Waking up early like usual, Mitsuna sat up and turned towards Natash.
Seeing her sleep exactly like a cat on a soft bed, Mitsuna pushed her onto the ground.
"Nyah!?"
"Heh. So you can make those kinds of sounds too huh."
"Why did you do that?!"
"We need to go and get breakfast ready for teacher. You were asleep all peacefully so the only thing I could think of was pushing you. Hard."
"Your mind works in a weird way, yes."
"So does your mouth. Let's go."
Standing up and putting on her clothes, Mitsuna wore simple black sports underwear and a tank top along with short jeans.
Turning around to see Natash also putting on her clothes, Mitsuna noticed her size.
"Hey, Natash. How old are you?"
"About five."
'Only 5 and has the rack of a wealthy 16-year-old.'
"You seem older."
"After every Tier up your body gets modified so it's hard to tell, yes."
"Huh."
"How old are you Mitsuna?"
"One and a half."
"Eh."
"I have good jeans."
"Yes your pants look nice but that wasn't why I was surprised."
"No, not my jeans, I meant my genes."
"Oh."
"Let's go already, at this rate we'll be late."
"Okay."
Heading out to the forest, Natash followed Mitsuna as she saw her jump from branch to branch.
'She is really fast, yes.'
Jumping into the depths of the forest, they soon found a rabbit at level 29.
Mitsuna came closer to Natash and whispered.
"Be careful with these, they are surprisingly fast and have a good sense for danger."
"Okay."
"So how do you fight?"
"I use illusions."
"How good are they?"
"Pretty good."
"Great, I'll place mana strings around the rabbit and place spikes on them. You just make it run into them."
"Where are you gonna place them?"
"Everywhere, you just make the rabbit flee somewhere around there and I'll catch him."
"Got it."
Natash saw how strings of mana came out from Mitsuna's fingers and spread out within the area.
'Wow.'
"I'm ready."
"O- okay."
"Just spook him."
"Right."
Mitsuna saw Natash start focusing and placed her attention back on the rabbit.
'Since I used [Conceal] that rabbit shouldn't notice the strings.'
Suddenly she saw a large greatsword fly at the rabbit and smash into the ground in front of it.
Soon after a huge muscle-flexing man sprinted past their location and made his way to the animal.
The rabbit was spooked and ran towards the bushes.
'What the f*ck?!'
Not thinking much more, Mitsuna activated her trap by pulling her hands up and strings filled with small ice needles tensed up and trapped the rabbit.
Blood started slowly draining as the animal was struggling to free itself.
Looking back at the large man, Mitsuna could see him and his sword along with the damage caused to the landscape turn to smoke as not even a sign was left behind.
Hearing a sigh next to her, Mitsuna turned towards Natash.
'That's what you call pretty good? I could feel the ground shake and see dust being thrown into the air by that sword.'
"That took a lot out of me, I usually make simpler illusions, yes."
"So the more complicated the more mana it takes?"
"Yes, and mental power too. If I use it too much I get a headache."
"Well finish the rabbit off and let's go back to training."
"Okay, yes."
Watching Natash jump off from the branch and use the strings to strangle the rabbit, Mitsuna felt a little off.
'That's the same girl that almost wet herself at the sight of a boar. Do people in this world really change that fast? Or is it because this enemy is lower level compared to her which gives her a sense of superiority?'
"I killed it. Let's get back and make a few sandwiches, yes!"
'Eh. Whatever. I'm not some psychiatrist.'
Dragging the rabbit back home, Mitsuna and Natash had a little trouble skinning the animal but succeeded in the end.
Roasting the meat, Mitsuna found some new ingredients had been bought as she seasoned the meat and placed it between two pieces of bread with lettuce, tomato and a little pickled onion.
Offering a sandwich to Natash, they ate as Empathy slowly started waking due to the smell.
"What time is it?"
"It'll be noon in a few hours." Mitsuna answered her and Natash's teacher.
"Next time finish at sunrise. You take too long."
"Okay."
"Have you already eaten?" Empathy asked as she sat down and started eating her sandwich.
"We have."
"Go start swinging the sword then."
"Okay."
Walking outside, Mitsuna handed Natash a wooden sword that her teacher had prepared and started swinging.
"Um. How do I do this, yes?"
"Just swing. If you do anything wrong teacher will point it out."
"Okay."
After finishing their set of 2,000 swings, they sat down out of breath.
Natash's wrists were almost broken as Mitsuna had received fewer hits than last time.
"You two are growing pretty fast."
"Thank you, teacher, yes."
"Thank you, teacher."
"Now start planking. If you are tired just because of this then you are nowhere near ready to be learning Techniques."
Both students laid down with a sigh while still taking deep breaths.
"I took some training equipment out from storage so you can use them from now on."
Placing one metal plate each on her students' backs, Empathy saw Mitsuna's head slam into the ground.
Natash was a little batter as she could handle it for a moment but soon met the same fate.
"Too heavy? I mean it's only 100 or so times heavier than normal. Get back up and do it again. You can go to bed after you survive for 1 minute."
Picking the metal plates up, Empathy waited for her students to recover a little.
After about 5 minutes, she made them do it again.
She noticed that Natash bore much better than last time.
She also noticed that Mitsuna was starting to get the hang of using her stats to the fullest.
They both lasted over 40 seconds, Natash did better than Mitsuna and made it all the way to the 56-second mark while Mitsuna found her head in the ground again at the 44-second mark.
After about 6 minutes of rest, they both managed to endure.
Mitsuna made it to the 59-second mark but Empathy let her off, Natash however endured the 1 minute a lot better than the last two times only showing a little sweat running down her face.
'Really good potential, both of them. Although Natash seems to adapt faster, Mitsuna is getting better control over her body which makes her potential slightly better because of her mixed bloodline.' Empathy thought with a smile.
"Alright. Get to bed. It will be the exact same tomorrow and the day after all the way until you both have enough stamina."
Hearing groans of pain and relief, Empathy went back to bed before her students.
'This hurts.' Natash thought.
'Getting better.' Mitsuna thought.
In bed, they both realized that they had gained a stamina based skill.
Mitsuna's skill was [Greater Stamina].
[Greater Stamina - Pushing your body's stamina to the limit, you learn how to conserve it and regain it at a faster rate.
(Passive)
(Stamina is Reduced at a Much Slower Pace)
(+10% Stamina Recovery Speed)
(-2% Damage Taken from Physical Attacks)]