Vincent was in a state of contemplation; he couldn't hear or feel anything around him. He was sitting by the pond while on the other side was the grand throne of Loria. In the depths of the cave, in one of its few vast spaces, Loria sat on the ground with her legs crossed. After a little while, she opened her eyes, drenched in sweat, gasping for air.

‘Damn, I was on the brink of death just now; if I hadn't stopped gathering mana at the last moment, I would have exploded into tiny pieces.’

She stood up and began to walk in the cave. A long time had passed since she entered the world of muscle strengthening and completed it; only the creation of the spiritual disk remained, which she could not accomplish. It had been so long that she didn't even know how much time had passed. Once upon a time, she was a princess of a tribe of fairies, but she locked herself away here in the hope of succeeding in creating the spiritual palace.

But to no avail, she failed in every attempt, and this led her to kill any living creature that approached the lake. She even placed a large bear to guard the only path leading to the lake, even though the cave was well hidden, and even if someone managed to get past the bear, they wouldn't be able to dive into the lake due to the water pressure first, and secondly because of the water creatures, which are very monstrous beings that live in the deep waters and prey on anyone they sense. However, due to her magical abilities inherited from her lineage, none of these creatures dared to approach her. So if someone enters a place near the lake, you can surface to pull them down or kill them immediately if they are a group.

She knew that killing and strengthening the self could help in building the spiritual palace, but she had not succeeded even after doing this. She had begun to feel despair when that day came.

She was sitting in the cave as usual, trying to create the spiritual palace, and as usual, she had failed. That was when she felt that something had happened with the bear she had placed. When she emerged to the surface, she saw a boy at the edge of the lake standing there, staring at her. At first, she didn't want to kill him, but then her mind changed completely.

She still remembers what she saw at that time, even though it seemed like an illusion, she is sure it was real. When I looked at the boy, with the help of the eyes of the water nymphs, I was able to see that there was something strange in the boy's body. It started out looking like a green thread, similar to the threads that humans use to make clothes, but after a while, I could see that this thread was moving through all the parts of his body, specifically swirling around the five main organs. After some time, the thread transformed into something shiny like lights; although it maintained its length, its shape changed from that of a thread. Then it went straight to the boy's heart and disappeared.

She didn't understand what this was or what it could be, and in fact, she remembered that once her mother had told her that some powerful people place a magical force to protect their descendants or subjects. She didn't know if this was what her mother meant. She was thinking of killing him after he fully strengthened his muscles, and then she could have a chance to create the spiritual palace after absorbing the mana that would come from his organs. However, after remembering what her mother had said, she hesitated. She thought that after she killed this boy, someone from his family or a powerful person who knew something had happened to him might come looking for him. Once they learned about the boy's death, Loria didn't think they would spare her life.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Especially since she knows that humans are vengeful against their enemies, especially the monsters among them.

...

At that moment, Vincent was suffering from excruciating pain; he felt as if his body was being squeezed and shattered, as if his bones were being crushed into tiny fragments. Despite the excruciating pain, he still focuses on strengthening his bones without letting his concentration waver for a second.

The mana wrapped around his bones, some coiling around them like snakes while others burrowed their way inside. The bones were being shattered and reshaped; the process was painful and lengthy, yet Vin did not give up.

After a little while. He opened his eyes and was drenched in sweat; his whole body ached as if an elephant had trampled on him. He threw himself onto the cold, rocky ground, as his heartbeat became slower and slower.

He noticed something out of the corner of his eye, looked towards the pond, and saw something shiny in it. The object was getting closer until it crashed against the rock. Vincent stood up from his place and picked up the figurine. The object was a light black handle, with a small rectangular piece of metal separating the handle from the upper part. The upper part was a long silver steel piece, half of which was broken and had some cracks. It was nothing but the blade he found in the bear's yard.

Vincent didn't know how the blade got here; he thought it had fallen behind him. He didn't let this matter occupy his thoughts; he returned to sitting on the ground.

A small smile appeared on his face; he had started to recover from the pain after a few minutes. As he was trying to stand, he heard a sound behind him. He looked back and saw Loria standing at the entrance of the tunnel.

Loria's eyes fell on Vincent, before widening slightly in surprise, but she quickly returned to her own cold demeanor.

"It seems that you have finished strengthening your bones; that's quite fast, actually.If you keep up this speed, you'll be able to get out of here quickly."

Vincent scratched the back of his head due to Loria's praise. Although he knew little about her, he had some confidence in her for a reason he couldn't explain, even though it wasn't in his nature to trust anyone easily.

Loria sighed a little when she saw this, glanced around a bit before turning her gaze back to him.

"Well, you need to test your abilities, don't you? You will have to fight someday, so you need to know what your capabilities are."

"abilities?"

Vincent did not understand what it meant.

"Abilities, not in the literal mean, but rather what you can do in dangerous situations and how your body responds. All these things change as you strengthen a particular part, and it will also help you a lot in the future."

He opened his mouth slightly, surprised.He couldn't say anything.

"I can say that you didn't know this before, right?"

‘Well, old Randolph never told me that before.’

Vincent thought for a moment, but soon regretted it.

"Who is old Randolph?"

"Haa...He's just an old man in my village."

He quickly made up an excuse; he didn't fully trust her to talk about Randolph, there were some boundaries between them.

Loria looked at him for a moment before she averted her gaze and turned away.

"Alright, keep strengthening your parts, then you can test the strength of your body afterwards. And after it, I will tell with what you can help me with”

Then she walked away into the darkness of the tunnel leading to another small cave.

Vincent sat on the ground once again; he had fully recovered just a few minutes ago, so he was completely ready to return and strengthen his muscles.

...

As Loria walked through the tunnel, she had a single thought:

‘It seems he is bad at lying.’