Training

When I woke up, Arachne and I were long gone from the death room. When I asked her why, she replied that I wasn't ready yet, then apologized again, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

I was still too weak.

Without telling me where we were going, Arachne carried me around the cave, until we reached a modestly large room, with piles of gnawed bones almost everywhere.

By now I had gotten quite used to seeing things like this, so I didn't feel fear, however, a question arose spontaneously.

'Is it the work of one or more monsters?'

That question was answered shortly thereafter.

A being resembling a wolf, but much larger, at least as large as Arachne, stepped out of the shadows ahead of us. It was massive, with dark gray fur, had an angular muzzle and two ash-colored horns that came out of its forehead, these were at least 40 centimeters long and were slightly curved upwards. Its muscular paws then ended in milk-colored claws, dirty at the tip with dried blood.

His gaze hinted at a mixture of serenity and malice.

°°Arachne! How long! °° A cavernous voice poured into my mind.

°°Fner… I have to ask you a favour…°° my mother said.

°°As always, straight to the point, huh? Well, I've always liked this side of you, well, what do you want then?°°

°°As you see, I'm not the only one here…°°

Fner looked at me, actually, he had already noticed me for some time, perhaps even before Arachne and I arrived in that room.

°°I see that you finally made it to become a mother, HAHA, but a human?!°° The wolf stared at me with a little thirst for blood.

This made me shiver, my thoughts became lazy, the pressure that his only gaze put on me was absurd, almost as heavy as that liquid I felt outside the death room.

°°Calm down Fner!°° Arachne's voice rumbled in my mind, and, immediately after, Fner took his gaze away from me.

At that moment I felt helpless, I wanted to ask my mother many things, but I could not speak.

°°He is Umut, my son, who recently became mana-bound, he single-handedly awakened his center, and single-handedly improved his mana channels… so, is he still just a "human" for you?°°

Hearing so good things about me from my mother made me happy, but one thing about her words made me frown.

'Have I improved my mana channels?'

I thought back to the sensations I had felt… um, one? Two days before? It was a little difficult to keep track of the days underground.

Indeed, during the process in which my mana center was formed, I felt as if my mana had flooded my entire body, escaping from the channels it used to flow through, however, I didn't think that process had borne any fruit other than creating my 8-shaped center.

'Isn't that… I'm some kind of g-genius?!' Then I thought back to how my old family treated me just because I had no talent, 'Ha-hah…' I laughed a little embarrassed just for thinking that.

I knew that my ease with creating my mana center and improving my mana channels was only due to my recent morph.

Fner and Arachne looked at each other for a while, I didn't quite understand why, maybe they were talking to each other about something? I couldn't know, or at least I wasn't skilled enough with mana yet to figure it out, or maybe I was?

I tried to squint into the space between them, I knew the telepathy used by both Arachne and Fner was magic, so maybe I could catch a glimpse of her with my new eyesight.

After a while, I saw something, it was like a semi-transparent and blurry tunnel that connected the heads of the two.

'I can see a connection between them…it's telepathy, isn't it?' I wasn't sure, how could I be? However, that was the only explanation I could find for what I was seeing, what else could it be?

'What are they saying to each other…' I was curious, but I didn't ask.

After a while Fner snorted, closing his eyes as if thinking about something, then looked at me, his gaze was penetrating, but not as oppressive as before.

Then, he looked at Arachne.

°°Well, I'll do it…°° he said not too convinced.

'Do what?'

°°Well… Umut! From today I'll be your sparring partner, HAHA!°°

'Eh?'

"EH?!"

'Him, was I supposed to fight him? Madness'

He was at least ten times than me, or so it seemed to me anyway, and not only that, he had the same presence that Arachne had, as if the two were somehow existences on the same level. A level as distant from mine as the roots of our world are at the tip.

And I was supposed to fight HIM!? I didn't even know how to use magic yet.

°°Umut… this world is ruthless… especially with those who are weak, so you'll have to get stronger…°°

"Y-yes but-" Without letting me finish speaking, Arachne continued.

°°I will teach you how to fight and how to use some magical techniques, and you, every month, you will fight with him… one of the Unbeaten of the Demomachia…°°

I wasn't too sure about it, and besides, what did undefeated mean!? I mean… he never lost? And I was supposed to fight him?

°°UMUT!°° Fner roared, °°Aracne has done so much for you! Even more than you think and know! Getting stronger is the least, THE LEAST YOU CAN DO TO REPAY HER!°° His voice was deafening, fierce, acid, but also as charismatic as fear.

I looked at Arachne, she didn't seem too happy with what Fner had said.

However, his words made my uncertainties disappear…

"I can't wait to fight with you!" I yelled at Fner, who looked at me with a satisfied grin.

…his words, however, also raised some other doubts in me.

'What did he mean by "even more than you think and know?"... What did Arachne do for me that I don't know...' Sadly, I couldn't find an answer to my question.

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And so, my training began… well, actually, first of all I asked my mother what the unbeatables were.

Well, her elucidation on the subject only increased my esteem and fear for Fner.

There were 5 unbeatables in the Demomachia cave, Arachne and Fner were two of them, so called precisely because they had never lost a fight in the years they lived down there.

Apparently the other three were an emerald green bug resembling a mantis, another was a huge skeleton clad in midnight blue scale armor, the last one was a slime… yes, a slime, a being considered among the weakest by humans, and in fact they are usually weak, but in this cave it was better not to ask too many questions about certain things...

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And so, my training really began.

My mother believed in the practice, and for this I trained my body for a whole month, every day taking it to the extreme, and, already after a month, I felt twice as strong as before, I was faster and more agile, stronger and more resistant.

This made me very satisfied.

However, when I found myself in front of Fner I realized how weak I still was. I was so weak that I was beaten by a single Fner sigh, literally.

The second month, I learned to hunt, my mother taught me how to make my presence almost null, how to use mana to power up my muscles, and how to lightly touch up my nails with mana to create sharp claws.

I used what I had learned against Fner and this time it took three of his sighs to almost send me to the other world.

The third month was based on repeating and improving what I had already trained in the previous months. It was a month of consolidation.

I learned nothing new this month, yet I became an extremely lethal hunter, so much so that I was now able to hunt beasts even bigger and stronger than I was.

This month has also helped me to improve my judging the weaknesses of my opponents.

Against Fner I resisted until his fifth sigh.