Training with Vritra

"So this is where we are going to train huh?" said Vritra as he looked at the scenery in front of him.

Sekke nodded with a smile on his face as Secre who was sitting on his shoulder looked at her partner wondering if the guy was insane.

'Oh, he is an idiot.' thought Secre as she sighed and then looked back toward the huge landscape in front of her and once again thought, 'Why is this idiot deciding to do his training in a strong magic region and that too at a desert?! Do you want to die?!' mentally scored Secre as she smacked Sekke's head with her wing.

"Oi! Don't hit me," said Sekke as he got hit by Secre.

"Well, anyway ain't this an impressive sight. Not to mention the mana," said Sekke.

"Yup, the mana in this desert is even more concentrated and violent than the normal high mana regions of this world," said Vritra as he felt the mana in his surroundings and he had to say the energy concentration in the strong magic region was similar to some god's domain.

"This is a great place to train, I can experiment and try all kinds of strong and dangerous spells without worrying about destruction. Not to mention the strong magic region itself will make it harder for me to use mana," said Sekke as he explained to Vritra and Secre. Though Secre still didn't agree with Sekke about training at a dangerous location such as this.

Not that she could do much about it, she just sighed and decided to follow her partner. She may not be of much help, but there was no way she was going to leave him all alone.

'He is a reckless idiot, who will jump into dangerous situations. It is up to me to stop him as much as possible. *Sigh* What all I do about this idiot and yet he goes after other girls. If only I had my real body' thought Secre as she looked at Sekke and just sighed.

Not knowing about the thoughts of the bird on his shoulder Sekke took out Extase from his sheath as it got bigger and got covered in bronze.

Jumping on top of the hovering sword, Sekke and Secre went deeper into the desert, and soon Sekke could feel a lot of strong energy signatures from his ki.

'Mana sensing is quite difficult here.' thought Sekke as he looked towards Secre.

"What about you Secre, able to feel all those things? My mana sensing is not that great," asked Sekke to which the bird closed her eyes and focused to feel her surroundings. Soon her eyes opened as she gave a nod gesturing that she could use her mana sensing.

"Anti-birds really are something. Alright, counting on you to keep a check on the surroundings Secre. I can sense them with ki, but I might miss them if I focus on something else." said Sekke as Secre saluted and turned serious.

Sekke smiled seeing the bird and focused back on the path while making sure that he can still see the edge of the desert so that they can go back.

Landing on the ground Sekke soon found himself near a huge rock that worked as a shade to keep Secre and him a bit cooled. He then took out a small container, one of the size that could be tied around Secre's neck, and filled it with water for the bird to stay hydrated.

"I have enough water to last us a year, so don't hesitate to ask for more, is that clear?" asked Sekke as he sternly told Secre who just nodded her head.

He nodded and then looked toward the huge rock in front of him. Making a sword from his magic Sekke fired the sword toward the rock as it got stuck in it.

"Go and sit there, make sure to be safe and avoid any enemies or my misfired magic."

Nodding her head Secre flew off his shoulder and landed on the sword that was stuck in the rock.

"Don't you care a lot about that bird?" asked Vritra.

'Secre is my partner. Of course, I will worry about her. She is my familiar and my first follower. Not to mention she cares a lot about me and takes care of me. It's only right that I respect and care for her.' replied Sekke.

"My God, if she was an actual girl she might have fallen for you. Not to mention you are a dragon now as well."

'What about it?'

"Dragons are crazy strong creatures and attract a lot of attention from the opposite sex. Anyway, let's leave that aside, and focus on the training," said Vritra.

'Alright! So what's the thing that we are stating?" asked Sekke.

"Why of course my sacred gear....is what I would like to say, but before that, we need to work on a big flaw of yours."

'Hey, the dark lord does not have any flaws!!!' complained Sekke.

"You have many but let's leave that aside and focus on the major one. You might or might not know about this but you are a mana-sensitive being meaning not only can you feel mana quite easily, but also have large reserves of it in your body. But from what I have noticed for quite a few days, your output when considering your huge mana pool is quite low, about 15-20%. We need to work on that."

'15 to 20%...are you sure, I mean I don't want to brag but I am quite strong.'

"You definitely are my other half, but that is considering the normal populace. They don't have reserves as high as yours, so your being on the same level as them only means that their output is higher than yours. You are strong because despite your low output your reserves are vast."

'...What should I do?' asked Sekke seriously, he was not going to argue with the dragon despite feeling pissed at his words.

"Good, you have that Midas touch spell, right? Use it," said Vritra feeling happy that his host didn't argue much. He knew that he was prideful and strong as a dragon should be, but he also knew what is beneficial for him and was ready to improve himself without his pride interfering with it.

Nodding his head, Sekke's grimoire started flipping.

[Bronze Transformation Magic: Midas Touch]

Sekke's hand got covered in blue mana as he asked Vritra about what to do next.

"Start turning sand to bronze, as fast as you can of course," said Vritra.

Sekke nodded as he crouched down and started turning the sand to bronze.

Sekke looked towards the ground and noticed the mana spreading in the ground turning the nearby sand to bronze as well.

"Faster!" yelled Vritra as Sekke turned serious and pushed all the mana that he could into his hands.

"Faster than that!! Are you even trying?"

Gritting his teeth Sekke tried to force more mana into his hand making it a bit painful for him but the speed of transformation increased noticeably.

Just like that, the dragon continued to scold Sekke to turn the ground into bronze to which the blond boy just heard him without any complaints.

A few hours later Sekke was now at dangerously low levels of mana to the point that Secre was worried about him and was pecking his head to make the guy stop.

But Sekke didn't even flinch if he could feel pain then he can continue.

"Stop!" yelled Vritra making Sekke stop. He took deep breaths to calm himself down and even though he could not feel his hands as they were numb, he could sure as hell feel pain.

He then looked around him and noticed that the whole desert as far as he could see from his spot was now turned into bronze.

'Aren't I impressive?' asked Sekke with a small smirk feeling proud of himself.

"Yeah, impressive for an average nobody that is!!!! Your current output is at 22% get back to work!!!" yelled Vritra making Sekke groan in annoyance.

'I have no mana left!!'

"Then use my sacred gear and absorb!!!" stated Vritra leaving no room for argument.

Taking a deep breath, Sekke stood up much to Secre's relief thinking that he was finally going to rest. But contrary to her thoughts, Sekke summoned his sacred gear as th various tentacles shot forward from his gauntlet and penetrated the ground, and started absorbing the mana from it.

"What is the output limit that we are aiming for?" asked Sekke.

"Taking this world's average from what I saw during the fight in that cave, let's aim for 40%. Though I doubt you can achieve that in just a week" replied Vritra.

And that was the moment Sekke snapped.

"Oi, you shitty lizard you don't dare underestimate the dark lord. 40%, Looks like I need to show you what the great dark lord is capable of. Be as much of an asshole as you can be and I will show that I can overcome all that and still surpass the standards that you have thought of me," said Sekke feeling a bit pissed from anger, heat, pain, and mana deficiency all combined.

Unknown to Sekke Vritra smiled seeing Sekke's reaction as he knew that the youth would respond like that.

'Heh, looks like acting like a harsh trainer will do the trick. Though for some reason he is making the urge to train him like I used to train the dragons back then come up.' thought Vritra as he saw his host drinking water from his storage waiting for his reserves to fill back.