"My head hurts.." I exclaimed, holding my head as I tried to get inside my tent.

"Are you still mad about not being a mage Colt? I told you that you didn't fit the description" the princess said as she was cleaning her rapier.

"Nah its not that, how come your the one teaching me the sword" I asked. Remembering how it came to this arrangement.

When we were setting up camp for the night. The Redrilon couple tasked us to choose a weapon we will be training in since tommorrow we were going to start our training. The luggage in the carriage turned out to be a sack of weapons. Ranging from swords to bows and even war hammers.

Ben had opted to choose to use heavy brass knuckles with spikes in its end. He reasoned that it was perfect with his ability directly affecting his physical prowess. Mr. Harold then became his instructor, he reasoned he was best at close quarters combat.

Next was Rea, she chose the bow, reasoning that she had great marksmanship from all those hunting trips she did on earth. Nellie became her instructor, in fact she was one of the prominent marksman in Ileria, only being second in command in the archer division. She said that her daughter became the commander now and her son replaced her father as knight commander.

It turns out that they already had kids. It was also surprising that they had high positions in the army, one would think people like them should be at the frontlines alas the King ordered them specifically to train us.

Last was me. I already knew what to get when they said I wasn't a mage...I still hadn't gotten over that... 

A broadsword. It was short enough to be wielded in one hand, I chose this because I needed my other hand to write my rune hence my choice.

Although I didn't expect that Leyana was going to be my sword instructor. Mr. Harold explained that Leyana is nearly at the same level that of elites at her tender age, a genius to be exact. She also had expertise in one handed swordsmanship since she used a rapier hence this arrangement.

"What Colt? You should be honored to be taught by me, be thankful" she demanded 

'I kinda have a feeling that you're a violent teacher..'

"Yes Im thankful (lol)~"

"...." She stared at me clearly annoyed.

"Yawn~ goodnight Leyana" I said as I went inside my tent, closing it right after.

"..Goodnight.." she said although she whispered something in the end that I didn't quite catch.

"..a sword teacher huh...I.. dont..have..that right.." she whispered under the starry skies.

-----

"""Extreme physical strain?""" Ben, Rea and I asked.

We were standing in a line, facing our instructors, Nellie and Harold. It was morning the next day as they already gave us training clothes, with them having wore matching military uniforms that we saw from way back at the castle. Our clothes though consisted only of a plain white shirt and black pants coupled with boots.

We were all suddenly woken up so early in the morning, a blaring horn resounded in the camp. As we got ourselves dressed, Harold and Nellie quickly became strict with us, addressing us three in strict tones and giving out heavy pressure every time we were slow in our response. They ordered us to listen to them as they would brief us our training regime hence the standing and the line.

'They weren't kidding to that whole military stuff huh', remembering that Nellie once warned me that they would treat us as soldier when we got to our destination.

"Add sir to that trainee!" Harold shouted

"!?,  Y-yes sir!" I replied.

'What happened with this guy!? Its like a switch has been flipped or something' I mused as I tried to stand straight.

"Now that we're here, you lots are officially trainees under the care of the Ilerian army so don't expect us to babysit you in our time here. Our king ordered us to make champions out of you, and so we shall! So I expect full obedience, is that clear?" Harold loudly said staring menacingly into our eyes.

"I said is that clear!?" he screamed, spit flying everywhere.

"""Y-yes sir!""" all three of us quickly replied.

"*Cough* Harold, bring it down a little will you, it's only just beginning so they're going through some adjustments" Nellie then tapped his shoulder, although the contents of what she was saying was like salvation to us, it also meant that she was still going to let him act  like this for the next two months.

"R-right *Cough*. Anyway, to confirm your question, the answer is indeed extreme physical strain"

What Harold was confirming was the question as to how one's circuits are elevated to the next stage, and this specifically refers only to internal circuits. Earlier Mrs. Nellie explained to us how circuits, both internal and external, have 5 major stages, all of which has 2 equal threshold, lower (@L) and upper (@U).

====

Dissarrayed- 0% freed circuits

Arrayed- 30% freed circuits

Bridged- 60% freed circuits

Complete- 100% freed circuits

Overlimit- beyond a 100% 

====

All three of us were currently at Arrayed @ Lower. She also said that the last level is something that only a few people could unlock, with their numbers limited to being able to count with your hands.

Mr. Harold then followed up, telling us that the way to go up a stage is through what he said just now, 'extreme physical strain'.

"Although that strain will also be coupled with arcane circulation, which is also an important part of improving circuits" Nellie added.

"Ma'am! what is arcane circulation?" asked Rea as she put her hand up.

"Yes I almost forgot....you still haven't learned that yet huh, well Ill teach you now, its easy honestly, all our people are required to learn how even" she remarked.

"Arcane circulation or circulation for short refers to a persons' ability to move internal arcane within one's body, in general within the heart as it is where your circuits originate" she pointed at her heart.

"By moving it, one can enhance their body to superhuman levels although that's just one of its perks. To circulate it, concentration is key, one must will the energy to move inside the heart and this movement comes naturally once someone has opened their circuits like you, you three are already doing it unconsciously but by learning how to move it by thought will it become more effective....so why don't you try right now?" She grinned as she looked at three of us.

'Unconsciously...Oh she must mean the feeling that we had when the King unlocked our circuits for the first time' I mused having realized what she meant. The constant energy that I felt since that day must refer to circulation.

"Through thought? So I should just think about it?" I whispered as I clutched my heart. This exellerating feeling in my body, I willed it to move, specially the one located in my heart. It was a weird feeling, it was like knowing that your blood was flowing in your veins, only that feeling was amplified in my chest.

As I opened my eyes, I was amazed at how even my senses were slightly amplified evidenced by how I could feel even the slightest movement of the wind as it caressed my body.

"This is amazing.." exclaimed Rea as she looked at her hand. Ben seems to have a similar reaction.

'This is kind of mentally exhausting' I mused, thinking that we really need to get used to this soon.

Nellie and Harold grinned at the sight of their three trainees being exposed to circulation for the first time, they wanted them to adjust to it a little more but their time was limited so they had to proceed.

"You three drink this before we explain further" Harold then handed us glass bottles containing green liquid. I was confused as to what the liquid was, I had an impression of it being like poison.

Our instructor must have noticed our reluctance as our faces had hints of hesitation. It was understandable, being ordered all of a sudden to drink an unknown drink.

"Let me explain why you need to drink that....Keep in mind that what Im about to say is a royal secret so I need you to keep it confidential" Nellie said as she stared at us with eyes that could kill.

*Gulp*

""'Yes Ma'am!""" We complied, not wanting to be a found dead for not keeping our mouth shut.

"Good. Honestly its impossible to make you into the level of soldiers in two months, even if you are champions but by using this limber potion, a circuit relaxing potion, will you be able to attain the level of a soldier in 2 months. By the way, a footsoldier usually is arrayed-(@L) while an elite is on Bridged. We are aiming to make you go up at least the upper threshold at Arrayed stage and at best at Bridged level lower threshold" she said as she shook the bottle.

'So it's that hard to move up  our circuits huh' I thought as I realized that long amounts of time must be needed to improve it.

"And if you're worried if it will have any side effects then don't worry because this only causes the arcane in your circuits to stabilize, in short it's a sleeping potion albeit toned down a lot. This is used mostly by nobles and the upper class, this also cost a ton too" she said, emphasizing its cost more than its effect in the last part.

"Ma'am but how can a sleeping potion make us stronger, that's kinda stupid, doesnt that do the opposite?" asked Ben, bluntly at that.

'This guy got balls of steel sometimes' I thought amazed at how unfazed he delivered that question.

"Dont be hasty trainee, Im getting to the good part. Have you felt lethargic and dizzy when you got here? Answer me honestly, this is important" she suddenly asked.

"....Now that you mention it, I have been getting headaches since last night. I thought it was just from stress though" said Rea as she rubbed her forehead.

"Im not surprised if you did think it was just from stress~. I have been getting headaches since we left the capital" I replied as I looked to our camp, there was our shameless princess reading her book, she was watching us since we were just lined up beside it.

'Shouldn't she supposed to be here too?' I mused as she wasn't included when we got dragged here by our superiors.

"Well Of course you would get headaches, that's a sign of high concentration of  arcane" Nellie said nonchalantly.

"Are we sick?" I asked worried.

"Colt, calm yourself, that's what the potion is for, it stabilizes your excessive exposure to high concentration of arcane, and people that has high control of circulation wont get affected by it whatsoever" exclaimed the princess as she closed her book, grinning.

"...." I was dumbfounded at the shamelessness of this princess. I looked at Nellie, wanting to confirm her words.

"Yup exactly, so no worries, you just need to intake this everyday for the next two months. The point is by taking advantage of the high concentration of arcane in this place, your circuits will always be at constant load, in short we're forcing it to be freed. With this thing it can be possible to raise your levels at a faster rate although you still need to use it to make this work" she said pointing at the potions in our hands.

'So that's why its a national secret' noting that it's worth a national secret.

We drank it immediately having all of those info being pointed out. It was very effective because after consuming it, the headaches seemed to have indeed subsided.

"Now that's out the way, read this training regime right now trainees!" Mr. Harold then opened a parchment titled "King Irelia's Ultimate Training Regime- for champions".

"What's up with this title?" Ben asked perplexed.

As we had laid our eyes on it, One thought came to my mind .

'That King...does he want to kill us?'