Mia’s eyes opened wide open as she started to furiously work her jaws only to swallow a moment later.

“It’s crispy yet tender, sweet yet salty…” she muttered, raising her hand to her lips as if she couldn’t believe in what she just ate. “What is this godly food?!” she asked out loud, turning her huge eyes right towards me.

“A fry,” I replied in the simplest way possible. “The red sauce is called ketchup,” I added, not willing to just ignore the most important ingredient of the dish.

“It’s awesome!” Mia said, eager to confirm the quality of the dish. “But… Why… No, how did you know about it? This recipe is worth a lot, but just how did you obtain it?”

“Would you believe if I were to say a strange sage passed it to me?” I asked with a small smirk forming on my lips.

“Not at all,” Mia replied, squinting her eyes a little.

“Smart girl.” I couldn’t resist patting her head. Once again, her face melted down a little as she closed her eyes. Her expression changed to that of happiness, making it look like she would start humming with joy at any moment.

“Anyway, that’s one part of the plan,” I announced, retracting my hand. “Now that we have food, it’s time to start working our asses off!”

Mia’s face instantly turned serious. She stood up from her knees and bowed deeply before saying, “Yes, master!”

“For starters, the most important thing for us is to keep training. The moment we stop, the barrier that keeps this place secure will stop working,” I said. Given the recent raid at this place, this fact was already proven.

There was only a few minutes gap during which the stone could be left alone. A gap that right now was running short.

“For now, I want you to get back to training. I will prepare two full sets of the fries before swapping. But that’s just for now,’ I said, already forming a plan in my head.

“Master?” Mia asked, proving that while she didn’t talk much, she used all the time we spent together to observe me. Right now, she could somehow tell that I wasn’t done with explanations.

“I think we should use a four-hour system. For four hours, you will train while I rest. Once the time is up, we will swap. Whenever we cannot keep on training any longer, we will either move to the dormitory or use the free time to get supplies,” I announced, explaining my slightly broken idea.

With this system, we could only get four hours of sleep at most. Assuming that this part of human biology didn’t change in this new world, one needed eight hours of sleep a day to let their bodies properly regenerate.

As such, this tactic could only work for so long. There was a hard limit on how long we could keep it up, a limit that we could reset by simply getting a full night of sleep back at the dormitory.

‘But that’s exactly where Mia is vulnerable,’ I thought, tightening my fists as I watched the next batch of the fries slowly turn golden in color. ‘With his first attack failed, that bastard is sure to push for more direct actions,’ I thought.

Even if I didn’t know the man who wanted to take Mia for himself personally, I could see through his character as if he was some third-rate villain in a low-grade novel. His aim was simple, and it was to get Mia. I was the only one who stood in his path to do so.

As such, it was easy to figure out that he would focus his attacks on removing me rather than allow any other offense that could potentially spoil the girl that he wanted so much!

All those thoughts dissapeared when the fries finally reached the color annoucing the maturity of the dish. Not wasting any time, I scooped the golden pieces out of the boiling oil, slapped some of the tomato juice on them before taking my time to enjoy my first fast-food kind of meal in this strange, new world.

“Okay, you are up!” I said as soon as only a single fry left.

“Master?” Mia asked, turning her head over from where she stood. Right now, her robes practically lost all their meaning with how drenched in sweat she was.

“I left one fry for you to judge when the next batch will be ready,” I said, pointing my hand at the nearly empty wooden plate. “Once you eat your fill, it will be your time to rest,” I said, standing up from beside the cauldron and approaching the stone.

“Master…” Mia started, suddenly turning shy for some reason. She hung her head low and started playing with her hands, clearly having troubles with voicing out what was going on through her pretty head. “Thank you,” she whispered after a long time of hesitation before jogging away towards the pot.

‘That was nice,’ I thought, deciding not to let this moment to weight on my thoughts.

The reason behind this decision was simple and stood erect for twice my height in the very middle of the garden.

If I wanted to properly raise my status, I had to focus my all on training rather than on how cute Mia acted!

And with this thought in my mind, I struck the stone for the first time in a while.

Tic.

BODY STATUS WINDOW

***

– Name: Arthur (Fian) Pendragon

– Age: 17

– Status: Hands wounded (treated)

– Hidden Status: Confused

– Body Status: Mortal

– Hidden Body Status: Apostle

***

PROGRESS STATUS WINDOW

***

– Body status: Mortal

– Growth status: Body Purification

– Body status modifier:

– Endurance:55/100

– Willpower:21/100

Body Purification:181/300

{

– Skin Purification:48/100

– Flesh purification:47/100

– Bone purification:43/100

– Innards purification:32/100

– Core purification:12/100

}

***

Objective status window:

***

–

***