Just before he reached the shallows Adrest’s mana surged through his legs, reinforcing and enhancing them. Then he jumped.

Adrest learned jumping high into the air was a vastly different feeling from freely flying in the sky. He felt his stomach start to drop as he reached his zenith many tens of feet above the ground. As he started falling he failed both arms desperate to keep balanced and upright. Adrest landed roughly in the water on the other side and rolled back to his feet, not wanting to find out what lived in the deeper sections.

Had he landed even a few feet further back, Adrest was sure he would’ve been dragged away by either the current, or the other unknowns lurking in the white frothing water. He had to admit however, the cool water made the walk back to camp more enjoyable than he expected.

As he left the river, Adrest saw the pack of wolves emerge from the treeline and pace their side of the river for a time before retreating into the trees.

On the walk back, Adrest thought about what exactly Alissa wanted him to learn from that, but all he got out of it was more practice on how to run for his life. Something he already had more experience with than he wished.

Eventually, when the sun was fully set and the forest turned dark and eerie, Adrest was greeted by a warm glowing fire and a purple haired adolescent doing her best to slowly turn a large spit of meat, giving it her full concentration.

Alissa actually jumped when Adrest broke a branch underfoot a dozen or so feet away. Eyes darting to the unexpected noise, she gave a huge grin as she saw who it was.

“Welcome home! You’re just in time for dinner.” She greeted Adrest happily, as if she wasn’t the one responsible for Adrest spending the day running for his life.

Adrest had a scowl on his face and was about to yell at the dragon, but at the mention of food and the mouth-watering aroma in the air, his stomach growled loudly, and decided to take things one step at a time.

With his stomach full near to bursting, Adrest was in a much better mood and he calmly asked Alissa,

“What the hell was that about? If you wanted to kill me, you don’t need to throw me into a wolf pack do you?”

“Huh? Oh, that’s easy, but first; When you were running back, did you notice anything weird? Was your body twitching? was it harder to make decisions, to clearly plan ahead?”

Adrest paused for a long moment, reflecting on the questions.

“Actually, yeah my body was twitching constantly, and I nearly tripped a few times because I didn’t even notice what was in front of me.” He admitted to his teacher, starting to understand the lesson.

“Exactly! Everyone and everything will panic in new, dangerous situations. Even us dragons are not immune to fear. Father says that the most important skill one can have is the ability to think rationally under stress, and to always plan for the worst!”

Alissa was a bit overexcited now that she got to play teacher to her would be minion once again and continued.

“When I was just a few years old, barely able to maintain my human body, father sealed me like this, and threw me into the middle of a den of Razorback Bears to teach me. So, I did the same to you!”

Through these stories, Adrest became ever more scared of Alissa’s father. Just by the name Razorback Bear, Adrest knew that thing was no joke. And this guy through his own daughter, half-crippled and still a child, into a mob of them?

Alissa started to blush and wriggle uncomfortably under the compassionate gaze Adrest was giving her after thinking about the different stories she had told so far about her father's “teaching”.

“Sto-stop that, why are you looking at me like that?”

Blinking away the thoughts that had turned in an unexpected direction and the pity in his eyes, he decided to let her off without chiding this time.

Changing the subject abruptly, Adrest asked "So, what exactly did you make?"

“It’s the biggest Enreiner I could find, we have to celebrate after working hard, right?” She answered cheerily, obviously proud of cleaning and cooking it by herself.

Adrest looked at the cooling mountain of meat and could see parts where she had cut too deep while skinning, and parts were burned black here and there. But he could literally feel the pride radiating off Alissa’s small form. He was starving anyway so he wasn’t feeling particularly picky, Adrest decided to just call it even and dig in with his friend.

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The next few months were a blur for both Adrest and Alissa. They had gotten into a busy daily routine that pushed Adrest to near exhaustion at the end of each night.

He would usually be the first to wake, as soon as dawn broke the night sky. Then, he would prepare breakfast and wash at the river while he waited for the slothful dragon to get up.

After the morning meal, the two would fly wherever Alissa willed. Sometimes it was for hours to find a beast that was roughly D+ rank, letting Adrest become accustomed to fighting beasts stronger than himself. Or he would have to run from whatever hornets’ nest Alissa kicked up for him, leading to Adrest paying far more attention to his surroundings than he had been.

In the early evenings, Alissa would instruct him on fire, body, or metal magic, which he soaked up like a sponge. Or she would have him practice his shadow magic into the night, learning how to cloak himself in it. He was even able to make a semi-solid hand out of it now, making it one of his favorite spells because of the sheer utility.

Alisa also started teaching him general use magic that she said everyone should know. From appraisal, which let someone know the very basic information of whatever the user was looking at, to simple spells that let the user find water, see which cardinal direction they were traveling in, and even one to make the body feel rested and not require as much sleep. He had been using the last one as much as possible to keep up with Alissa’s training and still have free time.

After magic training, the two would play a game, it ranged from checkers, which was still Alissa’s favorite, to new ones such as chess and connect 4. Adrest even made rudimentary cards from thick paper bought from the Lodestone.

Speaking of the Lodestone, Adrest had spent a lot of time in the late evenings and early mornings searching through its many menus and choices. He had come to learn that if an object was given to the lodestone, it could analyze it, adding it to the list of buy options. The downside was that the original was lost in the process. Apparently, he could even add more buildings by simply having detailed enough drafts and designs made and given to the lodestone.

With a steady supply of points coming in from his hunts and training, Adrest had accrued well over 10,000 and was happy to let the number keep growing for now, planning to dip into his savings once he had a real reason to.

After playing with the Lodestone, Adrest would return to the cabin every night, making sure the wood stove is stocked and slipping into what was now his bed near his workbench, peacefully dreaming for a few hours every night.

Finally, Adrest was starting to feel like he understood how to use a sword. The grip and stances feeling natural, and strikes flowing like water from one to the next. He was also quickly building muscle through the intense routine, not getting larger, but his frame was being filled out with the beginnings of abs being carved in his stomach and arms feeling like tense cord when flexed.

Adrest loved the feeling of growth and accomplishment this time had given him. He was now able to shake off even some C rank monsters with nearly no injuries and could kill any D rank monsters one on one, even versus two if he was careful.

However, any sense of newfound pride he had was demolished with one sentence from Alissa.

"Congratulations! You have enough of the basics down to spar with me."

They used sticks as practice swords to avoid any messy accidents, and before Adrest knew what happened, he was flying through the air, confused, then roughly landed on his back with the air knocked out of him.

Coughing he got back to his feet, although slightly hunched, and looked curiously at Alissa not quite understanding what happened.

With laughter like chimes in the wind, she wiped a tear from her eye and explained, “You weren't prepared. You’re not used to fighting anything other than beasts. Your legs were wide open and your balance was all off. Again?”

With understanding in his eyes, Adrest nodded and sank into a defensive position. Sadly for Adrest, this didn’t help in the least.

This time Alissa rushed in and just before their "swords" clashed, Alissa moved out and behind Adrest's sword arm. She rested the stick against his neck.

“You have to expect enemies to feint, not even just humans, but some of the smarter monsters will strategize, hoping to throw you off and go for the kill. Again?”

That was effectively the rest of Adrest’s day, correcting one issue Alissa pointed out, just for her to find another.

He realized just how outclassed he was compared to her that day. While in his mind Adrest knew she was the same monstrous purple dragon that descended in a rage, he had a hard time bringing the image of the effervescent beauty that was sometimes gluttonous, sometimes stayed up far too late playing games, and always had a smile tugging at the corners of her lips, together with the fearsome apex of beast.

The difference wasn’t just strength or speed either, but perfect technique. Adrest had never even come close to touching her dress, let alone having a strike land. Roughly two hours later, they stopped and Adrest was feeling like he had learned a lot, but also realized just how far he had to go,

Adrest followed Alissa back to the fire before sitting at his chair and sulked a bit as he felt like he'd been put back to square one.

Alissa of course noticed his pouting and went over, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“You should be proud of yourself! You’ve improved so much every day, not to mention the difference between now and when I first met you. Besides if you managed to get one over on me already, wouldn’t that make the last 25 years of my life spent training a waste?”

Adrest appreciated the gesture, knowing he was acting immature. Still in a bit of a slump but perking up slightly, he jumped on the last part of her statement “twenty years?”

Nodding and smiling at her more cheerful friend, “Yep, basically a few months after I was born, to last year, father has been training me in all sorts of things. He taught me survival and fighting himself, we spent a LONG time together in the middle of nowhere with strong monsters everywhere. Then he hired a bunch of people to teach me about the world, about government, and about etiquette. Everything together, it took about 25 years just to get him to let me go out alone.”

Adrest was stunned, learning more about the girls’ past. But staring at Alissa he asked a question that was now burning in his mind.

“How old are you actually?”