WIEDERGEBURT Chapter 11

Kari was like a completely different person while she was training me. The always kind, always soft demeanor she possessed, the gentle smile she would wear, evaporated the moment we started.

“Forty-five… forty-six… forty-seven…”

Within the quiet forest hundreds of kilometers from Nevaria, my voice rang out as I grunted, struggled, and sweat. I was doing pushups. However, these were not normal pushups. Kari had found a boulder that must have weighed a couple of kilos to put on my back. Now I was struggling under the weight of what felt like a two hundred ton mountain.

“F-forty-eight…”

“Keep going,” Kari urged me with a cold voice. “Don’t stop until you reach fifty!”

She was standing off to the side, watching me. Since we had fled with only the clothes on our backs, she was wearing the same outfit today that she had every day. Her breast plate, shoulder pads, grieves, and vambraces had been removed, revealing the simple white tunic and pants she’d been wearing underneath. It was looking a little dirty and ragged these days. Even if we washed our clothing in the nearby streams and rivers, some things just couldn’t be helped.

I wondered if Kari had always possessed this “strict trainer” side of her, or if the years of being married to Grant Leucht were the reason she cultivated this cold personality. Being married to a man you didn’t love, especially one who seemed to define the word “evil”, would have forced anyone to shed their kindness. Then again, the destruction of her home, the loss of her mother, fathers, and brothers, and everything else could have also been reasons for this as well.

“F-forty… forty… nine…!!”

My body was shaking. My arms felt like they were going to fall off. My back groaned in protest at the weight sitting on it. Sweat poured down my face, chest, shoulders, legs, and arms in rivulets that stained my clothes. If this kept up, I was sure I would die!

“Come on!” Kari pushed. “You only have one more to do!”

I gritted my teeth as I lowered my body until my nose was almost touching the grass. My muscles spasmed as I tried to push myself up. Just one more. I only had to do this one. Come on. Come oooooon!

“Fif… fif… fifty!”

I did it. The last pushup of the morning. However, even as I congratulated myself, my body was giving out. The weight of the boulder was too much for me to handle after straining my body so much.

That was when Kari rushed over and kicked the boulder off me, sending it racing across the forest like it was a glass ball. The rock smashed into a tree, shattered the trunk, and continued moving for nearly another two meters before striking the ground with a thunderous “BOOM!” that shook the earth.

Having already seen her perform similar feats, I didn’t gawk, but damn, Kari was strong.

I was lying on my stomach as Kari stood over me. I’ll admit, I didn’t think I cut a very masculine figure. I probably looked like a worm, but I had long since shed any sense of masculine pride I may have had… if I’d ever had any to begin with.

“Can you stand up?” Kari asked as she held out her hand, her stern demeanor completely gone. Replacing that cold personality was an innate kindness that warmed my soul. Her lips were turned into a gentle smile and her eyes were like gems as they stared at me with compassion.

I couldn’t help but think of a carrot and a stick.

“Yeah…” I pushed myself onto my hands and knees, and then reached out and placed my hand in Kari’s. She pulled me to my feet.

“You did a really good job.” Kari smiled at me as she tucked a stray strand of golden hair behind her right ear. “I honestly wasn’t expecting you to complete all fifty pushups.”

“Then why have me do all fifty?” I asked. I wasn’t complaining. This was what I had asked for, after all, but I was curious.

Nodding as if she expected me to ask this question at some point, Kari answered me. “To give you a goal to work toward. If you have a clear goal, you can push yourself harder.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I groaned as I stretched my arms behind my back. Uuuu… that did not feel good. My chest hurt so much.

“Since you were able to complete all 50 pushups, I think this means we can increase the number of pushups you’re currently doing,” Kari added. “From now on, your new goal will be 100 pushups.”

While some part of me wanted to cry at her words, I didn’t do any such thing. Kari was training me because I had asked her to. I was training because I wanted to become useful to her. If I complained or cried about how cruel or painful the training was, it would invalidate her good intentions and my determination.

“Okay!” Kari clapped her hands. “Time to begin the rest of your exercises.”

I nodded, even as I mentally prepared myself for a lot of pain.

My training consisted of three parts. Mornings were for physical exercises, afternoons were lectures on Spiritualism, and evenings involved putting those lectures into practice.

Morning training consisted of basic exercises such as running, pushups, situps, pullups, squats, and dodging practice. Each day Kari would set a goal for me to complete. An example of this would be today. She had me do a 10 kilometer run, 50 pushups with a boulder on my back, 200 situps, 30 pullups, 500 squats, and made me try to dodge her attacks for an hour. I was able to meet all of her goals except the last one.

I only lasted half an hour.

To be fair to me, I was exhausted by the time we began that last training exercise, but I understood that the difference in ability between Kari and myself was like heaven and earth.

One month had passed since I had asked her to train me. We stayed by that mountain cave for those 63 days, coming down to the forest and training before returning to the cave at night. There were surprisingly few Demon Beasts around this area. We didn’t have to worry about being randomly attacked too much. Kari had theorized that most of the Demon Beasts had likely gone back to the Demon Beast Mountain Range after destroying Nevaria, but neither of us knew whether that was true.

After the day of exercise was complete, the two of us went down to a stream and took a bath. We took one separately. While we had both confessed our feelings to each other, I didn’t think either of us was comfortable seeing the other person naked.

Kari had lived with Grant Leucht, but they only had sex once. She had refused to even sleep in the same bed as him after that first night. I was told that her “husband” had tried taking advantage of her only once, but Kari had beaten him so badly that he didn’t dare come near her after that. Her retelling of that moment was one of the few times I had seen such a vicious smile on her face… not that I couldn’t understand why.

Once both of us were clean, or as clean as could be, we caught some trout from the stream and grilled them over an open fire.

It was fortunate that both of us were knowledgeable about our surroundings. Thanks to our love for reading, we had read plenty of books on plant biology for the regions around Nevaria. We were able to gather herbs, fruits, and nuts to enhance the flavor of the fish. While we ate, Kari lectured me.

“Now that you’re able to manifest your Spiritual Aura, we can begin learning how to enhance your physical abilities,” she said as she held a stick of fish in one hand. “Manifesting a Spiritual Aura is considered the First State of Spiritualism. When you’re surrounded by your aura, the aura acts as a shield to protect you from both physical and spiritual attacks. Of course, this shield can be broken if someone hits you with a physical attack or a Spiritual Technique that is stronger than your Spiritual Aura. It can also break if your aura takes too much damage. On top of being able to manifest a Spiritual Aura, you can also use Spiritual Pressure now.”

“And what is Spiritual Pressure?” I asked as I took a bite of my second fish. I was ravenous.

“Simply put, Spiritual Pressure is the pressure that other people feel when a Spiritualist releases his or her Spiritual Power. It is the manifestation of power.” Kari paused to take a bite of her own fish, then picked at some nuts, which she tossed into her mouth. Even while eating simple faire like this, she chewed with her mouth closed, daintily hid her mouth with her hand, and only continued after swallowing. “In most cases, releasing your Spiritual Pressure will only make people feel uneasy. However, there are some incredibly powerful individuals who can make people lose all their strength or experience extreme terror.” She paused again, though not to eat. Her face had taken on a slight look of pain. “My mother’s Spiritual Pressure was so overwhelming that people who felt it often described it as an incredible force crushing their bodies.”

Nodding, I polished off my second fish, jabbed the stick into the ground, and grabbed the large leaf where several fruits and nuts were rolling around.

“Is that what we’re practicing this evening?” I asked as I enjoyed the refreshing and sweet flavor of the berries.

“Yes.” Kari gave me a mild look. “Since you can’t seem to use Spiritualist Techniques, we’ll have to find another way to exercise your Spiritual Power.”

I felt my cheeks grow warm as she mentioned my inability to use Spiritual Techniques.

Using Spiritual Techniques required one to dance. Of course, I called it dancing, but it was really a form of movement. By moving the body in a specific pattern or rhythm, a Spiritualist was able to channel Spiritual Power that could be externalized. They could shoot balls of fire from their hands, create spears of lightning to rain down on their opponents, generate water blades… there were any number of phenomenal attacks a Spiritualist could perform. The only limit was the amount of Spiritual Power they had and their knowledge of Spiritual Techniques.

For whatever reason, I couldn’t do that. No matter how much many times I tried to memorize the movements, I never managed to use a Spiritual Technique. I did destroy a lot of trees though. While I couldn’t use any techniques, I could shoot water and lightning from my hands, which often resulted in something being blasted apart. The only issue was that I exhausted myself after just one attack.

Kari continued to lecture me on Spiritual Pressure after we finished eating, telling me everything she knew about how to use it. I listened to everything she said. Her lecture lasted until the sun had begun setting, but I hung onto every word. Once she was finished, it was time to begin training again.

We stood in the clearing. Kari was off to the side, her arms crossed as I released my Spiritual Power, which manifested in the form of pale arcs of lightning and tiny motes that swirled around my body like water. It wasn’t much. The lightning skittered across my body in small segments, and the motes were miniscule. She said it was because I had just reached this stage and didn’t have much power. That was why I was exercising it.

“Okay,” Kari began, “I want you to try and use your Spiritual Pressure on me.”

Had this been before the Demon Beast Invasion, I would have been hesitant to attack Kari in any way, shape, or form. Not anymore. Kari was strong. Not only did she not need to worry about my pathetic attacks, but she was helping me become stronger. Refusing to attack her because she was the woman I loved would be doing her a disservice.

I took a deep breath and directed my will toward her. To generate a truly ferocious Spiritual Pressure, it was important to have ill-will, or the intent to kill or cause harm. I did not have that. Not toward Kari. However, I could still manifest my Spiritual Pressure by directing my will onto Kari.

“That’s good.” Kari nodded. “Now increase the power output.”

I nodded again, took a deep breath, and scrunched up my face as I increased the amount of power I was using. I’m pretty sure my face turned red from the exertion. I only had so much Spiritual Power, so increasing the output meant exhausting what I had more quickly. However, that was the entire point of this exercise.

Maybe it was because I had only just manifested my Spiritual Aura, but I couldn’t maintain it for long. My aura soon flickered. Then it went out. As it did, my body slouched as though all the strength within it had disappeared. This deep-seated tiredness was in my very bones. Thanks to having exhausted my Spiritual Power many times in the last month, however, I was already used to it.

Kari nodded and smiled. “That was a good effort. I could actually feel your Spiritual Pressure pushing down on me.”

“But it didn’t do anything,” I pointed out through my heavy rasps.

“Well, yes, but you have only just gained the ability to manifest your Spiritual Aura,” she lectured. “You’re still not very strong. However, if we keep this up, you should become fairly capable within a few more months. To be honest, I’m actually really shocked by how much you’ve grown. It took me two years to manifest my own Spiritual Aura to the level you have now.”

I actually had not known that. However, even if that was the case, she had also started when she was a lot younger than me. I was sure the reason it took her two years was simply because it was harder to learn when someone was younger.

I would later come to learn that the reason Spiritualists began training at a young age was because it was easier to learn when they were younger.

When training concluded, the two of us had a small dinner, and then traveled back up to the cave. We had no blanket, nevermind a bed. The hard ground was uncomfortable, but we had long grown used to it.

Kari shifted against me as she lay on her side, using my shoulder as a pillow, her body so close I could feel the swell of her large chest pushing against me. One of her legs had been thrown over my body. The delicate softness of her leg was deceptive. I’d seen that leg crush boulders with a single kick. I also really hoped she wouldn’t shift that leg higher. That would be a problem.

Ever since that night where Kari had cried against me, the two of us had become much closer. While we still couldn’t bathe together, we both snuggled like this every night. Not only did we find comfort and solace in the arms of the other, but snuggling like this also helped stave off the cold.

“You did really well today,” Kari mumbled against my ear. I tried not to shudder as her warm breath washed over me.

“Thanks,” I said softly.

“Tomorrow… I’m going to increase the difficulty of your training. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind if you make things more challenging for me.”

“You have so much determination.” Kari raised her hand, which had been resting on my chest, and placed it against my cheek. She leaned her head up and kissed my other cheek. The warmth of her lips lingered.

I turned my head to look at Kari, who was smiling at me with half-lidded, sleepy eyes. Even though I knew she wore that look because she was tired and not trying to be sexy, I couldn’t stop my heart from skipping a beat. There was just something alluring about the way she looked right now.

“Kari…”

Shifting her body, Kari moved until she was straddling my stomach. Her long, golden hair fell over one of her shoulders like a curtain of shimmering silk. Bright blue eyes that no longer held the innocence of youth stared at me with a look I couldn’t place. I wasn’t sure why, but seeing that expression on her face sent a wave of heat to my loins.

“I know you are doing all this for me,” Kari said, her voice soft but heated. “You’ve put up with my training for an entire month and haven’t complained once. You keep telling me you want to get stronger, and I know you are doing all of it because of me.”

“Of course I am.” I tried to sound nonchalant, but I was positive I had failed. It was kind of hard to act like that when the woman I loved was on top of me. “I love you.”

Kari’s lips curved into a delicate smile that made my heart race. “I know. And I love you too.”

She leaned down in that moment, pressing her lips against mine. I didn’t hesitate to kiss back. The softness of her lips was indescribable. Even though we had been forced into the forest, had to eat whatever we could catch, and could only bathe using water from the streams and rivers, her lips and body remained unblemished and impossibly soft.

We had shared plenty of kisses during this month. However, something was different this time. As we kissed, Kari pushed her tongue into my mouth. It was warm and wet, and the feeling of her tongue caressing the inside of my mouth gave me a strange thrill. I did my best to follow her example. However, this was my first time doing something like this. Then again, I didn’t think she had done this with Grant Leucht either, so it was likely her first time too.

As our kiss continued, Kari pressed her hands against my stomach and pushed my shirt up, then began roaming over my chest and stomach as though mapping out the contours of my body.

Even if I had been training for a month, my body still lacked any real muscles. I had grown a little leaner, and my body was a little sturdier, but it wasn’t like I had six-pack abs and a muscular chest like many Nevarian Spiritualists possessed.

Kari didn’t seem to care. She let her hands roam across my body, traveling from my stomach to my shoulders, and then back down again. Finally, it became too much for me.

“Kari… may I touch you as well?”

Our kissing ceased as Kari sat back up, still straddling me. The moonlight that filtered in through the small cave haloed her body, giving her an ethereal appearance that made her seem like a divine being. Her cheeks were graced with a soft blush. I didn’t know if it was from arousal or embarrassment.

“Yes. You may.”

As she said this, Kari lifted the white tunic over her head and threw it to the side, exposing herself to me. I was stunned. Her pale skin was covered in a few scars but was otherwise unblemished. I actually thought the scars made her look sexier. Her chest was larger than I had realized, which said something because I already knew they were big. Both of her breasts were capped with pink nipples. Her areola was a lighter color than the rest of her.

While her chest was large, the rest of her was slender. Her shoulders and arms were soft and thin. They didn’t look like the arms of someone who could kill Demon Beasts and crush boulders, though I knew better. Her waist thin enough that I’d be willing to call it microscopic. Yet it held all the delicate appeal of a woman. There was no six-pack or anything that I could see, and if there was, it was hidden underneath the layer of softness.

I reached out and slowly placed my hands against her chest. Kari breathed out softly as her cheeks lit up. I placed my hands underneath them and lifted each one.

“They’re heavy,” I murmured. “Don’t these get in the way?”

“T-they do,” she said. “To be honest, I don’t really like them because it is hard to fight with them shaking and bouncing. I normally wear breast bindings to keep them from being jostled, but my bindings broke when we escaped from Nevaria.”

“Well… I know they aren’t very practical, but I love them,” I admitted.

The redness from Kari’s cheeks spread to the rest of her face and even traveled down her neck. “I-is that so? Well, I guess they aren’t so bad then.”

“Not bad at all.”

Sitting up, I leaned over and placed a kiss in the center of her chest. Kari let out a soft sigh as I did. One kiss became two, then two became three. I gradually moved up her body until I had reached her collarbone, which I began tentatively nibbling on. It seemed to have some effect, but Kari didn’t respond to it with much enthusiasm.

Frowning, I went back to her breast and looked at them for a moment. They really were big. I didn’t know how big, but they were definitely impressive.

“It’s embarrassing when you stare at them like that,” Kari mumbled.

“Sorry.”

I shook my head before leaning down and kissing her nipple. Kari twitched as her breath caught in her throat. Hmm… were her breasts sensitive? Deciding to test that idea, I flicked her nipple with my tongue. The startled moan she produced made me look up.

Kari’s face was bright red. “Th-they’re a bit sensitive.”

“Is that so? That’s good to know.”

While I found myself embarrassed too, I didn’t want to let that rule me. I took one of her nipples into my mouth and swirled my tongue around it. The response I got this time was more impressive. Kari released an even louder moan as she wrapped her arms around my head. This must have been one of her weak spots. Realizing this, I began to alternate between kissing, licking, and tugging on her nipples with my teeth. I switched between each breast, giving them both attention. By this point, Kari’s breathing was heavy.

“E-Eryk…!”

I stopped after some point and looked at her. Kari’s face was flushed and glistened in the moonlight. A light layer of sweat covered her body, adding an ethereal sheen to her otherworldly features. She was biting her lower lip with her teeth as if to keep from crying out. I looked at how her shoulders were shaking.

“Kari,” I said. “I want to be one with you.”

“Me too…” Kari breathed as her shoulders and chest heaved. “I want to be with you too…”

We both knew what the other meant. Kari stood up and shimmied out of her pants, while I remained on the ground and tugged mine off. I looked up just as she was undoing the string to her undergarment. She removed it, revealing the patch of blond hair just above her nether lips, which were completely smooth. The sight of her slightly wet pussy made my dick twitch.

Kari saw it and an embarrassed smile came over her face. “Um… I hope you don’t mind that I’m a bit dirty. Bathing in the stream is…”

“I’ve been bathing in the stream too,” I replied, removing my eyes from her lips to her face. “And I think you’re beautiful.”

If her cheeks hadn’t already been lit up in a blush, I’m sure they would have been now. The smile on her face widened as she walked back over.

“Lay back down, please,” she said softly.

I did as I was told, though when I laid down, at least one part of me was still standing. Kari eyed that part of me with something resembling uncertainty.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Oh, no. It’s just…” She frowned as she turned her eyes away from my dick to my face. “It’s just… you’re quite a bit bigger than Grant. I’m not sure if that’s going to fit inside of me.”

It was probably stupid to feel pride over being told I had a bigger dick than Grant Leucht, but maybe I was just dumb because my chest swelled with pride.

“Should we stop?” I asked.

Kari shook her head as she lowered her body until she was straddling my legs. She reached out and hesitantly touched my dick, which twitched in her grip. Her cool hand was soft and chilled my cock, but that just made me harder. My body shook as her hand and fingers wrapped around it. Her skin was a bit rough because we’d been out in the wilderness for so long, but I wouldn’t deny it felt good.

“It’s so warm…” she muttered. “It’s hot and throbbing like a beating heart.”

“Er…”

“S-sorry,” she muttered. “I was just noticing that.”

“It’s okay,” I mumbled.

“Right.” Kari took a deep breath. “I’m about to put it in.”

“Okay.”

Kari placed her hands on my chest and lifted herself up. I ignored the rocks digging into my back as she positioned herself over my dick. The tip of my dick touched her outer lips. A little of her juices trickled onto my head, causing a jolt to race through me. She took another deep breath, and then lowered herself.

I watched as centimeter after centimeter of my dick was engulfed by her folds, which spread apart to accommodate me. The sensations traveling through me in that moment were something I had trouble describing. All I knew was that it felt amazing. Soon my entire head was engulfed in the tight warmth of Kari’s vagina as she continued lowering herself, her face clenched just a bit.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes…” Kari frowned a little as she lowered her body even more. The feeling of my dick rubbing against her insides made me groan. “It just… hurts a bit, but I’m told that’s natural…”

I wasn’t sure if that was really natural, but I had no experience with sex, so I didn’t say anything. My legs, butt, and toes clenched as I tried to resist the incredible feelings welling up inside of me. Part of me wanted to thrust my hips, but if Kari was in pain right now, there was no way I could do that.

Finally, she breathed out and lowered herself completely against me. When I looked at our conjoined bodies, I could see that I was completely buried inside of her. Our hips were now touching.

“Can we stay like this for a moment?” asked Kari. “I need to get used to it. I feel like I might break if you stretch me any further.”

I nodded. “Just tell me when you’re ready.”

“Thank you.”

Kari kept her hands pressed on my chest, palms flat, fingers splayed. She was taking deep breaths. I wondered if it really hurt that bad? I admit, now that I had gotten used to the sensation of being inside of her that it felt kind of dry. Was that how sex was supposed to be? I had never really learned about it. There was no one who would teach me, and I had been too embarrassed to ask Ms. Nadine.

“This is a bit uncomfortable. I probably should have used my mouth,” Kari muttered to herself.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing.” Shaking her head, Kari smiled at me. “I’m ready.”

At her signal, I grabbed her hips as Kari raised them up, slowly revealing my dick as it spread her pussy lips apart. She stopped until just the head was still inside. Then she lowered herself again. As she began lowering herself, I moved my hips, just providing a gentle thrust upward. Kari gasped as our hips connected.

“Does it hurt?” I asked, suddenly worried. I was feeling pretty good, so it would make me feel awful if she wasn’t also feeling good.

“N-no… that… what you did just now. Do it again,” Kari said as she raised her hips. I nodded and watched as she began lowering herself back against me, and then timed my thrust. A slight slapping sound echoed around the cave as our hips met. Kari gasped again as her body shivered. “That felt good just now.”

“Did it?”

“Yes. Please keep doing that.”

She raised her hips once more. By this point, my dick was coated in a layer of her juices, which acted as a lubricant that helped make moving inside of her easier. I think it also helped Kari feel better because her body was beginning to pick up the pace. I made sure to time my thrusts with her movements, and each time I did, the two of us moaned.

By this point, neither of us were able to talk, and soon the only sounds in the cave were those of our moans, grunts, and the slapping of our hips. As I my fingers dug into the soft flesh of her hips, I looked up at Kari. Her body was haloed with light, breasts bouncing as she rode my dick. There was a look on her face that was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Her eyes were closed, but her mouth had opened as she released lyrical noises that made me even more aroused.

At some point, she opened her eyes and locked onto me. Leaning down as she used the muscles in her lower back to move just her hips, she claimed my mouth in a sloppy, wet kiss. The sound of our messy exchange mixed in with the slapping of our hips. I could feel saliva gathering in my mouth, but I didn’t mind. I let Kari push her tongue inside and sucked on it. The loud but muffled moan she produced made me feel like I was doing something right.

I moved my hands from her hips to her butt, reaching around to dig my fingers into her firm cheeks and squeezed them. Kari’s moans grew louder as her butt shook and her thighs clenched.

Time almost seemed to stand still for us, but I soon felt my balls tighten and realized that something was going to happen. With my lack of knowledge, I had no idea what that was, but Kari also seemed to be feeling it because the speed and intensity of her thrusts increased. Her moans had turned into desperate, nasally pants as her body became slick with sweat.

I kept pace as best I could, but I don’t think I did as well. Kari was far more athletic than me right now. At some point, I was forced to concede and let her just do as she pleased. The feelings soon became even more intense.

Kari’s insides suddenly tightened. It was like she was trying to milk me. At the same time, her juices flowed out around my dick and leaked onto my hips, and her entire body seemed to shake. The thighs that were straddling me suddenly clenched against me, to the point where it hurt. I didn’t know if it was caused by the pain or the pleasure, but I released whatever was inside of me into Kari, who shook and moaned even more afterward.

As Kari pitched forward and fell on top of me, my own body felt exhausted, like I had just spent all day training. In fact, I think I might have been even more exhausted than when I did Kari’s training. It took everything I had to lift my arms and wrap them around Kari’s still shaking body.

“That…”

“Kari?” I mumbled.

“That was amazing,” she muttered. Lifting her head, she gave me a bright smile. “Thank you.”

“Um, sure.” I blinked. “Anytime.”

I had no idea what she was thanking me for. To be perfectly honest, I was pretty sure that my mind wasn’t all there. It felt sluggish. Just thinking was a chore that I could have done without.

Kari didn’t seem to mind my confused response as she laid her head back on my chest and nuzzled her cheek against me, seemingly unbothered by the fact that I was covered in sweat. She must have been similarly tired because her body slackened seconds later. Her breathing also became deep and even as she fell asleep.

I squirmed around a bit to try and get comfortable. Her breasts, slick with sweat, and her nipples, which rubbed against me, made it hard to relax. However, I was more tired than I realized. Even as I thought about the amazing sensation of her breasts mashing into my chest, my mind slowly succumbed to exhaustion, and I fell asleep.

A few days later, I would learn that Grant Leucht had been unable to make Kari orgasm during their first and only night together, which was the reason she had thanked me. My chest would once again swell with useless masculine pride.

***

Two days passed in what felt like the blink of an eye, though I think a lot of that had to do with how busy I was. Between my job at the library, talking with Kari, and training, I had a pretty full schedule.

I arrived at the smithy early in the morning on the second day. Despite trying not to, I couldn’t stop the yawn that escaped my mouth. Last night, I’d dreamed of when me and Kari had sex for the first time. I’d woken up with the erection to end all erections and been forced to deal with matters myself. Not only had the dream left me in something of an unusual emotional state, but having to deal with the issue of using my hand to relieve myself felt awkward.

Well… I suppose it couldn’t be helped.

“You’re here bright and early,” the blacksmith grunted. He seemed a little disgruntled. It looked like he hadn’t even lit up the forge yet.

I shrugged. “I have a lot do to today, but I can’t start until I have those cylinders.”

“I still can’t believe you requested a blacksmith to make something like a couple of strange cylinders.” With a heavy sigh, the man grabbed a large sack that was sitting on the table. The sound of jingling metal echoed around the room as he walked up to me and thrust the sack into my hands. “Here. This is what you wanted, right? Next time you come here, make sure you actually have a job that will test my skills as a blacksmith. At the very least, make sure it’s something that requires some talent.”

“Of course,” I said as I took the sack. The moment the man let go, the sack immediately tried to pull me down under its immense weight. I grunted and lifted the thing with both hands. The blacksmith grinned at me, but I ignored the condescending look on his face and lugged the heavy sack out of the smithy.

Getting this sack of metal back to my room was a task in and of itself. It could almost be considered a form of training. What was normally a twenty minute walk took one whole hour. That didn’t include getting up the stairs. By the time I finally managed to enter my room, my back hurt, my legs felt like all the muscles in them had been pulled, and my arms and shoulders were basically jelly. I needed thirty minutes before I possessed the strength to begin my next task.

Reaching inside of the bag, I pulled out one of the metal cylinders, studying the object before nodding. It was perfectly smooth and rounded. I grabbed one of the vambraces the seamstress had made and slid the cylinder into one of the pockets. It fit perfectly.

“Excellent,” I said.

Holding the cylinder in one hand, I channeled Spiritual Power into my other hand, directing all of that energy into my finger, which began emitting a faint blue glow that crackled and sparked. I placed the tip of my finger against the cylinder. Steam swiftly rose from the metal with an intense hiss. Seeing that I was indeed able to use Rune Writing, I began moving my finger across the metal surface.

Uruz: The rune of physical strength, speed, and untamed potential.
Nauthiz: The rune that meant delays and restrictions.
Isa: A challenge or frustration. Psychological blocks to thought or activity.
Dagaz: Breakthrough. Awakening. Awareness. Daylight clarity as opposed to nighttime uncertainty. A time to plan or embark upon an enterprise.

With meticulous movements, I embedded each Rune into the metal cylinder one by one, connecting them by thin threads and swirling lines to symbolize how they would all come together and form meaning.

By the time I was done, I actually felt a little tired. My shoulders sagged as I looked out my window. The sun still hadn’t reached the apex of the sky, meaning I still had at least an hour before I needed to leave.

I managed to get six more done before I had to head out to the library.

***

It took 16 days to embed all of the Runes into the metal cylinders. Perhaps if I didn’t have to work at the library, I would have been able to finish faster, but it wasn’t like I could just quit my job either. Besides, I liked working at the library. That was where I could meet Kari whenever she wasn’t attending classes at the Spiritualist Academy.

The day after I finished drawing Runes onto all of the metal cylinders, I went to the library and opened as usual. However, something unusual happened that day while I was putting several books back in their proper places.

“Eryk…”

The familiar voice made me turn around. Kari was standing a few steps away, a warm smile on her face. She had chosen to wear a sleeveless green dress that day. A silk shawl sat over her shoulders. The dress itself had a small dip in the middle, revealing a hint of her creamy white cleavage. Like her shawl, the dress must have been made from silk because it was very thin. It stopped at her knees, which was odd because her dresses usually were long and went all the way to her ankles. That said, I wouldn’t deny she looked great. A pair of sandals adorned her feet.

Her presence caused many people in the library to stop what they were doing, though quite a few of them returned to their tasks after taking a moment to admire her. Most of the people who came here regularly already knew she frequented this place. Even so, there were still quite a few men who glared at me…

I shook my head and smiled at the girl. “You’re here early.”

Her smile widened. “I don’t have classes today.”

“No training either?” I asked. She shook her head. As she did, I noticed the scroll in her hands. “Is that a map?”

“It is.” She raised the rolled scroll to her face and gave me a proud smile. “It’s a map of the few areas in the Demon Beast Mountain Range that the people of Nevaria have been able to explore.”

“Huh?” I muttered, not quite sure what to say.

Kari just smiled at me. “I’ll be going upstairs first. Come up when you’re done with your work.”

“Will do.”

I didn’t know why she was carrying a map at first, but I soon found out when I finished my tasks. She was already pouring over the map on the second floor by the time I finished. Several places had been circled with ink. As I studied the circled spots, which contained a decently detailed drawing, I realized what they were.

“Are those ruins?” I asked as I sat down beside her.

“Yes!” Kari’s eyes held an excitement that was hard for her to contain. “These are all of the ruins that have currently been discovered. Some of them have been explored, like this one right here. This is an ancient city that was destroyed during the Great Catastrophe. It’s fairly close to Nevaria and has been completely explored and mapped out. However, there are a number of ruins that have been found but not explored as thoroughly because of how dangerous they are.”

As Kari enthusiastically explained what she knew about each of these ruins, I realized what she was doing.

“These are places you’d like to explore, right?” I said with a smile.

Kari’s cheeks suddenly lit up as though two small flames had appeared inside of them. She placed her hands in her lap, twiddled her fingers, and looked at the table. Her hair parted slightly, flowing across her forehead as though to hide her embarrassed expression.

“You said… before, you told me you’d explore some ruins with me if I asked you too,” she said in a halting, hesitant voice.

“I did, and I mean it.” Scooting a little closer, I leaned against the table and studied the map. “Which ruin were you thinking of exploring first?”

Kari looked at me, almost dumbfounded, but when she saw that I was serious, her expression lit up, becoming brighter than the first rays of morning light. She immediately began pointing out which ruins she wanted to try exploring first. They were the ones that had already been explored and wouldn’t pose much danger. She told me it was because she wanted to gain experience before exploring the ones that hadn’t been investigated.

It was just as well. The unexplored ruins were located deeper in the Demon Beast Mountain Range, which was where Demon Beasts many times more powerful than the ones that Spiritualists normally dealt with lived. I wasn’t even talking about the A-rank Demon Beasts either. The ones who lived that far out were S-rank and above. I was honestly surprised someone had the audacity to travel that far into the Demon Beast Mountain Range.

“By the way…” Kari began, “What happened to your hand?”

“My hand?” I looked at my hand when Kari gestured to it. It was the one that had been bitten by that snake. The puncture marks were still there, having not healed over. What’s more, there were now numerous black lines running along my ring finger. They looked like thorny vines. “I’m not sure. It wasn’t like this yesterday.”

“Do you think something happened?” asked Kari.

“I don’t think so.” I dispelled my concerns over this matter since I couldn’t detect any poison. Glancing at Kari, I decided to satisfy my curiosity over something I’d been thinking about recently. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”

“Sure.” She smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her right ear. “What did you want to ask?”

“I understand that your family won’t let you journey into the Demon Beast Mountain Range right now.” I paused, wondering if there was a delicate way to put this, but then I shrugged and continued. “What would it take to convince your parents to let you travel and explore ruins?”

Kari paused, her face becoming so blank it seemed cold. I didn’t let that bother me. When Kari was thinking really hard, this was the face she often made.

“It would probably be the same way my brothers did,” she admitted slowly, as if choosing each word with care. “I would have to prove that I am strong enough to protect myself and fight off Demon Beasts.” Her smile suddenly became self-deprecating. “However, right now, I do not have that kind of strength.”

I hummed and thought about what she told me.

The Kari that I remembered during the Demon Beast Invasion had seemed invincible. However, the one before me did not have that strength.

I think the strength Kari gained back then was because of what happened to her. Being forced into an unenviable position had likely given her the determination to become stronger. The years of being married to Grant Leucht had forged her into a woman of incredible strength and willpower. Right now, Kari was just a girl who happened to possess a ton of potential. She was the Kari I knew from before her marriage.

“If I told you that I could help you get stronger, what would you do?” I asked.

Kari perked up. “You can? How?”

I was happy that she didn’t outright deny my offer. It meant she really believed I could help her, which made my chest feel warm.

Taking her quill and ink bottle, I grabbed a sheet of scrap parchment and wrote the ingredients needed for the Three Way Spirit Widening Pill and the Body Forging Pill. Once I was done, I slid the parchment over to her.

“If you can get me these ingredients, I can refine two pills that will greatly increase the speed of your training,” I said.

Kari bit her lip as she looked at the list. “This is… alchemy, isn’t it? Can alchemy really help increase my training speed?”

“It can,” I said with all the confidence I had, which was admittedly a lot. I might not have been anything more than a middling alchemist in Midgard, but I at least had the confidence to refine a number of powerful pills that helped with training.

“How much of each of these ingredients do you need?” she asked.

I took the parchment back and quickly wrote the amount before handing it to her again. “This is the minimum amount you’ll want. With this much, I can refine enough pills to last you one month.”

“The minimum?” she raised an eyebrow.

I shrugged. “The more pills I can refine, the more you’ll benefit from them… at least up to a certain point. Pills eventually become ineffective after your body builds a resistance to them, but they’ll help you grow stronger until then.”

“I see,” she murmured in a soft, almost impossible to hear voice.

I didn’t know if she believed me at the time. However, the next day, Kari arrived at the library despite having classes to deliver three times the amount of ingredients I had written down in the list.

***

It was the first day that I would be doing physical training to strengthen my body, and since it was the first time, I didn’t actually use the metal cylinders. I was smart enough to know that I wasn’t very strong right now. It took a whole hour just to get those damn things up to my room. Increasing the weight I had to work with wouldn’t benefit me until I raised my current level of strength.

I had decided to make the place where I’d first met Fay Valstine my permanent training ground. With the level of control I had over my Spiritual Power, I didn’t need to use the waterfall training method anymore, or rather, that method would no longer work. In either event, I was good in terms of Spiritual Control. That meant it was time to increase my physical capabilities.

I was using the training method that Kari had first created for me after the Demon Beast Invasion. Since I wasn’t very strong, that meant running for 2 kilometers, then performing 15 pushups, 50 situps, 10 pullups, and 100 squats. The only exercise I couldn’t do was the dodging one. However, I replaced dodging with practicing the two fighting styles I was a practitioner of. It was just too bad I didn’t have my weapon.

“Ha… ha… ugh… I don’t feel so good…”

I think I might have gone overboard a little. While I did manage to complete my exercise routine, my body felt like it had been put through a meat grinder, and I struggled to contain my urge to vomit. I did my best to shove these feelings aside. If I wanted to change the past for the better, I needed to become stronger as swiftly as possible. Pushing myself was the only way to reach my goal.

As I began the long walk home, stumbling between boulders and trees, one of the bushes on my left shook. I paused. Looking over at the bush, I waited to see if something would come out. When several seconds past and nothing happened, I frowned before continuing on my way.

For a second, it felt like something had been watching me, but now I felt nothing. Maybe I had imagined it?

It took longer to enter Nevaria than it had to exit, which I chalked up to my dead tired body. The looks the guards gave me when they saw me enter the city were quite something. I don’t think I’d ever seen someone’s jaw drop that wide before.

While the guards’ reactions amused me, as I walked down the road, I could not help but feel like there was someone watching me. I glanced around. It seemed there were actually quite a few people watching me. A pair of kids were pointing at my bedraggled appearance and giggling as they made fun of me, an old man was gawking at me like he wanted to know what hole I’d crawled out of, and a pair of young woman were whispering to each other as they pointed at me. I was getting a lot more attention than I’d thought.

My frown grew.

Because I didn’t want to be subjected to these stares any longer, I increased my walking speed despite how much my legs hurt. I wouldn’t say I made it to my room in record time. However, my motivation to no longer be stared at certainly lessened the time it would have taken.

Upon reaching my room, I took a moment to collect myself, and then began the laborious process of filling my bathtub with water. Given that I had just exercised until I felt like I was dying, it took quite a while to do.

When I finally finished filling the tub, I was dead on my feet. I couldn’t wait to hop in. However, there was one last thing I needed to do first.

Similar to how I dropped the Spiritual Reinforcement Pill into the bathtub for Fay, I dropped the Body Forging Pill into the tub as well. The effects were much faster than when the Spiritual Reinforcement Pill had been dropped into it. A vibrant red color like fire immediately soaked into the water, spreading until all of the liquid was the same color.

Sadly, it didn’t make the water hot like a Spiritual Reinforcement Pill did. As I stepped into the water, my body broke out in goosebumps as the coldness seeped into my bones. This young body wasn’t used to baths. What’s more, when I was older and lived in Midgard, all of my baths used hot water.

I sat in the tub, my arms crossed as I tried to keep my body from shaking and my teeth from chattering, waiting until my body had absorbed all of the medicinal ingredients that were mixed into the water. It felt like my entire body was frozen. I was pretty sure my balls had become shriveled from the cold.

The things I did to gain strength…