The next day, bright and early, the ten of us summoned heroes stood in a line, shoulder to shoulder, in front of our instructor. She was a giant woman, tall, caramel skin with short brown hair and yellow eyes, and a huge set of melons on her chest. That's right, our instructor was none other than Oephilia, the menace from last night. Surprisingly, I only had a bit of soreness, despite the traumatic workout she put me through. I attributed it to Hera's magic and thanked her internally.
I already knew her personality, so when she walked up and called for attention, I stood ramrod straight and awaited her words. The others didn't seem to get the memo, as most of the girls were busy bickering and gossiping amongst themselves and the guys, Thomas and Cameron, who would usually join in on that gossip, were instead enraptured by the mountainous chest that had appeared in front of them. The only other people to follow my lead were Jasmine and Aliya, who both seemed to realize the seriousness of the situation.
I could almost see a vein bulging out of Oephilia's head as she was basically ignored by the women and ogled by the men, so she walked up as close as she could, towering over everyone else. Her shadow spread over the girl she walked up to. It was Alex, the one who had started and was leading the constant talking amongst the girls. As soon as the shadow fell over her she turned towards the source with an angry sneer, but when she saw the muscle bound giantess standing before her she quickly cowered.
Seeing Alex cowed, the rest of them also fell in line quickly, and the talking stopped. Only now did Oephilia open her mouth. "All right you brats, now that you've effectively talked my head off, how about we get into the important matters." She spoke with a normal, level tone but I could see that she was not happy with the students here. She especially seemed to dislike Alex and the two other boys, Cameron and Thomas. "So here's the gist of things, you all are weak. Like newborn babies type weak. And I'm here to fix that. You will call me Teacher, understood?"
Cameron decided this was the time to speak up. Maybe he didn't register the fact that Oephilia was taller and much more built than he was, or maybe he wanted to impress her, either way he made the worst decision he could have. "Hey, who're you calling weak? You don't know any of our strengths here, we could be stronger than you for all you know." He crossed his arms in defiance and held Oephilia's gaze.
One moment passed. Then two. Then three. And finally Cameron averted his gaze. "Alright, boy. Since you seem to be the volunteer, why don't you show me your strength. If you can beat me I'll do anything you want, but if I beat you, you'll shut up and listen for the rest of the time I'm teaching you, deal?" Cameron was about to nod but he quickly stopped himself.
"It's just a fistfight, right? No skills or magic?" Oephilia nodded, affirming his words. A smile broke out on his face. "I'll make you regret this bet." He licked his lips pervertedly, already imagining being able to play with her body. He settled into a stance, there was a reason why he was so confident. He had gotten into plenty of fistfights back on Earth, and had lost very few of them. In fact, he hadn't lost a fight in the past year, he figured that his victory was all but certain. After all, despite her appearance, his opponent was still a girl, and in his mind girls are weaker than boys.
Oephilia took a coin out of her pocket. "When this lands, the fight starts, first one to either submit or get knocked out loses, understood?" Cameron nodded his head, eager for the fight to begin. Oephilia flipped the coin high into the air, it spun numerous times as it rose, before slowly beginning its descent.
Tink.
The coin impacted, Cameron took one step forward then the next thing he knew his face hit the floor with an audible Thunk. A heavy weight pressed into his back as an unbreakable force held his left arm straight behind his back. It was Oephilia, she had his arm in a lock with her foot pressing him into the ground.
W-what? How did she do that? I didn't even see what happened. Cameron was dumbfounded, most of the students were as well. They couldn't even see Oephilia move, she simply appeared above a suddenly collapsed Cameron. I was able to slightly see her movements, it was still far too fast for me to react to, but thanks to Oephilia's training, I was much better off than the others.
Each of my physical stats had increased, and my constitution had even increased by two, it really was a fruitful night. Thanks to my slightly increased stats I could see what she had done, but not at the level of being able to fight against it. Seeing her dominant figure subdue someone who was known to be a fighter back on Earth in an instant cowed any resistance the others had towards her. She smiled seeing their new expressions, before looking down to the boy beneath her feet.
"Now, do you yield, or should I put you to sleep and continue the lesson without you. Just so you know, I plan to level you all up once today, but if you aren't awake I can't do that." Hearing those words instantly shattered any of Cameron's resolve, after all, he didn't want to be left behind. He was the type that wanted to be above everyone so he could gloat about it and rub it in, all while abusing the power that came with it.
"I yield, I will be a quiet, respectful student so please do not knock me out." Cameron sucked up his pride and uttered those words to appease Oephilia. This caused her smile to grow even wider, it seemed she was quite the sadist.
"Good, now get back in line." She said as she dropped his arm and removed her foot. Cameron quickly scurried back to where he was in the line before and bowed his head slightly, he seemed to be taking the 'respectful student' aspect seriously. "Alright, throughout the next week, I will be power leveling you ten up. Basically, the school has brought a ton of shackled, helpless monsters here for you to get the last hit on and gain exp. You will level up quickly, due to the method and the boon that your Goddess gave you. However, there is a downside to this method. You don't gain any combat experience this way, so even if your stats will become on par with others, you will still be weaker than them." She brought her hand up to her head and tapped a finger against the side of her skull. "Basically don't get cocky because of your sudden growth, you'll still be weak, just slightly less so. Now, bring out the exp!"
She yelled towards the guides, including James and Hera, waiting around the students who quickly rushed off to collect the monsters from their holding cells. "Now, a little warning, for most of you, if not all of you, this'll be your first time killing anything aside from bugs, it's something you must eventually get used to, but feeling some revulsion is normal. Don't worry if you can't bring yourself to, I will help you." A mischievous glint in her eyes sparkled as she offered her help, I couldn't help but feel that it was an offer I should refuse no matter what.
Hera and the other guides returned shortly after, bringing along an entourage of beasts that had been sedated and restrained in such a way that they posed no threat at all to us. The first of the beasts were dragged before each student, seeing that they had been properly placed, Oephilia spoke. "Alright this beast you see in front of you will be your first kill. I suggest, stabbing through their head, neck, or heart, those will kill the fastest." She winked towards us as if it was some hidden technique, "now, each of you will kill five today, once you finish five you are dismissed. I'm excited to see how much this will level you all up."
She walked away, choosing to observe us from a bench on the side of the arena, close enough to intervene if something happens, but far enough to be out of our minds for now. Hera handed me a simple sword, it looked like any other sword to me, but so long as it's sharp I didn't mind. I didn't need a fancy sword for this situation.
Sorry beast, but I need your exp!
I plunged the blade forward, stabbing through the eye socket. The feeling of the blade plunging through a beast's innards was unnerving, but not impossible for me to withstand. I pulled the sword out and motioned Hera for the next one.
Just like that the other heroes and I went through five beasts each, however there was an issue for me. The other heroes had been enveloped by a glow pertaining to their mana color after the first and fourth monster kills, but I did not. So I stayed after everyone had left to ask Oephilia about it.
"Hmm, do you have your status board with you?" She asked while scratching an imaginary beard. How a woman got that habit, I have no idea, but I didn't question it as I pulled out my status board. "Activate it."
I pressed my finger into the back and allowed the board to light up.
Name: Caesar
Class: Famished
Level: 1 (300/100 exp[Level Cap Activated])
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 9
Constitution: 8
Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 5
Charisma: 10
Skills:
Ravenous (No Information)
[One Notification]
"Huh? Level Cap? And there's a notification?" Oephilia nodded her head as if she had expected this. She seemed to be pondering some things so I tapped on the notification.
[Level Cap Activated]
[To release please complete: Ravenous (Tutorial): ???]
[Until then, exp will be stored in excess.]
After I finished reading I could feel Oephilia looking over my shoulder. "Hmm, that's about what I expected. Alright kid, you have good and bad news here, which would you like to hear first?" I picked the good news, since I could probably guess the bad news already. "Well that's too bad I'm telling you the bad news first. For the time being, you won't be able to level up, which means your stats will be very subpar when compared to the rest of the students here. Nothing too bad should happen to you considering you're a hero, but you might get your ass beat a few times.
However, there is good news! Good news number one: your training will be much more effective. It gets harder to raise your stats through training the higher level your stats get, so this means that by delaying the level ups, you will have more efficient training and will become stronger over the long term. Good news number two: Level Caps were created fairly, since you must overcome a trail that it doesn't tell you anything about, the rewards are proportional to the amount of time it takes to figure a way to release the cap. Namely, you get interest based on your stored exp."