“... The green coins are the most common ones, and ten of them are worth one amethyst coin. Ten of those coins are worth one ruby coin. Ten of those coins are worth one sapphire coin, ten of those are worth one moonstone coin. Ten of those are worth one sunstone coin.”

“Thank you for the information.”

Zelos immediately wore his new clothes, but he kept the others in order to use them for work and training. At the same time, he headed to a restaurant to have an early lunch. The full set with rice, beef, and a cup of milk was three green coins… It seemed that the farmer paid him accordingly. In any case, Zelos ate two sets and felt really good… nothing more relaxing than eating a lot of fresh and warm food.

For the first time in his life, Zelos felt like procrastinating, but soon he forced himself to get up and then went to look for some weapons shops. He probably couldn’t buy anything with four green coins, but he at least would have the idea of how much he would need to save.

The town actually had several blacksmith shops, each one apparently specialized into a different type of weapon. Hammers, swords, spears, bows and so on… Zelos checked all of them to see some decently heavy weapons, but he didn’t find them. It made sense, speed was king when it came to fighting for one people’s lives.

“A metal weapon for training will take some time to forge and I will need money as well… I guess I will just buy some planks and put them together and add more weight overtime that should do the trick.”

As it turned out, Zelos didn’t have to spend a single coin on making his next training gear. He had his knives that he found on the tent and he found some planks across the city that had been abandoned. After carving out a bit, he connected the parts with nails that he also found lying around with the stones that he had. When night came, he had a bit heavier club, and he had the chance to swing it around.

“Perfect… Now I will train to my limits. I want to double the progress speed, so I can’t waste a single moment from now on.”

As usual, Zelos began to swing the club with a single hand and alternated it as well. Three sets had been enough to make his arms hurt like hell and his health dropped to half.

“A bit more… this much I can heal in four hours, after all.”

Before, he never went beyond that, so Zelos had a hard time doing so… thanks to that, he almost messed up his fingers several times. The blood decreased the firmness of his grip too…

In the end, he stopped with that kind of training and then went to do the handstands. That had been easier, but not less painful. When he used his magic, he was able to make things a lot easier, but soon he decided to stop… until he felt his energy gathering only on his arms.

‘This is different than before… I guess I can control the energy like this. I need to do some more experiments to see if the situation changes the control over the magic.’

The next day, Zelos worked on the same tasks, but as promised, the chubby farmer also had some extra work for him. He had to transport the milk of the cows to several parts of the city.

“This is very valuable and our clients like the buckets to be full, don’t waste a single drop of it, if you pull that off, I will pay you some extra money tomorrow after I confirm your success.”

Zelos nodded and then did exactly that… the milk was smelling great, so he wondered if he could buy some as well. Milk should have enough fat and nutrients to push his training routine even further. In any case, on the second day, Zelos gained twenty-five green coins by working until noon, and then he got an extra five the next day when the farmer confirmed that he didn’t mess up on the deliveries.

“You are slacking off since you are making a kid do your work for you? Don’t you have any shame?”

The farmer’s wife saw Zelos leaving for a delivery while the farmer was relaxing under the shade of his shed. He tried to explain that he was paying him well, but it seemed that the woman didn’t want him stacking up more fat on his waist. Although she had seen him fine after working, she still couldn’t help but think that a kid of his age would eventually collapse if he kept working that much. Still, at the end of that week, Zelos didn’t show any signs of exhaustion. He also achieved his first goal…

Health: 490/490

Magic: 100/120

Stamina: 380/380

Strength: 27

Vigor: 22

Precision: 16

Wisdom: 10

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Willpower: 12

Traits: Regeneration Lv 37

“It only took one week… I guess the efficiency increased a lot more than I had expected.”

It was all thanks to the work that Zelos had done, which pushed him to the limits in a way that was truly necessary for him. With that in mind, his progress would be even better as he got stronger and could do more. It looked like the changes in his magic training also would grant him some bonuses.

“You don’t have to come tomorrow… Captain Hei passed the message to you to look for him tomorrow morning.”

“Is it fine? I thought that farm work had no holidays.”

“Your work ethic is commendable, but this is the order of the Captain. If he is calling for you, it should be important. The farm will always be staying here.”

Zelos thought that he would have been fired for working too hard… that would have been an interesting experience. In any case, while he had forgotten about it, he had promised to meet with Hei after one week… truth be told, he didn’t find much reason to do so now that things were going as he had planned, but he had to show some respect to the leader of the place.

The next morning, after doing some light training, Zelos decided to eat a light meal as well before looking for Hei. After asking just once around, he was told that his office was in the middle of the town, which was his house as well. It wasn’t as flashy as a villa or a castle, but it sure showed his statues since the place was pretty large and had training grounds around as well. The house also had three floors and looked brand new. Fortunately, he found him watching some soldiers sparring, so he wouldn’t have to ask around or enter that house.

“You have come, I called you to watch us training for a while.”

“And after that?”

“I would ask if you are willing to become part of our force. You are inexperienced and young, but you have some beef on your stature. You also have a strong mind already. As you can see, few people would welcome you with open arms, but I am sure you will convince them that you can become of some use.”

Zelos could see the eyes full of suspicion of the soldiers around. While some of them knew that Zelos worked as a squire for the Captain, they didn’t see him doing anything aside from carrying weapons.

As a mercenary group, they needed to have a lot of faith in their allies since those who had weak spirits would become a nuisance sooner or later that eventually would endanger their lives. As such, they didn’t want anyone joining them that could become a liability. They needed more allies, but only those who could endure their training could truly be trusted and be considered brother-in-arms.

“I have work in the mornings, and I assume that is when most of you do your training.”

“That is true… the younger recruits come in the afternoon, though. I imagined that it would be better for you to skip that, but maybe that isn’t the best of options. They need some years of training to become part of the real force, after all.”

“That is fine by me, I don’t have to work in groups in case a large battle approaches.”

Hei nodded. Zelos truly looked like a veteran mercenary who wanted to keep his distance and trust only in himself. That was certainly weird behavior and attitude for a child, but he decided to keep quiet about it.

“In that case, I might have a better idea of a path for you… it might be very troublesome, though. You might also regret that.”

“If you think that is a good idea, then I will trust your judgment.”

“All right, I will make the preparations. Come back in the afternoon.”

That seemed like a waste of time, but Zelos was fine with that. More time training was always welcome. As for what he told Hei, he wasn’t completely sincere. He only said that to see what would happen. His idea of the best and Hei’s idea could be very different, and that would be a good experience to have as a reference for the future.

As promised, Zelos returned to the area after lunchtime. He saw a bunch of slightly older kids heading in the same direction. They all looked pretty excited, and he could hear them talking since they weren’t exactly whispering.

“It is finally our chance. The captain will be recruiting a lot more people in the next few months, and those who live in his territory will have the preference to join.”

“Even if we are accepted, we won’t have much time to gain experience, and we might end up becoming cannon fodder even without his intentions.”

“You might become one. I definitely won’t. My father died in the last battle, and he chose me to inherit the best trait that he developed over forty years and protect our family… I won’t let those dirty dogs get even closer to killing me.”

It was rather surprising that kids could talk like that when they lost their father a week ago… it felt like they were somehow prideful of that… probably because it was a common occurrence in their families to die while protecting their land and people. Apparently, that was the highest level of honor someone could get.

Zelos looked at them, and he couldn’t see anything different with those kids, so it looked like the traits that they had weren’t that easy to realize… at the same time, it was pretty convenient that they could inherit the traits of their parents when they died and part of their progress as well… it was like skipping some decades of training experience in sharpening their skills… no wonder they felt that confident.

Some kids were already on the training grounds, and they had assumed resting positions while standing. Zelos was expecting to see someone like Hei in front of them to start whatever was about to happen, but he only saw a girl who seemed to be in her twenties and had a similar expression to him of annoyance and fiery red hair.

“You are late, worms!”

“What are you waiting for? Scum! Enter the lines already unless you want to take a serious beating right now!”

The kids soon got to the end of one of the lines, and Zelos followed them as quickly as he could, but it looked like he was standing out in a bad way. The girl approached him and glared at him from above since she was half a head taller than him.

“What do we have here… are you the slave boy that I had heard of? Huh? Why don’t you answer that, slave boy? ”

“My name is not slave boy.”

“Then what is your name, slave boy?”

“I am not a slave anymore.”

“Are you still a boy?”

“Do you want to check it?”