Lake Laogai (1)

A/N: At the end of the chapter is a note describing my current work related blocks and my schedule being adjusted for it so please do read it~

***

Just a day's break had allowed a major shift in the staff of Iroh's tea shop. Michi had always wanted a flower shop for herself not because she was knowledgeable in them. Her skills lay in painting and art, and from a young age, she polished her skills by trying to imitate the beauty of flowers and projecting them with her brush and paint. Not to mention the fact that she found a few special flowers from Fire Nation the most beautiful and wanted to grow them.

Without any pressure to earn a high living and knowing full well that they would be taken care of, Michi was happy to kickback from the tea store after notifying the same to Iroh and start focusing on the flower shop alongside Poppy who was a little tired from the constant leering of a few customers. Their beauty made sure that they would have many suitors but at least, within Nik's personal space, everyone knew who their savior was and thus, held back from staring quite a bit.

Mai, too, intended to help her mother... barely. Now that she could stay in the personal space for a good reason, she planned to hone her skills of knife throwing with Toph and Nik. With the recently discovered metal bending, she wanted to see what level of precision Nik and Toph can achieve... although, Mai was sure that there hid a blind joke in her thought process... a blind spot— Nik was happy to name it.

But Iroh's sacred operations didn't come to a stop. Again, a day is all it took for Katara's and Iroh's relationship to improve dramatically, and now... she heard Iroh's wisdom without letting it get infected by her prejudice. All along, Iroh had given her nifty waterbending tips that he'd learned from fighting so many waterbenders, and controlling a whopping eight pots of tea was one of the best ways to train her control on another level!

It could be said that the ones who were distressed by Michi's, Poppy's, and Mai's retirement wasn't Iroh in the least bit. He still met them during breakfast. In fact, it was Ursa, Jin, Azula, and Zuko...

Zuko replaced Nik during the evening as he was unable to reject his Uncle's request for taking up the waiting game at the tea store now that he had chanced upon his elder cousin's mourning yesterday. Ursa, who joined for the companionship she got from Michi and Poppy felt distressed. Now that she had gotten a little taste of friendship, she wanted more but she also couldn't complain... well, only a day had passed so maybe she'd complain after a few days.

Jin only agreed to stay because Iroh reassured her that Zuko wouldn't enter the kitchen and it was true, he didn't. The whole evening after he returned from the farm, he stayed to wait on the customers as Ursa would bring his share of orders, too.

Unlike the special lubricant, Nik brought on the table which increased the speed with which Azula and Jin reconnected, Jin and Zuko's relationship was strained at best right now for various reasons. First, if Jin had the mind to try and get friendly, she would have done that long ago but she found that it was wholly unnecessary. Not to mention the fact that she stayed for the kitchen duty NOT to be utterly free like a certain someone and be a burden to Nik selfishly.

This left Azula... who felt absolutely bored and frustrated that Nik had no time for her. HER!

She wanted to... well, just show him around a few sweet spots of the village after their usual training till the break of dawn but he casually rejected the notion and was nowhere to be found.

Since he was already training, Nik had decided to focus on the grind wholeheartedly once again. Serving tea was a good and refreshing distraction but if he wanted to catch up to the likes of Toph and Aang when it came to precise bending skills, he needed to put in more work. After all, unlike Katara who didn't have a master's and only started to practice seriously alongside Nik, and Azula who had mighty raw talent but had only begun to tap it now, Aang and Toph had it both. Talent, guidance, and time!

Toph's inspiration from badger moles was the peak example of talent finding masters in nature...

After Firebending training, Nik would return to the personal space and start sparring with Suki and others until they could hold. Since the expedition no longer had any meaning as all prisons except for the headquarters in Lake Laogai were cleared, everyone took time to spar with Nik but it wasn't endless. Even Nik found his stamina challenged after four hours and the constant use of firebending to relieve the tension from his body only had positive growth on the upper limits of his physique.

Finally, in the evening, Nik trained in metalbending. This was easier than lavabending for Nik since he could address the tiny chunks of unrefined earth with the help of seismic sense and this training targeted his control and precision to the absolute. With Mai tagging along in this specific training, Toph and Nik would take time to bend metal in certain shapes and then shoot them at dummy targets.

This kind of training lasted for three more days and the results were quite evident for Nik aside from something he didn't expect he would gain out of nowhere.

---

[Name: Nik Faran

Age: 20 (80)

Code: GC—EHG—98034

Authority Rank: 1 (9.77→ 9.92/100)

Paradise: Transmigration

Title: Transmigration Intern

Bloodline: Adonis' Ember (Common)

Physique: 2.9→ 3.5

Mental: 4.8→ 5

Energy: 30.1]

[Skills:

1) Freedom Paradox Source: A being unbound by metaphysical shackles and restrictions around itself yet bound by its own. (Additional Info: This skill is bound by an external existence.)

2) Water Mastery (Expert): The manipulation of elements of water either in nature or through one's own creation in the realm of an expert. (Additional Info: Through constant training, a noob turns into an expert)

Bloodline—

1) Charm of Adonis: The user's charm can attract the opposite gender and similarly oriented individuals. (Additional Info: This is a passive skill that isn't needed to be actively focused on.)]

The addition of skill took him by surprise. His training for waterbending had come to a stagnation in terms of the time appointed to it but Nik hadn't stopped water or air bending. It's just that he came to a realization on how to mix the understanding of waterbending from spirit La and his training under Hama and this skill popped soon after. In fact, he could only mix the tyranny of La's intent with the cold precision of Hama after training metalbending with Toph and Mai... which once again testified to Iroh's teachings that no elemental bending is exclusive and can have similar attributes.

This also meant that he had risen well enough in metalbending alongside Toph.

Although, he had to admit that since he did not learn something new or gain something external to get that skill, he didn't feel too different. Like his stats, the skill was just an update on his information and growth and unless something drastic occurs, it is hard to point out obvious differences. Even his bending style only feels more in control even if he threatens to go all out without any reservation.

Yet, it was no longer time to think of training. Even if only four days had passed... Nik trained so much that he may as well be doing it for half a month and since he had made the plan to come to Lake Laogai, and had invited others, it was easy to decide that taking a day's break was necessary for two reasons. To apply his strength and training on well-deserved opponents... and relax by the end of the lake when things clear up.

While Ursa, Iroh, and Zuko were indeed invited alongside others, Nik had prepared to rush Lake Laogai before the break of dawn.

With this, they could clear opponents out timely before actually having fun. Not only that, Azula had the idea to iron out a few details. For instance, she wanted to know if the assumed traitors in the rebellion were sleeper agents or active ones. If it's the former then as long as they take care of these hypnotic means at their source, they would be fine. If it's the latter... then it certainly will be more troublesome.

That's why Azula had made sure to inform her 'other' team of the wrong time for the raid. And if there is any active traitor, they would have surely spread the information to their superior in these four days. Nik and others had no problem with this.

A few figures soon reached the edge of a giant lake close to the eastern walls of the poor man's land. A few moments of seismic sense already revealed the underground complex hidden within the giant lake and with how active its entrances looked like... that they seemed prepared.

"I still don't understand why you can't just make the entire thing disappear and let them all drown~" A catty Azula purred while leaning against the edging tree beside the lake's clearing as the group viewed the lake from a short distance.

"Because last we checked, we are rational," Katara snorted and shot back as Azula's golden eyes fell on the waterbender.

"It's rational enough," Azula smiled, "But I guess you would choose to be soft when waterbenders are considered more dangerous of the bending masters. Did my uncle's weakness plague you, too?"

Before, Katara would not have batted an eyelid should Azula publicly shame Iroh but now... Katara growled softly, ready to attack and shut the disrespectful niece up with cold prejudice!

"There are bound to be innocents in there," Nik interjected and shook his head, "Even then, I wouldn't just do that."

He looked a little different from before. While his outfit still consisted of a washed-up training tunic since the real magic lay under the layer of clothes, he wore a strange... metal gauntlet. No, to be precise, he wore a pair of leather gloves over which were short, finger-index-sized plates of metal. A larger piece was stuck on the back of his hand and his palms, too. Other than that, the rapid development of his body in an overall manner showed on his physique as he seemed to have cut some weight and looked toned quite a bit.

He just needed to eat in control... peh, like that would happen. So, more training awaited him. At least, he wasn't the same skinny guy who arrived in this world completely naked on a frozen iceberg.

"They're prepared," Toph voiced out and tilted her head in Azula's direction, "Looks like Miss Princess' team may have some rotten mud-studs after all."

"Can you expect anything else from a woman as undisciplined as her?" Mai rolled her eyes.

"Save it, Mai, the only thing you are good at is being spineless. I can still snap you like a twig you are."

Haunting blue flames from her outstretched hand lightened the area as it was still quite dark.

Mai smiled coldly, a knife entering her grip.

Meanwhile, Suki looked at June.

"Nothing?"

Usually, June would be happy to enter the frat but she lazily lay on Nyla's back and moaned sleepily, "Screw them... I just want to be done with this and have my fill of sleep and get tanned later on... ugh, my head is killing me!"

"Nobody told you to get drunk," Suki shrugged.

"And nobody told you to be such a bothering cunt, can we please move on and get this done with?"

Suki scoffed at her remarks... but it wouldn't be strange to know that everyone was getting more and more used to June's and Toph's cusses at times.

But June's words weren't unreasonable and Toph instantly slammed her naked and tough feet down with a grin, cutting off the ensuing argument by opening up a tunnel.

***

Alternative Title: Zuko's Tea Arc

***

Alright, so I... somehow managed to already write 10 advance chaps in these two days of one piece fic. It'll be 1/day from tomorrow onwards as I'll make the one piece fic public tomorrow, too.

My current active works are:

Quest Maker (A Soul Land Fic @ webnovel and scribblehub.)

Paradise of Infinity (A multi cross fic @ wb, sh, and qq forums.)

Filthy Gamer in Narutoverse (@ wb, sh, and qq forums.)

and finally, Stop it, Bro~ (One piece, @ wb, sh, and qq forums tomorrow.)

I have 8 chaps for naruto in stock while none for the remaining three. My new schedule is going to be focusing on one fic per week and releasing the chaps 1/day like usual so, we have four weeks in a month and four novels.

If this schedule becomes too tiring for me, I will pause one of the works and it will most likely be one piece.

The main reason for this is that I have gotten a bit lethargic in writing Quest Maker because we're in the end game and I don't know... I just am feeling a little blocked out to write it at the moment.

So, this week is comprised of one piece, the next one for Paradise of Infinity, Filthy Gamer, and Quest Maker.

I'm sorry for those who are waiting for quest maker but I cannot push it at the moment so this will give me three weeks while I'm still working and hopefully, I'll manage to overcome the block.

***

Shoutout to Magnaru Clemins, Poke, Harley Shockley, Olyan Amilyen, Knightly, and 2Bizzy!

Read 30 advance chapters here—

.com/Fanharem

Join the discord for well... uh, dead chat room~

https://discord.gg/egdFUe5