Day by day, Apollo had been subjected to arduous and in some ways tortuous training. With the healing waters however, his body would constantly heal, at times he would have a break by practicing sword play with the wooden Great sword.
He noticed that the amount of strength he could store was also slightly rising, from storing about 5 percent strength to about 8 percent now while storing. He could double his strength from the beginning of course, except he would feel his muscles expand to the limit. This strangely…has not changed…which means that even as he gains strength, the capacity is changed but the volume itself will always stay the same, right at the brim! This could only mean to use it too its full effect he would have to become even stronger, and then the amount doubled will be a boost.
He could lift naturally about 100 pounds currently, which was about 25 pounds over his own weight, 1.3 times his current body weight. The boost would make it so he could lift 200 pounds. Which when it came to wielding the light wood sword with stored weight would mean even the wood could smash rocks to smithereens. He was over joyed but also felt sadly that the limit could never be breached to storing strength. This inevitably over the course of the month only hardened his resolve to break his limits in training.
He secondly noticed the capacity of the weight stored go up, although this was about 3 times the amount he could carry naturally, this was an even larger margin. For if he stored 300 pounds of weight, then burst his strength he could wield 200 pounds with almost ease.
As Spectre and Yuki had calculated, he could indeed put all the stored weight onto an item for a time, or store it for 10 seconds in full outside of his body and away from his touch. He lifted a small pebble, and stored the weight he maxed out, dipping down in his reach as he burst his stored strength and threw the rock. As it flew through the air it hit a wall, and that small pebble created a hole 5 times its size.
He got an idea, he needed a weapon meant for throwing, this would max the use of this ability as if it was blunt the force it hit, would not be seen as what an enemy would think it weighed! As well as the force of throw he could apply, even a small pebble could be a boulder in the size of a nail in context.
He spent a good half an hour diving in the waters, and with effort while practicing sometimes over 100 dives a day for 30 days, he could swim quite far down. He found smooth pebbles under the waterfall, he put them in his ring before swimming back up for air.
Bo was waiting at the top watching him, he had a gift for Apollo as well as a test to give today. He was excited as this child's physique, it was practically made for training. He could see small lines on Apollos stomach, and his biceps, triceps and quadriceps have a bulge or shape to them. This kid will grow bigger than even I will…he had trained many children of nobles, even some lucky peasant families with strong sons who tended to fields. He could tell by eye the strength and weakness of a body. Apollo however had what someone could call a perfect physique and bone orientation meant for speed, strength and agility. This sometimes came from the spirits people were born with.
People or children with innate swimming abilities could come from a clan bloodline of fish or sea creature related indo spirits. Or if they could climb and swing from trees and have good agility meant they came from land based creatures. Resistance to fire could be fire attribute, etc as applied to the attributes or traits of their spirit. This would show naturally when they didn't even have their spirit unlocked, and would as well be a sign of who they were as a person when it did show as the instincts of those animals would be set into them.
He had a strong guess to Apollo's spirit, as he had a perfect physique, a trait of a greater indo spirit type. Today, he would bring Apollo on a journey to unlock his potential and spirit. This would take up the following 8 months, leaving only 3 left. This was inevitable, as it would take a lot of training and spirit agitation for his age to awaken it. This was directed by Asher so he had to follow it.
Hopefully this child could live through it as he was a good hearted person, and he wanted to be the best he could for Apollo as he saw parts of himself in him.
"Hey! Come on I got something for ya, we gotta go somewhere for a while too." He spent a month here to break Apollo into training, as well as give him a base start before going off.
"Yeah?! What is it? And we get some fresh air! Finallyyyyyy yeah boiii" Apollo shouted out, while floating in the water, with his head pointed to the ceiling far above. He really wanted to stretch his legs, see around what he hadn't as he had come straight here.
Bo walked into the hut, coming out with a sheathed blade that was taller than even Apollo himself. It was slightly shorter than his training sword, but not by much. Even with it covered, it gave a sharp feeling that resonated with Apollo making him itch to see it. Bo swiftly pulled off the sheet, revealing a dark silver blade. It was as thick as a finger, and didn't taper into a thinner point at the end like most blades, but actually was that thickness from 'head to toe'.
Its handle was longer than the grip for two hands, and had a pommel at the end that was hollow in the middle. Like it obviously could be connected to something. Bo pulled out a second wrapped item, and unsheathed it, revealing a 3 foot long staff end, which would connect to the, 4 foot and a half, blade to create a 9 foot tall weapon. It was like a massive glaive, if someone with true power were to wield it it would cut trees in half!
"Oooh Yeahh baby" Apollo exclaimed as Bo laughed, obviously pleased he liked it. Bo didn't say that this was a strange weapon, and that he had never seen one like it before.
He could train Apollo in the great sword, as well as the Spear and short staff. To combine the 3 though, will take Apollo to have Epiphones. This is a fucking 6 year old! How can that old geezer expect a fucking 6 year old to know or achieve any of this! Fuck! Bo had a very sullen and confused face, but handed them to Apollo after he had dried up and got on new clothes.
"First for the next 3 days you will do nothing but train each of these three weapon forms with me individually…then we leave." Bo said, Apollo smiled and said, "hell yeah!"
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Yuki was for the last month training in agility, silent weapons, traps, and various other things as instructed by his teacher, who wants him to officially call him Shade, his code name in the group. Yuki didn't mind this as saying teacher was too formal.
Yuki had been progressing at a very fast pace, as he would remember everything he was taught as well as come up with naïve, but effective ways to utilize them. He was a child after all, but an adept as well.
He had already mastered throwing knives and small blade wheels. He trained each day for several hours as instructed until his arms were sore. He would as well lift rocks, and run constantly no matter where he went to build endurance, as well as move between trees dodging multiple teachers (lighthearted) throws of small pebbles, which were small but left fat red marks on him when they struck.
He trained his spirit at night, he used the cultivation methods that Shade had taught him to learn how to manipulate the energies to make his plant grow. Unlike users of fire like Mind manipulators, where their energy would transmute into the element of the affinity they had. A spirit user gathered there energy into a form in a sense. For plant users amongst, the limitless kinds of sprit users., they had to send their energy into the spirit and make it grow, the more energy the faster it would grow. The entirety of the plant would be new, no old parts like most natural growing plants, as it was grown almost instantly.
Secondly, some plant users had an easier time doing so. Like an exo plant spirit user of grass which was a fast grower in life, could make there spirit form instantly. Whereas an exo iron oak spirit user would need much more time as it was beyond slow to grow. They could have the same power, but one had the advantage of speed in forming naturally.
As they say, Weeds grow in a day, Flowers wait seasons to bloom.
Yuki had almost any low level plant he wanted to amalgamate onto his plant. They were some of the most basic plants, but because he could choose any, it gave him an advantage over any spirit user. He had originally amalgamated a walking willow to give his spirit legs, this he would keep as the willow legs would grow with it, and he took the legs as a trait.
He took nitros seed attribute for volatile secretion, and a healing entera apple, as well as an enurugi speed pod for healing and boost of adrenaline and senses. Lastly he had chosen a Burien Spider spore plant which was microscopic spiders that could flow out and were made of plants. They fed on the lift of other things and then returned to gather the energy and feed the main plant they came from in a symbiotic relationship. He spent the month merging plants, until he realized the true application of Amalgamation. He could damn well create just about any plant mix!
He spent quite a while, before finally merging the nitros seed plant explosive volatile secretion attribute with the Burien Spider Spore plant before creating…Explosive Spore spiders, a merged mix of the two plants. This was beyond useful as when he manipulated the spores to move, the more he condensed in a region the larger the explosion would be. He controlled the spores to eat a small tree, when they grew larger, he examined them. He found that the shape of the nitros seed was now their back end which was not there before. It's strange, but they never had pods as they were not silk spiders but rather plant spiders. They now had it though, and what was within was a small amount of the secretion inside the pod.
Which means that for creature-like plants, they truly take on the trait as well as the other plant into itself.
Amazing….
Yuki was very fascinated, as plants were the love of his life. Being able to splice to an extreme degree meant he could do almost anything. Creating new plant's never before seen.
He spent the rest of the time before the month was up before merging the Entera Apple and the Enurugi pod to create an Enurugi Entera apple, which was capable of: healing the body, giving energy, boosting adrenaline, as well as the senses, a just below level 2 type support plant. As he ate the first bloom off his spirit, he felt a whirlwind of energy go through his body. Perking him up immediately.
Success!
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Spectre had been the most specific in his arduous training of the mind, learning day in and day out in a small room. Formula as well as the uses of the elements and how they came to be in the world. Today, he had made his cloud last indefinitely without a storm being created. It was very difficult to pinpoint the amount of energy he needed, and keep it in a constant cycle without a buildup. By now however, he was fully capable of utilizing the cloud and making the board levitate around the room along with it.
It was strange, to watch this little foot and a half wide cloud float around the room, wisps floating about and dissipating just to be pulled and fuel the flow of the cloud again. Spectre slowly put his hand back and forth through the vapor, feeling the cool air and water. It was amusing, he had been doing this for several minutes before Asher who was watching with a big smile began to laugh.
"You sure are a child, even if a genius. You completed it finally eh? Well done, I can feel the energy flowing in a perfect cycle letting the vapor dissipate before being pulled back in." Asher was indeed proud, as Spectre had been researching and learning a lot as well as completing this experiment.
Spectre looked over, and then stepped up onto the cloud. His feet were actually on the foot wide disk, but it looked like he was an immortal steeping upon the winds. He floated around the room, the vapor lashing around his ankles. This was what it felt like to create and utilize the energies of the world, and from here on it would only get better.
He had as well molded a little man out of metal, using 4 cylinders for arms, a big one for a body and a domed one for a head. He would manipulate the metal energies in its body to walk around, hop and run before falling off the edge of the table. This was a way to practice, as well as because it was super fun to do.
He looked over his notes as the little man spinned like a top in front of him upon the table, Spectre had gone over every page of the formula and papers across the table. He was looking over his notes to make sure he had the right points down and information he felt was needed.
He had noticed for a while different points like fog, obviously storms as well as rain. These could be advancements for his cloud technique, but he also had to be very picky about what road he tread. His foundation had to be broad enough to encompass the use of different elements, but had to not be weak but the greatest point and power of the use of that energy.
Clouds specifically could very, he could charge it for containing his lightning element before dissipating it out into a strike, as well as condense it to make rain for utility, as well as combining with the limitless elementum potential to create something like acid rain if he was able to merge elements.
Currently his cloud was a meet-point as it could be called, where it was not a cloud but the use of lightning to form it. This was not a merging, but just an end result that was created by different means to match something else's end result. To merge two elements energies was very difficult, and just like the world was rarer, than one basic element. Since he had finally created the cloud, and could control it with ease now he needed to think of a specific use.
He thought for a while looking at his notes, before a sudden Epiphone struck him like a bolt of lightning!
"Yes!" He turned to the disk, and held his hands up. This was a natural feeling to do so, he didn't have to use his hands because it was his mind that did it, but it helped him concentrate as well as use his hands as the fulcrum for manipulation. He clasped his hands together, the cloud followed and condensed around the floating disk, it started to darken and condense, he then used his mind to draw in a thick amount of white cloud around it. Creating a sun like structure with a dark core, he then *whap* drew his hands apart, the cloud expanded with the dark core energy being drawn by the larger white cloud it created, static bolts flowed throughout the expanding cloud.
As the thick cloud spread out, it became a fog. Except with the dark core expanding with it, it sent its potential electrical energy out like a wave. Small static sparks were shooting throughout the fog, finding anything it made contact with and striking it with a small bolt. It was like hungry snakes were moving about and *cracking* at objects before dissipating, the fog dissipated as well with the energy.
"Wowsa! Now THAT is cool!" Asher was surprised to see Spectre whip around, and within several breaths move his hands about before creating a static fog that billowed around the room. Asher had swept his sleeves and contained the energy so as to not hit anything in the room. He was amazed at his ingenuity.
"I call it, Bolt bog! I like that name." Spectre said as he smiled at Asher.
Asher gave him an appreciative nod, before whisking his pipe into existence.
"Seems you're gonna need more information than what I can give you..." Asher was an elder of the clan and could obviously give him an entire library full of information; this would give the knowledge of Spectre's presence in the clan though. So, "…on that note then, I'll be sending you to an Academy. It is outside of our forests, and is much further south. There you will meet a friend of mine, and also you shall learn more then what I can give. How about it?"
Spectre shocked, looked over at him, down at the ground, before plopping into a hay bag before manipulating the disk over, playing with the clouds.
"My brothers still have just under 11 months of training…would I get back by then?"
"To study at an academy that would take 2 months just to get to? It would take you many months just to reach such as city on the outskirts of the forests by several 100s of thousands of miles. Even with the flying plant creatures with great speed, it would take a very long time. As for one that I can give you that flies at 600 mph, to travel even a quarter of a million miles, would take 18 days approximately without stops.
Thus you would be at the school for less than 9 months, what academy would like that? Even with my reference. You would have to be in the academy for at least 2 years."
"2 years huh….no, I won't go. I want my brothers with me, for now I will train by myself then and go work as a forger. After a year has come to be, I will go with my brothers to the Academy, together. For if I leave alone, they will be sure to follow. Nothing can stop that." Spectre said with determination in his eyes.
Asher looked at him vexed, but after a while and many puffs later. "Alright, we shall do as you say, except it won't be here. I have a place for you to stay."
"No, I have a place for me to stay too. It is the crow nest that my brothers and I live in and no other place. In my free time I'll work on it. It's free too, and I have food that comes along with it from a nice old lady downstairs. Nobody will know I'm there." Spectre got up and grabbed his notes, as well as several tomes on the walls before walking out the door, after Asher was out of sight he stored the books in his ring, and as it was nighttime without pause he hopped on his board and began to levitate off as a cloud formed around him obscuring part of his body.
Sorry its been a while fans, I work at sea and so it isn't always easy to post chapters without internet of course. I leave again, on the 19th and wont back until the following month sometime around Feb 20th.
Don't worry, I hope to make up a lot of the latest chapters to you all. Stick with me, there is still a long journey ahead...