The next day, Orion was woken up by a loud bell. Jolting up from his bed, he looked around for the source and he found none. The bell sounds lasted for a minute. Then someone outside their tent shouted : “ WAKE UP SLEEPY HEADS! YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO GET OUT! THOSE WHO DON’T WON’T GET BREAKFAST!“
If the bell somehow didn’t wake up someone, this man’s voice would have. And of course, Orion wasn’t willing to miss the meal. Azar, Theo and Melvin were of the same thought. With haste, they changed into a training uniform; a white T-shirt and brown pants.
After getting ready, they exited the tent and headed to the mess hall; it was one of the central buildings. The room itself was as large as to take the first 2 floors of the building, tables and chairs lined the room. In the side of the room, stood the cook behind a giant cauldron, stirring what seemed to be stew. They were instructed to form a line to get their food and head for the training grounds within 30 minutes.
Orion and his companions quickly ate their food and made their way to the grounds within 20 minutes.
Waiting for them, a bold man wearing brown leather armour, and limbs as thick as tree trunks, was standing as straight as an arrow and clasping his hands behind his back. He didn’t speak and stared at them as if waiting for something. Ten minutes later and the last of the kids reached the training grounds. Then the man said “ Good, in the next year, I will be your physical training instructor. My name is Gregorie and you will address me as sir.
I will excuse your lack of manners for today only. first, when you get here tomorrow, you will stand as i am standing right now in a line, second, you will answer me with ‘yes sir’ or ‘no sir’. Third, complaining, rebellion and being slack. Am I making myself clear?”
“… yes sir” replied the still sleep ridden kids with a tinge of fear
“I can’t hear you!” replied instructor Gregorie with a sneer
“ YES SIR! '' immediately replied the kids, not daring pushing the man's temper any longer
“Good, now you will run along the outer wall until I tell you to stop.”
“Yes sir!”…
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Orion ran and ran, and ran some more, a quarter of the way around the fortress, he stumbled, his legs were burning,he could barely keep himself from falling unconscious. He tried to get up and follow the instructor's words but his legs refused to obey. Suddenly, the instructure appeared next to him, he gave him an appraising look.
“Slightly above average stamina…” he muttered, and then he picked Orion up by the collar and began to run to the training ground. Orion felt the wind pass through his skin. The scenery quickly changed and in fifteen seconds, he was dropped off in the training ground. He looked around for his squadmates, after a quick look, he found Melvin and Theo, both as exhausted as he was. After a quick glance, he noticed that most of the trainees were already here. And each minute, two kids get dropped off.
The man moved like a blur. Transported the nearly exhausted trainees. And a few minutes later Azar gets dropped off, and instructor Gregorie orders them to stand in formation.
“ Now that the warm up is over, it is time for the real training to start.” he said, then proceeded to demonstrate stretching exercises, telling them to mimic him. Followed by strength exercises that they were ordered to practice until exhaustion. And so, 3 hours have passed.
Orion felt like hell. He was struggling to not throw up. Every muscle in his body ached, even muscles he didn’t know he had. Laying on the ground, he wondered if dying would have been better than this. He was currently laying down, breathing heavily, waiting for orders for the next exercise. He didn’t dare object, because he feared the consequences.
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A boy tried to pretend to be unable to continue the training and was immediately punished by being forced to practise exponentially harder exercises, under the direct watch of instructor Gregorie.
Soon, after the instructor made sure that everything was in order, he ordered them to go and eat lunch. Orion was never more excited to eat lunch before disappearing in a haste. As he slowly got up, he looked around for his friends, finding them nearby.
As they made their way to the mess hall, Theo spoke “ damned old man, what does he take us for? Adventurers? Warriors? Do we have to do this every day? For a whole damned year? “
“ I wouldn’t say that if I were you, that man is strong, maybe he can hear you from wherever he is, “ Melvin said, concern plastered all over his face.
“I for one don’t think he does this because he likes to make us go through hell” said orion
“ True, he didn’t scold or punish us when we reached our limits, he just pushed us to that point for our bodies to adapt and get stronger, “ said Azar.
Frowning,Theo said“What are you two talking about, u cal that training—”
“ hey theo, what are you talking about, do you want to get yourself killed? “ Thea, theo’s twin sister, appeared behind her brother. She pulled his ear, scolding him for his loud mouth.
“Ow ow! What was that for?
“ Last time I let you run your mouth off, you somehow made every kid in the village gang up on you. Now, shut up and walk “
Orion, Azar and Melvin all walked ahead, leaving the twins to their arguing.
When they reached the mess hall, a guard gave each one of them a small wooden box, filled with small green pills. “ you were ordered by sir Gregorie to take one, and only one pill per day after your physical training, these will help you recover faster” he said.
Lunch was a bowl of vegetable stew, beef jerky and a loaf of bread. It was the tastiest meal they had.
When they got out, the head scribe was waiting for them outside, waving his hands with a big, friendly smile. His black hair tied into a knot.
“Children, go wit for me in the courtyard, i will be in charge of your education for the first couple of weeks, we can’t let you all behind those academy fools”
The trio did as they were instructed and sat together waiting for what came next.
Soon, when everyone gathered, Fredric appeared in the middle of the gathering. He announced his presence with a clap. Startled, the trainees turned around in an instant, confusion and panic gripping their bodies. They were stopped from standing up by the friendly voice of the scribe. “ calm down children, i am not going to hurt you, sit down for now and let's begin our first lesson “
“ You are probably wondering what I will be teaching. It's simple, I will tell you the basics on how to start your journey through the ranks of power. And first things first, what do you know about mana ?”
Orion thought for a moment. No one back at the family estate wanted to teach him anything about magic and all he knew was from the stories of warriors splitting mountains and seas, or mages lighting entire armies on fire. After pondering he raised his hand and said “ isn’t mana the energy warriors and mages use to execute their techniques? “
“ yes, that is true, that is only the surface of it “ he gave him a nod, then continued “ but do you know the other names for mana in different parts of the world? The kingdom of knights call it essence, the people of the northern continent call it qi or life force and the shogunate knows it as chakra. “
“It's not that all these names does not represent this energy, but that it is too great to describe in one world. It is all of them and more."He gave everyone a glance, making sure they were listening." Mana, or essence, does not conform to only the elements you know. It can take many forms. It can even reflect ‘emotions’ and ‘will’, though for now, that subject is too advanced for you to learn.”
Orion listened to the man talk. For an entire hour, he talked about theories and the most commonly known elements. Affinities could be split into three categories, purely elemental represented by a circle of elemental pairs ; water and wind, earth and metal, light and darkness, and fire and lightning. All of these pairs were established based on the base concept that govern those elements, manipulation of fluids, solids,contradiction, and energy respectively.
The second category was reality based affinities represented by space, time and gravity.
Fredric explained that these three elements are intrinsically linked and can affect each other to some extent, as these elements govern connected laws of the universe. But Orion found it confusing, how can laws affect each other? He didn’t understand, so he left the matter for later
As for the third, it was the life affinities represented by life ,soul and nature. After a few hours of lectures about the elements, most were bored from the long lecture. Noticing the situation, Frederick shifted the topic on the first three levels of power
“ Now, I am sure the next topic will be of interest to all of you. Advancement. For now, you need only concern yourselves with the first three. The first is the ring stage. In this realm, you need to form eight rings around your dormant core. The rings can be formed through many ways; meditation, physical training, runic inscription and so on. Each ring will increase your mana capacity and physical capabilities, depending on the type of rings you form
“ Next is the fusion stage. In this rank you need to link the rings and fuse them into a sphere, completely encasing your core. This rank is easier than the first, granted you know how to do it. Third, is the ignition stage, this is the stage where your core fully matures. Your mana will take a qualitative and quantitative leap.”