4 Training

The day after my first fight I was woken up by extremely cold water on my whole body. What followed after this abomination is 2 hours of running in the forest, but not by following the paths, not I needed to make my own path and when I was too slow my grandpa was behind me with a stick and would hit me where it hurts the most. This very one stick is all I had to kill something and eat it for breakfast. I had only one hour to cook breakfast.

As I did not find anything except some edible berries I needed to make through the 5 hours of training with next to nothing in my belly.

It was hell... I repeated 5 movements for 5 hours, one for each hour with my stick. My arms, back and legs were hurting me so much!!! For lunch I also had one hour to find food and eat it. I was very lucky because I found a normal rabbit, not a monster, in only 15 minutes. I passed the next 25 to catch it and kill it. I made fire in only ten minutes also, I knew the theory in my past life so the parctice was not so hard. But here I had a problem, I only had my stick to skin the rabbit. I asked for one cutting thing to my grandpa and his answer was:

"I did not think that you could find games the first day, so here my knife, be ready in 17 minutes ."

I cut one leg of the rabbit, pull off the skin and coat and put the leg beside my fire. Approximately 10 minutes later I ate it, it's was not well cooked but it would do the job.

The afternoon was consisted of two hours of katas with the moves that I learned in the morning, and a beating... Grandpa yelled "DODGE " and just after the beating started. He took the demonic stick of death and used the movements and katas from before to hit me. I dodged till I was unconscious, then grandpa took me to the pond I woke up there. Some leaves were floating beside me, and all my bruised and aches were healing. I slept in the pond till I smelled food.

As I was sitting at the table my grandpa told me:

"Do you really want to continue? The training will be sometimes easier than today, but also a lot harder. You can give up if you want."

"No grandpa, each things you taught me will be useful later so I wish to continue."

"Fine then, we will continue like that, now I will teach you techniques, you can ask me to teach you anything and I will explain the theory in the evening, the day will be for the practice. As you are still young, we will not work a lot on your muscle but more on your speed and agility. Do you understand? "

" Yes grandpa"

"So what do you want me to teach you tonight?

" I want to learn to find food, and how to dodge things, is there a technique to run too? "

" Okay I will teach you that. "

This training regimen continued for months, it was easier day by day but 8 months later he brought weights and said "now it will be harder".

It was hell again, like the first day again. Even worst because he wanted me to be faster and stronger so the hits were quicker, harder, even the morning run was extremely painful, and I completely skipped breakfast for the first time because of my tiredness. He also told me to always wear those weights.

Exactly one year after the start of my training, this means the day after my 5th birthday he showed me a big chest filled with different weapons. He explained how I was supposed to choose my weapon of choice and told me to choose one main weapon and one secondary weapon.

This day I choose my two most important possessions for the years to come.

The two swords that I choose were my birthday presents. On was larger and longer that the other one, made to slash the enemies, and rip through his armor. The other one was more like a stiletto, made to pierce through the cracks of the strongest armor, habitually seen in assassin's hands, it's a weapon to kill in the dark, of done well, the enemies could be dead before even knowing it.

I know that in the original anime, the hero is supposed to have a daguer but it didn't appeal to me.

My next year of training was spent learning new moves with my two weapons, and familiarizing myself with them. My physical torture also continued as my weights kept increasing. But now I'm habituated, I don't need my grandpa to wake me up anymore, I even likey morning run, and now I start to be faster than grandpa. I'm still winded at the end but I recuperate faster too, and finding food in the wood is now very easy for me. I really see my improvement and even grandpa is saying that I'm not bad for my age. But what I prefer is our bonding moment in the evening, after he taught me to read, and showed me the mini library, we mostly talk about his life when he was younger. He even confessed that he was Zeus, the god of a really powerful Familia before. But that in the past, and now everyone is either dead, in another Familia or in another kingdom. He talked about the city of Orario, and the perils of her dungeon.

The next step in my life happened when I was nearly seven. I was dodging of my grandpa strike when suddenly some pain in my eyes made me stop. I received a hard hit on the side but just after I heard a sharp intake of breath from my grandpa side. I quickly asked his what happened and his only answer was:

"Your eyes."

I went in the house and in the mirror I saw them, my eyes, and the one black sclera in the middle of them. I unlocked my bloodline!!!

I heard grandpa coming and so I turned around to see him.

He asked me:

"How do you feel? Does it hurt? Bell?"

"Not at all it feels good! It's like my eyes were foggy before, I can see so well!!! It's fantastic!"

" Do you feel tired? Sleepy?"

"Not at all! I so full of energy!"

"Good then, we will watch this new development carefully to be sure that this is nothing bad."

"Do your thing that the sclera will remain in my eyes?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Not important. "

"Good then let's go back to training."

This day I nearly avoided every hit from my grandpa.

The week passed and I'm now fully habituated to my new eyes, yesterday dodging passed without a single hit.

The next day, as I was preparing myself for the dodging lesson grandpa came with a shield, gave it to me and yelled :"BLOCK". And i tried to block. For the first few hits I also tried to dodge and as it was instinctual, grandpa went home and returned with ropes. He bonded my lower body with them and said now use your arms, and do not move out of the way. It was painful. Very painful. And the first thing I said after dinner was"teach me to block".

As years passed I became more familiar with a lot of weapons. From ranged weapons like the bow, to hand to hand combat. Because your body is a weapon too. I became stronger, faster, and grew up well. I'm now 14 and have a body make for speed, strength and violence. No muscle was in surplus but all were more condensed than a normal human.

Indeed, we discovered that even if I'm not in any Familia and not blessed I'm naturally stronger than a level 2 adventurer. We think it's because of my eyes. I now have 4 sclera in one eye and 3 in the other, grandpa told me that the fourth will be here in on or two weeks.

I'm now fairly proficient in a lot of different weapons and a master in the art of the sword and stiletto. I know how to be an assassin, hide in the shadow but also how to fight anyone sword in hand, parry with my two blades or with a shield. I now win most of the fights with grandpa. I can also easely life in the wild, find food, build a shelter. In the last year we killed some monsters with grandpa to have some experience. After years of training, I'm now a true warrior.

Today is the day I leave my grandpa and home. I will go toward the city of Orario, and grandpa will feign death... Apparently he wants to be alone without all the gods asking him anything.

Our farewell was short but emotional, grandpa is my mentor and also like a father for me.

His last words were:" And Bell don't forget to pick up girls in Orario, remember, go into the dungeon, save the girl and marry her!!! It's the way for an adventurer to find love, so do like your parents and be happy... And yes I said girlsssss."

And we parted ways.