Chương 35: Chapter 34 - The Evening Star

The training collars on the first floor simply measured your speed, and lit up if someone was moving too quickly. It helped even the playing field, but didn't account for higher stats like Mind or Endurance, which both played a huge part in a spar. She wasn't sure how the current collar she was wearing was doing it, but it was somehow affecting her very stats. The thing she found most odd, was that magic usually didn't work on her, yet this collar did for some reason.

She had no idea why, but was thrilled with the prospect, as it would completely even out the odds in these spars. The collar also scared her a little bit though. Magic wasn't supposed to work on her, so how was this collar achieving this? Could someone make a collar that would remove all of her stats? Or remove her abilities? She realized there was a lot she didn't know about magical artifacts and enchanting. She would have to find someone to teach her more about it at some point.

She couldn't do any of it herself, but it would be wise to learn how it worked at the very least to know what kinds of things she might come across in the future. The moderator announced the start of the spar, and Seltzer took up Mountain Stance. In the past, Kiara had simply attacked, trying to stick to a sword form as best she could. Now though, with Handel's instructions in her mind, she wanted to try transitioning to the right sword form as much as possible.

Mountain Form was weak against Fire Form, which was Kiara's preferred attack form. She moved in quickly, closing the distance. Seltzer took a few powerful swings, which she blocked as she moved forward. Seltzer retreated. Fire Form was only strong against Mountain Form if she could close the gap, and Mountain Form tended to favor maintaining the same position, meaning Seltzer shouldn't have been retreating. She was surprised by his movements, but quickly realized that he had transitioned to Air Form.

He was maintaining his distance, defending with blocks far from his body, neutralizing Fire Form's main advantage of close quarters strikes. She knew that Mountain Form countered Air Form's weak points, so she transitioned to Mountain Form to hold her ground. She blocked his attacks with powerful swings, trying to either throw him off balance or perhaps disarm him. He transitioned to Fire Form after a few strikes, and successfully closed the gap, striking for her torso.

She didn't have time to dodge, and he landed a hit, earning three points. Her ribs stung where he had hit her. She cursed mentally. How was he transitioning between forms so fast? They reset and began the next round. Seltzer immediately defaulted to Mountain Form, which seemed to be his go-to move for starting a spar. Not a bad idea, really. Kiara wanted to try some other forms, but Handel's words before class stuck with her. She decided to stick to the three forms she had chosen, win or lose.

She started with Fire Form again, moving to close the gap. Seltzer once again switched to Air Form as she drew near. She expected it this time, and transitioned to Mountain Form herself. As he drew near, she expected him to go for Fire Form again to counter her Mountain Form, and she readied herself to switch to Fire Form as well. If she could match his Fire with her own, she might spot a weakness and land a hit before he could. He surprised her as he drew near, switching to River Form instead of Fire Form.

While Fire Form was technically supposed to be strong against River Form, she hadn't expected the flowing movement patterns that he entered into, and she suddenly found herself disarmed, her sword on the ground by her side. Seltzer gently tapped her on the head with his sword, earning another five points and winning the match. He bowed politely to her, then moved off without a word. He seemed quiet, but was clearly very talented, especially for how young he was.

Kiara retrieved her practice sword from the ground and followed Seltzer back to the sidelines. She spotted Handel waiting for her there, and he waved her over.

"Not bad, for your first spar," he said.

"I lost," she countered. Handel nodded.

"Seltzer is a very talented young swordsman. You'll find that most of the students here will lose to him. I noticed you stuck to just three forms during the match." Kiara nodded.

"I wanted to take your suggestion seriously. Once I've mastered the movements and transitions for those three, I'll add more in."

"Why did you choose Fire, Mountain, and Forest Forms?" he asked. She shrugged, "They are the three I first learned, so I'm most familiar with them."

"Ah," he nodded, "that is common. The Eshelan army teaches those three forms to their recruits. If you are open to a suggestion though, I would recommend focusing on Earth Form, instead of Forest Form for one of your first three." Kiara considered the suggestion. Earth Form was very similar to Mountain Form, and focused on a lot of the same principles. It was a neutral form instead of a defensive form though, and offered more offensive options than Mountain Form did. It was less aggressive than she preferred.

"Why Earth Form?" she asked. Handel didn't answer for a moment, as he was closely watching a particularly flashy set of exchanges in one of the spars. After a moment, he said, "Earth Form is strong against Forest Form, and most people fall back to Forest as their preferred neutral form when they're pressed. It will give you a distinct advantage in a number of spars and duels.

"Beyond that," he continued, "Earth and Mountain Form are very closely related, and you'll find the transition between the two to be almost intuitive. It offers a quick way to transition from a defensive stance to a neutral stance, and back again, without much thought." He locked eyes with her for a moment, and she saw a twinkle in his eye as he spoke.

"Also, it might be good to help balance out your naturally aggressive style." If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Was her style too aggressive? Maybe she did have a tendency to jump in first and strategize second.

"Fair enough," she responded with a smile.

"I'll try that instead." She turned to watch the sparring sessions for a moment, and when she turned back, Handel was gone. She glanced around, but couldn't spot him anywhere. How is he doing that? After the spars ended, she spent another few hours in the arena, practicing Fire, Mountain, and Earth Forms, drilling the movements and transitions until she was exhausted. Only then did she take the collar off. She wanted to get used to functioning with it on, since she would be sparring every day while wearing one.

She made her way to the standings board, and found herself at the bottom, along with half of the class, sitting at 1 point. The other half had won their spars, and had 3 points each. The teaching slots for the beginner's course were only listed for the next week, and all of the slots were already full. She realized that she maybe should have signed up first, then finished her practice after. As she made her way home, her mind wandered, thinking back on the structure of the intermediate class.

She had only been in the beginner's class for a few months, but it seemed likely that at least a few of the people in that class had already been to the intermediate class at one point or another. She wasn't the best swordfighter in the beginner class, Ron was proof enough of that, but there hadn't been many people better than her, and none that she couldn't beat at least some of the time.

A lot of the people in the intermediate class were clearly more talented than she was, but there were probably at least a few that she could beat already, at least enough to not fall too far behind in points. She hadn't been overly competitive in her past life, but she found herself leaning more and more that way now. She wasn't sure if it was partly due to Shian's biology, or if maybe she had simply never been passionate enough about anything previously to feel this way.

Whatever the case, the format of the class excited her, and she didn't want to lose. She decided to spend a few extra hours each night practicing the sword forms until she had the first three mastered. * Back at home that evening, Dustin had good news. He had already secured storefronts near all of the small businesses that Lord Grivalt owned. The next few days saw him establishing working relationships with all of the suppliers they would use, as well as stockpiling inventory.

They hadn't yet opened any of the new stores, and Lord Grivalt was unaware that they were planning to do so. In fact, they received another letter from Lord Grivalt, who had apparently found an investment opportunity with an entrepreneur in Easton, and wanted House Yountal to help him finance the venture. The entrepreneur was interested in importing exotic monster parts, potions, and artifacts from Antalon, a kingdom on the west end of Jenpor.

Dustin's family had actually worked in that industry a bit, as Chestara was one of the three kingdoms that bordered Antalon, so he knew a bit about it. Theoretically, the venture had the potential to be a good one, and return healthy profits. In practice though, it wasn't so easy. The planet, Yonu, had five continents. The three main continents, Jenpor, Ishkar, and Shovis, were close together, located in the center of every map Kiara had ever seen.

A fourth continent, Aborilta, lay on the other side of the planet, separated by a massive ocean. The ocean was full of large and powerful monsters, scary enough to prevent any kind of crossing by ship. The few expeditions that had ventured out into the deep had never returned. A fifth continent, Xiladia, was drawn on most maps, far to the north. It was often just represented as a massive, white chunk of ice and tundra, inhospitable to life.

The Central Kingdom, Eshela, sat directly in the center of the three main continents, with its capital on The Central Island, an island nestled right in the center of all three continents. A thin enough strip of ocean separated The Central Island from all three continents to allow ferry and barge crossings. Sometimes monsters would wander into the thin strips of ocean that separated the three continents, but it was rare.

When it did happen, it was never one of the true behemoths, and was easily repelled by some well placed spells. Aborilta was a mostly solid landmass, and was uninhabited. It was home to massive monsters, strong enough to threaten even the most powerful of mages. However, It had a large conglomerate of islands on its east side that connected right up to Jenpor, the continent which housed Antalon and Chestara.

The Aborilta Islands, while separated from each other by water, were close enough together to allow for ferry or barge crossings, as the ocean monsters favored the wider expanse further out. The Aborilta Islands were home to unique monsters that couldn't be found anywhere else on the planet. They were less dangerous the further you got from the mainland, but equally exotic. Expeditions to the Aborilta Islands, while inherently risky, were likely to be successful, and were often very lucrative.

Antalon was the only country close enough to properly farm monster parts from the islands. This gave the kingdom a unique ability to produce exotic items and trade goods that literally couldn't be achieved by any other country. Trade agreements usually prevented newcomers from dealing directly with Antalon, and the war between Chestara and The Central Kingdom further complicated things.

Importing the exotic items had a legitimate potential to be profitable, but Dustin knew enough about the industry to know that the chances were low. Dustin looked into it a bit, and the entrepreneur in question was all bluff, with no real experience in the industry. He simply had visions of diamond coins in his eyes, and couldn't see past the obvious signs of failure that Dustin claimed were so apparent. Kiara didn't really know anything about it, but she trusted Dustin's opinion.

If he said it would fail, then it would. Not that Lord Grivalt needed to know that. If he wanted to throw away his money, that would only help speed up the timeline. His letter had indicated that he wanted to meet with both Kiara and Dustin to discuss the investment opportunity. Dustin sent a reply on Monday, indicating that he had rented a private room the following day at the nicest restaurant in Easton for them to meet in. Tuesday evening, Kiara and Dustin arrived at the restaurant early.

The place was called 'The Evening Star', and was lavishly decorated. The prices were exorbitant, coming in at a few silver per plate. Those kinds of prices ensured that only the wealthy were customers, as a single meal could run a poor family more than they usually spent on food in an entire month. The seating on the ground floor was about halfway filled up, with a few open tables here and there.

The second floor consisted of private dining booths, where magically enhanced walls would keep the sound contained to the room, preventing eavesdropping of any kind. Those rooms cost extra, obviously, because of the unique setting, the personal server, and the enhanced privacy. The food would be double the normal price, and the room itself cost two gold just to reserve for the night. All things considered, it wouldn't even put a scratch in Kiara's financial reserves, but it was exorbitant by any normal standards.

The restaurant host was a tall, shapely woman, with a form-fitting dress and a dazzling smile. Kiara considered the possibility that she might be the most beautiful person she had ever seen. The host showed them to their private room, and as they stepped inside the curtains, the noise from the ground floor of the restaurant disappeared completely.

"Thank you for choosing The Evening Star," the host said once they were inside, her voice a smooth, pleasant timbre. Something about her voice almost felt enhanced somehow, making Kiara want to listen to her some more. Kiara wasn't sure how that would work though, seeing as how magic wasn't supposed to work on her.