Maya's potential

Without looking at the oncoming fist, Alex yawned and effortlessly caught the hand aimed at his face.

"Not happening today, kiddo," Alex said, not even bothering to turn his head toward his attacker.

"Tsk," Maya clicked her tongue in annoyance as she retracted her arm. "It won't be long before I wipe that smug look off your face. You can start counting the days," she stated with a determined expression, her eyes full of resolve.

"Yeah, yeah, if you say so," Alex waved dismissively, heading toward the campfire.

With his high defense stat, the biting cold of the freezing surroundings didn't faze him at all, which was why he casually walked around shirtless.

"Hmph, we'll see how cocky you are when I finally plant my fist on your cheek," Maya snorted, her voice tinged with frustration.

"I'm already trembling," Alex chuckled, settling down on a log by the campfire.

The reason Maya was so hell-bent on landing a punch on Alex's face stemmed from a bet they had made. A few days ago, during a training session, Maya had managed to land a hit on him. Of course, that was because he was busy eye-fucking his sister bending down to collect twigs to make fire. Still, it was impressive for someone who was a complete novice not too long ago.

Seeing Maya act smug, Alex proposed a challenge. If she could land another hit on him, he would grant her any wish. She could attack him however and whenever she wanted—even a surprise attack wasn't off-limits.

At first, Maya was elated, thinking she had found a loophole to get what she wanted. But her joy quickly faded as she realized her earlier success was pure luck.

Since then, Maya had been trying relentlessly to land another hit, only to face failure after failure.

"The food will be ready in a few minutes," Amelia informed as she approached Alex.

Without needing any prompting, Alex shifted slightly, making space for her to sit between his legs.

"I missed you," Alex whispered, gently nibbling on her ear.

Amelia giggled softly and retorted, "I barely left you for a few minutes."

"That's too much time to be separated from you," Alex murmured as he planted a tender kiss on her cheek.

"It's too cold around here," Maya complained as she sat across from the siblings.

"Of course you would feel cold if you walk around wearing so little," Amelia scoffed at the young woman.

Maya glanced down at her body and blushed slightly. Currently, she was wearing just an orange top that barely covered her well-proportioned chest, leaving her flat and slightly toned tummy exposed.

"Seriously, from all the habits you could have picked up from him, you had to choose his habit of walking around half-nude," Amelia shook her head and sighed.

As Amelia noted, the more time the young heiress spent with Alex, the more his behavior rubbed off on her, and she began to pick up some of his habits. One of those habits was addressing people with a sarcastic tone, and the other was walking around shirtless all the time.

Though, if Alex had a say in it, he would claim that Maya walking around in just a top was purely to distract him during their sparring sessions so she could land a hit on him. Not that he was complaining about her choice of attire. Who was he to stop her from dressing however she wanted?

After this brief exchange, the siblings once again began to ignore Maya, flirting and laughing among themselves as if she wasn't even there, which only made an irked expression appear on Maya's face.

It was extremely annoying seeing them get all lovey-dovey in front of her, but thanks to that, she realized that the two of them were indeed in love, madly in love with each other.

After a while, Maya, who was almost dying from hunger, cleared her throat, "Ahem, I think the food is ready."

Amelia stopped giggling and glanced over. "Oh, you're right," she said, standing up to check on the meal.

Moments later, she placed several plates between Alex and Maya before withdrawing a few meters from them to eat in peace.

"Why are you staying over there, sis?" Alex wondered as he took a plate in his hands.

"I would rather not have food spilled on my clothes," Amelia smiled knowingly.

Alex and Maya, who had scurried over to the plates, glanced at each other before shrugging.

After this, they began eating, and it wasn't long before Amelia's precaution was proven right.

The area where Alex and Maya were eating became somewhat of a battlefield as the two of them indulged themselves with reckless abandon.

As it turned out, increasing his strength hadn't come without a drawback for Alex. His hunger and the amount of food he needed to consume to sustain himself had also increased dramatically. But it wasn't surprising; it was common knowledge that some people, as they grew stronger, needed to eat much more than before.

What was actually surprising was the amount of food the young heiress of the Drazen family could ingest. She ate as much as Alex!

Despite her medium build, Maya had an ogre-like appetite that the siblings only discovered as she became more comfortable around them.

As Alex and Maya ate together, looking like barbarians, it wasn't rare for food to spill everywhere, which was why Amelia preferred to keep her distance during their meals.

"Eat like a noblewoman; you look like an ogre eating like that," Alex chided, throwing a piece of bread in his mouth and swallowing it after barely chewing once.

"I will when you start eating like a nobleman," Maya snorted as she filled her mouth with a piece of roasted meat.

"Hmph, brat."

"Old man."

Watching their banter, Amelia chuckled softly, content to enjoy her meal in peace, far from the chaotic energy of the two gluttons.

After a while, the three of them finished eating, but they didn't immediately resume their journey. Instead, Alex decided to spend some time training Maya.

By now, she had made tremendous progress, having mastered the basics long ago. In fact, her rate of improvement was so astonishing that it left both siblings in awe.

When Alex first began teaching her, he wondered if Maya's perfect memory would aid her in quickly learning how to fight. After a few days of training the redhead, he could confidently affirm that it was indeed the case.

Even more surprising was the fact that Maya mimicked Alex's fighting style with unnerving precision. From her stance and footwork to the way she defended and attacked, it was almost like watching a mirror image of himself in battle. However, this similarity in style led to frustration for both of them during their sparring sessions.

'Is this how Viviane feels every time she spars with Scarlett?' Alex mused as he deflected yet another of Maya's attacks.

Of course, he understood that the fighting styles of Viviane and Scarlett were quite different. Both women relied on their intelligence in battle, but while Scarlett adapted her moves based on her opponent's actions, Maya was merely replicating what she had been taught. In this case, since she had been taught Alex's way of fighting, she could somewhat predict his moves.

For now, Maya could only do this when fighting Alex, but in the future, if she continued to train, she might be able to learn and incorporate a variety of techniques. The more techniques she mastered, the easier it would become for her to adapt and learn even more.

At some point, Alex speculated that Maya might even reach a level where she could adopt a fighting style just by observing it for a short period. When that time came, Maya would be a terrifying opponent for anyone. However, that time was still far off; it wasn't something that would happen anytime soon.

After finishing Maya's training, Alex shifted to his own regimen. Though his current training methods might be ineffective at increasing his physical stats, he continued them regardless.

After hearing about Zid from Lilia, Alex realized that maintaining regular physical training was essential if he ever hoped to awaken that energy.

'Come to think of it, I wonder how Lilia is doing,' Alex thought as he balanced upside down, his legs in the air and his body supported by the strength of one arm.

Without changing his position, he instructed the system to display his wife's status. But what he saw shocked him to the point that his concentration faltered, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.