“The legendary bread!” Mora yelled as he snatched a loaf and a full cheese wheel. He looked at Mira as he rushed to the forge. “Eat up lass. You’ll not find anything better than this in the whole world.” He took one of the swords on the wall and smacked it on the anvil to get the dust off. He then stabbed the cheese wheel with it and shoved it in the forge, melting it as he snuck a bite of the bread.

“OH! My ore!” He gasped, staring at the breath with glowing eyes, “Barley, wheat, and malt all mixed together. I thought those things only make good beer.” He waved the loaf toward the still-confused Mira. “Look! This is what hands with more than five thousand years of experience in breadmaking could achieve. Absolute perfection!”

“The cheese already melted.” Mira said and Mora gasped, looking back at the dripping cheese. “Oh! No!” He cried, immediately pulling it out. With one swift move, he flicked his fingers and a large ceramic bowl appeared out of the thin air, landing on his palm.

Mora dropped the cheese in the bowl and laid it on the ground, “The cheese is nice and melted, just one dip is enough.” He shoved the whole loaf of bread into the cheese and took a massive bit, yelling in excitement right after.

“Eat up, Lass!” He waved his hand, and immediately snatched the beer, “Not this, it’s probably dangerous for you to drink from it.” He took a large gulp of the beer and went back to eating.

“Say, what about making glass? Where would I get my tools?” Mira asked, she wasn’t interested in the food, only caring about finishing Arad’s weapon.

“Tools for you? They are already over there.” He pointed at the corner of the workshop where a sparkling new set of glass-blowing equipment rested. “Feel free to try. Melt the glass in a crucible first, dump the rod in, and then blow it like soap bubbles. It’ll need a lot of lung capacity so try not to pass out.” He munched, “Can’t have you lose conciseness and plunge headfirst into the forge.” He mumbled beneath his beard.

Mira began her training, and he watched from the sideline, munching on the cheese and bread. Occasionally he gave pointers when she was about to mess something up. Mora’s approach to teaching was to let his students try on their own, he’ll only nudge in the correct direction, and the rest will be up to their will and intellect.

While all dwarves valued tradition and taught their skills from grandfather to father to son, Mora didn’t share the ideas of his people. As a god of craft, he valued nothing more than creativity and invention. Putting too tight of a leash on his students would only hinder the growth of their creativity and personal style.

“There must be a better way to melt glass from this sand, right?” Mira looked at Mora with a worried face as her sand had melted into several grains of sparkling shards of low-quality glass.

“There is indeed a way, but… who am I to reject your ideas? Who knows, you might be the next woman of glass.” He smiled, “Let’s see what new method of melting glass you’re going to discover. If you’re making something for Arad, it’s better be a piece of art made only by your hands, and mind.” He smiled, pointing a finger at her, “A demi-goddess you might be, but you’re still a divine, a goddess. Hammer your essence into your creations and be proud of them.”

Mira sighed and went back to trying. Mora gave her advice when he was sure she was on a completely wrong path, otherwise, he let her test and experiment, pulling more and more sand for her to use from thin air.

“We gods of the craft must stick together, perhaps I’ll be stuck one day and you’ll be there to help.” Mora said with a smile, lifting his hammer as he approached the forge. It was time for him to finish his work.

“You’re clearly far more knowledgeable than me; in what way might I be of help?” Mira looked at him with a skeptical face.

“You never know what the future stores for us.” Mora smiled.

****

Back inside Hati’s training ground, Arad swung his sword with a rumble. As the demon blocked with his forearm, he got slashed. His wrist flew back spinning and splashing purple blood everywhere. Arad looked at the demon with a smile, he had finally managed to get a slash in.

The demon lunged at Arad with a single jump, the ground beneath him shattered as he clenched a fist, swinging at Arad’s face. Arad kicked the demon’s arm away and swung with another sword, the slash landed and cut the demon’s torso in half, but the blade shattered right after.

As the demon’s body flew back to the ground, Arad stared at him with a skeptical face, something felt off. Two hits in a row and the battle is ending? That didn’t seem right.

In the blink of an eye, the demon’s wounds healed and he grew a new pair of legs, landing on the with a large grin on his face. The ground exploded into a storm of dust and debris, and Arad finally realized it as he stared at the demon.

Of course, getting a hit or two isn’t proof of mastery, this demon’s job is to keep pushing Arad further and force him to use slash with different weapons.

With a deep roar, the demon picked a large boulder from the ground and threw it at Arad.

Arad kicked the boulder, shattering it to pieces. But the demon was smart, that all was a distraction and he rushed between the dust and debris, swinging a fist at the back of Arad’s head.

Arad dodged the punch by accelerating and teleporting at the same time, landing right behind the demon. And with a fist clenched on the handle of a sword, he cut the demon in half across the torso once more, sending the pieces flying toward the ground.

The demon had fully healed before touching the ground, and he then bounced off like a rubber ball. He swung a fist at Arad’s face, and this time Arad caught it in his hand. “You don’t know when to give up.” Arad said, his eyes burning purple with magic.

The demon only smiled back from one ear to the other, a faint giggle escaped his throat as he kicked Arad in the guts. He was enjoying the fight, there aren’t that many people to give a powerful being like him a thrill, and Arad had just given him that.

If the demon was, to be honest, he didn’t expect Arad to master the slashes in less than a day. He expected this to be at least a year-long endeavor. And that wasn’t just a guess, he had trained many people in the past, and only a rare few managed to learn this skill in less than a

year.

With each move, the demon believed this situation was strange, it was impossible for anyone to learn this fast, especially when talking about skills this complicated.

Arad slashed the demon’s head off, and its feet kicked him back through a massive boulder, giving chase with a rumbling fist. Arad’s body flew through the stone, spinning from the impact only for the demon to stomp his back to the ground with a laugh.

With a splash of blood, Arad slashed the demon’s leg all the way to the hips.

At that moment, that demon became the first being in the world to get so close, the first and only creature to give a more accurate guess of Arad’s power. This strange learning speed, those moves, the way he talks and acts, this level of unnatural aggression, and extreme mastery of a skill that he should’ve just heard of. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

The demon couldn’t hold back his smile as his leg healed, seeing Arad jump back with two swords floating around his body.

Arad isn’t learning. The speed is too fast for it to be learning, no creature can train and grow

this fast.

Arad isn’t mimicking. The level of accuracy and potential is just too high for it to be mere mimicking, he isn’t a copycat.

With one step, the demon teleported to face to face-Arad. The large smile on his face, the oozing demonic magic that even made Arad flinch with sweat rushing down his back. At that moment, the demon released an even stronger demonic Aura than anything that Arad had ever felt from Kayden himself.

The blue sky turned black from the sheer demonic magic engulfing the area, and Arad for the first time in his life thought it might be a smart idea to run and abandon the battle. Something had ticked the demon off, and he didn’t know what it was.

The demon was thrilled, excited, and overwhelmed with joy. It’s okay for him to let loose, it’s

okay for him to rampage, it’s okay to go all out and have fun for the first time in over four thousand years. After all, Arad won’t break, he knows it, and he’s certain that Arad won’t

easily die like everyone else.

After…Arad isn’t a half-assed copycat with no skill or talent. He isn’t a talented snob that had never seen hardship, blessed with what he was born with. Arad was something else, what he was doing wasn’t learning or mimicking, he’s re-learning.

The demon’s chest cracked open, and his ribs turned into hands, his heart burned with demonic fire as a voice rumbled deep from his belly Demon Release: All praise be the pale

mother