Michael shot a tired and stressed-out look towards Leo. He didn't have the energy right now to be chatty with anyone.
"Shut up."
Leo lowered his hand, grinning to show a set of gleaming white teeth. He just wanted to tease a little, he knew what the situation was.
Before, there had been plenty of times he'd caught a few nobles as prisoners. Not used to living in the mountains and forests, that bunch couldn't sleep. Their demeanor was exactly like Michael's right now.
Truthfully, Leo didn't have any secret to not being bothered by sounds or mosquito bites. Just look at his face full of swollen mosquito bites to understand. His body just actively ignored it and treated both mosquito bites and sounds as a given.
"Ha ha, can't sleep, right? But rest time's over, don't even think I'll let you rest."
Leo flashed a devilish smile but Michael didn't react at all. His brain was about to go on strike now, he felt he could doze off at any moment.
Paying no mind to Michael nodding off, Leo immediately grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to the clearing to train.
And Michael right now was just like a puppet, with absolutely no intention of moving. His eyes kept closing and opening, his spirit drifting as if about to float up to the sky.
Continuing like this probably wouldn't train anything. Leo secretly thought of a way to quickly stimulate Michael's spirit.
He saw a crystal-clear lake where he could see the bottom. Of course it wasn't shallow, it was at least tens of meters deep. It was just because the water was so clear you could see below.
Without a single word of warning, Leo directly threw Michael straight down into the lake without ever asking the other party if he knew how to swim. What was even more annoying was that they were standing on a cliff at least ten meters above the lake's surface.
Michael, half-asleep and half-awake, suddenly felt strong wind whipping against him as if he was soaring through the air.
'Could it be hallucinations from lack of sleep?'
The thought had just flashed through his mind when not long after he received the answer. The biting cold feeling from the early morning lake water was as if someone had dropped icy rocks down.
Every hair on his body stood on end but was immediately pressed flat by the water. His body also received the pain from falling from a height onto the lake's surface.
"You bastard, I don't know how to swim. Gah, gah... Pull me up quick."
Michael flailed his limbs wildly. Before, he thought swimming was useless so he couldn't be bothered to learn, now he had to pay the price.
Actually, him doing that wasn't wrong. He personally didn't like traveling far, didn't like going to the sea or to lakes. If you never go anywhere with deep water in your whole life, why learn to swim?
Leo stood on the cliff looking down, nodding with satisfaction. Flexible limbs, clear voice like this, he was definitely awake now. As long as the effect was good enough, being a little ruthless was fine.
"Anybody can swim." He had no intention of going down to save him, just stood up high and shouted down.
This sound, for some reason, entered Michael's ears as cursing, extremely unpleasant to hear.
"I... Gah, gah... can't... Glug... swim!"
Michael struggled desperately in the water, barely managing to say a complete sentence.
"Anyone who's a human can swim. This lake doesn't even have a ripple. If you sink, it proves you're a useless genie. More useless than a mortal, more incompetent than a mortal."
Leo not only didn't save him but kept provoking him nonstop. In his view, Michael was a genie so obviously wouldn't be ordinary. Yesterday there was a miracle about eating, today learning to swim a little faster—what's strange about that?
As long as Leo held onto this thought, Michael could forget about anyone coming to fish him out. If unlucky, he could become the first genie to die in less than twenty-four hours.
Michael's mind was in chaos now, only knowing to act on instinct, he'd even forgotten he could contact the system. The only difference between him and a drowning human was that he was a genie.
[The system detects you are in a critical state in less than twenty-four hours.]
[Feeling sorry for you, I'll give a little guidance. First, hold your breath, then relax your body.]
[The human body can swim, even if not well, but there's no lack of situations where people without limbs can still float on the water.]
[Don't be afraid, or you'll really die. Just relax and accept it, you'll float up.]
Michael, while his mind was in chaos, actually became considerably calmer because he heard the system's sound. Of course this was the system giving him a little mental buff, because in this state he really shouldn't have heard a single word clearly.
He followed the guidance, began holding his breath then slowly relaxed his body. His limbs were still flailing but the movements were no longer as chaotic as before.
Maybe because his innate talent was good enough, so in less than a moment his face broke the surface of the water. His body was still submerged below but now he was out of danger.
"Ha ha, knew he could do it."
Leo stood on the cliff, smiling with satisfaction, not thinking at all that Michael would hold a grudge over this.
Putting it mildly, this was helping Michael learn to swim quickly. Putting it bluntly, it almost sent Michael to the next world.
Having just achieved a relatively stable state in the water, Michael immediately shot a hateful look at Leo.
"You bastard, are you trying to kill me?"
Even though he really learned to swim, that near-death feeling was too terrifying. For someone who'd lived a leisurely life like him, this could totally be considered a nightmare.
"How can you wrong a good person like that? Can't you see I only needed a few minutes to teach you how to swim?" Leo gilding his own face, taking all the credit, showed no sense of remorse at all.
Michael was so angry he gritted his teeth. What credit did Leo have? If not for the system's last-minute reminder, he really would have been done for.
"You still have the face to say that? Wait till I climb up, I'll definitely give you a beating."
Anger made him reckless, yet Michael, weak as a chicken, dared to challenge someone with extensive experience and far superior strength.
Leo was a little surprised but he wouldn't let this good opportunity go to waste. After all, training includes actual combat. Even though actual combat now is a bit early, it's not a big problem either.
"You said it yourself. Don't even think about running away later."