Cipherus' Enhancements

Routines seemed to be a commonplace within Cipherus' life. First at the orphanage he had always had a chore routine. Now, under Mr. Seth's care, Cipherus had a daily training routine.

It had been three months since Cipherus' trial, and since then, he was forbidden to work on any enhancements. Mr. Seth claimed that if your body was not physically strong enough to handle the enhancements, it could be torn to pieces.

His routine began with a 3 mile walk around the entire forest surrounding Mr. Seth's house. During this walk he was to hunt any small animals he saw and bring it back as food for himself and Mr. Seth to eat.

After the three mile walk, accompanying it would be a one mile dash through a part of the forest with numerous fallen trees known as the "Debree Zone". Jumping over such trees would act as hurdles for Cipherus and would help improve his overall agility.

Next, he would have to do one hundred pushups, one hundred situps, and one hundred pullups every day. He was allowed one two-minute break for these after he accomplished fifty.

Finally, Cipherus was forced to diet exensively. He was to only eat the meat from which he hunted and the only drink he was allowed was standard water. At his age drinking alcohol was already out of the question and anything else would slow his progress.

The meat would provide ample amounts of protein for building his body while the water would make sure he stayed hydrated.

Needless to say, as Cipherus got up that morning Mr. Seth was already awake and sitting at his dining room table.

This was relatively odd because Cipherus was normally awake far earlier than Mr. Seth due to his routine's time requirements.

Cipherus sat down at the table across from Mr. Seth. They sat in awkward silence for what seemed like an hour.

Finally, Mr. Seth spoke up. "I need you to stand up and flex. Don't take this as me being wierd, I'm currently trying to decide whether or not you're ready."

Cipherus did as he asked.

"I have concluded you're ready. It's time to begin training on your enhancements." said Mr. Seth is a slow, toneless voice.

He began by explaining to Cipherus how enhancements worked. Normally enhancements required special weapons and tools for the average person.

However, a person would be far stronger if they mastered their enchancements without using such tools. Mr. Seth also knew that it was possible for Cipherus because of what had happened during training three months ago.

"Based on what we saw during training, your most obvious offensive attack is going to have to do with poision. I'd like you to began training on small animals while hunting. You need to focus on your weapon and essentially shift your energy into it, envisioning the type of enhancement you want to use." said Mr. Seth.

"When can I start this?" asked Cipherus excitedly.

"Right now if you want. It seems like a good time to go on a walk through the forest to me. Nice and early before the sun is fully up."

They began walking the trail. The first animal they came upon was a rather large beaver. Mr. Seth told Cipherus to use his to dagger to cut it the same he would when hunting, however, to imagine his enhancement of poision.

He did so, and he observed the original wound he had made in the beaver. Just like Mr. Seth's wound, it began to turn a dark shade of purple.

"Ah good. I'm glad you can still use the poision ehancement. However is there is more to it. On the next hunting animal, I'd like you to only slightly scratch it. And I expect it to still die afterwords. As a poision ehancement user, your ultimate goal is to be able to subdue an enemy with just a singular scratch."

"I understand. I'll make sure to cut very shallowly next time I'm writing," responded Cipherus.

The next animal they came across was a small dear. Dears were a lot larger than rabbits or most other hunting animals, and were just as fast, so Cipherus would need to sneak up on the animal.

Mr. Seth knew that a normal human would have no chance. However, this would be a good test to use Cipherus' stealth enhancement.

"I need you imagine yourself as being invisible and silent. Focus your energy dispersing quietly around you. This will build on the stealth I noticed you had aquired three months ago."

Cipherus did as he asked. He came close to the deer. So close, in fact, that he could hear it's breathing. The deer, however, didn't even attempt to run away.

He swung his dagger and made a small scratch on the deer's side. Immediately the deer began running away into the forest. The pain made him aware of Cipherus' whereabouts.

The two observed as the deer began to slow done in the distance. It managed to get out of sight, but it was clearly in pain.

They decided to follow the deer and eventually caught up with it. There it was, limping. Almost as if it was trying to run but couldn't.

It was then that Cipherus noticed the six inch radius of dark purple around where he had slashed the deer.

"Amazing... I am speechless. To think you could slow down an entire deer at such a young age with so little training." pondered Mr. Seth. "How is your body feeling?"

Cipherus was panting and responded, "I'm tired and out of breath, but overall, I'm fine."

"I understand. You still have a lot of enhancement training to go. Today was your first real use of your enhancements. We will have a good deer dinner tonight. Just make sure to cut around the parts that the poision spread." said Mr. Seth.

"Ahhh... Thank you... I appreciate it." Cipherus said slowly.

"Tomorrow we sha'll train enhancement to enhancement. A one on one combat match between you and I. And I have yet to show you MY enhancements." responded Mr. Seth laughing.