Chapter 73: A Bruising First Lesson

As noon approached, Eris and I stood together in the training area behind the mansion.

After accepting our secret deal, she hadn’t given me even a minute to change my mind. Once she had rested for a short while, she brought me straight here.

Standing a few steps in front of me, Eris placed her hands on her hips.

"Attack me."

"That’s it?"

"I need to see what you can do first. I won’t use my Nexus, so give it everything you have."

Her confident attitude annoyed me, but there was nothing unreasonable about what she said. I spread my feet shoulder-width apart, raised my fists, and shifted my weight slightly forward.

I hadn’t used any real fighting style inside the Overlap. I had transformed Umbrella into a bat, spear, or shield and tried to hit everything in front of me as hard as possible.

I couldn’t use the same method against Eris.

When I threw my right fist toward her face, she avoided it with a slight tilt of her head. Then she grabbed my wrist, used my own weight against me, and before I understood what had happened, my back hit the stone floor.

"Ugh!"

Eris released my hand and looked down at me.

"Your stance is bad, you move your shoulder before attacking, and you put all your weight behind your punch. If I dodge, you lose your balance on your own."

"That was my first attack."

"Do you think a monster would spare you because it was your first attack?"

When I couldn’t answer, she held out her hand and helped me to my feet.

For the next half hour, she taught me how to stand properly, move without crossing my feet, and attack without leaving my guard completely open. The movements seemed simple at first, but when I tried to perform all of them at once, my body refused to respond the way I wanted.

My stats had given me speed and strength, but they hadn’t taught me how to use them.

When Eris sent a controlled punch toward my shoulder, I managed to raise my arms and block it, but the force of the impact still pushed me back several steps. Before I could regain my stance, she hooked her foot behind my ankle and knocked me down again.

"Defense isn’t just raising your arms in front of your face, idiot," she said. "If your feet aren’t positioned properly, you’ll lose your balance with the first hit."

Gritting my teeth, I got back up.

After repeating the same mistake several more times, I finally began to follow her movements a little better. When I avoided her punch and moved to her right side, surprise briefly appeared in her eyes. Before I could enjoy that small success, however, her elbow struck my chest.

A moment later, I was on the ground again.

I knew Eris hadn’t used her Nexus throughout our training. She was also controlling most of her strikes so they wouldn’t cause any serious injuries. Even so, the difference in our experience was so great that I couldn’t land a proper hit on her even once.

About an hour later, I lay flat on my back, watching the clouds slowly move across the sky.

My breathing was uneven, and my shirt clung to my body with sweat. I could feel bruises forming across my arms, shoulders, and legs, but I didn’t care much about them.

White Snake would heal them soon.

What truly bothered me was that Eris hadn’t been seriously challenged even once.

Crimson hair entered my field of view and interrupted my thoughts. Eris leaned over me with her hands on her knees, looking down at my face. The amused smile on her lips didn’t inspire any confidence.

"Has the Great Noctis, who was so certain he would enter the Nexus Academy, become unable to stand after his first training session?"

"I’m only checking the quality of the floor."

"And?"

"It’s far too hard. You should complain to your family."

Eris laughed softly before straightening up.

"You lasted longer than I expected for your first day. Your strength and speed really have increased, but there’s no technique behind any of your movements. If someone dodges your punch, you don’t know what to do next. When you fall, you look around in confusion instead of protecting yourself."

"Could you choose between praising me and insulting me?"

"Doing both at once is more fun."

She lightly tapped my leg with the tip of her foot.

"Get up. It’s lunchtime."

I stared at her for several seconds, waiting for her to offer me a hand, but she clearly had no intention of helping. Even though every muscle in my body protested, I pressed my hands against the ground and forced myself up.

Eris examined my exhausted state with satisfaction.

"When you can’t get out of bed tomorrow because of the muscle pain, you can offer to begin your life as my slave early."

"I’ll be here before you tomorrow."

"Don’t forget you said that."

After collecting our water bottles from the training area, we started walking back toward the mansion. The pain in my bruised muscles became more noticeable as I moved, but at the same time, the warmth of White Snake began spreading through them.

At this rate, most of the marks might disappear within a few hours.

When we reached the mansion, Eris stopped in front of the stairs.

"I’m going to take a shower. We’ll meet downstairs in half an hour."

"Okay."

"Don’t fall asleep and miss lunch."

"Yeah, yeah."

Eris headed upstairs without answering. When we reached the split in the hallway, she went toward her room while I returned to mine.

After removing my sweaty clothes, I entered the bathroom and turned on the water. As the warm water poured over my head, the tension in my muscles slowly began to fade.

When I lowered my head to inspect the bruises on my body, something else caught my attention.

On the first day I opened my eyes in this world, I had looked extremely thin and weak. There was barely any muscle on my arms, and even a few push-ups had been enough to make my entire body tremble.

Now my shoulders were slightly more defined, and the muscles in my arms had become noticeable despite still being lean. When I tightened my stomach, I could see the faint lines beginning to form beneath my skin. My legs also looked stronger thanks to all the running and training.

I still wasn’t as athletic as Eris or my angel. Even so, the difference compared to my scrawny body from only a few days ago was impossible to deny.

As I ran a hand over the newly forming muscles on my stomach, the corners of my lips lifted slightly.

"Not bad..."

White Snake wasn’t only healing my injuries. It also allowed me to recover much faster after training. If I maintained this rate of improvement, I could become far stronger than an ordinary person before the Nexus Academy entrance exam.

Another question suddenly came to mind.

"I wonder how many pull-ups I can do now?"

During my last attempt, I had managed nine. Since then, my Strength had increased, my body had developed, and White Snake had been upgraded.

Maybe I could do fifteen now.

Perhaps I could even get close to twenty.

Forty pull-ups still seemed far away, but the promise I had made to my angel remained. My phone being destroyed and losing access to my old number didn’t mean our agreement had disappeared.

When I met her again, I needed to do forty pull-ups to learn her real name.

"Wait a little longer for me, my angel."

After finishing my shower, I wrapped a towel around my waist and stood in front of the mirror. My wet blue hair clung to my face as I studied my reflection for several seconds.

Even though my body was improving, my face hadn’t become the slightest bit more masculine.

"At least I could’ve grown a little facial hair..."

At this rate, even if I developed a muscular body, people would continue mistaking me for a pretty girl who worked out.

After drying my hair and leaving the bathroom, I put on one of my new T-shirts and a comfortable pair of pants. Thanks to the shopping trip with Eris, I was no longer forced to wear clothes covered in anime girls.

I picked up my phone from the bed and checked the time. Half an hour hadn’t passed yet.

Since I had nothing else to do, I opened my streaming profile.

I hadn’t streamed at all yesterday, and I probably wouldn’t be able to stream today either. Unless I returned home, I had no access to my computer, camera, or any of the other equipment I used for streaming.

Despite that, my follower count continued to rise.

[Followers: 1,277]

I raised my eyebrows slightly.

Even though I had only just passed a thousand followers at the end of my last stream, more than two hundred new people had followed my account. Clips of Caramel defeating me over and over were still being shared, especially the part where I ended the stream in anger.

It was a little hurtful that people found me more entertaining when I was having a breakdown than when I was winning games.

Still, continuing to grow wasn’t a bad thing.

"So you didn’t forget me just because I missed one day, mortals."

I briefly looked through the new comments and posts among my notifications. Some of my followers were asking whether I would stream today, while others wanted a rematch against Caramel.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to face her again.

Considering that I hadn’t managed to damage her even once across six matches, it wouldn’t be a rematch. It would be a second public execution.

My phone vibrated, and I closed the app.

A new message had arrived from Eris.

[Eris: I’m downstairs. Lunch is ready.]

A second notification appeared after it.

[Eris: If you’re late, I’ll eat your dessert too.]

"A very predictable threat."

I slipped the phone into my pocket and looked around the room one last time.

"I should go home tomorrow."

I had begun staying at the mansion longer than necessary. I needed to continue streaming, prepare for the cosplay contest, and check on the process of restoring my old number.

Even so, life here was more peaceful than I had expected.

I had woken up to the crepes Miranda prepared, trained with Eris, and now learned there was lunch waiting for me downstairs. Unlike the silence of my own apartment, I could always hear someone’s footsteps or voice inside this mansion.

I knew this was temporary.

That was why there was no harm in enjoying these peaceful moments for now.