After that night, the remainder of his time on Oz went by in a flash. During his stay, Noah lost some of the edge and gloom he had developed during his adventure on the half-cold, half-hot planet that had ceased to exist along with the Stargate.

This was a period of rest and calm for Noah, however, he made sure to not neglect his training while he rested, going at it relentlessly. If Noah wished to integrate the changes his body had gone through and unleash the full capabilities of his powers then training and adapting to the changes was a must, thus he pursued that goal through endless training.

Lion had woken up and made a full recovery much faster than he expected, thankfully, he was not resentful against him for putting him in such a sorry state. The power he showed Lion seemed to have made the beast pretty satisfied, happy even, and he prepared a full training regiment made to push him toward the very limits of his strength.

Hours upon hours, Noah would put his mind and soul into training relentlessly. Since his body could continuously heal through any fatigue or injury he accumulated through the training, as long as he had enough food to consume that is, Lion did not have to limit himself in the way he handled Noah.

———

In a simulation room specially prepared for Noah, the young man could be seen wheezing with his hands on his knees.

[Noah, now that you have passed the current level… What do you say? Shall we go to the next one?]

Lion’s voice resounded from the speaker, asking for Noah’s opinion. He was encouraging the lad to take on the next challenge.

“Bring… Bring it on…”

Even though the simple act of talking was hard for Noah, his throat so dry that he could barely push those few words out, he did not disappoint the Lion and readily accepted the challenge… Because he could already feel his body adapting and improving itself.

— Noah, breathe in properly. You need to change your way of breathing. Remember, you don’t just need to use your lungs.

Noah nodded while wiping the small beads of sweat that plastered his whole face. Logically, he knew that his body's needs were different now from what they initially were due to his evolution. However, it was quite hard to get rid of habits he had lived with for all his life.

I guess the mindset is what’s truly important when it comes to these things.

[Are you ready?]

“Yeah.”

[Very well…

Level: 4

Gravity Increase: 30X

Number of Enemies: 6

Condition: Weaponless

Stage: Sandy beach]

Light exploded in Noah’s vision and soon… he found himself standing on a clean and beautiful beach with a pristine blue sea stretching as far as his eyes could witness. Above him was a beautiful blue sky filled with seagulls. Beneath him, the rough texture of the sand between his toes made him wonder if he was truly in a simulation room or actually transported to a space with a beach environment.

Soon, however, Noah was unable to pay attention to the beautiful sight before him as the gravity started settling in, suppressing him all over.

“Ugh…”

Unlike what many people may think, the problem with increased gravity wasn’t so much an external problem of added weight as much as it was an internal problem relating to his organs. Lifting something 30 times his own weight was no problem for Noah with his physical specs.

However, in the current situation, with the gravity affecting his whole body, his internal organs were legitimately screaming as though they were being crushed and then regenerated over and over again. Tears of blood trailed from his bloodshot eyes, while his veins became extremely prominent beneath his skin and throbbed while coping with the enhanced gravity.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

His body was constantly healing and being destroyed by the intense pressure and yet things did not stop there as six enemies designed for this particular simulation manifested before his eyes.

The six were not completely humanoid and were closer to giant spiders than anything else with the numbers of arms to match their identity.

Seeing the enemies before his eyes, a bitter smile leaked out of Noah’s mouth, “Tell me the truth. You still have a grudge against me, right?”

[I do not understand what you are talking about. This is legitimate training. Now then— let it begin!]

Noah grinned, this was going to be another sort of hell like the one he faced inside the Stargate, however, it was a hell he readily welcomed.

———

The training session lasted for another three hours as Lion progressively increased the number of enemies, varying the terrain Noah had to fight in throughout the training regimen. From sandy beach to a ragged mountain and even in the middle of the sea or during a free fall from the skies above. It was quite a diverse program that catered to all of the scenarios a mercenary may need to go through in their lives during missions but Noah was thankful for the opportunity.

After all, once he started exploring the galaxy there would definitely be many planets with exotic landscapes and conditions that somehow or the other complimented the training scenarios he was going through. Learning how to fight whenever and wherever was always a good thing for him.

[This is it for today. You will do level 5 tomorrow, level 4 is enough for your training today, I believe. Normally we should give you a special supplement at this stage for your recovery. But we now understand the best supplement for you is food. So come. After this, you have your class with Tin.]

The smile on Noah’s face froze a bit at the declaration. He didn’t mind fighting, sweating, and bleeding when training. In fact, he enjoyed it quite a bit and found a feeling of calmness wash over him when he focused his all on training through the various challenges.

The lessons with Tin though, were a whole different scenario altogether. The first part was something Noah loved. Mechanics and understanding of Knightframes. This was a class Noah agreed was very important for him down the line, as this helped him gain a better understanding of how the renewed mechas of this era operated.

But the other part of the lesson consisted of general knowledge about culture and history, as well as geography or should he call it spaceography? Either way, Tin was using those few days to cram as much knowledge as possible into Noah’s head and it was not pleasant in the least to memorize so much info.

— Should you just enter the pod?

You know I can’t. I believe Dorothy and even Lion for that matter and Tin is cool. But even if I only had some hangup about the learning pods, now there is no way I am letting something like that connect to my mind in the sphere of control of that AI on my tail.

Crow was a powerful AI and Noah knew that whatever he was imagining, crow could do far worse if he just put his mind to it. Underestimating a super space AI with unlimited control was not in his plans.

I doubt he will refuse Dorothy’s order. But why take the unnecessary risk?

Noah stood up and sighed once again before walking toward the bathroom. He needed to clean himself and wear some appropriate clothes for his next lesson. The last time he went to visit Tin with his training uniform while reeking of sweat, Noah had the impression he was about to see a robot fainting after a mechanical heart attack of sorts, and the aftermath wasn’t pretty by any means. The lecture that followed his stunt nearly made Noah’s ears bleed out even though they had evolved to withstand a missile exploding next to them.

“Reluctant to meet our dear Tin, are we?”

Lion entered the room while holding a pad in one hand and a large cup in another. He also had a small monocle and from Noah’s position, he could see alien numbers trailing up and down through the glass of the monocle.

Noah was glad he didn’t have to learn writing skills, since he obtained those from eating the pirates.

“I wouldn’t say I am reluctant, just tired. Tin can be a little intense sometimes. But I know it’s for my own good.”

Noah accepted the cup and looked at the suspicious liquid with disgust before downing it in a single go.

“Ugh. I feel like I am drinking raw flesh mixed with fur.” He grimaced slightly at the aftertaste and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

“An awfully specific comparison here.”

“When I first woke up on the planet I lived in, I didn’t know there was a super hot side of the planet. I was forced to eat raw flesh the moment I killed prey to avoid it freezing completely.”

The earlier days on that planet had truly not been easy for him but thinking about it now, those memories were not all that bad.

“You are really a weirdo, you know that?”

“I will take those words as a compliment coming from you.”

The two shared a small laugh. It might be a little cliché to say, but men did not need much to become friends. Funnily enough, his relationship with Lion could be said to be the closest, even though it began in the most violent way possible. The other person something similar had happened too, still hated his guts, so to speak. That’s why men were far easier to get along with than women.

“Well, it’s time for me to get going now. Tin is pretty fastidious with time, and I don’t want to cause him to go on another rant.”

“Heh. You are right.”