“Haaa… Haaa… Haaa…”

Aurelia was sprawled out on the ground, gasping for air, her body twitching repeatedly. She was so tired that she couldn’t even turn her head to glare at Mika for putting her in this state.

“Hmmm~” Mika stood over Aurelia, pondering over the last hour before she asked, “Aren’t you a little too weak?”

Aurelia’s eyelids trembled in agitation, but she could only glare at the ceiling while imagining Mika’s face.

“I’m not saying that to be a jerk; I’m honestly just confused. Your stamina is way too low for someone of your age and status. What do you do all day for something like that to be possible?”

Mika thought back to the children she’d encountered during her previous life. Even the girls had more stamina than Aurelia!

“Haaa… I-I’m… I’m busy!” Aurelia said through gritted teeth.

“Busy?” Mika tilted her head, “Busy doing what?”

“...Studying… under… father.” Aurelia said in between breaths. Mika’s workout had exhausted every ounce of energy out of her body.

Contrary to Mika’s assessment, Aurelia felt proud of what she was capable of. Other than pull-ups, she could do at least one of every exercise after that.

She was more than satisfied with that outcome as someone who had spent their entire life studying to be a merchant.

“Oh, right. You’re a merchant,” Mika muttered.

“Anyways, I’ll drop you off in your room and begin training myself.” Mika scooped up Aurelia’s twitching body and carried her back to her room.

Aurelia grunted in annoyance but didn’t refuse Mika’s intentions.

Soon, the two entered her room, and Mika laid her down inside a pod that helped with recovery. Turning around, Mika left the room, leaving behind a few words for Aurelia before she fell asleep, “Get something to eat after you’ve recovered.”

Mika returned to Aurelia’s private training room and went straight for the Gravity Chamber. The description of the device was pretty simple:

It increases the gravity in an isolated space.

According to the internet, it works by combining mana, gravitational waves, and magnetic fields to pull whoever enters it with more force. Mika tried looking into what gravitational waves and magnetic fields were, but the more she researched, the deeper down the rabbit hole she went.

There were so many unknown terms that used even more unknown terms in their descriptions that Mika just stopped caring.

“So, this thing is supposed to make me heavier,” Mika muttered, tapping on the panel that controls the chamber.

—----------------------------------------------------

[Gravity Chamber options]

{1.25x Gravity}

{1.5x Gravity}

{1.75x Gravity}

{2x Gravity}

…

{3x Gravity}

{3.25x Gravity}

—----------------------------------------------------

Mika took a deep breath as she stepped into the small chamber. The walls were made of transparent material, allowing her to see the controls on the outside.

She had never been in a gravity chamber before, but she was determined to test its effects as this appealed to her much more than lifting weights. From the little research she’s done about lifting weights and what she saw during the Emporvas Knight’s training center, using those kinds of machines and workouts only targets a few areas of the body.

While that wasn’t bad, it wasn’t what Mika sought. The Absolute Sword Body cultivation technique focuses on building a swordsman's most optimal body. Strength was a big part of that, but so was her range of motion, explosive power, flexibility, blood flow, lung capacity, and toughness.

For other people, they could get by just lifting weights without a body cultivation technique, but she couldn’t. Her Body Cultivation technique revolved around the sword. Thus, her workouts should involve the sword as well!

Mika took a deep breath, pressed the {1.25x Gravity} option, and instantly felt the weight of her body pressing down on her feet as if a giant hand was pushing her down.

She jumped around a bit and punched the air a few times but didn’t feel much difference. It was a bit of a burden, but the extra weight was more of an annoyance than anything. So, she pressed the {1.5x Gravity} button.

However, besides being a bit more challenging to move around, Mika felt nothing.

‘Let’s try 2x gravity.’ Mika shook her head and pressed the {2x Gravity} button.

*Vwoom!*

The extra weight caught Mika by surprise, and her knees caved in, but she caught herself before she could fall. Like before, she ran around the chamber to test it out but still shook her head.

‘It’s not enough.’

Mika clicked the {2.25x Gravity} button and repeated this until she felt like she was carrying a mountain on her shoulders.

Her legs wobbled, and her body trembled, but she forced herself to keep standing. Every breath was a struggle, every movement an act of willpower, but it was here that she felt the most comfortable.

‘Three times the gravity, huh? Not bad!’ Mika thought, smiling. She weighed about 160 kilograms, so with the added gravity, she was carrying almost 500 kilograms!

‘With this, now I can begin my training!’

Mika brought out her sword, Chigatana, which felt more like a hefty block of steel than a sword, and raised it. Her arms trembled due to the weight, but she gritted her teeth and slowly brought it above her head.

*Swish!*

The sword descended toward the ground fast, and Mika had to use every ounce of strength in her arms to control it.

“Kurgh!” She grunted, feeling a strain in her arms, legs, and core, but that didn’t stop her. She controlled her breathing, lifted the sword once again, and swung it.

As she exhaled, a grin slowly crept up on her face as she forced her body to work at its fullest potential!

“Let’s go!!” Mika roared as her sword descended.

***

A few hours later, inside Aurelia’s room.

“Ugh… That stupid brute worked me too hard.” Aurelia groaned as she opened her eyes, the pod ceiling lifting as she woke up.

Looking to the side, she noticed her mother had placed a smoothie and sandwich on her nightstand.

Stepping out of the pod, she stretched her muscles, grabbed the food, and left her room.

‘What should I do now?’ She wondered as she walked down the hall. ‘I could catch up on my logistics and marketing studies, but that’s not due for another week.’

Suddenly, the image of a fiery red-haired demon child entered her mind.

‘Hmmm… I wonder what that brute is up to.’ Aurelia shrugged her shoulders and walked toward her training room.

When she entered, she was half expecting not to see someone. However, when she looked up and saw Mika in the gravity chamber, she nearly dropped her smoothie!

‘This… t-this is what she calls training?!’ Aurelia gawked, ‘This is just torture!’

Blood dripped out of Mika’s nose as she strained herself to lift the sword in her hands. Her entire body shook like it was about to fall apart at any moment, but she just closed her eyes and clenched her teeth to keep herself from collapsing.

It took Mika dozens of seconds to lift her sword, but she managed to raise it above her head.

“Kugh!” Mika grunted the metallic taste of blood in her throat.

“One. Last! Time!!”

The blade in her hands fell like the sword of Damocles, and alongside it, Mika’s body collapsed from exhaustion.

The Gravity Chamber automatically shut off, the gravity inside immediately returning to normal, and Mika felt a rush of relief as the weight lifted off her body.

“Haaa… Haaa… Fuck… That was… a good workout,” Mika muttered with a grin. She glanced to the door as she could’ve sworn she’d heard someone enter, but not seeing anyone there, she just shrugged and focused on recovering.

However, she didn’t know that Aurelia had hurried out of the room as soon as Mika collapsed. Her hand was over her mouth, and her eyes widened in disbelief.

‘What the heck was that?! Is that how Mika trains??’ Aurelia could hardly believe her eyes.

She thought back to her workout this morning and about how much Mika pushed her, but she realized that the effort she put into that workout wasn’t even worth a single slash from Mika.

‘And she’s been doing that ever since I fell asleep!’

Aurelia returned to her room and fell into deep thought, refusing to come out.

***

Once Mika regained her energy, she dragged her exhausted body back to her room and took out a few Nutritional Serums.

“Yuck! They still taste like shit.” Mika’s face scrunched up for a second.

Feeling the excess nutrients seeping into the cracks formed in her body during training, Mika opened up her phone.

She played around with it for a while, learning how to take photos with it, browsing the internet, and deepening her understanding of this new technology.

Eventually, she came across a feature that allowed her to see the land's topography, or in other words, a map.

‘I should probably learn more about this kingdom and its surroundings before I go on my mission.’ She thought and pulled up the map.

The map had a straightforward layout, making it easy to read. All the landmarks, countries, and Danger Zones were marked, labeled, and outline. Clicking on them would further bring up a brief description of them.

With a quick search, Mira found that 9 Danger Zones surrounded the Barlton Kingdom.

Starting from the Southwest was the Desolate Prairie. Above that and to the West of the Kingdom was Sun’s Refuge Grove, a forest that branched off of the Noxious Jungle.

To the Northwest was the Noxious Jungle, and to the North of the Jungle and the Kingdom was the ThunderFire Mountain Range.

The Dangers Zones to the Northeast and East of the Barlton Kingdom were a bit more complex. There were two Danger Zones to the Northeast, the Emerald Forest and the Ethereal Flatlands, with the latter being more Eastern.

However, in between the ThunderFire Mountain Range and the Emerald Forest was a tiny section of mountains called Dragon’s Ridge.

Lastly, The Motionless Sea was to the South of the Kingdom, with the Rocking Bay between the two.

“Wow! No wonder Joralf said the Barlton Kindgomd was full of merchants. There are so many Danger Zones around, meaning that the number of resources available must be astronomical.” Mika thought aloud, but that wasn’t the only thing she was surprised by.

According to the map, most of these Danger Zones were as big, if not bigger, than the Noxious Jungle! The only smaller one was Dragon’s Ridge, but that was in terms of total area. Length-wise, it wasn’t any shorter.

“I can see why mercenaries travel in groups now. Just carrying all the supplies would be a pain in the ass, much less all the loot gathered from the expedition. Everything would be much more efficient with a group.”

However, although Mika knew being in a group would probably be better if she were trying to make as much money as possible, that wasn’t her primary purpose for wanting to be a mercenary.

Being a mercenary was just a way for her to explore the lands around her, hoping to get stronger. Making money was just a bonus.

“I’ll join a group if I have to, but for now, I’d like to go solo,” Mika muttered.

For the rest of the day, Mika sat in bed, resting, and playing with her phone, until she eventually fell asleep.

***

The next few days went by fairly quickly for Mika. She mainly spent her time training, both by herself and with Aurelia, who seemed oddly disconnected and distracted. Even during their training sessions, Aurelia was much quieter, as if something important was on her mind.

However, Mika wasn’t interested in her problems and continued to coach her like normal.

Other than sparring with the Knights, she played with her phone, trained, or meditated.

Finally, as Mika was becoming bored and restless, Katherine came to her with the paperwork!