After I put my shoes back on, I was led to the small pond that I had noticed earlier. I felt reassured by the presence of the valuable platinum coins pressed against the bottom of my left foot.

When we reached the pond, Kalistra turned around and looked at me with an anxious facial expression. Her tail flickered back and forth. "Party with me," she requested in a low voice.

"Huh?" I blurted out with a confused look.

The cat girl sighed in irritation and muttered something about "stupid humans."

A moment later, a pop-up appeared in front of my eyes. "Kalistra has invited you to her party. Accept? Yes or No." I clicked on "Yes."

Once I became her party member, Kalistra called up my player screen and started to review my player status. "Why in the name of Kallimon is a grown man like you still at Level 1?" she hissed. "Did you just arrive in this world today?" she asked sarcastically. This human was at least thirty years old and should not have been stuck at level one! What in the name of Kallimon had I been doing with my life?

"Actually, I DID arrive this morning," I replied honestly.

The cat girl's ears bent backward and she hissed again. Her tail whipped around like a viper ready to strike! "Look, I am in no mood to play your stupid human games. I don't know what you did before I met you at the tavern and I don't care to know. You don't meet the minimum requirements to start your swordsmanship training. So you have two choices. You can pretend that you never came to this dojo and go home. Or you can train your body, under my personal tutelage, until you meet the minimum prerequisites to begin your swordsmanship training. However, I will still have to charge you the dojo's beginner rate of five silvers per day. Payment is required at the beginning of each day of class," she explained.

"Um, what exactly am I lacking?" I asked innocently.

Kalistra sighed loudly. "An official Apprentice of the Butterfly School of Swordsmanship is required to have 15 points in Dexterity, Intelligence, Strength, and Constitution. Amongst all the schools of swordsmanship within the Kingdom of Merlin, our dojo has the highest prerequisites before we admit prospective students into the school," she announced proudly and then continued with her explanation.

"We also have a lesser-known requirement: Honor. For most applicants, we simply look at their reputation. If their score meets a minimum threshold then we presume that they are Honorable until they demonstrate otherwise. For candidates with very little reputation, however, we seek a personal demonstration of the applicant's Honor. In your case, you demonstrated your Honor by immediately taking responsibility for your insult to our school's founder. My papa assessed your apology and he had deemed that it was sincere. That’s why he granted permission to enroll you in our school.”

I nodded at that explanation. I thought it was weird that Kalistro was staring at me for a long time while I was offering a deep bow to him in apology. Frankly, I thought the cat man purposely made me bow before him for such a long time as a form of punishment. However, I wondered why he assigned Kalistra in particular to become my instructor.

"You should know one more thing," Kalistra added hesitantly. "Kallimon wasn't just the founder of our school. He was also my ancestor. If my papa wasn't present when you made your insult publicly, I would have been Honor-bound to kill you on the spot."

I folded my arms as I looked at the cat girl up and down. She wasn’t particularly big or strong. If anything, Kalistra probably leaned on her speed as a cat girl to fight. "How would you have done that without a sword?" I sneered openly. Was she going to scratch me to death?

Kalistra's whiskers twitched at my arrogance and she shook her head. "Very few people in this dojo have had the honor and privilege to party with me. If you actually took advantage of this and checked my own stats, you wouldn't have made that stupid remark."

I took the implicit invite and checked out her player stats. If I was a Warner Brothers cartoon character, then my lower jaw would have dropped to the floor! The left column was a 3D replica of the cat girl. Underneath, it read: "Title: Heir of the Butterfly School of Swordsmanship, Title: Winner of the Master Division of the Melee Tournament, Title: Master Instructor of Swordsmanship."

The middle column read: "Name: Kalistra, Race: Cat, Alignment: Lawful, Profession: Swordswoman (Master), Level: 20, Experience: 205,138/225,000, Reputation: 30,582, Attack: 256, Damage: 26-28 (Unarmed), 40-50 (Long Sword Specialization), Critical Attack: 25% (Normal), 50% (Long Sword), Critical Damage: 400%."

The right column read: "Health: 256, Stamina: 300, Mana: 100, Strength: 26, Intelligence: 25, Wisdom: 16, Dexterity: 40, Constitution: 30, Charisma: 18." At the bottom of the page, there were a bunch of tabs for her personal skills but I wasn't able to gain access to them.

I quickly recalled that I only had 26 Health total. And Kalistra could inflict AT LEAST 26 points of damage unarmed. This meant that if the cat girl seriously attacked me it would be an instant kill. Yikes!

As if she read my mind, Kalistra casually released a long, sharp claw in her right paw and started chewing on it with her teeth. Her tail dangled happily in the air.

Taking advantage of Kalistra’s sudden preoccupation with sharpening her claw, I started to sneak away from her but the cat girl quickly grabbed the back of my tunic.

"Where do you think you're going?" Kalistra hissed.

"Uh, home?" I turned my head around and grinned sheepishly.

"Not after seeing me naked, human!" she hissed softly.

"Naked?" I raised my brows at the term.

Kalistra used her superior strength to pull me in front of her. "You read my player stats. This is one of the most guarded secrets in the school, along with our grandmaster-level sword techniques. Very few people in this dojo know my exact numbers. By learning my most intimate details, you have committed yourself to become my pupil. There is only one way for you to leave the school now," she said while releasing another claw in front of my face.

Seeing that I had no choice but to obey, I grabbed her paw with both hands and looked into her eyes. I gave Kalistra my most sincere reply. "I humbly accept your tutelage, Master."

She yanked her paw from my hands and narrowed her pale green-yellow eyes. "Here's your first lesson. You grab a cat girl's paw only if you're seriously pursuing her as a mate for life. Every time you forget this lesson, you will be punished by running ten laps around the dojo. You were taught this very lesson at The Noble Lady this morning so the first grab in the tavern doesn't count. However, you grabbed me two more times afterward today, and now you owe me twenty laps. Start running." Kalistra unleashed a claw and poked me right in the wound on my right shoulder.

"Argh!" I yelled in pain. I was slapped with a pop-up which read, "-2 Health."

"When I count to five, I will repeat the jab," the evil instructor announced, “in the very same spot. One."

I gritted my teeth and started running. When I passed by the doors, I was REALLY tempted to just leave the dojo. But then I recalled my miserable fight on the street against Ebenthal and I realized that I no choice but to stay and become stronger if I wished to survive in this crazy world.

Unfortunately, my determination could only carry me so far in dealing with my punishment. By my fifth lap, I was huffing and puffing in exhaustion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t much of a runner and it showed in my lack of stamina.

Kalistra tried several times to prod me to run faster by poking a sharp claw into my behind.

The pain, as well as the accompanying -2 Health, forced me to run faster for a few steps. But inevitably, my burst of adrenaline would fade and then my pace would return to a slow walk. It was the best that I could manage and I would be the first one to admit that I was very pitiful.

After the fifth poke into my behind, my instructor finally gave up trying to prod me to run faster. Instead, she switched tactics and started whispering words of encouragement as she walked with me, at my pace, around the dojo. “Come on, Lawrence! Just a little bit further!” she said repeatedly.

When I reached the small pond for the twentieth time, the sun was hanging very low on the horizon. Once I completed my twenty laps, I immediately hunched over and vomited my lunch. I heard snickers from the courtyard but I no longer cared. When my stomach was emptied out, I dropped to the ground and then fell flat on my back. As my vision and consciousness started to fade, a bucket of water was dumped on my head!

I immediately got off my back and tried to cough the water out of my lungs.

*Koff-koff*

When this was finally accomplished a few minutes later, I looked up at my tormentor. “Why did you do that?” I yelled.

Kalistra looked down on me with an unhappy expression on her face. “Sleeping is not permitted while you’re in my class.” She then pointed at the disgusting mess that I had made. “When you have recovered sufficiently, you will take a broom and dustpan from the storage shed located behind the dojo and clean up this mess. Then you will draw a bucket of water from the well and use a scrub to wash the floor until the smell is gone.”

“What if I quit your dojo right now?” I asked defiantly.

“You can quit anytime,” Kalistra replied. “But in this dojo, you are personally responsible for cleaning up after yourself as Honor demands. You will not be permitted to leave the dojo until the floor is cleaned to my satisfaction.” She then nodded at a group of students who stood nearby.

The ten students, a group of humans and non-humans, marched in unison to the reinforced doors leading into the street. They sat down on the ground in front of the exit and started to meditate.

Seeing that Kalistra’s cohorts had effectively blocked my escape from this madhouse, I just managed to stifle the scream threatening to erupt from my throat. Huffing loudly, I started walking to the aforementioned shed.