“Alright! That’s it for today. Go take a soak.”

Freya dropped the sandbags to the ground. Her arm and leg muscles twitched and spasmed. She stumbled into the lake and collapsed. For the last four days Indrek had her carry, lift, or toss sandbags of increasing weight. In between sets of exercises, she soaked in the lake just enough to get through the next drill. The healing properties of the lake allowed her to train much longer. However, by the end of the day, she was drained.

Submerging her head below water, she blew out bubbles. The weightless feeling of the water let her relax her muscles. She closed her eyes.

Suddenly the over-stretched, painful feeling in her muscles stopped.

Beep!

Surfacing, Freya looked at the notification.

[Strength Attribute]

[10 → 11 ]

That’s the second notification this week, Freya thought, smiling. This training feels like torture, but it’s working!

Now that the pain was gone from her muscles, she wanted to return to dry land. Her wet clothes clung and irritated her skin. But she didn’t dare take them off. She still needed the boost in Misidentify. She wanted to get out of the lake and dry off, but she should still be recovering.

Freya looked to the shore. Indrek was doing his own weight training exercises. Despite her improvements, Indrek could lift far more weight. He didn’t have the advantage of the game leveling system, but the lake healing still helped him train. In between coaching her, he also worked out.

I wonder how many strength points he has. His overall level is 20, four levels ahead of me. I bet he could go even higher if he had a Player Card.

Once Indrek finished, he joined her in the lake waters.

“You’ve improved a lot in these last four days. I’ve never seen anyone progress so fast.”

Freya twisted her hands together under the water, “I think I got lucky. And the lake helped a lot.”

“Lake Kel is an important resource,” Indrek nodded in agreement. “Demoniclasts should take advantage of it more. It’s a valuable training tool. Not just for apprentices.”

“How often do you train like this?” Freya asked.

“Whenever I’m close to the lake. I train a bit when I’m away too, but it’s much easier using the lake’s healing.”

Indrek chuckled at Freya’s surprised expression.

“If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. Strength needs to be continuously tested if you want to keep it.”

Freya stared down at the water and bit her cheek. That statement no longer applied to her. The game warped her understanding of physical fitness. She had thought Indrek simply worked up to his level of strength; she hadn’t even considered all the effort he had to put in to maintain it.

“Retaining strength is easier than building it,” Indrek added, seeing Freya’s troubled face. “If there’s one thing I hope you remember from me is that keeping your physical form is important. Eat well, rest, and train. Keeping your body in good shape is important for demoniclasts.”

Feeling more and more guilty that this lecture wasn’t needed, Freya smiled and nodded. Perhaps sensing his words weren’t getting across, Indrek continued.

“I’ve lost a few colleagues due to such negligence. One of the demoniclasts I graduated with started to neglect his training after he wasn’t an apprentice anymore. Then, he almost got permanently maimed on a mission. After that, he trained hard to improve. I can tell the difference now, he’s a lot stronger, and he hasn’t slacked off since then.”

Indrek scratched his chin, “Maybe you’ll even see him training when we travel together.”

Freya’s eyes widened, “Really?”

Her sudden interest confused Indrek, but he answered, “All good demoniclasts always try to train. And all the ones we’re traveling with are strong.”

Yeah, they’re all strong because they have Player Cards, Freya thought to herself. She wondered which one Indrek was referring to. Daveth was probably too young to have graduated at the same time as Indrek. That left Meng and Kamdale. Indrek had referred to the demoniclast as ‘he,’ so she could rule out Meng.

Did Kamdale find a Player Card soon after this close accident?

“Let’s head back to town to get something to eat,” Indrek said, breaking Freya out of her thoughts.

She diligently listened to his continued lecturing for their walk back to downtown Corrin. Unfortunately, he didn’t say anything more about Kamdale. They ordered lunch at a shop and sat down to eat. Indrek made sure they got a good portion of meat and encouraged Freya to eat more.

“This might be our last good meal in a while,” Indrek said. “We should leave tomorrow morning. If you need anything, you should buy it now. Don’t worry about food. I’ll take care of that part.”

Freya nodded, mentally making a note to take out anything she needed from her inventory. Indrek tapped the table, his expression hardening.

“This will be your first mission as a demoniclast apprentice. I know you’re looking forward to killing demons, but the most important thing right now is to survive. You’ve made lots of improvement this week, but you’re still very inexperienced. Don’t get cocky. Just get through this mission and survive. That is your number one priority right now. Please don’t forget that.”