Smack. Alan fell to the ground once again, gripping his head that was in pain.

“Wrong. You don’t just rush forward if you have no reflex to back it up. Again.” Eric went back to his previous position and got into stance. The last day was spent with joy, so this must be filled with pain he said.

“Give me a second.” Feeling dizzy, Alan went back to a sitting as he tried to stand up. He took a breath in and re-focused his mana. He was trying to learn various kicks, because he was mainly focused on his legs, but as he concentrated on his down-half, he forgot his defenses on his top-half. So, he got smacked on the head this day countless times, be it for too much aggression in attacking, or because his enemy was simply just that much better.

Eric advised him to leave the mana-strengthening to later and get a grip on his physical strength as he does, but excitement took over and he said he wanted to get a feeling on it in case of emergency. And because of that, Eric didn’t go easy on him.

He tried to spar with Max a few times, but he was out of his league too, and he was much worse at holding back.

“Alright, I have something to discuss with you anyway. So, we were thinking yesterday before you woke up, and thought about visiting nearby schools. And if we are already there, we could ask them to let us join in on their lecture. Of course, only if they let us. We could also join in on some monster-extermination assignments for exercise and wanted to ask you if you wanted to join me on that?”

That let Alan stiff for a second. He remembered the monster on their way here, only its cry was enough to leave Alan unable to move. He wasn’t sure what kind of monsters was Eric thinking about, but if it was an exercise for him it must be something terrible.

“Let me think about that.” With a stiff smile, he answered.

***

As they started their travel, Xianan country’s beauty started to show. Compared to Alarya, there were numerous mountains in plain sight and it wasn’t full of forests. They passed several fields growing some kind of plant, while the field was filled with water. People were working all over the place even if it rained. As they passed the crops, they started traveling uphill toward a tall building, or at least that was seen from under. Eric grabbed Alan and told him to take the road on foot while they are going uphill, it helps build stamina. In the end, Alan even took some packs over his shoulder which was approved by Eric by a pat on the shoulders and the usual smile that could melt walls. He started to accept Eric’s teaching about the importance of physical strength. Hopefully, it will payout in the end.

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As they closed in on the walls of the supposed school, as told by Eric, they were stopped by a bunch of people.

“Halt!” A bald man stood out from the group, he -as well as the other people in the group-

was wearing light blue, loose clothes, which were kept together with a single cloth serving as a belt. On their feet similarly, cloth shoes could be seen in similar colors. All of them carried some kind of weapons, some of the swords, interestingly, didn’t have a crossguard which perplexed Alan. He heard it was needed so their hands were kept safe from the attacker’s weapons, so not having one seemed foolish to him.

Eric removed his weapons in a showing way. Still, the group reached for their weapons as soon as his hands touched his sword. Fortunately, they didn’t move any further, but they kept their hands on their weapons even after.

“Hello, good people of the Xan Sect! I’m Eric Wellman. “ He gave a small bow. ”Would you be so kind to tell your sect leader that I’m looking for him, please? He knows me already.” He finished with a beaming smile.

The bald man thought for a couple of seconds then turned to the others and started discussing something. After a while, one of them started running uphill with surprising speed.

“Please wait. We will verify in a minute.” The bald man said, his hand never leaving his weapons.

After a couple of minutes, an old man appeared in front of the group, startling Alan. When did he come here? How did he just appear out of nowhere? He was full of questions. The old man was a head smaller than him, hunched forward and his mustache reached his knees. He wore similar clothes to the others, only that his was a shade or two darker blue.

“Oh this idiot has come again.” He sighed, then buried his face in his hand. “Eric, why do you always show up at the most unfortunate times?”

“Greetings to you too, Maran.” Eric pressed his fists together then bowed deeply. “Thank you for your kind words. These are my friends and traveling companions. “ He swept a hand towards the wagon. “ May we be so fortunate to spend a night or two in your sect?”

“Oh shut up, I’m tired of you already. You!“ He pointed at the bald man.” Show them an empty residence. We will talk later.” With that, he disappeared.