Zane looked her in the eye and said with a stern voice.
"I want you to be strong."
...
Zane brought Cecilia to one of the secluded training Areas of the Umbras.
Zane grabbed a wooden sword and threw one to Cecilia. He stood about 5 yards apart from her.
Cecilia still freshly remembered Zane's strength through the time they were both in the Arenas with the Blood Jackals. Together with her father, Cecilia fought the Blood Jackal King. It was the time she had experienced the terror of battling the beast.
Recollecting what happened, Cecilia remembered that Zane was able to deflect the regular pack of blood jackals while being chased by the Blood Jackal king itself. In the final moments, he then finally killed it with a bow and arrow.
"Show me what you got."
Grasping the sword in her two skinny hands, she closed her eyes and breathed slowly, then suddenly she opened her eyes.
Grasping the sword in her two skinny hands, she closed her eyes and breathed slowly, then suddenly she opened her eyes.
For some reason, Zane felt a cold feeling in his heart.
'What the heck is this uneasy feeling? 'By stats, I know I am stronger, but what is this feeling?'
Soon enough, Cecilia lounged at Zane. Cecilia's fighting style was very systematic, however, Zane found out that her attacks has quite a lot of flaws due to her emotional anger applied to it.
After 15 minutes of intense attacking, Cecilia started getting frustrated because not even once she was able to land a blow on Zane. The most annoying part for her was that Zane did not even bother deflecting or attacking. Soon, her form started to waver, and her attacks became disorganized.
"Your rage doesn't make you stronger. It only gives you more opening." Zane frowned and spoke to her while dodging another stab.
"I know. But I can't help it." Cecilia stopped attacking. For some reason, the moment she grabbed the sword, she remembered her father's death.
After a while, she unconsciously imaged Zane as the monster. Then, she envisioned herself as the same weak little girl who got her father killed.
He continued, "Remember this moment. If you do not have the strength, you put your life and your loved ones to their mercy.
"Fight me like your life is on the line!" Zane roared at her.
Then suddenly, without holding back, Zane sped up and slashed at Ceclia'a right side. Cecilia predicted where Zane's attack would land. Without hesitation, she tried to deflect the sword with her own.
However, she forgot one thing—the pure raw power behind the attack.
"Boom!"
Cecilia's body flew sideways like a rotating bowling ball. She started coughing up and passed out.
"OH SHIT! WHOOPS!" Seeing what happened, Zane's soul almost came out of his body. He quickly ran to Cecilia and checked on her. The bones on her arms were dislocated and broken. Her muscles were torn and bleeding profusely. Zane hastily took out a couple of intermediate potions from his inventory and fed them to Cecilia.
'FUCK!' Zane was still wide eyes at what happened.
Zane brought Cecilia back to the room. He removed all of her bandages covering her face and body, leaving her clothes. Afterward, Zane did minor surgeries on her and continuously fed her potions.
Around dawn, Cecilia woke up. She remembered what had happened. So she stood up and came out of the room. She saw Zane in a meditation stance.
"You woke up. You seem better. I think next time, you need to try to dodge better." Zane tried to downplay what had happened.
"Yes. Thank you for your previous lesson."
"Great. You can rest for the day."
Cecilia looked at him, "I want to go spar again."
Zane couldn't help but scratch his head, thinking if he should decline it. He exhaled and said, "Okay. come to the same place."
Soon, they arrived at the training courtyard.
"Same as the last time, give me all you got."
This time around, Cecilia was more level-headed so was Zane. She started paying attention to her attacks. This time around, Zane controlled his strength. He did not dodge the attacks but instead responded to her swings. He matched Cecilia's power and started sparring with her. Soon, Zane increased the phase, and Cecilia began to be pushed back.
Cecilia was pushed to her limits, receiving quite a lot of beating to the point where she would spit out a large amount of blood. Zane did not give her the time to rest until she passed out. The moment she passed out, Zane would take out a couple of healing potions and feed her.
Immediately, her wounds started healing and would restore some of her strength, waking her up.
When Zane saw that she had regained a bit of her consciousness, Zane would begin the sparring.
There were times that Zane would yell at her.
"STAND UP! IF YOU ARE IN THE ARENA. YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD."
Soon, the rounds of beating started again and again.
"GET UP!"
"WAKE UP!"
"FIGHT!"
This has become Zane's 'training' routine for Cecilia.
---
After a few days of training, back at their home. Zane experienced Cecilia's monstrous talent. Her Divine Talent in swordsmanship was nothing to be scoffed at. Her skills were improving by leaps and bounds.
'Soon enough she will be almost close to my level. I got my skill from the system, but she did it by sheer talent.'
"Do we train today?" Cecilia asked Zane, ready to bring her battered wooden sword.
"No,"
Before Cecilia can respond, Zane started bringing out one item after another. The items were all kinds of parts of animals of various shapes and sizes. Some look gooey combined with a terrible smell. Some of it just seemed extremely horrendous.
"I want you to eat all of it. Don't leave anything behind."
Zane did not leave the room. He sat down, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes.
Cecilia looked at him for a moment. Without hesitation, she ate everything one by one. When he heard the sound of eating, Zane was surprised by her decisiveness. Previously, Zane also tried eating it raw but couldn't help but fail. He couldn't stand the grotesqueness of the food. So, to find it bearable, he had to cook it in a pot even if it would lose some of its effects.
After finishing everything, Cecilia's body started to heat up, and her muscles began to twitch. Her face started contorting due to extreme pain; however, she held her scream. Her eyes turned red, and then, before long, she passed out.
Zane opened his eyes and looked at Cecilia. Somehow he was impressed with her. Everything he did was a test for her. He wanted to gauge her breakpoint. In reality, if Cecilia had complained, Zane would have helped her a little bit.
However, Cecilia's conviction was something he did not put an account for.
Zane stared at Cecilia's face. This is the first time Zane paid attention to her in detail. Cecilia has a perfect oval face and porcelain skin. Without her scars, many would say that she is extremely beautiful. Although her head was still bald, her hair started to grow out.
Slowly, her twitching got worst, but he saw the processing of elimination of the body impurities started with the black substances coming out of her body.
After a while, more and more impurities came out. However, Cecilia started to run a high fever. If he doesn't do anything, her body will go into a shock.
So he got up and put an intermediate healing potion and a calming potion to counteract the symptoms. The potions helped Cecilia's complexion a bit better.
Furthermore, Zane has been monitoring her status. Cecilia's overall stats have broken through Awakening.
Cecilia:
Status: Healthy (In the process of Awakening)
Strength: 9.8 to 10.8
Agility: 9.7 to 10.6
Perception: 9.6 to 10.3
Constitution: 8.6 to 10.5
Mana Capacity: 0 to 1.3a
Zane thought that the process was already finished when she reached the Awakening. However, soon he found out that the night had just started.
Cecilia's body started violently twitching again. Seeing the twitches, he saw that her stats were also growing every time it happened.
'Why is her Awakening different than mine?'
Zane doesn't know the answer since he lacks the information. He decided in the future to find books related to Awakening.
...
Morning came quickly.
When Cecilia's woke up, the first thing she noticed was Zane sleeping in a sitting position next to her.
He was like a caring husband taking care of his wife. However, next to Zane were bottles and bottles of empty flasks. Some of them she is familiar with.
She got up and stretched her legs. She felt something different with her body this time. She can feel a new vigor flowing through her veins, like a new power waiting to be unleashed.
Her eyesight and hearing were better. Not only that, she found a new feeling in the air. She knew immediately that it was the mana.
"You have Awakened," she suddenly heard a sound behind her. She turned around and said, "Yes, thanks to you."
Zane smiled and said to her, "For now, I want you to get used to the new changes in your body."
"However, I recommend not going out. However, if you do, make sure to cover your face completely."
Cecilia instantly touched her face. All of her scars were gone, replaced by soft skin. Her hair has grown about 3 inches as well.
Zane continued, "You have already seen what's out there, so I want you to be cautious. Not only for your sake but mine as well."
He knew that it would bring trouble to him if anyone saw Cecilia. Her face had become breathtakingly beautiful. He would prefer it actually if she were ugly since she would be able to blend in.
'Sadly, it seems that the beauty goddess also blessed Cecilia,' Zane internally shook his head. He wasn't interested in any type of romance, especially when his life was constantly on the line.
"I will come back again this afternoon, and we can talk by then."
Cecilia nodded. When Zane turned around and was about to leave, Cecilia opened her mouth and whispered, "Thank you."
...
After leaving, Zane remembered the crazy night. He had used almost 20 intermediate potions just to keep up with Cecilia's condition. After he ran out, he used all kinds of recovery potions as an alternative.
Who knew it would happen. After using almost ten healing potions, Zane was reluctant to let the rest of his potions go. However, seeing that her stats continued to rise, he reluctantly decided to bite the bullet.
Cecilia
Level 11
Strength: 26.6
Agility: 29.3
Perception: 28.3
Constitution: 25.6
Mana Capacity: 7.6
In just one night, Cecilia's stats grew to a point where she became much stronger than Zane by a huge margin.
'The reason for her higher stats is probably because of the damnable Divine Talent,' Zane cursed his poor talent.
'My leveling has been really slow. The only way for me to level up is through the Arenas. I guess I need to be more active.'
In Capricia, all Elites were given the privilege to join other battles to increase their popularity, merits, and points.
Points can be used to buy commodities in the city. Popularity can be used as a way to find better sponsors from the Nobles. The higher the popularity one has, the more they were placed in an Arena where they can be seen by Nobles.
If a Noble took their fancy of a Blood Warrior, for a specific price, they can be purchased from the Arena to join Noble's household as a servant or a guard. Most of the Blood Warriors who wanted to exit the bloody fighting go for this option.
Nobles add this option to avoid Blood Warriors not performing well and getting burned out on the Arenas. Behind the scenes, Nobles highly advertise the story of a gentle noble giving a good life to a Blood Warrior.
Meanwhile, merits were earned through successful Arena battles. The higher the number of nobles present in the arena, the higher the payout. One can use merits to get to something that can't be purchased in the Market such as new Matras, skills, and other odd requests.