Gabriel managed to hold in the screams only for the first few minutes of that torture.

Olive decided to start with Resilience training, which consisted of her whipping him on every inch of his body with the best object she could find. In this case, it had been revealed to be the malleable spear. It bent just enough to hit him almost like a whip.

The damage he received was minor, but it was constant, and it soon accumulated.

He thought he would manage to stay in place as she did, but that soon turned out to be a far cry from his expectations.

So she had poisoned him.

At first, that part of the training would have had to come later, but judging that there was no effective place to strap him to, at least inside the cave with the metal lace they had found. She had considered poisoning him to be the best overall route, even results wise it would be more effective and less time-consuming.

Hitting him all over the body, bringing cracks and tears to bones and muscles and after that speeding his Recovery, was the best way to raise both Resilience and Recovery at the same time; adding to that poison enhanced the effect even more.

After the first few hours and three full healing, he had already risen once in both Attributes, and 1 in Affinity, probably related to the feelings he exchanged with his Bond Spirit or, she thought, the continuous application of healing magic on him.

Gabriel was silently letting himself be healed for the moment, but it was clear that a battle raged in him.

It's not her fault, it's… it's… how we need to do things. It's effective, after all. I can feel it, Liz. I can. She's not doing it out of pleasure. He kept telling himself. Olive's dejected look was proof enough for him of the fact that what she was doing to him was not bringing her pleasure.

During his torture, he let his mind focus on other things, like her boundless Stamina and Mana, or to be more precise, it wasn't exactly like that...

He focused on her body, her movements. Olive had removed her shirt. She needed freedom of movement for what she was doing; also, sweating too much in her clothes didn't appeal to her.

Gabriel focused his gaze on her muscles. Her abs, shoulders, and back were trained like those of a woman hitting the gym for years but wishing not to put on too much muscle mass. She was toned but not brawny.

The sweat sticking on her abdomen and slowly dripping down in droplets shined in the light of the flame, her skin gaining an entrapping light for Gabe's gaze to draw upon.

As time went by, though, it was evident that the continuous striking was weakening her, just as much as it was necessarily hurting him.

She lost a lot of her beautiful features during the training, looking haggard and tired, yet once that was done and he was healed, all it took her to replenish her strengths was a dip in the water. Where she was reborn entirely.

I wonder if it'll work like that to me as well.. when and if I'll be able to use magic.

He knew that at Class level 5, he would be able to choose a new Skill and that his higher Attributes would be prioritized on the selection of it, so to lessen the time they'd have to waste on the tortu- training, it was better for him to wait until they were done with them.

His healing consisted of a dip in the close-by waters as well. She would help him float on the water, embracing him and caressing him gently. Then the water around him would start shining of azure, gentle light, and runes would appear, around him, inscribed directly in the water; his healing would speed up naturally but in a terrifyingly fast manner, fixing him thoroughly and so increasing his Attributes.

"I think it's time for Power, Alacrity, and Stamina training, and I know the best way in which to do it, no torture this time, but it's gonna take long, and it's all on you," she said.

Gabriel found the strength to nod.

After a few silent hours in which they had eaten and tried but failed to make a meaningful conversation. Gabriel signaled that he was ready. They had prepared a latrine in the far end upper levels of the cave for their needs, where it was less rocky and richer in soil.

"Let's go," said Gabriel, standing up.

"Alright. Then follow me, Oli said, getting up and taking something from behind her back," she said, heading for the waters.

"Are we going somewhere?"

"Yes, down there, at the bottom, using this," she raised a couple of big rocks that she had interlaced with the metal lace they had found. They were connected and looked like two really long handcuffs with iron balls.

"Oh. I fail to see how- oh! Your bubble of breathable water magic," he said.

"Exactly, now come here; I'll place this on your wrists first. I think we should make some for your ankles as well but there's not enough lace for that."

Gabriel nodded. Her hands were very gentle as she placed the handcuffs on him, and they were even more when she healed him. However, the torture was not exactly bolstering anything he could start to feel toward the girl, which was, in all honesty, going a long length to help him.

He did not really know how to feel about it, so he preferred not to dwell on it and focus on the training.

She used her bubble right away. The lakebed was rather far for him to reach just with the amount of oxygen Gabriel could store in his lungs. He was not trained in the art of apnea, not even close.

It took them roughly five minutes to reach a proper place on which to train; they had their back against the rock so that they did not have to expose it to possible attacks from monsters.

The lakebed seen through the clearance of the bubble was a sight. The water was warm, not scalding as the young man remembered. He couldn't tell if it was for his increased Resilience, though unlikely being it a single point, or thanks to the bubble's protection.

Liz was, as always on his shoulder, she would not have any benefit from training, but could not leave him alone; it was stronger than any other instinct she had.

And so it started. They could not properly communicate while underwater, but Olive began showing him a form, a kata to follow. He had no idea how she could remain perfectly still on the lakebed like that, without any added weight, maybe properties of water magic, Probably.

He started following it nevertheless.

The movements she was showing him were enthralling. Her hands flowed with the water current. He could feel her shaping it, or leading it toward her desire. It was beautiful.

At first, imitating her was a joke, but after a while, each move started to become a slog. The water, the pressure, the heaviness of the added weight, his slow-moving arms, and the fact that the kata, even though strangely easy to follow, required the activation of many muscles at the same time, muscles he had probably barely used during his life as a waiter, all played against him. Gabriel's muscles burned, screamed for the effort.

The thing went on for hours, every once in a while, she would infuse him with the ritual, giving him some of his stamina back, while his Energy was used on Skills, not to waste it; because as he remembered, Skills could level up even while trained, just at a majorly diminished rate.

Gabe had managed to regenerate each of his 10 points of Energy; only a day had passed since the accident with the tiger, yet the healing Olive did on him sped up his recovery, so his Stamina worked at a much faster rate.

But without a target, ten casts of Burst Attack barely counted as a 1% increase, netting a measly 0.1% increase per each use.

After two hours, she felt he had seen enough of the kata performed by her and let him continue on his own, repeating it almost perfectly. She let herself float around, guarding the place.

Olive chuckled at the sight of a floating Liz, trying to repeat the kata with him.

And yet, it was after two sets of training of 4 hours each when he had his first increment; thankfully, the others followed soon after.

Gabriel felt like dying in the first part. Each minute he repeated it, the kata became increasingly harder to maintain, whether it was for his lack of training, his mental disposition, or how hard the training actually was, he couldn't say; what he could say, was that if it wasn't for his pride, and the sincere worry of actually dying, he would have dropped it right away.

After a meal and a break lasting roughly an hour and a half, the second part of the training felt more like work, a work in which he started on the journey of finding the correct mental stability to maintain. He knew he had to accept it, but it was turning difficult, and he didn't exactly manage even by the end of it, even as his Attributes rose.

He acknowledged them but did not open the Page; he simply knew he had obtained what he was looking for.

It was already night when they ate for the fifth time that day, or well, he ate. She didn't need it as badly as he did.

Gabriel was used to eating whenever he could while working, but she presented him with full-on courses, yes, courses comprising only a main dish, but it was still huge.

Following that, his sleep was full to the brim with forms, and katas, and water, and people hitting him with a stick, one of which was that beautiful girl leading the party; Nastia was her name, he realized once he woke up.

"Can I skip school today?" He asked, pretty much as soon as he woke up.

Olive grinned, "I would have done exactly that, dear. We need a little time for changes to settle in. Though we might go look for some more metal laces, what do you say?" She asked.

"I might be okay with that."

Just let me check my Page real quick.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Your natural Power has increased by 1 through training.

You can still naturally increase your Power freely by 4.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Your natural Alacrity has increased by 1 through training.

You can still naturally increase your Alacrity freely by 2.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Your natural Stamina has increased by 1 through training.

You can still naturally increase your Stamina freely by 3.

Gabriel Walker

Race

Human

Level

4 (40.6%)

Class

Striker

Class Level

4 (3%)

Spirit

Spirit of The Lizard

Spirit Level

4 (0.1%)

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

Spirit

10/10

10/10

5/5

10/10

Attributes

Body

Spirit

Final

Affinity

6

0

6

Alacrity

5

2

7

Power

5

2

7

Recovery

3.9 (3)

2

5.9

Resilience

4

2

6

Stamina

6

1

7

Tethers

Bond

Enhancement

Boost

Lizard

None

Alacrity +2

Power +1

Recovery +2

Stamina +1

Skills

Skill

Effect

Element

Slot

Type

Tier

Burst Attack

Increase your Power and Alacrity by 100%. Permanently increases your Recovery by 30%.

None

Power

Basic Skill - First Spirit Skill

3 (53.9%)

Gabriel cried a little inside.

There's still a long way to go before this torture-training ends, isn't it?

"Alright, let's head out." Gabriel stooped to grab the lace with stones, which he had decided to bring with him, and as he did, he realized that a single increase in Power had made him aware of the lightness of the stones that Oli had attached to the lace; they were not heavy enough anymore.

So, that's how it feels, man. I think I might like training, after all.

"Then let me just take the bag- Gabriel! Wait for me!" She said, but Gabriel, ready to take a breather, had already bolted up the tunnel.

***

"Do we really have to? Can't we like, wait until after the last episode of' A Valley of Rust?'" Said the tall blonde girl. She was still in her fluffy white pajamas, in front of her bed an 80" TV set.

"No- yeah- I know it's gonna be released next week though if you carefully think about it- No, I didn't- Yes, captain, I'll be ready," she ended, hanging up.

Greta sighed.

"Prisha!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

The little girl practically materialized at her door, toothbrush still in her mouth, eyes wide" Wof'!?" She asked.

The little-frog-girl was barely sixteen, but she had enough talent to have made it to Tier 3 at that age. She and Greta had been personally chosen by Nastia to join her new team when the old ones had been sent to join the" war front" against the Priests of Lore.

"Get ready; we depart in the night, the Seer has had sight of them; they are in Vulcan, and we need to get there as fast as humanly possible.

"Oh! Com' ohn'!" She spat on the ground. "I was about to call my parents!"

"Nastia is already mad Pri, let's not waste time."

"Like there's a moment in which she's not mad like a… a Berserker!" The frog emerged from the top of her head, its own head almost as big as hers.

"Lol!" it said before disappearing back inside of her.

Greta nodded sighing. Then as Prisha made to live, she called her back.

Her tone was glacial. " Prisha," she said.

The frog-girl stopped in her tracks.

"Were you thinking of leaving that on the ground?" She asked.

"Of course not, Greta.! She answered.

Greta was trying to tame her a little, but it wasn't exactly working.

"Then, would you mind cleaning that up?" She continued, a gentle smile on her lips.

"Of course not, Greta. Right away, Greta!" Said Prisha, meekly.

"Good girl," Greta said as the little girl bent to clean the spit with her gown.

Unlike her, Greta was 27 years old. Her family had bought the right to join Alter from one of the most prominent families in The Den, namely, Nastia's family.

So she was rich, filthy rich, but also capable. She had reached Class level 39 as of the other day and was thus on the crisp of becoming a Tier 3. It took her only two years to reach that point.

Of course, most of the speed came from the money they were willing to spend to get the right support, but the rest came from personal talent.

Having someone carry her through facing a variety of situations to gather as much experience and knowledge as possible without getting her killed was of great help, but unlocking Rare or higher rated Skills out of the batch, came from one's talent and a certain amount of luck.

Greta was already rich, so she was lucky as well.

Prisha was different, but she, too, had gotten lucky. She had been scouted when she was little by the Seer of Carnage in person, well, almost, she had not retrieved her personally, but, again, she never did.

Prisha had been born a prodigy, with a staggering Affinity of 16; high-end for any human.

Although with time, she had fallen behind the Seer's expectations, in which her Bond Spirit turned out to not be of the Magic Type.

She was, in fact, half a born Striker, leaning heavily on Alacrity.

"Come on, Bjorn, we need to go. Wake up already," Greta said when she was about to get up.

A pair of horns sprouted from under the bedsheets. A sleepy braying came from it.

With bedsheets entwined over its muzzle and stopping its sight, the beast grew slightly restless. It tried to look around without seeing anything. As a few crucial seconds passed, it started braying with a desperate tone.

Greta sighed, then pulled the sheets from its head.

"Sometimes I wonder," she started," how you came about… How can you really be a part of me? I mean, it goes… It goes beyond me!"

The beast hee-hawed questioningly." Yeah, I mean precisely that… Totally unbelievable."

It was less than an hour later that the two girls joined the rest of the group at the Middle Tree.

***

The Veins was the name of the fort-city built inside the passages devoid of Yggdrasil's sap, an incredible ointment for the Spirit.

The fort-city was more a series of tunnels, permanently alighted by the light coming from the working veins in which Yggdrasil's lymph did pass.

If the Cradle was the first defense for Yggdrasil, then the Veins were the place where what had to be defended stayed.

Riches and treasures were hiding in there, the Manabank among them, and hundreds of other vital institutions for the Den.

Higher up than the Veins was only the Crown, with the Yggdrasilians and their service dogs, the Yggs; few were allowed access on the Crown, of course, the Seer of Carnage, the Waterfront, and other important families were among the admitted.

Greta and Prisha reached the Veins in the most common way, with the elevator, and joined the gathering at one of the Foxholes, places where the tree trunk had been perforated to better defend it from above.

The Western Foxhole opened the view to The Expanse's massive plains, with its immense peeks and sky islands.

Waiting for them were Yagais the Elk, Bond Spirit of the Seer of Carnage, Nastia, and the military leader captain and Nastia's father, Clast.

Clast was one of the few still living fairies. Once a Prince of his Empire. Little was known about Clast. Asking for his story would mean trouble. What was known was instead whispered. The tales spoke about a fairy that had long since advanced to Tier 7 and was on the verge of reaching Legend.

Finally, the last person waiting for them was Gaia Waterfront; once more, she would be the expedition leader.

A little army had been gathered on the stands. The massive ballista, magic railguns, and shielding machinery had been moved to give space for the army of black-clad sentients to gather.

Though Greta and Prisha were part of Nastia's team, that didn't mean that they would be the only ones taking part in the search.

"Alright." Started Yagais, his voice booming, requesting silence. "The Seer, in her grand sight, has managed to narrow down the search for the Herald. As you already have been communicated, the Vulcan is where he has ended up in. Now! We must not focus on how that happened nor why it did! What we know is that the Herald has had an internal help in its escape, and for some reason, the place in which he is currently hiding is hidden so thoroughly to escape even our Seer's sight." He let that sink in.

"Your mission will thus be sweeping the place, looking for clues, narrowing down the site. It won't be easy, no scrying, no seering, and no locating works, so you shall do so the old fashioned way; exploring the place square by square." The giant Elk paused.

"Gaia Waterfront," he pointed with his antlers, "will be our chief of operations. Her command surpasses every other, and your party leaders shall all get in contact with her or her appointed personnel."

"Gaia, if you would…" said Yagais, giving her the floor.

"Agents of the Den, I won't hide behind falsehoods and lies; the Herald's disappearance is, ultimately, my fault. I belated his arrival, asking of him to prove himself, while he still wasn't fit for it; for that reason, things have taken the worst turn." She paused, lowering her head, then raising her chin up once again to continue, "However, I believe other powers have come into play, probably wishing to snatch the Herald from us, to use for their own, savage desires. We cannot allow that! We have waited for millennia for the coming of a new Herald. We can't let him die on enemy lands! The war of attrition with the Priest of Lore has dragged on for too long! And the Herald's coming is proof of that! Proof that Alter has chosen us over the Priests, proof that the Gods have sent us the instrument to end all wars! The instrument to stop all bloodshed! The instrument to stop destroying and start building for peace!"

She had spoken in a crescendo of emotions that had successfully radiated to the small army in front of her.

"For the sake of peace! To end all wars! We shall find the Herald and welcome him in our ranks! I believe in you, in each and all of you, so don't fail me! And let's depart!"

A chore of excited approval followed her declaration, and after calming down, the groups started separating, each party going to a platform for teleporting.

Nastia, on the other side, was furiously gulping down her stress.

She had been salty since… well, pretty much since ever. Not only she had not been born with a Bond Spirit, being half-fairy, because it was known that only pure humans could utilize their Spirit, whether as companions or to feed for other creatures and use them as summons.

She was still a Tier 4, unlike Gaia that had risen much faster than her, but as the daughter of one of the Den's ruling houses, she had been born with a fundamental role in society. Like her mother, Gaia was Yggdrasil's Guardian, or she would be once and if her grandfather passed away.

Again, unlike Gaia, command operations and roles of importance had never really been entrusted to Nastia; in fact, she had become a rising star in the ranks of the Cradle, but she had always been overshadowed by Gaia's growth. The girl, though a couple of years younger than her, had managed a far shinier rise; so much as inheriting her family's own Signature Skill other than their title.

Back then, Nastia had been happy for the girl, originally a member of her party. Because, after all, they were both the only daughters of some of the leading houses of The Den. However, with Gaia's fast ascension and the consequent abandonment by the rest of her party's original members, which had managed to leave her behind, Nastia fell into a descending spiral of self-doubt.

Yes, they were all, roughly, at the same level, and yes, they had grown together, separating only when it was clear she had other, stricter rules to respect, given the authority that her parents represented… Still, everyone had left her behind. Alone in a world that did not want her to go forward like them.

Getting out of her remembrance, Nastia joined Greta, Prisha, and the others.

"Let's go; we shall find Mr. Little lizard and bring him back home. Maybe even make him join the party," she added, grinning.

"After we treated him like that? That's gonna take quite a bit of cleaning up," suggested Fred.

"Well… I can be very convincing when I really want to." Nastia smiled, a difficult smile to interpret.