Alex wanted to say that the next few days flew by, but he wasn’t that lucky. They were a god damn slog. Being bed ridden without access to modern technology was unfathomably boring. His cellphone had run out of battery while he was out, so his only source of entertainment was talking with Sky and Wind, and read what few books in the house that he could actually read, his human translator perk wasn’t very helpful in an elven village. On top of that, most of what few books he could read were incredibly dry about alchemy, and while the subject fascinated him, it was really, really boring to read.

Thankfully, that state of affairs only lasted 2 days, in the third, he was free to move around, but it was only in the fourth that the first part of his training could start.

“This place is beautiful.” Alex said. Admittedly, he had seen the village yesterday, but he felt like it deserved to be repeated.

Alex’s looked at the elven village in awe as he walked through it. The entire place was made out of wood, with trees spreading harmoniously through it, it looking gorgeous even in the middle of winter, when most of the trees were dead. It made him want to know what it looked like during spring. On top of looking beautiful, the architecture was functional, with numerous wooden roads and walkways on top of the houses connecting the entire place together.

“You should see this place during the other season, and It’s nothing compared to the big places like Qulang.” Wind said.

The elf had decided to do Alex’s training for today, mostly to give Sky more time resting.

“Qulang?”

“Capital of the hidden kingdom. Which is basically the biggest of the elven kingdoms.”

Alex had spent the last couple of days mostly asking countless questions, about the system, about the nearby kingdoms, about the history of the land…but the sheer amount of information meant that he was learning something new all the time.

“Sounds…impressive. I hope I get to see it one day.” Alex said. “Anyway, what’s the training I’m going to do?”

“You have a whole lot to learn, but today, I want you to get a handle of your body.” Wind said.

Alex nodded, he did feel quite a bit different than before. In the past 4 days, he had gained 5 more levels, and the sickness that he felt had mostly faded, he actually had started to feel…different than before. To start with, he felt much more aware of his surroundings, his eyesight was sharper , he could hear much further, and it almost felt like the world was…slower.

Alex followed Wind as they left the village and entered the nearby forest, it was absolutely massive, going further than his eyes could see.

“Anyway, I think we are far enough that you won’t hit anyone, so, follow me!” Wind said.

Wind dashed forwards, almost vanishing through the dead trees, and Alex rushed behind hear, curious about just how fast he could go. He almost hit a tree as he ran, but the world seemed to slow down and he barely managed to turn in time to avoid it. He was much faster than, but his body seemed used to it, it was easy to control his movements and his reflexes allowed him to avoid the obstacles in his path.

A grin split Alex’s face as he just enjoyed the moment, the wind hitting his face, his rhythm as he put one foot after another, dodging trough trees and branches, he lost himself in the moment for a second…and then hit a tree head on.

Alex blinked, a few times, staring a very amused elf whom was standing in front of him. That…had hurt. He put the hand in his face, his nose was bleeding a bit.

“And that is what happens when you gain a lot of levels really quickly, you get cocky and make mistakes. Could have gone worse.”

“What’s worse than head-butting a tree?” He grumbled as he slowly sat down. “Why are you shaking?”

For a second, he could swear that there were two Winds in front of him.

“Head-butting a monster. And I think you hit the tree a bit too hard…need a bit healing?”

“I would appreciate it.”

“You didn’t say the magic word…”

“Shazam.”

“What?”

“Abracadabra.”

“You are doing one of those jokes that no one but you understands, right?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m not thinking straight.”

Wind rolled her eyes, then put her hand on Alex’s head, muttered something in a language that he couldn’t understand, then, she started to glow.

Immediately, the pain started to fade a feeling of a comfortable breeze spreading washing over him, then suddenly, it was over.

“Thanks. Makes me really want to learn healing.”

“Good luck. Most people take years to learn the basics.”

Alex stood up, he still felt a bit out of it, shaking his head a bit to try and get a grip.

“Seriously? Then how did you…oh, right. Huge lifespan.”

“I’m actually not that old. My healing comes from a pact that I made with a spirit. Much easier to easier process, even if it’s a pain the ass in it’s own right...”

“Is that…something that I could do? In the future, I mean?”

“Maybe. Unfortunately, most spirits aren’t really a fan of humans, I’ve only really met two humans whom managed to impress them enough to offer a pact.” Wind then shot him a grin. “You know both of them.”

“Sky and Alice? I am…kinda surprised about Alice. But, well…why this racism?”

The elf shrugged. “Both of them earned their respect trough different means” Wind said. “And most humans aren’t really fond of taking care of the land, so most spirits aren’t fond of humans.”

“What’s even a spirit to begin with?”

“Can’t tell you. Sorry. Now, stop yapping and back to training.”

As soon as she said that, she once again shot forwards, Alex soon following after her. Alex kept at it for what felt like an hour, he didn’t hit any more trees, but there were a few close calls, and quite a few branches had a unfortunate encounter with him. After an small eternity running, he felt like his legs were on fire, and had to stop before his body gave up on him.

“And that’s your limit. Well, past your limit really.”

Alex didn’t answer, too busy breathing as hard as he could, he kept at it for something close to a minute.

“You really should have stopped earlier.” Wind said.

“I…” Alex began to say, paused, took a deep breath, then continued. “I was following after you.”

“And you should have told me when you couldn’t keep going.”

“You didn’t tell me to do that.”

“That’s kind of the lesson, as our friend already demonstrated, pushing yourself isn’t really healthy.”

Alex winced in answer, thinking about Sky. He couldn’t help but feel guilty about their state. For the past few days, Sky had been a bit…intense on being sure that he was safe, he felt bad both about the fact that he was being a burden, and about not telling about the whole breaker of chains thing.

He had been reluctant, not wanting to deceive the person had done nothing but help him, but he ultimately had accepted it, mostly because he felt like Wind knew better than him what he should do in this situation.

“Point…goddamn taken.”

Wind then beamed at him. “And we are going to have so much fun getting back!”

Alex gave the elf the beast death glare that he could.

“Fuck you.” The words slipped from his mouth.

“You wish.”

“Fuck off and let me rest in peace.”

He felt like he would regret these words later, but currently, he didn’t give a damn.

It took quite a long time before he felt like an human being again, thankfully, Wind was merciful and gave him a water skin, he felt like he would have died otherwise. He made a mental note to get one for himself later, he had a feeling that she wouldn’t be this kind later.

“Sorry about the whole…insulting you thing.”

“That’s par of the course. Of course, you are going to suffer a bit thanks to it, but no bad feelings.”

He felt an almost physical sense of dread at her words.

The elf shot him a grin.

“Anyway, break’s over, time for the second part.”

Alex groaned, but got up. “So…test my strength, right?”

“What do you mean?” Wind asked.

“Well, the training until now tested agility, constitution and dexterity, right?”

“You are missing two things, but yes.”

That made him pause, thinking about the subject for a bit.

“Willpower to see how far I could push myself, and insight thinking about this in the first place.

“Correct! And answering your earlier question, now, we will lift a few things.”

The next part of training was him raising rocks and Wind stacking more and more things on top of it.

“Think you can handle any more than that?” Wind asked.

Alex was currently holding a stack which consisted of two rocks larger than his head and a bunch of smaller ones on top. What little pride he had left vanished when he saw the small looking elf pick a rock twice his size with one hand.

“I…” Alex was about to say that he could, but hesitated, remembering Wind’s earlier words. “Can’t.”

“Good. Be careful when dropping them.”

Alex did as instructed, and he was glad that he hadn’t put any more weight, because it turned out that moving his arms with all the rocks on top of it was a lot harder than holding them in place, but he managed, even if his arms felt like they were on fire

“You learn surprisingly quickly.”

“You wanted these rocks to hit me, didn’t you?”

“I’m merely teaching you to take note of your limits.”

“I’m…kind of baffled by this, honestly. Most stuff that I have seen would say that going past your limits is a good thing.”

“in small bursts? Sure, absolutely no one is going to complain about having a dedicated trainee. The problem comes when you constantly do that, without taking care of your body.” Wind said. “And if you haven’t forgotten, you still aren’t exactly in great shape.”

“So…you’d do things that potentially harm me?”

“Better to deal with bad habits as soon as they appear.” Wind said. “And I’m here to guarantee that you don’t suffer any permanent damage.”

“Aren’t I in a kind of very shitty situation?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Then…shouldn’t this be a situation that I push myself training?”

“Not…really. No offense, but no matter how much you push yourself, how big of a difference do you think that would ultimately make?”

Alex was not sure how to answer that.

“Alex…you have been here, for how long, exactly?”

“Err…almost two weeks, I think?”

“Right. And how much time to train do you think anyone that is after you would have?”

“Years. Basically…you are telling me that no matter how much I train, it won’t make a difference.”

“No. I’m telling you that, in the short term, no matter how hard you train, it won’t matter much.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“The difference is that you would get unhealthy habits for short term gain, when the short term gain is unlikely to help you much to begin with.”

Alex frowned. It…really annoyed him, but he knew that what she was saying was the truth, and it made him want to become more powerful that much more.

“That’s…kind of the whole point of being an defiant and breaker of chains, isn’t it?”

Insight has increased.

His eyebrows shot up as he read the message, feeling like he stumbled in something important.

“Maybe you could match some adventurers in power…but most of them have been fighting for years.”

“So basically, even if I matched their powers, they are still more skilled than me.”

“Yep. I think you have a whole lot of potential, but you will need to train a lot, fight a lot and put a lot of effort to reach it.” Wind said.

Alex sighed, then nodded. “I figured as much.”

“Now, enough rest, now for the final part of training.”

“What?”

“Find your way back by yourself!” Win said, a grin splitting her face.

“Wait, I wasn’t…” Alex stopped mid-sentence, because the next thing he knew, she was gone like the wind. He groaned at his own awful pun.