Akil went back to his own room, he looked around nostalgically, it had been quite a long time since he had been in here. If it wasn’t for the constant attention of the magical servants this room would have been long covered in dust due to its lack of use.
He had originally used this room with his wife many years ago, but he had stopped using the room after she had died. At first the memory was too painful, eventually it had just become a habit. He doesn’t need to sleep so there was really no reason. He looked forlornly at the surrounding room, there were a lot of memories packed into this room. An image of his wife appeared inside his head, her smile and her laugh that used to haunt his nightmares echoed through his mind.
Memories flashed through his mind quickly, threatening to overwhelm his mind, he felt a surge of strong emotion. Just when he thought that he would be crushed under the weight of his feelings the images started to be replaced. Instead of his wife the images in his head were of Selena, at first he barely noticed the difference because the only real way to differentiate them was how they had commonly dressed. He realized that Selena was slowly starting to worm her way into his heart.
He wasn’t sure if these newfound feelings were because of his convergence with Ray but it had seemed like his emotions had been running wild ever since then. He wanted to put all the blame on Ray but deep down he knew that this was his real feelings. Ray just had the effect of amplifying emotions that already existed.
He sat down on the large canopy bed in the center of the room. A single teardrop ran down the side of his face. He didn’t realize how much Selena meant to him until the possibility of parting with her had arised. An acute fear had gripped him since he revealed himself to her, a fear that she would reject him. He wasn’t sure how to deal with these feelings, part of him wanted to run over to Selena and confess while another wanted to hide the feelings deep within his soul and ignore them.
He sprawled out on the bed, his mind so exhausted from all the current events that he quickly fell into a troubled sleep. It had been such a long time since he had actually slept that he had forgotten the feeling of it. His sleep was dreamless and 8 hours went by in the blink of an eye.
His eyes snapped open, forcing himself up he went over to the mirror, staring at himself in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that he actually fell asleep, his body and mind were changing and he felt that he was losing control. He splashed his face with cold water from the washbasin. He took off all his clothes and wiped himself down with a damp cloth slowly and methodically.
After he finished cleaning himself he walked over to the attached bath area, turned up the heat on the magical temperature regulator then immersed himself in the scalding water. Baths were one of the few earthly pleasures that he still indulged in, he took one almost every week although he usually used the bath closer to his office.
He spent a little more than 10 minutes soaking and collecting himself. He used his meditation abilities to return to a calm emotional state. He knew he would have to face Selena again not just today but they would be together for a long time. He needed to get his feelings on a leash so he could control himself properly around her.
He got out of the shower and dried himself off with Chore Magic, technically he could fully clean himself off with the same spell but then he wouldn’t get to relax in a bath. He put his magic clothes back on and got himself ready for the day. He walked over to his personal disciple quarters where Tristan and Selena were staying and knocked on each of their rooms. He heard footsteps from Tristan’s room then the door opened after only a few moments. A wide awake Tristan appeared, sharply dressed in his new adventuring clothes.
From behind Selena's room he heard a flurry of activity. A panicked Selena could be heard from behind the door.
“Sorry, I’ll be out in just a moment.” (Selena)
Tristan chuckled at his sister's state.
“My sister has never been much of a morning person. Please forgive her.” (Tristan)
Akil looked at him blankly, inside he was laughing but he didn’t want to show too much leniency to his new disciples.
Tristan saw his serious expression and worried for his sister, she really was bad at waking up, he usually had to fight with her to get her to wake up. He had hoped that her desire to impress Akil would override her sleepiness but apparently even that wasn’t fully enough. After an awkward couple of minutes her door finally opened. A slightly disheveled looking Selena appeared in her new outfit.
Tristan glared at his sister, she looked away in embarrassment. Akil looked back and forth from brother to sister.
“Good morning, it’s time to start your training. Prepare yourselves as I will not be holding back.” (Akil)
*Grrrrrrrrrr*
A loud growl could be heard coming from Selena’s stomach. She looked away as a minor blush appeared at her cheeks.
Tristan snickered at his sister's misfortune.
“But first, I guess I can make you both some breakfast.” (Akil)
He brought them both to his private dining room and had them sit down. He went back to the kitchen and quickly prepared a hearty breakfast of stuffed omelets. He had brought them out to the patiently waiting siblings, placing a plate in front of each of them. The siblings immediately dug into the meal, Akil realized he didn’t feed them the night before so they must be starving. He didn’t usually think of food since he didn’t need to eat himself.
A look of bliss appeared on both of their faces as they began eating.
“This is so good.. Is there anything you can’t do Akil?” (Tristan)
“I didn’t know eggs could possibly taste this good.” (Selena)
“Not to boast but I am quite good at creating things in any way, shape or form. I can teach you if you would like.” (Akil)
They rapidly devoured their food, Akil felt bad seeing how ravenous they were.
“Remember from now on you can ask Sid to bring you food or ingredients to your room, you both could have eaten last night. Make sure you are eating big enough meals everyday, it's important for your training that you are eating.” (Akil)
They both nodded in between bites. Akil gave them a few more minutes to finish their meals. They had a forlorn look on their faces once the food was finished, Akil shook his head with a smile on his face. After they had finished he got up and brought them to his private training room.
“Sid, setup two magical testing dummies.” (Akil)
“Yes headmaster.” (Sid)
Two magical circles appeared in the corner of the room from which two generic training dummies appeared.
“The two of you, fire your most powerful spells at the dummy.” (Akil)
They both nodded and began chanting incantations.
[Lightning Bolt], [Searing Light]
Selena’s lightning bolt crashed into the dummy, causing electrical cackling throughout the room. At the same time a divine flame emanated from Tristan and struck the other dummy. The dummy that the lightning struck turned a bright yellow while the dummy that was struck by the divine fire turned a burnt orange.
“The colors that the dummies turned are based on the color spectrum depending on the power of the spell, that being red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, then finally violet.” (Akil)
Their power was on the lower end currently but that was because most spells' power were dependent on the level of the caster. The only reason Tristan’s power was registering lower than his sisters was twofold, one because divine casters tended to have more support oriented spells as opposed to damage. Also the spell he cast was specialized at killing undead creatures.
“That was pretty good for now. I want you guys to remember how strong you are now so that you have a baseline for later. Sid, Summon two level 3 melee practice dummies.” (Akil)
The two dummies appeared, one with a wooden sword and one with a wooden spear.
“Now the two of you are specialized in ranged combat, I want you to show you how the two of you handle hand to hand combat focused enemies. Ready and begin.” (Akil)
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Selena immediately dropped back and began chanting and incantation. Tristan began chanting only moments later, the two combatants shot forward immediately swinging their weapons wildly at the two siblings. They weaved around the weapons expertly, continuing their chants without any trouble. They both finished their chants simultaneously.
[Magic Armor], [Summon Monster III: Ape]
A large ape appeared out of a summoning circle on the ground from the spell Selena cast, it immediately jumped into the fray and pulled the aggro from the two combatants. The magic armor spell that Tristan cast covered the large gorilla in a magical sheen. It was quite an impressive strategy, because they were both casters they needed some form of frontline to protect them. Magic armor and regular armor were mutually exclusive so generally magic armor could only be used on an unarmored backline. But the summon creature doesn’t wear armor and was naturally tough to begin with, together with the magic armor it would be quite the formidable frontline.
The magically enhanced gorilla easily distracted the two dummies. The siblings didn’t waste even a second before they began casting their second spells. The incantations flowed smoothly without any sort of rush and they finished just as cleanly.
[Haste], [Burst of Strength]
Both of them cast a buffing spell, Selena’s spell speeding up the whole group while Tristan’s spell magically enhanced the strength of the already strong ape. The sudden increase in the strength and speed of the ape seemed to overwhelm the two dummies as they had trouble keeping up. The ape ripped the spear out of the hands of the one dummy and snapped it in two. The ape swung its large hand at the dummy, crushing its chest cavity and flinging it across the room. The second dummy took a swing at it with its sword but the ape caught it by the hand and lifted it off the ground. With its other hand it pulled down on the body of the dummy, tearing the arm straight out of its socket. The ape then took the arm and bashed it into the dummy repeatedly. The ape then beat its chest as the magic circle appeared around it, dissipating it into nothing.
It was a particularly brutal death, even for a dummy. The whole fight lasted less than 20 seconds, the two siblings didn’t seem harried at all which was good for a fight against two beings of lower level than them.
“Good Job, now you will run around 10 laps around the training ground.” (Akil)
The training ground was exactly a quarter mile around (400 meters). The two siblings groaned as they began running. Akil repeated the training against two level 5 dummies, then 4 level 3s, then 4 level 5’s and finally two level 7s each with the running in between and each with a different weapon than the previous time. By the time they were finished they were covered in sweat and bruises from where the dummies had tagged them with their wooden weapons. They were gasping deeply, fighting for breath and unable to stand, they had managed to defeat each of their opponents up until the 4 level 5s. Even though they lost he still had them fight the even stronger level 7 dummies. They of course lost miserably to them but they at least gave it their best shot.
“Good Job you two, you did well.” (Akil)
“This training is insane, you expect us to do this everyday?” (Tristan)
“Everyday? Were not even close to finishing for today, that was the first stage of the training, we will do that same training 5 more times.” (Akil)
“Whaaaaaaa” (Tristan)
Tristan voiced his displeasure while Selena merely let out a low whimper as she collapsed fully onto the ground.
“How do you expect us to do this training again, we can barely move?!” (Tristan)
*Heroic Ability: Heroes Refrain*
Akil used a heroic ability that had the same effects as a Heal as well as a Restoration as well as restoring their spellcasting ability. Their fatigue and pains quickly disappeared, and they could feel the magical energies in their body returned. They were back to their peak ability. Realizing this Tristan gave a grimace and Selena gave a deep sigh.
They begrudging did the training 6 total times and while they were physically completely restored at the end of each attempt, mentally and emotionally they were completely wrung dry.
By the end of the last attempt they were lying on the ground panting even though their fatigue had been erased.
“Excellent job today, both of you! Go back to your rooms, get a good meal and get some rest. Training will follow an ABC day schedule alternating between three different regiments. Today was your melee enemy and stamina focused day, tomorrow we will be focused on ranged enemies as well as strength training then finally we will focus on mixed enemy training as well as general skills.” (Akil)
The day passed and they found that the strength training regiment was even just as bad if not worse than the stamina training except instead of burning lungs and sore legs their entire body turned into jello in between each rejuvenation. It followed the same enemy schedule as the previous day except the enemies used ranged weapons and spells as opposed to melee combat. They each had different weapons ranging from a bow, to crossbows and even guns. The siblings were surprised to see the guns as they weren’t something that was common on Rendilion. They were just as surprised seeing more advanced revolvers and bolt action rifles as they were seeing base muskets and flintlocks because they had no frame of reference to know what was more advanced technology.
The strength training consisted of lifting heavy objects in different and strange ways. Akil had studied the human body and came up with the most efficient way to build all the different muscles on the body. Akil now knew that a lot of his knowledge was based in Ray’s world's modern sports science. He couldn’t help but be a little disappointed because he himself knew how many hours he had spent studying the bodies of different types of races. At least he could take solace in the fact he knew the physiology of what Ray would consider fantasy races like elves and dwarves.
He refused to allow the siblings to use magic to enhance their bodies during their training much to their chagrin. They got through the second day with much difficulty as they had almost never in their life done strength training. In fact Tristan had even asked what the benefit of mages training in strength training was. Akil told him what he always believed in, that a strong body and a strong mind went hand in hand, it was impossible to fully train one without training the other.
The third day rolled around and the siblings looked hopeful, they failed to see how training in skills could possibly be as hard as training in strength or stamina. They were a little confused when they got to the training area and saw a complex obstacle course setup around the training room. They became slightly apprehensive when they saw the complexity of it.
They quickly found out that skill day was the most terrifying training day of all. It was slightly different from the other days. They would have to go through different parts of the obstacle course while fighting. So one part would have them being chased by undead down a trapped hallway where they had to disarm traps then unlock a door at the end before they were allowed to defeat the undead. Then there was a giant pool that Akil summoned aquatic monsters that they had to fight underwater. Or the giant sheer cliff face they had to climb while a burrowing monster constantly attacked them. Then once they finished the whole thing they would have to fight a group of humanoid dummies that were even mixes of Frontline and Backline with perfect synergy. They ended up challenging the obstacle course 6 times but not once were they able to fully complete it.
“I’m glad you two were able to get through these three days, you have exceeded my initial expectations.” (Akil)
Akil was talking to the two panting siblings exhausted after their 6th attempt at the obstacle course.
“Is it too late to change our minds?” (Tristan)
What Tristan said was obviously a joke and usually Selena would chastise him for it but it seemed right now she didn’t have the energy.
“So for now we only did the physical part of the training but starting the next set of days we will be adding in mental. We will be doing physical training the first half of the day and the second half we will do mental training.” (Akil)
“You mean there's more?!” (Tristan)
“Not only that but we will be increasing the intensity of the training, face stronger opponents, run longer, lift heavier and deal with harder obstacles. We will also increase the number of iterations of the training by 1 everyday until we reach 11 total iterations.” (Akil)
There was a look of horror on both of the siblings' faces. The current training had already pushed them to the limit and now they were learning that it was just the beginning. Akil saw that while there weren't any full fledged tears both of the siblings definitely had watery eyes. Selena seemed to be the first to recover, she seemed to steel herself and give a resolute look.
“Thank you for taking the time to train us, we’re sorry for being a burden for you right now.” (Selena)
“You both aren’t burdens, in fact, I have always quite enjoyed teaching, I wouldn’t be the headmaster of a school otherwise haha.” (Akil)
Akil let them go for the rest of the day and prepared themselves for the increase in intensity of their training. The next 165 days fell into the monotony of training. During the mornings they would train their bodies and combat skills and during the evenings they would train their minds. Training their minds mostly consisted of reading the books in the library as well as learning skills such as playing instruments or cooking. Selena became quite skilled at playing a lyre while Tristan became an adept cook. Much to her displeasure, Selena had no skills for the culinary arts and was actually quite the terror in the kitchen. Dishes she made would sooner be considered poisons than food. Akil also tried to introduce them to council members whenever possible. Most of them didn't return in the time frame of the training but he was able to introduce them to a few.
He also introduced them to El, both of them already knew who she was and they felt very sad for her when they learned of her predicament. Near the end of the siblings' training El had managed to reach level 8, her training was not as intense as theirs so she ended up lagging behind them.
They did reach heights in their combat skills that they never would have dreamed of on their own, by the end of the full training session they had reached level 11. To a layman it would seem as if they would reach their goal of level 13 long before the year mark but skilled adventurers knew better, those last two levels took more effort to achieve than all 6 of the previous levels combined as leveling after 10 became exponentially harder. In fact they had reached level 10 almost a full two months before they finished their current training and they only just barely reached level 11 days before the end. They both had undergone a huge physical transformation. You could tell just by looking at them, Tristan had bulked up from his previous diminutive self, he was completely covered in lean muscle. Selena was similar except her muscle was very toned and almost invisible but she still gave off a powerful aura that was impossible to miss.
Ray’s mind was completely amazed at just how impressive the bodies of this world and Akils world were, because they were infused with magic since birth. Lean muscle like Tristans could lift heavier weight than powerlifters of his world.
After the training had ended, Akil transported them outside of Graycott. They had planned to make it look like they came back from Cardended. If anyone asked, Selena found a healer who could help Tristan there when she went there with Deacon’s party. Akil agreed to help bring him there if she would help him take care of the bandits outside the city. As for Deacon’s party it was unfortunate but they ended up dying in the new dungeon that appeared near Cardended. Akil knew that the lord of Graycott was probably feeling the heat now that his little slaving operation was interrupted but he shouldn’t be rash enough to do anything about it as of yet.
That was Akil’s first plan after they officially formed their party, it was to investigate the lord of Graycott and expose his wrongdoings to the world.