Chapter-6 Trainer Acquired

Alex and Max entered the Chaotic Hermit's house, intrigued that it was quite normal, considering that they expected it to be some weird shack because he lived at the very end of the town, isolated from everyone.

As Alex took a seat on the nearby couch, he asked the old man, "So, Chaotic Hermit, why did you so easily agree to train Max? In the books it was said that it was quite difficult to have you do what we want. You even rejected the Church, right; then why are you so easily agreeing to help us?"

He suspected that either something fishy was going on, or that Max must have really good potential for becoming strong, and he judged that when he applied the pressure on them, and directly decided to train him. Even though this was the only logical explanation Alex could think of, he still felt that there was a deeper meaning behind these actions of his.

The Chaotic Hermit interrupted his thoughts by answering,"First of all, call me Gary, not Chaotic Hermit. As for your question, I won't answer completely now, but you will get your answers in the future. It isn't as simple a thing to just tell you as you think it is. As of now, I can only tell you that Max has talent and that's great, but the reason for accepting to train him wasn't him, but you."

As he said this, Gary had left Alex in deep thought. He felt like it was time to change the topic, and addressed Max instead, which was what he was originally supposed to do.

"So, Max, you have the light element, right? Well, I will teach you how to use it in combat. Come with me, Alex, you too," he said, walking off.

Alex got up and started walking, while Max timidly followed them, as he was still afraid of Gary after the incident where he almost killed the pair of them, but he chose to trust him, as he had no other choice.

As they followed Gary, he led them to a room which was at the corner of his house. The room was relatively empty and was quite small.

"Do just as I do," said Gary, as he walked towards the wall, passing through it, leading to a place they had never seen.

Alex followed him without any conflict in his mind, and also passed through to wherever the other side of the wall led to. Now, Max was the only one left in the room. He was hesitant, but had to follow Alex and Gary. The kid took a big gulp of air, calmed down a bit, and walked towards the wall.

As Alex and Max saw where they were now, they were extremely shocked. At least till the distance they could see, this place was just like an empty large room. The floor was pure white and there was no roof to be seen anywhere. They were both confused as to where this place was and how it was made, but any logical explanation didn't come to their minds, and they stopped thinking about that.

Gary didn't pay much attention to the shock these two were experiencing, as he told Max to come near him, and to get ready for his lessons in learning elemental skills.

"First off, I will teach you some of the most basic skills you can perform with the light element. I assume that you can manipulate the energy inside you to some degree. If you can do that, try coating it around your body to make an armor and on a particular part of your body to use it as a weapon," said Gary, who had started teaching Max.

For a while, he taught Max all of the basic skills until he got a decent understanding of them. Alex was standing away from them, looking at Gary teach Max all the stuff that took his four years to learn in astonishing speeds, but he had experience and had learned by himself, giving his abilities a unique touch to them.

As he was thinking about all this, Alex's attention was piqued, as he heard Gary talk about something that interested him.

"A special skill that the light element has is that though it may not be the best at close range attacks or fist fights, it is extraordinarily good at creating auras, which act as both attack and defense depending on how you use them. This is a skill that would help you while fighting extremely strong opponents as well, so try and pay your full attention to it," said Gary, who noticed that Alex was interested in this as well.

"I will demonstrate this once for you, but at an extremely low level. I will particularly hold back to the level that you would be able to use it at with the right amount of practise in a couple of days. Observe closely, as you could learn a lot by observing, itself," said Gary again, as a bright gold light radiated from him. He was covered in this bright light, and it was also emitting outwards, being able to attack and defend at the same time.

Alex was extremely enticed towards learning this skill, but wasn't sure if it would be compatible with his element of Darkness. He tried to create an aura, as he coated himself with energy, creating an armor. The next step was to emit the energy of Darkness. He knew how to move it around in his body and to throw it out as a projectile weapon, but this was the middle stage of those two. He had to let the energy emit outwards, but still cling to his body.

He first started to let it go, as it started turning red and was almost about to leave his body, but he used all his strength and was able to have it to cling to him, resulting in a dark red shade. Suddenly, Alex felt more powerful. Gary was honestly shocked as getting an aura at the first attempt was literally impossible, but Alex did it, and that too, with the Darkness element!

'This kid is a genius!' thought the old man in his head, looking at Alex's menacing death aura.