15 Perseverance

Butch carried Steve towards his room and put him on his bed. Steve was drained in sweat and would probably be out of it for a while.

Next to his bed stood Cara, Olivia and Butch. They looked quite worried, they hadn't ever seen someone collapse from training before. They had trained hard themselves, but never as hard as their newest addition to the legion did just now.

"He's been training quite hard isn't he?" Butch asked.

"He has, just look at the weight he has lost this month. I don't know what it was, but today it almost seemed like he was possessed. Your speech must have had quite an impact on him, Butch." Cara said.

"Did he show any special abilities yet?" Olivia asked.

"Aside from his astonishing progress he makes with his training, I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary," Cara replied.

"I'm starting to like the guy, but don't forget the reason we took him in in the first place. He's an earthling, we need to find his ability." Olivia said as she left the room together with Butch.

"I'll try..." she hopelessly said as she saw the others leaving the room. She was quite frustrated at the fact that she didn't know how to groom an earthling. Did they randomly gain their abilities? Did they need to be in a specific environment? Apart from knowing earthlings had abilities, she didn't know anything about unlocking the ability.

All Cara could hope for was for Steve to awaken his abilities, and hope that his ability would help them out in combat. It would be a way for their legion to grow.

Seeing Steve drenched in his own sweat, Cara decided to clean him up a little bit with some cloth and water. In the end, she decided to read some of the books laying around Steve's bed.

'he has really become addicted to training and reading books now, hasn't he...' she thought, secretly happy that he was not wasting his time in the outpost.

---

"Where..." Steve woke up but quickly stopped talking as he realized he was in his own room.

He noticed Cara sitting next to his bed, staring at him angrily.

"What happened to me?" he asked.

"You overworked yourself. You actually trained until you collapsed, you idiot! Listen to your body and stop training when you can't go anymore, you're going to hurt yourself!" Cara said to him.

Steve was quite surprised at seeing a soft side to the usually strict Cara. She was actually taking care of him, like his wife back on earth had always done for him when he got sick.

"I... I'm sorry... I just... I want to get stronger! We're just sitting ducks out here in this forest! We can't go out at night because we'll get killed by the monsters... On top of that, in daylight, we now have to be careful of that stupid Corps too! As much as I like it here, I don't want to spend the rest of my life in the restrained area of this barrier." he started speaking.

"I want to take Acrine back! In order to be able to do so, I need to get strong enough to kill those monsters. Or, I need to get strong enough to get back at that Obsidian Corps," he continued.

"I'm going to stop you right there, Steve." Cara interrupted him, "You're not alone in this, you know? All of the people present in this outpost have lost family and friends in Acrine. Do you really think you have to do everything alone? That you're a chosen one?! You haven't even unlocked your ability yet! We are a team, don't you ever forget that! We want to take Acrine back as much as you!" she said with an angry tone.

Steve became silent, he realized he really was trying to do everything on his own. Although he was accepted into the Legion, he was not yet thinking as a team. He was mainly focussed on his own development, not the development of the group.

"... I... You're right Cara. I shouldn't try to do everything on my own."

"At least you have some common sense in that stupid head of yours..." she bluntly replied.

"..."

"What is the main purpose of the Legion right now anyway? Are we just trying to survive in this forest, since Acrine ha...." Steve stopped talking, as he figured out it was too insensitive to say out loud that the village they were supposed to protect had fallen.

Even though he hadn't finished his sentence, Cara understood what he was trying to ask.

"Do you think Acrine is the only village in Elea? There are thousands of villages like it. On top of that, there are cities so big that you can't even imagine. Everywhere, mages rule. They are all hungry for power. They are all fighting each other, trying to expand their territories. What they forget is, the real enemy are monsters. We need to unite and eradicate monsters from this world. Those mages should pay for their actions. Without a human aspect, they are no better than monsters." Cara said.

"I see... " was all that Steve managed to reply. He could sense the sadness and anger in Cara's voice, it seemed like she cared deeply about her world, but was absolutely furious at the people that ruled their lands.

"I'm going to help you, Cara. Let's get stronger together, to kill those filthy monsters!" Steve told her.

"I'm glad to hear you say that. Now go and rest a bit more, we'll talk about getting stronger tomorrow. Goodnight, Steve" she said as she left his bedroom.

When Cara left, Steve decided to check the messages he had received earlier, just before passing out.

[Ding!]

[You have gained a new ability: Perseverance.]

[Perseverance (level 1) (passive skill): By forcing yourself to go beyond your limits, you have gained this new skill. It automatically activates when you are about to collapse from exhaustion. When activated, you will be able to persevere a little longer and gain an additional 10% strength and stamina for 40 seconds. After the skill is activated, it can not be activated again within 24 hours. Train this skill by going beyond your limits.]

'This is my first skill?! I can gain skills?! I love you system!! I love you so fucking much!!' Steve thought, while a bright smile was plastered on his face.

After thinking about it for a while though, his mood turned sour. 'Why is it a passive skill? And why does it have a 24-hour cooldown?? Give me active skills with low cooldowns! Give me overpowered sword skills that I can actually use in combat! You shitty, shitty system!'

It seemed like he had built a love-hate-relationship with his system.

Another message was still on his retina...