Whispers of A Dead Empire

Chapter 29

We both teleported back to Aaron, who was in the middle of admiring his new weapons. "Lieutenant!" I called out to him as we approached him. The courtyard was mostly empty, with the undead doing who knows what right now.

The skeleton tore his gaze from his gloves and looked over at us, and chittered something. "He said he appreciates the gloves. They make hitting things easier for his fist."

"Well, I am glad that you like them, Aaron. But anyway, would you be interested in training with me? I want to learn some close-quarter combat techniques." I crossed my arms and shifted my weight to my left hip.

He bobbed his head and clenched his fist, which was a bit of a comical considering that he was a skeleton that was completely in the nude outside of wearing a pair of gloves. "He said that is fine with him. His only issue is that you look weak, and he wouldn't want to hurt you."

I glared at the skeleton for a moment, feeling slightly offended at that comment. "I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself." I huffed back at him. Just cause I was a girl didn't mean that I was weak.

Aaron tilted his head, and a cascade of chittering escaped from his mouth, and Kharon bobbed his hooded head. "He said he knows that, but he has a class milestone on you, and you are still level one. So he was just trying to look out after you, is all."

A defeated sigh escaped from my lips. "You have a point. I just don't want anyone looking down on me cause I am a girl is all."

Aaron made a noise akin to laughter and bent over. I threw a glance over towards Kharon, curious to know what the buzz was all about. "He thinks you are funny. Genders don't have meaning to undead the way they do to the living. It's all the same to us."

Ahh, that made sense. At least I didn't have to worry about getting sexually discriminated against here. "I see. Well, anyway, would you be willing to teach me some skills?

Aaron vehemently bobbed his head. "He said it would honor him to do so. So what do you want to learn specifically?"

What did I want to learn? I thought back to the orange light that seemed to radiate from his bones; it was called Ki or something like that. "I want to learn a movement technique if you know one, and I want to learn how to manipulate Ki."

Aaron bobbed his head and gestured towards the center of the courtyard. The two of us followed along behind him quietly, and a well of anticipation filled my stomach. I was beyond excited to learn new skills, especially since I haven't really taken the time lately to learn anything new.

A few undead were milling about on the perimeter of the outpost, stumbling across a well-worn path and around the ruined fountain. It must be a sad life to repeat the same action. One day I hope to free them all from their fate. I tore my gaze from some of the undead and glanced at Aaron.

He stood straight and chittered something towards Kharon. My companion bobbed his head and replied. I wish I could understand what the two were saying. I felt a little left out and slightly perturbed at the fact that I had to use Kharon as an intermediatory. "So, Aaron has agreed to train you. However, for the sake of making this easier, I will be explaining base concepts to you, and Aaron will be your partner."

"Yeah, that's fair. It would get a bit confusing otherwise. What will I be taught first?" I asked as I created a hair tie and began pulling my hair back into a tight ponytail."

"So I am going to get you started with Ki manipulation since you need it for other skills. Luckily for you, Ki manipulation doesn't count towards active skills and instead gets folded into your passives tree." I finished with my hair and nodded, intrigued by his words.