Sakura eventually sighed. “I guess that was too much to expect from you on your first day of training. Let’s call it a day now. We’ll get back to work straight thing tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!?” balked Max. “But don’t you need to give time for your muscles to stretch and heal.”

“Don’t be a smarty-pants kinesiologist with me, mister,” said Sakura. “That may hold true for normal folks, but you’re not normal, Max. You’re an unranked student climber. You have a unique trait. You have mana coursing through your veins. For this reason, you’ll be able to train harder and faster than a normal human. Plus, pushing yourself at this stage is going to help raise your endurance stats. And, finally, last but not least, I’M YOUR TRAINER AND I’M TELLING YOU WE’RE WAKING UP TOMORROW MORNING TO TRAIN. THAT’S AN ORDER, GOT IT?”

Sakura was red in the face.

Max nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Alright, good,” said Sakura. “Let’s go pick up some groceries. You need to eat a good diet of meat and vegetables, while I need you to make me more bacon and egg ramen, so let’s get shoppin’ and cookin’!”

* * *

Max hadn’t had a chance during the training, nor while shopping or while doing chores around Sakura’s apartment, to check his profile and see how his stats had improved. Finally, once his insane trainer had gone to bed, he felt comfortable to take a look.

His stats must have jumped loads after today. He couldn’t wait to see how much he had developed.

He thought to himself, open profile.

The liquidy screen appeared in his retina with all of his information, stats, and skills.

Name: Max Rainhart

Rank: Unranked

Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.

Strength: 4

Agility: 4

Endurance: 5

Mana Affinity: 2

Passive Skills:

Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)

Max’s shoulders fell in defeat.

His stats were exactly the same. After all that work, nothing had happened?

He fell asleep, frustrated, and then woke up the next morning, even more frustrated, to the sounds of Sakura’s whistle.

So began day two of training.

That day as Max did his one hundred laps around the track, Sakura jogged alongside him.

She was wearing a cute red jogging outfit, which was saying a lot because in Max’s mind, she had become a sadistic bossy psychopath of a trainer.

“Please don’t tell me you’re running beside me to blow the whistle some more?” asked Max, as he ran at a breezy pace.

“I bet you’d just love that, wouldn’t you?” grinned Sakura, manically. “But that’s not why I’m running with you right now.”

Uh oh, thought Max. Why was she running with him then? Was it to make him go faster?