38 - Body Modification Training

My new host is Melvin di Usha, the sleepy beauty. With amazing physical capabilities, very small mana batteries (if you know what I mean) and little slow on her thinking. Some would go as far as to call her dumb, but I'm not that sort of person. Lets focus on her strong points, which is her physical power.

Ah.. I hate this part… I don't want to go looking at her entire memories just to find out it was pretty much the same as all the others. And it will only get worse from now on, the older the new host, the more memories I have to sort out. Besides, everyone had a similar upbringing in the Nest. Changes are little and far between, some had a good loving teacher, others a bad cruel teacher. But overall very similar experiences.

Maybe she learned how to read faster, or how to play better chess. But it makes little difference for me at this point. Yep, it is decided. Let's ignore the past and focus on the present. I'll get to know her from now on, and if need arises I can peak into her past for specific information.

"The recycle is done successfully. Lucy resides within Mother, a joyful end, despite the short life and unfortunate accident." They call this a happy end uhm? As long as one does not die outside Mother's range and can be reunited with her, it is considered a happy end.

I don't think like Melvin. Plain and simple. She is good but I don't like her very much.

She finds the death of Lucy a bit of a good news, for now she is closer to being the 'best'. Only Maya and Bria stand before her in physical power. Being completely honest I had to look a bit into her memories about this, yes. I just said I would not because it is boring, but I had to know her otherwise I would hate her if I judged only by these happy feelings caused by the death of someone I cared about. The scan about her personality and connections did not take long. I really needed to understand why she was a bit happy with this miserable situation.

Turns out that my not-so-dear new host is very competitive, she is NOT a bad girl, but an extremely competitive one, with incomprehensible and mixed feelings about this accident. Melvin did not wish for Lucy's death, nor she wishes for Maya or Bria's death.

She is sad that someone so close to her died, someone that was not really a friend but was living together, from the same team, that maybe would turn out to be a close sister. But also happy that someone she considered better than herself is no longer in the 'competition' that she created inside her own mind. She did not talk to anyone about these competitive feelings, she was keeping them to herself. But I knew.

I really liked Lucy and I'm feeling terrible about causing her death, if not for that life-saving ability Alexa has given me I would have gone crazy for causing her to self-destruct like that. I'm holding up my mental sanity but I'm crazy angry at myself. The simple fact that Melvin is remotely happy with this situation makes me almost hate her.

It's not like she is the best out of her own little group of 5… Dinorah is a lot better at mana manipulation for example. Melvin only shines at physical stuff, meaning this is the first time she is being actually good at something. In the nest we had no real place to show physical power. She was always in the middle, not as good as Dinorah, not as bad as Analee.

This person is finally good at something and is extremely happy with it. She wants to be even better, she wants to train and surpass the others. She wants to be the first and best…

How she turned out to be so competitive being so bad at everything we did until this point is a mystery to me.

"Let's go back"

Jade called us back and woke me from my mad delusions about Melvin's personality… The ceremony ended without me noticing it… All your fault stupid host, I got distracted by your weird feelings and lost the last moments of my dear Lucy. I like you even less now. You are the first host I don't like, congratulations.

They walked in silence all the way to the house. Because training was canceled for the day, each girl did their own thing. Melvin slept. Not hard to imagine, she loved to sleep.

The next day's training was normal. Only Mayara and Briana looked a bit down, which is completely understandable. The others did not miss Lucy, they weren't even close friends to her nor talked a lot. The only 'closeness' they had was living in the same house.

*

Time passed, normal training everyday following that tragedy. No one even bothers to talk about it.

Melvin got her space magic working. Also, I could fully understand her talent with magic during this time, it was normal, not bad, not outstanding. Just normal. She did not have big reserves of mana but she was very careful in absorbing mana and compressing it. Meaning her overall quality was very good and pure. Apparently it was something her old tutor, Usha, told her to do.

With everyone using space magic the training finally changed. I'm not entirely sure what Maya and Bria were doing during this entire time, Melvin did not spend much time with them for me to know.

"Well well, you all have the bare minimum physical aptitude now, we can finally start combat training, it will be fun. I really don't like how we need to wait for you to learn space magic, it does not even help with battle, it is just a little convenience… "

Jade turned out to be a battle addicted person. She only thought about the basics, gave the students time to improve their physical resilience, mana storage and space magic because it was required by the defined curriculum for the year.

It appears that the Efalem society has very well defined steps for everyone to take. All are treated equally, the ones with more experience teach the ones with less, but they are not 'superior', all are equal and everyone receives similar teachings. They have a well defined curriculum for teachers to follow and for students to learn.

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This year we are to learn a few magic stuff to support our daily life, one and most complicated being the space magic for storage, and combat, both physical combat with weapons and magical combat, with… well, magic.

Jade is our assigned teacher for this year and it appears she is insanely good at physical combat, it is her specialty and the thing she loves doing. I made sure to strongly suggest for Melvin to ask her why she is teaching if she doesn't like it, why not continue to fight in the war.

"What? Are you stupid? Why are you even asking that?" Apparently teaching is as important a job as fighting. Even if she doesn't like it, it is mandatory for EVERYONE to teach the younger generation. It is part of the curriculum. At specific years you are removed from combat to be sent back and teach a new generation, and while doing that they have their own solo training and goals to reach. Everything is part of a bigger plan that Mother created.

This explains why every teacher of the Nest was from the same generation. It is a cycle that everyone follows. From my calculations a generation 8 years older will teach those from the nest. I got this number by logic, my generation is 866 and our teachers were from 858, that's 8 years.

Then for our second year of life, which include battle instruction, we will get a more experienced person, 12 years older. I still don't know what they do in the betweens, but I'm sure this is a cycle and will continue. The more experience teaches the less experienced.

"Finally! Finally! since all of you are finished with the basic storage magic we can finally begin the next stage. Body modification!" OHHH, that was unexpected. I agree Jade, finally! This sounds like an exciting thing to know.

I'll skip over the details. Basically we needed to channel our mana from the inner original core to a part of our body, simultaneous to manifesting part of the mana from the twin cores near the body part you are focusing, then merging them together, making it appear that your body itself is modified, when it is in fact 'just' a outer shape being semi-absorbed by the body.

She said it was not too hard, but it did NOT sound simple when she explained. Melvin's lazy brain is spinning just from the initial information.

"Don't worry, Don't worry. You have two full months to master it, and I'll be going over step by step with you. From what I saw up until now you all will be fine… probably! Hahahaha"

She said 'probably' while looking directly at the duo Analee and Penny, and she definitely did not sound too confident about it. Well, they were a bit under developed in every aspect, but they were not THAT bad. Both were able to keep up with all the deadlines until now, barely at the limit, yes, but still able to do everything. That's what matters.

"Let's not lose any more time. To the training room right now!" It really is a rare occurrence for her to participate in any training beside the morning run. Well, she did say that step by step lessons would be given, I guess it is expected that she starts to come to the training room together with us, after all, she was the teacher.

"Ok, today's objective is simple. Try creating a small blade format with mana. That's it, simple right?" She created a small white shiny blade in the air in front of her for demonstration and then actually took the time to explain how to do it, how to shape the mana that way, how to maintain it and all. It was a complete surprise for her to be such a good teacher, she did not demonstrate this skill before now.

The following day we had another surprise. Jade got home the usual time, all the girls were already waiting for her but she selected only those that had succeeded in the blade manifestation yesterday.

"The rest of you will be skipping the running today, it is more important and urgent for you to be able to manifest and maintain a mana blade, you will be staying and training that until you succeed, no resting allowed." Only Mayara and Briana ran today.

Dinorah managed to sustain a very stable mana blade by the end of the day, but the others did not. They stayed home again the next day. Only 2 days later were they able to join the run again.

Melvin was MAD that she was stuck inside, she much preferred the physical training after all.

"Now, Now… You three slow ones, you will run WHILE keeping the mana blade up. That's it. Go" Maya and Bria were given extra weight and commanded to run a harder circuit, Dinorah joined them but without any extra burden. Jade stayed with the slow team, to oversee and help them.

We were basically jogging in circles just outside the house, maintaining the mana manifestation while moving was already hard enough for a first day, no need to add impossible goals. The three that were not here had apparently done the same thing on their first day, and had already mastered this step, which is why they were made to run normally while keeping the blade up. Harder training for those that could, that was how Jade operated.

Turned out that everyone achieved the goal for the day and were able to comfortably move while keeping the blade up and stable. Next day everyone ran together.

A week after we first learned about how to manifest the mana blade, we were all at a point where this step was as easy and automatic as breathing.

"Good Good! Lets train another form!" Jade showed a bigger version of a blade. Only a few hours were needed for all students to be able to enlarge the previous created blade. Then she showed another format, a spear head. Well, changing the format and making it stable was a bit harder than just enlarging it. One full day was needed for the slowest ones to catch up and master it.

"Now now, you know two forms and how to enlarge or shrink your manifestation. You will run while switching between the forms and sizes, you will not stop at any one for more than a few seconds" The new training took a lot of concentration. The first day was a disaster for everyone except the genius ones.

A week of morphing mana and running, the difficulty increased again. And this pattern was kept for a full 2 months. Every week is a new challenge.

Our schedule was as followed:

* Week 1: Manifest a stable form while moving

* Week 2: Manifest and morph between multiple stable forms while moving

* Week 3: Enhance physical power using inner mana

* Week 4: Enhance separated body parts using inner mana, switch between them while running

* Week 5: Enhance body parts with a mana blade manifested at all times

* Week 6: Switch enhanced body part and manifested form while running

* Week 7: Fuse a part of the body with the mana blade

* Week 8: Run while maintaining the body modification

By the end of the 2 months all of them were able to modify at least one part of their body to become a weapon. The slowest ones were able to turn only the arms into weapons, and only one at a time, while Maya and Bria were able to modify any part of their bodies, and multiple at a time. The difference is astonishing.

"GOOD GOOD! Now that you have a weapon, let's learn how to use it! Combat training starts tomorrow. DO. NOT. BE. LATE." Like anyone was ever late for training after the first week. I think Jade is just happy to start fighting.

The next day we met the other 30 students that would be training with us.