On the next day, Dreu approached the being and asked what he must accomplish to leave.

  “You will be free once you have mastered all the lessons I planned for you,” said the being. “You have been a surprisingly quick learner so it shouldn’t be long.”

  Following that, Dreu was handed another book which informed him on how he would acquire charcoal for his forge. Taking the book and a handax, he headed to the clearing where a new path opened up. The path took him to the top of a hill where trees were aplenty.

  First, I must cut down a tree.

  The young man stared between his handax and the tree. Having never been a lumberjack in his life, Dreu was relieved to find instructions in the book on how to cut down a tree. These trees were small enough that he could hug them and have his hands touching his elbows. The process of cutting them down was still slow but, with enough time and effort, the first tree fell.

  Next, I need to cut the tree up into firewood.

  By the time the young man was done with the second step, it was already getting late. With all his muscle aching from the work, he called it a day so he could start early the following day. On the next day, he piled up the firewood into a cone shape. Before he could light up the pile, he had to go to the lake to acquire moist dirt which he covered the pile except for the chimney in the middle of the pile and a small ditch that allowed him to light the pile from within. As soon as the preparations were done, he lit the pile and, after making sure the fire wouldn’t spread to the nearby forest, left the pile to burn overnight. On the following morning, he was relieved during his walk up the hill to not see a fire burning the whole area down. He had brought more equipment for the next stage.

  Time to see how this went.

  Upon arriving, the young man used the handax handle to break through the dirt. Once he confirmed the charcoal was finished, he carefully broke up the pile, making sure he didn’t choke himself with the smoke. By the end of the day, he had several buckets of charcoal that he dug up with his shovel.

  This should last me for a day or two. Seems like I will have to do this regularly if I want to have a steady supply of charcoal.

  From all of this, the young man learned that he needed a schedule if he hoped to keep moving forward with his training. Two days later, he had become a lot faster at preparing the firewood piles so he only needed half a day to finish the preparations and returned the following day to retrieve the charcoal. In the meantime, he was given more creatures to slay and gather materials from. Two weeks later, he found himself with an abundance of raw materials and the being stated that he was ready for the next step.

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  “Start with making the tools needed for jade crafting,” said the being. “Then, you can finish the shield.”

  Dreu spent one day making the tools and a week to finish the shield. With his new shield completed, the young man couldn’t help but admire it. The bulk of the shield was made from the bull’s armor with only the center portion being jade. This made it so that the center was the sturdiest against attacks so, if his life depended on it, he should master positioning his shield during the heat of combat. Since the jade piece wasn’t enormous, it didn’t add too much weight, making the shield still fairly wieldable, unlike the chunk of jade he had to carry from the clearing.

  “Continue making these shields until you run out of materials,” announced the being.

  For the next month, Dreu worked at finishing the shields and only took three breaks each day. Following the completion of the first, he found the motivation to dedicate all his time and energy into the task, not that he had much of anything else to preoccupy his time. By the time he finished his seventh shield, he only needed four days to complete one, giving him a sense of accomplishment. What felt incredible was that he trusted the shields he made. He knew they were reliable because they were made by his hands. As if sensing his thought of wanting to put it to the test, Dreu found himself back in the combat room with his latest shield in hand.

  I won’t wait this time for them to appear.

  Dreu quickly ran to the nearest corner and drew his sword. As soon as he was in his combat stance, two portals appeared with four velos coming out of each one.

  Eight velos? Let’s see if I can handle them all.

  With his back against the corner, the young man waited for the velos to approach him. His shield was hugging against him while he gripped his sword tightly. As soon as one velo got too close, he stabbed the creature, killing it in one blow. The other velos then charged in a group at the young man. Dreu turned so the velos could only attack the shield. When there was an opening, he turned quickly to stab before returning to his defensive stance, not giving the velo the opening they wanted. After several repetitions, Dreu killed the last foe and could let out the breath he was holding. He checked his shield but there was no sign of damage as though no combat took place.

  “Go back and rest! A big day awaits you tomorrow!”

  Dreu asked repeatedly to get clarification but the being no longer answered him. Now that he returned to his base, his body felt heavy so he headed to bed. He still couldn't that he defeated eight velos, especially when one of those creatures gave him and his companions so much trouble before.

  What is this big day he spoke of? Is there something else planned for me?

  The young man tried to think of the possibilities but sleep quickly overtook him.