It was a tad bit late to get a quest or venture into the dungeon today. I had an idea in mind. I caught the attention of the very same worker who was back hurrying towards the room we left.

“Training? There are some training dummies in the courtyard. Sorry, I have to hurry.”

..and he was gone.

Yup. It was high time to make some training montage and get stronger.

“We are totally unprepared for combat, don’t you think so dear?”

“We could take down a slime or goblinoid easily, master,” she replied.

“That is literally what isekaied kids fight these days. If we encounter another bear.. I admit I panicked yesterday. I have mulled over our ‘battle’ and I think you should watch your mana pool and always leave some points saved for later. Unless we are just about to head home via Teleport.”

“I thought the same, master. It was dangerous to lose my only weapon like that.”

“You need to be able to deal with melee weapons as well as magic. Since the guild has a training hall let us head there and train.”

We walked through the maze that was this guild. Elfin was constantly sneaking glances in my direction. Did she hesitate to ask me something? I looked at her directly and nodded.

“Can I have some snacks?”

“Sure. It is not something you need to hesitate to ask.”

I brought out a dish made of chopped meat wrapped with some kind of thin bread. Despite looking like a common kebab it was quite expensive. I was curious how it would taste and sneaked a bite in. I said with my mouth full:

“Gimme a bite, please.”

It was definitely tasty.

For some reason she blushed, but did not protest.

The training grounds of the guild were busy, but we somehow managed to get in. Grounds were located in a spacious courtyard surrounded by second floor balconies, many of which had rows of seats. Hanging on the balconies were tablets with arcane symbols etched onto them. There was a shooting range surrounded by a tall wall. The sides had dummies and racks with wooden practice weapons.

The sounds of clashes between wood and metal echoed throughout the courtyard, but suddenly a lone voice raised above them.

“Newbies!”

We turned to face the voice.

“See, I told you they were newbies,” said one of the two young adventurers.

They were both equipped with bronze-tipped spears and simple leather chest protectors.

“You must be wealthy to get full equipment like that,” stated the other.

“At the start of your career,” finished the first one.

I was partially dressed in gear, but Elfin was wearing her dress. They must have ignored her. Were they twins? They did resemble each other somewhat.

“I am Lynx of Krark and this is Elfin of Krark,” I introduced us.

“We are the Longstreet Brothers!”

“That is your party name?” I said failing to hide how lame I thought it sounded.

“Told you it sucks!”

“It was your idea!”

They blamed each other so I decided to not continue to bother them and with them.

“See you later, Longun’s!”

See what I did there. ‘Yongun’ and ‘Long’ combined. Or Lone Guns. Doubtful anyone on Thrope would get the later reference.

“Wait!” shouted one of them.

“That is actually a good name!”

“That is not the reason I called them over, brother. We should tell them about the rules!”

“Rules?” I asked?

“You cannot use magic on melee dummies,” said one.

“You can only shoot in the walled range,” continued the other.

“Fighting others require their explicit permission.”

“No bullying.”

“Guild is not responsible for injuries, but there are nurses and healers on standby.”

“If you have the money to pay them!”

“We do not,” finished the other brother.

One of them had a shallow wound on his forearm.

“Can master heal him?” whispered Elfin into my ear.

“I do not want to kiss a dude,” I replied.

“Ah. I forgot.”

“Be careful with magic. Long range spells also go into the range, but mind the dummies.”

They continued prattling on and on, unaware of our little conversation running in parallel.

“Borrowing training gear is okay, but do not take away from the grounds.”

“If you want to train with us it will cost you 10 keshes for an hour.”

“That last one is not a rule, just an offer.”

“Well, thanks. Here is a potion for your injuries,” I thanked them with those words and gave the nearest one a bottle of our weakest healing potion. Good that I bought those from the alchemist. Anything I plundered, I mean repatriated from Heaven’s Treasury, was simply too eye-catching. Even the lowest potion would regenerate a hand at least.

Anyway we left before they resumed their brother act.

“I cannot accept that.”

“That is too expensive.”

“We have to give it back.”

However my preemptive retreat was too effective and we were out of their sight already.

“Does master need a sparring partner?”

“I would like to try to loosen my muscles first with the dummies.”

“As you wish, master.”

“Do you want to change your clothes? I certainly want to do so.”

She looked down and around.

“Yes, but there are so many people watching,” she said unsure.

“We could ‘port to our room in the inn and back,” I replied to reassure her.

“Where will we find a secluded place to do so in the guild?” she asked unsure.

“Let us try at least,” I encouraged.

We left the yard in direction of rooms that were devoid of other adventurers. According to the minimap there were quite a few small rooms and an indoor well. We reached that place.

“Changing rooms”

Duh.

I sighed. Why was I overthinking again? It was obvious people would need to change before and after training and cleaning any injuries is a must to not get diseased and die.

I urged Elfin on trying to hide my embarrassment. Nevertheless she giggled and entered an empty booth. I smiled lightly and closed the door behind her.

“Maaaster!?”

“Yes?”

“I need my equipment,” she pointed out.

“Ah, yes.”

I reopened the door and started handing it out piece by piece.

“Master?”

“Yes?”

“I will need help with equipping it, if master would be so kind.”

“Ah, sorry. I thought you might want some privacy.”

That was nonsensical, we bathed together anyway.

“I am not embarrassed in front of master. My body belongs to master. Master can gawk and touch.”

“Woah. That is heavy. I will help you of course, but is my presence not uncomfortable to you?”

“I was raised a slave.”

Slavery is really inhuman, isn’t it? Was I truly forced to utilize slave or was I inhuman myself?

“Poor thing,” I whispered to no one in particular.

We closed the door and outfitted Elfin to the teeth. As for me I took out my war pick and a small buckler. Nothing fancy to write home about. Training in full armor would have to wait until I figured how to normalize Elfin’s limb count again.

“What kind of weapon is that?” she asked.

“A war pick.”

We spoke shortly about my choice of weapon for a while. I had to admit I never used it in actual combat. After those few days and conversing with her I had a hunch she was quite smart. If she had a better upbringing she would probably be an archmage already.

The area we picked had both magic and melee dummies nearby so we could train almost side by side. She took the magic one, while I took on the melee foe.

I struck it on the head.. it split under the nail of my trusty war pick and it got stuck. I tried to free it, but instead it was the belly of the dummy that got torn in two. Head and upper torso were still hanging on the tip of my weapon. I shook it several times to get it unstuck to no avail. Only when I smashed it on the ground it would finally shatter into a million pieces.

I looked around, but outside of myself no one was hit by the shrapnel. I was so glad. More important than that was that another embarrassing title of mine went unnoticed.

On the other side Elfin was casting thin flame flares at her target. At least her dummy seemed fine for the time being.

Looking through the wooden weapon replicas I have found a similar war pick. It was not ideal being too light and badly balanced, but it would have to do.

This time I struck the side of the dummy with the hammer part. The dummy broke in two, yet again! This had never happened to me in Heaven’s Training Halls. Ridiculous. They do not make them dummies like they used to.

By the way the weapon itself had now a long crack along the pole. Fuck. I nonchalantly put it back on the rack. Yikes. I feel like everyone is now staring at me.

I went up to Elfin. After watching her cast the same thing over and over again I decided to interrupt her.

“How does it go for you?”

“Pretty good, master. I am training my aim,” she replied.

“That is good to hear. And thanks for asking, but mine was terrible. Killed two dummies,” I complained.

“Oh,” was all she could reply with.

“Want to spar? I have an idea.”

She beamed up.

“Yes, master. What idea?”

I smiled enigmatically or at least tried to. I had a ring of fire resistance or somesuch stored away.

“Please summon a small flame onto your palm,” I asked.

Meanwhile I secretly equipped my ring. When a gas torch-like flame arose from her hand I hovered my own over it. There was no pain or damage so I fully immersed my hand in it. Demonflame was reputed to be able to burn anything, but my item was definitely a cheat-level.

“Ta-da!”

“Master!” she shouted and quickly withdrew her hand.

“Haha. I am now flameproof thanks to an artifact. Let’s spar!”

I captured her cheeks, but there was still not enough fat on them to squeeze.

Since we were going to use ranged attacks I motioned towards one of the shooting ranges. When I walked past her dummy I could swear I heard a low sizzle. I marked the range as occupied with a hanging sign provided by the guild.

We decided that I would take the side of the targets, while Elfin would block the entrance. My win condition was to get past her or bop her with a stick. Hers was to hit me at least once.

I extended my mana barrier a centimeter beyond the confines of my body, which made me glow light blue. Apparently it was skill worthy enough to be recognized as a new separate skill.

It immediately leveled up to the second level for some reason. I explained how the mana barrier should intercept hits so we knew whether it was a hit or miss.

The first match was easy. I managed to run out of the range unhit.

The second one was not so lucky as my mana barrier had collapsed after a being glanced. I decide on tricking my slave and continued running after she stopped her barrage. I reached her and bopped her gently.

“That is cheating! I hit you clearly!”

“The monster with his last breath reached heroine and bopped her to death. Never let your guard down in front of enemy,” I bullshitted casually.

“Huh. That is actually true,” she replied taken aback. Somehow I managed to transform bullshit into philosophy. Into Dao. Dao of bullshit.

“Let’s go again,”

..

“and again,”

..

“and again.”

Only when Elfin singled me she was starting to get low on mana did we moved onto the melee practice.

One handed spiked shield against my war pick. I used a wooden replica and she used her metal shield because we could not find a spiked shield among the training gear. It should be okay as long as she does not stab me in the brain, spine or heart. She would not do that by accident, right?

Her repertoire of possible moves was quite limited due to her disability. I was also much faster. During these last five weeks I would continue to get astonished how much my “stats” had changed.

She lunged at me with her spike from above, but I simply side stepped and swiped my weapon on her backside. This wooden war pick had two blunt sides so no damage was done. She went for a not so successful roll to get out of close quarters.

When she stood up I attacked her with a barrage of stabs, slices and smashes. She tried to defend but her balance was off. Attacking her right side almost guaranteed a clean hit. It felt like bullying.

We should not train too much lest she gets a bad habit of defending or slumping to one side.

Finally she had enough.

“Yield, I yield,” she said and slumped to her knees.

I sat next to her. I took out my infinite water cheat flask, which on the second thought was not so extraordinary and significant compared to teleportation powers of the Throne.

I proceeded to splash us a bit and offered it for her to drink. Again I was not thirsty, despite not remembering when I last drank more than a cup of liquid.

“You alright? Need heals?” I asked.

“It is just some bruises. I am rather tired though.”

Surprisingly out of all that training the most I got were some scratches that did not even bleed. I still had the fire resistance ring-thingy on. I would not notice hits at all were they not itching.

I had to help her drink in the end by holding the decanter up to her chin. Afterwards she leaned down on me like a tree after a storm. She subsequently lost her balance and fell headfirst on my hips.

So an isekai bishoujo (beautiful girl) lap pillow finally happened.

Is that an ecchi moment?

I could not exactly pinpoint it, but I felt something was wrong with it on a fundamental level. Maybe I remembered something incorrectly.

She looked like an embarrassed puppy. I stroked her head gently.

“Just rest for now. And try to think where we should go for supper.”

“Mhm.”

“We can eat here or in the inn or wander the streets,” I listed our options.

“Mhm.”

“Tired much?”

“Mhm.”

“Are you even hungry?”

“Yesh.”

Hmm, so that broke her ‘Mhm’ spell.

“Want me to decide?”

“Mhm.”

And it was back.

“Want a kiss?”

“Mhm.”

“Would you like to paint your whole body green?”

“Mhm.”

“..and visit royal court?”

“Mhm.”

“..and shout I am an orc. Look at me I am orc-rageous!”

“Mhm.”

“Then we will do just that.”

“Mhm.”

This is getting nowhere. I have broken my elf. She was simply looking at me like a puppy. I took out a meat skewer and lowered it toward her mouth. She took a small bite. Like feeding a baby bird. Impossibly cute. For some reason other training adventurers smirked at me when walking past us.

Only when an entire skewer was finished and another sip of water was she looking like a living person yet again.

“You alive?”

“Yes, master.”

“Want to order something more to eat?”

“I can?” she asked as if disbelieving my words.

“You can, but first we have to do what you agreed to just before.”

“The-he-e kiss?” she uttered and blushed slightly.

“I was thinking more about dressing as an orc.”

We laughed together.

“So you were actually listening to me, hah!”

“A little,” she muttered.

“Where do we eat?”

“Guild is fine.”

Yeah, I was too not very keen of searching for a new place.

“Just do not order that fish again. You will never grow if you do not eat properly!” I reminded her while helping her stand up.

We proceeded through the maze of corridors to reach the hall.

“Master, I am not growing anymore,” she pointed out.

“Not vertically, no. But horizontally, you have a lot to grow.”

“Masterrr..”

“..is the best?”

I of course meant the muscles and the like. Maybe some fat here and there. Like the cheeks.

As a result of that she went radio-silent on me so it must have been what she wanted to say.

I could not recall afterwards what we ate that night. The hall was extremely busy. We are not eating there anymore at this hour. Ever. I am a god. My time is precious, right? Aaaaa!