Leo was following behind Mr Etan. He was getting ready for his daily exercise and was already setting weight on his wrist when he was told he was going to do something different today and to wear armor and take his weapon. They were heading for one of the training rooms. Still, he didn’t know what that meant.

The rest of his team has already started their own training so it was not the weekly spar with their instructor.

Not really knowing what to expect he entered one of the training rooms hoping that today his training won’t be much harder than usual which was already pushing him to his limits every day.

Not that he minded too much, he was getting stronger which felt good and it also helped him forget that there was outside world that he was forced to leave behind.

Now that he thought about it he got depressed, lately, he was thinking about the outside world a lot, maybe it was just from the fact that he spent last month underground or he was also getting homesick.

His dreams were also centered around home or school. Sighing he stood in front of Mr Etan inside the illusion training room.

Mr Etan looked at Leo and stayed silent. He knew that what the boy was going through must be hard. If things went according to the principal plan it would have been easier for both them and him. They expected that by reading the book he would remember the life of himself as adventurer Daniel and with memories and experiences of living one whole life would help him take the situation in. Combat experience would have been nice too.

“You should focus or you will get hurt today.” said Instructor Hunter bringing back Leo attention.

Leo looked at him questioningly. “What am I going to do today?”

“It’s quite simple.” Said Mr Etan activating the room’s device.

Their surrounding shifted and the room made of cubed changed into what looked to be an underground arena. The floor and walls looked as if they were made of cement tiles when in truth they were just an illusion.

“Your task for today is to survive.” He said as he disappeared from the room.

In his place, a big mountain made of fur appeared. It was brown with a slightly red tint to it. Suddenly, it moved and a big pair of red eyes looked him right in the face.

Leo shuddered a little as the mountain stood up on its two feet and roared.

It was a big bear and when it stood up it was at least ten times bigger than him. As it roared Leo could see that flames were escaping its mouth. He instantly activated his spell and jumped away backward with full strength and only stopping when his back hit the wall causing it to crack.

The place where he was a second before was now thoroughly crushed under the bear paws. It looked annoyed at him.

Leo activated his weapon and an axe blade made of blue light appeared in his hands. A smile formed on his mouth and he jumped forward.

The bear didn’t wait long and swiped at him with its front left arm. It alone was bigger than Leo and if connected would probably knock him unconscious.

Leo jumped with his superior speed above it and swung his axe at the bear shoulder. It went in quite easily inside of it and blood sprayed out of the wound.

Leo's hands felt strange, it was the first time he actually cut something with his weapon. He didn’t feel any resistance as his weapon went through but that was probably thanks to the special blade he held.

He landed on the bear and jumped again before the bear shook him of landing behind him and leaving another wound on the back of its body.

The bear turned around and it didn’t look to be in pain, even worse it looked as if it was just annoyed. The wounds Leo left looked more like small grazes on its giant body. ‘This is going to be a long fight’ Leo thought.

Leo was getting ready for his next charge just as the bear body flashed and suddenly big flames surrounded it whole body. It roared and charged at the surprised Leo.

Leo jumped away to the side and passed the bear charge by millimeters, he could feel the heat of its flames even through his armor. It was going to be dangerous If he got hit by it. It would probably melt his protection and burn him if he stayed close to it for too long.

Leo continued keeping his distance from the bear jumping away from it, hoping to tire it out, occasionally getting a cut or two in.

The bear body despite having a lot of cuts in it didn’t seem to look any less energetic. Thinking about it, no matter how realistic an illusion was it was just an illusion. It wouldn’t matter how long he fought it wouldn’t get tired, unlike him. And the cuts he made weren't deep enough for it to bleed to death and it seemed that the beast cauterized the wounds.

The bear also seemed bored of running around and stopped. Leo wondered what it was going to do.

The bear opened its mouth and a big ball of fire left and started heading for him. The ball was much bigger than Leo, even if two of him stood on each other back it would still win in size.

Leo tried to jump away but the ball was to fast and too big to dodge and he was forced to rely on his absorption field and got engulfed by the fire.

He instantly felt the intensity of the fire mana entering his body, he was sure if he got hit by it he would be a goner in a second. The fire slowly went past him and he gasped heavily as he released his spell.

Even with his increased mana capacity, the amount of energy required to block such spell was enormous.

He wanted to rest but couldn’t as the bear shot more fireballs at him. This time they were smaller, being only the size of one Leo, but there were more of them.

Leo dodged them and decided it was the time to stop playing around with it. Bringing his strengthening spell to its limit he jumped forward dodging around fireballs with quick footsteps he learned from sparing with Mr Etan. Though it was more like him getting beaten up every time he did something wrong.

As he was in the distance of the bear arm's length the beast swung its front paw at him.

Leo dodged it with two steps to the right and the big arm landed just next to him. Bearing himself from the shockwave of the arm hitting the ground he swung his axe at the same time and resumed running. Now he felt some resistance as the axe continued to cut alongside the arm of the beast. Illusionary blood burst behind him and the bear roared in pain.

It looked at Leo in anger as he continued to run forward now only a few steps away from its head. The bear opened its mouth and spit out a big fireball at Leo, absorbing him.

For a while there was silence and the bear only watched. Then something flew in the sky out of the fire. It was Leo with a trail of smoke following behind him. In last-second he activated his absorption magic but some of his armor got burned away.

Falling downward he swung his axe at the head of the beast and penetrated its skull. A volcano of blood erupted covering Leo whole, the beast roared and trashed in pain.

Leo tried to take out his axe but it seemed that the shaft of it got stuck on something. Having no other choice he jumped away as the beast thrashed around.

The bear swung his head to left and right and as it did it hit a wall with its forehead. The bear froze for a second, then fell to the ground and didn’t move.

Leo looked at it curiously, looking around he found part of his weapon broken and part of it even more deeply lodged inside the bear head.

Falling to the ground he sighed tiredly, it was fun but at the same quite scary. He was sure that they wouldn’t let him die here but getting hurt was probably acceptable. As he laid here the bear body disappeared together with blood he had on himself and Mr Etan entered the arena.

“Good job.” he said, “You have progressed quite well, though I expected you to defeat it quickly.”

“I did my best.” Said Leo bringing himself up and looked at his instructor.

“Are you satisfied?” he was asked.

Leo thought for a second and said. “No.”

“Good” said Mr Etan “otherwise I would have to make sure you were dissatisfied with your current level of strength. Well, then it’s time for the next part. Get ready, though I don’t think it will take long.” And then he disappeared again.

Then Leo heard something appearing behind him and smiled wryly. It was beast much bigger than the bear from before. Their sizes couldn’t even be compared. He was sure that to this thing covered in green scales he looked just like a small ant looked to him.

The big green dragon opened its eyes and looked at him. It opened its mouth and second later all Leo could see was black and he felt himself slipping into nothingness.

-*-

Leo opened his eyes, he was laying in a familiar bed inside his room.

“Are you alright?”

Turning around he saw Jennifer looking at him, she had a worried look on her face. He nodded, he felt little lightheaded though.

“That’s a relief. You were brought to infirmary wholly covered in blood apparently you also had internal injuries. It was Black who patched you up. What happened?” she asked.

“Ah, well, a big green dragon appeared and it smiled at me nicely.” Said Leo. “I’m myself not even sure what exactly happened. It opened its mouth and that’s it.”

“It must have used some kind of magic but that would mean.” She said thinking to herself. “Did it had a big horn on its head? And maybe it had fetters on its wings?” she asked.

Leo thought for a while to remember his short meeting with the beast and nodded.

“Did they seriously made you fight an ancient drake on your own?!” shouted Jennifer surprised. “I mean, Daniel fought one but even he had a party and the fight lasted 3 days. It’s not something one fights on his own. I wonder what they were thinking.”

“Did he also fight a big bear monster that controls fire?” asked Leo.

“You mean Mountain Beast? Yes, it was one of his first bigger achievements. It’s much weaker than ancient drake but… wait did you also fight that?!”

“Yeah, and just barely won. I think I know what they want to do.” said Leo.

Jennifer tilted her head at him. Then her eyes shined. “They are trying to make you remember!” she exclaimed. “Did it work?”

“Not really…” said Leo.

“Hmm, maybe illusion lacks the intensity of the real deal… Do you want to eat something?” she asked seemingly no longer caring about the beasts.

“Yes, I’m quite hungry. What time it is?”

“Still before midnight but past the cafeteria closing hours. Come, I will make something for you. Well, it will be just one of the ready meals, my cooking isn’t the best.” She said happily.

“Really?” Leo asked.

“Want to try it?” Jennifer looked him in the eyes. He could feel that he shouldn’t from the look on her face.

“Maybe some other time.”

They walked the corridor together, Jennifer trying to hug his arm as he protected himself.

“You could be nicer to me you know. I looked after you.” She pouted.

“I’m thankful for that.” He said blocking her again.

“You don’t really seem like that.”

Suddenly Leo stopped in his track and looked ahead in shock, he felt a tingle of pain in his chest. Jennifer took that chance to take his arm but Leo didn’t pay it any mind.

“Are you alright?” asked Jennifer.

A small looking girl was walking through the corridor in front of them. She at most reached the hight of where his chest began.

Leo continued to stare at her in shock. He didn’t expect it would be even possible to meet her, much less in a place like this.

She stopped in front of them and looked up. Her red hairs moving out of the way revealing her face. She looked little annoyed. “Is there something you need? I just returned from a long mission and I’m tired.” She said.

“Jenny…” muttered Leo. Jennifer separated from him not really knowing what gotten into him.

“How do you know my name?” the red-haired girl looked at him taken aback a bit.

“Me, ah… ehm.” Leo didn’t know what to say. Looking into her green eyes he was sure that it was the girl he knew as Arthur. He didn’t know how he should act though. He was shocked, he never expected something like that could ever happen but for some reason, he also felt happy.

“Yes?” she asked annoyed.

“I’m, I mean I once was… Arthur…”

Now she was even more taken aback. She looked at him in disbelief, then her face twisted with many emotions that Leo couldn’t read.

“I see.” She said finally and moved past them.

“Wait!” he shouted.

She stopped and turned around “Do you need something more?”

“No. Well, I thought that maybe we could talk or…” Jennifer tugged his arm lightly. He looked at her questioningly, then back at Jenny.

“You said right? That you were him, not that you are him and the last 400 hundred years changed me too so I don’t think there is much to talk about.” She said before moving away.

Leo wanted to say something more but stayed silent as Jenny walked away, not really understanding what he himself was feeling. He wondered what the pain he felt inside his chest meant.

As Jenny moved away far enough so that both of them couldn’t hear or see her anymore she started running. Opening door to her room she fell onto her bed and said “Idiot…” as tears went down her face “I’m an idiot.”