[Author's Note: Hey, everyone. It's me, Damian. I apologize for the long hiatus, but now Christmas break is here, I finally have the time to continue the series! (Clapping SFX) Now that I have two whole weeks off and don't get distracted during my vacation, I should be able to release all the remaining vol 1 content in December. In January, I plant to release the first few chapters of vol 2. As for the edited version which will be sent to J-Novel Club for their OELN contest, I am still deciding how to upload it. It'll likely be uploaded in a "different series," as WebNovel has some rather strange word limit policies I have trouble getting around. Now, just so we're clear, everything in the edited version so far as I'm concerned is the "official" version, so expect some parts of the story to be cut out and potentially new scenes to be added in. The release date for the edited version will be decided later on, so stay tuned if you enjoyed the series. With that said, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Enjoy the chapter!]
Charles POV:
For the next three days I made Miss Lilith go through a variety of physical exercises focusing on developing her strength and endurance.
As for where we trained, it was a training hall I built outside of Babylonia Academy that housed all the necessary training equipment for soldiers and warriors alike.
At first, I thought I had to make make her go through one of my special Hell Week courses that I'd normally give to new recruits that wished to join the Sword Order given her previous performance. Surprisingly, she improved at a much faster pace than I thought.
Initially, she was barely able to perform a hundred bench-presses with one-hundred-kilos.
On Thursday, she performed two hundred bench presses with one-hundred-kilos.
Friday, five hundred bench-presses with one-hundred-kilos.
Finally, today, I watched as she performed her five-hundredth bench-press with one-hundred-fifty-kilos.
In three days alone, her endurance quintupled (became five times greater) and her arm strength grew by fifty percent.
This wasn't the most astonishing part.
After finishing her five-hundred bench-presses. Miss Lilith put the weights back onto the rack, grabbed a white towel, and wiped off her sweat.
Then, wrapping the towel around her neck, she went to a wooden training dummy and began rapidly punching it.
With her bare hands.
Oh, FYI, the dummy is reinforced by several enchantments that make it as hard as iron.
*POW*
*POW*
*POW*
Although lacking in technique, each punch was packed with force and aimed at the dummy's head, neck and vitals.
For your information, I didn't teach her how to box or provide her with the dummy, she just practices her boxing during the short breaks after each exercise.
*BOFF!*
Oh, that one made me wince, a knee to the crotch area. I think I see that area splintered and covered in blood.
Wait, blood?
I look down at Miss Lilith's knee and saw it full of bloody gashes with several pieces of wood stuck onto the flesh. The girl herself ignored the wounds and continued punching at the dummy.
By Ishta's name, what in the world's gotten into her!?
"Miss Lilith! Please stop at once! If we don't treat your leg soon, the wound will get worse!"
The young lady paused what she was doing and looked down. After realizing what happened to her leg, she winced.
"Sh*t!"
I lightly reprimanded her for her uncouth speech and made her sit down on the bench-press bench and took out an emergency first-aid kit from my cape.
What? You didn't think my cape was just for show did you?
Certainly it fits my status as a high-ranking military officer and Chosen of the Goddess but it also serves as a spatial artifact that I can use to teleport short distances or store items in. Normally I'd use it as a warehouse of sorts since I can move at Mach speed.
[Author's Note: He's saying he can go PAST the speed of sound not at the speed of sound. Kind of reminds everyone of a certain unkillable, yellow, octopus teacher doesn't it?]
I used a bit of magic to freeze and stop the flowing blood. Then I took out the tweezers from the first aid kit and carefully plucked each wooden splinter out one-by-one.
With each splinter I plucked, Miss Lilith tightly gripped the sides of the bench, tightly closed her eyes, grimacing.
Eventually, all the splinters were plucked. Then, I closed the wound with healing magic and gave her a Gold Apple to relieve her pain.
As she ate, I chastised her and revealed my new updated training regime for the rest of the day.
"Miss Lilith, I am glad to see you so eager to train and the progress you have made, but all of that is meaningless if you don't have awareness of your actions and surroundings!
A lion may possess claws that let him tear threw whatever animal or person comes its way, but if it doesn't possess intelligence, awareness and control, it'll surely be hooked by any bait thrown at it and get caught in the hunter's trap, rendering his claws ineffective.
Your emotions cloud your way of thinking. I estimate at least half the opponents you come across will take advantage of this and lead you dancing to their tune, resulting in your defeat.
This is why I'll be slightly adjusting our current plans for tomorrow, I'll discuss it later on tomorrow. For now, continue today's exercises.
The rest of the afternoon passed by without any further incidents. When the sun began to set, I ended today's practice and escorted the young Miss Lilith back to Babylonia grounds, where Miss Helen waited to take her back to the dorms.
Now that I've dropped her off, I should prepare for tomorrow's training regimen.
With a burst of speed, I quickly left the academy city-state and quickly arrived in the outskirts of a forest.
Arriving at my destination, I pulled out a copy of a map. Scanning it, I found the location of the place I wished to go and headed in that direction.
It was quite a trek let me tell you. The plant life in this forest tried to hinder me however they can, latching onto my clothes and slowing my progress. Monsters attacked me every five minutes or so, but they were all quite weak compared to the ones I fought that belonged to Notoros' army.
However, the most infuriating thing of all was the forest itself, a giant maze similar to Miss Medea's labyrinth of books, no matter which direction I looked, the sight is the same, a never-ending sea of green! If I hadn't chopped every tree in my path, I would have surely gotten lost trying to go around them!
Ah! How I miss my old companions! If Miss Mina were here, she'd use that odd floating golem of hers to make a strange magic map that'll constantly keep track of our location. Having Restina here with her divination abilities would be helpful as well.
Nonetheless, I kept slicing, cutting and chopping everything that was in my path. It could have been several short minutes or hours, time tends to fly by when you're old, but I eventually made it to my destination, several barren rocky mountains that held little life.
Don't be fooled by its desolate appearance, according to the books I borrowed and read, this place, The Valley of Despair or whatever it's name is, held some of the most dangerous monsters in the region!
Some of the monsters which inhabit this ill-named place are...
Bloody Screamers, winged lizards whose voices are so loud they can burst the eardrums of a healthy grown man and kill him.
Raging Behemoths, large, thick-skinned mammoth-like creatures that require at least a thousand men to bring down.
Dagger Teeth Tigers, tigers with teeth that pierce through steel and agility several times greater than a normal tiger's.
If an single one of these monsters made their way outside of the mountains, it would be a disaster and hundreds of lives might be lost, or so the books say.
For a veteran such as myself, they are nothing more than ill-tempered exotic pets. However, they are not the reason why I'm here. No, I am here for a lesser beast, one that I plan to use for tomorrow's training course. Based on my past experience, it tends to make its home in caves, mountain areas are especially favorable to their kind.
Well, I found a mountain, now its time to find and explore some caves.
Oh, my! Would you look at that! It seems I'm quite lucky! I found it in the first cave!
In response to my cheerfulness.
*ROAR!*
The inhabitant of the cave, a pig's den strewn with the skeletal remains of various beasts and a few unfortunate humanoids, revealed itself to me from the shadows with loud earth-trembling footsteps. A large, ugly gray-skinned brute, three times the size of a normal man and ten times as wide came charging forth and swung its tree-trunk arms over its neckless pea-brained head, intending to smash both his fists down on me like an angry ape.
Unfortunately for this savage, I am not some inexperienced rookie trembling in fear before its grotesque appearance.
I let out a yawn and leisurely held out one hand to receive the blow.
The impacted caused dust to leap up and the ground beneath me slightly cracked.
"Hmm, not bad."
For a troll at least. Had I been at a hundred percent of my full power and enhanced my body with mana, the troll would have been sent flying backwards like a child's toy horse on wheels bouncing backwards after ramming into a insurmountable wall.
Now's not the time for bragging, I have a lesson I need to prepare for tomorrow.
While the wide-mouthed simpleton continued gawking at how I remained intact from his blow, I tightly held one of his arms, twisting it and flipping the troll onto its back. With the thing momentarily stunned and on the ground, I proceeded to break his limbs one-by-one.
The beast kept screaming and thrashing with each bone I break, but it was futile. It's fate has been sealed, it'll at best survive for a few more days before I dispose of it. Unbeknownst to the plans I have in store for it, the troll continued to howl in pain and attempted to attack me with its sharp-tusked jaws.
Having had enough of it's tantrums, I slapped it with the back of my hand and ripped it's tongue out.
At that point, the beast stopped resisting and quietly whimpered.
Finally, now it's time for me to get this thing into a cage.
Using magic, I created a metal cage with wheels using magic and the mountains resources. An interesting thing to note is that the mountain itself is very rich abundant in various minerals like Orichalcum and Mithril, metals used by many expert blacksmiths for forging high-tier weapons and armor. I'm surprised this valley hasn't been infested by dwarves already.
I made a mental note to myself to come back here someday and left the cave.
"Oh! Now I see why there aren't any dwarves here!"
Outside of the cave is a welcoming party of various monsters, including Bloody Screamers, Raging Behemoths and Dagger Teeth Tigers.
Normally I'd never face a horde of monsters without doing some research into their weaknesses and strengths, but I suppose this would serve as good practice to see how strong some of the monsters are in this world.
After making sure the cage was sturdy and the troll securely locked in its cell. I unsheathed my sword and readied myself for battle.
"Now then, which one of you beasts would like to meet your end first?"
[Author's PS: Sorry if the chapter is short and the quality has dropped, my skills have gotten a little rusty, I'll be sure to improve this chapter and all previous and upcoming chapters in the future edited version.]
[Author's Note: PSS: You know what would be a great present for novice writers such as myself? Comments, Powerstones and Collections. If you are feeling generous this Christmas holiday, be sure to leave one of these three gifts behind.]