Chapter 7: New day, new beginning.
An unknown amount of time later, Mikael woke up and was startled by the unfamiliar surroundings. ‘Oh it’s real for a second, I thought that the Records and all that was just a dream.’
Mikael spent the next hour doing this usual morning routine, of course, it wasn’t exactly the same but it wasn’t far.
Mikael put on his clothes and attached his new handgun to his waist. He also fastened his scabbard, with his steel shortsword in it, to the left side of his waist so that he could easily draw his sword. He didn’t forget to attach two magazines to his waist and put on his backpack, which had sandwiches and water.
‘With all that, I’m ready to do some training and explore a new world.’
“System, Earth time please.”
[Earth Time(USA): June 17, 2025, 04:28:22]
‘4 AM, a little early to start the day but I don’t think it really matters here. There doesn't seem to be a day-night cycle in the Records.’
‘I’ll get some training done before hopping into a world. This time I should stay a little longer in a world because 2 worlds a day isn’t a reasonable pace. In 5 hours, I don’t have time to learn anything in the world I just have time to do some easily done quest.’
Mikael scanned his surroundings before saying “Records, how do I get out of my apartment there doesn’t seem to be a door?”
[Go near a wall while thinking you want to get out.]
“Ok, Thanks.”
Mikael goes close to a wall while thinking ‘I want to get out.’ Suddenly, he saw a purple door appear. The door was giving a weird feeling like it was there and at the same time wasn’t. He opened the door and was instantly teleported.
Mikael instantly appeared in the Hub.’ So the door is a teleportation zone like the stairs that I climb each time and that will teleport me while I am going up.’
‘I have an idea that could be really good but I don’t know if I have enough LP.’
“Records, I would like a training session that will allow me to learn a skill that will passively work like a 6th sense or a danger sense. My budget is of 200 LP.”
[For 200 LP you can have a training session and after approximately 12 hours you will learn the desired skill.]
‘Oh nice I can learn it in 12 hours, it’s a really important skill so even if it would have taken multiple days I would still take the time to learn it.’
‘This skill is essential because it will allow me to stay alive better than gaining stats will help me.’
The next moment he started going up the stairs before saying “training room” and being teleported.
When he arrived he heard Kiara say “Mikael, you finally came back. It’s been a long time without you.”
He looked around and saw Kiara in the same clothes as yesterday, just as beautiful as before. She had a big smile and was looking happy to see him.
"Yeah, it’s nice to see you, but I have a quick question. Is it okay if I take a little of your time?"
“Of course ask” Kiara answered cheerfully.
“It’s not a big thing I just want to know how much time has passed since we last trained together?”
“Easy it has been 15 hours, 33 minutes, and 15 seconds” she answered proudly.
This seemingly simple question was a little test for Kiara.’I had some suspicion that she’s a yandere, and her answer and her answer just raised it to moderate suspicion.’
‘She has done a couple of weird actions that individually mean nothing but when put together they give me some suspicion that she is maybe a yandere. First of all, she seemingly started to ‘like me’ for nothing. Second, she wanted to hug me and when I accepted she sniffed me, and the last one was the little test I’d just done.
‘Maybe she is just doing her job as an AI by giving me the time or maybe she was counting the time before I come back. Alone it means nothing but when the three are put together there is, I say a 50/50 chance that she is a yandere.’
‘I need to keep it in mind but for now, let’s train.’
“Ok, thanks Kiara, are you ready to start my training?”
“Of course, but we will need to go outside at the obstacle course for this training.”
As soon as Kiara finished speaking they walked outside into the forest where the obstacle course is.
“Last time you used the wooden poles to train your footwork, but this time the training goal is that you develop your 6th sense.”
She handed him a blindfold before saying, “Put it on.”
“Give me a second, I’m putting my things on the ground” he spoke before placing all his things on the ground and only keeping his shirt and pants.
He then put on the blindfold and asked, “Okay, so what now?”
“Now you must do the obstacle course in the forest with the blindfold on. There will be traps but don’t worry they’re fake. Your objective will be to try to evade the trap using only your hearing and when you start to become good you will put an ear plug so that you can train your 6th sense only.”
“Ok I’ll start now.”
He started doing the obstacle course while carefully listening to his surroundings.
Swish
When he heard a sound to his right, he immediately looked in this direction while putting his arm to his right to block the object.
He felt a light impact on his arm but he continued jogging while thinking, ‘Probably supposed to be a wooden log trap and if it was really this one it would have been better to just evade it.’
Soon, he felt the ground under his feet collapse, he tried to jump but without a ground to jump on it was useless. He fell like 2 feet before feeling pressure under his feet.
‘This one is probably the spike in a hole trap, if it was real it could have been deadly because I don’t think that my endurance stats are high enough to protect me from a metal spike.’
‘For now, it isn’t important let’s continue the training.’
In the next 3 hours, he progressively becomes better. He was touched less time and blocked the traps more often.
At the 4-hour mark, Kiara said to put on the ear plug and he listened. From that moment the training became a lot harder. Mikael had the impression that all his progress was lost he was even worse than when he started.
When 6 hours had passed he decided to take a break and go eat while talking with Kiara.
Mikael walked back to where Kiara was and saw her sitting on the ground while looking at seemingly nothing.
“Eh Kiara, you’re looking at what exactly?”
Kiara was visibly surprised but still answered “Oh that, I was just looking at your training footage.”
Mikael took out a water bottle and some sandwiches and offered one to Kiara, saying, “Want one?”
"Yes, please! I would like to know what food tastes like," she answered excitedly.
Mikael was already eating his sandwich when Kiara took the sandwich and finished it even before him.
“Hmmm, really good. I like it !”
Mikael was slightly surprised by her over-the-top reaction and said, “They’re pretty average, though.”
Kiara had stars in her eyes after hearing this.“For real? That means I can eat even more delicious food.”
“You can give me other food pleasee?” She asked while making puppy eyes.
“Not this time, but the next time I come to the training room I can do you this little favor.”
‘I could buy her some food right now using my LP but if I do that she will less appreciate it. It would be better to wait so that she is more grateful to me.’
Kiara was delighted by his answer and immediately jumped in his arms while speaking “Thank you, you’re really an angel.”
Mikael was a little awkward with her reaction but he nonetheless answered by giving small taps on her back while saying “No problem I’m happy to help.”
He stayed in the same position for a couple of seconds but when he saw that she didn’t look like she wanted to end the improvised hug he teased “You’re really profiting of all opportunity to get a hug?”
At his words, she immediately jumped out of the hug with a red face and started playing with her hair to mask her embarrassment. “N-No I was just happy that all!” she rapidly justified.
Mikael just gave her a knowing smirk.
Kiara saw his smirk and rapidly tried to change the subject by speaking “Sooo how do you like your training for now?”
He understood what she was trying to do but still answered “Honestly it's hard but really rewarding, totally worth it.”
“I just had a thought not related to the current subject but you're an AI right?”
“Yes I am what is called an artificial intelligence but I am more like a cyborg than a robot. In the sense that I have feelings and a personality, I am still capable of doing all the regular tasks that an AI can do. I can do it the same or better!” She proudly answered while puffing her chest out.
Mikael eyes were momentarily attracted by her moving mountains but he nearly instantly looked into her eyes before asking “So how does it work for the food you are eating? Can you digest it?”
“I don’t ‘digest’ the food like you do with your biological body. My body is supplied with the magical energies it needs to work by a magical core located in my chest. The core automatically produces magical energies that will supply me. The food I eat is transformed into magical energies that will help me operate but I don’t have biological needs.”
“Ok, thanks for answering. It was nice talking with you but I need to go back to the training.”
Kiara was a little disappointed but still said “Ok good training.”
Mikael gave her a small nod before going back to the obstacle course for the next hours.
In the first hour since the end of the break, he achieved the same level he had at the start without the earplug but with the earplug, he was starting to feel the traps.
During the following hours, he continued to develop his 6th sense. By the time it was the 11 Hours since he started training, he saw a notification appear.
[Your 6th Sense has reached the required level.]
[You have learned the skill: 6th Sense.]
[6th Sense Tier 0 Level 1 Skill
Description: This skill consists of the 6th sense of the user. This sense can give a gut feeling to the user and allow the user to perceive things that they normally shouldn’t be capable of seeing(danger, energy, etc).
This skill potency varies depending on the skill level and the perception(Locked) stats of the user.]
[6th Sense Tier 0 Level 1 Skill: This skill can level up if the following conditions are met.
Your knowledge and experience in using your 6th sense need to reach the required threshold. Your actual progress is 0%
Pay 40 LP.]
‘40 LP for leveling up the skill?’
‘I remember that the Unarmed Martial Arts Mastery was 20 LP for a level up. So why does it cost more? It is because the 6th sense skill is harder to learn or it is because the skill is stronger?’
‘I’ll need to keep an eye on my skill leveling speed.’
‘I still have 200 LP I could use like 100 to learn a swordsmanship skill. That would be useful, against the goblins I primarily used my knife and now that I have a good sword it would be better to use it.’
“Records I would like to train in swordsmanship with a teacher with peak human teaching ability. My budget is 100 so I would like to take 4 hours of training.”
[Request accepted -100 LP]
[Necessary knowledge was transferred to the AI ‘Kiara’. Your training time has already started since you are in the training room.]
‘Ok nice it was what is was thinking. It is the same as the martial arts training so 25 LP per hour.’
Mikael didn’t waste any more time and immediately started to run in the direction of Kiara.
Rapidly, he saw Kiara at the edge of the forest seemingly waiting for him.
“Do you want to start the training immediately?”
Mikael was tired but still answered “Yeah it would be better, I have limited time to train so I want to get the most out of it.”
Kiara kept shifting from one foot to the other, incessantly twirling a strand of hair before speaking, "We have a small problem. If you want efficient training, you’ll need to pay 20 LP to add a sword fighting area and some training swords.”
“It would be better if you paid 40 LP so that I can have the same stats as you. If we spar and you're more than three times stronger than me, it will be difficult for me to teach you.”
‘I hope I won’t bother him with all these purchases’ she nervously thought.
‘The Records are like a capitalist enterprise that wants to suck all your money.’
Sigh
“Records I accept the payment.”
[Transaction effectued -60 LP]
The instant the system notification appeared Kiara started looking like she was in pain. She gritted her teeth hard while clenching her fists to try to endure the pain.
Her skin started to become red and at the same time, her body commenced to produce a cracking sound.
From this moment Kiara was no longer able to contain her pain and began to cry while falling on the ground.
Sob Sob “It hurt”
Mikael crouched next to her before rubbing her back and softly spoke “I know it hurt but it will pass and here for you try to think about other things than the pain.”
Kiara vaguely heard his voice amid all her pain.’It hurts too much, it's like my whole body is breaking. Ahhhhh, I need to think about other things than my pain he said. I'm going to think of him!’ she thought before tightly clinging to Mikael with all her strength while continuing to cry.
The situation stayed the same for 5 minutes before her skin began to lose its red hue and returned to its original healthy white. The cracking sound that her body was making also stopped. The moment all this happened Kiara instantly fell asleep from the exhaustion.