I barely could get some sleep this night. I was excited to hear that Tae is alive. This wasn’t the only thought in my head. If he is the third strongest in the arena then the amount of money they might want from him will be a lot. First I’ll try and earn more money. If that won’t be enough… I’ll just take him away. I’m not gonna tell anything about it to Verser yet. If he hears that I’ll be leaving so soon he will definitely try something.

Gelda was closely watching me as I ate my breakfast. So close that it was very hard to feed Skyge without her noticing. She wanted to train as fast as she could. Did me, telling her about being blessed pumped her up? She wasn’t so eager the first time. It was more like she tried to pick a fight with me.

[ Eric ]

“What did you make so excited about training with me?”

[ Gelda ]

“Well… You’re blessed, you’re so sure of being stronger than the third guy in ranking and… I want to train that style of fighting you used in the arena. When I trained it with Dian it felt good. Like it was style perfect for me.”

[ Eric ]

“What I told you about being prepared for anything?”

[ Gelda ]

“What if that strategy doesn’t work? I can always take more weapons and used this style as last resort but I need an ace up my sleeve!”

[ Eric ]

“Maybe you’re right… Get some training weapons and I’ll be there in a minute.”

[ Gelda ]

“Yes sir!”

What hurt me the most is that she is right. You need something reliable on your hand if the plan doesn’t work. Since her specialty is speed then that might work for her. All she needs is speed to land as many attacks as she can. The bleeding wounds will do the rest. That means we need to build better stamina.

Before I went to the training ground I threw a whole piece of meat into my shadow for Skyge. This way he won’t be bugging me for some time. I can’t let him out yet. Gelda was waiting for me with two wooden swords in her hand.

[ Eric ]

“Before we start sparring run three laps around the training ground.”

[ Gelda ]

“What?! You were supposed to teach me!”

[ Eric ]

“And I will. After you run three laps.”

She was running and cursing me at the same time. Let’s see if she can keep that energy afterward. Her challenge was to land one hit on me with the wooden sword. No kicks or punches. Just swords. Even light touch was enough. She was happy that she hit me.

[ Eric ]

“Now run another two laps.”

[ Gelda ]

“What?! Why?!”

[ Eric ]

“Do what I tell you and you’ll see the progress.”

She ran again this time screaming, trying to do two laps as fast as she could. She clearly got slower after running. I had no problem avoiding her attacks. She even tried to repay my kindness with a kick but I grabbed her leg and threw her off balance.

[ Eric ]

“Congrats. Now you have to run two more laps.”

[ Gelda ]

“AHHH!!! Tell me what’s the point of running? You know I’m fast.”

[ Eric ]

“That’s true but you can use that speed for a short duration of time. You need to be able to keep that speed for a few minutes. Bigger opponents won’t go down that fast. Some are able to keep fighting even after being cut everywhere. One minute of attacking me and two laps made you slow down so much that I didn’t have any problem with avoiding you.”

[ Gelda ]

“That’s because you’re blessed! Other way around I would end you after the first attack.”

[ Eric ]

“But you didn’t. Don’t ever expect the fight to be easy. No matter who you fight. I’m talking from experience by the way. Even as a blessed I had a problem with normal people.”

[ Gelda ]

“But you said that you’re a great fighter!”

[ Eric ]

“Uhm… Yeah! Because I am! I’ve learned from my mistakes. How about I run with you? Will that make you feel better?”

[ Gelda ]

“Yeah! Now it will be equal training!”

[ Eric ]

“Huh? Training isn’t supposed to be equal. I’m superior to you and show you the way.”

[ Gelda ]

“I don’t care!” She shouted as she started running.