Reason to Train

Surprisingly, Lupa’s “place” was an actual house made of wood connected to a tree. Leo assumed that from her comment of traveling around as an adventurer would mean she would settle for a yurt instead. She was also the only occupant of the spacious place with multiple rooms and beds. It seems that she had already moved out from the rest of her family despite being the Chief’s oldest daughter.

“Welcome! Make yourselves at home!” Lupa kicked in the door showing off the place. It was cleaner than what Leo and Sophia expected. This was probably due to Lupa being around compared to how her family inferred. “I got rooms for each of ya, Leo you will be close to mine, our training starts early.”

“Great…” Leo sighed not exactly looking forward to his fate. It wasn’t like he didn’t work out. He did enough, but this was a battle crazed demi-human wolf girl they were talking about. There was a non zero chance that the training was going to be intense.

Lupa showed them to their rooms and showed them all her magic crystals for the different amenities, shower, toilet, kitchen sink, oven and the works. Satisfied with her introductions she took Zen and Cor (who insisted on staying with Zen for the night much to her parent’s chagrin) to their rooms to get them settled.

With Leo and Sophia left alone both sat down at the table and deflated in a collective exhaustion of what happened. Leo broke the silence first still keeping his head on the table, “I’m sorry. I should have explained myself better.”

Sophia didn’t even look at him as she laid back on her chair. “It’s fine… I wanted to stay trapped in a village for a month away from work.”

‘Doesn’t sound fine.’ Leo thought catching her sarcasm. Still he should have said something out there. he should have realized Zentella would say something. He was so used to just claiming that he needed the shards that he didn’t realize what that looked to others that know his circumstances.

“Still… Getting trained by Lunatic Lupa will definitely be a boon out of all this. She doesn’t exactly offer a month training. Besides her other hopeful trainees usually disappear in a week, so us being stuck here means that you’ll have to complete training.”

“Her moniker is lunatic?” Leo asked sinking deeper into his dread.

Sophia sighed, “Yeah… she is just as battle crazy as you seen. She hardly comes to the guild back at Starnlend, where I’m currently stationed, but she would usually challenge who she would think is the strongest in the room if she didn’t find a request to satisfy her.”

“So she went from kill to knock out against me.” Leo summarized of his initial encounter with her.

“Essentially.” She then looked at Leo, “Look, you got to be careful about your mission claim about collecting the catalyst. The Demon King is not something you can speak lightly about. even though it has been roughly 600 years since the last one, we still see scars to this day.” She then casted her gaze down. “That’s how powerful they can become.”

“And it unifies the Demons too.” Leo added drawing on the memories of Rebecca within him. She saw the devastation that lone Demons can do and that knowledge was within him now.

“Yup!” Lupa said as she came down taking a casual seat at the table, “But don’t worry about that. Lobos says that they will ensure the safety of the world. So if the reason you want it aligns with that you can get the shard.” She then looked at Leo, “Why do you want it anyway?”

Leo then figured he owed Lupa a full explanation considering he saved his life. So he told her. Told her of his summoning to this world. The fall of the hero’s party with even the saint. He told her of his mission to fulfill their requests by absorbing the shards into him. He even told her about his system abilities and his skills pertaining to the party.

“Hmm… I think I get it… then training is extra important!” Lupa said with fire in her eyes. “If you are going to fight the Demons for these shards, then we can’t have you dying on us.” She then tilted her head, “You think if you die the shards fall out of you?”

“What? No!” Leo then paused, “Well… I never really thought about that.” He would have never liked to think about his death in the first place.

“So it is settled. Seeing how important this mission is I’ll increase the training, you don’t just have to be good, you got to be great now! So prepare yourself, it won’t be a walk in the park like before!”

“Lupa… we haven’t even started training.” Leo sighed seeing the truth had only officially signed his death warrant.

“Come on, don’t be like that!” She then slammed his hand on his back hard again. “This is perfect, you have the weight of the world on your back now. That is plenty of motivation to push through! Break your limits and feel the power!”

The weight of the world… hearing it said out loud somehow made it feel more real. He knew that it already was, but with many events he keeps putting it to the back of his mind. Still, he did need to get stronger. He even called his system and saw the number of shards were counted now with a: 2. There was also the fact that it warned him of Lupa’s attack. Maybe the more shards he collects the stronger the system becomes? So he can’t complain now. This will be his training arc.

“Ok Lupa, you’re right. I can’t just keep coasting right now.”

She slapped him hard once again with a laugh, “That’s what I like to hear!” She then turned to Sophia, “What about you? You joining the training, I would love to fight you too.”

Sophia was surprisingly calm as if she expected it, “I’m good.” She then turned to Leo, “Good luck then, I’m expecting good results on my investment.”