Silence followed.
"You’re joking," Isaac muttered.
"I’m afraid I’m not," Catherine replied. "This place can only be used once a year, and only five people can enter at once. There’s more. It puts extreme pressure on your soul. If someone with weak will enters, their soul can be crushed."
Vale’s expression shifted from excitement to seriousness.
Isaac closed his eyes briefly.
Soul pressure.
That explained the faint weight he had felt since entering. It wasn’t strong yet, but it was there, pressing down quietly.
Sword Empress planted her wooden sword into the dirt.
"Time inside flows differently, but the strain accumulates normally. Fatigue, mental exhaustion, and soul pressure will build. You can leave at any time, but once you do, you cannot re-enter this year."
She looked at the three of them in turn.
"I hope you can remain inside for at least three months."
"Master... isn’t three months the maximum we can use it per year?" Catherine spoke up.
Sword Empress glanced at her. "Yes. What about it?"
Catherine pressed her lips into a thin line.
For a moment, it looked like she wanted to say more. Isaac could almost see the calculation happening behind her eyes. Then she simply shook her head.
"Nothing," she said quietly.
Sword Empress studied her for a second longer before letting it go.
Without another word, she reached toward her waist and drew her sword.
Isaac immediately recognized it.
Ezkavorn.
It was the same blade she had tried to unseal before fighting the N’theris Serpent several weeks ago. Back then, the partial unsealing alone had caused a noticeable surge in her strength. When she had fully released it during later battles, the change had been overwhelming.
Even now, just seeing it made Isaac instinctively straighten his posture.
Sword Empress swung the blade a few times in the empty white space, testing the air as if warming up. Then she poured mana into it.
The sword began to glow.
The silver light rippled along its edge, and its shape shifted.
The blade shortened, and thickened.
In the next moment, it had transformed into a smooth, silver baseball bat.
Catherine suddenly shivered.
Isaac noticed it immediately. Her pupils narrowed into thin slits as she stared at the bat, like someone staring at her mortal enemy. There was no acting in that reaction. It was instinctive.
Vale frowned. "What’s wrong with you?"
Catherine didn’t answer. She swallowed instead.
Sword Empress rested the bat on her shoulder.
"This is [Bat]. It is a legendary training tool once taught about to Sword God by the War God. In my previous life and this one, I have trained many precious disciples with it."
’Isn’t that just a baseball bat? That reminds me, this is my first time seeing a baseball bat in this world,’ he thought.
Sword Empress glanced at the three of them.
"You look unconvinced. One of you come forward. I will demonstrate its usefulness," she said.
Alice stepped forward at the same time Isaac did.
Vale moved too.
But before any of them could take more than a single step, Catherine moved faster. She secretly grabbed Alice’s sleeve and pulled her back, then pulled Isaac lightly.
Isaac blinked at her.
Catherine avoided his eyes.
"Good. It is nice to have courage to step forward."
Sword Empress nodded in satisfaction, watching Vale.
Vale froze.
He slowly turned his head, noticing he was the only one stepping forward.
Sword Empress gestured casually. "Come at me with everything."
Vale tightened his grip on the wooden sword. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, then rushed forward.
His footwork was steady. He had trained brutally over the past few days, allowing him to combine his years of combat experience and gain a noticeable increase in strength.
He swung cleanly toward her shoulder.
Sword Empress moved.
The bat slid forward like a snake, its path curving around Vale’s blade with effortless precision.
The bat tapped his shoulder.
That was all.
Vale screamed.
The sound tore out of his throat before he could stop it. He stumbled back, dropping to one knee as if his shoulder had exploded.
Isaac’s eyes narrowed.
That strike hadn’t looked heavy. It had barely made contact.
Vale clutched his shoulder, breathing raggedly. Sweat poured down his forehead in seconds, and his entire body trembled.
But then his expression changed.
"...What?"
His breathing faltered.
A strange look crossed his face.
The pain was still there. It was intense, sharp and overwhelming.
Yet something else mixed with it.
Comfort.
Isaac watched in confusion as Vale’s face twisted, not in pure agony, but in something more complicated. It was like he couldn’t decide whether to scream or sigh.
"It feels—" Vale gasped. "It feels wrong."
Like how eating sour and sweet at same time felt.
The pain and comfort together felt weird.
He stayed on his knees for several seconds before slowly straightening.
He glanced down at his shoulder.
It was completely fine.
There was not even a bruise.
In fact, something was different.
Vale stared at his forearms.
"The scars are gone," he muttered.
The old scars that had faintly marked his skin were completely erased.
He rolled his shoulder cautiously.
The soreness from their recent training sessions had vanished too.
All the accumulated exhaustion from the past few days had disappeared in an instant.
Sword Empress smiled faintly.
"The bat cannot harm you. in fact, every time it hits you, your exhaustion and injuries are healed," she explained.
"So you’re saying—"
"Getting hit is good for your body."
Silence fell.
Catherine closed her eyes briefly.
Sword Empress continued, "Do not worry. I have set the Bat’s training difficulty to minimum. Instead of only pain, you will feel comfort as well. It helps the body and mind adjust. After one month, I will remove the comfort setting."
Catherine shivered.
Even Alice took a step back. She knew something that could make Vale scream like that must be horribly painfully.
Isaac noticed something else.
There was something about the way Sword Empress said that last sentence. The smile on her face didn’t change much, but it felt colder.
"Wait," Vale said slowly. "So if we get hit, we feel extreme pain. But we also get healed."
"Yes."
"And if we avoid getting hit?"
"You keep your injuries and fatigue."
Isaac understood immediately.
This place already sealed their enhanced stats. It put pressure on their souls. Their fatigue would accumulate normally.
But the bat erased fatigue.
Which meant—
Sword Empress rested the bat against her shoulder again.
"You cannot fall asleep or become unconscious from the bat’s strikes. If you are hit, your exhaustion disappears. Therefore, the only way to rest is to become exhausted without being struck," she said evenly.
Vale stared at her.
He opened his mouth and closed it several times like a fish, unable to speak a word.
Alice exhaled slowly. "So if we want to sleep, we have to avoid you long enough to collapse from natural exhaustion."
"Yes."
"And if you hit us—"
"You will feel pain," Sword Empress said calmly. "Then you will be fully refreshed."
Isaac almost laughed.
It was absurd.
Brilliant, but absurd.
He cursed the bastard War God who taught this training method to Sword God.
Sword Empress tapped the bat lightly against the ground.
"Now, all of you come forward. Or I will come to you," she said.
Instead of waiting for them, Sword Empress dashed forward with a smell that looked demonic to everyone in the chamber.
Then, the three-month hell began for Alice, Catherine, Vale, and Isaac.