11 Training

“Alright, Ashur, that is all the chores you need to do for today. You can go rest now,” Aunt Gha said to Ashur as he finished washing up the last of the dishes.

Today was a rare occasion where Aunt Gha let him off early when the sun still had not yet set. Normally, he would only finish his chores after the sky was dark.

“Thanks, Aunt Gha!” Ashur said cheerfully. Having proven himself to be a hardworking and disciplined boy, he and Aunt Gha had gradually warmed up to each other.

Over time, he learned that Aunt Gha’s appearance looked more intimidating than she actually was and became less scared of her, while Aunt Gha found herself growing to like this cheerful and easy going boy more and more.

He waved goodbye to her. “See you tomorrow!” She waved back.

But instead of going to rest, Ashur snuck off into the woods to practise by himself.

Whenever he had some free time off from his servant duties, he would diligently train and practise what he had learnt from the Masters.

Once a week, he met Leander for a couple of hours in the morning to learn the Lightning Technique. It was a very complicated and challenging technique, and he hadn’t quite mastered it yet. Only just last week did he manage to produce some sparks.

“Good job! That’s definitely a start, but you still have a long way to go,” he remembered Leander telling him. “Keep it up!”

But as a young and impatient boy, Ashur was frustrated that he wasn’t improving faster.

Other than learning the Lightning Technique from Leander, Astraea had also been teaching him the basic skills of the Etherian Cultivation Style.

“Simply learning how to summon the elements isn’t enough. To be able to command them well, you need to be able to control the amount of Elemental Magic you are using,” Astraea often preached to him.

She had him practising simple drills over and over again. To practise controlling fire, he would have to conjure up a small flame, then extinguish it. As for water, he would practise producing a cloud of mist, then turn it into water, and then turn it into ice.

In addition, he practised setting up and removing wind barriers as well as trying to shift the earth beneath him.

Though he initially struggled to learn these drills for quite some, he persistently kept training each and every day. Over time, his skills improved greatly.

Now, he had mastered most of the basic and complex skills, but somehow, he couldn’t seem to unlock his true potential.

His physical ability had also improved as a result of his gruelling life as a servant. By doing chores and hard manual labour for long hours, he developed a lean, muscular body.

This physical strength and stamina aided him greatly as he practised his cultivation skills, which were both mentally and physically taxing. After all, a strong frame was needed to support the inflow and outflow of energy, as well as provide him with a stable foundation to attack.

Astraea also worked with him on his physical fighting skills, though not as much, since this wasn’t a hallmark of the Etherian Cultivation Style.

After drilling in punches, kicks, and other manoeuvres daily, he had developed a much more powerful fighting ability. But similarly, he felt like there was something missing. He just couldn’t find a way to focus his energy correctly.

Whenever he asked Astraea why he wasn’t improving much, she always reminded him, “Ashur, it will take time. You’ve just started learning the Etherian Cultivation Style not long ago. Be patient.”

Even though he knew that what she said made sense, he felt like there was something more to it. He was trying his best, but he wasn’t improving as much as he wished.

Just like an invisible obstacle in his way, something seemed to be holding him back. But he didn’t know what it was. And he couldn’t seem to overcome it.

It just was so frustrating.

He continued to train for a while longer on his own, trying to summon some sparks using the Lightning Technique but failed to do so.

“Try to imagine that you are gathering a large amount of energy then rapidly compressing it. If you have sufficient energy and squeeze it fast enough, there will be sparks.” He remembered Leander’s instructions for the Lightning Technique.

After a couple more attempts of trying to make sparks appear, he became exhausted from drawing in so much energy and felt too tired to continue.

“I’ll call it a day then,” Ashur said to himself. “It’s dinner time soon. Time to go back anyway.”

Dejected, he headed out of the forest back to the wooden hut where he was staying. His steps were heavy with disappointment. He didn’t know when he would get out of this rut he was currently in and start to see some improvement.

“Ashur!” Someone called him in the distance. As the figure came nearer, he saw that it was Aunt Gha.

She said frantically, “Ashur, I just remembered that Astraea’s weapons have not yet been polished. Could you just go do it quickly now?”

“Okay,” Ashur nodded. It would only take him about an hour, and he had nothing else better to do, so he headed over to Astraea’s large wooden house.

In the large house, there was a room specially dedicated for storing all her weapons. Inside, there were many exotic weapons that she had collected from travelling all over the world.

There were weapons of all shapes and sizes and looked like they would be powerful in battle. Most of them hadn’t been touched for quite some time and had a thin layer of dust on their surface.

Rolling up his sleeves, Ashur got a cloth, bowl of water, and some oil ready and began the tedious task of polishing the weapons.

As his mind subconsciously drifted off into a daydream, he felt his finger graze over a sharp blade of one of the weapons.

“Ow!” He yelped in pain.

A thin stream of fresh red blood started dripping down from his finger.

“Damn it, why was I so careless?” Ashur berated himself for losing focus. “Now my finger is bleeding.”

He was so busy chiding himself that he didn’t notice that his blood was slowly being drawn into the amulet. It tingled slightly.