“Knock! Knock! Knock!” Alhen opened his eyes widely and sighed.

  ‘Seems like I’m not getting any rest after all,’ he thought before standing and approaching the door.

  He activated his blessing as he placed his hand on the handle, and when he made sure that nothing was going to happen to him, he opened it.

  In front of him lay his mentor; he didn’t have any visible expression on his face, looking at him with such seriousness that he wondered if he had done anything wrong.

  Fortunately, his worries were unfounded, as the next second, Alaran began to talk.

  “Kid, I have not seen you for a while; even started to think that you had died. Fortunately, you have not, as you would not be able to train."

  "Follow me; this time, we are going to be doing something somewhat different for your training,” he said.

  Alhen’s heart dropped, and his mood took a complete 180-degree turn.

  He was glad to see his mentor first, but he had forgotten that his mere presence meant that things wouldn’t turn out so great for him.

  He sighed and accepted his fate, getting prepared to head out and following his mentor outside.

  As they walked through the halls, Alhen started asking questions about what had happened in his absence.

  “What have you and the father been up to? It has been a while since I’ve been here,” he commented.

  “I was dealing with some personal stuff and arrived earlier this cycle at the church. Any matters regarding the father, I am unaware of, but if you are curious, then you can ask him yourself,” he said.

  Alhen shook his head and said, “I don’t care enough to do that.”

  Alaran fell silent, and that was the end of the conversation. That was until Alhen’s stomach grumbled, reminding him that he was dead hungry, as he hadn’t eaten anything for the past few cycles.

  Alaran noticed and sighed before taking him to the dining room, where he ate his “favorite” and only dish, soup.

  This time, however, he enjoyed it.

  After having eaten nothing for many cycles, anything that entered his mouth tasted amazing, and that included this soup, which smelled like shit.

  After eating, Alhen thanked the chef nearby and left with his mentor.

  Instead of being directed towards the arena like always, they left the church and entered the narrow streets of their district.

  As they walked, he couldn’t help but think about the danger.

  ‘If Alaran has been out all this time, then he might be unaware of the state the Kingdom is currently in. I have to warn him in case something happens,’ Alhen thought.

  Alaran noticed that Alhen wanted to talk and stared at him, waiting for him to do so.

  “Alaran, do you know the state the kingdom’s in? There are many dangers, and there is political unrest."

  "No one is leaving their homes, and I have encountered various assassins who want my life. I would have died if not for my increase in rank.”

  Alaran was listening with an ear half open until his full attention was caught by Alhen’s words.

  “Kid, are you telling me that you have increased your rank? Let me see,” he demanded.

  Alhen showed his sign after activating it, which glowed a faint yellow. Alaran remained staring at the sign for a few seconds, wondering if what he was seeing was real or not.

  “How is this possible? Anyone I know would have taken at least a few years before they reached Hunter rank. Kid, what exactly did you experience while out on the job?” His mentor asked.

  Alhen had a complicated expression, but he ultimately ended up telling him everything that happened.

  He told him how he had saved the princess and his struggles for survival after the fact, and also his experience in the Shrill Forest, ending with how he had killed Bernard.

  “I remembered what you told me about only absorbing the energy of someone that you killed, and since I had killed Bernard, I absorbed his energy,” Alhen explained.

  Alaran shook his head and held the side of his head, as if he had a headache.

  “What you did was completely reckless and stupid. I did not tell you this because I thought you were too weak to do it, but absorbing the energy of a way higher quality than yours almost always ends up with you dead.”

  Alhen didn’t understand what he meant until he remembered the process of absorbing the energy in which he had almost failed.

  ‘I understand that it’s somewhat harder, but it’s not impossible,’ Alhen thought.

  “Listen very closely, Alhen. Why do you think that many people are low-ranked in this kingdom? It is not a coincidence; some people take many years to rank up, and some never do,” he began.

  “To rank up, one must absorb Benedictio Lunae from other creatures, but it also depends on your ability to handle that energy."

  "Many have a limit on what they can achieve and store in their bodies; even after continuously absorbing more energy, it will only lead to their death.”

  “Absorbing the energy like you have done back in that forest is unheard of for normal people. The only one I can think of that did that was Father Vincent in his youth,” Alaran finished explaining.

  Now Alhen understood more about signs and energy, and thinking back about what he had done, he now saw that it was indeed risky.

  He thanked his heart that he was still alive, considering that he’d almost died.

  “Thanks for letting me know; I will definitely not be as reckless in the future,” Alhen said.

  “As long as you are careful, you should be fine. Considering what you have done, it is a good thing. It means you have more potential for achieving a high level; you might even have the potential to become a Sol,” His mentor commented.

  Finishing that dialogue, they fell silent, and Alhen focused on following Alaran to wherever they were heading.

  ‘If I remember correctly, a Sol is the ultimate rank of being a hunter and the same rank Father Vincent is at.'

  'If I have the same or even a higher potential than him, then it’s only a matter of time before I catch up and kill him,’ Alhen thought.

  A small smile formed on his face, and he couldn’t wipe it off for a few minutes as he thought about killing the father.

  ‘Wait a second, Alaran didn’t seem surprised when I told him about the situation of the kingdom at the current moment. Could he have known one or two things about it? Let me ask.’

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  “Alaran, do you know why the kingdom is in the state it currently is?” he asked, but got no response back.

  Seeing that his mentor had no intention of answering his question, he dropped it and kept on walking until they came across the exit.

  It was left completely unprotected, something that felt more than irresponsible considering the current circumstances.

  Alaran opened the gates and closed them after going out. The forest came into view, and that was when Alhen asked where they were going.

  “We have been walking for quite a bit now. Isn’t it time you tell me where we are headed? I don’t want to go in completely blind,” Alhen commented.

  “All I will say is that we are going underground, and we will have to walk for a few hours to reach our destination."

  "I am sure that you will quite like what I have prepared for you; be patient,” Alaran said, and for some reason, Alhen couldn’t bring himself to trust him.

  They walked until they reached a big hole in the ground. It was massive, and looking below, he only saw darkness; the bottom was not in sight.

  “I believe you said that I would like what you had prepared for me. For now, I’m not impressed,” Alhen commented, but his mentor ignored him.

  “We are going down; be careful not to slip, or else you will die. If you do, I will personally haunt you after your death for making me waste my time,” Alaran warned.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t die. Let’s just get this over with; the faster the better,” Alhen responded.

  His mentor nodded, and they started descending. Alhen had the advantage of small hands and a lighter body, which made the descent easier for him.

  Alaran was on the side, climbing down with effortless movements. He seemed to flow like a wave as he went down without any sort of trouble.

  Alhen looked like a helpless kid beside an experienced rock climber.

  The footholds were severely lacking, and he found himself struggling to keep advancing downwards in complete safety.

  To move down, he had to employ some dangerous moves, but his descent was smooth, at least almost to the end.

  As Alhen went to go down, the foothold broke, causing his feet and fingers to slip. His body plummeted to the ground, but fortunately, the floor wasn’t as far down as he thought.

  He activated his blessing and landed on the hard ground, feeling the air in his lungs leaving his body.

  He lay still for a few minutes until he caught his breath, and his mentor came to check his condition then.

  “Get up, kid. You are not dead yet, and you have to do something important. Come on, get up,” his mentor offered his hand, and Alhen took it.

  The cave was fairly big, and a moderate amount of moonlight illuminated their surroundings.

  On a wall, he could see a tunnel that led who knows where, but he guessed that his training would be in there.

  He was surprised that his mentor seemed calmer this cycle; maybe it had to do with the personal matter he was handling before this training plan.

  “Thanks. So, do you mind explaining to me why we are here?” Alhen asked.

  “Kid, what did I say about being patient? You will see in a few minutes; for now, we will set up our stuff here. We will stay for a few cycles of training in this cave before returning to the kingdom.”

  He sighed and ultimately stopped asking questions, accepting his fate and trusting that his mentor had something planned out for him that would help him drastically.

  “Very well, you will not eat or drink water during the few cycles that we are going to be here. I want to push you to your limit; that is how you are going to grow during this time period.”

  After hearing the first sentence, Alhen’s mind blanked, and he wondered whether he had heard correctly.

  After hearing the second sentence, Alhen realized that his mentor wasn’t joking and he would seriously have to survive whatever his mentor was planning for training without eating or drinking anything.

  ‘I should have known better than to go with my mentor. I should have thought of an excuse to avoid this torture.'

  'No eating and drinking? Just tell me to die at that point; you don’t have to disguise this as training,’ Alhen complained in his mind.

  “Kid, are you listening? Go start running right now. We do not have time to slack off. If I see that you stop for even a second, I will start beating the shit out of you, so run now!” Alaran shouted at him.

  Alhen quickly straightened up and began running laps around the cave.

  The humid and warm environment made him sweat endlessly, and his clothes stuck to his body like a newborn baby to its mother.

  He struggled more than normal, and when he got halfway through the running warmup, he started feeling exhausted, something that wouldn’t have happened back in the arena.

  ‘Crap, I feel suffocated. There’s not much space, and I’m starting to feel lightheaded. Just focus on running, look forward, never down, and keep going,’ he repeated in his head.

  This was something he started doing whenever he trained with his mentor because if he didn’t, he found himself falling behind.

  Even when he felt like dying and stopping, he didn’t, because he constantly reminded himself to keep going.

  After he finished the full warm-up, it was time for the real deal.

  His clothes were drenched, and he could barely walk without feeling like he was going to pass out. He took off his clothes in an instant with some difficulty, as they were stuck to his skin.

  He was left only in his underwear, but at that point, he didn’t care about modesty.

  His mentor was the only person there, and he only cared about making him stronger and guiding him to become better.

  “Good, now that you have finished the warmup, it is time to train with the axe. You will have to get used to using it, as there are times when your revolver will be ineffective,” his mentor began.

  “Someone might be able to counter it easily, or wihts will have a great defense that it just cannot get past. Having multiple ways to kill your opponent is always a good thing; remember that,” his mentor said.

  Alhen just nodded his head; he was so tired that he couldn’t even open his mouth.

  He picked the axe from the ground and waited for instructions, but his mentor just stood looking at him without showing any emotion on his face.

  Alhen understood internally what his mentor was trying to say and rushed ahead with a calculated expression.

  ‘Now that I have ranked up, I might have more of a chance against him. If I play my cards right and am careful of his attacks, I might even get to defeat him,’ Alhen thought.

  All the positivity in him, however, vanished the next minute when, despite all his increase in reaction time, speed, coordination, and strength, it wasn’t enough to even touch his mentor.

  He still evaded his attacks effortlessly. Alhen even started thinking that he was dodging him better now that he was ranked higher.

  ‘How is this possible!? I knew that Alaran was holding back, but I just didn’t know that he was doing it to this extent.'

  'He seems like another person, more relaxed, carefree, and lazy, but he still manages to be better than me.’

  He gritted his teeth and attacked with all his strength, trying to do everything in his power to even touch a little bit of the leather of his mentor’s jacket.

  After a little trying, however, his mentor switched from the defensive to the attack. He unsheathed his cane, revealing a deadly blade, and rushed at Alhen.

  Alhen was left struggling to fend off potentially lethal attacks that would kill him if he weren’t careful.

  He was sure that his mentor wouldn’t kill him, but injuring him was another matter entirely. The pressure was too great, and he didn’t know whether he would be able to hold on for long.

  Just as he thought, after deflecting a few strikes of his mentor, who was holding himself back, his axe was knocked away, and the tip of his unsheathed cane threatened to pierce his neck.

  Thankfully, it stopped millimeters away from doing that, and Alhen was left frozen in a state of shock.

  ‘That was way too close!’ he exclaimed in his mind.

  If his mentor didn’t have this much control over his body, he would have died right there and then.

  “Kid,” his mentor began to speak.

  “Do not believe for a second that just because you have ranked up, you can slack off or think yourself better than someone. Do not believe for a second that you can’t be killed just as easily as you were before.”

  Alhen listened to him earnestly, forgetting about his tired state just to receive his wisdom.

  “Listen, kid, without your sign, all you have is your Lord’s blessing, but your body will not improve."

  "Without having it activated, anything can kill you, no matter if you are a Sol or not,” he paused, letting Alhen absorb his words.

  “People with high ranks train themselves relentlessly to improve their reflexes to activate their signs as fast as possible, but that does not mean they are unkillable."

  "Do you know where I am going with this?” His mentor asked, but didn’t wait for an answer.

  “It is not just that, but being skilled is more important than being strong. Up to a certain point, strength matters, but you are still a human; you will die if you are not careful."

  "Skill is the gap that closes everything, and if you have both, then that is how you become unstoppable,” Alaran said.

  Alhen understood immediately.

  Just because he had gotten stronger didn’t mean that it made him special in any way. He was still lacking technique and skills, and he was still as vulnerable as before.

  He took a second to process this information and store it in a place where it would likely never be forgotten, and he allowed himself to smile.

  “Thanks, Alaran, for your advice. You answered all my questions at the moment,” Alhen said.

  “Thank me if you come out of here alive; the real test is starting soon,” he said.

  Alhen didn’t know what he was talking about, and his mentor told him to follow him through the tunnel in the wall.

  After walking for a while in the tunnel, they arrived at a point where he saw a big hole just like the one they had entered from.

  Inside this massive hole, multiple wihts lay walking aimlessly or killing each other.

  They looked low rank, but the sheer quantity of them made a cold sweat run down his back.

  “This is your test, and this will be where you will be staying for the two cycles that you are going to be here.”

  Alhen widened his eyes and looked at his mentor with disbelief, who didn’t seem to care about him and his life.

  “You will be forbidden from sleep, eating, and drinking; all you can do is survive to the best of your capabilities.”

  “Do you want to kill m-” Alhen didn’t have time to finish as his mentor directly kicked him into the hole.

  As he fell, he screamed, “Damn you!”

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