Chapter 17: Body Tempering
After the small commotion due to their teacher’s announcement, the morning training session began.
This time, Teacher Turner didn’t join the students in the training hall and stayed behind in the classroom instead.
Seeing this, Ain followed suit. The training session was usually quiet, at least for now when most students had yet to start practicing any powerful spells. It would be too disturbing if they held a prolonged conversation there.
It was best to talk in the classroom to avoid disturbing the rest of the students.
“I see you’ve already contracted a spirit pet,” Teacher Turner said without much surprise. He had already seen Ain condense his spirit ring. It was acceptable for him to contract a spirit pet soon after.
“Yes, teacher, I did it over the weekend,” Ain replied politely before continuing, “Teacher, I need some guidance on nurturing my spirit pet.”
Teacher Turner replied, “That’s why I’m here. Summon your spirit pet so I can observe it.”
Hearing this, Ain immediately summoned Nox, who appeared with a flash.
“Oh, you actually contracted a ghost-attribute spirit pet. Ghost attribute-spirit pets are quite uncommon, especially in our city,” Teacher Turner observed Nox as he said that.
“Yes, I was fortunate enough to receive an opportunity,” Ain replied, without revealing too much.
“I can tell that it’s a Dark Specter. I know a little about them. This one’s quality seems to be high, so you don’t need to worry about evolution yet. Now, let me tell you a little about how to go about nurturing it…” Teacher Turner said. Obviously, he found it unusual that Ain could obtain a high-quality ghost-attribute spirit pet, but he wasn’t interested in finding out how he did it.
For the next ten minutes, Ain attentively listened to Teacher Turner’s words. Although he had a spirit master inheritance, he would need to study it deeply to gain some understanding. It was better to rely on his teacher for now.
Teacher Turner’s announcement was timely. Ain guessed it might be due to him.
After listening to the advice, as well as what he found in Cyberspace, Ain gained a better understanding of how to proceed.
Most spirit pets could absorb energy from resources with the same attributes. This could accelerate their progress, more than just absorbing ambient spirit energy.
This is also where attribute traces played a role. The closer the match between the attribute traces of the spirit pet and the resource, the greater the effect.
Therefore, spirit masters would use their techniques to concoct medicines from various resources to match the attribute traces. This was one of the foundations of creating medicines that assisted spirit pet training. Of course, various other factors were involved as well.
Although Teacher Turner would be guiding them, he wouldn’t go as far as providing them with these medicines and potions.
Unless a student’s pockets were deep, the option of personally requesting a spirit master to concoct medicine was unavailable.
There were still general use medicines and potions sold in the market that could be used. They were still better than nothing.
Taking Ain’s background into consideration, Teacher Turner recommended two ghost-attribute resources to Ain: Ghost Stones and Grim Barks.
Ghost Stones and Grim Barks were just regular stones and trees that mutated due to their environment. Their ranks depended on the degree of mutation as well as the strength of the ghost energy in the environment.
Ain only needed Rank-0 Ghost Stones and Grim Barks for Nox.
Other than guidance for Nox, Teacher Turner also gave Ain some suggestions for his own training.
Due to Nox’s skill, Possession, Teacher Turner highly recommended Ain to procure better food, as well as medicinal pills that could nourish his body.
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This reminded Ain of another matter, so he raised another question, “Teacher, where can I obtain body tempering techniques?”
Spirit tamers could nourish their physiques with spirit energy as they increased their ranks. But it would be minimal unless one trained with body tempering techniques used to specially temper the body.
“You will learn a body tempering technique in your physical training class after the third week. You can ask Teacher Hayes about this. With your spirit pet’s innate skill, it will undeniably be useful,” Teacher Turner saw through Ain’s thoughts and answered directly.
“I see, thank you for your guidance.” Ain gave an earnest bow.
With that, Ain made his way into the training hall to begin his training.
After some thought, he decided to practice Illumination and Introspect since both were close to mastery. He would study the two new spells afterwards. This way, he could avoid disturbing the class for now.
With that, Ain began to practice his spells.
Time passed by.
Before completely exhausting his spirit energy, he stopped and switched to meditation, beginning his spirit tamer training.
His current goal was to strengthen and polish his spirit core, which would allow it to withstand the stress from branding. This process couldn’t be completed in a short period of time, but only with daily accumulation.
Ain expected to spend a few weeks on this process. This was a far cry from his rapid progress before, but he was well aware of reality. Most spirit tamers would take much longer than a few weeks to complete this process.
Soon, the morning session ended, and Ain made his way back to the classroom as he chatted with Hugo.
…
The other classes went by quickly, and Physical Training began.
Everyone had already received their uniforms, which included a special uniform for physical training.
After a week, the students were already used to the routine. With a few minutes of warm-up exercises, the laps around the training hall began.
Teacher Hayes, responsible for this class, stood at his usual spot and gazed at the running students like a hawk. He was searching for any slackers.
Failing to find any today, he nodded to himself.
‘These kids are starting to get used to this. Time to increase the difficulty tomorrow.’ As he made plans for the next day, he noticed Ain, who finished his last lap and walked towards him.
Ain approached Teacher Hayes and made a request, “Teacher, I heard from Teacher Turner that we will learn a body tempering technique later. Can I receive it early?”
Hearing this, Teacher Hayes replied, “Hmm? It’s not impossible, but do you know why I only teach it after three weeks?”
Ain noticed that he didn’t seem against the idea from his tone, so he replied with confidence, “To allow the students to focus on reaching Rank-1.”
“You’re right, body tempering techniques are exhausting to practice, especially in the beginning. Moreover, they need more guidance than a meditation technique or spell.”
“Although I can tell you’ve reached Rank-1, you are the only one so far. I cannot guide you alone in this class period.” Teacher Hayes said.
Ain wasn’t perturbed by his words and said, “I understand, I only hope to receive the body tempering technique. I will study it on my own until then.”
Teacher Hayes didn’t reply immediately but looked at Ain for a moment.
Ain didn’t turn his eyes away.
Only after a few seconds did Teacher Hayes say with a small sigh, “I can give you the body tempering technique now. You’re a genius to reach Rank-1 in just a week, so I believe you won’t injure yourself while training. Come to me after class, I’ll prepare it for you by then.”
“Thank you, Teacher.” Ain smiled and gave a small bow.
“Alright, go join the rest of the class. We’ll continue with more exercises.”
Having succeeded, Ain returned with some relief. He didn’t want to delay his progress for two weeks, especially with the trip planned this weekend.
Physical Training soon ended, and as promised, Ain received the body tempering technique from Teacher Hayes. The technique was called the Prowling Tiger Technique.
‘The name is quite ferocious,’ Ain thought after he looked at the title of the booklet in his hands.
He put the booklet away and began preparing for the afternoon training. He could study it later.
The afternoon training was uneventful and soon ended. Before he left, Ain finally mastered Illumination and was close to mastery in Introspect.
He didn’t waste any time and quickly began his journey home. He wanted to begin training with the body tempering technique as soon as possible. To save time, he analyzed the Prowling Tiger Technique on the hoverbus.
Ain made a quick stop home to eat and feed the cat before arriving at his usual training spot in the park.
Before he began, Ain summoned Nox to keep him company. Although Nox didn’t mind staying in the spirit ring, Ain felt the need to give it some time to enjoy itself.
He observed as it followed the cat around the fountain, which put his mind at ease.
Gathering his focus, Ain turned to a specific page in the booklet depicting a figure crouching on two legs in an unnatural posture. This was the Prowling Tiger stance recorded in the technique.
‘Hmm, doesn’t seem too difficult.’ He imitated the figure to the best of his abilities and circulated his spirit energy in accordance with the technique.
As the spirit energy in his body flowed, he felt some heat emerging from his muscles and bones, but this sensation stopped soon after. His attempt had failed.
Ain relaxed his body and thought about the process. From his understanding, his spirit energy circulation path was correct, but there might be some errors in his stance.
After that, he attempted a few more times, which all ended in failure. But these failures weren’t worthless because they were all precious data for Analysis and Deduction.
About half an hour later, Ain made another attempt.
He circulated his spirit energy again, following the path depicted in the technique before assuming the Prowling Tiger stance. Although the stance looked no different from his first few attempts, one would notice some minor adjustments throughout. It looked more refined and natural.
The familiar heat appeared again, with it came a feeling of suppressed ferocity and lethal intent. The spirit energy circulation continued, and there were no more accidents.
‘Success!’ Ain thought with satisfaction.