Chapter 24: The first unsupervised outing 2

"Listen to me son, when you are out there, people will try to cheat you, loot you, kill you, sell you illegal stuff. The world is full of degenerates who want to harm you and may even use you to harm others. Making a mistake is never wrong, everybody makes them, only thing is you should learn from them and remember, if you ever find yourself in a pickle where can't escape just wait cause I will surely arrive and there is nothing your father can't solve" said Sagar. He then brought out another set of braces these weighed 50 tonnes but were a bit special, if injected with enough mana they could become weightless and the amount of weightlessness was proportional to amount of mana injected. Kush realized this was to train him in mana releasing which he had just mastered, he acquiesced to it and as soon as he put it on, he dropped on his butt bang. The weight almost destroyed the beach the five were at to see him off. "Oi oi, do not destroy your home". Kush then injected his humongous stock of mana mobilizing his 73 mana veins and pushing them to the extreme, churning out all he could muster and was finally able to achieve weightlessness on the braces. Maintaining ether absorption, mana emission and moving around was still really difficult for, he had to exercise all his brain power to perform the three simultaneously. No one in the history of Bhu-Loka, the universe, had achieved what he had at his age, an impossible feat and all he was concerned about difficulty, it was like a first world person discussing his problems with those from other countries. Once he was up, he saw his mother come up to him and gave him a glove which looked like a golden gauntlet which could be worn over his wrist braces. She then said, "This is for defence, I know my son you are strong" caressing his right cheek with her left thumb "But take care of yourself, strength is not the only thing which makes you invincible, had it been upto me I would not have let my baby leave my sight but your father is right in saying that world experience is important for everybody." A drop of tear flowed down her right cheek while he smiled. She kissed his forehead, which was now only 2 inches below hers and said "You've grown taller again, always he happy my son". Kush simply smiled and did not say anything.

"You cannot take the boat" said Sagar murdering and butchering the beautiful atmosphere

"Then how am I supposed go there with all these weights, I will sink the moment I step on the water" said Kush

"That is why, I got you these weights" said Sagar

"But it will take me days to reach anywhere onshore, you want me to swim all the way there? That is just crazy!!"

Sagar as if deaf to his words, grabbed Alicia's shoulders and said "Babe, let's go and let the kids do their good byes"

After a few minutes Rhodos walked up to him and hugged, "You know, since master found us, we have never been separated, you have become someone a bit precious to me don't let anyone harm you else I will…" a little bit of malice entered her "destroy those mother fuckers"

She then kissed him passionately, she jumped and clung to him her ass resting on his hand. Her head was above his, as she pressed with her neck. Slowly she pulled up and came down. After her came Gauri, who held his neck kissed him passionately, she then held his hand and put it on her ass which he squeezed as if he was pumping life into himself. After a few seconds Gauri too let and caressed his thing over his dhoti and whispered in his ears "I will be waiting so be quick" (long distance relationship sans the phone established).

The two of them giggling turned around and went back to their training with their hand behind their backs.

He felt lucky for having such a family. He turned around and jumped in the water and started paddling away towards mainland, which as per father should be a few weeks of swimming in the direction of which splits the angle between north and south in half. Since they were talking about mainland, even if he digresses from path he should reach there safely.

"What sort of father just says 'should reach safely' for his one and only son? I wish Rhodos and Gauri could join me too!!" his imagination started running wild and as it did he lost focus on supply of mana to the braces, suddenly the weight increased by 15 tons and he sank like feather wrapped in a lead casket. He hit the bottom at 300m and the unsteady surface of the sea bed could not hold the 15 tons of weight on such little surface area and so he sunk. In a few seconds the diffused soil of the seabed started filling the 5 m deep grave. All of this happened in almost an instant to the person in question. Water filled his lungs, and then he got buried, soil filled his lungs displacing the water now, he wanted to writhe his limbs but weight prevented his limbs from moving. Dirt filled his vision, as it became darker, he was death's door steps again. Not a first for him but it was a struggle every time it happened, but after being at death's door many times, under different circumstances each time, but he knew one thing, it was not because of strength, mana, power, skill or genius that he survived each time, it was because of will power. Will power instilled in him from his character from all his lessons from his father and mother, mustering all of it he pressed pause on the panic in his brain and shut all external stimuli and used the humongous will power to bear at the stabbing pain in his lungs along burning caused due to lack of oxygen in body. It had been a full two minutes since last he had his breath, and suddenness of the incident caused him to inhale a lot of dirt and water, he felt creepy being buried alive under 5 m of dirt, if felt like his skin was crawling with insects. His brain wasn't as active as it normally would else decision making wouldn't be this tough. But he put a pause on all this, the enormous will power. This calmed the small percent of brain power he still had. First 15 tonnes on such small area will not be stopped in just 5m. I was only a few km from home that means I have probably touched Kush peak, so that means I have firm footing. He then tried moving his limbs. Hmm, weights are still within limits, I have been unconsciously able to maintain a lot of mana emission, weights should not be more than 20 tons. So he stood up slowly and found that he was on a mild slope, so he curled his toes to make sure he does not fall down, he could not risk another setback. He did not put too much strength, cause he did not want to slip and fall down further, so the first target is to get out of his grave. He bent down and with toes curled he jumped up 20 m, shaking off the dirt from his body, with vision now established his mind eased a bit. But soon he was sinking again, at once using whatever brain power he got back, he started mana conscious emission process which dropped the weight of the braces entirely, he was still falling but landed on his feet. His vision once again was becoming patchy so this time without thinking he shot himself up, 'woosh' came the sound of him jetting through water. His mind was almost blank. When he broke water 'SPLASH' came the sound "UUUUUUUUUhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...." "Cough cough cough" he did as he breathed air coughed up water that entered his lungs. This small distraction broke his concentration and he instead of following the expected parabolic trajectory fell straight down. Within second of coming out he was rocketing down to the seabed only this time he had held his breath in. In the few seconds it took to stabilise his mind he was almost at the bottom, again but he managed to re-engage the mana emission and the weight reduced. But since the momentum of his movement was conserved hit the sea bed hard, really hard sinking in till his chest and setting off a cloud of dust in the sea. He channelled the strength in his herculean legs and jumped up again. "Boom" came the noise as he broke the surface of water "UUUUUUUUUUhhhhhhhh…" taking in a deep breath, but this time he did not lose the mana emission and hit the surface of water "Splash"

Breath in breath out Breath in breath out Breath in breath out Breath in breath out, he did it a few times after coming out of the water. All this had strained him out a lot, "Man…" he thought "Well probably not the first time being horny killed someone".

He had lost his bearings, he opened the compass on his wrist which his father gave him and started swimming in the approximate direction he needed to head to. Fortunately, since this accident happened during the initial part of his journey, he must not have been off-course too much. He continues to swim along. He swam for days and nights without a stop, like a deranged maniac some people would assume, because people with his stamina do not swim so slow and people who swam so slow did not have so much stamina. On the seventh day he had already crossed 2500 km of swimming. He still did not see a shore. Continuous mana emission was getting to him and he was starting to slow down, he was mentally fatigued, the sea bed in deeper waters would not have the bedrock to hold his weight if he decided to rest for a few minutes, he feared, he would sink so low, coming out would be difficult. The processing of mana emission was and mana absorption along the way was not as physically tiring to him as it was taxing his brain. It was mind numbing, constantly reminding himself to do. To put in perspective, to a normal human being, it was if you had to consciously do the work of involuntary organs and tissues, like asking your heart to beat 70 times a second, or asking your lungs to expand and compress every few seconds or asking you stomach to pump out acid, your liver to pump out bile, or your intestines to push the food down, absorb the water and such things. He had to do it again and again, again and again, again and again, again and again making his head collapse. The physical exertion of swimming while pulling his stuff and the lack chronic lack of sleep were catching up to him during this entire journey. He had not had food cause he was afraid of ingesting poison and losing control on his mind. He was sure physical regeneration would not let him die even if he ingested the food but he would be out for a few hours which would be enough to kill him for sure. Constantly being on alert, else death; was a fear factor never seen before at this level. But he continued the mind numbing charade of emission and absorption. After another 5 days, he had reached 3000 km from home. He had yet to see a land where he could step on, things were getting dicey and he would die, if he did not do anything. "I get that we are in exile, but sometimes I hate dad for being such a stickler for things. The least he could have done was to go someplace near mainland. Another 4 days passed and he had reached another 200 km from home. Did I go the wrong way? I have been swimming for more than 2 weeks, I haven't seen any island, let alone the mainland. Fatigue was creeping on, Tanka felt heavier on him, he thought of abandoning it, oh how I wish I could inject a little more mana and reduce its weight, atleast the physical exertion would reduce a lot. But Tanka wasn't designed that way. It did not absorb mana, it was a weight he could lug around him and swing it to shear even the thickest bones of dinosaurs who normal people would call disasters. 21 days had passed since he left home, he had given up the risk of being poisoned and ate a few fishes along the way. Worst comes to worst he would just leave the weight and float around in the ocean till he reached land somewhere he had decided. Fortunately for him the sea water was not salty, cause according to his father, there were some planets outside where due to the sins of people of Deva-loka universe had salty sea water, the water was not potable too. After the fourth week of swimming he had crossed 5000 km of swimming. He coming in and out of consciousness, cause his mind and body both were fatigued. "The fuck is this exercise meant to do. Time and distance meant nothing to him now, had it not been for the movement of sun and moons in sky. "Heh, now I understand why the immortals say that time is immaterial to them, cause it did not make sense when father said, that for people travelling between stars, people who don't have a reference to use, people who travel millions of light-years without anything in sight don't understand the people's infatuation with speed and time. Speed and by extension time is only thrilling if you have some reference to latch on to. It had been 6000 km and 7 weeks since he saw a human. All he had been doing was swim and talk to himself, it was like quarantining himself out in the open. He would prefer the tortures of hell over this solitude any time of the year, any year of the decade any decade of the century. "Is the ocean current too strong and it has drifted me away too far away from mainland. Did I miss mainland? No father cannot be wrong" His trust in his father was deep, but the continuous mental fatigue had damaged his brain and he was becoming deranged. Even after all this, he still did not let go of his braces, cause would never betray his father's instruction. It only by following them, had he come this far, "will power, I need more will power, will power, will power" he chanted in his mind for another week. In the eighth week he had completed 400 km. On the 3rd day of ninth week, he saw the first change in scenery. In his vision he saw a humongous dark green island. An island so large, that after he was within a few kms from it, it hid his entire horizon. He did not have time to make an estimate of the length of the island, but if did he would see it was like a part of a sphere and was 50 km from one end to the other. It like a circle in top view. There were hexagonal patterns all over the island but each pattern was as large as 5 football grounds put together. Kush assumed the dark green was from the grass, his blurry vision and no crap giving attitude (due to fatigue) made it so that he did not care about the details. He dragged his body across the long slope, cause he knew he would sink the moment he let go of his mana control on the slope, because the ground on the island looked like it was coated with some sort of metal. He was losing mental capacity by the second and couldn't care about the surface where he would land up, so he mustered his utmost physical strength and jumped high to reach the centre of the island i.e. he jumped 25 km in one jump. About 20 m from the land he lost his vision as he couldn't keep his eyelids up, then in another 2 seconds he crashed on the hard metallic surface of the island. The braces on noticing that the owner had lost consciousness, started absorbing ether from the atmosphere, nourishing the owner and keeping the weightlessness features on.

Strength: 2600

Speed: 900

Agility: 250

Regen: 5004

Magic Regen: 16209

Toughness: 2703

Skills:

1. Heavy Swing

2. Dodge

3. ??

4. ???