Despite the immeasurable pain he was in, Mikhail's consciousness hung on by a thread.
He had fallen on his back, letting him watch how the inscriptions above flickered before going dim.
"-as soon as you are able; the sooner the better."
The words of advice Atticus gave him resounded out in his mind as he painstakingly turned around. Every movement sent waves of pain throughout his body, yet he gnashed his teeth and pushed through.
"IF I CAN GET THROUGH THREE MONTHS OF THIS, I CAN GET THROUGH A HANDFUL OF SECONDS! ENDURE! KEEP MOVING DAMN IT!"
He didn't even notice it, but he was screaming out loud now. He had been doing so for a while already.
His body spasmed uncontrollably as he reached up to the now exposed compartment. He could see the Muscle Refinement Pill. He only had to reach up and grab it. His arm grew extremely heavy as it inched closer and closer to the compartment.
"COME ON! JUST A BIT FURTHER! FUCK!"
The pain in his arm seemed to grow worse and worse with every moment. It was shaking uncontrollably. His vision was spinning from the intense pain. But, in the end, he managed to grasp the pill.
His arm crashed into the ground, causing him to scream in pain, but he had kept his grip on the pill. Using his other arm, he painstakingly put the pill in his mouth and swallowed.
"I've got to say, your tenacity is something else... Don't worry, you can let yourself pass out now. Your body and soul will handle the rest."
Mikhail heard Atticus, and upon understanding what he had to say, he let go of the thread keeping him awake.
His period of rest felt instantaneous. In one moment he was in agonizing pain, and in the next, his body was only intensely sore.
And how did he wake up exactly?
Well, Atticus slapped the shit out of him until he stirred.
"Have a good nap?"
Mikhail groaned, slowly sitting up.
"How long has it been, Atticus?" he said, his voice raspy due to the fit of screaming earlier.
"It's been thirty minutes. Everyone else has left for the training grounds."
Mikhail shook his head back and forth violently, doing his best to shake off the grogginess. And while it worked a little bit, the fatigue remained. It was something he was just going to have to power through.
"Right, right. The training grounds. Say, before I… Stumble over there, how long was I in the Muscle Refinement Room?"
"No need to worry, we'll go together."
As the two began to walk, Atticus suddenly registered the actual question he had asked.
"Oh, and about four hours. You managed to beat Lirim's record by a few minutes!"
The image of that guy fighting Glasha toe to toe briefly flashed in his mind.
"Lirim, huh?"
"Where did he get those clothes anyway? They seemed really extravagant, and I'm tempted to get some for myself."
"He makes that stuff himself, actually. I'm sure he wouldn't mind making you some as long as you made a fair trade for them."
Mikhail hummed as he thought about it.
"Maybe so..."
The two exited Maya's abode and walked down the stairs from the plateau it stood on.
And once they got on the flat terrain of the clearing, Atticus led Mikhail to the left. They walked around the rocky walls of the plateau and he saw that the clearing extended into a path that he hadn't seen before.
It was barely bigger than one of the many alleyways of the tribe.
And as they traversed the path, Mikhail slowly began to hear the sound of weapons clashing and war cries.
"You excited to finally hone your skills in wielding a spear?"
"My skills are subpar at best, and only really fit for hunting as part of a group. On my own, I'm nothing special yet."
"So… Even if I don't feel excited… I would be under normal circumstances."
Atticus glanced at him and then nodded solemnly.
The two reached a rectangular clearing shortly after that brief dialogue.
It was free of any vegetation, and was rectangular in shape.
The edges of the training area weren't that well defined, but there were some sporadic stone benches here and there that made it easier to distinguish the inside and outside of the area.
Of course, the clearing's edges were much more well defined. One border the area had was with the rocky walls supporting Maya's home.
And along that border were stone shacks that housed both more benches, and after a close look, the weapons everyone was using to train. And the other borders were the surrounding houses.
Mikhail noticed something intimidating about the training field aside from all that though.
The arid, pale-yellow soil beneath his feet was not the same as that of the training area. Because, for that area, the ground had been dyed a deep maroon all across the field.
And the reason why was made more than obvious when Mikhail inspected the closest battle. The weapons the young men and women were using to gain practical experience were real!
The ground beneath their feet had been dyed maroon by the countless gallons of blood that had been spilled here!
He watched with slightly wide eyes as a woman cut off her 'sparring' partner's hand with no remorse!
Blood began to ooze out of the wound and he let out a pained scream, yet she didn't stop at that! Her axe came down towards his head!
She was trying to kill him!
Yet before the Axe could finish the job, the young woman suddenly stiffened. The young man beneath subsequently passed out from shock. His white skin and blonde hair both got marred by the puddle of his own blood on the ground.
"Ah, poor Tybalt. He got paired with someone among the top fifty after only recently finishing the refining of his skin yesterday."
"Talk about a rude awakening… You think the Scourgeborn will be the same?"