Dive in...

After our chat, Malcolm wasn't all too eager to begin my training. He told me not to exercise today and make sure I ate plenty of food and rested well. I've got that end covered. I always make sure to consume a balanced diet. Its the only way to ensure that I my body can keep functioning optimally through my training. Meat from animals and fishes are my main source of protein. Carbohydrates, that my body needs for energy can be easily obtained since my family owns a bakery. The only problem is vitamins and other micro-nutrients. Since I live in an island, the ecosystem is pretty isolated. The majority of fruits and vegetables were brought in by merchants and were slightly on the expensive side. I need all the vitamins since they are essential for enabling my body to make use of the food I consume. I'll need them in amounts proportional to the macro-nutrients I am consuming. The thing is, I do not want to burden my parents with the excessive cost of food.

Thus my only option was to rely on hunting and foraging. I had to allocate separate time for the gathering of food.Although this island may have an isolated ecosystem, I am pretty sure that there are some plants and trees that might have beneficial food source. So I set off to the forest in search of nutritious source of food. I already had a pretty good idea of where to start looking.

'Earth was not built for 6 billion people all running around and being passionate about things. The world was built for about two million people foraging for roots and grubs' The words of Douglas Coupland came into my mind. What I seek is present in this island, I just have to know where to look for it. I began setting my sights to the ground, or to be more specific, beneath it. I started digging the ground in search for yams. They are excellent sources for vitamin C and potassium. And the best part is they are easy to grow. As I dug deeper I naturally found what I was looking for. As I wiped away the mud I could see a cluster of huge round tubers next to each other. These weren't just yams, they were elephant yams.These were not only nutritious but were delicious when cooked. I mentally noted this location in my mind before proceeding forward.

I am not able to tell apart the poisonous mushrooms from the non-poisonous ones thus I decided to look for something else. That's when I noticed a very familiar fruit lying on the ground. I excitedly ran towards it. I actually found an Avocado here. The tree was close by with ripe fruits hanging from its branches. I quickly to remove the seeds from the avocado in order to germinate the seeds and plant them somewhere else. It's always good to have more of these seeds around. I also found a bee hive around the trees. I'll try to harvest honey someday. After this I headed to the stream in my island. I was hoping to find mollusc like snails or crabs or even fish that I could consume. Eating fish raw is often beneficial since raw fish contains plenty of vitamins that would be destroyed when cooked. I was able to find some crustaceans by the stream. These things pretty delicious especially when paired with the yam.I was pretty satisfied with my discovery so, I headed back home in order to eat and sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

The next day, I met Malcolm at the sea shore. I decided to greet him in a respectful way since this was our first training session.

"Good morning Teacher."(Ben)

I saw his shoulders slightly rise. Probably feeling happy since I called him Teacher.He quickly replied in a stern tone,"Enough with the formalities kid. Get over here and let's begin the training."

I obediently went to his side and looked at him. Malcolm looked at me for a moment and then said.

"A marine should thrive at the sea"

"Don't you mean Fish-men thrive at the sea?"(Ben)

Malcolm pretended to not hear me. Then he took a huge rock with an X symbol on it that probably weighed around ten kilos and proceeded to toss it into the sea. Then he casually grabbed me and then said,"Go and fetch that rock".

From the way he was holding me I realized what he was going to do.

"Whoa whoa whoa!. Calm down and let's talk this through like rational human beEEEEEINGS!!!!"(Ben)

He tossed me into the sea. I quickly rolled into a canon ball before my body hit the surface of the water. The impact still caused a stinging sensation on my back that knocked the breath out of me. I quickly realized my mistake and swam to the surface of the sea in order to grab some air. That turned out to be harder than I expected. I belatedly realized that swimming in the sea is on a whole another level compared to swimming in a pool. Malcolm hadn't thrown me far off the island but still it was hard to remain afloat at the sea. I struggled to catch some air because the waves would immediately shove my face back in. In both my lives this was my first time swimming at the sea and the experience was not the least bit pleasant

After trying repeatedly I was finally able to breathe in some air after pushing myself up. I held my breath and dived back in. The deep blue world greeted me down below. Surprisingly this part of the sea was shallow, about ten meters deep. I could see the ocean bed and the rock with the X mark on it.

My current location was about twenty meters from the shore. The rock must weigh at least one-third of my body weight so I wont be able to swim with it back to shore. The only option is to dive until I reach the ocean floor, grab the rock and run along the ocean bed for as long as I can before dropping it and going back up for fresh air.

After plotting the scenario in my mind I move up to fill my lungs with air before proceeding to dive in. At about two meters deep the turbulence of the sea had considerably decreased and the waters were starting to become calm. At five meters deep I was beginning to feel difficult in diving further. At eight meters deed my speed had reduced and I was beginning t slow down. By the time I reached the ocean floor I was beginning to suffocate. I quickly swam back to the surface in order to grab some fresh air and then attempted it again. This time I started kicking the water with all my might. My legs were considerably strong due to my daily running and this helped me dive faster. I knew that this would rapidly drain my energy since I only had little oxygen to work with. It cant be helped although my stamina is huge my lung capacity is insufficient to stay underwater for a long period of time. I didn't develop it since I deemed it unnecessary at my current age and now it seems that decision has come back to bite me.

I quickly arrived at the ocean bed and proceeded to lift up the rock. It was somehow easier to lift up the rock underwater, but still I was not able to swim up with this weight. Plus carrying the weight had caused my feet to be planted on the sandy ocean bed. I proceeded to run as fast as I could along the ocean floor, but I was only able to move for four meters before I needed fresh air. Thus I went back up and started the process again. I had to do this four more tries. I was beginning to feel tired. So I started taking deep breath above the water in order to provide my muscles with oxygen. Then I proceeded to repeat the whole process again.

By the time I reached back to the shore, I was completely exhausted. My head was spinning due to oxygen deprivation. I started vomiting while lying on the sandy shores. I obviously had swallowed the sea water. I had never pushed my body to the extreme like this before. After a couple of minutes of throwing up and then breathing deeply My blurry vision had faded and I was able to see my surroundings more clearly.

The old man was standing over me while looking at me. His face had a neutral expression as he looked at me. I had a feeling on what he was about to say.

"You won't be able to survive out there with a performance like that kid."(Malcolm)

I had plenty of retorts and excuses to throw at him, but deep down I knew he was right. I needed to be much much stronger if I wanted to achieve my dreams out there.

"I know Mr. Malcolm. But still I want to keep on trying. "(Ben)

Malcolm had a faint smile on his lips as he looked at me.

"Well, you did complete the task given. I guess that deserves some credit. Get up brat we've got more training to do. "(Malcolm)

I collected my breath before getting up and following after him. This is only my first attempt. As long as I keep on persisting my strength would surely improve. And thus I began my hellish training with Malcolm.

(Author's note)

Hello everyone. Thank you for the support as always. Last chapter I received some creative training suggestions from Alvin Alvarez regarding the training method from HSDK. Thank you for the suggestion. I'll be honest I haven't watched HSDK yet. Thus I had to watch a youtube video in order to get an understanding. I'll try to incorporate it into the MC's training regime. Until then…Happy Reading.