Raelis slowly stood up and dragged himself into the training room.
He spotted a red potion and walked up to it, uncorked it with his teeth, then swiftly drank it.
The pain quickly vanished, causing him to slump to the training room's hard floor.
That was definitely unexpected... Raelis heaved a relieved sigh. She could've easily sent another fireball like that and finished me off. But why did she stop?
Not that he minded surviving, of course.
Nonetheless, he looked around the training room.
Steel walls, a hard stone floor, and a few training dummies set up at the far end. Weights were stacked in one corner, and a rack on the side held basic wooden weapons of each type. In the center of the room was a square platform meant for sparring.
Right beside the door was an alchemy station set into the wall. It was just a small table with a few labeled potions, some bandages, and a basic burner.
It's just as I remember, Raelis thought with a small smile and stood up from the cold, hard floor before glancing at his hands.
They were still red, and there was a bit of discomfort, but it wasn't as bad as earlier.
Now that he was inside the training room, he closed the door and locked it.
It was also about time he took a gander at the countless pop-ups that had appeared while he was absorbing the fireball.
Lesser Heat Control (☆ — Mastery: 3% → 7%)
<+1 Bloodline Purity>
When he noticed the bottom-most part of the pop-up, a warm feeling coursed through Raelis's chest. It wasn't the fire or his bloodline. Instead, it was the prospect of actually being able to improve his bloodline purity in the first place.
But I can't take this little increase for granted... With each percent of bloodline purity, my resistance to fire increases. If I were to do what I just did, my bloodline purity would likely not increase again.
Raelis sighed and decided to open up his interface to check the attribute changes.
Name: Raelis Varekan
Age: 12
Race: Human
—Bloodline: Cinder Phoenix
Purity: 2% → 3% (Ash)
Next Rank: 10% (Ember)
—Attributes:
Vitality: 1 → 3
Perception: 6
Willpower: 7 → 8
Magic Control: 1
—Abilities:
Lesser Ember Manifestation (☆ — Mastery: 3%)
Lesser Heat Control (☆ — Mastery: 3% → 7%)
Only vitality and willpower increased, huh? Raelis thought, puzzled. I wonder what they do—
"Oh..." Raelis's eyes lit up. Can I check the rest like this...?
To his surprise, it worked instantly.
And lastly...
They were all pretty straightforward and simple to improve.
He had a week before he'd be thrown out and sent back to his mother. So in that time, he'd need to do a lot of training.
And there was one special reason why he chose a training room to do so.
Raelis took calm steps to a particular corner in the room, which seemed empty at first. Yet as he tapped the steel wall, eight levers emerged.
Each lever was numbered from 1 to 8. And the main idea behind these levers was that they controlled the heat in the room.
The royal family of Varekan are mostly mages, swordsmen, and blacksmiths. Above the training center is the smithy. Every time I pull a lever, the heat from their furnaces would travel into the training rooms, and refine the bodies of everyone inside, Raelis recalled, took a glance at the first lever, and without hesitation, pulled it
The temperature rose gradually, but it was still easy to breathe and aside from mild sweat, Raelis was fine.
Without wasting another second, he pulled the second lever, then the third.
And that was when he recoiled, nearly falling to the ground from the sudden increase in heat that hit him head-on.
The air turned heavy, his skin prickling as every bead of sweat instantly evaporated.
As for his clothes? If he stood still for too long, he'd end up stuck to the floor.
This is the same nightmare I tried to endure back then, alright... Raelis chuckled, taking a shallow breath and focusing.
He began focusing on the warm air and manipulating its heat with his Lesser Heat Control ability. Yet he didn't cancel out the effects of the heat. Instead, he enhanced it.
Immediately, his head felt like it was boiling as his vision distorted, and his lower body seemed as though it was tossed in the royal oven.
And yet, Raelis didn't care.
He had a chance to gain some strength and no longer be useless, so why would he waste it?
My siblings will start harassing me. And since I'll no longer be in the main palace manor, the limit to their abuse will be their own imagination.
Despite all of that, he wanted to get strong enough here, so when he finally came back to his actual home, he could protect his mother.
Raelis's gaze hardened.
I won't let you be poisoned ever again—
At least my efforts are working, Raelis thought with a determined look and with that, immersed himself in training.
***
Same time, outside of Raelis's training room.
***
"What am I doing..." Elandra muttered, pacing around frantically.
"Calm down. You're overreacting," Auren said with a sigh.
"Haaa?" Elandra turned to him with an angry expression. "Are you telling me what to do? Mister 'I'm so smart and I'm good at war tactics because I beat the emperor in chess once.'"
Auren's brows twitched in annoyance. "You told me to come here..."
"To get your advice!" Elandra shot back, pouting.
"You don't listen to my advice," Auren replied flatly.
Elandra took a deep breath and then stared him straight in the eyes.
"Fine. Tell me. Why did I run away?"
"...?" Auren tilted his head. "It's obviously because you didn't get the outcome you expected. You're always used to beating up everyone you fight without them even fighting back. Yet he did just tha—"
She threw a fist, which stopped right in front of Auren's face.
"You're wrong..." she mumbled, stepping back with a dazed look. "I didn't lose to him. And I'm not feeling guilty for what I did either. I just… don't get it. Why did I run?"
Auren rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, you definitely didn't listen to a word I said. I'm entering the third training room. You do whatever you want."
With those words, Auren left, leaving Elandra alone in front of Raelis's door.
She walked up and gave the door a soft kick. When no response came, she clenched her fists and walked toward training room one.
She paused, stared at the door a second longer, and whispered something she didn't even understand herself before stepping into training room one.
And with that, all three of them began training.
From behind the door of training room two, faint trails of steam began to seep out.
The air around the room crackled faintly, as if the heat inside had suddenly surged.