Grace sighed as she snuggled deeper into her soft bed. Her sleep was disturbed by someone throwing the door to her bedroom open. Jolting awake, she tugged the sheets closer to her body as she struggled to shake off her sleepiness. Standing at the door was Luke.
"Wh-what are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm here to make sure you get up on time. Hurry and get dressed. We should have time to have a light breakfast before heading to the training grounds," he said.
Confused, she stared at her curtain covered window. "Is it time? It looks dark."
"Of course it's still dark. It isn't dawn yet. Since it took us three hours to get there, I figured we might need a few extra hours because of how dark it is," he said before leaving her to get dressed.
He leaned against the wall next to the door as he listened in. If she fell asleep again, he would have to go back in and wake her up. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to, and he waited patiently for her to show up.
[Warning][Comply with the designated mentor's instruction.][Failure to do so will result in a punishment.]"What is this?" demanded Theodore.He wasn't the only one to see the message. Everyone had a similar window pop up in front of them, warning them not to go against Sir Gilbert. Unfortunately, Theodore didn't seem to understand how serious it was."I was wondering if this thing was ever going to pop up again. What is it going to do to me? Tell me to behave," he said.Theodore wasn't wrong to think the system wouldn't do anything to them. Everyone so far had only seen their status screen and nothing else. They hadn't even seen the message regarding the 'Tutorial' quest. That privilege was reserved for Sir Gilbert since he was their mentor who had assigned the quest. Only he knew the full details of the quest. Even Lu
Sir Gilbert shook his head. This was worse than he thought. He knew that not all of them would be able to complete the training workout he had devised for them, but not a single one had even gotten close to finishing any part of it. How was he supposed to get them into shape and send them off to the battlefield in a month? [Quest] [The Tutorial] [The heroes have been summoned to defeat the demon kings.] [You have been designated as the heroes' mentor, and you will train them to fight the demons.] [The exact training method will be left up to you, and the quest will only end when you have determined they are ready to go to the field.] [You will be rewarded based on the length of the tutorial and their progress.] Even though the quest didn't state a time limit, the
Grace scooted closer to him and whispered, "Do you know them?"Luke didn't take his eyes off of the duo as they started relegating stories about their home lives after talking about their experiences in this world so far. They were part of the rare few who already knew each other before they were summoned. Both of them had been best friends since childhood and did everything together.People had even mistakenly thought they were siblings or related in some way because of how close they were and their physical appearance. While Bobby had dark red hair and light green eyes, Chris had red hair and light brown eyes.They had even pretended to be each other several times by simply wearing contacts. No hair dyes had been used, and they somehow managed to get away with it each time. So, in a weird twist of fate, of course they were summoned together even if their numbers on the list didn't reflect that.Seeing how carefree they were reminded him of the last time
"Seriously, they do realize we are humans, right?" Without giving them a chance to answer, Bobby continued, "It's crazy how that old geezer expects us to complete his training. Not all of us are in shape to do most of the exercises, and even if someone could somehow do it, there's no way they could possibly be human." Chris crossed his arms and nodded. "I heard that we have some people in their late 30s. I even heard that one of the guys here is 42." That definitely caught both of them off guard. Luke knew that there were plenty of people on the older side. Joshua was one of them at age 37. He just couldn't see the reasoning behind summoning people that old. He had heard from someone that the physical peak age was in the late 20s to early 30s. That meant they should have aimed for that age range instead. There was even a child in their group. He wasn't sure how old they were, but he knew they didn't last long in the fight. Their death had been pretty gruesome
The second day of training wasn't any better, and he wasn't surprised in the slightest. One day wasn't enough to convince Sir Gilbert to change his strategy, which meant they had to suffer through another day of intense training. They had lost more people compared to the previous day. They probably couldn't get out of bed because their bodies had been so sore. Grace certainly had been one of the victims, and he had to drag her to the training ground, which meant they had unfortunately arrived late. Despite this, they had still managed to be one of the first people there. Sir Gilbert shook his head in disappointment at their efforts. He had expected them to work harder, not give up so easily. The threat of the punishment apparently hadn't been enough to convince some of them to show up on time or at all. There was definitely no way he could have them ready by the end of the year, much less by the end of the month. He would have to deliver the bad news to a princess an
"This is so embarrassing. I can't believe I passed out like that," Grace said as she covered her face. Fortunately, she had woken up a few hours later. Luke had only found out because he had asked the servants to let him know as soon as possible while he did some extra training, much to Sir Gilbert's delight. The man had been so happy to hear someone was taking the training seriously, though he had no idea that his extra training was just a ploy so he could go around unbothered. Everyone just assumed he was a workaholic. Chris and Bobby helped cement that attitude by exaggerating how he had been unbothered by today's earlier training. He hadn't been the only one worried about Grace. The natives had been just as concerned about her condition, though for a different reason than his. It would be bad if they lost a hero before they had even had a chance to send us off to fight the demons. Chris and Bobby had promised to visit and check up on her. Currently, it wa
The moment Sir Gilbert announced that there were going to be changes in the training regimen, people cheered. Luke swore he heard someone sobbing in relief, not that he could blame them. Out of the 31 'heroes', only eight people had shown up. The top five, himself, and two others were the only ones who bothered to arrive on time. After checking up on Grace yesterday, he had later found out that a healer had come to see her condition and declared that under no circumstances was she to go to training today. She was pretty happy about it, but he had been concerned once he heard about it. Why wouldn't he when he had planned for her to be an important member of his party. That couldn't happen if she ended up crippling herself right off the bat. 'Kayla' had pointed out that whatever extra training she had done to boost her Mana stat might have pushed her body too far. While it was true that training the body didn't increase the Mana stat, how physically fit someone was det
While the change in the training program was welcomed, it also had its cons. Under the current training regimen, it was guaranteed that they would always finish before or around lunch time. Then they would have the rest of the day to themselves. He had been using that opportunity to spend time with Grace and to integrate himself with the natives. With the new changes, he couldn't be sure if he would have time to act on his other plan. He would have to see it if he had gained enough trust to access the library and bring Grace along with him. They did their best to keep anything they didn't want them to know out of the library, but they couldn't get had to be some things they had missed hidden in there. Today might be his only chance to go inside. He wasn't sure when he would get the opportunity again. Knocking on the door to Grace's room, he waited to hear her consent before going in. She was sitting in her bed with nothing near her. Her hair was slightly tousled up,