With a thought, Kai transported himself to a wide open space within the domain.

He hadn't targeted the area manually; he had just applied his intent for somewhere he could do the one thing he had not had the time, space, or leave to do back out on the ship.

That was, of course, somewhere he could safely let go and train.

Just as he had the idea, he got a gut feeling. When he acknowledged it and followed the feeling, he found himself in a clearing.

A clearing that was so far as he could tell perfect for what he desired to do.

Following his lapse in judgement, playing with mana bolts up on the ship's deck, he hadn't practiced the skill once apart from that time he had opened fire on the pirate ship and that time things hadn't gone exactly as he intended.

That wasn't the only thing, either. He hadn't used his spectral blade once since the ambush outside the dungeon. Worse, he had promised Inego he would find time to practise every day.

Then there was every other skill he had gained since the system had changed his life.

They were all going to waste.

Kai knew he couldn't afford to squander this new life. He couldn't let it become like his last. He needed to practise, train, and experiment every chance he got until things at least became second nature, or better yet, instinctual.

Now that he had access to the domain, space, and a little free time. He couldn't afford to waste the opportunity.

He started by forming a spectral blade and working through the training kata.

It felt odd. His blade had no actual weight, yet it still seemed to drag through the air.

He had become so used to going through these movements with a heavy blade in hand, now that he had no real weight to work with, he found the difference made him sloppy.

Kai had to concentrate on his movements, his muscles, and his breathing to compensate. In time, after what must have been the tenth time or more, the movements flowed and felt natural once again.

But feeling natural once again wasn't good enough. He wanted to push beyond good.

He desired something more, something to test his spectral blade, otherwise this would just be practice for his training kata and his spectral blade would serve no more purpose than just another training blade.

That's when something strange happened.

He swung his blue blade, expecting a clean sweep and a dip, then a thrust into the next movement.

Only the blade clacked into a thick wooden log that was floating just in front of him. Somehow placed perfectly to receive the foe strike.

Either Syl was helping him, or the domain was answering his desires again.

Kai grinned and continued. Whoever or whatever this was, he would use it.

His practice was transformed by the targets that appeared in place of a true opponent as he worked his way through the choreographed movements.

Now he not only worked on the training kata, but the strength and composition of his blade, tweaking it for each strike of his spectral blade. Letting himself loose was exhilarating, and in time, he was cleaving the wooden logs in two.

He needed another challenge.

Remembering how Inego had showed him how his spectral blade could pass through some people without causing harm, Kai focused on that for a while.

It wasn't long before he had his spectral blade passing through each target harmlessly and Kai thought it was time for another mix up.

The domain answered again. Each target randomly switching between white and red as Kai had his blade cut through one and pass through the other.

His practice went on and on like this for a while, things around him shifting each time he needed more of a challenge.

Kai lost all track of time and before he knew it, his sword was clashing against metal disks that shifted and moved to avoid his attack, the change forcing him to adapt and adjust the steps of the kata to what felt most appropriate to him.

When his blade wedged itself into one of those disks, the blue blade flickering with flashes of purple where it intersected with the material conjured up for him to train, he decided that was enough of that for today.

Felling like he had finally made some gains, he let his tired body collapse to the ground, and he looked up to see an oddly still star scape high above him.

"Father done now? Good, I have a request," Gift said from a few meters away. "Did not think you would take so long. Should have waited outside, with others."

"Outside? Others?" Kai asked the little fox… mental correction, Gift wasn't a fox, he was a Kitsuné. A Kitsuné with a sharp pointed horn like what he imagined a unicorn would have.

Gift turned to look over to a far hill. "Mothers say something… time pocket?" the ruffle of fur around Gift's shoulders shifting in what Kai thought was a shrug.

Kai looked in the same direction as Gift and saw four distant figures sitting on a far hill setting up what looked like a classical picnic. Only the figures were barely moving, as if he had reached out and slowed time around them.

"You were moving so fast, faster than you ever moved before. Mother said to wait… But Gift could not resist." Gift ears wilted. "Was I naughty… bad? They yelled when I ran over."

Kai sat up and patted his lap.

Gift caught on quick, dashing over and jumping into the indicated spot, his twin tails swishing as he looked up at him with big bright golden eyes.

"I'm sure they will not mind if you apologise."

"Really, apologise… hmm… Easy," Gift hummed.

"No Gift, apologies should be hard. When they become so easy that they roll off your tongue with ease, they become cheap… pointless."

Gift looked thoughtful.

"Now, you had a request?"

Gift's eyes flashed as Kai absentmindedly scratched behind his ear. The little guy clearly enjoying the attention as he leaned into it.

"Yes, grandfather… I think he grandfather. Smells like it… But mother Syl hushed me, says it's a secret. Not sure what a secret is, was told not to tell mother Alicia… I don't understand, but I will try to be good… when I can."

Kai ignored the 'when I can' and pressed on.

"Your request?"

"Ah, grandfather offers gifts… can't accept," Gift said, shaking his head as he rolled onto his back at Kai's exploratory scratching.

"Why?"

"Mother Alicia says Gift is prideful," Gift shrugged. "But must earn new identities… forms? Yes, I must earn my new forms… Gift has nothing for grandfather right now and forms smell so so, so no rush, will wait till I have energy to spare and no other forms to take. But Father, you're different. I can offer trade now for good, powerful identity, good useful form."

Kai was a little lost. What form could he offer Gift? Thinking about what he would want to turn into had he the ability Kai could come up with only one thing.

He summoned one from his storage.

"Is this what you want?" Kai said as he held the black dragon scale out in font of Gift.

The little guy sniffed it, clearly interested, but he pulled back and shook his head.

"Powerful, but no. Siblings want to share. Theirs is better. I will wait."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

So the dragon eggs had somehow told Gift they would share their form with Gift, and it would somehow be better than that of a divine dragon. That was curious. He wondered what would those two little dragons be like when they actually hatched.

Kai looked at the little scale between his now tingling fingers.

"Well, that's good. I think I'm already consuming this scale," Kai said as he watched the scale disintegrate. The claws on each finger he used to hold it grew prominent as he inadvertently absorbed his first dragon scale.

When it was gone, he summoned another, larger scale. In an effort to confirm what had just happened, he just held onto it as he turned his attention back to Gift.

"If it's not the form of a dragon, then what is it you want?"

"You," Gift said simply.

"Me?" Kai said in confusion.

Gift nodded enthusiastically.

Kai had the sudden image of Gift taking on the form of some kind of clone of him. And while shadow clones were a cool concept when you had control of them, the idea of Gift walking around looking like him, doing whatever he wanted, could be problematic. Especially when this could cause issues, since the little guy still had the outlook of a child.

Seeing the little kit squirm in his lap as he gave him belly rubs, Kai realised it might not be too much of an issue. When Gift had taken on this Kitsuné form, he had not taken on an adult form, instead he was still young and his fur was black, not the white of the other Kitsuné within the domain. This showed that Gift could not, or would not, clone forms outright. So if Gift ever took his form, it would not be an exact copy of him, but instead it would be Gift's own personal variation of him.

"What are you offering in trade?" Kai asked carefully.

Gift grinned, his toothy maw

"Training. You shoot well, I shoot better. I show you how to shoot. You become best, as good as Gift… mothers impressed, become very horny."

"Gift!" Kai snorted. "You can't say that!"

"What? Horny? But both mothers are always horny. Alicia pretends she's not. But would love to- what was it… devour you? Don't think means eat, not hungry… anyway I hear them talking many many times."

"Gift, we might need to have a talk about what secrets are... and what it means to mind your own business."

Gift nodded, "we trade now, or train first? Does not matter which."

Kai thought about the little guy's offer.

He had seen how Gift had made a mana bolt and used it in an impressive arc to take out that rabbit. Then there was how he always did something truly magical as a bow. How he had the secrets of a divine being.

Gift could be a literal treasure trove of hidden knowledge.

Kai just hoped he didn't frustrate him the same way he frustrated The Sage's efforts to train him.

"Okay, deal. How do I give you what you want?"

"Oh… like this," Gift said as he chomped down onto the thumb of Kai's free hand he was using to rub the little guy's pink belly.

Kai winced, but otherwise tried not to react.

His family had one too many cats when he was growing up so he knew how one moment you could be happily giving belly rubs and the next some wild and free part of the little cats brain would activate, your hand latched onto with tooth and claw in a moment of primal rage.

Gift let go, licking his lips.

"Seems we need to have a talk about biting people," Kai said as he watched the little gnaw marks in his thumb heal over.

"Everyone wants to have talks with me. I'm not sure why. I think it is because I am impressive," Gift preened.

Kai had expected there to be some change, but Gift remained a little horned Kitsuné.

"Er, I thought you would change. You're still one of those fox creatures."

Gift rolled over and jumped out of his lap. "Need more to mix. Make my own. Have a plan for trade with mother Alicia, but mother Syl… may need to challenge," Gift said thoughtfully.

Looking at how Gift had given himself a horn similar to that of the horned rabbit he had hunted and yet remained a fluffy Kitsune kit, Kai realised what Gift was planning.

It would be better than Gift walking around, causing chaos as a miniature version of him. Syl and Alicia were going to love this.

Hoping he hadn't blundered, Kai stood up and he noticed he had, in fact, absorbed the dragon scale he was holding onto.

He made a quick mental note to palm a dragon scale whenever he had the chance. He looked about while saying, "Is this a good time and place to train? I wanted to work on my mana bolts next. Try to figure out how and why they track and trace in on targets."

Gift made a sing song humming sound as he looked about a bit. "This place is perfect. Time thing you've done will give us the time you need to improve without interruption. The tracking thing is simple, wait till I teach you splitting shots and arrow rain… hmm, rain of bolts? Oooh, artillery is fun. Big BOOM!"

And so began Kai's training began under his little master.

He just had to remember not to call the little guy master. With how much Kai really wanted to learn all Gift's frankly amazing tricks, the system was likely to recognise Gift as just that.

Gift started off by trying to show Kai the forms locked away within a mana bolt spell, point out where he would need to designate his target for the spell to track correctly.

But while Kai could sort of see and almost understand the array of golden forms he was being shown, he still couldn't quite understand them.

Which was confusing.

His omniglot should translate every known language.

That he had to learn these things without that skill taking over, told him magic, or at a minimum, his mana bolt and the other spells he knew, weren't constructed in a way the system recognised as a language.

To Kai, they always seemed to lack something, like an underlying code that made everything come together and actually work.

Gift thankfully was more malleable than The Sage was. After seeing Kai's frustration, he adjusted his teaching style to show, tell, and practice.

Gift took Kai through it one step at a time, telling Kai what he should feel and focus on when, as the little guy put it, he hunted.

And Kai, surprisingly, actually learned.

Turns out his first mistake had always been constructing his mana bolt first, then adjusting it for his intended target.

Kai had the steps out of order. He just needed to change his approach.

As Gift put it, a good bow was never drawn before the hunter was ready to shoot.

Kai wasn't sure that was true, but Gift was using it more as an analogy for how he should prepare his mana bolts.

In less than an hour ,Gift had Kai curving his shots. His mana bolts now shooting away to hit a far off target, no matter which direction he fired the bolt in.

It was frustratingly simple.

When he looked back, Kai knew why the shot he had fired at the pirate ship had curved.

He held the ship in his mind as his intended target long before he made the mana bolt, and that allowed the spell to lock it in during its construction.

Thinking about it, there may have been many more times before that he had prepared his shot in this way. But the intended targets had always been so close, simple or direct that the bolt had fired directly at them and there was no need to arc or track. So he had not noticed his successful application of the skill before now.

In another hour Gift had Kai firing off multiple mana bolts at a multitude of far off moving targets.

Gift for his part was constantly pushing Kai to do that little bit better.

Kai would have been annoyed with him constantly moving the goal posts, but each time something finally clicked, Gift would jump on his shoulders and compliment him profusely before explaining the next step.

He only really started to struggle when Gift had him move up to splitting his mana bolts to, as he put it, catch the targets by surprise.

After half an hour of his mana bolts flicking off to hit just one of the two targets that he had in mind, Gift jumped up to sit on his shoulder.

"Times up… Mum is on her way to see if we want something to eat."

Kai's stomach rumbled at the mention of something to eat and he looked aver to see Alicia was indeed walking down the hill towards them.

She was moving at a snail's pace.

It made Kai wonder just how much he had sped up time to give himself all this time to train. Was it actually him, or a quirk of the domain and the location he had chosen with his desire when he had first come to this spot?

More importantly, could he even stop it?

Alicia seemed to suddenly surge forward as she sped up to the same speed as Kai and Gift.

"Oh, are you two done? Syl says you were training together. It was a bit of a blur from the outside. All I had to go on was Gift's emotions. One moment he was frustrated, the next pleased, then back to frustrated again."

Before Kai could formulate his answer, he noticed Thanric was making his way quickly down the hill towards them.

"How long were you in there? I would like to get a measure of how much you actually dilated time," Thanric asked as he approached Alicia's side with a notebook in hand.

Kai looked at The Sage, then up the hill to Arnella and Syl. It seemed the time dilation was now gone as everyone seemed to move at regular speed again.

He hadn't moved from where he was and he had done nothing consciously to stop the time distortion or dilation. He was hungry, so he would have to find the time to figure this out later.

Thanric looked at him expectantly for an answer as Alicia came right up to Kai to give Gift a scratch.

He did his best to ignore how close Alicia was to him, not that he minded. Something about the smell of her fresh, minty breath just begged for his attention.

Looking at Thanric, Kai shrugged, "I wasn't keeping track. A few hours, maybe more. I didn't even realise I was in a dilation until Gift arrived and pointed out you were setting up for that late afternoon picnic."

Thanric looked at him, his confused look lasting for only a moment as a sly grin crept onto his face and he scribbled something down.

"That's not a late afternoon picnic, it's something Syl called Brunch," Alicia said absently.

He turned to Alicia as she cued to Gift.

"Brunch? You're telling me it's not even midday? that can't be right. I've been at it for hours, surely even with a little time dilation, it's well into the afternoon by now."

His stomach rumbled, like he hadn't eaten all day.

"Come on, it looks like the two of you might have missed a meal or two," Alicia said as she backed away from him and the now purring Gift.

Turning, Alicia lead them back to where the others were laying out dishes.

Setting off up the hill, Kai failed to repress a yawn.

The time dilation in the domain was going to change things for the better. He finally had the time and space he needed. There was only one issue. He had just found something that was certain to screw with his sleep pattern.

He would have to be careful over the next couple of days. There were important plans in the works he couldn't screw up now by sleeping in at the wrong time or by getting lost in some distortion in the domain.

Palming another dragon scale, Kai checked his notifications.

Stats improved.

Dexterity +2 Endurance +3 Capacity +1 Control +3 Absorption +1 Flow +2

Skill branch discovered and defined.

You have shown practiced skill with your spectral manifestation in an area the requires its own skill branch.

Spectral Blade Smith. You can form an arcane blade that fits your intent. This spectral blade is always at your side, ready to strike and cleave both friend and foe without concern or fear of unintentional harm. Just how far you choose to take this skill remains to be seen.

Skill upgraded.

Common Mana Bolt. You know how to form a variety of mana bolts for a variety of situations using mana from your core. Your technique is developing well, favouring efficiency and minimal mana use while remaining potent. Mana bolts are typically volatile and break upon impact, causing damage to whatever they hit, but you know there are many more ways than that to inflict damage. You have learnt that identifying intended targets before forming your mana bolts is a critical step to having them track targets once they have left your control.

Satisfied, Kai decided he had earned a nap.

His stomach rumbled again.

On second thought, the nap could wait until he had something to eat.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.