“KEEP MOVING! YOU WON’T MAKE IT IN NEARLY HALF ENOUGH TIME RUNNING LIKE A PRINCESS AT HER WEDDING!” I shouted across the field to a beet-red Tetsu and Reltin that continued to jog hurriedly across the snowy white field, their heavy steps leaving a trail of deep footprints in the snow.

They jogged two more laps before Reltin collapsed down in front of me, clutching his chest and gasping for air while Tetsu simply leaned over onto his knees in a similarly exhausted manner. “So, how’re ya feeling?” I asked in an entirely separate tone than the unlovable drill-sergeant they’d been hearing for the past two hours this morning. The boys simply looked up at me in visible frustration as they continued to let out rapid breaths.

“Whahh…. What’s even the point of this…!?” Reltin hissed through his frantic breathing. “Y..yhou complain that we… -that we were just swhinging around sticks but now all we’re doing is jhumping up and down and running around in circles… how’s that better?”

“Hmm” I mulled over his words as I came up with a reasonable response a teacher should have for their student. “Pick up that sword and swing it ten times.” I said succinctly. Reltin looked at me in both confusion and dread as his already red cheeks somehow flushed even redder. “Huh?”

“Pick it up and swing, I said. You just ran four laps, right? And that was, what? Twelve minutes of running, surely you can swing a sword just ten times after running twelve minutes. If you can’t even do that much then slowing down your entire group is about the only thing you could do in an actual fight, let alone protecting them from any danger.” I spoke matter-of-factly. And Reltin soon walked over to pick up his sword and get into his usual stance. Tetsu watched in silence as he did so.

He swung his stick once and almost lost his footing, leaning over slightly too far towards one side before moving his foot to correct himself. I smiled at the sight as I continued to watch him slip up and almost fall over ten times, leaning on his sword and shifting his legs constantly to keep him standing as he took his own sweet time between each swing.

“-Th….Therhe…Haah… I dihd it…see…” He said after falling down back first onto the snow behind him, panting for air as if his life depended on it now.

“Three minutes.” I spoke in a telling tone as I smiled down at him. “It took you three minutes to perform ten less than even mediocre swings that wouldn’t take down a chicken let alone a troll.” I mused on what the size of a troll could be as I said so. “If you can’t even take down a chicken after running for twelve minutes, imagine which ground you’d be six feet under entering battle after a twelve hour trek through enemy territory.”

Reltin continued to pant as he laid on the ground, no longer disputing me as he was seemingly ruminating at my words. While Tetsu did the same.

[Endurance : { Level 2 → Level 3 } 71/100%]

[Strength: { Level 3 → Level 4 } 60/100%]

[Agility: { Level 2 → Level 3 } 53/100%]

[Sword Master: {Level 2 → Level 3 } 30/100%]

The glowing words projected over Reltin’s head as he looked up to the sky right through them. I had thought of many possible answers as to where these computer-like that had popped up in the world from time to time came from but was ultimately left knowing even less than I started with when I thought about it. The questions continued to pile on rather than dwindle in number. The words were quite simple to understand but it was their simplicity that made them so vague which in turn left me clueless on how I should use these figures presented to me. When I had used the mysterious power to heal Usra's infant boy before I went off of feeling rather than logic so when it came up once again I tried to will it in many ways to hopefully get out more information but there were no changes in the words no matter what I’d do.

[Endurance : { Level 3 → Level 4 } 97/100%]

[Strength: { Level 7 → Level 8 } 40/100%]

[Agility: { Level 5 → Level 6 } 28/100%]

[Sword Master: {Level 4 → Level 5 } 55/100%]

[ ???: { Level 0 → Level 1 } 15/100%]

The most confusing part was that some of the four boys had varying words that projected over them. Leaving me with even more questions as I attempted to put them through training. At first, when I had accepted them all as my students and they accepted me as their teacher their percentages were all at 0/100%. I had to try out many different exercise and workout routines I’d learned from my time on earth before I saw any changes in the percentages of their goals. And now, after a week of putting them through all the different methods that I’d thought of, it was only Tetsu who was right at the edge of finally moving to the next ability of one of the ‘attributes’, as I liked to call them, hovering over his head.

The rest of the boys were either within the top 20% range or higher with their highest progressed attributes but the growth I’d seen from them wasn't even what you’d normally expect from people doing what they did for an entire week, as if all their efforts were being stored in the glowing words until the time came that they leveled up. Although I resolved myself to wait until one of them had actually leveled up an attribute to decide whether or not my show at the campfire that night was worth the embarrassment, I couldn’t say I wasn’t worried at the prospect that this time it really was all in my imagination.

“Alright boys, finish your squats then you can go home for the day.” I said, waving my hand behind me as I walked over towards two boys crawling in the snow further across the field. Rafal panted and squealed as a drop of sweat dripped down his already wet forehead. He repeatedly pulled his torso just a few inches off the ground, his hands wrapped around the back of his neck as he did so, performing a proper formed push up just as I’d taught him.

[Endurance : { Level 1 → Level 2 } 86/100%]

[Strength: { Level 0 → Level 1 } 67/100%]

[Agility: { Level 1 → Level 2 } 82/100%]

[Sword Master: {Level 0 → Level 1 } 73/100%]

Out of all four boys he was definitely the one lagging the farthest behind. I couldn’t help but look down at him in sympathy as he continued to frantically pull all the strength from his body in the effort of finishing just one more repetition. But despite his jagged start, he had definitely worked the hardest out of anyone else apart from Tetsu since the training started and his progress most definitely showed it.

“Thirsty?” I interrupted his concentration, offering a leather flask I carried around with me on my belt as he looked over, surprised at my spontaneous appearance. Arton eyed me from the corner of my vision while doing situps of his own. “Yh-yeah, uhh… thanks.” He reluctantly grabbed the flask out of my hands and immediately began to chug it down after uncapping it and holding the lid to his chest with his other arm. I smiled as he gave it back to me half-empty.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, noticing just now how his eyes refused to leave my face after I took back the satchel. “I-I’m fine!” He squealed back a quick lie and I narrowed my eyes that looked directly into his until he eventually crumbled under my glare. “I-it’s just that… everyone else, they can do this stuff pretty easily, y’know. And that’s good! I don’t want them to do bad… but I just don’t think… that I can catch up. No matter how much I do the ‘sit-ups’ or running or jumping up and down” –”The jumping jacks, you mean.” I corrected him. “Y-yeah, the jumping jacks… No matter how much I do it, I don't get any better.” He lamented. “It was the same before you started h-helping us, and e-even before that. M-maybe Tetsu was r-right and I-I just wasn’t b-born for this. M-maybe I could do more good as a farmer, or a brickman like the other boys…” His words were quite mature and self-aware for his age. And were I one of his close friends or some normal villager who knew him for a short while, I would have agreed with his assessment and moved on.

But as a teacher who knew the drive and hard work that hid behind his feeble impression, and as the wielder of whatever strange power I had been granted, It was my obligation to ensure he would have all he needed to not have to worry about such things as talent or affinity. As long as he wanted to become something, he should be able to become it. “That’s nonsense.” I started. “There’s no reason that you wouldn’t be able to become just as good a warrior as Reltin or Arton, over here. Hell, I’d be surprised if in ten years you weren’t way better than these two lazy bastards of ours.” I joked, causing Rafal to let out a suppressed chuckle as Arton looked our way and clicked his tongue.

“And what if he doesn’t get better?” Arton quizzed nefariously from behind the young boy I was talking to. “What if he can’t improve because he just doesn’t have a body that was born strong enough? Or if he just doesn’t have the talent to be an expert in sword-fighting? What then? Are you saying that you can make some miracle happen to magically give him that?” He hissed from behind him in anger I never noticed until now.

“Yes.” I answered resolutely. “If he doesn’t have the talent or the body for it then I’ll just give it to him.” I smiled contently at Arton with my ludicrous answer as he stared back in unadulterated confusion, not knowing what to say to my strange response.

“ *Chk* Whatever.” The long-haired boy clicked his tongue before walking past me, heading angrily back to the cabin door. I didn’t stop him.

[Endurance : { Level 3 → Level 4 } 34/100%]

[Strength: { Level 4 → Level 5 } 45/100%]

[Agility: { Level 5 → Level 6 } 82/100%]

[Sword Master: {Level 2 → Level 3 } 16/100%]

I already knew from counting his progress that he did not skip a single training exercise today. Nor had he for the past week a single time that he’d showed up. I wondered what had gotten him so upset however as I watched his retreating back heading towards the cabin behind me.