Andre opens the door to the kitchen with enthusiasm, revealing Babban cooking a large strange piece of white meat.

My skin crawls at the sight of it.

Andre ceremoniously bows “Bone-apple-tea, good sir” Andre laughs as he takes a seat

“Asshole” I mutter under my breath

Andre laughs “Listen bud. Brandon, Oli, and I had to do the same thing to get stronger and survive, trust me we all know your pain,” He says, “and I mean you’ll be surprised, it doesn’t even taste that bad,”

“Babban can you make me some too?” Andre asks, to which Babban gives a thumbs-up

“You're going to eat too?” I ask surprised

“Yeah, it tastes great,”

Is he being considerate of me?

Oliver looks through the door “Good mor-” Oliver glances at what Babban is cooking and swiftly turns and walks out the door.

“So he’s not eating with us?”

“Guess not, his loss” Andre shrugs

After a few minutes of cooking, Babban puts a plate down in front of me and Andre.

“Thanks,” Andre and I thank the pink blob.

Looking at Babban now he’s honestly not as scary. He’s just kind of like a walking pile of slime. Slimes are supposed to be the weakest monster in most RPGs, but somehow I find it hard to believe that Babban would be considered weak. I reminisce about the time Babban yelled.

I look at the plate. It had rice, a variety of vegetables, and most notably, the white piece of browned white meat, that almost seemed to be convulsing. It had made me gag again.

Fuck I gotta eat that.

I glance at Andre, who without hesitation stabbed his fork into the white meat and started scarfing it down. 3 bites later, the bug meat had delved into the abyss known as Andre’s stomach.

My mouth gaped open, causing Andre to peek at me.“What? It’s good,” he says before he goes on to eat his vegetables.

I glance back at the white meat. If I eat it fast it should just go down. Right?

What if maggots start coming out of it after I eat it?

Sometimes I genuinely hate my imagination.

I stab the meat with my fork, resulting in the bug’s juices oozing out of the meat. Strangely enough, it had looked like regular burger grease.

I'm just going to go for it. I firm my resolve and take as large of a bite as I can of the meat. I immediately tried to swallow, but whether it was my disgust or the piece of meat I ate was too large, my throat wasn’t letting me swallow. I couldn’t even attempt to bring it into my throat, so the meat had to just stay within the limbo of my mouth.

I have to chew my food goddamn it.

I slowly bite down on the bug meat, resulting in a crunch. I continue to chew on it. It hadn’t tasted that bad, It had just tasted nearly identical to crab, just a little more pungent, and… crunchy.

I swallow my food, realizing I have never felt so mentally exhausted from eating.

I finish the rest of my meal, something I'm not proud of, and I head out with Andre to continue my training.

I followed Andre outside in the desert where I had to run 10 miles.

“So how do your legs feel after running 10 miles?” Andre asks

“They’re surprisingly fine”

“Doesn’t that seem strange to you?” Andre says as if to imply something

“What do you mean?” I ask

“You don’t work out often right?” He hits the nail on the head

“yeah?”

“And you're fine after suddenly running 10 miles,” Andre says

“I’m built different I guess” I state confidently

“Funny, but no. For whatever reason whenever we exercise and feel muscle pain for that day, we’ll undoubtedly recover by the next day. It’s weird because it only applies to muscle shredding, meaning internal muscle wounds, but it doesn’t apply to external wounds, Nor organ damage.” Andre explains

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“That's pretty nifty,” I say

“Yeah, that means you get no rest days” Andre smiles

I lost a bit of my sanity from that statement.

“Alright I took you here, but I’ll give you a choice” Andre gives an eerie grin

“We can toughen you up the slow, annoying, and boring way," he frowns, "or we can toughen you up the fast, fun, and exciting way” he smiles

“Uh-huh, what's the catch?” I ask skeptically

“You might die”

“I’ll take the slow way,”

“Don’t you want to get stronger?”

“Doesn’t matter if I die doesn’t it?”

“Boring,” Andre mumbles in disappointment

“Sorry, I have common sense?”

“Says the kid who slept on a man-eating carpet”

“Okay, buddy. Anyways, what was the short way?” I ask

“I’d have thrown you into a pit full of small Egwu monsters,” Andre explains casually

“WHAT THE FUCK DUDE! THAT'S NOT AN “I MIGHT DIE SCENARIO,” I WOULD DIE! I DON’T EVEN HAVE AN ABILITY WHAT ARE YOU EVEN THINKING!?”

“Calm down, I have my ways of keeping you alive, so the biggest threat to you would be your own stupidity and I would come down in seconds to help you if you need it,” Andre says.

“Uh-huh and how will you keep me alive?” I ask

“There’s no point in telling you if you're not even going to do it,” Andre acts like a petty bitch

“Anyways, if you do take the long way, it’ll probably take you 3-4 years to get as strong as Brandon on the shorter side.” Andre says, “Don’t you need to rescue your friends from the vampires or something?”

My mind goes blank. 3-4 years? Isn’t that way too long?

“Hold on, I can't wait that long. Didn’t Brandon get as strong as he did in less than 2 years without proper training? Why would it take me so long?” I ask.

“Firstly, Brandon had to go through harsher conditions. Secondly, you're not as talented as Brandon. Brandon was able to unlock his ability the moment he came to this world, he has a natural feel for his ability,” Andre says, “but I doubt he’s more talented than your sister though, didn’t she keep her ability active for 10 seconds or so when she first activated it? If that’s true that would be actually insane, I wish I were there to see it.” Andre regretfully imagines the event.

I had felt like my ambition to overcome Brandon in strength had become no more than a fantasy after being told at face value that I held no talent.

“So, how long would it take me to get strong enough to go to the vampire city?” I ask

Andre ponders this “I'd say it may take you 3-4 months, it depends on if you can unlock your ability in that time and how powerful it is,” Andre says.

“Fuck, okay, I’ll take the short way, but is there anything I should do to prepare first?” I ask

Andre ponders for a moment “Prepare your will, I guess?” Andre shrugs.

Wow, that makes me so confident, I think to myself as I regret my life decisions.

“Can I at least bring a spear and some armor?” I ask

“Umm, sure why not. You can take the shitty wooden spear from your room, and we’ll give you a decent set of armor before we send you off.”

“Lovely,” I say a bit sarcastically.

“I agree you don’t need the weapons,” Andre nods.

“Now hold on there buckaroo, I said lovely not sarcastically, but with complete sincerity” I lie through my teeth

“Uhuh,” Andre lightly chuckles.

“Anywho, on a serious note, I'll give you a day to mentally prepare for when you get dumped into hell, so with that said have fun,” Andre waves before he vanishes leaving a gust of air.

“This asshole really just took me for a walk in the middle of the desert and left,” I say to nobody in particular.

“Guess I better get home,” I sigh

I walk the rest of the way home and get to the hut Athen and I were staying in. I opened the door and noticed that Athena was still asleep.

Is she okay she’s been asleep for around 2 days now.

I sigh, “ok, what now, I got the rest of the day to myself” I glance at the white fucky carpet, alright first things first.

I grab a spear from by the door and poke the carpet away to the very edge of the hut.

A job well done, I congratulate myself.

I lay on the wooden floor and glanced at the ceiling, what now? I could very well die tomorrow, now that I was thinking about it, it was scary, only when I'm close to death do I realize I'm alive. I could now feel my heartbeat much more vividly, it had made me feel uncomfortable, it had reminded me that I was vulnerable, that I was human, that I was mortal.

I shake off the uncomfortable feeling.

I glance at Athena; maybe I should write a will.

I look around the room and notice a cabinet by the bed. I open the cabinet drawer and notice a notebook and pencils inside.

I flip through a few pages of the notebook and notice that each page is empty.

This’ll work.

I sit by the couch and I get to writing, I found it surprisingly not that difficult to write about my death, all I wrote down was a note to Athena talking about what likely would’ve been my cause of death, how I died heroically, and how it was to get stronger.

I also wrote about my thoughts, how I was feeling before going into it, the excitement and the doubt, and how this was all Andre’s idea and hence his fault. I was breathing through this will, but I came to the wall when I had to think of an apology.

I’ve always been bad with apologies, but where do I even start here? Do I say how I’m sorry for stupidly going off and trying to fight off hordes of monsters, or should I apologize for not being strong enough to survive?

After agonizing for what felt like hours, I just settled on apologizing for leaving Athena alone.

I’m a piece of shit…

I move the silk door to the side and glance outside. It was still early and the sun was out and still bright.

I got time… What now?

I might as well work out.

For the rest of the day, I attempted doing any workout I could think of, typically I’d worry about my muscles tearing, but knowing I my muscles would be fine by the next day, I decided to push myself.

Throughout my workout I could tell how weak I was, I felt as if I was missing out on a lot of untapped potential, as if I couldn’t use a majority of the strength within my muscles. I could barely do 10 pushups, situps, and squats. I had truly felt utterly pathetic, but regardless, I continued to work out for the rest of the day.

After the sun went down and it got dark I decided to go back inside and sleep.

“Wake the fuck up shrimp,” Andre shakes me awake with his leg, “We’re gonna dump you in hell.” He says with a big grin.

I want my mom.