Aria flinched in surprise as Ian’s head thumped against the table. Briefly, she worried that he somehow died, but the thought quickly vanished when she noticed how deep his breaths were. The guy fell asleep in the middle of the lesson. To be honest, she didn’t know whether to feel upset by the fact that he passed out while she …

An exhausted groan slipped from Ian’s lips as he mouthed, “Nine hundred ninety-eight, nine hundred ninety-nine, one thousand.” With that, he collapsed into the dirt, wheezing. He barely avoided splashing his face in the vomit he had spewed halfway through his reps. Every muscle fiber in his body quivered and felt like jelly. Countless drops of sweat oozed from every …

“Alright, let’s begin!” Edmund exclaimed. Contrary to Ian’s expectations, the young man only led them to Gaelan’s backyard. It certainly gave them enough room for plenty of activity, but he originally hoped to go somewhere interesting like an official training ground or even the forest. First, though, he hesitantly asked, “Are we going to spar?” “No,” Edmund immediately answered. “We …

The sharp clanging of Ian’s new hammer echoed throughout the shop upon striking a small slab of piping hot metal clamped to the anvil. Beads of sweat dripped from his face and bared upper body with each swing. Starting from the break of dawn, Gaelan began teaching him a new technique called peining used to spread out metal with the …

Ian’s eyelids slowly flickered open. The first thing he noticed was the kink in his neck. On top of that, his brain throbbed as though repeatedly smacked by a rubber mallet. The soreness made him groan. Briefly, confusion swam through his mind as he tried to gather his bearings. The cool damp rag resting on his forehead certainly helped. “Oh, …

At the break of dawn, Ian and Gaelan headed back through the portal and arrived in the dank caverns within Mount Sacris. Of course, Ian made coffee before leaving to avoid the possibility of a caffeine headache. The two of them exited the cave and traversed down the mountainside. The rising sun cast warm beams of light across the sky, …

Noticing Ian’s odd behavior despite only knowing him for a few days, Gaelan raised a brow. He had the feeling that quite a lot had transpired between these two young people in the past; a feeling that turned out to be on the mark. “How have you been?” Lauren asked, smiling gently in spite of the awkward air between them. …

“What kind of reaction is that?” Alayna asked, clearly offended, or perhaps pretending to be. “Uh… nothing?” Ian hesitantly replied, averting his gaze. In response, Alayna glared at him. The short bickering between siblings caused Gaelan to chuckle. Then, Ian looked at Gaelan and, in an attempt to change the subject, said, “Yeah, so, let’s go get that stuff I …

“What is wrong with these people?” Ian muttered while using a towel to soak up the water that spewed from his mouth earlier. The previous News announcement left him fairly dumbfounded. Apparently, the radicals of the Nature Purist movement had gained enough influence to get national laws put in place for their beliefs. Something about it did not sit right …

The late summer sun kissed the horizon when Ian finally found the cave from which he originally arrived in this world. Finding it proved more difficult than he initially anticipated. His ears rang due to the number of lame jokes Gaelan cracked over the past few hours. “You know, you probably should have marked the entrance since there aren’t any …