I take it back Aikoki was right, I wish he didn’t agree to train me! Woken up at dawn, barefoot running along the beach! 10km both ways, jogging for about a minute and walking for about ten.
Took me all morning to do the beach, and not on the more solid sand but in the loose and cold sand, heating up with the morning sun. I very nearly sprained myself a few times, Aikoki running alongside me bare chested, not having any trouble with water skins hanging off his belt.
About 5 hours later we finally arrived back at the stretch of beach near the house with Coan bringing us some breakfast, leftover stew from last night and a yellow bread with more of that glorious water!
Taking a swig, Aikoki speaks up. “Good job today, you did well for someone who could barely walk about a week ago.”
I gotta remember that here a week is ten days, keep forgetting that it's not seven! I’m not replying for a bit, too tired, water, drink, thirst, etc.
“Uncle Aikoki, could you train me as well?” asks young Coan, I did see him watching some of the running and hearing me talk with Malter about the weight machines and other equipment to train with. Must be at that age.
“You’d have to ask your dad Coan, but I wouldn’t mind it. Michael? Are you alive there?”
Finally catching my breath a bit I look up to Coan “I don’t mind, he can probably do better than me at this point!”
Aikoki laughing looks back to Coan “Well you heard him, get dad to agree and you can join us. I'll train you when your not helping in the fields with dad.”
“Yes! I’ll talk to him now, thanks!” replies Coan running off, Aikoki looks to have a thought and quickly adds “And don’t forget your mother as well!” whispering to me “you do not want to get on her bad side, she once fed me something terrible for bringing Malter back home late and drunk after a night out.”
“Haha, I know the feeling a bit” replied Michael “As do I” said a new voice. Turning around Dr Rath is standing just a bit off the sand with his grey coat filled with stuff, “I was also part of that night, if I remember correctly Aikoki , you and Malter where found on the ground outside.”
“Huh, like you weren't as well.” “Don’t know what you're talking about, anyway. Hi Michael, you free for a moment?”
“Hey, don’t change the subject!” “Sure,” said Michael, ignoring Aikoki “What's up?”
“I was thinking that as my old apprentice is running things back in town that I could help you with your training, I have some Powers and tools that can definitely help fast track your training.”
“Sure, but won’t your apprentice need any help?” “Bah, he’ll be fine. He’s done everything medical wise at least once. And that includes some veterinarian experience.”
With raised eyebrows at that, Michael agrees “Definitely, let's get this started. What's next Aikoki?”
“You're pretty eager aren't you? We’ll start with some upper and a bit of lower body stuff and then work on moving your mana around. That’ll take us till dinner, then repeat every day. Rath?”
“Should be easy enough, we’ll need a lot of food and water. Some of my tools can effectively repair damage so muscle buildup and fatigue won't be an issue and that tool I used when I first met you will help with moving all the nutrients around. I think about a week or two and you’ll be in the best shape of your life!”
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“Thats, ok I thought this would take a few years but two weeks?” Twenty days time of constant training on body and mana with near instant repair and fatigue removal with all the benefits of a good meal. Hell Yea! Things are looking up!
“I will say though,” Dr Rath added, “You’ll need to sleep a bit longer than normal and I can only do so much in a day. But I can see you making a lot of progress in 20 days.”
“Agreed” nodded Aikoki, “After you're in a basic shape we’ll move onto fighting and movement, then you get to fight me. One on one to start off with hahaha!”
Oh dear what have I just put myself into…
The next two weeks have been eventful to say the least, everyday waking up at the crack of dawn, jogging and walking 20km and then going into weights and mana training. Dr Rath has been amazing though, after the beach and weights I get to be re-invigorated, my muscles are growing at a ridiculous rate, it’s almost like I’ve been juicing!
Well that might be an exaggeration but man it feels like it sometimes, I’ve also been eating like a madman. Massive meals of meat, vegetables and fruit, I feel some days like I’ve eaten a whole cow but Dr Rath just waves his wand and the meat and nutrients go through and repair everything.
Ok it's not as easy as that, he gets tired out very quick but he's been a massive help to myself and Coan. Little Coan has been doing quite well for his age, training even more than I am sometimes, he’s getting a proper workout from the fields and the training.
Mana training on the other hand is slow going, after the first few days of only feeling a slight tingling from either the mana or my legs going asleep. But it's getting there, the first ten days was more tingling than anything else but the next ten were something else.
I’m not sure on what the best way to describe it, think of it like how your stomach can churn a bit? Oh, scratch that it’s kinda like a heart beat but spinning? Ok I give up, but the mana network has a distinct feeling to it.
Picture drinking a hot soup, and the feeling of that heat going through. Yea that but moving through your arteries and veins instead. The mana network is basically a series of tubes like the normal circulatory system but for mana instead of blood and stuff.
The Well can be pictured as a spherical organ that is placed snugly between the right Pancreas and Kidneys with an appendix-like protrusion sticking out of it and two “arteries” that connect to the mana network.
The Well and Network are constantly moving mana throughout the body, my job is to try to focus the mana from the network outside of my body and into a designated area. Basically I have a small crystal battery in my hand, I am then trying to focus energy into that battery through my hand.
Once that's done I can then look at hovering the object in my hand and then I’ll need to work on control and that's a lot of practice. Turns out OutWorlders are given a helping hand when first starting out.
It's described as a way to balance things out, an OutWorlder would have had either a different form of magic or none at all. Giving a helping hand at the beginning can boost an OutWorlders mana effectiveness so they can use mana like someone who has had it naturally all their life.
After the twenty days were up with at least three hours a day I was successfully able to levitate a small object a few centimetres above my hand. Now it's just practise shaping mana, this is done a few ways depending on what you're trying to accomplish but as I want Jedi powers that means mostly moving objects.
Spinning, orbiting, rotating, increased speed, multiple objects, different weights, shapes, sizes, materials, living and inorganic, changing speed of a single or multiple object and that's just the basic stuff.
I slowly got the hang of spinning and rotating by picturing mana pushing one part of the piece while another is trying to hold it in place, causing it to rotate. Thinking like this is the most basic, once I have the easy stuff sorted I have to do them again using a different method, as many as I can.
There are some guides I can reference and a few others I can make up but as I said, these are the easy stuff.
The tricky stuff is doing all of the above not only with large objects (Like larger than me) but also trying to shape the mana into certain shapes, trying to make it visible, adding distractions, pain, noise and cold water.
The next hardest is doing that but for objects much larger than me and this also includes me, that's right if I want Jedi powers I need to be able to pick me up with my mind and yeet me into orbits around massive rocks.
Yea, this is not going to be easy is it.