I regret everything. Michael thought as he struggled out of breath trying to jog along the loose sand, being woken up at the crack of dawn, picked up and dumped unceremoniously onto the beach Aikoki starts them off with a long jog up and down the beach.
10km both ways, jogging for about a minute and walking for about ten.
Aikoki follows along, bare-chested and jogging at ease, promising a break and some water every two kilometers. While he’s running fine in the sand it’s all Michael can do to stay up without twisting something or having the knees buckle.
Several stops for rest, slightly salty water, five hours and several kilometers later Michael arrives back at the start, drenched in sweat, panting, staring up to the sky utterly exhausted.
“Well done, we’ll continue this at a slower pace tomorrow. Not bad for someone who could not walk a week ago.”
“Ugggggggghhhhh”
“Oh don’t be such a baby, come on, lie in the water, cool off and relax while I get us some breakfast.”
Aikoki sees him not move as directed, so a quick lift and throw and Michael’s in the water, slowly drifting in the beach. A rope tied around his ankle to a stick in the ground. The water here is deep enough but there are almost no waves, like a pool due to the shape of the cove. That and probably some Powers keeping the water calm.
While Michael slowly drifts, muscles relaxing in the warm sun and cool waves he can hear Coan Coan (the son) have a chat with Aikoki as he walks up the beach.
“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?”
He slowly lifts his hand a little and give a small wave
“You mind if Coan joins us while running?”
The wave turns into a thumbs up.
“I’m gonna assume that means yes, just so long as your father is alright with it. I'll train you when you're 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, while you're at it, bring the food hamper she’s prepared for us!”
Aikoki turns to Michael who’s acting like human shaped driftwood.
“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.”
“That was a good party.” Another voice says, from up the beach.
Looking 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, are you free for a moment?”
“Hey, don’t change the subject!”
Now relaxed, Michael slowly drifts back to shore, climbing out of the water he drips towards Dr Rath and Aikoki while they grumble.
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“Hi Dr Rath, how's it going?” He asks, interrupting them.
“Oh. I was thinking that, as my old apprentice is running things back in town 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.”
Why would a doctor need veterinarian experience? Well, farm animals…
“Huh, well in that case definitely, when do we start?”
“You're pretty eager aren't you?” Says Aikoki.
“We’ll start with some running, then 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?”
“Sounds good.”
“Eager? I just want someone to save me from you! You're crazy Aikoki.” Michael replies with a cheeky grin.
While Aikoki looks shocked then smiles viciously at the friendly jab Dr Rath adds with a smirk.
“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!”
“Huh, cool, ok I thought this would take a few years but two weeks?”
Fourteen, wait no 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. Keep forgetting a week here is ten days.
“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!” Laughing with a wicked grin.
Oh dear what have I just put myself into.
After a quick and hearty meal of assorted meats and some raw fish followed by some healing and recovery from Dr Rath the rest of the day was doing some weight training and then mana training.
The pimple popping analogy Aikoki mentioned kinda works, by using that method on different parts of the body you get a better understanding of the mana Network and Well.
The feeling of mana is like drinking a hot soup, and the feeling of that heat going through. 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 pancreas and right kidney 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.
With a small crystal in hand sitting under that same tree from earlier, Michael has a small crystal in his hand that feels like a battery. By focusing the energy into the crystal and then moving that energy around in basic shapes like circles, figure 8’s, squares or whatever gives better overall control of mana outside the body.
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. Apparently I’m getting a bit of godly help with this stuff, OutWolders have it easier when they first start 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 he was successfully able to levitate a small object a few centimeters above his hand.
Now it's just practice 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.
More weeks pass with his physical and mana training, once he’s able to see objects move on command it becomes a little easier, it's simpler to visualise and picture moving an object when you’ve grown up watching Star Wars and trying to force grab the remote from across the room.
The tricky stuff is doing all of the above not only with large objects, but also trying to shape the mana into certain shapes, trying to make it visible, using it to create distractions.
“The next hardest is doing that but for objects much larger than me and this also includes me, 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.” Said Michael after a training session.
“Yea, this is not going to be easy is it.”