One hundred and three…

“Mr. Voker?”

“Yes, Ealric?”

One hundred and five…

“What are you doing?”

One hundred and seven…

“Working out.”

“Why?”

One hundred and ten…

“To get stronger.”

“Why?”

One hundred and twelve…

“So I can return to my family and home.”

“Why?”

One hundred and forteeen…………

“Because I was separated from them. And I want to go back.”

“Why did you get separated?”

One hundred and fifteeeen.

“Because I wasn’t strong enough to protect myself or my family.”

“And this is how you are going to get stronger?”

One hundred and sixteen…

“Yes, part of it.”

“What are the other parts?”

One hundred and sixteen and a half!

I flipped myself upright and stopped hanging from the rafter. I landed on the ground with a thud and inhaled deeply, extinguishing the ember of frustration that was building in my chest. There was no need to be frustrated. Ealric was simply asking me questions.

“Lots of training is needed,” I stated simply while wiping the sweat off my body.

“Can I train like you?” Ealric asked.

“That is a question for your parents. I can’t and won’t teach you anything without their permission.”

Deep lines formed on Ealric’s face as he frowned at me. “But—”

“No, buts,” I interrupted. “You can actually ask your father right now if you want.”

Somebody bumped into the wooden door to the shed with a small grunt of pain. “Dad?” Ealric asked the person on the other side of the door.

Clayton walked in while rubbing his head awkwardly. “Did you really hear me?” I merely pointed at my ears and shrugged. “Damn. Are those ears of yours that good?”

I don’t think I needed Elven hearing to hear you, Clayton…

“Yes, they are that good,” I answered back dryly.

Ealric tugged on his father’s winter coat and looked up at him. “I want to train like Mr. Voker does. Can he teach me?”

Clayton looked like he was thinking hard about the decision, but in truth, I already knew what he was going to say. Myla and Ealric weren’t the only Pruits watching me constantly.

Mr. Pruit eyed me then turned back to his son. He spoke while scratching the stubble on his chin and adopting a thoughtful yet stern look. “I suppose I could allow it. If Voker is willing to teach you something, that is.”

“I’ll teach him how to train his body. Nothing more,” I said reassuringly.

Anything dangerous like magic or fighting related should be taught by his father. Frankly, I don’t want the burden of teaching him how to defend himself. Nor do I have the time to do it properly. But I can, at the very least, teach Ealric some things that will help him in life.

Ealric jumped around with joy as his father gave him a slight nod. “I’m going to be stronger than you one day!” Ealric proclaimed while pointing at me.

“No, you aren’t.”

Ealric stopped jumping around and gave me a look like I killed his father. Clayton was just looking at me with pure confusion. I sighed in return.

“I won’t let you get stronger than me,” I said, trying to sound cheerful.

Clayton chuckled, and Ealric’s smirked as he seemed to understand what I was trying to say. “Yeah?! Well, I’m gonna work ten times harder than you!”

“Impossible. I’ll never allow you to work harder than me.”

“Then hurry up and teach me so I can catch up!” Ealric demanded with a wide grin.

“Fine. Your one hundred pushup challenge starts today. I hope you are ready, Ealric.”

—

“My arms! Why can’t I feel my arms! What did you do to me!” Ealric groaned while rolling around in the snow.

“My abs! I haven’t been this sore in years…” Clayton complained while rolling around in the snow.

Like father, like son…

“I did tell both of you that this wouldn’t be easy.”

For Ealric, this was to be expected. He was still a young boy, so managing two sets of thirty pushups before exhaustion was admirable. But Clayton was… disappointing but expected.

People in this world learn to control their mana relatively early on. Even Ealric, who is almost seven and the son of a mage, can use mana enhancement for a few minutes a day. However, Clayton is an Intermediate wind mage. So even though his body mana enhancement isn’t as good as a that of swordsman of similar skill, he can still use mana enhancement for far longer than the average person. And herein lies the problem.

Everyone has come to rely on mana enhancement for everything.

I long since figured out that your physical body does not get stronger if you use mana enhancement during strenuous exercise. However, your ability to control your mana does along with slowly increasing your mana pool. This works in most cases, but the problem lies if you want to get stronger. After all, it’s in the name mana enhancement; to enhance something is to increase or improve an existing thing.

If someone can only lift ten pounds without mana enhancement, their base is there. With mana enhancement, they might be able to lift double or even triple that weight for more extended periods of time. But if your base max weight was, say, fifty pounds, then you are doubling or tripling that number instead.

“Does this really work? Is this how you get stronger?” Clayton asked seriously.

“I believe so. Training without enhancing your body with mana will make you stronger. You should train your mana enhancement separately. Of course, this is merely my opinion.”

Clayton scoffed but not at me but at himself. “No, I believe you. I saw what you can do. If I could even do half of those things, I wouldn’t even need to hire another adventurer.”

“That wouldn’t be very good for me.”

Clayton looked up at me from the ground and laughed. “Didn’t know you could be funny with how serious you are all the time!”

Finally.

“I’ll write a few things down for the two of you. I’m sure it will help both of you get stronger. The key is consistency and working through being uncomfortable. If it were easy, everyone would do it,” I said.

Ealric rolled onto his feet and pushed himself up using only his legs. “Did you read that in a book somewhere?”

Yes…

“Speaking of being uncomfortable, can I ask you a favor, Voker?” Clayton asked me while getting up the same way Ealric did.

“Of course, how can I help you?” I asked curiously.

Generally, Clayton didn’t ask me for a favor if it was work-related. He was technically my boss, so I didn’t mind him giving me simple orders since I agreed to this arrangement.

“I need to go to Nactus to buy more grain before the end of the week. Jess didn’t take into account that we were going to have a perfect year with no losses, so we are getting low on food for the Shambs. Would you mind joining me? As a guard, of course.”

“Sure, I’ll go with you. Just let me know when,” I said. I turned to the person trudging through the snow and greeted her. “Good evening. Another wonderous patrol, Sylvia?”

Sylvia shrugged nonchalantly. “Another day of nothing. I think we scared all the monsters away at this point. And why does it seem that you are doing something weird every time I come back here?”

“Nothing weird about doing a workout,” I said seriously.

Sylvia crossed her arms and narrowed her single dark blue eye at me. “A workout, huh? Voker, I’m bored.”

“You’re bored? What am I supposed to do about that?”

“I don’t know. Surely you can figure out something,” Sylvia huffed.

Why do I have to figure it out? If you want to work out together, then you can just ask me…

It’s not quite time for that yet… but my workout was cut short today. You know what? It’s been a while.

“Would you care to spar with me?” I suggested.

“You want to fight me?” Sylvia said, surprised.

“Yeah, why not? I feel like I’m getting rusty, and I haven’t fought a person in a long time.”

Sylvia looked away. “And what if I hurt you?”

“We aren’t going to kill each other, Sylvia. So we can go… let’s say, 80%? Should be good enough.”

“With swords and magic?”

“No, I believe in a sword fight where I wasn’t trying to kill you, I would lose nearly every time. And I don’t need to train my magic,” I said.

Sylvia was the better sword user, without a doubt. And there was no need to use my magic against her. I wanted to test the limits of my new body, and going against Sylvia would allow me to see what I was capable of. Besides, I don’t think I could beat Sylvia if I weren’t trying to take her life. With her regenerating abilities, nothing short of instantly killing her and turning her body to ash would stop her.

“So you want a fistfight… fine. Just don’t cry when I beat you,” Sylvia said. Then she jabbed a finger at me and shook it aggressively. “And don’t you dare go easy on me because I’m a girl. I won’t forgive you.”

I let a small chuckle escape from me as I remembered the past. “You don’t have to worry about that. I learned that lesson a long time ago.”

Sylvia and I took a few paces away from each other while I let her warm up a bit. Sylvia was wearing her usual all-black leather outfit, and her bronze mask glimmered in the afternoon sun.

“No headshots,” I said sternly.

“Duh…” Sylvia groaned while rolling her shoulders. “How are we going to start this? And how am I going to know when you give up?”

I put my hand into my pockets, summoned a large silver from my ring, and then flicked it towards Ealric. “Flip that coin for us, Ealric. When it hits the ground, we start. The match ends when one of us can’t continue fighting or gives up. ”

Ealric caught the coin with a surprising amount of deftness for someone who had jello arms after working out. The boy gave me a small nod, and Sylvia and I squared off against each other.

I’m kind of excited to see what I’m capable of as well as seeing how Sylvia handles fighting a person. Fighting monsters and fighting people are two very different things, after all. I wonder if…

For a fleeting second, I thought maybe Sylvia would hesitate as she did back in the dungeon. But it seems like she has long since overcome that fear. Perhaps she hasn’t come to terms with killing yet but beating me to a pulp doesn’t seem to weigh on her mind much.

The coin hit the snowy ground with a barely audible thud. Sylvia’s leg muscles pulsed with power, and she shot straight out at me like a runner from the blocks. She aimed straight for my side with a wide swing, most likely attempting to punch me in the kidney. But instead of blocking or countering, I just stepped forward and kicked.

The sole of my boot hit Sylvia in her stomach, and her ribs creaked from the force. The vampire went sprawling through the snow but quickly regained her footing.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I was already in arms reach before she had stood up completely and my first punch connected with her arms. She had brought up both arms to block me but in return covered her face so she couldn’t see me.

I grabbed her by the arm and swept wide to kick her feet from out underneath her. My leg connected with hers, and I winced slightly from the recoil. It felt like I was kicking an iron bar. But it also seems that I could kick an iron bar as Sylvia went spinning end over end.

I opted for an open palm strike to her chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her flying back. She bounced across the ground and grunted in frustration at me as she started recovering her breath.

“You told me not to get easy on you, but you are barely going 50%. You better start taking me seriously,” I said, frustrated.

I knew for a fact Sylvia was holding back. Sylvia was faster and stronger than I could ever hope to be with her Blood Sorcery. Of course, I wasn’t expecting her to be as technically sound as me, but I was hoping she would make up for it with her magic.

Or have I gotten that much stronger? No, I don’t think I have. If anything, I’m rusty as all hell. And my movements are sloppy. I was just starting to get used to my child’s body, and now I have to unlearn things and go back to how I used to be.

How I used to be…

Sylvia lifted her mask up slightly and spat out a few drops of blood. She glared at me with her single blue eye as power welled up in her muscles. “Fine. Have it your way,” she hissed.

When I thought Sylvia was moving fast before, now I could barely track her with my eyes. She was a black blur as she stepped into my reach and punched straight out. Sylvia was so fast that I wasn’t quick enough to dodge, even with me anticipating her move. I brought my arms up to block, but her fist punched straight into my arms. I groaned as my arms were pinned to my chest. She had brute-forced her way through my defenses.

As if trying to repeat what I did to her, Sylvia went for a low kick to my legs, but now I had time to react. I stepped into Sylva’s kick with a quick jab, but her hand smacked me away like I was a child. She instantly stopped her kick and used it to get even closer to me as she gripped the collar of my shirt with both hands to throw me. I brought my elbows down with all my might and crushed her grip along with her arms, eliciting a yelp out of Sylvia.

My next round of punches was already thrown, but Sylvia had little trouble blocking or outright dodging them with her overwhelming speed and strength. Slowly but surely, I began losing ground as Sylvia started countering with her own wild punches and devastating kicks. Finally, more and more of Sylvia’s punches began breaking through my attempts to stop her, and I could feel the welts starting to form on my skin.

My attempt to block her leg failed as a kick slipped by and crushed into my side. Ribs broke from the force, and it hurt to breathe, but there was no time to think about it as Sylvia had closed the gap in a few steps. She sent more wild punches towards me, but I was finished getting hit so much. Sylvia was fast, far faster than I could ever hope to match. But I didn’t need to be quicker or stronger than her. And I had finally gotten used to her speed.

My ribs protested from my swift movements, but I lowered myself into a boxer’s stance and dodged and weaved between her punches. Every one of Sylvia’s punches I avoided, I countered with a swift jab to her exposed body. I punched her sides and arms and kicked at her legs with every opportunity. But doing this meant little. Sylvia instantly healed any wound no matter its severity and continued with reckless abandon. But what I was doing was affecting her mentally, her healing didn’t remove pain.

Sylvia grunted in frustration at every dodged punch and groaned from every swift leg kick. She became increasingly aggravated to the point where most of her attacks were beyond feral making them outright predictable. Sylvia let out an annoyed yell as she wound up for a big punch. The punch was so telegraphed, I took the chance that was given and stepped forward with as much speed as I could muster. My knee went up and straight into Sylva’s stomach.

Sylvia gasped as the air left her lungs and her body started crumbling. Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I punched down at her falling body. I swiftly snatched her arm and had it pulled behind her back before she even hit the ground. My knee dropped directly onto her spine and pinned her to the ground with her arm trapped.

“Surrender, Sylvia.”

Sylvia growled in anger, and I could feel her muscles tense. Veins bulged on her neck as she continued yelling and trying to force her arm out of my hold. I attempted to crank it back even more, but I realized I couldn’t do it. Sylvia started pushing away and regained control over her arm with every passing second. I drove my knee deeper into her back, but that only exacerbated her anger. Finally, Sylvia broke my grip, and I immediately got off her back and tried to gain some distance.

She pushed herself off the ground vertically with her arms and launched herself into the air. Sylvia was moving even faster than before, and deep red veins pulsed on her pale neck. Sylvia closed the distance on me with two quick strides as I was backpedaling away.

I wasn’t able to track the punch that stopped inches away from my face.

Both of us were panting, and my ribs burned from the pain. My knuckles were raw and bleeding, and I came to realize that punching somebody who could reinforce their body beyond what an average mage could ever hope to achieve was a painful experience.

Sylvia dropped her fist and straightened her back. “You win,” she said quietly.

“Did I really though? It sure didn’t seem like I won.”

I don’t feel like I won anything. I got to see what I was capable of with my new body, which was the point but I felt like I lost myself during that fight.

Her blue eye never wavered from my face. “Whatever, you won, I lost.” I could hear the frustration and anger in her voice.

“Sylvia—”

She didn’t give me a chance to bring it up before she stormed off. My hand slowly fell back down to my side, and I could only watch her receding back as she went into the house. Damn…

Why must I learn the hard way? Last time I went too easy and this time I went too hard.

“What… what did we just witness?” Clayton asked out loud.

“I— I don’t know, Dad…” Ealric said weakly.

—

“Why are you knocking?! This is your room too!” Sylvia yelled from the other side of the door.

I let myself in and locked the door behind me. “I was just announcing my presence…” I groaned, mainly from the pain in my ribs.

Sylvia was sitting on the bed with her knees tucked to her chest glaring at me through her mask. It’s been about an hour since our match, and I figured we both needed to cool down before speaking to each other. So I erected an earth barrier at the door and took my mask off.

“Hey… what are you—”

“I’m sorry for taking things too far today,” I said in Elvish, not able to hide the regret in my voice. For conversations like this, we always switched to Elvish.

Sylvia took off her mask and laid it on the bed. Then, she started talking in a low voice without looking at me. “But you didn’t. I was beyond pissed off, and if you hadn’t pinned me like that, I would have never given up.”

“Be that as it may, I set you up for failure. I knew I was going to win from the start. When two people train together they should both learn something from the experience but I hadn’t even thought about you. The only thing you got out of the fight was a beatdown with some added humiliation. I don’t do things that way. I should have been better—"

Sylvia scoffed and shook her head. “So what? I agreed to the fight. You didn’t use any of your magic and—”

Now it was my turn to shake my head and interrupt her. “You know I had a magic teacher for a while, my grandpa. He taught me the basics, and I was pretty good, but that was only up till I was seven. It’s been seven years since then, and nearly all the magic I know now is self-taught through trial and error while fighting for my life. I was barely an Intermediate level mage when I was kidnapped.”

Sylvia’s eyes went wide with surprise and barely suppressed anger. “Are you bragging right now?”

“No. I’m saying all of this because unlike my magic I was trained to fight with my hands for years. I doubt many people could best me in a fistfight. I know full well what both of us were capable of while hiding my abilities from you for my own gain. For that, I’m sorry.”

Sylvia looked away, and her crimson eyes seemed to get lost in her mask. “Your abilities, huh? Whenever I think I have an advantage over you, you just turn the tables on me. You’re better than me in just about everything,” she said dejectedly.

“Sylvia you—”

She huffed and looked at me with a pained expression. “What are you going to say? That I’m good with a stupid sword? So what? You said it yourself. We are fighting for our lives, not entering some kind of dumb sword-fighting tournament. And it’s not like I’m even that good with a sword. If it weren’t for my abilities, I would be dead a hundred times over.”

“And without your abilities, I’d be dead a hundred times over. It’s thanks to you that I’m still alive today. I could have spent years trying to kill that Wyrm, and I would have failed every time.” I chuckled and grunted from the pain spiking in my ribs. “I mean, I wouldn't have even survived its first attack. I wish I had your abilities, Sylvia. I’d trade every school of magic I know just to be able to heal as you do, let alone enhance my body to your level.”

“You’re just saying that. And you would have figured out a way… just like you always do.”

I sat down on the bed and ignored the shooting pain. “I wish you wouldn’t be so down on yourself all the time. I like you a lot more when you are just being your usual self. And I doubt I would have come up with something to kill the Wyrm that would have worked. I know you don’t remember it, but you were both terrifying and beautiful at the same time. It really was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. I don’t think many people in the world can instantly kill an adult Wyrm, Sylvia.”

And I’ve seen a lot of crazy things…

Sylvia gazed over at me, her face a bright red. I shook my head at our stubbornness. I didn’t mean to make her mad…

“Maybe… instead of doing… whatever this is…” I said, waving my arms around. “We just work together instead?”

“Work together?” Sylvia mumbled.

“Yeah, why try besting each other when we can both just become better overall? I can train you to fight with your hands, and you can teach me a few things about swords. We can’t really help each other with magic but that’s fine. Just like we did in the dungeon. But instead of covering for each other's weaknesses, we make sure neither of us has any? So how about it? No more feeling inadequate about the little things, and we just teach each other what we know till we are the best at everything?”

“You want me to teach you something?” Sylvia questioned.

“That’s right. I’m serious when I said you would win in a one-on-one sword fight against me. If I could close that gap even a little, I would call that a win. And it’s the same for you and fighting. Even if we get 10% better at those things, you and I would be even more unstoppable than we already are. Let’s just… get stronger together, you and I.”

“Will you teach me how to work out properly then?” Sylvia asked.

“If that’s something you want to do as well, then yes. I’m not sure if you will benefit from it overall but it’s worth a shot. You can just ask me if you ever want something you know, right? I’m not going to force you to do something you don’t want to do, Sylvia.”

Sylvia ran her hand down her face and had a pensive far off look in her eyes. She didn’t say anything for a while. Then she looked up at me. “Okay, let’s do it. Just like the dungeon, we can get stronger together.”

I eyed her suspiciously. “You aren’t just agreeing with me because I suggested this, right? So if you don’t want to do it then we can figure something else out.”

Sylvia shook her head thoughtfully. “No, I want this. I don’t like feeling useless or second-rate compared to you. And what better way to solve that problem than to have the very person I’m trying to impress teach me what they know?”

“What?” I squeaked.

“Huh?” Sylvia squeaked back. Sylvia’s face turned almost as red as her eyes as she began stammering. “I uh… ah…ah…UGH! Just forget what I said!”

“Umm… sure…”

Sylvia covered her face with her hands and started groaning. “Why do you always do this?”

I didn’t do anything though…

I scratched the back of my head and cleared my throat. “This, uh, might be a bad time now, but I actually have something I would like to give you…” I said sheepishly.

“Eh? What are you talking about? What are you going to give me?” Sylvia said quickly, still unable to meet my eyes.

“Close your eyes, and I’ll show you.”

“W—w—What?! Why do I need to—”

“If you can’t trust me to close your eyes when—”

Sylvia rolled her crimson eyes and managed her usual groan of annoyance despite being red in the face.“ Rahgah, fine! I trust you…”

Sylvia obliged and sat there with her legs crossed on the bed and completely red up to the tips of the ears. I chuckled slightly and immediately regretted it within seconds as my ribs burned with pain. In hindsight, I probably should have asked her to heal me first…

I stretched out my hand, and a small purple ceramic cup came into existence. And inside the small cup was a gift.

“You can open your eyes now, Sylvia.”

“What was even the point of— what’s that?”

“It was supposed to be a cake, but it’s more of a pancake… cupcake? Yeah… more of a literal cupcake…Ms. Pruit made it, on my request,” I said, unsure of how to explain this development.

It was definitely not a cake, and neither was it a cupcake, but it wasn’t quite a pancake either… but it was also closer to a pancake in taste and texture. I’ve only had pancakes once, and that was long ago when some generals had breakfast for dinner type meal… it was a weird experience. But I did have pancakes for the first time, and this was pretty close. The yellowish-white cake was topped with brown nuts and melted dark chocolate.

Ms. Pruit made two attempts, and this is what she came up with using what little knowledge I had. Of course, it wasn’t perfect… and it didn’t look all that good… but it did taste good, at least I think it tastes good.

The pancake thing was also still warm, and the melted chocolate was hot and running down the sides of the cake. My spatial storage ring can be thanked for that. I had wanted to do this earlier, but I wasn’t sure when or how best to do this… so no time like the present! Sylvia’s crimson eyes went as wide as dishes as she looked from me to the item.

“Anyways, happy birthday, Sylvia. I know I’m almost half a year late, but better late than never, right?” I scooted the dish towards her.

“You… remembered my birthday?”

I nodded my head proudly. “Of course. You said it was in the summer, so I know it passed already. You turned fifteen this year, right? I’m not sure if that was a big deal for you back then, but that makes you an adult in today's world.”

Sylvia shook her head and looked to be in some kind of daze. “I don’t even need to eat food, Voker? I—”

“So what? You told me that you used to eat regular food with your parents all the time, right? So you must have liked it somewhat? I can’t imagine little Sylvia just sitting there silently while her family ate dinner. Even more so if she didn’t want to.”

Sylvia blushed again and grabbed the purple bowl. “I can’t believe you… I didn’t expect for you to waste food on me suddenly…”

Huh? I tilted my head to the side since now I was confused. “Waste? It’s not a waste. It’s a gift. I know it might not be fit for a young empress but—”

“Shut up…” Sylvia giggled. “Why would you go to such lengths? This isn’t like you,” she said in disbelief.

Is it not? Do people really see me that way?

"Hey, don’t make that face, Voker. I just wanted to know what you were thinking, is all?” Sylvia pouted.

What kind of face was I making? And well…

“I just thought it would be nice. There was a time when people celebrated my birthday when I thought nobody cared about me. Back then I was… really conflicted. Actually, it happened to me twice.” I closed my eyes and remembered both of those parties.

Oh, how things have changed.

I shook the funk away and managed at least a half-smile while remembering better days. “The most recent time, I hadn’t expected anyone to care, let alone have a cake baked for me. So I thought that since nobody else in the world knows about your birthday, then maybe I could be the one to give you that kind of happiness? Of course, it’s a little selfish, but— GAH, Sylvia… my ribs… please let go of me…you are crushing me.”

Sylvia shot across the bed and started hugging me out of nowhere. I wish I could enjoy the moment, but Sylvia wasn’t holding back her strength and even I had limits. Sylvia opened her mouth wide and sank her fangs directly into my shoulder.

The pain began to numb almost instantly as I felt my ribs reknit and pull back together and my swelling disappeared. Sylvia’s healing abilities always amazed me. It seems less magical and almost like science was happening rapidly.

“Better?” she said quietly while licking the blood off her lips.

Ah…

“Yes… thank you.”

“Your ears are pink, Voker… and would you stop petting me like some animal? This is the part where you say ‘you’re welcome’ and hug me back, idiot…”

I stopped petting her silky smooth hair. “Are they? I mean… you’re welcome, Sylvia. Happy birthday,” I said while hugging her back.

I’d never had a hug feel like this before, Sylvia smelt strongly of sweat but it wasn’t unpleasant. My face felt hot and my heart was beating rapidly along with Sylvia's.

Mmmm, this is nice.