The aftermath results of the battle against the Mongruuls could have been better, most of the residents of the town were kept safe. Given that Barry’s arrival had impacted the moral of those defending the town, it was fair to say that things could have gotten a lot worse.

  Barry’s and his group gathered around for a moment's rest. While they were doing so, Luna explained to them what her Class was so they could understand what had happened.

  Her Class name was referred to as, ‘Free Spirited Magician’. Her Class passive, known as ‘Can’t Hold Me Down!’, granted her immunity to slows, grapples, stuns, and difficult terrain that impended her movement.

  As for her first Class Skill, which was also called ‘Dupla-Caitus!’, allowed her to make up to 10 clones of herself. Those clones carried the same equipment as herself, but any items with a higher rarity than Uncommon could not be duplicated exactly. For example, a Heroic sword would be copied, but it would be treated as a Common item without any of its unique effects. These clones shared the same stats as her own, but had reduced HP and attack power with each clone made, while also costing more mana to make for every active clone present.

  Ron was intrigued by her ability, although she could only make physical copies of herself and anything equipped, that was all she could do. Compared to him, he could do just about the same thing except make his illusions a reality. It was an ability that Ron wished were possible to obtain, needless to say, he was jealous.

  Everyone congratulated Luna on gaining her own Class, happy that they were able to make it through the challenge without any serious harm…except Barry.

  “I think you’re all forgetting one thing before you start celebrating…” Barry growled at his group, which caused them all to look at him in embarrassment. “Whose idea was it to make a stop here!?” Barry barked.

  All eyes were on Anna at that moment, she felt betrayed. “Well wow everyone, way to make it that obvious. I was going to tell him anyway that it was me.”

  “But you didn’t tell me before you made the call. Why didn’t you?” Barry wanted to know.

  “If I had woken you up and asked, I’m pretty sure you would have told us no.” Anna was certain that would have been the case. “So, tell us, was your answer going to be no?”

  “Of course, it would have been a no!” Barry admitted, confirming Anna’s assumption. “We’re on a mission to retrieve the keys, we’re not stopping for some sightseeing.”

  Anna rolled her eyes and jabbed a finger at him. “I fucking knew you would say that! But hey, that’s not entirely true at all, we also came here to find anything that could be of use for the journey ahead. And lode and behold, my precious little sister Luna found something that’ll pique your interest.”

  “Hmm…” He looked at Luna now, wondering what it was that they had discovered. “This had better be good.”

  Luna led everyone to where she had found the vending machine that she had bought her slingshot from. When they arrived, the machine was still exactly where it was, the thing was completely intact without a scratch. Whatever this material this machine was made from, it seemed indestructible.

  “Wow, it’s about as durable as a Mokia.” Luna joked, Kat and Anna caught the humor, but the rest didn’t. “Sorry, inside joke from Earth.”

  Anna nudged Barry, wondering why he didn’t get it. “That was funny, why didn’t you catch that?”

  Barry tried thinking about what a Mokia was back on earth, but couldn’t exactly remember what it was due to his loss of past memory of his life. “I just didn’t find it funny.” He made up an excuse. “Anyway, what sort of things does this machine sell?”

  “Check it out for yourself, I’m sure you'll find it worth seeing after all the trouble we’ve gone through.” Luna suggested, confident that he would be pleased with her find.

  He walked over to it and browsed through the selection of items, with Puck on his tip-toes to peek at what he was looking at. ‘I’ll have to admit, stopping here was the right call…’

  Despite the cold and intimidating expression that Barry usually gave off, the group could tell that Barry was very much interested in the machine based on his eyes. Anna smirked, she rubbed her little sister’s head. “Good job, mouse.”

  Barry had a ton of gold on him that equated to slightly above 350,000 gold, he wasn’t sure what he should buy from the vending machine. The highest rarity of an item that he could buy were Rare items, nothing higher was there. ‘Maybe a better weapon…hmm, no. Better armor? Agh, I can buy two Rare items if I wanted to, but what if I spot something out in the field that I’ll pick up and use anyways. Choices, choices…’

  He found an item for Puck that he thought would be good and added it to his cart. There was also an option to repair any equipment that he had on him. And after taking a quick inspection of his gear, he realized that it might be a good idea to pay for fixing up his stuff and included its services into his cart.

  But then something caught his eye as he was surfing through the categories of items. ‘What is this…’ He examined what it was for a moment, reading the description, and grinned. ‘This sounds like too much of a gamble…and I’m all for it!’

  After hitting the submit button, Barry paid about 220,000 gold for everything in his checkout. The durability of his gear was restored, and two toy capsules were dispensed from the machine, he handed one for Puck to open and kept the other. They each cracked them open, exploding confetti in the air as their items enlarged to their natural size. Barry was caught off guard by the confetti and thought how childish it was for the moderators to include this.

  In the palms of Puck’s hand was a ruby ring with a small ember inside it that burned endlessly. It would provide Puck a mana cost reduction when using his fire magic by 10%, while also increasing its power output by 10%. The Kobold thanked Barry for the gift and placed it on one of his fingers.

  What Barry had purchased seemed to be some sort of mystical floating paper that emitted a blue aura. “What is that?” Kat asked for everyone else that was curious.

  “I couldn’t decide what I wanted in terms of gear, but then I saw this. Apparently it’s kind of similar in the way that the quests are given to us. But I can complete and submit however many challenges I manage to finish. In return, I get rewards based on how many I accomplish.” Barry explained.

  This item sounded too good to be true to Ron, so he had to ask. “There has to be a downside to this contract, isn’t there?”

  Barry grinned. “Yup, there is a downside to using one of these. And those would be…” He then submitted his agreement to use the contract, making it burn away into blue essence that absorbed into Barry’s body.

  Everyone then watched as Barry dropped to one knee, feeling his body getting weaker by the second. The group was worried of what Barry had done to himself before he resumed explaining to them. “I get weaker upon accepting the list of challenges. And once I submit the contract again, I obtain all sorts of rewards based on the challenges completed.” He then rose back up, feeling fine again.

  Ron wanted a bit of clarification, just to make sure what he heard was right. “So…you can submit the contract at any time and regain what you have lost. And get rewarded based on the number of challenges complete based on the list? That’s quite a gamble you’ve made.”

  “Right?” Barry sounded so calm that it made almost everyone else think he was crazy for hindering himself. “There’s a total of 10 challenges, and I’m not submitting it until I complete them all.”

  Kat was curious what sort of debuffs he had received. “Well, how weak did the contract make you?”

  Barry re-read everything in his contract and replied in a nonchalant tone. “Eh, 20% reduction for almost every one of my stats. No big deal, I’ll make it.”

  “W-What the- 20%!?” Buford was the first to freak out upon hearing him say such a thing. Ron and Kat thought he was insane for making such a deal, while Kat and Luna figured it was a Barry thing to do. Puck didn’t understand a word they were saying when referring to stats and reductions, he was just happy to be given a ring as a gift.

  “You’re all overreacting, I’ll be fine. Watch, it’ll all pay off in the end.” Barry waved a hand, brushing away their worries for his reckless decision. “Now, is anyone else going to buy something from this toy machine, or can we get back on the road?”

  Kat and Luna were the only other ones to have purchased from the vending machine, leaving Buford, Ron, and Anna to have a browse at it.

  Buford was the first to see what it had and decided upon buying an Uncommon maul to use. He thought that maybe he should get used to using weapons some more, rather than relying on his natural claws and fangs. Besides, he enjoyed smashing things when he wanted too. The maul had one large spike on one side of the head for puncturing, while the other was a flat side for pummeling.

  Ron was up next, he was hoping to find something simple he could use for offensive purposes. After surfing through the list of items, he stumbled upon a Rare item that sparked his interests and bought it on impulse with practically all his gold. ‘This! This seems like a good choice!’

  He immediately snagged and opened his capsule, ignoring the confetti, and slipped on a pair of white silky smooth fingerless-gloves with an arcane design touch to it. There were three different color glyphs draw on it in a triangle formation. Those colors starting with yellow, light blue, and lastly gray. Ron flexed his fingers before moving to an area with more space.

  Everyone then watched as he channeled some of his magic into these new gloves of his, before touching the ground in front of him. The gray colored glyph on his glove emitted a glow as he created a gray glyph marked on where he designated it. Ron then looked at Barry. “Come here, Barry. Step on this.” He asked with a sketchy smile.

  Barry didn’t like that he wanted him specifically, he crossed his arms while shaking his head. “No, I’m not doing that. Try someone else.”

  “Damn, Barry’s too scared to help give a demonstration. What a surprise.” Anna taunted, making the group muffle their laughter.

  This bothered Barry, and so he decided to give in to Ron’s attempt to possible make fun of him, just so he could prove he wasn’t a chicken. “Fine, I’ll play along with your dumb trick.” He then walked over to the glyph, looking very unamused.

  He took a glance at the gloves and saw that it was a Rare item based on the color of it’s name, ‘Arcane Gloves of Triglyphs’. Barry was expecting some sort of magic spell from this glyph that he created.

  He stepped on the glyph, expecting for something to happen to him. Barry tapped his feet on the marking, trying to get a reaction from it. “What is it that you were trying to show us?” He asked Ron. “Were you scammed or-”

  Everyone then watched as the glyph instantly shined a bright gray light before unleashing the magic within. And to Barry’s surprise, he was hurled up, possibly 15 ft, into the air by a powerful whirlwind that came from the triggered glyph. ‘What the hell!?’ He was not expecting something like this to happen.

  He flipped in the air as he tried to set himself right before he came crashing down. Moments before landing back to the ground, he double-jumped so that he could fix his landing and was fine afterwards. Ron snapped his fingers, wanting to see him smack against the ground, Anna shared the same thought. “Drats, almost had you.” Ron said with disappointment.

  Barry looked at Ron with a grin. “The hell you did, I an’t that easy to fall for your silly games…but neat gloves anyway.” He complimented. “Is that all it can do, though?”

  Ron shook his head. “No, it actually has two other glyphs that I can use. I can increase the power output by using more mana if I wanted to. So if you’re offering to be my guinea pig to give a more in-depth demonstration…”

  “No, that’s enough.” Barry declined, not taking the chance to be humiliated again. “Save it for our enemies.” His answer made Ron feel a bit disappointed, but had a sense that Barry wouldn’t want to.

  It was Anna’s turn to see what she wanted to buy. She was confident in her ability of being slippery and evasive when it came to avoid getting hit and throwing feints around her foes. She recalled having trouble against enemies that had strong armor, they were the most annoying to face because it made it difficult for her to deal any meaningful damage.

  “Hmm…” Her eyes scanned around, until she found something that just serve as means for her future problems. Using about ? of her gold, she purchased her item while also repairing her gear. After opening her capsule, it revealed to be a black and red tomahawk. One side of the head was a D-shaped blade and the other was a curved spike that was intended for breaching through armor.

  The tomahawk was a Rare item that went by the name of ‘Assassin’s Thirst Tomahawk’ from what Barry was seeing.

  Anna gripped the handle and swung it a few times with both ends to get a feel for it before locking sights on a couple of stacked crates. She pulled back the hand that held her new weapon before throwing it in rotation. The weapon easily shattered into the crates as it plunged deep into the side of a brick wall with the spiked-end. She then flexed her fingers, which caused the tomahawk to magically retract back into her hand again. Anna couldn’t help but smile a bit more than she would have thought. “This is a neat new toy.”

  Everyone, but Barry, who looked uninterested, thought it was a pretty cool weapon to have. Anna couldn’t wait to try it out in combat, and actually hoped that they got into their next battle as soon as possible.

  With everyone satisfied with their purchases, they all figured it was time that they got back on the road towards their objective. Although in the beginning, Barry didn’t like that they had stopped at the town, he saw it as a blessing in disguise and felt like he had to admit it to the group.

  “I guess it wasn’t all bad to have come here…” Barry confessed to the group, sounding a bit stubborn.

  Everyone grinned upon hearing these words coming from Barry, some of them couldn’t help but chuckle and laugh, making Barry regret saying anything. “Whatever, let’s leave this town now.” He urged, walking even faster back to where Abe had parked the carriage.

  As soon as they stepped out of the town, they saw Abe riding out of the woods with their ride. “Ah, I see that everyone is alive. Sorry I wasn’t able to join y'all in your fight against those nasty hyenas, I wasn’t quite confident me or my animals would have been much help.”

  “It’s alright, Abe.” Buford replied. “We had it all taken care of, albeit, the town have its own share of casualties. But overall, we’re all still in good shape.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Everyone climbed back into the carriage, aside from Buford, who choose to sit in the coach box to continue giving directions to Abe to the water castle. But just before Barry stepped into the carriage, as he was the last one to go inside, he mentioned to Barry about what the other doors inside lead to. There was a room that acted like a home biome for majority of his spirit animals, they could use it to train if they wanted to. The only other door led to his room, which he didn’t mind if they used it, as long as they cleaned up after themselves.

  Barry informed the rest of the group about the backyard, with everyone agreeing to check it out after taking a break from fending off the pack of Mongruuls.

  “You guys can go on ahead without me when you’re feeling up to it.” Barry told the others, laying back on the same couch he used to sleep on. He was planning on doing some more training with Thalia in his dreams. “I’m going back to sleep.”

  “Again?” Ron questioned with a curious look, the others shared the same thoughts. “Didn’t you just weaken yourself with that contract of yours? What good is sleeping going to do for you, when you could be training like the rest of us later?”

  Barry sighed, he was already in the position he found comfortable when sleeping. “What makes you think sleeping isn’t doing any good for me? Didn’t you all just watch me kill one of those giant, annoying hyenas on my own, when it took the rest of you to kill one on together?”

  “W-Well- I don’t know. Maybe you do get stronger when you sleep, you could have some sort of ability that makes you stronger when you sleep. I could be wrong.” Ron rubbed the back of his head, thinking how weird of an ability that would be to have. “I guess…”

  The others could see that Ron was hesitant to say what he wanted, and so Anna picked up what he was getting at. “Where Ron is trying to get at, is that we all think we might benefit from each other if we all did some training together. I know that all of us can agree that we overshadowed by your strength and want to catch up to you.”

  Kat, Luna, Puck, and Ron couldn’t help but nod in response to her opinion. “S-She’s right, I desperately want to be more than I can be, just as I told you before. I think that maybe if we learn more about each other's capabilities and plan some strategies, then we maybe we can function better as a team.” Kat added.

  “Yeah!” Puck leaped in the air, liking the idea of working better together. “Puck like this idea, everyone work together as a super team!”

  Barry preferred that they train together without him, believing that he could improve better on his own in his own personal dreamworld with Thalia. However, the thought of improving their teamwork by planning strategies based on each other’s capabilities didn’t sound bad. It just bothered him that it would get in the way of his individual training. “Hmm…”

  “Please, Barry.” Luna urged, she wanted his advice on how they could improve to bring the best out of their abilities. “I think a couple pointers from you could help me be a better fighter. I know you're not afraid of being honest about what I can improve on.”

  “Come on, Barry. Think about the synergy we could all have if we can practically read each other’s next move.” Ron yearned. “Skip the nap and come join us.”

  Kat would like Barry’s criticism and seconded Ron’s request. “Just this one time, Barry. Then you can decide if you don’t want to join us again later. We promise we won’t bother you if you choose to sleep instead.”

  Anna then recalled seeing him protecting her little sister with what had to be a rainbow barrier that had Unicorn symbols around it. “Yeah, maybe you can explain how you were able to protect my sister with that girly Unicorn barrier from before.” Barry’s eyes widened upon hearing her remember that instance.

  Luna recalled that happening as well and smiled. “Oh! That’s right! Barry, you did protect me with that skill. Could it be that your Class is related to Uni-”

  “Fine, fine. I’ll train with you all!” Barry said in a bothersome tone, rising up from the couch. “And no, it isn’t. I got it as an Achievement, but don’t ask me how.”

  Everyone was curious what he had to do in order to receive such an achievement, but agreed to his wishes. They were just glad that they were able to pressure him into joining them in the end. They agreed to go to the backyard in 10 minutes after their break.

  ‘What’s the harm in taking some time to train with your group?’ Thalia asked, suddenly popping up in Barry’s mind. ‘I’d say this is a great opportunity to create some rapport and strengthen each other’s bonds. Wouldn’t you say?’

  ‘Don’t get me wrong, I think working with other reliable people is important. It’s just that I don’t want them anywhere near me when I need to tackle the big problems that appear. For whatever damn reason, my body tends to lock up whenever there’s someone that needs my help, and I’m already in the middle of something that requires my full attention. It pisses me off that I have to drop what I’m doing just to help that person out.’ Barry explained, remembering all the times that’s happened.

  Thalia was silent for a moment, taking in his words before replying. ‘So you don’t see yourself having them around ever whenever facing larger threats, I take it?’

  ‘Yes.’ Barry was firm on his answer. ‘I have a feeling something very troublesome will appear once we get to this water castle, and I don’t need any distractions when that time comes. I’ll take on the larger threats on my own, while the rest focus on the lesser issues. That’s why I don’t feel the need to train with them entirely. Besides, what is there for me to help them with anyway? You’re teaching me how to fight, what do I know?’

  After telling Thalia is reason, he believed he sensed Thalia smirk before listening to her speak. ‘Barry, not everything can be resolved all on your own. This strange feeling that you describe, sounds like a hindrance coming from you. Though you think it as a weakness, perhaps it’s something deeper than that. And as for how you can help the others…’

  Barry felt Thalia urge him to observe the others for a moment, and so he did. He could tell that they were itching to hone their skills based on their eyes and posture, especially Luna and Kat, who were the most determined of the group to prove themselves. Thalia resumed speaking, ‘I think your presence is all that is needed to help them improve. You may not see it as I do, but this group seems to want to prove themselves to you. Despite distancing yourself from everyone else, you still influence them in a way that encourages them to do better.’

  He thought about what she was saying, Barry hadn’t given it much thought of how his actions managed to encourage others. He just figured that he came off as a hardass that didn’t want to be bothered with some shit, the last part being true. ‘Aaggh, damn it…well this sucks…’

  Thalia laughed, she couldn’t help it hearing him complain. ‘You can try to push them away with your cold demeanor, you’ll only keep motivating them based on your actions alone. Eventually, you’ll come to see that their help will be greatly appreciated when facing an obstacle larger than you alone can handle.’

  Barry gritted his teeth, he hoped that time wouldn’t come as soon as she hoped. ‘Maybe, maybe not, I just don’t want to be put in irritable positions in the future that involves them.’ He rose from his couch and moved towards the door leading to Abe’s personal backyard.

  Everyone stood up as well and followed him, taking it as he was ready to start training with them. But when Barry approached it, he noticed that there were a couple of symbols on the door that seemed to represent parts of the season or possibly different biomes. There was a symbol with a bundle of flowers that emitted a colorful glow currently. He decided to open the door to see what was behind it.

  Upon opening it, it revealed a sunny biome with a lovely field of trees, flowers, and a pond. Roaming this backyard of Abe’s were all sorts of spirit animals that would usually inhabit this type of environment in their time of living. Everyone was in awe how something like this could exist inside of Abe’s carriage, but concluded that it was just because of magic.

  The group was curious if the biome would shift if they touched a different symbol and experimented with the door. They found out that after closing the door and touching the symbol of their choosing, the biome would change to the selected symbol with the appropriate animals that lived in those biomes. Another thing was, the biome would not change if someone living was currently inside the biome, as someone was trying to switch the environment.

  Eventually, after messing around, they all agreed to use the summer biome for now and began their training. Barry reinformed them that he didn’t think he would be able to provide any helpful advice, but they all insisted on him watching each of them before giving his input.

  ‘Don’t worry.’ Thalia reassured Barry. ‘You can just relay my own personal advice to your team. Just spectate them and repeat what I say.’

  Barry was not expecting Thalia to offer additional help to his team. ‘Uh, thanks. I’d appreciate that, I didn’t think you would be willing to help the others.’

  He sensed Thalia smiling faintly. ‘It brings me delight to see people wanting to improve upon themselves. By helping your group, it’s almost like I’m reliving my days of training my own soldiers once again.’

  He acknowledged her reason and told his team to do some training of their own while he watched. They all picked a spot in the biome away from the animals, some of the animals observed them from a distance, serving as an audience.

  Barry started with Puck, who was also training with Luna. Luna duplicated herself 10 times with her new Class skill, playing tag against Puck. He watched as Puck struggled to weave around to avoid getting tackled by Luna’s clones. Puck then had a bright idea to create a smokescreen with his powers, exhaling a dark-gray smog from his mouth while he dashed around. This proved to be trouble some for Luna to see through, while Puck trusted his nose to track Luna’s scent.

  ‘I remember telling Puck to use this tactic before against Wreav, that’s clever of him to think about using it…wait. Wasn’t there something else he’s done before during our intense fight against that battle hungry Orc?’ Barry tried recalling what it was that Puck did, and looking back on their battle, he realized what it was.

  Luna and her clones were lost within the smog, but could still sense where each other despite not seeing one another. So she had the idea of regrouping her clones together, but as she was focusing on doing so, Puck had managed to sneak up on Luna with a tackle. “Got you, Luna!” The Kobold shouted with excitement.

  He pushed her to the ground slightly just as the smog was dispersing. She got back up from the ground, dusting herself off with an impressed look on her face. “I wasn’t expecting you to be capable of making a smokescreen Puck, that's so cool! But how you were able to tell that I was the real one?”

  “Puck has good sniffer nose.” Puck replied, sounding very proud of himself with head held up high and his hands on his hips. “But your mojo clones almost had Puck, that’s why Puck made big smoke cloud.”

  After watching their session, Thalia told Barry what she thought they could improve on. For Luna, Thalia figured she could practice relaying information to her other clones while under pressure, instead of remaining in one place just so she could focus. She also wanted Luna to be creative with her clones by coming up with different tactical formations, whether it was defensive or offensive. Barry passed on this advice to Luna, which the girl took to heart and got right on it.

  For Puck, Thalia wanted the little Kobold to work on his footing when avoiding his enemies. Especially with his size, most of the enemies that they would be facing were likely to be much larger than him. She would have also preferred for him to pick up a weapon of some kind instead of relying on his fiery capabilities, but that could be for another time.

  Barry added in his own personal input, thinking about that thing Puck was able to do in the past. “Puck, do you remember during our fight against Wreav?”

  Puck thought about who he was referring to, then recalled Wreav as such. “Do you mean angry boar looking brute? The one that destroyed mojo expert’s home?”

  “Yeah, that jackass.” Barry thought how much of an asshole Wreav was for wrecking Ned’s whole village just to challenge Barry to a fight. “Now, do you recall igniting my weapon at the time with your magic? I think it would be pretty useful for the group if you were able to do that again. How about you practice doing that again, remember the feeling you had before when you did it.”

  The Kobold acknowledged his instructions and started undergoing the assignment that he was given, him and Luna would then help each other out with what they were told.

  Ron was working with Kat at the moment, he conjured illusionary monsters for Kat to attack while she and her ghost companion, Dusk, defended against them. Dusk possessed the spiked shield that was given to him by his master, swiftly moving around to shield Kat from the monsters that would dissipate into essence upon getting hit by Kat’s beams of black magic.

  If Ron was able to land a direct hit on Kat with his illusions within 5 minutes, it would count as a win for him. But if Kat was able to bind Ron with her chains, she would take victory.

  Dusk was doing a good job defending his master from Ron’s opposing monsters, but Kat’s accuracy needed some improvement when under pressure. Because every time she tried restraining Ron with her chains, he managed to get away by applying more monsters for her to be distracted by. It was clear to Barry and Thalia that Kat needed to work on keeping a leveled head when being overwhelmed.

  As for Ron, from Barry’s perspective, it looked like Ron was having the time of his life, being able to conjure up whatever sort of creatures he wanted to throw at Kat. He stuck to mainly beast-like creatures, nothing too complex. He was determined to get a win-in.

  Eventually, Ron’s illusions would prove to be too much for Kat to keep up with. A feral wolf had managed to slip past Dusk’s defenses and lunged at Kat with its claws, causing her to panic a bit as it phased right through her and disappear into a sparkle of essence.

  “Yes! I won!” Ron was overjoyed to have claim victory. “I-I mean, nicely done holding up Kat. Despite letting one monster past your defenses, your ghost reacted pretty fast to the rest of my illusions attacks.”

  Kat had to take a moment to catch her breath, Dusk floated next to her with the intention of making sure she was doing alright. “T-Thanks but…I know I was making a lot of mistakes trying to not only your monsters, but also ensnare you. I was having trouble focusing as more enemies piled on and on.”

  Thalia was glad that Kat was able to point out her flaws and advised that she works on her aim, while also getting used to functioning under tons of pressure. There wasn’t much advice that Thalia could think of for Ron, it genuinely seemed like he was able to efficiently use his illusionary magic flawlessly. She only suggested that he work on constantly moving around to stay vigilant of his surroundings.

  This information was passed on to them from Barry, he would also share something that he thought they should think about. As obnoxious and cringe the dragon he made during their fight against the Mongruuls, he liked that he was able to blind their enemies with a flash of light from his illusionary dragon that dive bombed. So he wanted Ron to keep thinking of creative ways to use his illusions.

  Kat seemed a bit down from having lost against Ron, but lifted her head up, knowing what she needed to work on. Barry gave her Thalia’s instructions, but also gave her some encouraging words to uplift her spirits, just so she could stay motivated.

  “Kat, I don’t expect you to automatically become hyper aware of everything that’s trying to kill you. This whole game survival takes getting used too, that’s why we’re here to prepare for what’s to come.” Barry told her, Kat paid close attention to his words. “You know what you need to work on without me having to tell you. So don’t be too hard on yourself, you and Dusk seem to have good synergy from what I’ve seen.”

  His words revitalized Kat’s confidence and made her eager to continue on with her training. Feeling pumped to improve herself, she thanked Barry before resuming. “T-Thank you Barry, me and Dusk will keep your criticism in mind.”

  Lastly, Barry moved on to see what sort of conditioning Anna was doing at the moment. He watched as she was practicing her aim with her new tomahawk, using a boulder as her target. The way she threw the tomahawk was different from her usual way of throwing her knives, she had to adjust to another method of grasping and releasing the weapon.

  She looked behind herself and took notice of Barry watching her, Anna resumed adapting to her new weapon as she spoke. “I saw that you finished coaching the others, seems like they were able to pick up some pointers from you after all.”

  “I hope whatever I said has any meaningful impact, I tried my best. We’ll see.” Barry replied, sounding a bit hopeful for the others. “You’re just testing out your new toy, I take it?”

  Anna flung her tomahawk at the boulder, watching the spiked end clang against it but managing to break away a decent chunk of stone. “I was before you showed up…” She then retracted the tomahawk back into her hand from a distance. “Until you arrived. What do you think of a little sparring?”

  The idea intrigued Barry, he grinned. “Sparring? Ah, I see. You think you can kick my ass now that I’ve weakened myself after accepting my contract. That’s quite unsportsmanlike of you.”

  She flashed a smile of her own, trying to hide her sly intention. “Unsportsmanlike? I’m not trying to take advantage of your loss of strength at all. Just a little sparring is all I’m asking for.” Anna then placed a hand to her mouth, acting surprised as she resumed speaking. “Or are you perhaps scared I might actually beat you?”

  Barry took her words as a direct challenge. “Not at all, in fact, I know you’ve been wanting to drive my ass though the dirt since we’ve met again. You’re probably still salty about what I did to you during the tutorial.”

  Anna got into her fighting stance, with her tomahawk and dagger in each hand, she was flustered by what he said which only confirmed his assumption. “Damn right I am, I want pay back; even if I lose, I’m still going to make you work for it.”

  Upon drawing his greatsword, he got into a guarded stance, expecting her to blitz at him after giving the go. “Pip down and come get your revenge, your expression says it all.”

  And after their exchange of bickering, their spar begun, with Anna kicking it off with a burst of speed that nearly caught Barry by surprise. He was expecting for her to teleport directly behind rather than charging at him from the front.

  He pretended to swing at her full force, planning to shift his momentum behind himself to hit her once she teleported. And as Barry anticipated, he saw Anna create a red cloud that had to mean that she teleported behind himself and did as planned. “Ha! So damn predicable-”

  When he carried his greatsword around to counter her sneak attack, he was shocked to see that she wasn’t there. “What-” He then felt something sharp cut into his back.

  Anna laughed, she found it funny how he was tricked. “You really think I would do something that obvious? If you’re that gullible, this fight might just be a cakewalk.”

  Although Barry had been fooled by Anna’s deception, he couldn’t help but be amused by Anna’s trick. He wanted their fight to be challenging, not boring. And he hoped that Anna would be able to give provide him that. ‘Show me something else up your sleeve.’ He welcomed everything she had.