It was early morning when Subaru was supposed to restart working again. Instead his schedule had changed so that he would be training. Because he would have to be tutored in many customs as well, the Roswaal mansion had lost most of it's workforce. Subaru was no longer working and when he was getting tutored, Rem or Ram would be out of action as well. As a result, it was decided that until Roswaal managed to hire another maid, he would dedicate himself purely to training. Subaru wanted to learn magic, but decided to split it. He would do training that used stamina until he was almost out, then switch to magic until his stamina recovered, then back to magic for as long as he could. Taking breaks for meals when he needed to.

Subaru walked outside under the cover of night. At this point, he was used to waking up when it was still dark outside. He took out his sword and began testing out just how far his new stats had taken him. He could move much faster than before. Even without using any skills, his speed was superior. Next was his attack and defence. He had nothing to test this on, but judging from all the levels he had gotten and the upgrade of his equipment, it was a little over double what it had been before. He didn't know how high defence had to be to start being immune to attacks, but he didn't want to test it.

His magical stats were only marginally better, so he put off testing them until he was done with physical training. Subaru lifted the wooden sword above his head and began swinging. Subaru knew that practicing like this was nothing like being in a real battle, but he couldn't complain. Maybe in the morning, he could sneak into the forest, but if the others learned he was doing this, then they would immediately intervene. Subaru was also tempted to get Rem to spar with him. Seeing as she was a strong opponent, it would definitely be worthwhile training. He would have to wait for a new hire though.

His stamina gave way shortly after gaining a level. By this point, the sun was already up and he had been swinging for several hours. At one point, Emilia had come out to talk to the spirits and watch him, but left when she had to go attend to her studies. Subaru walked back to the mansion, not a drop of sweat on him. He walked in on a breakfast in progress, so he spoke a quick apology and began wolfing down food.

"You sure have a lot of stamina. You haven't even broken a sweat and you've been swinging your sword all morning. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen you break a sweat."

Puck spoke up, taking note of Subaru's superior stamina.

"Sorry to hurt your expectations, but I came in when I was just about to run out. I don't experience exhaustion or show any signs of it until I'm completely drained."

"Is it a divine protection then?"

"Divine protection?"

Subaru encountered yet another term he was unfamiliar with. He'd have to study this in the library with Beatrice later.

"You don't know? A divine protection is something people are born with. They gain great powers through it. Like the divine protection of the wind spirits. Gives you some power to control the wind and such."

This was basically a perfect excuse. He knew that revealing the system would be a bad idea, but if he disguised it as a divine protection, then people would probably accept the explanation.

"Oh, we called it something different where I come from, but in that case, it is a divine protection."

"I see. Well that'll give you a pretty good advantage in fights if you use it well."

He returned to training shortly after. His stamina had fully restored. He didn't want to go back to sword training since he'd already done that in the morning. Instead he wanted to test out the mana wing skill now that he could actually try it out doors. He was hoping that there would be a flying skill that would assist him. If not, he would have to spend a great deal of time training it.

He summoned the wings and watched as his mana bar took a hit. It wasn't to the point of not being useable, but it would definitely help if he had more. Another reason to gain levels. He mentally prepared him and told his wings to flap at maximum power. That was his mistake.

"WOAH, THIS IS WAY TOO FAST."

At maximum power, the wings sent him far off the ground. He saw the top of the mansion and kept heading up. His momentum carrying him into the sky. He didn't know how to fly, but now he was in a situation where if he didn't learn, he come crashing into the ground rather fast. He didn't want to test if his body was capable of withstanding the hit.

As Subaru's body began plummeting to the ground, he remembered what birds would do to fly. He spread out his wings and prayed that it would slow his descent. His fall suddenly halted. He was flying! Joy at his success came in the form of his great view from his height and a notification from the system. 'Skill Acquired—Flight'

"Amazing"

That word came out of his mouth as he flew straight. The view was amazing, so long as he didn't look down. He wasn't flying, but gliding. Eventually he knew he would reach the ground, but the mansion was beginning to be left behind. He needed to turn. He tried to act like an airplane would and tilted his weight in one direction slowly. He slowly turned back in the direction of the mansion. He circled the area waiting for him the loose enough height. He could glide and turn, but anything else was out of the question. 'Skill: Flying is now level 2.'

As he flew, the map filled in at a very fast rate. He flew over the village, the forest, past a cave, he was still high in the air when he realized something very bad. It costs mana to maintain the wings. While it was minimal, his mana would still slowly go down. He had been so thrilled with flying over everything that he forgot to check. Sure enough, it was close to being out. He knew he had to descend faster or he would end up falling out of the sky. He looked around to face the mansion. He tucked his wings in and began falling once more. Every few seconds, he stuck his wings out to stop his momentum. Just as he was about to run out of mana, he dropped from around the height of the second floor and crash landed. He rolled for a few seconds before lying face up. Rem and Ram, who were working outside at the time were surprised when Subaru came crashing down from the sky and rushed over.

"What happened Barusu?"

Although Ram insulted him less, she still called him by that name.

"I tried flying and I went a little too high."

Subaru lay on the ground defeated. He would not use maximum power again. He was going to need to learn how to land as well. He knew Roswaal could fly, but their methods were vastly different.

Rem and Ram left to continue their work. Subaru sat up after a while.

"I guess I'm not going to be practicing magic today."

His MP was drained, so he had no choice but to give up. Subaru stood up and thought about what he wanted to do. By the time he was going to be considered a full knight, he wanted his main skills to be level 15. He also wanted to make last stand go up to a higher level, but the nature of the skill made it difficult to practice it. In addition, he wanted his magic to be up to par and to be able to fly well. He began to think of possibilities to practice all these skills that made use of MP when his pool was so limited. In the end, the best solution was just to gain more levels. He decided than when he woke up in the early morning, he would sneak off to fight the wolgarm that inhabited the forest. Seeing as he was flying around for so long, he had missed lunch entirely. For now, he would swing his sword until dinner.

Once at dinner, he realized how difficult it would be to raise his skills from this point. Despite swinging all morning and for a while after that, he had only brought it up to level 9. Swinging for most of the day had given him two levels. He was probably going to have to dedicate full days or even weeks once he made it to level 20. On the other hand, he could cheat with his skill points if he found it taking too long. He had amassed tons of them. That was also a viable method for leveling his last stand.

"I seeeeee you're already traaaiiining very hard, Subaru. I heard that you went for a fly as weeeell."

"Yeah, I'll do my best not to disappoint. As for the flight, I can't really make super practical use of it right now seeing that my landing was a total failure. I'd ask you to help me out with it, but our methods of flight are pretty different."

"I have heard that you use wiiiinnngs to fly. I don't believe I could heeeelllp you with that."

Subaru nodded and continued eating. The rest of dinner passed uneventfully.

As Subaru was getting ready for bed, he had a great idea. The last stand skill family was difficult to level, but maybe he could get away with the basic skill. If he activated it, and before he ran out of mana and stamina, canceled it, then he could train the skill. It was also useful if this worked in battle. Rather than activate it as a last resort, he could use it only right when he was attacking, and then cancel. The possibilities were endless. Since it was night, he had no reason not to try it out. If it failed, he would sleep for a few extra hours, and if it didn't, he had a way to train last stand.

He activated it and felt a surge of power coarse through him, a faint colorless aura covering his body. As soon as it came, it went. It had been deactivated. Subaru felt his pride at figuring this out come out. Even if there was no one to gloat about it to, it was a great accomplishment for him. He slipped under the covers and went to bed.

Natsuki Subaru, Lv. 18, Genius

Job: Sage Candidate

Secondary Job: Apprentice Swordsman lv. 1

Stats: (45 Stat Points)

Attack: 22[+20](+10)

Defense: 22[+10](+10)

Magic Attack: 22

Magic Defence: 22

Speed: 57[+6][+10](+10)

Skills:

Arithmetic 1, Writing 1, Magic Resist 1, Knife 1, Strategy 1, Last Strike 1, Last Spell 1, Last Defence 1, CQC 1, Boxing 1

Sense Danger 2, Fear Resist 2, Space Resist 2, Negotiate 2, Healing Magic 2, Lugnica Common Language 2, Curse Resistance 2, Curse Removal 2, Flight 2

Inspect 3, Footwork 3

Pain Resist 4, Space Magic 4

Cleaning 5

Madness Resist 6

Swordsmanship 9

Hand to hand 10, Musicianship 10

Last Stand 11

Sprinting 12

Unique: Return by Death

So much for updating in the format. I started writing and just couldn't stop. The transition between arcs here is going to be be a bit longer than I anticipated. Also thank you to Well- O- Being for the great ideas. I'll see you all in the next chapter.