"I've got a really bad feeling about this," Rex whispered as he eyed the approaching woman. Ken completely agreed with the one-eyed mouse as alarm bells were going off in the back of his mind.
"That lady is scary," Dex shook a little as he tried to hide behind Ken's head.
The green-haired woman stopped only a foot away from Ken, appraising every part of him. After an uncomfortably long minute, the woman sighed, "Scrawny, small mana core, and he's short. He's not bad looking though. Still, I thought he'd be a little more impressive than this."
'This lady is rude as fuck!' Ken screamed internally as a shocked expression painted his face. "You have no filter as always Althea," Hunt said as his palm connected with his face. "What? I'm just being honest. It seems like I'm going to have to train him a lot harder than I initially planned," Althea retorted as she cocked her hip to the side and rested a hand on it.
"I think I like her," Rex tried to stifle a laugh. "Don't make me beat you!" Ken hissed quietly, but loud enough for Hunt and Althea to hear. "Oh?" the woman raised a brow as a smirk spread across her face, "You'll beat me?" Though it was phrased as a question, Ken had a feeling it felt more like a challenge.
"N-no!" he replied quickly with his hands raised in defense, "I was talking to my friend here. He just said something stupid, ha ha…"
Althea eyed Ken and then the brown mouse he was gesturing to. "Whatever. Come. We'll get started right now. Make sure your friends come too," With that, the woman turned and started walking away, not giving Ken any chance to respond.
Ken turned to Hunt, who appeared to be more than ready to leave. Shooting the larger man a questioning look, he got a shrug in response. Making his decision, Ken and his companions quickly caught up to the woman, trailing behind as they began to make their way to a far off corner of the coliseum.
"Alright," Althea said as she came to a halt, "Line up all your friends right here facing the wall." Ken did as he was told, making sure everyone was on line with each other a few meters away from the wall.
"I was not only told you can use the low rank spell 'Fireball', but that your companions could as well. I want you all to use it as much as you can," Althea stated. Ken was slightly confused, but made sure everyone heard.
After preparations, Ken and his crew began hurling dozens of fireballs towards the stone wall, not causing any damage at all to it. It only took two or three fireballs from each rodent before Ken could feel himself already drained from mana exhaustion.
"Is that all you can you?" Althea raised a brow. Wiping sweat from his forehead, Ken nodded. "Hm, so they don't have their own cores. It seems they are somehow using your mana to use the abilities you have," Althea said. "A little less than average sized mana core from what I can see. We are going to do two different types of training for now. One," the woman held up a finger, "Your friends here are going to constantly use your abilities. You know how people can increase the size of their mana cores, correct?"
"Constantly using their magic can increase it. Like working out to grow your muscles," Ken replied. "You can use items and other means to increase it, though those are very few and far between. And unfortunately for you, we don't have any for you. Those of us who were born without large mana cores or weren't born with large cores must use this method."
'Us?' Ken thought. Her short display earlier made it seem like she was really strong. How much would she have had to train in order to grow to that level?
"The second thing I'll have you do," Althea put up a second finger, "You're going to be doing physical training."
"Why?" Ken asked. Growing his core was one thing, but you don't need to be physically strong in order to use magic.
"Listen kid," Althea replied, "You don't want to be a glass cannon, do you? Growing your core is important. But so is the state of your body. What are you going to do if you run out of mana, yet you still have an enemy to fight? Are you just going to give up and die? Not only that, but augmentation can be acquired through intense physical exercise. You are going to need to grow very strong, and since I'm in charge of that, I'll make sure you surpass your limits."
Ken thought over what Althea had said, and it did make sense. "Okay, what do you want me to do right now then?" he asked.
As soon as he asked his question, he could have sworn he saw a glint in her eyes, making him feel a tad nervous. "I'm glad you asked," she smiled, holding up her arm horizontally with her palm facing downwards.
A soft glow emitted from a ring on her finger, causing Ken to turn his attention to it. 'Spatial artifact? Those are pretty rare,' he thought. A moment later, a strange vest manifested into the air, dropping onto the ground with a much harder thud than he imagined it would.
"You're going to be doing laps around the arena wearing this. While you do so, your friends will be constantly shooting fireballs. It's killing three birds with one stone," Althea's smile grew a little.
"Three birds?" Ken's head quirked to the side. "Physically, magically, and mentally," Althea held up a finger with each point, "You're going to constantly be under mana exhaustion while I'll push you physically to the limit every second of every day that I am able to." The green haired woman's smile was much wider now, and Ken could have sworn he saw a few sympathetic looks from some of the soldiers currently training.
"Now, put this on and get to running," Althea picked up the bulky vest and put it on Ken, causing his legs to wobble slightly. "And don't forget to tell your friends to keep firing."
***
"Oh my," Giselle held up a hand in front of her mouth as she took in the sight within the arena. "Ha ha ha, look at him!" Lina laughed as she pointed to the very sweaty and very tired Ken.
It was late into the day, and after another day of talks with the King, they were taken to the stadium where they heard Ken was being trained. Off to the side, they could see the rodents occasionally shooting fireballs towards the wall.
In the middle of the arena stood the proud, green-haired woman who was currently watching Ken intensely with crossed arms. "Don't stop! If you stop one more time then I'm going to add even more weight!" Althea's voice boomed throughout the stadium. "If you keep staring then I'll make you join him!" she shouted at a few curious guards who quickly averted their gazes.
"Isn't this a bit much for his first day?" Giselle asked, moreso to herself. "Eh," Lina shrugged as she took a bite from a pastry, "Serves him right for being an asshole."
"If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure you were the asshole," Giselle gave the fox girl a look. Lina only scowled in response as she turned back towards the huffing boy. They were told he had been here training since early in the morning.
If this is what he was doing all day and was still going at this point, he surely had a strong will. It was almost enough to impress Lina, but she wasn't going to admit it. She still didn't like him, but maybe she could try to be a little nicer to the Inheritor.