Penny transformed back into human form while Cain rummaged through the overstuffed crates in good inventory looking for something good.
"You know what? I'm just going to write you all a personalized skill book. Tena, you needed a short-distance movement skill to get a better position to attack. Penny, you need an energy attack skill for those claws, and Jen, I know a passive skill that will let you heal a little with every strike.
It will help you immensely in a long fight. Not every opponent will be friendly, and you would have taken a huge amount of damage in that fight." Cain informed them.
"Thank you, Master Cain. We will learn them as quickly as possible." The girls answered in unison.
Luna looked pretty depressed that she had lost and wasn't getting a present until Cain picked her up to pet her head.
"Don't worry, I have something for you as well. Then tomorrow we can expand your training to combined offense and defense." Cain told her quietly.
"That was truly impressive Mister Cain. Your disciples work well together, despite the differences in skills." One of the Lotus Blossom Sect Elders commended Cain as he consoled Luna.
"On the contrary, they work well together because of the differences. They all have a role in the battle, so when they are working together the effect is stronger than just a group of individuals fighting near each other." Cain explained.
"Interesting theory. Competing techniques to balance the weaknesses of the individual styles against specific opponents to avoid meeting a hard counter in a group battle. Very suitable for a traveling Sect." The Elder agreed.
"Can we see that again? That fight was amazing, with the energy dragons, and the golems and that giant wolf." One of the disciples asked Penny, who she didn't realize was the wolf she was speaking of.
"Likely again tomorrow. After the practical training, we usually have some sort of other training for the evening, either theory or working on increasing our own strength." Penny replied politely, making the disciple sigh in disappointment.
"If Luna can summon all those Golems, that means that Sect Master Cain taught the technique to her, right? I've seen him fight hand to hand, and he's incredible, but if he can summon Golems like that as well, wouldn't he just be overpowered?" Another girl asked her friends as they made their way to training spots in the yard.
"I think it's a requirement to become a Sect Master, isn't it? You have to be stronger than anyone else in the Sect or at your cultivation level in order for others to see you as worthy. I mean, our Sect Mistress is way overpowered as well. Remember her fighting when the sect was attacked?" The Disciple's friend replied.Other than Luna, none of the Forbidden Treasure Sect Disciples knew just how overpowered Cain was, but his performances so far hadn't been anything resembling a challenge for him, if they could estimate by the lack of advanced techniques that he had displayed.
He clearly knew quite a few, and many that were well suited to combat, since he was teaching them to others, but when he actually fought, he did it with a minimalist style.
What they didn't understand was that this was Cain's best attempt to remain under the radar and not draw undue attention to himself. It wasn't working, and it was possible that Cain was the only one that hadn't noticed that yet, but he was the only one who knew that he was trying to do it in the first place.
"Come along everyone. We will grab a meal to take to the room and then I will make up the skill books for you all." Cain informed his disciples, ignoring the gossip about them that was going around the camp right now.magic
They would get over it in a little while. The girls' performance wasn't too shocking, except in its diversity of styles, so none of the Lotus Blossom Disciples would think too much of it, and they all had their own training to focus on.
As soon as they made it to the tents, Cain took out the inscription desk and got to work making skills that would help out the Disciples with the areas where their class skills were lacking.
Gaining a class when you were already higher levels had a few great drawbacks, namely that you wouldn't have time to build up skills and a complementary fighting style on your own before you had leveled up to nearly the first advancement, and that you would gain so many skills from your class all at the same time that you might overlook some of the simple utility and skill interactions that most Transfers in the other world would learn naturally as they progressed.
That was part of the issue with these Disciples. They had a fighting style, to begin with, but it was only partially compatible with their classes, so it had to be adapted to work flawlessly, and they didn't have the experience with the class skills that they had gained to be able to use them to their best effects.
That could really only come by practice though, so Cain started thinking of new routes to the Dragon Mountain that would lead them closer to strong Magical Beasts, the universal test of strength as far as Cain was concerned.
The Disciples had their own ideas. The Tournament in town had both individual and group categories, and they would make a very good group. They could verify that they were all from the same Sect, and had Elders from another Sect to vouch for their identities, so they could enter the group competition as a Sect and work on their coordination there.
All they needed to do was keep their Sect Master entertained so that he didn't get bored and start coming up with new training regimens for them after every battle. It really helped them grow, but they were more used to meditation to build their strength instead of the experience-based method of the System, so all the extra work was simply exhausting."So, we go in with the group, same as today, but divert the Elder from the Lotus Blossom to help us register for the group battle, in the outer disciple category, which should be the one that fits our age and power levels. There is a big meeting for Magical-type cultivators going on, and Cain should be immersed in that all day, so we will have time to get through the first matches and report our progress back to him.
Once he sees how well our initiative is working out for us, he shouldn't object to us continuing through the tournament and getting experience that way." Sabbat explained the plan she had come up with to the other Disciples, unaware that Cain was listening in on their thoughts.
"Not bad. We can even use close to the same formation as today. Jen can take the center, with Penny and Tena on the flanks, I will take the rear with Sabbat in the middle to protect our healer and let her use her ranged fire to its full effect.
The people in town were saying that there is a protective barrier that keeps people from getting too hurt in the matches since nobody wants to actually lose a Disciple here, so we should be able to pretty much go all out without fear of killing anyone by accident but be careful at first.
He might be able to get away with it, but I'm pretty sure they would eliminate us from the tournament if we accidentally found a way around the restrictions." Luna elaborated.
"Will you really use the Golems around everyone?" Sabbat asked.
"Yep, but only those ones. I know more summons, but people have only seen the Golems. If I keep using them, I can keep the others a secret in case there is big trouble later, and I'm pretty good with my swords, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue." Luna agreed.
They had all seen her blade work, and she certainly knew how to fight, better than most would expect the rear guard to be able to, so the plan seemed solid. Five Disciples was the minimum for the group matches, with ten being the maximum.
Only five would fight at a time, but the roster couldn't be changed during the tournament, so normally the extras were substituted in due to exhaustion or attrition due to injuries between rounds, keeping their force at a full five-man team.
"Ladies, I have your books ready. And Luna, I made one for you too. Since you're ready to graduate from the Puppet Master Class, I have my secret weapon for you. [Summon Cloning] was the key to my early success, and it works very well with [Merger] to increase your potential.
I can see that you haven't changed your class yet, though you should have picked all the skills already, so maybe this will give you the class option that you were waiting for." Cain offered, then handed everyone their books.
The others were about to open them to start reading when they saw the System Notice, asking if they would like to use the items.
"Hey, it vanished. Oh my goodness, what happened to it? I am so sorry, I didn't know that would happen." Jen began to panic when she used her book, but Luna just giggled.
"That's how it's supposed to work for people like us, at least with special books like those ones. Concentrate on your new ability and you should be able to use it perfectly now as if you had studied it to completion in an instant." Luna informed her new friends smugly as she held her book like a precious treasure for a while before using it herself.
[New Class Options Available]