Christopher was awoken from his slumber due to the rising of the other occupants. He was feeling well-rested, he had clearly needed a good night’s sleep. The enclosure of the alcove felt somewhat comfy, he had to force himself up to stop himself from lazing about. He was also somewhat glad to be in the company of so many others, it combatted some of the overwhelming loneliness that he felt from time to time.

There were some surprises once he got himself moving. His hunger had somewhat abated and he felt stronger than he had felt since using [Bookmark].

He thought that there were clear changes to his body. He was more muscular than the evening before. His body was close to how it had been on the last day of his previous turn. It was as if his body was catching up to his attributes.

His common sense told him that this should be impossible, but he had seen his flesh visibly heal before, so he could hardly rule this out. He hypothesized that this was why he had felt so hungry for the last two days. His body might have needed that food as fuel in order to synchronize his body with his attributes. It would be something if he had to gorge himself on every loop. If his theory was correct, then it might be smarter to eat as much as he could at the start of the next loop, otherwise he body and attributes would be increasingly mismatched.

Now that he was observing himself, he realized that he had come quite a long way since his first summoning over a month ago. Maybe the most important difference was the new knowledge he possessed. He knew how to fight, how to make use of two different Soul Effects, and had garnered quite a lot of knowledge of the world itself. He now also had some decent equipment, some wealth to his name, and much better attributes to boot. He willed up his attributes, curious about where he now stood.

Vitality 16 Endurance 17 (+1) Strength 15 Agility 18 (+1) Soul force 14 (+1)

Not bad at all compared to his base stats. He had even made some more progress in the craziness of the last three days. Christopher would keep training his attributes to greater heights. He started right away by infusing his Soul Frost into a jagged piece of metal that he had snatched the night before.

Before setting out he first needed to address his appearance. He had looked somewhat of a mess and he did not want to be thrown out of all the places he needed to visit today.

He had scrubbed himself clean in the washing room the night before, which had been quite busy that evening. Everyone wanted to scrub away the dirt and blood from the road. He was still shoeless, but he had managed to loan a pair from one of his new housemates for a few hours, with the promise of a few bronze coins at the end of the day.

He noticed that his black robes had needed a wash, so he tried to disburse and re-summon his robes with [Soul Mark]. He was pleasantly surprised when all the dirt and grime from the robes actually fell to the floor on disbursing it into his Soul. He saw the potential of becoming the most successful laundromat in Lumen, but figured that was probably not the most effective use of his time. He also preferred not to use his Soul to clean the dirty laundry of the city.

Christopher ate some simple but filling food in the communal room, during which he chatted with Menos about the fourteen-year old’s plans. He and his family would apparently try to work out some arrangement for their crafting today.

After his breakfast, Christopher quickly went on his way for what should be a productive day.

It was still kind of strange to see all of the buildings whole again. No marks indicated some of the chaos that had reigned here only two days ago. Well, if the city would pretend as if nothing had happened then so would he. Nothing was lost yet.

Some excitement started bubbling out of him. This was very much an opportunity to do things differently. He was not the same as when he had arrived here last time. He now knew the city like the back of his hand, and his skills had developed rapidly.

He had given some thought to the future, the small silver bar attested to that, but he had certainly not planned out all the details. Part of him had still held out hope that they would defeat the Blight.

Therefore, Christopher had spent the last twenty-four hours deciding on what he should do on this second loop, and there were a few tasks that seemed the most pressing.

His first goal would be enrolling in a training class. He should be able to choose between plenty of different weapons and teachers, his current destination would show him what was available.

His second goal for the day was to sell the small silver bar on the Lumen market. He would be able to remove the [Soul Mark] from the silver bar once he reached one of the multiple exchange shops in Lumen. On his last loop, he had exchanged twenty-five silver and 8 bronze Venarian coins for the small silver bar, which was just over two weeks of his wages from the Lumen Constructors. It would be a decent amount of money to spend and should allow him to accomplish all of his goals for the day.

Once he had exchanged the silver bar for Venarian coins, it would be time to do some modest shopping. He would buy a sturdy pair of his own boots on the market, and he also needed to buy a purse to hold his earnings. He would forego any other purchases since any money lost would make his next stop less profitable.

And his final goal for the day was to pay a visit to the Lucky Goddess, where he wanted to place a bet on the upcoming Arena matches. Most of the things that he wanted to undertake required money, so having success with his wagers would be essential.

He had a monumental advantage with the information of the previous turn. He did not know how much things were changing already but there should be some bets that were favorable for him, even if the fights would play out differently due to the changes he had already caused. Someone that had proved much stronger in the previous loop would also be likely to win this time, at least so he figured.

Christopher eventually reached his first stop after a few wrong turns. He entered the administrative office for the Adenium Church. The location was different from the larger and more ancient church site, this was a much more modest wooden building in which the Church handled its more mundane business, including the official enrollment for the training classes of its believers. He wanted to keep training his combat prowess and therefore he had a decision to make.

What kind of class should he take this time? He could only hope that there would be something that would suit his needs.

He had already ruled out one of his options. He would have been able to show up at the same training class under Sin, but he had decided against it. There was probably still plenty to be gained by trying the class again, but his sparring partners would be weaker than they had been, and the lectures mostly useless. The nature of his ability would mean that he would soon outgrow the other trainees, which was both exciting and saddening.

The truth was that he wanted another weapon in his arsenal. He felt that there was a lot of benefit in being able to wield something with a little more reach than the daggers. With the ability to summon and dismiss his weapons into his Soul, there also was the unique possibility to quickly switch his weapons for different enemy types and situations.

He was no longer going in blind now that he had some inkling of the strengths and weaknesses of the different weapons. It was due to watching all the matches at the Arena.

Although he was currently at the Adenium Church, that was not the only option available that would teach him how to fight.

As he saw it, there were currently three options available to him. There were of course the training classes offered by the priests, which taught weapons for beginners, but also offered more advanced training classes for people that were further along in the mastery of their weapons.

He could also join the Lumen Watch and become a Lumen Guard. Many of the warriors in the Lumen ladder came from this branch, showing it to be a viable option in order to get stronger. He knew that they spent a lot of their time training, and this would give him a job that would teach him useful things for the defense of Lumen. It would however require a large time commitment, and he did not want to spend hours on watch doing nothing to improve himself. Still, he did consider trying this on at least one of his loops, the knowledge that he might gain could prove invaluable.

And finally, there was the possibility of paying for a private instructor, which would possibly increase his abilities the quickest. With enough money, he might even be able to convince people to teach him that were not offering any tutoring.

At the moment he did not have that much to spend. The small silver bar was only worth twenty-five silver and eight bronze Venarian coins. If he was successful with betting that money at the Lucky Goddess, that was still only a limited amount of money. He had set his sights on enrolling at the Lumen Academy this time around, and the cost would be twenty-five silver coins to enroll for the semester. Private tutoring could be considered when he first increased his skills to an acceptable level with the specific weapon.

It made more sense to take advantage of the free program from the Adenium Church for now, which was excellent as well.

The Church administrative building was not that busy at the moment, only a handful of people were currently seated and standing within the room. Two employees were seated behind a counter to process the requests. Christopher quickly found the wooden board on which the classes were presented on darkly colored parchment. The board made up only a small part of the right wall, but still held a lot of parchments displaying the different options.

The parchments noted the name of the Priests offering the instruction, the weapon that would be taught, how advanced the class would be, and what level of skill was expected, and finally the starting and finishing date of the training program.

Most of the posters indicated classes that had already started, but that did not necessarily stop him from showing up or getting in late as he had done before.

He was most interested in classes from people on the Lumen ladder. He had done his best over his last loop in Lumen to get familiar with the names of the fighters on the Lumen ladder, which came in handy now.

There was plenty of interest here, with several instructors from the top hundred. A man named Nerem would start a beginner class teaching the pike in a few days, which could be interesting. A man named Ummo was offering lessons in wielding a heavy flail, which seemed useful for taking on a large number of creatures at once. Although he doubted that he had the strength for such a thing at the moment. There were also plenty of options for training in different kinds of swords and spears, with some names from the top hundred as well.

His eyes stopped short when he saw the name of the number one of the Lumen ladder on a parchment. Anara had started a class with the quarterstaff only two days ago, which he found very appealing. Unfortunately, this was an advanced class in the weapon, so very far beyond his reach. He did have some interest in fighting with a weapon like the quarterstaff that she wielded.

He had noticed that a lot of the fighters that were skilled with Soul Force techniques, used some variation of the quarterstaff, which made him think that it was well suited for those techniques. Christopher really wanted to incorporate his Soul Force in the future, so the quarterstaff might be a good choice for him.

A soft lilting voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Avalla’s embrace, can I offer you any assistance?”

He turned around and saw that the speaker was a tiny mouse of a woman. She had long brown hair that reached all the way to her hips, a tiny button nose, and lazy eyes. She looked to be in her early thirties and looked somewhat frail. Christopher had a hard time believing that she could offer him any advice when it came to combat training.

“I was trying to determine what training class would be best suited for me. Do you work for the Church?”

“Yes, it is my job to help you get into the right class, and to make sure that you have the proper motivation to join.” She said it in a soft and absent tone of voice, she looked to have no intention of looking him in the eyes.

Hmm, to think that there was such a hurdle. Portos must have been testing him for his suitability and motivation last time. He could understand that they did not want to waste their resources on quitters. He was not that worried that he would be rejected, he should be more determined than most others.

“I am looking for a training class that can complement my current combat capabilities. I have some modest skills when it comes to dual-wielding daggers. I am also focusing on developing my Soul Effects, and hope to develop my effects for battle in the future. I was hoping to learn a new weapon that has some range and is suited for incorporating Soul Force.”

The woman walked up right next to him and started searching the board right there with him. Her long hair whipped back and forth as her head franticly swiveled to each side of the board. She tapped her foot rhythmically on the wooden floor.

“Why do you seek training?”

“I recently made defeating the Blight my number one goal in life, and I need to become a lot stronger.”

“That’s good. What Soul Effects do you currently know, and at what level?”

“My Soul Heat should test at Master five, and I believe that my Soul Frost is not that far behind.”

The woman started tugging at her hair while sporting a contemplative look.

“Did you already have something in mind?”

“I want a weapon that can accommodate my future growth in Soul Force techniques, I was thinking of a quarterstaff.”

“Good choice, easy to swing effects, effective against the Blight at higher levels of Soul proficiency.”

She immediately grabbed a piece of parchment by jumping and snatching it aggressively, which startled Christopher.

“Here, this is the one you want.”

She said it with complete confidence and certainty. She handed him the parchment, which he carefully looked over. The class was for training with the quarterstaff and was taught by a person called Netello Brave. Interesting, the second name suggested nobility. The classes would start in three days, and would last for two months, which was an acceptable time frame even if he could only follow the first three weeks. This person was not on the Lumen ladder though.

“I don’t recognize this name; this is a person that possesses some skill?”

The woman stared at the parchment in his hands with a vacant expression, twirling strands of her hair around her fingers

“Common misconception, people that possess power do not always have the capability to teach. This instructor has both power and teaching ability, not everyone fights in the Lumen Arena. Make your own choice.” She walked off, apparently done with the conversation.

Well, maybe he was a bit too focused on the Lumen Ladder, it did meet his specification. He quickly ran after the woman, the parchment still in his hands.

“Alright, I will enroll for this one, so now what do I do?”