"So… what about your side of the story? What all did you accomplish in the past 6 months?" Leo asked Ben, who shrugged his shoulders to play it cool, however, the smile on his face gave it away.
"I've found the key to becoming a grandmaster warrior boy. The secrets of the Assassin Clans that controlled these lands before the Empire was even established.
The next stage of [Mirror World]
The next stage of [Kill Strike]
And
The first stage of [Shape-Shift]
I've found them all" Ben said, as Leo nodded with his eyes wide, clearly impressed by Ben's findings.
"We searched for these treasures for 6 months straight, it was by no means easy. But Teacher Ben here was determined to find them and someday pass them on to you" Lin Mu said, as a soft smile spread on Leo's face under his mask.
"Teacher Ben?" Leo asked, as Ben waved the question off.
"The girl is skilled so I gave her some guidance" Ben said, as Leo did not probe into the arrangement anymore.
The fact that she only called Ben 'Teacher' and not 'Master' meant that she wasn't a chosen disciple, but Leo was happy that Ben trained her regardless, as he knew that Lin Mu had suffered a lot when working for Dem Paltrow.
"Expect to return to Mount Faulkner boy, for some good old training once you're free from this rebel nonsense.
For the two of us have to master the secrets I've just uncovered" Ben said, as Leo gave him a thumbs up sign.
"I plan to wrap this nonsense up within the next three months master. Do not worry, now that I know you're alive, I don't have to make this as painful on the opponents as before" Leo said, as Ben being alive really gave him a lot of leeway on how he wanted to execute his revenge.
"What do you mean? How are you planning to conquer the entire Empire in the next three months?" Ben asked, as Leo simply smiled but did not respond.
It was absurd to think that one man could conquer the entire Empire within 90 short days, however, Leo had a solid plan of execution.
If everything worked in his favor, he had the confidence to conquer the Empire within the next 90 days, however, he did not wish to voice his ideas just yet, fearing that Ben might call him insane.
"Leave such boring details to me master, you're finally back to civilization after such a long time, you should focus on having a drink and relaxing with me.
The serious questions can wait till later–" Leo said, as he did not want to talk business anymore and only wanted to enjoy Ben's company which he had missed thoroughly over the months.
Relenting, Ben agreed to his request, as Leo ordered the best liquor for them both.
Many things had changed over the past 6 months, with Leo now becoming a master warrior and a rebel leader, however, the bond between the two remained the same.
Unchanged by changing times.
*********
(Meanwhile, PinkLotus)
After suffering a defeat in sparring against Leo, PinkLotus worked hard to improve her skills within the game world, focusing heavily on short-range, high-speed combat, which had previously been her weak suit.
She wasn't accustomed to close-quarters fighting, where every second counted, and each movement had to be precise and deliberate. But that fault in her fighting style only ignited her determination to improve even more.
She felt that somehow her reflexes were slower compared to Leo in close-combat and hence, after paying a hefty MP fee to the system, she asked for the best method to train her reflexes in return.
The system guided her towards a secluded spot on the game map, where in the middle of a dense forest a waterfall cascaded down into a secluded pool, and her task there was to slice the mist coming off from the waterfall, with each mist particle that she missed to be considered as a hit on her body.
To begin training, she first had to send a powerful sword slash towards the waterfall, slicing it's flow in half, which led the subsequent fall of water to produce thicker mist particles, that could be sliced clean by a swords width.
A rock was uniquely positioned at the perfect distance near the waterfall, whereby, PinkLotus had to slice just the perfect amount of hits that a master swordsman should be able to handle, giving her the ideal environment to train her reflexes.
*Slash*
*Splash*
At first, she could not slice through more than a couple mist droplets without finding herself drenched in water, however, slowly she realized that it was not about slicing each water droplets coming her way as fast as possible, but rather analyzing their direction and choosing sword arcs that could slice through the most amount of water drops at once, without any wasted energy.
In essence, improving her reflexes was not just a matter of improving her physical speed, but rather her read of the situation and her brain capacity to process such information as fast as she could.
Once she realized this, her training progressed smoothly, albeit not as fast as she was used to, as despite training for over half a month, she could not even slice through 30% of the droplets at once.
However, just this short improvement in her fighting style was undoubtedly a giant leap forward for her as a warrior as she had began to make-up ground on what was her biggest weakness at this time.
If she could only improve her reflex to match that of 'TheBoss', she had the confidence to humiliate him in battle which was her ultimate goal.
"You just wait…. Within the next three months I will challenge you to a spar all over again…. And this time I will win for sure!" PinkLotus said to herself as she gave herself a new deadline to beat Leo.
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/// A/N - Mass Release Chapter 3 of 5, hope you enjoyed it! ///