Eric had just returned from breakfast and was lying flat on his bed, thinking about the last few years of training.

  Eric was now 14 and a few months older. He no longer had a childish air around him and had grown up enough to become a nearly 7-foot-tall, handsome giant!

  His body wasn’t bulging with muscle, but no one could deny how much power it held.

  Eric currently had the athletic body type he’d always preferred, but his arms, chest, and back were quite broad and muscular. At least the good thing was that while wearing clothes, he didn’t look like those ridiculous bodybuilders from Earth, whom he’d never liked.

  He could confidently say he could now beat anyone from his past world, whether they were holding weapons or were experts in martial arts. He could deal with them so swiftly they wouldn’t even be able to call for their mommy.

  Even Eric felt numb at his own 'unrealistic progress.'

  Perhaps it was due to the Mana in the atmosphere, which helped people progress beyond normal human limits compared to Earth—though he still hadn’t become a Mana Wielder yet.

  His strength, speed, reflexes, balance, control, and precision were all off the charts. He could now even catch arrows mid-air—though not every time.

  His body’s defense had also improved greatly. He was sure his body could block bullets now, and his next target was to block armor-piercing bullets! Ahem, he was certain he’d die trying. But a man could dream, no?

  Even Lyria and Livy had sighed multiple times, saying this was the strongest mortal physique they’d ever seen or heard of.

  Even Riya had declared his body had reached the peak of human possibility and might not progress further.

  What was even scarier was that both Lyria and Livy had kept up with him, matching his physical capabilities!

  He just doesn’t understand how women can become so strong physically in this world. But he understood one thing—they must have really hated their 'ex'!

  Determined women were the scariest.

  Though all three had made physical progress, what truly made them powerful were their skills. Or rather, it was Bella Noll’s knowledge—and her determination to go all the way—that had the greatest impact on their progress.

  There were many brutal training exercises. For example, one such was dueling training where Bella Noll pit them into one-on-one matches and had the remaining one, plus herself, start shooting arrows or throwing knives from various angles while the two dueled. It was extremely difficult because it didn’t matter who got hit, so while they dueled, they also had to focus on their surroundings. Later on, they targeted only one person who was dueling, which made it even harder.

  Over the years, all three had failed to become Mana Wielders.

  For Eric, he needed at least two more years, but he didn’t want to wait any longer. Their physical training had long peaked, and even Bella Noll had stopped teaching them anything new, telling them the rest was up to them.

  That didn’t mean they were omnipotent. They lacked real-life battle experience.

  Bella Noll had mentioned that once they became Mana Wielders, they’d get that experience, but until then, they shouldn’t attempt anything too big, as they still weren’t a match for even an early-stage Rank 1 Mage, much less a Warrior.

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  Today would be Bella Noll’s final afternoon class, and she had declared she’d answer all their questions about Mana Wielders!

  They were all excited—but also forlorn, as this would be their last class.

  Graduation was always such a lonely thing when one thoroughly enjoyed their torture.

  After meditating for a few hours, Eric heard a knock on his door.

  He quickly pulled on a simple t-shirt and opened it—behind the door stood Lyria and Livy.

  Gazing at their heights, nearly matching his, Eric wanted to cry.

  There was something seriously different about women in this world!

  Currently, Eric was winning by half an inch, so he was a bit more relaxed. But he still had nightmares now and then that one day, both girls might beat him up and make him their little brother. Because of this, he sometimes woke up in the middle of the night drenched in cold sweat from such horrifying night terrors.

  Eric was helpless—not just because of Lyria and Livy’s heights, but also their bombastic female physiques, which had rapidly improved over the years.

  Although they hadn't reached MILF level yet, their tall figures had already surpassed any 5 ft or even 6 ft MILF from Earth—even surpassing Hannah's!

  Thankfully, due to Lyria and Livy’s heights, their figures were just perfect—not abnormally huge—and fit perfectly with their looks, to the point that even Eric always felt his blood charging madly toward his dark, evil regions.

  But Eric was, after all, an old saint. No matter how much his hormones tormented him, he could enjoy them thoroughly while remaining completely indifferent toward it.

  Lyria and Livy smiled at Eric and nodded.

  Eric smiled back.

  None of them were in the mood to joke or chat as this would be their final class with Bella Noll.

  Lyria and Livy turned and headed toward the stairs, toward Bella Noll’s room, with Eric silently following behind.

  Glancing at their figures from behind, Eric secretly swallowed his saliva.

  Both girls were freaking huge compared to what any Earthling could imagine—but to him, they were breathtakingly attractive, the most gorgeous girls he’d ever seen, in pictures or real life.

  If he had seen either of these girls during his past life, he might have truly fallen for them. Good thing he was dumb and never went into any relationship, despite receiving multiple love confessions—both directly and indirectly—and thanks to this, he had escaped all landmines and enjoyed his life till he died.

  Eric had only been in one relationship, and that too for an extremely short few months, just to experiment; after that, he was single throughout his life.

  Riya laughed, "Haha, finally succumbing to my sisters’ charm, huh? But I have developed equally! You are missing out on the dream girl inside your mind! Still, just look at those figures! Damn, they already have your preferred figure now. I wonder what will happen in the next few years."

  Eric rolled his eyes. But Riya wasn’t wrong.

  Lyria and Livy looked so beautiful that even Eric, with his advanced 21st-century imagination, couldn’t come up with an answer. So, he blamed it entirely on his hormones, which made the opposite gender very attractive to him.

  Riya was also correct on the fact that she herself had also become a breathtaking beauty.

  But Eric had stopped visiting her in Mind Space as much as possible. Although he could remain indifferent even when his hormones were busy doing flips inside him, he was still just a young boy. Watching a gorgeous, tall woman with an absolutely great figure wearing near-transparent men’s underwear was anything but torture for his innocent self.

  Focusing back on Lyria and Livy, Eric also felt pity—though they might have great figures and some more attractive elements, such as eight-pack abs, they also had strong arms, thighs, and so on. They were a little too far from being soft like females.

  Perhaps many would be attracted to such women, but he personally was not into macho women.

  Riya reminded him, "You do recall that they once asked something similar to Grandma in a whisper, and then she laughed and informed all three of you that while becoming a Mana Wielder, one’s body also undergoes a massive change, and one can alter one’s physical body to some extent."

  Eric nodded, but that was 'if' Lyria and Livy could ever become Mana Wielders—and who knew when that would happen? So till then, they could only become like Hannah, who beats up her husband.

  One thing he had noticed was that Bella Noll always treated Lyria and Livy as if she was certain that they would both become Mana Wielders one day, and because of this, both Lyria and Livy had also started thinking this way without noticing.

  Laughable, because both girls were forever crippled without any hope. But this was also the smart way to live.

  What the future holds, no one knows, and worrying about it would only destroy the present. So, it is always best to focus only on the present rather than worrying about things that are out of one’s current reach.

  Eric shook his head, dropped his hormone-influenced thoughts about girls, and considered deeply what else he needed to purchase. He had been planning and secretly preparing for a long while, and after this class with Bella Noll, he wanted to begin.

  They soon arrived in front of Bella Noll’s room on the second floor.

  Bella Noll was very old now, and so she had already handed her designation as House Mother of the Orphanage to Hannah. Now, Bella Noll just stayed inside her room almost all the time.

  After Lyria knocked on the door, an old woman’s voice came from inside, "Come in."

  The voice almost seemed ancient—unlike how Bella Noll had sounded a few years back, she had grown much older.

  The three of them sighed in their hearts. They had seen Bella Noll getting older and older with each passing year, as if she were skipping decades with each year.

  After Eric, Lyria, and Livy walked in, a similar sight greeted them: an extremely old woman sitting on her sofa, facing the door, with a tea table in front of her and, beyond that, a three-seater sofa where they usually sat.

  Lyria and Livy smiled, but their smiles were a bit stiff—they had known Bella Noll since childhood, and though she had looked old a few years back, now she looked no different from an over-a-century-old mortal woman. And this would also be their last class…

  Eric genuinely smiled, as he always did, and hoped Bella Noll wouldn’t kick the bucket too soon as he wanted to show her that he had become a Mana Wielder so she could leave peacefully. He only needed a few more years, after all.