Eleven

They found the hatchways before there was any need to worry about potential embarrassment. Kon's cabin was actually quite spacious, which surprised him. He had a full bed, built-in dresser, a view screen attached to a bulkhead, and a metal weapons locker. Kon checked the locker and was only slightly disappointed to see it was bereft of occupants.

The bathroom was the next thing on his list which was luckily attached next to the cabin, was spacious, and had a full sized shower. There were no spare clothes though, which had Kon wondering about it, but he figured Benny would have something.

After exploring the room he retreated back to the main living space, finding Diur already there. The two of them silently agreed to explore with just a quick glance. Once the trick of finding the hidden switches to the hallways was figured out, they started mapping out all the entrances.

An hour later they had found that there were at least a dozen passageways and Benny had at least some type of remote control of the passages, closing them or opening them as he shepherded them to where he wanted. Which was back to the main room.

The old man had taken off his armor, revealing a thin frame decorated with rich clothes in bright blues and yellows, swirling eddies of luminescent cloth interwoven across them in intricate designs.

"That is unholy," Kon said, blinking his eyes at the bright clothes.

"Lesson one. You looked at my clothes and didn't see the obvious," Benny said, voice droll as he pointed to his face. Kon saw what the knight meant, he had scribbled a small, but obvious, star in pen on his cheek.

"This is an over exaggeration of what the underlying principle is about. When we enter the goblin's area we want them to focus or pay attention to a specific item or look that is easily changeable. This is a cheap, but effective trick."

"It seems unworthy of an honorable warrior to cloak themselves like this," Diur grumbled.

"Honor can be dictated by the living. Now watch," Benny said, serious for once. He touched one of the long loose folds of his bright garment and tugged. The bright fluorescent design disappeared along, the yellow designs became straight stripes. It drew the eye, but not in the same way it had.

"This won't confuse tracking algorithms, for that you'll need more elaborate means. Changing heels to obscure your gait, shifting shoulder pads to break your silhouette, fast changing clothes. Then there's tech options, which you'll learn about eventually."

"Speaking of clothes. I don't have any," Kon said, cutting into the lesson. Benny looked at him and blinked slowly.

"Do you think this is what I normally wear?" Benny said, pointing at the bright garments.

"I have no idea," Kon said. Benny slowly blinked at him before sighing and looking at Diur.

"Is he normally like this?"

"He performs better after eating," Diur said pointedly. Benny sighed and rolled his eyes as he stood up before walking to a cabinet along a wall. He stabbed a few times at the buttons on the cabinet until a few trays of steaming food shot out.

"Hope you're not gourmet snobs. It's just rehydrated dried foods heated up." Benny set the trays down in front of them before flopping back onto the couch.Kon stared down at the blob of brown the size of his fist.

"You should have seen some of the stuff we ate on the planet. Think it was still trying to crawl away from the fire," Kon said with a chuckle as he grabbed the brown orb and bit into it. An explosion of flavor assaulted his mouth, overwhelming in its intensity as the squishy blob slowly melted.

"Rift break worlds are always a bit rough. Easier when the planet's mostly deserted. Nothing like picking through a half dead world that doesn't know it's dead yet. Now, back to the task at hand. Infiltrating an area like this will be difficult. If we go in as Knights, there will be some avenues of investigation that will be cut off. I need to know your full capabilities," Benny said.

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"You saw my physical results, right?" Kon asked as he finished eating the square of food.

"Knowing how much you can bench press isn't indicative of your skill."

"Alice taught me some hand-to-hand combat. Know some weapons platforms. I can use a rock." Diur snorted, but covered her mouth while Benny looked at him flatly.

"Do you know how to fight?" Benny asked towards Diur.

"I have extensive hand-to-hand training along with swordsmanship that has been found acceptable by my elders," Diur said primly.

"We'll test that tomorrow. I'll add it to the list of training materials you both have to go through. I forgot how tiring this is," Benny said, wiping his face with his hand.

"What is our training? You said learning stuff, but I still need to finish out my web," Kon said.

"For that we need to secure cores. And by we, I mean you. So you're going to have to finish a contract or three. Nothing too bad, maybe we'll find you some while we are at the station. But for now, we're going to work on a few aliases, learn some basic self-defense that works better than a rock, and get you reading xenobiology papers."

"Xenobiology papers?" Kon asked.

"Need to know anatomy. If I have to explain to you why, I don't think we'll have a long partnership," Benny said. Kon nodded along while Diur just sat with a straight face.

"I can figure that out," Kon said.

"Come on, follow me," Benny said, standing up and walking out of the main room, through one of the passage's Kon and Diur had found, but then cut across a so far unexplored space. A hatch opened up revealing a small room with thin pads covering the entire room. Benny stopped, spun around and looked at them.

"I'm going to assume that Kon's training was based on striking techniques? Just trying to hit her?"

"Some wrestling," Kon said defensively, not liking the accusation in his tone.

"Alright, show me what you got," Benny said, waving a wrinkled hand at him. Kon didn't hesitate, his body responding instantly. He rocketed across the mat, snapping a crisp jab at the old man's face.

Benny smacked away the jab, grabbing his wrist and jerking Kon close to his body as Benny turned. The old man threw Kon, tossing him over his hip to slam hard into the mat, air whooshing out as he landed hard.

"Why didn't you help?" Benny said, looking at Diur who stood there, waiting her turn. Benny released Kon's wrist as Diur advanced on him, dodging a pair of strikes before lazily reaching out and kicking her in the middle of the thigh. Diur's leg went limp as she placed her weight on it in mid-step. She collapsed on the ground just as Kon got to his feet, the entire exchange only taking a few seconds.

"Striking is a good skill to have. In combination with other techniques. Like joint locks and wrestling. Nerve strikes can also be effective. Knowing where all the joints are along with nerve clusters are in the xenobiology reports you'll be researching. Now, slow it down and come at me again," Benny said, waving his hand slowly at Kon.

A spurt of anger flared through Kon as he advanced toward Benny, keeping his next strike more controlled. Benny slowly moved, showing Kon how he blocked the blow, the way his wrist had rolled to ensure he could grasp Kon's own wrist as his fist flew by.

"Do you see?" Benny asked. Kon nodded, biting his tongue. Benny gently pushed him back with his off hand and then slowly punched Kon's face, an identical attack that Kon had launched at him. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Benny wanted.

Kon replicated the block and grab with Benny grunting approvingly. Then the old man showed him how to reverse the hold Kon had just placed on him. They kept practicing, slowly, carefully, and controlled. Kon's original impatience faded away as he and Diur rotated, switching between sets.

"How is this more exhausting than our training with Alice?" Kon asked as they entered the fourth hour of training.

"No energy in the air to absorb. No energy rich meat to consume," Diur said as she caught her breath.

"Correct. Space is big. You have an advantage being a Knight over cultivators. Our runes hold energy better than their cores do and are more efficient. You'll figure that out once your web is completed. Now, how can you narrow that advantage?" he turned to look at Diur.

"Be more efficient with fighting?" She answered instantly. Benny smiled widely.

"Correct. And that is what I want to teach you. Efficiency in fighting. How to end it as quickly as possible with the least amount of damage taken. You have a decent foundation, but it's built on fighting monsters. Diur, you're built on classical arts. Stuff I memorized centuries ago. We're going to work on modernizing it," Benny said as he stretched. There wasn't a single spot of sweat on him as he let the two of them slowly recover.

"Now that the warmups are done, we can begin the real training," Benny said. Kon and Diur looked at each other, sweat already dripping off of them. Neither of them could resist the smiles that broke on their faces as they both turned to look at the knight. Benny noticed the smiles and his own spread as he waved them towards him

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