One more strenuous week had passed. Stanis had already lost any concept of time off that he had left, instead entirely focused on beating Yils. After her snide comments last week, his ego had been fully awakened and thus had forced him to train at a dangerous intensity. His body had broken down over and over again, although that wasn't anything the mana water couldn't fix. His mind had broken before and he could do it again, as he was very well proving right now.

However, there were also good results from his madness afflicted practise. His skills and stats had sky-rocketed, the improvement almost triple what he had made last week. He checked his status:

Stanis Volkov

Age: 18 years

Mana capacity: 59 (regeneration is capacity/4 per hour)

Level 27 (Progress to the next level is 92%)

Strength: 44 [33 -> 35]

Dexterity: 46 [31 ->33]

Constitution: 47[33 ->34]

Intelligence: 40[23 -> 26]

Wisdom: 38[22 -> 26]

Tenacity: 49[29 -> 31]

Skills: Layman's Rush, Scout and Sense, Light Healing, Destructive Mana Recharge, Ice shot

He had forgotten to check his status for the whole week as he had solely focused all his attention onto training, the mana constantly making rounds through his body. It was now that he realised how far ahead he was off the average Human, over 80 points to be precise!

His skills, too, had made progress. Layman's rush hadn't had any direct changes but all the skill did was maximise his fighting ability. His surge in stat points had increased his upper limit and simultaneously, the effect Layman's Rush would have. In fact, since his tenacity was just shy of 50, Stanis was almost certain he could now take on the drawbacks of the skill without crashing. This meant that it was now an extremely strong skill with only the long cooldown of 6 hours to be wary off, just like Destructive mana recharge.

He wasn't very sure of the changes Scout and sense had made. He had used it multiple times here, and yet it was almost like the skill was malfunctioning since nothing came up. It was to the point that he had a growing suspicion that it was actually due to his location, rather than the skill itself.

Light healing hadn't increased by much either. It was a spam skill to begin with which meant that was fine as he now had a much larger mana pool, meaning he could use the skill many times. The side effects of it such as the tearing headaches and what-else were also now negligible due to his monstrous tenacity.

As for Destructive mana recharge, the mana he could now absorb was just over 20. This meant he could absorb for about four seconds straight. He didn't even need to imagine what kind of damage this would cause to a living being…

And the skill that had made the greatest improvement: Ice shot. Best said, it was no longer making quantitative improvements…

As for his traits, only his transformation trait had improved. The skin over his left arm had stopped growing thicker and was now just getting tougher, an almost metallic gleam visible in the right light. However its increased toughness was useless in battle anyway, at least against Yils as she would cut through it just as she would do for the rest of his limbs. His body had been torn apart and regenerated so many times that it no longer even felt dreadfully painful!

But all of this quickly went to the back of his mind; it was now time for vengeance…

Yils had already begun walking towards him, not waiting for pleasantries as she hunted her prey. For the first time ever since training with Yils, a malicious grin filled his face, an ice crystal forming in his hands. Not an icicle but an ice crystal…

The idea came to him while he had been making his icicles bigger, to the size of his full arm-span at their largest. It was then that the realisation had struck him; perhaps Yils hadn't sliced through his icicles just for show of strength but rather for something else. Because although he hated her, he also had no way but to respect her greatly at the same time: he was pursuing power so that he would no longer be trodden on, and it was obvious she was teaching him that, even if her methods were a bit macabre. What if what she had actually been doing was pointing his weaknesses?

One thing he had realised from using her practise techniques multiple times every-day was that each mana circuit had different effects. Some stabilised his body, making him feel heavier: unmovable. Others made him feel lighter, some stronger and some even weaker. So he put what he knew into practice, attempting to circuit the mana outside of his body. It was fair to say he had absolutely failed, for the first 5 days at least. But then he began chipping away at success, small parts dropping onto him over time.

Forming inside his hand was an ice crystal, the colour deep blue with metallic gleams on the edges. It was nothing like his large icicles, instead he was struggling to even get it to finger size. He reached his limit at about 10 cm. His grin grew wider and wilder as he sensed the feeling of true power for the first time in his life, and the Gods be damned because he fucking enjoyed it… He could feel his insides roaring with joy as he released it from his hand with booming speed, their pain over the previous days not for nought.

His grin was reflected by Yils, her face a wolfish smirk. His own smile dropped…

The ice crystal sped towards her, a glittering path of blue almost visible in its wake. It was when it was mere centimetres away from her that she acted, her hand moving with an insane speed as she lightly flicked the crystal on its edge.

"SKKRTT"

The crystal itself seemed to scream as it was touched, but nonetheless had any power to resist as it flickered past her, mere millimetres away from her open skin.

"A-bout Fu-cking ti—me" she said, stretching out every word, "I was about to properly kill you if you didn't get it this time."

Yes, it was true; he would be beyond grateful later on when he realised what she had done for him. But he was hurt right now, the power he deeply trusted failing to do anything but further enlighten him on her strength. His emotional breakdown was obvious as his face itself seemed to droop, before regaining its rigidity as he moved with haste. Two more ice crystals were forming in his palms as he dashed.

They shot out and she stood there, doing nothing as they hit a barrier and fell. But Stanis wasn't done, pelting her with even more crystals. These bullets weren't at all cheap and thus he had to soon use destructive mana recharge, before restarting his attack with the same fervour as before. His anger only simmered down when the world went black…

Yils had done nothing but take 3 steps forward in the whole fight. He had done it all himself, pushing himself to exhaustion.

He woke up as he had done for the last few weeks: a burning sensation in his stomach as the rest of his body regenerated. He had wondered how the mana still hurt so badly despite him having drunk it countless times already. He hadn't figured out any answers to this and thus had asked Zelgard, who had responded that he was actually increasing the mana concentration inside the water. This was almost unbelievable to Stanis who had strong faith is his mana sensitivity to the point that he believed he could sense even the minute changes. That belief had crumbled away as Zelgard had kept his serious face, not breaking out into a smile.

Stanis looked around; he was in his room. He knew he wouldn't be able to get up for at least an hour or so, nevertheless walk, and thus he began practising his mana circulation. It only after a couple of hours that he got up, his head cool and his body whole.

The first thing he saw as he exited his room was Yils, reading her book across his door. She shut her book as he stepped out, bringing an intense fear out of Stanis. She had never closed her book for him, and he, for some weird reason, now believed everything she did in consideration for him was actually just hidden torture.

Zelgard was also there, sitting on the main table with a toothy smile on his face. Stanis was now sure it was something bad…

"I hope you have enjoyed your stay, Stanis", her tone not as dry as usual. "I've talked with Zelgard and made him agree that it is now time you left". Stanis looked at Zelgard who put his whole strength into nodding his head, his message gone undetected as Stanis couldn't read this enigmatic man.

"You've made as much progress as you can from staying here. All I can tell you is that you came here weak and prey for the strong. You are now leaving just as weak, only this time you have the potential to be the predator. You should always keep that in mind." finished Yils, her voice straight. For a moment, Stanis was shocked as he looked at Zelgard, whose whole character seemed to transform in that moment as he sombrely nodded, the playfulness gone.

That was but a fleeting moment though as Stanis found tears clouding his vision, hastily rubbing his eyes with Zelgard's worn out clothes as he surprised himself.

He was crying?

Why?

No, of course, that was why…

He could feel Human warmth as he realised Zelgard was hugging him. He heard the unusual man whisper in his ears, "Stay strong!" before letting go, Stanis once again left to his tears. Yils then came forward and hugged him, whispering in his ears, "You were pretty shit for my first student. You should thank Zelgard for asking me to teach you in the first place."

He was stuck for words and struck in place as the stream only widened, drops of water hitting the ground. He was no longer the broken, battle-weathered, power-hungry man he believed himself to be, rather he was now the man he was truly on the inside as he couldn't stop his inner emotions. These had been the first people, ever since his parents had died, who had properly cared for and helped him. Even if their methods had been a bit heavy-handed, Stanis didn't know how to thank these two for what they had done.

The next few minutes were a blur, mainly due to the tears, as he walked out of their House. He turned around one last time before leaving, only to see Zelgard wildly waving and to hear Yils calling out, "There is a tier-three close to your Village. Fight it and kill it; do not allow yourself to fall back into comfort…"

Stanis knew there was no way he was coming back. Both of them had already told him it was time to leave, and he cared too much about them to do otherwise. He was now to go the Village, to get himself a Class…