Many hours had gone by since Dam Son, Xuan Li and Sugar Bun began their mountain climbing training. Now the nightly environment was rapidly taking over and they still hadn't reached the 70,000th step. The trio missed a day of studies at Caromine Institute to enhance their raw stamina and strength. If anything valuable was taught in today’s lessons then they weren’t present to learn it.

Jin Hennessy was a hard-ass instructor. He made sure that his students were punished accordingly whenever they messed up their climb. He slapped them, kicked them and even punched them. He spared no expense when it came to enforcing his rules.

After so many hours of repeated efforts and failures, Dam Son and the others were now struggling at the 10th step. Their complexion was pale as snow. They resembled a haggard towel rinsed of all its moistures.

Breathing very heavily, Xuan Li said to his peers, “I’m extremely tired. I don’t know if I can make it to the 11th step.”

“Me neither.” Sugar Bun agreed. “This training is impossible. Considering the shifting density of the atmosphere coupled with the increasing air pressure as we ascend higher, it is very difficult to maintain our balance and not spill a drop of water.”

“This training does seem a bit unfair.” Dam Son joined in. “Why do our jugs have to be filled to capacity? Any little jerk will set us all the way back to the bottom. How many times have we restarted our climb?”

“By my calculations, I reckon we’ve been at it almost all day.” Sugar answered. “16 hours to be exact.”

“And Master Jin isn’t making it easy on us either.” Saying this, Xuan Li eyed Jin Hennessy who was sitting afar trying to pour the last drop of liquid from his wine bottle. “He’s so damn strict. Not even my father is that intimidating.”

“Oh, you have a father?” Dam Son seemed surprised and intrigued at the same time.

“Why wouldn’t I have a father?” Xuan Li stared at Dam Son weirdly. “We all have parents and mine are very much still alive.”

“Mine too.” Sugar Bun added. “What about you Dam Son? Are your parents still alive?”

“I don’t think that I have any parents or if I ever had any?” Dam Son’s reply sounded strange to his classmates.

“What do you mean by that? Don’t Dark-Humans have parents as well? Probably you haven’t met yours as yet.”

“Something like that.” Said, Dam Son.

“Then who did you grow up with since you’ve never met your parents.”

“I ah…” Dam Son didn’t know what to tell his curious classmates. Unlike them, he was never conceived the conventional way. Truthfully, he was a combination of a sword, gemstone and a sapphire suitcase. All these objects comprised his unique entity, which was why he couldn’t be too far away from his sapphire suitcase.

Dam Son thought long and hard about his reply to his peers, “I ah… I wasn’t…” Luckily, Jin Hennessy came along and interrupted their conversation at the right moment.

“You useless brats! Look at this?” Jin Hennessy showed his empty bottle of wine to his pupils. “Not a single drop is left inside here. I’ve finished drinking all my stock of liquor for the day and neither of you has made it to the top of the stairway. Just how weak can all 3 of you be?”

Jin Hennessy cursed his worthless disciples. “Do you know what’s going to happen now?” They listened carefully to find out. “Since I no longer have any liquor to keep me occupied, I’m going to give my full attention to your training!” He further intimidated them by slapping his crusty old palm with the piece of bamboo.

Sugar Bun spoke up, “Weren’t you already paying keen attention to our training, Master Jin? Besides, shouldn’t we be ending our training lesson for the day? Look at the sky, it’s getting dark and I’m hungry.”

“Oh, is it?” Jin Hennessy glanced above before saying sarcastically, “I didn’t realize it is night time. My eyes must be malfunctioning. And what was that you said about you being hungry, Sweet Bun?”

“The name is Sugar Bun, Master Jin.”

“Don’t correct me!” Jin Hennessy spat spittles of anger. “You are what I say you are, damn brat. For insulting me just now, I’m going to double the intensity of your training!” Saying this, Jin Hennessy pulled out a special Noun Script from his garments and activated its properties. It brought about 3 bigger barrels for the students to train with.

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This wasn’t all. After he filled up the containers with water, Jin Hennessy used his big toe to smash apart a small portion of the mountain to chunky bits. He used the rubble to stuff the containers with rocks. This tripled their weight.

“Is he serious?” Sugar Bun couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “How does he expect us to carry those things all the way up the mountain, on an empty stomach no less?”

“He wants to kill us off that’s what.” Xuan Li complained.

Unlike his classmates who were dying from excessive hunger, Dam Son only needed to drink a substantial amount of water to bypass starvation, and luckily for him, there was a whole lot of water sitting inside the heavy jugs. “It isn’t so bad.”

“What?” Xuan Li and Sugar Bun eyed Dam Son strangely when they heard what he said. “It isn’t so bad? We weren’t built like you Dark-Human. We need to eat and rest to sustain our life force.”

“Of course, I understand that, but…”

“But nothing!” Xuan Li interrupted Dam Son’s speech. “This training is going to kill us all. Now I’m regretting begging that sadistic old wretch to teach me, Word Fu. I’m out of here.”

Xuan Li lost his morale and motivation to train. With his face hanging low, he stepped past the large jug that he was supposed to carry up the mountain then went by Jin Hennessy who was shocked by his braggadocious actions.

“And where do you think you’re going, brat?”

“I’m giving up on this hellish training. I need to go eat something and have a nice rest.” Xuan Li waved in Dam Son’s direction. “Good luck you two. I’ll make sure to come to your funerals.”

“If anybody is going to go to any funeral, it is going to be yours.” Jin Hennessy hopped off his floating paper with his fierce big toe pointing at Xuan Li. “If you have that much energy to flap your lips then enough is there to carry this jug with your hips.”

Without warning, Jin Hennessy kicked Xuan Li into the mountainside. He didn’t deliver the blow easy either, Xuan Li was stuck inside the huge crater that formed around him.

“Xuan Li! You still alive?” Rushing to his aid, Dam Son and Sugar Bun did their best to dig their classmate out of the crater.

“Cough! Cough!” Coming free from the crater, Xuan Li solicited the aid of his friends’ arm muscles to keep himself steady. He spat dust from his mouth and glared at Jin Hennessy afield. “Why the hell did you kick me so hard old man? You could have killed me?”

“That was the idea.” Jin Hennessy came along pretending as if he didn’t care about Xuan Li’s health. “The only way you will get out of being my disciple is if I banish you myself or if I kill you. I prefer the latter option.”

“But you can’t kill him, Master Jin.” Sugar Bun spoke up for Xuan Li. “What about the rules of this academy? No one is permitted to kill anyone here, otherwise, they will be sentenced to solitary confinement or in worst cases, death.”

“Am I supposed to be scared by those superfluous rules?” Jin Hennessy stepped closer to Xuan Li’s proximity. “The only way you lot will leave here is if you complete my training or if I eliminate you. Now, which option will it be?”

Jin Hennessy pointed his big toe towards his 3 disciples, especially at Xuan Li and Sugar Bun. It was at that moment that Dam Son spoke up. “Wait a minute, Master Jin.”

“Hmm? What is it brat.” Though he acted coldly, Jin Hennessy valued Dam Son’s opinion.

“Since we can’t leave until we complete our training or if you kill us then allow us to at least replenish our strength first. If we don’t eat anything and start climbing again, we will surely die from starvation, well, not me but the others. Being the good teacher that you are, you wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?”

“Why wouldn’t I want it to happen?”

“Well, with us out of the picture, who will get you the finest wines that Raixom has to offer. Huh? I’m sure you still remember the taste of the last 100 bottles we got you. Don’t tell me the taste has already vanished from your tongue.”

Hearing what Dam Son had to say, Jin Hennessy thought to himself, ‘This damn brat, he’s really good at plotting. If I kill them all off, I won’t be able to enjoy any more leisure liquor. Very well then, I’ll play this brat’s game.’

After putting away his dangerous toe to the ground, Jin Hennessy cleared his throat of non-existent blockage and said, “I’ve decided to give you all a break so that you can get some sustenance inside your belly and rest.”

“Really?”

“Thank you so much, Master Jin.”

“Alright.” Dam Son and the others were pleased to hear that they could nourish their bodies and get some rest. However, they weren’t expecting what came next.

“Don’t be too excited brats. Your recess will only last 5 minutes, so hurry up and get fed.”

“What?” The students couldn’t believe what Jin Hennessy told them. “Only 5 minutes break? That isn’t nearly enough time to replenish our depleted strength.”

“Not even close. How are we supposed to find something to eat and get back here within 5 minutes?” Sugar Bun was incredulous.

“Who said that you will be allowed to leave?” Jin Hennessy made his terms clear. “None of you are going anywhere. I have your food up my sleeve.”

Jin Hennessy dipped into his sleeve, pulled out a Noun Script and activated its attributes. What came out were 6 fist-sized fruits of radiant colour. “Here is your food. Two for each person.”

“What are these things?” Dam Son asked after accepting his share.

“These fruits are a very special nutritious source of stamina. One alone is enough to replenish your depleted strength halfway. That’s why I gave each of you 2. I call them Boost Bunnies. Now eat up and stop talking! Do you think that I don’ have a life either? I could be relaxing in my swing right about now while sipping succulent wine. Instead, I’m here training you brats. You wanted to learn Word Fu from a master, now learn it and stop complaining!”

Jin Hennessy went several paces away from his students to a soft ground surface where he could lie peacefully until recess was over.