“Hahaha! I can feel it! Power… Overflowing!”

  “Would you calm down? You’re being ridiculous.”

  Master huffed at me but he didn’t understand. I had grown stronger. I’d spent over two days in the healing tank and it had been amazing. I’d been so tired that any time I opened my eyes, I’d just gone back to bed. Feeling the cool liquid envelop me, floating there, breathing it in and out… truly, I’d been going about things all wrong. Being in the tank while awake was just so relaxing. It turned out I’d been completely wrong. If you just took a bit more time, the healing tank could heal mental exhaustion. At least, it could be so utterly relaxing that it felt like it did.

  But by the end I’d been more than ready, practically wanting to tear myself out of it. I was stronger now. So, so much stronger. I could feel it, utterly. My fist hit the punching bag and I could feel my fist hitting it harder. Feel the resistance from my skin and bones being higher. But that wasn’t the only change. I could feel my blood pump smoother, my lungs breathe easier, everything felt so cataclysmically different.

  I felt like a whole new creature!

  I felt so much stronger now!

  “Master! Why, why do I feel so much more powerful?!”

  “Hmm. Well, you know, people change every day. Weight goes up and down between a few pounds just from food alone, your inner temperature raises and lowers constantly, even the amount of blood in the body has micro changes. There is nothing that stays 100% stagnant. For most of your life, your power level has been the exact same. Even a minor change must feel like a dawn in the night.”

  I stopped, staring at Master.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. It’s just, that feels like the first time you’ve actually taught me anything.”

  Master huffed in annoyance.

  “What, am I supposed to hold your hand and wipe your ass too? Ask more questions if you want more knowledge. Punch the stupid bag.”

  I did. I could feel a massive grin practically overflowing on my face. It might have only been an increase of .01… but it felt like I could lift mountains now. It wasn’t just the increase in power… it was my mind. I’d really thought… I think I had begun to really think it was impossible. That I’d never get stronger. That I was just going to keep trying till I died and that was it.

  And now!

  And Now!

  I could feel my heart beating so fast, like a war drum. My fists slammed again and again into the bag, doing nothing, but I didn’t care. I could feel the force in them, the power. I was going to get stronger! I was going to become so powerful that I’d tear Vega apart! I, I could do it!

  “Slow down.”

  The command was so surprising I nearly tripped.

  “W-What?”

  I looked back at Master.

  Had he gone insane? What was this? Hadn’t he always been telling me to go harder and faster?

  “The training has changed. Destroying your body isn’t the most efficient way now that you’re not trying to break through a wall. We’re going to begin working on your endurance.”

  I stared in shock, before nodding. It was different, but I couldn’t expect the training to always be the same. Sometimes things changed. I went back to punching the bag, some of the fervor dying down. I still had a long ways to go.

  And the only reason I’d gotten this far… the only person who had done this all for me…

  Was incredibly unwanting of gratitude.

  I’d tried the first second I’d gotten out of the chamber, to bow and thank him and more, only for him to get grumpier and grumpier, till he practically ordered me to get to the hitting the bag. Master was kind, but he certainly didn’t want any thanks for what he did.

  But I was thankful. I owed him. He’d gone above and beyond for me, just some random hobo dying in the street. I’d get strong enough for him. I’d listen, train, and grow as best I can. He believed in me when no one else ever did.

  And speaking of… he said I could ask questions right? Actually, he’d always answered anything I’d asked pretty fully. So…

  “Master, what do you mean by a wall? You’ve mentioned it a few times now.”

  And he had, saying I’d broken through it. I could understand through context clues, that there’d been some kind of natural barrier between me and strength. I just didn’t understand why or what it was.

  “What? This is basic knowledge. Did you not have school where you grew up?”

  “I uh, I was homeschooled.”

  “That’s terrible.” My master said.

  I grimaced.

  “I thought my parents did a pretty okay job…”

  “And let me guess,” Master sighed. “Your parents knew from early on what your power level was. And tried to hide it from you?”

  I blinked.

  “Uh, yes actually.”

  Master sighed again, hard.

  “This is going to be a long one,” Master mumbled to himself, before speaking to me. “A wall is a natural barrier everyone runs into. Everyone. I’ve never heard of anyone or anything not running into it. At some point, your power level slows down and then stops. Stops growing and then stagnates. With enough effort, it can be broken. There’s always another wall until you finally reach the height of your potential. You were born with a wall. Never seen that one before.”

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  As I felt my fists reverberate from the bag, I took that information in. Had my parents known? No, maybe not. They’d probably known about walls… but how many people actually reached them? Probably only fighters and trainers. Who would ever think you could be born at one?

  “Wait,” I said, realizing something. “You knew I was at a wall? Not just… stuck at power level one?”

  “Well,” Master said, scratching his chin from the corner of my eye. “I’ve never seen anyone stuck at [1] forever or born with a wall, so, eh, I figured it was the second. Was willing to give it a few more months before giving up.”

  “Truly… Master’s patience for me is incredible.”

  Master blanched.

  “Punch the bag and stop doing that. It makes my skin crawl.”

  “...being nice?”

  “Acting like anything less than a proud warrior.”

  I kept training, thinking on that. The answer was obvious. Master must not run into a lot of happy or nice people. I could relate, this city sometimes felt like it was only full of terrible people and gang members. Still, if I couldn’t thank him with words, I’d just have to settle for action.

  The training continued and I felt energized in body, mind, and spirit. Just had to throw a million more punches and I’d probably reach at least power level two. That… that would be an amazing day. But it was going to take a damn near lifetime of effort. If it took me three weeks of grueling training just for a .01 increase, then it would probably take me years.

  But that didn’t slow me down, if anything, it just made me go harder and faster.

  Even if took years or decades, I could get there. I could do it. I’d punch and punch and-

  I froze. A light sound went off on my arm but I didn’t pay attention to that as it felt like my whole body was… vibrating. No, improving. Growing! W-What was going on?! I stared at my arm in shock, seeing something that made me feel like I was on the edge of a panic attack. I hadn’t taken off the Vambrace master had given me. I’d just left it there and now… the screen had changed.

  [1.02]

  “M… Master!”

  “What?”

  “The… my… my power level! It… it went up again!”

  “Yes. Maybe I really should explain things more…” He mumbled. “You were at a wall. Now you’re not. You’re going to see a lot of growth now.”

  “But… but why?! What?”

  “Keep punching the bag while I explain what children learn around the same time they can walk.”

  I did so, having to force myself to tear my eyes away from the Vambrace. My fists… they were hitting so much harder. It was only a two percent increase… and yet I felt I could destroy my old self. Maybe that wasn’t really true… but that’s certainly how it felt. Every change was like a bomb going off inside me, I even felt as if I was moving faster now, with both my eyes and my punches. Even my hearing felt better.

  “So.” Master started. “Power levels are a combination of all you are. It’s a representation. There can be differences, people who are faster in one area, more enduring in another, stronger, etc. But it only shows a representation of a combination. There could be a power level of [9] that could hit harder than a [10] and so on and so forth. Power level is holistic though, you can improve the strength in your arms so much that you become twice as fast on your feet, your bones are twice as durable, and so on. Just awful in terms of actual efficiency. Good way to stagnate your power level really. Anyway, one of the reasons your power level was even below children is because all combined, you have less than everything. Speed, strength, durability, etc.”

  I absorbed master’s lesson as I continued punching, thinking about it. I had never really considered it like that, but it wasn’t anything I didn’t really know. But it still didn’t explain my rapid power increase!

  “But your body,” Master started. “It’s still a healthy twenty something. Probably. How old are you anyway? Doesn’t matter. The point is that it’s definitely healthy, the healing tank and needle nutrition-”

  I shuddered at those memories. I really hoped I could start eating actual food and drinking actual water now…

  “-has made sure of that. Sometimes, even if an old person manages to break through a wall, they don’t have the actual life force left to continue making any kind of improvements. Power has an age limit for most. And finally, after every wall, there’s usually a period of explosive growth. You shouldn’t see yourself as being the weakling you were. You’re like someone just born, shoved into a twenty year old body, that just broke a wall. Your gains are going to be-”

  Another sudden change rocked me. The Vambrace changed, making noise as the numbers changed.

  [1.03]

  “-pretty fast.”

  I gaped like a fish. I… I was now like everyone else? No. No, even that wasn’t right. If anything… my growth for a little while would be even faster than anyone else while my power level and body tried to catch up to each other. It was… I was like one of those old cars! The engine had been broken in me but now that it was fixed…

  I hit the punching bag harder, faster. All those weeks worth of grueling training were now paying off. All those years of misery were now paying off! I… I was going to grow so much faster than I thought! Years? Decades? Maybe… maybe to reach Vega still, yeah.

  But not to grow in power at all.

  The hours wore on and every change felt like an impossibly growing storm. I laughed like a maniac as sweat dripped down my body, as my lungs huffed and puffed and sucked air in and out, as my blood lit up like a fire and adrenaline roared through me and me along with it.

  I tried, I tried to listen to Master telling me to go easier, to go slower, but it was so hard! I wanted, I wanted to go all the way! To push beyond! To go even further beyond!

  To meet that Horizon and see beyond it.

  The day wore on, the hours went by, and I only passed out twice. An IV in my arm both times for dehydration and more shots for food. My muscles barely even felt torn! I could keep going for so much longer, even if I got so exhausted my fists felt like weak slaps of a feather at best.

  But the gains… the gains!

  1.04…1.05…1.06…1.08…1.10…

  …1.13…1.16…1.19…

  [1.25]

  One day. It had only been one easy training day… and I was already 25% stronger. It felt like I was living a fever dream. That wasn’t just some number on a screen. I could feel those changes. I felt… almost inhuman. This level of strength made me feel like a god. And I hadn’t even begun to approach the average level of [5] that most people had as an adult. How… how did people go around feeling like this all the time? So… so powerful…

  “Well, I’ve certainly never seen anyone be in awe of being at that level of power. There’s a first time for everything I suppose.” Master said.

  “Master! Thank you so-”

  “No. Shut up. For once… you’re actually able to walk yourself there. Go get in the healing tank.”

  I blinked.

  “But, Master. I feel fine. I could even keep going! We could go throughout the night!”

  “While your change in attitude is amusing, no. There’s a reason we have you heal constantly, it’s because we’re breaking you. Now go to bed. We have an early day tomorrow. Another week or two of this… and you might be ready for something new.”

  My heart beat like a storm. The endless days of punching a bag weren’t over… but soon there’d be a change. How would I… what would I even be like after another week of this? Let alone two? I could hardly imagine…

  “What will we be doing?”

  Master smiled, but in a way that sent a shiver up my spine.

  “Oh, you’ll see.”

  Even through the joy of power… I still had a sudden fear in my heart.

  Surely… it wouldn’t be that bad though right?

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