On Allan's bare back was sitting Sarey.

“Do you need to be so close?” Allan asked while worrying about his safety.

“I am just making sure. I don’t think I need to follow the last procedure. There is a small diagram on this page, so I will follow it.” Sarey let her hand with a needle follow by steps from the human diagram. She stabbed the first needle very carefully. It went relatively easily into his body.

Sarey wondered if Allan would find it painful, but there was nothing wrong with him as far as she knew it.

“Can you feel something?” She said with a hint of unease.

“Little tingling on my back. Is it around the left side of my shoulder?”

“Yea. Let me do a few more.” Sarey let go of her hesitation and began to insert more of the acupoint needles. It was all on his back and in about 30 minutes, she was finished.

“How is it? Do you feel anything different?”

“A little wave of heat. It is spreading through my core of balance, or at least it feels like it.”

“That is spine according to this page. You should be left like this for about an hour.” Sarey said, after checking the page once more.

“Phew. This feels weirdly comforting. How strange as well. I had a massage by my father and it feels nothing like this, yet a little similar.”

“Acupoint needles treatment is like a penetrating massage. It goes deeper into your body and opens up the inside for just a bit, but I don't know all the detail about them.”

“I don’t know either, yet you did not hesitate at all when doing this to me?”

“Right, 36 forced me to do this, but it ended up being good, alright?”

Both of them fell silent for a few moments. Sarey was glad that there was no issue, and Allan could not argue about her point. In fact, she wasn’t sure if she would be precise enough without the help of 36’s oversight. It still went well, even without his help today.

Steps sounded from the hall. Zigmund appeared around a corner and was once again stunned by what was occurring in his living room. It was not a face of surprise, but more like a loose face of someone who gave up to think more about the current life's choices.

“Again? This is our living room. Huh... I already cleaned up the room around the corner. You can think of it as a base of this mess or however you call it. I don’t want to see it here any longer.” Zigmund said with his usual stern expression. Sarey was left speechless upon hearing him be so lenient, as this treatment was something that should be none of his concern.

“Mister Zigmund?” Allan asked.

“Oh? You are alive, boy? I thought she was experiencing her necromancy. Heheheheh.”

The room fell into a cold spectacle. Sarey did not know if this was a joke or something else. Allan was similarly speechless, and Zigmund was left uncomfortable standing there from saying something that perhaps should be left untold.

He left without giving himself another chance to embarrass himself. He said what he wanted, even when he had more to say. Their work was their alone as his habit of sticking his hand into other people’s problems was something he couldn’t get rid of.

Sarey finally woke up from her silent shock. She did not expect her father to come at this exact moment like last time.

“What is it, Sarey? You are weirdly silent, yet your heart is beating faster.” Allan asked.

“Nothing. Nothing. What did you want to ask him?”

“Just to thank him. Did he give me one of the spare rooms? I did not think he would be that generous.”

“No need to be thankful. Although he may seem stern and very serious, he is very generous and cares about what is important to him. Wait... On the other hand, yes, there are not that bad things about him, but not the good things when considering my father.”

“That is not a bad thing at all. I still wish to thank him“

“Do as you wish.“

1 hour later. Allan was comfortable laying on his stomach. Sarey was waiting until the time was up. She put an hourglass on a table, just to be sure.

“It is done. I will now remove the needles. Tell me if something is wrong. Alright?”

“Already? Sure.” Allan said, rather reluctantly.

1 needle, 3, 4,..6 In a few moments, Allan’s back was free of the needles. Sarey made sure that her hands were steady and straight. When pulling out the needles, one had to be sure that they would go out in a line. Fast and steady. She was good at it for the beginner.

“Phew. This tingling sensation did not stop even after you removed them.” Allan said as he was getting up to sit down.

“It should have relaxed your muscles and helped with your soreness. I hope.”

“What else I should do, other than training it out with those exercises?” Allam smiled with no worries.

“Just go for it. Try this out, while I will be trying to help you as well.” Sarey said calmly and cleaned up the living room from the mess that had accumulated here since

Allan’s arrival. Allan would soon move to the room by hers and that all happened in the remaining time until the night became the king of this day.

With the pleasing atmosphere and somewhat rested body, Allan noticed very few differences in his body, but a strange heat did not disappear at all. It was a strange sensation of adrenaline, a little bit of pain from a cut, and the scorching feeling of a burning bruise. Yet, there was no pain for him at all. He tried to feel his body and shoulders and back with quick stretches, and nothing felt wrong apart from that strange feeling.

“It is comforting but strangely refreshing... As if the training what I did throughout these hours is just gone from this past hour.” Allan thought to himself as he was sitting in a small room that had a bed and just a table with a chair in a corner. This was his new room, which felt small, but much better than being out in the living room of Zigmund, who clearly disliked that.

“Let's just go sleep. This worry could wait for another day or the day after that.”

The very next day, the sun was blazing hot as every summer that was currently underway in the Tricloud region.

Allan was currently making sets of stretches and sit-ups in his room after waking up. He just did the few reps of a few hundred while push-ups were done the same way afterward.

He kept them doing by a side in the room. After the first 100, he stopped. He did not even sweat, and even forgot to stretch too much, yet his body was already in the best shape. His initial soreness disappeared with this wave of heat since last night. He went straight to 800 and then stopped at 1 thousandth, just under an hour and a half.

Since being so strangely productive, Allan decided to finish the push-ups since his arms, and back, felt good after the first half. After another 40 minutes, he went faster and was done with the push-ups, while the aching of his arms with the quick pace of exercises returned.

In this time, Sarey glanced inside his room as he could hear him. She was watching in silence, but her eyes shined with passion.

“It is better than I thought,” Allan said after he got up to his feet.

“Your aura changed too.”

“Aura? What aura?” Allan asked in confusion, as he heard the familiar girl's voice.

“I call it the feeling around people. It is something I just made up, so don’t mind it. How are your shoulders?”

“Hmmm. Good. I will move outside to the tree.” Allan did want to continue, just to get a better feeling about his current body. Something was going on since he returned from the dead, or the strange thing that happened to him from that crimson light he still clearly recalled.

“Let’s go then. Don’t forget to put on some clothes first. Walking in just your trousers is not great outside.” Sarey casually added while Allan was still without his shirt since yesterday night.

“Oh. I forgot.” Allan moved outside after Sarey found him his clothes since he was still unfamiliar with his room. He soon stood by a side of the tree, under the pole which rested between the branches.

“How long do you think it will take you? It is just your second attempt, but I feel you are much better than last time.”

“I will go slower this time. I want to keep my stamina for the runtime. After the push-ups, I feel great motivation, so here we go!”

Allan jumped up and grabbed the pole.

10th

34th

69th

85th He did just over 80 under a few minutes without stopping. Then rested for 30 seconds with some shoulder stretches before continuing with pull-ups.
1 hour in, he was done with 1000. He began o feel his back after this time, but not to a point of it bothering him. It would be just fine for him to run.

After another hour, he was done with pull-ups.

“How is it?” Sarey asked.

“Good. Today was much better than yesterday. You don’t have to stay by my side all the time, you know.”

“You know that I have to know if something is wrong. Who else is gonna watch over you without your eyes? You can’t do it yourself.”

“Huh... I feel like I will owe you a lot after this.”

“Stop spouting nonsense, and let’s go to the forest.” Sarey slapped his back, which was clearly sweaty. That did not bother her as he watched him improve since yesterday.

“Alright then” Allan was left disappointed once more. He kept in touch with Sarey’s hand before the feeling of fabric string landed on his hand.

“Want to bet this time?” She calmly asked.

“Bet needs some price and conditions. What do you have in mind?”

“You will have 4 hours and 30 minutes to finish this and I won’t attack you afterward.”

“That doesn’t sound that good to me. Rewards for less practice are not that great of an idea.”

“Than what do you want? Do you think me attacking you is a reward? What sort of thinking is that?” Sarey wondered out loud.

“I don't know. Think of it afterward as a challenge. The running itself is the hardest for me for obvious reasons so don't have a wrong idea about it. It is just the second day. Run time will be the same since it takes the longest.”

“Whad do you know? There are bigger numbers in the following steps on the pages in the following days. The training itself is quite hard.”

“Really? What more is there?” Allan asked after not knowing what next thing Sarey left out from him.

“You will know eventually. Perhaps if you will finish this run on time?” Sarey said, without giving him a chance.

“You are truly a terrible instructor.” Allan chuckled while hesitant to bother talking to her about it.

“Shut it and move your legs, will you?” She pushed his back. Her smirk did not disappear from her face, filled with amusement and clean determination in her eyes.

“I know I am not that great at this. Hmph! just wait and see. I will make you regret you, underestimating me.” She thought to herself as she stomped to the ground.
Allan already followed along the circle. It was only his second time, so he moved in a similar plan from last time. Slow start with a more steady increase in speed.
This time he went faster much earlier, but he couldn’t help but stumble occasionally from his lack of vision and coordination of movements.

“This is hard as yesterday. It seems this is not that easy to improve. I wonder what I can do to improve my movements. It is probably a sense of core balance that is most problematic? The eyes are the most important human senses. Without it, I am lacking in a lot of things that my eyes are doing to my other senses and whole body in general. It will take me some time to make up for it.”

“Huh.. this will be a long run towards the small destination before the infinite finish line.” Allan hopelessly thought to himself as he continued with a haggard appearance, yet determined mind forward. Not stopping, for the better sake of himself.