The door sat there unchanging for an immeasurable amount of time. Then, once again, that thing from deep inside reached for the handle and the door opened. Before him stood a boy, not yet a man, but a boy.
The boy was tall for his age, with curly, black, shoulder-length hair. The boys eyes were like blades. For in their depths, steely sharpness. A handheld Lantern illuminated Boy. The lantern Aesthetic certainly did not match that of the clothing or the general look of the boy.
The boy seems to be dressed in a tight-fitting tank top and gym shorts of all things. The boy seems to pause as he walks into the mud room. Putting the lantern down, the boy put on some shoes and walked out the door. The door revealed a glimmering sunrise over a small city's rooftops. The boy began to walk and then run, something started to jog Emmanuel's memory.
A familiar corner, a street hawker trying to sell old dingy clocks. An old lady walking her two dogs And then a house. The house looks like most of the others most likely built in the 1930s the house was reasonably sized with a nice subdued gray exterior.
Due to the house's forgettable exterior, it took him a while to recognize it. Specifically, he recognized one of the residents that opened up to the front door and gave the boy a wave. The person who walked out was also a boy named Rafael. Much smaller than Emmanuel at that age Rafael was maybe 150 cm. This was extremely uncommon, as by the look of it Rafael was maybe 12 or 13. The other boy (or more frankly his younger self) waved back before continuing on his run.
Every morning his grandfather would ”encourage” him to go for a run before their morning training. You would always take the same route, popping by Raphael's place by that local barber shop, the pizza joint, around Till River, and back home. Without fail, he did it every day for more than 3 years.
Eventually, his younger self finished his morning run and returned home.
No matter the day even if you have school, she would do some sort of training. When he had school, it would be far lighter than on the weekends. Unfortunately for him, it was Saturday, so no school. It's not like his younger self-heated training; it's just it got boring after a while so his younger self tried to do the rational thing and sneak into his room.
Before he can enter the house, an old man bared his way. The man was unmistakably his grandfather. The man shared the same frame as his son and, by extension, his grandson had although to a lesser extent. He had a mop of long silver hair tied up into a man bun. To complete the look, his grandfather had a light beard and vibrant green eyes. Frankly, the man looks like someone in their late 50s or early 60s rather than his late-70s.
His youthful appearance was most apparent in his impressive physical frame and musculature. He had the body of an Olympic athlete back on Earth.
He distinctly remembered one of his childhood memories when his grandfather, who hated technology, somehow ended up watching the hundred-meter dash. Then, seemingly insulted by the athlete's performance, proceeded to first try to have a better time than the gold-winning athlete by over 2 seconds.
To say that his grandfather was a beast, would be an understatement. it always alluded to him how grandfather was so physically capable.
According to his grandfather, his incredible physique and agelessness came from his” training”. The Emmanuel of the time and the current Emmanuel still thought that excuse was a steaming pile of horseshit.
But looking back on it the old man was probably partially right. Although there was probably some other hidden factor, the correct amount of exercise and frankly amazing genetics certainly didn't worsen his grandfather's situation.
The old man welcomed his younger self without a word. His grandfather led him to a courtyard behind the house. The Courtyard was immaculately maintained. In one section, there was an impressive archery range. The range had bows and targets from all corners of the planet. From Yumis from Japan, to massive longbows from the Americas, to crossbows from Central Europe.
His grandfather started Emmanuel on archery, which he hated. He never really got archery.
Even though he had been practicing archery every day for years, he could barely even land a shot, let alone a bullseye, from 5 meters away. He wasn't even more accurate with the supposedly easier-to-aim crossbow.
This, of course, drew his grandfather into a rage as he, at the age of seven, was able to shoot Robin Hood arrows. But however much his younger self pleaded for the archery practice to stop, his grandfather would never relent.
So he watched the mess that was his grandfather yelling at his younger self for 2 hours. Eventually, the two moved on to the next portion of the courtyard. This part of the courtyard looked far more modern. It had tons of exercise equipment: weights and even an obstacle course. After 30 minutes of physical conditioning, the two moved to the course.
The course was consistent, with five parts. The first obstacle was ever-increasing hurdles. The second was five rings suspended over 3 meters in the air. Followed by a 10-meter rock climb; then, from the top of the rock wall, a 7-meter tightrope ended with sloped descending platforms.
His grandfather took a position closer to the end of the course where the younger him stood at the beginning. His grandfather pulled out an old pocket watch. The old man detested technology with a passion. If you could avoid using it he would. As a result, although light bulbs were installed in the house, the old man forbade usage of them. This disdain also went for modern cell phones. Although probably far more accurate than the pocket watch, his grandfather refused to spend an outrageous amount of money on something so useless when a pocket watch and a landline worked perfectly fine. The only surprising concession Grandfather would make was with some vital equipment like refrigerators and other essential kitchen appliances.
With a shout from his grandfather his younger self launched into the obstacle course. Thereby forcing Emmanuel's concentration on the obstacle course. The smaller hurdles proved no challenge to his younger self. As his younger self merely jumped over them. Larger ones Were harder to tackle. His younger self had to physically pull himself over the hurdles.
The final part of this section was surprisingly not a hurdle.
Instead, it was a platform suspended almost two and a half meters above the ground. He significantly struggled with this obstacle. His thirteen-year-old self hadn't reached his full size yet. But eventually, his younger self heaved himself onto the platform.
Not even taking a moment to steal a breath his younger self quickly got onto his feet and leaped from the platform.
Grabbing the first ring he carried his momentum, and at the apex of the ring's swing, let go.
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Unfortunately, the rings weren't close enough together for him to grab one while still holding on to the previous one.
He had to time the release from one ring to another perfectly.
But eventually, he grabbed the last ring and swung onto a safety mat.
He rolled to minimize the impact of the fall. Using the momentum from the roll, he continued to run. Reaching the rockwall, he jumped and grabbed the first rock. About 5 meters up he was able to launch himself from a large rock shelf.
He braced his feet, and, using the combined forces of his upper and lower body, launched into the air. Desperately reaching for the next hand holding his younger self's fingers on his left hand grabbed a rock. With the grip provided by the rock shelf, he used his legs to propel himself further.
The leap had carried him to the eight-and-a-half meter mark, and quickly his younger self approached the zenith.
With one last heave of his forearms, he pulled himself over the lip of the wall. At last secure on the wall, he collapsed to his knees. Taking a few moments to catch his breath and gather his nerves, his younger self stood up and walked over to the tight room.
This was seemingly the most dangerous part of the obstacle course. Being around 10 meters in the air and with minimal padding. Although his grandfather had the mats he will move them a couple of years ago to stimulate the experience.
Seemingly with fear of the repercussions, his younger self grabbed the rope with his hands and then wrapped his legs around the roof as well.
Upside down, he slowly crawled forward on the road until he reached the first slanted platform. Quickly flipping back over, he sprung to his feet and began to jump from platform to platform. On the third platform, he slipped But with cat-like reflexes, grabbed the edge of the platform. What's the leverage provided by the edge of the platform his younger self was easily able to get back on his feet.
A couple of platforms later his younger self stood before his grandfather.
Who, looking at the watch, didn't seem very pleased.
“Not bad; for a first-run” his grandfather grumbled.
“Old man, what did I get?”
Shooting the young man a warning look, his grandfather said, ”3 minutes, 27 seconds.”
The young man seemed to be deflated by the time. “Really?” he groaned,
“Yep, let's do it again.”
His younger self complied and for the next hour ran the course. Eventually, his younger self stood before his grandfather once more.
**Huff** ‘My what's my” *Huff* “time?” wheezed the young man.
“3 minutes, 9 seconds; not bad,” replied his grandfather.
“Thank god” The boy let out before collapsing to the floor.
“You’ve got 3 months to shave it down to sub-three,” said his grandfather with conviction.
“All right, let's break for lunch.” His grandfather moved away back inside.
A couple of seconds later after catching his breath, the young man followed.
Looking back at the obstacle course Emmanuel was amazed at both the ability and the inability of his younger self. Although for his age a low 3-minute time was insanely impressive it was but a shadow of what Emanual eventually reached. When he was in college he was able to get sub two minute times. Although his increased size and physical abilities certainly helped in that department.
Before he could ponder on the obstacle course further his vision was moved to a quaint kitchen. The kitchen was surprisingly modern and contrasted with the rest of the house. The one thing that his grandfather would spare no expense on was food. As a result, he broke his own rule to provide the best conditions for preparing said food.
Emmanuel watched as his grandfather and his younger self entered the room and began to prepare some food.
Finishing cooking the meal they both sat back down.
After a little while his grandfather spoke.
“How much did the United States purchase Alaska for?”
“7.2 million dollars from Russia. If we would count for inflation that would be roughly 140 million today.”
“What's the chemical compound for glucose?” asks the old man.
“6 carbon, 12 hydrogen, and 6 oxygen. If you double that, instead of getting two glucose you get Inverted sugar syrup.”
Glancing up from his plate his grandfather asked another question.
“At what level in D&D 5e do blade singers receive their blade songs?”
His younger self took a second before responding.
“Level two, and the blade singer gets the ability for 60 seconds and can you use it to equal the character's proficiency.”
A smile split the old man's face.
“Correct,”
The questions continued, ranging from facts about geography, to History, Sciences, and to any subject under the sun. The largest group of questions pertained to pop culture, specifically around D&D, MMORPG, and LitRPG.
If his younger self got the question wrong, his grandfather was standing up and grabbed a book and proceeded to place it in front of the young man. Then his grandfather would open up to the exact page with the information needed. This ability always seemed to baffle his younger self. Then upon being shown the information his younger self would be forced to read through it and answer the question correctly. The questioning continued for 45 minutes. And with a word from the old man, the two stood up and headed back outside.
Although the questions were rigorous and sometimes strange, it was one of the things Emmanuel missed most about the old man. He mostly didn't miss the questions, although some of them were fun. He missed the companionship the questions brought with them.
As he pondered the two, he headed toward the smallest part of the courtyard. This part of the courtyard was a sparring pit. In addition to the pit was a small storage shed. His grandfather quickly opened the doors of the shed and ducked inside. A moment later he came out holding two wooden axes.
His grandfather tossed one to his younger self who grabbed it. The two then almost simultaneously jumped down and into the pit. Before they engaged in combat, both took a deep breath in and out. The fight ended in a blink. The old man after one light swing of his axe was able to easily knock the weapon out of his younger self's hands.
A similar pattern repeated with the spears, the hammer, and any other random assortment of weapons.
Finally, after an hour of constantly changing weapons, his grandfather said in frustration. “Will you ever be able to wield anything but a blade, boy?”
“I don't know,” replied his younger self.
*Sigh* “Fine, let's get on with it then.”
The old man quickly ducked back into the shed and emerged with two longswords. The swords, unlike the other training weapons, were made of steel. The old man handed the blade to the boy.
A change seemed to spread over him. His posture straightened, and his shoulders seemed to widen. His eyes cleared and his breathing became more rhythmic. The transformation was like night and day.
The sword was perfectly balanced and felt like a paperweight in his grasp, so perfect was its balance.
He enjoyed several practice swings, a grin spreading from ear to ear.
He continued to play, improvising maneuvers and swings.
“Hop in the ring” grumbled his grandfather.
And with no hesitation, he hopped in, brandished his sword, and prepared for combat.