PreCursive

  Over the few days, I ut through a much more thh examination of my abilities than the ohat Hook had done. I primarily had three separate instructors in the No Division.

  Hook remained my primary teacher, fog mainly on bat and on skills. One of the first things that he did was start my training with a bow. For now, he was having me use a short boparently I just wasn’t strong enough to use an actual quality longbow. He ht scoffed at the idea of using a crossbow, calling them near useless for my purposes.

  I took his word for it.

  Other than that, he was kig my ass up and down the small training hall that was found in the underground base. He refused to let me use my Oninite bdes, instead demanding that I focus on relearning how to use a dagger indepely, and then the same thing with a spear. He had been satisfied to learn that I’d maxed out the basic Spear Proficy Talent, but had clucked his tongue when I’d said Knife Proficy was only at level four. In fact, he told me that he had a certain pn in mind for both my bat abilities and actual Talents.

  “What we’re going to do,” Hook said versationally, parrying a ssh from one of my dual training daggers. “Is get you to General on Proficy, like your friend Azarus.” He leaned out of the way of a stab, before tinuing. “Onax out seven on Talents, you bihem into the General Proficy version.”

  “What…use…is…THAT!” I panted out, iween trying to score a hit on the master assassin.

  “You ever wonder what the actual be from these on talents is?” Hook answered mildly, dang away from my strikes. I managed a nod before having to dodge out of the way of his return blow, just barely making it. I was admittedly pretty curious about their actual fun. It’s not like I had ever had some kind of epiphany about knife or spear bat and suddenly gotteer. “What they provide is a kind of instinct. You still o learn how to actually fight with a on, but the Talent gives you a guiderail. I tell you from actual experiehat, even as shit as you are, you’re still better than someoh as little experiend training time as you should be. It heightens what you do have, so to speak.”

  I leaned over clutg my thighs, panting and dripping sweat. After a moment, I rose from my little mini-break to look at Hook. “That just sounds like it raises the skill ceiling from normal-”

  “To otherworldly, yes.” Hook nodded. “Let me tell you, some of the real on masters that I’ve met in my day? Crazy, crazy bastards with their instrument of choice. You see, you don’t have to choose a General path. You specialize in something like, say, swords. You just choose seven different kinds of sword to max the Talent in, and thehose different sword Talents into the kind you want to master. That upgrades the Talent into an Advanced Sword Talent. Take for example your panion Venix.”

  I bli the out of nowhere mention of the still atose Antium man. Last I’d heard, he had been pced uhe care of Honoka’s medical division.

  “I’d eat my mask if he doesn’t have a Katana Mastery Talent. That’s the level after Advanced, by the way,” Hook told me. “So seven maxed sword Talents, fed into Katana Profiake it Advanced Katana Proficy. Then seven individually maxed other Advanced sword Proficies, fed into the Katana oo end up with Katana Mastery.”

  I tilted my head in thought. “Is there a level after that?”

  Hook nodded. “Yup, Grandmaster. But there are only a few people on the damhat have a Grandmaster level talent. A major factor to that is because of how long it takes just to reach Mastery, much less Grandmastery. It takes decades of day in and day out grinding and practice to get a Master level on Talent, much less seven of the damn things. I sure as hell don’t have one. Hell, I know Grey doesn’t have one. He was satisfied with Longsword Mastery and stopped there. The man has never been all that serious about his on Talents, and he doesn’t o be. He has his magic to fall ba instead.”

  I furrowed my brow. “I wonder why Grey, or hell, even Azarus, old me about this? I mean, I know Azarus has General on Proficy, but he old me how to get it.”

  Hook shrugged. “My guess is that it’s just never been the right time. You only have a single maxed on Proficy. But back to the matter at hand, what we’re going to do for you is go the generalist route. It’s better for an assassin to be flexible, I’ve found. Your seven are going to be Spear, Knife, Short Bow, Long Bow, and then I’m thinking Longsword, Throwing, and…maybe Club or Mace. Or perhaps Stave. Hmm.” He said, tapping his mask over his lips in thought.

  “That’s a lot,” I deadpanned. “How long is that going to take?”

  “Oh, months and months,” Hook answered offhandedly. “You’ll be doing missions long before you reach General on Proficy. I’m just getting you started. You’ll have to do a ton of individual training to reach it on your own. However, the be of General Proficy over specialization is that you’ll gain an instinctive ability for ons you’ve never even touched, while retaining ability in what was fed into it. Damn useful in a pinch, let me tell you.” Hook chuckled. “You haven’t really lived until you’ve watched a General ons Master fight off an infuriated Advanced level specialist with a fork.”

  Well, that was certainly a mental image.

  “But enough talk,” Hook said ominously, adjusting his stance slightly in a way I was learni a lunging stab. “Back to the grind.”

  I desperately crossed my daggers in front of myself to block the incredibly fast lunge from Hook.

  Oh, how I wished I was able to use Sylvan Vigor in training.

  ……………………………………………….

  Hook was only the first of my three instructors. The sed ohat I met was a named Sparrow. Like Hook, he had an avian themed mask that was unpainted, only slightly different. The beak that was etched onto the surface of the mask was smaller than the long and thin one on Hook’s. This guy kept his hood up at all times, but I could still tell that he was a human male.

  Sparrow was the trainer who was supposed to work with both Fade and me. I’d actually ehe visible shock that had rolled over him when he’d first met Fade and seen his horns. I guess it’s not every day you meet a near-mythical Spirit Wolf, after all.

  “My job,” He said to me, from the small break room that we were meeting in. “Is reaissance. I’m not on the bat track like you and Hook. I’m the only Beastmaster in the Division, actually.”

  I o show I uood. “Yeah, I think Hook mentioned you. You help me and Fade work better together, then?”

  Said wolf was in the room with us, lying on the ground and watg us. Despite his rexed posture, I could tell that Fade was ied from the perkiness of his upright ears.

  “Indeed,” Sparrow ined his head. “I mainly work with birds, but I o gain a general uanding of most animals in order to qualify for the Beastmaster css. In fact,” He said with a chuckle. “I’m a lised Veterinarian with the Professions to back it up. That’s my day job, so to speak. I give your young Fade a check-up after this, if you’d like.”

  Day job, huh. More like cover.

  Still.

  “Yeah, that sounds nice, actually,” I said with a smile that he couldn’t see. We were both in our masks, after all. “So, what are you going to be doing with us?”

  Sparrow leaned forward, g his hands. “Well, that depends on you two. What are yoals as partners?”

  I tilted my head. “You mean…how do we want to fight together?”

  “You don’t necessarily have to fight together, you know,” Sparrow pointed out, to my surprise. Wasn’t that the whole point of this? “I don’t typically expect most people who aren’t Beastmaster’s with animal panions to fight side by side. You don’t have the support skills to make it worth it. You don’t even have the actual familiar bo, being below the first breakpoint.”

  “Wellll,” I said, drawing out the word. “I’m betting most animal panions aren’t Mystic Beasts like Fade, either. I’ve seen him do some odd stuff with his powers. To be ho, I don’t think even he knows everything he do yet.”

  Fade chuffed from his position on the floor.

  “That’s a bit rude,” Sparrow said uedly. At first, I thought he was talking to me before I noticed that his mask was directed at Fade. I was taken aback by the implication.

  Fade was too, suddenly sitting up and paying much more visible attention to Sparrow.

  “You… uand him?” I asked slowly.

  Sparrow ughed. “Well, I’d have to uand animals if I erf reaissah their help, wasn’t I? Yes, I uand your young friend. It’s a Css Talent that I received from Beastmaster.”

  I defted a little. “Oh. I was hoping I’d be able to learn something like that for a moment.”

  “Welll,” Sparrow said mischievously, drawing the word out like I’d done earlier. “I didn’t say it wasn’t possible. When you bond an animal as a familiar, you get something simir to a Beastmaster’s Beastspeech Talent. You won’t be able to uand all animals like I , but you will be able to uand your bonded panion,” He ughed at the visible i in both Fade and I. “Just another reason to strive for the first breakpoint, eh?”

  “Hell yeah, that sounds awesome,” I said enthusiastically, before pausing. “Wait, what did he say?”

  “Ah, something along the lines of ‘That’s rich, ing from you’.”

  I held up a finger in protest, before defting. I Fade. “Touche.”

  Fade nodded in satisfa at my surrender.

  “You know, since we’re here and all…” I said musingly, still looking at Fade. “Is there anything you’ve wao tell me but haven’t been able to get across?”

  Fade tilted his head slightly before his tail started to wag. He barked a few things at Sparrow.

  I didn’t expect the senient to burst into ughter.

  You know, suddenly I wasn’t sure I wao know. I still asked, though. “What did he say?” I sighed.

  “H-he said,” Sparrow mao get out iween ughs. “‘You should make a move on the silver one already before she loses i’,” He shook his head at me amusedly. “Problems in your love life, Hangman?”

  God, I was gd this mask hid my face. At least this way I could hide the redness I could feel creeping across it. I cleared my throat, desperate to move on from this test humiliation. “So, about that training schedule?” I said in a higher-pitched voice than usual.

  Sparrow let out o chuckle, but gratefully moved on. “Well, if you don’t know what you and Fade want to do together, we’ll just do general stuff for now. We’ll work on trag, general fighting with an animal panion, and reaissahods.”

  Sounded good to me.

  ………………………………………………….

  I didn’t have to go looking for the st of my three instructors. Instead, she came to me. I was trying to rex after a training session with Hook in one of the break rooms when I was shocked half to death by her arrival.

  From one moment to , the empty chair across the table from me was occupied.

  I nearly screamed at the sudden ued arrival, clutg my rapidly beati. “Jesus, warn a guy ime,” I breathed, eyeing the sudden arrival. They looked to be one of the rare non-human members of the Order, much less the Noe Division. They were very obviously a Gnoll and a female o that. I’d gotten more used to telling them apart, after weeks spent in Renauld’s presehis particur Gnoll looked to have white fur from what little of it I could see, through their mask, heavy cloak and form-fittiher armor. The Noe masks that I had seen fnoll members were really only upper-face masks, as it was kind of hard to fit a whole one over a muzzle. The bottom half fnolls like her was more of a stretchy material pulled up to hook onto the mask itself. Hers ainted white like Whisper’s had been, and had a circle with three wavy lines overid on it, charred into the left cheek.

  The Gnoll Agent tilted her head to i me better. After a moment, I was surprised to feel the telltale tingle on the bay hat indicated someone using Observe on me. Surprised, and a bit offended.

  “Hey,” I said sharply. “What’s your deal? What do you want?”

  The Agent ignored my question. Instead, she just nodded, as if to herself. “I am Dusk,” She said, in a raspy voice. “I will be your instructor ih and infiltration. When I am not busy, I will find you. I must go.” She stood up from her chair abruptly, making as if she was going to walk out the door.

  I scrambled to stand up. “Wait, that’s it?!” I asked incredulously, causing ‘Dusk’ to stop iracks. I could see her ears swivel my way under her hood.

  “Yes,” Dusk said ftly, before disappearing through the doorway. I just gaped after her.

  I nearly had another heart attack when Hook popped his head around the er abruptly, holding a steaming mug of tea. I couldn't help w what he was doing with it, wandering around in his mask as he always did. “Don’t mind her,” He said mildly, audibly amused at my shock. “Dusk isn’t the best at socializing, but she’s one of our best when it es to pure stealth ability. She’ll have plenty to teach you, when I’m not unfortunately running her ragged.” Hook shrugged at my baffled form. “Don’t fet the campaign for Elderwyck moves out tomorrow. For now, you’re expected to rejoin your panions.”

  “Are we still going with the cover you decided on? Did you tact her?” I asked curiously, shaking off the odd iion.

  “It’s all been arranged, don’t worry about it. Just get going, and you’ll be tacted for Division duties and training once we’re underway.” With that, Hook wandered away with a waved hand over his shoulder.

  I just shook my head.

  There were certainly some characters in the Noe Division.