*Whack!*

Ben felt a shudder throughout his entire body from blocking another of Talia’s forceful blows.

‘Damn. What is she made of?’ Lamented Ben as the ridiculous physique of the Princess has long passed his understanding of how strong a person's physical attributes can be.

He would be the first to laugh in someones face if they were to inform him that a person can be so strong without a shred of cultivation.

So was this some form of karmic retribution? Yes, he has to admit he did brag about ‘going easy’ on the Princess previously because he was worried about being too forceful upon her recovery, but now this just had to come back making him look like a fool.

*Slap!*

“Ohhhhh…” The trainees in the background unconsciously mumbled as Bens distraction led to him being whacked right across the face.

Falling over to the ground clutching his face, pretending he was in pain to hide his embarrassment at the ridiculous way he was defeated, he soon found himself accompanied by Oscar who laid right next to him.

Realising it was a great time to get the heavy burden off his chest, he tapped him on the shoulder and said, “I want you to know, that yesterday when I said I was going easy on her, I was lying.”

“I know, I didn’t believe you in the first place, neither did the others, we’re not stupid enough to believe that rubbish, she kicked your ass from start to finish,” Oscar replied calmly.

“Oh, that’s good then, I guess.” Said Ben, not sure if it was particularly a good thing, that the ‘confidence’ of the other trainees of him was that high.

“It looks like Ritson will be finished soon, I think we lasted longer than previously though, so I guess that’s an achievement?” Questioned Oscar.

Ben did not bother to say anything as he waited until Talia finally dealt with Ritson who no longer had any means of defending himself once he was disarmed by Talia.

Panting from the great deal of exertion from the sparring, Ritson said, “You don’t even feel the slightest bit tired?”

Not even the slightest bit ruffled from the high-intensity sparring, Talia truthfully said, “Nope..”

With the improvement in every aspect every level up from the ‘game world’ her stamina has already improved greatly alongside the endurance attribute.

Ritson just sighed in defeat at her response, full of envy at her constitution he inwardly thought, ‘looks like this is what it feels comparing yourself to others.’

He didn’t know what it felt like when others told them they were jealous of his natural endowments because having a great physique was always natural to him and it had always made him stand out amongst his peers. But, this time it was his turn to meet someone even more superior than him, causing a foreign feeling too well up inside him.

He can attribute the swordsmanship of Ben and Oscar being better because they are nobles who were brought up training with the sword.

After all, he only had a few years training, so he’s confident in surpassing them eventually, at the same time he was still unmatched in terms of physical strength, yet now there stood a girl in front of him who was not only younger than him but was way stronger than him?

“Are you alright?” Said Talia noticing Ritson’s unusual behaviour.

Staring at the Princess a sudden feeling of bitterness filled his heart, but upon looking at the beautiful, innocent eyes of the Princess staring at him with concern he couldn’t bring it in himself to dislike her.

Instead, he felt an even more determined feeling to promote himself to becoming a Tier 1 Warrior!

It was no point in dwelling on such things, he should be focusing on ways to improve himself even further and work harder into fulfilling his goal to become a Tier 1 Warrior.

“Yes, I’m fine, thank you for helping me,” Ritson said sincerely as he felt his mental state undergo a complete change.

Talia was not sure what she helped him with, but still curtly responded, “No problem.”

The body language of Ritson changed dramatically within that moment, only the drill sergeant and Sir Gregory noticed his behaviour, each nodding in approval at Ritson’s resoluteness.

“The mentality of a genius, I was concerned about his hidden prideful nature, as a boy raised in a poor household, he came from a much worse background than many present here and still managed to become a top-three trainee within a short time. Although he seemed humble around the trainees when he lost to Oscar and Ben, the proudness in his eyes was hard to conceal, he had never been beaten before by others his age and the few who did so were nobles with a far better upbringing. The princess is the first to completely outmatch him in every way possible, Oscar and Ben could only do so with their experience in swordsmanship, so I was worried about his mental state after the repeated losses, looks like it was unfounded.” The drill sergeant commented.

“The boy is good, the Kingdom needs these types of young men if it wants to restore itself to its glory days years ago. Also, the Princess desperately needs her own talented aids at this moment, even with the strength and leadership of her parents their success was still greatly contributed by their subordinates. Unfortunately, young men like this won’t be given the time to grow in these troubled times, within a decade, he will surely become a strong expert” Sir Gregory said.

“Oh, you think that highly of him?” Responded the drill sergeant a tad surprised at Sir Gregory's high evaluation of him, although he used the word ‘genius’ he referred to him having the potential to become a Tier 3 Warrior at most as even a Tier 2 Warrior would be thought of as talented, but going from Sir Gregory's words he believes he could go further!

“He just reminds me a bit of myself.” Sir Gregory answered nonchalantly shocking the drill sergeant.

“Surely you jest, Sir? Who could possibly make you feel inferior?” The drill sergeant said jokingly.

“Yes, who could.” Sir Gregory said expressionlessly, his eyes recalling a particularly tall, strong youth sharing a resemblance to Talia.

‘If only you were here to see your daughter now, Desmond.’ Voicelessly worded Sir Gregory as he stared at Talia talking joyfully with the trainees.

The drill sergeant just stood on the side silent as he stared at Sir Gregorys hardened face before looking back to the trainees, inwardly thinking, ‘It seems the rumours are true, I guess anyone would feel inferior if they compared themselves to his Majesty’

After ten more minutes, the trainees once again formed in after the sparring was finished, similar to last time, after bidding farewell to the trainees and drill sergeant Talia left with Sir Gregory returning to her room.

For the evening Sir Gregory offered to then personally instruct her in the training room, which she accepted gladly.

During the spar with Sir Gregory, she found that the gap between them didn’t change at all, with him easily deflecting and evading her attacks.

Suppressing his strength to exactly match hers was not difficult for an experienced expert like Sir Gregory, and with his advanced sword skills even with a similar level of physical attributes, he was still leaps and bounds above her.

She felt like an amateur in front of him, which technically she was, but still, after battering the trainees, it provided her with a reality check, that in front of true experts, completely depending on strength alone was not enough.

It was one of the reasons why she continued to practice swordsmanship as it is a skill which may prove to be highly useful in the future as who knows if she may run out of essence to cast spells.

Her beast soul form will always be her last resort as she didn’t want to risk provoking a full out manhunt if it can be avoided.

Additionally, the thought of being able to take the identity of both a ‘Warrior and ‘Mage’ sounded like a valuable trump card to possess in Talia’s view.

Which was precisely why Talia diligently continued to soak up Sir Gregory’s teachings feeling by the end of the session that she has benefited greatly once again.

“Thank you, Sir Gregory,” Talia said gratefully, she could already feel that if she continued to train with Sir Gregory and the trainees that her swordsmanship would once again process to the next level within a few days.

“There is no need for your highness, this subject is only carrying out his duties.” Responded Sir Gregory dutifully.

Talia just nodded in appreciation at the knight, knowing that he would continue addressing her in such a way even if she mentioned it.

She wasn’t quite used to the concept of being formerly addressed in such a way yet, but she knew that the knight would stick to his ideals, no matter her opinion, and she didn’t mind it anyway as she could see he is sincere.

Returning to her room she knew it was time to return back to ‘Dawn of the Corrupted’.

Eating dinner beforehand, she waited until her room was deserted and Kaelyn left after finishing her duties, before once again re-entering the other world.

After entering the world, she set out right away to carry out quests. Now that all of the major tasks are done within the Town, and she had to wait a few days before she can continue to progress the troublesome missions, it was time to grind her level in the downtime.

Picking up numerous different quests she did not bother with before, she set out of the Town to accomplish them.

An hour later Talia was battling numerous large green-furred Foxes cutting them down with her sharp claws, as she took them down one by one.

Thirty minutes went by and she was now fighting a valiant looking deer with silver glowing antlers, a bolt of essence flew towards her as the dazzling antlers released a burst of magic.

Yet, as if in anticipation of this response from the deer, she nimbly dodged out the way before pouncing towards the creature who galloped towards her aggressively.

Avoiding the strong deer's lethal weapons, she clamped down on its body using her new-found strength to bring it down.

Finding itself helpless against its foe, the deer soon let out a shriek of pain as Talia dealt with the creature.

Retrieving the antlers a grin filled Talia’s face as she moved onto the next target.

A moment later Talia retrieved a bunch of herbs whilst having to deal with cannibalistic plants, and after that, she had a quest which involved bringing back the remains of a fallen adventurer who went missing after picking up a quest to hunt an Iron-fanged Warthog.

Through completing these quests in such quick fashion reminded her on how it was a good idea to stock up on the potions, as completing these quests one after the other has depleted her greatly, and the potions enabled her to recover quickly each time, allowing her to use the time available to her as efficiently as possible.

After returning from finishing these quests she quickly picked up the rewards, gaining an additional three levels, now reaching Level 15.

It was an unexpected bonus for her to promote an additional threes level in a day, but it was partly to be expected, as the completion of the Goblin quest had already allowed her to be on the brink of achieving the next level, and these quests gave her the push needed to achieve it.

She had also managed to pick up a few unique and enchanted gear as well, some of which she replaced directly with the newly bought gear from the shops whereas for the ones not too useful, she decided to keep anyways in case they may prove valuable in the future.

Returning back to the room of the Princess she once again found that it was morning as usual.

Getting out of bed, she was disturbed by the familiar knock from Kaelyn who came in as usual after she welcomed her in.

Quickly finishing breakfast, she knew that this will likely be her schedule for the next few days.

And like this four days quietly pass, as Talia continued to train with the trainees daily, before meeting with Sir Gregory to train under his tutelage and then spending her time in ‘Dawn of Corrupted’ world grinding levels.

At the end of the fourth day, she found that her swordsmanship had finally progressed to the next level, much to her delight, impressing Sir Gregory greatly as he remarked on her great improvement.

The trainees had also improved with her involvement, especially the ones who sparred with her, as under the constant extreme sparring, they each managed to gain some improvements from it.

Although not too large because the time was simply too short, they each remarked that it would have previously taken them two weeks to make such an improvement through their usual training.

Ritson, Oscar and Ben were the most pronounced though as it benefitted them the most being the tag team which always provided Talia with the most difficult fight.

The most major effect though, which Talia didn’t particularly notice was that the trainee's impression of Talia grew after each day and began to now stare at her in worship as she soon became their idol with her strength which increases by the day.

She didn’t pay much attention to it, but her casual attitude in dealing with the trainees, and her decency in general greatly touched them.

Even though to her who grew up within modern society, such behaviour would only be considered ‘normal’ but to the trainees who mostly consist of commoners and individuals coming from average backgrounds, for a Princess to treat them in such a way made them respect her even more.

It even caused the nobles in the class to feel partially ashamed, as even though they were considered ‘decent’ in comparison to other nobles who treated commoners disdainfully, they still subconsciously grouped and mixed only with people from a similar background to them.

Unlike the Princess who treated everyone equally and put on no airs at all, they felt like trash in comparison which ended up unknowingly promoted more interaction with the trainees themselves, as nobles and commoners began interacting with each other for the first time.

Because Talia had only been for five days, she treated it as nothing unusual, but to the drill sergeant and Sir Gregory, it greatly amazed them, as they looked at Talia actions with greater appreciation.

Talia has also managed to increase her level to 19 within the ‘Dawn of the Corrupted’ thanks to the extreme grinding she did with the aid of magic potions allowing her to recover quickly between each quest, she virtually went through them one by one without needing to take a break.

Even so, she felt that she had completed most of the worthwhile quests within the Town now, but it was finally time to visit the Bluewood Merchant Group once again and to also see Priest Omar about the news involving the Templars higher-ups.