Vowing to never again get caught sleeping during an overgrowth event, Hans chose the Shit Shrooms for his testing grounds. Presently, everything had been culled and harvested, so no mushroom monsters would be there to bother him. If any armarillias appeared unexpectedly, even tripled in number, they wouldn’t be a serious threat.

  Hans tossed a fairywood acorn onto the ground to summon a wooden soldier. He had confirmed that he could indeed replicate the far-dorocha’s magic, but this would be his first time using the soldiers for any practical reason.

  While the summon awaited an order, Hans stepped five paces back and drew his Gruwalda iron sword.

  Could this actually work? If it did work… Holy shit.

  Slowing his breathing, Hans focused. He slashed his sword through the air, its edge well away from making contact with the soldier, and willed it to shoot a blade of light.

  A purple arc leapt from his sword. Just like Devon’s.

  All of Hans’ experiments had focused on monsters that presently appeared in the dungeon, but the dungeon core grew Devon once before, and Hans just proved that the core retained what it knew about the Paladin’s capabilities.

  Hans had just used the Paladin ability Blade Beam, someone else’s Diamond boon.

  Holy shit.

  And missed completely, by the way. His timing was off, so the arc of light actually cut through a woodshed instead of hitting the soldier. That was fine, though. Accuracy he could fix with practice, which could wait until he tested all of Devon’s other abilities.

  Next, he tried Devon’s Dash. In confirming that he could use that too, he also confirmed that he had Devon’s recovery ability as well. He drastically underestimated the force and length of the movement and put himself through the wall of an old cobbler shop. His body repaired itself in short order.

  He pictured Devon’s multi-mirror attack, which turned one strike into several by creating afterimages of the Paladin to deliver blows as well, all in rapid succession.

  The wooden soldier fell to the first swipe–Gruwalda iron and all–but the ability still activated. Hans held on to his sword for the first half of the sequence, but he was unprepared for the force of the vibrations the attack generated. It was like a powerful dog had bitten the blade and shook it with all of its ferocity.

  Another acorn summoned another soldier, and Hans managed to keep his grip intact with the next attempt.

  For soldier number three, Hans attempted Soul Shift, the ability that allowed Devon’s spirit to drive through his enemy, pulling their soul from their body as he went. If his soul killed his opponent’s soul, the fight was over. Nothing survived losing its soul.

  Hans set his feet and ran at the wooden man. He willed his soul to run ahead of him, and Hans’ soul burst forward. His consciousness stayed with both parts of him, forcing him to look out of both sets of eyes simultaneously. The result was like two prints layered on top of one another, and neither ink was strong enough to become the dominant image.

  The feeling was so disorienting that he couldn’t finish the attack. After catching his breath, Hans tried again. This time he stayed with the ability, but when he came out the back of the wooden soldier, no soul had accompanied him.

  “I should have thought of that,” Hans grumbled to himself. Soldiers summoned from acorns didn’t have souls, it seemed.

  What to test next…

  Ah, the choice was obvious. Hans envisioned drawing all of his power to a tight point in his chest, holding it in place until it burst into a ball of purple fire, enveloping Hans completely.

  And continued to intensify.

  Hans felt his control of this particular horse fading quickly. Devon always ran when he used this, so maybe he should do that too.

  Quest Complete: There’s no way…

  “The hells?” Devon asked as he stepped out of the Shit Shroom Inn, finding a streak of destruction the width of a house cutting through town and ending in a vertical crater in the dungeon wall.

  Three Silver-ranked adventurers who were in town to train accompanied him.

  “Hello?” Devon called.

  “It’s just me!” Hans yelled from somewhere across town. He appeared in the distance, waving as he approached. “You didn’t hear that, did you?”

  “Hans? What are you doing down here?”

  “Did I disturb anyone?” Hans asked.

  “Shook Luther Land pretty good, but nothing dangerous.”

  Devon inspected the trail of damage. “You did this?”

  “Yeah… I know you don’t love giving private lessons, but I could use a few pointers.”

  Active Quest: Master your Diamond boon.

  Hans and Devon were back in the griffon canyon, but this time it was just the two of them. The dungeon had been culled, which included the griffon, so they had complete privacy in this distant corner of the dungeon.

  “Where do you want to start?” Devon asked.

  “The thing where you throw energy from your sword and the dash.”

  “Blade Beam and Dash? What else?”

  “That’s it for now.”

  “...There’s a lot more. And that’s just Paladin stuff. You have all of your monster abilities to use too, right?”

  Hans nodded. “I know, and I want to play with it all, but I need to start small. Once I get the first three techniques figured out, I’ll work on more.”

  “Three? What’s the third?”

  “The Wargod Barrier spell. Dash gives me movement. Blade Beam gives me a ranged attack, which is something I’ve always lacked, and Barrier looks like the best defense I’ll ever get. You couldn’t get through the lich version of the spell, right?”

  “Right. He replaced it as soon as one went down. Why Blade Beam and not the gazer Eye beam spell?”

  “It was close,” Hans answered. “I decided that aiming with a sword was more natural for me.”

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

  “Build off of a skill you already have instead of adding a new one.”

  “Correct.”

  Devon took a long moment to think. “I never thought I’d be teaching any of this.”

  “I don’t expect miracles.”

  “Show me what you’ve figured out so far.”

  Hans flung a purple arc of light from his sword. It kicked up a cloud of dust when it struck a rock in the distance.

  “Aiming it sucks, right?” Devon asked.

  “It’s terrible.”

  Smiling, the Paladin stood next to Hans and assumed a combat stance. “It took me a while to get the hang of it. First thing, point your foot at your target, just like you would if you were throwing something.”

  Devon demonstrated stepping into the attack, picking an arbitrary rock formation that was relatively close as the target. He exaggerated his foot stomp to emphasize its importance.

  “At first, I thought about the attack like I was flicking it off the tip of my sword, like it was a fishing rod or something.”

  “Same.”

  “Didn’t work right?”

  “Not very well at all.”

  Devon smiled. “Think more like you’re throwing a frisbee and forgetting about the sword when you do. You’ve thrown one of those, right?”

  “Maybe twice in my life.”

  “But you know what I mean?”

  Hans nodded.

  “The light leaves your sword when you release it, so if this horizontal movement is 180 degrees, I can let the attack loose at any point on that arc. You don’t have to do anything different with your strike, but mentally you have to think about expelling your mana. There’s always a little bit of a delay, I’ve found. It’s a fraction of a second, but figuring that out made it a lot easier for me to be more accurate.”

  Moving slowly, Hans stepped through the attack several times without releasing the Blade Beam, emphasizing his footwork and feeling the range of options he had for timing the release of the technique.

  Next, he threw arcs of light at the same rock formation Devon had targeted. The first three attempts were released too early, flinging themselves wide to the left. The next two attempts went wide right, and then the next three out of five attempts hit their mark.

  “Why don’t I see you using this up close?” Hans asked. “It seems like that would let you land a hit even if your sword misses, right?”

  “I had the same thought, and I got knocked on my ass for it. According to Mazo, the mana of the Blade Beam stays connected to the sword for longer than it looks visually. If that connection is still in place when the Blade Beam makes contact, the same force that blasts your target blows back at you also.”

  “Damn.”

  “It hurts,” Devon added. “I use three yards as my rough rule of thumb. I won’t activate it any closer to a target than that.”

  Hans passed the next thirty minutes experimenting with his aim and his timing while Devon offered critiques and suggestions.

  “I’m sure I’ll have more questions, but I think that gives me a place to start practicing,” Hans said. “Dash next?”

  “I broke a lot of shit figuring this one out,” Devon warned, laughing. “There are two big pieces to this: aim and duration. You can only move in a straight line, so I figured the best way to practice would be running straight ahead and activating it, but practicing off of a pivot was actually easier and helped me understand the mechanics more.”

  Devon assumed a stance with his right foot forward, then he demonstrated turning 90 degrees as if he was about to sprint left. He pointed at his right foot as he made the pivot.

  “You see how I’m on the balls of my foot here, and my heel is up?”

  Hans nodded.

  “Pushing off from here is what would begin my run. It’s the first source of forward movement.”

  “Right.”

  “Picture an explosion in your foot as you push off the ground when you activate Dash. Whatever direction that push would have taken your body, Dash enhances that. So picture the explosion, and then picture snuffing it right away, like it’s a candle flame or something.”

  Hans burst right. And then he burst left. And then he repeated the movement several times over, alternating sides.

  “Why does this way feel easier?” Hans asked when he paused.

  “I tracked down one of the old sprinting champions in Hoseki to figure that out. He won every one of his races for like ten years straight or something. So this guy taught me a proper, technical sprint. When we sprint, we are striking the ground, so to speak. The faster and harder you strike the ground, the faster you go. There’s more to it than that, obviously, but that was his day one lesson for me.

  “Eventually, I figured out that the force of that footfall determined the strength of Dash, which meant that the timing for when to cut the Dash off was just as varied. The same duration of Dash from a light run compared to a full-on sprint can vary in distance by four or five times. For how much power there is in the ability, that makes ending it at the right moment a huge pain in the ass.

  “But I noticed that my control was consistent when I used Dash coming off the blocks, like at the start of a race where the runner is down low.”

  “Yeah, I can picture it.”

  “When I’m coming off of blocks or when I’m planting a foot to turn and begin a sprint, the power of the Dash is way more predictable, and the horizontal angle of your body helps a lot with the aim. When you’re sprinting, a lot of the force is vertical to keep you upright as you run, but that’s not as much the case when you’re starting a run from a zero.”

  Hans rested his chin in his hand as he thought.

  “Does that make any sense?” Devon asked.

  “Oh yeah, definitely,” Hans said, nodding emphatically. “So when I see you Dash, it’s always off of a pivot?”

  “It’s usually off a pivot. I’ll use it mid-run if I’ve got a lot of room in front of me. That way, if I screw up, I’m not running through a building.”

  “Even in the air?”

  Devon wobbled his head. “That’s trickier. The mechanics are the same, but you need to trigger your muscles as if you’re pushing off of the ground. That took me a lot of time to get used to.”

  “Right. Right. Okay.”

  Another thirty minutes passed where Hans used the ability repeatedly while Devon observed and offered feedback.

  “That’s way more finicky than I expected,” Hans said when they paused for a break. “I feel like I overshot almost every one of those.”

  “Yeah,” Devon replied. “I didn’t think it would be as hard as it is either.”

  “Fuck, this is so much fun,” Hans said, sheathing his sword. “Thank you for taking the time to work with me.”

  Devon laughed. “Whenever you’re ready for the next session, let me know.”

  On their way out of griffon Canyon and into Ogre Valley, Hans raised the topic of Galad visiting Hoseki, specifically the part of the plan where Devon accompanied the tusk for the journey.

  “Seems simple to me,” Devon explained. “Galad shouldn’t go alone, and he needs as much credibility as he can get. I’m the best choice for keeping him safe and supporting his story. It’s even more straightforward now that you can protect Gomi better than I can.”

  “Huh?”

  “You can do my shit and a few hundred other spells and abilities. I’m not backing down from my promise to stay here and protect this place. That’s not changing, but if one of us needs to leave town for a bit, the town will still be safe.”

  “I guess I hadn’t thought that far yet.”

  “No worries,” Devon said. “You’ve had quite a bit to figure out recently.”

  “A few things, sure.”

  “The enchanted statues need to come down, the kingdom needs to stand up for tusks, and Bridun should be in prison. Vaglell too. Your murder might make it easier to nail him for whatever shit he’s into with Wargod.”

  “That sounds like a lot more politics than you usually go for.”

  Devon shrugged. “My way hasn’t worked. Galad’s got a vision, and I have no problem following his lead if it gets us to where we want to go.”

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Monitor for independently grown sections of dungeon.

  Complete the next volume (Bronze to Silver) for “The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers.”

  Learn to help your advanced students as much as you help beginners.

  Relocate the titan bones to the dungeon entrance.

  Master your Diamond boon.