I think it’s time to see if I can get Krell to help conceal Nora, since her concealment spells will start to fail in a week or two. “Krell you think if I made it to the Advanced Tier in Flesh Shaping, I will be able to change Nora’s appearance?”

“You should be able to do it now, but you would need hours to practice shaping her and you don’t have enough time left before you leave.”

“Krell you know that the spells on Nora to shield her from detection will give out soon. I bet you have a different way like my Veil that could conceal her.”

“Yes, but you cannot afford that help. I have already been generous in training her.”

“Well that all depends on what you really get out of training me in my unique abilities.”

“I cannot discuss what I get out of training you. I don’t discuss that with anyone.”

“I think we need to discuss it. I have a possible way to increase my skill quickly, but if I do that and don’t have a way to conceal Nora’s stats and name it would be wasted.”

Krell stood there with his tentacle twitching left and right. I have never seen them so agitated. He began to speak very slowly. “We need to go to another room and you will swear a soul oath.”

“I am familiar with a blood oath, what is a soul oath?”

“If you try to divulge the information, I am about to impart to you the System will destroy your soul. Do you accept?”

“Very well, let’s go.”

Krell leads me through several corridors we haven’t gone down before to a thick metal door. The door opens to Krell’s hand revealing it is over a foot thick. The room, which is ten feet on a side is covered in the same metal, which is inscribed with runes. Krell places his hands on the wall and begins to empower the runes, which takes over ten minutes. As the last one fills with the blue light of mana there is a flash and everything goes black. With me recent experience with the Domain of Darkness it is just the absence of light. Reaching out with Sense Air the air in the room still has the same dimensions, but there is nothing beyond. Krell summons a ball of light and we are standing in the middle of an empty space that goes on beyond the limits of the light.

Krell says. “It is safe to speak here. We are in a pocket dimension isolated from the rest of the universe. Now sit and give me your hand.” Krell sits in front of me and holds out his hand facing down over mine with a six-inch gap in-between. “Don’t resist.”

I feel a sudden pulling sensation and mana pours out into the air between our hands. Mana begins to pour from Krell’s hand to mix with my mana. “Now speak this oath. I George Petersen swear on my soul to never divulge what Krell and I discuss in this pocket dimension.”

I speak the words and the small cloud of mana suddenly thins to a thin line spearing through both our hands. “Now we can speak. I hope for your sake it is worth it, because if it is not you will still be paying me.”

I felt a cold shiver down my spine with his pronouncement. I hope I haven’t guessed wrong in how valuable advancing my skill will be. Krell shares a skill with me.

Skill: Krell

This is a unique skill. Only one member of the Flinat race may have this at a time. This skill was originally discovered by Krell and after his death it took his name. This is a passive skill that allows the user to take one student per tier level. The Student will receive a 25% bonus to learning unique skills and spells based on the unique ability of the student.

This skill advances one level per each student with a unique ability taught. Abilities taught must be unique across all students taught.

Per unique skill/spell taught this skill awards the user one stat point of their choice times the skill tier the student achieves. This is additive per skill tier.

Example: Student is caught Glass Fist skill at the Basic level and user receives 1 stat point. Student advances to Novice and gains 2 stat points. When advancing to Beginner gains 3 stat points, for a total of 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 stat points.

I think my eyes were going to pop out of my head after reading that skill. “Wow, I am a gold mine for you then.”

Krell smiles grimly. “Only if you live to step out of this room.”

“I have a soul bound item from a one-shot dungeon that will grant me an increase to my three most advanced skills by one tier level or increase my most advanced skill by two levels. I could use this on three of the skills you taught me to jump to Advanced or on one to jump to Adept, but I need a way to conceal Nora’s identity in exchange for using this on the skills you taught me.”

“I see, that is an interesting offer.” Krell said while running his left hand through his tentacles, which try to wind around his fingers.

“Very well I will give you a device to shield Nora’s identity and you will train to be able to shape her flesh. To do what I have in mind we will have to gather all my bodies and Nora will join us. You are going to increase three of your skills by another level and then use the stone to increase them all. Do you agree?”

“That sounds great, but how will we get that done by tomorrow?”

“Don’t worry about that. Let me take us out of this pocket dimension and then I will need your help recharging the runes for this room.”

Krell gestures and touches each wall in several places. As he sits in the center of the room there is a wave of vibration that passes through the air and I can feel we are now back. Krell gestures me to sit in front of him. “Place your hands on the floor like me. Then push raw mana into the floor. The runes will do the rest.”

I push mana and feel the runes greedily suck up the mana. We both keep pushing mana into the floor, but I must rest several times when I run out. On the third time charging the floor Krell’s other four bodies arrive with Nora. It is starting to get crowded in this little room. They all take a seat and start pushing mana into the floor. I see Nora can push much long than I thought she would be able too. The training must be paying off. The runes are not just illuminated with the glow of mana like the last time Krell activated them. As we continue to charge them, they are glowing a bright white and starting to hum. The other four bodies stand and remove short rods, which insert into each of the walls. After the rods are inserted the runes rapidly start to fade.

My ears pop like there was an altitude change and suddenly there is an archway opposite the original door we entered. Krell walks through and gestures us to follow. The archway leads into a huge dome shaped room that must be 200 feet across and 100 feet high. The walls and floor are made from a softly glowing white stone. Four of the Krell body sit and the stone floor rises to form seats for them.

Krell says. “We are now in another dimension, with some similarities with a dungeon. Time is running twenty-five times faster here, so we can spend a whole day here for only one hour of real time. The System prevents us from staying more than one day in here, so we will have to hurry. We are now going to train three of George’s skills up to Advanced and he will use the dungeon stone to then increase them to Adept. He should be able to disguise Nora and we will give Nora a bracelet that will conceal her stats and allow her to change her name while she wears it. Since we have this extra time, we will continue to train Nora, while we work with George. Now let’s get to it.”

One of the Krell’s stand and escort Nora to the other side of the dome.

Krell turns to me. “We will train Air Sense, Dark Sense, and Flesh Shaping. Starting with Air Sense and then Dark Sense. After we finish those, we will bring Nora back to work with you to train Flesh Shaping on her.”

The training for Air Sense is totally different than before and Krell says this is the quickest way to level. First, I am blind folded and Krell forms tentacles of air that lash at my body. I must sense and dodge them. He mixes in wind blades that he throws at me. Every now and then he hurls rocks, which I must sense as an absence of air. When he starts to thicken the air around me it reduces the range of my Air Sense making me strain to sense his attacks. After several hours of this I make it to Advanced and he calls a break to drink some tea. After my mana and stamina are topped off, we switch to working on Dark Sense.

I take off my blind fold for this training and Krell enfolded a large area in darkness. The training is very similar to the Air Sense training just using darkness mana and of course I still can’t use any shields. He wants me motivated and seems to think pain is one of the best motivators. I must admit I take a perverse pleasure in the challenge.

I finally hit Advanced in Dark Sense and Krell calls another break. Now I must level up Flesh Shaping. Krell leads Nora over and explains what we will be doing. She doesn’t say anything and has such a poker face I am not sure if she is mad at me for not discussing this with her first. However, this is my award to do with as I want and it does also increase my abilities, so it’s not like it is wasted. Krell pulls a small figure out of his inventory, which expands to a full-sized human female. She has long brown hair and is attractive, but not too eye catching.

Nora sits in front of me and I hold her hand as I infuse mana into her. It is easier than infusing mana into the man was. Maybe because he was unconscious and was not actively trying to assist me. I focus on Nora and the woman Krell is having me use as a test subject. While the mana seems to flow easier it takes just as much time to Flesh Shape Nora. She doesn’t complain or voice any discomfort. We take breaks after each limb to get her familiar with her new body.

When I finally finish, I get a new notification indicating I have hit Advanced in Flesh Sense and Flesh Shaping. Perfect. I take the skill stone from my inventory and use it to advance Air Sense, Dark Sense, and Flesh Shaping taking me up to Adept in each. As I do so, Krell is enveloped in golden light and I see Nora’s poker face crack, so she apparently knows what this means. The light surrounds Krell for about a minute and I ask. “What was that?”

Krell looks very pleased. “That was the side effect of increasing one of your stats by an increment of 100. Every time you increase by 100 you get a special bonus from the System. I must say your training was worth it. Here is my final part of the payment.” Krell hands Nora a bracelet, which she puts on her arm. Krell takes her off to teach her how to use it.

“Now for you we need to show you how to use Veil to change your name and stats. By default, it blocks everyone from seeing any stats or your name unless they exceed the required intelligence. Concentrate on the skill and think menu.”

When I think menu, I get a list of stats and my name with arrows next to my stats and a quill next to my name. The quill lets me change my name and the arrows allow me to increase or decrease each stat by 50%.

“This is great Krell, thanks.”

“You have earned it and you have an open invitation for more training. There is a lot more you could learn from me.”

After Krell is finished teaching Nora about the bracelet we exit the dimensional pocket and we both take showers before crashing in our beds. I think I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.