A few days have gone by since my rampage against the rabbits. I have been training diligently under George as usual while learning a few new tricks. Well, I say tricks, but it’s more common knowledge than anything else. George was surprised when he asked me about my physical reinforcement, the answer he got was a confused look on my part. It so happens that physical reinforcement is such a basic skill for pretty much every being in this world that he assumed I was using it. For those of you who may be wondering what this reinforcement is all about, I will explain to the best of my abilities.

Physical reinforcement is actually the combined name given to two types of inner magic. Inner magic as its name implies is just magic that takes effect within the caster’s body, as for the two types of physical reinforcement there is strengthening reinforcement and resilience reinforcement. The names give their effects away, but I will explain their function just how George explained it to me. For starters, strengthening reinforcement could be seen in simple terms a degraded version of my own soul ability. It increases a person’s strength, speed, regeneration, and reaction time in exchange of mana. However, my own soul ability is many, many times more efficient.

The second type of reinforcement increases the body’s resilience through the use of mana. In simple terms, it builds up a second phantom body made out of mana within the physical body, thus sharing the load. This phantom body is as strong as the amount of mana fed to it, so theoretically speaking, someone with unlimited mana could become invulnerable through this. Since my own soul ability is already far above the strengthening reinforcement, George decided to pour all of his and my efforts into my resilience reinforcement. To tell the truth, even though the theory sounds simple, its implementation is hellish, at least for someone like me that is learning from zero.

Normally someone from this world would learn it through the years just by living as their bodies would unconsciously use both types of reinforcement. However, I am having to use resilience reinforcement consciously and it’s not easy at all. If I had to try and describe how it felt in simple words, I would say it’s like trying to walk on a thin rope with a stack of books on my head above an abyss and that’s just for walking while using it! Now imagine running or even combat! In this last few days, my concentration has been stretched to its limits while trying to perform simple actions while keeping the reinforcement active, truly a difficult task.

At the very least, this past few days I have been able to get the hang of it to a certain extent. It’s not usable in combat yet, but I am making progress so that is good. I have also met with Dan and Lizz a few times. They have been doing their own thing while I am busy training. George is merciless really, he reported to Dianna my lack in this precious basic skill and so I have been utterly prohibited from participating in any and all combat-related quests until both Diana and George are satisfied with my skill. My pockets will be empty by then, damn it!

I have started to get a little desperate so I try to use the reinforcement at all times. It’s a little mana demanding but with my core providing me with a large mana pool alongside a monstrous mana regeneration it’s not a big deal. The only problem is the constant headache due to my poor brain being abused in such way. More importantly, I asked Pyrka about my ever bleeding arm and surprise surprise I will have to get used to it. Pyrka needs access to my blood for her cursed fire magic, not to mention the curse also affects me so the wounds she inflicts to me won’t heal easily and will get reopened whenever I use her magic. In the end, she performed some weird ritual on my arm and it got covered by some strange bandages that resemble the leather that covers her hilt. Blood red with some strange black runes, the bandages cover my left arm from just below the shoulder all the way to just before the tip of my fingers.

Checking things out, my left arm feels completely normal, almost as if the weird bandages had become part of my skin. As a matter of fact, after asking Pyrka it so happens that they became my skin. Under the weird bandages, there is my muscle tissue and the nerve endings that previously belonged to my skin had been absorbed by the cursed bandages making them my new skin. It’s creepy and weird but I guess it's better than having an ever bleeding arm.

A week or so later I had finally gotten proficient enough with my reinforcement for combat, or so Dianna and George believe. The thing is that I discovered a neat trick that aided me in my times of need. Why use reinforcement in my whole body when I could use it in the area I need it at the moment. For example, let’s say I will get punched in the gut, what need do I have to reinforce my arms? I just need to reinforce my gut and am good! And so by doing that I reduce the burden over my poor brain. Like an on-off switch, I kept shifting my reinforcement efforts all over my body during my little test against Diana. Both of them got satisfied with the results despite my cheating! moreover, I think they didn’t even realize I was cheating! This is the best! I am free, finally free!

With my newfound freedom and pockets void of any coin, I dashed to the notice board to pick a juicy quest. Finally, some income after so long. The first thing to catch my attention was an orc subjugation request. It seems a group of orcs have been causing trouble on a village nearby, looking at the details as of now three orcs have been confirmed and its believed they may have two more. Reading the quest only made my enthusiasm skyrocket. I have heard orc meat tastes just like pork but even better, me wants some pork, me gets pork. Without a second thought, I ripped the quest from the board dashed towards the nearest receptionist to handle things. In no time I was already dashing out of the guild at full throttle, pork here I come!

It didn’t take long for me to run out of gas. What was I expecting anyway? Getting to the village in a single sprint? no way, there is no way, in the quest it was stated it would take a day by foot and half by carriage. No matter how much I have trained with George, my stamina isn’t at such a godly level. You say I could have used my overload to restore my stamina while using my cores mana? what for, it’s not like the orcs will disappear if I don’t hurry. Moreover, my core isn’t fully healed yet, so pressuring it for no good reason is plain stupid. Don’t get me wrong, I was tempted to do so. I mean if the rumours are anything to go by, orc meat is really high quality and tasty. Just thinking about it makes me start drooling.

In the end, I decided to leisurely walk. Well, that is until I realized that in my excitement I hadn’t packed anything! I brought no food, and I only have a small leather bag for water! Stupid me, well there isn’t anything I can do now. I mean I could go back but that would be wasting another four hours, two going back, and another two to get where I am now! That’s just too much of a waste, whatever I will have to make do with what I have, if I get hungry then hunting is still an option. I say that but it didn’t take long until my stomach started rumbling and to make things worse I could see in the distance a carriage being attacked by bandits. Is this it? The cliche encounter with a merchant being attacked by bandits only to be saved by an otherworldly reincarnation offering them transportation and food?

Well, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not like I can just look away and let things happen, I still have morals you know? And even if this is a cliche development, so what, sue me. With stupid thoughts in mind, I began my sprint towards the scene that was currently developing. From the looks of things, it’s a group of two adventurers or mercenaries defending a merchant and his daughter against a group of six bandits. If anything, they are doing a great job despite being outnumbered. One of the bandits was already fatally wounded bleeding out on the floor, however the adventurers were at the end of their rope too. Fatigue was obvious on their faces. Who knows for how long have they been holding back the mob of ruffians.

“Let’s do this! Leroy! Jeeeenkins!”

I shouted atop of my longs as I plunged in the middle of the bandits. Now that I think of it none of these people will get the reference! How sad. Well, there is only one way to get rid of the sadness that weighs down my heart. Yup, you guessed it, it's to get rid of these bandits. I ever so carefully kicked at their knee joints or hit their heads with the hilt of my weapons to prevent any fatal injuries. What? did you really think I would go on a murder rampage? I mean doing so against monsters is one thing, but doing that to humans or any sentient being for that matter is a little. Let’s just say I don’t have the guts to do it. I mean if I had no other option, of course, I would kill them but right now there is no need.

With swift movements, I knocked out, disarmed, tripped, etcetera, the merry bunch. A few tried some neat tricks, I guess those were their soul abilities or something, but in the end, they didn’t amount to much. I mean with my core pumping mana into my overload and reinforcement, their efforts became completely useless.

“well, that should do are you guys alrig-“

I didn’t get to finish as I turned around to see the adventurers pointing their weapons my way. Wait! I just helped you, why the hell are you pointing your weapons towards me for!? I had already sheathed Naru and Pyrka, moreover, I didn’t feel like fighting them when I went to so much trouble to help them. What mess did I get myself into?