The demon recoiled back, dodging Arad’s relentless slashes. While slaps are easy to achieve due to the last surface area of the hand, slashes are much harder since they only hit with a line, and stabs are even more difficult to master.

When you hit with a flat hand, the attack angle doesn’t matter as no matter how the attack lands, it’ll always auto-correct into alignment with the targeted surface. Slashes on the other hand need a precise angle of attack; otherwise, the blade would twist upon contact and shatter due to the extreme stress.

Even though Arad’s edge alignment was near perfect, it still led to his weapons shattering due to the added stress of the vibration of the blade. To be able to effectively do the slashes Kayden taught him, Arad must first understand the motions behind Dalla’s slapping and use those to perfect his edge alignment beyond human capabilities.

The tolerances were tight, but he could see himself pulling it off. The only thing holding him back now is the countless and different weapons he’s using, a spear would need a different tuning than a sword, and that would be different than a greatsword. He started paying attention to the sword’s shape, weight, material, length, and magical properties.

One slash after another, the demon dodged, blocked, and deflected Arad’s attacks, but still none of them managed to cut into his hardened skin. Yet the demon could sense it, each attack was better than the last, and the speed at which Arad was advancing was horrifying.

Hati walked into the training ground and looked at Arad and the demon fighting. “He’s already at that level? What a monster, it took me five years to reach that.” She sighed, pulling a glass-like sword from her palm. At that moment, an image of herself emerged from her back, her twin sister Skoll.

“You’re right.” Skoll smiled, “But, even this level isn’t enough for what awaits him. He’ll need more power, hundreds of times more than this.”

“All the skills he’s learning had already been learned by almost everyone. He’s now trying to catch up to the strong, growing after that would be his own path.” Hati replied, “Our job is to make sure he’s on the right path.”

“It would’ve been easier to achieve those slashes with a skill like Perfect Slash” Skoll giggled, “But I guess Aria can just take it off and leave him with no power.”

“Yeah, he can’t rely on Aria’s powers. To survive in a world ruled by an overgod, you must grow a power separate from him.” Hati turned around to leave, Arad seemed to be doing fine. Skoll faded into her back, and Arad who was fighting the demon had noticed their faint presence but ignored it.

****

Back at Hati’s house, in the workshop in the backyard, Mira was just finishing the primary shaping of the staff. Out of that massive log, she had sculpted a 2.5 meter {8 foot 2 inches} massive staff. That thing was a bit taller than Arad, but that made it also useable as a quarterstaff.

After careful thinking, she made the decision to make Arad something he could use a bit more freely than just a spell casting arcane focus. She knew that Arad probably didn’t need a staff as he already cast magic with his draconic scales.

Even the highest-end staves and most expensive ones use special items as cores. You could find a staff with a large crystal at the top, some with skulls, and some even have living beings, like the cursed fairy staff {A staff that has a cage at the top, where a fairy would be imprisoned and used as the core of the arcane focus.} Dragons’ scales were one item that was used widely in staves to give them elemental properties.

While Mira had gotten the best wood possible to make a staff, the world tree’s wood. She now has to find something worthy of being the core of Arad’s staff, something that would far outperform his scales.

This wasn’t a simple task, she sat on her chair and kept looking at the half-finished staff, racking her brain for answers.

“Lass…” said Mora as he lifted the newly forged and still red-hot blade. “Are ya stuck?”

“I still need the staff’s core. You provided me with the wood, but now I still need to find that.” She replied, “Arad’s scales aren’t something that can be beaten by just a high-quality magic crystal or the scales of a dragon.”

“He’s a magic dragon after all, there is a reason for why they don’t need arcane focus.” He combed his beard, “You’ll need a powerful magical artifact so the staff could be worth using.”

“No matter how much I think about it, nothing comes to mind…” She froze in place…finally realizing something, “Do you know how to make glass?” She stared at Mora with glowing eyes.

“There is nothing that I can’t make.” He flicked his fingers and several new tools appeared out of nowhere. “Did you get an idea?”

“Yeah, but it’ll be hard to implement.” Mira stood, “I’ll go call Hati, I’ll need her help as well.” She ran back into the house.

“Achoo!” The blade in Mora’s hand sneezed, and he looked at it. “Bless you.”

The blade looked to be cold so he approached the forge and shoved it back in, “Here, it should be warmer there.” Mora said and sat back on his chair.

As Mira ran across the hallways, she heard something hit the ground with a heavy thud. When she looked, the sound was coming from Merlin’s room. “Merlin, are you okay?” Mira rushed in and opened the door, seeing the motionless Merlin on the floor. She had just fallen down.

“What did you do?” Mira approached her and took a closer look. Merlin looked pale and dehydrated, “The hell is up with this day?” She lifted her from the ground and onto her back, “Am I, a carrier mule for you and Merlin.” She carried her all the way to the bed and threw her on it.

“I’m the pregnant one here, you should be carrying me. Not me carrying you.” She sighed and waved her hand over Merlin’s forehead and cast the best heal she knew of.

It was at that moment that she realized that what Merlin was suffering from wasn’t an ailment or an injury, it was severe hunger, dehydration, and lack of sleep coupled with extreme exhaustion. “What did you do?”

At that moment, Astrid and Frida walked into the room. Merlin had let them go and fixed the barrier that Arad shattered yesterday. They can’t let that unfixed and it was the twin’s duty. “What did happen to her?” The two cried.

“I don’t know. She’s suffering from hunger, thirst, and exhaustion.” Mira scratched her head, “What was she doing when you left?”

“She was studying Arad’s magic and moves, trying to figure a way to defeat him.” Astrid rushed to check on Merlin, “You’re right, her body is fully drained of energy. How is she still

alive.”

“Sister,” Frida noted, “She isn’t human, it’s the endurance of her altered body. I bet she had some kind of safety set in place. For now, we should focus on getting her energy to start with. Call Mother and bring us some honey.” She extended her hands over Merlin, “I’ll support her with magic for now.”

Astrid rushed out and Mira kept looking at Merlin. None of them could figure out what had happened.

Seconds later, Astrid returned with Hati and two of her sisters alongside them. Hati looked at Merlin and smiled, “Just severely exhausting, she’ll get better with enough care. We can ask her about what happened later.” She waved her hand and the two daughters who came with her started brewing some strange herbal tea.

“While they take care of that.” Hati looked at Mira, “Heard from Mora that you came looking for me.”

“Yeah!” Mira had almost forgotten why she came back into the house. “You can make things eternal, right? What about glass?”

“Of course, as long as it’s not a living thing, I can make it eternal. I’ve got some limits, but they shouldn’t matter to you.” Hati smiled, “You want me to make some glass eternal?” “You know I’ve been making a staff for Arad, right? The wooden shaft was easy enough, but the core wasn’t. Nothing seemed to fit Arad.” Mira smiled, “That’s right, nothing fits Arad

well…”

“I see where you’re going.” Hati smiled, “I don’t know if it’ll work or not, but it’s worth a

try.”

“Then I’ll see you when I learn how to make glass.” Mira waved her arm as she rushed back to the workshop. “Mora, can we start making glass?” She called.

“Glass?” He looked back at her, “A large beer glass would be nice, a clear and massive mug with fresh cold beer.” He combed his beard.

“As long as I can learn how to make it. Can we start?” She looked around, “Are those the

tools?”

“Yeah, but wait a second. I’ve got the tools for one person; I’ll need to give your own.” He looked at the blowing tube and forge. “I probably need to make new ones…” He looked at the forge, and it started sweating.

Two of Hati’s daughters arrived at that moment, “Mira, Mora. We’ve brought you some food and refreshments, it’s already hot outside and the forge is even hotter.” Mora looked back and screamed with a large smile on his face. He forgot all about the glass as he rushed toward them, his eyes fixated on the large cheese wheel one of them carried.

“By me wife’s hairy mustache! Is this what I think it is?” He looked at the girls with an excited

face.

“Dragon Milk cheese, this one was made from the milk of a black drakaina so it’s a bit acidic.

But I’ll go well with this.” The girl pointed back at the large wooden barrel she brought. “Red Devil beer of Bacchus, and the best part is this.” She waved her hands and a large basket appeared in her hand. The basket was covered with a fine white linen cloth.

Mora immediately screamed, his eyes almost popping out of his nose. “It can’t be!”

“Fresh out of the oven; Grandma Mabel said to enjoy it hot.” She showed them five fresh, glistening and steaming hot golden loaves of bread.