Okay, so this is how it is.

After the transmigration, my current body holds the strength equivalent to half of what I had as an Ogre Lord. That is quite a huge amount of strength, equivalent to that of a fully grown Ogre.

Not just that, even the toughness of the body has significantly increased after a short one month period of training, as though as the body feels the need to catch up with the dis-proportionate state of strength I currently have now.

Is this the so-called bonus given to me by Kpsid? I can get used to this.

After this incident, I quickly delivered the food to Bratt and started testing the limits of my strength and body endurance instead.

After getting permission from Lilithia (“Just don’t go out too far, and come back home safe!”), I proceeded to an open field just situated outside the village.

Firstly, I tried to pick up rocks of increasing sizes, from tiny pebbles to eventually boulders. The largest thing I managed to pick up comfortably was a large boulder about one meter in diameter, in my palm. Imagine this. A young human child, picking up a large boulder as relaxed as one would pick up a small pebble.

Thankfully there aren’t many people in the village who would travel outside of it, in fear of meeting monsters alone.

It looks like my strength was indeed, at the level of an ordinary Ogre. This has already surpassed most of humanity by far; I estimate that my strength is at least mid-tier in the human continent, to be fair. It is, of course, weak compared to my previous strength.

I juggled the boulder in the same palm, before causally throwing it. It flew a few meters before crashing on the ground with a huge ‘boom’.

“Crap. I hope that didn’t cause too much noise.” (Gideon)

I looked left and right, trying to see if there’s anyone who was curious enough to take a look. Thankfully, it looks like no one was interested in that bit of noise.

After double-checking for any signs of people, I walked about 20 meters away from the boulder. Picking up a smaller rock about the size of my fist, I threw it towards the boulder. However, I gripped it too hard at the last second, and the rock cracked into smaller fragments, before it flew right out of my hand.

The surprising thing is, even with the loss of momentum, the fragments of rock still flew fast enough to hit the boulder with a nice resounding ‘thud’ sound.

I walked over to inspect the boulder, only to note that a few of the sharper fragments actually got lodged onto the boulder, albeit loosely. The others had left a noticeable crack.

“…Ouch.” (Gideon)

Almost immediately after, my palm felt sore and painful. It hurts, like really badly. A bruise formed on my palm awhile after.

“Looks like I don’t have much control over my strength as well.” (Gideon)

With so much brute strength within me, yet without sufficient physical endurance and toughness to balance it out, I’ll most probably end up injuring myself every time I use too much strength. It looks like the first and most important thing to do is to build up my toughness. If I can have access to my full strength and toughness, like back when I was an Ogre Lord, then using [Burst Stream] would not be impossible.

With that in mind, I began my training with the focus on polishing up my physique. I simply cannot risk injuring my body whenever I apply a bit more strength than usual; this issue is of extreme importance and urgency. Besides, it’s physically and mentally exhausting to control my strength to a bare minimum.

I initially thought of the idea of learning magic, something that ogres cannot learn. However, since there wasn’t anyone that could use magic in our tiny village, and I have more important things to care about, I decided to put it aside for now. After all, it’s not as though magic is something that can be learned in a moment or two, right?

After a full day of training I went back home and was greeting very happily by Lilithia, who had just finished cooking dinner.

“Welcome back home, dinner’s ready!” (Lilithia)

“Ah, thanks Lilithia.” (Gideon)

The meal was delicious, as usual.

“Hey, did anything weird happen just now? I heard a loud ‘boom’ just now outside of the village. Did you see anything?” (Lilithia)

“Huh? Me? Nope, didn’t see anything at all.” (Gideon)

Looks like I have to see more careful with my training after today…

—————–

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Without me realizing, almost six months had already passed since I first became a human child. In the past six months, I have been concentrating most of my time in training my body’s toughness.

Now, even crumbling a rock into tiny fragments with just my hands is simple and easy to accomplish.

With the physical toughness I currently have, and the natural strength I possess, I could easily shatter an entire boulder into pieces with just a good, well aimed kick.

Of course my enemies aren’t going stand still and wait for me to prepare my attacks, but I’m confident that any normal attacks from me that connects will at least injure them effectively.

I took a short break from my exercise, as I looked around myself for any possible injuries while admiring my well-sculptured body, perfectly toned and well-muscled.

I initially had plans to gain more weight and bulk myself up, since I’m more used to that kind of body shape. However, I would lose the advantage of being flexible and fast; since I already have the toughness and strength I needed in this lean body.

In fact, most of the humans, especially [Heroes] which I had the most difficulty fighting with are those who had the ideal, lean yet powerful bodies, both male and female alike, balanced with power and dexterity.

“Woohoo, not bad kiddo.”  

Shocked, I turned backwards to find Bratt sitting on the ground, wolf-whistling. The scrawny-faced, middle aged human male with a bandana on his head stood up and walked over to me.

“Oh hey, Bratt.” (Gideon)

“I knew you are quite a natural in fighting, but I didn’t expect you to be this strong!” (Bratt)

“Huh, oh you mean that? Err yeah you’ve got it all wrong, the rock just….split itself, yeah.”

Okay, that was the dumbest excuse I can ever give. Do I still have some Ogre brain in me left?

“Ahahaha! Don’t give me that crap; you have a god-gifted strength and you want to hide it, I gotcha. I promise I won’t tell anyone about it.”

Well, technically speaking it really is granted by that so-called Ancient God, so…

“But you know, all that strength won’t amount to anything if it doesn’t hit the target, right?” (Bratt)

“What do you mean by that?” (Gideon)

“I believe you understand what I just said more than me. Your strength may be great, inhuman-like even, but your form and combat techniques are terrible. To be honest, I’ve been witnessing your training for the past few weeks, and I know what I’m talking about when I say that you have terrible form.

He’s right. I know he’s speaking the truth. There is definitely a lot more room for improvement for me.

Still, I will not stand there while he’s talking about me like this, without him proving to me what he is really capable of. After all, I have my pride as an ex-member of the Six Pillars. Surely, even at my weakened state, I would be able to take a human with ease.

“Alright, now that you have talk the talk…let’s walk the walk, shall we?” (Gideon)

“Ho ho, big words from a little boy, eh? Alright, this was my intention all along!” (Bratt)

—————-

“How…is this possible?!” (Gideon)

From the start of the battle until the very end, I never managed to grasp the upper-hand of any exchange.

In fact, the flow of the battle was always against me; every attack I made was parried, deflected or outright missed the intended target.

Lying on the grassy field, I gasped for air, desperate to regain some of my vitality lost from being thrown about again and again onto the floor, before getting up shortly after.

Seriously, how did he keep managing to do that? I know I didn’t held back at all in my attacks, and I gave in everything I’ve got in attacking, yet why did I lose so badly? If he had the intention to kill me, I would not only be suffering damages from merely being thrown onto the floor.

He could have at any moment, while I was down, stabbed me multiple times, or sliced the back of my neck, or aimed at my vitals repeatedly until my defences failed to protect me. Even if I have a body that is now tougher than that of a monster’s hide, I’m still vulnerable to stabbing and slicing attacks.

In short, I have lost utterly in this combat.

“You must be wondering, why can’t I even land a single hit despite using all my power?” (Bratt)

I didn’t reply him, seeing that I was still gasping for air. But the slight change in my facial expression told him all that he needs to know.

“But wow, you’re tougher than I had expected. I honestly didn’t expect you to be this tough to take down. Even old-timer adventurers won’t have lasted longer than you had. You have my respect, kid.” (Bratt)

“It doesn’t matter; a loss is a loss.” (Gideon)

“It does. After all, you are just thirteen years old; you still have a long way ahead of you. To have come this far without a proper teacher, you have great potential.” (Bratt)

More like, a great punching bag to me though. I couldn’t even leave a mark on you. Sigh…it looks like I have to admit it, I really can’t fight properly in this body after all, despite my tremendous strength and experience as an Ogre Lord.

“So, why?” (Gideon)

“Huh? Why what?” (Bratt)

“You know, why can’t I land a hit on you?” (Gideon)

“OH, that. It’s simple; it is because you’re using all of your strength in every movement you make. It makes it easy to foresee when is your next attack coming from, where it is going to land, and then there’s this small window of time where  I can basically proceed to smack you however I want right after you made your attack.” (Bratt)

So that’s it! I immediately understood what he meant. Despite being in a body of a human child, I am still fighting as though as I was an Ogre!

Normally, it is impossible for any normal human to parry or deflect a swing from an Ogre, not to even mention throwing an Ogre onto the ground due to its bulk, height and weight. Most humans would adopt a hit-and-run tactic, or bring along a strong defender to block the incoming attacks.

Also, to stand in the presence of an Ogre is terrifying enough for mere humans, who is barely half the height of Ogres. How would they even think of parrying an arm the size of a tree trunk that is swinging toward them, while still under the effects of intimidation from the Ogre’s presence?

However, since my built have shrunk so much, and to Bratt I’m just a snot-nosed kid with telegraphed punches and kicks, to evade and parry my attacks are simple enough to him, even with my strength.

“But, if you are willing to learn from me, I’ll guarantee you that within a year, I’ll help you change away all that bad habits of yours! You’ll instantly turn from a novice fighter with nothing but brute strength, straight to an insanely accurate and powerful destructive force!”  (Bratt)

He sounds very…convincing. After all, I can’t leave the village yet, and the strongest human being in this whole area is none other than Bratt; I have nothing to lose at all.

To quickly gain true strength…I don’t even mind swallowing my pride, and learning from a human being.

“Very well, I’ll accept your proposal.” (Gideon)

“Good! A swift and firm decision, just what a man needs!” (Bratt)

Then, we sat around, discussing about combat forms suitable to the human body, and our training started the very next day, after gaining permission from Lilithia, of course. (“Well, if it’s with Bratt, I suppose that’s fine…but don’t overstrain yourself too much, okay?”)

It was during training where I heard the other reason why he wanted to train me. Turns out, he saw the past Gideon walking into the forest during the day itself, and decided to tail me instead of outright stopping me. He felt a sense a of guilt as he couldn’t reach me in time to prevent the Hind Bear incident, even though it was not his fault to begin with.

Bratt is actually quite the nice guy, despite his rugged looks and the slightly offensive smile he has.

For someone who is willing to stay in such an isolated village, he is very skilled in the art of combat. Within the first few month of being taught by him, I have never bested him during training spars, and for the most part I couldn’t even land a single good hit.

True to what he said, during trainings he really pounded in the basics of body combat into me, leaving me completely worn out every day after the intensive training. The results, however, are astonishing.

After the first two months of training, my physique began to improve drastically and my skin has toughened to the point where even after a few parries, Bratt’s hands started to ache from the impact alone. He had numerous complains about how inhuman my body condition is, and always mentions on how he’s eventually going to waste his hands from excessive internal bleeding, but always arrives on time for training and always puts in 100% effort in teaching me.

He is really a nice guy. I’m thankful that after my transmigration, I’ll meet a human teacher that’s decently good in his human fighting techniques. If not, my training speed might have been a lot slower than now.

Furthermore, my strength is slowly beginning to climb upwards, as though sensing the body’s capability to handle the amount of strength sufficiently. Perhaps, I can eventually reach my former peak of strength?

One day, I decided to test out if I could use what would be my trump card, if I could successfully pull it off properly.

Yes, I’m going to see if I can pull off [Burst Stream].

If I can do so in this human body of mine…then, I would be indomitable and undefeatable by many!

Then, I would be one step closer to my goal, my revenge against Del’thrush!

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Author : Kiribou

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