5 minutes passed quickly, and during these 5 minutes, I wasn’t able to get back into that state. While I had Romuald’s advice in my head, I couldn’t actually apply it.

“Kid, come here!”

“Alright…” I said with a low groan.

I arrived and on the ground, there were 3 intricate drawings of a man from the front, back and side with lines traversing him, along with dots marking homologous spots on all 3 drawings.

In 5 minutes?!

These drawings looked real.

What did I mean by real? They looked extremely close to what I could see looking at someone’s body. Obviously, there were some discrepancies here and there, and I wasn’t able to see acupoints, but the lines were there and eerily similar.

“I am pretty good, aren’t I, hehehe?”

“How did you do that?”

“Practice kiddo, practice, anyhow what are these lines?”

“Um… I assume meridians?”

“Bingo! These are what the Tchai-Knees thought circulated qi. Quite literally qi vessels. Well, not quite. After applying it to myself, I drew a new diagram. I think this is more accurate to what mana vessels actually look like.”

“So, why do you need to know that?” He asked as he scratched the back of his head and yawned, “So that I can explain to you the mana flow to use for the movements. First, memorize this diagram and the points in them. You have 2 weeks, so do your best. When you remember all these, tell me, and I’ll teach you the energy flow that goes with the moves I just showed you. In the meantime, every day, I’ll make my mana flow into you so you get a feel."

“Keep in mind that this is not a fighting art. For a normal person, it would strengthen their mana vessels and body. For you, it might — at best — help you internalize these diagrams I just drawn, so don’t get ahead of yourself. The primary goal of this, along with good old meditation, is to sharpen your mind and get you used to your body. Got all that?”

I nodded in agreement.

“Alright, second thing, don’t teach this to anyone.”

I looked at him, a bit confused, but nodded. I then asked, “but why did you teach it to me?”

While this was all new knowledge to me, I didn’t think it was on the level of being a secret martial art. And if he needed someone to pass it to, I don’t think he would have waited for me to pass by, so why?

He then looked at me with eyes full of pity.

“I am only teaching it to you because you are too weak for it to matter. But between the hands of a mana wielder...”

“Oh—”

“Anyhow, come here.”

I approached him.

“Show me your back.”

I obeyed.

He put his hand on my back, leading me to shiver from the cold.

“Clench your jaw.”

As soon as he said so, he started inserting mana into my body, and started forcing its way through my mana vessels. Oh… here goes.

“I know this hurts, but remember the path my mana takes.”

5 minutes passed before he finished, “This is the full energy movement of this technique.”

By the time the 5 minutes passed, one would have thought I had taken a plunge in the water beside us; my whole body drenched in sweat.

Still, despite how painful it had been, I felt surprisingly refreshed.

“Go practice it while this is fresh in your mind. You have 15 minutes.”

#

I sighed at my failure, unsurprisingly I wasn’t able to go back into this headspace.

The walk back to the living quarters was a silent one. I was racking my brain about how to best use this knowledge in a battle against fighters, and Romuald seemed to feel that I wasn’t in the mood to have productive conversations.

The fact this “zone” still eluded me didn’t help my frustration. I knew I was being unreasonable. After all, I had never expected it to be easy, but after all, a single drop of fresh water was much worse than nothing at all.

It could have been because I was cogitating too much. But the way back seemed to be much faster than when we first arrived.

Romuald opened the trapdoor (it seemed he had repaired it during my sleep) leading to the living quarters and, with no hesitation, jumped in.

I looked at him like one would look at a goofy dog.

“Isn’t that bad for the knees?” I shouted at him.

“Only the weak care about their knees!” he yelled back.

I shrugged and followed him, not by jumping, but by using the ladder as any sensible and reasonable person would do. When I arrived, he was setting up the table. In the plates? A large quantity of unidentified smoked meat with mushrooms.

This didn’t look super appetizing, but the smell it produced was enough to remind me of my hunger. My stomach coincidentally woke up there too, with loud gurgles.

“What a noisy boy… what are you waiting for? Hurry!”

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I didn’t need to be asked further. I dashed to the makeshift dinner table that was really just an elevated mold of dirt; sat on the ground, my buttocks still hurting from the running and qigong and I dug in.

As my teeth broke through the firm exterior of a mushroom, an explosion of flavors and juice surged mouth. Immediately I bit more and more and more.

The meat had a rich smoky and nutty taste, and the mushrooms, while firm, had a satisfying spring and just the right amount of saltiness to balance the meal out.

“Hahaha, that’s the spirit! Train hard and eat harder!”

I hadn’t even realized it, but I had been devouring this meal, and my table manners had vanished. As if turned into a feral beast.

“B-ow kwom j-u kwook sho well?” I asked.

“Chew with your mouth closed, you foul beast!” He said in a disapproving manner, an amused smile on his face.

I quickly swallowed the delicacies and even struck my chest once or twice to allow it all to safely integrate into my digestive system.

“Calling people ‘beast’, I am not the one who lives in the woods!”

“Bahahahahahah.” I was pleasantly surprised that he took it in fair game.

“Brat, who knows not of the immensity of the heavens and earth, I’ll have to teach you how to spell death!” he said in an amused manner.

“Where did that come from?”

“Oh — yeah, you wouldn’t know…” He coughed, his cheeks blushing.

Reading the mood, I brought back the conversation to where it was.

“Well, you sure can cook! Where do you get the spices from?”

“Hmmm, does that really matter? Not like you’ll live her… Um, this might be useful to you still. This nature provides me with everything I need, evonite is not the only thing that grows here, and some of these trees’ bark can be grounded to be used as a spice, with leftovers of fruits, some sugar, and water I can make vinegar to replace salt and to give a tangy taste, I cooked today’s mushrooms with last month’s batch of vinegar, on. [...] and I could go on and on. Nature gives us a lot of gifts. The least we can do to survive is to learn to use them. What was the phrase again, when life gives you lemons... anyhow that’s that.”

I wasn’t expecting such a detailed answer. He went to lengths about how to substitute stuff like salt and sugar in hostile environments, which herbs are fit for consumption and which are not, how many plants could be used in their entirety for both alimentation and medicinal effects, all that, and then some more. I had read a lot, but I clearly didn’t have the know-how Romuald had just shown.

“Whoah,” I said, both disconcerted but enthralled by the knowledge.

“I didn’t expect that much...”

“That’s what she said!” He said, a bit too eager about it.

“That’s what she what?” I said, confused about what he meant.

“Bahahaha… nothing nothing”

1 hour of the 2 hours of free time I had for today went away just like that: with a surprisingly thorough explanation of how to use everything in your environment that can be used as spices. I wasn’t mad either, while both Hagrid and Romuald had a treasure trove of knowledge that they seemed more than happy to flaunt. Romuald had a knack for communicating the information in an interesting and succinct manner. Hagrid was extremely interesting too, but he often spent too much time for my taste on semantics and finding the right words, which often lead him to use words that I honestly couldn’t quite understand.

After talking like that and having eaten my fill, I was feeling lethargic.

It must have shown on my face because Romuald soon asked, “Did I tire you?”

“No no no, actually yes, but not like that,” I said awkwardly, trying to dispel any misunderstanding.

He seemed to understand my rambling and replied, “Um alright, I wouldn’t advise to sleep right now, since if you fall asleep now training later will be even more of a pain for you.”

“Clear the table so you can get some blood flowing and then come join me in the living room.”

I nodded and did as I was told. My movements were sluggish. Every limb, every muscle composing them, every bone below them, and every ligament linking them… they all felt stiff and painful. I dragged my feet on the particularly grainy ground, fighting against the air itself that at this moment felt as thick as syrup. Slowly but surely, I accomplished this ridiculously simple mission; at that moment fighting not the air, but my lethargic body felt even harder than the hellish training I had had to endure today. I felt as if I would...

CLAP

My heavy eyelid lightened a bit, and I completed my task.

CLAP

My heavy limbs lost a little of their weight and I regained some of my usual mobility.

CLAP

I found in myself the energy to go back to the living room and sit in front of Romuald, feeling less tired but also intrigued.

He didn’t wait for me to ask. My face seemed to translate my confusion pretty well as he started explaining.

“This is pretty cool right, just a little trick I gathered from the Tchai-knees.” He said with a proud face.

I didn’t know if it was my tiredness, that I was happy from having eaten good food, or the difficulty he had to say this foreign word, but I chuckled.

“What’s funny?” He asked rightfully, confused.

“Nothing nothing.”

“Umm… you cheeky brat.” He looked at me in disapproval. “I guess you don’t deserve to experiment my secret ultimate light-ning technique from the seventh heaven.”

“N-n-no, I wasn’t laughing at you. Please reconsider,” I said, stammering. I had no idea what it was, but I felt like this weird technique of his would decide if I lived or died through these two weeks of training.

He looked at me with an insistent look, as if expecting more.

Instinctively I kowtowed. “Sorry master whose wisdom pierces the heavens, won’t you forgive this foolish student of yours and bestow upon him the privilege of experimenting your oh-so great technique!”

He then burst out laughing “Stop it, stop it, you’re gonna make me blush.” While he was laughing, he seemed satisfied with the apology, which made me internally breathe a sigh of relief.

“What did I tell you yesterday about training?” He asked in a good mood.

I racked my brain.

‘When was it again?’

‘Oh yeah, it was before I humbled him at Kress’

At the thought, I unconsciously became smug.

“You know what, never mind,” he said, groaning, his arms crossed and chest puffed.

“No no no, I apologize, wise master,” rambling an even longer and more complex apology.

“Cheh.. shut up, I get it, but what’s important for training?” He said, not joking anymore, and waiting for a serious answer.

‘What was it? What was it?’

‘Oh yeah!’

“Was it about training and fuel? Sufficient training and raw materials?”

“B-b-b-bingo!” He said satisfied.

“Looks like all that training didn’t fry your brain.” He nodded.

“While I am a big proponent for hardcore training, realistically there’s no way a brat who’s barely 12 can train at the volume that I am expecting you, and even if you miraculously could, I wouldn’t be surprised if you dropped dead the next day.” He said with a serious face.

“But fret not, this wise master whose wisdom pierces the heavens and whatnot got exactly what you need.”

“What I need?”

“Shhhhh, I am not done!” emphatically gesturing his finger in front of his mouth.

“So where was I? Yes, this technique will help you train as new for the full course of this hardcore regimen. You will most likely suffer like a motherfucker after we are done, but it’ll be good pain.” He nodded to himself self-satisfied.

“Ah, I see, so I don’t really have a choice, don’t I?”

“You got it! Unless you want to kill yourself training?”

“Yea, not that.”

“Alright, so that’s settled. Now lay on your stomach.”

I hesitantly did as he asked. After all, wasn’t he supposed to teach me a technique?

“Close your eyes and relax, BUT stay conscious”

I did as he asked and anxiously waited.

He put his hands on my back. His hands were rough, marks of all the training he had gone through, but also weirdly warmer than at the cascade. His movements were precise. And as he worked along my body, I could feel every single part of my body relax.

It felt like I was floating in water; no, like a feather being carried by the wind; no… it felt like I had left my body. Like I was being taken care of by the most magical of hands, so much so that I lost myself and inadvertently moaned.

“Mmm-aaah.”

“Hey don’t enjoy it that much.” He said, his voice grossed out.

I didn’t even have the presence of mind to comprehend what he was meaning. It felt like floating weightless in a warm and comfortable void.

‘So that’s why it’s called the secret ultimate lightening technique’

I then moaned again before my mind totally trailed off.

I could only hear Ro..bert or was it Rock...y

…

I could only hear master’s word before I fell asleep. “Enjoy this while you can.” accompanied by a devious laugh.

I was already half asleep, and thus despite the threat, comfortably nodded off.