“You said it before...but, you weren’t kidding?” Deckard asked in wonder, sizing me up with his gaze like he was seeing me for the first time. It startled me. In my defense and pride, I said something he shouldn’t have heard. At least that was my first thought with a hint of panic. What if he figures out I’m not of this world? What then? Will he still want me as his apprentice?

Glancing up, seeing him standing there with his hand in his pocket and a laid-back attitude, I had to laugh at my own stupidity. Even if he found out, he wouldn’t care and just take it as another oddity on me. Perhaps he would have found me all the more fascinating. And that was my biggest fear. That as soon as others find out, I’ll become more intriguing to them, and my price will rise.

Though if only Deckard knew? Hmm...

I almost growled out loud, frustrated at my indecision. Should I tell him, or should I talk my way out of this? Sooner or later, someone’s gonna put two and two together. He had already seen a few discrepancies in my backstory, only due to his attitude, he ignored them so far. Who’s next? Who else will figure it out? An agent? I shuddered to think of the consequences.

Deckard snorted. “Are you offended? Right now, I can’t tell what you’re thinking at all.”

Blinking, I realized I hadn’t answered him. “No, I’m not, just...” Shaking my head, I stopped with the words stuck in my throat and lies on the tip of my tongue. I couldn’t keep him in the dark forever. It would gnaw at my conscience, just like the revenge. Plus, I needed someone I could trust, someone I could rely on.

“Just?” he asked when I didn’t finish my answer.

With new determination coursing through my veins, I took a deep breath. “Wasn’t it in my file that Rayden gave you? My age, I mean.” Not the confession of my origin. I know, I was hoping to see what he knew first.

“Could have.” He shrugged. “I read through it quickly, skipped some parts. Look, if this is about me calling you g...” He said but paused as my raised tail, and outstretched wings stopped him.

“You know where I’m from?” I queried.

He frowned and searched his memory, putting two and two together. “Not from Little Earth, I guess?”

Here it was. I shut my eyes for a second, then shook my head. “No. I’m not. I’m from Earth.” That’s exactly what I told Captain Rayden back then. Only now Deckard knew I didn’t mean the aptly named island state here on Eleaden. Hence his questioning gaze. “I’m not from this realm, dimension, the plane of existence, universe, I don’t know...” I threw up my wings and clenched my fists, resorting to a term most familiar to me. “I’m from another planet.”

Deckard squinted his eyes, saying nothing. The seconds of his silence dragged on like minutes. It was killing me. “And this planet you came from is called Earth?” His gruff voice made my ears twitch and my heart skip a beat tensely. “Like dirt?”

“Earth, Terra, Erde, Chikyu, to me, they all mean the same thing. The place where I was born and raised.” Reminiscing, I started listing different names I knew for a small blue planet orbiting the Sun. Choking back tears, I nodded, half smiling. “Yeah, it means dirt.”

Then, to make light of this poor naming sense of my ancestors, I shrugged my shoulders as well as my wings. “I know, not very original.”

The moment a smile appeared on Deckard’s face, I knew all was good. “What do you think Eleaden means?” he asked.

With a massive weight lifted from my shoulders, I shook my head, waiting for him to tell me. I didn’t dare speak up, sure my voice would tremble.

“Actually, Eleaden are two words of an ancient language put together. The speech has long been forgotten except by a few scholars, with only a handful of names and words still in use today. Elea’ Den. Land of the Men. Or Earth of the People if you want. So...we’re in the same boat,” he explained to me the meaning of the word. It was fascinating, no doubt. I’d definitely love to hear more. Though sometime later. There were more important things on my mind right now that I wanted to know the answer to.

“You’re...okay with that?” I asked, weighing my words. “I’ll understand if you don’t want me as your apprentice anymore.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “Why on elea would I do that? Actually, a lot of things make sense now.”

“They do?” I asked, raising my big fluffy ears in question.

“Sure. For instance, your Class. As I see it, there is no such thing in your realm, right?” he asked, and at my nod continued. “It explains your age, your ignorance of the basics stuff, and why you still have [Eleaden Standard Language] among your skills.”

“Ah, Fae,” he grunted in realization. “That’s why you asked about them. They brought you here. The little bastards can travel between realms. I didn’t know that.”

He still hadn’t told me if he was okay with my origin, and that made me nervous. “Deckard.” I raised my voice and paused. It was weird to say his name like that. Got his attention, though. “Please tell me straight. Do you still want me as an apprentice?”

His gaze grew serious. “I didn’t choose you because of where you came from.”

“Thanks...” I breathed in relief.

“Although...” He paused, and I froze. He changed his mind. Why wouldn’t he? He’s had nothing but trouble with me. Why go to any more trouble with an apprentice like me? The bead of sweat trickling down my spine was like torture while I waited for him to spit it out.

“I don’t know what to call you now,” he said, pondering the matter seriously.

“Eh...” A confused whimper escaped my throat. That was his problem? Whether to keep referring to me as a girl or to call me something else? Asshole. Fighting the impulse to use harsh language, I gritted my teeth. “Korra.”

“Nah,” he shook his head immediately and grinned at me. “That doesn’t sit well with me, girl.”

To my amazement, I found myself smiling, unable to stop, glad that everything actually stayed the same, and I still had someone I could count on. Perhaps even more than ever before.

“Seeing how much energy your overgrown duster has, it’s time to use some,” he remarked on my tail. Sage was vigorously swaying from side to side of his own free will as delighted as I was. Without even trying to stop him, I was about to ask why he wasn’t curious about Earth when five metal rings of different sizes appeared in Deckard’s hand.

“Put them on,” he said, handing them to me. Four were as small as bracelets, the fifth as big as a basketball hoop made of what looked like ordinary iron. I gulped but took them despite my revulsion. A similar iron ring adorned my neck for over a year. These five were even more crudely made, felt the same to me, though.

“Army grade weights, you can take them off whenever you like,” Deckard spoke when he noticed my hesitation. He didn’t say it, but when I tore my gaze away from the magic tools in my hands, I saw understanding in his eyes. “I used to use them for training the guys and gals I commanded. They loved them.” A claim that the soldiers in question would undoubtedly refute, I was sure of that.

“What is their function?” I asked. Without knowing this, I refused to put them on.

“They will suck on your mana and make you feel heavier,” he said quite plainly, then added. “As I deem fit.”

Oh, there was a catch, and I didn’t like the sound of that. “Didn’t you say you were gonna teach me how to do splits by the end of the day?” A futile attempt to avoid what he had in mind for me.

A grin flashed across Deckard’s face. “Oh, I will. It just calls for a bit of change. Doing the same thing over and over is a bit boring, and you need to work on more than just your flexibility.”

Guessing strength, quite possibly endurance. With a sigh and a lot of self-persuasion, I found the locks on the metal tools and tightened them on. When I straightened up, I found Deckard with his hand outstretched holding what looked like a badge. It turns out it was a belt buckle that controlled the tools and specified the weight increase. With the snap, I locked it onto the belt ring and froze. Tools sucked my mana like a hungry beast, devouring it. It made me panic, but as quickly as it started, it stopped, and the mana consumption settled down to a very acceptable level.

Contrary to my assumption, the bracelets didn’t get heavier, but my entire body did. For starters, by ten percent, according to Deckard. How many extra kilos it was, I had no idea. I haven’t been on the scale in over a year. Did I gain or lose weight during my time here?

Objectively, after examining myself in the domain, I had to say that my cheeks weren’t so chubby now, and my butt...yeah, I was skinnier. On the other hand, I had Sage, wings, antlers, hair as thick as a mane that was a few extra kilos. So the tool could add about 7 kilos of weight. That was my best guess.

Deckard asked me to run a few laps at the top of the hill just to critique my running. Taking his criticisms of my mistakes with ease, I took his advice to heart. After a few more laps around the top of the hill and a correction of my dreadful running style, he sent me down the hillside, around the base of this green mound, and up the other side.

It wasn’t a long course, and the elevation gain wasn’t that large either. Even so, after three laps, I was breathing heavily, and beads of sweat formed on my forehead. After five more rounds, I was barely breathing and sweating buckets. It took me by surprise. I didn’t expect running to be so...intense. Though Deckard was to blame for that, he didn’t let me take a break. Until now.

“That’s enough,” he grumbled as I ran to the top of the hill. “Not as strong as you thought, huh?”

Unable to deny his remark, I dropped to all fours trying to get as much air into my lungs as possible. My chest was burning, as were my thighs and calves. I felt a stabbing pain in my sides and my feet, despite running on the grass, were in dull agony and bleeding. It turned out that managing mana while jogging, especially during an extreme workout like the end of my run, was harder than it seemed. Multitasking hasn’t been my strong suit, and this was a good practice of it.

“Here,” Deckard said, handing me the canteen after I caught my breath and sat down. The cool water was like ambrosia on my dry throat, and I couldn’t resist expressing my satisfaction out loud. With a breath of relief, I leaned back on my hands. “Is this really necessary?”

“Learn to run?” He looked as if I had asked him the stupidest question. “Don’t people run there in your realm...wait, don’t tell me!”

“You are not interested in what it looks like?” I asked him. If it were me, I’d have plenty of questions. What kind of people were there? How could they live without magic? He didn’t ask me one question. It was strange.

He snorted. “Oh, I’m interested. Trust me. It’s just that until this Empire business is settled, it would be better if I knew as little as possible.”

Ah! So he doesn’t have to lie to agents. Got it.

The growl that reached my ears the next moment made him laugh and me puzzled. I was hungry again, which made no sense. It hadn’t been that long since I’d had a decent serving in the barracks mess hall.

“It’s not just the training,” Deckard said, seeing my confusion. “You heal, regenerate your mana, and that’s not for free.”

Feeling guilty, I took the roasted meat on a stick from him. “Thanks,” I mumbled my gratitude before I went at it like a beast. Someday I’ll pay him back, I was dead set on that.

“Back to your question. Is running necessary? Some seekers will tell you they spend more time running from beasts than fighting them. The reasons vary. The beast is beyond their strength, there are too many of them, it may be part of the strategy. Either way, the beast won’t stop chasing you just because you can’t catch your breath.” He lectured me on the importance of running while I was stuffing myself. “So take it seriously.”

Now I regretted my hasty inquiry. It was my frustration at my ineptitude that spoke out of me. I took it seriously, knowing that this was a necessary workout. Without this drill, he couldn’t start teaching me the real stuff and work on his bottlenecks.

When Deckard ordered me to run four more laps after my snack, I was actually glad. If I were to start with those tendon snapping poses, I’d be afraid I’d spew out the contents of my stomach. After a few laps, it was no longer an issue. Over time it grew into a kind of rhythm. Run, exercise, run, eat, and do it again.

At the end of the day, the grass along the track was trampled to dirt. I was drenched in sweat, stunk like a pig, but as I faced Deckard, I was sitting on the ground with one leg stretched out in front of me and the other behind me. I was doing splits.

It was painful as hell, though. Gritting my teeth, I was healing the strained tendons before they even snapped, thus gaining the necessary flexibility faster. Something I learned along the way.

“A little lower, touch the ground with your ass,” Deckard bellowed another damn drill sergeant command at me. There was no doubt that with my training the habits he had developed in the army came to the fore. He was running me ragged, pushing my limits all day and unlike me, he was having a good time of it.

The sad truth was that I wouldn't have brought myself to go through this kind of training. So even though I didn't like it, under his strict gaze, I pushed further, bringing my butt even lower, while I chanted my mantra. You got it, Korra. This pain is nothing. You’ve been through worse, much worse. And you always came out stronger in the end. You’re not a wuss. What you are is a beast. And beasts do not cry. Beasts do not scream, they roar.

I know, stupid. But it helped.

As my rear touched the ground, a bestial growl escaped my throat while Deckard pulled his hands out of his pockets and clapped. “Well done, girl.”

The familiar chime echoed in my head a second later. When I looked at the notification, I forgot about the pain right away.

[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 97]

My mind must have been playing tricks on me because leveling up couldn’t be that easy. It never was. Every level I gained was bought with pain and blood. I had to push my limits, go beyond them. Not just train on the hill.

“Now switch your legs,” Deckard said in his drill instructor tone. However, his joy and a hint of pride behind it were not lost on my ears. I did as he said, realizing that even today, I went beyond my limits. Even though I sometimes needed a push from him, I met his expectations and perhaps exceeded them.

As I thought about it more and more, my level up made greater sense to me. Deckard was someone I trusted and saw as someone worth listening to. Any remaining doubts and regrets I had about my apprenticeship were gone.

(Ding) “ Bloody hell,...” My heart jumped in fright as the system sounded again.

Painless Agony reaches lvl 21

“Finally,” I muttered as I read the notification. With the way I’ve suffered here, that level up was long overdue. What I didn’t quite expect were levels in other skills.

Tireless Machine reaches lvl 27 Heart of Magic reaches lvl 9

My only magic skill, in particular, was a big surprise to me. I was convinced that I wasn’t using magic today until I realized that the belt, bracelets, and anklets were consuming it all day long, plus I was constantly healing.

“Are you done marveling over the Status Screen?” Deckard asked.

Blinking, I let the screens and notifications disappear. “I leveled up.”

“I noticed. Glad this works for at least one of us.” He said, sounding genuinely happy for me. Yet, I had to still the involuntary urge to feel more guilty. It was one of the reasons I pushed myself so hard today. Deckard wasn’t getting anything out of this training. Nothing to help him with his bottleneck. He’s basically wasted his day here with me.

Still in the split, I closed my eyes and clenched my fists. I owed him big time.

“What should I do next?” I asked, determined to get through this as quickly as possible so we could help each other.

Deckard looked up at the false sky, thinking. “That’s up to you. It’s getting pretty late.”

I looked up too, but the sky was still the same. The sun was nowhere to be seen, and the intensity of the light was unchanging. It’s like time froze here at high noon.

If it weren’t for the system clock, I wouldn’t have known that the sun was already setting over the horizon up there in the city. Yeah, I was dead tired. Yet that didn’t stop me before either.

“I can keep going,” I said, my eyes on his.

A grin crossed his face, and with it, a new belt buckle appeared in his hand. “I must warn you, girl. You’ll be hauling more weight than you have been so far.”