Another day passed of Yuki’s training. To call it "training" would be a lie—it was more like pure torture. Yuki and his familiars spent their time inside the pocket dimension using spatial-time dilation to train under Iron.

Even though Yuki warned him that losing sleep and breaking time would make him lose his sanity, Iron casually brushed it off, stating that Yuki’s mental resilience was top-notch and that the suffering would only make him stronger.

Yuki never thought he would end up learning hand-to-hand combat and martial arts from an expressionless veteran who treated killing a frost drake like swatting an oversized lizard.

Five days passed as they traveled and hunted down monsters. Yuki and his familiars mostly sat on the sidelines during the journey, since every beast they encountered was Rank 3 or higher.

Eventually, after traveling deep through the frozen wasteland, they made it back to a relatively safer region. This area was populated by a wide variety of lesser monsters, essence beasts, and native wildlife.

"Alright, this is a safe place," Iron said in his usual calm, deep voice. "Some monsters will be arriving shortly... Good luck."

With that, Iron turned around and vanished into thin air, leaving Yuki and Vee standing there in absolute shock.

"...Vee, are you ready?" Yuki asked, unsheathing his claws.

"Yep," she replied, raising her armored gauntlets.

Within a few moments, two creatures emerged from the tree line. Their skin was pure, snow-white, and their faces were eerily featureless—no eyes, no nose, no mouth, just a smooth humanoid head set upon a shredded, heavily muscled physique.

"They look... almost normal," Vee remarked, inspecting the creatures as they approached.

"Why would you say this? its dangerous?" Yuki said facepalming

"What? Nothing’s wrong with the—"

Creak... Nnnaark!

The creatures let out an inhuman groan as their faces split wide open right where a mouth ought to be. The newly formed maws revealed two rows of razor-sharp, jagged teeth ready to tear into anything that breathed.

"...I should have kept my mouth shut," Vee sighed.

"Take the right one, and I’ll take the left," Yuki said, slowly widening his stance. "Let’s split them up."

"Got it!"

Yuki and Vee fanned out, forcing the monsters to target them individually rather than working as a team. Once they were separated, Vee dashed forward, her speed catching her target completely off guard.

Closing the distance on the "White Maw," as she dubbed it, Vee landed a heavy, soul-crushing punch straight into its ribs. Simultaneously, the creature brought down its massive arm to crush her, but Vee utilized her high agility and leg strength to leap backward, causing the blow to slam harmlessly into the frozen dirt.

Over on Yuki’s side, he and his White Maw engaged in a furious, close-quarters brawl, trading blow after blow.

Yuki locked his fingers and delivered a horizontal claw slash, nearly disemboweling the creature across the abdomen. The White Maw balled its massive fist and swung hard toward Yuki’s head, only for Yuki to duck and slice deep across its knee.

The beast let out a guttural cry and staggered back, its face splitting even wider in rage.

Driven by instinct, it lunged at Yuki with an impeccable uppercut. The blow connected directly against Yuki’s forearm, the bone shattering on impact with a sickening crack.

The White Maw didn’t wait for Yuki to cry out in pain; it immediately followed up with a brutal gut punch, sending Yuki flying backward through the snow.

Opening its gaping maw, the creature’s face twisted into a grotesque smile. It raised its fist to finish him off—and then froze.

Confused, the monster looked down at its arm. Its once snow-white skin was now turning a vibrant, deep red, and dark blood was oozing rapidly from its pores. The creature took a hesitant step back, utterly baffled as to when or how it had been poisoned.

Yuki pushed himself up from the snow, brushed off his clothes, and let out a long sigh.

"Man, that hurt... but it’s going to hurt you a whole lot more."

The beast stared at him in silence.

"No snarl of rage? What a bummer," Yuki snickered.

The creature took another step back, raising its arms defensively, but its entire body had begun to shake violently.

"What’s wrong? Is the toxin hitting you already?" Yuki taunted. "No need to be so scared! It’s only a little bit of venom meant to turn your muscles into jelly... Oh, and the hematotoxin is in there too! You know, having a plant expert like Vee is amazing. I can craft toxins that trigger all sorts of horrific effects once they hit the bloodstream."

Growl...

"Oh, someone’s angry! Ha ha..."

Yuki’s tone shifted instantly, his eyes turning cold and lifeless as he muttered, "Who are you looking at?"

The monster blinked in terror—because the Yuki standing in front of it hadn’t opened his mouth.

Frantically, the White Maw whipped its head toward the sound of the voice, but it was already too late. Yuki’s armored tail whipped around and struck the monster squarely in the neck. The sharp blade at the tip dug deep, causing the creature to bleed out so fast it lost all strength to fight back.

Yuki had anticipated that Iron would throw them into a surprise fight. So, while he was traveling with Vee, he had asked her to identify every toxic plant available in his system shop.

He had created a four-part cocktail: one toxin to scramble the mind, one to turn muscle tissue into jelly, one to prevent blood clotting, and the final cherry on top—a necrosis-inducing venom extracted from a rare black spider he’d found a few days prior.

The "shattered bone" the creature had struck was actually a reinforced vial filled with these compressed toxins, disguised beneath his clothes.

"I am—"

"Yuki! Stop monologuing to the monster and just kill it!" Vee yelled, interrupting him.

"...Are you done with yours already?" Yuki asked, turning his head.

"Yeah! It had incredibly weak legs and torso balance," Vee scoffed. "The only thing it had going for it was raw arm strength, and it wasn’t even fast."

Yuki turned back to his White Maw. Deciding to end things quickly, he dashed in and began systematically slashing at the creature’s joints, watching passively as it slowly rotted and bled away into the snow.

"Good job, you two," a deep voice rumbled from behind them.

"Iron?! You’re back already?!" Yuki gasped.

"That I am. I went ahead and located a new boss monster that hasn’t reached Rank 1 yet. Time to continue your training."

"Can we take a break first?" Yuki pleaded.

"No, you cannot. You will be facing this next one entirely alone. You need to improve your direct combat abilities; you rely far too much on traps and tricks. While you are exceptionally good at guerrilla tactics, you severely lack basic brawling skills. As an Inquisitor, you will face many humanoid monsters in your career, and there will be times when you can only rely on your bare body or a blade—meaning no poisons or toxins."

"Fine, fine! I’ll fight it!" Yuki grumbled. "But... I want you to teach me how to use a sword. I know you like hand-to-hand combat, but it’s really not my style. ...Well, I don’t really have a style yet, but I don’t want to fight at point-blank range anymore. Punching things hurts, and I hate having to get partially ripped apart just to kill an enemy."

"Very well. I shall teach you," Iron agreed casually. "What type of weapon do you prefer?"

"Um, I don’t know... something light and easy to wield?"

"A katana or a single-edged blade will suit you nicely. Retreat to your pocket dimension; we have a great deal of work to do. And I suggest you remove sleeping and eating from your schedule," Iron added smoothly. "The System administrators will most likely patch out the time-dilation feature soon anyway."

Yuki groaned, dragging his hands over his face.

So I want to learn the sword, and now I’m going to be starving, exhausted, and losing my sanity... Great. Just great.

Inside Yuki’s pocket dimension, Iron trained him day and night without mercy, allowing him no sleep and no food.

Every time Yuki instinctively tried to use his own body as a shield—relying on his rapid regeneration to tank hits—Iron punished him severely. Days blurred into weeks as Yuki executed the exact same basic swings and footwork drills over and over again.

The sparring sessions were brutal, made worse by Yuki’s bad habit of sacrificing limbs to score hits. But slowly, the muscle memory began to stick.

When Yuki was finally granted a single rest day, he spent it farming the crops he had planted, desperate for a normal routine. Afterward, he collapsed onto the couch to cuddle with Vee and Kasumi.

Despite her previous teasing and perverted antics before gaining her physical form, Kasumi didn’t hesitate for a second to join in on the cuddle pile when Vee asked her to come over.

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