Training

The portal's appearance was more impressive than the portal itself. It was similar to the vortex he first came in but different. It was pitch black but not swirling around, but the darkness seemed endless, and at the same time looked like a doorway.

"Will I be able to do that?"

"Only a matter of time, with your space magic it should be pretty easy," said King Narc just before disappearing.

The training dummy stone that came out looked like any ordinary training dummy. Nothing looked out of order. "They have reinforced this stone with magic and only magic of a certain degree can destroy it," said coach Eva walking towards Akhil. "So that's how it is," said Akhil, looking at the structure more closely and seeing a thick layer of magic around it. "I'm guessing you are here to instruct me?" Asked Akhil. "Not only to instruct but to be your sparring partner, the king instructed me not to be as gentle as I was in your previous training," a smirk appeared on coach Eva's face.

Giving her a careful look Akhil was surprised to see that his trainer was a four-star magician which came as shock because her presence was not like that.

In the previous training, Akhil realised coach Eva was very strong especially for a person her size but being a four-star magician meant she had a boost to her body's strength but it was clear that without the enhancement she was already strong.

"Attack it," said Coach Eva, pointing at the stone dummy. With that, Akhil stood, started to form the dark magic into a knife, and with confidence threw it at the stone dummy. It barely made it to the dummy before it disappeared. The look on Akhil's face could not be described, it was as if the confidence it had was sucked out of his soul.

Coach Eva behind him was laughing hysterically, mimicking the failed attack. After controlling herself she said, "You may have an above-average magic power at your level but it's clear you have never battled or had any fighting sense."

"Your time used to form the knife was too slow and the knife you formed was not meant for long distances but for close combat and standing in one place while forming your weapon may get you killed. Now try again, this time form the knife faster with more power and run towards the dummy,"

Akhil repeated his actions, but this time forming the knife was a bit faster and when he ran towards the dummy stone he almost ran pass even so the knife struck the stone flashing sparks but when he observed the cut was merely a scratch with the length of a red bean.

Another wave of embarrassment hit Akhil as he looked at the mark that barely passed as damage.

"We will continue tomorrow," said coach Eva. Akhil continued to practice hitting the dummy. He tried stabbing, creating a sword for a bigger slash but nothing changed when trying to damage the dummy but his speed control was slowly getting better.

The next day Akhil met Coach Eva in the training room at eight o'clock in the morning.

Coach Eva saw that Akhil's strength, speed, dexterity, application of power and overall use of magic was completely at grassroot. She had Akhil train his speed first.

To do this she placed cones at different intervals. At the start she had him speed off and stop at the first cone then return to the start then to the second and from the second to the first and back to the start he did this repeatedly.

What made this difficult was that he couldn't go past the cone by a milimeter. He had to stop directly at the cone or he had to start over. This went on for two hours with 5 minutes rest in between.

The next training was for strength. For this Coach Eva managed to get equipment from earth which was a punching machine but what Akhil was suprised about was that because of magic they managed to enhance the amount of punching power the machine could take.

The training was comprised of having to punch the machine starting from zero to ten with an increment of ten for each punch and every time he messed up he had to start over.

Once he was at 1000 and when he was going for 1010 he accidentally hit 1200 and under the eyes of coach Eva he was unable to hide it and had to start over.

From simply punching and running for about 4 hrs Akhil was completely tired. When looking at the time Coach Eva told him to take a break and have lunch and rest for an hour and come back.

After eating Akhil went to his room and started meditating and accumilating more magic power and while doing this his bodies fatigue was slowly disappearing because his body could now use the magic power to provide energy to his body.

Returning Akhil saw coach Eva waving her sword around. For a person who is unfamiliar with swordsmanship it was surprisingly majestic. While walking towards her, she suddenly attacked Akhil. Seeing this Akhil tried running but before he could move the sword was already at his throat and red liquid falling off the sword and in that brief moment Akhil felt as if his head had fallen of multiple times.

The fear he felt was even worse than when he was running from the beast with a wolf's head. He couldn't breathe, his knees gave in and he fell to the floor face first.

Snapping out of his daze after falling Akhil looked up only to see coach Eva staring at him from the same spot before she attacked from. "What was that?" he asked while panting. "That was death verve," replied coach Eva. "It's a skill learned by continously fighting and killing whether you can learn it will depend on your mind state and will."

"Over there choose a weapon, ensure it is in line with your feeling of how you want to fight, as a suggestion choose something light and within close and mid range combat."

After looking Akhil took up a Straight chinese sword called a jian and a curved dagger each in one hand.

"I chose these," said Akhil, awkwardly waving around the sword and dagger.

"Adopt a stance imagine it and do it." said coach Eva, after a while Akhil got into a position where his body was facing sideways with the sword in his hand at the front with the blade tip pointing up and slighty foward and the dagger in his hand at the back with the sharp side of the blade facing out in a kind of reverse style with his elbow pointing behind him. He bent his knees slightly trying to offset his imbalance with one foot out with the knees pointing forward and the back foot's knee pointing in a 90 degree angle from the front foot.

This position came naturally and easily to Akhil. Walking over coach Eva adjusted him so his defense was secure and so he can attack easily without not disrupting his stance majorly.

"Remember how this stance feels remember the balance and the position of your body, sword and dagger," instructing coach Eva, "now continuosly enter and exit the position to familiarize yourself with it and return to your speed and strentgh control training and mix in your stance with it a few times to ensure you can channel your power."

Listening to coach Eva Akhil went straight back to strength and speed control and mixing his stance. He had trouble powering up to complete the task while in his stamce but after a few terrible tries and some almost got it attempts he finally accomplished his goal.

Training was the only thing Akhil could do during his time at the castle. So he set a goal for himself which was to break through to 3-star in a year or two. It was not until 6pm that he stopped training and went to eat.

After the meal and bathing he went back to his room and searched in the book on how to advance in level. From the book, he had to continously train and use magic and each meditation he had to try and increase the the amount of magic power he can accumulate until he feels as if he's full.

In his meditation position he started to accumulate magic power and as the orb started increase in size it started to condense he continued this for his other orbs but the felling of being full never came.

After another hour of meditating he felt refreshed but his mind was still tired bringing along the feeling of sleepiness and after telling Judith he will be going to sleep, he did just that.