-Zadias POV-

After a few weeks of being in that hell Earth created. I’m finally able to stomach the poisonous air that burned my insides like acid, which is a horrible feeling.

“Hey Earth. How is this supposed to help me again?” I ask him because I’m not even sure. He has yet to explain to me how this so called training will help me. While I questioned him I was waiting in ambush to try my hand at a monster. These monsters are huge in size some were as big as the mountain we climbed to fight the dragon hero.

Earth is communicating with me through a small orb the size of a marble. It was black and silky smooth with a small shine to it. He had made the orb turn invisible as it hovers next to me.

“Well. Let us put it in this way. What you learn here will be implemented into your real body.” As usual Earth replies as if it was common sense. He has watch me die countless times already from the poison in the air. I won’t be defeated so easily.

“Wait. What does that mean?”

“It means that we are training your soul in a way that will strengthen your body. Instead of having your unused potential sit idle. We are going to have you get used to using it. You can’t hurt anything here unless you use your soul energy because you are not in physical form. So once you get used to killing things here. Instead of your soul energy being idle in the physical world it would become passive. Which means your body will be enhanced by your soul without any physical changes or you having to activate it.” Earth lets out a small sigh in the end

“Body enhancement? So since I can breathe in the poison here. I have gain some sort of immunity to it in the physical world?”  So that means if I can find out how to kill these monsters. That power will than improve my physical abilities since I can’t relied on them in this world. So my speed and strength here all relies on the energy I use.

“Yes. It is because a small part of your soul has become active. The goal within these two years is for you to be able to regularly use your potential to the fullest.”

“I hear something.”  I had almost forgotten I was currently hunting my first monster. I won’t really get what Earth means unless I fight one to make sure. The loud steps and the slight quake bought me back to my real focus.

The one I’m planning to attack was a monster a little smaller than the dragon hero. I think I can take it down easy, it wasn’t as creepy looking as the other monsters either. It had a fish head with green scales on its back and red scales to its front. I have seen these kind of monsters in video games I played in my past life.

“It should be here any minute now.” I have been here for a couple hours now. Crouching down behind some rocks, below me is the choke point. This was a path through these hellish mountains that smaller monsters take to avoid total slaughter. If I were to be spotted it would be difficult for them to climb up and get me thanks to the sharp rocky terrain.  The light here is dim thanks to the towering mountains so my visibility is not at its best.

“ErRGH.”

The loudening growl of the monster signified its approach, as Zadia pulled out her sword. That Earth had prepare for her with some leather armor to help her in her venture. Zadia rises slightly from her crouched position to get a better view of her target with her blade firmly in her right hand. The monster had stomped its way into Zadias line of sight shaking small pebbles off the sides of the mountainous path.

Zadia leaps into the air above the monsters head. With a horizontal slash the blade connected. At least she thought it did, but it went right through the beast.

“Swoosh”

“RraAWRGGH”

Her strike was quick but nothing had happen it was like her weapon wasn’t even there. She was caught in a daze but was bought back to reality from the monsters roars. Moments after Zadia initiated the fight the monster sent its right claw hurling towards her. Still in mid-air Zadia took full impact of the attack flinging her towards the spikey wall impaling her.

“huurRGH”

Moments later she woke up again in her bed in the middle of the night. It had become quite common for her to wake up at odd times during the night. This caused misunderstandings. Making Julianne think she received trauma from the fight with the dragon, but Zadia ignored her worries and told her it was nothing. Afterwards she would just go back to sleep as if nothing had happened.

The next weeks of her night training she had just begun to swing at large rocks. She noticed her blade went through each time but her body was able to make contact with it.

“Hey Earth. What is with this sword it doesn’t do anything.” Zadia complained as she waved the sword around.

“That is because it doesn’t have a soul of its own. Of course you will need to transfer some of your energy into it.”

“So…how do I do that?” Zadia asks with a confused expression

“Focus, practice, and a lot of patience.” Earth replies in quick succession

“Thanks for the help…I guess…” Zadia mutter in dissatisfaction

Focus, practice, and patience? Really? Guess there is no use to complaining, now that I think about it. I can feel a little bit of the energy within me, must be cause of being in this spiritual world.  I should try directing it to my sword even if it’s a little bit it must be able to do something.

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After a short while Zadia could feel a faint energy course through her. She focus intensely with closed eyes and slow breaths. The flow was slowly being directed into her sword which had cause it to emit a small light but for only a second.

“Hmm…I should keep at it till I understand it better.”

Zadia continue to practice and slowly she was able to redirect more energy each time. She couldn’t do this without any interruption though.

“Clang” “Cling”

“RAwrgGH!”

“Damn it still not good enough.” Zadia leaps back dodging the monster attacks in succession. Her blade could make contact with the monsters now but it was not sharp enough to do any damage. So she had a lot of practice escaping her enemies. Zadia had learned how to direct her energy more efficiently to her legs so than after a failed attack she could make her escape with greater speed.

“This is annoying.” Zadia mutter in frustration

During her practice Zadia would constantly be interrupted by monsters roaming around. This world was crawling with monsters. There wasn’t an area that was left unclaimed even if there were it would turn into a bloodbath. So Zadia was always wondering from place to place for a safe place to train. That wasn’t the only interruptions, if someone in the physical were to wake her up. She would be forcefully removed from this world and be sent back to her physical body.

After a couple months had past Zadia was able to make deep cuts into several rocks. She hadn’t tested it out on any of the monsters quite yet. Since she has gotten so use to giving them the slip she had almost forgot to try it on them. Julianne had not been able to train Zadia in the afternoons lately but Zadia didn’t mind. She figured it was because of what Earth said.

“Sister. Huh…Well… Time to see if I made any progress.” Zadia whispers to herself as she gets into position.

She was hidden behind a small rocky hill just across of it was a dead plain with corpses litter all around. This area was decimated so it is where the weaker and smaller monsters roam since there is literally nothing here, but the dead and dying. They may be weak but even these monsters were plenty aggressive against those they come across.

“There you are.”

I had started to notice in the past week that the weaker monsters would come out and eat the corpses of fallen monsters. Since this had become a battlefield just a couple days ago. There is plenty of the dead laying around and the monsters that come out to feed on them are the ones that I’ll be practicing on.

The monsters that were roaming around here were half the size of dragons. Their appearances differ in shape, size, and color. It was a cluster of disfigured monsters, they have appeared to look like failed creations.

“Clank”

“Ergh”

Zadia swooped in with precision cutting off the monsters head, ricocheting off of them and beheading them in quick succession. Disturbing groans came out of the monsters after each was slain. After all the monsters were slain, she went into deep thought.

“You certainly gotten stronger.” A voice emerge from behind. It belonged to Earth

“Earth. I have a question. What is this place?” Zadia asks as she looks around. The monsters oddly starting to appear human.

“Hmm…It is nothing to be concern with. Good luck partner.” Earth responds with a smile. Disappearing once again.

“Partner… Who is he?”   Zadia began to get lost in thought.

Why doesn’t he ever tell me anything shouldn’t I have a right to know? Now that I think about it, did I ever agreed to be this hero? Wait, are the other heroes even bad? That dragon guy didn’t even know if I was a hero or not. If he knew I was a hero what would he have done? Is Earth just using me? He just threw me in this world and told me to be a hero.

“Damn it!” Zadia rubs her head in frustration.

I just been going along with his plan the entire time. Why was I doing that? Now that I think about it I don’t want to be a damn hero. I’m still weak though. Well I’ll just train for now to become stronger, afterwards I should go to the academy and see if I learn about the other gods.

“Why haven’t I been more self-aware?” Zadia mutters to herself’

Think. The other heroes haven’t killed each other, so does that mean. There is no contest? That is a possibility I can't rule out. This is annoying, the more I think about it the more I realize how ignorant I am. Wait, I know nothing is this because Earth is keeping it from me. Why hasn’t he told me the names of the other gods? What if it was to keep me from seeking them out or learning about them? This could be the reason why Earth doesn’t want me to go to the academy. Maybe he is just hiding some big truth about his identity. Maybe he is actually the evil one?

“Jeez… Maybe I’m just getting paranoid.” Zadia rubs her head stressed out.

Now that I think about Earth has never really acknowledge me as a hero. He just calls me partner, why is that? He only ever says he needs one, for what? Well. I’m going to go to the academy and find out. No matter what.

“Well… I still have over a year to decide. Maybe I’m just training too much.” Zadia lets out a deep sigh.