By the time I reached the end of the hallway, I was frozen with fear of what Kalistra planned for me. I remembered the humiliation that I endured when I vomited in the courtyard after I ran a ton of lapses as punishment. That was on my very first day of physical fitness training under the heir to the dojo because apparently, I didn't have the proper attributes to start the real swordsmanship lessons at the school.

The numerous students practicing in the courtyard watched me get chewed out by her. I also had to clean up the mess that I had made. I was certain that the students were wagering on when I would quit the dojo altogether. But my stubbornness made me stay and endure the harsh physical fitness training.

During my next training session, Kalistra made me carry Gendun in a manpack on my back and run around the courtyard. Mentally, I understood the reason behind this exercise, but I didn't have an easier time with it, either. I ended up collapsing from exhaustion while the kid was still on my back. Thankfully, my young friend fell on top of me, rather than vice versa, and escaped any serious injury.

Given these un-orthodoxical training methods that Kalistra seemed to prefer, I couldn't help but shudder in fear at what I will do doing the rest of today. Surely, the evil minx will have something even worse in store for me.

"As much as I am enjoying your personal suffering right now, Larry, you really need to go back to the dojo," Enab said in an absurdly nice tone of voice. "So GET OUT!" he yelled as the assistant suddenly opened the door and planted a foot on my rear to push me out.

"-2 Health." Before I could finish turning around, the door was slammed shut in my face.

"Yoohoo, Lord Mulligan! Over here!"

I winced upon hearing the voice of Kalistra. I took note of the false cheer in her voice. With growing dread in my heart, I turned around again, this time to face judgment. My head swiveled back and forth until I found the cat girl; she was leaning against a wall of a shop located on the east end of the block and across the street. Given her short height, it was tough for me to find her in the growing crowd of pedestrians milling about the street. I hurried down the block and joined her.

Kalistra was in a surprisingly good mood considering that I had made her wait for over half an hour. Suddenly, the evil minx grinned and held up a paw. "Your training starts now, milord. Now run back to the dojo!" she commanded me and suddenly swiped at my chest with her sharp claws.

Fortunately, her unexpected attack did no damage since my studded leather armor protected me. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Should I aim for your face next?" the cat girl threatened as her pale yellow-green eyes narrowed. She flexed her left paw menacingly.

"No, master!" I yelled and started running back to the dojo.

However, it appeared that I wasn't running fast enough for her because Kalistra kept swiping at me every half-block. Some hits I managed to avoid, while others landed on my arms and legs. But thankfully, my tormentor exercised some restraint and avoided scratching my face. Thank Kallimon for small favors.

Shortly thereafter, I stood before the two stone guardians in front of the entrance to the dojo. I had taken a half dozen hits from Kalistra and accumulated a loss of ten more health points. I was huffing and puffing from running several blocks. But unlike a few days ago, I had enough stamina to remain standing on my feet. I couldn't do anything else at the moment but nonetheless, I was proud of my increase in physical endurance.

"Move," my master nudged me aside and opened the heavy door.

I quickly followed her inside, and Kalistra closed the door behind me.

Without looking back at me, the cat girl said, "Before we begin our training session, the grandmaster would like a word with you in the Meditation Room."

Intrigued by the unexpected meeting with Kalistro, I followed his daughter as she chose the hidden side door route to enter the room rather than through the indoor training hall. When I heard the grunts and the sounds of wooden sticks, I realized that the students were already training at this early hour. The thought of my late start for today's training compared to my fellow students at the dojo embarrassed me. I resolved to make up for my tardiness by training even harder today.

I waited patiently for Kalistra to activate the secret panel to enter the hallway and then to close the panel behind her. When we finally stood before the secret entrance to the meditation room, Kalistra announced our arrival. "I have brought Lawrence for an audience with the grandmaster," she said in a loud, firm tone of voice.

"Please enter," the grandmaster replied.

Activating another secret panel, we entered the small meditation room and Kalistra closed the panel behind her.

I saw both the grandmaster and master Gurgne sitting on the floor. The two were having tea. I bowed deeply to both.

"Please sit down and have some herbal tea," the dog man invited graciously. "This will invigorate you and heal your wounds."

When I sat down next to Gurgne, he passed me a small cup. I drink the murky, dark brown colored tea and I blanched at the bitter taste on my tongue. But true to his word, I watched as the red health bar at the upper left corner of my sight began to refill until it was full again. "+12 Health." I dismissed the pop-up confirmation.

Seeing a lack of reaction from me, the master held out his left paw before the cat man, who grunted as he reluctantly dropped a gold coin into Gurgne's paw.

My eyes widened at the payout. Apparently, the gambling amongst members of the school came straight from the top. If the grandmaster himself was wagering, how could he forbid his pupils from doing so without being a hypocrite?

Gurgne took note of my reaction and grinned. "I apologize if you find our betting distasteful, young pup. But gambling is a favorite past time of the lowborn, and that includes the grandmaster and me," he explained. "Gambling is a way for us commoners to bond. The passing and exchanging of our precious coins are reminders of who we are and our stations in life. Unfortunately, there will always be a chasm between those who struggle for their daily bread and those who don't."

Suddenly, a notification appeared before my eyes. It read, "Request to join Kalistra's party. Yes or no?" I turned my head to my right, where the cat girl was sitting.

"I need to review your status and figure out which attributes require additional training," she explained.

I hit yes with my mind and the pop-up disappeared.

Kalistra became very quiet as she started examining my player character screen intently.

Come to think of it, I haven't looked at my status in quite a while. I took this opportunity to review my player character screen. A picture of my player avatar was on the left column and right above that read: “Title: Pursuer of the Crown, Title: Were-Hunter, Status: Liege of the Butterfly School of Swordsmanship, Status: Adept of the Church of Britannia.” The middle column read: "Name: Lawrence Eugene Mulligan, Race: Human, Alignment: Lawful-Neutral, Special Condition: Kissed by Lady Luck (Expiration 3:00:35), Permanent Conditions: Marked by Bane, Marked by Musa, Marked by Luck; Profession: Swordsman (Amateur), Level: 4, Experience: 29,554/10,000, Reputation: 7,302, Attack: 28, Damage: 6-8 (Unarmed), 7-11 (Dagger), 7-15 (Sword), Critical Attack: 5%, Critical Damage: 250%." On the right side of the screen were my player attributes: "Health: 42, Stamina: 25, Magic: 30, Strength: 18, Intelligence: 20, Wisdom: 10, Dexterity: 17, Constitution: 18, Charisma: 12. Abilities: Navigation-Sense (Level 4), Magic Sense (Level 3), Immunity to Electricity (Level 1), Negotiation (Level 3), Spirit Sense (Level 4), Reroll (Level X)." At the bottom were three tabs. The first was marked "Skills." When I mentally clicked on the tab, I saw: "Professional Skills: Swordsman—Charge (Level 1), Disarm (Level 1)." The second tab was "Spells," and it showed: "Divine Spells: Order—Unveil (Level X), Chaos—Veil (Level X)." The last tab was "Artifacts," and it revealed: "Truth-Stone of Order and Chaos—Truth-Telling (Level X)."

I was really impressed by my player status screen as it was starting to expand. I was concerned by the change in my personal alignment. But given how many "lawful" acts that I was committing, it made sense that my alignment was starting to shift toward one end of the spectrum.

Suddenly, Kalistra hissed.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Please show us your marks," the cat girl requested.

I pulled up my left sleeve and robe to expose my inner left arm. I then held my right palm over it and cast "unveil."

The grandmaster and master looked at each other as the simple casting was all it took to reveal my divine marks.

Gurgne whistled in appreciation of my feat. "Is young pup a dual class?" he asked.

"Um . . . nope," Kalistra answered after checking my player status screen. "He is an Adept of the church, though," she noted. "He has three divine marks—from Bane, Musa, and Luck," she reported.

"How many days have you been in our world, young man?" Kalistro asked. The nobleman must have been in Britannia for at least a week. Otherwise, how could he survive so many ordeals with the humans, nonhumans, and gods alike?

I took a moment to recall. "It's been five days so far," I answered quickly.

The grandmaster shook his head in amazement. "Five days was all it took for you to get that many divine marks," he breathed in bewilderment as his whiskers twitched. Kalistro will have to check the writings of Kallimon, but the cat man was almost certain that it took far longer for Merlin to accumulate that many divine marks. A part of him was eager to push me as far as I could endure and to test my limits. But the wiser part of Kalistro cautioned patience instead. It was truly a pity that the dojo had only one day allotted for my intensive tournament training.

"Are the brands really that special?" I asked, oblivious to the cat man's inner turmoil.

Gurgne laughed out loud at my naivety. "Being marked by a god is considered a special honor granted to few men. And yes, only humans have received these marks. Where did you think the Church of Britannia's bias and hostility against nonhumans came from? But I digress. You probably know more about the benefits of being marked since there haven't been many mark holders, at least not known publicly anyway," he explained with a hint of bitterness. Gurgne had debated endlessly with his clan whether it was right for the animal people to serve humans given their hostility towards nonhumans. The answer had caused him to split from his family.

"I can't really say much about it because the gods tend to prefer secrets and conspiracies," I replied. Again, I was oblivious to the inner turmoil of another person in my presence.

"You're the expert on the behavior of gods, not me," the dog man shrugged.

"Does our special training schedule need to be modified?" Kalistro asked suddenly while looking direct at his daughter. He was hoping to offer me and Kalistra a good night's sleep before starting the journey. However, he was prepared to grant permission for my instructor to train me well into the night if necessary.

"I don't think so," Kalistra shook her head. She looked at my attributes again. "Thankfully, Lawrence has followed our advice and delayed his advancement. Thus, we will have more control over the development of our tournament representative's attributes."

"That's excellent news," Kalistro praised. He turned toward me. "Today's training will have several components. First, we need to increase your constitution as much as possible before you add attribute points to it. A higher constitution translates into more health points for you, as well as additional stamina. As you're aware by now, your own stamina limits the number of skills you can utilize during a duel. Thus, we need to focus on increasing your Constitution score as much as possible," he explained. "By the time you leave Tregome tomorrow, you will be carrying twenty-five attribute points in your Constitution."

"Twenty-five points in Consitution? Why would I need that much?" I asked with great consternation. I was hoping to add more points into deficiencies like my wisdom attribute. I was certain that I was acting in an imprudent manner on many occasions, and I was hoping that more wisdom would help me make better decisions.

Kalistra folded her arms and sighed. "Think for a moment. Why have I been making you run today?" she asked.

"Because you're a meanie and you want to punish me?" I replied what I thought aloud. I immediately winced as I began to appreciate how the fickle cat girl will interpret my ill-advised words.

"So you think I'm a meanie, eh?" Kalistra's eyes flashed dangerously.

I grinned helplessly. When I tried to her father and Gurgne for help, both men looked elsewhere and avoided eye contact with me.

"Well, I can't control what you think of me and in the end, it doesn't matter much," she shrugged. "What matters is that twenty-five in your Constitution."

"Why?" I interrupted.

"Basically, you'll need to run from Tregome all the way to Bristol," the cat girl grinned.

"Huh?" I was perplexed by the notion of running from here to another town. "Why would we need to run? Don't we have horses in town that we could rent or even buy?" I asked.

Gurgne laughed at my questions, earning a sharp elbow in his ribs from Kalistro.

"In case you forgot, we're animal people. Horses don't like us. If we try to ride on horses, they will run wild and try to drop us. That's why your very first training exercise was running lapses around the dojo," my instructor answered.

"But why twenty-five points specifically in my Constitution?" I persisted in asking.

Kalistro finally answered this burning question. "At that score, your body will be able to replenish the stamina at a rate equal to how fast you burn when you run. In other words, it's the ideal equilibrium point. Okay, I think we spent enough time sitting in this room. Kalistra, you need to begin Lawrence's training," he ordered.

"Yes, master!" the daughter replied.