Kai sat crosslegged on the bed inside his room, thick curtains blocked the natural sunlight from invading his space. Rows upon rows of plants laid before him. Onyx stood by his side, blocking the door with his large body as he curiously watched the boy. Rubbing his hands together, Kai picked up a reddish plant from a larger pile and a small, pale plant from another, and, with a heavy sigh, ingested both of them at once. Sweat quickly appeared and dripped down his increasingly blazing skin, muffled groans exploding within his body as the life force and mana crashed like waves against each other.

Following the Hippocatrus Healing Technique, he quickly focused and diverted as much life force and mana as he could into his limbs, forcing his mana veins to activate, shatter, and repair themselves stronger than before. The microscopic holes covering them quickly sealed up, only to be replaced by larger holes which quickly closed up as well. Following this vicious cycle of destroying and reconstructing, he felt his mana veins become tougher, although the hellish price made him reconsider countless times.

Onyx didn’t react too strongly, seemingly already used to Kai’s suicidal behavior. His ears twitched, however, and he quickly stood up, scratching with one paw at the hard floor. Kai immediately noticed this, and hid away the plants as fast as possible before throwing himself under the blanket, controlling his breathing to be as steady as possible while his eyes snapped shut.

The door creaked open, revealing Aina’s figure who carefully peered inside the darkness. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she turned toward Kai and Onyx, however, she only shook her head and left without saying a word.

Kai sweated profusely under the blanket, however, he didn’t dare move a muscle even after Aina left. Onyx snuggled close to him, licking some sweat off his face. Unable to move further, or even utter a word, Kai sat with his eyes shut and waited for the energies to consume themselves.

…

In the manor’s backyard, next to a rack of wooden swords were a few shelf-like storages, inside which lay thick discs of metal of different weights and sizes, as well as a few bars and metallic collars. Besides them, a couple of medicinal balls and kettlebells lay on the cold ground. Elizabeth, Aina, and Euphy watched as Kai sat on a bench and lifted a fifty-kilogram dumbbell, admiring his dedication but deeply questioning his sanity.

“I mean, I can see how it works but… I’m not entirely convinced.” Euphy carefully observed the boy train, how his muscles moved, and the effort he put in. “But the more I study it, the better it gets. I wondered why he wanted it so bad… how did he even come up with this?!”

“Well,” Aina began, “it’s better not to ask questions we don’t want the answer for. Plus, if they work they work, so who cares?”

“Me!” Euphridia exclaimed. “Now I need to turn the entire training regime on its head and integrate this equipment!”

“Haha,” Elizabeth chuckled, “good luck with that then.”

The dumbbells - a metallic, sturdy yet elastic bar on the ends of which were two smoothed discs, held together by a collar to not fall, couldn’t compare to what his previous life had, but they served the same purpose. Although Kai’s arms and body were burning, he refused to give up and let go of the deadly weight above him. One more… one more… he kept repeating until finally… he reached fifty lifts. At that point, beads of sweat clustered together like a river, and the drenched bench he sat on almost made him slip as he signaled for Euphy to come to help him.

The guard quickly appeared to his side and lifted the thing with one hand, giving Kai the most desired room to breathe. He panted heavily while standing up, wiping off the streams of sweat with a nearby towel. “Damn… that was… stupid of me to do!” He groaned as he moved his hands and leaned forward. I should just let Euphy take care of that and only demonstrate… slightly.

“Well done Kai, whatever it is that you created seems to show some results, although only time will tell.” her voice rang in his ears just as he thought about it. “I just need to know how the others work and I’ll figure out how to integrate it in your current training. Maybe have alternative days? I don’t know yet. This is all very new and fascinating.”

“It’s… yeah… probably.” Kai’s barely coherent speech slipped past Euphy’s ears as she excitedly grabbed one of the larger kettlebells, grabbing it with one and laying it in front of him while asking.

“So, how is this one used?”

“Uhm…” Kai blinked slowly, bringing the towel to his face once again before trying to stand up. However, before even trying to stand up, Euphy’s voice rang in his ears.

“It’s fine, just tell me how to do it, doesn’t look too complicated.”

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Taking a second to recall the correct way to use a kettlebell, Kai slowly explained the process in perfect detail, and watched as Euphridia lifted and lowered it with an equally perfect form. “Not bad,” he remarked, slightly shocked by her ability to casually lift a one-hundred-kilogram kettlebell.

“And what’s the ball for?” Elizabeth asked as she picked one of the larger ones up, casually switching from one hand to the other.

“It’s for balance…” Kai sighed as he laid the towel on the bench and lay down on his sweat.

“Balance? Do you really need a ball for that? What’s it even made of?”

“Uhh, leather and rubber, I think.” He replied, a bit unsure of the materials used by the forgers. “Something along those li-” He suddenly jumped to his feet as a large sphere of water drenched him and the bench.

“What the fuck?!” He yelled involuntarily while frantically looking around, his eyes finally fixating on Aina. She wore a playful smile on her face, and quickly tucked away a wand in her sleeve. “Why?!” Kai shivered from head to toe as the breeze brushing against his skin intensified the cold.

“It’s not good to lay in your sweat, and you looked like you were about to fall asleep when you still have so much more training to do.”

“But-”

“I don’t wanna hear it. I told Arthur about your situation. He said he’s… willing to let you join the Magic Academy.”

“Arthur… The Dual Class Mage?” Kai exclaimed in surprise. He recalled the old man, however, he couldn't see the relation between him and that magic academy. “What do you mean, Magic Academy?”

“Right,” Aina took over. “He’s the headmaster of that academy, and I told him about your condition. He seemed intrigued so he agreed to let you in, but the minimum acceptance age is 15 years, and that’s one thing even he can’t change. So in that time, I want you to get as strong as possible.”

“But what does that have to do with me? I can’t use any Onkos spells and the few Inkos I can attempt right now are pretty weak.”

“That’s what we want to change… don’t think I’m not aware of your little-” Upon hearing Aina’s words, Kai’s face immediately switched to panic. His pupils shrunk and his eyes turned to Elizabeth, who, thankfully, seemed focused on the new equipment.

“Anyway, as I said. I will help you with whatever it is that you’re doing while also teaching you Elvish. In the meantime, Euphy will train you until your body is ready to change to a body core.” She let out a deep sigh as her hand gently flew to her forehead. “You’re such a pain sometimes, you know? I’m not entirely sure what will happen but for now, this is the best approach I can think of.”

“That- That’s a lot of things to do…”

“I’m afraid so, but look on the bright side. You have the best healer in the entire kingdom in front of you, her daughter, and one of the strongest guards in the kingdom at your disposal.”

“Aren’t you quite humble?”

“My reputation is well deserved, fufu.” Giggling, she walked toward the other two, where competition between who could lift the most discs started taking place.

…

Back in his room, Kai flopped on the bed and let out a long, heavy sigh before groaning in pain. “These… damned witches!” He cursed, taking off his drenched shirt and dropping it on the floor. “I can’t even feel my muscles even after healing magic… God. Boy, come here.” Onyx immediately got up from his spot on the floor, climbing on the bed as much as he could and curling up around Kai. “They made me train even after I couldn’t anymore, they just used… used healing magic and I started again! And later today I’ll have to go learn Elvish… this feels like torture!”

Onyx nodded and let out low, sharp sounds as if agreeing with everything Kai said. Occasionally, he’d make an angry gesture with his paw as he listened to Kai’s blabbering, signaling his unhappiness.

“I know… right? Speaking of, Boy, you’re not doing any training, how do you expect to be stronger?” Upon hearing that, Onyx lowered his head and let out low yelps, brushing his snout against Kai’s body as if pleading. “Haha, ok, I got it, I got it. I guess Magical Beasts grow stronger as they age. I remember reading about it in the big book… Wait!”

Suddenly jumping to his feet, he ignored the pain and ran toward a dark corner, where his old, rugged backpack lay unattended. It remained filled to the brim, except for the food he took out in fear of it going bad and creating unwanted smells and destroying whatever else he hid inside. Pulling out the thick, old, and heavy book, he flipped the pages as he sat down on the hardwood floor.

“Not here, not here… ah!” Stopping somewhere near the end, his finger grazed over a drawing that looked eerily similar to Onyx, albeit maybe older. The text accompanying it was all written in Elvish. “No wonder I skipped over it! I couldn’t understand a thing! But now…”

Onyx curiously looked over his shoulder just as he finished the sentence, and listened to Kai mumble reading the paragraphs next to the familiar-looking creature.

“The Obborik is a… ma-, uh whatever, I assume it says magnificent but I can barely understand it, the faded pages don’t help either. Anyway… it looks like it’s describing what your race looks like and… your powers. Hmm… high mana, high speed… strength average… spells… damn I can’t understand any of that. Origin… huh weird.”

All the text after the Origin seemed to have faded away, not due to time or corrosion but because someone had deliberately deleted the text. Only a few words remained, and even those, while difficult to understand, did not indicate the Obborik’s true origins. “What the hell? Why would anyone want to hide that?” The mystery surrounding Onyx grew deeper in Kai’s mind, with even the book that had never let him down until now failing to delve further into it.

Looking at his companion’s pearly eyes, he let out a soft sigh and petted his fluffy head. “Well, no matter. I’ll figure it out eventually.”

“Woof!”