On his way Apricus was considering a plethora of things. He still had to decide if he were to simply benefit from the training or if he actually did want to fight. Both had their fair share of benefits, if he fought he'd get more used to his powers as well as develop a better sense of feel for battle, and of course he'd get stronger. If he were to not he could still benefit from the training but his potential to increase power within a short span would still be lower.
So as Apricus made his way considering a couple of things he stopped by a merchant section. He only started his journey towards his goals and immense power a mere year ago when he was sixteen, although due to his past experiences you would assume he was at least forty from his demeanor and personality.
However due to him still being quite new towards this journey he still lacked a proper weapon or tool so he was in a desperate search for a nice weapon before the battle. Due to the fact he still had around an hour to meet with Genso he wandered around the section looking at possible weapons. The entire area was brimming with people, some buying ingredients, others buying gems and stones for a variety of reasons like wanting to upgrade their gear or reselling them for a higher price.
There were a couple of things Apricus had wanted but due to him only having 5 copper coins he couldn't afford much. However his luck had struck him once again as he came upon a stall selling a class 5 weapon with an ability to counter 10% of any attack for 1 copper coin. It was a decently powerful weapon for its class, especially when class 5 weapons don't usually come with an ability of their own, so buying such a weapon was a no brainer.
Apricus happily left the merchant section with his new weapon making his way to the restaurant ten minutes away. It was a decently nice building formed out of clouds. The interior however had a yellow wooden finish with a counter on the right, a hallway leading to a bathroom beside the counter and multiple tables filling the rest of the space with tables and chairs. Genso had not arrived and the restaurant was still empty so Apricus simply made his way to a table near the corner.
After a few minutes had passed a waitress arrived to his table, she had quite a cute face with red hair made into a messy bun, her sage green eyes were striking with confidence and a hint of pure kindness while her breasts were quite visible and decently large. She wore a buttoned white shirt with black tights and a skirt reaching the area around her vastus lateralis muscles. Her voice however had a hint of an accent, unfortunately Apricus was not sure where the accent was from.
"My name is Tyche and I'll be your waitress for today. Can I help you get started on beverages or appetizers? Or will you skip straight through to the main meal?"
Although Apricus was slightly flustered he had a poker face on and simply responded in a neutral manner.
"I'm waiting on an acquaintance, so I'll take a cup of water please."
Tyche simply nodded while handing Apricus a menu and walking away to the counter, getting a cup of water and bringing it over to Apricus.
"Here you are, if you need any assistance or are ready to order, let me know and I'll be glad to write it down."
Then she walked away while Apricus took a sip, and checked out his new weapon. He hadn't had a good chance to look at it properly due to the fact he was in a hurry to reach here but now that he actually observed it, it was quite an interesting sword.
It was grey and stone-like with uneven edges and a few cracks filled into it, however the looks were deceiving as it was surprisingly durable and powerful. The hilt itself was pure black with a nice grip and texture to it, allowing it to rest easily in the user's hand making it comfortable and convenient. This made Apricus quite happy he took the chance to buy it as the sword's ability itself would be quite useful in battle.
Just then the door swung open as Genso entered, his white hair was silky had ever with his blue eyes still retaining the ferocity of a tiger.
He walked over to Apricus's table, taking a seat across from Apricus.
"Ah I hope you had a nice stay for the past two days, how have you found this village so far."
"It's pretty nice, the people are friendly enough, and the food is delicious."
Genso chuckled.
"Ah, I'm glad, with that this meal will be on me. So go ahead and order whatever you wish."
As Genso finished talking he waved over Tyche as he and Apricus started ordering.
A few minutes later their food had arrived as they ate and chatted about a variety of things. Apricus had never eaten at this restaurant, however Genso had sent him a letter to meet him here on his first day of his stay, so he was quite wary about the quality of the food. However his wariness turned out to be fruitless as the food was better then what he had expected.
There was a variety of different things on the table, a cooked fly fish which was a slightly long fish with transparent wings that flew around the village, sky buffalo meat found in the forest near the village, sweet bread, multiple vegetables, as well as a strange looking but amazing tasting soup.
After they were done and Genso had paid they remained at the table with only two cups of gold coffee remaining.
"Now then let's get to business shall we Apricus. What is your decision? Are you going to be fighting alongside us?"
"Sure, however I have two conditions."
Genso furrowed his brows.
"Oh? What might that be."
"My first condition is that you decrease the payment of gold from forty to thirty. My second condition is that you yourself train me. I'm aware that someone of your status might have better things to do, but I'm also aware of the fact that you can create much more believable clones for those tasks."
Genso's mouth turned into a wide grin, to be frank he was somewhat impressed by this relatively young looking kid, however within that impression there was also a hint of fear.
"Fine then I accept those conditions, however in exchange you must train a kid I've adopted as a student just yesterday. He's completely new to this so I want you to teach him the basics, as well as everything you know, then you'll go on a few missions. That way you'll also get stronger and much more comfortable with battle, after that I'll train you personally."
Apricus sighed as he took a sip of the coffee. Sure what Genso said was true, he can become stronger this way too however he did not really want to train a little brat, unfortunately he had no other choice if he wanted a Pseudo-Cursed to train him so he had to accept.
"Fine then I'll help him get started, when can I begin."
Genso chuckled, relatively proud.
"I'll meet you at this restaurant in a week, you'll get the details after a few days. By then I want you to go over everything you know, I won't accept mistakes."
With that Genso suddenly disappeared leaving only the empty cup of coffee on the table.
Apricus sighed, finishing his coffee then leaving the restaurant. His next destination was the library where he needed to go over the information on souls. Sure he was a beast himself, and was already knowledgeable about most of these things however he was determined not to mess up even once to increase his chances at Genso training him. At that cost he was willing to go over everything he knew, after all what was better than a Pseudo-Cursed training a Beast.
"Well I guess a Pseudo-Holy training a beast is much better."