Rise Of The Godking

And then… he promptly got slapped into the ground.

His feet swept out from under him, and he was kissing the dirt again. This time, he even ingested a large mouthful of it, resulting in a coughing fit that made him double over.

"First lesson. Jezara hates tardiness. You will always reply when you are spoken to, and you will always call me Ma"am. Is that clear?"

The man… or woman, or whatever it was, was looking at him with baleful eyes that were somehow completely different from those he had seen on the one who had brought him here. Where before the brute had seemed simple and straightforward, these eyes belong to someone with an education, and intelligence that could not be doubted.

Even the stance was different. The brute only lumbered wherever he wanted to go. The one in front of him… stood straight, and took each step carefully, with almost the elegance of a dancer.

Folding its arms behind its back, Jezaro/Jezara squinted, and immediately, Daneel felt a p.r.i.c.k of danger that made him understand what he was in store for if he didn"t act. Using his hands for support, he shot to his feet and shouted, "Yes, ma"am!"

With a sniff, his instructor stopped whatever thought had almost solidified in her mind.

"I don"t know how it"s possible… but there are two people in this body in front of me. I don"t know which one is more dangerous, but it"s probably wise to treat them both as disasters that need to be avoided, at all costs. She says that she is a ma"am, so I guess I"ll just call her that… until that brute returns to say hi by catching my neck, I guess."

While his thoughts reached this conclusion, his instructor had closed her eyes and gotten a thoughtful look on her face.

It transformed into one of disgust when those lopsided eyes snapped open.

"As expected. You"re pretty useless. My brother has the talent of estimating the power level of anyone he hits. He claims that you"re not even a Neophyte, properly… seriously, what have you been doing all these years? One might expect that the sacrifice of so many slaves might have given birth to someone worthy… but if they were foolish enough to hold such hopes, they would be very, very disappointed."

"Neophyte? What"s that?"

Daneel almost asked the question out loud, ignoring the rest of the admonishment that didn"t really bother him, at all.

Sure enough, after he said nothing for a few more seconds, she sniffed with disgust and began speaking in a lecturing tone.

"There are different paths to obtain power in this world, but in this s.h.i.+thole, right here, the most prominent one is that of body cleansing. It"s called by many names: body refining, body cultivation, or even body tempering. The concept is the same, though. Depending on where one is born, their body is filled with different levels of impurities that stop them from doing the best they can. This level also directly correlates to how they would respond to training, and of course, that is how that primitive ranking of potential was developed. The method of gaining power is easy to summarise, but quite hard to implement. Just like a metal from which impurities have to be beaten out, one"s body must be subjected to so much stress and pain that it is forced to change, and get better. It must also be provided nutrition so that it can grow. There are different realms of beings who pursue power, but as for us, only the first one is of concern. It is mainly called the "Human" realm. The ranking is the same in every realm. You begin as a Novice, you improve to become a Neophyte, you work hard to transform into a Tyro, you excel to become an Expert, and you achieve mastery to become a Master. There are two more ranks above that… but again, they do not concern you, at all. I have an extra ranking for those who live in depraved s.h.i.+tholes like Graiton. s.h.i.+t-grade. It is a consolation that you"re not like the slaves whom my brother has cla.s.sified to be at this level… but that"s about it."

[Data collected. Body refinement power system data set created.

Power ranking in "Human" realm: Novice-u003e Neophyte-u003e Tyro-u003e Expert-u003e Master-u003e?-u003e?

Host"s body refinement power ranking: Human Neophyte]

For some reason, hearing the system put it in this way made him get a smile on his face.

Finally, finally he had clarity regarding where he was, and where he could go. He had been quite displeased about the lack of information, but with this newfound clarity, he was confident that he could climb the ranks to-

"SLAP!"

For the second time in just a few minutes, Daneel was slapped to the ground. This time, she targeted the other side of his face, so now, both sides were throbbing equally.

He looked up at his instructor almost accusingly, and even though he quickly tried to hide the expression, she spotted it.

Narrowing those thin eyebrows, she asked, "Do you have anything to say?"

Shaking his head, Daneel struggled to his feet.

"That"s what I thought. You have no idea how hard it was for my brother to reach the Expert level. He was born with nothing… unlike you, who had the advantage of birth that you squandered so foolishly. The Lord has decreed that if he wishes to make use of you, you need to be better. You shall come here every morning, escorted by those two enforcers you came with the first day. As for your method of training…"

Pausing, she clapped, and from the hill where they had come from, the sounds of two people scurrying down were heard.

Turning around, Daneel widened his eyes as he came upon some of the biggest men he had seen in this place, yet. They weren"t very tall, but their shoulders were so wide that it made them look like mutants who had grown in the wrong direction.

Also, they were twins, with the same bulbous noses, double chins, short-cropped black hair, and prominent cheekbones.

In merely a few moments, they ran up to Jezara and bowed.

With a satisfied nod, she folded her hands and announced, "These will be your training partners. The demarcation between each rank in the Human realm is linear. A single Neophyte should be able to fight against two Novices. So, a single Tyro should also be able to fight against two Neophyte. Only if you pursue this goal will you be able to reach that rank. Until then…"

Daneel barely had the time to dodge as the twins pounced on him. He managed to get out of the way of the one on the right, but he ran headlong into the other one. The man caught his waist and slammed him to the ground, knocking the very world out of him with a gasp. His head reeling, he raised his hands to push his opponent away, but they only found empty air.

When he looked up, he saw that the twins were in front of Jezara again, with not a hair out of place.

"They will beat you, every morning, for an entire hour. You can try your best to dodge, or even hit them back; they won"t mind. The day you can beat them both, you will be a Tyro body refiner. From your speed of training so far, though… my estimation is that it will take a year, at least."

Both the twins smiled at him, then. Daneel didn"t even know what to say; from the way they had moved just now, he could see that they were already stronger than him even though Jezara had said that they were supposed to be on the same level. If so… her estimation of time did not really seem to be off.

The Lord approached them, then, and all three of those who stood near Daneel bowed so low that their heads almost touched the ground. He remained standing, unused to showing respect as most of his memories consisted of people bowing to him rather than the other way round, and he paid the price when Jezara moved almost at the speed of light, knocking him on his back and making him fall to his knees before resuming her position as if nothing had happened.

"And that is the speed of an Expert. The training begins tomorrow. If you"re thinking that your status of being a slave has changed… then you are very, very wrong. This is all I"ll be doing for you. You will have to find a way to obtain enough food to grow on your own. Either you succeed, or you"ll grow weaker and weaker until these two pummel you to the ground, and you don"t wake up. That is what I believe will happen in a few months. Surprise me… and we can go to the next step in our collaboration. But for now… goodbye."

Lord Burrow finished speaking and turned away to leave, while Daneel stared with raised eyebrows. He remembered clearly just how much food he had been given when his training hadn"t nearly been as intense. How the h.e.l.l was he supposed to sustain growth if he couldn"t even hold onto what he had now, with the way things were at the moment?

With a humph, Jezara turned around and followed her master. The twins moved to do the same, but just before they were about to leave, the one on the right turned to him and said, "See you soon."

As they left him alone in the barren wasteland, dread filled his mind, and his entire body ached, as if in antic.i.p.ation of what was to come.