At this rate, I could get a chapter out every 2~4 days even with a fractured dislocated dominant thumb.*

*subject to levels of determination+inspiration-pain

I also heard that moving a wounded area repeatedly makes them heal faster, or does that only count for muscles?

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

Burkhard led Aimi back to the earthen house. Aimi, all the while following Burkhard, thought of a name for the blue tailless raccoon-likea animal hanging on her shoulders. Eventually, they left the forest and arrived at the earthen home. The two, or three, of them found Cavaron standing next to the pool next to Avani and Tirta. Cavaron turned around to face Aimi.

"If you want to keep that Azursa as a pet, you better take good care of it." He said as he welcomed Aimi back. Aimi broke her line of thought from thinking of a name to, 'How did he notice Aomi? No, wait... Azursa?' Aimi glanced at the blue fur ball next to her head, she apparently had already named, and back at Cavaron.

Cavaron let out a wry smile as he saw Aimi staring in confusion, "Here in Edeortha, that thing is known as an Azursa. By the way, that's still a baby. Give it a few years, say half a decade or so, and it will grow up as big a real Terran Grizzly Bear." and explained, "You really are walking the path of the Summoned Heroes. Aside from contracts, like I do, quite a lot have made friends with multiple fauna across worlds and became their companions. Although, it is more difficult to bring them with you as you get summoned around, unlike having contracts that stay home but arrive as soon as you summon them."

Aimi stood there taking in every bit of information he just said. Looking back at the baby Azursa she named Aomi, she felt an indescribable bond with it. 'Is this what he meant? I feel a bond between us when I first saw it.' The baby Azursa looked back at Aimi and licked her face. "Pfft, haha! Stop it! Geez."

Cavaron went closer, "By the way, that's a female. The tail defines their sex, I hope you gave it an appropriate name." and said.

Aimi nodded, "I already have." and replied, "I named her, Aomi."

Cavaron went wide-eyed and let out a laugh. "Why are you laughing!?" Aimi angrily asked, "What's so funny!?"

Cavaron, still laughing, "Pfft... Aha... I... Kh... I never thought your naming sense would be so simple." replied, "I thought you'd give it a powerful name like Ao****ra."

This time, Aimi was the one who went wide-eyed, "How do you know that? You've played it?" and asked in disbelief.

Cavaron nodded, ripped space, and pulled out an item. It was fairly long and flat with four buttons on either end and three buttons below what appears to be a screen. It's a portable gaming console found in SciTech, especially Terran, worlds. Cavaron activated the device and showed her a game stored inside it. He showed her a game where players hunt for monsters with other players or AI companions.

Aimi's jaw dropped, "How in the world did you get something like that!? How does someone like you who is well-versed in magic know how to use that!?" and screamed.

Cavaron put away the console in a rip in space, "When you get to live as long as me, you can get to learn A LOT of things in your spare time." and replied to the girl who had nothing but questions but it is to be expected since she is just a newbie. "Anyway, let's move on. Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Aimi asked as she raised a brow.

Cavaron revealed a wide grin, "For your training, of course."

---

Aimi had already accepted her fate as a summoned hero. With her new companion, the Azursa Aomi, her resolve strengthened.

Cavaron led Aimi to an open area behind the earthen house. For some reason, a training area complete with training dummies, and stacks upon stacks of weapons and ammunition appeared without Aimi realizing it. In fact, when she was looking for Cavaron earlier, the training area wasn't there but a portion of the forest. The training area was large at 300 square meters. It was divided into two areas, one had a range and the other had wooden golems created by Avani.

The range had targets at 100 meters, 200 meters, and 300 meters. Some were also mobile, moving left and right, up and down, and diagonally. The wooden golems, assumed as a melee training area, were of different sizes. Some were big, others were small. There were also wooden golems shaped like monsters or had a strange structure depicting a variety of possible enemies.

Where they stood had tables and racks of weapons. The range had, naturally, ranges weapons such as bows, crossbows, slings, darts, boomerangs, throwing knives, and even guns. The melee training area had swords, spears, staves, daggers, hammers, axes, and even unorthodox weapons like metallic fans, chains, whips, and frying pans. Aimi looked strangely at Cavaron when she saw the frying pans making Cavaron reply, "It helps to prepared for any situation." and shrugged at her.

Aimi, expecting to receive a crash course, was instead ordered to sit down. She was about to ask why until Cavaron explained, "We will practice using your mana first. It's easier than immediately having you go through the gauntlet." Hearing so, she sat in a Lotus position and awaited further instructions. Cavaron called for Tirta, "Prepare to use your Water of Recovery in case she drops to a fever. We will burn the mana into her memory as it grows little by little." Aimi flinched when she heard what he said and was about to run for it. However, Cavaron grabbed her shoulders immediately, "Welcome to our life." and said with a grin.

Having no other choice, she shivered as she accepted her fate.

Cavaron's instructions were simple but difficult to achieve. All she had to do was feel her mana and let it flow according to her wishes. Multiple times, she fainted from Mana Exhaustion from overuse and misuse of mana. Other times, she fell into a fever from the sporadic explosions of uncontrolled mana making Tirta cast Water of Recovery each time Aimi did so. Cavaron had Aimi undergo such torture-like training until lunchbreak.

Lunch was fairly simple with if you ignore the fact that Cavaron made Bitter Melon salad and fed it to Aimi saying, "The bitter, the better. Just like medicine." Aimi was starting to think that she flipped Cavaron's switch, from the torture-like training to even food. She began fearing for her life every time she looked at him. Tirta flowed next to Aimi, hugged her, "Oh, don't worry so much. From his stories he told me years before, his training was much worse. Besides, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." and playfully said.

After lunch, Aimi continued the grueling task of controlling her mana until dinner. At least, she had a breath of relief since there was no training after dinner and she was free to spend her free time doing something else until bedtime.

---

The Azursa Aomi followed Aimi into the bath and got into the bath. Aimi sat inside with it after pouring a bucket of warm water over herself. Inside, Aimi played with Aomi for a while until she rested her head on the tub's edge, deep in her thoughts.

Aomi swam around the tub of warm water and eventually got tired of it before climbing up on Aimi's shoulders. Aimi snapped out of her trance and decided to get out of the bath to sleep. Getting out, she found a basket of loose fitting sleepwear next to her. It was plain white and made out of cotton. It also came in two pieces, the upper garment and the lower garment. Aimi figured that it came from Cavaron and pushed away the thoughts of the pain from the training earlier.

Putting on the sleepwear, she decided to retire for the night since she will have busy days ahead of her and will have to grab much needed rest at any given opportunity.

Inside Aimi's room, the big Kabigon was on the bed along with a plain white pillow. Cavaron noticed that she only took the stuff toy and none of the pillows earlier so he snuck one inside when she was in the bath. Aimi is starting to think well of Cavaron as an elder brother taking care of his new younger sister. Aomi, seeing the massive stuffed toy, launched from Aimi's shoulders and landed on the Kabigon's belly nestling in it to sleep. Aimi simply smiled and laid next to the two, "Good night, Aomi, Kabigon." and slept.

---

After Aimi went to sleep, Cavaron was outside absorbing the mana from the mana-well. Under the moonlit night, he looked like a solemn statue guarding an area. The output of the mana-well was greater than the Belfron Mana Pylon. If the Mana Pylon was an artificial construct that absorbed and distributed mana, and was purposely designed as a weapon, the natural occurrence of the mana-well provides undiluted, raw, and powerful mana. The Mana Pylon provided one week's worth mana a day but it is a far cry from the raw mana the mana-well provides. For each hour he spends absorbing the mana, Cavaron gains three days' worth of mana. In fact, when one uses Mana Sight, the mana-well is not merely a "well". It is a massive geyser of magical power that erupts from within the earth. Ordinary people will feel an elating feeling in its presence, but trained magi will feel the grandiose splendor it gives off.

That is the reason why Cavaron said to make this area their base. It is to reap the benefits of being on a mana-well and have him regain ten times as much as the Mana Pylon. Cavaron remained absorbed in his endeavor for almost the entire time Aimi was asleep.

After eight hours of absorbing mana, Cavaron awoke from his trance to greet the rising sun. 'Three weeks average for eight hours. Hahaha.' he thought to himself, 'The gods of fate must love playing with me.' Ever since the beginning, Cavaron has repeatedly praised and cursed the heavens for the hell they have given him. A blessing and a curse, such is the life of the Summoned Hero known as Cavaron.

---

After Cavaron awoke, Aimi was being nudged by Aomi. It seems that the Azursa has a sense of time and decided to wake her friend. Aomi repeatedly nudged on Aimi with the target responding by turning over her body to the other side. Aomi, seeing no other recourse, decided to dive into Aimi's clothes and tickle her directly by licking her.

...

..

.

"HYAAAUUU!!!!" Aimi screamed. "Aomi, what are you doing!!!??? Stop it!!!!"

The Azursa crawled out of the sleepwear and made a gesture like saying, 'Well, you won't wake up. I had no choice.' and leapt off the bed to the bath.

Aimi sat up disheveled staring dumbly at the Azursa's actions. She looked at the nearby floating shield who only shrugged, and stared out the window to see the rising sun. "Ahh!!! Morning!!!" Aimi immediately ran off to clean herself up and have breakfast before she is put under the grueling training regimen.

Like the day before, Cavaron had Aimi go through mana control training while Tirta was on standby near them. It continued until lunch time where Cavaron made another Bitter Melon dish. Same ingredient, different dish. However, the only bonus it had was the presence of meat. The Azursa, Aomi, took off to the forest and brought back berries for her to eat since she noticed how Aimi's face turned ugly at the sight of the bitter melon. Strangely, as though normal for Azursas, Aomi was able to pack thirty thumb-sized berries in her mouth and were dry when she let them out. That was a nice revelation for all of them since Aomi can be used to gather some food and store them while traveling. Aimi rubbed the Azursa who gave her respite from eating the Bitter Melon.

After lunch, training changed. This time, Cavaron had Aimi pick a weapon and a type of armor she intends to use. Before Aimi lay numerous weapons with each type having varying sizes: bows, crossbows, boomerangs, darts, arrows, throwing knives, slings, guns, swords, axes, daggers, halberds, staves, hammers, scythes, whips, metal fans, bombs, and a variety of other conventional and unorthodox weapons.

Next to the rows and columns of weapons, stacks upon stacks of armor covered the area: shields, bucklers, energy and mana barriers, elemental guards, light clothing with varying effects and defenses, light armor with similar abilities, large and bulky armor with robust defenses, magical equipment that augments the wearer indefinitely, and the like.

If this were a video game, it would have been a debug room or a treasure trove of broken realities. Aimi could only stare at the resources Cavaron has gathered over the years in the business, 'This is definitely a cheat.' and thought about the cheat-like existences before her.