Soon, she woke up just as she felt the carriage stop. Then, she heard knocking from the doors. Inna sat up and stretched, yawning audibly.

"Did we arrive already?"

"Yes, Young Miss."

A plain-looking servant opened the doors.

Inna used her hand to s.h.i.+eld her drowsy eyes from the glare of the sunlight as she slowly un-mounted the carriage.

When she had both feet on the ground, she blinked away the sleep in her eyes as she observed her surroundings.

She saw a scenery of what looked like an ancient town. Small brick houses, streets with stone floors, little sidewalk shops, and townspeople walking back and forth. Some of them were carrying a huge load of things while others looked busy as they hurriedly walked past her. It was like they didn't even notice her sudden arrival, as though they were used to it.

Inna turned back to ask the servant.

"Uhm, where is this supposed to be? Where's the school?"

"The school's marketplace, Young Miss. Since Eldora Academy requires students to live on campus, there was a need for a market to sell necessities and such. Thus, some merchants decided to live here to sell their goods and service. They cover everything from food and simple garments to luxury weapons and gems. In fact, the Master said that the campus itself had to be akin to a small town for the students to live comfortably and focus more."

"Also, Master has given me an order to stop the carriage here and let you continue on foot towards the school's entrance ceremony."

"The gates of the Academy is at the top of that mountain."

The servant pointed at a mountain with a small white arch pillar at the distance.

"From here to foot of the mountain would be about six miles away. And from the foot of the mountain towards its top would be about nine miles."

Inna's eyes bulged.

Six miles! Nine miles!

She can't even walk for a mile without panting!

And that's just on flat ground!

Now, she had to walk for six miles and hike for nine?!

"Don't worry." The servant comforted her when he saw her doomed expression.

"The academy has a proper pathway towards its main building at the top."

Inna breathed a sigh of relief at that.

"You will see a staircase of 250,000 steps leading towards the top."

But Inna withdrew the sigh almost immediately.

T-two hundred fifty thousand steps?!

"And, Master has ordered me to give this letter to the young miss after I finish giving directions." The servant bowed as he offered a small envelope towards her.

"Well then, this servant shall take his leave, Young Miss. May the Supreme G.o.d favor you."

He got on the front of the carriage and sat beside the coachman. The coachman gave a small bow before he jerked the horse's reigns and they began to leave.

Inna grumbled as she opened the letter.

'If there were no delays, then the carriage must have arrived on the time I expected it to.

And that means that the entrance ceremony will start in two hours.

Do not be late, or else you'll get locked out and humiliated in front of thousands...'

Inna angrily ripped the letter as soon as she finished reading it.

"TWO HOURS! THAT OLD f.u.c.k WANTS ME TO COVER FIFTEEN MILES IN TWO HOURS STRAIGHT?!"

She stomped on the pieces of paper angrily as she screamed.

She earned confused stares from the merchants but she didn't care. She just kept herself busy by venting her anger. And a few seconds after, she finally got tired.

She panted heavily as she tried to think things through. In the end, she decided to just proceed instead of complaining. There was nothing else she could do.

After long excruciating series of her speed walking and cursing under her breath at the same time, she finally saw the foot of the mountain. It was densely packed with trees except for the white elegant staircase in the middle of the vast land. The staircase was as wide as a house which made Inna feel more intimidated.

"Stairs."

She glared at the glistening staircase.

"My greatest enemy."

She thought she got rid of them in university! With the elevators and all, there was no need for stairs.

But, who asked her to reincarnate to such a degenerated place!

She really hated this world now.

She physically trained in the mansion, yes. But only on two things, fighting-based and yoga.

Fighting, she had no problem. She gets into cat fights lots of times so she'll embrace any technique she can learn to use for future reference.

Yoga, it's her favorite. Less movement, more stretching and flexing.

But hiking?

N-to-the-O.

She groaned and complained as she plopped her feet towards the stairs like a spoiled child.

She was about to take it slow when she heard a ring of a bell.

Then she remembered!

TWO hours! It means that there would just be two rings all in all, one in every hour, according to their tradition on telling time. Because, since this word is degenerate, of course they wouldn't have clocks and watches.

She actually read in one of the books in the mansion that they tell the time according to this special plant. It was a common plant that can be found anywhere but its const.i.tution is strange. It grows rapidly and strangely, it doesn't need water to do so. Also, at the peak of its growth, it mysteriously dies by itself. Researchers decided to use its unique duration of growth and death as a measurement of time and named it using the Eridoan language. But Inna wasn't able to read the original words since it immediately translates into 'hour.'

So, this must mean that she spent an hour walking six miles! Holy cow!

Now she only had another hour left for nine miles or 250,000 steps.

Inna grumbled again but she picked up her pace and decided to climb faster.

She only has one hour!

After a few minutes climbing in a moderate pace, she looked back and saw that she was actually quite a distance from the bottom. But when she looked up, it looked like the distance she climbed didn't even change the distance ahead by much.

So, she decided to pick up her pace again. But this time, she went at a pace where she thought she would normally have trouble breathing.

But after a few minutes in maintaining that fast pace, she was shocked that she wasn't even out of breath.

Heck, she feels lively instead! Like everything was just a warm up!

Suddenly, Inna paused and smacked her face with her palm.

She's such an idiot! Why didn't she realize it sooner?!

This must be because it's not her body!

The body she now had is a trained adventurer after all!

UGHHHHH, it would've saved her so much anger and frustrations if she realized it sooner!

When she realized it, she no longer grumbled and decided to actually try to push her body to the limit.

Honestly, she was curious on how fast this body can go!

She went on a full on sprint to the point that it looked like she was tap dancing as she climbed the stairs.

Just as she was about to reach the end of the staircase, the leaves at her left rustled and startled the heck out of her.

As a result, she missed the final step, and fell forwards, her face flat on the ground.

But she quickly got up and dusted her white robes.

"Oh my G.o.d, I hope no one saw that."

Inna mumbled in embarra.s.sment.

What the h.e.l.l was that anyways?!

She stared at the direction where the sound came from and saw a tall tree with huge branches and dense amount of leaves at the side of the stairs.

Suddenly, she heard the same rustling of leaves again before an arm popped out of nowhere and waved.

"h.e.l.lo!"