“Nnn…”

Mia started to come to, regaining her consciousness she once again found herself in the outside training area. The sun had risen, reaching its peak in the sky signaling a significant amount of time had passed since early morning. She sat up and noticed the princess was no where to be seen, instead it was just Rowan and herself.

Rowan was perched on top of a large cage covered by a drape, occasionally growling could be heard coming from inside, and was staring up into the sky. Noticing her movement Rowan tore his gaze towards her “Oh, look who decided to wake up.” He dropped down from the cage “I don’t know what you said to te princess, but she is running rampant around te castle, even demanded I upped your training.” He said, knocking on the cage with his dagger. “Too busy to even be your healer.”

Mia stood up and dusted herself off, focusing on the cage and the apparent growling beast within.

Chuckling at her gaze Rowan spoke “Oh, tis? We will get to tis in a moment.” He approached her, leaving the cage’s side “Firstly let me make one ting clear.” He stood in front of her, blocking her view of the cage “Jump.”

Confused, Mia looked up at him, then it dawned on her as she felt the collar around her neck tighten. She jumped in place, the collar loosening up after she fulfilled her order.

“Got it wit tat?” A smug grin spread on Rowan’s face “Te princess didn’t half-ass it like last time, she properly transferred some autority to me. Your ass belongs to me till training is over, so listen up!”

Mia nodded, inwardly sighing.

“Good.” Rowan brought out a parchment and looked it over “Says here you already got [Dagger Arts] from our last training session… Impressive, if not annoying.” He looked up from the parchment and glared at her.

Mia expected him to hit her, like he so readily did in their last session, but was surprised when he didn’t. She guessed it had something to do with the princess, still though, how did he know? She didn’t tell the princess about the skill she apparently got… so how?

“Heh, Te princess Didn’t trust the hero’s appraisal and got her own done on you. To her surprise it was all correct, minus skill levels. Parently her lackey has a lower leveled appraisal then the hero.” He shrugged, putting the parchment away “Tis makes things easier, princess wants me to put things aside and be serious, so I shall, for now.” He said, clearly agitated at his circumstance.

Mia found herself somewhat grateful towards the princess, but quickly reminded herself that even though Rowan wouldn’t needlessly kick her for fun, he was still her trainer and was bound to find a reason to hurt her… like what ever was in that cage.

Rowan dropped a dagger onto the ground then commanded Mia to pick it up “We will start wit your skill, [Dagger Arts].” He took a few steps back as Mia bent down and picked up the dagger “Having a skill for a weapon improves your ability to wield it. You should have noticed a difference between yesterday, give her a few swings.”

Mia complied, swinging the dagger a few times in the air and now that he mentioned it, she did feel that something was different compared to the first time she picked it up. While not having a solid understanding of it, it was like she could just some how know how to better swing it. When to twist her wrist, what cutting angle she should use, and even how to properly thrust the dagger forward when stabbing. All this knowledge flooded into her head.

Rowan nodded in approval “Good, tat is the effect of weapon skills. Having weeks wort of training known effortlessly. You picking up tat skill as fast as you did…You eiter have affinity for tat weapon or te hero smuggled you a skill orb. “

Mia also vaguely recalled the hero saying it could also be the effect of a title, but without being able to read her own status she had no way of knowing. She decided she should just be thankful it was making her life easier, giving the dagger a few more swings in satisfaction.

“Don’t be getting ahead of yourself.” Rowan said, “learning skills fast has its own downsides.”

Stopping her swings, Mia looked up in confusion “What mean?” how could this have any downsides? Sure, she got a bunch of knowledge instantly, but she was still training with it. Besides, from yesterday she could tell she wouldn’t be able to win against Rowan, yet, just because she had a dagger skill, the guy didn’t even use his daggers yesterday and just kicked her. The difference was plain to her.

Rowan shook his head, raising his shoulders up in a shrug “I will use skill orbs as an example. Say someone finds a skill orb for [Sword Arts] at a high level and challenges a fresh out of training knight with level 1 [Sword Arts]. Who do you tink wins?”

Mia crooked her head to the side “The knight?”

“Wrong, te kni- huh?” Rowan paused, looking at her in confused amazement “…why do you tink tat is?”

“The knight… had training, experience. Other, got instantly. Doesn’t understand. “

“…” Rowan stared at her, his face contorted in brief anger before his expression relaxed. He then saw Mia as she crooked her head to the side and wordlessly, he turned away from her and approached the cage.

Odd, Mia wondered. Thinking she might of said something wrong. She watched as he uncovered the cage, revealing the green loinclothed figure inside.

The figure inside was a male green skinned humanoid creature no taller then Mia. It had long pointy ears, a bald head, black clawed hands, sharp pointed teeth that poked out from it’s closed mouth, and a distended belly. The figure growled, shielding it’s eyes from the sudden sunlight.

“Tis is a goblin, your opponent for today.” Rowan kicked the cage a few times, The goblin inside protesting with high pitched growls “Levels are increased by several different methods, studying, learning new tings, training, even something as mundane as working at your job everyday earns you experience towards your level. You still being level 1 is, in short, amazing. A 6 year old can get to level 3 just by playing around and living his life…”

He then gestured to the angry goblin besides him “of course, te fastest way to increase your level is to kill. Experience gained tat way is based on your level versus theirs, and how dangerous te thing you killed was to you.” He placed his hand on top of the cage “Tis goblin, for instance, is level 10, unarmed, and is pissed off.”

A shiver ran down Mia’s spine, she knew exactly where this was going. She lowered herself closer to the ground, wielding the dagger in front of her.

“You are level 1, with your highest stat being intelligence, which you cannot use, but you are armed.” He smirked, reaching down to the cage’s handle “Good luck.” He then opened the gate and immediately leaped to the side lines.

The goblin took one step out of the cage and glanced towards Rowan, it let out a shriek and then noticed Mia. It snorted, taking one more look at Rowan before wiping it’s nose with its forearm. “Gwuah” It growled, hitting his open palm with it’s fist and cracking its neck as it started to approach her.

Mia pointed the dagger towards it and kept herself at the ready, remain calm… She told herself, it was just a goblin, the first goblin she had ever seen. The first monster she had ever seen, the first real battle she would have…

Just… remain calm…