Chapter 6: Training and Progress

"Okay, come outside Ivan!".

The old man shouted at Ivan when Eve finished her 2 hour run, to say the least, she could barely walk, and after that 2 hour run she had to do the reflex training again. It took her an hour before she literally passed out, but she woke up 30 minutes after and for some reason seemed energised.

"Okay, I have goals for you both which need to be done in the next week. Ivan you need to have Branch Manifestation at Level 5, and create another skill to do with Druids. Here's a Druid Manual as a reference, if I see anything that is copied out of this book I am leaving and never coming back, you also need to find a Spirit Beast that you want".

Ivan nodded, he thought it'd be useless to say that he has already found one he likes, but he may as well look at the Spirit Beast Manual when it's time to read it.

"Dwarf, you need to get Scythe Efficiency to Level 5, to have Mana Reinforcement, as well as finding some use for your Carrot Magic related to your fighting style which you need to find".

Eve squinted, confused once again.

"Not to be rude Sir, but why do I have such a huge load in comparison to Ivan?". She tried her best to not get shouted at.

"Simply because a good melee combat soldier takes more work to produce good results in battle, whilst Mages are sort of just good off the bat, so minimum work needs to be done with them, although Branch Manifestation is completely useless at the moment".

They both nodded their heads and got to work. Although they were supposed to have a 12 hour session per day, this sort of spiralled into 17 hours and a break here and there and sleep. They were supposed to go back to school on Monday, but it seems like school isn't an option anymore.

[Scythe Efficiency Level 2!]

Eve huffed and puffed and fell on the floor, facing towards the night, sparkly sky.

"Should we sleep outside? We can get some blankets from inside, it's pretty peaceful".

Next to her, was Ivan, zoned in the Druid Manual.

He smiled. "I got it - I think? Wait". Ivan was accidentally thinking aloud.

He then looked through the Spirit Beast Manual and it clicked.

"Okay, this covers all my bases". He nodded to himself and then looked at Eve.

"Oh sorry, what were you saying?".

Ivan just stared with his blue eyes.

"Care to explain what the hell you were speaking about?".

"Ah yeah, look at these butterflies. In their early levels they both have basic healing abilities, and with my Branch Manipulation, I probably won't be able to add healing properties right? So I think the branches will be able to capture things, although obviously I'm looking at it from a basic perspective, but atleast I'll be useful right?".

Eve was speechless, he really doesn't understand how smart he truly is.

"What about me? How can I use these Carrots as a form of weapons?". She sulked at the progress Ivan was making.

"Isn't that simple? Make a Scythe with the carrots".

Eve pulled a disgusting face. "How the hell is that even possible? Why did I even bother asking".

Ivan flicked her forehead.

"When you produce the Carrots, you never think about their size, their shape because you already have a pre-existing idea of carrots. That's why they're always identical when you produce them, unlike my Branches, I have to actively think about how they're going to look and transform them, although I have yet to include mana, I've barely made progress today, I've only levelled Meditation up by one, and I can't even move when activating it!".

Eve's eyes glistened, and she instantly became red.

"T-thanks".

She hates to admit when she's wrong, so the fact that she can actively say thanks to someone, especially Ivan is huge for her.

Ivan just smiled and got blankets from inside the house.

"WAIT? YOU DID HEAR ME?".

Ivan instantly heard the loud girl from outside and he just laughed to himself. If only life was like this everyday.

Whilst Ivan was inside getting blankets and pillows, Eve was changing shapes of her carrots, as she did this around 10 times, she heard a ding sound ring in her head, followed up by someone talking.

[Carrot Magic Level 1 has levelled up to Level 2!]

Despite the mass amount of pain she was in due to the sheer amount of exercise and painfully swinging something twice her size for a few hours, she cracked a smile.

This is the progress she wanted. Seeing a number like that go up gave her instant satisfaction. Sure, her reflex training will eventually show results and maybe even give her a skill, however it isn't instant results like abilities.

She laid back down, didn't say anything, instead she slowly drifted off, going into deep sleep - although it only lasted 4 hours.

Both the kids awoke to a loud bang, and at 4am.

"Wakey wakey! Time to train!". The old man hovered over them both, with a whistle in his hand, and pots and pans making a banging sound.

"But my body is aching". Eve's voice was croaky since she literally just woke up.

"That means you did a good job yesterday! Did you get your Efficiency to Level 2?".

Eve nodded her head and told him about what Ivan told her yesterday about the Carrot Scythe.

"In theory that sounds great, but it'll probably take a while for your Carrot Scythe to actually be on par with metal, but I do think you'll be able to produce one in a week, you'll probably only need around Level 5 Carrot Magic, mainly due to it being an inanimate object, and you already produce mana carrots subconsciously anyways".

Eve barely heard what he said since she tried to sneak in an extra minute of sleep.

"What about you boy, how's your progress?".

Ivan explained his thought process once again to the old man, and he included that Mana Meditation levelled up to Level 2.

"Um, sir, how do you move with Mana Meditation?".

It's been on Ivan's mind ever since he showed it to him.

"Simple - that isn't Mana Meditation. Currently, your Mana Meditation is used like a charger, which charges up the mana in your system, and every time your depleted of mana, your capacity slowly rises. Overtime, when your Mana Meditation gets to a high enough level and will evolve into something else on it's own, but you don't need to know that, that's way far into the future".

He gave a devilish smile which Eve is all too familiar with.

"Since it's early, we'll start off with Reflex Training, this time there'll be 4 wooden poles, although Eve you'll have metal poles. Ivan you need to dodge 50 in succession, and Eve you need to dodge them 300 in succession".

Despite pretending to be asleep, she instantly flinched. She knew she'll have bruises all over her body when she's finished.

After a while, Ivan got called out by the old man since he was taking too long to finish, so he moved onto Magic Training. With this, he was finally able to make his branches malleable, although it was still hard without infusing mana into them, which he still hasn't figured out. Although he was stumped, he was fine with using all of his mana up, then using Meditation, and repeat for a few hours, since he actually saw results in how long it took for him to deplete of mana, every time it took a few more minutes to deplete of his mana fully.

But there is still a problem. His control over the branches are terrible, although they're malleable, there is no way he can make it so they trap someone, especially since it's coming directly from him, they'll instantly see them anyways and anyone with a brain could dodge them.

Until he had a thought, and he didn't know how plausible it was. What if the branches came from the ground instead?

He instantly went to where Eve and the old man was.

As he went over, Eve was running around the whole garden, covered in sweat and you could see the lumps and bruises to where she was hit by both the old mans cane and the metal poles from the earlier training. If anyone saw this they'd instantly intervene.

30 minutes past and they finally took a break, and Eve collapsed there and then, until she heard that the old man made her a bath with healing medicine, so she instantly shot up and went inside, which left the old man and Ivan alone.

"Old man, how do I make the branches come from the ground instead of me? Is that even possible?".

"Of course it's possible. You essentially just need to think of them coming from the ground, it's as easy as that, as long as you have the mana to do it, you can do it".

Ivan just sighed, he felt stupid since he didn't even try to do it before asking.

As he did it, three branches simultaneously came from the ground, but he released them and they flopped to the ground, and disappeared like that.

Ivan nodded his head.

"This works".