"Don't stop using your power! For that, you will be doing another 50 squats!"
"..."
Following the orders from the woman who looked quite similar to a drill sergeant right now, I kept on doing squats while making sure to increase my gravity by 20%.
It was pretty insane, the progress that I had made in these two weeks since I woke up. Though I was aware that part of it was because of my body catching up, and another part was the fact that I was now something other than a human, it couldn't be helped that I felt good about growing stronger.
However, it also couldn't be helped that as soon as I finished the reps I collapsed to the floor, having gritted my teeth so hard that I could taste a bit of blood when struggling to complete the last few reps.
"That's all for now. We will be having another session tonight, but your body should at least get a couple of hours of rest before then."
Another benefit of being a demon, which was mostly just a byproduct of our enhanced regeneration, was the fact that my muscle strands also repaired themselves faster than that of humans. The demerit to this was sadly also very clear. The demerit that it caused me to be forced to not only train every day, but I even had to train on multiple occasions every day.
Then again, even without Dona pushing me, it wasn't as if I would've sat on my ass all day, but at the same time I knew that without external motivation, I would've probably never pushed myself this hard.
Putting on a black sweater over the purple tank top she was currently wearing, I almost surprised myself when I for once didn't have anything that I wanted to ask her about. At this point, I knew enough about how things worked that I would be fine for a while.
Or at least that's what I thought, right up until Dona mentioned yet another new concept that I didn't know about.
"Tomorrow we are going to see if your core and vessel are ready to ascend to the next rank, so please make sure you don't do anything stupid so as to avoid injuries."
Still resting on the floor, I didn't want to ask her what she was talking about as I had just felt the liberating feeling of what could be known as knowing something. And yet, I had no choice. I didn't actually know anything, after all.
"Say... Ms. Zito..."
Pinching the bridge of her nose as she so often did when frustrated, she could only sigh when she understood what I was about to ask her.
"Haaa... Let me guess. Lucifer hasn't explained to you what happens when a demon increases its rank?"
"...that is so."
With Lucifer currently sleeping, I couldn't even berate her for letting yet another important piece of information slip her mind.
So instead I had to wait for the benevolent goddess to teach the lowly me. And so, putting one hand on her hip, which gave me a pretty nice sight of her curvaceous body, she started her explanation by asking me a question.
"Do you know what happens when humans raise their ranks?"
"I have no idea."
"Of course, you don't... Anyway, for humans, their increase in rank is quite undramatic, and they will just feel a sudden increase in power. Most humans are also to some degree aware of when they will rank up, and depending on their specialization, they will force their bodies to fall over the edge either through physical exercise or by refining their mana."
"But this isn't the case for demons?"
Giving me a slight nod, she continued on.
"That's right. For demons, we have to consciously decide when we try to ascend a rank, and unfortunately, it is very much the opposite of the humans. Because when we ascend a rank, our vessels change as well. Needless to say, it's quite painful to feel your organs rearrange themselves and to experience your body changing its shape. It's also somewhat dangerous if it's done too early."
"Then, what did you mean by seeing if I was ready to rank up?"
"I will be inspecting your core by injecting my mana into you, and then I will judge whether or not it has matured enough for your rank to increase to [E]-rank."
It was pretty insane to think about the fact that after just two weeks of training, I would already be able to raise my rank, already evening out the playing field between me and most of my classmates. Though I was aware that there were differences even amongst the same rank, and I would likely be quite a lot weaker than them even if I managed to 'ascend' as Dona called it, I was still very excited.
Then, she said something that made me even more excited, while at the same time making me incredibly scared.
"Also, if my understanding of your particular constitution is correct, I'm guessing that we will also get to see what kind of demon you actually are. Now, some demons undergo something that's called an ascension chain. If you know what Pomekon is you could compare it to a series of evolutions before they reached their final form."
Naturally, even if I hadn't owned any kind of technology in my life, I still knew what Pomekon was, and the yellow hamster Pakuchi that was the poster monster of the franchise.
"Did you go undergo an ascension chain, Dona?"
Not able to stop myself from asking due to curiosity, it turns out that Dona had actually experienced it for herself as well.
"I did. Though my demon race only changed once, when I was first converted I was something known as succubi, pretty much just a lesser form of a succubus. My change was quite undramatic as the only thing that changed in my body was that I gained a tail. Some demons have changes so drastic that it would be impossible to think it was still the same individual."
Suddenly, I got a bad feeling about this whole thing as I realized something. So far, the only demonic thing about my physical form was my claws, and they weren't even part of my normal form. So...
"Uhm... What happens if my form changes more drastically then?"
"..."
"Dona?"
"Let's... see what happens first, shall we? Hopefully, you will just gain a physical attribute that will be part of your abilities instead of something that is part of your natural form."
For someone who so often appeared to be thinking two steps ahead, I was surprised to realize that she hadn't thought about it at all. Then again, no matter what the consequences could be, I wasn't really in a position that allowed me to stall for time either.
It was not like I could put off raising my ranks when I still needed to keep up with the other students unless I wanted to create a situation where my presence there would start getting questioned for real.
Also, even with all the bad things that came with it, I couldn't help but have another childish, yet for me right now, very important hope.
'I hope my race is something cool...'
==========
"There's blood in the kitchen, but I'll try to be back as soon as possible. Also, if you happen to find something you want, just make a note of it and we will check it together later on."
"I'll be fine, m... Ms. Zito. See you later."
Resisting the urge to call her mother, I continued looking at a very long list of different artifacts that were available for purchase.
Artifacts were more or less items that had either been infused with magic by the hands of a crafter, or they had been created by the mana-filled environment around them, and so they could most often only be found in deeper parts of the wasteland.
With most students of Augustus owning at least a couple, Dona had encouraged me as well to look for something that I wanted. That being said, as most students had artifacts in the form of a weapon, it was pretty hard to figure out exactly what I could want or need as I already had weapons by default in the form of claws.
Now, artifacts were only allowed to be used during ranking events, and even then the academy limited the amount you could use. Adding on to this, your own rank also limited what kind of artifacts you could use, as they would only resonate with someone of similar power.
In other words, if you wanted to use an [E]-rank artifact, you needed to be [E]-rank or higher and if you wanted to use an [B]-rank artifact, you needed to be [B]-rank. This was sadly also the same for demons.
Now, looking through the list that Dona had designed, I also knew part of the reason why she brought this up now. Because all of the items listed here were all [E]-rank, meaning it would be something that I could use after ranking up.
It was strange to think about, as I had no experience at all with something like this, but I had a feeling that she wanted to gift me something as a ranking present, something that wasn't something out of the ordinary amongst normal people.
For me, however, it was absurd just thinking of it. Because for the first time in my life, I was about to get a present, a real present. Not something I directly needed for school, nor something that the orphanage was forced to distribute.
A real, sincere gift.