It felt surreal to pause in what seemed like an eternity of repetition.

  Hannah didn't quite know how to feel, so she opted to stare at the bonfire in front of her. No mere campfire, a full bonfire. The demigod wanted one for ‘atmospheric’ reasons, so he made one.

  If she let herself stop and think about it, he seemed kinda insane. But perhaps for an entity so close to godhood this was only to be expected. He’d already become a demigod, so why shouldn’t his sensibilities be far removed from human common sense?

  Hannah’s gaze drifted to the disciple. Calvin, was that the boy's name? He stared into the bonfire with a distant gaze, eyes clouded over.

  His master lay sprawled across the cave floor in a dignified and elegant manner, his eyes closed. The demigod’s languid posture made it seem like he was not in a cave in the middle of nowhere, but rather in heaven, experiencing only the finest luxuries.

  She probably would have grumbled something mildly complaining about him, if not for Calvin suddenly murmuring, “You're not all that bad, y'know.”

  “Eh?” Hannah turned around, caught off guard. Was he talking to her, or his master? No way he'd be so… lackadaisical about his master, so it must be her. “What do you mean, Calvin?”

  “For the longest time,” the boy continued, his voice just as soft yet his melancholy clear now, “I hated the church. When I was just an orphan, I heard them preach all kinds of… morals, but…” He trailed away, sighing slightly, so Hannah finished for him.

  “But they never actually follow them.”

  He blinked in surprise and looked up. True, she'd spoken up against the Pope and the Cardinals in front of his master, but he clearly expected she'd at least try and protect the church as a whole—tell him it's only a few individuals that are the root cause of the problem, that the others try and follow the morals and lessons, things such as that.

  “Have no doubt, Calvin,” she continued. “There are very, very few who truly follow the Church’s Gospel. If there were more, the Capital wouldn't be littered with so many orphans and so much crime. Many of them may not mean malice, but they are like me. They would simply prefer to turn away, to never have to compromise their simple, peaceful lives. And as they say, a good man's inaction is just as harmful as someone evil’s actions. And… I’d been such a person, a person who simply stood by.”

  Calvin stared at her, not sure what to say.

  “Hell, I’m not even really a good person,” Hannah said, a self deprecative smile on her face.

  “If you weren’t a good person, you wouldn’t have helped me, even at the risk of offending my master,” Calvin protested, quietly yet firmly.

  “Any sane human would’ve interrupted what was going on,” she argued, a scowl forming on her face, “The fact that I took so long is honestly shameful.”

  Calvin titled his head curiously, “Would they? I think most people wouldn’t have.”

  “If a kid was being tortured in front of them—”

  “Excuse you, I am not a kid!” Calvin protested hotly, his voice rising as he sat up.

  Hannah blinked, looking the kid up and down. How old could he be, nineteen? That wasn’t still all that old, barely a young adult, and honestly, still seemed like a kid to her. Maybe because she’d seen so many nineteen year olds do absolutely stupid things. She still remembered how dumb she’d been, back when she herself was nineteen.

  And so, with endless maturity and elegance, she replied, “Little kid.”

  Alright, maybe not all that mature, but Calvin’s reaction made it all worth it.

  Calvin didn’t know how many attempts he’d made.

  A thousand, ten thousand, twenty thousand, or perhaps he’d been trying for all of eternity.

  He didn’t know, couldn’t know. Not without the capital’s clock chiming every twelve hours, or without the progression of the sun. He was completely blind to his surroundings—to the world itself.

  Perhaps that’s why he was able to enter this state, this flow, of single minded focus on this monster. Focus that made everything else inconsequential, his concentration absolute and effortless.

  Not that his focus helped much.

  Calvin still couldn't see it. He still couldn't dodge it. Its attacks still hurt a lot.

  The Saintess kept healing him. His master kept staring at him.

  Both of them clearly waiting, no, yearning for him to take a break.

  But he kept diving at the wolf.

  The monster, too, was singularly focused on Calvin and no one else. It never tried to attack the Saintess or his master, but considering the man could freeze time itself, it would surely be trivial for him to prevent a monster from noticing them.

  Time passed and passed and passed.

  He kept trying and trying and trying.

  Once more, he tried.

  Nothing changed.

  The wolf still dove at him, this time at a different angle, he still tried to dodge it based on sheer instinct, and it still cut into him.

  The Saintess—Hannah—chanted some spell.

  He found his body rejuvenating again. And he stood up once more.

  The wolf seemed to freeze up the moment that he was dying, suddenly not noticing him, simply waiting blankly. Probably another thing his master did to give him at least a shred of a fair chance.

  Dominic didn’t want to seem to revive him, after all, or he could probably just let the monster feast on him again and again and again and revive him over and over again, though that would feel even more gratuitously torturous than this.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The cycle began again.

  Again.

  The wolf dove at him.

  This time, this time, Calvin’s instinct screamed at him to dive to the left.

  Why? It made no sense to prioritize one direction or the other. The monster would kill him with its claws, no matter if he dove to the left or to the right.

  Especially since it was leaning just the slightest bit to the left this time—he’d begun gauging its jump direction based on which side its feet leaned at the start of their scruffle every single time.

  He would undoubtedly be pierced through, even if he dived to the left.

  But the Saintess would heal him again, and his instinct was something that he trusted—it’d gotten a street urchin like him this far in his life, after all, or he should have died a long, long time ago.

  There was no reason not to trust his instinct. If he would die either way, may as well listen to it.

  So he dove to the left. And the wolf's claws still struck him.

  But not like how it had till now. It did not tear his chest apart fully, sinking in deeply and scattering all his organs and viscera on the floor. It barely grazed his flesh, only exposing the muscle underneath.

  He had, for the first time since their endless attempts and repetitions, successfully dodged.

  System Notification:

  Congratulations.

  You have gained the title, ‘Follow Your Instinct [Rare, B Grade]’.

  You have gained the Specialization Blood Instinct, Lvl 1.

  From gaining a Grade B title, your level has increased.

  Current level: 5.

  Calvin was breathless. Finally, finally—

  The monster was about to sink its claws back into his chest again before it froze like it was on a timeout. Even though it fell onto him after being frozen solid, a mass of flesh and fur, Calvin's jubilance did not diminish at all. Finally, finally! He had leveled up from someone unranked, from someone with no experience who was on LvL 0, to LvL 5, all at once!

  He was officially an F-rank Rift Sealer who had a B-grade Title, which, wow, that was impossible. He had never heard of that happening to anyone!

  He had been a huge eavesdropper during his beggaring years, so if he hadn’t heard of some major achievement happening, chances were it didn’t. He’d heard of a thousand things that hadn’t actually happened, but even those didn’t touch this.

  He was the first to do this.

  The system seemed to acknowledge that, as another system notification appeared in front of him.

  You are the first ever Rift Sealer of this world to have gained a B-Grade Title while being Unranked.

  Congratulations. You have performed a Unique Achievement.

  Your level has reached 14.

  Calvin was awestruck. He felt like he’d get a panic attack through sheer excitement, so he calmed himself down, taking in deep breaths.

  He’d already reached LvL 14. He had a B-Grade Title. Not to mention that he’d even gotten a Specialization, which was... He didn’t know how good it was in action, but it sounded really cool. Blood Instinct!

  His gaze inevitably drifted to his master—and when he saw that the god, too, was proud of his progress, a wide smile was present on his face, euphoria engulfed him. Next to him, Hannah, clearly having caught on to what must have happened, had wide eyes and a small smile on her face. Almost like a kid who was wondering whether they could smile or not.

  For all that she called him a ‘little kid’, she acted woefully immature sometimes.

  Not that he was acting any better. His grin practically threatened to split his face into two.

  He felt like he was on the top of the world. Nothing could stop him, his success was inevitable.

  He felt so good, that when his heart told him that this was going to be so, so easy, that it was only a matter of time before he killed this ‘puny S-Rank minion’, he didn’t even feel skeptical.

  He should have.

  Dominic could’ve shed tears of joy.

  His little disciple was growing up so, so fast.

  He looked at the Status Screen that Gabrielle had displayed.

  Disciple Calvin’s Status Screen:

  Level: 14

  Specializations:

  Blood Instinct [Lvl 1]

  Titles:

  Follow Your Instinct [Rare, B Grade]

  “Congratulations, my dear disciple,” he said, barely hiding the sheer pride and teariness in his tone.

  His little disciple, grinning like a madman, said, “Thank you, master! Let’s continue!”

  Dominic’s grin grew in size. Yes, Dominic had been similarly motivated when he was a disciple! Truly, he’d lucked out, stumbling on a disciple like Calvin, a boy so similar to himself!

  With endless pride and anticipation, Dominic clicked his finger, and the adorable wolf dived at his little disciple once more.

  The demigod wiped away at the tears of pride forming at the corners of his eyes.

  Hannah finally, actually, understood what the demigod was trying to do.

  He was artificially giving Calvin Titles.

  It was something S-Rank Rift Sealers sometimes tried with their apprentices. Hell, even Hannah herself, the Pope had tried to give her a Title artificially, though it was a major failure in their eyes. Considering the resources they invested in the attempt, when she only received the A-Grade ‘Hope Giver’ title instead of an S-Grade one, the Pope gave up on boosting her.

  In recent years, she hadn’t heard of any S-Rank Rift Sealers still sticking to attempting Title Giving with their students either. The SS-Rank King still did so occasionally for his offspring, but even the King had stopped after one of the princes had a mental breakdown.

  Regardless of the resources, obtaining such a powerful and rare power was a very taxing process on the person receiving the Title. They had to be either pushed to the brink—often in a life or death circumstance, or as close to it as could be safely created—and stretched to their absolute maximum.

  Only then, if they could successfully break past their barriers with sheer grit and will, would they be acknowledged by the Goddess and awarded the title by her system.

  Even making the attempt required a lot of resources and time, and if the one receiving the Title failed any step in the process or gave up… It would all be for nothing.

  In that sense, Calvin was truly remarkable. For all her teasing of him being a ‘kid’, she recognized this too—just how remarkable he was, just how truly strong one had to be, both mentally and physically, to endure what he was going through and want more.

  Dominic wanted his disciple to grow on his own.

  So that was exactly what he was making his disciple do.

  Without any resources beyond endless chances to be healed by a faux S-Ranker and let Calvin keep trying again, he pushed his disciple to the brink of death again and again and again. Subjected him to the most insane risks until he earned the Titles, Specializations, and Experience he needed.

  And Calvin obliged. With determination, with confidence, with persistence, and most importantly…

  With belief.

  With an amount of unflinching faith in his master that Hannah doubted even the most devout of followers of the Church of Light would have towards the Goddess.

  And what could be more admirable than that?

  It was almost innocent, his belief, with a childlike quality to it. One that Hannah would have scoffed at it in any other scenario. But in this situation, in these circumstances…

  Calvin was truly the perfect disciple for the demigod.

  Hannah sighed at that thought, a wry smile spreading across her face.