One Month Later

Lance was meditating in a seated position as he finally felt what he had been waiting for since what felt like a life time.

If one were standing in front of him, they would see that there were many changes in Lance. The fat was still there, but under it was newly developed muscle that gave him an overall sturdy look. Rather than looking overweight, Lance was starting to look more and more like a power lifter. This could be attributed to the brutal training he had been going through.

Each morning, he would wake up and go to the training ground located a half hour walk away from their dorm tree in an open plain. There, he would learn the basics of fighting.

The first day, Lance had been filled with expectations to learn exciting martial arts. The instructor had started off by making all the newbies stand in a line and punching each one in the face.

Incidentally, Lance happened to be first and got knocked out only to be awoken a few moments later with a throbbing in his face.

Then started the training. Depending on each persons reaction to the punch, they were divided into groups and given specialized training in relation to their level.

Lance was in the bottom group, comprising of people who were knocked out and closed their eyes when they got punched.

There was no time for socializing, as this group mostly spent their time getting hit either by the instructors fists or a machine which shot balls at them at dizzying speeds. It reminded Lance of the machine used by tennis players to train.

This took around 10 days to perfect. If it weren't for the enidra that each and every trainee ate during all three meals, their bodies would have given out by now. Instead, their bodies were injured and healed over and over again, as if they were crude iron being forged in the furnace.

On the 11th day, expectations rose in the group again for martial arts. They were destined to be disappointed again, as the remainder course consisted of only three things:punch, kick and dodge.

Each trainee was paired with an initiate from an advanced group. Advanced groups either consisted of people who had trained in some form of fighting, or of those who had been brought up by their ancestors and had already cultivated to a certain level.

The former groups, along with Lance's group were almost like children in front of the latter groups. There were multiple instances when people were sent to the infirmary urgently because the other party couldn't control their power.

Of course, the guilty party were heavily reprimanded and cut off from enidra for a day. Enidra was so vital to the training that a single day without it could result in falling behind by a week, as enidra worked best when the injuries were recently sustained. Hence, everyone was very serious about the training.

Lance had been paired with Darius and Entsy once or twice. They hadn't gone easy on him at all.

Lance was in the bottom of the bottom group, as he had no knowledge of his nature yet. Others who had at least a rudimentary understanding of their nature performed much better with rapid improvements.

Lance envied these people but try as he may, he just could not figure out what his nature was. The only clue he had was the feeling he had before being punched by Dimi, but that feeling hadn't appeared yet in the training. Lance suspected that it was something instinctual, and resolved to patiently wait for it to reveal itself at the appropriate time.

They were taught only two forms: the standard punch and the standard kick. Unlike conventional instructions though, the IE instructors showed them how to put their whole weight behind the motion. The whole point of getting beat up was to learn these instructions and imbibe them in the body as muscle memory, using pain as a motivator to achieve this all the faster.

When you punch or kick, every cell in your body must move with you, with the singular intention of destroying whatever is in your path. When you dodge, every muscle and tissue in your body must instictually contract or expand to move out of the way as efficiently as possible.

Lance landed his first punch on a trainee on the 28th day. Although it wasn't very impressive in comparison, Lance felt emboldened by his achievement.

Each day after going back to their dorms, how ever much their bodies hurt with the enidra working on healing all the damaged cells, they had to sit down and meditate. The sooner they broke through into beginning stage-1 initiate, the easier the training would be.

It was the last day before they set off on their first mission and Lance finally felt the signs that he was about to break through.