The next morning the Blood Dancers were waiting outside the room with a copy of Tracii, ready to meet their new Lamia cousins. There wasn’t any actual relationship between them, but Cain had made the Blood Dancers, so they felt like his adopted children, whereas the Lamia Progenitors were his biological children. In their estimation, that made them cousins.magic

“But Mom, do we have to get up? It’s so bright and loud outside. How about we just nap for another two, no three hours first? That should be fine, right?” The girls complained while the Blood Dancers outside the room laughed.

“No, it is time to get up and exercise. You need to do it to grow up big and strong, you can’t just sleep all day.” Cyrene corrected them.

Fine, but can we eat first? I’m starving.” Renee asked, giving her best pleading look.

“Only a light meal or you will be sluggish during your training,” Tracii called through the door.

The look on the Lamia’s face gave away her master plan, even if Cain hadn’t been able to read her mind. She had fully intended to gorge herself into a food coma and gain herself a few more hours of sleep that way.

“I will have the chefs cook you all up some Mythic Quality beast meat when you finish the training for the morning. Now go on, and be good for your instructors.” Cain told them, opening the door to let the others in.

“You will see, it is a lot of fun, and you will learn really cool new things. You have to get on Tasha’s good side if you want her to make you spiderweb hammocks, right?” One of the Blood Dancers asked.

“Okay, let’s do this. Where is the morning snack?” Remi cheered, encouraging her sisters.

The snack Cain had prepared was a small slice of Epic quality dried peaches, from the very first batch of trials on the farm in the Southern Continent, cut into small pieces for ease of eating. They would be easy to digest and give energy plus healing that should keep the girls going through the morning. At least in theory.There was a pretty sizeable crowd gathered outside when the group made it to the training grounds, both those who usually joined the Blood Dancers in their combat training these days, and a bunch who had come to see the new girls.

Tasha had made five large webbing platforms, about two meters across, and Tracii carefully placed one Lamia on each.

“Alright, I know not all of you are melee fighters, but you do need to know the basics, in case something gets too close to cast a spell at. So that is what we will cover today, then the four of you will continue on with class specialties, taught by Tasha and her summons, while Luna will be taught her class specialty by Cain, who was once a Puppet Master as well.” Tracii explained, perking the girls up.

They hadn’t expected that the warrior bunnies or the Spider Demon Void Mage that was Tasha would have a way to teach them directly about their own classes, so now they were getting excited about this morning activity for more reasons than just the promise of a more comfortable bed.

Most of the group was much more advanced than they were, so a single clone of Tracii separated off to teach the newbies, which also included a number of local children who were in the single digits for levels, or did not have a System activated yet at all.

“First up, I will teach you all a basic attack sequence. It’s different for every weapon, so pay attention when I teach them all. If you have more weapons, or a suitably shaped stick, you can practice them all, so you know them before they are used against you.” Tracii explained, and the girls all turned to Cyrene for assistance.

She passed out a handful of small sticks that could emulate everything from a staff to a dagger, while Luna already had a variety of items in her inventory. She was pretty sure that Cain hadn’t noticed that her dad hadn’t noticed her slipping the failed attempts at enchanting into her inventory, but he seemed much less surprised than she had expected.

“Note to self, Guild Master Cain sees everything.” She muttered, reminding herself not to underestimate his sneakiness. She was certain that it was something essential to her class.

For two hours, the newbies’ group practiced various attacks, set to a rhythm that was actually a workout routine, designed to help them build muscle and stamina. That was all that the four girls could take before their stamina wore out, and they collapsed for an early nap.

Luna, on the other hand, had much higher stamina, and she had a full day’s head start on adapting to staying awake for more than two hours at a time. The promise of a special meat lunch drove her onward to the end of the training session, even after the rest of the newbies were dismissed at the two-hour mark.

“Meat, there will be meat, staying awake for meat.” She was muttering as she finished the last set of repetitions with a two-handed sword.

“Not bad form though the extra arms make the lower part of the swing awkward. Pull them back a little further, and they will be out of the way, and better posed for a secondary attack with your smaller weapons.” Tracii explained while Luna took mental notes.

“So, I can use the big sword to force them to block, then use daggers to stab them while their hands are busy? That’s a great idea.” Luna praised her instructor, who giggled and gave her a head pat for her efforts.

“That’s all for the morning. Good job making it through. We can continue this tomorrow.” Tracii decided, then picked Luna up to hand her back to Cain.The other girls woke up just in time for lunch to be served, one ribeye steak from a Mythic Grade Water Buffalo split between them. That was still nearly their own body mass in pure meat, but Obsession Demons weren’t the sort to back down from a challenge, and it was almost all gone when they finally collapsed.

Like what happened with Luna the first day, and again this afternoon, the girls were growing at a visible pace with the influx of high-grade nutrients, speeding up their growth to a size where their bodies would be able to defend themselves from predators in the demon dimensions where the species had presumably evolved.

Being coddled by parents was a new experience for their species. Unlike the modern Lamia, who banded together for safety, all the information that Cain could gather on the Progenitors indicated that they were left to fend for themselves, with parents believing that the children needed to prove their worth in order to be accepted back into the highest ranks of society. Progenitors led their people, there was no room for weakness in their ranks.

“Can I go play in the tower? I heard the other kids talking about how fun the challenge is, and they even said that there were good things inside if you were lucky.” Luna asked the moment that she woke up, getting so used to her sudden nap attacks that she didn’t bother with transitions anymore.

“I don’t see why not. It will also help you learn about new species even faster than me showing them to you. Just remember to record everything that you see and you should get a lot of knowledge. But it is dangerous inside, and you will get hurt. Are you ready for that?” Cain asked gently.

“I, uh, maybe?” Luna answered uncertainly, making Cyrene smile.

“If it gets too scary or dangerous, call out that you forfeit and the tower will let you leave without getting too badly beat up. You have lots of summons, has Cain talked about battle plans with you yet?” Cyrene asked.

“Not yet. But they taught me to stab things while they’re distracted and I think it will work pretty well.” Luna said confidently, making her mother laugh out loud.

“That’s not how Puppet Masters fight unless things have gone wrong. Have Master Cain explain the technique on your way over. The summoning spell copies the knowledge of the things you recorded, so they can teach you new tactics as well, you just need to trust in the summons.”

“Got it, mom. Now, I have three major spells, Lesser, Greater, and Supporter. Which ones are which? I’ve only used Lesser to summon useful things, like the birds.” Luna asked Cain as she moved to wrap around his wrist.

“I will show you a few options that are good at fighting, and you can start from there. First is a Lamia Scourge Caster. I use them all the time, and they are good fighters, with some magic. Then we have Lesser Elementals, which all have a specific strength, another good option are Goblin Mole Dog Riders. Or these cute and fluffy Snow Leopards. They are also Lesser Summons because they are of regular quality and not powerful enough to be greater, despite being very physically strong. Those are the staples of the Summon Lesser Golem ability.

Next up, are the Greater Golems. These are your primary fighters, and I recommend picking a large demon. The Wrath Bringers or the Blighted Paladins are both great tank-type summons, that can take a lot of damage and hold off enemies. For Beastkin, the Snapping Turtle Kin is a great option as well, but I don’t usually use them for a reason we will get to later.

The last is the most important and versatile option, your Supporters. That spell summons a specific person you have met or seen and recorded. Auntie Kone gets a bonus when I summon clones of her, because of an ability that I have, but she is still a good option for you and will be able to summon a group of the Snapping Turtle Kin. Beyond that, you will want to pick healers or area attack mages with your Supporter options.” Cain explained at length.

When others summoned Kone, they wouldn’t get the benefit of her being Cain’s Bonded Companion, so they wouldn’t get Su, or the extra summons, but they might get the healing aura that Kone gained from Su. Kone could also still cast a variety of healing spells, and the Snapping Turtles were a real menace with all the bonuses that she gave them, so she was one of the best options for a Supporter.

“Why don’t I just summon you as a Supporter?” Luna asked, then frowned as she tried it.

“Invalid target, right? You can’t summon other Puppet Masters or certain other beings, and until you can summon Epic and Legendary quality creatures, a lot of the most powerful beings you meet will be beyond your abilities. But record them anyhow, so you have the options when you get to that level.” Cain suggested.

“Got it. Now, what are the puppets? It seems like I can animate dolls?” Luna asked.