*clang*

Jason charge was utterly demolished, the man simply batted the thrust away with his sword and sent Jason off trajectory.

The green barrack member looked at Jason

"weak"

In a normal situation, Jason would have gotten pissed if a person on his standing or lower called him weak, yeah he would have gotten pissed, but in an arena facing off against a level 55 knight trainee with stats abnormally higher, he gave no attention to the provocation. He just steadied his hand and readied himself for another beating. He would have loved to do it any other way but it looks like the entire battalion was set on beating the skills into him.

Jason decided to go all out and charged and used precise strike then slash immediately after. Hoping that he would at least get close. The precise strike was parried with the man's sword, but Jason could see that the man's expression visibly changed a bit. When the slash came though he just simply sidestepped and let the slash go past him, like a dude waving a red sheet in front of a bull.

Oh god, he was screwed wasn't he, the man had easily dodged one of his best skills and parried the other. It did look like a precise strike was more dangerous than the other skill, but with its large cooldown, Jason was scrambling for solutions. Wait, he never appraised the dude

[Ardem Marbletail level 70 rose knight trainee]

[stats]

[strength 37]

[stamina 33]

[agility 46]

[intelligence 25]

[wisdom 20]

[charm 8]

Yeah, if compared to Jason's own stats Jason was kinda screwed, but by now Jason was getting used to being screwed over. Ardem counter-attacked and ran toward Jason head-on. Jason raised his sword to block he braced himself for a strike that would most likely send him flying. It didn't come, even when Jason waiting for a minute or so, and Jason made the stupid move of lowering his sword to peek around. The moment he did that a wooden sword came swinging from behind him and smacked him on the head. Jason staggered and fell to the ground with a red bump on his head. Ardem looked at Jason with an emotionless face.

"no focus"

Jason lay on the ground trying to endure the pain coming from his head, but then a sweet notification came into view and wiped away all of the pain Jason felt.

[you have been defeated in a duel]

[+100 EXP]

"I GET EXP!!!"

While Jason was celebrating (in his head, he still couldn't move) Boops was asking questions

'Why didn't we get any EXP when you went against Lyle?'

Jason stopped his celebration to reason with Boops

"I dunno maybe it was the tutorial to the training camp?"

'that would have been a crazy long tutorial then'

"yeah it also explains everything, including the fact that we haven't gotten any quests or the like"

'Yeah, I guess that answers everything, you think you can stand?'

"Nope, I feel like an elephant is sitting on my head right now"

Jason was still having a conversation in his head while lying on the ground. Ardem looked at the fallen Jason, thought for a moment, and spoke 5 words.

"come back tomorrow, same time"

[you have a new mission]

[Ardem is offering to train you]

[rewards: insight to rose swordsmanship, strength and stamina points]

[do you accept?]

[yes/no]

"of course"

Jason looked at Ardem who was already leaving and yelled

"ill be in your care"

Ardem replied with a small nod and continued on.

Boops gave Jason a suggestion

'well, you have access to the training grounds and they are really O.P, so how about you take advantage of them'

"haha, yes coach"

'huh I like that, listen Jason, as of now I will be your self-appointed coach now go and do 100 pushups!'

"you really fit the role Boops, a screaming voice in my head egging me on to work out, wish I had that earlier in life"

'I SEE YOU STANDING, NOT DOING PUSHUPS, HIT THE FLOOR AND GIVE ME 200!'

Jason dropped to the floor and started knocking them out. The many trial and courses the training ground gave him was a gift and he intended to use it to its max. But damn after the 400 pushup mark after Boops "Accidentally forgot the number and made him restart" multiple times his arms started to shake and make weird popping noises. Jason remembered the words of a certain anime and started thinking about treatments for hair loss.

To keep his mind off the pain he looked through the shop, and to his surprise, there actually were a few hair growth potions. Trying to distract himself a bit more he looked at his accumulated points.

"Holy fr..."

Jason's arms gave out the moment he saw his total, and Boops the person who should have know the total the entire time was oblivious and was still egging Jason on, saying something around the lines of

'JUST DO IT, DON'T LET YOUR DREAMS BE DREAMS' you know the rest

Jason had muscle failure, it wasn't as bad as it sounded, he just pushed his muscles to the limit and the collapsed. On the good side, it was basically the maximum limit for working out as his muscles literally wouldn't move. On the bad side, he couldn't work out anymore and his muscles were not moving. So with no other idea, he logged off as if he just waited to recover he would just be wasting valuable time. Coach Boops had to follow Jason's train of thought and let him log out.

Jason emerged from the capsule, his head was ringing from the impact of the events he had just experienced that day. He had done the first fake intelligence trial, then the real one, fluffed some wolves which was nice, gained a new title, learned some new stuff about Charlie and hopefully became closer, meet a new guy fought him, somehow was able to get trained by him by getting his butt kicked, and then working out until he dropped.

If that wasn't a good use of his time then Jason was going to die from overwork. He had done everything he could do today and more. And now the mental fatigue of everything was starting to him. His body wasn't tired but his mind was and the best way to get rid of mental fatigue was to sleep.

It was a shame he really wanted to go back to the river bank. After traveling there a few times it felt like a new "special" place where he could relax and let his thoughts run wild thinking about his friends, people in general, solve problems he couldn't figure out before. The place was just peaceful and before he knew it he felt a lingering attachment to the place.

Jason looked off into the widow, staring at the stary night sky. The stars twinkled and shined like brilliant jewels. Jason loved nature and beautiful paintings like most of the public. And that backdrop, with his apartment window highlighting the brilliance of the stars, and the white walls in his bedroom contrasted with the stars to create a painting that Jason would remember even if it was just a simple memory of looking out to the stars in his apartment window.

When he was young his mom would take him and his siblings outside to watch the stars. She would always repeat the same thing whenever they looked over the city with the stars shining down on them.

"Jason, always remember that you can find beauty in simple things, large elaborate things can be nice but never forget what made "you", into you. I'm sure that wherever you will be in life, you will always have a chance to see the stars. So Jason every time you see the stars remember us and everything that made "you", you."

Jason stared at the stars, and he tried his best to remember everything. He had to admit when he was that young he didn't really understand what his mom was trying to convey to him. And still to this day, he didn't really understand it. But as he looked at the star-filled sky, he felt this emotion that made him feel like something was pulling him in the inside, every time it was pulled he felt a flood of happiness and sadness come into his heart.

He still didn't completely understand what his mom meant but looking at the stars he thought that perhaps he got a bit closer to the meaning. And closing his eyes on that thought he drifted to sleep. Different from Jason's emotionless face when he provided witty banter or his forced neutral face or even when he was laughing at a funny joke, he had a rare grin on his face. No, he was beaming small dimples were even showing.

Boops saw the rare event and snapped a quick photo laughing to himself saying something about how it would be valuable in the future.