Stellam wasn't exactly sure how much time he'd been underground, but he was sure Seraph knew, and said half had decided it was time to go back up to the surface for a supply run.
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Name; Stellam Matutinam
Strength; C-673. Endurance; C-611. Dexterity; C-675. Agility; C-694. Magic; B-763.
Skill(s);
Magic; [*Teleports behind you*], [No chance in hell!]
=======
Name; Seraph.
Strength; C-673. Endurance; C-611. Dexterity; C-675. Agility; C-694. Magic; B-763.
Skill(s);
Magic; [Rift strike], [Shattered rift]
=======
It was going well in Seraph's opinion, grinding was well. Though it was slowed down a bit so that Katana- Who Stellam insisted he'd change the name of, but never did- Wouldn't die.
First order of business was going to the guild and throwing all the magic stones that he hadn't eaten at them in exchange for money, making his stonks go up to about 162000 valis in total. It really did help, having a porter.
Though the aspiring martial master didn't have any dedicated porter gear on hand, every extra hand helped. And said effect increased with the quality of magic stones.
With that done, it was time to oraganize and refresh.
Currently he held five empyrean sparks at tip-top condition, that long sword that was just resting on his back hidden under the cloak somewhat uncomfortably, his absolutely decrepit ninjato was also still around, that dagger he stole from a corpse was also there, and finally the foldable compound bow that was also in a little case that sat along with his longsword.
He definitely needed to replace the ninjato, he also had to get a better dagger along with a sharpening stone and some cloth to make sure he could clean his weapons if he ever had free-time so that the ninjato incident never happened again.
A cheap iron ninjato was not super hard to find considering that apparently an entire familia was basically a group of wannabe japanese samurai, but something of high enough quality to sate the other one's wish for better weaponry was not easy to find.
Well, unless you looked for something a bit different than normal...
Seraph was found three hours later in the deep recesses of a weapon shop while casually letting Stellam talk to Kanata "Your progress in muay thai is less than I'd like, but if I'm considering how you practiced, it's pretty reasonable.
So I think it's about time to teach you the foundation of all combat."
"The foundation of all combat?" The person who had never been in a fist-fight asked the self-proclaimed martial ancestor.
"Yes, the foundation of all combat, well actually the foundations, but eh- It doesn't matter.
There are a lot of 'Foundations', but the ones I find most important are 'Positioning', 'initiative', and 'Footing'. Oh, and of course 'Striking' and 'Undertaking', but those are very hard to teach."
"Wait- Undertaking?" She asked with full and honest confusion, since she had never ever heard said term in combat before, and really didn't fit with her thought of how fighting worked.
Stellam sighed as his body took out a sword for a quick look "'Undertaking', it's a term I personally coined so it's reasonable you don't know it. It's recognizing and taking advantage of weaknesses and mistakes, pretty much the core of any battle strat."
"Huh." She couldn't help but release as she found his explanation pretty reasonable, though the term used was still an odd choice.
"So, yes, the foundations of combat. Essential for any battle you might find yourself in, you're probably already utilizing at least the basic fundamental ones.
But I still find a need to explain every single one of them, just to make sure you get a grip. From what I've seen, though you have talent, you have been taught by a talentless hack.
Really, you're too cautious normally, even pretty passive after you lose the advantage. I need to do a complete overhaul, wipe the entire board clean."
'Joseph taught me...' She thought silently, not daring to voice her pretty indignant feelings to the person who would dare to kill her with ease. The martial dao might've been very, very bewitching. But that couldn't just kill any wishes for revenge or freedom.
Though she obviously didn't know that Stellam was in favour of killing her after the quest was completed, though Seraph still held sway over the final decision.
"So, 'Positioning'. If you're in the right place, you can't get hit. Say you're out of range from my fists, I couldn't punch you unless I close in, nor could I shoot you with my bow if you're only a meter or something away. As long as you know where to stand, you will never be touched.
Though don't mistake this for proper foot-work, it's streetsmarts instead of of technique, wisdom instead of intelligence."
He was calmly explaining random terminology which he had created right at this moment, though it was based off of his understanding of fighting- Even if he never conciously nor consistantly followed this self-made wisdom.
Seraph returned the sword back to its little hidey hole and looked at another, checking it for flaws and other problems it may have before checking its positive aspects.
"Then 'Initiative', my most favoured of the three important bases I'll teach you. If your opponent has a concussion, then you get another free shot. Take the initiative and rule the battlefield with ferocity. You won't get hit if your enemies don't even have the chance to fight back.
And 'Footing'. You'd be surprised how important it is to keep your feet on the ground, without it you wouldn't be able to block nor evade. If you slip- God forbid- You'd lose the initiative unconditionally, and instantly fail the positioning game."
All of his words rang true, though the way he worded it was a bit more casual than you'd expect from a lesson.
"That's it?" Kanata couldn't really believe that that was all she needed to know in order to fight well.
"Hell no! Those are the basics of the basics if you don't want to die the moment you start fighting! What kind of malformed!- No, no it is not."
"Then what's left?"
"The proper shit you actually get taught in military stuff, tactics. Planning a step ahead. If you don't have the smarts, the techniques that do the same; But don't need you to play a proper mental role."
"...Techniques are for dumb people?"
"Sort of, sometimes smart people take up the techniques of smarter people, other times a smart person either has been conditioned to think techniques are crucial or lack the knowledge or wisdom to make one themselves or just ignore the process entirely." Now, Stellam was actually spouting nonesense that was vague enough to fit with his 'Ancestor' title.
The silent and dutiful Seraph spotted a weapon of interest, quickly losing all interest in the nearby pile of old weapons and reaching for another shelf; Bringing forth a ninjato just as he- 'Wait, this isn't a ninjato... This is a katana!'
Seraph was highly troubled by this sudden development, Stellam didn't really care and thought about fun ways he could kill with a katana. Though The near completely emotionless resident suddenly noticed something, but wasn't sure yet.
"What?! Make your own tec-"
"Shut up." Seraph stated very clearly, making sure than even the most mentally handicapped would be able to understand. And luckily, for Kanata, Stellam did not seem to have any need to teach her prudence.
His hand quickly moved, and allowed two individual fingers to slide across both the inner and outer edge... They were both sharp. It was pretty strange, since from what Seraph could gather a katana was one sided.
Luckily Stellam was an enthousiast of unique killing implements, and knew about a reverse katana that- While one-sided also- Was sharp on the inside, allowing him to rapidly reason that a two-sided katana wasn't that crazy of an idea.
Since, well: 'Two times the edge, two times the cutting.' As Stellam would dutifully explain to any who asked.
It was troublesome that it wasn't a ninjato... And the problems that'd come from not being able to find a replacement, considering the rarity... 'Maybe I should just abandon the ninjato, I think the sunk-cost fallicy is getting a little too much authority.'
If he really had to go through all this trouble every time he tried to replace his main weapon after it broke... That was just inefficient, he had already been wasting a lot of time just searching for it one time.
It would be good to just pick something a bit more common so that he could finally be done with all the time wasting, he could already feel it grating at his soul as the seconds passed by.
But the problem was- As informed by Stellam- Normal swords were just too popular, and as such, there were far too many tips and tricks floating about on how to counter them. Spears had too many clear weaknesses, if someone got a bit to close, it'd be a pain to get rid of them.
It might be a bit strange to consider human opponents when the big goal is singularly getting rid of the dungeon, but since Stellam wasn't completely deligated to an semi-unconcious mass of ego hidden in the recesses of his mind, it was very much obvious that there would be problems. It also helped that he had plans that required a bit of conquering and subjugation.
There was also the question of mastery for different weapons carrying over; Which he quickly tested by swinging the katana around for a few moments, and suprisingly the boosts from the ninjato quest did seem to have some effect. Not as much an actually ninjato's benefits, but the support wasn't miniscule either.
'Hmm... Would different masteries stack on top of each other? Because if they did...'
If they did... Seraph could clearly see one of the paths he would have to tread in order to reach his perfect self. But still, taking up this variant of a katana would depend on if it was considered individual from a regular katana. And luckily, he could just test.
[Cursed blade (Katana) mastery (Repeat quest):
Goal; Monsters killed by a cursed blade variant katana 0/1
Reward; Increased mastery in the usage of the cursed blade (Katana).]
Well, that settled it. He bought the katana which seemed to be called a 'Cursed blade' for some reason, and also bought a short sword for personal use along with a few cloths for cleaning his weapons to prevent unnecesary rusting.
Now, it was time for Stellam Mutinam, the morning star, to go forth and slay that dumb infant dragon that dared to defy his authority and run for its miserable life!
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Author note
Hi.