Gordanus left, hopping back up into the cave, and left Sam to his own devices. Sam was confused as to why the man kept on leaving, but he kept to his work, not really caring. If this was all that he had to offer, Sam would be surprised. He could have made weights for himself back on Earth, and he certainly did not need to come to some faraway planet to do so. However he was hopeful that he would be able to get more out of this than just enhanced strength. That was good and all, but it would not make him strong enough to do anything against the Titans when he returned to Earth. Those creatures were far beyond him, and while they were probably weaker than Gordanus, from what Sam had seen so far, the man would not be there to aid them. The Titans were probably low E Rank, which was still leagues above anything that Sam had ever fought.

He began to sink into a fugue of pain and gains, and lost himself in the training.

Some time later, he came to his senses, feeling an arm on his hand, stopping him from lifting another weight.

“That’s enough, Sam. Look at yourself,” Gordanus said, pointing at Sam’s arm.

He looked down, and frowned as he saw that it was covered in blood. The skin had ruptured from his intensive exercise, and blood was pumping down himself. He had gone so deep into the training that he had started to harm himself. The pain hit him fully a moment later, and he gritted his teeth as he felt the full scope of his ruptured muscles and organs. It had been so long since he had exercised that he had treated it like just another struggle that he would have to power through, like pain in a battle. However, he had gone too far.

Sam dropped the weight, and sat down heavily, trying to recuperate his lost health. It would take quite some time to regrow from this, he knew. He had his healing ability, of course, but it would not achieve the same effects as letting his body regrow naturally would. If he used his skill, he would merely be resetting his body to its normal state, rather than letting it grow in power. He was a bit annoyed that he had not had a chance to use the skill yet, as he had spent quite a bit on it on the Interweb.

Gordanus stared down at him disapprovingly, and Sam groaned. He had really put his foot in it now.

“I don’t know what came over me,” Sam groaned. “I must have mistaken this for another battle.”

“I know people like you,” Gordanus said, his voice not as sharp as Sam had been expecting. “People who are so used to a life of battle that they are unable to see anything else as being different. They throw themselves into all challenges like it is the last thing that they can do before they die. It is not necessarily a fault, but it is strange that one as young as you would have such a response. Curious. This will be a good experience for you though. To aid this, I forbid you from using any extra stat points, unless you really need them, for the duration of this month.”

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By this point, Sam’s body was not as sore anymore, and he managed to get up. Compared to some of the things that he had gone through in the past, this was nothing. The wounds on his skin had closed over by now, but the internal damage was still present, and he was probably going to be aching for a few hours after this. Sam started to move towards another set of weights, but Gordanus put his hand in his way.

“No. You will only end up damaging yourself if you keep going at this rate. I don’t know what you are in such a rush for, but it is not as urgent as your life.”

“You don’t understand,” Sam said, omitting the master part this time.

Gordanus simply raised his eyebrow.

“Excuse me?”

“I need to be as strong as possible when I get back to my home planet, and I only have thirty days here to get that power. If I don’t then all of my friends will die, along with myself. I only used this training session because my planet was in dire straits.”

“Well, that makes a lot of sense,” Gordanus said. “I was a bit confused as to why you were so intense when we met. It is not everyday that one meets a person as young as you, who has such drive. It is only when one reaches the E Rank that their pursuit of power becomes their whole life. However, like I said earlier, that is not necessarily a bad thing.”

Sam nodded along with the man, glad that he had not made a complete fool of himself. In any case, it was a valuable lesson. He had been in a state of near constant war for the last month and a bit, and even his rest period had been spent training. Now that he was truly in no danger, at least, not with an E Ranker protecting him, he could afford to take it a bit easier. It sounded contradictory, but the benefits of taking it a bit more slowly were already showing. Sam would never stress himself beyond his limits in vain again.

Gordanus sighed, drawing Sam’s attention back to the man.

“Anyway, let us not waste this time, I would say that it is wise for you to not do any more physical exercise for some time. However, we can easily do things that will not tax your physical body, such as beginning to rectify that abysmal mana control that you had exhibited earlier.”

“I remember that, Master,” Sam said, remembering to add on the honorific afterwards this time. “What exactly did you mean by that? Is there a specific way to use mana?”

Rather than answer Sam, Gordanus simply held up his hand, summoning a tiny ball of mana to it. Sam could instantly feel a difference. The ball of mana was perfectly self-contained, and there was no leakage into the world around it. In addition, it was utterly pure, without a hint of anything except for pure mana. Gordanus pointed his finger towards the cave ceiling, and the ball of mana streaked off, burning a hole straight through the rock like it was nothing.

“For reference, that was only a single point of mana. I merely controlled it so tightly that it was as potent as a hundred of yours. Now, before I begin to instruct you, I want you to attempt to mimic that as best you can.”