Chapter 237: You Have To Try

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Knowing how strong Riven truly was from everything they had already witnessed, the four rookies felt a surge of genuine excitement. The idea that he had defeated the Kobold King so cleanly only made that excitement grow sharper.

"More or less," Riven nodded. "But that does not mean any of you get to slack off. Starting now you will train every single day, and the training will be intensive. You will work under me, under Kagehisa, and under Vladimir. We will keep going until you are finally shaped into proper fighters who no longer risk each other’s lives so carelessly."

"T-Training...?" Clair made a face full of open annoyance and mild disgust. "Ugh, do we really have to? Can’t we just hunt a bunch of monsters and level up the normal way—"

"Training is incredibly important!" Riven cut her off before she could finish the sentence. His voice stayed calm but carried enough weight that the entire group straightened. "Do you honestly think relying purely on leveling and skills will get you anywhere useful? What are you even talking about?"

Riven knew the words might sound hypocritical coming from him. The difference between these four and himself was not only a matter of stats and skills.

In his first life he had trained every way he could, pushing his body until it nearly broke, yet he had never managed to grow stronger than an ordinary human. In his second life he had climbed the Tower for fifty floors, mastering combat styles, learning how to read an opponent’s patterns, and studying how different monsters lived and worked together inside their own habitats. That long climb had taught him how to respond under real pressure.

His third life had been mostly wasted, and in the fourth he had existed as some strange alien bug, but the experiences of the first two lives still remained. All of that struggle, all of that near-death training and hard-won knowledge, had allowed him to adapt quickly once he received real power. It was the combined weight of four lifetimes of being hopelessly weak, mixed with his unbreakable desire to protect Elisa and the world they both lived in, that made him the fighter he was now.

"E-Eh?" Clair muttered, her earlier confidence fading.

"B-But that’s..." Philip swallowed hard, already looking nervous.

"I mean... don’t you do the same thing?" Emma asked carefully.

"What?" Riven tilted his head. "You want to fight me and see for yourselves? Fine. I will not use any skills. Hell, I will not even use my real body. I will fight you with a spirit clone that only has twenty-five percent of my actual stats. That should put it roughly on the same level as all four of you together."

Silence fell.

They started sweating. None of them looked eager to accept the challenge.

"We accept," Natalie said suddenly, her voice steady. "I would love to spar against you and see what you can really do."

"EH?!" Clair screamed in response to everything that was happening around her and at Natalie’s statement.

"Natalie?!" Philip almost spoke as if he was begging her to stop, but it wasn’t like he could really do much.

"Are you serious...?" Emma was the most surprised, her eyebrows twitching while the light smile on her face quickly faded away at the same time as she grew paler.

Hearing their complaints, Natalie turned to her three friends with a small, determined smile. "I want you to understand what he means. I also want the three of you to stop being so lazy. If you are not willing to go further for my sake as friends, then I would rather you leave and never speak to me again. You all promised you would protect me, again and again, and you failed. I kept you safe with my magic, but your over-reliance on my barriers and healing spells has made you far too complacent. Hunting is not about spamming a single skill against a monster until it dies like some video game. You have to move. You have to learn where to stand, how your enemy fights, and how to control your own body. This is real life, not a game where you press one button over and over until you win."

The three of them fell quiet again. In the end they did not take Riven up on the sparring offer because they already knew they would lose. Still, they nodded in quiet acceptance of Natalie’s words.

"Fine..." Clair clicked her tongue, looking away. "I’ve been with Natalie since we were kids in preschool. I’m not going anywhere."

After some consideration, they decided to nod along and agree with Natalie’s resolve for now, as they really didn’t had much else to do.

"I would like to learn more from you, sir," Philip said politely, straightening his posture even though he still looked nervous.

"Me too..." Emma added softly. "We should not waste this opportunity. We will do the best we can to improve. Natalie has been our friend for years, and yes... I suppose we fell into the common trap of relying on our healer for everything. That almost got us killed twice already. We cannot let a third time happen."

Natalie’s eyes lit up. "You guys! Thank you!" She threw her arms around Clair and hugged her tightly, making the archer girl blush and struggle.

"G-Get off me!" Clair groaned. "Gwaack! You’re choking me, Natalieeee!"

Riven watched the small scene with a light smile, then glanced over at Label. "What do you think of them? They are full of flaws, but that is how every human being starts out. Even if they are a bit stupid right now, their hearts are still in the right place. Sometimes that is all I need from someone before I can shape them into a proper hunter."

Label was quiet for a moment. She remembered how she herself had once been full of fear and hesitation until Riven forced her to confront it and grow. "Yeah... Okay. I’ll try."

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