Waking up the next morning I felt more refreshed than ever. Without being suspicious of the order I found myself I swear my steps had extra bounce in them.

During our training I was progressing a lot faster than the majority of the class it seemed. I was no longer able to hide it from Tom and Bea either, as I had apparently reached rank 24 in the class, this means I no longer had to do those extra laps. I was also getting hungrier and getting second meals more often now. As strange as the training was, these guys clearly knew what they were doing, since it seemed to be working.

I noticed a few of the other trainees, that were ahead of me in the rankings, shooting me looks while awaiting our turn. I'm thinking maybe they were just caught by surprise I was able to catch up to them, or maybe even worried I would pass them. Who knows.

I took it all in stride though, as this world was definitely treating me well now. All the food I needed, a place to sleep, friends, fun activities? I did find myself longing for a good book, or even just one of those idle games on my phone. But not very often to be honest. Maybe just something to break up the fact that it was the same thing everyday.

The week continued without any fanfare and nothing of note. Sam hasn't come back by, so I wasn't able to pick his brain. Tom and Bea had essentially forgiven me and gone back to our usual routines, with the addition of constant advice on the course. I shared what I could, but they mainly lacked the physical prowess and dexterity to do it. Its not like the obstacles needed too much thinking.

By the end of the week I had progressed to rank 16 in the class and I was feeling pretty happy with it.

I also found out what happened at the higher heights in the course.

I'm not sure what made the determining factor in his action versus inaction, but the knight instructor got involved. The 1st ranked trainee was pushing as high as she could go. When she fell from her current obstacle, instead of letting her land and the abbot heal her up, the instructor suddenly... blurred... and disappeared. I looked around to see what happened and finally heard a thump. Focusing in on the sound I saw the knight holding the girl and then set her down.

She bowed very low to the knight and then started making her way back to us. As she did the knight blurred again and suddenly he was back in his usual spot waving the next kid through. The girl was still making her way to the line, he had passed her in an instant!

Was this what they meant by the power of mana? Was he using spells or something to teleport? Maybe it was a body enhancement type thing? How did that work? Is this something we were going to learn? I was getting super excited and pumped up from this display. I glanced around at all the other trainees, but they didn't seem to have my enthusiasm. It looks like this is something I should have expected if I was from this world.

Well, I'll get used to it I guess.

—----

Its been a couple weeks now since I woke up here. Training has continued unchanging. The instructor has had to intervene several times now when people fall, but I still can't discern the rhyme or reason to his intervention.

I'm positive I myself have fallen from the same heights or higher as some of these kids. The knight has had to move to catch people behind me in line. I myself have not had the grace to be caught yet. I've been made to suffer through the pain until the abbot healed me. It was frankly a touch annoying.

After the third week of training... well technically fourth week for everyone, but I was only here for three of them.... when training ended the knight dismissed everyone early, rather than doing their 5 laps. He said we needed to be well rested for the following day. I was definitely excited for this change of pace. Something different to look forward to? Yes please! That had been my only complaint about this so far after all.

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I was sitting at our dinner table talking with my friends about this latest development. We were all on our 2nd meal, as even Tom and Bea had started getting extras by this point.

"So none of us have any idea what its going to be about huh? You sure there hasn't been any gossip amongst the girls Bea?" I had pleaded with her to ask while she was in the bath. She seemed the more social of us after all. Tom and I definitely just kept to our little circle.

"No, for the last time Will, no one has any idea. Just eat your food and let it go. We'll all find out tomorrow" Bea was clearly exasperated with my prodding, so I guess I had to drop it.

We finished up with dinner and plodded back to the dorms. There was only just a little bit of small talk, even amongst everyone else. The majority of people were turning in early. I guess everyone was looking forward to tomorrow.

I said my goodnights to my friends, but I was awake for another hour or two it seemed, just in my own head. Ideas were running wild in my head, I was hoping we would learn pretty much anything new, like maybe however that knight was able to blur and catch people. That would be awesome.

Well, nothing for it but to go to sleep and wake up to experience it.

—----

The next morning I felt like the whole class was all on edge. There was very little talking amongst the groups, and we really just poked at our breakfast.

I didn't even finish mine!

Eventually Bea motioned for us to wrap things up, her sense of time is still unmatched by either Tom or myself. So we got up and made our way to the training area.

When we arrived the instructor was already there, which was a bit out of the norm. He normally arrived after us for breakfast. Once the rest of the class arrived he addressed us.

"Your dedication and training this past month has been very fruitful. You have all managed to get into optimal physical condition. From this point on you will report to another knight for 6 days out of the week. You will come back here, to me on Solsday in order to run the course again and check your progress or lack thereof. You will just need to continue on through the next hall to meet your next instructor. Dismissed." and with that the knight waved towards the opposite end of the room we entered from to another hall.

We all started herding that way. Everyone was in good spirits, although it felt like there was a tinge of nervousness in the air. I decided I would go for some levity and tease Bea some.

"Ahh Bea, I'm so sorry!" I began with the slightest smirk on my face.

Bea scowled at me, but took the bait anyway "What are you talking about now Will?"

"Why, you'll only be able to see your dear knight once a week now! What will you do when you can no longer stare so longingly at him the other 6 days?" I finished with aplomb and an even bigger smirk.

Bea froze for just a second as the color drained from her face. It was quickly followed by the darkest blush I've seen on her yet. She must've really liked the looks of the knight. I definitely struck a nerve on that one.

It looks like she came back to her senses though and scowled at me. I laughed and just kept walking away towards our next adventure, too excited to worry about whatever she was going to come up with as a retort.

Apparently that was not the correct move though. I heard an increase of footsteps, presumably from Bea catching up.

THWACK

Looks like Bea decided not to use her words as a retort I thought, before I suddenly felt like I should be seeing stars.

—----

While still rubbing my head explaining to Bea it was a joke we exited the hall into the next room for our training. I realized this would be a lot different than what I was expecting.

The room was clearly meant for combat. There were dozens of little dirt areas cleared out in pretty much uniform circles. Stacked all along the wall were all manner of weapons. Swords, spears, maces, flails. The variety of weaponry was staggering. If it was not for all the time I spent playing video games I'm sure I would not have recognized half these weapons.

Also along the wall was all kinds of padded armor and helms. I'm assuming all this was for us and our next training would all be about beating each other up. I.. was suddenly not quite sure how I felt about that. Something I had managed to avoid all my life was fights believe it or not. Never been involved in one. And now it looks like the majority of my week would be attempting to hit other people and be hit by them.

Huh.

The last bit of the room was just the very center. There was a large tree there as well as our knight instructor. Doing a double take on the tree I realized this is where I woke up with Sam and the priest. That actually feels so long ago at this point. Ahh well.

We all headed over to stand in front of our instructor. As we got close I realized I was probably in trouble. I glanced at Bea, which she saw and she smirked. Ahhh hubris. It comes for us all.