Tock! Tock! The sound of the clash of wooden swords crossing each other became more common and intense every day in the Strogueher Mansion.
"No, you're hitting it wrong," Luke warned Nathalia. "You're applying too much energy into your fingers when really you should be using it on your wrist."
Then the half-wolf demonstrated the correct way to strike diagonally. With one violent stroke, he hit the right rib region of the training dummy, which was more than two meters tall.
The young Elf clapped her hands together several times as her eyes sparkled from seeing the precision of Luke's blow. Clap! Clap! Clap!
"If it was a real opponent, he would have blocked it." Alexis alerted them from the corner of the room. She was at the end of a 1 kg bag of cocoa beans.
Luke simply pretended she wasn't there. "Now, try again." He asked Nathalia.
Then the girl fixed her right foot as a fulcrum to support her entire body weight, and, holding the wooden sword with both hands, she struck from top to bottom.
The wooden plate slashed toward the dummy's right rib at a reasonable speed; however, it ended up meeting the dummy's arm midway.
"Urgh! I can't do it as you did." She complained to Luke, a little frustrated because this was already the twentieth attempt.
Of all the three dummies in the training room, this one was the biggest, and it was also the only one that had its arms farthest from the body and held a sword, so it was perfect for practicing hitting killing blows.
"Keep trying, and if you don't succeed with the sword, try with another weapon that you are more comfortable with. Just don't overdo it."
Luke slowly withdrew from the training area and walked over to Alexis. He was becoming increasingly bored as the days passed at home; after all, he had somehow created a routine of exploring Dungeons.
Since Ayumi was again not in town, he was also slowly accumulating more stress.
"If you want to give her some tips as well, I wouldn't mind," Luke said to the half-dragon as he grabbed a towel to dry his forehead.
"N-no! You misunderstood me. I wasn't trying to take away your position as a trainer or anything like that; I was just warning you."
The half-wolf carefully dried his face and then his neck. "I'm not her trainer. I'm just a bodyguard."
"Ahh~ Well, I was really curious about what rank you had here since I saw Ayumi giving you a payment yesterday morning."
The half-wolf did not answer her and continued to dry the sweat from his body. After drying his neck, he put the white towel under his shirt and started drying his abdomen. This movement made Alexis blush a little and look away.
"Have you assimilated the skill you bought?" she inquired, smoothing behind her ear with one finger. "If you want, I can help you with that."
"Actually, thanks for reminding me, I'd almost forgotten about it, but you don't have to help me." Luke threw the towel over his shoulder and left the training room to go to his room.
Watching the man leave, the half-dragon thought:
'Why is he so cold to me? We went through an intense battle together; shouldn't he be a little more... polite?'
The S-Class was definitely not used to the way Luke treated her. Usually, men fell at her feet, even those with dislike against her race.
When Luke arrived in his room, he saw that the Black Egg was on his bed, exactly as he had left it.
'That thing has to hatch in less than 2 months.' He thought as he gently smoothed the rigid shell. 'Should I tell Alexis about it?'
Although the half-dragon had only been at the Strogueher mansion for 1 day, she had already gained the respect of many of the staff. However, Luke still didn't know what she was exactly, so he remained closed to conversations with her outside of Nathalia's presence.
The reason for this? He always felt that she was watching him. Even during meals, during training, on the way back to the city, and even inside the post office. Whenever he looked at her, she would look back at him and continue to stare as if attentive to his presence.
'No... she didn't comment at all when I brought this from the Dungeon with me, so she must not know much either.' He concluded.
Since the half-wolf didn't know much about her, other than that she is extremely strong, he decided to not give any space for confusion and opted to not tell the half-dragon about the egg.
However, Luke should have taken one factor into account when making this decision: the egg was found between the arms of the White Lizard, who was sleeping comfortably next to the white cube in the Dungeon.
Now, focused on assimilating the skill he bought, he put all the other thoughts aside, put the egg under the bed, and sat on the bed, cross-legged.
'Should I start with <Vind> or with the <Sirkelig>?'
Luke was concerned about the performance of the <Vind> skill because although he could use it with ease, the skill's power fluctuation was not unusual. Sometimes the wind was very powerful and effective, sometimes just a weak breeze.
And the mental image he now had of the ability was like an endless cliff down, which he plummeted as he felt the wind throw his hair back.
After a few tiresome minutes of assimilation, Luke finally felt he had arrived somewhere, but he decided not to test <Vind> right away since he was inside his room.
'Let's get to the hard part now.' He thought after resting for a few seconds and began to focus on the description he had of the <Sirkelig> skill. 'A circle, a circle...'
What could make a supernatural creature weaker? A symbol? A material? Luke understood not that much to give an exact answer, and all he knew was that slime is toxic to demons.
However, this ability bought for only 100 silver seemed to be the right answer because it can weaken these supernatural beings and strengthen the user. It is perfect and convenient.
As soon as the assimilation began, a kind of chill spread down Luke's entire spine. It imparted a nefarious feeling, which was familiar to the half-wolf.
This feeling was the same feeling he felt when he touched the door of the Giant Spiders, the same feeling he felt when he was paralyzed by something in that chamber, and the same feeling he felt whenever he remembered the demons.
Deep down, the half-wolf knew that the problem with demons was not close to being over in Vasconcelos. In fact, he could even predict that it would get much worse and, without knowing how to explain the exact reason, he just wished he was out of the city before this mix-up burst.
So he didn't continue with the assimilation and stood up determinedly and opened the bedroom door.
'I like you, Ayumi, but I can't stand still until this egg hatches.' Luke thought and started walking towards Ayumi's office, where he intended to look for clues about the Strogueher's purchase of the Genes.
Read latest chapters at f(r)eewebnov𝒆l Only