Look of potential

Sic woke up with a massive headache. He could only remember bits and pieces of what had happened. Having his arm broken, being healed by someone, and passing out.

Thinking any harder than that made his head hurt.

He slowly looked around and noticed he was in his room. He stayed laid down for awhile, until he felt good enough to sit up.

After sitting up, he realized someone else was in the room with him. He recognized the woman as the one who had broken his arm.

'Great.'

The woman seemed to notice the movement, and slowly opened her eyes to look at him.

"Good morning."

'Thats it!? No apology, nothing?'

Sic was about to angrily complain about the audacity, but she spoke before he could.

"I want you to be my disciple."

Sic was physically taken aback.

"Huh?!"

The woman smiled slightly.

"You heard me, did you not? I want you to be my disciple. I have this little ability to tell how strong someone is, and you seem to have the potential to be very strong."

'That seems... Like a very convenient ability.'

Almost too convenient, in Sic's opinion.

"Do I.. get a choice?"

The woman smiled a little wider.

"Do you think you do?"

Sic shivered. He was already scared of her after she, you know, broke his arm.

He pondered for a second. He didn't know who she even was, but she seemed strong. Veil also called her an 'important customer', so she had to be someone special.

He also needed training, and a lot of it.

"Fine. But, can you tell me why you broke my arm?"

She giggled

"Nope."

"What do you mean nope?!"

She stood up and walked towards the door.

"As my disciple, you will refer to me as 'Master'. We will train every day, and I expect you to become stronger than me. Understand?"

Sic was hesitant, but nodded his head.

"Good. We start tomorrow, meet me at the park south from here."

And with that, she left.

Sic was still slightly stunned after that conversation.

But he also had some suspicions. There was no way she actually believed he was strong. There was something else she was getting at, but Sic had no idea what that could be. He needed to be cautious.

He also needed to make sure no one found out about Chaos. He was supposed to be hiding him from the gods, and going around telling people about it wouldn't really help with that.

While he was thinking, he summoned his knife. This time, it was almost instantaneous. Smiling, he brought it up to his palm and tried to cut it. It was hard to do without the knife breaking his hand, but it worked.

Making sure his powers worked as intended, he stood up and looked around. He saw his old clothes he was wearing in a bag on the floor. Next to his bed on the table was a new pair of clothes. He was also currently wearing some new clothes.

'Uh... who did this?'

Blushing slightly, Sic changed into his new clothes and headed down to the bar.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he looked around the bar. Everything looked pretty much the same. The only thing he noticed that was different was the old man behind the bar itself. He looked around 60 with a large orange mustache. He was a big man, who easily towered over anyone who walked close enough to him.

Walking towards the man, Sic was slightly nervous.

"Hello, Mr. Redlest."

The man smiled at him.

"Atta boy! I'm surprised you managed to recover from a broken arm so quickly!"

Sic had only met Mr. Redlest once. It was on his second day, when he found out Veil wasn't actually the one who owned the bar, but her dad.

He was... very playful, to say the least. Sic had only ever seen him mess around and make jokes, but it was endearing to know that someone as old as him could still have a good sense of humor.

"Yeah, it didn't feel very good while it was happening."

He laughed again.

"Well, you're doing better now aren't you? I think that's plenty good. Now, hurry up and get to work, I'm not paying you to stand around."

"Yes sir!"

Sic marched into the supply closet, got his tools, and headed to work.

***

After a long shift, Sic was finally laying back in his bed. He was both exhausted and excited. He wondered how the training with his new master tomorrow would go. Would it be painful? Probably.

One last time before he fell asleep, he manifested his knife with little trouble. Satisfied, he slowly let the sleep take him away.

***

When he woke up that morning, he felt a mix of emotions. He was scared for his well-being, excited for the chance of learning how to properly fight, and worrying about what his new 'master' truly had planned for him.

Getting up and getting dressed, albeit into his work clothes, he headed down to the bar.

Veil was waiting for him.

"Goodmorning Sic. Are you heading to the park for your training?"

He nodded his head.

"Well, make sure not to get lost. Just walk down the street from here and you'll see it. Have fun!"

She laughed a little before walking away.

'Well that's not worrying at all's

Sic opened the door, and walked outside.

The scenery was about the same as he remembered. He hadn't gone outside for the past week, so it was nice to finally get some fresh air.

It was nice to get fresh air at all, actually.

Walking down the street Veil had told him to, he looked around at the people walking around him. Many people were just walking, with family, partners, and pets. He noticed a group of men carrying a large box down the street, too. After walking for a couple of minutes, he saw something that baffled him

A car.

The streets were more for actual people instead of cars. They were hard to come by in the first place, and only the richest could even afford them. Seeing one was definitely a new experience.

As he was walking, he finally noticed it. A large square of grass that spread for kilometers, with many trees. Sic had never seen anything like it.

He also didn't know if this counted as a 'park'.

Back in the dumps, they had a very small park. It has nothing but a small slide for kids and a swing, which had been disassembled so people could use the chains to build weapons.

Sic always thought a park needed a slide. This was just a large plain of grass.

He continued to walk on the sidewalk that continued into the park. He looked around trying to spot his master. It took him awhile, but he finally saw her, sitting on a blanket underneath one of the trees. He approached her.

She looked up at him and smiled.

"Hi. I'm glad you could make it. Are you prepared for your first day of training?"

Sic sighed

"As ready as I'll ever be. So, what are we doing first. Fist fighting? Do I have to go hunt a monster? I'm really good at making traps, so that shouldn't be that hard."

Master giggled.

"No, your first day of training is simple. Go get me a coffee and bring it back without spilling it."

Sic stood slightly

"What the hell type of training is that! Go get your own coffee!"

She smiled

"I'm not forcing you to train. If you want to leave, you can"

Sic had a hard time believing that.

"Ugh, fine. Where's the nearest coffee store."

She pointed towards the other side of the park.

"You should notice it, it's a small cafe with tables and chairs outside. Just say extra extra creamer, and they'll give you the coffee I want."

"Why the hell would they give me your coffee after asking for extra extra creamer?"

She looked down

"I can't go into there myself, you know. I usually have someone else do it, but it's hard to remember everything I want in a coffee. So, extra extra creamer is a codename. Now go, you're on a time limit."

Sic was pissed.

'What type of training is this?! This is bullshit!'

He angrily stormed off towards the coffee shop.

'Training my ass! I'm a glorified errand boy!'

However, he didn't know that today would be the most exhausting day he's ever had.