Daniel Xander, Chapter 13: Hellish Training

"C'mon! Just one more!"
Daniel wanted to yell out in pain. He wanted to pass out. But he knew he wouldn't be able to do either of those things. He had to finish his training no matter what. It was basically his end of the agreement to Penelope training him at this point.
Right now, he was attempting push ups with the weights. He had already, miraculously, done 40-something.
It was Saturday, the sixth day of his training. How the week had passed him, he didn't know. Monday of course, had been the day he had taken the weights from Penelope. He had done some speed and stamina training, but mostly, he had just waited for his body to adjust to the weights. In the evening, the two of them had squared of, with her slamming Daniel over and over again. But what that had resulted in Daniel hadn't found out until the day after.
He had woken up on Tuesday to a scratching noise coming from his door. He had already anticipated who it was gonna be so he wasn't surprised when Arthur the cat mewed at him indicated him to follow him. As he got out of the dorm, he could make out a figure jogging at the other end of the campus grounds, but didn't wait to find out who it was. Instead, he went to the school gate, expecting to see Penelope's white sedan there. Instead, he had been greeted by an empty street. The shops accross the main road were still closed, meaning it was probably really early in the morning.
Arthur the cat mewed at him and suddenly, with a weird spasm, he enlarged suddenly and became as big as an ocelot. He wagged his tail at Daniel, who, for the first time saw that there was a note attached to it. He untied the knot and unfolded the piece of paper.

Jog to the wall. Keep pace with Arthur or you will have to do 50 push ups with Arthur on your back.

After that, it was a blur. Daniel could, through watery eyes, see the street infront of him. His legs were basically jelly and his stomach fire. He was sure that he was gonna cough out his tangled intestines. But somehow, that paled in comparison to doing 50 pushups with a 200 kg cat on his back. Perhaps, it was the fright he felt; or perhaps it was something else entirely, he didn't fall back and was able to keep up with Arthur until the last stretch. Infact, Penelope couldn't betray the plain surprise on her face when they turned up to the bottom of the wall. But she had spoken normally and informed him of his training for the day.
Apparently, the centre had summoned the Siege Factions for something important and she had to leave for the day. Therefore, the incharge of his training was Arthur.
Daniel went over to the other side of the wall, sweating profusely and trying to figure out how to untangle his hurting intestines when Arthur too turned up from Penelope's office and gave him a brown envelope with some papers in it. His training for the day.

1) Yesterday's speed training with Arthur. (Note the distance after every run.)
2) Push ups and squats 5 each.
I will be back by evening, so we can face off then.

Daniel made some astonishing progress with his speed training.
The basic norm was to give Daniel a 100 second headstart and then, Arthur would come for him. Yesterday, his maximum distance had been 17 meters. But today, he was able to travel 50 meters by the time Arthur caught up with him. And by the end of the training, he was able to travel a 120 meters. In just one day, he had made this progress. But the reason behind this was also simple. Every second, his body was adapting because there was never relief from the weights. So his body cells were constantly on high alert and his body function just wasn't increasing at a constant rate; it was actually accelerating. Basically, every second of wearing those weights was training. Lifting a glass of water was training. Climbing stairs, eating food, washing up, every mundane action was training. Determining the rate at which the body function accelerated was impossible because everything was variable. But Daniel was starting to feel good about himself now. Even the exhaustion from his jog before hadn't lasted!
Then, he came to the pushups and squats, and then, his feeling of exhilaration died.
The squats weren't very difficult. No indeed.
But the pushups were hell incarnate.
All this while, he had only focused on his legs with the running. The only activities he had done which remotely resembled an arm workout were picking up a pencil and a spoon and using them. He hadn't even tried raising his arm too much.
But anyhow, he didn't know how he did it, he was able to do 5 push ups in the span of half an hour. Most of the time he had spent on the ground, so he didn't actually think they even qualified as pushups. But it seemed Arthur had received some clear instructions to keep his training going. Because as he was getting up from his excuse of a pushup, Arthur jumped right onto his back and forced him to continue training.
It took him a long time, during which he spent several minutes just lying down with Arthur on his back, but eventually, his body as always, seemed to partly get used to the movements he was trying to make and he was able to do five push ups. But this proved that he definitely needed to use his arms more now. He had been avoiding written notes in school. Guess doing them would be more helpful.
He headed back at once and the rest of the day went pretty uneventfully. Bartemius had left again so he was glad that he didn't have that guy to deal with. Marcus, according to Davy wasn't staying on campus. As for the green haired girl, Daniel still didn't know who it had been, but he didn't mention it to anyone. There wasn't any need to. Anyway, he had been to busy that he had almost forgotten about it, miraculously.
Arthur didn't come to pick him up in the evening, which was strange because Penelope had clearly written in her letter that she would be sending Arthur to pick him up. He waited until 6' o clock. When no one turned up, he decided to jog to the border wall by himself. This time however, things were different, because he collapsed halfway to the wall in exhaustion. Why had he been able to jog to the wall in the morning without feeling as exhausted as he was feeling now? He was pretty close anyway, so he decided to continue going.
When he got there, it was pretty clear that he wasn't welcome. There were multiple checkposts 100 meters before the wall and when he asked one of the hard faced guards about Penelope, he told Daniel off, telling him that kids weren't supposed to come anywhere near the wall. Moreover, he started to demand Daniel's identity card and papers and threatened to get him arrested when Daniel lingered curiously for the moment.
Daniel, however, didn't feel very disheartened. Somehow, he felt stupid that he had decided to go to the wall anyway. Penelope was rank 4, a Faction Leader and probably a very important person as well. It still wasn't ingrained in his head that as full of fantastical elements as this world was, there still was a military and there still were rules. So Daniel had basically demanded to talk to a very high profile military official without even considering that he was a student. On earth, he could actually have been arrested for acting suspicious.
Davy seemed to find this situation funny when Daniel got back and told him about it. He actually informed Daniel that the only reason no one had stopped him until now was because he had been with Liz or Penelope herself. Now that he thought about it, Daniel hadn't actually seen anyone near the walls at all. Just him and someone accompanying him. He wondered if it was even legal for people to walk around the border.
"It's legal." Davy had said to him, "If you are ready to answer a million questions and give them a logical reason for why you are where you are. Otherwise, you can't even enter the area of the orchard."
"Orchard?" Daniel had asked.
"You must have seen it," said Davy, "it's full of trees with weird looking gargoyles with glowing green eyes."
Daniel remembered. Yes, the first day he had been here with Liz. The gargoyles with glowing green eyes. Most of the time, he simply overlooked them. Were they just decorations?
"They are like the last line of defence. They are actually puppets, manipulated by a guy from the security headquarters on the other end of the city." Davy explained.
They talked for some more time, before Davy headed out to train.
"I would take you with me," he had said as he was leaving, "but Bartemius has banned you from the private gymnasium. I will be back soon."
"Yeah, I figured." Said Daniel.
He spent his time inside, going through his books, occasionally attempting a push up. He still felt physically crushed, but more bareably so.
At about 9:00 pm, after dinner and washing up, he heard a small scratching noise at his door. Davy was in the washroom, so he went over and opened the door to check. There was Arthur, in his cat form with a note on his tail.
Daniel opened the note in painful anticipation. Yep.

"Sorry about this. Jog to the wall. No one ought to stop you this time. Arthur will be with you."

After the same painful jog for the third time, Daniel reached the wall. The check posts were still there, a 100 meters away from the wall, on the road. But the difference was that in the evening, there had hardly been any cars. Now, there were cars coming from the road along the border, stopping at the checkpost as the soldiers checked them thoroughly, checked papers and granted entry into the city. He jogged past the checkpost, with Arthur in front. Some people glared, but no one stopped him. Perhaps, his presence was exacerbating the mood of the soldiers. The wall looked different as well. The plain circular areas on which Daniel and Penelope had trained were replaced by cylindrical house like structures, about a story tall and emitting light all around from the windows. There was so much that he hadn't noticed the first time he had been here. It had been too quiet then. The hustle and bustle seemed to normalise this place.
He walked up to one of the entrances to the wall, cutting through officers and finally reached Penelope, who had her phone in her hand and seemed to be speaking into it.
She put it into her pocket as Daniel got there and silently opened one of the doors, going through it. Daniel followed. Like before, this was a staircase barely illuminated by glowing amber bulbs on the walls. On top of the staircase was another light hanging from the ceiling. They went through the door on the top of the staircase, entered the neat and chaotic corridor and made there way to the top of the wall.
Much in contrast to his earlier visits, the wall was crowded with soldiers shining beams of lights into the forest.
"This isn't like usual." Daniel found himself muttering.
"Oh, actually, this is how it usually is." Said Penelope, "You just haven't been here long enough to know how hectic it gets. Though it doesn't get nearly as hectic during his shifts."
"The person who comes to guard from time to time?"
"Yes, that's him. He is extremely powerful. So much so that he insists on keeping the other soldiers away from the top when he is on duty. And rightly so; we would only get in his way." Said Penelope with an air of respect.
"You seem to respect this person." Said Daniel.
"Of course. He is my senior and my trainer." Said Penelope, opening a doorway to the top of the wall and climbing the flight of stairs, Daniel on her heels.
"So how do we know when he's on duty or when he isn't?" Asked Daniel.
"That isn't for everyday folks to know. And anyway, most people aren't even allowed near the border so they aren't affected by what they know about the functioning of the wall or what they don't." Said Penelope.
"Right." Said Daniel, feeling that he shouldn't pursue this topic. Either way, like she said, it wasn't something everyday folks were supposed to worry about. And right now, he was even less than an everyday person.
But at the same time, she had-intentionally or unintentionally-given him the answer. If this person sent away everyone from the top of the wall during his shifts, he obviously wasn't on duty right now.
Penelope opened the doorway on the top of the staircase, and Daniel was hit by the familiar cold breeze of the night as he went through.
"So had he been on duty the day I got here?" Asked Daniel.
"No. That's why everything had been so hectic. We had been tipped off about a ghoul encounter, which is why we had come all the way past the border to check. Had he been on duty, he would have picked you up without trouble. Not to mention, Elizabeth being immature again messed up your arrival. Do you know how much trouble I had to go through to return the tank to the museum?" She said, suddenly furious. Then, she sighed, "And of course, he is on duty during the mornings, which is why I allowed you to train alone with Arthur, past the wall."
"He must be really powerful if he can take care of the whole wall alone." Said Daniel, thinking of Liz.
"Nevermind that now." Said Penelope as they approached one of the cylindrical house like structures which were emitting sharp beams of light from their windows.
There was a front door to the place and she threw it open and beckoned Daniel to come inside.
It was as much of a gray cylinder inside as it had been outside. It was a completely empty room, bare of any furniture or carpet. The only thing interesting were the windows. Daniel had expected to look into a screen of pure white, but instead, he found that he could actually see through the window. The glass had a white outline, but through it, the view of the forest that Daniel could see was completely illuminated.
"Look," said Penelope, coming up beside him. She touched the glass pane with her index finger and thumb, and moved them apart as you do when you zoom in. Immediately, the trees became enlarged. She repeated the same movement again and again until a single leaf if one of the trees was visible.
"That's amazing!" Said Daniel in awe, "an Imperium imbued place?"
"No. Not everything seemingly impossible is achieved by Imperiums," said Penelope, "This is technology."
She went over to the other side of the room as Daniel stood there, zooming in and zooming out on parts of the forest. It was amazing, the clarity of what he was able to see.
Suddenly, he felt a jerk which almost made him lose balance. He looked out the window and saw that the structure was actually rising up in the air, high up.
He stared in astonishment as even the mountains on the along the horizon went out of sight and he was plainly staring at the aurorae which had been floating above the mountains. He tried to touch the screen to hastily zoom in, but a text message popped out: Function disabled while engine is in flight.
Engine?
As suddenly as the movement had started, it stopped, again, almost throwing Daniel off balance. He looked into the window, and saw that he was starting into a blank space.
"Come on." Said Penelope, opening the door and stepping out. As she stepped out, a freezing cold hit Daniel, chilling him to the bone. A strange fog was making its way into the cabin. Wait. Were they in the sky? Were these clouds? He carefully went to the door. His legs were enveloped in the fog, upto his knees. There was-just like the window-a mass of gray outside. He took a tentative step into the mass, not expecting to find anything solid.
Instead, his leg was met with a very solid surface. He stepped out of the door and into the opaque wall of gray, completely blind. There was a staircase in front of him. A staircase? This high up. He moved forward, almost stumbling on the step of the staircase, but steadily kept moving up.
In a couple of seconds, his head burst through the wall of gray and he looked around.
Penelope was standing behind his head, a few meters away, on what Daniel assumed was the roof of the cabin. There was a ring of lights along the circumference of the roof and she was standing right in the middle. He climbed another five or six stairs and made his way around the invisible flooring to step right in front of Penelope.
Looking to both sides, he saw that this was the only floating cylindrical cabin in the sky. He looked up and was completely blown away by the true beauty of the night sky.
It had been beautiful enough to blow his mind back at the wall, but right now, it's magnificence was tenfold. A single dense stream flowed from one end of the horizon to the other, swirling like a whirlpool at intervals. He remembered a show he had seen at a planetarium with his parents, with a virtual reality headsets. The sheer scale and spectacle of it made him feel like he was dreaming. It was like a dome of black with glittering jewels, going out of view beyond the smoky horizon.
"Splendid view, right?" Asked Penelope, also looking around appreciatively.
"It's beautiful." Daniel muttered.
"These cabins are actually for air security. Several semi mortals are licensed flyers. So they have to get their papers checked here. However, when our radars don't pick any air traffic, we let these back down onto the wall." She informed him.
"Licensed flyers?" Asked Daniel.
"Like Elizabeth, Kyle and many others with air related Imperiums." She said.
"Right." Said Daniel, "But we are here to train, I guess?"
"Precisely. And also, to check if your Imperium is working well or not. Which I see, it is."
"Ho- how come?" Asked Daniel, "You haven't even attacked yet!"
"See, that is where you are wrong." She said, looking fixedly at him. When he didn't say anything she said, "Don't you think it was a clear night?"
"Yeah, it was but what does that have anything to do with-" then, it hit him.
"The clouds! Did you-" he exclaimed.
"Make them? Yes, with my Imperium." She said with a slight smile, "Have you noticed that you aren't drenched yet? Or that you aren't shivering even though it's 0°C?"
"Is this....my countermeasure? To your Imperium?" He said slowly.
"That's right. But you are yet to figure out the specifics. So observe for a bit more, go on." She said in a commanding voice.
She turned and walked away, taking out her phone and began examining it.
Daniel looked down at his hands. They weren't any different than before. He twisted his head to look down his back. Nothing. Then what was it that was giving him this resistance? Subconsciously, he raised his hand to his chin. He stopped. Something was, as always, out of place. Or so it seemed. He attempted to bring his hands together and looked closely. Just as his hands were just an inch away from each other, his fingers stopped. He was repelled by a force not different from the one which repelled the like ends of a magnet. He had played with magnets enough during his childhood to know that the forces felt similar. But then, was it possible to force his hands together? Afterall, with enough power, it was even possible to bring the like ends of magnets together and hold them. He began to force his hands together. He brought them to his side, over his head to the back to no success.
"You have it figured?" Called Penelope walking towards him, "I think you got it."
"Yeah, it's a sort of repulsive barrier." He said through gritted teeth, both his hands to his left side. He had made about two millimetres of progress when his arms gave up and shot apart. He spun around comically and fell down.
"Yes. You have definitely understood." She said, "A repulsive barrier? Not bad."
"There's one thing I still don't get," said Daniel, thinking about the day he had actually 'unlocked' his Imperium, "yesterday, Davy said something about the counter measure to warp hit 'ebbing away' and even today, if I have had a counter measure against your Imperium this whole time, how come I was still able to wash up or drink water-"
"Your Imperium, it seems, requires an eye for very specific details," said Penelope, raising her hand and silencing him-Daniel listened to her talk in anticipation of a new, unheard of detail, "and many times, use of your Imperium also depends on your emotional state, which you are going to have to learn to control so that you just don't use your Imperium anytime, when you don't even need it.
You told me about how you unlocked your Imperium. How it had been unlocked for some time then. And how you tested it out with your friend. Part of the reason as to why you were able to use your Imperium when your friend wasn't using his own was because of your outlook on things. Didn't you say your friend asked you to relive the experience of training with Bartemius? It seems that emotions of strong bitterness can also act as a trigger for your Imperium. And though it can be useful to control your Imperium on command instead of when you enter a fight, it will also take a toll on your mentality, which is why, it is not advisable to relive all your bad experiences just to activate your Imperium. But it's a choice. If you feel like it, you can-"
"No." Said Daniel immediately, "No, I don't want that." He paused, thinking again if this would seriously have an affect on him. Living in constant bitterness. But who would want that? Though he certainly had had his share of bad encounters since his arrival, he had been so hell bent on wanting to return, that he had just dismissed the good and kind people from his mind. Nathan, Cecile, Bartemius and Marcus had all been unreasonable to him and had tortured him in one way or the other (though thinking now, he didn't really want to blame Nathan) but what about Liz, Davy, Darius, Sandra, Bruce and even Penelope herself? She had taken him under his wing knowing full well that he was weak and had lifted him up. On top of that, he now saw how miserable he had been when he had just vilified everyone and everything around him. Even his parents and Liz, who had been kind to him without expecting anything in return.
"I can't imagine being constantly bitter; not anymore, anyway." He said simply.
A slight smile formed on Penelope's lips.
"That was the only answer I needed." She said, stamping her foot down and taking a stance.
Daniel tried taking one himself. He had picked up a couple of tricks from her as well. Like her stance and some of her techniques. She hadn't exactly taught him how to fight so he still relied on his primitive instincts for that. Right now, he didn't move. He knew charging forward would have the exact same outcome as always. He stood where he stood, unmoving.
As it turned out, taking a stance was only beneficial when your senses were honed for the unexpected. It was as if someone had played the scene from a few days ago over again. Penelope vanished from infront of him just as Nathan had done. But before Daniel could turn around, he felt a very strong push on his body which lifted him off of his feet, high up in the air. But surprisingly, there was no pain. Was this foresight? He blinked. No, this was real. He fell back down on the cabin roof painfully, and got to his feet. He was on the edge of the cabin. He turned just in time to see Penelope materialise in front of him and shoot out her fist.
Wait.
He could follow her movement! He ducked down and did what his instinct commanded; diving forward and rolling. He got to his feet again and turned. She was right in front of him again. He prepared to duck again-but it didn't go well.
Penelope's knee caught him right in the diaphragm, launching him from his feet and off the cabin roof. The world twisted and turned around him and he collided with something very solid. He was submerged in the gray mass of clouds and his body was momentarily chilled to the bone. Then, something happened and he abruptly stopped feeling cold. What had he collided against? The stairs. He got up. This time, there was a lot of pain. Particularly where she had struck him. He bent over and clasped his knee, coughing loudly.
There was a sound of slow clapping. He looked up and saw that Penelope was standing on the edge of the cabin and clapping.
"Well done."
Daniel climbed up the stairs and back to the cabin roof. "What was that about?"
"You dodged an attack from me. That is clear improvement." She said.
"Well, it didn't look like you were taking me seriously, so I don't know if that counts." Said Daniel, feeling underwhelmed.
"I wasn't taking you seriously? Daniel, had you not acted hastily and let your guard down, you could have kept up with me for another 10 seconds. And that is saying a lot." Said Penelope, "I was holding back, no doubt, but not enough to let someone with 300 kgs attached to him dodge me. This was my usual speed."
"Wait, really?" Said Daniel in astonishment.
"Yes." Said Penelope, "It seems that your Imperium sensed that you wouldn't be fighting against my Imperium, and hence, prioritised a countermeasure against physical power. And that happens to be-"
"A speed boost." Said Daniel, thinking back. So the first hit had been neutralised by the barrier. Had his Imperium only sensed that it was gonna need a speed boost against Penelope after that first hit? It was really confusing.
"There's no need to be confused." Said Penelope, "I will try to explain. Your Imperium is a passive one. You know that already, I hope?"
"Yeah." Said Daniel at once, remembering his file and what Bartemius had told him.
"It is only passive for the time being." Said Penelope, "You will be able to actively and consciously once you have trained enough. But for now, whenever your Imperium will sense someone else's Imperium around you that poses a threat to you, only then will your Imperium allow you a countermeasure. You may or may not be aware of that. Like when you stepped into the clouds made with my Imperium. They are freezing cold, and it seems like your Imperium sensed that they were made with my Imperium and also pose a serious threat to you. Hence, it came up with a countermeasure: a repulsive barrier.
"Now, as soon as you became aware of the fact that we were about to face off, your Imperium realised that the attention needed to be diverted to fighting me instead of my Imperium. Had I actually used my Imperium while fighting you, you would have retained the barrier. But since I never used my Imperium against you, your Imperium prioritised keeping up with my physical prowess to help you survive, and gave you a speed boost.
"In short, when faced with an adversary with multiple weapons in the arsenal, your Imperium will always counteract against the one most likely to damage you at that point. Look, now that we have stopped fighting, the barrier has come back. I suspect it came back the moment you hit the clouds."
"So, when fighting multiple opponents-" began Daniel, remembering something Bartemius had said.
"Your Imperium will give you a countermeasure against the one that is bound to cause you the most trouble." Said Penelope, nodding.

They had spent another 45 minutes sparring, until Daniel's body completely gave up and he fell down under the burden of his weights. The speed boost had helped him keep up with Penelope for ten seconds at a time, but almost everytime, he had made a hasty or awkward movement and ended up on the ground.
His Imperium had continually switched from speed boost to repulsive barrier and back, and he was sort of getting the hang of the switch. Or rather he was able to tell when the switch was gonna happen, which at first had seemed like an easy task, but wasn't actually easy since Penelope's attacks were becoming more and more unpredictable. She also told him that as soon as she would use her Imperium to directly attack him (the clouds were a passive threat and of no significance when they fought) his Imperium would permanently switch to a repulsive barrier even if she didn't use her Imperium to attack again. The first direct Imperium attack was the one that counted. After the first attack, his Imperium will give him a repulsive barrier for the remainder of the match as it would keep anticipating more water related attacks as long as he consciously fought the same opponent.
Now, if ever he became trained enough to consciously perceive and realise the Imperiums of multiple opponents, he would be able to switch from one Imperium to another on command instead of prioritising the Imperium which posed the most threat to him. Also, after training harder, he might one day be able to choose from a set of counter measures in any combat situation, whether the counter measure was suited or not. This wasn't advisable, but still, something of significance. It also came to light that he was only ever gonna be able to hold six fundamental countermeasures permanently. These were fundamental as they would be suitable in any combat situation against any Imperium one way or the other. Speed boost, foresight and repulsive barrier were three of these, which meant he needed to unlock 3 more, and that would only get him to level 1. No matter what, he wouldn't be able to use more than one countermeasure at once. But switching between them-once he mastered his Imperium-quickly enough wouldn't be difficult.
The two of them went back down to the wall and walked to the nearest staircase, with Daniel heavily supported by Penelope, when an alarm sounded some distance away.
"That would be a ghoul pack." Said Penelope, craning her neck and looking back, "It's been some time since their last attack. Maybe, I should send Arthur out to hunt afterwards."
"Arthur hunts ghouls?" Asked Daniel weakly.
"Yes. He is very good at it as well." Replied Penelope, throwing open the door to the staircase.
"I wish he had come to escort me." Said Daniel.
"Would have been much better than Kyle." Said Penelope with a slight smile.
The border area had gotten relatively quiet. There weren't any cars around and the checkpost lamps were dimmed down. They didn't linger there for too long. Penelope just got her car and drove Daniel back to Warrior's Academy, occassionally asking him about his mother. He told her everything. How his mother was the most wonderful person in the world. How she had sent a cake from him, delivered by Smith Baker. At this, she shook her head in disapproval.
"You should eat healthy, especially when you are training hard." She said with a hard expression.
"Yeah, well, I don't have many options." Replied Daniel, thinking about the mess food.
At this, she frowned.
"Not enough options?" She asked.
"The mess food isn't very nice." He explained, "It's mostly just bread and soup and sometimes, if you are lucky, you might get noodles or rice." Even thinking about it made him wanna puke. Not that he had any complaints or anything. He needed to adapt to this environment, so complaining much about it wasn't gonna make a difference. On top of that, he didn't want to come across as the same whiny guy who had arrived here. He had probably done enough whining for a year, he thought wryly. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but yearn for better food.
Penelope pulled up infront of the academy gate and Daniel got out.
"By the way," came Penelope's voice from the car as Daniel was getting in, "you have a socket in your room, right?"
"Yeah," replied Daniel. There were four if them in the room, and also one in the washroom.
"Ok then. See you tomorrow." She said, and without further explanation, she drove off. Leaving Daniel standing there, confused.

The next morning, Wednesday, was the weirdest of all. Arthur showed up later than usual in the morning, but the difference was that he was the size of a motorcycle. How he had gotten through the guard was a mystery. Maybe, he had just frightened him off. But that wasn't the weird part. The weird part was that there was a huge duffle bag on his back, and no note.
"What in the world?" Said Davy, staring wide eyed at the baggage. Daniel was impressed to see that he wasn't astonished by the fact that there was a motorcycle sized leopard at his door but at the fact that someone had sent them a package.
"It's from Penelope. Atleast I think it is." Said Daniel as the two of them got the rucksack. Arthur almost immediately turned into a kitten and ram off, leaving Daniel wondering when they were gonna train.
"Lets open this." Said Davy, unzipping the bag.
Inside, was a treasure.
Two crates of eggs and cups on top of cups of instant noodles.
"What?!" Exclaimed Davy holding one to his eye, "This-this is expensive stuff! Bartemius gives it to seniors before tournaments and this is what soldiers carry with them all the time!"
"Instant noodles are healthy here?" Said Daniel in wonder.
"Not only that, but they taste way better than what you get on earth!" He said, "And-and-" he paused, gasping dramatically, "Eggs!"
"Ah, yeah!" Said Daniel excitedly, pulling out the large crates gently, "They should last us a long time!"
"There's something else, too." Said Davy pulling out a plug and a cable. His eyes widened as he pulled out an electric kettle.
"This is great!" He said grinning, "But who sent this?"
"Penelope, who else?" Said Daniel, grinning from ear to ear himself, feeling a rush of affection towards his cousin, "Oh? There's also a note." He said pulling out the neatly folded piece of paper.

Share all this with your friend Davy. This should last you for two weeks.

"Miss Sherman is truly an angel. A descendant of the gods." Said Davy, clearly on cloud nine, "And there's the cutlery and utensils as well!" He said pulling out two plates along with spoons and forks, "All we need to figure out now is the dishwashing schedule."
"But, is this all even allowed?" Said Daniel, sceptical for the first time.
"It's not." Replied Davy, "Your point?"

After having eating their fill, Davy and Daniel went of their separate ways. Davy headed of to the private gym to train with Sandra, apologising over and over about not being able to take Daniel with him. But it was fine, really. He had to head off to his classes anyway.
The six main subjects he had to study were:
Planar Basics, which was all about Egresses, complicated equations related to Egresses, what they knew about the different planes and something called a Planar Constant and it's genesis. This was by far the least complicated subject because everything was pretty straightforward.
Mathematical fundamentals was the exact same thing as the math he had learnt in school, except for the add ons related to semi mortal sciences. So that wasn't much of a challenge either.
History was very complicated, especially because memorising dates wasn't Daniel's strongest element. He had hardly been able to keep up with what Liz had told him on the evening of his arrival. About Karstum and Smaragad. Another thing about history was the jingoistic demeanor of his professor, who couldn't go a line without throwing a taunt at Smaragad's regime or how they had been wronged.
Law was pretty ok. Meaning that it wasn't too complicated or too simple. And since they were only at the very beginning of the chapters, there wasn't a lot to comment about.
Reality was really interesting and really difficult at the same time, if that made any sense. The theory part was some of the most interesting stuff Daniel had read in a long time. His professor was really nice as well. But the problem was with the questions and the applications of formulae. But it was still manageable.
Biology was ok as well. There wasn't a whole lot to comment about. The body functions were pretty much the same, and they weren't gonna start diseases until the beginning of school year, so that was one thing taken care of.
After classes, Daniel headed back to his room for lunch; only to realise he didn't have a key to the room. This was not good. The afternoon heat was killing him along with his weights. He was sweating profusely and wanted a shower. He turned away from the door of his room and decided to head to the building of the gymnasium. Maybe he could get someone to get Davy downstairs. He was just heading down the stairs when he paused. He could hear a small scraping noise from somewhere to his right. He paused halfway down the flight of stairs to the fourth floor. What was this noise? Quietly as he could, he slowly climbed down the steps, one at a time, his back against the wall. He was aware of the fact that he was probably alone in the building. He peered into the corridor, around the wall. There was no one to the far end of the corridor. But the scraping noise was there. Slowly, he climbed down the rest of the steps and moved almost unconsciously in the direction of the scraping noise. He stopped by the corner at the far end of the corridor again. There were two others diverging from here. His back against the left side wall, he peered around the corner again. There was a small figure, clawing at the wall, peeling off the paint and making feline noises.
Arthur!
Daniel sighed with relief as he walked out from behind the wall and approached Arthur.
"Hey, Arthur." He said, kneeling down as the cat turned away from the wall and looked at him, "What, you see a rat or something?"
Arthur shook his head from side to side.
"Well, then, what did you see?" Daniel asked.
In response, Arthur began to claw at the wall again, leaving deep scratch marks.
"Hey, cut it out!" Said Daniel, pulling the cat away from the wall and holding on to him, "What's gotten into you?"
Arthur hissed irritably at him but didn't scratch him, much to his relief. Daniel set him down and squinted at the wall himself. It was just a white wall with paint peeling off. But could it be that...?
He rapped the wall with his knuckle, expecting it to open up. Nothing. Then why was Arthur clawing at the wall? What had it seen? He turned to look at the cat. As usual, there was a note on it's tail. He undid the knot and read the note.

Jog to the wall.

Of course. He had been stupid to expect something else. This time, the jog was way less taxing than the previous jogs. On his way, he actually saw multiple athletes, whiz past him at incredible speeds, there legs a blur. He almost couldn't follow their movements. They weren't as fast as cars, but still, plenty fast.
He himself tried to keep pace with Arthur, who still seemed annoyed at the fact that Daniel had interrupted him.
They got to the wall. Like yesterday, there was a checkpost a hundred meters before and heavy traffic. Hard faced guards glared at him as he passed by. On both sides of the wide road was unfenced orchard, though he noticed everyone was keeping a fair distance from the trees.
He reached Penelope, who was in the same spot as she had been yesterday night. Without much of an exchange, they went up to the top of the wall.
"You received my gift?" She suddenly asked rather stiffly, as they got to the top.
"Yes. I can't thank you enough for it. Davy is really grateful as well." Said Daniel happily.
"It was...nothing." She said in the same stiff manner. Then, abruptly, she asked, "Is it allowed to receive gifts like these from outsiders?"
"Yeah, I was concerned but Davy is convinced it will be all right." He replied, thinking about what Davy had told him.
"Maybe I should take it back and just invite you two to eat with me." She said, "I wouldn't want to get you in trouble."
"Oh, no! Its fine! Really. You aren't getting us in trouble, honestly." Said Daniel reassuringly.
"I see."
The two of them went over to the landing area of the cylindrical house like structures and went through the same training schedule as always. His speed hadn't improved. Neither had his fighting style. But Penelope seemed satisfied with it.
He didn't get to stick around for long after their hour long training session. She just asked him to go back and do some pushups and squats. He didn't get much of a chance to ask her about some of the stuff that was bothering him. Stuff mostly related to politics. But as soon as he had opened his mouth to ask her about it, he had been whisked away by a couple of soldiers and separated from Penelope who had something about "his duty time."
The rest of the day had passed without any new addition. He had done some studying, pushups and squats as he had been instructed, and just gone to sleep after dinner.
Thursday and Friday were the same. He woke up, went to training after Arthur's arrival. Got back, ate, went to his classes, ate, went to training again, got back, played some table tennis with Davy, ate and slept.

Today was Saturday. And his training was going with full steam ahead. 40 push-ups, 40 squats, and the speed training with Arthur past the wall. As unbelievable as it seemed, he had actually managed to run at his usual speed even with the weights. This was, according to Penelope, a huge progress.
"With this speed, there's no way you can lose in combat after you take of your weights." She said after Daniel got done with his pushups.
"I hope so." He said as the two of them walked back into the wall.
There was something that he hadn't noticed about himself. All this while, he had been so focused on his training with Penelope that he actually hadn't noticed the change that the training had wrought in him. The weights, though they still hurt bad, were more of an inconvenience now than a handicap. He had grown way stronger than when he had been on earth because of them. And Penelope. Of course, without her, nothing would have been possible. This whole time, she had been hard on him. She had slammed him into the ground over and over. She had him do push ups and squats while lugging those weights. She had forced him to jog to the wall multiple times. But she had also lifted him up when he had almost given up. She had shown him that his complaining wouldn't get him anywhere. She had made him believe that change was possible for even a case as hopeless as him
"Pen-Miss Sherman?" Daniel said uncertainly as they got to the other side of the wall so that Daniel could head back, "I... haven't properly thanked you for what you have done for me. You really helped me out when I was...well, a real whiny brat, just a week ago. And you really changed that. Maybe if you hadn't turned up, I would still have been wallowing in self pity. So yeah," he cleared his throat awkwardly, "thank you."
Penelope looked at him with a piercing gaze and Daniel backed away somewhat self consciously. Maybe, she thought he was buttering her up? Or had he overdone it? He had just wanted to sincerely express his gratitude. Maybe that wasn't appreciated by her?
She turned away and began walking away, back to the door. Daniel looked down at his feet. Maybe, this wasn't appreciated after all.
"I am not on duty now." She said suddenly, her back to him, as he looked up, "When I am not on duty, call me Penelope."
A huge grin crept up to Daniel's face.
"Of course." He said, "Thanks a lot, Penelope!"
She raised a hand in response and walked away, back to the door. Daniel too, turned away grinning, and began his jog, back to Warrior's Academy.