Rolada waved as I left the library with a smile that was a mile wide. “I won’t say anything as long as you behave.”

I sighed and leaned against the wall. “I assume this will be blackmail to get you more chocolate.”

“You are a smart little cookie,” Rolada teased. “I’m going to clean up for now, talk to you later at dinner hun.”

Her red hair vanished behind the door leaving me alone in the hallway. I heard the distant sounds of the minions working, and someone cussing up a storm. I followed the ill mannered storm of words and peeked into our training room.

Lin was wearing some loose fitting gear and struggling to bench press a weighted bar. The smooth stones pinned on either size were a good approximation of the real thing and I saw around her feet were more stones ready to be added.

“Damn it, I’ve gotten soft,” Lin grumbled.

Her arms wobbled for a moment and I could see she was fighting to get it up onto the holder. I started to swiftly move towards her until I saw a massive shape hovering nearby take a step towards Lin. It reached a single hand down and easily plucked it up out of her hands. It was placed back in the holder and the figure helped her back to her feet.

“That was better than last time!” Bent Plate cheered. “Soon you might be as strong as me, Lin.”

The beige skinned ogre was dressed in a brand new outfit, curiosity of Rolada’s new workspace. He also wore a brightly coloured headband with the words ‘coach’ stitched into it. Bent Plate was looking happier than I had ever seen him and a quick look around told me the training area had been well used, a reminder I should start coming more often.

“That had to weigh as much as me, that was impressive Lin.” I said.

Lin grabbed a towel and wiped off the sweat clinging to her face. She looked up at me and had a laugh. “A stiff breeze is able to send you into the air Josh, literally.”

I tapped the crystal on my cloak and frowned. She did have a point, but that was a magical gust of wind so it didn’t count as much. I swept my arm across the room, from the weight bench and rocks for lifting, to the sparring sand circles and the set of stairs for running up and down.

“I’m hoping to get in a round of workouts, any recommendations?” I asked.

Bent Plate cracked his knuckles and grinned. “I’ve always wanted to train a wizard. When I’m done I won’t have to worry about picking you up every fight, Josh.”

Back home I never went to the gym as much as I wanted, but I did try to do physical work where I could. I always made sure to lend a hand unloading the trucks at work, and I went for walks. Since coming to Ewyernar I had walked miles upon miles, explored and fought monsters. A bit of physical fitness should be a cake walk.

Apparently in the ogre world there was no mercy with workouts. Bent Plate ran me hard, chasing me around the jogging track, and trying his hardest to hype me up. He got me to do a hundred sets on the stairs and a hundred push ups and sit ups. Once that bit of fun was dealt with, which he claimed was only a warm up, he moved us onto the weight bench.

“This…is like a hundred pounds more than me!” I complained. The bar was resting against me and each time I tried to lift it I failed. “I might need a hand here.”

“Come on wizard!” Bent Plate shouted. “Lift!”

Lin sat to the side and sipped on a cup of tea. She was looking more rested after watching me work out for the last two hours, and had joined in on a few of the workouts with me. She hummed happily to herself as she rested her tail in her lap.

“Lift that bar and we can do a bit of light combat training. Then we can call it a day, Josh,” Lin said.

“If I’m not dead,” I wheezed. I gripped the bar tightly and flexed, lifting with all my might. “Come on!”

Strength check : Success!

+1 XP gained.

The bar shook in my hands as it lifted off me and made its way into the air. I pushed until I got it all the way up and set it onto the rests built into the bench, and breathed a sigh of relief. I was so spent I couldn’t even rise and had to get Lin and Bent to give me a hand to get back on my feet.

Bent slapped me in the back and knocked the wind out of me. “Awesome job today, we can do it all again tomorrow.”

“T-t-tomorrow?” I stammered, fighting to get air.

“Yup, every day. By the time I’m done you won’t even need a sword to fight zombies. You can be more like Bent Plate and punch them!” Bent let out a bellowing laugh that shook the walls.

“Hey!” Lin pouted. “You're not the only fist brawler here.”

“Oh yeah, the nice cat can slug pretty good. Even managed to knock Bent back a step, she's the strongest friend I’ve made recently,” the ogre beamed. He then looked around, crouched and put a hand up to his mouth. “Don’t tell the dwarf or he might get mad.”

Lin and I shared a light hearted laugh. Lin tossed me the towel, and once I was cleaned off she took me towards the sandy circle. On the far side there was a rack with a few straight poles on it, and she fetched two.

“Heads up!”

I barely had time to register that Lin was shouting at me when the next moment I heard a chunk of wood bounce off my head. I shot a hand forward and managed to catch it before it hit the ground. I blinked my eyes a few times and was surprised at how little it hurt.

“What was that for?” I asked, looking at my amused feline friend.

“I’m trying to help you raise your toughness of course,” Lin said, holding a hand to her heart and acting offended. “Can’t your favourite big sister Lin worry about your talents?”

I rubbed the sore spot on my forehead and clutched the pole. A better description would have been a staff. The wood was shaved smooth, covered in some kind of oil or stain and had fabric wrappings in a few spots down its length. It gave it plenty of places to get a good grip, and I took a few experimental swings with it.

“Hey, toss your extra gear to the side and put this on,” Lin said.

She tossed me a loose fitting white shirt and I saw her strip down to do the same. Bent Plate coughed into his fist and excused himself, holding his hands over his eyes as he stumbled out of the room blind.

I did as asked, tossing my cloak, shirt and sword onto a bench beside the little fight ring and pulled on the coarse white shirt. Lin had taken off her jacket and was right now in little more than her pants. Instead of the chest bindings she typically had on I saw she was wearing the purple lacy bra that went with my cloak.

“Fan of that?” I asked, raising a brow.

“It is amazingly comfortable, but give me a minute to put on my bindings. These damn things get in the way when I want to really fight,” Lin said.

The purple bra was tossed onto her pile and her large breasts were freed. The lovely sight was cut short as Lin tied her bandages around them to cut down on their movement when she dashed around. After that she also put on a loose white shirt and waved me over.

“Rub some sand and oil onto each end of your staff, it will help us keep track when we land a hit,” Lin said.

She showed me how to apply it and handed me over the small pot to dip the ends of the staff in. Once I did so I dug the staff into the sand under our feet and saw it clump onto the ends of the staff.

“This won’t hurt too bad, right?” I asked.

“Josh you're so sweet to worry about hurting me,” Lin smiled, and reached over to put a hand on my cheek. She closed the distance and planted a kiss on my lips, breaking apart only to whisper. “But you forget my toughness is better, and you have no hope to win this one.”

The rather predator grin on her face made me feel a chill run through my body. We both backed up and took our place on either side, with Lin taking a wide stand and sliding her hands far apart on the staff.

I tried to copy her, unsure of how to fight with the staff. It was just a stick after all, how hard could it be? It turned out very hard, especially when your foe far out skilled you and had a huge gap in stats over you.

Lin dipped, dodged or jumped over every single one of my jabs and sweeps. Each time I thought I was going to poke her with the end of the staff in my hands she would step back at the last possible moment. Then she would swing her staff up, knock mine aside and jab the end of hers into my shoulder, chest or side.

“Damn it,” I hissed as I was struck yet again. I looked down to see my shirt was covered in sandy marks and sweat. “Can you hold still for a second to pretend this is fair!”

Lin twirled some of her snow white hair between her fingers. She was trying to look stoic but I could see merriment dance in her eyes and her tail wouldn’t sit still either, tipping her hand.

“You have sat at the edge of the ring beside your stuff this entire time Josh, you need to move around a little. Come on over and dance with me,” Lin teased.

I wiped my brow and shook off some of the sand stuck in my hair. I looked behind me and saw she was right, I barely had moved from this end of the ring. We swapped places and once I crossed the middle of the ring I felt a strange jolt in my core.

“Josh, are you feeling well?” Lin asked, she dropped her staff and ran up to me to check on me. “You are getting really flush and look pale. Want to stop?”

I shook my head and struggled to get my breathing under control. “One more quick fight, if you manage to hit me three more times, let's call it.”

“O-okay,” Lin said, carefully. She backed up and grabbed her staff, taking a ready stance. “Let’s take a bath together after.”

“Sure thing,” I said with a smile.

I was already feeling better, and when Lin came at me this time I anticipated her moves. I stepped towards her as she swung the end of her staff towards me, bringing mine up to catch it in the middle section between my hands. Instantly I raised mine further, twisted to push the end of her staff away from me to avoid the jab and stepped around her. With our weapons locked together I let go with one hand and shoved the weapons to the side while twisting my whole body towards her in a wide arc. A loud slap echoed in the training room and Lin was left with a sandy handprint on the back of her pants.

Melee increased to rank II!

+2 XP gained.

Unarmed increased to rank III!

+3 XP gained.

“Wa-ah!” Lin cried, clenching up and dropping her staff. She spun around with her face turning bright red as she held onto her rear. “Josh!”

I scratched at my head and looked down, getting my sheet to appear. “I just got a new rank in melee and unarmed.”

“Off slapping me in the ass?” Lin asked in bewilderment.

I shrugged. “I guess so?”

Lin picked up her staff and again we got right into the duel. I started to feel more confident in myself, dodging attacks and recognizing her patterns. I had to stay on the defensive almost the entire time, with Lin being stronger she could push an advantage when she wanted to and dip back without any retaliation. She rapidly scored two more hits on me but when she pulled away I managed to tap her thigh leaving a sandy print.

Melee increased to rank III!

+3 XP gained.

“Hang on, did you just rank up again?” Lin asked.

“This…doesn’t seem normal,” I mumbled.

As we separated and I ended up closer to my equipment, I felt an immediate drain. I didn’t want this dumb stick, I wanted my sword. I could fight way better with it and I might have a chance to even turn this around.

“Gotcha,” Lin smirked, tapping me in the shoulder with her staff.

I blinked, and looked behind me at my equipment. I again walked away from it, getting to the midpoint of the ring and feeling a pull to head back to it.

“Lin, can you kick my stuff towards the door?” I asked.

She did so and I felt that jolt touch my heart again. I really didn’t want to be here all of a sudden, and I knew if I ran fast I could get past Lin and get to my sword before she stole it.

“Would you steal my sword Lin?” I asked cautiously.

“What?” Lin asked, she looked at the blade and shook her head. “Course not, it's yours. If you dropped it I would toss it back to you.”

“I think I’m starting to understand a bit about the curse on it. Mind if I tap you with my stick?” I asked.

Lin stuck out her tongue and wheezed. “We have already been through this Josh, you can touch me with your stick any time.”

“Lin!” I huffed. “Stop being horny for a second, I'm trying to figure stuff out like a proper wizard.”

“Don’t you have spells for this stuff?” Lin asked.

She had a point, but I didn’t have time to try and learn my identification spell at the moment. That could be a project for the coming week with Rolada, what I wanted to see is how stunted I was after carrying the sword for the last while.

Lin put up a playful fight with her staff, deliberately failing to block my hits and letting me lightly tap her. Her shirt was soon covered in sandy spots and when I tapped her on the shoulder for the third time another pop up appeared.

New talents available.

“What the hell-”

“Boop!” Lin surged towards me, tearing the staff from my grip and tossing it away with hers. She reached out to tap me on the nose but I ended up slipping on the sand and head butted her knuckles.

I crashed onto my back in a heap on the sand, but felt fine. The two of us were in stunned silence for a moment until Lin crouched down to tap me on the forehead.

“I win!” she smiled.

Toughness has increased to rank II!

+2 XP gained.

“Yeah, yeah you did,” I laughed. I held out a hand and thanked Lin for helping me back up. “Shower time?”

Lin took a sniff of me and spat on the sand beside her. She shuffled away and nodded. “Yeah, and use extra soap.”

…

“Ah, I can’t say this enough, this is the best thing that's happened to me.” Lin purred.

She eased herself lower into the bath, the hot water going up to her neck line. She lazily waved a hand towards the cabinet and hummed in thought.

“Mint, chocolate or citrus?” I asked, holding up the labelled pots.

“Why not all of them?” Lin asked.

I shrugged and poured a bit of each into the bath. A small coloured plume of smoke left the bath after each was added and we waited for the bright colours to die down before getting our hair wet. After I relaxed into the bath beside Lin I looked over at our dirty clothes beside the bath.

“Loser gets to wash the clothes,” Lin said, patting my sore shoulder. “But I’m nice, you can relax for a few more minutes.”

“Oh jeez, thanks big sister Lin for letting me use my own bath,” I said.

Lin flicked water at me and chuckled. “So what’s your big book brain theory with your sword?”

“I think… it was holding me back. Like the skill experience was there, and when I got far enough from the sword it just rushed back in to rank up the skills. When I was away from the sword I had this feeling like I needed it back, and I didn’t want to use anything else but it,” I said.

Lin raised a foot out of the bath and wiggled her toes before dipping them back into the water. I could see her stone cold expression as she was lost in thought, her eyes glazed over and starting into the distance. I became worried when she didn’t say anything for a while and gave her tail a playful tug.

“Hey, stop flirting with me when I’m thinking,” Lin said. She stuck her tongue out before leaning her head on my chest. “Now I’ve heard plenty about cursed weapons not wanting their owner to use anything but them. Usually the user doesn’t want it further than an arm's length from them and they get really upset when it's taken away.”

“How do you cure it?” I asked.

“Any decent caster with a remove curse spell can usually sever the bond. Most towns have a fairly strong court mage or cleric type that will do it for a fee,” Lin said. “However if it’s a more advanced cursed weapon then things get exciting.”

“Is mine...advanced?” I worriedly asked.

“If it doesn’t talk to you then you should be fine. I’ve never heard of a sword that hinders your growth however. What’s weirder is I thought your combat skills were going up because you were getting better at fighting,” Lin said.

“I’ll have to ask Yara to help out then, and store it away until I learn that spell with Rolada,” I said.

“Hmm.”

The quiet drip of water from the faucet was the only sound besides our breathing. I started to fall asleep and wrapped an arm around Lin as I held her close to me. The cat girl was very pleased with my decision and cuddled up to me for a few minutes of rest.

Lin yawned and smacked her lips together a few times before speaking, “Josh?”

“Hmm,” I groaned.

“It’s almost dinner time, so hurry up and wash my clothes!” Lin said, poking my cheek.

“Damn it.” I sighed.

I reluctantly broke the hug and got out of the bath, wrapping a towel around my waist as I filled a tub with hot water. I threw in a bit of soap, grabbed a minion crafted wooden washboard, and scrubbed our clothes clean. All the while Lin relaxed and stretched in the water.

“Wait, why am I washing them when I can use my Arcane Trick to do this?” I asked.

“I like the soap Burn makes because it sticks in my clothes and makes me smell nice for a day or two. I’ll let you use it to dry it, I’m not that mean,” Lin laughed.

“Fine,” I said, and got back to scrubbing.

Once I finished we dried off, got dressed and geared up to go upstairs. As I instinctively touched my belt I felt my heart drop and swivelled my head around in a panic. Clutched in Lin’s hands was my sword and scabbard.

“Thank Lin, for a second there-”

“Josh,” Lin said sternly. “Go upstairs, I need to secure this.”

My eye twitched and felt a sudden need to give Lin a little hug. She was just playing a game after all and didn’t actually mean it. I stopped myself in my tracks as an all too familiar sensation was taking place, a kind of suggestion in the back of my head to sway my thinking. Something I wasn’t going to fall for again.

Willpower check : Success!

+5 XP gained.

“That’s a good idea Lin. Alright, go hide it, but tell the others when I go for a walk later. I want them to be aware of this,” I said.

Lin must have had some understanding that I had succeeded because she looked very happy. “Glad to see you're in control Josh, I’ll meet you upstairs.”

I turned around and marched straight out of the bathing room, feeling a longing pull at my heart to go back. But no, not this time. I was determined to find a talent at this point to boost my willpower or get some kind of resistance. But that could wait for now, because when I got upstairs the scent of fine cooking dragged me towards the mess hall, it seemed our resident chef had outdone herself.