"P-Prince Exedra! W-what are you doing here?!"
Valerie was utterly shocked when instead of meeting with her friend turned noble woman Lisa, she was instead meeting with the most talked about man in the entire world!
The Blessed One!
The Red Prince!
Vovin!
He had many names among the people but Valerie only knew him as the husband of her best friend and the first man she'd ever been embarrassed in front of.
This was the last person she wanted to see!
He'd just come sauntering into the private training room seemingly without a care in the world.
And Mira was in his arms too! What if she gave her away again?
"Lisa is… resting, so if you don't mind I am meeting you in her place."
"O-oh is that so.."
Seeing how uncomfortable Valerie was, Exedra thought maybe she didn't like him for some reason.
Her aura was currently a sickly green and yellow which usually indicated displeasure.
"If you are displeased with me I can-"
"N-no! Of course not!"
Seeing as how her aura changed color from the sickly green to a blue for worry, Exedra was now thoroughly confused.
'Maybe I don't understand women as well as I thought I did.' The woman in front of him was an enigma for sure.
"Well, what were you supposed to be meeting Lisa about?"
"Right!" Valerie's eyes suddenly regained their intense light and she pulled out a golden trident engraved with runes from her storage ring.
"The one she has now is just a prototype but this is my true masterpiece! I call it Raiton!"
Valerie spoke with a confidence and a pride that Exedra hadn't seen before.
"May I?" Exedra placed Mira down and reached for the glimmering weapon.
"Of course."
Valerie promptly handed him the spear and he could feel the exquisite craftsmanship immediately.
'Analyze.'
< Raiton : Unique Grade.
- + 1,800 to all stats when used by someone with the lightning element.
- Can be bound to its user.
Exedra let out an impressed whistle from his mouth.
This woman not only could forge unique grade weapons, she could even draw runes that gave them additional effects as well.
'With talent like this how has she possibly gone unnoticed until now?'
"Stand back." Exedra ordered and the two girls immediately ran off to the side and watched him.
Exedra took a deep breath and channeled electricity into his body.
During his months away, Seras had taught him three techniques to enhance his lethality in combat and one of those was the piercing sun spear art.
Developed by Seras herself, it imbued a dragon's natural flames into destructive spear thrusts that had the power to blow a hole in mountains when he used it at its full power.
And if Seras were the one to use it… bye bye mountain altogether.
But Exedra suddenly wondered about what would happen if he used electricity instead of fire.
Careful to use only a minimal amount of power so as not to completely destroy the training room, Exedra began to channel red lightning into the trident before he got into the graceful stance that he so painstakingly mastered.
"Sun's Punishment."
Exedra twirled the trident beautifully around his body before he cocked his arm back and pushed forward with a single thrust.
BOOOOOOMMMMM
A huge arc of red electricity shot out from the tips of the trident, cleaving a large gash in the ground before impacting the wall.
The result was a huge gaping hole in the wall that even the magic runes were having difficulty repairing.
It was worth mentioning that the walls that made up the training room were not made up of normal stone.
At Lisa's request, the walls were upgraded about a month ago to reduce the likelihood of her destroying the training room with her growing power.
They were made up almost entirely of adamantine and required atleast the attack power of a second stage evolved to even put a dent in them.
"Tch… I thought I held back enough." Exedra twirled the spear a few times before placing it into his own storage ring to give to Lisa later when she woke up.
He turned around only to see Mira and Valerie staring at him with eyes full of sparkles.
"Daddy you were amazing!"
"That was so incredible I've never seen anything like it!!"
Both girls ran up to him and started showering him with praises.
"That was so cool! Can you teach Mira too!"
"You had no trouble using that weapon at all even though it was made specifically for Lisa's body shape!"
Exedra was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
While he'd slowly grown numb to compliments over his physical appearance, compliments over his martial arts were still a glaring weakness for him.
Especially when he'd gone through so many painstaking efforts to sharpen himself, he felt like his efforts were being acknowledged and while he didn't need it it still felt… good.
Seras had never praised her pupil not wanting him to get too big of a head but she was more awed by his monstrous talent than anyone.
"Ah.. thank you girls." Exedra scratched his cheek in embarrassment and prayed to the abyss that the girls wouldn't see him blush.
His prayers were of course, utterly wasted.
"Daddy is blushing!" Mira hurriedly pointed out.
Valerie looked at Exedra's current expression and something inside of her snapped.
She was no stranger to men or relationships and she had quite the reputation for coming on to them instead.
She was a bold fiery woman who was rather adept at talking men out of their pants.
Seeing this prince wearing an expression that she'd put on a lot of men's faces, her predatory instincts completely took over and she was on the hunt.
She sauntered up to Exedra and placed her calloused fingers under his chin before making him look at her.
With Exedra standing at six foot five and Valerie at only six foot, the visual looked rather strange but there was nobody around but Mira to notice that.
And she was much too excited for what she thought would happen next to comment and risk ruining it.
Exedra's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the way the dwarven woman was suddenly behaving and the overwhelming aura of desire that he'd only ever seen on a few women in his life.
"You know I could make you your own weapon too?"
She dragged her gaze up and down his body hungrily. "Of course I'd have to get… very familiar with your body."
Hearing the seductive tone in Valerie's voice and seeing a completely new side of her, Exedra flashed her his own predatory grin.
While he didn't usually like overly forward women that he wasn't close to, Valerie had a natural toughness and charisma that made her not only likeable, but strangely sexy.
"Now I wonder… which one is the real you?" Exedra asked as he stared deeply into the woman's eyes.
Suddenly the woman snapped out of the trance she'd put her self in and backed away with a horrified look.
"I-I…"
"I'm so sorry!!" Valerie quickly got down and prostrated in front of what was now a very confused dragon.
"Eh?"
"Gah! Mira was so close to getting a new mommy!" The small dragon girl threw her arms up in the air in frustration.
Only Exedra was now staring at the woman on the ground in utter confusion.
What the hell just happened?