That night Andel had a little trouble sleeping due to sudden change in the environment. However, it was nothing a few pushups can’t fix. After doing no less than 200 pushups due to his years of practice, Andel finally got tired enough to sleep until morning.

The time for the compulsory group practice session was due at 7 AM. But Andel was already up and running since 6:30. Though he didn’t leave the room. Sharp at 6:45, the doorbell rang as the intercome showed the image of a young adult with a Mexican hat.

Knowing that he was visible on the intercom, the man looked at the camera. “Captain asked me to call you for mandatory morning exercise.”

“I am up, coming.” Andel opened the door and came outside.

“Hmm! You are up early, kid. Can’t sleep?” The man in the Mexican hat asked. “Ah! Forgive my rudeness. I am Travis, and you can call me bro or just Travis. I am only 21. So, by no means you are to call me uncle, got it?”

“O..okay!” Not knowing what to say, Andel settled for agreement. “Travis, what kind of things done in this morning exercise?” Andel asked curiously.

“Hmm, just some normal stretching and warmups before we all go for our individual ones.” Travis carelessly said before stopping and looked at Andel from top to bottom. “This exercise might not be as normal to you, though.” Travis had his doubts ever since he read Andel’s bio. It's not only just him, as others also shared the same sentiment. A boy who can’t even use magic or ki, just how far can he go?

So when Frendez asked if anyone wanted to take him as an apprentice, no one agreed. There were even some who showed disdain. In the end, they have to draw lots to decide who will take him. Selina was the unfortunate one to pull the short stick.

“What do you mean?” Andel asked curiously. After walking through the dining hall, they arrived at the open space, the common hall.

“You will know what I meant when you see the exercise schedule itself,” Travis said. While following him behind, Andel marked how he was keeping his distance with him all the while. Its as if he didn’t want to get any close to him than necessary. Andel could only sigh after seeing this. This prejudice was what he wanted to protect himself from.

“Oh, young Andel, you are here.” Frendez was already there with a smile on his face. Around him stood two other people, one man, and one woman. The man looked just a bit younger than Frendez while the woman was probably the youngest one here. Well, as long as his age wasn't taken into consideration. However, Andel was more surprised to see the woman than anything else.

“Alisa? Is that you?” He couldn’t help but lose his cool for a bit. The girl had an uncanny appearance to someone he knew in the past.

“You got the wrong person, kid. She is Lilia.” Travis said before bursting out laughing at the face Lilia made at being recognized wrong.

Andel came to his senses and shook his head to clear his thoughts. She couldn’t be here, he told himself. Although they looked the same, Lilia was taller than Alisa. Putting on an awkward smile, which wasn’t an act, he apologized to her. “I am sorry beautiful lady. You just looked a bit similar to someone I knew.”

Lilia just nodded before looking away from him and stood with her eyes closed.

“Alright, guys, let me introduce you all to our newest trainee. Andel Seras.” Frendez introduced him to the other two standing in front of him. “Andel, you have already met Travis. Let me introduce you to Lilia here, and he is Two. Yes, his name is Two.”

However, despite his effort of greeting them, neither Lilia nor Two greeted him back. In the end, Andel just gave up. He went to a side and stood their silently awaiting Frendez’s orders.

‘Sigh! These guys…’ Frendez could only sigh. He was also the same as them before meeting Andel. It was only after he got to know him that he understood him better.

“Alright, since everyone’s present now. Let’s start with the warmup.” Frendez shouted. “Kid, you are new to this. Therefore, you do 50 pushups first.”

“Okay.” Andel nodded and started his pushups. Fifty pushups were like a child’s play to him. His Pain and Fatigue Immunity had risen to much higher levels than it was five years ago. As a result, there were not a single insect or critters could be found around the Seras household. By now, even a Level 5 ki practitioner couldn’t defeat him. Of course, it was under the condition that they didn’t use their unique abilities.

On every fifth level up, a ki practitioner gains a unique ability called Talent. A level 5 ki practitioner would have at least one Talent. Moreover, these Talents wouldn’t necessarily weaker than their magic counterpart.

While Andel was tasked with fifty, others had to do around a hundred times of that number. However, they were soon surprised to find how easily he was doing his exercise. Fifty pushups finished within half a minute. The speed was astonishing for a kid of his age.

“Kid, you seem to have not even broke a sweat. What is your limit?” Frendez asked curiously.

“I can do at most fifteen to twenty times more than what you gave me,” Andel said calmly. He was not even taking deep breaths after such a strenuous exercise.

“Impossible!” Two shouted as his voice rose a few octaves. “A mortal adult could never do half of what you claimed, let alone a kid like you. Stop boasting! Only a Ki practitioner of your age could do that, and that too barely.”

Andel was too lazy to retort him. Instead, he looked at Frendez’s frowning face and said, “how about I show it to you?”

“Show it. Hmph! If you can’t do it, then get lost from here. We don’t need a useless boaster among us.” Two was very direct and vicious with his words. Its as if he had some prejudice against Andel. He was singling him out every time.

“Okay.” Andel nodded. He was disinclined to argue with an opinionated fellow like him.

And like that, he started doing highspeed pushups.

Half an hour later, the hall was filled with cheers.

“1007! Kid, you can do it.”

“1008! A bit more!”

“1010! Wow!! You did it!”

While Andel was doing pushups, Frendez, Travis, and Lilia surrounded him and loudly counted the number of times. With his current Pain and Fatigue level, 1000 was his absolute limit. But, encouraged by them, Andel dared to break past it.

“I…” He was breathless and sweating from head to toe. “I couldn’t go on anymore!!”

His muscles were crying as he felt a searing pain in them. Andel knew he would heal from it with just a night’s sleep. But, it was in the future. As his whole body ached, a blue notification box appeared on his field of vision.

[Pain Immunity gained 40 EXP] [Fatigue Immunity gained 40 EXP]

[Strength +1]

[Stamina +1]

In these ten years, he had never seen his physical attributes increasing so quickly. It was always him training rigorously coupled with natural aging that increased his stats and that too one point a month. Today was the first time it happened. He didn’t expect to receive such a surprise on the very first day after leaving home.

Nonetheless, it was a welcomed surprise.