After collecting the reward money, telling the towns guard that the party had been killed because there were more Tnepers then the posting said and eating a good lunch Azemo was back in his room lazing around with Ima and Bella.
The two monsters were just lying around while Azemo was flipping through his tome looking at all the advancements he had made.
It seemed that his low tier magycka had been a bottleneck that had not allowed many of his skills to upgrade.
The skills that had upgraded were: (uncommon skill) Degrade, (basic skill) Incognito, (rare skill) Flames of Death and (legendary skill) Retaliate.
Degrade now was able to work without most targets noticing the invasion of foreign mana. Of course someone who was an expert with managing their mana would notice the attack.
Incognito had levelled up twice thanks to the constant use of it in the human areas. It could now disguise Azemo as well as two willing monsters or demons. It still could not radically change the look of someone but it was able to make Ima and Bella look like normal cats. They did not even need to be super close to Azemo so the two were able to run about and explore places that monsters would normally never be allowed in.
Flames of Death had upgraded so that it was able to be cast before the caster received any injuries. While it was extremely mana consuming it allowed Azemo to be more aggressive and take more injuries because the flames would actively seek out and heal any wounds he sustained. 'A pre heal!'
A skill that comboed well with the new Flames of death was Retaliate. Now the bonus power was double the damage that was dealt to Azemo. Also even attacks that Azemo blocked could trigger Retaliate. That meant that Azemo would constantly get stronger as a fight progressed because every attack he parried would make his next attack even more powerful.
The biggest upgrade of all was that Shadows Call had grown to Intermediate tier and Azemo could feel more mana coursing through him and his eyes were even more ferocious than usual. As for how the magycka actually upgraded he could now teleport familiar objects no matter if he was touching them or not. He was still limited to two objects but now he did not have to worry about retrieving his knife.
As for the loot he obtained, Azemo was actually almost wealthy. While his three dead party members did not keep their entire life savings on them they still had a considerable amount in their coin purses.
Overall he now had around four hundred gold pieces, six hundred silver pieces and seven hundred copper coins. The odd shiny coin, that Azemo had found in the Zepsile lair, did not seem to be a type of currency because Azemo had never seen another like it.
'I'm rich!' To Azemo the amount of money was extraordinary and he felt it was enough to make it to the capital but his experience in the forest showed him something he needed to fix before he left Fresk.
Obviously his gauntlets were not normal and they even caused Nose and Short hair to attack him for them. Not to mention the gauntlets did not have the best range and he did not want to use them on every weak monster. Of course he had his knife but Azemo realized he would need to gain mastery of another weapon.
'How about the spear.' Seeing Short hair in action had shown him the power of the spear and Azemo had gotten a spear from the Zepsile's cave. Azemo took out the spear and looked at it.
It seemed to be plain metal but it was extremely light and Azemo knew it had survived the full force of the Zepsile's combustion. As for the tip of the spear it was more like a small dagger than anything else, all sides of the blade were sharpened and the tip curved into a small hook.
Azemo tried swinging the spear around but felt ridiculous as he almost tripped and fell. He tried again but this time the bottom of the spear hit the ground at the wrong time and he actually fell over. Imagine and Bella rolled around laughing and were sure to remind Azemo of this failure whenever they could.
"I guess I need to find a teacher, I better ask around."
"You guess? You definitely need one." Ima chuckled.
Azemo decided to think about it in the morning and after Ima and Bella settled down the three went to sleep.
In the morning at breakfast Azemo brought up his question to Sawell.
"Hey Sawell, do you know if there are any good teachers of the spear? After my quest I want to learn how to use one."
"You are calling it a quest now? I am sure you can find one if you ask around." Sawell was in a good mood because Azemo had given him lots of rare Tneper heads.
"Try the military academy they have a lot of good teachers and you don't even have to join the army if you have enough money."
"Thanks Sawell."
Of course Azemo was finished eating because that was his second best skill. After talking a bit more and introducing Sawell to the cat versions of Ima and Bellania, Azemo headed out towards the military academy. He had made sure to get directions before he had left, he didn't want to seem like an idiot after all and he was unaware that Sawell already thought he was.
As he approached the academy he saw that a large crowd was gathering around the entrance. When he asked someone what the crowd was for they said it was because some experts had returned from the war and youngsters were signing up for the chance to be trained by them.
Azemo quickly hurried forward and signed up for the spear trial the next day. High ranking participants would get better teaching and even some funding to advance their techniques.
Azemo also wanted to make sure that none of the teachers were anyone he recognized from the great war and luckily there were none that he did.
At the moment the trial for swordsman was happening and Azemo decided to watch for a while.
The whole trial was somewhat ordinary to Azemo. Trainees were running around an obstacle course dodging wooden arrows and displaying any talents they thought impressive.
Trainees that found each other in the course would duke it out hoping that they could send a competitor out of the competition.
After watching for some time Azmo was only worried about one thing. Since he wanted to train the spear he was only allowed to use the spear in the test.
That night Azemo failed again whenever he practiced the spear but practice he did and the sleep he was rewarded with was extra nice.