Everyone can use Hardening

New Casablanca's core, in the maze-like Baby Cemetery. Inside an old villa that survived the ravage of time, two young men were facing each other.

Those two young males were passionately sharing their story; a deep shine could be found in their eyes, they finally felt like they met their equal.

Weirdly enough, Fell Pluck rarely considered someone as his equal; his birthplace always made him think that he was worth more than the other. The fact that he didn't turn out like the other kids from the Baby Cemetery birthed a weird feeling of loneliness, loneliness in fighting his destiny.

As for Anzar, Fell learned that he came from a wealthy family. A rich family that made him go through harsh training during his childhood, in some sense both of them never went through the classic childhood full of joy and innocence.

One had to fight for a living while the other had to fight for the love of his family.

This aspect of their life made both of them relate to each other, planting a seed of brotherhood in their heart.

"Now I understand where your mind-blowing strength comes from." Exclaimed Fell passionately while looking at his newfound brother.

"That's nothing much, everyone can learn Hardening," explained Anzar while briskly waving his hand.

"You mean…"

"Yup, Even you!" said Anzar not even leaving Fell to finish his sentence.

"Th…THAT'S GREAT!"Screamed Fell with a voice full of explosive excitement.

"But you need to do it correctly; I can teach you while I'm still on Earth."

"When do we start?"Hurriedly responded Fell, feeling as if his golden opportunity was going to fly away.

"Time doesn't press, we'll start tomorrow, it's getting late," replied Anzar while getting up, he slowly made his way to the least shabby couch to spend his night leaving Fell where he was.

In front of him, a broken window gave him a broad view on the city. New Casablanca was really beautiful in the dark, be it its core or its modern district.

Fell kept looking at the tainted starry sky, his eye full of excitement for tomorrow; he was one step closer to his goal of controlling his life and getting stronger was the straightest path to his objective.

After some time staring at the sky, he finally managed to brush of his excitement and slowly fell in Morpheus's arms.

That night, be it the fact that he needed energy for tomorrow or that his powerful friend was close by. Fell rarely got to enjoy such a tranquil sleep; he was more used to drowsing or napping till the first light of the day.

Several hours later, the sun started slowly making his way in the sky. Fell started feeling a hot tingle on his skin, without even having to open his eye, he knew it was time to get up.

He slowly made his way out of his sleeping place, and groggily looked for water and food in his backpack.

After eating some bread and hydrating himself, he started moving outside looking for Anzar, the nearer he got to the outside, and the clearer he started hearing some noise.

It was Anzar, working out in the first light of the day, he was standing in the middle of the villa's courtyard. In Fell's view, the blue-haired man was doing some breathing exercise followed by shadow-boxing.

"Must be a morning routine," he thought while pondering on the complexity of the moves Anzar was making.

Anzar was taking deep and powerful breath, the sound he made when exhaling was similar to a snake hissing.

Fell noticed that every time Anzar started exhaling, a weird pattern was appearing on his muscle. His muscle fibers were contracting at a strange rhythm, his arms were making powerful and straight motions.

Fell lost himself in his thoughts, still looking at Anzar's performance. His moves were strangely similar to a cannon being shot, while at some other time it would be as soft and flexible as an elastic.

Anzar kept switching between hard and direct motion to soft and abstruse gesture, sometimes taking the speed of execution up a notch while other time being as slow as a snail.

This scene continued to escalate till Anzar made the final motion, a weird mix between soft and hard that beautifully finished his training.

All this may sound like it was just a few breaths, but Anzar's morning routine took him 10 minutes to finish.

"Amazing," said Fell while passing a somewhat clean towel to his friend.

"What you just saw now is the first thing I'm gonna teach you, this set of movement will make you build a for cultivation as solid as Earth itself"

"Oh! It must be a secret technique passed down in your family," responded fell while cracking a joke.

Anzar lost his composure during a very brief instant, but this went unnoticed by the young Fell.

"Come, come I will first explain to you what cultivation mean to us, mortals!"

"Cultivation? Weren't you supposed to teach me body hardening?" asked Fell his face full of doubt.

"Hardening is just the first step of cultivation, and it's just one of the multitudes of paths you can take,"explained Anzar

Anzar went on and explained the basics of cultivation to Fell; he first told him that there were three main ways of getting stronger. The first one consisted of cultivating the Body.

Cultivating the Body's primary goal was to make the cultivator's body a living weapon, be it internally or externally. The cultivator needed to slowly clean off every impurity found in their body, transforming their physique while choosing between two roads. To harden the body and make it the most indestructible shield possible, or to soften it and go down the other opposite extreme.

Both roads were equal; one was focused on making the Body the strongest material possible. While the other path takes the opposite road, tempering the Body to achieve peak flexibility generating an incredible amount of strength through the tensility of the cultivator's physique.

"First we will focus on your body, now choose which path do you wanna unravel?"

"Do you wanna go down the way of the unbreakable as big and towering like a mountain?"

"Or do you wanna go down the way of the sea, vast and all-encompassing?" asked Anzar, a deep abstruse shine in eyes.