"Alright, boys and girls!" The latest addition to Cloudscraper's faculty was Master Musashibo, who, like many of his colleagues, had a reputation. Unlike some of his colleagues, his reputation was good (not that anyone had the guts to say the opposite of Doctor Fresco).

  Musashibo was renowned for his mastery of the Durgan Destroyer, an unusual Armour Core that was equipped with no less than eight arms, designed so that each could wield a weapon independently. Accordingly, using it to its full potential required its wearer to be proficient in at least eight different fighting styles for various one-handed weapons. For most, this was an impossible task.

  Musashibo thought achieving that degree of skill was the bare minimum to call oneself a warrior. After all, he was a master of more than thirty different styles of melee combat, from mixed-martial arts to blades of all shapes and sizes to hammers and cudgels, and was proficient in several types of ranged combat too.

  So he had the class' full attention as he stood between them and a massive row of racks, stacked full of Amber Weapon Cores in labelled groups.

  "Now, weapons. You all know them. You've all used them. You've probably been trained in at least one method of using them. How well, remains to be seen,"

  Nya's brow furrowed. So did Sendo's. Clearly, the insinuation that they were less than perfect rankled.

  "Everyone, call up your weapon of choice," Musashibo ordered.

  Starting a bit, Mikayla let her Mana flow, calling out her broadsword and shield. It felt strange to wield them without her Armour running. Like they didn't quite fit in her naked hands.

  Looking around, Keldryn had his Ghastreaper Scythe out. Nya and Sendo had both released their kusarigamas. Banki had equipped a long, thin staff, and she recognised Treft's High Keytar. Kaizen had summoned a katana, while Irin had produced two of them. Geum was gripping a massive orange lance in both hands, and Sekki had Mana crackling around his raised fists. Lydia had conjured bulky claws on her hands and feet, while Geri had, for some reason, conjured his entire bulky Armour Core.

  Musashibo stopped in front of Geri. "I said weapons only,"

  "My weapon is integrated with my armour, sir," he replied.

  "Oh?" They all paused to look at Geri's armour more closely. To Mikayla's eye, it was shaped like a beekeeper's garb, or perhaps a biohazard suit. It was covered in a hexagonal pattern that seemed to protrude outwards and sink inwards, and was she imagining the sensation that there was something roiling, moving, within?

  "Show me, then," Musashibo ordered. "Attack me,"

  "A-are you sure, sir?"

  "Boy, I've got sixty levels on you. I'll be very impressed if you can even damage me. Go on,"

  Geri nodded, raising his arms. Insects began pouring out of the holes in his armour, which Mikayla belatedly realised was a honeycomb. She'd been completely on point with the beekeeper resemblance; Geri's armour was a massive, walking beehive containing hundreds of tiny Bee Companions.

  How did that even work? He couldn't possibly have a Core for each of them. Could there be multiple functions Engraved onto a single Core?

  The countless hardlight insects swarmed around Musashibo's arm, stinging it all over. Focusing on it, Mikayla could see that each time one of them landed a sting, it immediately disintegrated, but more and more bees emerged from Geri's Armour Core - which a quick Identify told her was named Beekeeper - to replace the losses.

  And Musashibo didn't even flinch no matter how many times he was stung. "Enough," he retracted his arm, and the bees immediately flew back to Geri's walking hive without even a word. "Is that . . it?"

  "Well. Um. Yes. Sir," Geri stammered.

  ". . You'd better pay attention in this class," the weapon master gruffly commanded him, moving back to the middle of the line to resume instructing the class.

  "Look at your weapon. Really look at it. Think about how you use it. Your greatest successes, and the mistakes you've made with it,"

  Mikayla winced. She'd made plenty of mistakes back in Old Hedrang. She'd frozen up much too often, Nocturnus never missed an opportunity to call out her swordsmanship as clumsy - when fighting Flyreh, they'd caught him off guard when Nocturnus took over the swordplay because he was so much better at it than her. She needed to close that gap. It wasn't as though she could use the Blessing of Teamwork to let him take over in every fight; she'd burn through her Faith Point reserve in a week.

  "You all may think that the weapon you're holding is the one for you. The one that will never fail you, and you will never fail it. The one that will be in your hand when you die. And perhaps you're right," Musashibo was pacing again. "But perhaps you're wrong,"

  "Impossible," Mikayla heard Nya mutter.

  "Is that a challenge? I've taught a hundred little girls wielding that exact same kusarigama. Each and every one of them, it turned out that a different weapon suited them better. Some of them decided to heed their true calling. Others stuck stubbornly to their precious Template. Guess which ones tended to live," the weapon master sneered down at her.

  "That is what this class is all about. Over the course of this year, you all are going to try out every weapon known to the Goliath Guard and get good enough with all of them to know how to not stab yourself, at the very least,"

  "Um, sir, I don't really understand the logic to such a plan. Wouldn't it be better to determine which weapon fits us best and then practice with that?" Irin piped up, raising her hand somewhat belatedly.

  "And what happens if your Cores are destroyed or lost during a fight? What happens if you end up needing to save yourself with whatever comes to hand, whether that's an uprooted tree or the weapon of a fallen comrade - or an enemy? Take it from me, that happens more often than you might expect. This is a class that is all about giving you the skills and tools to ensure you will always be able to use any weapon, and to determine which suits you best. What you do with that knowledge is up to you,"

  Everyone in the class had the good sense not to say anything that would detract from that.

  "Today, we are going to start with one of the simplest yet most common weapons, one that has been extant since the dawn of civilisation," Musashibo plucked a Core from the racks and filled it with Mana. "The spear,"

  Mikayla's eyes widened. He hadn't slotted it into his Core Controller, he was simply holding it in one hand and brandishing the spear with another. She hadn't even been aware that it was possible to activate a Core just by channeling Mana into it while holding it.

  "Weapons down, everyone. Each of you, catch," In a flurry of quick movements, Musashibo had thrown a dozen Ambers into the air. Mikayla snatched the one that was aimed at her, and, taking the hint, screwed it into one of the open slots in her Core Gauntlet.

  With her Black Knight, Sword, Shield, Cannon, Blunderbuss and Motorbike, she still had two open slots at current. She still wanted one of them for a Companion Core. As for the other . . maybe it was good to keep an open slot for times like this. Or maybe, if the tentative plan about learning Engraving worked out, she could make herself whatever she needed to fill a flaw in her kit that she hadn't identified yet.

  Her Mana flowed into the Spear Core, and . . it was simple. Its inner workings were much more straightforward than any other Core she'd learned to use. There were even what felt like small guidelines carved into its internal channels to make sure she didn't activate it incorrectly. It really was a Core made for training. It took Mikayla only a few seconds to conjure a honey-coloured Spear in her hands, and most of her classmates had done it faster.

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  Musashibo had a spear of his own out, but not a training weapon. His was a massive pole that looked more like obsidian than hardlight, ending in a wickedly sharp tip. "Well done, everyone. Now, mimic my motions,"

  The next three hours of Mikayla's life was a steady escalation of basic to intermediate spear techniques. She tried her best, but if there was a single thing she'd learned from this class, it was that she was not suited to wielding a spear.

  And that was fine. She'd gotten quite attached to Nocturnus' old Sword Core, and was in no hurry to replace it.

  <=====}—o

  Once they'd showered and returned to the dormitories, Nya declared that right now, with their Mana channels drained from using Cores all day, was the perfect time for a session of Mana practice.

  Mikayla, who was rubbing her arms and legs to combat the echoing feeling of emptiness that reverberated through her body, whined, "Why now? I've barely got any Mana,"

  "Precisely. When you only have a little, it is much easier to learn to use it with precision. You are aware of how Mana regenerates, yes?"

  "No,"

  Nya pursed her lips. "It comes from your breath. There is magic in the air, and we take it into ourselves with every breath we take. Willpower is the metric that determines our Mana regeneration because we use our Willpower to lay claim to as much as we can of the Mana we take into our lungs,"

  Mikayla took a deep breath, but didn't feel any different. "I see,"

  "Now, focus. Gather up all of your Mana into a little ball inside your right hand," Mikayla obeyed the instructions, pushing aside her frustration that the long day was just getting longer, and spent several minutes teasing out Mana from nooks and crannies all over her channels and into her hand.

  "Done," she finally reported.

  "Good. Run it through your channels. All of them. Go down each of your fingers, then up your arm, then across to your other arm and hand. Then all over your torso, legs, feet, tail - er, not that one, nevermind - and finally up into your head. And do it all while moving your body as little as possible,"

  Nodding and doing her best to clear her mind, Mikayla got to work. There wasn't just one channel in each of her limbs, it was a whole network that ran through her body, looping back on itself over and over. While she didn't know much about human anatomy, she suspected that comparing her channels with her veins would be a perfect match.

  It took half an hour of gruelling focus, but once she'd finished the exercise, she felt . . not exactly invigorated, still bone tired. But less congested, in a certain sense. It was as though she was breathing more easily, a sensation of freedom that almost made it feel like the strain had been worth it. Even if it was a massive pain in the ass, she could sense that doing this on the regular would slowly improve her ability to control her vital energies.

  Well, wasn't that just the fundamental nature of how exercise worked?

  <=====}—o

  After dinner, Mikayla engaged in a ritual that she'd sorely missed since coming to this world, one that was a biological necessity for the mental wellbeing of the modern teenage girl.

  Lying in bed and texting a friend.

  [SCHOOL'S BEEN PRETTY OKAY. WAY MORE VIOLENT THAN I'M USED TO. BUT I KINDA EXPECTED THAT.]

  [YEP, YOU'LL GET USED TO IT. ]

  It had taken exactly one use of emoticons for Asika to comprehend the concept and adopt them. Mikayla just hoped she didn't spread that to her entire species.

  [SO HAVE YOU ASKED KELDIE OUT YET?]

  . . why exactly had she missed girl talk texting, again?

  [THAT'S A LOT OF ASSUMPTIONS YOU JUST MADE.]

  [OH?]

  [FIRSTLY, I'VE BEEN SINGLE MY WHOLE LIFE AND I HAVE WAY BIGGER PROBLEMS THAN RELATIONSHIPS. SECONDLY, KELDIE'S GREAT BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I'M INTERESTED IN HIM. YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW FOR SURE THAT I LIKE BOYS.]

  [SO YOU'RE ACTUALLY LUSTING AFTER ME?! I'M HONOURED! :3]

  Mikayla's eye twitched and a frustrated noise slipped out of her throat. God - er, Frank Axe, Asika could be infuriating.

  "Problems with your friend in the little glowing box?" Nya asked from her side of the room. Mikayla had explained and demonstrated the concept of texting, but it was a bit too far outside Nya's frame of reference for her to really appreciate its appeal.

  "She's being mean," Mikayla sulked with exaggerated petulance.

  "Then stop talking to her," the yaoguai replied, entirely seriously.

  "Mm, nah. Sometimes a bit of meanness is fun," She did need to change the topic, though.

  [I'M NOT GOING TO DIGNIFY THAT WITH A RESPONSE. ANYWAY. HEY, I'VE BEEN WONDERING THIS FOR A WHILE AND FORGOT TO ASK BEFORE. WHY DOES CHARISMA AFFECT HEALTH REGENERATION?]

  [SOMETHING HAD TO.] was Asika's response.

  [THAT'S IT? NO DEEPER MEANING? IT WAS JUST THE ONE LEFT OVER?]

  [THAT'S RIGHT!]

  Mikayla stared at the screen for a long moment. [THAT'S STUPID.]

  [SO'S THE THING WHERE MORTALS TALK BY SLAPPING WET MEAT TOGETHER BUT I DON'T JUDGE YOU FOR THAT. ]

  A skeptical eyebrow went up. [AND YOU'RE SO MUCH LESS WEIRD.]

  [DARN RIGHT I AM! :3]

  Mikayla rolled her eyes and chuckled. [OH ALSO, THANKS FOR PRAYING TO ME. DEFINITELY NEED THAT.]

  There was a pause, long enough that Mikayla was concerned.

  Finally, Asika responded. [UH. NOT THAT I DISAGREE. BUT I HAVEN'T BEEN PRAYING TO YOU. I CAN'T. AS A FAERIE MY FAITH IS LOCKED IN TO THE COSMIC SCALES.]

  Mikayla sat up. "What?"

  "What's wrong?" Nya stood.

  "Demigod thing. Hang on. Access Demigod System," Mikayla commanded.

  [DEMIGOD SYSTEM ACTIVATED. WELCOME, INHERITOR.]

  [ERROR: THE GOD 'god/teamwork/rainbow_ouroboros' DOES NOT EXIST IN THE DIVINITY REGISTRY. ALL FUNCTIONS RELATED TO PATRON INTERVENTION ARE UNAVAILABLE.]

  [AS A LIVING MORTAL, YOU DO NOT MEET THE PREREQUISITES FOR POSTHUMOUS APOTHEOSIS.]

  [YOUR CURRENT WORSHIPPER COUNT IS: 4.]

  [YOUR CURRENT DOMAINS ARE: {TEAMWORK}]

  [YOUR CURRENT DIVINITY RANK IS: RANK 0 (MORTAL).]

  [YOUR CURRENT FAITH POINT TOTAL IS: 3,090.]

  Mikayla counted the days, then looked at her Faith Points. It had been ten days since she'd revealed her status to Nya. "Hey, Nya, you've been praying to me, right?"

  "Of course. I would not neglect a responsibility of that sort,"

  "Right. So if you, Keldryn and Anza are all praying to me, then," Mikayla grabbed her phone. [IT SAYS I HAVE FOUR WORSHIPPERS. NYA, KELDRYN AND ANZA MAKE THREE. IF YOU'RE NOT NUMBER FOUR, THEN WHO IS?]

  Again, there was a distressingly long pause. [I DON'T KNOW.] Asika finally responded.

  [CAN YOU FIND OUT?]

  [UNLIKELY. THERE ARE SO MANY DIVINE LAWS TO PROTECT PEOPLE'S FREEDOM OF RELIGION. I'M NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO KNOW HOW TO FIND THAT OUT. SORRY. YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO SOLVE THAT MYSTERY ON YOUR OWN.]

  Mikayla grumbled to herself. [GOTCHA. OH WELL, THANKS ANYWAY.]

  Who would have thought that living the life of an isekai fantasy heroine would be so darn complicated?