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It had been 3 months since I started with the spear. I stood in the dojo once again, swirling my spear around in a complex motion that was meant to thwart an attack that came from 2 sides.

As I did so, I thought back to the first day of my spearmanship lessons.

"How did I do Master?"

"Not bad, 81 out of 100. I was scared for you for a second. You almost failed to meet my expectations."

"Thanks for the words of confidence."

"No problem."

'Hah, Master. You need to learn sarcasm.' I thought as I finished up the movement.

I turned toward my left where Master stood, looking at him expectantly.

He sighed, shaking his head in his hands.

"Disciple, I'm so, so..." Master stopped for a second, causing my heart to drop.

"Proud of you! I'm so very proud of you!"

'Oh, you motherfucker!' I thought, vowing to give him a taste of his own medicine.

"You perfected it. As expected of my disciple. Just 3 days."

'Yes, just 3 days.' I thought, smirking inside my head. Whilst my body and mind had genetically adapted to thinking of such long days as regular, my talent and comprehension hadn't. So, from Master's point of view, I perfected it in just 3 days, whilst from my comprehension's point of view, it took 132 Earth days. Almost half a year.

This was one reason Alexander was so talented, comprehending things in mere hours. For Master, it would have been hours, but for Alexander's comprehension, it was more than a day or 2.

'I'm so glad that didn't change.' I thought to myself. Had it, I might have died the first time I held a weapon.

"Pupil, you are very close to perfecting my spear. Once you do, we can move on to the sword. That will take you, I predict, about 6 months. Then the axe, and then the dagger, and then martial arts."

"I see." I said eagerly. This was the first time Master divulged any info about my training regime, so it was nice to know.

'I wonder how long Alexander took?' In the book, it was never specified how long Alexander took to learn, but I could estimate. 'He must have been almost 25 after training with Master.'

"But of course, you'll keep climbing the mountain." Master's words brought me back from my tangent.

'MOTHERFUCKER!'

"Oh right, disciple," Master spoke suddenly. "When's your birthday?"

'Hmm?'

"Um, if I recall, once translated to Universal Epoch, it's the 76th month and 24th day. Which is a Jovinox."

Jovinox referred to the 24th day of a month, and whilst I could go into detail about all 99 days' names and all 99 months' names, that would be boring and of little consequence.

"I see. So we have a good 24 months."

'Yeah, that adds up I think. I arrived during the 44th month, and have been here for 8.' I nodded at Master's words, and then set back to spear practice, having nothing else to do.

"Good initiative, disciple. Keep at it." Master spoke, walking away to watch as I practiced, a smile on his face.

---

'97... 98... 99... 100! 100 metrix. That's 500 miles.' I thought collapsing onto the snow of the mountain.

Not long after the conversation about my birthday, Master decided that I had perfected the spear. After saying that, he handed me a sword, and once again taught me the most basic of basics.

He gave me 3 tries again, but set the bar higher. I had to pass with over 85 out of 100. Not referring to mastery, just how well I do on the first try.

That time, I scored higher, getting 87 out of 100, a 2-point difference.

Again, Master threatened me with the mountain, so I did my best.

Unfortunately, 2 months into sword training, I made my first mistake.

Master didn't look angry, just disappointed as he told me to get on the mountain.

'I regret everything.' I thought to myself. 'This bloody mountain is the worst.'

I had just run 100 metrix up the mountain, which gave me access to a 20-minute break, but my punishment was 1000 metrix. I was only a tenth done.

Several times whilst running, I had yelled for Master to be lenient with his favorite disciple, but I was met with no response. It was not that he was there, no he was, with his bloody Fire ready to burn my ass, he just chose not to respond to me.

Soon enough, my 20-minute break was up, and Fire sprouted from the ground not a few meters from me. It crept slowly toward me at first, but upon spotting it, it instantly sped up.

Practically jumping into the air from my lying position, I began to run back up the hill.

'I swear you'll regret this!'

---

Even though I always swore at Master, both in my head and aloud, and swore to get revenge, and swore on this and that, I was still grateful for him. He was giving me an amazing opportunity, and as such, I put 110% of my effort into learning.

He was a strangely kind man, as in he was kind, but struggled to show it. Often, his encouragement came out as threats, or his words of advice came out as threats.

'Come to think of it, he threatens me a lot, doesn't he?'

Alexander's training arc hadn't been showcased in the novel, the only interactions in the book being the meeting and departure. Alex had also never learned Master's name, nor gotten Master to learn his name. As such, I was determined to do so.

'I may have less talent, but I'm a better student.' Although Alex didn't exist in this timeline, dimension, or whatever iteration it was, I felt a small sense of rivalry with him. Whilst I didn't know him, I knew about him. I knew that he was stubborn, kind, and dense. I knew that his existence, real or not, drove me to do better, for whatever reason.

Bang-

Breaking me from my thoughts, a knock resounded on my door. I got up from my bed and opened my door, only to find a disheveled-looking Master.

"Master?" I questioned, afraid to say anything else, just in case.

"Huh... disciple, I... need your aid." He said in between pants.

"Uhuh. For what." I asked, impassive to his struggle. 'Not this time.'

This had happened before. The last time Master came to my room, all messy and stuff, I spent the next 20 hours looking for a non-existent ring on the mountain.

"Well... disciple, you see... I lost my notepad." He began. "And so, I need you to find it."

"Understood," I said, knowing nothing I could say could change anything. I had hoped to avoid this, but he said it. There was no escape now.

"It's in one of these 3 doors." He suddenly stood upright, acting like a host on a TV show.

"In door number 1, we have a hot, steamy volcano.

In door number 2, a barren, frozen tundra.

And in door number 3, a special surprise chosen by yours truly." He said, pointing to himself at the end.

"Of course we do." I sighed.

"And the time starts now! Begin disciple. GO! GO! GO!" Master yelled at me. "Or I'll throw you on the mountain."

At his words, my feet moved automatically, placing me right in front of door number 1. I knew the notepad wouldn't be there, but I had a suspicion that not checking all 3 would lead to dire consequences.

I opened the door in a hurry and tossed myself inside. As it shut behind me, I heard Master speak.

"Ah, I love you mountain. You always work. Have fun, disciple!"

'Bastard.'

---

I stood in a volcano range, several volcanos around me seemingly ready to burst. The sky was blood red, and the moon hung low, an eerie, matching red. Beneath me was a bottomless darkness, and in front was a pool of lava.

The rockface of the volcano I stood on crumbled beneath my feet, threatening to break and send me into the abyss. I had to move.

To my right was the abyss, to my front and back was a pool of lava, so I had only one choice.

To my left.

I set off, trekking up the volcano in a sprint. Fortunately for me, these had an end in sight, and I quickly reached the top.

I stood at its zenith, a large ring around a mouth that led to a hungry monster. Mother Earth, or Mother something. Where I was wasn't Earth after all.

The maw gurgled and bubbled, occasionally sending molten balls of magma out, leaving them to land on its side as lava.

'Weird volcano,' I thought. 'Don't remember them doing that when they're not erupting... wait?! No way right?'

Unfortunately, I did not know what signs to look out for when an eruption was nearing, but that felt like a pretty clear sign.

I had to move quickly.