Teaching

At the first hint of dawn, Chen Jinyang woke the two little ones, who were sleeping soundly. "Up! Alos! Mishaer! Get up!"

"Ugh—! William! I'm so sleepy! Ah—! Let me sleep a little longer!"

"Ah—! &#*%... Mm—!" The two bleary-eyed sleepyheads mumbled and rolled over, falling right back into a deep sleep.

Looking at the two frail children sleeping so peacefully, Chen Jinyang's heart softened. He decided to let them sleep a little longer. They had plenty of hard days ahead. He went back to heat breakfast, then skinned the Black Wolf he had hunted the day before and stretched the pelt over pine branches he had set aside for firewood to dry in the snow. He had left the wolf meat for the Troll last night. After washing up by the well, he carried half a bucket of clean water back to the cellar.

With a mischievous grin, Chen Jinyang suddenly slipped his hands inside Alos and Mishaer's clothes. "Ahhh—!" Their shrill screams rang out, and the two little ones sprang up like frogs tossed into boiling water, glaring furiously at the "culprit," who was crouched nearby, pretending to be innocent.

Chen Jinyang smiled and clapped his hands. "All right, you two little lazybones! If you want to learn martial arts from me, you need to be ready to work hard! Go wash your faces. Then you'll come outside and train with me." He turned and apologetically told Phinia, who had been woken by the screams, "Go back to sleep. I'll wake you when I get back." Last night, Chen Jinyang, that "beast," had been too rough with the half-ogress. After he carried Phinia back, she had collapsed like a puddle of mud and fallen straight asleep.

"William's so mean! He put his freezing hands on me!"

"Yeah! Big brother William's so mean!"

Chen Jinyang put on a stern face. "Enough talking! Hurry up and wash your faces. Stop dawdling." The two disgruntled little ones reluctantly went to the bucket and reached for the water. "Ah! It's so cold!" The cold water jolted Alos and Mishaer fully awake.

Chen Jinyang ladled two bowls of chicken soup from the pot. Seeing the children barely splash any water on their faces before calling it done, he didn't point it out. Instead, he handed them the bowls and said, "Here! Drink your soup before we go out!" Then he poured himself a bowl and gulped it down. A warm current rose from his stomach and quickly spread throughout his body.

The two little ones cradled their wooden bowls and sipped their chicken soup slowly, going "slurp, slurp." Their eyes narrowed into happy little slits. Big brother's cooking was getting better and better.

After they finished their soup, Chen Jinyang led Alos and Mishaer out into the yard. He carried an enormous pole and slung two thick ropes over his back, while each child carried a short javelin. They followed him along the wall toward the battlefield where the Troll had fought yesterday. Chen Jinyang had already thought about what to teach the two little ones. He couldn't teach them internal martial arts; the bloodlines in this family were seriously problematic. Whenever they trained, their bloodline powers went berserk. He could control his own only because of his past experience, but the children didn't have that ability. And then there was the problem of their excessive desires. That was a serious issue—he couldn't let his lessons corrupt them. The children were also too weak to start training in external hard skills. For now, he could only build up their bodies and teach them evasive techniques and footwork to keep them alive. He could also teach them some relatively simple hand-to-hand combat skills, like kickboxing, taekwondo, and karate. He would decide what else to teach them later.

When the three of them reached their destination, they saw two monsters, much thinner than the Troll from yesterday, greedily devouring the half a wild wolf carcass Chen Jinyang had brought over the previous night. Most of the body had already been eaten. As the two young trolls ate, their bodies slowly grew. It probably wouldn't be long before they were as large as the Troll from yesterday.

Seeing that the monsters were too busy eating to pay attention to them, Chen Jinyang left them alone. He set down his gear and led his two young pupils some distance away to stretch their chests and legs, loosening up their bodies.

As he did his stretches, Alos asked, puzzled, "William, what are we doing? Are we going to learn this later?" He stopped stretching and tried to imitate some of the more showy moves he had seen Chen Jinyang practice, copying them only vaguely.

Chen Jinyang smacked the fidgety boy on the back of the head. "Keep stretching! Don't fidget! And from now on, call me 'Master' when we train, understand?"

"What does 'Master' mean?" Mishaer asked, doing the same stretch with an air of importance.

"Master means... Oh!" Chen Jinyang didn't actually know how to say "teacher" in Common. At first, he had managed with guesswork, and over time he had picked up some simpler expressions. Formal terms like this were beyond him, so he was at a loss for words.

"Never mind! Call me whatever you like. First, we need to get in shape and build up your stamina!" He reached out and pinched the skinny arms of the two little ones, who had finished their warm-up. Because of malnutrition, both children were short and looked a year or two younger than their actual age. Oh! They had put on a little weight. After several months of making sure the siblings got extra nourishing food, their bodies had filled out noticeably.

Chen Jinyang pushed up the wide sleeves of his beast-hide robe and flexed his arm, showing off a bicep that was smoother than before but still more terrifying than solid rock. Alos and Mishaer knew William was strong, but this was the first time they had seen big brother show off up close. In unison, they exclaimed, "Wow!" Little Alos would bet that even the powerful adventurers he had seen in the tavern couldn't match his brother's strength.

"I wish I could be as strong as big brother William!" the little girl murmured wistfully, gazing admiringly at Chen Jinyang's muscular arm.

Hearing the little girl's quiet words, Chen Jinyang imagined the petite, adorable girl turning into a burly mass of muscle. A chill ran down his spine, and he quickly shook the thought from his head. He cleared his throat several times to draw her attention and disabuse Mishaer of the idea. "You need to build up your bodies before you can learn more powerful techniques. Like this!" Chen Jinyang spun around with a shout that cracked like thunder and side-kicked a tree trunk as thick as a man's embrace. "Bang! Crack—" The trunk snapped, and the snow piled in its branches cascaded down like a waterfall. The two little ones gaped at the broken trunk, then ran over and touched the splintered break in disbelief.

"That's so scary! It's even thicker than I am! Amazing! He kicked it in one go. William's so strong!" The two children circled the broken trunk, exclaiming in wonder.

"Damn it! I used too much force!" Chen Jinyang's display had made an impact like a street performer smashing a stone on his chest. But, covered in snow from head to toe, he stood on one leg, gritting his teeth and trembling as his right leg went numb. He had only meant to make the kick sound impressive, but in his haste to show off, he had overdone it. His body couldn't keep up with his growing strength. In other words, his strength and physique were unbalanced, and if he used too much force, he injured himself.

Chen Jinyang shakily brushed the snow off himself, a little embarrassed as he looked at the two curious children gawking at him. This was bad. Their first training session might be a bust. Who would have thought that a grandmaster like him could make such a rookie mistake? How embarrassing! He'd have to bluff his way through the lesson today. Balancing on one leg like a rooster, he clapped his hands to get the siblings' attention. "All right, stop gawking! I'm going to teach you something called 'martial arts.' It's a special skill that combines strength and technique. Right now, you need to build strength and stamina. See those two trees up ahead?" Chen Jinyang pointed to two large trees about twenty or thirty meters apart. The little ones nodded repeatedly.

"Run back and forth between those two trees until I tell you to stop. Understand? Go on!" The two unquestioning little admirers eagerly ran over and did as they were told.

Chen Jinyang sat with his back against the broken tree, rubbing his injured right foot over and over. He watched the little ones struggle back and forth through the snow. Their oversized leather robes trailed behind them, making them look quite funny. After getting Winter Wolf pelts, he had cut up the hide he had first obtained from the Ogre and made the children two robes. Phinia had confirmed that it was the hide of a young Snowfield Lion. Now the little ones were fully kitted out: they wore deerskin hats, jackets, and trousers, refitted Muntjac-hide boots, and Snowfield Lion robes over it all. The little girl especially liked to wear her Horn of Kor over her deerskin hat.

"Faster! Faster! Mishaer, keep going! Alos is catching up! Oh! Alos passed you! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Alos! Alos! Alos fell! Mishaer, your chance! Oh! Mishaer fell too! Mishaer's helmet fell off! Oh, oh, oh! Alos passed you again!" Chen Jinyang kept stirring up the rivalry between the two little ones, letting them get caught up in the hope of winning so they wouldn't get bored with running.

Only when the children couldn't run anymore, their little faces flushed as they sprawled in the soft snow, panting heavily, did Chen Jinyang tell them to stop and call them over. He flexed his right foot, which had mostly recovered. It seemed the injury wasn't too serious; he just couldn't exert himself too much for the next couple of days. Chen Jinyang smiled. "How does it feel? Not bad, right?"

"Al—Alos ran—ran too fast! I—I couldn't catch—catch up to him!" The little girl was so out of breath she could barely speak. Her little hands kept straightening the horned helmet that blocked her eyes. Little Alos was too tired even to speak. He sat on the ground, panting like an ox.

"Get up! Get up! We're moving on to the next exercise!" Chen Jinyang pulled Alos to his feet and said, "Hands behind your head! Feet slightly apart! Mishaer, stand up straight! Now squat! Stand up! Good! Squat! Stand up! That's it!" Chen Jinyang showed Alos and Mishaer how to do squats.

A few furious roars rang out. Chen Jinyang smiled and glanced back. Not far away, the two newly hatched trolls had nearly finished eating the wolf carcass and were roaring as they fought over the last scraps. He told the two little ones, "All right, you two practice this movement here until I get back!" With that, Chen Jinyang left them to practice on their own, picked up the ropes from the ground, and dragged the enormous pole toward the trolls, who were gradually turning their attention his way.