Mat blocked Ruan's fist with raised arms, though he didn't expect the elbow that followed after. It hit his face at breakneck speed, sending him tumbling onto the grass.

"Oh shit." Ruan said off the distance.

Mat surrendered his back to the cold ground. His face was numb and heavy, filled with black bruises as his eyes tempted to close. He found himself staring at the starry night sky before he eventually gave in.

"I didn't hit him that hard."

"I already told you- he isn't even iron rank. You looked like you were about to murder his ass."

He could hear a mumble of voices off the distance closing in on him, but his heavy eyes were determined to fall to deep sleep.

. . .

Mat opened his eyes to a cool blue sky. Clouds like cotton feathers adorned the skyscape, thin but enough to cover the sunlight from behind. He could feel the fluff grass tickling his face as a gentle breeze passed by, invigorating his senses.

"Good morning." A voice said from his side. He tried to stand, turning to see Ruan sitting beside him on the grass field. She held a glass bottle in her hand. "Drink this."

Mat grabbed the bottle. It had a sort of glowing red liquid inside like a drink of cocktail. "What's in it?"

Ruan beamed him a smile. "It's a health potion."

Mat stared at the drink before eventually downing it whole. It tasted sweet but salty the same, a tint of apple and soy sauce and some other little things all blended into a weird but refreshing flavor. With a swallow, he felt his chest immediately lighten, his head now empty of any pain and aching.

"Sorry about yesterday." Ruan said.

"Don't worry about it." Mat asked for Ruan to teach him the basics of fighting and all that, seeing her display of raw talent and skill with the silver hyenas yesterday. In turn, Ruan wanted to spar with him to check out his strength, but after a quick few seconds of sparring it became pretty, pretty obvious. He wasn't even worth trying.

Still, Mat wanted to grow stronger. If he was to survive and live in this fantasy world, he'd eventually run into monsters he'd have to fight. Sure, there was Amigo the giant direwolf to help him whenever trouble came, but the wolf won't always be there for him twenty-four seven. Mat had to at least put up a decent fight. He wanted to stand on his own two feet.

"We have a lot to do Mateo." Ruan said, turning to stand. "Your body's very easy to break like a twig. We need to fix that first."

Right. Mat's skinny body had always been a low point of his. Now that strength and muscles were everything to surviving in this new world, that part of him really needed to change if he wanted to survive here.

Mat turned to stand.

"Let's get going." Ruan pointed to the others. "It's already late morning and we need to reach the next city soon."

Mat nodded, following behind Ruan as she headed towards Nian and Youmu. After meeting up with the rest they continued on through the grasslands- with the girls leading the way. Instead of sitting atop Amigo though, Mat thought that trudging and walking on the ground like the girls did would be a good change of pace. He still didn't carry the bags though, that was still way too heavy for him.

Days came and passed, with the cycle of night and day and rain and sunshine passing and going. Ever since then Mat stuck to a strict schedule he set for himself to improve his understanding of the world and overall physique. Whenever they were on the move from morning to early evening, he'd focus on learning more and more about the world from the Nian, who was more than happy to put him in his place whenever Mat asked about things he didn't know about. It was pretty annoying, but he'd learn a lot of things from her, ranging from races to worlds to magic.

That said though, Mat enjoyed every little time he spent with Nian, only putting on a face in front of her to not sell himself out. If he did, he knew she would never pass the opportunity to make fun of him for it alone.

From late evening to midnight, he would put his all into strength training and putting on some muscle.

His body was a mess. He did have some muscles put on him from all the frisbee games he played back in high school, but without the fats and right proportions to back his body up, all it amounted to was a sick-looking kid out in the streets with a few bumps here and there, just short of a lean body type. In short, he was lanky and thin.

Muscles and size are the epitome of strength. Sure you could get away with a few techniques, skills, and martial arts here and there- but without muscle, it all would amount to literally nothing. In the real world, a David can't compare to a Goliath. Despite the tv shows and movies telling otherwise, that was the truth. Everything's a lot easier with more muscles.

Ruan drilled the thought into Mat's being. Muscle is strength, and muscle is power. Without magic, muscle is all you can rely on out there.

His training with Ruan was held off until he could put on more weight. With that said though, Ruan made sure to cook him up calorie-dense foods like red meat and nuts and everything else. She was pretty reliable when it came to these things.

Mat's mother left his dad at a very early age, so if anyone came close to that perfect mother figure, that'd be Ruan.

It was past midnight, the stars as bright as they had ever been. The group settled under a lone oak tree in the middle of the grasslands, with Nian and Ruan asleep leaning on Amigo's warm fur under the shades of leaves and branches. As always, Youmu was on guard, looking over the horizon above the branches and leaves. She started to open up to Mat though, with her guarded attention now brought elsewhere.

She looked like a meerkat scout surveying the surroundings.

Mat did his own thing, doing his scheduled workout a bit far on the open grass and away from the rest. Seeing his body now, his growth was small- disappointingly so, but that was just basic biology at play. He was still happy that he even grew by this much given the short few days he had to work with.

After a cooldown stretch, Mat called for his sprite to appear in front of him. He could now control when the light would appear and disappear when he needed it to.

"Character sheet."

[Character Sheet]

Information

Name: Mateo Arsenio

Class: Soulmancer

Mana: Eclipse

Race: Human

Rank: Normal

Stats

Strength: F-

Endurance: F-

Agility: F

Sense: F-

Spirit: F

Magic

Materialize I, Absorb I

Seeing his strength and endurance stat increase put a smile on his face, but the most surprising one was his jump in agility. The stats floating in front of him drove it home that there really was progress, no matter how small or little it was.

It was addicting seeing the stats go up.