In the deep of the forest, I run with all my strength and breath. Sweat has already drenched my clothes and body. My muscles are in pain, yet I can’t allow them to fail me at this moment.

I run and run, with my only destination being the road ahead.

“Gruooaahhh!”

From a nearby bush, a monster hyena jumps out and lunges at me with only one simple objective: that is to take a bite at this running prey. It bares its filthy fangs with some lingering left-over meat from its last meal toward me, only a few centimeters away from reaching my flesh.

However, in a split second, a spear comes out from the direction behind my back, piercing the hyena’s mouth with only one decisive thrust. Red blood splatters out as the hyena grunts in pain. However, before its suffering is prolonged, an iron sword slashes open its neck, separating the head and the body with one clean strike, leaving no trace of blood on the sword’s body.

“Keep running, Akuma!”

Caelan yells behind my back, as he throws away the hyena’s head stuck in his spear to deal with the remaining pack of angry hyenas chasing us behind. However, for every hyena that tries to approach me, with Caelan behind to defend my back and my sides, let’s just say they don’t have the second chance to try again.

Despite what it may look like, this is not a serious situation, nor does it have an epic backstory on how we got here. It’s more comedic in nature, really, never mind that I am being chased by demonic hyenas from hell that eat people for breakfast, with a guy who has muscles for brain as my only bodyguard.

This is simply a new daily routine as part of my physical training plan.

“Two on the front!”

Caelan yells yet again. Of course, because I really need his warning since I have trouble seeing the ambush prepared by two demon hyenas in front of my eyeview under the morning’s light. Well, enough witty comments. At his position, Caelan can’t offer much help if there are two of them waiting in front of us. I guess I should give him a helping hand then.

With the gun in my left hand, I point toward the ambushing enemies. Both of them begin to run toward us as soon as we get into their sight range. They synchronize their movement pretty perfectly, like veterans in the art of hunting, but a beast’s hunting tactic is nothing before the might of science and gunpowder!

Aiming a gun while running is as difficult as I imagined. However, when the two of them get to the range where I’ll get a sure hit, I don’t hesitate to pull the trigger. The lead bullet comes out of the black barrel after the gunpowder was exploded. At this range, its velocity can even pierce through iron plate, let alone a beast’s flesh. As expected, one shot near the head is enough to take one of the hyena down.

All that’s left is the remaining demon hyena. As their pincer attack plan fails due to the death of one hyena, I use that chance to evade from the remaining one. Being left out, the beast quickly meets its fate under the spear of Caelan running behind.

And thus, my physical training plan continues, up until the sun is at its highest in the sky.

…

We arrive at the entrance of the forest after a run around Darkwood. As I set my foot onto the entrance, I let my body do what it wants and collapses on to the ground, with my face facing the sunlight above. My nose keeps sucking oxygen in the air to fill my now-tired lungs. With how my heart is racing right now, I have a feeling that they are holding a flamenco dancing party inside my chest without my permission. Man, so tiring.

However, despite taking the same running course as mine, Caelan still hasn’t break any sweat. His radiant smile makes it look like he’s ready for another twenty laps on the course I just took. Well, despite knowing the guy is the physical type, it’s still jarring to see the difference of a fresh city boy and a trained warrior.

“So, where should I put all these corpses?”

Caelan asks. Behind him is a brown medium-size bag full of corpses. They are hyenas’ corpses, of course. As we got close to the finish line, I asked Caelan to gather some dead corpses to the bag I prepared first hand. The size of that bag can only hold five or six hyena corpses at most, but for my purpose, that alone is enough.

“Go dig a hole somewhere…and put them in.”

I answer. The guy seems surprise as expected.

“Dig a hole? Why…?”

“Just do it.”

“Okay.”

Despite having the tendency to ask questions, Caelan is surprisingly obedient. He always do what people demand him to do, be it running errands for some girls just because he was asked, or training under the cold half-naked because his teacher told him to. I guess that is what makes people think his brain is similar in size to a bird, too easy to be used by others without being able to think for himself. Though I think he’s just good natured instead of gullible. That’s not a bad thing. People today are too devious for their own good.

As I keep resting in peace, Caelan goes to a nearby empty land and begins digging a hole using his bare hands for the purpose of burying those corpses. Piles and piles of dirt keep gathering the more Caelan digs. With such speed and vigor, he’ll put the best of the dogs of my old world to shame in a bone-hiding contest.

Wait, am I forgetting something? Hmm…let me rethink again. He’s digging a hole on the ground...with his bare hands. Yes, something like that.

Wait! He’s digging a hole with his bare hands!

I stand up and run toward the guy and shout.

“Wait Caelan! At least use a shovel or something!”

However, I was too late. Caelan has already dug out a hole large enough to put the corpses in, using only his bare hands. The guy climbs out of the hole he just dug, still look vigorous as ever.

“Hmm? Is something the matter?”

“Your hands.”

“Oh, these ?”

Caelan shows me his hands. Despite being full of dirt, they aren’t hurt even just a bit even after all that digging. Strange…

“But how…?”

“Practice! With enough practice, you can dig out holes with your bare hands too!”

Caelan answers with a radiant smile on his face.

“Don’t tempt me to the path of muscles, please.”

I reply back. However, it’s still strange with how Caelan could dug out a hole from the ground without hurting himself.

“Just…how did you do that?”

“You put your hands on the ground and start digging!”

“Not that, genius!”

I give the guy a karate chop on his head to make him straighten his line of thought. Surprisingly, he is actually affected by that weak chop of mine, and put his hands on his head to ease the pain (?). Well, maybe my chop wasn’t as light as I thought, because my hand is also hurt as well. So I guess the guy is a literal blockhead. But that’s not the point.

“Just tell me how can you dug a hole with your bare hands without hurting yourself.”

“Oh that, right, that. Hmm, I guess you mean to ask about soul enhancement.”

“Enhancement?”

“The thing that helps you dig out holes without hurting yourself.”

Well, it’s sure a helpful explanation.

Though, come to think of it. During the history lesson the other day, the book said something about Enas and his ability to imbue soul energy onto his weapons. Maybe this is the same as that thing?

“How did you get that ability?”

“Training! Teacher said that just train and train your body until you can feel the very flow of soul energy within yourself, and don’t be like those sissy mages who think they’re the shit just because they can blow stuff up with their brain!”

That sounds like something Bjarni would say.

“You need to concentrate your soul energy to a part of your body, and make it a part of your body as well. Here, let me show you.”

Caelan suddenly runs toward a tree near the entrance of the forest. He turns his head back and look toward me, as if waiting for me to come there. As I keeps approaching him, Caelan raises his fists. I can’t see his face at my position, but looking at how things are at this time, this looks like what’s going to happen will be a sight to behold.

Caelan takes a deep breath, and relaxes his body. However, his arms still look at stiff as ever. Suddenly, he lunges toward a tree in front of him. He throws a punch, with each of his fists at two different places on the tree’s body, which shakes it a little as he’s done with his stunt. When the guy is finished, I walk closer for a better view as Caelan stands back to let his spectator watches his work.

On the tree’s body right now are two cracks. The one on the left is bigger, deeper, making it look like it was crushed by a wild and mad boar. The other crack however is pitiful compared to the one beside it, like the work of a stupid deer high on grass. While that punch is strong enough to makes a mark on the tree, its destructive power pales in comparison with its brother.

“When imbued with soul energy, your body part would be stronger, tougher, as long as you keep concentrating your soul energy in that body part. Circling your soul energy to your body parts however is easier said than done. It takes time and require more on guts feelings. That’s why you gotta train until you can do this as well!”

Caelan raises his fists yet again for me to see. His left arm is completely unharmed, save for several tree shred stuck on his fist. The other however…it looks pretty bad, and it’s bleeding!

“Holy shit, your hand is bleeding!”

“Hmm? Bleeding?”

Caelan glances at his right fist, which is bleeding pretty bad right now.

“Ah, it’s just some blood. It’s fine really, I get that all the time! Hahaha”

“Fine my ass! Don’t come to me when your wound get infected!”

Despite what I said, I give the guy some first aid to prevent such thing to happen. The lessons I learned as a support Alchemist has been put to good use. A clean cloth, a little painkiller and some disinfectant and we’re done.

After our little charade, we both get to work yet again. Well, mostly Caelan. When you got free muscles to use, then why bother getting the job done yourself? I ask Caelan to throw the hyena’s corpses into the hole he just dig, fill that hole with manurial soil, wood ash and other materials that I prepared beforehand and tell him to close that hole when he’s done. The tall, orange-blonde guy happily complies and finishes his job in less than five minutes, using just one hand. Impressive.

“Now comes my part.”

On top of the now-filled hole, I begin drawing a magic circle, with the sun and the moon symbol in the opposite of each other. In the middle of the circle, I draw a tree symbol. Two, to be exact, but with the way I draw it, it looks more like a tree and its reflection on the water rather than two. Both of them are not the same, however. One is very tall, the other is as small like a child. Add in some circling direction arrows and random magic words then we’re done. After I finish drawing, I touch the circle I just drew. It radiates a small light, indicating the spell is working. However, nothing flashy happens. Of course, if I want to do flashy magic, I would have learn Verbal Magic and throw fireballs instead.

“So, what does this magic circle do?”

With the curiosity of a cat, Caelan asks.

“This spell is called 「Acceleration」. It hastens the process of objects within the circle’s radius.”

The sun and moon represent the cycle of day, with the tree and its reflection represent the change of age brought by time. With the way I use it, the materials in the hole will decompose after a day, and the process will keeps going faster until what remains become saltpeter. I guess it’ll take three days at most. Sulfur and charcoal aren’t that hard to find around here. With a supply of saltpeter, I guess I don’t have to worry about ammunition for a while, though it would still take a hell lot of efforts to make the bullets themselves.

“So, what good will come from placing it on top of a pile of corpses and whatever smelly things you asked me to put there?”

“They’ll produce magic, Caelan. Mind-blowing magic. Well, mostly the blowing part.”

The guy looks confused, as expected. After a while, he eventually gives up thinking and just does several push up to kill time while waiting for me to recover my stamina. Before we return, the two of us is going to take another wild run across the forest.

This has been our training plan for three days, ever since that study group…

[To enter, or to be kicked out.]

That was the ultimatum given by the Headmaster and delivered by Deborah. Deborah kept her story short, so the only thing noteworthy in her story was the condition for me to continue studying here. Either I enter the Familiar competition, or say good bye to this newfound school life of mine. Yep, no pressure at all.

I have yet to give Deborah my clear answer, but I guess she should have already known what I will choose, if she judges from my current plan. This physical training plan of mine represents my will to win that competition. That was why I asked Caelan to help me with this. Of course, the guy happily accepted, being the good guy he is.

The original plan was to take a running tour from the forest’s entrance to the other side and return. Caelan will go along as my bodyguard in case something happen. However, the guy himself said that he needed some training as well for the upcoming finals, so we threw in the “get chased by man-eating demonic hyenas” part to our plan. Caelan also proposed the idea of coating me in this world’s equivalent of peanut butter to “attract more hyenas”. Obviously, I rejected the plan, since we want to attract man-eating demon hyenas, not man-sized ants. We finally settled with running straight through the hyenas’ nests and let them tail us behind. The rest is now history.

“Still, with how things look, I think we’re gonna run out of hyenas soon.”

I tell Caelan my worry as he keeps doing push up by himself.

“Well, we still have demonic boars, demonic bears, demonic bees…”

“I think I’ll go with demonic hyenas for now.”

Until I have more bullets in my disposal, let’s not upping the ante for now.

“Well, enough rest, time for another run.”

However, before we can begin, from the direction of the castle, there is a girl walking toward us. Her red long hair makes her pretty noticeable under the sunlight. The two of us can only look at Deborah who’s closing the distance in between.

“You two got guts ditching the morning classes like that. I hope you guys are prepared to face Bjarni’s wrath.”

“Well, I haven’t got a novel of my liking to kill time in class yet.”

I answer. Deborah looks grouchy, her eyes look pissed just like always. Well, it is better than that pitiful look of hers. A mad girl is always easier to deal with than a sad girl. That being said, it’s only my opinion, some may say otherwise.

“Care to lend me some of yours, Miss Perfect Student?”

“Go find your own books to read.”

Says Deborah.

“Good morning to you too, Deborah.”

As Caelan finishes his push-ups, the guy stands up drenched in sweat and speaks. I guess from the guy’s perspective, a conversation like this may as well be a “Good morning” in Deborah’s dictionary.

“It’s noon, Caelan. And it’s already lunchtime.”

I look to Deborah as if asking whether or not she brought us lunch, but with a glare from Deborah and the sight of her empty bare hands, I guess that’s a no.

“What? It’s lunchtime already? No wonder I feel hungry!”

Caelan rubs his belly. Dude, please try to connect the dots yourself sometime.

“Geez. Seriously, you two make my life more miserable by days.”

“I don’t think we are that great of a contributor, though.”

“No, believe me, you two are. Especially you.”

Deborah cracks a smile, with her fists ready as if they want to crack something as well. Geez, can’t the girl get a joke or something?

“So, what’s your business here? If you don’t have any, then please leave us, we have manly training to do. No girls allowed.”

“No girls allowed!”

Caelan shouts after I finish my sentence. Deborah only gives me a glare and a smile before she answers.

“I guess I can feel at ease from now on.”

Hey hey, please tell me that’s just a joke.

While the mood right now is pretty casual, it becomes tense again with the next glare Deborah gives me. Then, the girl opens her mouth and states her business.

“So, with this training of yours, that would mean you’ll choose to enter?”

“Yes, and?”

Deborah sighs.

“What good would come from training to run?”

“The correct term is tactical retreat, and it has a lot of benefits. You may think this is stupid, but doing this is better than heading to a fight unprepared.”

She may have a point, it seems really stupid training to run at this point. But for a human like me, running and retaliating are the best I can do right now. It’s how I fight, even though I rarely fight. My physical power can’t move mountains nor tear the sea apart. I need to gain everything I could within this short time frame in order to rise my odds at winning, be it knowledge or physical prowess.

“It’s more stupid to get in a fight in the first place.”

Says Deborah. She rubs her temples with her hand in order to cope with this situation.

“Didn’t I tell you before ? I don’t pick fights I can’t win.”

I proudly answer.

“But you didn’t exactly “pick” this fight, it was shoved into you by the Headmaster herself. And you obeyed her words yet again like the good boy you are.”

“To follow and to obey are two different things. I chose to follow her order because I have no other choice. My school life is at risk here, and I won’t just stand by and watch it ends.”

Deborah sighs, again.

“You’re just trying to justify yourself for doing stupid things.”

“Then what would you want me to do? Walk away like a coward? Come to think of it, you love cowards, don’t you. Well it’s too bad I’m not one!”

I shout. We get ourselves in another glaring battle again. This girl, why can’t she understand that there are fights that simply can’t be avoided? And this fight is one of them.

“Either you help me get through this, or just walk away and let me do my thing.”

I reply. Deborah’s stare weakens as she averts her eyes. An awkward silence soon follows, with Caelan standing outside staring at both of us. As I intend to break the silence by saying something witty, Deborah suddenly breaks it herself by announcing something I haven’t expected.

“Fine, I’ll help you then. That’s what I intended to do when I come here anyway.”

If you’re gonna do that then why did you bother to start a fight the moment you came here?

“Wow, you’re being helpful for once.”

“I’m always helpful to others! But you are the last person I want to help!”

I’m not buying that, except maybe the last bit, but I’m totally not buying the “helpful to others” part.

“Fine fine. I am honored to be helped by you, my lady.”

“If you really feel honored then quickly fix that stuck up attitude of yours.”

As our mandatory daily verbal fight ends, the guy standing outside gives out his brightest smile as he approaches Deborah.

“So the day to see you in action has finally came, heh?”

“Keep dreaming, Caelan. The Master isn’t the main point of the Familiar competition anyway.”

After Deborah’s done explaining, she turns her gaze toward my direction to continue her lecture.

“As you have already known, the Familiar competition is a competition between Familiars only. But the Master can also play a part to support their familiar. So, I’ll try my best to help you survive yet another stupid situation you got into.”

Says Deborah. However, I haven’t give out my answer yet, up until ten seconds pass.

“Sorry, I failed to find a witty way to say thank you.”

“Then don’t waste time!”

Deborah shouts, again. She rubs her temples to ease her headache. Have I become better at making people go crazy for me, in a bad way?

“So, what is it you’re gonna do?”

“Well, the Master can help by using spells on their Familiar to support them. Usually we can use healing spells, but there are others that can prove useful as well.”

That means she’ll act as my buff caster?

“Then, what sort of spell you would use to help me?”

“I’m thinking about…speed enhancement.”

In other words, agility buff? Sounds great.

“Just speed ?”

I ask.

“There are other types, but I guess speed would fit you the most.”

Let’s hope she doesn’t have any deeper meaning with that.

“You have a point. Akuma is very good with his legs. You should see how he ran away from the dangerous beasts!”

Caelan comments. As he ran behind me for three days already, it’s understandable that he would think like that.

“Okay okay, just do what you want before someone points out I have the natural talent to be a coward.”

Deborah giggles. I have a feeling that if I didn’t interject back there, then she’ll tell it straight out right away.

“Now, I will perform the spell. Stand still for a moment.”

As Deborah says her lines, she holds her right arm toward me and opens her palm. Her lips starts chanting the magic words. The light around me brightens, and I can feel a gust of wind gathering around my legs. It’s just for special effect, though, because I don’t feel the wind itself enters my legs. All of this cool magic effect end as Deborah finishes her chanting.

She doesn’t say anything, but I have the feeling that she would tell me to make some moves. Trusting my guts, I begin to do some movement with my legs to test out the spell’s effect.

Surprisingly, as I lightly push the ground with my right feet, it suddenly shoots me out of the ground. With a quick glance, I measured that I just jump two meters above the ground from my original position.

“Woo hooo!”

I yell like a kid. This is like having a superpower. Magic is awesome!

This time, I try running around the yard we’re in. My legs move faster than my eyes can catch up as I run five laps around this yard in thirty seconds. I won’t dare to say I have speed comparable to the Flash himself, but it’s still a close second.

“Awesome!”

I yell yet again.

“It’s rare to see you this excited.”

“Anyone would be excited if they’re in my shoes right now!”

I answer Deborah. She just shakes her head with a smile on her face.

“Awesome speed, Akuma. I bet you can run a lap across this forest in five minutes.”

“Sounds good. Akuma, as a test, how about you run a lap around the forest and return here?”

After Caelan finished his comments, Deborah interjects in with a proposal for a test, or should I say, a challenge. Fine by me, I want to test the limit of this spell as well. Of course, I nod and give her my answer.

“Five minutes? Just you wait and see!”

As I’m done boasting, with the legs as fast as the wind, I run into the forest, aiming toward its end to compete in this challenge.

----------------------------

“And so he’s gone.”

Says Caelan as his friend ran out of sight, literally as fast as the wind. The guy seems excited as well, he keeps tossing his weapons up to the sky and catches them as they fall to kill time as he wait for his friend’s return.

“When do you think he’ll be back, Deborah?”

However, the girl standing nearby, Deborah, isn’t as relaxed as he is. It’s the opposite, actually, as the friendly smile she has earlier has already disappeared and replaced by a stern and serious face.

“He won’t return.”

The girl answers.

“Hmm ?”

“Or should I say, he won’t be able to make it back here.”

The weapons thrown for fun fall to the ground, giving out a big clank as they make contact. Their owner fails to catch them since he’s still in shock from what he just heard.

“What do you mean by that…?”

A drop of sweat runs down Caelan’s cheek as he asks his question.

“We’re going to the forest to pick him up. Let us hurry, before something happens that will make me regret for the rest of my life.”