"How have you three been all this time? I know we exchanged letters and all, but I guess there's nothing like listening to it in person." Mom asked as she let go of the hug.
"Not much has happened. The typical adventurer stuff, killing monsters here and there, getting paid. That's about the gist of it." Uncle Ross sounded tired and even had bags under his eyes, with a dry voice that made you wonder if he needed water.
"Oh jeez, is it impossible for you to show some excitement? You always sound so colorful in your letters, how hard can it be to do that in person?" Mom questioned with a pouty face I don't think I've seen before, she looked cute.
"No can do. Perpetual tiredness is my best quality." Uncle Ross responded in such a dry and serious-sounding way that it was hard to tell if he was joking or not.
""Hahaha""The three sisters began laughing at their brother's words.
"It's so like Ross to make a joke sound so serious." The woman with green skin commented.
"Honestly, I just think he has pent-up mommy issues, but he won't admit it even after I told him I know someone who can help him." The cowgirl added.
"On the Great Seven, you two are so mean to our little brother, bullying him like that in front of the whole family." Mom retorted.
"It's tough love and he needs it." The green woman declared while puffing out her flat chest.
"Rather than tough love, I would say it's more along the lines of sisterly love, and it helps him with his mommy issues, so he likes it, right Ross?" The cowgirl added.
"Why did I agree to come here again?" Maintaining his dry tone, uncle Ross inquired.
Laughter erupted as everyone took what he said as a joke leaving him to sigh, poor guy...
"You girls... It feels like we never left the old house... Anyway, let's continue this conversation inside before I get called a bad host behind my back." Mom announced and everyone went inside.
Once inside the conversation continued.
"Well, when it comes to me I've mostly just been doing my part and helping the elves in the Hurlmin forest keep things in order, and that aside I've been supplying Amora with Nymph bathwater. On this topic, how are the Nymph water sales?" My green-skinned aunt said.
"Gee Numia, way to let out our business secret. Though I must say the sales are at an all-time high because of the recent increase in nobility around this area." Mom responded.
"It's not really a secret to anyone in here." Aunt Numia replied.
"I guess so, but you shouldn't speak of such things so casually. Anyway, Litia, how about you? How's the farm going?" Mom reprimanded.
"Oh, nothing much really. I've been doing what I basically I've done for a long while now, a pretty boring routine if you ask me. Business wise things have improved a lot though because of this husband of yours, she makes some juicy deals, that keep you wanting more." Aunt Litia smiled as she spoke.
"Language." Mom warned.
"It's nice to know it's helping..." Dad said while smiling awkwardly.
"I said nothing, but the truth." Aunt Litia refused to back down.
"How are we related?" Uncle Ross interjected.
"True, I at least always introduce people when I bring them over." Aunt Litia retorted.
This prompted the attention to be on the until now silent three women sitting next to uncle Ross.
"Hum... I guess I have to somewhat agree with that, forgive me for my rudeness, but in between the family reunion moments so far, I couldn't find an opportunity to introduce my party members and companions." Uncle Ross got up and so did the girls.
"First we have Timina, she's our party's tank and her ability with the sword and shield can always be counted on. Also, she's a pretty big fan of dad." Uncle Ross spoke and a woman with brown hair and grey eyes stepped forward.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet Ross' family, and as he said I'm Timina, Timina Lockhart, of the knight family Lockhart. I've heard of the exploits of the monster enticer, Taming Sage Chandra." Timina introduced herself with clear excitement in her eyes.
A sage, huh? That's the title they give to individuals who are as proficient in their respective field as a Diamond-ranked adventurer is strong, and even the weakest of them could destroy a city on their own, while the strongest of them could level mountains. Though in the grand scheme of things both of those are only the peak of the mid-tier in their respective ranking systems.
"A fan? Hahaha! I'm far too old for that, I'm not even as capable as I used to be anymore, that praise and admiration no longer serves someone like me." Grandpa responded with a somewhat weak but sincere smile on her face.
"Of course you do! Even time can't simply erase the accomplishments of a heroine such as yourself, at least not for as long as people like me exist to remember that greatness!" Timina answered with a flare in her eyes and intensity in her voice, the passion was clear.
"In that case, I can't just reject that level of appropriation, and I must admit, it is in a sense comforting to know that my actions will not so easily be lost to time, even when I'm gone. You have my gratitude young lady. You got a good one, Ross, if I were yo-" Grandpa smiled more vividly while replying to Timina, before turning to Ross and getting interrupted when grandma pinched her.
"What is it?!... You're not going to tell me you're jealous of a youngster?" Grandpa inquired.
"Hmph! As if I'd be jealous of an old hag." Grandma acted rather childishly.
"Seriously woman?! How do you manage to be worst then the children?!" Grandpa got irritated.
Their conversation immediately turned into a heated argument, mom had to stop before sending them off to cool down for a bit. This was a relatively common occurrence when it came to our grandparents.
"Sorry about that.... You can go on and introduce the rest of the girls." Mom rubbed her temple as she stated.
Fortunately, Timina seemed to be too lost in the fact that grandpa thanked her to pay attention to anything else.
"Following up, there's Roshva our party's healer always there for those in need... For the right price... I mean she's such an angel, just look at her." Uncle Ross proceeded to introduce the next one.
"That's me living for gold... People, I meant people. It's me Roshva Issvolt, at your service." Roshva had a voice full of energy which was a contrast to Uncle Ross.
"Moving on, there's Ermidia our party's attacker or frontliner, please do not get on her bad side, her hits might induce coma." Once again it was hard to know if Uncle Ross was joking or not, but considering the situation, probably not.
"Ermidia Pargloy, it is a pleasure." Ermidia didn't say much and was serious in both tone and expression.
After that, the party started, and things went smoothly as everyone seemed to be having their fair share of fun. It was a nice break from the everyday routine, and things started to get more amicable once people got drunk. It all continued until quite late into the night.
-The next day-
The morning routine was the same as yesterday, but once that was over, I was taken to an open area near the town, where uncle Ross and his party were waiting. Though something unexpected happened, as I was not alone but accompanied by Lilian and Crystal.
"Why are we here, mom?" Crystal asked while pointing to herself and then to Lilian.
"Yesterday after you went to sleep me and your father talked to Ross and he suggested this. He said it will help you with discipline and also it's good to know how to keep yourself safe just in case." Mom answered.
The girls tried to complain but mother didn't back down in the slightest, leaving us here with uncle Ross and his party.
"Ok, I'll keep it simple. This will be divided into three parts, armed combat training with me, unarmed combat training with Ermidia, and general physical training with both. Now, as a weapon master, you can use all types of weapons, but you can only truly specialize in three. If you want to be weapon masters, pick three weapons, if not pick one. Oh, and if you don't know what weapon to pick, I can help you find out which one you have the best aptitude for." Uncle Ross explained before grabbing an ordinary-looking small slack on his waist and opening it to drop a bunch of wooden weapons of all kinds... I think I saw a dildo sword buried among the pile of wooden weapons.
It was pretty common for weapon masters to carry an absurd or at least have an absurd amount of weapons in their collection.
For me, it wasn't hard to choose since I already knew what weapons I wanted for myself, and honestly, three is the perfect number for me.
After looking in the pile of weapons for a while, I found a wooden scythe, then I walked up to uncle Ross.
"Is that your weapon of choice?" He questioned.
"Yes, but I also want chains with a spear tip, one for each arm... Oh and if possible... Can I have a formless weapon?" I inquired.
"Interesting! That's quite greedy of you... But you know what? I like it! And while I, unfortunately, don't just have a formless weapon to spare on me right now, I know where I can get one. If it's fine by you, you could start with the other two weapons while you wait for this one, which will take about half a year or you could just choose something else." Despite his dead-sounding voice, his excitement was palpable.
"I'll just wait." I replied. A formless weapon has too much going for it to just pass on. A weapon that can turn into any other weapon is always going to be a resourceful tool.
"Good. Just let me help your sisters get done choosing and we can actually start doing something." Uncle Ross said before going to talk with my sisters.
Some time had to be put into it, but eventually my sisters each found a weapon that felt at home in their hands. Lilian got a Japanese katana and Crystal got a rapier, currently only wooden versions though. At the end of it, uncle Ross gave me the chains with a spear tip, which I'll just call chain-spear for short.
"Now, that you've chosen your weapons, let's start with a little spar. Come at me with all you've got otherwise I'll tell your mother her kids are slacking off and make your lives a lot harder." Uncle Ross announced with an evil smile.
"What?! That's not fair!" Crystal was the first to complain.
"Yeah! You can't just do that!" Lilian followed.
"Oh, I can and I will if you don't go 100%, and don't take it too personally, think of it as an initiation to real life." For someone who sounded lifeless, he had quite the energy to sound demonic.
Not really having anything to say, I stayed silent.
"Well, that settled Zandrius come at me with whichever weapon you feel more comfortable holding right now." He commanded.
At the moment the thought of using chains felt weird especially considering my first the weapon was a dagger, so I picked the scythe.
Ermidia took the role of referee giving us the starting signal.
"Begin!" She announced.
"How many seconds do you think he'll last? I would bet 5 bronze in 5 seconds." Roshva commented.
"It is too early to judge the kid, but I doubt he would be able to go beyond 10 seconds even if he were to be a genius." Timina gave her thoughts.
"The goober is really strong, so I don't think Uncle Ross can beat him that ealisy." Crystal joined in the conversation.
"It's true! Zandrius is really cool! There's no way he'll lose like that." Lilian added.
They already concluded so much even though we didn't even start, only Timina seems to be thinking of seeing how it goes, but also has a conclusion in mind, then again, uncle Ross is a Gold-rank adventurer, so of course, I'll lose within seconds unless he feels like playing around with me.
"So, what are you waiting for? You're the one being tested here." Uncle Ross urges me.
True.
Having that in mind I rush toward him scythe in hand and ready to reap. The moment I was close enough, I used bullet time and swung at him ready to change my movements if necessary.
"As expected, you're just swinging that thing with no real idea as to why. Though I can't blame you, very few beginners know the purpose of their weapons, and even many experienced combatants lack that understanding." Uncle Ross began criticizing me immediately before dodging my attack nonchalantly.
And as I moved to follow up on the attack, I was met with a kick to my stomach strong to send a wave of wind from the cheer force it had. Naturally, I began coughing up and almost let out the contents of my breakfast, but was able to regain composure and take in the pain.
"3 seconds, just as predicted, if you cowards had accepted my bet I would have made 15 bronze, what a waste!" Roshva complained.
"This Ross... He's a child! You didn't have to kick him that strongly!" Though she said that, Timina was staring at me with wariness.
"Even though I went out of my way to compliment him... This loser..." Crystal had deep disappointment written all over her face.
"Is he ok?... And.... His eyes weren't even glowing this time.... Uncle Ross is scary... Will he hit us that hard?" Lilian mumbled to herself.
"Don't worry, I'll be your opponent, Ross is terrible at holding back, so he might actually harm you, but since Zandrius had an abnormally well-trained physique, especially considering his age. It's not that bad for him." Ermidia was the one to respond.
Finally, I got up.
"Are you trying to kill me?" I asked.
"Not even one bit. Don't worry, you'll get used to it, after all, the training begins now." Uncle Ross answered as he approached me with an evil smile. I might have made a mistake by allowing this monster to be my teacher...