"Alright, what now?" Foster asked, leaning against the wall outside of Zhaine's shop, looking at Octer, Lynol and Kyla.
"What do you an, 'what now'?" Lynol asked, and Foster imdiaely shrugged, "I don't know, like, what are we gonna do now? It's another couple days until my Guild Card is ready, and until then I can't really work with the guild. So what are we gonna do now?"
"Did- Did you not hear what Zhaine said inside?" Octer asked with a wry smile, "He was right when he said we wouldn't be doing anything for a few days. We just cleared out a dungeon, Foster. It was a first-ti clear. We wouldn't be taking new requests for a few days anyway."
Foster raised his brows surprised, "Really? Huh... I an, fair enough. So freeti it is, then."
"Freeti? Who said you're getting freeti?" Lynol asked, "We're going to keep training. We only trained three techniques from the book. And you can do a lot better with those three as well. I've booked us a training room at the Inn, so we'll be spending a few days there until our eting with our new handler."
Foster stared at his friend perplexed, "The whole ti? Seriously?"
"Of course. Since the training room is at the Inn, we can maximize the ti we have for actual training."
"Didn't I show you that I'm good enough in the dungeon already? Co on, I can do this!"
Lynol rolled his eyes, "You showed that you can fight against mindless, weak opponents pretty well. We're going to be entering the Basent soon, things will be different there. You can't beat every enemy with forward strikes in there."
"...What's the 'Basent'?" Foster asked confused, and Lynol sighed in response, turning his head to look down the street, "I ntioned it before. The 'Great Dungeon'. It's nicknad 'Basent'. It's a huge underground dungeon that this city is built on, and since you descend down into that space, it's dubbed 'Basent'."
"Hold up, this whole town is built on top of a dungeon?"
Kyla grumbled slightly, her arms crossed, "You don't even know that? Yes, it is. It's the whole reason why this city is even here. People found the dungeon, and created a camp around it. They thought it was just a beginner's dungeon at first. When they figured out that it was actually larger than they thought, more and more people ca, and the settlent grew and grew, and turned into Arcadum as it is now."
Foster raised his brows surprised, "Wait, why did theye think it was a beginner's dungeon?"
"Because it's special. 'Great Dungeon', 'World Dungeon', whatever, that sort of place has a lot of nas. We have no idea how deep it is. But it starts at a beginner level with monsters that even kids can take care of, but the deepest known levels are too tough for the strongest adventurers in this city to even attempt to enter. It's a magical place, really~! I can't wait to head in there!" Kyla said, going from annoyed to excited incredibly quickly, "Ooh, I know! I'll go and buy so maps! And I think I can go and ask so people about strategies for the first few floors~!"
Lynol nodded, "Good, do that. What about you, Octer? Do you want to train with Foster and I, or do you want to go off and do your own thing for a few days?"
"Wait, you're letting Octer choose?"
"Foster, Octer has so much more experience as an Adventurer than you do, and he's much stronger than you are. So am I. I need to bring you to our level, but I don't need to do that for him." Lynol said bluntly, and while Foster stood next to him, pouting annoyedly, Octer replied, "I'll join you here and there I think, but for now I'm just gonna explore a bit."
"Then do that. But you should really make sure to join us at least for a short while. To test your new martial skill out, I an." Lynol suggested.
"Right, I played around with it a bit last night. It was hella weird. I'll show you guys later." Octer said, "Let's split up for now. We eting for dinner?"
"I can co by, I don't mind~!" Kyla replied imdiately, and with that, the group split into three, and they all went their way for now.
---
"By the way... aren't there, like... more stances... in the book?" Foster asked, breathing heavily as he turned over toward Lynol, who was currently swinging a weighed-down training sword as practice. The swordsman turned his head and looked at his friend, "Of course. But why are you asking ? You're the one whose eyes are glued to those books."
"I know, but... why does the training mode thing only teach the 'basic stance'? Even if I try, it won't teach the others."
Lynol sighed and let down the training sword, "Listen, if it won't teach you, then that's just not the way of the 'Argomna Style'. That stance that you are practicing is not a 'normal' stance. You have seen fight already. I've got more than a dozen different stances for different situation drilled into , but they all have certain aspects in common. What you are learning now is the 'in common' part of your combat style. You will easily branch off to other stances later, don't worry. For now, just keep on practicing it and the different strikes in the book."
"Right... about that... I think I'm missing so books." Foster pointed out, "I don't have access to the complete style."
"...and the only guy that could teach you is dead." Sowhat annoyed, Lynol pressed his hands onto his hips, "Were there any other books at the hut where you got these ones?"
"Well, yeah, but I didn't want to bring a dozen books with ."
"..." Lynol stayed silent and thought about what to do next, "Those guys you t there probably reported the location. And if you found it, so did they, aning that the books are gone even if you went back to try and get them. I doubt they're going to release the information in the books either, not that we would find out anyti soon."
Foster squatted down and leaned against the wall, "Maybe the dungeon-dude knows sothing about it. We promised to go back anyway, so we can ask next ti, right?"
"Or you learn another, similar style to fill in the gaps." Lynol suggested. The two of them looked at each other for a while, and both of them knew that Lynol's suggestion was a worst-case decision. Slowly, the gaze of both of them turned toward the bracelet that Foster was wearing.
The small tal snake seed to practically stare back at them.
"Do you think that this one knows sothing?"
"It is a legacy artifact." Lynol pointed out, "And the one that used to own it is the creator of this style. I think it is a good bet."
Foster rubbed his fingers over the small snake's head, "I guess we just gotta figure out how to learn about all that stuff."
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