He stumbled back a bit, the tip of the blade almost slicing through his throat.

‘What the hell, is she trying to kill me?’

Vaeri once again launched forwards, but three thin roots shot up towards her from the ground, halting her. She slashed through them, and they went back underground.

However, that was just a distraction. Now the boy had gotten close to her and let loose a powerful punch. At the same time, a larger Root Pierce with a rounded end shot at her right hand, trying to knock the sword out of her grip.

It slammed into Vaeri’s hand right before Ruith’s punch connected…and did nothing. Her grip didn’t even falter.

Before his punch connected, she lowered her stance at an inhuman speed, and it went right over her head.

A powerful slash went towards the side of Ruith’s torso. It was too fast for him to defend himself.

CRACK!

Several of his ribs let out a sickening crunch, and Ruith was sent crashing to the ground. It was as if a dull blade had hit him. He groaned on the ground, not daring to move and increase the pain.

“I swear I was…going to get sliced in half…”

Vaeri held back a laugh.

“Of course not. One of the effects of my ability is to control the sharpness of any blade I wield.”

“Well you could have at least held back a little…”

“I did. You’re still in one piece, aren’t you?”

Ruith glared at her. “Not what I meant,” he sat up as his mana started to slowly knit his broken bones back together. “So how did I do?”

“Well, your plan might have worked if it was someone closer to your level. However, I’m a brown core and the other effects of my ability increase my strength, speed, and durability.”

Ruith raised an eyebrow. Her ability sounded a little overpowered to him.

“Also, you’re still bad at using your ability. You didn’t make any of your attacks come from behind me, and rushed in too soon. I assume you still had enough mana to keep your distance for a bit longer.”

The young man nodded. He needed much more practice if he wanted to have a chance against even a weak Voidborne.

It took an entire half hour for Ruith to fully recover, and the two began to spar once more. Ruith had managed to convince her to hold back a little so they could train with less time in between fights.

Throughout the rest of the day, he didn’t win a single time. But he had greatly improved, now trying to keep his distance until he couldn’t, and using Root Pierce when he saw a gap in her defenses. 

It turned out he didn’t even need to control the sharpness of his attacks, Vaeri’s skin was strong enough to shrug them off. He did manage to land a few, but none of them would’ve been lethal even if her skin wasn’t so tough.

Five hours later, Ruith was utterly exhausted while Vaeri only had a light sweat on her face. His battle skill had improved by leaps and bounds thanks to the constant fighting and Vaeri offering tips after each spar, though his actual power had only increased by about 10%.

Ruith’s mana core started to feel a little weird, like it was getting closer to bursting. He asked Vaeri about it, and she actually had a slightly surprised expression on her face.

“That means that your core will soon evolve to the red rank. Your progress is extremely fast, it took me almost a month before my core ranked up.”

Ruith’s face lit up at this information. The red mana core was an important rank. All aspects of his body would improve several times over, and he would gain Mana Sight. This would allow him to see the mana of the world, helping to predict enemy attacks.

Plus, he was actually better than Vaeri at something.

Ruith smirked. “So I’ll be stronger than you pretty soon, huh?”

Vaeri scoffed. “Don’t get too confident. By the time you reach the brown rank I’ll be miles ahead!”

The boy rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, I’m starving. Let’s go inside.” Ruith stood, walking back to the house while Vaeri followed.

In the kitchen, he realized he had no idea how to make any kind of food. Looking to the short girl for help, she sighed and walked over to the pantry.

“Come here, I’ll show you how to make something simple.”

Ruith smiled and listened to her instructions. They ended up making a stew of meat and various vegetables. The delicious aroma wafted to his nose, making his mouth water.

Now late in the day, they sat down to eat while chatting a bit.

“Oh, by the way, since father isn’t here some Voidborne might wander this way. Don’t worry though, they’re usually weak and you need some real combat experience anyway.”

“Usually weak?”

“Well sometimes there are some stronger ones. Nothing we can’t handle though.”

Ruith resumed eating.

‘Finally I’ll be able to actually fight some Voideborne. After my breakthrough today I should do well against them.’ 

Though dangerous, it was strangely exciting.

A little while later while they washed the dishes, something finally happened.

High pitched inhuman screeches began resounding through the forest, drawing closer to the house.