Proofreader: None (I kinda rewrote sections of this chapter more than a few times.)

Erin gestured with her hand, “Come at me.”

Her slight smirk was getting on my nerves. If I had to rerank my likeness of each character, I might have to put her below Uriel and Julia now. And that says a lot since I had three plushies of her in my room before.

She grew tired of my motionlessness, “If you don’t move first, then I will.”

A switch flipped in my head. If you wanted me to fight, then I will.

I activated enhancement, dashing with the speed of a bull. Even if the difference wasn’t large, it was better than nothing. Especially since it hardly used my low mana pool, its cost-efficiency was the best.

“I’m coming alright!” I yelled.

Shiiiing!

Erin’s body had tilted ever so slightly, causing my sword to barely brush against hers. 

She mumbled, “Error one, too obvious.” 

“Tsk,” My patience was being tested.

I followed up with a diagonal swing from the bottom right only to be met with sparks. In an instant, her sword was pointed toward my face as I regained my bearings.

“Error two, you are unable to react correctly to unpredictable attacks.”

I picked up the sword with a grunt and put myself into a stance.

What can I do differently? There was no way to effectively attack a superior opponent with basic technique. 

“Is that it?”She beckoned me with her hands once again.

Fine. I’ll keep going until I can’t feel my hands anymore.

I charged from the side, releasing a swipe of speed rather than strength. It wasn’t parried but redirected, allowing me to retract my arm. 

“No, you don’t,” A sword had been pointed under my chin as her face was next to mine.

“Error three, you’re full of gaps,” She put down her sword, showing three fingers. “We will focus on these three main points, seeing as you’re weaker than I thought.”

It’s not that I’m extremely weak but that you’re too strong…

“So to fix this… I’ll beat it into you.”

“Wait!” This isn’t how it’s supposed to go!

She picked up her sword and began to stride toward me menacingly. 

-x-

“Ugh-“ I tilted my head to see past the windows. It was once again pitch black.

I was thoroughly taught by Erin which areas of my body were too open.

How, you may ask? 

Through striking the same spots over and over. I flipped the inside of my shirt to discover swollen pinkish-blue bruises.

Poke-

“Youch! Why would you touch that!” I complained to the demon girl.

“I was curious about your reaction,” She explained cynically.

“How am I supposed to recover in time if I’m beaten like this tomorrow as well?” I questioned her methods.

“I said I would train you to beat him, I never agreed to heal you,” Erin coldly replied, “Figure it out yourself.”

“Tch. Thanks for the ‘training,’ devil tutor,” I played with the word.

I looked over at her, receiving a piercing gaze.

“What? Something wrong?” I asked, smiling on the inside.

That would be my small petty revenge, to give her the stress factor of being found out. 

“Nothing,” She paused momentarily, “Pick up your sword again.”

I forgot she was just the same as I was.

“I’m dead, beaten and tired,” I pleaded for mercy, “I need sleep!”

A complaint reached my ears, “Humans and their need for sleep. Tch.”

“You speak as if you’re not.”

“What d- do you mean?” Her always cold expression let out faint traces of cracked armour.

I triumphantly spoke, “Exactly what I said.”

She stopped speaking and passed me a bottle of water. “I suppose that’s enough, I’ll meet you here in the morning tomorrow.”

I might’ve saved myself the pain of going through more now, but I have to do this three more times before the duel..? 

“Have a good night’s rest,” She gave her farewell before leaving me alone on the floor.

Sonova-

Originally, I had planned to mention the grave of the Demon King this morning, and the apparent Goddess to Erin. However, after ruminating on it prior to the training session, it didn’t seem right to do. At least, not yet.

“Hah…” 

The pain in my body worsened the longer I stayed in this empty facility. If only Uriel was here to give me that OP healing miracle, I was practically limping my way back to the dorms.

In the darkness of night, I mumbled, “Status.”

For some alien reason, I hadn’t checked my status since I enrolled. Yesterday, within Haruto’s combat class, that ding which resounded was either a skill level up or a skill attainment.

[Attributes]

Vitality: 17 -> 18

Agility: 8 -> 9

Strength: 9 -> 10 

Mana:  5 

[Skills]

Outer Eye (Z) (0 -> 2.4% Proficiency)

Enhancement (F+) -> (E+) [Growth Type]

• Enhances a target of any choice by a small amount.
• Enhancement can be applied to two separate targets at the cost of more mana and concentration. [New!]
• Unique to ‘Luke.’

Basic Swordsmanship (E) (8.7% -> 15.9% Proficiency - Evolution Possible)

Basic Magic Control (D) (0% -> 0.6% Proficiency - Evolution Possible)

Overall, my stats had increased by one within a day and a half, except for mana. That in itself is good progress, although it could be even quicker. 

That was why I had wished to receive the Spirit Queen’s blessing this morning. It was only able to be attained around the second to third year depending on the route taken in either protagonist route. According to the game, it would multiply training proficiency by 1.5x as well as boost the stat increase from killing monsters.  

Yeah, while there were no levels, the game increased stat through either training or slaying monsters and passively absorbing their life force. It was generally considered better to continue the grind of monster slaying than training, but there were limits which the game made clear.

If a player were to massively increase stats through only that method, the proficiency of skills wouldn’t be able to keep up and it would be akin to driving a car without experience. You wouldn’t be able to throw out skills worthy of your stats and would lower your overall combat prowess.

Overall, Abel better have something of high quality comparable to that queen’s gift.

After pondering my stats, the skill of [Enhancement] immediately came into view.

“Two targets?” I wondered if that would make the enhancements even weaker than before.

While I had been using it abstractly, inflicting enhancement on forces of the world, I never tried using it for basic purposes.

“Welp, guess I gotta find out then.” This would hurt.

I stood in front of the thickest tree I could find. And, I would punch it without a strength enhancement.

“Fuck!”

Drops of blood fell from the tips of my knuckles. That was dumb, wasn’t it? 

“Well, it’s too late to back down now…” I breathed in deeply, “Enhance.”

I quickly checked my status.

[Attributes]

Vitality: 18

Agility: 9

Strength: 15 (10)

Mana: 5

It increased by five points, which was just about the strength beginner knights have. Acknowledging my newfound strength I cocked my hand back, embracing the future pain that would come to me.

Crrk!

“Hah… Hah…” 

The tree had a clear dent in it. If I pushed myself and went for a few more rounds I was confident I could topple it.

“Maybe if it wasn’t bleeding profusely.” My hand was in an even worse condition than before. However, I had betted on the possibility that I could enhance the base regenerative capabilities of my cells.

Thus, to test my upgraded skill and assumption, I enhanced both the numbness and healing factors. Feeling a draining sensation sap energy out of me, I could tell my mana pool was readily decreasing in real-time.

“Whew.” I took a deep breath observing the open wounds closing at abnormal speeds. “It’s over a bit exhausting though.”

It uses the energy of the body to heal, so of course it would tire me out if I sped up the process. 

That was enough to satisfy my curiosities. I’ll leave the healing enhancement active while I spar with Erin tomorrow.

“Hahaha!” In all honesty, this was amazing. For once, I felt above the average human since I arrived in this accursed game world.

Pluuphs

Yo, sorry for the late upload guys, haven't been able to write as much as I wanted, so here's a chapter I wrote a week ago. School's back up again, so my uploads will be less frequent. My focus of course will also be on my grades, so my writing quality might degrade and well... my writing isn't the best.

P.S I just finished chapter 21 at this time. And I like being 5 chapters at the minimum ahead... I'm gonna be busy on the weekend.