The sun rises over Nemeran, which was not the new name of the god, but the given name of the village that has been settled around a giant tree. The village composed of a wooden watch tower, 2 large huts, 5 regular huts, a sharpened sticks fence that covered the village in the perimeter that reached about 300 meters in length. The population: 13 kobolds and 1 god. Lesser god as a matter of fact.

It has been 3 days since the kobolds started their work on establishing their small village. They have shown why they were regarded as monsters that works fast be it on hunting or constructing. On this day, Nemer would be training them for combat. The adult and capable kobolds gathered around the altar, while the remaining 3 youngs stay in a hut playing. The gathered kobolds were listening to Nemer through their head, since they were about to start their training.

“Simply put, you are all weak and need some serious training.”

Nemer is ending his debriefing to the kobolds, who are very serious considering their faces has been focused solely on the altar.

“This is why I had you all work your village first to at least give you guys some muscles, but I don’t think these three days were enough for that.”

Nemer knew that this group’s constitution is absolutely wrecked as opposed to a normal kobold. Using Nemer’s [Arcus Vision], the Arcus of the kobolds are unbelievably weak. Not just the glowing kind, but they all feel weak. That is prominent by their thin and lean looking bodies. They did help with agility as they don’t carry much weight, but their lack of endurance and strength makes them laughably weak that a good punch will knock them out cold. Though every living being emit an aura from their Arcus, these group’s aura is almost non existent. They could be barely seen by [Arcus Vision] that it feels like they hide in purpose out of shame.

This was to expected since these kobolds were formerly slaves, and they were always almost given less than enough basic needs. They became frail and weak due to this, but became even faster. There is also the case of stamina. Although their body may look like a good clubbing will snap them in two, the countless days where they were given nonstop orders gave them incredible stamina. They were rebellious, but most of them were not stupid enough to let themselves die out of blind idealism. So they had to make do and did their master’s orders.

“Seriously, how did you all even survive out there?”

The kobolds just remained in silence. They turned their gaze away from the altar as if they tried to hide away their shame on how weak they are. ‘Probably shouldn’t have said that.’ thought Nemer as their pitiful faces made his heart twist in a painful way. He slowly returned normal when Barnon, his most trusted follower, didn’t move nor turned to look away in shame. His adorable dog face was filled with determination, and he knew full well that if he wants to make his lord not make that remark again, then they need to be stronger. Barnon has steeled himself for this very day.

Nemer was actually moved by this human-dog’s resolve. Those eyes tells him that this kobold trusted him with the fullness of his heart despite only being with them for only 3 days. He wanted to hug him right now, but his incorporeal body won’t allow him to. Barnen turned then around as he felt the same discomfort that his fellows had, so he wanted to cheer them up.

“Brothers, sisters, friends, my love. Do not avert your eyes in shame!”

The others then looked at their leader as he spoke. Their eyes clearly hinted that they seriously thought they would just become a hindrance and unhelpful to the protection of their village. With a stern look, he continued to speak.

“My lord, OUR lord, Nemer, did not speak that out of ill will.”

‘I really didn’t.’

“He merely inquired us on how did we survive out there. Not because he thought we were weak, but because he saw our potential.”

‘Yeah- wait what?’ was what was spoken in Nemer’s head. He was sure that the first reason was definitely why he asked that. As for the other kobolds, they started to feel inspired. That’s definitely what their god meant, right?

“Thus it is why he agreed to train us, to use that potential to the fullest.” raising his fist to chest-level and clenching it. “We were slaves before, but now we are servants, servants to our lord!”

‘Wait, slaves?!’ Nemer was in shock. Them being former slaves was surprising, because he thought that the agile and slippery creatures wouldn’t be caught and enslaved so easily.

“And with his divine protection, we shall offer our life to him. As his servants, we shall strengthen ourselves to be worthy to be called followers of Nemer.”

The kobolds now had renewed resolves. Their eyes glimmered with inspiration and strengthened will. All of their negative thoughts were washed away and replaced by this new and one ideal; eternal servitude to Nemer.

“So should we mope around? No! For the lord and us, we shall rise!” shouted Barnon as he raises his fist.

The other kobolds raised their fists in unison, as their voices preach praises towards Nemer. Barnon successfully reinvigorated the group, and he turned around to the altar to smile.

Rather than be grateful, Nemer became wary of Barnon after witnessing how his most trusted follower can be so cunning. He felt fear for once since becoming a deity. He shook it off, as this loyal kobold couldn’t possibly betray him. ‘Yeah… I know he can’t.’

“My lord, we are now ready for the training.”

Barnon spoke. Nemer eyed the group, the other kobolds had the same intensity of determination imprinted on their faces like Barnon. These kobolds are really eager to serve him, huh? His lips curled into a smile.

“Alright! Let us start! The first thing you’ll have to do is run around the clearing with 10 laps nonstop!”

The perimeter of the circular clearing is roughly around a mile , more or less. Nemer wanted to test their staminas first, since speedy monsters and people alike needed great air to be able to keep up with the strain on their body for being so fast.

“Yes, my lord!”

The kobolds then started to run the laps, fast. Holy moly Nemer couldn’t believe his eyes. In a matter of 3 minutes, 4 and a half laps were already done. The kobolds didn’t even break a sweat during their run. It’s as if they are already used to running. They are. Running away for their lives, that is.

Nemer watched them blaze through the laps as if they were nothing. They were more than running, they were sprinting at full speed. It’s as if their great speed made their images blur. It really wasn’t blurring them, because Nemer is just having trouble comprehending this speed.

Nemer knew the kobolds were fast, but he didn’t know that they were REALLY fast as balls. This only made Nemer like his kobolds more.

After they have done their laps in roughly 6 minutes, the kobolds slowed down until they went to a complete halt. As expected, the kobolds showed only a minor sign of exhaustion. There is now no doubt that their stamina is nothing to worry about.

“Great job!”

The kobolds perked up from those words. Hearing their lord’s words of praise filled them with glorious joy. They patted each other in the back and chuckled as they celebrate their little achievement.

“Now, I do not doubt your stamina anymore, but I don’t think I can say the same to your strength.”

The kobolds went serious again. Looks like their god is about to give another thing.

“You don’t have to train your strength to the point of ridiculous muscle mass. I just need you to have enough strength to be even faster.”

The kobolds murmured with each other. They thought of how could strength possibly help them get any faster, showing that they have little to no knowledge about anatomy.

“You speedsters may think strength is not important, but it is. In your case, it is more appropriate to say that you need controlled strength.”

The kobolds were confused. For one, they absolutely have no idea how could strength help them get faster. Their thought process thinks that strength is just pure brawling-punch-everything kind of attribute. Well, at least a certain orange kobold gets the drift of his lord.

And also, they are still close to the edge of the clearing. How can their lord’s voice still be clearly heard? Not that they mind it though. They are glad to have heard their lord’s voice.

“What I mean is that you will need good control over your strength. Right now, there’s nothing to control on your bodies.”

The kobolds looked over their bodies, seing their thin meats being showered over by sunlight. Some even pinched their arms, feeling only flaps of their skin. Probably the only limbs they have that showed a promising amount of muscles are their canine legs.

“That is why I’m going to fill all of you with some muscles, specifically in your legs. Strength in legs means much more powerful thrusts.”

The kobolds murmured again. ‘That is true’ is what they finally realized after that sentence. After all, if you can jump to a tree’s canopy, then you can definitely run a mile without a sweat.

“And to do that, you are all going to run again while carrying weights.”

The kobolds readied themselves. They were prepared to run, but what are they going to use as weights? There is nothing they can u-

“You are all going to use those extra logs over there.”

They couldn’t see where Nemer was pointing, but they understood what he meant. After seeing the surplus of logs they had stocked, their resolved wavered as the logs were long and big, heavy too. Barnon was about to do the run first, but his close friend Khrus ran to a log first and carried it on his back. The log he took was 6 meters long with diameters of about 20 meters. He took a hem rope that was laying around next to the logs and strapped the log to him.

After tightening the rope around his chest, he started to walk to the starting point. The weight of the log, which was about 53kg, made Khrus slow like a turtle and made him almost trip from some steps.

Seeing the determination of his friend, Barnon went next in line in taking a log. This one was roughly the same size with the last one. He strapped it around himself and also started going. Just like Khrus, he went incredibly slow.

The others were then again inspired and one by one took a log and carried them. Just like the two from before, they had a hard time carrying the log until they reached the starting point.

All of them where then positioned, and after Barnon signaled, they started to run. Nemer again couldn’t believe his eyes, because it’s as if he is looking at a snail race. Then again, those weak kobolds are carrying logs while trying to run, so it’s understandable.

Each step they took made them wobble a bit and made them almost trip, but that did not stop them. Their hearts were already set on their training, never letting their weakness get to them.

Their eagerness is commendable, but none would say the same on their fallen, exhausted bodies. Not a quarter of the lap has been travelled and the kobolds already gave up. They were panting heavily like they were about to die. Khrus, the first of the kobolds to take up a log, was behind the others when he was finally defeated by the weight of the log.

“This is going to take a while.”

Murmured the god while looking at his defeated followers.

For the next few days, the kobolds were trained morning till sunset. The kobolds went better with running under weights as days went over them, but they still hadn’t manage to do a single lap. Indeed, the training these kobolds had helped not only run faster, but also boosted their stamina and endurance.

The females were subjected to a less harsh training since Nemer remembered that female kobolds are naturally fragile and weak than the males. Rather than give them strength, he increased their agility by making them leap around the tree branches, which of course made numerous cases of kobolds raining from the sky.

The progress was rather slow, but was surely and steadily flowing. As to why the god, Nemer, was training them like this, well he merely needed the kobolds to be at least in the minimum standards of properly harnessing and using arcus, and having a fit body is one of them.

Trying to make the kobolds stronger through traditional means is certainly slow, that is why Nemer is rushing them to be able to do a much faster way of getting that good ‘ol power up; Arcs.

With Arcs, these kobolds would be able to properly handle their body, and not just that, but also use themselves to their full potential and be able to do feats normally impossible for anyone normal.

“OOOMPHF!”

But that will have to wait until Barnon stops tripping on himself.