Chapter 59. Return to Chelmswell

“Ken. Please don’t fall for any girl I beg of you. You are going to train and get stronger. Please remember your goal!” Genesis whined while clinging on to Ken as he got ready to be teleported to his first approved exchange program one month into the semester. .

“Genesis, I doubt Lovetta’s dad accepted the exchange request for me to go and hook up with girls when his own daughter is one of my lovers.” Ken replied while trying to remove the girl so he could pack without success.

“I am sure my dad will make sure he talks to none of the girls in the tribe and train him from morning until dawn.” Lovetta added to assure the rest.

“I will have your things packed.” Emma offered.

“I will help too.” Indra added quietly.

“Thanks Emma, Indra!”

“I can’t believe you are going to be gone for an entire month. TWICE! We barely had a month together! And you will be gone doing your stupid exchange!” Alice complained, not happy that Ken got approved for two one month long exchanges during the semester.

“Alice, I need to reach holy level as soon as I can. I feel like since most people get stuck around master or divine, once I can reach holy level fast, Clare’s father will understand my talent and realize it’s better to have me around as an ally rather than trying to waste resources trying to get rid of me. Once I get that spot in the top 10, we can all get married, live in some fancy large mansion and be happily ever after.” Ken replied as he thought long and hard about how to get out of his current mess.

“Don’t worry Ken. I will protect you even if you don’t get stronger!” Seraphina said happily.

“Stop it Seraphina. He needs to be able to protect us or else he is just way over his head. He definitely needs to get stronger before thinking about marriage.” Cecilla interjected.

“I call dibs on wife number 1.” Clare decided to join the conversation as it derailed into girls arguing with each other who gets to be wife number 1.

“Well. It’s time for me to get going. Take care everyone. I will miss you all. I will definitely miss the love making.” Ken said with a grin as he grabbed the sack of clothes Emma packed and with his necklace activated with a red glow. The young man disappeared from the room and was once again, in the frozen tundra of the Chelmswell Forest.

“Holy hell I forgot how cold this place is!” Ken complained as he stood in the middle of the frozen forest shivering.

“Whining already? The coldest months are already behind us dude.” A voice said calmly with a sneer.

“ZEEV!” Ken shouted as he hugged the wolf beastman happily.

“Glad to see that you are at least happy with all the bigshots after your life.” Zeev replied with a smile and led the young man back to the tribe through the maze on top of the tree.

After reaching the village and happily greeting all the tribe members that he hasn’t seen in two years. Ken was once again face to face with Boris the chieftain of the werewolf tribe.

“Hello Mr. Wulric. Thank you for accepting my request and I hope to learn all I could from you in the next month.” Ken said politely to the ripped beastman.

“Well my boy. I can certainly say that you are no longer the same from two years ago but I am surprised you are unharmed after pulling the stunt you did.” Boris said while patting the young man on the shoulder with enough strength to break a regular person.

“According to Cecilla, I am lucky that I am a fixture at the tournaments and even the king can’t just have me disappeared without huge public backlash and her father wasn’t about to deal with that so I got to live a bit longer.” Ken replied with a slight chuckle.

“So why did you decide to come and train with me? Don’t tell me you are just here to see my cute grandson?” Boris asked.

“Funny joke Mr. Wulric. You know you are one of the strongest individuals in the world. Besides, I am here specifically because I want to train boost with you.” Ken replied as they greeted Lovetta’s mom, younger sister and Zeev’s wife and baby as the trio arrived back at their house.

“Why did you think I was the one to learn boost from?” Boris asked curiously as he proudly showed Ken his infant grandson.

“Well, Lovetta told me when she turned into a wolf, she felt similar to what I described as boost and told me you could freely transform into a wolf so I assumed you must have great control with boost.

Not sure if Lovetta told you but when I used double boost for a full powered attack, I shattered a bunch of my bones and it was not what I expected.

I wanted a clean dominating victory but ended up getting a lucky hit that won me the battle but I ended up in a way worse position than Luke and if it wasn’t a tournament battle, he could have easily killed me with my arm and leg shattered into pieces.” Ken replied as he sat down on the living room sofa feeling welcomed like a family even after two years and having only met the family once.

“Well boy, you can spend today catching up with the villagers and just relax while you can. We will begin your training tomorrow and I will make you get strong enough so my daughter doesn't end up a widow.” Boris proclaimed while telling Zeev to get ready for some grueling training as well.

“I can’t believe how strong you have gotten in the past 2 years. You talented people from the academy sure are different compared to us common folk.” Zeev complained as the once much superior fighter is now barely stronger than Ken.

“You need to give me more credit Zeev. Lovetta is also a supposedly talented that’s attending the academy according to your definition but you can see her growth first hand compared to mine.” Ken replied as the pair sparred day in and out for the entire month that Ken had stayed with the beastman family in the northern forest.

Just like Ken predicted, Boris was indeed a great mentor and just the person he needed to give him a fast tracked lesson on boost. Along with training and sparring daily with Zeev who’s divine level abilities provided Ken both a great challenge and opportunity for faster growth.

“Good job boys. As I have already explained. In order for your body to handle higher boost, first you would need the ability to handle the additional stress or else just like what happened during the tournament, your body will break from your own power even if you are mentally capable of achieving higher boost, your body won’t be able to keep up.

Most people would cap out at single boost but with your ability to already double boost, slowly stressing your body to its maximum is the only way for you to eventually work your body up to what your mind is already capable of doing.

Lucky for us werebeastman, our beast form is naturally strengthened physically so while you are able to come close to Zeev physically while both of you are in human form due to your better ability to boost, but once he turns into his wolf form, you are still not a real match for him.” Boris explained as the two young men continued their training and sparring.

“While I couldn’t teach you much since you are only staying for a single month, I can definitely say it takes top talent to be able to control how much you boost, especially in such a short time. As you slowly increase your boost and stress and train your body, you will have no issue fully achieving double boost eventually in actual combat.” Boris continued, impressed by Ken’s natural talent.

“Well, I know this kid who’s like 12 who could not only boost but control how much he was boosting so I had some extra motivation to learn it. Anyways, chieftain, how much can you boost?” Ken asked, wondering just how much stronger the tribal chieftain was compared to himself.

“In human form, I max out at about 2.2 times but I could push slightly higher and just suffer slight strain. In my wolf form, I can boost to 3.5 times. Still be functional if I push it to 4 times boost if it’s life or death.” Boris commented nonchalantly like it wasn’t a big deal.

“4 times boost on top of holy level enhancement? And I got Seraphina’s dad who’s also at holy level with space magic and 5 times natural strength due to his race naturally. I don’t see how anyone in the top 10 that’s not maybe Zishell or Julius could even stand up against either of you.” Ken replied while stunned at how much more powerful the chieftain is compared to him.

“Might or might not be true. I have never fought against any of the top tier to know where I stand amongst the best. I just know I am the strongest in this tribe and it’s my duty to protect my people.” Boris replied as he offered more tips to the pair of young men training to maybe one day get as strong as the chieftain.

“Are you really leaving tomorrow morning Ken? You should just move here with Lovetta.” Lovetta’s younger sister Tina asked as she sat next to Ken while he babysat and played with Keev while the rest of the family got busy preparing a goodbye feast for him.

“Once I reach holy level and graduate from the academy. I will get a nice gig somewhere and get super rich. You all can come visit whenever and I will bring all my girls to visit you guys too!” Ken replied happily as he tossed the laughing Keev into the air.

“You better not drop my son!” Zeev shouted after seeing Ken tossing and playing with his only kid.

“Come on Zeev. You know how strong I am. There is no way I could accidentally drop and harm your kid.” Ken replied casually as he tossed Keev into the air and used air magic to keep the laughing child floating and spinning.

“When are you going to have babies with Lovetta?” Tina asked innocently.

“Same deal! I need to get strong enough to reach holy level. Before then, I can’t think about anything else or I might just get murdered.” Ken replied with a grin as he sent Tina up into the air as well and floated the two laughing kids around and around.

After the feast was prepared, the family ate together happily while chatting and laughing and after spending a month with the Wulric, Ken had really grown to appreciate this family who did not judge him for his choices and treated him like family without having any reservation.

“At the speed you are improving, you should reach divine level before the end of the year and be on par with my son in your basic enhancement. But with your much superior elemental magic and boost, I feel like you are already on par with Zeev and by the mid year tournament, I believe you would beat my son unless he goes full out in wolf form.” Boris commented as the family ate the massive feast trying to offer Ken some last minute tips.

“Boost is very powerful as you have already experienced first hand so if your mind could go above double or triple then by all means work on having the ability to do so and slowly train your body up to handle the stress. Most likely, your body won’t ever reach what your mind could but as long as you keep training and pushing your body to the limit, you will be able to get stronger no matter what age. Even at my age, I am still able to push my body to be stronger!” Boris said with a laugh while patting Ken on the back wholeheartedly.

“Thank you Chieftain and Zeev for training with me this entire month. Thank you Mrs. Wulric and Ruth for always making me such delicious food!” Ken expressed his gratitude as the family finished up the feast.

“What about me!” Tina asked eagerly.

“Thank you Tina for being such a good and welcoming host! Don’t tell Lovetta this but your personality is way better and friendlier than your sister!” Ken said happily to the young girl.

“So Ken, what will you be doing after you return to the academy?” Lovetta’s mom Anita asked as the family started cleaning up the leftover food.

“I will be spending a month at the academy. probably working on my written classes so I don’t fall behind, implant the training I have learned here and once the month is up, I will be starting another exchange and after than, be back at the academy, get some rest and probably have to fight against a elf noble in the tournament and hopefully destroy him.” Ken replied, already planned out his entire semester to maximize how much stronger he could get.

“Remember to give your body time to rest boy. If you have the money, I would also suggest you pay that healer a visit once in a while. Especially if you try to push your body as hard as you have been. Having regular healing sessions will speed up your growth tremendously.” Boris offered, providing the grateful young man even more tips as the family gathered around the living room for one final time.

“Well Ken. It’s time for Keev to go to sleep so we will be calling it a night. We will come and see you off in the morning.” Zeev said as he picked up his son who was sitting contently in Ken’s lap and left with his wife to return to their house for the evening.

With Zeev gone and Tina dozing off. The family decided to turn in for the night as Ken returned to Lovetta’s simple but cozy bedroom where he has stayed for the past month.

“I guess it’s goodbye everyone. Thank you so much for taking care of me the past month!” Ken said gratefully as the family and most of the tribe gathered to see the young man off.

“Treat my sister good, Ken. I know the next time I see you, you might be stronger but I won’t forgive you if you ever let my sister down.” Zeev warned Ken as the beastman gave Ken a big friendly hug.

“Don’t worry son. Even with his insane growth rate, he is still far from able to match up against me. If he makes Lovetta sad, I will take care of him personally.” Boris said confidently while giving Ken heartily pats on the shoulder.

“Please chieftain, I have enough powerful people after my life already. I don’t need another one to worry about.” Ken replied with a grin.

“Don’t worry about my husband. We know you will take care of Lovetta.” Anita added with a smile while giving the young man a motherly hug.

After some final farewell, with his necklace glowing, Ken’s one month exchange came to an end and once again, the young man was teleported back to the academy where his girls waited impatiently for his return and their reunion after a month apart.