Caleb had already grown accustomed to Emilia’s form of ‘training’ after getting beaten black and blue repeatedly for the better half of a month. Channeling the energy in his body to form a wooden sword, Caleb stepped back and studied Emilia.

The others surrounded the two combatants in a loose triangle with amusement written on their faces. Caleb gripped his sword and stared down Emilia, not breaking focus for even a moment. Caleb shifted his foot back slightly to move himself into a defensive position when suddenly Emilia turned into a blur.

‘What th-’

Getting punched directly in the face did not feel good; however, this was not the first time Emilia had. Flying back, Caleb rolled to the ground before jumping back up on his feet. However, Emilia was missing. Caleb closed his eyes and began sensing the flow of energy around him. He could feel Chris, Arthur, and Grace still standing in the same spot they had before but couldn’t tell where Emilia was.

Trusting a gut feeling, Caleb rolled forward, dodging a jab aimed at his back. Gripping the sword, he tried to go on the offensive, but Emilia kept blocking strike after strike easily. Caleb’s mind was spinning in high gear, trying to think of a way to get past Emilia’s defenses, when an idea bloomed in his head.

Stepping back, Caleb began sending energy into his head, trying to channel it. It was small at first, but slowly, he began to feel the ball of energy grow more significant and denser.

‘Not enough.’

Caleb sent more energy into his head. However, Emilia didn’t let him stand still for long. She immediately went back on the offensive, raining Caleb with a flurry of blows. He was able to block some, but she was going too fast for him to react to every attack. Each blow threatened to shatter his concentration, but he powered through and continued building the ball of energy in his head.

Second, after second, Caleb held on, trying not to let himself pass out from the strain of keeping the energy together. Finally, the ball had reached a tipping point.

‘Any further, and this thing will fall apart.’

With one final command, Caleb pushed the ball of energy out, and a dome of condensed energy formed around him.

…

Emilia was having fun bullying Caleb. After the nightshade got away, she needed something to vent her frustration on, and what better than her resident punching bag.

Emilia saw Caleb’s face grimacing as he lost track of her again. She had mastered the art of concealing her energy long ago, and while she may not have been as skilled as a nightshade, she was far better than most adventurers. Coupled with her speed, which she honed for as long as she could remember, even if an enemy could sense her, she would still win due to her overwhelming speed.

Caleb had begun to act strange and strictly went on the defensive. Confused for only a moment, Emilia rushed in, raining blows on him. She was starting to grow bored of the one-sided nature of the fight when she felt a shift in the environment around her. Suddenly, her eyes grew wide, and a feeling she had never felt before while facing Caleb surfaced in front of her mind.

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Fear. She had never felt afraid while facing Caleb, but suddenly she felt it. He had created a domain, making her jump back as far away from him as possible. Her eyes narrowed, and her mind shifted. She began studying Caleb not as a friend but as a threat and pinpointed the fastest way to incapacitate him.

Rushing forward, she sent energy into her legs and kicked towards Caleb’s ribs. It had the force to break bones, but the blow never landed. A moment before the kick hit, Caleb jumped high, dodging the kick completely.

‘What a fool,’ Emilia thought, immediately capitalizing on the moment. With Caleb in the air, he had no grounding to push off, which exposed him. Emilia delivered a feint, followed by another kick. Caleb blocked the feint and failed to react in time to the leg that smashed into his head. Caleb was sent flying and landed hard, rolling for a few meters before stopping.

‘Uh oh. Did I use too much power?’ Emilia thought as she felt the crude Domain fall apart. Running over, she checked on him, finding him knocked out, and saw his nose was bleeding profusely. Arthur walked over to administer first aid.

“You used too much power, Emilia. What happened?”

Emilia looked at Arthur in confusion and responded, “Did you not feel it? He put up a Domain. A fucking Domain, Arthur. He hasn’t even trained for three months, and yet he has already unlocked a domain. Nobody can pick something like that up fast.”

Arthur stared at Caleb, a mix of emotions crossing his face for a few seconds before he shook his head. “What do you think? That he’s some spy trying to gather information. That he’s an enemy that needs to be neutralized? Just calm down and think. It must have something to do with his power, and he most likely had an epiphany while fighting you.”

Emilia looked at Caleb, weary, before returning to the campsite to begin cooking.

‘If there’s one thing I know, all this fighting has me starving.’

…

Caleb woke up to the smell of burnt meat and grimaced.

‘Who let Emilia cook again, dammit.’

Caleb was lying on a simple sleeping bag inside his tent. Light was outside, so at least a few hours had passed since his spar with Emilia. Feeling sore all over, he gritted his teeth and sat up, feeling a splitting headache.

‘That’s strange. Arthur should have healed any injury I sustained, so why do I still feel terrible?’

When Caleb tried to stand, his leg buckled before failing, and he fell down hard. The others definitely heard the sound of him hitting the ground.

He heard Chris shout outside, “Just stay lying down, will ya. You pushed your body too hard, and now you're feeling the consequences.” Caleb was confused. What did he mean by consequences?

Caleb's idea was to try to make a simple barrier similar to what happened when the nightshade put him into a nightmare. However, it was stronger than he thought, and it ended up being not only larger but much denser than before. What he felt right now was similar to energy exhaustion. He had only experienced it a few times before when he was a kid trying to channel energy for the first time.

It was common for kids to experience this since they still needed to learn how to make their energy flow and control it properly. They also had a smaller reserve of it, leading them to run out faster. Caleb overcame this quickly as he primarily focused all his training on mental energy, which helped the most when it came to controlling the energy flowing inside his body.

While he tried to think of how he had expended so much energy, his stomach informed him that he needed to eat desperately. Forcing himself out of his tent he slowly made his way to the campfire to see what monstrosity Emilia had cooked.

“Finally awake then? I told you to rest, but what do I know? It’s not like I’m the experienced adventurer or anything.” Caleb smiled at Chris and sat down around the campfire pit. The fire had long died, but the coals still glowed with heat. A makeshift spit was above the coals with a piece of toad skewered. The toad meat seemed slightly burnt clearly being the work of Emilia.

Shaking his head, Caleb took out a small dagger and cut a strip of meat to try. The meat was tough and overly salted, with the burnt exterior making it even worse.

‘Even Chris can do better than this.’

Chris laughed, seeing Caleb's face when he took a bite of the meat.

“Eat up, Caleb. You're going to need the energy. The other have already begun taking down camp. We’ll return to the city today to sell the toad tongues and get paid.”

Hearing this, Caleb grimaced before cutting a few more strips of meat and wandering back to his tent to collect his gear.

‘This is the last time I let Emilia cook, dammit.’