Smooth, but great progress

They stopped and breathed to relax an hour later, falling backward from exhaustion.

"It's certainly harder this way." Isla said as she smiled.

Although she wore light gloves that protected her hands, they were still red and sore.

Matt nodded at her words while sweating profusely. This time, the training was more complicated, though satisfying.

He smiled and rechecked his power.

-3,200-

That was the number that came up, which made him frown again.

'That much? Is it because the training was more complicated?' He thought with a frown.

He had consumed exactly the same amount of blood, and the training time was the same; it's just that this time, the training was slightly more complicated, so that alone could be the case.

Still, this made him happy.

"Awesome, Matt. You already have 3,200 power." Isla said with surprise and a smile upon seeing this.

Matt smiled and passed her the ball so she could try it, too.

She did, and soon, a number appeared over the top.

-2,820-

Matt nodded, "Not bad. Almost 3,000 already." He said, congratulating her sincerely.

She smiled a little; she was happy to see this.

Her training was paying off.

So, they soon got up and started training again.

Thanks to the fact that they had blood this time, the training was more entertaining and enjoyable for both of them, so without realizing it, they had spent three more hours training without even stopping to test their powers while Matt was teaching Isla several things about where to hit to do more damage and some more tactics to make the training more effective.

After these three hours, they fell backward, totally exhausted.

Matt's hands were even bleeding.

"Hah... Hah... Hah... God, these things are really heavy... Hah..." Isla said with great exhaustion, though she had a smile.

She couldn't help but be happy this time.

Even though she wasn't giving any more.

Matt was the same way, though the pain in his hands and the blood pouring from them made him feel more sore than usual.

"Are you okay, Matt?" Isla asked after she had rested for a moment and stood up a little to look at his hands.

He smiled and nodded, "Don't worry. They'll heal in time." He said and tied several bandages.

After that, he tested his power.

The last time he saw 3,200, how much was it now?

-3,310-

Was the number displayed, leaving Isla totally stunned.

"That much!?" She asked in shock and grabbed the ball quickly to verify that she wasn't seeing wrong.

She stared at him for a moment in shock. But she wanted to test to see her progress.

In three hours, he managed to climb to 3,310 from 3,200; then, how many would she manage up?

So, she quickly looked, but was disappointed.

While she had advanced quite a bit, it didn't compare to Matt, who had moved up 110 power points in 3 hours.

She only moved up 50 points to 2,870.

Still, she thought of something.

'Wait... 50 points in 3 hours, isn't that a bigger increase than I've had so far?' She thought. And she thought about the advancements she had made before this training. Even achieving some progress in 1 hour was complicated, but now she had ascended 50 power points?

Realizing this made her smile, and she didn't care if her advancement had been less than Matt's; she looked at him with joy.

"Matt, that was 50 points in 3 hours!" She said with a big, innocent smile on her face.

Matt smiled seeing her like that, 'Yeah, she's a great girl. So much so that she doesn't seem to feel jealous; she's so happy about her progress despite seeing someone who did similar training to her, progress twice as much or more than she did.' He thought, smiling.

"Congratulations, it looks like the training is paying off nicely." He replied, and she smiled happily at his congratulations, though she just the same ended up falling backward soon after.

"But I can't anymore..." She said, smiling, and then looked up at him.

"Your progress is more incredible, though, Matt. You've gained so much in just three hours; you seem to be special." She said as she looked at him with a beautiful smile and some sleep in her blurry eyes.

Matt smiled at seeing her like this, "Don't fall asleep on the floor." He spoke.

She smiled some more, staring at him. Her eyes gradually grew darker from exhaustion, and she fell asleep without paying attention to his last words.

Matt saw this and sighed as he shook his head.

'This girl...' He thought.

Still, he did not get up as soon as he saw her fall asleep.

He was immersed in his thoughts while remembering some things for a long time.

An hour later, he sighed.

He carried her back to the bedroom and laid her on his bed next to Alice. He went to sleep in the next bedroom, which was alone.

They were to leave tomorrow, but a good workout before was always good.

.

The following day, Alice woke up early and found a pretty face sleeping near her, which surprised her. Still, realizing it was Isla, she calmed down.

'Looks like they trained last night... I was so exhausted I didn't even notice.' She thought and then got up to get ready.

Soon, Matt woke up, too, and Isla followed close behind.

"Shall we go?" Matt asked after a quick breakfast, and after a moment, they left the Academy.

"Matt, let's not go to the Academy Trade City. It's better if we go all the way to the West Trade City; I can introduce you to a very good blacksmith there." Alice spoke.

"The West Trade City? I heard it's very big." Isla said suddenly, and Alice nodded, smiling.

"It is a city several times larger than my City of Allen and has a very diverse population. Many races live there. Elves, dwarves, and other interesting races. There are all kinds of attractions there." She replied, smiling, after remembering that big bustling city.

Matt naturally had nothing to say. He agreed to this. It's close to the city from where they will depart in search of the dragon, so it's better.

So, with those words, they caught a train going toward the West Trade City, which was far from the Academy.