[Dueling Grounds]

Ah fuck it... I groaned pushing myself off the ground.

My voice had began to crack, and it was very embarrassing. Needless to say, nowadays, I preferred not to talk at all. Honestly, I had completely forgotten this would happen, and was legitimately shocked the while I conversed with Dmitry and ended up getting a voice crack right in the middle of it....

Suffice to say that bastard laughed way too hard much to my displeasure.

On the other hand, there are a lot of advantages to me going through this phase...Well one was that my body developed at an astounding rate. Muscle was super easy to add on to my lean frame and I could feel that strength was easy to attain.

Similarly, magic wise I had gone through insane speeds of growth. Considering I had started my flux phase back when I was eleven, currently at fifteen my reserves were through the roof. Now almost matching at adults, though slightly less. Everything about me had changed, if previously I was tired after a few spells, well now I could almost go the long mile.

It was a blessing indeed and I would continue to grow for three more years. Logically, I needed to spend every convenient moment to train, as after the flux period finishes, my progress would gradually dwindle to an ordinary pace.

Thankfully, three years was a long period, and I knew I could become the best version of myself within it.

But there was one thing still on my mind, currently it was the summer of 1979... Two years and in October 1981 Voldemort would die to Harry Potters hands.

Which meant that Romania had to stand firm for two more years at the least. The situation wasn't looking ideal, but we would always scrape by.

The trade of supplies from the eastern magical world was what kept Romania in business. Ironically, the western side were the first to ignore our requests for aid, or even requests for trade. It was obvious to see which side they preferred.

Wizard or not, they too thought less of muggles and for Voldemort to take over Britain was a victory in their eyes. Who would have thought the imperials and old families of Europe to be classist....

Dalton had done some good deals these days and kept the nation flowing with trade, it was obvious to say that we couldn't grow our own food. A lot of fields and farming villages were immediately taken over by magical beasts.

It was simply not a fight we could have won. In empty plains with no covers, wizards were at an extreme disadvantage. They could only fight on for so long till they had to retreat. But the beasts would come in endless hoards.

Be it the inferri or the vampires with their ghouls. Uncountable fodder that we just couldn't mow through. Safe to say, it was best to forfeit some sides and conserve resources. Instead, Romania improved relations with the east, through Japan and Thailand. Importing food and other resources while we continued to export magical materials extracted from dead beasts and certain herbs gathered from our mountain ranges.

I walked out of the dueling grounds to my room and freshened up.

Nowadays my routine was pretty simple, train in the morning, spend some time reading till the afternoon, and then finally practice some dueling with Dmitry and the lot in the evening. It was quite a refined schedule, and it allowed me to perfectly balance work and rest.

Unfortunately, Dmitry and Zagreus weren't always free on my whims and usually I would find myself doing target practice alone. Ivan was practically buried in paperwork and information, so it was best not to bother him. As for Dalton? He was busy making deals under the radar with god knows who.

But either way, today was somewhat of a big day. I was already fifteen, which meant that I was finally allowed to learn apparition. You might ask, who was stopping me from learning that? Well basically everyone around me.

I was restricted on the information I could access, and knowing that apparition was a complex magic, I simply chose not to risk my life being hasty.

Partly, it was also to make sure I wouldn't run around doing anything stupid. But all that ended today.

As I changed to a fresh set of clothes, I noticed my reflection barely fitting onto the mirror. Stepping back, I realized I had gotten quite a bit taller. About 5'6 I reckon. Not bad for somebody still growing.

Rushing down to Dalton's office I was very excited to learn apparition.

I barged in and sure enough, he was waiting in his chair, discussing a few things, and as I came in he the man beside him turned to me.

A slim man, donning pitch black spectacles. They seemed peculiar, and I could not see through them, but overall his vibe, was certainly mysterious.

"Welcome, you're here early." Dalton teased

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Just ready for today's lesson."

"Why so nervous, it's not going anywhere"

"Somehow, I don't believe that"

We talked back and forth as the third man present made his presence known with a slight cough.

"It seems your teacher for the day is in a hurry. This is Andrei, particularly skilled at teleportation and masterfully proficient in apparition and its derivatives. I recommend you focus on his teachings, he might not always be available to guide you."

"Let us continue in the training grounds " He spoke, fainter than a whisper.

Hence, both Andrei and I shifted to a more suitable practice space.

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[Training Grounds]

We both walked towards the center of the ground as Andrei started preparing our surroundings.

A plethora of markers appeared along the floor, fashioning it similar to a grid, as the letters appeared on the ground from A to D, separating the grounds into four distinct zones.

"Now, let us begin our study of apparition. Are you ready." He asked formally

"Ready as I'll ever be." I chimed

"Perfect. To begin with, apparition is a simplified application of the teleportation principle on the human body to relocate it from one point to another. The body can only stretch through the teleportation space for so long that it then feels nauseous or even yet, is injured. Hence we start our study in smaller grids. The world is simply a set of points that you can recall, in your memory that your mind perfectly remembers. Once you have visualized it, you must channel your desire to reach there. Finally, you must act on that desire and derive your path towards that destination." He spoke sagely

" The explanation is quite accurate because I've read books on it, but I am more interested in the practical." I responded

He gave me the side eye and retorted

"I'd heard you were eager, but who would've thought you'd be this impatient."

"Nevertheless, let's continue our train of thought. Remember, that Desires Derive the Destination. If your desire is incomplete, you will not reach where you wish to, If your destination is unclear your desire and your dedication are useless. Finally, if you derive an unstable path, there is a possibility you might get injured, or worse permanently maimed. Are we clear."

"Yes, clear"

Seeing that I couldn't escape it, I chose to go along his regime.

"Good, now as an example, we are currently in the center of the room. Around us are four squares of equal size, marked with a letter. Four zones, I will demonstrate to you, short scale apparition, and gradually we shall build your precision until you can comfortably derive a path. Only then can we focus on long distance apparition."

Andrei lectured as he moved towards the B zone. A second later he effortlessly apparated to the zone across him.

"Observe the motion, I can clearly picture my destination, and as I begin to beckon myself to it, I begin to shift through space. Do not use it carelessly, there are many who have listlessly used this method of transportation and ended up in less than hospitable places."

"Yeah, I understand."

"Marvelous, now begin your practice to move from the center to Zone A. Do not rush it. It is like pulling back a sling, once you are ready, you spring forth and immediately you will apparate."

I nodded at his words, and using my wand I focused on zone A.

A few deep breaths and then I felt I was ready to go, but as I did, my body suddenly jerked forward and I fell towards the zone.

"Hmm, that is a good try, but despite your desire and destination, you weren't able to shift through space to carry over. Instead your body physically moved. Try again."

Heeding his words I got up and did the same thing again. However this time, as I tried really hard to shift through space, I felt my body swirl slightly.

I immediately shifted but fell short and stumbled towards zone A.

"Keep trying. Apparition is a difficult task to master, it comes not from knowledge but intuition. Once, you've done it a few times, you will find it easier."

Once again, I stood up and repeated the same exercise.

I am not proud to admit but it took me about ten tries to finally somewhat stably land into zone A.

Andrei had me repeat the exercise until I could land in any zone, from any zone.

But once we were done, the markings on the ground shifted to represent a 3 by 3 grid. As you can already guess, my next task was to precisely apparate from one numbered zone to another.

Suffice to say, I had wasted the whole day just doing those. You can already imagine how many different possibilities there were to go from zone to zone. I at least had to do fifty according to him.

The next day came and I again went to the training grounds. But this time the numbers had switched to grid totaling 27.....

"Why are we increasing these numbers." I asked

"Precision is important. I understand you learn quick, hence it is important that I immediately push you into something challenging so that you won't waste your time repeating useless exercises. Once you've mastered precision we can move to longer distances."

Once again, tediously, I apparated from zone to zone, until I had mastered the 27 numbered grid....But who could have guessed that the next day a bigger grid awaited.

This time almost every inch of the floor was numbered from 1 to 64.....

"I thought you said we were moving to longer distances."

"We are, now apparate from zone 1 to zone 64, and remember, pace yourself to a space of at least 20 zones."

Technically he wasn't wrong, as each zone was about a meter wide. So we were moving to longer distances.

The third day, I had finally mastered short distance apparition and I could easily do it. Well if anything, I felt I had spent too much time doing the exercises. Perhaps I had done around 400 practice apparitions just on random zones these last two days.

"Remarkable, we are moving at extremely good pace. Now, I have marked a number on the cafeteria floor. Your task is to apparate successfully from the training ground to the cafeteria. First you should go inspect the cafeteria and make sure you are familiar with it."

He handed me a small pin that apparently allowed me to bypass the wards in the cafeteria. Most of the interior inside the base was warded as to prevent unauthorized apparition but the pin helped me get through that.

Following his instructions, I paced around the cafeteria, getting weird looks the whole time as I did. But anyhow, once I had familiarized myself, I managed to do the exercise in one try.

We moved on to larger and larger distances, until I found that I couldn't effectively perform for anything above two kilometers. Which was actually surprising since Andrei told me his range was about 10 to 7 km, depending on the location.

For someone who had learned only for about three and a half days, it was insanely good progress.

It goes without saying that for the rest of the day, I refused to walk and would only apparate places.... After all why couldn't I..It just looked way too cool.

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