"Can. I. Stop. Now." Koren with tears in his eyes looked at Sebastian
"No, go again."
Ever since yesterday Koren's life has been utter hell.
"That fucking bastard." Koren muttered under his breath
"What'd you say brat?" Sebastian yelled
"N-Nothing master."
Koren ran with tears running down his face regretting all his life choices that led to this moment.
After agreeing to Sebastian's offer of being his teacher he immediately rushed Koren back home where he then met his worried parents. Ian and Koren apologized to each other where they both sat down and talked.
"Dad I have a question."
"What is it?"
"Who was Sebastian Kang to you?"
Ian looked extremely shocked but then recomposed himself.
"Sebastian was a very unique guy… I first thought that he was very mean and cold but I realized that he was being that way to take care of all of us."
Ian paused before looking out the window
"Sebastian always put himself before any of us and is probably the only reason your mother and I are alive today.."
Koren looked at his father who looked extremely troubled.
"He was a good guy and a good teacher… I miss him alot."
Koren glanced over his shoulder where he saw his new master crying hearing everything Ian was saying.
Koren said his goodnights to his parents before going up to his room and sat down taking in everything that happened today.
"Teacher.."
"Yes." Sebastian was sitting on a chair in the corner of Koren's room
"I want to get stronger. No, I need to get stronger."
"We will handle that later, right now I need you to go to sleep to train early in the morning."
Koren welcomed his teacher's suggestion and went to sleep. However, as his body was sleeping his mind was racing.
Sebastian looked at his new disciple and then turned to the beautiful starry sky until the sun came up.
"Oii, brat get up!" Sebastian yelled into Koren's ears
"Whaa what." Koren looked at Sebastian dazed
"I said GET UP, we have to start training."
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Koren who was still half asleep heard the words training and immediately got out of his bed getting into his workout clothes. Grey sweatpants with a black hoodie.
"Let's go!" Sebastian yelled like an army sergeant leading Koren downstairs where he saw his surprised mother and father.
"I'm going out to train bye."
Koren followed his master out the front door leaving his dazed parents.
"Has he ever gotten up this early ever?" Ian said with a surprised faced
"Never.." Sasha looked as if she saw a ghost, but even she wouldn't believe that her son is being trained by one right now.
Sebastian led Koren into a secluded place in a nearby forest*.
"Master how did you know about this place?" Koren said confused
"I did some scouting while you were asleep."
"I see."
"NOW." Sebastian clapped his hands
"Start running."
Koren looked at Sebastian disappointingly. He for some reason thought Sebastian would teach him a secret forbidden skill that would boost his skills up, but was extremely disappointed when Sebastian said he had to run.
"Aren't you going to teach me some secret skill or something?"
"Hehe, your getting ahead of yourself boy."
Koren sighed and started what he thought was going to be a quick jog, but soon changed his mind after running for an hour.
"Master can I stop."
Koren was panting like a dog after running for an hour and thought that this would be the whole training for the rest of the day but his hope was then shattered.
"No, go again."
Koren sighed and started running again. While Koren was running Sebastian was trying to figure out what training Koren would benefit the most. Koren's stamina was better than most because he ran a lot as a kid, but Sebastian was not happy with it at all.
"Koren stop."
Koren stopped to catch his breath
"Now drop down and give me 1000 pushups."
Koren looked at Sebastian with disdain but dropped down and started doing pushups.
"1.."
"2.."
"No mana allowed."
"Whaat?"
"Don't make me repeat myself."
Koren sighed and continued his pushups and 1 hour passed.
"451.."
"452.."
Koren's arms gave in and he fell on his face.
Sebastian looked at Koren disappointingly, for normal humans, 450 pushups would be extremely good. Even for students like Koren, 450 pushups were good. However, Sebastian is unsatisfied with Koren's results.
"Kid get up."
Koren who was laying down on the floor got up to see Sebastian.
"Let me tell you what I think about you."
Koren was thinking he did a good job, but his dreams were soon shattered.
"Your average."
"I thought I did well though," Koren muttered
"You did well..if you were a child."
Sebastian sighed
"Your stamina is very poor for an archer and your strength is subpar for any melee class. And from what I saw your mana use is extremely bad."
".."
Koren knew what Sebastian was saying is 100% true, but hearing it from someone other than himself hurt.
"But, y'know what."
Koren looked up at Sebastian
"Your work ethic is one of the best I've ever seen."
"Hard work can get you somewhere kid, I know that for sure."'
Koren was grinding his teeth unable to hear Sebastian's speech
"Hard work? Your joking, hard work has never got me anywhere. I tried working hard for over 15 years and got no results, those are your own words. Don't make me laugh, I'm just useless.."
Sebastian looked at the youth in front of him.
"Koren, how well do you think I did in all those tests I gave you when I first came here."
"You were the best Archer of all time, you obviously did all of them easily." Koren scoffed
"I was barely able to run for 10 minutes and only was able to do 50 pushups."
"What?"
"And do you know what? I felt how you're feeling right now."
".."
"It feels like shit."
"And how do you think I got to that level?"
"Through blood, sweat, and tears, but for you to say hard work is useless is showing to me that your not ready to be apart of the best."
Koren looked at his ghost teacher sadly
"Teacher…"
"Kid, I know what you want to say. But are you the teacher or am I?"
"You are…"
"So trust your teacher and the process."
"First thing's first is that we need to fix your stamina."
Sebastian pointed at a tree log
"Tie that to yourself and start running."
Koren reluctantly listened to his teacher and tied the tree log to himself, where he than started running into the forest.
'Heh'
Sebastian recalled a similar memory when he first came to Thelleria. Running with a tree log tied to his waist and hating every moment of it.
Koren came back after running a lap
"Go again."
Koren ran and ran, the pain got so unbearable that he always had tears in his eyes. It felt like his muscles were tearing and burning, but he kept going trusting his master.
The sun then started setting, and Koren was still running. He had to keep running.. he had to get stronger.
"Koren, you can stop now."
Koren than collapsed when he heard the word "stop". Koren's shirt was drenched in sweat, and his hair was sticking to his forehead from sweat. His sweatpants were caked in dirt from falling whenever the log got stuck between trees.
"Since you have school tomorrow we start at 3 am."
"Yes m-"
Koren was trying to say master but was unable to because of how tired he was.
Sebastian followed Koren back home and was proud of his new disciple.
Koren barely reached the door of his house where he crawled to the kitchen.
"Oh my god." Sasha looked at Koren who was barely able to crawl
"What were you doing outside, oh my god is that blood."
Koren's feet were bleeding
Sasha started using her magic to try and heal Koren. Sasha was not a healer but she did know a few healing spells for emergencies.
"Don't push yourself too hard Koko."
Sasha sighed
"This reminds me of when Sebastian trained, he always put in extra effort and always came back half dead."
Koren looked shocked, he thought what Sebastian was saying was a lie to make Koren feel better. But after hearing his mother saying it, he really got to know what type of person his master is.
"I'm going to sleep."
"Wait for dinner!" Sasha yelled
Koren wobbled his way to his bed where he passed out.
"Koren dinners ready!"
"Let him sleep.."
"You should've seen him when he came back. His feet were bleeding and he was caked in dirt."
"Sound's like how Sebastian trained."
"Yeah.."
Sebastian who was standing right there smirked remembering the times when he trained just
like how Koren did and how he always asked Eril to heal him to train more.
Steve and Aaron looked uncomfortable watching their parents recall depressing memories so they excused themselves and went to bed.
"I miss him."
"So do I."
Ian, Sasha and Sebastian looked back on their memories as the night went on.