Katrina pointed at the oddly plus shaped fruit drawn on the page. It was a very sweet fruit that was known for its bitter center. She liked to break off the four sides of it before eating them so she could completely avoid the middle.

"What's this called?"

Clay stared at the page with a furrowed brow, glancing over the symbols repeatedly. He ran them through, saying them silently to himself a few times.

"Aftel?"

"Afelt!"

Clay contorted his face into a sort of grimace while she flipped to the next page. The next page had a small rabbit-like creature with antlers approaching the fruit that had fallen to the ground, right at the foot of a tree. It was now the most common creature in the area, forcing out all but the most violent of predators with fearless aggression and rapid breeding. He read over the symbols, trying to connect how he knew the words were said to how it was on the page.

"Horned hare."

"Correct!"

Katrina continued to read the book aloud to him. The next page had the small hare nibbling on the fruit, with a large heart symbol coming out from it's head.

"What's this mean?"

"Heart?" he asked without reading the text.

"Technically correct, but not what I asked for."

Clay simply stared at her, unaware of how to respond to the long string of syllables. Seeing him struggling, she rephrased it into words he was more familiar with.

"Correct and wrong."

He glanced back at the page and it clicked what she was asking for. Now he was just searching for a word to represent it. None of the text on the page was helpful.

"Enjoyment?"

It was a bit more formal than the 'happiness' that Katrina was looking for. It was good enough, however.

"Correct!"

She made a pleasant smile towards him and continued on. The next page had several other hares coming into view while the first one frantically buried its treat. They, happy to find their friend, asked it what it had been doing. It kept its find secret and went off over the hill as the others spoke about searching for food.

Later that day, it came back to where it had buried the fruit only to find that his treasure had been dug up, and there was only a sad core left. It took a small nibble, testing just how bitter it was.

After finishing the page, Katrina closed the book without asking Clay anything else. It was a common story used to give morals of helping others to get through difficult times. A local mother in Seltmark had written it during the last famine hoping that it would make a small amount of change in the world.

Katrina put her hand onto Clay's head, and spirals of light reached out from her arm. It was an encoding of her own knowledge to fuel the spell 'Comprehend Language'. It automatically converted the subject's understanding of language using the caster's understanding of the language. Clay could only comprehend what Katrina herself knew, and it didn't even let him realize he was speaking a different language. It was a common spell to be used on and by diplomats when working in border regions, but here in the duchy of Herzig, the humans spoke only Elian.

"Clay, it's about time for you to go see Erwin."

Clay's face froze into a blank expression as he stood up, and he sauntered off quietly. Katrina had seen this blank expression many times, it seemed to come out when he would otherwise have a negative emotion towards someone. To her, it seemed like a halfhearted attempt to hide his more unsavory feelings.

***

'This hellish training needs to stop. How am I supposed to accomplish anything if I destroy my health in the process? This can't be good for me.'

He was dragging his feet along, one after the other at a much slower pace than his normal walking. His head hung low as he stared at the ground in front of his feet. The wood floors of the giant building eventually turned to the stone paths of the garden, and then into a decaying mass of leaves when he entered the forest.

At the final change of scenery, he took a look around. Erwin was standing about a hundred yards from him, staring at a pocket watch. Clay slowly moved to him.

"You are twenty minutes late, so you will stay an extra hour after I determine you are complete with today's training."

"For being twenty minutes late? You didn't even give me a time to be here!"

"You didn't ask."

'No, there's no need to be irritable. Calm down.'

Clay looked at him and then off into the forest where a small boulder was set on top of a stump.

"My training is to crack that rock using any skills I have, right?"

"Essentially. That is the first step."

Clay grabbed a stick off the ground and went to work with his halfhearted swings at the rock. Every swing didn't even scratch the surface of it, just as he had expected. Erwin was silently staring at him. Clay tried adjusting his method so that he could keep repeating it without effort.

"Clay, that is never going to work. You need to use more force. Every fiber of your being should be put into every strike, as though your life depends on it."

"How can you expect me to even make a scratch on this rock. All I have is a stick. I'm incredibly weak. Why don't you have me do like some weight lifting first to increase my strength."

"We aren't at the point where increasing your stats would be beneficial. I first need to get you out of mana and out of complaints, and then we can begin reforging your body."

"Why not just let me drain my mana in an easier way and then go straight to training?"

Erwin's twitched his head to the side for a moment.

"Do you recall nothing from yesterday? Is your lack of rest really so impactful on your memory retention? Or are you innately going to mouth off at your teacher instead of swinging your weapon at your target? Get to it."

Clay had been readily dismissed, and swung at the rock with his mild fury. After two swings it came to him that he wasn't really furious. He wasn't even that mad. He just felt it was better to act mad from the provocation. He didn't swing with the same gusto after that, and soon fell back into his easygoing waste of time.

"It appears you need some extra motivation."

"What do you mean."

"Since you can't strike like something's on the line. I will put something on the line. Every time you swing and I deem you aren't using one hundred percent of your ability, I will strike you."

Erwin reached over behind a tree and grabbed a long, slender stick. It was supple, and bent as he waved it through the air. Clay in response took the stick he had and, finally holding it with both hands, swung it like a bat with as much force as he could muster up.

Pain shot through his back as the sound of Erwin's whip-like rod shot to his ears.

"That's not even half your full effort!"

"What do you mean? I went as hard as I could!"

"Again!"

Clay doubled down on his batting technique, and swung again at the rock on the stump. Another round of pain hit him as his stick collided with the rock.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Again!"

Erwin had shouted just as Clay was turning to retort. This back and forth continued for the next few hours before Katrina made her way out to join them, accompanied by a maid carrying two baskets of fruits. As she made her way out here, she saw Clay nursing his bleeding back and Erwin shouting at him. Clay eventually walked over and stabbed at the rock with a one handed jab, only for Erwin to hit him.

Clay had gone through the pain of his muscles ripping apart as his strength increased several times in the first two hours, but the stinging in his back was far more damaging.

Clay and Erwin went through the same motions three more times as Katrina watched before she stepped in.

"Erwin! Stop it! You are just beating him. He doesn't have the willpower to go through this. He doesn't have the pride of a noble to take whatever this is you are trying to put him through. You aren't even helping him at this point."

Erwin stared dumbfounded at her, taking a few steps backwards. Katrina continued.

"I came out here hoping to see Clay trying his best to improve himself, and all I can see is you forcing your standards on him. Give him a break."

Erwin paused for a moment, considering how best to respond.

"I disagree. He has the mentality for it, he hasn't once asked me to stop the training today. I think he will make an excellent warrior."

"Look at him!"

Clay had slumped down to the ground and was struggling to stay conscious as the pain and fatigue pulled him in.

"Fine. I'll stop training him. You won't like the result."

Erwin stormed off. Clay passed out soon after Erwin had left, only waking up briefly as he was carried to a room inside.

***

Erwin woke Clay up personally that evening. It was just starting to get dark outside, and the last glimmers of the sunset were still on the horizon. He was unusually dressed in a full set of boiled leather armor, and carried a sword at his hip.

"Hey Clay." Erwin shook him until he stared back with fully open eyes. "I decided to take you on a bit of night hunting trip while I have business in Velona. When you are ready, meet me in the main hall. It'll be a good way to raise your level and give you a bit stronger body. I won't be torturing you this time." He chuckled softly.

Clay stretched for a few minutes before going to meet Erwin, he had been sleeping for most of the day and felt rather stiff. His back had healed up quickly, since it was only the last few strikes that had managed to break skin. It was still sore and bruised, but it wasn't as much of an issue compared to yesterday.

Remembering the attribute increases that he got yesterday, he looked over his wrist to get a gauge of where he was at.

[0 VIT (NULL)] [7 STR (Low)] [1 LCK (Low)]>

His Wisdom had risen considerably from the lesson with Katrina, and his Strength had risen just as much from the few hours of swinging at the boulder. He had learned so many words, but he still hadn't even hit a single percent on the language. He couldn't remember most of them anyways, and he didn't have a real understanding beyond vocabulary.

He went and met Erwin at the main hall, who was waiting with a gentle smile on his face.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah."

Erwin turned and lead him down a side hall and opened an unassuming door, the third one on the right side. There were a set of stairs leading down into a basement, with a series of glass jars holding white flames that were hung against the walls.

"This is the basement for magic research. Katrina normally spends her visits down here working on whatever isn't quite as destructive as the things she researches over in Seltmark itself. Here is where we keep a simple teleportation array."

"Doesn't it take a lot of mana to teleport two people?"

Erwin paused for a moment.

"Yeah, that's why we have an array here, so that it is less of a burden to use. I myself have far larger mana reserves than Katrina, though not much of a clue how to use them."

They entered into a large open room, dimly illuminated by the white flame jars. The room was made of carved stone, and had four arching pillars holding the ceiling near the middle of the floor. In the exact center was a circle of stones with odd runic carvings that didn't even resemble the characters used in Elian. A stand with a book stood right next to the circle.

"What is on those stones?"

"It's a diagram to funnel magic into the proper pattern. It's like a reference of sorts. Don't worry about it too much. Go stand in the circle, I'll be there with you when I'm confident in memorizing the destination."

Clay went and stood in the circle as Erwin pored over the book. He kept flipping back and forth between the same set of five or so pages, occasionally glancing upwards at Clay and murmuring to himself. He finally snapped the book shut.

"Are we ready then? All set? Good. Let us get this show started."

Erwin walked into the circle, and stooped down unusually close the Clay. He held his hand above the center of the circle and a blue light shined outward, seeping into the paths carved into the stones like a sort of liquid being guided to its destination. Once it had filled the ring, the lights raised off the ground and seemed to shimmer and shift. A spiral of nearly white light erupted out of the ring, and a second spiral of blue light shot out around that with the opposite rotation. The spinning rays got faster and faster until they were encased in light.

A loud crack echoed throughout the forest as they arrived. Erwin immediately dropped his voice.

"This isn't... Clay don't make a sound."

Erwin dug his boots around in the dirt, revealing a similar ring of stones.

"Tch."

There was a hollow slightly up into the tree they had appeared next to, a dried puddle of blood stained the ground nearby, and haphazard drag marks, as though someone couldn't lift their feet, pathed into the forest. Erwin reached into the hollow of the tree and pulled out a small gemstone. He threw it onto the ground and crushed it between one of the stones and his boot. Then he took out a knife, and carved a little notch into one of the stones.

"You can talk safely now."

"What happened? Where are we?"

"It appears they had a trap for our teleportation. Judging by the blood, someone was attacked here already. We should get a move on, there's no telling how close by any enemies could be. Talk while walking."

Clay walked behind Erwin, who was following the drag trails through the forest.

"You said you got stabbed out in the forest, correct?"

"Yeah."

"And you have no idea how you got here?"

"Yeah."

"Then you were probably caught up in that teleportation trap as well. Pulled away from your proper summoning location. The small gem was a communication crystal. They can move sound across incredible distances."

"Why did you stab the circle instead of removing it?"

They arrived at a road after only a few minutes of following the trail by the dying sunlight. The drag marks turned before fading into the well worn dirt.

"That would be incredibly dangerous to mess with spatial magic. The worst case scenario is that a hundred meter area is just removed from existence, including us." Erwin stopped after finishing his sentence, staring blankly at the horizon.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Sorry. Let us resume."

They very quickly found the gate, and were then escorted by a very surprised guard back to the town. As they approached, a small group of guards surrounding a short bulbous man greeted them. Clay recognized one of the guards as the guard captain, John. The short man came forward in front of the others. He was incredibly well dressed, to the point of it being gaudy. He was clearly trying to get the point that he was nobility across.

"My dear Earl Seltmark, this humble Baron Velona greets you with utmost respect." He bowed to Erwin and then turned to Clay.

"It is my pleasure to meet you as well dear hero. I am Baron Meldred Velona, and I apologize for any terrible experiences you may have had around our humble village."

"There are no need for pleasantries. Are all the preparations made?"

"Why, yes, of course!"

"Take us to your manor so that we may be... properly equipped."

Clay was still taking in that the baron had come to greet them personally because of their botched teleportation attempt. He wanted to break away from the incredibly formal man and talk to John again instead to show him how much he had improved. He gave up on this idea soon after he realized it would make him seem like a child trying to show off a report card.

The baron's manor was quite a ways out of town, about thirty minutes on foot. This wasn't nearly as far as Erwin's palace-mansion thing was, but it was still a lot of ground to cover for a simple trip to town. There weren't any grounds around it so to speak of, just thinner forest than usual, mostly due to the fact that it was on the very edge between the town's fields and the forest circle around it all. It was incredibly gaudy, more than what Clay could imagine. Every surface looked as though an ornate picture frame was put inside of an ornate picture frame. Random tables held odd golden ornaments, and the floor was covered in uniquely patterned rugs.

"I apologize for the state of my manor. It is not well furnished with the belongings of a noble, and it is entirely my fault due to having to supplement the towns treasury. I hope you do not find the barren tables to be insulting to your fine tastes."

The man was apologizing profusely like a child would to his parents if he hadn't cleaned his room, yet it was because he felt his manor wasn't gaudy enough. The entry hall was filled with golden décor and was the fanciest per square inch building he had seen, though it's size was dwarfed by the second place one.

"Baron Velona, we are here to begin training the hero. There is no need to apologize for a matter between nobles. As long as you do not take visitors here, it should be acceptable, just remember that you do represent the earldom of Seltmark and the duchy of Herzig."

A stern warning over the place not being appealing, this was not what Clay expected. The room was far more decorated than the palace in Seltmark. The man himself wore regal clothes in contrast to Erwin's current boiled leather armor.

"Thank you my lord, now what do we do about..." He glanced over at Clay.

"I believe I will take him on a hunting trip after I deal with the current bandit outbreak. Do we have any indication on her movements?"

"She is holed up in her camp."

"Do we have the necessary coffins for the plan to succeed?"

"It is on standby, my lord."

"And these guards here, are they all provided by me?"

"Indeed. They are not witnesses. Whatever happens in this room is as you tell it."

"You have not disappointed me this time." Erwin drew his sword as Clay looked at him confused. "Do not hold this against me Clay."

Erwin plunged the sword into Clay's chest. It was a far larger sword than the first time this had happened, and it split apart his ribs next to his spine. It pierced through his heart directly, bursting it outwards.

"Why? I don't understand..."

Clay looked over at the only other person he had trusted in the room, John the guard captain, who turned away in guilt after making eye contact.

"The bandit leader Erica has slain a precious hero. Seal his body so that he cannot escape."

The guards moved up to Clay. His mind was racing at the sudden turn of events. What was the point of dragging him through all of this if he was just going to betray him anyways? What was the point of torturing him in the first place? His head felt incredibly light as a glistening puddle of red formed on the floor. Erwin twisted the blade, displacing everything in Clay's chest and breaking open the wound further. His mind stopped racing, and fell into darkness.

Having eliminated another risk factor, Erwin left the rest to his subordinates, and went back home.