Training (Part 2)

Almost as soon as the training started, Kaiden realized he will have to pull out his one hundred percent or else he was either going to end up hurt or waste his father's time and effort.

It would be an understatement to say that this training is hard.

Sure, the basket of rocks only weighed about a third as much as he did. But up until this point Kaiden's current body hasn't done any kind of muscle building at all.

And let's not forget that in the end of the day he was still a ten year old child.

While his body does act like it has an endless supply of energy when he runs around and plays, it does not take a lot of intense activity to run that well dry due to a lack of any true stamina.

The difficulty did not quell his determination though, all it did was add more fuel to his raging ambition within, pushing him to overcome the pain and continue to grow so he can protect his loved ones!

In the blink of an eye two hours had passed and Kaiden finished the first half of his training.

Interestingly enough, the hardest part was the sit ups.

After having so much weight on his body while doing such a rigorous work out, his body was sore all over and just the act of laying on the ground to start the sit ups made his muscles ache not to mention the repeated motion of lifting himself up just with his core muscles alone.

As Kaiden rested while laying on the ground, his chest rapidly rising and falling, his father walked up with a cup of water in his hands.

"Here you go son, always have to make sure to stay hydrated after an intense workout!" his dad said with a warm smile on his face.

*Grunt* "Thanks, dad." he accepted gratefully with a small grunt.

A few minutes later, Kaiden's breathing had stabilized and he was able to relax a little bit.

Now that he had had enough rest, his dad started to give Kaiden a brief explanation about the combat technique he was about to teach.

"The technique I am about to teach you is what I was taught while I was in school," his dad began.

"Like I mentioned before, I did not attend Yvander Academy, but I did go to a good school that specialized in melee fighting like I do, Sanford Academy."

Kaiden saw pride in his father's eyes he started to talk about his old school.

"Sanford is one of the best schools any melee focused contractors can get into, some people would even say it's better than Yvander in some regards since it is focused on one branch of Syr usage rather than being a multi-branched school."

'The age old choice of being either a jack of all trades or a master of one, huh?' thought Kaiden.

'I can kind of understand both points of view. In one corner you will have a variety of skills and spells that you can use to adapt to any situation with the downsides of having to spend more time to learn such things on top of having an overall lower level of mastery compared to your peers.'

'But on the other hand why adapt if you can simply over power your opponents with the skills that you are the most compatible with and have honed to perfection? I think a famous martial artist in my old world once said it best: I fear not the man who practiced ten thousand kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times.'

'I wonder which path I should chose' he debated with himself.

'Based off of what mom said my base attributes will lean more to syr based attacks and spells, but I can't help but agree with my dad's ideal of making sure I have enough physical strength and skills to use as back up in case of emergencies.'

After a moment, Kaiden pushed his worries to the side and returned his focus to what his dad was saying since it wouldn't do him any good worrying about it at this moment.

"Like Yvander Academy, Sanford is run by the Sanford Family. They are one of the five ducal families." his dad continued, oblivious to his son's internal turmoil.

"Every ducal family has its own unique talent and schools based on their specialties."

"Your mother will teach you about the other families, but as you might have already guessed, the Sanford family is predominantly made up of melee or physical based talents."

As his father explained more about the Sanford family, Kaiden's eyes started to widen as he was filled with awe and wonder about how powerful these families must be to be able to stand apart, become Dukes, and even have prominent schools named after them.

It felt like every time he had just gotten used to this new world and its quirks, new information comes and expands his horizons making him more and more impatient to go out and explore!

Seeing Kaiden getting antsy, his dad decided it was time to move on for now saving the rest for later.

"Enough of this boring talk! Lets get started with your combat training!" his dad said with excitement.

"There are three skills I can teach you at your current level: a movement skill, an attacking skill, and a defensive skill."

"Since we don't have much time and we will only focus on one at a time that way at minimum you will be able to learn one of them and accomplish a part of your goal."

With the usual smile, his father asked Kaiden with curiosity, "Which one do you want to learn first?"

Using his small fist to support his head, Kaiden took a moment to think consider the pros and cons of each.

"I want to learn the movement skill!" he decided with barely any hesitation.

"Oh? And why is that?" his dad narrowed his eyes as if he was trying to see through what Kaiden was thinking.

Taking a second to organize what he was thinking Kaiden explained, "I think movement and footwork are important and will be vital in perfecting my foundation."

His dad nodded encouraging him to keep going.

Kaiden obliged and continued, "After learning the movement technique and proper footwork, I can then have a solid foundation to build my offensive and defensive skills."

"For offensive skills I will have an easier time being able to reach my opponent since I will be quicker than anyone who hasn't learned any technique and will be able to deliver more stable attacks since my improved footwork will help with different terrain."

"Defensively the skill will help me run away faster when I am in trouble and help be keep my balance while being attacked."

"Hahaha! Good! Good!" his dad bellowed with joy.

He came closer and patted Kaiden's head.

"And here I was afraid for a second thinking you had wimped out on me!"

"Since you have made up your mind let's get started," he instructed while picking Kaiden up from the grass.

"The skill I am going to teach you is called Flash Steps!" explained his father.

As soon as Kaiden heard him say the skill's name, his dad disappeared right in front of him!

He started looking around trying to find him but he couldn't even find a trace of his dad.

Right as he gave up trying he felt a large hand clasp his shoulder!

"What the -!" yelped Kaiden.

"Bwahaha!" laughed his dad "Didn't mean to scare the crap out of ya!"

He didn't reply and just stared at him angrily.

"Alright, alright I get it. I won't do it again." his dad said trying to appease Kaiden who just shook his head in acceptance.

"Flash Steps is a basic level movement skill that focuses on using syr to help move in explosive, short bursts," explained his dad.

"This skill will be perfect for you since you lack the stamina to keep up skills for a long time and haven't developed a large syr capacity yet as well."

"To use the skill you need to be able to use your syr to empower your legs while sprinting to your desired location."

"Trust me when I say that it sounds easy on paper, but it is difficult to balance how much syr to use along with how to move the syr where you want it efficiently," he warned.

Despite the stern warning, his dad still encouraged him, "Go ahead kiddo, give it a try!"

**Thanks for all the support! If you like the story so far please leave a review or comment! If not, leave one anyway so I can try to fix some of the problems if there are any! Thanks again and don't forget to add to your library if you are looking forward to see how Kaiden grows! -Bows-**