It was night and the stars were shining along the moonlight, making resonances that seemed as if there was a melody coming from the sky.
Here, below this heavenly scenery, stood three wicked people.
One of them was a huge man, muscles atop of muscles were seen on him, threatening to crush anything that dared get on his way. Another was a nasty old man, his expression vicious and unpleasant as he gave an eerie smile, using a perfectly balanced and beautiful black cane to support himself. And the last was elf bigger than most of his counterparts, exuding dominance and dignity just with his sharp eyes, one could easily tell that he had gone through countless life and death battles as his own body was always ready to fight.
The conversation between these wicked people was about the training menu of their students, the mayor’s one was the simplest of the three, but also the most tiring one in the long run. The old man’s training regime was vicious and creative, exerting the most of his student to properly manipulate the abstruse of magic and curses. The man that had more in common with orcs due to his physique, had an extremely violent regime, filling it with destruction and brashness.
They were discussing about new ways of “Improving” the training. As the students were the sole attraction for these three people. They thought that the timing these kids arrived was perfect, basic training with them starts at 17 years of age to get them used, and at 18 they would start the real deal. Currently in the village there were five 16 years old children.
They would have got to wait a whole year for them to become used enough to come for their basic torture. They couldn’t really pick an older student as most of them went out after hitting Intermediate level 1 in their respective fields, so these three fellows became their amusement.
But, to their surprise, they proved to be beyond normal!
They thought that the Demi-Humans would show steady progress and, in time, become way better than the foreigner. As they haven’t met any, only knowing from the messengers that many of them weren’t really battle like. So, for the elf, who had to train the human, he thought he should make his training harder, as he too couldn’t come every day for him to keep up with them.
But even so, these Demi-Human showed astonishing progress, especially that Zenith. The huge man, when he was speaking about him had said that he learnt Two-Handed Mastery on the same day.
Weapon mastery was easier to get for most people, but, even then, getting it in a single day was astonishing! And showing results after that same day was beyond normal!
He was sharp and his senses were extremely good. When he was too tired, his fighting spirit grew exponentially just to not fall down, he had great devotion. He seems to come from a noble family in the Underworld, and if he trains for years, one day he might become one of the strongest beings there is in this world.
When the old man was talking about Peko, he said that her affinity with magic and spells was abnormal, her concentration and efforts were excellent. She was the hard worker type, but even without that, she learnt fast. Vermillion couldn’t resist pushing the girl to her limits, and to his surprise, she held her feet and continued the training with ease.
At this, Plate got a bit worried about the human. With these exceptional individuals, who seemed to hold great talent, while putting effort, they might leave the human behind in no time in terms of ‘skills’ and ‘power’. Even with a tougher training, the human might break down, and thus, he might become extra baggage for the two Demi-Humans.
But, the huge man and the nasty old man, said something that sparked his interest. They thought about the same, so they asked the children if they would leave him behind if he cannot keep up his pace. This question had a lot of depth in it, as they might have to abandon their new friend.
The answer from the youngster was quite similar, but both of them started the same, with a chuckle.
“We would have left him behind if he was extra baggage, but the reason we are keeping up with the training is because we don’t want to be left behind by him” At this, both resumed their training, not daring to waste time at all, leaving their masters dumbfounded for a few seconds because of their answer.
Hearing this, the elf got curious about the boy, and made the risky training menu for him. If he could sustain it, he would get another skill that will help him for the rest of his life.
Fast recovery, while it might be simple at first, later on it would be a skill to be feared, making the user a fighting machine. But if he can’t, he will break down, and he might even die.
The elf also knew that foreigner can come back to life, but he didn’t consider that, he had a tiny intuition, or hope, whatever you want to call it, that the boy would succeed where many others died before even completing the training for forcing themselves or quitting halfway. Depending on the way you trained them, it might result critical for the person doing it. This skill would just be available now, as it needs you to reach your utmost limit, pushing it even further. Not only that, you would have to concentrate on your body, control your breathing to recover faster and not let any whisk of concentration slip away.
And the next day, when he started training the child, he felt it. The boy in front of him was a genius! he learnt the forms and force in record breaking time! But even more, he had good perception of movements, and even if he couldn’t follow his speed, he still fended himself in split seconds.
Even if the elf’s real power and speed were restrained by a lot, the kid could stand for himself, but the time of the truth wasn’t that. At some point of the training, he, the instructor was about to quit the training, he didn’t want to break such an unpolished great potential, but the boy stood up, in front of him, watching his every movement.
Plate realized something at that point and thought, ‘Seems I’m getting soft. Come, Ardha, show me your full potential!’ a small chuckle escaped his lips and he started to quicken the pace for the training.
The kid kept going on and standing up. It was as if his body had an internal clock with 15 seconds and, once the time was up, he stood up.
Plate had never seen someone like him. It was as if he could get his breath even during that short time, even if his fatigue was wide open to see, the boy still didn’t fall down.
Plate remembered his younger days, and even when he started training with this regimen, he almost died because of it, and that was because his master waited for him, giving him greater break times. At first, between resting 15 seconds and resting 30 seconds didn’t seem too much, but later, the difference was huge!
Sudden realization came to him and thought, ‘The boy got the skill… 7 hours in the training and he already got the skill!’
It was as if lighting hit him as that thought came to his mind, stopping for a bit and shuddering in excitement.
Then he looked at Ardha, who seemed to be too out of it to realize Plate’s wide smile. Even for him, it took a whole week to get the skill. And thus, he ended his training in 8 hours, sending his disciple to rest and get some strength back. When he got out of the hall, he remembered the word from his two-fellow companions, and he smirked.
‘If they don’t do this much, then he would be the one leaving them behind, huh’ what extraordinary disciples they had gotten this time around, mused the masters.
The night for the instructors ended, all of them going back with a wicked smile on their faces. After talking of new ways to push their future successors with their skills, squeezing every last drop of potential they had to make them stronger.
After all, they were legendary people! They will make a legendary hard training for them!
And the sun rose, shining anew. But along with it, dark clouds crept on.
