With Hessien’s safety confirmed, I take a deep sigh of relief. However, there's just one tiny issue: the fact that she wants to train us now, after the heated emotional and physical conflict with someone who is their world’s version of a genocidal politician. She's probably going to accidentally cut off our arms due to the adrenaline flowing through her veins.

I cough into my fist. “Um… before we start, do you want to talk out your feelings first? Maybe get the steam out…”

Vacinay nods. “Yes, yes! We would love to train, but I think we need just a little minute to cool out and share some interesting stuff about us before.”

We look at each other and anxiously nod, acknowledging our goal.

Yamanda folds her arms, holding her sword between her armpit. Also, I just realize something. She uses teleportation despite the chaotic negative skill energy around.

I wonder why nothing happens to her. Whatever, that's something to worry about later.

We are about to launch a therapy lesson here! Despite the fact neither one of us goes to one. Wait… Ghomas did when he was younger, but I doubt he's going to be useful here.

Yamanda's fingers drum on her arm as she looks at the white clouds, pondering.

Then she finally decides to talk, “I see no point in talking about my feelings, really. I hate that creature and all of her kind, and I desire to see them all dead, even if it’s impossible because of how they are created.”

Her face twists more in anger. “I am a damn knight… I trained for so many damn years for this job, this honor, this role, and my parents' respect… I am a knight. A knight… Not any knight, I am a presidential knight. I am a sword and shield of the president. I am a knight. But…”

She stomps on the ground. “I am a knight… Do you know how much work it takes for that? You are supposed to discard everything of your former life and dedicate everything to the president. He is supposed to have the nation’s best interest in sight… My parents didn’t become shells of their former selves serving this country only for him to make decisions that mess up everything for us?! Tanya?! That creature? That evil being?! Even if he had to use an evil manifestation, why couldn’t he just wait for someone to capture a weak one?! Why… her.”

Ah… of course, this is serious. Her grip is so tight on her sword that I start wondering if her palm is bleeding.

Vacinay is thinking of something to say.

“Feels like your purpose of living has been betrayed, huh?” Ghomas randomly says.

She looks at him. “Yes, precisely… My hair is red, the color it’s dyed when one becomes a presidential knight, to signify their past is no and they now belong to a new family. It’s something to be proud of, but now it feels absolutely disgusting.”

“I can’t really understand what you are going through. To the full extent at least. But, I think I get it. No matter how much time will pass, the betrayal will never leave.”

She throws herself down and replies, “Ah… is that so. Yeah, it feels so. But whatever. It is what it is…”

I ask, “Hopefully, in the next election, the new president will be better? Unless it’s very far in the future.”

She raises an eyebrow. “We would have to wait till he dies for that unless… Hm. I don’t want the consequences of killing him.”

Wait a second, what?

Vacinay asks anxiously, “Why would we have to wait until he dies?”

“… Because if one was held while a president reigned, why wouldn’t he just kill all his competitors or heavily discourage them from campaigning?”

The three of us look at each other, knowing what that means.

“That bastard might as well be a damn king.” Hessien grumbles.

“Fascism, why am I surprised,” I mutter.

I think I used the word correctly… I never really bothered to learn too much about politics since I was blessed enough to not be affected by it because of where I lived… But… I no longer have such an advantage!

I want to break down and roll on the ground in my sorrow, figuratively of course.

Vacinay asks, “How many times has someone tried to kill that guy?”

Yamanda answers, “A lot. But, the royal guards are decently strong. The ones you have seen are those in training on the very low tier ones.”

With a serious expression, I ask, “You wouldn’t try to stop us if we perhaps killed him in the future?”

“Unfortunately, I would.”

Tch.

She sighs and stands up. “Okay… let’s train. Don’t worry about holding back; the ground here is reinforced, allowing even the strongest presidential knights, who are capable of leveling cities, to train here at full force.”

Leveling cities… Holy shit!

Also, how strong do you think we are? I couldn’t even break a rock with my fist if I tried to.

I say, “I am only at level 10 and these guys are lower than level 5.”

She is in complete disbelief.

With a facepalm, she mutters, “So you all weren’t making yourselves look puny on purpose… To think the reason I walked towards the restaurant just to spend the entire time checking you all out was pointless.”

Eh?!

Vacinay shouts, “That’s why you made us walk for so long?! After seeing you could teleport, I thought it was because you wanted us to see the city!”

She tries to hide her smirk with her hand. “Ah yes, I was actually planning on using that as an excuse.”

I actually don’t mind it. Since I work a lot on my cardio, it isn’t too much. Matter of fact, I kind of want to do some jogging for an hour just to get that pump going.

With her hand on her waist, she changes the conversation, “Anyway, you all are currently very weak… so we will change this training. Instead, we will be power leveling you all up to at least level 15! With that, you all should have the strength to perhaps lift around… 6-12 tons based on your base stats.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

My eyes nearly shoot out of my head upon hearing that number.

Just how strong is that Yuen guy…? I wasn’t the only one that was completely baffled by the levels of strength.

Hessien dashes towards her and stands at attention like a soldier. “Do you wish for me to carry something for you while we head to the destination to turn us into beasts of great power?

Still, that sounds so weird to me.

While I haven’t tried to lift anything heavy yet, at max, I think I could lift… 800 pounds. But to think it would only take 5 levels for me to reach such inhuman levels of strength. I did theorize that leveling was difficult back in the house… but it makes sense since the power it gives is this absurd.

Just what's your level, Yamanda.

Oh right, I can check people's levels. I forgot about that.

LEVELS: �����:…23…8…15…43….27…Level:…23…8…15…43….��������������������Can′t accurately analyze levels since the skill energy is constantly fluctuating

Yamanda notices my gaze and looks at me before asking, “What is it?”

If asking what someone’s skill is considered rude… then how rude would it be to check someone’s level?

If people always find a way to differentiate themselves from others and use that difference to push down on people to uplift themselves, I would definitely expect levels to be something some people are not only very private about but also have insecurities revolving around them.

I shake my head. “Nothing.”

That makes me also think; it is still weird to me that levels are basically measurements of skill energy. I do think of it a little when I level up from killing the rabbit-man because it is a skill. Which makes me wonder…

I ask, “How do we level up exactly?”

The other three look at me as if I am stupid. But, it is a good question.

She replies, “Oh right. You all aren’t from this world… we gain levels from absorbing skill energy. The easiest way is to kill those containing skill energy.”

Excuse me what?

Hessien's expression switches to horror. “Wait… you mean like… people?”

“Not necessarily. Alignment manifestations or breaking skills. For example, the rabbit man thing your cousin killed.”

I ask, “If someone could shoot fireballs, would putting it off count as a skill break?”

She shakes her head. “Of course not. These are offensive skills that entirely revolve around exploding or destroying themselves to damage you. They aren’t stable enough to be processed.”

“Wait… So people who use skills that require creating something or outputting energy out of themselves are constantly… lowering their levels?”

“Technically? But energy points focus as the primary energy source for skills. You would always run out of energy points before you even lose 0.1% of your level.”

No wonder energy points have such a price to pay since it’s this efficient.

Ghomas asks, “So… what are we going to be hunting down?”

She looks at Hessien and mutters, “I would suggest evil manifestations… but that thing would definitely react in an annoying way. Besides, you all are too weak for them. Looking for skill creations would be a waste of time because of how rare they are… so… We shall be hunting down people.”

"Is that a joke?" I ask, baffled.

"Uh... No."

"Please tell me you are joking."

"Hm.... I am serious. We can’t do death row criminals.”

Ah, so she has some kind of mora--

She mentions, “Some do hunt tribe—“

We all three say in unison. “No.”

How is that even legal?

“I said some… But fine. We will go to the Gervmu route. There are a lot of half-mans. People who had their forms transformed by trading their ‘humanity’ for certain limited wishes to the statue of Pasfell and became very dangerous and cannibals.”

It feels messed up to say, but I think I would have felt a lot more comfortable killing a human that didn’t look…

I already hate this.

Of course, I am going to have issues with killing in general, much less for those who even look remotely close to humans.

A random bit, she says humanity. I assume that is the translator doing its job, like a localizer.

Vacinay rests her fist on her chest as she seems regretful. “Their sacrifices shall be worth it. Their death shall further our growth.”

Hessien agrees. “Preach… Let’s go, miss!

“There is no way you all can be serious. Okay, Miss Yamanda, how different do they look from humans?” I ask.

“It varies wildly; the statue of Pasfell is also known as the well of change and transformation. So, someone could wish to have wings and have wings… along with the unwanted transformation, making them become 4 feet tall with disfigured wings sticking out every frame of their body.”

Okay, that sounds a bit much better.

The longer I stay in this world, the 'grossier' my morals become… but as long as I don’t think of them as humans, it is going to be okay.

“I am in,” I say.

Ghomas rubs his chin and asks, “But they are still humans— Flowmans?”

“Yes,” Yamanda answers.

“But it’s going to be okay to kill them because they look different than us?”

“Yes. Well, I am okay with killing whoever, as long as they are criminals or sins against our existence.”

Ghomas looks at me, and I avert my gaze.

“Isn’t that like… the same logic people use for genocide back on earth…? Like, their culture is different, they aren’t humans. They look different, they aren’t humans…?”

Vacinay jabs her finger at him. “Good point! Counterpoint! They are cannibals and very dangerous, according to Yamanda.”

“Exactly,” I say.

Ghomas sighs as he walks towards us. “Time to become murderers.”

Hessien says, “Think of it as… we are getting rid of dangerous individuals.”

Vacinay nods. “Exactly, start dehumanizing the shit out of them so we can easily kill them!”

We all look at her weirdly.

She then averts her gaze as she scratches her head. “I see… that one was a bit too far… Wait a second. Hell, it’s not! Sure, I made a joke about it, but that’s what you all are doing! I am not using such dumb tactics to rile myself up!”

“Shut up,” I mutter as I walk towards Yamanda.

Hessien agrees. "Exactly. Dehumanization is one thing, but jokes about it? Nah nah nah! Take this seriously."

Vacinay glares at him.

He grins as he hugs her, deliberately annoying her more.

Yamanda fits her sword in her scabbards and looks at us before saying, “You know, you don't need to be near me for teleportation.”

I respond, “I just guessed it would consume fewer energy points.”

She looks surprised before smiling. “You are actually somewhat sweet. You remind me a very, very little bit of my nephew.”

“Merci.”

Then suddenly we stand on muddy grounds, and all around us is a dense jungle with huge green and brown roots stretched all over.

Yamanda touches the ground, and an array of weapons and armor appear, ranging from the spear-guns, katanas, broadswords, war hammers, daggers, knives, leather armor, chainmail, and knight-like armor.

“Hell yeah…” Hessien grins.

Vacinay crouches low and takes the broadsword which she can barely lift. Using all her willpower and some loud grunts, she swings it a bit.

Ghomas takes the war hammer. And Hessien surprisingly takes the spear-gun.

While they also don armor, I look at the options, thinking which I prefer. I think I want the speargun for range, but I hate how they look.

I look at my hand and close and open it, wondering what fits me the best.

Knives… I think I really like how they feel in my hand.

The only thing that sucks is how lame the armor is.

I whisper to her, “Nothing more… Um… dress-like?

If I

say it out loud, the three others would have rightfully started laughing at me. But I really, really like dresses.

Yamanda suppresses her reaction.

“No. These are typically tailored-made… And typically worn by the few women knights that are… very, very concerned about looking elegant or ‘feminine’ as if wearing some damn armor would make them manly.” She says the last part with quite a bit of anger.

I know my request is stupid, but I just hate pants or pants-like wear with almost all my being because I don’t like how it sticks to my skin.

But oh well.

Before I take armor there, I ask, “Do they have levels or some rank to them?”

“Yeah, all these are 1 stars, anything greater would be too heavy or stressful on your bodies.”

I nod as I don the chainmail armor. I hate it so much, it looks so damn ugly. But it is free stuff; I can’t complain about that.

I take a knife and thank her for the armor and weapons.

The three others are playfully fighting, but that comes to an end when a weird heinous cry pierces through the air.

Yamanda looks behind her and says, “One of them showed up.”

When we turn back, a man on all fours with many arms all over his body stares at us, particularly Yamanda, Me, and Vacinay.

His arms close and open in disgusting ways along with a perverted grin that surpasses its eyes.

“I haven’t had a female in so long… Give me... GIVE M--”

Vacinay takes the spear gun from Hessien's hand and clicks the trigger, which shoots a red beam through its head.

After a second, it falls down dead.

“Nice shot,” I say. “Should have probably tortured it a bit, but not bad.”

As yellow energy from him floats up and travels to Vacinay, she says, “That idea only came up after I shot at the head.”

I nod. "I don’t think I am going to feel any aversion to killing these things.”

Hessien takes his spear gun from Vacinay and says, "So... It's about to be a massacre?"

Me and Vacinay say in unison, "YES."