigh*, they wouldn’t even accept separate beds and [Crying Puppy Eyes] came back with double impact. Accepting my fate of never having my own bed I carried on.

All of the furniture was made based on their requests. The clothing as well was fitted for them, underwear included. To avoid unnecessary touching I had them measure each other. Healing them with [Magic Hands] was necessary so I won't do anything further. The dissatisfied faces of Shiro and Puerial were ignored.

Everything was improved with my abilities, and was slightly stronger than the my past improvements. Everything now showed a ‘small’ rather than ‘very small’, which was a pleasant surprise.

With everything being built I finally explained my plan. It was simply a plan to having everyone run a restaurant while they live on the upper floor. Since Illis’s mother has a substantial fear of everyone around her, she can barely handle being with us, I had her be a cook in the back away from the customers.

I may not have been a cook in my past life but thanks to my trusty [Soul Bound Mind] trait I remember a quite a few popular foods from Earth with the recipes from commercials. Of course finding this world’s alternatives was an issue. But from all the experiments I did in the kitchen using all the things we bought on the market, I made a pretty good lineup of food, drinks, and desserts. They were also pretty simple to make seeing as the things I selected weren’t some 5 star quality stuff and can be made in large batches while still being delicious.

I even made a bunch of things to clean everything, I refuse to live in another dirty environment. Proper time schedules for business were also written up. Plus taking into account the cost of getting the materials, I made the price vary from the more complicated dishes to the very simple ones.

However I didn’t expect the girls to start calling me a cheat though, I mean it was something I was working on for a while. When I explained the reason for my efforts in the culinary arts, Shiro got flustered and Puerial seemed to get a bit envious. The others just looked on wryly at the exchange.

Beth was made to be the bouncer since I felt it suited her while Illis played the role of a busgirl. Tammy would be the waiter and handle the funds while Shirley would be preparing the food in the kitchen. All of them were taught how to cook so in the morning before business opened they would all prepare the store. I made an extensive list of things to do and how much to do every morning and before closing.

I was using this to not only make a living but to help them open back up to others. So far so good.

A lot of other things had to be set up. The store and living area needed to be properly separated. Getting suitable plates, regulations for service, and all the other things needed to run a store and make someone crazy. Plus we wouldn’t want to waste food so I charted how much of each product sold more and had to adjust the stores pre-prep properly. Any left overs were sent to the local orphanage which gave the unfortunate a good impression.

Good enough for them to even mark our building to not be robbed, seeing as our price range can even accommodate them if they saved up a little for our more cheaper products. I even found out later that the orphanage was one of the hideouts for the thieves guild. Go figure.

Most of the poor would take their meals to go since the more well off customers would look at them rudely. I had a to go and make a service window on the side of the building to make things more comfortable for them. A lot of people who felt embarrassed to enter the store lined up readily when it was made. To be honest business was pretty good and a lot of other stores profited off of us, well except for other restaurants who tried to make trouble. But they never managed to do much with my now renowned interventions.

Even those sect’s started to take notice of us, based on my growing information network, but they haven’t done anything yet. Orphans can really gather some good information.

After 5 months of the store’s opening we ended up turning a profit from all the things we had to buy to get the place running.

We even had to hire new employees to accommodate the increase in customers. I was careful who was hired though since I didn’t want to have our recipes stolen and stuff. So I gave jobs to people I researched thoroughly.

We have two new employees, who are actually twins. Tony and Tilly, these gods and their naming sense are really unoriginal. The two were pretty good people from what I can tell. I made sure to keep an eye on them though, they may even be targeted since they don't live in the building with the others.

Everyone also trained physically to help protect themselves and didn’t even complain, including the new employees. I even taught them about what i know so far about magic but only Shirley benefited. Beth only managed to circulate her mana so far.

My groups equipment has also made a decent leap in quality compared to the crude equipment from before. My own weapon of choice is also now a great sword. The main reason is because it's so difficult to use, my [Blade Utility] has finally started improving at a good rate. I will most likely need to find other types of unwieldy bladed weapons in the future as well to keep it from becoming stagnant. For now it's fine though.

That has been our life for the past year which consisted of endless training and starting up a successful business. I hunted new materials for crafting as well, but it mostly went into improving what we had and make more useful things for the store and recreational use.

Hank said he will recommend me to a smith in two months. It's supposedly when we graduate from their tutelage and venture off to hone our skills further.

I researched our surroundings and learned of a dungeon a short distance away but it hasn’t been raided in a while. After discussing it with Hank and Lock they said we would be fine entering if we have better equipment and prepare properly. So it seems I will need to learn some smithing before heading to the dungeon.

All this time training has left me a bit anxious. I also feel that something incredibly annoying is heading my way also, but I can't explain why.

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A/N: Thank you again for reading.

Was the chapter okay?

Soon they will enter their first dungeon, what fun.