Chapter 23: Chapter 22: Training ends

By the fourth night everyone, bar Lillim, was exhausted. Dark circles surrounded their eyes, their limbs felt heavy and they ached more than their VIT stats could ease. They were all undeniably stronger, Lillim’s knowledge and resources had helped them all grow in every way.

It wasn’t just power either. “For you four, you have exams coming up if I’m not mistaken. You are all students of mine, so nothing less than perfection is acceptable and so… During the day time you train, during the night you study…”

“And when do we sleep and eat?” Carl had asked with bitter anticipation of the answer.

“When you can attain perfection in your sleep.” Lillim had answered, in a blunt and surprised tone, wondering internally if she hadn’t been clear about her standards.

They shuffled through the portal, arriving into the cramped wardrobe of Carl’s bedroom, it wouldn’t usually have been possible, but they had Lillim to open a portal directly to it without needing one of the pets to be at the receiving end.

“You know it feels quite nice to appear here without having those posturing humans trying to intimidate me.” Lillim declared as the portal closed and she slide the wardrobe open.

As they bundled out and the bedroom door hissed open, Leanna, Alisha and Danielle were all relieved and charged their two children. As the three women fussed over them, Carl and Klaire told Alysse and Gillian that it might be best for them to go back to their own places if they wanted to eat and sleep anytime soon.

They didn’t need to be told twice, it was obvious to them that the aggressive affections weren’t being halted anytime soon.

“Mums, please we’re exhausted and starving, we’ve barely eaten the last eight days. Can we please get food and sleep?”

The three women glared at Lillim, with a bravery they had never shown before, but Lydia was unusually defensive of her. “Seriously ladies, don’t scorn the process without learning the results. All four of those kids put what we could to at their age to shame.”

“What do you mean? They’re all talented, certainly, but they were no where near that point.” Leanna asked without a hint of the superiority the statement suggested, after all, they were exceptional in every way.

“Four days fighting hell-spawn beasts, then when they reached the level thresholds your sisters would bring whatever they needed to level up. Klaire no longer deals in EXP either, must be the patch, but those two managed to cultivate themselves as well.”

“What!? What level are they now?” Danielle asked in a “I don’t want to know how many ways Klaire isn’t my little ankle-biter anymore” kind of way.

“Well the stubborn boy is now level one-hundred and thirty-six, that delightful half-gnome girl is level one-hundred, Kla-”

“I’m level fifty which might not sound like much of a bump, but…”

“But when we consider the difference that even five levels made to Carl’s build, you’re a monster too.” Leanna said patting Danielle on the back to comfort.

“Carl, do we even want to know?”

“I’m level fifteen. To be honest I didn’t get much… A couple extra pet slots and jobs, but no skills or abilities… I did get a new talent and title though, thanks to the others being too lazy or dangerous to cook… The title is “House-Husband” the talent is “Housekeeping”. I guess that’s what happens when you’re raised by Mum Leanna.” He chuckled.

The others stared briefly, then erupted into laughter, Carl hardly ever cooked even though he had been taught and was quite talented. He cleaned thoroughly, but only because Leanna was such a neat-freak he had panic attacks at the idea of her coming home and finding a mess.

“Oh… wow… That’s really… Great…” Danielle said from behind the hand she was using to physically hold back the laughter.

“Cheers guys. If you don’t mind, I’m gonna cook some dinner and then get ready for bed.” Carl grumbled sarcastically.

He didn’t cook anything elaborate just something that would fill their bellies before getting to bed. “Need help?” Klaire asked, earning looks of disbelief from the adults who hadn’t seen her trying so hard to improve those basic domestic abilities.

“No Klaire, you sit d-”

“Yes please, you’re really coming along, you just need to stop getting distracted. So could every else go and take a seat please…” Carl said, cutting Danielle off.

The adults didn’t argue, just zombie-walked over to the couch.

As the two of them cooked, the parents couldn’t help but feel a little sad at watching their children change so much in a short time, but they were also incredibly proud of them. It was clear that they had reached the stage where they had finally decided to stop acting like children, not because of everything that happened but because it is what they wanted to do.

While that was happening, Alysse and Gillian were headed to their dorms. They had become quite close the past week, in fact they all had, Lillim insisted on making them bond into a proper household. “Even we Crowns, the ruling class of the nine hell realms are as family. No faction, realm, house or alliance can expect to last without some form of deeper bond.”

“Hey Alysse, I know we’re gonna be getting pulled all over trying to put things right but I can’t wait, is that just me being an idiot again or what?”

“Probably, but I must admit, it feels good to have a purpose beyond just crafting for the sake of upping my level.” She grinned, happy to not be isolated in the workshop anymore. “Wait a minute! Is that who I think it is?” She raised her finger to point and Gillian followed it.

“Oh you have got to be shitting me, what the hell are they doing back here? Best message them quick, if Klaire gets caught off-guard bumping into them she might destroy half the SAT-Station.” Gillian half-chuckled as he pulled out his slate.

“Hey guys! Sorry to interrupt catch-up time with the folks, but the jerks are back.” He sent the message and a few seconds later Klaire responded.

“You just distracted me while we’re cooking! This better be worth it Gil! Which jerks?” Klaire replied after being scolded for instantly getting distracted after Carl told her not to.

“What do you mean which jerks!? The jerks who broke you two up… DUH!” Gillian replied, suddenly grateful that he and Klaire were on much better terms since she would have probably shot him for that before.

“Oh right… Where abouts? Just gonna kiss Carl goodbye and I’ll meet you there. If you help me clean up the bodies I’ll owe ya one!” Klaire replied, already kissing Carl who had no idea what was happening as her armour began to seep out from her ring.

“Guys! WHY!? Why would you tell her that!?” The message from Carl was enough, they didn’t need to be there to know she was not joking.

In the end, they decided to wait on standby, not to fulfil her request but to save her from kick-starting the real human-hybrid war. It was no secret that the people in question weren’t just pure-blooded humans, but some relatives of one of the Committee’s members. Whether they wanted payback for it or not, the only one who could go for it and not cause issue was Carl himself and he was being painfully mature about it.

Finally after a tense minute, their slates made the usual dinging noise and they opened the message with anticipation. “Warhead Klaire officially disarmed, tell them I want to have a meeting with them tomorrow, Grandma just gave me permission to go nuclear my own way…”

Gillian and Alysse were not reassured by that, Carl was being mature, but that did not mean he wasn’t pissed beyond words. Carl could easily wipe out most of the station himself already his five-digit states were higher than some instructors and to make it worse he had his two pets and before long he would have two more, possibly a chimera as one.

Gillian thought about that, then grinned. “HEY! Matthew! How’s it going dick!?”

The words made Alysse chuckle, they were understandably not as angry as the two victims, but he still put their friends through hell. They could barely contain their amusement as he arrogantly swaggered toward them.

“What did you call me?” He asked the question bitterly as he reached Gillian, trying to shove up but failing miserably in light of Gillian’s advanced stats. The most basic advantage of their training was that they no longer restrained themselves using the system, they had simply developed their fine control to the point they could do what it did intuitively.

The feat was only possible thanks to the fact they had been engaged in training against foes which were so much more powerful, they had experience their power from full to depleted so intensely that they simply understood it better than anyone who had only used it in the confines of their education.

“I called you “Dick”. Did you think I was gonna talk to you with respect after what you did? Oh, but don’t worry, I’m not the one you have to worry about. Carl wants to have a word with you tomorrow… Actually, wait a minute yeah, just need to make sure you don’t chicken out… Alysse if you would be my camera woman please.” He chuckled as Alysse grinned and set her slate to record.

“Hello everyone, it’s me, your man Gillian. I’m here with the dummy who broke up Carl and Klaire, as I’m sure many of you know from the pic of them in the park, those crazy kids are back together! Congrats guys, for real. Anyway, back to business…. Carl has called him out, now don’t get me wrong, pretty sure he just wants to give him some good news, but I wanted proof he chickened out if he doesn’t show up tomorrow. Thank you Alysse, you’re a gem.”

“What good news is it that Carl would like to share exactly?” Matthew asked through gritted teeth and wounded pride at the implication he would hide from a boy who can’t get passed level one.

“Well if I tell you, what reason would you have to go? He didn’t state a place, so let’s sayyyyy the enhancers sparring floor before starting assembly? It has more of a chance of surviving if it comes to that. Oh! you should probably watch your attitude his STR is about thirty-thousand now… I’m in triple digits and he beats me in full beast mode.” Gillian laughed casually, patting him on the shoulder playfully as he gestured for Alysse to lead the way.

Matthew was sweating, he had been tasked with getting the human with a plus away from hybrid hands, Carl was level one back then and not a threat if things went south. In that moment, he suddenly understood why his father had asked him to break them up and the suicidal aspect of the mission he should have turned down.

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