Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Morwenna shook her head, forcefully clearing the ancient memories from her mind, and refocused her gray eyes on Silas.

”You can’t learn this style through simple book reading or verbal instructions, Captain,” Morwenna spoke up. ”This is something you have to physically feel and experience yourself to get a proper handle on the technique. I can only show you the fundamental structure.”

She held up three fingers on her left hand.

”The Second Style: Rip-Current Perception is broken down into three distinct phases,” Morwenna explained clearly. ”Phase One: Preparation. Phase Two: Detection. And Phase Three: Exploitation.”

She pointed to her first finger.

”Preparation is the stage where you release the specialized, pressure-sensing water aura into the air around your target but getting the exact volume and density of water right doesn’t guarantee success... as you are about to learn the hard way.”

Morwenna lowered her hand, taking a step back and dropping into her wide fluid dueling stance.

”Let’s begin with Phase One,” Morwenna commanded. ”Initialize the Preparation phase, Captain. Release the water aura.”

Silas closed his eyes, taking a deep, steady breath.

Inside his chest, his Gold Core hummed softly.

He recalled the exact atmospheric humidity Morwenna had released earlier, manipulating his internal water mana to match the exact density, volume, and ambient temperature she had demonstrated.

FWOOSH...

A subtle nearly invisible mist of clear water mana erupted from Silas’s body, expanding outward in a five-meter radius around Morwenna’s stance.

Morwenna looked at the floating mist surrounding her boots, her eyes widening slightly in genuine surprise.

”Perfect,” Morwenna admitted grumpily, inwardly cursing his absurd elemental talent. ”The water volume is flawless. Now... keep your eyes open. Feel the current.”

Morwenna didn’t wait for him to settle. She gripped her wooden practice cutlass with both hands and shot forward across the stone floor.

STOMP!

Silas focused every ounce of his mental perception on the floating water mist, staring intensely at Morwenna’s advancing frame, desperately waiting for those glowing blue current lines or physical weakness indicators to materialize in his vision.

...Nothing happened.

His vision remained completely normal. There were no glowing lines, no atmospheric pressure maps, and no magical indicators showing him where she was going to strike.

’Shit!’ Silas thought, his eyes widening.

Because he was so focused on trying to force the visual detection to trigger, his physical guard lagged by a fraction of a second.

Morwenna capitalized on his hesitation instantly, bringing her wooden sword around in a sharp horizontal strike aimed straight for his left temple.

CLANG!

Silas’s Gold Core combat instincts saved him. At the last second, he brought his wooden longsword up in a desperate, reactionary parry, deflecting her blade upward.

Without pausing, Silas drove his boot into the ground and thrust his sword straight into her exposed chest.

SWISH!

His wooden blade passed cleanly through her chest... but there was no physical resistance.

It was a lingering water afterimage.

ZIP!

Morwenna had already executed an instantaneous rip-current step, vanishing from his front and reappearing directly behind his exposed back.

Silas felt the sudden terrifying displacement of air behind his neck. As he spun his body around to face her, a sudden realization flashed through his mind.

’Wait a minute...’ Silas thought mid-turn. ’The way she moved just now... the afterimage, the sudden step to my blind spot... she’s deliberately demonstrating the exact rhythm I should have used if I had successfully triggered the technique on her initially!’

Morwenna was actively using herself as a living violent textbook... forcing his body to experience both sides of the style so his subconscious muscle memory could record the feedback.

However... understanding her intent didn’t make seeing the weak spots any easier!

As Silas completed his turn, his eyes scanned her incoming overhead strike, desperately trying to feel the fluid pressure drops in the air.

Still, nothing appeared.

’Fuck!’ Silas cursed violently in his internal thoughts.

While Silas was struggling in pitch-black blindness, the exact same could not be said for Morwenna.

As Silas turned, his awkward weight distribution caused his right shoulder alignment to lag by a fraction of a degree.

To Morwenna’s water-sensing vision, that tiny lag lit up like a blinding beacon of pure vulnerability.

Her toothy grin widened to a predatory line.

”Found it, Captain!” Morwenna declared.

BOOM!

Morwenna bypassed his raised wooden guard entirely... She launched an explosive rip-current thrust straight into his exposed right hip joint.

KRA-THOOM!

The physical force of her impact blew through his defensive stance like a cannonball.

Silas’s boots were completely lifted off the granite floor with his six-foot-two frame flying fifty feet straight across the vault.

BANG!

Silas hit the far granite wall hard, cracking the stone masonry before sliding down the wall and landing squarely on his rear on the cold floor with his wooden sword clattering beside his boots.

CRRRR!

Silas sat against the wall, rubbing his bruised hip with a heavy pained groan, letting out a long exhausted breath.

”Alright...” Silas wheezed out, raising his calloused right hand to stop her from stepping forward again. ”That’s... that’s enough for today. I need time to comprehend the technique.”

Morwenna came to a smooth halt in the center of the vault as she looked at him with a warm and thoroughly satisfied smile.

”Comprehend it some more, Captain,” Morwenna encouraged smoothly, her raspy voice soft. ”Take your time. Once you master this style... it’s going to be extraordinarily useful during the war next week.”

Silas let out a quiet sigh, resting his head back against the cold granite wall.

Of course he knew that.

Being able to read an enemy’s physical flaws a second before they attacked would make him virtually invincible in close-quarters duels.

...But what could he do right now? Force the skill into his brain by sheer willpower?

This wasn’t a spell scroll that he could simply click to instantly gain 100% operational proficiency.

These were physical martial techniques that had to be felt, understood, and burned into his muscle memory through trial, error, and painful experience.

STEP! STEP!

Morwenna walked over, stopping in front of his seated form.

She extended her long muscular arm, offering him her calloused hand to pull him up off the floor.

Silas looked at her offered hand, let out a fond chuckle, and reached up, gripping her fingers firmly as she hauled his heavy six-foot-two frame back onto his feet.

Silas straightened his posture, dusting off his dark trousers.

”Fuu...”

The moment he was back on his feet, Morwenna didn’t step back.

Instead, she stood right in front of his chest, standing on her tiptoes, and gently tapped her own soft plump lips with her index finger, offering him a sweet, expectant, and thoroughly demanding look in her stormy gray eyes.

She was explicitly asking for her promised kiss reward.

Silas looked at her expectant face, remembered the brutal, tongue-ripping mauling her ”kisses” had inflicted on his mouth ten minutes ago, and casually turned his head to the side, blatantly ignoring her lips.

Morwenna’s gray eyes narrowed into sharp dangerous slits.

WHOOSH!

Without a single second of warning, Morwenna’s hand shot downward like an iron vise, reaching between his legs and wrapping her long calloused fingers firmly around his private shaft through his trousers.

SQUEEZE!

”Hmph!” Silas let out a choked gasp of eye-widening shock with his entire body going completely rigid as his Gold Core almost detonated from pure panic.

Morwenna leaned her flushed face in close, her stormy eyes burning with a fierce mischievous glare as she tightened her grip by a millimeter.

”If you don’t kiss me properly right now, Captain...” Morwenna purred with a low dangerously playful threat in her raspy voice, ”I will personally crush all of your future generations right here and now.”

Silas stared at the terrifying gorgeous pirate goddess holding his family lineage hostage in her palm, his brain making an instantaneous high-stakes decision.

’I value my lineage,’ Silas decided immediately in his thoughts.

SWOOP.

Silas didn’t hesitate for another second.

He reached out his broad arms, wrapping them tightly around Morwenna’s waist, pulling her flush against his chest, and lowered his head to capture her lips in a deep, passionate, and compromising tongue kiss.

”Mmmph~!” Morwenna let out a soft surprised gasp into his mouth as his masculine warmth completely enveloped her senses.

This time, Silas didn’t let her initiate her chaotic tongue-ripping pirate wrestling.

He took commanding control of the kiss from the start... wrapping his tongue around hers with smooth sensual movements that made her head spin in a dizzying cloud of pure bliss.

”Mmm~ Mmh~ Mngh~”

Feeling him dominate her mouth so expertly, Morwenna’s terrifying grip on his groin completely slackened.

She eased her fingers, gently patting his shaft through his trousers in a soft, praise-filled gesture that practically screamed... ’Good boy.’

’What a dangerous woman.’

Completely melting into his kiss, the fierce Dread Queen cutely leaped up into the air, wrapping her long leather-clad legs tightly around Silas’s waist.

Silas caught her under her thighs, holding her curvaceous body securely against his chest as they continued to passionately make out in the middle of the quiet vault with their breathing mingling in the cool air.

CREAK... BANG!

Suddenly, the heavy oak doors of the subterranean training vault swung open with a slow echoing creak.

Silas felt the sudden draft of air and tried to pull his face back to see who had entered the room—

WHOOSH!

Morwenna refused to let him look away.

She cupped both of her hands tightly around his cheeks, pulling his lips straight back down to hers, continuing to kiss him with wild enthusiasm while clinging to his waist like a clingy koala.

”Ahem...”

A soft and melodic female voice echoed from the vault threshold.

The kiss instantly broke.

Morwenna slowly slid down Silas’s body, her boots touching the stone floor as both of them turned their heads toward the doorway.

Standing in the vault entrance, holding a large, beautifully polished wooden baking tray in her pale hands, was Eluned.

The divine deity was wearing a surprisingly adorable frilly white-and-green cooking apron over her flowing emerald dress.

She carried a pristine and breathtakingly sweet smile on her flawless face...

Yet, as Morwenna’s stormy gray eyes landed on the Nature Goddess, an immediate, unexplainable, and terrifying chill ran straight down the Dread Queen’s spine.

The hair on Morwenna’s arms stood up on end.

Her ancient ocean-honed survival instincts... the same instincts that warned her of sea krakens and apocalyptic storms were screaming at maximum volume that something was terrifyingly wrong with the woman standing in the doorway.

Silas, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to Morwenna’s internal horror. He blinked his golden eyes in genuine pleasant surprise, stepping forward.

”Eluned?” Silas greeted her warmly. ”What are you doing down here in the training vault?”

Morwenna stepped down beside him, her posture stiff as she offered a cautious, grumping greeting.

”Hey... weed.”

Surprisingly, Eluned didn’t hurl a single sarcastic insult back at Morwenna.

She didn’t call her a ”trench-rat,” nor did she glare at the Dread Queen for clinging to Silas’s waist seconds ago.

Instead, Eluned maintained her serene angelic smile, her bright green eyes sparkling with an unusually innocent shy light as her delicate hands trembled slightly while holding the heavy wooden tray.

”Good evening, My Lord... Morwenna,” Eluned greeted them in a soft, melodic voice. ”I... I am glad to see the two of you have rounded up your sword training for the night.”

She stepped into the vault, extending the wooden tray toward them.

Resting on the polished wood were two large, freshly baked, golden-brown cupcakes dusted with shimmering spirit-sugar, alongside two tall, crystal glasses filled with thick creamy white milk.

”I... I have been learning a bit of culinary baking from Kaelia today...” Eluned admitted shyly, a delicate adorable pink flush touching her cheeks as she twirled her toes under her dress. ”I was reading through one of the territory’s recipe books... and I made these special treats myself. If... if the two of you wouldn’t mind... could you please help me taste-test them?”

Silas looked at the blushing shy Nature Goddess holding the tray, his heart completely melting inside his chest.

’Oh...’ Silas thought, a warm genuine smile spreading across his face. ’She’s shy. She actually spent her evening learning how to bake cupcakes just to surprise me.’

”Of course we’ll help you taste them, Elu,” Silas agreed warmly, stepping right up to the tray.

Beside him, Morwenna looked at the cupcakes with deep suspicion, her gray eyes narrowing.

But seeing how eager Eluned looked, and not wanting to appear rude or petty in front of Silas, the Pirate Queen let out a short grumble.

”Fine,” Morwenna grunted, stepping up beside him. ”I’ll help you taste your weed-bread, Goddess. But if it tastes like dirt, I’m throwing it at your head.”

”Please, enjoy,” Eluned smiled angelically, stepping back.

Silas reached out, picking up one of the large golden cupcakes. He took a generous bite out of the soft pastry.

The second the cupcake touched his tongue, Silas’s golden-ringed eyes widened to the size of saucers.

The pastry was insanely delicious.

The texture was unbelievably light and fluffy, bursting with a rich heavenly vanilla-and-honey spirit flavor that literally melted across his tastebuds like sweet cloud cream.

”Holy shit, Eluned!” Silas gasped out, his eyes shining with pure delight. ”This is incredible! You’re a natural at baking!”

Without waiting another second, Silas devoured the rest of the cupcake in two bites, reaching down to grab one of the crystal glasses of cold white milk to wash it down!

GULP... GULP... GULP!

He drained the entire glass of thick white milk in one continuous refreshing gulp.

Silas wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, a blissful thoroughly satisfied look on his face as he wondered internally where Kaelia had sourced such unbelievably rich creamy milk from inside the Basin... but the flavor was so divine he didn’t care to ask.

Beside him, Morwenna had been watching Silas’s ecstatic reaction with deep skepticism.

’Is it really that good...?’ Morwenna thought, her mouth watering slightly despite her pride.