Jax always found himself getting lost in thought when he ran.
In some ways, that was why he did it.
Recently, Aiden had even started joining him on his morning runs. They sparred in the mornings too, and while Jax always won, Aiden was improving by the day.
Even now, as Jax saw the clearing of the rest stop ahead, he could see Aiden and Sir Braedon already awake. The two seemed to be working through some choreographed spear drill.
Jax glanced at them and wondered if this was how his brother had felt while training him.
His brother had been the best at everything.
Hunting.
Fighting.
Learning.
Teaching.
He was supposed to be the greatest prodigy of the clan, the one who would raise them to new heights.
And yet, he had always been willing to offer a paw to Jax.
The slow learner.
Sometimes, Jax felt like if his brother had not been so kind, he would still be alive.
Jax shook his head, forcing the dark thoughts away, and sped up.
As he ran, he saw the others hard at work.
Kaelen was jogging on a much more modest track, though he stopped once to throw up before continuing at a slow but steady pace.
Liora stood in the air, seemingly trying to meditate while floating. She looked deeply uncomfortable.
Selene had taken her morning potion and grabbed the remaining two prepared ones. She was practicing mutations on different parts of her body. Sometimes strange things happened, like her ears growing too large as she clutched them to block out noise, or her legs becoming covered in strange red tendons like extra muscles.
Still, she seemed to be slowly getting the hang of it.
Thalia was practicing with her strings, using them to lift a clump of firewood off the ground.
Everyone was working hard.
Everyone was practicing.
In a strange way, it felt like they had started a race as a group, with Jax and Selene beginning ahead of the others.
It had been easy to take the lead in the beginning.
But the more Jax looked back, the more he could see the others catching up despite their late start.
To be fair, he had not been working as hard as he could.
He got drunk.
He ate to his heart's content.
Sure, he trained in the morning, but for the rest of the day, he was lazy.
In some ways, it felt like luck that he was still ahead in the proverbial race.
Jax ran an extra lap and came to a stop, breathing heavily.
The others were already sitting around camp.
Breakfast was cooking in a pan. The smell of sausages was enticing.
And yet, that lingering feeling of slowness remained.
Kaelen waved him over.
"Jax, you ready for breakfast?"
A part of Jax jumped at the chance.
It argued that he had trained extra, so he had earned extra sausages.
But another part of him kept saying he needed more.
That something was wrong.
That he needed more strength.
"Almost done," Jax said, giving them a fake toothy grin. "Just need a moment to finish up, and I'll be right over."
Kaelen nodded.
Liora used her magic to sneakily grab one of the sausages, then bit into it.
She immediately cried out and started fanning her mouth as she realized how hot it was.
Jax made his way over to a nearby tree.
He took a centering breath, settled into his stance, and began striking the trunk.
As he did, he fought to keep his mind from wandering.
It wandered anyway.
His life.
His brother.
Hopestone.
The terrifying being in red who had appeared in the dungeon.
Jax struck again.
And again.
As if each strike of his paws could seal a memory away and clear his head.
Over and over.
Finally, he was out of breath and stepped back, panting.
The tree was covered in paw-shaped divots from his strikes.
Then the System appeared before him.
Your soul stirs.
From your restless soul, a skill develops further.
You have upgraded Martial Arts (E) to Martial Arts (D).
Jax looked down at his paws, wondering if he would see some large change.
Out of curiosity, he decided to test something.
When he reached level ten, he had taken a skill called Powerful Strike. Apparently, it enhanced his next attack.
Jax took a moment to concentrate.
He felt the skill activate.
A surging rush of force flowed into his paws, stronger than it had been when he used Iron Fist.
But he was not done.
Holding that force back, he steadied himself and activated Iron Fist.
The white energy around his paw took on a silver hue.
The force grew sharper.
He lunged forward and struck the thick trunk of the oak tree.
The wood buckled.
Jax felt the weight of the tree shift.
Then the towering oak cracked, popped, and fell to the ground in a cacophony of noise.
Jax stared at the tree for a moment.
Then he glanced down at his paw.
The System helpfully appeared again.
You have used skill: Powerful Strike (E)
Your next attack is enhanced.
You have used skill: Iron Fist (E)
You have dealt 52 damage.
You have dealt more damage than your total HP.
+1,000 XP
Jax looked down at his unharmed paw.
Then, to his surprise, he saw Aiden and the others running over to him.
All of them looked startled.
All of them had weapons in hand.
Even Sir Braedon ran with them.
"Where's the monster?" Liora asked, eyes scanning the clearing.
Jax looked around with them, confused for a moment.
Then it clicked.
"No monster," he said, grinning. "Training ranked up one of my skills, so I wanted to test it."
The others looked at him.
Then at the fallen tree.
They all seemed to pale slightly.
Except for Sir Braedon.
Jax could not read anything from him.
The man never removed his armor, even to sleep, and for some reason that unnerved Jax.
Like, dude.
At least take a shower or something.
After a moment, Kaelen grabbed the sides of his head.
"Fuck, the sausages!"
He sprinted back toward camp faster than he had run all morning.
It only took a few minutes for everyone to return.
When they got back, several people were leaving the camp after wandering over to investigate the group that had suddenly rushed off after a tree fell.
Everyone sat down.
The sausages were partially burned, but since everyone had been training, they were starving.
Jax devoured his food as if he had never eaten before.
However, as they ate, he could not help but feel Sir Braedon looking at him.
You're just jealous because Aiden is training with him instead of you, part of Jax thought.
But that was not it.
It was not the training that gave him the weird feeling.
Sir Braedon felt like he was missing something.
What, Jax had no idea.
But there was a wrongness there.
Part of him wanted to ask about it.
Instead, he held back.
They ate, packed up, and headed down the road.
Sir Braedon slept as they drove.
Even in sleep, he somehow seemed to be eyeing Jax.
Jax ignored it and watched the scenery as minutes stretched into hours.
Eventually, they came to a stop in a small clearing in the woods.
As everyone unpacked, Jax shuffled his way over to where Liora was washing clothes using water from the jugs they kept in the vehicle.
Heh.
Jugs.
Focus, damn you.
Jax shook his head.
"Hey, Liora," he asked, "need some help?"
He hoped she would understand what he meant.
Jax had made a very big point about hating anything related to cleaning, so when Liora looked up at him, she seemed ready to make a snarky comment.
Then she saw his eyes and nodded.
Jax started passing her terribly smelling clothes using his mouth.
"What's wrong?" Liora asked. "You're acting weird."
"I'm honestly not sure," Jax said. "Just feeling uneasy. Does Sir Braedon feel weird to you?"
"In what way?"
"I don't know. That's the problem. He just gives me a strange feeling."
Liora looked up with a smug expression, no longer as tense.
"Aww," she said in a mocking baby voice. "Is wittle Jax feeling wonwy without his sparring partner?"
Jax shook his head.
"What? No. Why would that be an issue? That's no issue."
It came out a bit too defensively.
Liora chuckled.
"Relax. He's a new person who looks like he might be taking your spot. If anything, I'd be surprised if you were okay with it. Plus I get the feeling, I was worried about Thalia at first too. We're dropping him off in three days, so just bear with it for now."
Jax wanted to argue.
Instead, he kept his mouth shut and silently nodded.
Then he turned and walked back into the woods to gather twigs for the night's fire.