“27, 28, 29, 30! Uh!”

Sweat burned my eyes as my legs shook to support the heavy log on my back. I dropped it on the ground after I finished doing 30 squats. Even with sand absorbing the impact it caused a loud noise to ring out, making me worry about causing disturbance around the area this early in the morning. I looked around but I was alone on the beach.

Despite my shaky legs, burning core, and rugged breath, I got ready to sprint. Filling my lungs with as much oxygen as I could I held my breath and ran as fast as my legs could carry me. My bare feet sunk into the sand and forced me to send more power into my legs and that was the reason why I was training on the beach in the first place. Humans couldn’t sprint full speed for more than 30 seconds. Even with nanomachines carrying oxygen more efficiently, lung, muscle, and skeleton modifications, and an extra heart, we were given as supersoldiers that time only increased 4 times though it also had to do with our maximum speed being 5 times of an unmodified human.

I fell down on my knees after 300 hundred meters or so. Sun hit my back and gave me an unpleasant sensation as my body was already burning up from the all training I had done. I was here before dawn and the sun was pretty high up now. I have been training for… 2 or 2 and a half hours I think?

I closed my eyes and focused on my body. As I knelt in the sand, my breathing was gradually returning to a steady rhythm. My heart rate slowed, and my focus shifted inward. I mentally reviewed the training, analyzing my performance, and searching for areas of improvement.

“Okay.”

I sunk into my shadow and found myself halfway submerged in water. The focus required to use Shadow Walk came more easily as I trained. I couldn’t count how many times I got stuck in my shadow or didn’t arrive at the place I wanted during my training. I also didn’t feel the effects of Arcane Overload. Armory of Fallen and Shadow Melt was also the same. I could now use them faster and with less error margin. One could think that it was somewhat pointless to train Armory of Fallen as I had my Sacred Sword but I had two reasons to train it.

1- It was simple to versatile to neglect. Not only being able to pull the right weapon for the job was good but with the options weapons offered in this world I could easily cover my weakness.

2- The second one was more of an emotional one. I simply felt uncomfortable with using a Sacred Sword born out of my will to save people to fight against every enemy. Regardless I used to kill it or not it absorbed the souls anyway.

(Power:14)

I was able to use some monster souls I gathered to strengthen it. The efficiency was lackluster but I guess that was expected since I only killed trash mobs around the city and didn’t enter any dungeons. Even though they were well-mapped and traveled, I honestly wanted to rest.

Guess my resting included heavy training and helping the citizens around the city but compared to fighting against giant monsters this was a piece of cake. My only problem was my skill ranks. They didn’t grow a bit. Even the lower ranks. It was annoying.

“At least I filled my frame somewhat.”

I looked at my reflection. My hair was now longer and I couldn’t be bothered to cut it. I tried to brush them to the right to at least look a little bit tidy but my hair was too rough to give a shape. I touched my chin and sighed as it was smooth. Where is my beard, dude?

I flexed my bicep. While I was far away from my ideal physique, the body I had right now was very impressive after just 6 months of training. I resembled an athlete, lean with visible muscles. I think the most visible parts were my shoulders and forearms.

The reason for my rapid growth was simple: Magic. Well, not really. Using Monstrous Strength puts a lot of strain on my body. If I were to move full power during its duration it was akin to doing an hour's worth of full body training. Of course, I kept training during the penalty as it was more beneficial since it allowed me to go beyond my limit. I didn’t have to worry about overtraining or injuries as Rapid Healing, Regeneration, Divine Touched, and my high Vitality stat allowed me to recover without any problem.

Maybe with too well efficiency. Every wound I received healed without leaving any scars. Even the one I received to my stomach could barely be seen now. Except for the one across my eye… Every time I saw myself it reminded me… Fuck, I don’t want to think about it.

I closed my eyes and opened them where I left my spears.

“Better not got very lazy.”

Teleporting was easy and people got used to easy quickly. I picked up my spears. Three fish as big as half of me was impaled on them. Fighting in water was tricky and I didn’t have experience with it but these fish were weak. It was also my way of paying back Aine. We were staying with them and I couldn’t accept being a deadweight, unlike a certain someone. He even escaped my training! That fucker! I should beat some sense into him.

The smell of the breakfast hit me before I could enter the house.

“Good morning! Guess it is too late to add these fish to the breakfast?”

Aine was setting up the table and Larve was helping her. My good child!

“You are a little bit late this morning. Don’t worry, I’ll prepare them for the afternoon!”

I left them in the kitchen and sat down at the table. Honestly, a part of my growth had to be attributed to Aine and her cooking. She was definitely an excellent woman. Morrigan’s father was a lucky man. During the time I spent here, I never saw her stop. Taking care of newcomers, breaking up the fights, working in the garden, teaching kids how to read, and more. Even after she learned what happened to Adonis she stayed strong. I understood why everyone respected her as I respected her too. Her energy and will was unmatched.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

I chewed down my food and helped Aine to clean the table. Then I set down to enjoy my coffee. Coffee was very common around here. Guess the weather and soil were fit for it. Apparently coffee wasn’t widespread in this world since Morrigan was surprised when I mentioned how common it was in my world.

“Is there anything you need? I will be going now.”

I got up and put on my working clothes.

“Will you be helping Old Heryi?”

Aine asked while dressing up Larve. She was about to go to the school. I was quite surprised when I learned there was actually a set education system here. Most of the things they taught were basic, like reading, writing, and four operations. Then again guess one didn’t need beyond that to survive. It was also important that they were educated since humans saw beastkin as beasts in the shape of humans.

Staying around the beastkin, I was able to see where negative stereotypes sprouted. Most of the beastkin culture was told and recorded by mouth and old beastkin looked negatively to reading. Some even rejected it outright because they saw it as a human creation. They were also much more explosive with their emotions. Even Morrigan who looked cold exploded sometimes. They tend to growl and roar when it happens. Another one was the fact that they didn’t need to wear clothes, at least not beyond what covered their important places. Beastkin had higher body temperature than humans and seemed to be more tolerant to cold weather and more susceptible to warm weather. Even though individuals like Morrigan existed, I have seen a lot of guys who were shirtless 7\24.

All of that, combined with humanity’s instinct to reject anything different themselves, created a cycle of racism and slavery. Lovely.

“Yeah. He told me that there were a bunch of big rocks on his land. I will try to break them apart. Is there anything you want?”

I replied. She grabbed a bag. I took it and realized that it was filled with seeds.

“Can you give these to Aunty Burya? She came here yesterday.”

“The old coyote lady?”

“Yes, that one.”

Heh, I was getting good at distinguishing between similar types of beastkin.

“I’ll deliver it.”

She sighed in relief.

“Thanks. She was talking my ear off talking about how her garden isn’t as beautiful as mine. Hopefully, this will make her speak anything else.”

“Well, considering the most beautiful flower is you, I highly doubt it.”

She laughed out loud as she slapped my arm.

“Save your compliments to girls around your age, mister.”

Technically speaking, I was nearly twice her age but I kept it to myself. I haven’t shared the fact that I was from another world or that I was the Champion of Aliera. Not only that would muddy the waters but also it was kind of cringe to call myself Champion of Aliera.

I took a tight hug and kisses from Larve before leaving. She was happy here and I was glad for it. She played with kids her age, learned stuff, and just had a normal childhood. I hoped that it would last. I tried to learn the extent of her new abilities she showed to purify stuff with Amaterasu but we weren’t able to learn a lot of things.

“This is not magic, Poyraz. It is more akin to an innate ability.”

That was what Amaterasu said. When I asked her about it she told me that she wanted to help people so she learned it somehow. Considering she was originally a shard of a very powerful entity, it was normal that she would manifest strong abilities but it didn’t make it less concerning.

“Bark!”

Gökbörü snapped me out of my thoughts to inform me that we arrived at Aunty Burya’s home. I gave her seeds and walked to Heryi’s land. Beastkin was somewhat used to me now. Before there was a lot of panic and badwill in their eyes but as I spent time here and worked with them, they came to trust me.

Old Heryi's land was a bit of a walk from Aunty Burya's, but the distance didn't bother me. I enjoyed a calm walk until I reached his place. Despite his advanced age old leopard beastkin was already working on the land.

"Morning, Old Heryi."

He lifted his head to look at me.

“Morning, Poyraz. You are early.”

“You are earlier than me.”

He held his back.

“Old people like me need to move, otherwise we would fall over and die.”

“I doubt you would die that easily. You are tough.”

He had a son and a daughter but both of them were “missing”. He was able to save himself barely and arrived here not a long time ago. Despite that, he was able to handle himself well. In a way, he was right. People needed to move, have a goal, and accomplish things. If they didn’t, they would lose themselves and sink into depression. It was easy to do those when you were young and healthy but as you got older, it became much harder. I knew it firsthand.

“I already dug one. It is damn tough. Will you be able to break it?”

I walked to where he was pointing. Yeah, it was a big rock.

“We’ll see.”

I manifested my spear. I focused my mana on its tip. I took a deep breath as I raised it. I felt my back and shoulder muscles activate. I thrust it to the boulder on the ground. I released the mana on its tip with Mana Erupt. A cloud of dust spread around me as a loud crack filled my ears.

“Looks like I can.”

It was split into 6 pieces now. I let go of my spear and pulled small pieces out of the ground.

“Very good! I don’t know what I would have done without you. Especially with how rough the season is now.”

“What do you mean?”

I asked. Thanks to the Elves and their “Mother Tree”, the area here should be very fertile.

“I don’t know. Everyone is talking about how bad this season has been.”

I shrugged.

“Some seasons are like that. But don’t worry. We can always hunt. For now only thing we can do is work hard and pray for a good harvest.”