Asta's Adventure

From Lily's perspective:

After the service at the church in the town of Nern, Sister Lily returned to Hage and immediately noticed Asta's strange behavior. He remained as loud as ever—his voice could be heard from one end of the village to the other—but he no longer annoyed or pursued her as he had before. What surprised her most was that he had stopped confessing his feelings to her. At first, Lily thought that Asta had finally fallen in love with someone else among the village girls. When he left for training, it seemed to her that he was going to meet someone new.

However, deciding to verify her suspicions, she directly asked Asta about it. He, slightly embarrassed but with the same innocent expression on his face, replied that he hadn't found anyone yet. This answer puzzled her. Inquiring with other children about what had happened during her absence, Lily learned that shortly after her departure, Father Orsi had spoken with Asta. It was after this conversation that Asta had changed his behavior. Sister Lily then decided to talk to Father Orsi to clarify the situation. At the end of their conversation, he simply reassured her, saying, "Don't worry, I had a serious talk with him about his feelings for you. You have nothing to be concerned about." With those words, he concluded the conversation and left.

Several weeks passed after this conversation. On one of the usual days, Asta, as always, helped the villagers. He did it for free, but people often thanked him with food or money. However, he wasn't the only one working—the children from the church were also busy: Yuno, for example, helped with wind magic, while the others ran small errands.

On one such day, Asta decided to assist a strange merchant who offered him a potion that supposedly granted magical strength. At first, he didn't tell anyone about it, but he looked noticeably happier than usual. Gradually, his health began to deteriorate: first, he experienced body aches and a slight fever, but each day he felt worse. By the seventh day, he was literally fighting for his life. Fortunately, the next morning, thanks to the healer, his condition stabilized. Before leaving, the healer warned that Asta would need about a week for a full recovery. However, as soon as Asta opened his eyes, he looked lively and full of energy, as if he hadn't been sick at all.

When he told the others about how he had taken the strange potion, everyone, including Sister Lily, was shocked. After that, the children began to tease him for such a reckless act. Unable to withstand their mockery, Asta disappeared for several hours, but returned by lunchtime—though something was off. He was incredibly hungry, even though he usually had a good appetite. That day, he ate three times more than usual. The sight of him simultaneously munching on three sweet potatoes was unforgettable. Once satisfied, Asta thanked everyone for the food and ran back into the forest.

From Asta's perspective:

Returning to his training spot, Asta took with him several items that he thought might be useful in his training process. When he reached the demon skull, he quickly strapped on some incredibly heavy weights, thereby creating an even more powerful version of his usual training gear. The total weight of the weights amounted to 125 kilograms.

At first, Asta started his leg training. He began with squats and lunges, using the weights secured to both his ankles and arms. He then moved on to calf raises, which helped him work on his calves. To finish, he performed lateral and diagonal steps with a resistance band and weights to strengthen his inner and outer thigh muscles.

Despite the fact that many adult athletes, let alone children, would already be lying unconscious from overexertion, Asta felt great. Therefore, he continued his workout, targeting not only his legs but also his arms, shoulders, abs, and back. By this point, after five hours of intense work, he was starting to feel tired but still maintained his determination. He decided to spend the last hour running around the skull, reducing the weight of the weights by half.

Shouting to himself that he could do anything, Asta began to increase his speed, trying to make his laps as quickly as possible. At first, he noticeably picked up the pace, moving in a geometric progression, but soon fatigue and hunger began to take their toll, and he gradually started to slow down.

Throughout his training, he was watched by two malicious-looking eyes belonging to a bird known as the Antibird. At first, it simply flew past the boy with ashen hair, either carrying flowers to the statue of the first king of mages or just circling around, having nothing else to do. But at some point, without realizing it, it began to keep an eye on him because the boy was doing what was impossible even for adults. He was lifting weights of up to 150 kilograms and training for several hours without showing noticeable fatigue.

The Antibird also noticed that Asta had no Mana at all. This was an incredible anomaly, and it astonished her. Usually, Antibirds cannot tolerate high concentrations of mana, and although mana didn't particularly bother her, a slight irritation was still felt. However, Asta, having no Mana whatsoever, attracted her attention. As a result, her focus shifted to his head, which seemed very comfortable. His messy and unkempt hair reminded her of an incredibly warm and cozy nest. Recently, she had been constantly sleeping in trees because she couldn't manage to build a nest herself, and whenever she did manage, other birds would immediately take it from her.

In the end, unable to resist, the Antibird perched on the boy's head, experiencing incredible pleasure, while Asta looked on in indignation.

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Hello, everyone! Just wanted to let you know that I'll upload another chapter in a couple of hours. Hope you're enjoying everything I'm doing. Thank you for staying with me!