Chapter 204: Training Facility Within The Airship

As the Starborne Wanderer soared above the skies, its colossal form casting a shadow upon the lands below. The people living in the port looked up and waved their hands as the giant beast departed their city.

Enjoying the view of their surroundings as they ascended past the clouds, Alice took a deep breath and smiled.

Perhaps this was what freedom felt like. The ability to enjoy a simple scenery without worry.

This thought only reaffirmed her desire to get stronger so she could dispatch the Zenia family.

"Shall we head back now? The scenic show is over." Alice asked as Ria nodded her head.

"Sure. We have around a week to enjoy everything this airship has to offer." Ria rubbed her hands expectantly while Alice could only sigh.

"How experienced are you with normal gambling in the first place? You said this place doesn't allow fighting right? So what will you do if the host decides to cheat?" Alice asked curiously since she doubted they were going to let Ria leave with all the money she could potentially win.

Hearing this, Ria's smile faltered as she hadn't thought this far.

She knew that gambling places were rather biased and unless she could prove herself, she wouldn't be able to walk away with her earnings.

So far, she's been earning coin through gambling arenas where she knows she can walk away safely.

But for this airship that's guarded by five star Hunters, a giant beast and guards of nobles all heading to Silverwind Valley? Unlikely.

"Urg… But what else am I supposed to do for a week?" Ria lamented while clutching her chest in sadness.

"Well for starters, you can enjoy a drink with me. That and a bit of training. You said they had training facilities right?" Alice smiled, shaking her flask.

"I mean calling them training facilities is a bit of a stretch. It's more like a place for Nobles to show off their status as well as their bodyguards. Few would actually take the training seriously." Ria sighed.

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"Because why would you want to show off your full strength against your enemies? You have to think of it like this. They're children of powerful nobles. Anything they do may implicate their family and the view people have towards them.

If they were to expose their strength and others realise the future hope of the family is weak, what do you think they would think?" Ria explained as Alice paused in realisation.

Should the future of the family be found lacking the strength to carry the burden, it is only natural that their enemies would plan for their destruction and to absorb their assets for themselves.

"What a shame. Is that the same for the Academy then? If it is I might pass on the enrolment after all. Sounds boring if everyone is hiding their strength and no one takes it seriously." Alice sighed in disappointment.

"Oh don't get me wrong, the Academy is a different thing entirely. They hide their strength outside but inside the Academy, every little helps.

"You see, the Academy is sponsored by the several Great Families of the Abyss and with it being located in the middle of an Abyss Lord's self-destruction, it serves as a prime location of study. No one in their right mind would give up such a precious opportunity so everyone who goes to the Academy, unless they have ulterior motives, would showcase everything or close to everything they've got.

That way, they can prove that they're most deserving of the resources provided by the Academy."

Nodding her head in understanding, Alice sighed in relief. While her main goal may be to bargain for as much high quality mead as possible, she's not against actually studying should it help her grow in strength.

The studies may yet open more doors towards her ability much like her discovery of how to control the hallucination of her first Sigil. After gaining her third Sigil, her senses were improved to the point of being able to perceive the flow of energy within the body and inanimate objects.

Using this as a basis, Alice discovered that certain abilities are activated with a unique passage of power through the body. The manner of which is reminiscent of creating a ritual to commune with the Abyss itself.

Considering that the Sigils are a byproduct of a contract to begin with, it was only natural that the source of this power would originate from an act of exchange.

The first step in understanding this discovery was changing the effects of her first Sigil. Originally, her first Sigil would cause the target to hallucinate a scene of their desire.

In the middle of a fight, this meant that they would perceive their victory.

By changing the conditions of the ritual being performed subconsciously, she was able to change this scene of desire into a scene of anything Alice wished for. But in doing so, the drain of using this kind of hallucination caused her to become exhausted much faster with the target building resistance towards her hallucinations.

Not only that, the 'materials' required were increased with the change in effect. If she was able to create 3 hallucinations before without needing to 'replenish' her blood, she would only be able to create 1 of her desired hallucinations with the new change.

Which is why she created the blood bead. A compressed bead of blood that could help her achieve her desired effect.

She had tried to teach this technique of adjusting the ritual to Ria but it seemed as though no matter how hard she tried, Ria wasn't able to do the same. The very act of perceiving the flow of energy was beyond her and perhaps was only available to Alice due to Cayla's influence.

One of the many mysteries Alice has discovered after obtaining Cayla.

"Do you want to practice the new idea you had then? Since we have a week, it should be enough time to turn it from a proof of concept to something we can use in a fight." Alice suggested as Ria thought about it for a moment before nodding her head.

"We might as well use the training facility then. I'm sure they'll have no issues with us using it as intended."

Asking one of the staff where the training facility was, the two made their way down the airship.

The airship itself was split into five main layers. The upper deck where they are right now, the main deck where most of the entertainment such as gambling was held. The lower decks where the residents would sleep.

Beneath the lower deck was the training facility where they were heading.

Following the staff down to the training facility, they listened intently to the rules. Most of it was simply common sense where you don't want to cause trouble for others while the unique rules could be summarised as controlling your output so you don't injure others on the ship.

Even if the training facility had been created with Hunter's in mind, there were always bound to be exceptions and they wanted to avoid such a scenario.

After the staff explained this rule, Ria gave Alice a side glance with a smug grin as Alice acted dumb and ignored her.

Obviously, she wasn't going to use Void Flux in this place. Doing so was simply asking for death since she couldn't fly. And even if Ria could, there was bound to be a limit on her stamina, especially when they were this high up.

After explaining all of the rules, the staff bowed and wished them a good time before leaving.

Left alone, the two could see the full scale of the training facility. To their left, a group of what seemed to be trainee Hunters sparred with wooden weapons while talking with one another. Their movements were controlled and simply mimicked the action of a fight with a constant back and forth.

Rather than training, Alice much preferred to call it an amateur dance since they didn't put their heart into it.

In the centre of the facility was a large space where trainees could be found practising their Sigil powers while their bodyguards would help them with their training.

To their right lay a cluster of corridors and private chambers, each dedicated to a different aspect of training while allowing the users secrecy.

In one of the unoccupied rooms, Alice could see several training dummies and an assortment of weapons. Not only that, the dummies were also surrounded by contraptions that seemed to mimic attacks.

"Now then, I see a few private training rooms and a few fighting rings. There are some training dummies on the side and seems like some of the crew here are training as well. We probably want to use the private rooms if we want to practice the technique." Ria mused.

Nodding her head in agreement, Alice scanned the private chambers to find one that was suitable for their purpose.

"That room looks good. It seems to have a dummy focused on resilience and looks like it measures the power of your output." Alice suggested as Ria glanced over.

"Sure. Though the staff did tell us to control our output so we should be careful just in case." Ria chuckled.

Their idea was simple. It was to use Alice's third Sigil to act as a booster for Ria's attacks! The concept of their technique was to somehow 'fuse' Alice's violet flames with Ria's lightning in a way that allows the fire to burn away the defence before Ria's attack landed.

That way, even if they were resistant towards lightning based attacks, Ria would still be able to cause significant damage.

It was an idea born from Alice's concern regarding her technique. Void Flux was powerful yes. But it was still avoidable unless she took her opponent by surprise or risked losing her own arm to guarantee a hit.

In such a scenario, where Alice couldn't guarantee her strongest attack, she would need to support Ria instead and have her attack while she nullified the opponent's Sigil.

Entering the training room, the two locked the door and began experimenting on how they should manifest this technique in a fight.