After a long rest from returning home, Ian woke up bright and early. The sun slowly rose on the horizon, shining down shades of yellow and orange.

  Ian got out of bed, getting dressed for the day. Lucky, once again, was in a deep slumber, so Ian decided against waking him up. He quickly put on his shoes before heading downstairs.

  In the living room, he saw Erik putting on his boots, getting ready to leave as well.

  “Mornin', Dad.”

  “Ian? I wasn’t expecting you to be up so early.”

  “What do you mean? I was just getting ready to join you and the others for the morning workout.”

  “You’re still doing that? I told you it was just as a punishment; you can stop doing them.”

  “I know, but I enjoy doing them. My body and strength have improved over the past year and a few months. Why would I stop now?”

  “Fair enough. Well, in that case, let’s get going.”

  Ian nodded his head before walking in step with Erik.

  Once at the training grounds, Ian did as he always had, doing as much as he could within the allotted time. Unlike when he first started doing the workout routine, he was now completing more than half of all the exercises. However, he wasn’t as fast or as strong as the others. Instead, he was consistent.

  Whenever the group started an exercise, everyone would start off strong and fast, completing most of the sets before slowing down. Ian, on the other hand, was consistent throughout each set. He was steady, not going too fast or too slow. This allowed him to keep up without getting exhausted fast.

  Erik noted this, smiling to himself.

  “If only he were…” Erik shook his head, removing the thought from his mind.

  By the end of the morning workout, Ian had completed around 60 percent of the total workout. He was seated on the ground breathing heavily, but wasn’t exhausted.

  Erik came over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Ian looked up at him, still breathing heavily. The two of them made eye contact before smiling at each other. A silent acknowledgement of one another. Once the moment passed, Erik walked away to talk to his men, and Ian got up to continue with his day.

  Ian left the training grounds, heading towards Liam’s place. Along the way, Ian saw a few other villagers, waving at them as he passed and greeting them.

  Once he was a couple of meters away from Liam’s place, Ian could hear the ominous sounds of the workshop. The sound of grinders, hammers, and saws filled the air, slowly getting louder as Ian got closer.

  By the time Ian was at the front door, he could barely hear his own thoughts, let alone his footsteps. Knowing there’s no point in knocking, he entered the workshop.

  Inside, besides the increase in volume of tools, Ian saw many scattered machines and parts. At the far end of the workshop, he could see a massive tarp blocking the view of whatever Liam was working on. All he could see were sparks flying from welding and grinding.

  Around the tarp, there were large parts on the ground or suspended by chains. Ian couldn’t make out what most of them were, but he could identify what looked like an arm suspended by chains and a giant hammer on the ground.

  As Ian made his way towards the tarp, he kept looking around the workshop, looking at all the different creations. There were weapons, tools, machines, and other things.

  When he reached the tarp, he walked around it slowly, making sure not to touch anything. On the other side of it stood a towering machine. It looked similar to the stone giant he saw during the wolf attack, but this one was slightly taller, less bulky, and was made with a mix of metal and stone.

  At the top of it, near the shoulder of it, Ian could see a figure welding. He knew it was Liam, but he wouldn’t be able to call out to him with all the noise. Plus, he could see that Liam was wearing earmuffs.

  Ian looked around him, searching for something he could use to get Liam’s attention. Eventually, he grabbed a wrench from a nearby table and chucked it at Liam.

  With a small clank, Liam gets hit on the head where his earmuffs are. Though the hit was softened by the earmuffs, it still hurt him. Liam grabbed his head for a bit before rubbing the pain away.

  He turned his head to see what hit him, only to see Ian standing below him. Liam wasn’t expecting anyone, so he was surprised to see Ian. He quickly secured his tools near the area he was working on before making his way down.

  “Ian, I wasn’t expecting you to come today. Is there something you wanted to talk about?”

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  “Well, I wanted to talk about gauntlets. I’ve had them for over a year and thought it'd be good to let you know how they’re doing.”

  “Oh, absolutely. I didn’t get a chance to collect data on them the last time you came back to the village, so this is perfect. Please, tell me all you’ve experienced.”

  “The gauntlets have been great and have helped me understand my capabilities more. Their defensive capabilities have also come in handy, but…”

  “But, but what?”

  “I’ve noticed that they’re struggling to keep up. I’ve grown stronger this past year, especially during one of my final exams. However, the gauntlets can’t seem to keep up with my growth.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The gauntlets seem to be holding me back a bit. They are filtering my power, but they just don’t seem to be giving out as much as my body needs. Whenever I try to go all out, it feels like I'm only reaching around 90 percent of what I should be reaching. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve been a huge help, and I do feel stronger, but not…fully.”

  Liam listened to Ian’s complaint, pondering what the issue could be. He scratched his chin as he thought, looking between Ian and his gauntlets.

  After a moment, Liam said, “Can we test something real quick?”

  “Sure, what do you want to test?”

  “When was the last time you got your power evaluated?”

  “Hmm, that was during the evaluation test at the start of the school year. I haven’t had a chance to get it tested since I was focused on school and all.”

  “I see. Okay then, let me just see how much you’ve grown this past year, and then I can go from there.” Liam walked away from Ian and started rummaging through his messy workshop. After a bit of searching, he found his testing crystal ball.

  “Found it. Let me set up the crystal ball, then we can get you tested.”

  Ian nodded his head. He then looked around the workshop for a bit, checking out some of the different machines. He saw large drills that pulsed with energy, weapons that hung on the wall, cables lining the floor to power everything, and tool carts scattered throughout. There were some things that were still in the process of being built, lying on tables with tools surrounding them.

  Ian was always amazed by all the things Liam would create while also maintaining the growing village. No one was a big workaholic then he was. It worries everyone who knows him, but no one can stop him. No one except Frida.

  The thought of seeing Liam half dead after Frida was done with him crept into Ian’s mind, sending a shiver down his spine. “Geez, I could never handle someone like her. I don’t envy Liam.”

  “I’m finished,” Liam called out from across the workshop.

  Ian turned towards the opposite side of the workshop, making his way there. Once he managed to weave through all the clutter, Ian reached Liam.

  Liam turned his head to Ian. “The crystal’s all set up. Now, just like before, place your hand on it and let it read your energy. I have it set to only read power and tell us your score.”

  Ian nodded his head before walking up to the crystal ball. He gently placed his hand on the surface of it and activated his energy, letting it flow into it. As his energy flowed into the crystal, his gauntlets also activated, filtering his energy.

  The energy swirled inside the crystal ball as it processed it. Once it was done reading Ian’s energy, the energy took on the shape of a number. Both Ian and Liam stared at the number in amazement.

  “301… The crystal ball is reading your energy to be 301,” Liam spoke out loud.

  Ian stared at the number in shock. He knew he had grown throughout the year, but he didn’t expect to have grown so much. He thought back to all of the training he did, all the creatures he hunted, and all the creatures he ate. The math wasn’t adding up.

  “And you say you feel like you’re only reaching 90 percent of your maximum strength? If that’s true, then you’ve grown faster than I thought.” Liam kept looking at the crystal ball.

  “I know I’ve grown, but this is more than I expected. I thought I was going to get a score of 280 or 290, but this. And it’s not even the max of what I feel it should be. Something doesn’t add up.”

  “Well, if you think about it. You’re still copper-ranked, which means you can still collect points from copper-ranked creatures. It makes sense, but that means you’ve been hunting a lot.”

  I did do a lot of hunting, but even then, I don't think I did that much hunting. Plus, I would share some of my catch with Lucky, so there’s no possible way I’ve grown so much.”

  “I don’t know why you’re complaining. You’ve reached my level of strength so quickly. If I were you, I would be happy about it.”

  “I am happy about it. It’s just…”

  “Then stop complaining and accept that you’ve grown.”

  “I guess you have a point. This is a good thing. I was just surprised.”

  “That’s understandable. However, I think I know what the problem is now.”

  “You do?” Ian snapped his head to face Liam.

  “I’m pretty sure I know what the problem is. You see, when I made the gauntlets, I designed them to grow alongside you gradually. But it seems you’ve grown faster than the gauntlets can keep up with.”

  “So, I’m surpassing their capability?”

  “I’m afraid so. Your growth exceeds my expectations, which is leading to your feeling of being restricted.”

  “Is there anything you can do about it?”

  “Tweaking them would be difficult since I created them to grow with you gradually. I would need to create a new pair that can keep up with your exponential growth.”

  “So I have to wait for you to create a new pair?”

  “Sadly, yes. And I won’t have time to start working on them until I’m finished with my battle machine.”

  “You mean the giant golem-like thing behind the tarp?”

  “Yes. I still have a few months' worth of work left to go, so I won't be able to start working on the new gauntlets for a while.”

  “So, what should I do in the meantime?”

  “For now, try not to hunt anything else, and if you do, make sure to feed it to Lucky instead. Besides that, keep using the gauntlets so they can gradually adjust to your strength. After using them for a while longer, they should adjust to your new strength. It's just a slow process.”

  “And what if I keep growing?”

  “If you keep growing, you’ll keep putting strain on the gauntlets. Too much strain and they’ll break.”

  “I see,” Ian sighed.

  “Hey, don’t feel down. The fact that you’re outpacing the gauntlets is a fantastic thing. Sure, you’ll need to take a step back and take it easy for a bit, but it just goes to show how incredible you are.” Liam tried to comfort Ian.

  “You have a point. But this still sucks. I really want to go do some more hunting while I’m here.”

  “Well, now you can take this time to relax and enjoy yourself.”

  “I guess.” Ian sulked for a bit.

  *sigh* “Thanks for your time, Liam. You’ve been a big help to me, and I appreciate it.”

  “Of course. I’m happy to help when I can.”

  With that, Ian said goodbye to Liam before finally leaving the workshop. Now that he had to restrict himself from doing the things he wanted to, he was gonna have to find other things to do for the next month.