Allan's conciseness was a total mess. He woke up with a thud, but was soon grounded from above.

 

“What are you doing? Are you still half asleep?” Sarey voiced her concern, but it fell to death's ears.

 

Allan was trying to respond as he finally heard the familiar voice, yet he was unable to tell a word. His body was trembling internally, shock was spreading through his spine.

 

All of this was unnoticed by Sarey, who was sitting on his back. He was shivering from the outside perspective, so Sarey thought this was a natural occurrence. She carefully retrieved every needle from his body. There was no blood, no pain. At least she thought there would be something, but to her disappointment, there was nothing abnormal about her work on him.

 

“You are scorching hot! What is happening to you?” Sarey, to her surprise, notices as she placed her hands on his spinal section on his back.

 

Everything seemed without problems, but there should have been some pain. At least some feelings of pain or anything. Apart from the unnatural hotness of his body, she found nothing else. And even this searing hotness should not happen,

 

“Hey!? Are you listening?” She poked his face for some reaction.

 

There was only a twitching face with a bandage across Allan's eyes.

 

Suddenly, he opened his mouth and exhaled hot, scorching air. His face no longer twisted, but he was trying to catch his breath afterward. Coughing for breath, he tried to catch his breath.

 

Sarey was looking at him in a strange manner and did not know what was happening to him at all. He woke up with no pain. Yet, in fact, his breathing stopped for a few moments, amidst a sudden shock that spread from his core, heart, lungs, and followed the spine. He was scared in an instant, not knowing what was happening.

 

Fear of the unknown is the most frightening thing one could imagine. From that moment in his last physical sight, beneath the scarred man, Allan had not gotten this feeling ever since. He clenched his fist in unwillingness as he steadied his breathing.

 

“Huff huff, let me sit...” He muttered as Sarey jumped away to let him move.

 

He sits with crisscrossed legs and clenches his chest with his hands.

 

“What in the world happened?” He asked, as if expecting an answer.

 

Sarey was feeling guilty for not telling potential dangers ahead of time. To her surprise, Allan experienced something that was not written anywhere, but even if he did, it should not be that bad.

 

“Y-you were scorching hot. Like a furnace.” She mumbled and tried to find more things to say to make herself feel better.

 

“Hot? I don't feel anything similar to that. It felt as if my chest was cleaved in half. That was a terrifying feeling, but... a comforting scorching feeling was the first act of the acupoint therapy.” Allan said, after calming himself down first.

 

“Is anything with my body? Anything strange?”

 

“N-no.”

 

“My heart beats so fast, I can feel it pumping my blood across my body.”

 

“What? Your heart?” Sarey put her hand across his chest. Her hand felt a pounding feeling, multiple times a second. The hot feeling of Allan's body was receding at a rapid speed to normal.

 

“You seem normal to me. Your sudden outburst of heat just scared me a little.”

 

Pheeeew!

 

Allan started to exhale and inhale in an orderly fashion. It was one of the breathing exercises his father taught him when he was little. It calmed him down when he was feeling frustrated. This was one of those moments.

 

“Breathing exercise?” Sarey frowned upon seeing him like that.

 

“According to teacher Terg, there are not a lot of techniques like that available for mortal use. Although there are some variable ones. Humans live and breathe every single moment of their lives. But, this is not that. Teacher Terg showed me and even gave me some examples himself. It looks weirdly similar to that, apart from the visible flow of wind around him. Is it something else or not?” Sarey thought to herself.

 

There was nothing wrong with his physical appearance, but unknown both to her and Allan, something strange was brewing inside his body.

 

“Even if I look normal, it doesn't calm me down at all,” Allan said after a few rounds of breathing cycles.

 

“Let's talk to 36 tomorrow about this. How about that?” Sarey asked.

 

“Yes, that would be the best choice. I swear, I hope it's not because of your treatment.” He jokingly said.

 

Sarey couldn't help but nervously chuckle. She knew that something was abnormal, and it was her fault for doing this treatment. 36 didn't specify to do this. It was one of the possible examples of the acupoint diagrams, which 36 would use later on and not so early in the training.

 

Seeing him alright after going through something she did not even know about. She left without much talk. Allen felt an outburst of tiredness. He fell asleep earlier than he wanted to.

 

Zigmund was already gone to his room, so Sarey sat there alone in the kitchen. In a rare occurrence of silence and dim darkness of night. She was not all that tired and kept thinking about all sorts of things.

 

Before she knew it, an hour passed, and she moved into her room. She was still in the free movement of home clothes. One meant for work or doing anything in the house. A loose robe, and a long dress.

 

She glanced towards the small storage unit which she kept in the corner. Inside was a bunch of weight equipment. Neatly organized and ready to be used. They looked quite worn down. Most likely from often usage.

 

There was also a big calendar of pages upon pages in the middle of the biggest wall. there were no dates or anything important in the current times. It depicted passing history and stuff that happened in the past. Legends, stories of war, myths, and objects of marvels. It was her own way of depicting interesting stories, and nothing chronological or meaningful was up with them. A favorite tale would change with each passing 10th day.

 

She took j a glance at the current page and glanced away as she found something much more interesting now. Ever since she gained a teacher a few years ago, she felt her own research to be lacking.

 

Now, was a completely different thing, since the involvement of mysterious 36 is truly out of this world. More so than Terg, but that is only her guess.. Allan put a big wound on her being, not something physical, but it shook her up.

 

She felt something she never thought she would want to experience. Sense of something beyond the world, mysteriousness that even Terg would not be able to explain. She wanted to ask 36 so many questions, yet could not. Her tasks and skill were more important to him than some talks she was interested in. Sarey hoped for the change. Hope for a better knowledge of the vaster world.

 

Instead of wondering and relaxing, she changed her cloth to a tight shirt that had holes for the arms and head. She started to do the exercises, which Allan did, and some others, too. Weights in hand, she kept going until she lost her balance. Huffing, she stretched her arms and back to weird angles.

 

“Nowhere near him at all. Are these my limits? I don't want to be left behind him. I don't like to be left behind by anyone...” She leaned into her bed and hugged her pillow. If anyone saw her, they would not notice her acrobatic and lean figure. She may have a young-looking face hidden behind the hood on most occasions outside of her home, but her strength and body were beyond her age.

 

Even before meeting Allan, Zigmund put inside her head a lot of the things he learned about in his time in the military. He did not particularly care if she would listen or not. Since then, she remained hidden behind her father's back. Doing things she thought were right for her. Helping with his kitchen was just a side job. She mainly wanted to care about herself and know more about the world. If there could be a possibility of knowing where her mother was, she wanted to go see her no matter what.

 

“I am so glad to meet Allan...” she muttered unwillingly as she drifted towards the land of dreams. Managing only a few dozen sets for hundreds of exercises.

 

Hours passed by and the sun once more crawled back to its place, where it belongs. The light moved the darkness and birds and animals became more active in the forest.

 

In the home of Zigmund, there was silence for a long time. No one has woken up so far. They all slept longer than usual. By the end of the morning, Sarey forced herself not only to get up and do something today but to finally get rid of a lot of issues she had on her mind.

 

At least she hoped for it.

 

In no time, she dressed up in a robe, which Zigmund's friend gifted her. It was not something she used to wear very often, but it was nice for her to change her outfit for a bit. She left her wavy hair out in the open, which felt quite good with the nice quality material of the robe.

 

Her appearance was rather different from usual, although it was not entirely noticeable.

 

Knocking on Allan's door, she hoped for an answer, which never came back. Walking inside with little to no concern, there was still Allan who was sleeping on his back. She poked him in the cheek and whispered.

 

“It's time to wake up.”

 

Allan stretched himself as he sat up.

 

“Is it morning already?”

 

“The end of it, almost.”

 

“Oh... I was sleeping so well. That was the first since I've come here.”

 

“How are you feeling?” Sarey asked.

 

“Fine so far. I feel energetic and with 3summoning. I will do my training first, as well as some preparation for forging if you don't mind.” Sarey

 

“Good, I will prepare some food where we could discuss some things I have in mind.”

 

“I think any discussion can be left with 36's summoning. I will do my training first, as well as some preparation for forging afterward.”

 

Sarey glanced at him with little to say. Her worries could wait, after all.

 

“Alright.” she complied.

 

Allan heard the thud of the door as she left. “Phew, this is strange. I thought she would check on me again. Well, fine. I feel no injuries or anything.” Allan touched across his body to feel himself up. His back was feeling somewhat different. He was more flexible around his hips and shoulders.

 

“I guess acupoint therapy is making a real change, or it could be the effects of the training? No way, it has been only about 14 to 15 days at best. My shoulders and my core feel tighter. If there is a change to focus the needles across my body towards individual parts, there could be more focus on them. I need to learn about this method too. I can't be left in the dark about the things she is stabbing me with.” Allan assumed little of his idea after experiencing everything firsthand.

 

“I will practice today more and even Zigmund's help will be very nice after this.”

 

Allan walked outside his door after changing into his new set of clothes. He went through the corridors from his memory and reached the kitchen.

 

He could smell something brewing around immediately as he opened the door. The smell of food, but not overly heavy or unpleasant. His sense of smell is strong as ever.