Derb was sitting in the shade of a tree, eating meat and bread like it was the best delicacies the world had to offer. His body seemed to be going through a growth spurt lately and combined with the meditation it left him both gaining height and losing weight at an alarming degree. He could practically feel his stomach sucking in what had to be about over a thousand calories. At this rate, he’d probably get mistaken for a particularly empty scarecrow. For a week he had been here. And in this week all he had been doing was mana training exercises. At least the nightmares seemed to have stopped, at least the ones he could remember. He still woke up sometimes with a panic attack, but at least those didn’t affect him mentally.

He kept eating until someone snuck in from behind him. “What’s up short stock?” replied a grinning Tiffany, the blonde girl who spent all that time healing him during his little eight-day coma. When he heard she'd done that he felt grateful to the point of tears, something she felt very uncomfortable about. He was grateful even now, but it didn’t stop him from getting angry about being interrupted during lunchtime. He choked down the food in his mouth with as much grace as he could manage before he finally spoke.

“Tiffany, I thought of everyone in this group at least you’d have my back.” He looked down in mock sadness, acting as if he was actually depressed. This earned him a shocked look and a shamed glance at her own feet. The name "short stock" was something he'd got during the past few days. Since all he’d been doing was mana strengthening exercises, it was becoming more and more obvious he was extremely inferior in terms of mana capacity. It seemed Derb’s mana reserves were much smaller than even his teacher had guessed, and he said it’d take some time before Derb started growing at a steadier pace.

It didn’t change the fact that some 14 year old had larger mana reserves than him, however. He looked up at her with fake betrayed eyes, aiming to guilt-trip her. “I’m… sorry, you just looked like you were having so much fun with Hannah and I wanted to join in...” Ah, he understood now. “Don’t mix up that version of me with this current one. Hannah is a beast that requires absolute mental preparation to even speak with. That little devil has words as smooth as silver and as sharp as lightning...” All these fancy words managed to do was leave a confused look on Hannah’s face.

He didn’t want the bright Tiffany to be outdone by Hannah in confidence so he made sure to set the misconception straight. “Now, I’m gonna have you repeat after me...” Derb said, in the grimmest voice he could manage. He closed in until both were face to face. The tension worked as Tiffany was straight as an arrow, a serious and anxious look plastered on her face. She wasn’t sure what he would ask of her but she wanted to help in any way that she could. the tension was instantly shattered Derb lifting her in the air as high as he could on his shoulder, quite easily considering she was only 14.

This earned a scream of shock and fear from Tiffany, who was trying to hold on to dear life using his hair. “Hannah is a devil and I should be proud I’m not her.” Derb said out loud, meaning for Tifanny to repeat it. She wasn't so compliant at saying such terrible things, however “I-I… I can’t say that! Hannah’s older than me, and she's my sister...” Tiffany replied. Derb continued to spin them around in circles, going even faster now that he knew she was hesitant. “Hannah is a little rascal and I should be proud I’m not her!” The spinning wore down on Tiffany, and She started losing her train of thought. “I… I” Derb grinned, if he got Tiffany on his side he’d finally be able to get some info and that dirty conniving snake-

“vine trap” before he could get the words out of her mouth he heard The voice of Hannah nearby. He swung his head towards the noise, and in the dizzy blurring mess he saw Hannah and a bunch of nasty-looking vines rushing the earth towards him. Derb could barely see the chaos due to the world spinning but he didn't let that bother him. He calmly but quickly put the dizzy Tiffany in front of him, assuring him his victory.

With a dizzy grin, he watched the chaos ensue. Both he and Tiffany fell on their butts from the dizziness of spinning. Tiffany especially couldn’t get out of the way, and that made her the perfect shield. Hannah panicked at the situation, of course. She didn’t want to hit Tiffany, especially after that brave resistance to that man’s antics. Derb saw her stop the vines only four feet away from both him and Tiffany. However, she couldn’t concentrate on both things at once, and her feet got tangled in the process, causing her to trip. Derb couldn’t help but laugh at this point. “Hey, I thought that one was for me, is your aim off? Hahaha! Wanna try again?”

Derb was already getting up to run back to his teacher’s home. He didn’t even look back as all he heard was a shriek of anger as he sprinted. “Spiked vine” Nope! Derb pushed his legs even harder. He wasn’t mentally prepared to get hit with something that scary-sounding, or to even see it for that matter. He jumped through the door of his teacher’s house just in time, hitting a perfect diving roll directly into a seiza position.

With a perfectly stoic face, Derb took the initiative before his teacher could ask any questions.“Ready and willing to learn, sir. What are we doing today?” The facade was instantly broken by the shrill shriek coming from outside, however. “DERB! COME OUT HERE AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN.” The old man looked at me with one eyebrow raised and a smug grin on his face. “What say we call practice off for today, boy? It seems like you have other, more important things to do right now.” Derb didn’t let a single emotion show on his face. “I thank you sir, but my pursuit of knowledge is above all petty material gains.” His benevolent teacher was full-blown maliciously grinning at this point. “Then, I guess you’re accepting of continuing the mana bath?”

His poker face shattered instantly. He reeled back the moment he heard the words coming from the old man’s mouth. He really wanted Derb dead, didn’t he? The thoughts of the past when it had been done to him... Who in their right minds would accept that over a scuffle with a 14-year-old girl? The boy put his head down into the ground as a formal bow. “I am yours to do as you wish, sir!” Who would do it? An idiot who had finally beaten Hannah at her own game, that’s who.

___

From a safe spot in a field, a boy was being dunked into a tub of scalding hot water. “THAT’S IT, BOY, KEEP YOUR HEAD UNDER, LONGER IS BETTER!” Derb was drowning, boiling, crying, and most importantly, dying. This old man was basically shoving his head down into the tub the moment Derb got too complacent. Complacent being when he spent more than 5 seconds gasping for precious air. It was painful and downright terrifying to have someone with bodybuilder strength grip your head and pull you under extremely hot water. He swore he saw nirvana a couple of times down there, and at this point, he wanted to swim towards it.

Oh yeah, what was basically happening was that his teacher made a giant mana concoction purely made out of some fancy magical herbs. His teacher told him the heat was for a purpose, but it didn’t make it any less hard to deal with. By making it scalding hot it made the mana in the water would seek a colder object to balance itself with. This was where derb, the colder object, came in. Flapping his arms like a baby bird who just fell into the water, Derb was desperately trying any way to free himself from the old man’s grip. “Mercy teacher! Bblghuh. I need a break! Blublghuh. TIFFANY HELP!”

The old man was toying with Derb at this point, basically giving him quick dunks underwater to trigger the drowning reflex. At least, that's what it felt like. After a long and excruciating 20 minutes, the water had gone cold enough where it had to be reboiled. “Rest for now boy… two more baths and you’ll be reborn as a new...” He looked back but Derb was already gone, along with his clothes. Scratching his chin in wonderment, the old wondered if he was being too harsh. “I… might have had a bit too much fun with the boy…” he admitted. He wasn’t stopping anytime soon though, his student was just so fun to watch.

Derb was running through the streets with tears in his eyes. looking for any familiar face to share his anguish with. He finally found Hannah after a bunch of aimless running. “THERE YOU ARE! YOU THINK MASTER COULD SA-” before she got to finish her rant Derb was already rushing in, hugging her waist while crying. “Hannahhh... your teacher… help me hide from your teacher...” She… didn’t expect him to be in this state, and she wasn’t prepared for him to come to her for help. “Um… calm down, I’m sure if we went to him and explained what you did...” This earned her a shocked expression and a glare. “What makes you think I did anything?! The man was trying to do things to me against my will.” Derb was basically bawling at this point. “He took his strong hands and he pushed me down and I was all wet and hot and… ueehh...”

The girl finally understood. He was talking about the mana baths master subjected himself to weekly. The ones that were now being solely used for Derb. Though for some reason she didn’t like how the boy explained it to him. “Get off me!" She tried prying him off with all the strength she had, a surprising amount considering her age. "Those are for your own good, and expensive too, you should be glad master’s wasting his resources on you, you poor excuse of a student.”

A quick kick to his gut sent him flying, but he expected it and rolled with the blow. it Didn’t stop him from complaining, however. “Augh! I trusted you, Hannah! I thought we were friends!” Even with Hannah being as young as she was, she still caught on to what derb was doing. “Don’t use that tone with me, I still haven’t gotten you back for earlier! Maye if you go back to master and complete your training I’d feel too bad to go through with killing you, understand?” She gave him her sharpest glare, combined with her “Predator’s Gaze”. Ever since she realized Derb was scared of the spell she used it whenever she could. He scrambled back from her, daring to not say a word. As young as she was, she was still a powerhouse, something he learned from the rest of the local villagers.

None of them were actually magic users like those three. Apparently, being a mage made them the guardians of the area. That didn’t change the fact that all the townsfolk had superhuman strength and endurance. He saw a man cut down a 20-foot tree in four swipes for god’s sake. He stood up and dusted himself off, still acting sad that Hannah didn’t take his side. “Hurry up, we can’t have master waiting.” She turned to face derb only to see him with a pale face and a hand around his neck. “That won’t be necessary my student… I’ll take it from here.” Her master had a warm smile on his face, and he patted her on the head for trying to take the boy back. She felt good knowing she had done the right thing and receiving praise for it. With a snap of his finger, a light shone on both him and Derb, and then they were gone.

Derb and Gerald were instantly teleported next to the tub, and he looked around in amazement. “When were you gonna tell me you could do that? The light attribute is overpowered...'' The old man gave him a funny look, what was someone with such a good synergy saying? “Says the boy with dark and ritual magic. You do not know how many seek those two for their synergy, not to mention having two other synergizing attributes... If you weren’t my student I’d have already strangled you with envy! Hahaha!''

The laughter didn’t seem so genuine to Derb as the hand still around his neck squeezed ever so slightly tighter. “I understand! I’ll bathe or whatever you want me to do. have I told you how handsome you look today teacher… Master?” That buttered him up. “Ahaha! Boy, you think you have the right to call me that? Wait a couple more years and I’ll reconsider, the difference between student and disciple is a mountain apart! ohohoh!” Sure old man, like he didn’t notice Gerald's face soften, he definitely had a soft spot for his students.

“So, are you ready for round two?” Derb looked at the water that seemed two degrees behind boiling and gulped. He mentally prepared himself, he knew his teacher was doing this for his own goo- “AAUGH BLUBHGH” The nice thoughts about his teacher instantly turned to death threats as Gerald shoved him into the water without a second thought. He didn’t even let him take his clothes off! As Derb was continuously shoved under the scalding hot water he swore one thing. “I’ll never forgive this teacher! Teacherblrbru”