“To ahat, I’ll o expin how I work—and, more precisely, how the Artificial Intelligence created by the Akashic Records funs.”

  “When you first arrived iraining room, I was created by the Records, but on your and, which made me partially your property,” she added with a slight blush.

  She tinued, “The thing is, I’m also the property of the Records, and my ‘job’ is to be the trainer of Mikael Angelini. Being a ‘traiype’ AI allows you to modify my stats and my knowledge, like you did before, using LP.”

  “Now, to answer your inal question about my knowledge and mastery, for example, in martial arts. My skills are granted by the Records and are limited to the level they’ve assigned me. Currently, my knowledge oends to training you up to Tier 0 Level 5. Beyond that, I won’t know how to help yress further.”

  “Did I expin that clearly?”

  Mikael gave her a slight nod. “Yeah, pretty clear. Thanks. I just have a small questioed to what you expined. How does it work when you say you’re partially my ‘property’ and partially owned by the Records?”

  Kiara paused before answering. “It means that, currently, I’m a Traiype AI. But if you ‘bought’ me, I would bee Your AI with all the Traiype capabilities included.”

  Mikael was taken aback by her response and thought, ‘Damn, this is svery at its fi. It’s a sver’s dream to create ‘sves’ ahem, and because they’re AIs, they be ized… It’s holy pretty twisted.’

  Unaware of Mikael’s thoughts, Kiara tinued, “Currently, I’m bound to the training room and ’t leave or do anything outside the parameters of a Trainer AI. But if you bought me, I could do anything you do while keeping my Trainer AI skills—except I’d be at your and.” She spoke quickly, visibly excited.

  Mikael sidered it. ‘Aside from the moral aspect of this disguised svery, it’s a smart system. You train with your AI atached over time, whether as a friend or something more. Eventually, you may want to ‘liberate’ them. The reaso matter; the point is that you’ll pay.’

  Feeling slightly unfortable with the idea of Kiara effectively selling herself, he asked anyway, though he wasn’t genuinely ied. “Uh, okay. So, if I did want to buy you, how much would it cost?”

  “The price varies a lot depending on the AI, but the minimum for a Traiype AI is 10,000 LP. The price goes up based on stats, skills, knowledge, etc.”

  “Alright, good to know. So, you didn’t get too bored while I was gone?”

  Kiara pouted at his words, though whether it was because he didn’t want to buy her or because she was actually bored when he was gone was unclear.

  She replied, “You’re ly wrong; it was a bit less b than st time. I fihe Harry Potter series after the first two days and then started hitting the pung bag to pass the time. That retty fun in itself.”

  “Gd to hear you weren’t too bored. So, are you ready to start training?”

  Visibly pleased to finally have a versation with him after days of solitude, Kiara answered happily, “Of course! I’m always ready. Sixth Seraining, right?”

  “Right.”

  Kiara began, “For the training, I’ll need your permission to add a room, which will cost 30 LP. Is that okay with you?”

  “Sure,” Mikael agreed.

  [Transa pleted -30 LP]

  As soon as he saw the notification appear, one of the walls began to emit a soft glow. After a few seds, the light faded, revealing a wooden door where the wall had been.

  Kiara gestured for him to follow her and walked toward the new room. Mikael followed, and the two of them entered.

  The room had an unusual setup. The walls were lined with multiple small holes, and in the ter was a wooden altar with two white buttons on it.

  “You’re w what the training will be, right?” Kiara asked, then expined. “On this altar, you see the two buttons. The training will involve relying on your instincts to press one of them.”

  “If you choose correctly, nothing will happen. But if you choose wrong, small wooden balls will shoot from the walls toward you. They’re calibrated to a speed too fast for you to react to, and while they won’t seriously injure you, they’ll cause enough pain to ence you to improve your 6th sense skill.”

  Mikael responded sarcastically, “Yeah, sounds like fun…”

  Kiara gave him an amused smile. “It’ll be great for your skill progress. As for you—maybe not so much.”

  Sigh.

  “Alright, let’s get started,” Mikael said, stepping toward the buttons and fog ily on them.

  ‘I don’t feel anything. Am I supposed to choose randomly?’ he thought. He reached toward the right button but the a faint instinct that it wasn’t the correct choice.

  Trusting his intuition, he quickly switched to the left button and pressed it.

  ...He waited a few seds, but no balls were u him. Instead, a pleasant notification appeared:

  [You are developing your instincts. 6th Sense +1%]

  Satisfied with the result, Mikael tinued with his training.

  The sed time, he pressed the left button again.

  Click.

  A clig sound was followed by a painful impa his back, pushing him slightly forward.

  Mikael grunted in pain but, realizing he wasn’t badly hurt, tinued with the training.

  Over the few hours, his Sixth Sense skill progressed quickly. After four hours, he reached the sed level, and by the end of six hours of training, he had achieved:

  [6th Sense Skill - Tier 0 Level 2 Progress 34%]

  Seeing his skill progress was encing, but he wondered, What does this actually aplish? Mikael ran a few quick tests and discovered he could now sehreats just before his ordinary senses picked them up. This ability allowed him to dodge bullets he wouldn’t have otherwise known were ing.

  Overall, it was a majrade. Now, he could enter worlds with firearms without w that a surprise bullet might end him.

  He then tinued honing his Unarmed Martial Arts skill through a bination of pung bag drills and sparring sessions with Kiara. By the end of three hours, his progress had reached:

  [Unarmed Martial Arts Mastery - Tier 0, Level 2, Progress 51%]

  After finishing his martial arts training, Mikael focused on improving his footwork. This sessioered on evasive skills, particurly dodging spikes that randomly shot up from the ground.

  This training proved to be challenging due to the spikes’ ued nature areme speed. However, his developing instinct often allowed him to dodge just in time. Despite the difficulty, the progress he made was noticeable:

  [Footwork Mastery - Tier 0, Level 3, Progress 10%]

  Finally, he ended his training with a sword session, where Kiara taught him some teiques and sparred with him again.

  Given that Kiara's stats were approximately on par with Mikael's, he did have an advantage due to the 3% buff from his body refining and additional boosts from his skills—advantages Kiara cked, as she only possessed the knowledge but not the active skill. But she was still more skilled and experienced in fighting.

  Taking all this into at, Mikael initially lost after only ten minutes of sparring. However, as the sessio on, the duration of each sparring matcreased—15 mihen 20 minutes. By the end of three hours, their final sparring session sted a full 40 minutes, with her gaining a clear upper hand.

  Mikael cluded the session as their training time was running out, satisfied with the high level he had reached:

  [Swordsmanship Mastery - Tier 0, Level 5 SkillDescription: This skill encapsutes the user's knowledge, experience, and mastery of swordsmanship.

  Bes: Increases learning and application of all swordsmanship-reted teiques.

  Attack speed with a sword: +30% → +40%

  Attack damage with a sword: +15% → +20%]

  [Swordsmanship Mastery - Tier 0, Level 5 Skill: This skill evolve ohe following ditions are met.

  Obtain the Skill Evolution System ( )

  Discover a way to upgrade swordsmanship to the level ( )

  Pay 300 LP ( )]

  Mikael frowned as he read the requirements to evolve his skills. ‘Hmm, this won’t be easy. It'll cost 3,000 LP for the Skill Evolution System and another 300 LP, but that’s the easy part since I know how to earn LP.’

  ‘The real challenge is figuring out how to advance my swordsmanship. Sure, I have some ideas, like gaining an aura or learning sword teiques in a cultivation world, but that seems plicated for now.’

  ‘I should foaxing out my other skills sihey still get stret stronger…’ He had a realization and face-palmed. ‘Ahh, I’ve reached the max level in swordsmanship, but that doesn’t mean I ’t keep improving. I could, for example, practice fighting against a variety of enemies…’

  Mikael was about to tinue his thoughts but was interrupted by Kiara.

  Kiara hesitated to interrupt since he seemed lost in thought, probably fog on the system, but she o speak. “Sorry to interrupt, but I wao talk to you about something.”

  Mikael g her and replied, “Sure, what is it?”

  Kiara nervously fidgeted, twisting a strand of her hair. “Um, I was w… could you maybe stay a little longer with me this time? It would be really nice.”

  Puzzled, he replied, “But I ’t. The training time I bought is almost over!”

  Kiara seemed fused by his response. “But you don’t need LP to stay iraining room unless you’re actively training. Didn’t you know?”

  He muttered quietly, “No…”

  ‘Seriously? All the time I spent talking with Kiara, I was wasting LP when it could have been free!?’

  Sigh

  ‘It’s not that bad; I probably only lost around 100 LP. But this system is getting seriously annoying—so capitalistic, squeezing out every st bit of LP. Imagine if they had actually told me that! But no, they don’t want to lose even a single LP. So greedy!’

  Amused by Mikael’s annoyed expression, Kiara looked at him with puppy eyes. “So, will you stay? Please?”

  “Alright, I’ll stay for a short while.”

  “YEAH!” Kiara jumped with joy at his answer.

  Her genuiement made Mikael smirk as he thought, ‘It’s good to take some time to rex and enjoy yourself. What’s the point of training to bee stronger if I ake a break?’

  “So, Kiara, what do you want to do while I’m here with you?”

  She put a fio her lips thoughtfully before suggesting, “Why don’t we have a meal together?”

  “Sure, but is there even a table around?” He looked around and saw only the high-quality dojo spaot a diniup.

  Kiara seemed to take pride in his question, smiling before saying, “e with me; I’ll show you something.”

  He followed her to a part of the dojo he hadn’t explored before. She led him to an unfamiliar wooden door.

  “This is my room,” Kiara annouhen opehe door with a little flourish. “Tada!”

  Mikael entered and found a cozy blend of Eastern aerhetics. Tatami mats covered the floor, and a futon y in one er. There was also a high table with two chairs and numerous pnts around the room, which gave it a natural, vibrant feel against the green walls.

  “Pretty nice, isn’t it?” Kiara said. “We eat here at the table. I even have ptes and utensils.”

  “Holy, this is really cool. I didn’t know the dojo came with a funal room like this,” Mikael said, sitting down at the table.

  Kiara joined him, taking the seat across. “I’m gd you like it! But, um, what are we going to eat?” She added sheepishly, “I kind of fot, but I ’t provide food. Could you buy some? Sorry!” She scratched the back of her head, looking embarrassed.